News Bits: New Colorful Gateway Notebooks, HP 6910p Review, DirectX 10 on Windows XP

<!-- Generated by XStandard version 1.7.1.0 on 2007-07-12T23:02:27 -->

Gateway introduces M-series and T-series notebooks

Image courtesy DailyTech.com

Gateway introduced two new notebooks today, the M- and T-series. The M-series is a 15.4-inch widescreen notebook and the T-series has a 14.1-inch widescreen display; both notebooks have Intel Core 2 Duo processors.

Features of both series include a built-in 1.3 megapixel webcam, HDMI, an integrated fingerprint reader, and an available ATI Radeon HD 2400XT graphics on the M-series. There are HD DVD and Blu-ray drive options.

The M-series has an available WUXGA (1920x1200) screen, allowing for full HD 1080p resolution.

The two launch models, the M6816 and the T6815, will be available for $899.99 in retail stores on July 22. Available color options include Crimson Red, Pacific Blue, and Slate Grey. Built-to-order versions, the M150X and T140X, will be available online starting at $999.99.

Read More (DailyTech.com)


HP 6910p reviewed

(view large image)

Forum member marmion has reviewed the HP 6910p in our forums. The 6910p is based on Intel's latest Santa Rosa platform and is designed for high performance. It has a traditional-looking design and excellent quality. According to the reviewer it is a worthy competitor to the Dell Latitude D630 and the Lenovo ThinkPad T61.
Read the in-depth review here.

NEC LaVie laptops have 3D paint job

Image courtesy Engadget.com

While there is nothing particularly striking about NEC's LaVie laptops, the company has refreshed the line's looks with a 3D paintjob. The special metallic paint magnetically displays a hologram-style pattern when surrounded by a magnetic field.
With the exception of the paintjob, there is nothing very significant about the 15.4-inch machines - they are available with AMD Sempron or Turion X2 processors. They are available only in Japan and start at about $860.

Read More (Engadget.com)


DirectX 10 is possible on Windows XP

he Inquirer is running a story on how it is possible to use DirectX 10 on Windows XP. According to the article, Microsoft has explained countless times that due to technical reasons, it is not possible to use DirectX 10 on Windows XP.

There was an odd turn of events - even though DirectX 10 required graphics memory to be a virtualisable, Nvidia did not have any success implementing this feature. Microsoft gave Nvidia a break and made GPU virtualization completely optional. In doing this, Microsoft removed the only obstacle to backporting DirectX 10 to Windows XP.

Read More (TheInquirer.net)


Dell's Taiwan Design Center to design business notebooks

Dell plans to have its Taiwan Design Center (TDC) extend its focus to develop more business class notebooks in addition to consumer models. Dell's recently-introduced Inspiron and Vostro business models were all designed at the TDC.

Starting in 2008, Dell will also have its TDC extend its focus to gaming notebooks.

Read More (DigiTimes.com)


Logitech MX Air Mouse revealed

Image courtesy Engadget

The MX Air Mouse is a new device from Logitech with the company's &quot;Freespace&quot; motion control - it has MEMS sensors and DSP along with 2.4GHz RF technology that allows for gestural motion-control and traditional surface mousing. It has a touch-sensitive scroll panel instead of a scroll wheel and dedicated media controls positioned down the center. It works up to 30 feet away from the PC.

It will ship in August for $150 in the US and Europe.

Read More (Engadget.com)

 

I remember reading about the M / T lines earlier this morning (maybe could you delete my thread then? hehe its in the Gateway subforum)

I also read about the Air - my GOD that thing looks awesome - I'd use it just as a regular mouse! Definitely matches Logitech's latest whole MX series of modern black / chrome styles... I am actually waiting for Logitech's new webcam (The Pro 5000 I think its called? Whatever their latest one with the Carl Zeiss lens)... I have the Edge keyboard and its SO nice

 

Woow I think WUXGA (1920x1200)res. on 15.4" Gateway M-series is overkill though it allows full HD 1080p.

 

Well, it's relative opinion I guess. I know some people that love and am perfectly fine with 1280x800 on their 15.4"s... /shudder

 

Yea 1680 x 1050 is good for me. Any more than that would be too hard to see. I remember Dell used to offer 1920 x 1200 resolution on the Inspiron 6000's back in the day. I am glad I stuck with 1680 x 1050.

 

I'm still used to 1680x1050 on my T60... I'd definitely like to give WUXGA a shot though ... things are starting to look too big now hehe

 

I need a new laptop. 1028x768 is getting SO painful...

 

I remember when XGA (1024x768) was like, *the* best...

I have a 6 year old laptop that has a native resolution of 1400x1050 (4:3 Aspect Compaq 1800T)... still works great...

I have learned to accept that not everybody strives for super high resolutions on small screens such as me - personal preference I guess.

 

Mmh, I wish I had 1680x1050, but I've got 1280x800...adn the upgrade to WXGA+ was an extra 70...>_>

 

Wow, I might have gotten the T-series if it has a dedicated graphics card. Pretty sleek, just like Dell's m1330. Are we seeing a shift in notebook design away from a boxy design to more wedge shaped? Still, I refuse to buy Gateway. Their customer service was terrible. My family had a nightmarish time getting a laptop back from the shop. Took 2 1/2 months for them to decide to not fix it and send us a replacement.

 

It looks like Engadget got their hands on an Air Mouse, check it out:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/12/unboxing-the-logitech-mx-air/
It really does look cool but A) it's not bluetooth and b) it's $150.

 

That mouse is hot

I can see it used in a HTPC scenario

 

Gateways new designs look interesting.

lol, it is so tempting to post a link to the NEC LaVie Hello Kitty laptop... but I will not for fear of hi-jacking a news bit.

 

So I'm the only one amused/excited about DirectX 10 being backportable to XP?

 

Isnt That Great??? We Dont Need Vista... Yay!!!!

Dx10 On Xp!!! Yes!!!!! :d

 

I'm running 1440x900 on my 17"; it's way too big, and things seem bigger all the time. Especially after I occasionally fire up 1400x1050 on my old 14" Dell. I still think WUXGA might be a bit much for a 15.4" laptop though.

 

Doesn't DX10 also depend heavily on the Vista driver model which is no longer as low level and doesn't have as much access to the hardware? I believe DX10 also added more requirements for more stringent permissions for security and also for stability. I'm not sure if DX10 games are actually programmed to expect that or can it be replicated on XP. DX10 also brought all the previously separate DX APIs like DirectDraw, DirectSound, etc. under a unified API. DirectSound itself has been depreciated. A full DX10 implementation on XP may well break quite a few things like sound, which may require porting Vista sound drivers back to XP. Plus in XP there is only 1 DX API: DX9. Adding DX10 will require figuring out how to make XP except 2 DX APIs, DX9 and DX10 just like Vista, and figuring out how to make XP smart enough to switch back and forth.

 

I want that air mouse -.-

 

I'm not a programmer, but my understanding is this...

DirectX is basically an abstraction layer that handles communication between the software and the hardware, translating function calls made by the program to hardware calls. That said, since the program itself is basically making calls to DirectX, DirectX itself can be altered in such a fashion that the same function calls can be made to work in a different environment.

This is all purely conjecture on my part, but it makes sense.

DX10 also didn't unify DirectSound into DirectX; DX10 killed DirectSound. It largely doesn't exist anymore, but makes a great case for OpenAL.

Beyond this, many industry people are speculating that since the key feature that really tied DX10 to Vista was more or less removed as a necessary compliance for DX10, there's nothing left to it that actually ties it to Vista, and I can believe this. Providing the drivers are written properly in XP to accept DX10 calls, there's really no limitation.

 

Yep, the article that this one links to forgets that DX10 is based on the WDDM driver model, which cannot be backported to XP without a complete kernel overhaul. There is no way MS is doing that. Forget it people, there will never be DX10 on XP.

Yes, DirectSound's replacement is XACT, which is pretty bad as I understand it. It is causing many problems for people in Supreme Commander, so much that Gas Powered is rumored to be making their own sound engine for the game.