Category: Gadgetry

According to AppleInsider, the ATI Radeon X1600 graphics card used in MacBook Pros is underclocked, in both its graphics processor unit and its memory. The GPU is set to about 310MHz and RAM to 278MHz, when both are capable of around 470MHz. That’s a performance decrease of around 34% in the GPU and 41% for memory. This was done to preserve battery life and reduce noise (cooling fan). For situations where performance is more important than these factors, it’d be nice if you could change these clock speeds. Apple doesn’t provide for this, but hackers have managed to change the speeds (with little ill effect) using ATITool beta 0.25 R14 in Windows (via BootCamp). Hopefully the next version of ATIccelerator, which allows on-the-fly overclocking of ATI GPUs in OS X, will include this new graphics card.

According to a piece on DailyTech, MacMall has begun shipping MacIntel boxes with Windows XP pre-installed as an option. “According to both MacMall’s website and Apple’s online store, a identically configured 1.83GHz Core Duo MacBook Pro can be pre-installed with Windows XP Professional for $100 — which is actually a discount.” While this is obviously a smart business move on Apple’s part, it does make me chuckle and feel shameless manipulated as a consumer, given Apple’s history of dissing Windows and crowing about their own superior tech. I mean, even the most recent Mac ad campaign (making fun of Intel’s previous customers, i.e. Windows PCs ), talked of drab gray boxes and their drab little tasks. So now they’re selling us the drab little operating system for our Macs? On the chips they used to so vigorously argue where inferior to their own processors?

One of the most satisfying tech moments of my so-called life was getting my new iMac onto my LAN two winters ago. I dreaded hooking it up, ’cause I expected hours of fuss-time, looking up DNS numbers, subnet masks, and the like. Instead, I plugged in my Ethernet cable and THE COMPUTER did all of this discovery and form-filling on its own. Contrast this with my son getting an MSN Messenger watch for Christmas that year and us spending hours trying to figure out how to get a message from my WinPC to his watch.

Anyway, a little true plug n’ play intelligence comes to the Windows world, thanks to Apple’s release of Bonjour for Windows, their oh-so-welcomed networking framework.

According to a piece on Yahoo News (via IGN News Service), RAM prices are expected to rise soon, thanks to increased demand, especially for newer DDR2 (Double Data Rate 2) RAM. Chip maker Micron projects demand in 2006 to be up 50-60% over last year. The increase is expected to be driven by greater memory demands from apps, increased laptop sales, the MacTel boxes (which use DDR2), and the forthcoming AMD Socket AM2 motherboards, which will support DDR2. On top of this, continued demand for older, first-gen DDR will force chip makers to have to reserve fab time for this memory type as well, slowing production of the newer modules. All major memory makers have been making noise about pending price hikes.

So, if you’ve been thinking about maxing out the mems on that cyberdeck, you better get while the gettin’s not ridiculously overpriced.

Techware Labs wrestles the very affordable Intel Pentium D 805 dual core processor onto the bench and observes some very impressive performance for the price. They were even able to overclock the chip by an impressive 46%. Thusly tweaked, the 805 was able to outperform the AMD X2 3800+ and the Intel 840EE dual cores, both priced much higher than the 805 (which can be had street for as low as USS130). But as AnandTech points out in their testing of the chip, it mainly shines in multithread or multitask processing, so other types of users may want to wait for AMD’s socket-AM2 to be released or for Intel’s next-gen Conroe processor.

You may also want to check AnandTech’s 805 coverage.

Epson has settled a class action suit filed over the questionable reporting of empty printer cartridges on many of the company’s printers. As you’ve likely experienced, the printer or the printer’s software will indicate that the cart is spent when you can clearly feel or hear that toner is left. In the settlement, buyers who purchased their printers online, and only at the Epson online store, from April 8, 1999 to May 8, 2006, are eligible for US$45 in Epson credit, or a $25 check and $20 in Epson credit, or 25% off, up to $100, at the online store.

Amazingly, the settlement does not require that Epon change the way their printers report empties, and apparently, Epson has no plans to change their practices. So, basically, Epson gives out a few free consolation carts, they continue a scuzzy business practice (we won’t even mention the criminal pricing of their cartridges), and the lawyers involved get to print some money of their own.

You can find the details of the settle at this site.

[Via Daily Tech]

Alright, you Street Techies who ride scooters, try not to laugh, and you bikers in the audience, try not to hork in your Keiser helmets. It looks like something out of a Frauenfelder comic, like something Kata Sutra might drive, a sleek, barely-there electric scooter that can get 50 miles on a 50 cent charge.

This is something I might personally be interested in. I don’t drive a car and there are tons of stores and restaurants within one or two miles of my house. I’ve thought about a Segway, but they just look too dorky. This baby, a silver jump suit, and a silver helmet (or maybe orange suit and a DEVO flowerpot hat) and you’re talkin’ BOLD statement. The bad news is the Electric Scoot only goes 18mph tops. The price is 1500 Euros (about US$1,800).

For those scooter purists out there (who are still gas conservation conscious), this may be more to your liking.

Read more about the E-Scoot and see more pictures on Gizmag.

With all of the Build Your Own DVR articles popping up these days, what if you could just add a TV tuner to your PC by plugging in a thumb drive instead? Akihabara News is showing a few pics of a keychain-sized pocket TV (the MobiTV Global from V-Gear) that plugs into your laptop (or other WinPC) via a USB port. The tuner allegedly handles VHF/UHF/CATV and can even record MPEG-2 video at 720 x 480. Comes with a credit card-sized remote control. Although “Global” is in the name, no word on whether there are plans to sell it outside of Japan.

ThinkGeek has this nifty USB adapter that turns any SecureDigital/ MultiMedia Card (up to 1GB) into a USB thumb drive. We all have them, forgotten in a drawer, memory cards for old cameras, MP3 players, PDAs, etc. For US$15, this adapter will turn them into something useful again.

Ars Technica has a really nice round-up of current flash-based, low-priced digital audio players. The piece takes a reasonably in-depth look at nine players, and ends with a comparison matrix and a best [blank] list: (Best recording capability: Samsung YP-7T, Best value: SanDisk Sansa m230, Best battery life: Samsung YP-MT6, etc.).

The best player overall was the Samsung YP-MT6 (around US$100 street). For as low as $50 street, the SanDisk Sansa m230 looks like it has a lot going for it. Okay, it looks like something Ron Popeil might have designed, in the ’50s, but if you don’t care that much about the look of your player, the Sansa m230 might be worth your gander,