Reg Hardware

26th January 2006 Archive

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  • USI to buy Abit mobo operation for $11m plus shares

    Wants to expand market share in US, Europe

    Abit is to sell its motherboard division to fellow Taiwanese mobo maker Universal Scientific Industrial (USI) for TWD350m ($11m) and 20m shares. USI is forming a subsidiary into which the Abit operation will be merged. The deal brings USI the Abit brand along with the mobo division's intellectual property portfolio, its …

    Bits 'n' Chips 26 Jan 2006, 10:24

  • Nvidia says next high-end GPU due early March

    CeBIT debut as predicted?

    Nvidia has confirmed speculation that it will announce its next-generation graphics chip architecture at CeBIT. The head of the company's Taiwan sales operation, Paul Sun, this week said the chip maker will introduce a new high-end GPU in early March. Sun, cited by DigiTimes, also said a full line-up of GeForce 7-class GPUs …

    Bits 'n' Chips 26 Jan 2006, 10:38

  • Nintendo redesigns the DS

    Light in colour, light in weight

    Nintendo is indeed planning to ship a redesigned version of its DS handheld console, despite apparent denials that such a move was being contemplated. The so-called 'DS Lite' is scheduled to ship in Japan on March 2, the video games pioneer said today. As its name suggests, the DS Lite isn't as heavy as the current version, …

    Consoles 26 Jan 2006, 11:01

  • Infinium lent $5m to make Phantom Lapboard

    On-demand games service still in the pipeline

    Infinium Labs, the company behind the Phantom games console and broadband content service, yesterday said it had won $5m in funding - money it needs to begin manufacturing its Phantom Lapboard gaming accessory. Infinium will receive $625,000 when it registers the investment with US regulatory authorities. It can then take some …

    Consoles 26 Jan 2006, 11:27

  • 2005 mobile phone shipments smash record

    Demand drives sales up 19 per cent

    World+dog bought 244.9m mobile phones during the final three months of 2005, market watcher Strategy Analytics (SA) said today, adding that the figure is a record one. For the year as a whole, some 810.5m handsets shipped, up 19.1 per cent on 2004's total, 680.5m. SA reckons shipments will rise 14.8 per cent this year, to 930m …

    Phones 26 Jan 2006, 11:54

  • Date set for Blackberry ban hearing

    RIM set to ask for royalty payment order

    Research in Motion (RIM) will appear in court on Friday, 24 February to hear if it must close its Blackberry push email service to US customers or, at the very least, make them implement an upgrade. Judge James Spencer yesterday named the date at which he will hear arguments from RIM and patent holding company NTP over whether …

    Phones 26 Jan 2006, 13:00

  • Creative profits down despite strong sales

    Looks to high-end products to boost its fortunes

    Creative experienced a dip in profitability during the final three months of 2005, the second quarter of its 2006 fiscal year, despite big sales gains pushing revenues to their highest level in five years. Revenue for the period totalled $390.8m, up 4.2 per cent from Q2 FY2005's $375.1m and 39.5 per cent on the previous quarter …

    PCs 26 Jan 2006, 13:49

  • Pantech pitches 15:9 widescreen phone

    Sports a panoramic digicam too

    South Korea's second largest phone maker, Pantech, has launched a slider phone aimed at the local mobile media player market, touting the handset's near-widescreen display and its MP3 and video playback facilities. The IM-U100 sports a 2.6in display with a 15:9 aspect ratio. It's not quite the 16:9 ratio you see on a widescreen …

    Phones 26 Jan 2006, 14:08

  • Sennheiser HD 201 headphones

    Review Can these budget cans revive your record collection?

    Now that German's Beyerdynamic has returned to studio-level audio equipment, it's let Sennheiser carpet the portables market with the kind of spread that Beyer boasted in the 1990s. At the same time, Sennheiser has updating the looks and prices of its headphones to make them attractive enough to replace regularly with the latest …

    Gadgets 26 Jan 2006, 15:16

  • Nintendo funds old-school gaming expo

    Space Invaders menace Science Museum

    Nintendo has opened its wallet to fund a £1m gaming retrofest at London's Science Museum where teary-eyed old timers can chew the fat about Space Invaders, Pac-man and Donkey Kong. According to London's Evening Standard, the expo will open later this year and run until 2007 when it will be replaced by "an interactive gallery …

    Consoles 26 Jan 2006, 15:39

  • Timepiece tells time in binary

    It's 0101 O'clock and all's well

    Say hello to the latest weird watch: the Kerala Trance. Sounds a bit Ibiza to us, but it's got a geek angle too: the display's in binary. Two rows of four LEDs tell the time; hours above, minutes below. Next to each LED there's a number - add up the numbers whose lights are illuminated and you get the time. If the LEDs marked 8 …

    Gadgets and Gizmos 26 Jan 2006, 15:53

  • AMD's server share is no chimera

    Claims one in four desktops, too

    One in five PCs - and one in four desktops - now has AMD Inside, according to analysts at Mercury Research. The silicon contender saw the strongest growth in the server market, climbing from 12.7 per cent in Q3 2005 to 16.4 per cent in the final quarter of 2005. Desktop share climbed from 20.4 per cent to 24.3 per cent, while …

    Bits 'n' Chips 26 Jan 2006, 22:16

  • Xbox 360 hibernates 'til Spring

    Where did the console go?

    Component shortages and a lack of manufacturing capacity have forced Microsoft's Xbox 360 console into hibernation, a situation that looks set to continue until Spring. Despite its spectacular launch in November, US retailer Circuit City told USA Today earlier this week that "supplies are going to remain pretty tight for the …

    Consoles 26 Jan 2006, 22:18