Hardware Archive

Linux to Be the First Support USB 3.0

Hardware 12 Comments
It's not available in the latest kernel just yet, but if you just so happen to have gotten your hands on a USB 3.0 device you want to use at full spectrum (you lucky jerk) or want to do this for the sake of geekiness, it's now possible to get USB 3.0 support for Debian and Ubuntu systems. The USB 3.0 subsystem will be integrated into the Linux kernel "soon," but if you've got some time on your hands, instructions have been provided to do it yourself.
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Fifteen Classic PC Design Mistakes

Hardware 16 Comments
"There's no such thing as the perfect computer, and never has been. But in the personal computer's long and varied history, some computers have been decidedly less perfect than others. Many early PCs shipped with major design flaws that either sunk platforms outright or considerably slowed down their adoption by the public. Decades later, we can still learn from these multi-million dollar mistakes. By no means is the following list exhaustive; one could probably write about the flaws of every PC ever released. But when considering past design mistakes, these examples spring to my mind."
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The Quest for an All-in-one Gadget

Hardware 13 Comments
What is it about gadget geeks? If there's one obsession common to all the generations of geekdom, it's got to be the desire for unification of all needs into one tool. It started out modestly. Maybe with the guy who fashioned his flint so he could easily both scrape and cut the animal hide. Then there was the guy who first put a nail puller on the back of a hammer, and on to to the combination compass/signaling mirror, the Swiss Army Knife, Leatherman, and an astounding array of multi-purpose hand tools. But it was with the advent of electronic gadgets that things really started to get out of hand. Read on for a rumination on multi-purpose gadgets and a review of a combo DSL/Wi-Fi/VoIP router.
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The Return of the Kitchen Computer

Hardware 12 Comments
A while ago, I made a list of my ten most beautiful computers, which ignited some heavy debate since Cray wasn't mentioned. Anyway, one of the items on the list was the Honeywell Kitchen Computer, the H316. This was a very basic and incredibly difficult to handle machine which was supposed to store and display recipes, but its most awesome feature was a built-in cutting board. Despite its ridiculousness, I think it's a beautiful piece of design, a pre-cursor to a type of computer everyone in the '50s thought we would have now (get it?). Well, the idea of a kitchen computer is supposed to make a comeback. Update: Eugenia just pointed me to a photo her husband took of the H316 at the Computer History Museum in California, as well as a product photo of Be, Inc.'s take on the kitchen computer.
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Acer To Use Moblin Linux Across Range of Products

Hardware 13 Comments
The world's third-largest PC vendor plans to roll out Moblin Linux across a range of machines, including its Aspire One nettops, as well as regular laptop and desktop PCs, the company announced at Computex in Taipei. A number of netbooks running several different versions of Moblin were also on display at Computex, including Suse Moblin, Xandros Moblin, Linpus Moblin, Red Flag Moblin and Ubuntu Moblin running on netbooks from Hewlett-Packard, Asustek Computer, Micro-Star International, and Hasee Computer.
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NVIDIA’s Tegra 650 ARM Platform Ships Before End of the Year

  Submitted by poundsmack Hardware 21 Comments
Netbooks, netbooks, netbooks, netbooks, netbooks. That's basicaly Computex in a nutshell. If you've seen one Atom-based netbook, you've seen them all, but luckily for us, NVIDIA is about to shake the world of netbooks up with a new Tegra chipset, the Tegra 650. Full high definition playback, battery life from outer space, and a processor that is always-on. Well, that's what NVIDIA promises, anyway. Twelve Tegra 650 devices were announced, with the first devices shipping before the end of the year - at USD 199 or less.
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Asus, Microsoft Launch Anti-Linux Netbook Campaign

Hardware 104 Comments
Back when the whole netbook thing started, Asus was king of the hill with a focus on netbooks with Linux pre-installed. Since they were kind of popular, it didn't take Microsoft long to start working together with Asus to 'port' Windows XP to the Asus line of netbooks, and with that, to other netbooks as well. The result was that Linux netbooks are now harder to find for many people. While Dell committed itself to Linux on netbooks, Asus has decided to just skip the first date and jump right into bed with Microsoft.
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Serial ATA Organization Makes SATA 3.0 Revision Official

  Submitted by poundsmack Hardware 9 Comments
"The Serial ATA International Organization today, made the third-generation SATA interface official. The new interface provides a 6 Gbps high-speed serial data connection between the system and most of today's data storage devices such as hard drives, solid-state drives, optical drives, and enterprise tape drives. The interface also provides connectivity to external storage devices in its eSATA port variant. It is 100% backwards compatible with devices that support the SATA 150 MB/s and SATA II 300 MB/s standards."
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Netbook Runs on AA Batteries

  Submitted by twitterfire Hardware 22 Comments
Netbooks are really becoming a part of the market where all sorts of companies are trying out new things. For instance, earlier this week, we had a review of a MIPS-based Loongson-2 netbook from China, last Monday we reported on Acer implementing a Vmedia drive into a netbook, a while back we had a multitouch LCD touchpad netbook, and we've had more. Now we have one that uses an x86 SoC that doesn't come from AMD/Intel/VIA, and can run on... AA batteries.
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The Loongson-2 MIPS Lemote Yeeloong Netbook

Hardware 58 Comments
Few hardware vendors have not yet launched their own mini laptop (or, "netbook"). Most brands these days produce their own version of the same hardware, with Intel's i386-compatible Atom cpu's and Windows XP installed on a spinning hard drive or sometimes still a solid state disk. Some Linux models are still sold by some vendors, among whom Asus, which more or less started selling in this OLPC-inspired genre of laptops.
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UK Gets Its Own Mac Clone Maker

Hardware 61 Comments
Hot on the heels of the Russians, we have another clone maker popping up, this time in fish & chips country: Freedom PC. "Powerful and versatile, environmentally friendly yet inexpensive computer systems compatible with any and all of the main operating systems: Mac OS X, Linux or Windows. So YOU can decide which one to use for what YOU want to do. And we give you a choice of models, too - from the low priced and good looking office machine, the ideal choice for business, to the high powered, sleek, gaming media centre. All, with the operating system of your choice pre-installed - or none at all - at prices accessible to all." They offer various models pre-installed with Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X.
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NEC Introduces World’s First USB 3.0 Controller

  Submitted by James B Hardware 14 Comments
NEC has introduced the world's first USB 3.0 controller. "The muPD720200 device is a host controller for PCs and other digital devices, and is based on the new version of the SuperSpeed USB standard. Supporting the world's fastest USB transfer speeds of up to 5 gigabits per second (Gbps) of data, which is 10 times faster than previous USB 2.0 transfer speeds. The NEC Electronics device, as well as the standard, is fully backward compatible with the USB 2.0, 1.1 and 1.0 versions of the USB standard."
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Vmedia Drives: the New Portable Video Drive?

Hardware 27 Comments
As you'll hear in the latest OSNews podcast (recorded yesterday, published later today), we had a discussion about Sony and some of its failed attempts at capturing mind share with proprietary technologies, among which the excellent but mismanaged MiniDisc technology. Imagine my surprise when I was browsing the web this morning, looking for news, and stumbled upon a supposedly new model of the Aspire One - with a Vmedia drive. A what?
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Sony: Had We Been Open, We Would’ve Beaten Apple

  Submitted by Moulinneuf Hardware 52 Comments
Sony is a company which is not exactly loved by technologists, despite the fact it has come up with some damn fine technology - with my personal favourite being the MiniDisc format. The problem with Sony has always been that it was stuck in the old ways of doing things (proprietary, closed, DRM), and of course things like the rootkit scandal didn't help either. It seems like things are about to change, with Sony's CEO announcing a new direction for the company - focussed on openness.
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Itanium: ‘A Special Cause for Optimism’

Hardware 13 Comments
This morning, the Itanium Solutions Alliance put out a statement with some vague numbers showing the strength of the Itanium server platform in 2008. By IDC's reckoning of the server space in the fourth quarter, shipments of Itanium-based machines rose by 18 per cent and it was the seventh straight quarter of sales that crested above $1bn for the Itanium server category. Data from Gartner's report covering 2008's server sales indicated that Itanium machines outgrew RISC-based alternatives in terms of sales and shipments, growing share in each category.
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