Hardware Archive

"Fashion often repeats itself, with dated products reborn into popular products. Just think of VolksWagen’s Beetle or BMW's Mini. And now we can add the Commodore Amiga to the list, sort of, thanks to a new all-in-one PC with a look rather reminiscent of the home computer." This design was also used by the MSX, my actual first computer experience (apart from a Binatone Mk. IV).

Ivan Krstic, the director of security architecture for the One Laptop Per Child Project, has resigned in response to recent changes in management within the organization. His resignation comes at a difficult time for OLPC, which has suffered from numerous setbacks in recent months. The price has increased from USD 100 to USD 188 during development and demand for bulk sales has been slow. OLPC faces other problems as well, including numerous delays, a dubious USD 20 million patent infringement lawsuit from Nigerian keyboard maker LANCOR, and a rocky relationship with Intel."

Geek.com reviews the ThinkPad X300. "The ThinkPad X300 is an exercise in balance. It’s designers were tasked with balancing performance and usability with size and weight and they did an excellent job."

The Guardian has a piece examining the impact of cheap sub-notebooks on Microsoft's OS business. "The price differential has been slight. The Asus Eee PC changes all that. The price differential between the basic Eee PC running GNU/Linux and one running Windows XP is now significant as a proportion of the total cost."

The Asus Eee PC will get an upgrade. "The next iteration of Asus's highly successful budget subnotebook, the Eee PC, has been unveiled at the CeBIT technology fair in Hanover, Germany. The Eee 900 will feature a larger screen than its predecessor, as well as more RAM, more storage and a larger keyboard. However, these enhancements will mean a slight reduction in battery life and a substantial increase in the cost of the device, relative to the first version of the Eee. The 900 will also come with pre-installed Windows XP as an option."

James Cameron is an engineer testing the mesh networking capabilities of the OLPC XO laptop. He lives in a tiny town in the remote Australian outback called Tooraweenah. There is little noise in the radio spectrum in such a remote place, creating a perfect mirror of the environment where the XO will be deployed (rural third world countries). Cameron reveals how the OLPC XO's mesh networking capabilities work by turning the kids into part of the network infrastructure, including the USD 35 solar powered mesh node designed to be deployed on top of a tree or any high area to widen the network's reach. Testing in the Australian outback, Cameron discovered that the range of the XO could go up to 1.6km 'quite easily' at 1.5m above ground.

"The Asus Eee PC has been out for a few months now and while people are still buying them in droves, much of the luster has worn off of the device. During the first few weeks of ownership, it is hard for most people to get over how cheap and portable it is, but, as with anything else, you get used to it. After some time, once you see it as a tool and not an innovation, you can start to fine tune your opinion of the Eee PC and notice which parts of it really bother you and which you have learned to live with."

Infoworld has an interesting article entitled "12 crackpot tech ideas that could transform the enterprise" that outlines some long-awaited technological innovations that are (perpetually?) just over the widespread commercial use horizon that could have a huge impact. For example: solid state drives, superconductivity, AI, and quantum computing.

Geeks.com sent us in the 28" HannsG HG281DJB monitor for a review. This VGA/HDMI LCD monitor has an outstanding 1920x1200 resolution, making it good enough for both PC and TV usage.

"VIA's newly launched processor architecture, known for the last three years by its codename, "Isaiah," will keep the company's focus on cost and power intact while taking things in a substantially different direction. In short, this year will see something truly odd happen on the low end of the x86 market: VIA and Intel will, architecturally speaking, switch places. Intel will take a giant step down the power/performance ladder with the debut of Silverthorne/Diamondville, its first in-order x86 processor design since the original Pentium, while VIA will attempt to move up into Intel's territory with its first-ever out-of-order, fully buzzword-compliant processor, codenamed Isaiah. In this brief article, I'll give an overview of Isaiah and of what VIA hopes to accomplish with this new design. Most of the high-level details of Isaiah have been known since at least 2004, when VIA began publicizing the forthcoming processor's general feature list (i.e., 64-bit support, out-of-order execution, vector processing, memory disambiguation, and others). So I'll focus here on a recap of those features and on a broader look at the market that VIA is headed into."

"DeviceVM's SplashTop is sharing a booth this week at the CES with ASUS. At their booth we were allowed to check out a SplashTop demo running on an ASUS notebook! This notebook has yet to be introduced by ASUS, but it's intended for high-end gaming and comes with SplashTop Linux as a complementary operating system. This version of SplashTop is slightly updated and has new features too."

Linux.com reviews the Asus Eee PC. "The Asus Eee PC has been heralded as a groundbreaking new computing experience and great for children. While the computer didn't bowl me over, my kids were another matter. When you hear about how small the Eee is, believe it: the unit measures approximately nine by six inches and weighs a mere two pounds. It's hard to take something that small seriously because it looks like a toy (and its name sounds like a sneeze). Open the lid, however, and you'll find power and features that belie its diminutive size."

Is Microsoft working on building a laptop for the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) program? Yes, but the intended machine will run Windows XP only, rather than both Windows XP and Linux, Microsoft officials said today, refuting an earlier report that made the waves on Slashdot and OSNews.

The One Laptop Per Child Project and Microsoft are working together to develop a dual-boot system to put both Linux and Windows on laptops aimed at kids in developing countries, the head of OLPC said in an interview Tuesday. "We are working with them very closely to make a dual-boot system so that, like on an Apple, you can boot either one up. The version that's up and running of Windows on the XO is very fast, it's very, very successful. We're working very hard to do both," said Nicholas Negroponte, chairman of OLPC.