News Bits: Windows XP Life is Extended, Intel Decommisions Napa Processors, Toshiba Updates Satellites with HD-DVD

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Microsoft to keep selling XP until June 2008

To the anti-Vista crowd, you now have until June of next year instead of January 30 to buy a new PC with XP. Microsoft admitted that they were rather ambitious only planning to sell XP for a year following Vista's introduction; the company typically sells an OS for two years after introducing a new one.

Read More (Engadget.com)

Say goodbye to older Centrino CPUs

Intel will be starting to phase out old Napa and Napa refresh processors soon. The company has already issued a discontinuance notice regarding the Napa CPUs and the end of life (EOL) process will occur in November. The Napa platform CPUs being discontinued are the T2300, T2300E, T2400, T2500, T2600, and T2700. Intel will issue a discontinuance notice for the Napa refresh CPUs in January of 2008 and the EOL two months later in March; the to-be discontinued Napa refresh CPUs include the T5500, T5600, T7200, T7400, and T7600.

Some budget Celeron CPUs are also headed for the chopping block; the Napa platform Celerons including the 430, 440, and 450 will EOL in November and the 520 and 530 in March.

Discontinuing older processors will help Intel to cut costs and moves them closer to their goal of switching over to the 45nm process in two years.

Read More (DigiTimes.com)

New Toshiba HD DVD notebooks start at $1,150

Toshiba today introduced a total of six new Satellite notebooks starting at $880. Four include an HD DVD drive and start at only $1,150, bring HD DVD into the mainstream market. The 15.4-inch Satellite 7468 is the most economical HD DVD notebook - it features an Intel Core 2 Duo T5250 CPU, 2GB of RAM, a 200GB hard drive, and Intel X3100 integrated graphics. Without an HD DVD drive the laptop can be had for $1,000, and with a 160GB hard drive it can be had for $880.

Toshiba's 17-inch P205 desktop replacement series notebook now includes HD DVD as standard. The budget-friendly S7476 is $1,250 and includes the same specifications as the 7468. A higher-end $1,450 model includes a faster T5450 CPU, a larger 300GB hard drive, and a dedicated ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600 graphics card.

Finally, the top-of-the-line Qosmio AV425 includes the HD DVD drive, a 15.4-inch screen, T7250 processor, 2GB RAM, 300GB hard drive, and an Nvidia 8600M-GT for $1,650. A lower-end variant is available for $1,300 still including the HD DVD drive.

Satellite P205 Review
Satellite A205 Review
Qosmio F45 Review
Read More (TGDaily.com)

Digix Korea launches &quot;PINK ON&quot; notebook for the ladies

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Image courtesy AkihabaraNews

Digix Korea today launched the &quot;PINK ON&quot; notebook for the female buyers. As per the title the notebook is pink and also thin-and light, weighing in at 1.8kg and featuring a 12.1-inch widescreen display. CPU power is provided by the Intel Core 2 Duo; other features include built-in wireless, a 7-in-1 card reader, and a 2 megapixel built-in webcam. Prices range from 745,000 Won to 930,000 Won ($814 - $1,017) depending on configuration.

Read More (AkihabaraNews.com)

 

thats a short bit, but the XP thing is cool. The... uhh... pink is.... odd

 

Who's heard of a Digix Korea laptop maker? The pink is eww. It's just not the right shade.

 

too bad toshiba build quality sucks!

 

Does not that pink laptop look familiar? Oh! its a metallic finished Clevo.

 

Well, that could be why Intel demoed Nehalem on XP. I guess by the time it launches in H2 2008 they expect manufacturers to still be using XP with it. Microsoft is extending the life of XP even before SP3 is released. If SP1 doesn't create the swell of Vista conversions that people are anticipating and SP3 closes sufficient security holes in XP while maintaining stability, MS may yet be extending XP's life again next year.

 

Awww... the Core Duos are being discontinued. My M90 is getting old...

 

Aren't the Core Duo's power usage lower than C2D's? I find it sad that the battery life of laptops keeps dropping as the cpu's get newer. =( I hope the 45nm process will reverse this trend.

 

is microsoft starting to admit that windows vista is a bust?

 

I second that for my nw8440....Core Duo T2600...But it's only a year old! WTF?!

On the other issues: It's good that M$ is x-tending the life of xp (pun intended), with so many people still using it and all the problems VI$TA is having.

Toshiba is making a big mistake with HD-DVD. Blu-ray is going to win, hands-down. I see many more Blu-ray titles in stores than I do HD-DVD titles. Oh well.

And for the pink laptop... I guess the people who make Pepto-Bismol will be happy with it; otherwise, it's hideous!

 

I must have that pink laptop. That thing is hideous.

HIDEOUSLY AWESOME!

 

Does this mean those T7200s are gonna go down in price?

 

If it makes you feeling better, I am still using Dothan Pentium M....

Granted, it's 3 years old, and probably the last Intel mobile processor that actually reduces power usage while improving performance, but...

 

Hmm, I don't think either side of the HD format war is going to win. Both are probably going to end up coexisting, since both have some major strong points, and big-time production houses have already picked sides. Actually, once HD DVD/Bluray players become more common and cheaper, those will be the ones to buy.

 

No, it will not go down in price and neither will any of the other processors. No reason to lower the prices.