Cool Tech Reviews

If you feel like you’ve been left behind by the horde of dual-core microprocessors coming out from AMD and Intel, check out Computer Reseller News‘ 10 page Dual-Core CPU Buyer’s Guide for a nice snapshot of current offerings and prices.

And speaking of dual-core, Intel rolled out it’s Merom line of mobile dual-core processors last week, but the word from Taiwan is that notebooks using AMD’s Turion are still significantly cheaper.

Earlier in the year we covered Sprint Nextel’s push (in the USA) to take on the telco DSL providers with high speed wireless starting with EV-DO, but that was always just the first step. Now Sprint Nextel, not satisfied with just 3G (third-generation) mobile data, will roll out a faster 4G network using WiMax later this year:

The network, which will start to be rolled out by the fourth quarter and reach as many as 100 million people around the U.S. by the end of next year, will offer downstream speeds of 2Mbps to 4Mbps, Sprint said Tuesday. Combined with fast uplinks, WiMax will offer enough bandwidth for mobile videoconferencing, transfers of large enterprise files and other applications, executives said.

Partners Intel, Motorola, and Samsung Electronics plan to help by equipping notebook PCs and a variety of mobile devices to use the 4G network.

Sprint Nextel is the third-largest U.S. mobile operator. Its choice of WiMax is the first endorsement of the metropolitan-area wireless data system by a major U.S. carrier. Sprint holds licenses around the country for radio spectrum in the 2.5GHz band and had considered other 4G technologies. The carrier said it chose WiMax because it believes it could build an ecosystem of equipment makers around the technology, which is based on the IEEE 802.16e standard.

The 4G service will complement Sprint Nextel’s 3G EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized) services, executives said at a New York press conference, monitored via webcast. The carrier is already offering video, music and other multimedia services on 3G, but that technology doesn’t deliver the economics Sprint needs, said Barry West, Sprint chief technology officer and president of Sprint’s newly formed 4G business unit. The WiMax network can deliver four times the throughput at one-tenth the cost of 3G, he said.

Pricing of 4G services will easily meet Sprint Nextel’s frequently stated goal of offering customers 1GB of data per month for less than US$20, West said. “We are significantly south of that,” he said.

The speed is great, but $20 per GB seems a bit pricey to me. Maybe that’s just the first GB and subsequent ones are much cheaper? They’re competing with fixed price “all you can eat” services like DSL to fixed locations or mobile services like their own EV-DO offering and can only charge so much for speed before customers will choose the lower speed option as “good enough.” And yes, prices will undoubtedly drop with time.

Dawn Kawamoto at ZDNet:

Intel has issued patches for flaws in its Centrino device drivers and ProSet management software that affect the security of the wireless products.

Three flaws are addressed with the updates. One could allow an attacker to break into a PC via Wi-Fi or even create a worm that jumps from one wireless-enabled laptop to another, provided the computers are within each other’s range. Another security hole makes the system vulnerable to attacks that let a malicious user gain additional privileges, according to security experts at Sans Internet Storm Center and F-Secure.

Intel’s patches address vulnerabilities in its Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG, 2915ABG, 2100 and 3945ABG Network Connection products, according to a security advisory from the chipmaker.

Aside from the aggregated patch which is supposed to be 129MB in size (!), Intel also has provided a tool to identify Centrino systems that are vulnerable.

A little more than a week ago, I mentioned that Intel was getting ready to slash prices on microprocessors starting this week. Now AMD has fired back with their own price cuts:

Advanced Micro Devices slashed prices on some PC processors by as much as 57 percent in a new listing Monday, firing the latest salvo in a battle with rival Intel Corp.
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Users can look forward to bargains in the PC space in coming months as the two companies battle it out. AMD dropped the price of its dual-core Athlon 64 X2 5000+ (socket AM2 only) to $301 on Monday, from $696 when it last published a price list in May. It also cut the price of the Athlon 64 X2 4600+ (socket AM2 and 939) by 57 percent to $240 from $558.

Although the biggest AMD price reductions were in PC processors, the company also cut prices for laptop processor prices as well.

Prices of its AMD Turion 64 mobile chips fell by as much as 26 percent, with its Model ML-44 down to $263 from $354 in May. Prices for AMD Sempron chips for desktops and laptops also fell.

As George Ou said in a quote from the previous post, no matter what you buy, it will soon be “a lot cheaper or it will be a lot faster.”

Intel is reacting fiercely to AMD’s market share gains last quarter and it’s good news for PC buyers. George Ou at ZDNet - Prices released on Conroe, AMD may need to slash 70% on FX62:

The word is out on Intel Core2 Conroe processors. The price and model numbers have been set on the new Intel processors while the price on older Pentium D processors have been slashed. Even the dual core Pentium D 945 running at 3.4 GHz has been slashed to $163 on July 23rd which is cheaper than the slowest C2D E6300 at 1.86 GHz.

More by following both links but here’s the net:

The new Conroe processors will have a devastating effect on current inventory from AMD or Intel. It’s kind of like a scorched earth tactic where Intel’s own legacy “Netburst” inventory will suffer collateral damage in the war against AMD. Anyone who’s buying computers right now should definitely hold off for 2 more weeks since there will be massive price drops on current AMD and Intel CPUs.
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The good news is that no matter what you buy 2 weeks from now, it will be a lot cheaper or it will be a lot faster.

It doesn’t hurt that PC sales have been weak in recent months either.

Solid state, non volatile disk storage replacement has been a dream for a lot of years and while flash disks are finally killing the floppy, advances in hard disk technology have always kept the price per byte low enough that solid state didn’t have much leverage except for special use devices. That may be starting to change as laptop manufacturers have started introducing new models with flash disks instead of hard drives in some notebook models. Martyn Williams at PCWorld:

Sony will replace hard disks with flash memory when it launches a new model of its Vaio U laptop next week, it said today (June 27 - ed.).
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Flash has long been eyed as a potential replacement for hard drives because it is lighter, runs silently, offers faster data access, and uses less power, but price has always been an obstacle.
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The Vaio UX90 will come with 16GB of flash memory storage in place of the 30GB hard drive on the original model. It will cost around $1805, or about $345 more expensive than the disk-based model, and go on sale in Japan on July 3.

The UX Micro PCs look like a PDA on steroids, but they run Widows XP Professional and regular Windows applications as well as having some media player functionality.

Samsung Electronics launched a couple of PCs with flash storage earlier this month. The Q30 laptop and Q1 ultra mobile PC both use Samsung’s “solid state disk,” which packs 32GB of NAND flash memory into a case the same size as a 1.8-inch hard drive.

The Q1 is Samsung’s entry in the oddball Origami (AKA UMPC) tablet PC form factor developed by Microsoft and Intel, while the Q30-SSD (Solid State Drive) is a regular laptop:

Sammy just announced that their sweet, sweet NAND-based Q30-SSD we first got down and dirty with at CeBIT will hit the shelves in Korea (only) from early June onward. Yeah, it’ll fetch a steep $3,700 US-equiv (a roughly $900 premium) on that aging 1.2GHz Celeron M Q30 platform, but that 32GB of NAND reads 300 percent faster (53MB/s) and write 150 percent quicker (28MB/s) than normal hard drives while offering better protection against shock, 25-50% faster boots and sleep recovery times, longer battery life and reduced weight all in a completely silent, fanless package. Hoozah!

To which, I guess I have to add, ouch! The prices still have a way to go to attract the average consumer. More on Samsung’s solid state hard drive here.