fx

We've just crowned Gateway's P-7811FXthe favorite $1,000-plus system in our Back-to-School roundup of laptops available on retail store shelves. Its particularly strong showing reminds us that every once in a while, a new product comes along that forces you to reconsider the conventional wisdom about what computer hardware should cost. (A prime example being how the new netbook category has redefined small, low-power laptops from $2,000-plus executive toys to sub-$500 impulse purchases.)

PC gaming, despite the lack of action on the software side lately, has been the one reliable area where manufacturers could get away … Read more

We've been waiting for August 14 to roll around so we could tell you about Gateway's new budget-minded gaming rig, the P-7811FX.

After all, we're big fans of the high-power, low-price 17-inch laptops Gateway's been putting out this year as Best Buy exclusives, offering Nvidia's powerful GeForce 8800 GPU for a mere $1,350 (or less, depending on retail discounts). Even though new products like this usually leak beforehand, it was a surprise to see the new system posted on Best Buy's Web site today, a day early.

It's a good thing, too, … Read more

Sun Microsystems on Thursday released a preview version of JavaFX, programming technology the company hopes will be the foundation of splashy, whiz-bang Internet applications.

JavaFX, like its Java progenitor, includes both software to execute programs and a programming language used to write those programs--JavaFX Script for the new technology.

Java has a strong brand in programming circles, but the technology caught on chiefly for use on servers and mobile phones. Sun is trying to go full circle with JavaFX, billing the software as a way to run software on desktop PCs. The software includes support for 2D and 3D graphics, … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--While an interview with Neil Young has been my big highlight of JavaOne, I also managed to hook up with Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz for a video interview. We talked about Project Hydrazine, a new cloud computing initiative with services similar to what Google and Amazon.com offer. We also discussed JavaFX, Sun's competitor to Adobe AIR and Microsoft Silverlight, and Project Insight, which is designed to gather instrumented user action data via JavaFX and provide it to developers.

JavaFX, which includes a runtime, scripting, and a media framework, could have a hard time competing with Adobe and … Read more

Editor's note: News.com's Dan Farber reported Young's keynote speech and a follow-up Q&A live from JavaOne.

SAN FRANCISCO--At JavaOne here, Neil Young showed off his multimedia project that chronicles his music career and uses Java to do so.

Young said he tried to do the project on DVD, but users couldn't watch the high-resolution video and listen to the music at the same time. With Java and Blu-ray, the content can be updated and offer the best viewing and listening experience, as well as great navigation and design. "Storage is the only … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Following a flurry of T-shirts catapulted by Java creator James Gosling and a hot dance troop performance, 75 hours of JavaOne got under way here this week. Sun Microsystems' software chief, Rich Green, took the stage to talk about consumers, people he sees as driving change.

"Information is crossing the moat, escaping the castle," he said. "The private information network is gone." Enterprises have to recognize that the enterprise moat barriers are coming down, he added, with consumers driving innovation.

As part of Sun's effort to enable consumers to innovate, Green introduced JavaFX, a rich Internet application environment … Read more

The Rolling Stones were wrong. Sometimes you can get satisfaction. These four companies, presented at Under the Radar, offer Web apps for users to get, ask for, and give feedback better.

FeedbackFX puts a spin on the usual way people provide feedback to businesses--usually via e-mail, online or paper forms, or in-person focus groups. The screen shots in the demo show FeedbackFX as a slick media player, and gives users a lot more wiggle room to review multimedia content like video and designs directly on the media itself, in the exact location under review. This saves time writing up detailed … Read more

In an age of downsizing and crossing over, Infiniti is bucking trend with the launch of the FX50 SUV here at the Geneva auto show. The second-generation FX gets a complete exterior redesign to look a whole lot more menacing than the current FX range, especially at the front end, where its new headlight and grille arrangement gives it the impression of wanting to eat other road users alive. And eat them alive it just might do, as the updated model comes with a monstrous 5-liter V-8, which Infiniti says is capable of more than 380 horsepower. (A V-6 version … Read more

Driving around the streets of London and Geneva over the last couple of days, I have noticed a conspicuous absence of Infiniti and Acura models. The premium brands of (respectively) Nissan and Honda are virtually unknown in Western European countries, where they are currently unavailable. This is about to change, however, as Nissan prepares to use this week's Geneva auto show to launch the first Infiniti models for the European market. According to the Financial Times, Infiniti has "Europeanised" its lineup (smaller engines, diesel options), and will launch with four models, including a brand-new FX crossover SUV, … Read more