News Bits: 955XM Axed, 15.4" Notebooks Popular, Dell Forum Shutdown, Google Earth

Intelto Axe ProducingHigh End 955XM "Napa" Family Chipset Processors in 2006

Taiwanese motherboard makers have indicated that Intelhas dropped any plans to produce it's upcoming high-end 955XMchipset. The 955XM chipsetis part of the upcoming "Napa" family of Pentium M processors (yes, another wine country code name to go with "Sonoma")that was to support up to a whopping4GB of DDR 2 SDRAM and have a 667MHz FSB. Instead of continuing work on the 955XM, Intel is upgrading the other twoNapa chipsets, the 945PM and 945GM, to support 4GB of memory. Originally these were to supportup to 2GB maximum RAM. There's no specifics as to what will be lost by Intel not releasing the 955XM, so we'll all remain blissfully ignorant.

Dell Customer Care Forum Shut Down

Dell is one of the few manufacturers that are willing to host forums on their own site and allow them to be regulated by non Dell employee moderators. In other words, Dell forums are not censored against complaints towards Dell and anything goes within reason. But Dell this week decided that the "Customer Care" forum needed to go. Dell claims that the proper channel for customer care questions is through their tech support or online chat directly with Dell employees, and not in this forum. Now if you try and visit the forum (http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums?category.id=customer_care)you get this screen:

According to a post on the Dell forums (http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=cc_general&message.id=69758)

"Effective Friday, July 8, Dell's Customer Care board on the Dell Community Forum will no longer be available. Customers seeking assistance for general order support, rebate status, warranty information or invoice questions, can visit Dell's Order Status Web site or Chat with a Dell Customer Care representative. Because many of these issues can only be addressed by authorized Dell representatives with access to customer information, non-technical questions are best handled through other secure online tools."

Earth.Google.Com

http://earth.google.com/

There arehundreds of cool application out there, but I wanted to highlight one that's proven addictive for me. A few months ago Google bought a company called Keyhole. Keyhole had a technology that knitted together thousands of aerial images of the United States and some other areas of the world. By using these images you could buy their application and go on a virtual fight of the U.S. and see tons of map data and zoom in on your favorite locations. Google bought this application and is now giving it out for free. It's a super cool application that's a 10.0MB download. I highly recommend it as a fun utility and useful too. It's even a good way to test your graphics card because the app can actually be quite demanding on graphics as it scales and zooms across the US.

An overheadimage taken usingGoogle Earthof my alma mater, The Ohio State University in Columbus, OH (view larger image)

Business Week recently gave this application a review:

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jul2005/tc2005077_0258_tc081.htm

Strong 15.4" Notebook Salesto Power the Notebook Takeover of Desktop Sales

A market research group in Taiwan called Market Intelligence Center (MIC), says that notebook production in Taiwan will overtake the desktop PC segment for the first time everin 2005. No surprises there,that trend hasbeen a longtime coming. MIC says that sales of15.4-inch screen notebooks as substitutes for a desktop computer ishelping toaccelerate the desktop replacement trend, prices of 15.4" screen LCD panels (LCD screens are the most expensive part of a laptop) have dropped to the same price as 15" screens (both are $140 per LCD panel now) so manufacturers are thereby encouraged to produce more 15.4" screen notebooks rather than 15".

http://www.digitimes.com/systems/a20050713A2006.html

In 2006 MIC predicts that notebook production in Taiwan will be 53,149,000 units while desktop units will total 39,781,000. Who are all those people buying desktops still though? Remember,friends don't let friends buy a desktop computer.

Microsoft Remote Keyboard Announced, Available September

The Microsoft Remote Keyboard, which features a mouse and remote control functions for operating Windows Media Center PCs, is part of a larger effort by Microsoft to expand its flagship operating system into living rooms as entertainment hubs. Notebooks such as the Toshiba Qosmio features the Windows Media Center OS.

The $99 integrated keyboard, which features backlit keys and button for operating TVs and the computer, is the first designed specifically for a Media Center PC, said Matt Barlow, a director at Microsoft's PC hardware business.

More: http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/mouseandkeyboard/productdetails.aspx?pid=040

 

Dell oh Dell... when will you realize that while low pricing is good... sacrificing quality and support is not.

 

Abaxter, I went to Dells website and was able to access the community forum just now.

 

Its not the the whole community forum, but the Customer Care feedback forum...

http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board?board.id=cc_general