CES 2009

Episode 889

Best of CES Awards
http://ces.cnet.com/best-of-ces/

Web site problems as Windows 7 beta hits
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10138449-56.html
http://ces.cnet.com/8301-19167_1-10139408-100.html
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/dd353205.aspx

Apple at CES? Unlikely
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10138499-37.html

Chrome gets Mac deadline, extensions foundation
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10138388-2.html

Nvidia 480-Core graphics card approaches 2 Teraflops
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09%2F01%2F09%2F2022231

Palm Pre Touchstone eyes-on
http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/palm-pre-touchstone-eyes-on/

Testing CrystalTalk
http://ces.cnet.com/8301-19167_1-10138219-100.html

Dell Adamo
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10138468-1.html
http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/09/dell-adamo-hands-on/

Setting ioSafe’s Solo on fire: The hottest blog ever!
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10138593-1.html

Trojan found at torrent sites insists “downloading is wrong”
http://entertainment.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09%2F01%2F10%2F0336243

The Air Force’s rules of engagement for blogging
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/01/09/the-air-forces-rules.html

E-mail
Hey JaMoTo +1.

I was listening to episode 888 and I was wondering why everyone is drooling over the Palm Pre. Didn’t we do the same thing when the Blackberry Storm was announced? We gave it so much praise until the time came for release. It was a failure. Are we certain this will be Palm’s savior or will the hype rise above what will really happen? Will the Pre truly be the device that brings Palm back or will it be lost and forgotten just as the Storm was?

Chris from Florida

**********

Hey BOL team just wanted to pop in let you guys know orange julius has a brand spankin new drink called the blackberry storm haha included is a pic i took of the ad and a link to the nutrition facts on the 2nd page of the pdf 3rd flavor down of the blackberry storm. I wonder which is slower trying to use the BB storm’s accelerometer feature or trying to get the drink through a straw? haha keep up the good work love the show! Jason Trambley
http://www.orangejulius.com/downloads/OJNutritionalFacts.pdf
–
Jason T

**********

Listening to episode 886. You guys were alking about the sling player
app for iPhone and whether Apple might accept it into the App Store
because it’ll steam video over 3g. I recently started using Orb Live
from the app store. This app works with the Orb client on your pc with
tv tuner at home and you can then stream your tv and any other media
to the iPhone app. Works well. Video quality is good enough over 3g.
So, there’s precedent for it. Hope I’m not jinxing anything by
bringing attention to Orb. Love the show!

Peter on the train in Chicago

**********

Wow, it might not take long for Molly’s prediction to go true:

Seattle P-I up for sale; could go online-only
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008609677_webpi09m.html

I agree with Molly that her prediction is bound to happen. I didn’t think it was going to happen to my local paper though! J

– Jiunwei

(Credit: Samsung)

After finally seeing 3D stereoscopic games in action, I now know what all the excitement is about. Playing a game with the "3D" feature turned on delivers on the promise set up by movies like The Creature From the Black Lagoon 3D. Movies that still to this day disappoint me when I think back to how they were not 3D at all.

Enough about childhood disappointments. This week Samsung announced the SyncMaster 2233RZ, the company's first stereoscopic 3D-compatible monitor. Basically, with the right 3D graphics hardware (Nvidia 8, 9, or 10 series); glasses (the display will be bundled with them for the first few months); and games; you'll be able to play games with added depth perception. The effect as I've witnessed it is very convincing.

Samsung claims that the 2233RZ can display 5:4 and 4:3 images at accurate aspect ratios without enlargement or distortion. It's also included an off timer feature that enables the monitor to shut down at set times and a shortcut button that allows you to switch from 3D to 2D mode quickly.

Where a typical monitor's refresh rate tops out at 60Hz, the 2233RZ goes to 120. This means the monitor should be capable of smoother motion not only while gaming but while watching movies as well.

According to Samsung, more than 350 games are "3D compatible" and ready to be experienced, but that number is actually higher as most PC games are compatible. You'll need a Nvidia stereoscopic-compatible graphics card, the Samsung 2233RZ (editor's "not enough time note": there is another display from Viewsonic that is also compatible, but I haven't had a chance to see it yet; keep watching this space), and finally the 3D shutter glasses to make it all work.

Samsung says the 3D glasses are designed so you can wear them and prescription glasses at the same time and that was the case when I used them. Adjustable nose pieces are also included for different nose sizes. The glasses are powered via USB, and according to Samsung can last an entire week without a recharge.

The Samsung 2233RZ will be available in April for a suggested retail price of $399.

We mentioned AMD and iZ3D's stereoscopic 3D approach earlier, and now we get to take a look at Nvidia's solution with the announcement of its GeForce 3D Vision. Unlike AMD, which is merely a beneficiary of iZ3D offering ATI Radeon customers a deal on drivers for its specialized 3D LCDs, Nvidia's stereo 3D hardware is homegrown, and it's also one of the few products that Nvidia itself is distributing to retail.

For $199, GeForce 3D Vision gets you a set of battery-powered, wireless glasses, as well as an infrared emitter that acts as a go-between for your computer and either a 120Hz PC LCD or a DLP HD television. Where iZ3D's glasses are passive, Nvidia's are active, which is to say they require power to perform the appropriate image processing.

The results of Nvidia's GeForce 3D Vision are impressive. We've sat through press demos with both Nvidia and iZ3D. iZ3D's were fine, but we got to see more games during Nvidia's demo, so we have a bit more experience with GeForce 3D Vision. The visual effect is more than simply cheap Hollywood-style 3D flash. In Left 4 Dead, we had the sense of a much more immersive depth of field than you get from standard 3D games on a 2D display. Nvidia also gives you a dial on the emitter to increase the perception of depth. Adjusting it can be jarring, especially at very high settings, but we liked having the option, and we're not aware of a similar feature on the iZ3D displays.

Nvidia's GeForce 3D Vision glasses and IR emitter.

(Credit: Nvidia)

Despite its active glasses, Nvidia's take on stereoscopic 3D also relies on specialized LCDs, in this case those with a 120Hz refresh rate over dual-link DVI. Samsung and Viewsonic will be offering such displays soon, although initial reports have listed prices at $479 for the 22-inch model. Prices will drop as 120Hz LCDs become less exotic, but that's still about $679 worth of hardware to enjoy Nvidia's 3D tech, compared with only $399 for the display and glasses from iZ3D.

Traditionally, stereoscopic 3D has been scoffed at due to clunky hardware, lackluster game support, and a headache-inducing flicker effect. We haven't sat down for a good gaming all-nighter to see if either vendor has eliminated the headaches, but the vastly enhanced visual effects of the games and movies we've seen over the last month with stereo 3D make us think that the technology might finally be ready for consumer success. And you can scoff at the glasses all you like, but, as Nvidia suggested to us when we scoffed ourselves, if you're willing to jump around your living room with a plastic guitar in your hands, are 3D gaming glasses really all that bad?

(Credit: Toshiba)

One of the many laptops being announced at CES this week is the Toshiba Qosmio X305-Q725. It will offer the same bells and whistles of recent X305s, except that its primary drive will consist of a 64GB solid state drive, while the secondary drive will be the standard spindle-based 320GB SATA hard disk drive. This hybrid solution will not only boost performance on an already beast of a machine but will also help with its typically lackluster battery life--as with most gaming laptops--not by much, but it's something.

Here's a quick look at the specifications:

• Intel Core 2 Quad Q9000 2GHz
• 4GB DDR3 SDRAM
• Primary drive: 64GB Serial ATA SSD
• Secondary drive: 320GB (7200 RPM) SATA HDD
• Windows Vista Ultimate (64-bit)
• NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTX, 1GB GDDR3 discrete graphics
• Data: USB v2.0--four ports with USB Sleep and Charge (1 x eSATA/USB combo port)

The Toshiba Qosmio X305-Q725 will be available at launch on January 6 and will retail for $2,699 at Toshiba's Web site.

Updated at 11:05 p.m. PST with additional information throughout.

Another Netbook? No, not exactly. Hewlett-Packard's new Pavilion dv2 is an ultraportable, thank you. And the new Athlon Neo silicon inside from Advanced Micro Devices will try to prove that point.

AMD is introducing new chips at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that target the no-man's land between Netbooks and notebooks. Typically, these designs are referred to as ultraportables--the most salient examples being Apple's MacBook Air, the Toshiba Portege, and the Sony Vaio TT series.

So what makes AMD's platform different? In one word, price. Ultraportables fall into the boutique category of laptops: very stylish, very slim, very light--and very expensive. Usually ranging between $1,500 and $3,000. HP's notebook with Athlon Neo silicon cuts the price in half. The Pavilion dv2 will start at $699 and top out at $899 for standard configurations.

HP 12-inch Pavilion dv2 ultraportable starts at $699, at least half the price of traditional ultraportable notebooks like the MacBook Air, Toshiba Portege, and Sony Vaio TT series.

(Credit: Hewlett-Packard)

The dv2, at 3.8 pounds, is slightly heavier than ultraportables that typically weigh between 2.5 and 3 pounds. It is 0.9-inches thick, slightly thicker than more expensive ultraportables like the MacBook Air.

But the Pavilion dv2 will pack features such as an AMD-ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3410 separate (discrete) graphics chip, a relatively large hard disk drive (HP lists drives up to 500GB), and a 12.1-inch LED screen. Features that differentiate it from Netbooks and put it squarely into ultraportable territory.

AMD Athlon Neo silicon details

(Credit: AMD)

The dv2 will also come with WWAN (Wireless Wide Area Network) options as well as standard Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

Bahr Mahony, AMD's manager of mobile products, said in an interview that one of the few ultraportables available today with discrete graphics is the MacBook Air, but this starts at a whopping $1,800. (The Air uses Nvidia's GeForce 9400M graphics and Intel's Core 2 Duo low-voltage processors.)

The Athlon Neo platform can handle 1080p HD playback and a "casual" gaming experience with realistic 3D graphics, using the optional ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3410 graphics chip.

AMD's Athlon Neo processor--formerly code-named "Huron" under the platform codename "Yukon"--runs at 1.6GHz and has a power envelope of 15 watts, comparable to Intel ULV (Ultra Low Voltage) Core 2 Duo processors that power ultraportables today.

AMD's Neo does fall short in one respect, however. Currently it is only single-core, whereas Intel ULV processors are dual-core at a comparable power envelope, and, moreover, typically integrate 6MB level-2 cache memory to boost performance. AMD's Neo has only 512K of cache memory.

A dual-core chip, code-named "Conesus," will come in the second half of this year, according to AMD's Mahoney.

The first HP Pavilion dv2 ultrathin notebook is expected to be available from HP in the second quarter.