Google Invades Hardware Industry

What isn't Google doing nowadays?

via liliputing.com

News of the Day Column: Intel faces FTC in antitrust suit

http://www.liliputing.com/2009/12/ftc-sues-intel-in-antitrust-case.html

I love Intel CPUs for beating its competitor in everything but price (cough *AMD* cough), but using threats to increase market share is a big no-no.

Just a Thought: Scaling Intel CPUs

Intel's CPUs can scale well. Most of them can scale all the way down to 800 mhz. And since most of them use roughly the same amount of power at that level, wouldn't it be better to use the more powerful CPUs in netbooks, etc.?

Think about this
My Fujitsu P1620 uses the Intel U7600 (10 w TDP) CPU, and max battery life at the lowest CPU level is around 6 hours for a 56 whr battery, so battery consumption of around 9 watts per hour.
The Lenovo x200, which uses a more powerful CPU (P8600, ~25 w TDP) and a bigger screen, can easily reach 9 hours battery life with a 9 cell battery (I am guessing around 10 watts per hour at most). We can easily see which is the better choice, performance wise: the x200. Not only does it offer twice the speed (2.4 ghz vs. 1.2 ghz), it can offer the same power savings when scaled all the way to 800 mhz.

Of course, everyone would want more powerful laptops with the same (or better) battery life. However, aside from the higher price, a netbook-sized laptop (10"-12") must also be designed so that it can dissipate the excess heat due to the more powerful CPU when running at full power. But I wouldn't mind paying $300 more for a netbook with the power of a regular laptop.

Google Chrome Portable Edition

As a champion of the (USB) stick, I carry Firefox and OpenOffice in my pocket to classes everyday. After using chrome on XP mode, I liked it with the exception of it's lack of extensions and its portable-ness. With Google releasing extensions for the Chrome browser, the only thing lacking is a portable edition of Chrome. Well, look no further.

http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/google_chrome_portable

Google Chrome Portable, brought to you by the folks behind Firefox Portable.

Back from the grave

After a year of hiatus, I decided to restart blogging. I know it will be tough to blog constantly and at length, but at least this time I will commit to it (at least one post a day). As soon as I am done with college finals.....

Kojinsha ML

Even Kohjinsha is jumping on the netbook bandwagon.
via http://www.umpcfever.com/news/?postid=1672
specs: http://jp.kohjinsha.com/models/ml/specification/index.html (original Japanese)

New netooks from clevo

head on over to notebookreview.com
personally, i like the tablet the most
can you say "8 hrs battery life"?