AMD launches Trinity APU microprocessors: Ultrabooks don't have to be as costly as the Mac

Purists and most Mac fans have been saying that Intel-sponsored ultrabooks are poor copies of the MacBook Air.

While these significantly thin laptops, which are PC makers' varied attempts at creating laptops as anorexic as Steve Jobs' ultraportable computer, may look like the MacBook Air, they are not MacBook Airs. In terms of performance and wow factor, ultrabooks are just light years short of the MacBook Air.

AMD's Trinity processor offers hardware manufacturers the ability to make ultrathin laptops that cost less but are just as powerful as the Intel-powered ultrabooks.

And to add insult to injury, most of the ultrabooks come just as expensive as Apple's bestselling thin computer, or at least hideously more expensive than conventional, thicker-girded laptops.

Nokia launches 1 Series of mobile phones: Nokia 110 and Nokia 112

Seeking to regain its long-held and recently lost crown as the world's largest vendor of mobile phones, Nokia today launched its 1 Series of affordable handsets. But in a twist of some sort, instead of the usual low-cost mobile phones, the Finnish company came up with the Nokia 110 and Nokia 112.

Nokia 110 offers users an inexpensive yet fast means of connecting to the Internet, its vendor says.

Now, these phones may be inexpensive, but they offer young and urban consumers a fast and affordable means of connecting via social networks. They come with the Nokia Browser, an Internet browser Nokia claims reduces data consumption by up to 90 percent. This means the phones offer online access, while saving their users in terms of time and data costs.

Apple Insider's take on Siri's choice for the best smartphone ever

Much have been written about Siri reportedly choosing the Lumia 900 over the iPhone as the best smartphone ever. I guess, it's about time we look at how the quintessential fanboi source, Apple Insider, views the whole thing.

Siri said Nokia's Lumia 900 is the best smartphone ever. Maybe she needs to drink more kool aid.

The story itself is fair and level headed. Comments posted by fan, er, readers are something else, however. A couple or so even threatened to stop visiting the site for Apple Insider having the "gall" to publish such a blasphemous story.

I guess, owning an iPhone doesn't really add that much to one's IQ or reading comprehension. To be fair, however, owning a smartphone, in general, doesn't have that effect on most users.

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HP ready for another tablet love affair, with Windows 8

Bangkong Post, in one of its recent stories, said that HP is preparing to get back into the tablet ring. But this time, HP, one of the largest hardware companies in the world, will come armed with Microsoft's next-generation operating system, Windows 8.

The TouchPad, HP's WebOS-based tablet, failed to ignite sales.

In 2011, the company had to make a hasty and embarrassing exit from the tablet computer market after the dismal showing of its WebOS-based TouchPad tablet. After this, few analysts and observers believed the company would ever try coming up with a consumer-oriented tablet computer again.

HP is hoping its Windows 8-running tablets would do better than the TouchPad did.

The company, however, has been selling Windows 7-powered tablets to corporate clients in several industries, including manufacturing, healthcare, and hospitality markets. Also, HP, even before the TouchPad fiasco, had been in talks with Microsoft regarding future Windows 8-based tablet computers.

Will the market be more favorable for the Windows 8 tablets from HP than it has ever been for the TouchPad? I guess, we'll find out by the time the holidays shopping season gets here.
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Much ado over a hoodie

Recently, Bloomberg ran a story about an investment analyst not cool with Zuckerberg's hoodie. 


“Mark and his signature hoodie: He’s actually showing investors he doesn’t care that much; he’s going to be him,” Pachter said in an interview on Bloomberg TV. “I think that’s a mark of immaturity. I think that he has to realize he’s bringing investors in as a new constituency right now, and I think he’s got to show them the respect that they deserve because he’s asking them for their money," said Michael Pachter, an analyst for Wedbush Securities.


Pachter is clearly not a fan of hoodie-wearing tech entrepreneurs, or perhaps, of all company founders who never wear a suit and a tie when meeting with potential investors.


His sartorial tastes notwithstanding, Pachter seems mistaken about one thing, most of all: Zuckerberg is not asking for the investors' money. It is the other way around. The investors are asking, in fact, begging, to be allowed to put their money where they believe more than 100 percent they are going to earn plenty more.


This corner says: Keep the hoodie, Mr. Z!


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$99 Xbox 360 with Kinect now official, The Verge reports

Tech blog The Verge recently posted an online story confirming that, indeed, Microsoft is offering a $99 Xbox 360 bundled with Kinect and a two-year subscription to Xbox Live Gold service.

While some analysts promptly pointed out that the deal would ultimately cost the consumer more, most observers, however, believe that with such a low initial investment, more gamers can afford Microsoft's gaming console.

Also, while we would be understandably reluctant to dub Microsoft as being a model of charity here, its low-cost move for the Xbox 360 will certainly prolong the gaming platform's hold on the gaming market's number 1 position.

Great marketing move, and a nice attempt to adopt the "mobile phone model" for the console market, we'd say.

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Samsung's Galaxy S III Runs Windows Phone: Best of Possible Worlds

Samsung continues pushing the envelope with the latest version of its Galaxy S smartphone, the Galaxy S III (or S3, whichever you prefer).

Powered by a 1.4GHz quad-core Exynos processor, 1GB RAM, and a GPU that the company claims runs 65 percent faster than the Mali 400 that comes with the Galaxy S II, the latest Galaxy phone comes with a removable 2100mAh battery.

Windows Phone-powered Samsung Galaxy S III: Best of possible worlds

Nokia is running out of time. Fast

A story published recently by the Wall Street Journal presents a diagnosis of what's ailing Nokia, the world's erstwhile largest mobile phone maker. What is striking about the analysis, apart from its accuracy, of course, is how balanced the author's take on Nokia's predicament is.

Unlike most other stories about Nokia's (and Microsoft's) smartphone misfortunes, this piece by WSJ does not have that "wicked" and "glee-filled, gloating" tone. While the author did not in anyway sugar-coated his analysis of Nokia's problems, he presented a reality-based look at the options that the company may take to get out of the dismal situation.

Indeed, time is running out fast for Nokia. It definitely needs to come up with a "game-changing" device or two in order to reverse its painful decline into oblivion.

Nokia's road ahead is without a doubt going to be increasingly difficult, and getting out alive and well is never guaranteed, after all.

But there is hope. After all, Nokia has got what it needs to survive and prosper.