AMD launching next generation of Radeon graphics cards next week, shipping by end of the year
October 15, 2010 No Comment
The attentive newshounds over at AnandTech have picked out a golden nugget of disclosure from AMD’s earnings call last night, citing CEO Dirk Meyer as saying “we will be launching our second-generation DX11 graphics offerings next week.” What he’s talking about, of course, is the highly anticipated refresh of the Radeon HD 5000 series , which some recent spec leaks suggested would bring a healthy bump in performance. After announcing the new product line next week, AMD promises to flood the market with “hundreds of thousands of units,” which will be shipping before the end of this quarter — meaning you’ll have a Radeon HD 6xxx in time for the holiday gaming craze if you really want it. Can’t ask anymore than that, now can we? AMD launching next generation of Radeon graphics cards next week, shipping by end of the year originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Oct 2010 02:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …We know you’ve got questions, and if you’re brave enough to ask the world for answers, here’s the outlet to do so. This week’s Ask Engadget question is coming to us from Dylan, who needs a serious frame rate boost at a serious bargain. If you’re looking to send in an inquiry of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com . “I was wondering what the best video card would be that I could buy on the market for cheap (the highest I would be willing to go is $150, and that is if I absolutely need to). I’m trying to make Dead Rising 2 (and similar) look good. By the way, my computer is running a Biostar T-series TA785G3 motherboard with a AMD Phenom II processor on Windows 7, for what it’s worth. Thanks!” Look, not everyone can just go blow $400 on the latest and greatest overclocked slab of silicon, and the lower-end market has definitely been heating up of late. Got any solid recommendations for this fellow? Recommended places to buy? Drop a note in comments below — we’re sure your next deathmatch can wait ten seconds. Ask Engadget: best gaming graphics card for under $150? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Oct 2010 01:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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AMD told us that it wasn’t terribly interested in the iPad market, and would wait and see if touchscreen slates took off , but CEO Dirk Meyer changed the company’s tone on tablets after reporting a $118 million net loss (on $1.62 billion in revenue) in a Q3 2010 earnings call this afternoon. First revealing his belief that tablets will indeed cannibalize the notebook and netbook markets, he later told investors that he actually expects AMD’s netbook parts to start appearing in slates in the next couple of years, and that AMD itself would “show up with a differentiated offering with great graphics and video technology” when the market becomes large enough to justify an R&D investment. Elsewhere, AMD CTO of servers Donald Newell prognosticated that the number of individual CPUs on a chip won’t go up forever: “There will come an end to the core-count wars,” he told IDG News . Just as the megahertz race was eventually defeated by thermal restrictions, so too will the number of cores on an chip cease to increase. ” I won’t put an exact date on it, but I don’t myself expect to see 128 cores on a full-sized server die by the end of this decade,” he said. So much for our Crysis -squashing terascale superchip dreams, we suppose. AMD sees a tablet chip in its future, and an end to the core-count wars originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Oct 2010 23:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …It looks like design heads at Palm and Nokia have more or less swapped roles, as All Things D reports that Nokia’s ex-MeeGo head Ari Jaaksi has just been hired by Palm — a month after Nokia grabbed Palm’s Peter Skillman to head up user experience and services for MeeGo. Fate? Coincidence? As long as both struggling smartphone companies bring us better devices and improved operating systems as a result, we’re not all that concerned. The report also suggests a Samsung VP and several HP executives will be boosting Palm’s team as well. Nokia’s ex-MeeGo chief lands at Palm? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Oct 2010 21:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Belkin’s Conserve Gateway checks in with the FCC, may be at your utility company
October 15, 2010 No Comment
Belkin just got official with its Converse Gateway wireless energy monitoring system earlier this month, and already it looks to be making a beeline to your local utility company. As the temperatures drop and energy use skyrockets, this here setup is designed to attach to a smart meter on the exterior of your home and beam information about usage to your PC (in a nutshell, anyway). Any smart device that’s connected in your home can be listed in the UI, giving you a heads-up as to what youngster is burnin’ up the most juice when you leave on business for the weekend. Per usual, a stop by the FCC’s database generally signals a near-term release in the US of A, with Wireless Goodness suggesting that these are already starting to pop up around the country. Though, you’ll have to phone up your local energy company to inquire about a professional installation — we don’t get the impression that these are going to be stocked at Wally World. Belkin’s Conserve Gateway checks in with the FCC, may be at your utility company originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Oct 2010 20:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Do you dream at night? Do you stare at your ceiling pondering questions that no other Earthling could possibly ponder? Contrary to popular belief, you aren’t actually alone in this nightmare, and we too have wondered what would happen to our universe if a Magic Mouse and iPhone collided. Look up. Now down. Now back up again. That greenish, devilish device you see above is the iPhonc, a ” KIRF of all KIRFs,” if you will. It’s hard to pinpoint who exactly thought to shove a dumbphone into the body of a Magic Mouse, but in some strange way, they’ve managed to make our souls smile. Best of all? Even the source here admits that it’s meaningless to wonder over the specifications and price, noting that the shell alone should attract sufficient attention. Makes the fading of Meizu a little easier to handle, you know? Keepin’ it real fake: Magic Mouse and iPhone converge into iPhonc originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Oct 2010 19:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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The long awaited rule changes pertaining to CableCARD s that was originally proposed in the FCC’s Broadband Plan finally got some resolve today, we have to say we’re not convinced things will get that much better. While the FCC failed to kill Tuning Adapters or make the CableLabs certification process any less painful, it did make some changes, which include: CableCARD fees have to be the same for everyone, no matter which package you have. If your cable company allows any self installs, they must allow CableCARD self-installs. Cable companies must support SDV for CableCARD users — this was implied before, now it is black and white. By default, all new deployments must be M-Cards (unless you actually request a S-Card). Cable companies can include an IP interface in set-top-boxes leui of a 1394 port. One way HD boxes without CableCARDs are no longer forbidden and they don’t require IP interfaces. Obviously nothing is as simple as six bullet points and there’s much more detail in the 59 page order, so click on through for our interpretation of the nitty-gritty or hit up the PDF source and go nuts. Continue reading The FCC changes the CableCARD rules, but not dramatically The FCC changes the CableCARD rules, but not dramatically originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Oct 2010 18:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Dell announced back in June that it’s set aside a $100 million reserve fund for a potential settlement , and it looks like it’s now finally going to have to use it — a federal judge has today approved a settlement with the government for that very amount in a long-standing civil fraud case brought by the SEC. Of particular note, CEO Michael Dell himself has agreed to pay a $4 million fine, although neither he nor the company has actually admitted to any wrongdoing in the settlement. Dell did say that the company is committed to implementing the range of reforms it’s promised, however, and adds that “we will certainly live up to all the commitments in the settlement.” As for the SEC, attorney John Worland says that the settlement is “appropriate,” and he notes that there isn’t any evidence that Dell intended to defraud. Dell reaches $100 million settlement in SEC fraud case originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Oct 2010 18:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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We’d been wondering if the Droid 2 Global was just a beautiful figment of our imagination after the Droid Pro came out of left field, but it looks like the world-phone edition of Verizon’s slider Droid is still coming — it just appeared in the VZLearn employee training system. No idea when it’ll actually hit, but we’re guessing it’ll be sometime soon — and then the decision between global Droids with QWERTY keyboards will be as agonizing as possible. Droid 2 Global appears in Verizon employee training system originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Oct 2010 17:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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It seems like we’re getting closer and closer to the arrival of the Palm Pre 2 and webOS 2.0 , and it looks like Verizon will be in the mix — we were just sent this image of Big Red’s internal VZLearn portal showing Pre 2 device training. We still don’t know when it’ll actually hit or what pricing will be like, and we don’t know if it’ll hit Sprint and AT&T as well like the OG Pre, but we’re guessing we’ll find out soon enough — keep a sharp eye, we’ll let you know. [Thanks, Anonymous] Palm Pre 2 coming to Verizon? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Oct 2010 17:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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