Reg Hardware

27th October 2006 Archive

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  • Acer: Vista Home Basic is a lemon

    Disguised price rise for PC builders

    Microsoft is effectively smuggling through a price hike for Windows Vista - by making the entry-level version so poor that no-one will want to use it. So says Jim Wong, senior veep at Acer, the world's number four PC maker, who told UK hack Jon Honeyball: "The new [Vista] experience you hear of, if you get Basic, you won't feel …

    PCs 27 Oct 2006, 00:27

  • Apple cures MacBook shutdown... maybe

    Firmware update

    The Mac press has been full of tales lately of Macbooks inexplicably shutting down. Today, Apple announced a cure for this annoying habit, known oddly enough as MacBook Shutdown. In an advisory, the Intel OEM issued instructions to owners to install SMC Firmware update 1.1. Recommended for all MacBook owners, the update improves …

    Mac 27 Oct 2006, 00:39

  • Foundry punches out 65nm GPUs for Nvidia

    Gearing up for 2007 introduction?

    Nvidia is already producing 65nm chips, the graphics specialist has revealed. We suspect it actually means it's sampling chip designs fabricated at that size. Certainly, AMD isn't expected to ship 65nm GPUs until H2 2007, and like Nvidia, it chips are made by TSMC. Yesterday, Nvidia buttered up the foundry by lauding the two …

    Bits 'n' Chips 27 Oct 2006, 08:35

  • Apple to ship 15.4in MacBook next May?

    Production contract signed, analyst claims

    Apple is gearing up to launch a 15.4in MacBook next May, a year after the Intel-equipped consumer notebook first came to market. So claims a Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia analyst, who also names Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn - aka Hon Hai Precision Industry - as the manufacturer. Analyst Vincent Chen's claim was …

    Mac 27 Oct 2006, 08:45

  • Samsung all a-glow over brighter phone display

    33 per cent more light intensity, no more power taken

    Samsung has figured out how to increase the brightness of a handheld device's screen by more than 33 per cent without drawing more power: paint a blue LED white. OK, so it's a little more complicated than that: you paint it with a fluorescent material. Still, Samsung calls is a "white LED". The illumination unit based on …

    Gadgets and Gizmos 27 Oct 2006, 09:20

  • Shuttle ships gamer-friendly SFF PC

    A well-specced XPC P2 3700G doesn't come cheap, though

    Shuttle today said it had managed to squeeze all the components necessary for a top-of-the-line gaming machine into one of its XPC small form-factor PC cases, claiming the result to be the "performance winner". It should be, for the price... The XPC P2 3700G is based on Shuttle's XPC Barebone SD37P2 chassis. It comes pre- …

    PCs 27 Oct 2006, 10:15

  • UK to expand battery recycling scheme

    Drop-off points to be opened in 33 stores

    UK recycling quango WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme) is to widen is battery collection programme. The scheme is still in a trial phase, but the expansion will see battery drop-off points placed in a number of high street shops and by post in partnership with the Royal Mail. Next month, 33 Argos, B&Q, Currys, Currys …

    Gadgets and Gizmos 27 Oct 2006, 10:57

  • 'Mars', 'Jupiter' launches planned by O2, Asus

    Carrier's new XDA partner revealed

    Cellco O2's new smart phone design and manufacturing partner is Taiwan's Asus, it has emerged after details of the upcoming XDA Zinc and Graphite - aka 'Mars 2' and 'Jupiter' - appeared, ahead of their launch, on the US Federal Communications Commission's website this week. The carrier's decision to part ways with the …

    Phones 27 Oct 2006, 11:44

  • Meizu's marvelous Mini Player is Europe-bound

    Small and sexy

    The Meizu Mini Player, the oh-so-cute iPod-esque tiny PMP that surface early last summer, is coming to Europe courtesy of French memory specialist Dane-Elec. The 8 x 5 x 1cm unit packs in a 2.4in, 262,144-colour display and up to 4GB of Flash storage. It handles all the usual media file formats, and works with Windows PCs and …

    Media players 27 Oct 2006, 12:09

  • Evesham Mini PC

    Review Tiny desktop powered by Core 2 Duo

    Ever fancied a black Mac Mini? Well, the Evesham Mini PC isn't quite a Mac mini, nor is it exactly black, but on both points it comes close. Evesham's box is based on the tiny MP945-VXR chassis from AOpen, which has been out to out-Mini the Mac Mini for a couple of years now. The Mini PC measures 17 x 17cm and stands 6.1cm tall …

    PCs 27 Oct 2006, 13:12

  • TomTom to track phones for real-time traffic info

    More responsive, better coverage than RDS?

    Vodafone and route-planning specialist TomTom will next year deploy what they believe will be the world's first commercial traffic data system based on tracking thousands of mobile phones in real-time, the pair said today. The system uses standard signalling data sent back and forth between mobile phones and cellular base- …

    Gadgets and Gizmos 27 Oct 2006, 14:10

  • How to make your MacBook Pro run cooler

    smcFanControl to the rescue

    Love your oh-so-quiet MacBook or MacBook Pro but hate the heat it puts out? Quite apart from the sheer discomfort of it, an overly hot MacBook may be to blame for the random shutdowns quite a few users have reported, now hopefully fixed with Apple's latest SMC Firmware update. Enter utility smcFanControl, a tool to help you take …

    Mac 27 Oct 2006, 16:02