Laptop-DRV » Desktops

C64x, A Commodore 64 with Blu-ray, USB, HDMI

admin — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 07:19:44 +0000

>View all

A Commodore 64 with the dual-core Atom processor, 2GB memory, NVIDIA Ion2 graphics and the Blu-ray drive? Have I woken up in a little fevered (but still overwhelming pick being? Or is it scarcely Christmas (wait…)?

In actuality, this is a C64x, an updated chronicle of the princely 8-bit 1980s the one preferred. An form of USB as well as memory-card slots, along with HDMI, VGA and DVI-D ports round-out the specs. The physique has been steadily reproduced, and Commodore has even put correct Cherry-brand switches inside a keys for which old-style clackety-clack tune as well as super-positive key-clicks.

The C64x can be treated only like a regular (albeit retro-styled) PERSONAL COMPUTER, but there’s the hidden pretence for nostalgia-freaks: in a foot menu, you can choose to boot the thing in C64 simulation mode, vouchsafing you play all a old games of your youth.

Commodore is just fooling around us right right away: a cost and launch date have nonetheless to be voiced. Lets goal the answers to “when?” as well as “how much?” have been “soon” and “cheap.”

C64x [Commodore]

Mac App Store to Launch January 6th

admin — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 16:02:02 +0000

The Mac App Store will go live upon Thursday, January 6th 2011, ready to download for Mac users using OS X Snow Leopard, available in 90 countries. This will also symbol a date when regular people begin to buy third-party software.

The Mac® App Store℠, to give it the fast name, will run upon a same model as a iOS App Store: sign in with your Apple ID and you can squeeze apps and have them charged straight to your credit card. And only like the App Store, updates will uncover up automatically, with only the click indispensable to get them.

Hard as it may be to believe, people still buy software upon DVDs, in boxes, from stores. You or I might be happy shopping shareware and profitable for it with PayPal, though many people have been terrified of shopping anything upon the internet. It helps which a Mac ships with the good software apartment, together with iLife, though there is so most more good indie program out there that most people will never see.

Developers can goon to sell the same apps on their own sites, and if they want to suggest the hearing chronicle, they’ll have to – Apple won’t concede trials or betas in the store. On a alternative palm, brand new developers won’t have to bother setting up payment systems; they just let Apple take caring of it in lapse for the 30% cut.

What I’m many seeking forward to have been poor, $1 apps that do something elementary. Right right away, its not viable to sell the Mac app for a buck, but with a App Store, I’ll gamble we’ll see the lot of them.

Apple’s Mac App Store to Open on January 6 [Apple Press Release]

Will Resolution Independent Interfaces Ever Come to a Mac?

admin — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 07:29:22 +0000

Resolution autonomy, or the lack of it, is one of those whining problems most users don’t even comprehend have the name. But the judgment is elementary: user-interface elements similar to icons, buttons as well as window borders upon the same OS should be a same earthy distance no matter what screen you’re regulating.

From the 1980s until only the few years ago, the bullion customary for mechanism screen fortitude was 72 dots per inch (dpi). This wasn’t an accident.

“When a Mac initial came out, one of the great WYSIWYG features was which the pixel on the screen was ostensible to be next to in distance to a printer’s indicate: 1/72″,” says Mac blogger Dr Drang. “Back afterwards, onscreen rulers suited up quite good with physical rulers, as well as 12-point sort on a screen looked to be a same size as 12-point type upon the printed page. But those days are long gone.”

Manufacturers can fit an ever-larger number of pixels onto screens. This is in all the great thing, as it creates images crook, clearer as well as some-more like earthy objects. But it additionally creates anything tangible by its pixel-count fortitude smaller.

Operating systems, together with Mac OS X, began to move away from 72dpi in a center of this decade. “The aged assumption which displays are 72dpi has been rendered archaic by advances in arrangement record,” Apple said in 2006, in the developer overview of OS X 10.5 Leopard. “But it additionally equates to which interfaces which have been pixel-based will shrink to a point of being unusable. The solution is to remove a 72dpi arrogance which has been a norm.”

Leopard as well as then Snow Leopard were ostensible to do divided with pixel-defined resolutions, permitting developers to draw user interface elements regulating the scale factor. But while screen resolutions kept removing crook, fortitude independence never utterly came.

That is, it never utterly came for a desktop. For iOS, fortitude independence is essential, often since the UI elements need to compare the bodies. On a desktop, if icons get smaller, good, pointers and cursors get smaller as well. Your fingertip is always the same distance.

But even on a iPhone as well as iPad, resolution-independence is only partial. Yes, icons competence register at a same distance, though images inside of the application don’t. Developers who built the pixel-defined app for an comparison model iPhone find those apps not looking utterly so sharp upon the higher fortitude of a retina-display iPhone 4 or blown up onto the larger shade of an iPad.

For Dr Drang, a comprehensive distance of interface elements matters less than their variability. “On an 11-inch MacBook Air, the 72-pixel line—which would magnitude 1 in. prolonged against an onscreen ruler—is only 0.53 physical inches prolonged. On the 21.5-inch iMac, which same line is 0.70 inches prolonged. User interface equipment, similar to buttons, menu items, as well as corkscrew bars are 30 percent bigger upon a iMac than upon the Air.”

Application developers have been indispensably conflicted. Keeping UI tied to pixel counts saves them work rewriting their apps. On a alternative hand, they can’t count a physical unity of knowledge opposite each device. Desktop edition as well as pattern pros additionally have to cause in differences in size from the shade to the page, or a single shade to the next. Images as well as content all manifest otherwise.

“Microsoft has universal settings to shift a distance of UI elements,” Dr Drang adds. “Even X Windows allows you to set a shade dpi for fonts. Apple has zero. With screen resolutions augmenting during an accelerating gait, this has to be addressed soon.”

Apple’s Going Back to a Mac upon October 20th

admin — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 00:29:41 +0000

Apple is hosting the “Back to a Mac” eventuality October 20th. The call in promises “a hide look of a subsequent vital version of Mac OS X.”

If I know my big cats, as well as the design on top of is any denote, it looks similar to OS X 10.7 will be codenamed “Lion.” We could additionally see brand-new Macs. The healthy candidates for the new look would be a MacBook Air as well as presumably a MacBook Pro. Apple tweaked the laptop line with brand-new processors in April as well as its desktops in July, so this eventuality competence be often about Mac software.

Besides OS X, a spotlight of a new will substantially shine upon a iLife apartment. iTunes got a fresh iteration with the brand-new turn of iPods as well as Apple TV, though a rest of the media-management apps have been long owing for an upgrade.

The eventuality will be on Apple’s Cupertino campus; an “executive presentation” (perhaps by a shining Mr Jobs, or an additional Apple luminary) will proceed during 10:00 AM Pacific. You’d best believe we’ll be there.

Apple’s Macs Could Gain the Sense of Touch

admin — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 04:35:10 +0000

Perhaps the hold series will magnify beyond tablets as well as smartphones and onto the traditional computers. A new patent application shows how Apple competence setup an iMac or the MacBook with the touchscreen.

It’s a lot more than simply slapping the multitouch screen onto an iMac. Filed progressing this year, a obvious application portrays an iMac-like mechanism which can transition from being used as the traditional mouse- as well as keyboard-controlled PC into a touchscreen computer. It’s the convertible desktop inscription, so to verbalize.

The invention described would switch between submit modes detecting the place of the shade with an accelerometer or the revolution hinge inside a flexible mount. One input mode would be a high-resolution interface tranquil with the rodent as well as set of keys, as well as the alternative process would be a lower-resolution tablet mode for touch controls.

Moving upon to notebooks, the obvious application says a notebook-like device could transition into a touch-based UI by folding a arrangement, face up, opposite the set of keys.

To be clear, convertible tablets have been zero brand-new. We’ve seen a handful of automobile tablet notebooks as well as “kitchen” PCs equipped with touchscreens. However, I’ve had hands-on time with the garland of them during the Consumer Electronics Show, and they’ve consistently failed to stir, since they’re just touchscreen devices using Windows — the UI written for keyboards as well as mice, not preferred for touch controls. Duly, these automobile computers haven’t been renowned sellers.

With Apple’s obvious application, it sounds similar to a passing from one to another method would engage switching in between dual handling systems: a Mac OS for PC submit and iOS for tablet use (though they’re technically one OS given they’re forged out of the same core). That critical UI transition competence actually make the automobile touchscreen computer make sense.

Indeed, Apple appears to be eyeing touchscreens for Macs. Fan blog Patently Apple not long ago detected the pickup of 10 obvious applications covering display technologies, that additionally connote to a touchscreen arrangement for notebooks. Also, the few rumors emerged earlier this year that Apple was building a touchscreen iMac.

From Patently Apple

OWC Will Cut Open Your iMac to Add eSATA Port

admin — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 20:07:13 +0000

Nobody uses a iMac for real work, right? After all, a huge 27-inch screen, a quick Core i3-i7 processors as well as the dissimilar graphics cards opposite a complete lineup describe a appurtenance hopelessly underpowered for video and photo modifying. No wonder Apple hasn’t enclosed an eSATA pier. Who would need fast external storage?

Wait. Everyone would, especially as a customary disk is a singular Terabyte in distance. OWC feels your suffering, mechanism buyer, and will take extreme, deep-cutting measures to help you. The appendage association will literally clout the hole in your iMac and supplement the speedy eSATA pier to the appurtenance. USB2 and FireWire are fine for shifting the few files around, though eSATA-connected drives run at the same speed as a hard-drive inside a computer.

The mod will cost you only $170. If you run a video facility, you’re substantially already arranging shipping right now (tip: prepare it with OWC and they’ll pick your iMac up for only $30). If which still looks expensive to you, think about a alternative: shopping the Mac Pro instead, which start during $2,500 but a guard. While your machine is in OWC’s emporium for surgery, you can also supplement some-more memory as well as ascent the existing tough drive.

The use is accessible right away. Rumors that OWC will supplement the USB-port to a iPad are ungrounded.

OWC iMac eSATA ascent program [OWC. Thanks, Grant!]

IFixit Breaks Into New Mac Mini, Takes Photos

admin — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 13:21:56 +0000

IFixit is first on a stage nonetheless again with a teardown of a brand-new unibody Mac Mini. Kyle Wiens and crew popped into a Apple store as well as bought the non-server chronicle of Apple’s tiny desktop Mac as well as non-stop it up. The formula come up reduced of startling, though do uncover the crafty meditative which went into cramming all inside the plain aluminum bombard.

The tour starts with popping off the plastic baseplate, an easy charge involving a quick turn. IMPEL comes out simply (you can fit in up to 8GB) as well as afterwards you get to a luscious bits. The air blower has rubber damping on the screws as well as is set at an angle to fit it in. Kyle says that it won’t have much work to do as the Mac Mini fairly sips energy, receiving only 7 amps during 12 volts compared to the 27-inch iMac’s 25.8 amps during 12 volts (although it additionally has to power which hulk screen). This is because a energy section has shrunk as well as disappeared inside the appurtenance.

The alternative tidy touch is in a chain of the antennae, which have been at either end of a rear cosmetic image which binds the I/O ports. This is identical to a cosmetic window upon a iPad 3G.

Fully disassembled, a brand-new Mac Mini looks almost as minimal (and pretty) as it does when whole. Thanks again iFixit, for saving all of us extraordinary souls from having to void our warranty. More cinema below.

Mac Mini Mid 2010 Teardown [iFixit. Thanks, Kyle!]

Your Next Mac: Slim Unibody Mac Mini with HDMI

admin — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 10:35:55 +0000

Apple has updated the small desktop Mac Mini and if you were meditative about shopping the brand-new MacBook or iMac, you competence consider the little about grabbing this instead.

The brand-new Mini comes in the slim unibody box, 1.4-inches high, timorous from 2-inches, as well as gains an SD-card container, an HDMI port for true media core formation, faster NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics hardware (up from a aged 9400M graphics). It additionally keeps FireWire 800, Mini-DVI, four USB ports as well as Ethernet.

There are dual models. One costs $700 and comes with a 2.4GHz processor, 2GB IMPEL and the 320GB hard drive. The alternative is $1,000 as well as drops a visual drive in preference of 4GB IMPEL, dual 500GB hard drives as well as a 2.66GHz processor. This version runs OS X Server. Both have removable bottom row for easy entrance to IMPEL.

That Apple would recover such the big refurbish with zero some-more than the short press release used to surprise us, though these days the flattering customary. With HDMI, this is obviously aimed during a home party marketplace, though it could additionally be the great brand-new Mac for anybody who has an iPad already. In fact, if you already have a guard in the residence, you could buy a Mac Mini as well as an iPad for $1,200. That’s a same as you’d compensate for the cheapest MacBook Pro.

Mac Mini [Apple]

3-D PCs Will Make the Splash during Computex

admin — Mon, 31 May 2010 23:46:26 +0000

After 3-D cinema as well as 3-D TVs, it’s time for computers to go into a third dimension.

Companies such as MSI as well as Asus will be display 3-D PCs during Computex, the outrageous traffic uncover for manufacturers of PCs as well as PERSONAL COMPUTER components hold each year in Taipei, Taiwan. This year, Computex runs from June 1 to 5.

MSI skeleton to deliver the 24-inch 3-D net-top: the desktop mechanism with the internals built into a arrangement box, identical to an iMac.

“We can run 3-D cinema, games, photos as well as TV,” says Clifford Chun, product executive for all-in-ones as well as desktops during MSI, “and by only dire the symbol you can switch in between 2-D as well as 3-D modes.”

MSI’s rival Asus will entrance a 3-D laptop with the 15.6-inch arrangement and desktop identical in shade distance to which from MSI. The 3-D PCs have been approaching to be accessible in a third entertain of the year.

“People might select the 3-D PERSONAL COMPUTER since it is the reduction costly approach to get 3-D calm,” says Rob Csongor, vice boss of marketing for Nvidia, which creates graphics cards which energy the 3-D PCs. “Companies have been entrance out with a little pleasing inclination which are starting to be the higher-end product primarily though they will be really attractive to consumers.”

With Hollywood’s success in drive-in theatre such as Avatar and Alice in Wonderland, a 3-D format has done the large quip. And it’s not cramped to only a large shade. The 3-D TV was a single of the biggest stars of a Consumer Electronics Show this year. Almost each major TV builder, together with Sony, LG, Panasonic as well as Mitsubishi, skeleton to suggest big-screen 3-D TVs, whilst broadcasters such as ESPN as well as Discovery have betrothed 3-D channels by the finish of the year or early subsequent year.

Meanwhile, pledge 3-D calm is receiving off as consumers make use of 3-D cameras or homemade 3-D rigs to shoot photos. In the pointer which homemade 3-D videos could shortly be ready to strike mainstream, YouTube has proposed charity the 3-D arrangement choice.

Makers of 3-D PCs goal to step into this universe. “3-D PCs are for consumers who see a 3-D things everywhere as well as consternation, ‘How can I get this home?’” says Csongor.

Close to the million 3-D PCs will boat in 2010, predicts Jon Peddie Research, as well as annual sales could stretch 75 million by 2014 as 3-D PCs turn entire.

With the absolute graphics label, many PCs have been 3-D able — in element. But vicious to a 3-D knowledge is a 120-Hz monitor as well as special eyeglasses. PCs with 3-D have stereoscopic displays, that means their screens can benefaction the fast swapping set of images for a right and a left eye so a brain can compound them together into the singular picture which includes abyss.

MSI’s 3-D desktop, called ‘Ripple,’ has an Intel Core i7 860 processor, an ATI Radeon HD 5730 graphics chip, 4 GB of memory, the 1-terabyte hoop drive, the Blu-ray player, 1.3-megapixel webcam, and Wi-Fi capacity. The 24-inch multitouch arrangement has the modernise rate of 120 Hz as well as will come with the own span of active-shutter eyeglasses.

“With active-shutter eyeglasses you don’t lose clarity or contrariety as you do with a polarized versions,” says Chun. “We consider the a most appropriate approach to knowledge the 3-D feeling.”

If you have been wondering what you will make use of your 3-D PERSONAL COMPUTER for, there’s copiousness of 3-D calm already out there, assures Nvidia’s Csongor. Nvidia’s graphics chips, that have been embedded in Asus machines, can support any of 400 3-D-enabled video games already upon a marketplace. Of march, they can additionally show 3-D photos, streaming video from sports such as golf tournaments, as well as Blu-ray 3-D movies.

And if you get sleepy of all that 3-D, only switch the arrangement behind to a old-fashioned PERSONAL COMPUTER mode, indicate MSI’s Chun.

“Since you can pierce in between 2-D as well as 3-D, you can see transparent images even if you don’t wear a eyeglasses,” says Chun. “No blurring or hairy images in 2-D.”

The 24-inch MSI desktop will price $2,200 — not just poor, though just a small some-more than what many users would compensate for the high-end multimedia appurtenance. For many, it will additionally be simpler to buy the 3-D PERSONAL COMPUTER rather than than the 3-D TV.

“Not everyone wants the 3-D TV when they have been ready to buy their subsequent TV,” says Csongor. “But the 3-D PERSONAL COMPUTER for their subsequent laptop or desktop is something which might be peaceful to go for.”

ViewSonic outs appetite fit, earth-friendly VOT125 nettop — won’t assistance which there oil brief

admin — Mon, 17 May 2010 23:18:40 +0000

Way behind during CES in January, you spied ViewSonic’s full charity, as well as you held wind then of a VOT125 nettop — though we didn’t unequivocally have any sum to go upon. Well, a company’s strictly announced a VOT125 PERSONAL COMPUTER Mini currently, and the slim little man looks flattering cute. Sold as the space-saving PC with immature pattern, ViewSonic says which a VOT125 uses up to 90 percent reduction cosmetic than identical nettops, as well as consumes up to 90 percent reduction energy, creation make use of of a operation of ultra low energy Intel ULV CPUs. The VOT125 boasts 2GB of memory, the 250GB tough drive, 4 USB 2.0 ports, and DVI / HDMI. You can grab a single up starting currently, as well as it’s got a starting price of $499. The full PR follows.
Show full PR content
ViewSonic® Leads a Way to Smarter, Greener Computing with New PC Mini

ViewSonic’s VOT125 PERSONAL COMPUTER Mini provides compress, appetite saving resolution for business as well as home users
WALNUT, Calif. – May 18, 2010

ViewSonic® Corp., the heading tellurian provider of computing, consumer wiring as well as communications solutions, currently announced which a VOT125 PERSONAL COMPUTER Mini – a ultimate compact as well as appetite fit computing solutions – is right away accessible for sequence.

Providing an preferred compress as well as space-saving solution for home as well as commercial operation, a VOT125 provides the idealization in smarter, greener computing. With the green-centric design, this compress and neat PC mini uses up to 90% reduction cosmetic and consumes up to 90% reduction appetite than traditional building PCs. With an Intel® ULV processor as well as 0.6L form cause privately designed for less energy usage, reduction cosmetic as well as reduction cables, the VOT125 allows green-conscious users to revoke their co footprint. And with Windows® 7 commissioned, a VOT125 presents an preferred product for businesses seeking to passing from one to another from Windows XP® or Vista®.

With the compress pattern as well as trim 1.5″ x 5.1″ x 4.5″ specifications, a VOT125 helps create an fit as well as clutter-free workspace. Whether placed upon a desktop or mounted to a behind of an LCD guard with a enclosed VESA® mountain pack, this petite device is an preferred space-saving resolution for an orderly home or business space.

Powered by ultra low voltage, Intel® ULV processors, the VOT125 offers tall opening as well as stretchable computing in the compress package. Including 2GB internal memory, 250GB hard drive, 4 USB 2.0 ports, DVI/HDMI outputs as well as Ethernet/wireless Internet connectors, this indication provides absolute as well as variable computing solutions with the green demur.

For further information upon ViewSonic products, gratefully revisit ViewSonic.com or follow ViewSonic upon Facebook, YouTube as well as Twitter.

###

Trademark footnote: All corporate names as well as trademarks referred to herein have been a property of their respective companies.

This headlines recover contains forward-looking statements which reflect a Company’s expectations with courtesy to future events. Actual events could vary significantly from those anticipated in this request.

Executive allude to

“Saving space and shortening appetite spending have been pass priorities for the business” said Sally Wang, senior executive product selling, ViewSonic. “We’re unapproachable to assistance grasp both goals with a VOT125 PERSONAL COMPUTER Mini, as well as indeed broach the smarter, greener resolution for your desktop.”

Pricing as well as accessibility

The VOT125 PERSONAL COMPUTER Mini is accessible with a preference of Intel® Celeron® M Processor ULV 743, Intel® Celeron® Processor SU2300, Intel® Pentium® Processor SU4100 as well as Intel® Core 2 Duo Processor SU7300, as well as is currently accessible for sequence at an ESP starting during $499.