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Intel purportedly fast-tracking Pine Trail platform, forgetting all about N270 / N280 at CES {Engadget}
Nov 9th 2009 1:35PM
I am also waiting for a Intel CULV and ION pairing. What I have read though is that Intel for the most part only wants to pair their lower end Mobile processors with their lower end chipsets. And the pricing tells the whole story. Like many articles have discussed, a Intel ATOM/CULV with and intel chipset is much cheaper than a standalone ATOM or CULV processors. That is why Nvidia is cost prohibitive with an Intel lower power processor. All the ION platforms carry a at least a $50 price premium. I am willing to pay, but many OEM's ODM's will only manufacture or assemble a few of these systems in comparison the INTEL proc and Intel chipset. I liek what HP is doing. AMD with ION seems like a logical step forward even though the price to power ratio is not as good as Intel.
ION2 with Intel CULV (preferably the SU7300 with ION2). I am also very curious to see SSD performance. I am also want touch screen functionality
Intel purportedly fast-tracking Pine Trail platform, forgetting all about N270 / N280 at CES {Engadget}
Nov 9th 2009 1:17PM
You are right Justin. A new FLASH version will be enable GPU accelaration, but I don't know if or when intel GPU's will get this feature. Right now I think only Nvidia is supported.
Intel purportedly fast-tracking Pine Trail platform, forgetting all about N270 / N280 at CES {Engadget}
Nov 9th 2009 11:59AM
I think you need to re-think or re-write this statement.
"but techies like us are sick and tired of dabbling with the same underpowered chips and the same lackluster capabilities".
The new pine trail platform improves cost per chip and power consumption mostly. I have seen a lot of discussion how slow this platform is compared with ION with ATOM platform. For netbooks this is great because you will lower the price the netbook, but it you are looking for more power, and overall processor speed, this is not for you.
I am waiting for the CULV's to hit mass market/production and maybe come down to the $450 price point. I own the original ASUS 1000h and I love the portability and price, but I prefer more power. Even with an SSD, the netbook chipsets seems to saturate at SATA1 throughput speeds and let's not talk about FLASH playback.
The only reason to get excited is if you are looking for a cheaper netbook, otherwise, I think this is a step back!
Ask Engadget HD: Would an SSD upgrade help my HTPC performance? {Engadget HD}
Oct 14th 2009 5:14PM
After reading most of the comments no one has really talked about some of the performances issues in VISTA MCE. I have a large RECORDED TV and Music and Picture collections. Most people know what every time you hit the recorded tv button, MCE dynamically refreshes the thumbnails. If you have a lot of shows, that can take a while. If you are on a extender, that may also take a while. This is most obvious with large music and picture collections.
So, will an SSD improve the refresh rate of thumbnail generation? If the thumbnails are stored in the same drive as the media then this is expensive. But if the thumbnails are stored on the OS partition, then I can see why you would want an SSD. Again, for me the problem is the worst on an networked device, when browsing music, pictures, recorded TV in MCE application.
Does anyone else experience this problem? I have multiple drives all larger than 500Gbyte and average throughput read rates greater than 50Mbytes/sec. Again, if we are talking thumbnail refresh which means creation of a lot of small files, I think as SSD would improve performance. But if the thumbnails are not generated on the OS partition, that would be too expensive!
Gateway's Windows 7-boasting EC18T tablet images, specs leak onto the screen {Engadget}
Oct 5th 2009 4:56PM Good work Anonymous. Let' hope the price is under $700 fully loaded. The specs look perfect. This will compete with the rumored ASUS 10" touch. I am ok with integrated graphics. Let's also hope that gateway has worked with Microsoft and enabled all of Windwows7 (multi) touch features! Keep us posted!
KJ
Poll: Do you / will you use Windows Media Center in your home theater? {Engadget HD}
Aug 2nd 2009 9:06PM
Been using MCE since 2005. Started using DVR functions in vista. My previous experiences with TIVO and Cable DVR (MOXI, Moto) is ok. MOXI was a decent interface but early in developement cycle. TIVO (Ultimate TV & DISH PVR) were great but you couldn't extend or offload. Some of that is changed I am sure but still behind MCE. Didn't want to experiment with other PC DVR solutions because most seemed immature as compared with MCE. So there are some draw backs. Haven't yet tried cable card or streaming (NETFLIX is OK - content is weak at best).
Put me in the same boat. Waiting for inexpensive CableCard or DISH or DirecTV, simpler DRM and better extender support (softsled). I am still loving the blu-ray, Clear QAM, DVD movie library, music, video, and other stuff. Can't see changing DVR now, but it's been 5+ years. Hoping for the day, when is the wanted feature list is actually shorter on release than the actual feature list! Common Microsoft, it's been a while. BTW, Ultimate TV on DTV and DISH rocked! Where is dual tuner support (old feature, recorded buffer). Come on!
Gadling gear review - Gateway LT3103u 11.6" Netbook {Gadling}
Jul 1st 2009 1:56PM Thanks Seth. I currently own an ASUS 1000H. I love the portability and battery life. But like others have said, FLASH and other CPU intensive tasks do not work well (if at all) and bring the system to a crawl. I mostly use it for web browsing, online music and occasional DVD and MCE (Windows7 Media Center) playback. I am looking into replacing (the 1000h) with a new ultra portable with a 13x7 screen (11" or 10") and a decent processor. INTEL is supposedly dropping the prices of the lower end CULV (Core2 Solo - U2100) processor to as low as $65. So, I am patiently waiting. The MSI x340 is too large (screen 13"+) and out of my price range. So, this would be a great alternative but I am reluctant to make any purchases before Aug/Sept.
I currently have the Vertex 30G SSD (from OCZ , in my ASUS 1000H), but I have read of some performance issues with AMD chipsets. I would look into that (OCZ SSD forum) before purchasing. BTW, the 1000H intel chipset has a bandwith/throughput limit (SATA1) so, no atom netbook user with the intel chipset is getting better than 150Mbytes/sec. Still fast though.
Gadling gear review - Gateway LT3103u 11.6" Netbook {Gadling}
Jul 1st 2009 2:04AM Great info. Thanks. A couple of questions below
1. Bluetooth support. Do any of the retail packages come with bluetooth?
2. SSD. I would like to know how an contemporary SSD performs?
3. Video playback. When using Windows7 and playign back media. What is the battery life? I am hoping 2 hours +.
Engadget's recession antidote: win one of 100 Microsoft Windows 7 pre-order discount codes! {Engadget}
Jun 25th 2009 12:40PM Can't win unless you play. Can't wait!
Engadget HD Podcast 133 - 04.22.2009 {Engadget HD}
Apr 28th 2009 4:44PM Another good show and good to hear Nilay again. I had a few comments about recorded TV and the MOXI implementation because I just don't get Ben.
Owner of a DYI Windows VISTA MC PC with 750G HD.
I have owned one these boxes within the last ten (10) years: First Dish PVR (Microsoft Product - Pink screen of death), 1st gen DTV TIVO (good PVR), Ultimate TV (best PVR imho), 1st gen MOXI (cable) and Media Center (2005, Vista, W7).
Almost all had default settings for Recording TV. So my experience with Recorded TV is mostly with media center. A household of four. Sixty (60) series recordings. NBA basketball is the top rated show. During playoffs there may be four games and I set basketball series default to record 30 minutes over. I notice what MC will overwrite shows when not watched to make room for new shows. When a recorded show is watched halfway, that show seems to move lower in the queue (less likely to be deleted). Every once in a while I set a show to NOT delete for a week (keep for a week from today). So, the DVR is always full with some recorded shows set to not delete.
My guess is that MC does NOT implement a first in, first out queue. A show settings determines when the show gets deleted. What I have seen is an intelligent algo where the shows you want to watch stay the longest in the queue. This is the keep at least setting. The shows that have lower priority are the shows that get removed to make room for new shows to record. I like this. After I have finished watching a high priority basketball show, these basketball shows are removed to make room for new shows. Maybe if all the shows have the same priority to keep, then I can see a first in first out. The problem with that is, shows that air frequently will populate your queue the most.
Keep up the good work.
Patiently waiting for Windows7 and DTV or DYI cable card support!!!
KJ
