It hasn’t even been a week since Intel rolled out Oak Trail , and it’s already teasing us with yet another tablet-ready chip called Cloverview. What’s more, we’re also seeing unofficial details emerging for its next generation Ivy Bridge CPU. Starting from the top: PC World is reporting that Intel’s Doug Davis introduced the Atom-based Cloverview at the firm’s Developer Forum in Beijing Tuesday, touting its 32nm architecture and low power consumption. Meanwhile a set of rather convincing slides are showing off the 22nm stylings of Sandy Bridge’s successor, Ivy Bridge. From the look of things, the CPU will support DirectX 11 graphics, USB 3.0, and 1600MHz DDR3 memory — it’s desktop incarnation has been christened Maho Bay. Ivy Bridge is reportedly expected to arrive in the first half of 2012, but we’re still waiting on Cloverview’s ETA. Isn’t silicon fun? Intel teases 32nm Cloverview tablet processor, 22nm Ivy Bridge CPU originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Apr 2011 15:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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A sneak peek from the Great White North showed us Alienware’s new mobile gaming flagship, but now we’ve got the real specs and a whole gaggle of pretty pics for you to drool over. It turns out the M18x has a massive 18.4-inch 1920 x 1080 Full HD display, an Intel Core i7 Extreme chip overclocked to a frag-tastic 4GHz, your choice of AMD CrossFireX or NVIDIA SLI graphics, up to 32GB of DDR3 RAM, a 3D-capable HDMI 1.4 port, WirelessHD for the cable-averse crowd, and five macro-programmable keys wrapped in a otherworldly anodized aluminum shell. We’re still not sure when you’ll be able to get your hands on one, but we do know it can’t get here soon enough. Would-be alien abductees can catch a glimpse of their new overlord in the gallery below — not to worry, no neuralizer’s included. [Thanks, Thatoe] Gallery: Alienware M18x Alienware’s M18x: a beautiful beast for the gamer on the go originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Apr 2011 14:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Intel’s Panther Point to include native USB 3.0 support, Z68 chipset to launch May 8th?
April 12, 2011 No Comment
We just saw some fairly big official news about some new Intel silicon yesterday , and we’ve now got a bit more news of the unofficial sort. According to the seemingly authentic slide above that we’ve just obtained, it looks like the company’s forthcoming Panther Point chipset will indeed include native USB 3.0 as previously rumored, along with support for both Ivy Bridge and Sandy Bridge processors, and support for up to three displays. What’s more, a separate rumor is now also pointing to Intel’s high-end Z68 chipset being released on May 8th. It supports the latest Sandy Bridge processors, and will allow for performance to be boosted even further with things like overclocking and RST SSD caching. Intel’s Panther Point to include native USB 3.0 support, Z68 chipset to launch May 8th? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Apr 2011 13:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …The Collector concept turns unused microSD cards into a refillable thumb drive
April 12, 2011 No Comment
Digging through our drawers here at Engadget there is one thing we’re clearly not in desperate need of: USB flash drives. We also happen to have a plethora of microSD cards in 1GB an 2GB sizes, left over from the days when picking a smartphone meant Windows Mobile or BlackBerry. This concept USB drive, dubbed The Collector, could potentially solve our conundrum by allowing us to toss all those thumb drives and find a use for our now homeless microSD chips. The Collector wouldn’t have any storage of its own, instead you’d slip up to three microSD cards into it and, when full, simply swap them out for more. It would also combine your smaller chunks of storage into a single block, so those three 2GB scraps would become a slightly less useless 6GB drive. Of course, keeping that pile of microSD cards (now bound by common data) organized might actually be a bigger headache than rifling through your drawers looking for that OFWGKTA mixtape you downloaded so many months ago. The Collector concept turns unused microSD cards into a refillable thumb drive originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Apr 2011 13:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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It wasn’t that long ago that Intel pulled a Dell , Anand Chandrasekher showing off a fancy new thing then quickly hiding it away out of sight. That was a Medfield-based smartphone, an Atom-powered mobile that the company pledges is built on “the most efficient architecture on the planet.” Whether that’s the case remains to be seen, as we’re still waiting on any sort of details on that mystery phone, but according to Businessweek one question has been answered: the manufacturer. Intel is said to be working to design the handset for ZTE , the 32nm processor expected to provide decent performance and high efficiency for a mid-range smartphone. Now, ZTE has certainly been trying to make waves on the US market of late, but we can’t help thinking Intel’s going to need a somewhat higher profile partner before it really starts hitting ARM where it hurts. Intel’s first Medfield-based smartphone to be a ZTE? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Apr 2011 12:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Don’t ya just love it when a plan comes together? As expected , T-Mobile has confirmed that its 4G Mobile Hotspot will be hitting stores tomorrow. The ZTE -sourced sliver of plastic and OLED will be T-Mo’s first such device and, with its HSPA+ radio, clocks in at 21Mbps, while an SD card slot means it can provide up to 32GB of wireless storage. You can read more about it from our hands-on , or just go get your own tomorrow for $79.99 — after the requisite rebate and contract negotiations, of course. T-Mobile 4G Mobile Hotspot hitting stores tomorrow, just as expected originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Apr 2011 11:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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You saw the specs confirmed a little earlier today and you even got to glimpse HTC’s new Sensation in the flesh . Now it’s time to watch this 4.3-inch Android device strut its stuff on video. We’ve gotten our mitts on the Euro model and you can check out all the delicious visuals after the break. As we mentioned in our preview of this handset, the new lock screen is perhaps the biggest (it’s certainly the most immediately apparent) change in the Sense UI that comes with the Sensation. HTC describes now describes it as “smart,” because it can both serve you with live information, like weather and those all-important stock prices, and also lets you unlock straight into an app by dragging its link into an unlocking circle. Frankly, we used the functionality so much that we almost forgot how to unlock the phone “normally.” It’s something the Inq Cloud Touch and other lower-end Android devices have previously exhibited, and a feature we really, truly appreciate. Performance was, as you’d expect from a 1.2GHz dual-core machine, snappy all around, though we still caught some slight lag and insufficient frame rates when the Sensation was dealing with some of those yummy new 3D animations. The higher resolution (960 x 540) screen is a definite upgrade over the 800 x 480 standard that Android devices have been coalescing around and the 4.3-inch size seems like a perfect fit for it. Both the camera app and video playback in the HTC Watch app showed great speed and responsiveness to our input. Those are the things that will really harness the processing power of the Sensation. Physically, the Sensation somehow manages to feel more compact than its predecessor atop the European jumbo phone throne, the Desire HD. The two phones both have 4.3-inch screens, but the 16:9 screen ratio of the Sensation makes it narrower, while HTC’s ingenuity has managed to make the new device marginally thinner too. All in all, a definite upgrade in ergonomics. Aluminum construction is present here as well, however the entire aluminum chunk — which spans the middle portion of the back, separating two plastic parts (each of which has its own color, giving you a tri-color rear) — is in the removable cover. This is unlike most of HTC’s aluminum “unibody” phones, which make the aluminum piece part of the phone’s framework. Hey, at least you get much easier access to what’s under the back cover. Delve into the gallery below for more! Gallery: HTC Sensation hands-on Continue reading HTC Sensation first video hands-on! HTC Sensation first video hands-on! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Apr 2011 09:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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We’ve known about the so-called HTC Pyramid for months, long before the Vodafone leak this morning . Now the long-rumored Android phone is official and coming to T-Mobile under the moniker HTC Sensation 4G. As expected, it matches many of the EVO 3D ‘s specs, including a 4.3-inch (540 x 960) Super LCD screen, dual-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon processor, and Android Gingerbread (2.3) with Sense 3.0. But it one ups the 3D handset by bumping the rear lens’ resolution to 8 megapixels, throwing in a second LED flash, and speeding up the video frame rate to 30fps at max 1080p resolution. Speed-wise, this HSPA+ device promises download rates as fast as 14.4 Mbps. As for Sense, the Sensation also ushers in various tweaks to the company’s UI, including customizable lock screens, 3D transitions, an improved weather app, and HTC Watch, the service introduced with the company’s Flyer tablet that lets you download DVD-quality movies. Before hitting the states this summer, the Sensation will launch in the UK, Germany, and the rest of HTC’s “key” European markets in mid-May, with Vodafone scoring a Europe-wide exclusive for “a couple of weeks.” We can’t wait to put the Sensation through its paces in a full review, but happily we already scored some hands-on time with a near-final unit. Continue below the break for some early thoughts, full specs, and close-up shots of this superphone in action. Gallery: HTC Sensation 4G Gallery: HTC Sensation 4G preview! Continue reading HTC Sensation 4G official: 1.2GHz dual-core, qHD display, and Sense 3.0 HTC Sensation 4G official: 1.2GHz dual-core, qHD display, and Sense 3.0 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Apr 2011 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Toshiba puts its business laptops on a diet, intros the Portege R830, Tecra R840, and Tecra R850
April 12, 2011 No Comment
Toshiba ‘s thin-but-full-powered Portege R700 was such a hit among business types that the company is now designing other machines in its svelte image. Tosh just unveiled the Tecra R840 and R850 — both of which ape the R700′s slim build — along with the Portege R830, a refresh to the R700 itself. The R830 looks the same, though it has a strip on the edge of the lid that looks like it’s made of magnesium alloy, but is actually plastic — a material that’s expected to improve the signals of the the various antennae housed underneath it. And — surprise, surprise — this refresh adds a USB 3.0 port and Intel Sandy Bridge processor, which the company says should bump the rated battery life to a max of 11 hours, up from eight. Not the corporate type? The company will also sell an $889 consumer version, the R835, that has a one-, not three-year, warranty, and loses enterprise-grade features — namely, Intel’s vPro technology, a docking connector, and an ExpressCard slot. Meanwhile, the 14-inch R840 and 15.6-inch R850 are also getting Sandy Bridge CPUs, USB 3.0 ports, chiclet keyboards and all-around trimmer silhouettes. These laptops are now made with fiberglass-reinforced casing and the same Honeycomb rib structure that made last year’s R700 sturdy enough to grab one-handed. Of the two, the R840′s slim-down is more dramatic: it’s 25 percent thinner than the last-generation Tecra M11, as you can see in the comparison shots past the break. That’s largely thanks to Intel’s Airflow Cooling technology, which rearranges all of the heat-generating components in a row and draws in cool air from outside the notebook, instead of within. And Tosh claims the battery can last up to ten hours on a charge (11 with an SSD) — a vast improvement over the five and a half to six hours it promised the last time around. Moving up in size to the R850 will get you a number pad, but not that cooling technology. But it is about an inch thick at its thinnest, a point the PC maker is pleased as punch about. The R830, R840, and R850 start at $1,049, $899, and $879, respectively, and are available now on Toshiba’s site, with the consumer-friendly R835 on sale at Best Buy and through the Microsoft Store. Continue reading Toshiba puts its business laptops on a diet, intros the Portege R830, Tecra R840, and Tecra R850 Toshiba puts its business laptops on a diet, intros the Portege R830, Tecra R840, and Tecra R850 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Apr 2011 08:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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You may live your life a quarter-mile at a time, but let’s face it — you still care about the environment. To that end, you’ve patiently awaited Audi’s hybrid Spyder , even with the company playing coy about electric vehicles in general. Its latest tease is a far cry from the aforesaid ghost, but the A3 e-tron — an entry-level Sportback begging to be modified — is certainly sexy in its own right. Not exactly Fast and Furious material, given that it needs 11 seconds to reach 60mph and tops out at 90mph, but still — a pair of lithium-ion batteries should give it 90-mile range per nine-hour charge. We’d take the Roadster S’ 165-mile ride if given the choice, but we’ll confess to confessing as much prior to consulting our practical side. No hard word on availability or pricing — the company likely wants it on the streets by 2013, but don’t go changing your name to Vin Battery just yet. Or Vin Anything, for that matter. Audi’s A3 e-tron gearing up for 2013, should hit 90 miles per charge originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Apr 2011 06:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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