ge

Oliver Marks takes a detailed look at GE's new SupportCentral collaboration backbone. It's pretty impressive and a strong hint at where collaboration is going in the enterprise:

The numbers are huge: 400,000 global users in 6,000+ locations around world, all working within a 100% web interface available in 20 languages (your user interface language is defined by your sign in permissions). The system gets over 25 million web hits a day, greater than employee usage of Google and Yahoo combined. Users have created over 50,000 communities with over 100,000 experts signed up to answer … Read more

Nvidia is in the throes of a minor meltdown. Its share price is collapsing as it grapples with widespread product defects, a resurgent Advanced Micro Devices, and a weak market.

It all started when Nvidia released a statement on July 2 saying it would take a $150 million to $200 million charge to cover the costs for repair and replacement of defective graphics silicon in notebook PCs. Though Nvidia didn't name any names, Hewlett-Packard, Apple, and Lenovo, among others, use Nvidia graphics chips in their notebooks.

Then on Thursday, July 3, shares plunged $5.54, or just over 30 … Read more

This top-loading GE Profile washer is a nice-looking machine that offers king-size capacity and high-end heating features for controlling bacteria and eliminating clothing stains.

This model# WPGT9360EPL, with a 4 cubic foot tub capacity for 24 bath towels or 50 T-shirts, is Energy Star-qualified, making it a good option for the long-term budget-minded, despite the steep initial investment.

The washer's features include a HydroView glass lid for viewing clothes in the cleaning process without stopping the cycle and an LCD touch screen to control the cycle. The touch screen features an English/Spanish option. A HydroHeater bumps up the … Read more

You won't have to wait long for food to cook with the GE Profile Advantium over-the-range oven.

That's because GE promises that this 1.2 cubic foot oven can cook up to eight times faster than a conventional oven, roasting a whole chicken in 20 minutes, baking a potato in four minutes, and cooking a pizza in about 5-and-a-half minutes.

The Advantium, model SCA2001KSS, combines halogen lights and microwave power (950 watts) to bake, brown, broil, and grill food. GE's so-called Speedcook technology uses intense halogen light to cook the outside of your food, while also penetrating … Read more

One look at this dryer and its unique design stands out. The back panel curves up from right to left and it's easy to imagine it standing next to a similar washer to complete the arc. Other than the aesthetically pleasing pairing with the washer pair, the dryer rates high among consumers. Reviewers at Sears liked the many features and large drying capability. Detractors found the machine unreliable and difficult to fix. Over at Consumer Reports, the dryer scored high with testers giving it an 84 out of 85. User reviews were mixed, with customers unhappy with breakdowns. Positive … Read more

The GE Profile 24.6 cubic foot refrigerator is an Energy Star-compliant top freezer model with plenty of storage options.

Top freezer models tend to be more affordable than side-by-side and bottom-freezers. However, at more than $1,600, this model #PTS25LHSBB is on the higher end of the price scale.

That said, this is an Energy Star model loaded with features including an internal water dispenser with a filtration system, a factory-installed automatic ice maker, and digital climate controls, instead of a dial and electronic sensors, that let you customize how you cool your food.

Inside, there are four adjustable … Read more

As home phones are continually threatened with extinction, manufacturers have tried to add functions that appear to bring them closer to their mobile counterparts. But perhaps there's a much simpler tactic: paint them in bright colors.

Following a trend that's become commonplace for most mobile handset makers, GE has introduced the "Ultra Slim Cordless Phone" from its Designer Series in candy-apple red, according to SlashGear. (Not exactly our taste, but it could always be worse.)

Other than the shiny finish, the $70 phone has standard functions including a small LCD, caller ID, and a digital answering … Read more

Graphics performance improves rapidly. We can be confident that each new generation of graphics chips will be faster than the previous one, and that AMD and NVIDIA will regularly surpass each other with new product launches. I've been watching this process professionally since 1996, when I began covering graphics technology for Microprocessor Report.

As of today, NVIDIA is on top. The new GeForce GTX 280 is the fastest graphics chip you can get. See the first part of this review for details of the chip itself.

If you can get one, anyway. NVIDIA says boards based on the GeForce GTX 280 and its companion GeForce GTX 260 will be available "in quantity" tomorrow (June 17), but if previous launches are any indication, those quantities won't be enough to satisfy everyone.

And you may not be able to afford one-- a GTX 280 board with 1GB of RAM will likely be priced around $649, while GTX 260 boards with 896MB will go for about $399. (The GTX 280 / 1GB board I tested was made by NVIDIA, so it isn't necessarily representative of commercial products.)

But avid gamers won't be discouraged by these prices. Both AMD and NVIDIA like to point out that an expensive graphics card is a much better investment than a high-end CPU or motherboard if you care about gaming.

The standard of comparison for gaming performance is the number of frames per second that can be rendered for a given combination of screen resolution and quality features... or, conversely, what resolution and features can be used without reducing the frame rate below a playable level.

So in my own testing, I used frame rate as a metric for games that could run acceptably with maximum quality at the maximum resolution of my monitor (1,600 x 1,200 pixels), and quality for other games.

I did my testing with four games:… Read more

Today, NVIDIA officially announces its new GeForce GTX 200 family of graphics processing units (GPUs) and the first two products in the family, the GeForce GTX 280 and the GeForce GTX 260.

The GeForce GTX 280 is the new flagship of NVIDIA's GPU product line, taking over from last year's GeForce 9800 GTX. (The change in the product-name format from "9800 GTX" to "GTX 280" is potentially confusing and doesn't seem that useful to me, but I'm sure we'll get used to it over time. I suppose NVIDIA's other choice was to go with numbers above 10,000, which might have been even worse.)

NVIDIA disclosed the details of these products at an Editor's Day conference in May, and most of the attendees, including myself, received GTX 280 graphics cards for editorial review. These cards are NVIDIA reference boards, not retail products.

I'll be doing this review in multiple parts, each addressing a different aspect of these products and the effects they'll have on the PC graphics market.

First, an overview of the GTX 280 chip itself.

This is a huge chip. NVIDIA won't say exactly how large, and I'm not going to bust open the chip package on my reference board just to find out, but NVIDIA VP of technical marketing Tony Tamasi says… Read more