News Bits: Asus A8Jr, Apple''s $1.99 802.11n Patch, More LED Notebooks in 2008

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Asus A8Jr features ATI Mobility Radeon X2300 graphics

The Asus A8Jr notebook series is the first to feature ATI's Mobility Radeon X2300 graphics card. According to a press release by Asus, “The new ATI Mobility Radeon X2300 will boost graphical performance, and utilize ATI’s HyperMemory management technology to deliver enhanced ‘performance-per-watt’ operations. It will also offer Certified for Windows Vista 3D graphics that supports the visually stunning Windows Aero user interface.” The laptop also has high-definition support.

Read More (64-Bit-Computers.com)

Apple to charge $1.99 for 802.11n software patch

Apple, who had initially announced it would charge $4.99, now says that it will charge $1.99 for the 802.11n software patch to enable 802.11n functionality on nearly all Core 2 Duo-based MacBooks or MacBook Pros. Apple says that it is forced to charge money for the download because of generally accepted accounting principals. Apple spokeswoman Lynn Fox told CNET News.com in an email that &quot;During the past several months Apple has shipped some Macs with the hardware to support 802.11n, but the draft of the 802.11n specification was not complete enough to create the required software. Now that the draft specification is complete, we are ready to distribute the software to make the 802.11n hardware in these Macs come to life.&quot;

It should be noted that GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principals) experts claim that what Apple is saying about the need to charge money is not true.

Read More (CNET News.com)

Asustek says LED-based notebook market to take off in 2008

According to Asustek, once LED backlighting takes up 10% of the notebook-use backlighting market, the LED-based notebook market will take off shortly after.

Using LEDs as a backlight source in place of traditional CCFL (cold-cathode flourescent lamp) lighting will result in a power consumption reduction of 1-2W in 12.1&quot; - 14.1&quot; notebooks, which could mean an extra 30-45 minutes of battery life. Asustek already has one LED notebook, the Asus U1F.

LEDs are currently twice as expensive as CCFLs at the moment; it is expected LEDs will only cost 20% more than CCFLs by 2008.

Read More (DigiTimes)

Apple to charge $29 for Boot Camp

DailyTech reports that according to a report at MacScoop, Apple will charge users $29 for the final release of Boot Camp. Boot Camp has been available as a free public beta since Apple first transitioned to Intel processors in early 2006.

The cost of the software is not entirely certain, but the fact that Apple will charge is. Boot Camp is currently expected to debut with Apple's next-generation codename Leopard operating system in the Spring.

Read More (DailyTech)

Compal to ship over 20 million notebooks in 2007

Compal says it will ship over 20 million notebooks in 2007, up from the 14.5 million it shipped in 2006. Compal had previously said it would ship 17-18 million notebooks in 2007 and did not explain the increased projection.

Compal may have difficulty in its aim to become the world's number one notebook manufacturer. Notebook shipments from Quanta are expected to gain momentum and reach roughly 25 million in 2007. Compal and Quanta have nearly the same manufacturing and managment capabilities, and Compal will have to apply agressive pricing to make a dent in orders from other makers.

Read More (DigiTimes)

 

What's up with Apple being the evil giant that wants to extort money from everyone of late? Oh well, I guess Windows charges for different levels of their OS and Apple has a right to charge for the extra Boot Camp feature, but gut instinct says they're going to turn off people that want to use Windows on a Mac -- I would think making that free would attract more buyers to the platform.

 

Hmmm...I think the $29 for Boot Camp won't work...I thought it was going to be a feature installed into Leopard?

I mean, as if buying a copy to run Windows on Mac wasn't enough, now Apple wants people to pay $30 bucks for just being able to install Windows?

The A8Jr sounds interesting. I was surprised you didn't talk about PROPortable's preview of the VX2.

 

I'm excited to see those LED backlit screens. I wonder how they will compare to a typical screen these days. And with significantly extra battery life, its an awesome thing for the notebook market.

 

I'm surprised - all this Beta testing of Boot Camp is mostly useless, since now people are going to want Vista (and bootcamp has mostly been beta tested on XP).

 

rock solid heart touching
is one of the worst business mottos ever.

 

The Vaio TX series uses LED backlighting and I think so does the Fujitsu Lifebook P7120. With my experience with comparing the Vaio TX screen and the one in my Compaq V3000, the TX's is definately better. It is brighter and the colors are more accurate, after looking at that screen, the one on my Compaq now has a reddish hue to it.

 

Haha! My same feeling, stamar. I don't get why they use it. Asus builds great laptops and everything, but some of the things they do people just don't understand.

 

Some of Apple's decisions are head-scratchers I'll admit. It is not an easy task to get people to start paying for something that they've already had for free. Or to get them to pay for something they already own.

20 million more Compals in the world next year .

 

If the A8Jr come with X2300, y the hell is the V2Jp with only X1450??? lol.....I though the V2 will replace the A8 soon, but now doen't seem like it.

 

I don't think the V2 series is designed to be a direct replacement of the A8 series. The A-series and V-series are completely different offerings.

 

Apple are cash cows evidently.

I would bet $20 that Apple will start to charge to download drivers/updates off their website but iTunes already took that twenty away from me.

 

a8 represents a large percentage of all the notebooks sold under the asus brand, like half

All the new gpus will be introduced in the a8. Some might not make it to NA but thats the asus gaming notebook.

v series is like the business line it will not have the gpus introduced. even the x1450 was introduced on the a8

When the a8 gets replaced, its going to be called something like a8xx with the santa rosa in may

 

Hmm. I didn't even know they were out yet. Shows you how much I pay attention. I want to see one, I guess the color accuracy is much better than a typical LCD? Google time.

 

Whenever I see "Hyper memory" and gaming performence I know marketing has worked overtime again . I'm not sure 2300 will be faster then a 1600 ( remember the x1300 compared to "old" x700 and even 9700 ) , maybe its just a 1300 with DX10 support ?

Whats up with Asus anyway , does painting a laptop WASD keys green making it a gaming laptop ?

 

There's a pretty important deal missing about that Boot Camp story. Boot Camp is going to be included for free as part of Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard). It has always been touted specifically as a feature of Leopard, and the current beta has basically been presented as a way to try out the feature currently before Leopard comes out.

The way this story is presented basically seems to be done to make Apple look like they are gouging people, but that really isn't the case. Boot Camp wasn't ever said to be something that would be even available for Tiger in its final version, much less for free. The general understanding has been that one would need to buy Leopard in order to use the final version of Boot Camp.

What Apple is doing here is giving people a choice to just buy Boot Camp for $30 if they don't want to pay to actually upgrade to Leopard (which would cost $130 or so). Again, considering that there previously wasn't any indication that a final version of Boot Camp would even be available to Tiger users, this seems to be a nice deal for people who want to continue using Boot Camp but don't want to pay to upgrade to Leopard.

Aside from that, there are still some questions about what would happen to someone who doesn't upgrade to Leopard and doesn't buy Boot Camp, but wants to continue using their Boot Camp partition.

The Boot Camp software itself is really just the dynamic partitioner and the associated Windows Drivers, etc. Once you set up a Windows partition and install Windows, there isn't specifically anything you need to use Boot Camp for. So someone who already has used it would presumably be able to keep using their existing partitions, etc. I think the one thing they couldn't do is use the beta Boot Camp software to resize their partitions, create new ones, etc.

While it would certainly be nice if Apple decided to make the final version of Boot Camp available to Tiger users as well, it isn't something I would have expected (and again, I wasn't expecting Boot Camp to be even available in a final version for Tiger), and it isn't something I would necessarily villify Apple over.

-Zadillo

 

wth is a x2300 ?

a DX10 Card ?

how much video ram ? memory bandwidth ? 3d 2006 score ?

 

I don't think there are any details yet about it beyond what Asus has said. All that we know for sure is that it's a DirectX 10 GPU, and is the equivalent in the new line to the old X1300. But Asus at least seems to indicate that it offers better performance-per-watt, so it might get better performance and require less power than the X1300.

There will presumably be an X2600 part comparable to the X1600, etc.

 

Sorry, I strongly disagree. While I'd say that Apple hasn't lied, since it always stated that BootCamp was beta and time-limited, charging US$30 for a bootloader and drivers is outrageous. If Leopard is gonna cost US$130, than one fourth of its cost is the ability to run another OS? Of course, this is mostly a marketing stunt to force people to migrate to Leopard. I am very happy there are already free bootloaders that work with EFI. People seem to have forgotten that Apple only released BootCamp after people manage dto get Windows installed on their own. I intend to buy Leopard eventually, but attitudes like these from Apple seriously pisses me off.

 

Well, I can't argue with what pisses you off. I would say however that $30 represents the cost of getting Boot Camp with Tiger specifically; it doesn't necessarily mean that they are saying that 1/4th the cost of OS X 10.5 Leopard is represented by the presence of Boot Camp.

I don't think it's really a marketing stunt though; if it was about forcing people to upgrade to Leopard, why give people running Tiger the option to even purchase Boot Camp? It would be a lot easier in that regard to just not make it available at all, and force anyone who wanted the functionality to pay full price for Leopard. I really do think this is about letting people who have been running the Boot Camp beta have a way to continue using the Boot Camp software without having to pay $130 for Leopard if they don't want to.

I'm sorry that this pisses you off, but I really don't think that Apple is showing any specific attitude here beyond what is seen on the surface. Apple wasn't going to make Boot Camp available for free for Tiger owners, and $30 is not really an insane amount of money (aside from the boot loader and drivers, it also does include the dynamic repartioning tool as well). I think it is nice that Apple is making it an option for Tiger owners at all, rather than just taking it away completely and forcing a $130 upgrade.

I don't think the Boot Loader aspect is necessarily even a specific component of Boot Camp (you mentioned free EFI bootloaders) in terms of what the software entails. As I've always read it, the actual Boot Camp software is essentially the software that you use to create the separate Windows partition, handle the Windows install, and then install the Windows-specific drivers.

Although again as well, I'm not sure that someone would need to even buy this if they've already partitioned their system using the Boot Camp beta. As far as I can tell there's no reason that the existing partition would stop working, etc, since it would already have been created. Someone would really only need to buy this I think if they wanted to do something new with their partitions or create new ones after the beta expires, and they didn't want to upgrade to Leopard.

Anyway though, I don't think I'm going to change your mind or something on this; just wanted to present my views on this.

-Zadillo

 

I would not be so sure on that one. There are reports that with the completed merger of AMD/ATI, AMD is doing a lot of product renaming.

The "X2300" is apparently the M64-S, and the M64 is the X1450. If you put 2 and 2 together, then the X2300 will be nothing more than a renamed X1450.

Links here, here and here. Although as with internet forums, take everything with a grain of salt.

ATI have done this before with the Radeon 8500 getting renamed as the 9000 series. And NVIDIA is equally guilty in this respect.

 

oh gawd
reading that gpu argument was like having teeth pulled out.

 

I think you're wrong about the 8500 being the 9000.
It's true that the naming of the product 9000 is DISGRACEFUL as it's not DX9 (they'd always followed this naming pattern. All 8xxx were DX8 all 9xxx were DX9.)
I can't tell you how annoyed I was by this, as it's fooling the average joe schmoe.
Still, I'm pretty sure the 9000 was inferior to the 8500

I'm really curious about the x2300.
It had BETTER be DX10 of it's worthless

I understand that new products need new names. But they shouldn't be used for marketing lies.

I'm fine that the x2300 is named higher than a x1900 (despite being significantly slower) as long as it's got new features. Like DX10.
If not, names are worthless. Well all have to dissect a gfx card before buying anything

 

doesn't Apple use an Intel wireless card? what card do they use that is capable of N???

 

Yay for ASUS LED notebooks =3

 

It's a good question, there had been some speculation that it was a Broadcom card or something, but I've already read that it is in fact an Intel part (and that Apple was actually waiting to hear about this new 802.11n update from Intel before deciding whether to make the functionality unlockable on existing MacBooks, etc.).