Apple has decided to use Intel’s upcoming Sandy Bridge processors in its MacBook line in 2011, a move that will see Nvidia’s graphics processors being chucked out of at least some models of the popular laptops

Current Apple notebooks use Nvidia graphics chips along with Intel Core i series and Core 2 Duo processors. But due to the enhanced graphics capabilities of Sandy Bridge, Apple–at least for now–has determined that it will not continue using Nvidia’s graphics processing units (GPUs) in some models. Continue Reading

It’s a move that’s been rumoured for a little while now, but Microsoft has officially announced that IE9 will have tools that control what data is collected about what a user does online. The tools will let people stop a site they are visiting sharing information about what they do with other sites.

Users will be able to create lists stating that their data will only be shared with sites they want to see it, according to a company blog post. Continue Reading

In their words, Nvidia says that with the level all performance under the hood in its new its GeForce GTX570 GPU, it will solidify their reputation “as the world’s number one brand for consumer GPUs”. Not short on confidence then, but having said that, the specs are pretty impressive all the same.

The GeForce GTX570.

The latest addition to the company’s GTX 500 series of DirectX 11 GPUs designed for PC gaming enthusiast platforms, comes with “the fastest performance for DirectX 11 games in its class”. Continue Reading

The phrase ‘a close source’ is usually tabloid parlance for ‘what the writer made up to suit the story’, however, when uttered by Taiwan based tech industry bible DigiTimes those words mean a whole lot more. So when a ‘close source’ tells them that the iPad 2 will begin shipping in 100 days you can be pretty sure there’s something to it.

The countdown is on for this guy to wait in line outside his local Apple store once more.

According to reports on the site, Foxconn Electronics’ plants in Shenzhen, China have recently been notified they will ship the follow up Apple’s phenomenally successful tablet PC in just over three months with initial shipments to reach 400,000-600,000 units. However, Foxconn declined to comment on its products or clients. Continue Reading

Alright, so yesterday we were pretty impressed with Microsoft’s announcement that after 25 days in the open, the Kinect had sold 2.5 million units. Obviously, the head honchos at Sony’s gaming division wanted to point out that their PlayStation Move was also doing quite well, with the company announcing last night that the motion controller had sold 4.1 million units thus far.

PlayStation Move sales numbers are certainly not a load of balls.

Ok, they launched two months earlier in September, but this is still impressive work from Sony. Continue Reading

Not satisfied with infuriating a generation via their smartphones, the makers of Angry Birds have announced that the game is set to be launched on the XBox 360, PS3 and even Wii.

Heading to a console near you soon.

Having been downloaded 36 million times on to people’s phones, the move towards consoles by creators Rovio doesn’t come as a major surprise, and next year should see major releases across the three machines mentioned above. Continue Reading

Okay, it’s the second mention of an Acer product launch today but even after the tablet announcements of this morning, the unveiling of the company’s Iconia dual-screen laptop is a bit too swish to ignore.

Early reviews say: ‘The touch functionality is pretty clever… but the keyboard, on the other hand, is pretty hard to use.’

The laptop-cum-tablet computer with two touch-screens sure looks the part anyway, and at its New York launch it was announced that those screens will be protected by ultra-tough, wonderfully-named, Gorilla Glass. In addition, it was revealed that the Iconia will use the Intel Core i5 processor, come with a minimum of 4GB memory and have up to 750GB worth of hard drive. Continue Reading

In the pipeline for some time, Acer has decided to make everything official and unveil a trio of new tablets. Mixing it up in the platform stakes, we’ll be seeing seven and ten-inch Android tablets as well as a ten-inch Windows 7 slate.

The ten-inch Windows 7 tablet will be the first of the three to go on sale, arriving in stores in February.

Starting with the smaller of the Android devices, the screen boasts a resolution of 1280 x 800, is 16:10 and has full touch capabilities. It has a front-facing camera and a dual-core processor, meaning Adobe Flash 10.1 is supported. The Acer tablet comes with both Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity and there’s DLNA connectivity on board. Continue Reading

Asus has released details of its latest Linux-based wireless-enabled e-book reader and digital notepad. The Eee Note EA800 will give those who invest in it a range of e-book, document, picture and music formats, with files kept on its 4GB of on-board Flash storage or on Micro SD cards you’ve inserted into it.

The Eee Note EA800.

There’s a 2Mp camera on board too, though how many people will make a purchasing decision based on a rather unnecessary camera is questionable. Still though, complaining about extras included is always nitpicking. It’s got an 8-inch, 768 x 1024 display that can do 64 levels of grey – more than E Ink’s best, Pearl, can manage – and 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, so there’s plenty to like here. Continue Reading

Alright, it’s sort of useless, in fact it will most likely cause problems for smartphone users rather than solve them but there really is something endearing about Arkwhat’s ’80s throwback iPhone case.

The ArkHippo 1 comes in seven colours.

Yep, bringing us back to the time when mobile phones were bigger than Peter Crouch in a fat-suit, the ArkHippo 1 case expands the girth of your iPhone to a pocket busting two inches, and – for the benefit of nothing else but giving it some old school flavour – comes with a fake antenna stub. Continue Reading