It seems Nokia is rather partial to its luxury 8800 range, and while we'd like to say the Nokia 8800 Carbon Arte is a welcome departure from its predecessors, we would be lying harder than a desperate real estate agent.
(Credit:
Nokia)
This is another attractive, yet ultimately boring, phone that tries to allure wallet-bulging buyers with the increasingly tired combination of a preposterous price tag and high-end materials such as carbon fiber, metal, and glass. It's not that we don't like it; we'd just prefer to see something a little less "BMW interior" sometimes.
Feature-wise, you get a 3.2-megapixel camera, 3G, an OLED display and expandable memory. As with older models, Nokia says the Carbon Arte has an anti-fingerprint coating so you won't need to spend hours polishing--and that's about it. There's not as much as you might expect in a luxury phone, but perhaps less is more (or at least you'd hope so).
If you're a yak herder, thinking to yourself that with those kind of features and a fairly old design you're only going to have to trade in a few yaks, think again. The Nokia 8800 Carbon Arte will set you back around 1,100 euros SIM-free--that's abut 1,608 of your precious dollars. To put that into perspective, you could buy a 42-inch plasma TV, such as the Panasonic Viera TH-42PX80B, for that money. Yikes is all we can say.
(Via Crave UK)
Dell will offer an Nvidia dual graphics chip upgrade for 17-inch XPS M1730 gaming notebook owners--but stepping up won't be a cakewalk for MediaDirect users.
Dell XPS M1730 notebook with Nvdia 8800M GTX
(Credit: Dell)The upgrade from the Nvidia dual 8700M GT to dual 8800M GTX graphics is in the works and will likely be released later this month, according to Dell.
Some users were upset when Dell upgraded the graphics in newer models of the M1730 to the 8800M GTX. The XPS 1730 with the 8800M GTX earned a score of almost 13,500 in 3Dmark06--which is about a 49 percent performance gain over two 8700M GT cards in the same notebook.
"In other words, games like Crysis, BioShock, Far Cry 2 and Age of Conan will scream," Dell said.
There will be two options. One will be done with an "installation package" and the other will be a "do-it-yourself kit."
"Considering the number of screws holding this beast together, most people will probably want the installation," Dell said.
There is one gotcha though. "MediaDirect 3.3 is not compatible with the driver for the (new) Nvida card," Dell said. MediaDirect is a Dell technology that enables a user to watch DVD movies, slideshows, or listen to music without having to boot the complete XP operating system. MediaDirect is installed in a special partition on the hard disk drive. When the computer is off, pressing the MediaDirect button will boot the MediaDirect partition instead of XP.
Dell said that the MediaDirect "incompatibility means that the MediaDirect software needs to be upgraded. Unfortunately, the upgrade will require a reformat and reinstallation. Beyond that, it will also require you to repartition the hard disk to make room for the new version of MediaDirect, which is a bit larger. Data loss has been a major concern for the engineers working on a solution. At this point, it would appear that there's really no way around wiping the drive to make the upgrade work with every feature."
Apple and Nvidia are finally shipping a graphics card for owners of older Mac Pros who felt left out in the cold in January.
When Apple introduced the newest version of the Mac Pro in January, it offered Nvidia's GeForce 8800 GT graphics card as an upgrade option on those systems. Owners of older Mac Pros, however, were miffed that Apple said the cards would only work with the latest Mac Pro generation, because firmware in the card could only support the PCI Express 2.0 standard unveiled with the new Mac Pros.
The thing is, those cards were supposed to be backwards-compatible with older PCI Express standards. Many were irate that Apple appeared to be forcing them to buy a new Mac Pro to get the 8800 GT, but Nvidia said it would release an upgrade kit in due time. And it's now available on Apple's site for $279.
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.
Gateway P series FX PC with Geforce 8800 GPU
(Credit: Nvidia, Gateway Computer)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 offers more horsepower for parallel processing, essential for today's visually rich environments, he said.
Huang cited the Gateway P series notebooks as an example. One model has an Intel 1.6 GHz processor and a GeForce 8800 GPU. He said systems like this with a "higher-end GPU" and "lower-end CPU" are better optimized for today's users. "Relative to a notebook with a higher-end CPU and lower-end GPU, the Gateway FX is twice the performance and yet $200 lower cost." In short, Huang was saying that users can save $200 by buying a system with a low-performance CPU and high-performance GPU--and get better performance to boot than the other way around.
Intel, of course, has other ideas. "We feel that the CPU is absolutely vital and you need a fast CPU and a fast GPU for the best experience. Take game AI (artificial intelligence) and physics for example, something that is consuming more and more CPU cycles," an Intel spokesperson said. "Also, the CPU is essential for intensive stuff like hi def video encode, 3D rendering," the spokesperson said.
Huang had a lot to say about physics too in the wake of Nvidia's purchase of Ageia Technologies this week (first announced on February 4th). Ageia's PhysX software is used with more than 140 PhysX-based games on the Sony Playstation 3, Microsoft XBOX 360, Nintendo Wii, and gaming PCs. (Game physics simulate the laws of physics in games.) "We're going to port the Ageia PhysX engine onto CUDA."
CUDA, a programming interface, has now shipped into 50 million GeForce 8 series processors and over the next several years will ship into a few hundred million more, Huang said. "Our expectation is that this will encourage users to buy a second GPU...and for the highest-end gamers, will encourage them to buy three GPUs." One GPU would be used for physics, while two for graphics (or vice-versa), Huang said. "Every single GPU that is CUDA enabled will be able to run the PhysX engine when it comes. In the end, it's just going to be a software download," Huang added.
But Nvidia's CEO returned to his overarching theme again and again. More Nvidia and less Intel. "Rebalance the system so that more GPU horsepower can be dedicated to the (user) experience." Nvidia even has a name for this strategy. The "optimized PC design approach." And Nvidia believes that more and more consumers are coming to know this, resulting in high growth. "The consumption of GPUs is increasing," Huang said, citing 80 percent year-to-year growth in Nvidia's discrete GPU business in the fourth quarter.
"I think I would say that [Huang's argument] has qualified merit. It's completely true that in some applications graphics, rather than CPU, is the limiting factor, and naturally Nvidia would be concerned with those applications most often," said Dean McCarron, founder and Principal of Mercury Research. But Intel and AMD are not standing still. "As far as rebalancing, it's pretty clear the CPU suppliers are actively re-partitioning their products, and graphics capabilities are perhaps the highest priority here. If you look at AMD and Fusion, or Intel and its Nehalem CPUs, both suppliers clearly see advantages to repartioning the PC around graphics -- in this case, moving graphics onto the CPU."
Nvidia's execution is not flawless. It is not competitive in the business segment and at the lower end of desktop and notebook lineups. Large computer segments unto themselves. Here both AMD-ATI graphics and Intel integrated graphics dominate. AMD-ATI is also competitive in the mid-range to high-end.
In related news, Nvidia's shares fell Thursday due to lower gross margins. On Wednesday, the company said that for the first time in 13 quarters non-GAAP gross margins did not increase quarter to quarter. Gross margin shrank to 45.9 percent in the fourth quarter from 46.4 percent in the previous period. In the fourth quarter, the company posted a 58 percent jump in fiscal fourth-quarter net income.
On another front, Nvidia CFO, Marvin D. Burkett, said no new process technology will be needed for the 8800 processors and they will continue to be made on a 90-nanometer process.
Two different prices for the Gateway P-6831FX.
Update [2/11/08]: We've heard from Best Buy, and the company tells us this laptop will be available for $1,199 starting Sunday, February 17. That represents an excellent value, and mitigates our disappointment over the original jump from the MSRP of $1,350 to the current $1,699.
Late last year, Gateway told us about its plans to bring a low-cost, high-quality gaming laptop to Best Buy stores as a retail-only exclusive. The system has arrived, and we were initially impressed with its price and performance, but now there seems to be some funny stuff going on with its pricing. Here's the deal:
The recently released Gateway P-6831FX has Nvidia's new 8800 GTS graphics card, a generous 3GB of RAM, and HDMI and eSATA ports. Our only initial concern looking at the specs was the system's somewhat stodgy Intel Core 2 Duo T5450 CPU. But all in all we thought we were looking at pretty damn good deal at $1,350. Apparently, so did a lot of other people, because the system's so hot Best Buy decided to raise the price on it.
While writing our review, we saw that Best Buy had changed the price on its Web site from $1,350 to $1,699. Confused, we did a little Web searching and found the P-6831FX still listed on Gateway's Web site with a suggested retail price of $1,350. We also found several message board threads complaining about the same issue.
We called Gateway and they laid the blame directly at Best Buy's feet, saying the P-6831FX was "selling like gangbusters," prompting the retail giant to raise the price by $350. We asked Best Buy about the price discrepancy late Wednesday, and the retail giant said they would get back to us. While Gateway offers a series of similar laptops online, called the P-171 series, the P-6831 is available only though Best Buy.
We'll update this post as new information comes in, but the upshot for right now is a laptop that we were very excited about is suddenly looking a lot less appealing. Look for our full review of the Gateway P-6831 later this week.
The Area-51 m15x's cool backlit keyboard.
A couple of weeks ago, we brought you some exclusive pics of Alienware's two new laptops, the high-end Area-51 m15x and Area-51 m17x, which impressed us with their updated designs, cutting-edge components, and imaginative lighting systems (seriously--lots of lights on these things).
While these two laptops probably won't be shipping until mid-January, we just got our hands on a preproduction unit, which, while not exactly final shipping hardware, has both the lighting control system and an Nvidia GeForce 8800M GTX video card--the first laptop we've gotten our hands on with one of those.
We're in a green mood today.
Using the lighting control panel, you can assign different colors to the backlit keyboard, keyboard tray indicators, touch pad outline, skull logo, and sides of the display panel. The touch pad itself is just a touch-sensitive section of the wrist rest and made of the same material as the rest of the keyboard tray--and with the internal lights off, you see only the keyboard and a power button--no touch pad, no status lights. With the lights turned on, the touch pad is outlined by a colored light--a very cool effect, but one that might take a little getting used to, as we kept running our fingers off the side of the touch pad accidentally, because of the lack of any tactile feedback.
We're currently loading up some games to put the m15x through its paces, and we'll let you know how the new Nvidia 8800 handles the current crop of system-crushing games, including Crysis and Unreal Tournament III.
Hot on the heels of the exclusive sneak peek photos we brought you last week, boutique computer maker Alienware finally let the press and public see its new creations in person Monday at a preview event. We call it that rather than a launch event, as the new Area-51 m15x and Area-51 m17x likely won't be available until the beginning of 2008.
The Skullcap and Ripley designs
We did, however, get to see these new systems in action, and as expected, both the 15- and 17-inch models will offer some hardcore hardware, including Core 2 Duo Extreme processors and the latest Nvidia GeForce 8800M GTX graphics. Part of the reason Alienware unveiled the new systems today was to coincide with Nvidia's 8800M launch (that's their latest and greatest graphics chip for laptops).
But those parts will be available in many laptops--what Alienware is really selling is not the steak, but the sizzle. The company has taken lumps for not redesigning its systems enough between generations, but parts of these two new laptops represent a major (for Alienware) design overhaul.
A custom app controls the keyboard color.
Two chassis designs are available: Skullcap has the familiar ridges we've seen on systems such as the m9750, but the new Ripley design keeps just the iconic alien head, against a glossy (and very reflective), flat lid. A backlit keyboard can be programmed to run any variety of colors, similar to the vent and fan lights in Dell's XPS laptops, but the light-up keyboard makes a huge difference, as does the totally flat touch pad, demarcated only by its backlit border.
No pricing or shipping dates yet, but expect to see these available sometime in January.
Nokia 8800 Sapphire Arte
(Credit: Nokia)Nokia released two new 8800 models today, both of which put the previous silver Nokia 8800 to shame. The 8800 Arte and the 8800 Sapphire Arte feature metal and glass bodies based on the Nokia 8600 Luna's slider design while adding unique design touches of their own. The 8800 Arte sports a simple black finish while the 8800 Sapphire Arte features a sapphire gem stone and a soft leather finish on the bottom half of its front face.
Features are also improved over the original 8800. Included are a 16 million color display, 3G support, 1GB of integrated memory, a 3.2-megapixel camera, and, to keep away those pesky finger smudges, the handsets feature an antifingerprint coating on the metal and glass surfaces. Still another innovative offering is a "turn-to-mute" feature, which allows you to quiet the phone's ringer by turning it screen-side down.
Nokia 8800 Arte
(Credit: Nokia)But all that flash will cost you some cash. The 8800 Arte is 1,000 euros ($1,462) and the 8800 Sapphire Arte is 1,100 euros ($1,682). That's a lot to pay for a cell phone but you do get a leather pouch, a desktop stand, and a Nokia BH-803 Bluetooth headset.
Wi-Fi coming to a BlackBerry near you?
(Credit: RIM)Well, well, well...what do we have here? According to the kids over at Phone Scoop, the FCC has approved a Wi-Fi-enabled (802.11 a/b/g) BlackBerry device, which is a great sign since Research in Motion has been talking about adding this feature for more than a year now. A few other details about the device: it's said to be a GSM/EDGE smart phone with Bluetooth, a microSD slot, and it resembles the RIM BlackBerry 8800 and BlackBerry 8830 in the design department. No word on carrier or availability, but RIM CEO Jim Balsillie has said the company would release a Wi-Fi-equipped model by the end of the year. Stay tuned for more.
Note: For those of you thinking I've made an egregious grammar error in my blog title, it's actually just my way of paying tribute to one of my favorite time wasters, I Can Has Cheezburger?
RIM BlackBerry 8800
(Credit: T-Mobile)No, it's not coming in a pink color, but the RIM BlackBerry 8800 will arrive at T-Mobile starting this Monday, April 21. The device will offer much of the same features as its counterpart with Cingular/AT&T. As a refresher: the device offers a 2.5-inch display, full QWERTY keyboard, and the tactile trackball that first appeared on the BlackBerry Pearl. Inside you'll find the usual BlackBerry Internet and Enterprise goodies, voice recognition, an expandable memory slot, a multimedia player, EDGE compatibility and quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) world phone support. There's no support for push-to-talk networks but that's not an issue since T-Mobile doesn't offer the feature anyway. You can get the 8800 for $249 with service.
