News Bits: Sony VAIO AX, Intel Instant Boot Technology, AMD Outsells Intel

Sony VAIO AX 17"Screen Multimedia Notebook Announced

Sony VAIO AX 17" laptop (view larger image)

Fivedays went by without the announcement of a new Sony VAIO notebook, we were getting worried, but fear not -- the next VAIO release is here in the form of the Sony VAIO AX 17" multimedia laptop. Here's what Sony tells us in their press release:

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Sony is taking entertainment lovers on the ultimate joyride. The new VAIO AX Digital Studio PC is the pinnacle of mobile multimedia performance, combining the power of a desktop with the convenience of a notebook.

Featuring a stunning 17" WXGA+ widescreen (measured diagonally) display with Sony's original XBRITE LCD technology, the VAIO AX notebook delivers brilliant clarity and true-to-life color, for beautifully crisp playback of photos, home videos and DVDs. Users can also watch and record high-quality television with a removable TV tuner and Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. You can even create a digital library for personal viewing at your convenience, using the DVD+R Double Layer/DVD RW drive with Sony's Click to DVD software.

The VAIO AX notebook includes a unique multi-function bay, so you can add exactly the components you want to use. The simple swapping of powerful peripherals -- a TV-tuner Bay Unit, a DVD+R Double Layer/DVD RW Bay Unit, an optional CD-RW/DVD-ROM Bay Unit, an optional 80GB HDD Bay Unit, and an optional HDD Adapter Bay Unit -- allows you to switch from TV entertainment system to high-capacity storage device in a matter of seconds. The optional docking station with an additional multi-function bay provides even more options.

"Sony knows that entertainment and computing mean different things to different people," said Mike Abary, vice president of VAIO product marketing for Sony Electronics in the U.S. "The AX notebook provides users the swappable components to create their own dream machines and we provide the fixed hardware and design to back them up no matter what they choose to do."

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Intel Demonstrated Robson Cache Technology Allowing for Near Instant Bootup

Intel unveiled a new cache technology called "Robson cache technology" at a developer conference in Taiwan. Using thisnon-volatileNAND flash memory as a source for booting form, a Centrino laptop demonstrated booted up almost immediately whileanother Centrino machine took several seconds. In addition, opening Adobe Reader on the Robson based machine took 0.4 seconds while the other machine took 5.4 seconds.

According to Intel, by using the Robsoncachetechnology, "You get power savings because there's no need to spin the disc when you access applications."

Although Intel declined to go into specific details on how Robson works, Eden said the technology is mature enough to share it with computer makers. More information will be revealed later, he said.

Inteloffered no time frame for when Robson would become available to users, saying only that PC makers will be a major factor in how fast it gets to market.

More: http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,123053,00.asp

AMD Outsells Intel in Retail for September

According tomarket analysis, therewere more AMD based PCssold in September than Intel based PCs. This is a first time ever forthe PC industry, and certainly a positive sign for AMD and their efforts and a rather baffling stumble on the part of Intel given their huge size advantage over AMD.

More: http://www.tgdaily.com/2005/10/14/amd_outsells_intel/index.html

World's Most Beat Up but Still Working Laptop

We all grow somewhat attached to our gadgets at times and want to hold onto them, and with laptops the extra incentive is that they're costly so you want to get as much use out of them as possible. But this laptop (used to be an Apple PowerBook G3), reported on by The Inquirer,is ridiculous:

More: http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=26977

Laptop Sushi Dinnerware Set

Are you obsessed with laptops? Do you like Sushi? First of all, that means you could be Japanese or at least a fan of Japanese culture, second of all you need to buy the Sushi Laptop dinnerware set:

More: http://www.yosoh.com/download.html

New Acer Laptop Has Built-in VOIP Phone

We've recently seen Sony and Lenovo build computers with built-in cellular based modems for fast 3G wireless access, so in a way they're using telecommunication technologies, but we have not seen a laptop with an actual phone built into it. But Acer is changing that with the announcement and demonstration of a laptop that has a builtin VOIP phone so you can place calls using your laptop.

More: http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/10/17/HNacerlaptop_1.html?source=rss&amp;url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/10/17/HNacerlaptop_1.html

 

Gotta love the Japanese and their crazy ideas, and crazy taste in clothes(Harajuku girls )

Instant bootup...nice

 

The AX looks exactly like the 17" version of the BX, complete with an X700 (sigh...).

 

1. your "amd outsells intel" link is invalid. try this one:
http://news.com.com/2061-10791_3-5894870.html

2. your citation of the news event is taken out of context. this is for "desktop" retail only. if you include notebooks, there is no way amd outsold intel.

 

The instant on laptop, crazy. I was just talking about this the other day to my friend. I gotta love technology. I just wonder when this will be buyable to the "normal" people?

 

My thoughts exactly. I see this as no surprise given that people who buy desktops in B&M stores go for value oriented or mid-tier desktops where AMD has already held control for a long time. Sorry AMD people, but this is vastly out of context on 3 levels.

1 & 2) The figure only includes U.S. retail. It does not take into account direct PC sales, which means Dell is excluded entirely.

3) It also excludes notebook sales. It should also be noted that notebooks make up the majority of the market now, and that's where Intel still holds the edge.

 

i must have been tired or temporarily inhibited when i read that article, although I do have to say that on the tgdaily site in bold letters the head of the article got me a little excited and mislead

San Diego (CA) - AMD scored a major win against Intel during the back-to-school season. According to Current Analysis, AMD outsold Intel for the very first time in US retail over the period of a whole month. More than half of all computer systems US stores sold during September carried an AMD processor.

http://www.tgdaily.com/2005/10/14/amd_outsells_intel/index.html

something like 5 paragraphs down they start to talk about media center pcs, and it does make a whole lot more sense that AMD would outsell in this category and not notebooks.