Nvidia – rgbFilter

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Android 3.1 Tablet coming July 22nd

June 23, 2011June 25, 2011 drsquid 10.1, Android, Android 3.1, canada, Galaxy, google, Honeycomb, iPad, iPad 2, launch, Nvidia, Samsung, Tab, tablet, Tegra 2, TouchWiz, video, Wi-Fi1 Comment

As Cersei said to Ned, “When you play the Game of Thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground.” You can apply this quote to the Tablet Wars, and if King Robert Baratheon was the iPad, and Joffrey Baratheon the iPad 2, then is the Galaxy Tab 10.1 Robb Stark? Perhaps that doesn’t work because Joffrey isn’t actually Robert’s son and…okay, as you can see I have been watching too much of HBO’s brilliant Game of Thrones TV series. Trying to find suitable analogies in a fantasy…

Telus bringing Motorola XOOM to Canada

March 21, 2011April 4, 2011 Doug Groves Android, Best Buy, Futureshop, Honeycomb, Motorola, Nvidia, tablet, Tegra 2, Telus, Xoom4 Comments

Motorola announced today that the XOOM tablet, running Android 3.0 Honeycomb, will be coming to Telus in April. There’s no official date at this time, but Futureshop’s website suggests that it should arrive mid-April. Although there are both 3G and WiFi only variants of the 10.1″ tablet, Telus will initially only be offering the WiFi model, which they’re recommending be paired with one of their mobile hotspot ‘Flex Plans’ to give users on the go connectivity. It will be available at Telus stores and other electronic retailers with no contract starting at $599.99.

Android 3.0 Honeycomb event video

February 3, 2011September 26, 2012 Doug Groves Android, Honeycomb, marketshare, Motorola Xoom, Nvidia, tablet, tegra, Tegra 2, Xoom5 Comments

On Wednesday, Google held a major event to showcase its new Android 3.0 OS aka Honeycomb. The new OS is aimed squarely at the growing tablet market. The new design offers a cleaner look for Android, as well as a number of new features including the web accesible market.android.com and a new push on gaming. inclduing reusable “application fragments”. If I were the conspiratorial type, I’d say that Google is deliberately attempting to redefine ‘fragment’ in the context of Android. More seriously, the OS was demonstrated running on the Motorola Xoom tablet, powered by Nvidia’s Tegra 2 dual core chipset.

Acer releases new Aspire Z all-in-one and Revo nettop

October 15, 2010October 16, 2010 drsquid Acer, all-in-one, Aspire, Atom, GeForce, Hardware, HTPC, Intel, ION, multi-touch, nettop, Nvidia, Revo, Window Media Centre, Windows 74 Comments

When the Acer Aspire Revo series of mini desktop computers were released last year they were some of the first in a new generation of PC’s dubbed nettops. The Revo was one of the first nettops to pair the low powered Intel Atom CPU with Nvidia’s ION chipset – ION integrates a GeForce 9400 graphics card allowing net-tops equipped with it to function as a set-top box connected to your TV to play back video content. Using Window Media Centre or XBMC the Revo was a great little PC, sadly…

PC64 aims directly at the nostalgia crowd

September 3, 2010September 3, 2010 Doug Groves Atom, C-64, Commodore, Commodore 64, ION 2, nettop, Nvidia, PC64, portable2 Comments

One of the more oddball computer announcements in the past week or so was Commodore USA would be coming out with the PC64, and all in one computer that will be a 1:1 replica of one of the most successful computers of all time – the Commodore 64. The basic concept is that they’re going to stuff the guts of a modern nettop, complete with an Intel Atom dual core 525 processor and Nvidia ION2 graphics processor into the original chassis, along with a modern variety of ports. The machine…

Gateway launches new ID Series Notebook

July 30, 2010July 29, 2010 Doug Groves Acer, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, Gateway, ID Series, ID49, ID59, ID79, Intel, notebook, Nvidia, Nvidia Optimus, silver3 Comments

Gateway has just announced the ID Series of notebooks, with silver shells and a funky blue touchpad that glows when touched. The silver casing actually appears to be quite understated in the provided photos. The 3 models all sport Ultrabright LED-backlit displays, and vary in size from 14 to 17.3 inches. The smaller ID49 (14 inch) and ID59 (15.6 inch) share very similar specs with Core i3 and Core i5 options, 4GB of memory (expandable to 8GB) and 1366×768 resolution displays. Some models will also include the Nvidia Optimus technology,…

Acer’s new computer line up – all things great and small

July 28, 2010July 28, 2010 Doug Groves Acer, Acer Aspire, Acer Predator, Aspire, Athlon II, ATI, computer, Core i3, Core i5, desktop, Gaming, HTPC, M3, Nvidia, Predator, Radeon, X34 Comments

Acer, a company that’s grown from relative obscurity outside the DIY computer building community to the world’s number 2 computer maker in just a few short years, has announced three new desktop line ups for Canada, covering the spectrum from the small form factor X3 series to the monstrous Predator gaming rig. Playing the mama bear role, is the more traditional M3. The Acer Aspire M3 series is a standard desktop tower, and will come with AMD Athlon II or Intel Core i3 / Core i5 processors and ATI Radeon…

Toshiba 3D laptop hands on

June 22, 2010June 22, 2010 Doug Groves 3D laptop, A66-042, Arkham Asylum, Blur 3D, Nvidia, Nvidia 3D Vision, satellite, Toshiba3 Comments

If there’s one thing that’s almost inescapable in consumer electronics these days, it’s 3D in just about everything. We had a chance to give Toshiba’s new Satellite A660-042 3D laptop a run for it’s money at the Toshiba-sponsored Primer Party, as part of NXNEi, ahead of it’s public release. It’s the first major release of a 3D laptop in Canada, though others using the Nvidia 3D Vision technology are available at many independent and smaller chains. The Toshiba Satellite A660-042 is definitely the kind of rig that a gamer can…

Kin: Microsoft aims at mobile sociability

April 21, 2010 Doug Groves Danger, facebook, Kin, Kin 1, Kin 2, Microsoft, Nvidia, QWERTY, Sidekick, slider, social, tegra, twitter, Windows Phone, WP7, Zune, Zune Pass5 Comments

After Microsoft unveiled its Project Pink as Kin there was a lot of speculation as to what it really meant, given the major noise Microsoft has been making about its other phone strategy, Windows Phone 7. The Kin phones and service are clearly targeted at a teen demographic, in the same way that Gossip Girl targets the teen demographic by portraying a lifestyle 99.9% of their audience will never achieve… you know… aspirational. The snide remarks aside, after taking a look at what Kin has to offer, and the pedigree…

Metro 2033 using DirectX 11, looks awesome

February 18, 2010February 19, 2010 Doug Groves DirectX 11, Metro 2033, Nvidia, PC gaming0 comment

It’s not very often that the technical quality of a video game’s screen shots make it worth discussing, but these shots of THQ and 4AG’s Metro 2033 warrants it. THQ recently put out some new screens of the game rendered using Nvidia video cards with DirectX 11 support, and the results are stunning. The sci-fi shooter takes place in a post apocalyptic Russia, and will be coming out on multiple platforms, but I think it’s safe to say if you have a PC rig capable of playing Metro 2033 with…

Flash 10.1 pre-release available

November 17, 2009November 17, 2009 Doug Groves Adobe, Flash, ION, Nvidia5 Comments

The long awaited version of Adobe’s Flash with support for video card (GPU) acceleration is now available for the PC in pre-release form. The new version offloads much of the video processing to the GPU, allowing for what is said to be much better playback performance. This is especially good news for those looking to add inexpensive ION based PCs to their home theatre setup, or want better Flash performance on their netbooks, as Flash based video is just about the only format that has playback issues in high definition. …

ASRock ION 330 as Media Center

August 13, 2009July 8, 2010 Doug Groves ASRock, Atom, Boxee, Hauppauge, HTPC, ION, Media Center, Microsoft, Nvidia, Windows35 Comments

Intel’s low-powered & low cost Atom processor has been all the rage in the computer industry for quite some time now, and nobody has embraced it more than just about every Taiwanese hardware manufacturer whose name starts with an ‘A’. ASUS thrust the netbook form factor into the minds of the masses, but it was Acer who (so far) has won the small form factor war, as the number one netbook maker (the Aspire One grabbing 50% of the market). But it hasn’t stopped there. The Atom is appearing in…