15th May 2006 Archive

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Chinese academic fired for 'faking' chip designs

Chips didn't work as claimed, if at all, probe alleges

A senior Chinese university official has been sacked from his position as head of the institution's microelectronics school for allegedly faking an entire series of chips in order to get state funding, local newswires reported late last week. According to the Xinhau news service, Shanghai Jiaotong University said it had …

Bits 'n' Chips 15 May 2006, 08:46
Pantech ships iPod-like phone

PG-3600V sports 'revolutionary' clickwheel

South Korean phone maker Pantech has launched a mobile phone with an iPod-like clickwheel control it describes as a "revolutionary touch-wheel sensor". The company said it was pitching the product, which goes on sale today in Hong Kong and Taiwan, at "digital generation" music fans. The PG-3600V is a slider phone with a 1. …

Phones 15 May 2006, 09:05
Casio preps 'highest' power density portable fuel cell

Runs four times longer than a standard notebook battery, apparently

Casio has become the latest Japanese electronics giant to hop on the notebook fuel-cell bandwagon, today pledging to offer a compact power source for portable PCs in sample quantities in 2007. Casio's prototype is a 6.5 x 1.9 x 1.8cm unit capable of producing 19.4W of power, yielding a capacity of 882W per litre - the world …

Gadgets and Gizmos 15 May 2006, 09:34
Nvidia silently ships GeForce 7900 GS

Four fewer pixel processors than the 7900 GT?

Nvidia has quietly released a new GeForce 7900-class graphics chip. The company's web site now lists the GeForce 7900 GS, and Dell has just updated the built-to-order options for its XPS 600 gaming machine to include cards based on the GPU. Like other GeForce 7900s, the GS features a 256-bit memory bus that, in this case, …

Bits 'n' Chips 15 May 2006, 09:52
Palm launches Palm OS Treo 700 in US

Is the 700p UK-bound?

Palm has announced the eagerly awaited Palm OS version of the Treo 700 it launched earlier this year with Windows Mobile on board. The US version of the 700p builds on the existing Treo 650 by adding support for the US 3G system, EVDO. In the US, the handset will be offered by Sprint and Verizon. As yet Palm hasn't said …

Phones 15 May 2006, 10:26
Sony set to unveil UMPC?

Vaio UX spec seems a little too good to be true...

Is Sony about to announce its entry into the UMPC arena? If pictures and specification posted on the web yesterday are anything to go by it will, but the presence of an HD TV-oriented HDMI port on the handheld and does almost everything a dream UMPC might be hoped to do. The Sony machine is apparently dubbed the Vaio UX, …

PCs 15 May 2006, 10:53
SoftBank denies Apple iPhone partnership

Media speculation, nothin more, firm claims

Japan's SoftBank has formally distanced itself from claims it's working with Apple to develop a mobile phone based on the iPod. In a terse statement, the company dismissed the allegations, reported last week, as unfounded guesswork. The claim that the two firms are co-operating was made by Japanese newspaper the Nihon Keizai …

Media players 15 May 2006, 11:09
Nvidia GeForce 7300 GT surfaces

Board-partner announcements begin

Club 3D has become the first graphics card vendor to tell Reg Hardware it has launched a board based on Nvidia's new GeForce 7300 GT chip. Hints that Nvidia would announce the part this week emerged just six days ago. Club 3D's 7300 GT 256MB contains a GPU clocked to 350MHz and features 256MB of DDR 2 SDRAM clocked to 325MHz …

Bits 'n' Chips 15 May 2006, 12:45
Motorola sees red for Bono's AIDS charity

Red SLVR ships with Edge support?

Motorola has launched a red SLVR handset to tie in with Bono's Product Red AIDS awareness charity, as expected. The company said five per cent of the money it makes each month from selling the device will go to the charity. But the real question is, does the handset have Edge support? Ahem, sorry... What the red SLVR does …

Phones 15 May 2006, 13:13
Review Kodak EasyShare V610 6Mp camera

The twin-lens V610 follows on from Kodak's wide-angle lensed V570, which provided ultra-wide angle dual-zoom optics. Here, the V610 provides two lenses in a single, slimline body. Both lenses provide a 38-380mm, 10x optical zoom range... The Kodak Retina Schneider-Kreuznach C-Variogon lens design means the optics don't …

Cameras 15 May 2006, 13:46
Sony to ship 17in Blu-ray Vaio next month?

AR11S makes its appearance on dealers' lists

Sony's first Vaio notebook to ship with a Blu-ray Disc optical drive could hit the UK by the middle of June, it has emerged. A variety of European resellers are already beginning to list the product. Some are even starting to advertise the 17in machine. Dubbed the VGN-A11S, the machine is believed to contain a dual-core 2GHz …

PCs 15 May 2006, 14:17
Hitachi touts notebook-oriented 'drive of steel'

Best perpendicular recording around, company claims

Hitachi's Global Storage Technologies operation today said it had begun shipping what it claims is the world's most "technically advanced" 2.5in hard drive, the 160GB Travelstar 5K160. The drive uses perpendicular recording technology - Hitachi modestly called its version of the technique "super-perpendicular" because it's so " …

Bits 'n' Chips 15 May 2006, 15:26
Corsair confirms Nvidia's nForce 590 SLI

New DIMMs made with auto-overclocking in mind

Corsair has let slip Nvidia's name for the chip maker's upcoming chipset series. The Memory company today announced a pair of DDR 2 DIMMs "fully optimised to work with new motherboards based on the upcoming Nvidia nForce 590 SLI". The Corsair announcement appears to confirm claims that the nForce 500 series will automatically …

Bits 'n' Chips 15 May 2006, 15:57