April 2007

You are currently browsing the articles from PC Tips World written in the month of April 2007.

Revolution again?

Do you like something innovative? For example first smartphone fully open sourced and based on Linux. I don’t think that anyone can be surprised by mp3 player. But what about this one? It is called Cowon D2 and it has several innovative features. Which one? Just look at the picture

Cowon D2

Nothing innovative? It just looks like nothing interesting. This is first player which has touchscreen! And not small touchscreen like my watches, but really big one. Almost like on Pocket PC. Of course with such screen this device can play videos. No high-def, but do you need it? ;) Let’s look on it’s specifications taken from product’s page:

FEATURES Video & Audio Player / FM Tuner / Voice Recorder / Text & Photo Viewer
2.5 inch 16 million color 24bit TFT-LCD - QVGA (320×240) Touchscreen
SD / SDHC Memory Expansion
Up to 52 hours (Music) of continuous playback (Movie 10 hours)*
DRM-protected content Support (PlaysForSure, etc.)

Here we see 2.5 inch touchscreeen as I told you. Other is usual stuff for portable mp3 player. 52 hours for playback is a lot. I don’t think it’s true, but I hope for good things. What’s next:

SPECIFICATIONS
Playback
format		 Music
MP3 : MPEG 1/2/2.5 Layer 3, ~320kbps, ~48khz, mono/stereo
WMA : ~256kbps, ~48khz, mono/stereo
OGG : ~Q10, ~44.1khz, mono/stereo
FLAC : Compression Level 0 ~ 8, ~44.1khz, mono/stereo
WAV : ~48khz, 16bit, mono/stereo
APE: TBD **
JetEffect (BBE, Mach3Bass, MP Enhance, 3D Surround, Stereo Enhance) support
Movie
AVI : MPEG4 ~ 2Mbps, 320×240, 30fps, MP3 audio
WMV : WMV9 ~ 768kbps, 320×240, 30fps, WMA audio
TV OUT support (TV OUT Cable Optional)
Recording WMA : 32~256kbps Recording and Playback
Voice Recording, Line-In Recording, External MIC support
Photo JPG, No limitation on image size and capacity
Text TXT file Viewer
Support up to 2MB
Folder Limit 500 folders and 5,000 files
Radio support FM RADIO : 76Mhz ~ 108Mhz, 87.5Mhz ~ 108Mhz
WMA : 32~256kbps recording support
Display 2.5 inch 16 million color(24bit) TFT-LCD : QVGA (320×240) Touchscreen
Built-in memory 2GB, 4GB
External SD Card and MMC Card Slot
PC interface USB 2.0 High Speed
File transfer speed Max. 35Mbps (Upload 40Mbps)
Power Up to 52 hours (Music) of continuous playback (Movie 10 hours)
Charge time About 3.5 hours by adapter, About 7 hours by USB
Button 3 Button(MENU, VOL-, VOL+), POWER & HOLD Switch
SNR 95dB (A-Weighted)
Frequency Range 20Hz~20KHz
Max Output 16 Ohm earphone : 37mW + 37mW
Size 3.07 X 2.18 X 0.65 inches (78.0 X 55.4 X 16.6 mm)
Weight 3.21 oz (91 g) (Include Lithium Polymer battery)

Specifications are usual for such sort of players. What can I mention is that Cowon D2 supports not only mp3 and wma, but flac, ogg, ape. Another company that produces player with multi support is iRiver. There are several editions of Cowon D2. Black and white as you see on the picture. And 2 GB and 4 GB editions.

If all of what I have written impresses you - run and buy it. As for me - I’ll stay without player. Read books

Written by mente on April 12th, 2007 with no comments.
Read more articles on Releases and Technologies and Reviews.

ATI Intergrates Everything in Video Cards?

The Inquirer called it SECRET WEAPON. I call it nonsense. ATI wants to integrate computer in single video card?! For what reason? I have no thoughts, but I hope it won’t happen.
Some information on this news: R600 will have sound on-board. Nothing spectacular, but High-Definition sound. Video card’s performance doesn’t suffer, because sound will be made on the dedicated chip. The sound signal can be transmitted via HDMI both with video signal. Already known that Realtek will produce chips for ATI. You can check it by visiting download drivers page on Realtek site

HDMI

Look at the bottom of the image. See? Driver is released. Wait for video card :) . Of course it’s still rumours, but who knows… In the end is new image of video card with R600 implemented.

R600
I don’t think R600 will be released really soon, as I wrote before. Of course if this post is true. Have a nice day

Written by mente on April 6th, 2007 with no comments.
Read more articles on Announcements and Technologies and Desktops.

Having R600 or G80 Onboard Means Many-cored System?

LogosSome sage from IT market is afraid that soon there won’t be war between Nvidia and ATI. It doesn’t mean there won’t this companies. According to TheInquirer GPU vs. CPU wars will start soon. I can’t decline this preposition. Future graphic cards will have such powerful GPUs that they can substitute CPU. Of course if you use OS just to launch game. If you archive something or encode video forget about this future.

Now something becomes obvious. Why did AMD buy ATI? Because they wanted to develop chipsets for their own processors? Right and wrong. Maybe right, but not exactly. Also AMD wants to come to graphics market. They can use CPU technologies for GPU in future and GPU technologies in discrete graphics. Uniting GPU and CPU technology they can get Combo unit. Intel and Nvidia will be an outsiders. Nvidia have never made CPUs and Intel has just come to this market. AMD has experienced stuff for this. And ATI didn’t cost too much, as Nvidia. As we know ATI was losing the fight for top graphics card when AMD bought it. Telling truth they are losing now, but not in future. AMD has wise chiefs and I hope you understand what I want to share with

Written by mente on April 3rd, 2007 with no comments.
Read more articles on Technologies and Reviews.