Surfaces. Turns out, the plural form of Microsoft’s new tablet range rolls off of the tongue with ease, but understanding the differences between the first two models may not be quite as easy — particularly for the everyman, or folks intimately familiar with Microsoft’s other Surface. Two editions — Surface for Windows RT and Surface for Windows 8 Pro — were unveiled today in Los Angeles, and while the exterior of each one looks nearly identical, the innards expose major differences in architecture. Let’s break it all down after the break, shall we? Surface [...]

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ASUS’s G-series has been warming the laps of gamers for a while, whether it’s the smart G74 or the elder statesman G73JH. The newest splinter of the G-team, however, is the G55 line. Right now, it’s the G55VW-DS71 that’s just had its specifications splayed out for all to see. It’ll be a quad-core i7-3610QM Ivy Bridge chip calling the shots, with a 2GB NVIDIA GTX 660M providing graphical backup. A solid 12GB of DDR3, 1,333MHz RAM and a 750GB HDD will come with the configuration mentioned here. There are two drive bays, though, so you can set it up to your liking, and [...]

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We know Ivy Bridge is close to landing, but when damn it, when? Until we know for sure, what about these new notebooks from HP that sneaked out with barely a flicker of ballyhoo. There are four new Pavilions on their way, the dv4-5000, dv6-7000, dv7-6000 and g4-2000. All of them are getting the Ivy Bridge treatment bar the g4, which sticks with Sandy Bridge. The dv4 and dv6 both sport 2.3GHz i7-3610QM processors, GeForce GT630M graphics, Beats Audio and 14-inch or 15.6-inch (1366 x 768) displays respectively. The dv7 model steps things up with a 2.6GHZ i7-3720QM chip, GeForce GT 650M graphics [...]

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This year’s laptops are set to be all about one word: Ultrabooks. The term Ultrabook is actually pure marketing, dreamt up by Intel for a new generation of portable PCs featuring its technology. Like Centrino but unlike Viiv, it’s starting to stick as a catch-all term for thin and light laptops, or ultraportables as they’re sometimes classified. The best way to think of an Ultrabook is a MacBook Air that isn’t made by Apple, a netbook that isn’t underpowered or a laptop that’s been on a crash diet. Ultrabooks all feature a Core i3, i5 or i7 processor, plus fast [...]

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In May Linux finally saw the release of kernel version 3.0, an evolutionary update to the popular open-source platform that was nearly 15 years in the making. Today, version 3.1 is making its debut, once again primarily offering small tweaks like better support for Intel’s Ivy Bridge and Cedar Trail chips and improved power management. But there are some new features getting baked in, including support for NFC and drivers for Wiimotes. The brave amongst you can download the sources from Git now (it hasn’t been posted to Kernel.org just yet), but we suggest you hold out until your distro [...]

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In between talking up the impending Intel smartphones Paul Otellini, Intel CEO, also today made some very definite announcements about how far down the road the company is regarding the next die-shrink down to 14nm. In 2012 we will see the launch of the Ivy Bridge platform, the die-shrink from 32nm down to 22nm of the second-generation Core processors, code-named Sandy Bridge. This new setup is also expected to accelerate the trend towards the new Ultrabooks which are set to be Intel’s key product from IDF 2011. On the same 22nm lithography will follow the Haswell platform in early 2013. [...]

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Intel is aiming to take on the MacBook Air in the superthin laptop category, with a new, surprisingly affordable range of Ultrabooks. Intel claimed at Computex back in May that it thinks Ultrabooks “will make up 40 per cent of the market by the end of 2012.” Sub-$1000 sweet spot And that’s no idle boast, if the latest news on the pricing plans for Ultrabooks are anything to go by, with strong suggestions that Intel is set to hit that all-important sub-$1,000 sweet spot price point. The latest news on Ultrabook manufacturing costs comes from Digitimes, which claims that Intel’s [...]

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Looks like 3D isn’t just a fad, folks, so long as we’re talking about silicon — Intel just announced that it has invented a 3D “Tri-Gate” transistor that will allow the company to keep shrinking chips, Moore’s Law naysayers be darned. Intel says the transistors will use 50 percent less power, conduct more current and provide 37 percent more speed than their 2D counterparts thanks to vertical fins of silicon substrate that stick up through the other layers, and that those fancy fins could make for cheaper chips too — currently, though, the tri-gate [...]

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