Notebook Component Shortage May Hit In 2Q 2008

DigiTimes, citing unnamed industry sources, says the notebook industry may see components shortages if component suppliers are slow to expand capacity.

Notebook shipments from Taiwan makers will reach 25.98 million units in the second quarter of 2008, approximately the same as the volume for the third quarter of 2007, according to Digitimes Research. However, so far component suppliers have been slow to expand their capacity to meet strong demand, the sources revealed.

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MS Accepting Applicants for Next-Gen PC Design Competition

Microsoft's annual Next-Gen PC Design Competition is open for online entry submission until 11:59 p.m. EST Dec. 14. The competition aims to encourage ongoing enthusiasm for Windows-based PCs by engaging the imagination and creativity of the industrial design (ID) community and delivering a resource for the PC industry at large. With this competition, Microsoft hopes to identify great talent and spur a dialogue between the ID field, the PC industry and their shared customers regarding what makes a great PC fit their customers’ digital lifestyle.

IBM Pioneers Process to Turn Waste into Solar Energy

IBM today announced an innovative new semiconductor wafer reclamation process pioneered at its Burlington, Vermont manufacturing facility. The new process uses a specialized pattern removal technique to repurpose scrap semiconductor wafers -- thin discs of silicon material used to imprint patterns that make finished semiconductor chips for computers, mobile phones, video games, and other consumer electronics -- to a form used to manufacture silicon-based solar panels.

Daylight Saving Glitch Leaves Hangover For Some

Thanks to that brilliant “lets extend daylight savings to conserve energy” thingy the Congress pulled, many people (including us) have had minor headaches the with time change being moved back a week. But think of all the energy we are saving.

But Congress didn't just spring forward a little early this year. It's also is making us wait a week longer to fall back. Instead of changing this past weekend, we don't go back until next weekend. I thought most of the gadgets would know, but it appears not all of them got the message.

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OLPC Hits $200 Mark

Things just keep looking gloomier for the OLPC project. The XO, which was originally supposed to be $100 has just hit the $200 mark…when purchased in lots of 10,000. Doesn’t sound too good when you can get a full featured ASUS Eee PC for about the same amount.

The One Laptop per Child Foundation, founded by MIT Professor Nicholas Negroponte, has started offering the lime-green-and-white machines in lots of 10,000 for $200 apiece on its Web site

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RV670 and DX 10.1 Details

The folks at PC Perspective say they have some juicy RV670 and DX 10.1 details to share today. What kind of info you ask? How about 55nm and quad GPUs? Definitely worth the click to go check it out.

We got a hold of some interesting information on the upcoming RV670 graphics card from AMD just as the release of NVIDIA's 8800 GT card is about to ht. Coincidence? I think not.

Kyle's Input - Also a worthy read on DX10.1 is located here.

Microsoft's DirectX lead program manager has set the record straight on reports that DX10.1 will render the current crop of DX10-compatible hardware "obsolete."

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Cheaper 8800 GT

[H]'er Dom points out that Fry's online has the cheapest 8800 GT we have seen yet. This preorder EVGA card for $229.99. Read our 8800 GT review here.

Apple Says "No Credit Card, No iPhone"

Apple has just announced that no longer accepts cash for iPhone purchases and now limits sales to two per person to stop people from reselling them.

"Customer response to the iPhone has been off the charts, and limiting iPhone sales to two per customer helps us ensure that there are enough iPhones for people who are shopping for themselves or buying a gift," Kerris said. "We're requiring a credit or debit card for payment to discourage unauthorized resellers."

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Seagate to Close North Ireland Plant

Seagate Technology announced today that it is cutting almost 800 jobs and closing one of its manufacturing facilities in Northern Ireland.

Monroy did not know how much money the company would save from the move but said it is part of Seagate's ongoing effort to streamline operations. He said Seagate expanded substrate manufacturing at its facilities in Singapore and Malaysia last year while external suppliers have lowered their costs.

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Gaming News

Crysis Goes Gold @ Shacknews

Gears of War Almost Ditched Multiplayer @ Kotaku

Ninja Gaiden 2 Screenshots @ VE3D

Simpsons’ Writers Go Off On Rockstar @ Game Trailers

BFGTech GeForce 8800 GTS EE OC 640MB

On the same day that NVIDIA is kicking off the very affordable 8800 GT, we are getting our first official word on the new 8800 GTS part from BFGTech.

Lake Forest, IL – (October 29, 2007) – BFG Technologies®, Inc., the leading North American and European NVIDIA supplier of advanced 3D graphics cards, motherboards, power supplies and other PC enthusiast products, announced today the BFG NVIDIA® GeForce® 8800 GTS OC 640MB Extreme Edition PCI Express™ graphics card for a suggested retail price of $499 USD.

“By increasing the number of Stream Processors from 96 to 112 on our award winning BFG NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS OC 640MB graphics card,” said Dean Brady, Sr. Director of marketing at BFG Technologies, “we are able to give our new Extreme Edition an additional performance boost that our customers have come to expect from BFG.”

The BFG NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS EE OC 640MB is available exclusively at CompUSA.

BFG NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS EE OC 640MB:

• Core Clock: 565MHz vs. standard 500MHz
• Shader Clock: 1300MHz vs. standard 1200MHz
• Memory Clock: 1700MHz vs. standard 1600MHz

12-button Credit Card Embedded Authentication Device

[H] reader Ed C. sent me a link to this authentication device that is embedded on the credit card itself and has a built in keypad and alphanumeric display. Pretty spiffy if you ask me.

The 12-button Credit Card Embedded Authentication Device was developed by eMue Technologies and Innovative Card Technologies as a secure and user-friendly remedy for the persistent problem of electronic bank fraud. In order to guard against the $4 billion financial institutions lose annually to fraud, governments and banks worldwide are now requiring strong authentication for online banking and securities trading.

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