PCs

HP unveils new PCs in massive product roll-out

It may be sitting pretty atop the PC market, but Hewlett-Packard isn't going to sit still.

The world's largest PC manufacturer plans to roll out 50 new products Tuesday at a conference in Berlin, the largest such product refresh in the Personal Systems Group's history. Of those products, HP added new touches to just about everything, freshening up its TouchSmart all-in-one desktop, commercial and consumer notebook lines, as well as two machines within its high-end gaming brand, Voodoo PC.

While it's that time of year for product refreshes, this is more than the usual speed bump … Read more

HP settles patent suits with Acer

Hewlett-Packard announced Sunday that it has settled its patent-infringement lawsuits against rival PC maker Acer.

The confidential settlement agreement resolves three federal court lawsuits, as well as two U.S. International Trade Commission investigations between the parties.

HP sued Taiwan-based Acer in October 2007, alleging seven patent violations. The suits covered patents regarding technologies such as read/write optical drives, power management in notebooks, digital bus arrangement, thermal management and video control.

The suits sought to stop Taiwan-based Acer from exporting its PCs to the U.S. and selling them there. As a result of the settlement agreement, each action … Read more

Asus' all-in-one PC: The Eee Monitor

Pictures of the Eee Monitor, the upcoming all-in-one desktop PC from Asus, have surfaced.

A PC World reporter at the Computex trade show in Taipei snapped a few photos of a company slide showing the Eee Monitor. Head here for the images.

It appears quite iMac-esque--shiny and white with a minimalist design. And although Asus isn't confirming a price just yet, it's a fair assumption that the Monitor, part of Asus' low-cost Eee line, won't have an iMac-esque price tag.

Details surfaced in January suggesting a $499 price point. The Eee Monitor is supposed to use Intel'… Read more

South Korea regulators fine Intel $25 million

South Korea's antitrust regulators announced Wednesday that they would fine Intel 26 billion won ($25.4 million) for allegedly abusing its dominant position in the local chip market.

The Korea Fair Trade Commission said in a statement that the chip giant had offered rebates to two PC makers in South Korea in return for not buying processors from rival Advanced Micro Devices. Regulators also ordered Intel to stop offering the rebates.

Bruce Sewell, general counsel for Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel, criticized the ruling, and told the Wall Street Journal that the company is likely to appeal the KFTC'… Read more

HP names chief sales officer

Hewlett-Packard said Tuesday that it has chosen a new chief sales officer.

Don Grantham has been chosen to fill the role immediately, and will report to HP's executive vice president of the Technology Solutions Group, Ann Livermore. Enterprise accounts, public sector customers, as well as communications, media and entertainment, financial services, and manufacturing and distribution sales will fall under his purview.

Grantham is a tech industry veteran. He was previously the executive vice president for global sales and service at Sun Microsystems, and before that, held various sales positions at IBM.

He will replace Andy Mattes, who was moved … Read more

Ubuntu version coming to mobile devices

A version of the popular Ubuntu Linux operating system is coming later this year for mobile Internet devices and mini-notebooks.

Canonical, the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu, said on Monday that it plans to demonstrate the new version, called Ubuntu Netbook Remix, at the Computex trade show in Taiwan this week.

Smaller devices based on Intel's Atom processor are all the rage with PC makers lately. Manufacturers such as Acer and others are planning devices.

The Ubuntu release, expected later this year, will be based on the standard Ubuntu Desktop Edition and reworked for Atom-based mobile devices, Canonical said.

The … Read more

Intel announces 4 Series desktop chipset family

Intel has four new desktop chipsets to show off from this year's Computex trade show in Taiwan. The G45 and the G43 focus on HD video playback by way of a new Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500HD integrated graphics chip. The P45 brings support for faster memory and is the first mainstream Intel-made chipset with two graphics card slots. A scaled-down P43 chipset rounds out the new 4 Series. All of the chipsets use Intel's familiar LGA 775 processor interface, which means support for Intel's Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad desktop CPUs. Intel has also … Read more

Acer aspires to lead low-cost laptop race

After months as the subject of speculation in the media, Acer will introduce its own low-cost mini-notebook PC at the Computex trade show in Taipei on Tuesday.

The device will be called the Acer Aspire One, as expected. It will come with an Intel Atom processor, and run Linpus Linux Lite, with Acer's own user interface. Other specs include: an 8GB solid-state drive, 512MB of RAM, 802.11 b/g WiFi, an 8.9-inch screen, and a standard 3-hour battery.

The Aspire One will be available beginning July 2 for $379. Later that month, a version running Windows XP … Read more

Asus officially announces Eee Box details

Word got out a little early this morning regarding Asus's small Eee Box, so we can share what we saw in a preview in our offices a few weeks back. The small, Wii-looking PC will hit the U.S. via online retailers (and perhaps a few specialty brick-and-mortar shops) later this year.

The listed dimensions of the unit are 8.5-inches high, 1-inch wide, and 7-inches deep, standing upright on its included stand. It can also lie down flat.

Official specs are as follows:

Operating system: Linux System/ Hardware Compatible with Windows XP CPU: Intel Atom N270 (1.6 … Read more

Report: Sony to make low-cost mininotebook

Sony is prepping a notebook based on Via's OpenBook reference design, PC World is reporting.

At the WiMax Expo taking place in Taipei, contract manufacturer Quanta Computer showed a mini-laptop based on Via's just-released design that will be out in the third quarter of this year. A sharp-eyed reporter spotted Sony as the listed manufacturer for the device. When questioned, Quanta representatives apparently clammed up, and it doesn't appear Sony will be commenting either.

The mini notebook has an 8.9-inch screen, at least an 80GB hard drive, will use a 1.6-Gigahertz C7-M processor from Via, … Read more