Apparently computers and computer parts are too cheap. DDR2 memory bottomed out a while ago and at some points was actually being sold under cost. Prices have risen slightly over the last month or two and is continuing upward. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the largest contract chip foundry making chips for Via, Nvidia, and AMD (ATI graphics … Read the full entry »

Havok, now owned by Intel, is one of the leading providers of physics APIs for games and applications and is now planning to offer it for free for non-commercial use and to “approved game developers on the PC platform” starting in March. It’s unclear why someone would go with Havok though at this point when Ageia, now owned by Nvidia, has their physics … Read the full entry »

Well, Toshiba hasn’t officially announced it but Reuters is saying a source is saying that Toshiba has “entered the final stage of planning to make our exit from the next generation DVD business,” and that an official announcement may come next week. It’s unfortunate that the better technology lost. Feature wise, HD DVD’s current spec is the same as the yet to be … Read the full entry »

AMD is currently developing a CPU with integrated graphics named the AMD Fusion, with the first chip codenamed Swift. That’s all well and good but what’s the target market for this CPU? Who needs this feature? I mean, you’re still going to have to have a motherboard chipset for the PCI Express slots, PCI, IDE, SATA, LAN, etc, so what’s the point? If you have … Read the full entry »

I don’t get it… Why does anyone need a laptop that’s the regular 13.3″ notebook’s footprint but “0.16″ at its thinnest point, 0.76″ at its thickest point”? And to get this (non)feature you have to pay big ($1,799 base price) and sacrifice insanely. I mean come on, it has ONE USB2.0 port! Yes, you read that right… The optional max CPU is a 1.8GHz, the standard one is only … Read the full entry »

I used to joke about wireless power with buddies of mine when I’d occasionally forget to plug the power for a hard drive or a fan, “When are they going to make wireless power!” and we’d all laugh… Apparently multiple companies are working on wireless power! They’re currently talking about using it for charging laptops and cellphones.  I wouldn’t expect it to be inside … Read the full entry »