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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

Dell updated its XPS line of laptops earlier this month with Penryn CPU offerings, and now it's sharing Intel's latest mobile processors with its wholly owned subsidiary, Alienware. The Area-51 m15x now offers three Penryn chips, the Core 2 Duo T9300 and the T9500 and the Core 2 Extreme X9000. Pricing starts at $2,149. If you're scoring at home, Dell's 13-inch and 17-inch XPS laptops have received a Penryn update, skipping over the XPS M1530. Meanwhile, Alienware's 15-inch laptop has the Penryn and its 17-inch model does not.

Elsewhere, Gateway has made its first … Read more

The graphics processing unit (GPU) is in, the central processing unit (CPU) is out. That was one of the main themes running through the Nvidia fourth-quarter conference call earlier this week. Nvidia is the largest graphics chip supplier.

During the call on Wednesday, Jen-Hsun Huang, President and CEO of Nvidia, repeated one thing often: GPUs are playing more of a central role in PCs, CPUs less so. "The CPU has become fast enough for the vast majority of (PC) users," he said. "PC enthusiasts, gamers, and design professionals have know this for some time." The GPU … Read more

Burning paper models for the dead is a religious tradition practiced by some Chinese. These can include houses, cars, and even Rolex watches. The belief is that the departed will receive them in the afterworld, making their lives (or rather, afterlives) more bearable. But what if the dead person is a geek who never fancied flashy cars or gold-plated timepieces? You burn him an Xbox 360, of course.

That's when you need one of these paper craft models from Fx Console, as seen on Notcot. Downloadable from the blog site are a series of PDFs that are templates for … Read more

The U.S. District Court of Massachusetts has granted iRobot its requested injunction against Robotic FX's Negotiator robot.

iRobot has alleged that the Negotiator robot built by Robotic FX infringes on two of its patents for the PackBot military robot.

iRobot is also suing Robotic FX's president, Jameel Ahed, as an individual. The company has accused the former iRobot employee of misappropriating confidential PackBot information he had access to while working at iRobot and using it in his company's Negotiator robot.

"The precise terms of the injunction follow in a separate Order, which shall be issued … Read more

If you're one of those people who can't stand the constant "beep-beep" of horn-happy motorists, you might not want to read any further. A start-up called Horntones is giving drivers the opportunity to customize their own car horn's output by using any MP3 file as their honk of choice.

Using a combination of Horntones' Web site and the company's flagship FX550 device, drivers can download any audio file they like (copyright issues notwithstanding) to use as their car's horn sound. The FX550 comes with 256MB of memory and nine preset buttons, giving horn-pimpers … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--One area where Sun Microsystems' Java caught on was in mobile phones, but a leader of the project is working to eventually replace the mobile-specific version of the software.

Java Standard Edition (SE), geared for desktop computers, will gradually supplant Java Micro Edition (ME) as technology improvements let more computing power be packed into smaller devices, said James Gosling, the Sun vice president often called the father of Java.

"We're trying to converge everything to the Java SE specification. Cell phones and TV set-top boxes are growing up," Gosling said at a Java media event here … Read more

In a development that could be anywhere interesting, sleep-inducing or potentially even fictitious, Sun Microsystems Chairman Scott McNealy said Samsung is building a Java phone that will have better features and lower cost than Apple's iPhone.

At least, that's what the Associated Press story about a report in the Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo.

Java is open-source software that at least in principle lets the same program run without having to be modified for different hardware. It's already widely used on mobile phones, including models from Samsung. What could make this story more interesting is if Samsung is … Read more