Entries from November 2008 ↓

So it seems that AMD does want a chunk of the Netbook pie after all, announcing a pair of ultraportable platforms, dubbed ‘Congo’ and ‘Yukon’ respectively. Some tidbits taken from their recent Financial Analyst Day summary release:

• “Congo” is based upon the dual-core “Conesus” CPU with the RS780M and SB710 chipset.  “Yukon” is based upon a single-core CPU with the RS690E and SB600 chipset. While targeted at the ultra-portable market, these platforms have been designed to address a portion of the mini-notebook market, specifically those people who are dissatisfied with the limited experience offered by mini-notebooks.  “Yukon” is planned to be available in 1H09 followed by “Congo” in 2H09.
• AMD also announced the 2010 ultraportable notebook platform code named “Nile”.  “Nile” will feature the dual-core “Geneva” CPU utilizing DDR3 memory technology.
• In 2011, AMD plans to introduce the dual-core “Ontario” APU for ultraportable and mini-notebook platforms.

My take on this particular bit of info? While this is all very nice and forward looking, AMD’s basically saying that they’re only planning to make things available somewhere in late 2009; that’s almost a year away. Even if you take away the fact that the economy’s in the toilet, we’d still be betting that AMD’ll eventually announce some more delays here and there, given their recent track record of much chest-pounding but not delivering. Also, this just gives Intel a nice bit of time to further stake their claim on the netbook market with their Atom lineup.

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Imagine you’re a traveling salesman, and you’re finding it a little more than inconvenient to be pulling out your laptop for a presentation, only to discover that you can only handle so many people at one go at the local Starbucks, before they point out they can’t see what’s on the screen, or that the table’s a little too small to be crowding around.

Times like that, gadgets like the 3M MPro110 Pocket Projector could come in great handy. Battery operated, built using LCoS technology, fits into the palm of your hand; this is literally the smallest projector i’ve seen yet.

Quite recently made available on the sunny shores of Singapore, I had an opportunity to take the MPro110 out for a spin a day or two back, and here’s my take. A word of warning though, a great number of pictures lie waiting after the break.

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Finally, Malaysia gets their own Apple Online Store. While apple.com.my goes to a blank page for some reason, Malaysian Mac heads have had to put up with www.apple.com/my for quite some time now, with no proper online store in sight. Now, at least, the problem’s been solved. Check out the Malaysian Apple Online Store here.

To commemorate the ‘grand opening’, any Mac or iPod orders made from the new Malaysia Apple Online Store will get a (pretty fugly, IMHO) limited edition tee. Oh well, free is free, right?