Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

So, Dell comes out with a new netbook.  At first, the Mini 12 was just a rumor, but it is all official.  It comes complete with a 12-inch display (up from their earlier Mini 9 model), although it is pretty much geared for the same crowd.  According to Dell, it is super for “teens, tweens, travelers and ‘Tweeters’ to surf the Web, chat with friends, blog, stream content, upload photos or enjoy online videos, music and games.” 

Keep reading to find out when you’ll be able to get one and what this thing is running.

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On Tuesday, October 14th, Steve Jobs announced a chipset that Apple worked on with Nvidia.  It resulted in a 16-core integrated GPU that’s in both the MacBook and MacBook Pro.  On Monday, Nvidia announced the desktop version of the GPU.  Nvidia is calling the chips the 9300 and 9400 mGPUs as they are half the size of standard integrated graphics, but can accomplish a lot more. 

While the specs aren’t included in the press release, the chips are pretty impressive.  They can transfer the entirety of video decoding from the CPU to the GPU, making it work much faster.  They also support Blu-Ray playback and Direct X10.  Keep reading for what apps can really take advantage of these new cards.

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While we have all come to expect that majority of these ultra-portable notebooks are very similar not only feature wise, but also in the way they look on the outside. However some new promo images from Asus and MSI are now offering (almost) the same image. Well, the image is actually the same, except for the fact they at least took the time to switch out the notebooks to show off their own product. The fact that two currently popular ultra-portable notebook makers are offering such a similar promo shot is just the tip of what seems like a slight controversy because this images has already been used in the past, showing off what appears to be a MacBook. Keep reading to check out the original image below…

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While the image could be completely faked, it would lead us to believe that Steve Ballmer is using a MacBook to run his presentations. What’s your call? The MacBook could have simply been Photoshopped in or possibly the MacBook is just running Windows, or maybe Ballmer has finally gone crazy and jumped ship.

Image [Flickr] Via [Gizmodo]

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How long does it take you to earn $10,000? For Charlie Miller, of Independent Security Evaluators and former NSA employee, it takes him about two minutes. Last Thursday, Miller won the PWN 2 OWN competition at the 2008 CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver, by successfully hacking a MacBook Air. In fact, Miller isn’t a newcomer. He is well-known as the first to successfully hack the iPhone back a year ago.

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In keeping with what seems like a Tuesday tradition for 2008, Apple has once again given us all something new. The store went down, the speculation began and with the return came some updated MacBook and MacBook Pro’s, both of which will be available immediately.

Starting with the MacBook line, they were given a speed boost along with more storage. The MacBook line still consists of the three “base” models and now offer the white model with either a 2.1 or 2.4 GHz processor with a 120GB and 160GB hard drive as the standard. The black model will offer the 2.4 GHz processor along with a standard 250GB hard drive. The MacBook also ships with 1GB of RAM on the low end and 2GB standard on the higher spec’d white model and black model, all three can handle up to 4GB total RAM. Pricing on the MacBook’s remain the same as before, which was $1,099, $1,299 and $1,499.

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Apple has certainly gotten a lot of buzz with their latest offering, the MacBook Air. There are a few Air’s out in the wild now, including John Mayer who was showing his off on a recent trip. The Air still is a little bit away from hitting the hands of us regular folk, however the reviews from the big guys are starting to trickle in. Lets see what they have to say:

Walt Mossberg; All Things Digital

If you value thinness, and a large screen and keyboard in a subnotebook, and don’t watch DVDs on planes or require spare batteries, the MacBook Air might be just the ticket. But if you rely on spare batteries, expect the usual array of ports, or like to play DVDs on planes, this isn’t the computer to buy.

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While Mr. Jobs is claiming the thinnest notebook, it seems that Toshiba may actually claim the lightest with their recent addition to the Portege R500 line. The soon to be released R500-11J will come in a just 11.14-inches x 8.49-inches x 0.76-inches/ 1-inches and weighs just 1.72-pounds. Overall the dimensions are pretty close to the 12.8-inches x 8.95-inches x 0.1-inches/ 0.76-inches found in the Air, that weighs in at about 3-pounds.

Similar to the MacBook Air, the R50-11J will include the 64GB SSD. In addition it will also feature a 12.1-inch WXGA Transflective LED at 1,280 x 800, 1.20GHz Intel Centrino Duo with Intel Core2 Duo Ultra Low Voltage U7600, 2GB RAM, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950, touchpad, Gigabit Ethernet, Buetooth, 3G+ and Wi-Fi (802.11 a/g/n). Similar to the MacBook Air it will also not include any optical drive.

The R500-11J will run Windows Vista Pro and be available later this month for 2500 euros or around $3600 US.

Via [Akihabara News]

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