HDMI Netbooks are landing: The S12
(Credit: Lenovo)Just when we were ready to accept the stuttery nature of our Netbook HD video playback, along come Nvidia and Lenovo at long last to change our expectations. The IdeaPad S12, arriving in August, will be the first Netbook sporting discrete graphics from the Nvidia Ion processor. With power similar to the 9400M chipset already in Apple's 13-inch MacBooks, IonNetbooks promise full-HD video output and actual gaming performance--not that we'd want to try Crysis on it anytime soon. However, according to Nvidia, Spore, Call of Duty 4, Portal, and World of Warcraft will all be very playable indeed.
The price is right, too--$499 for the Ion-packing S12, with a 12.1-inch, 1,280x800 screen and Atom N270 processor. For 50 dollars less, an Ion-free S12 can also be yours (though we don't know why you'd possibly want that). The Ion claims a 10x performance boost on existing Netbook integrated graphics with "nearly identical" power consumption. HD H264, VC-1 and MPEG-2 "won't be a problem," say Nvidia. Do we dare believe?
Available in white or black, the 1.14-inch-thick, 3.7-pound S12 has a six-cell battery, 1 GB of DDR2 RAM, a 160 GB HDD, XP Home, a 1.3-megapixel Webcam (stop us if this sounds familiar), and 802.11 b/g wireless.
Other notables: an Express Card slot, 3 USB 2.0 ports, a multitouch trackpad, HDMI port with the Ion model, a full-size keyboard, and Lenovo's Quick Start, VeriFace, and OneKey Rescue System for making backups.
For the price and the size, is this an ideal gaming Netbook? Or is it, in fact, just a variation on 12-inch notebooks? We're not even sure it matters, because for the price, it sounds like an excellent proposition indeed.
(Credit:
Pinnacle Systems)
It's not exactly winter yet, though it feel fairly cold. However, folks at Pinnacle Systems think differently and on Thursday announced a new Pinnacle Theme Winter Pack for the Pinnacle Studio consumer video-editing application.
The Winter Pack is released together with the 12.1 update of the Pinnacle Studio software. The pack offers more than 80 additional winter-themed titles, DVD menus, and Pinnacle Montage templates. It will be included in special Pinnacle Studio Plus and Ultimate Winter Pack Editions at selected retailers until December 31.
The Winter Pack enables people to quickly create movies with themes relating to the holidays. If you already have the Pinnacle Studio 12 software, you can purchase the pack separately for $39.99 from October 30, 2008 to November 6, 2008, directly from Pinnacle Systems.
On the other hand, the 12.1 update is available as a free download for all Pinnacle Studio version 12 users. The update offers support for importing and exporting of the QuickTime file format, expanded support for the latest H.264-based camcorders such as Aiptek H.264 and Sanyo Xacti, and performance improvements.
Samsung F520
(Credit: Samsung)
Samsung F520
(Credit: Samsung)Samsung joined Motorola in making a big splash at the 3GSM in Barcelona. The company introduced a selection of high-end phones that feature new designs and improved interfaces.
The F520 has a unique dual-slider design that performs much like the dual-hinged Samsung SCH-u740. The F520 slides vertically to reveal the number keypad and horizontally to show the QWERTY keyboard. The new Flash-based menu interface utilizes a touch screen along with the normal navigation controls. There's a 3-megapixel camera and all the usual high-end refinements, but with support for the 900/800/1900 GSM bands and the 2100 UMTS band you can be sure it won't arrive at a U.S carrier.
Samsung's new Ultra Edition phones
(Credit: Engadget)The Ultra Edition 12.1 (U700) has a slim and sexy slider design and comes with tri-band (GSM 900/1800/1900) support, a 2-megapixel camera, Bluetooth connectivity, and an infrared port. The Ultra Edition 10.9 (U600) is almost the same as the U700 but it adds some design refinements and lacks an autofocus for the camera. It's the only quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) handset of the bunch so it could just arrive on U.S. shores.
The Ultra Edition 5.9 (U100) has many of the same features as its siblings except that it comes in a slim candy-bar design. Finishing off the series is the Ultra Edition 9.6 (U300). It also offers a comparable feature set as the other Ultra Edition models but in a flip-phone design.
Finally, the i600 is an updated BlackJack complete with Wi-Fi. Unfortunately, we're unlikely to see it in the United States.
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