Via to Release Dual Core Nano in 2010

According to Via’s processor roadmap, dual-core Nano processors are planned to go into mass production starting June 2010.[…]Via is said to be trying out a new strategy in which it will target emerging markets, such as those in China, Brazil, Russia and India. By offering its processors at low prices, Via could establish an early foot hold in these areas and steal market share away from Intel.

S3 Graphics Unleashes Full OpenGL 3.0 API Support with Beta Driver for Chrome 500 Series GPUs

Fremont, California, December 2, 2008 - S3 Graphics today released Beta drivers for the latest version of the OpenGL 3.0 API to take advantage of the Khronos Group's open, cross-platform 3D standard on the newly released Chrome 500 Series programmable GPUs. This major milestone allows software developers to start OpenGL 3.0 development on S3 Graphics hardware using the latest beta driver and GLSL 1.3 shading language on Windows XP and Vista.

S3 Graphics Unleashes Full OpenGL 3.0 API Support with Beta Driver for Chrome 500

S3 Graphics today released Beta drivers for the latest version of the OpenGL 3.0 API to take advantage of the Khronos Group's open, cross-platform 3D standard on the newly released Chrome 500 Series programmable GPUs. This major milestone allows software developers to start OpenGL 3.0 development on S3 Graphics hardware using the latest beta driver and GLSL 1.3 shading language on Windows XP and Vista. 

Qualcomm's snapdragon to zoom into netbook sphere

The recent announcement of snapdragon chipset architecture clearly reflects Qualcomm’s eye on the emerging markets. In its survey report on PC/handset vendors, JP Morgan unveils Qualcomm’s clear intention to grab a dominant market share in the netbook segment.

Intel Atom fails to cannibalise Celeron

A report said that Asustek, which has sold its Eee notebook like hot cakes this year, will replace Intel's Atom chip with the Celeron, and at the same time upgrade the unit's hard drive.According to Taiwanese wire Digitimes, Asus will sell a Celeron 220 based box for around $250, and upgrade its hard drive to 120GB.At the same time, Asus is apparently offering a bundle which includes a 19-inch LCD monitor for not that much more.

Post Production

Get Organized!

Once the filming is done the editing process begins.  This is really my favorite part of a production as it is when all the components come together.  It's also when most of the time needs to be spent in order to complete a video, so do be aware to leave enough time for the edit.  There is nothing worse for an editor than to be under pressure trying to make an unreasonable deadline due to lack of pre-production planning.

The first step though is, once again, get organized.  Anyone who has faced coming back from a shoot with hours of footage and umpteen photographs will agree with me on this, I am sure.  Log your footage and photos .. "log" meaning to describe the shot, with the clip reference no.  I personally prefer doing this as soon after a shoot as I can as everything is still fresh in my mind.  I jot down a note or two about the clip or picture, noting if there is anything particularly special I can use, like good ambient sound.  It gives me a chance to look through everything filmed and start to see an order to things. 

Once again your script is going to be your map.  It's always a good idea to record the voice track, if you have one, before you start the edit.  I will go more deeply in to recording voice tracks in another article but rest assured if a voice track, or narration, is included in your script, you will need the voice track, or a rough, working version of it, before you actually start to lay down the video clips. Have your music ready as well and your graphics.  Once you start to "build" the edit in the timeline you don't want to be scurrying around looking for various parts of the video.

Of course, everyone establishes their own work style but I always find laying the narration and some music first works well for me.  The edit is when you transcribe what up to now has been your written script, so it makes sense to lay voice tracks first.  This will determine the timings for your video, it will set the pace, show you where the shots need to go and where the music breaks need to happen, it will be your editing map.

S3 Graphics today announced it's support for the latest OpenGL 3.0 specification, a popular programming language for applications that produce and manipulate 2D and 3D computer graphics. S3 Graphics Chrome 500 Series cards, including the recently launched Chrome 530 GT, will now be able to take advantage of the most immersive OpenGL 3D gaming capabilities.

Most of us, even die-hard gamers, know little about shader languages, vertex array objects or 32-bit FP textures, yet these are vital tools for game developers attempting to create the next 3D gaming blockbuster. As graphics architectures like S3 Graphics' latest Chrome 500 Series continue to evolve, adding faster floating point operations per second and high frame rates, so too must the programming infrastructure that lies behind the curtain.

The continued development of API standards like OpenGL and DirectX allows game developers to graphically realize the fruits of their imagination more easily than ever before, creating whole new worlds in months not years thanks to carefully organized APIs that take away much of the grunt work. The latest 3.0 revision of OpenGL was announced earlier this year and adds a range of new features that should make realistic 3D imaging rendering both easier to program and more visually stunning than ever before. OpenGL is also used in the creation of video editing software like Adobe's Premiere Pro and After Effects, workstation and CAD applications.

S3 Graphics was first to market with support for the latest DirectX 10.1 standard. Today's announcement shows that S3 Graphics is as committed as ever to offering software developers the best possible software platform to work with.

The S3 Graphics Chrome 530 GT is avaiable to US customers now at the GStore

VIA VIPRO VP7710 Fanless Touch Panel PC

VIA introduces the VIPRO VP7710 Fanless panel PC, designed for industrial and commercial applications. The VIPRO VP7710 is powered by a VIA Eden ULV 1.6GHz or VIA C7 1GHz processor, up to 1GB of RAM, a 2.5-inch drive and integrated VIA UniChrome ProII 3D/2D AGP graphics with MPEG-2/4 and WMV9 video decoding acceleration. The VIPRO VP7710 Fanless Panel PC features a 10.4-inch TFT touchscreen display and WIFi 802.1b/g connectivity. VIA’s panel PC’s front panel is IP65 compliant against water and dust. There is also a Compact Flash (CF) Type 1 card slot. You can find also two USB ports, and a VGA connector. 

KELLNER: Netbook or notebook: Valuable portability

Perhaps. Go anywhere - even Costco - and you'll find "netbooks," tiny portables with smallish screens, hard drives (if any) and about a gigabyte of RAM. Some have Windows preloaded, others rely on Linux, while others still would connect via a network to a "cloud" computer where your operating system (and data) reside. They seem very cute, and very popular; my wife is enamored of one. 

20 to 40hr notebook runtime promises new Pixel Qi displays

Pixel Qi, the company formed by ex-OLPC CTO Mary Lou Jepsen, have been talking up their super-efficient display technology and the impact it could have on mobile device runtime. According to Jepsen, Pixel Qi are currently working with notebook and e-book manufacturers on applications using a color and video capable e-paper, with power demands a fraction of traditional LCD screens. 

The Next Sexy Accessory: Netbooks? 

On top of that, nearly every major notebook manufacturer is selling at least one model of these ultra portable, ultra connectible netbooks (the new term for the sub-notebook/ compact laptop/ mini pc- referring to their configuration as a device optimized for internet usage). These little machines might be half the size of a “fully functional” notebook and half the price, but they certainly aren’t half the machine. With 1 GB of memory, 1.3 to 1.6 GHz processors, up to 160 GB hard drives, a weight of less than 3 lbs, and a battery life of up to 8 hours, these netbooks are sub nothing- these are some serious specs.

Comes, S.A, a company specializing in introducing state-of-the-art computing solutions for the European region, has recently launched a new addition to the successful Aristo Pico series of notebooks.

The Aristo Pico 840 mini-note PC has been designed to fulfill the needs of professionals on the go and digital travelers looking for on-line entertainment while on the move. It’s the size of an A4 sheet of paper, features a crisp 8.9 inch 1024×600 screen, weighs just over 1kg and is initially available in Poland.

Interestingly, the mini-note comes with simultaneous dual screen operation (DualView) made possible through the use of the powerful VIA VX800 unified chipset and enabling the use of a second monitor that can turn the Aristo Pico 840 from a handy mobile device into a fully functional work computer.

Based on the 1.2GHz VIA C7-M processor, the Aristo Pico 840 draws only 0.1W in idle and offers a battery life of up to five hours.

See the VIA press release for more details.

VIA Brings Aristo Pico 840 Mini-Note to Poland

VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading developer of power efficient x86 processor platforms, recently unveiled the new Aristo Pico 840 mini-note, the latest addition to the Aristo Pico Series, which is based on the ultra low power VIA C7-M processor platform. The Aristo Pico 840 has been designed to fulfill the needs of professionals on the go and digital travelers looking for on-line entertainment while on the move. The notebook is A4 in size, features crisp 8.9 inch 1024×600 screen and weighs just over 1kg, being the perfect companion for any kind of journey.

VIA Announces Aristo Pico 840 Mini-Note For Poland

VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today introduced the new Aristo Pico 840 mini-note, the latest model in the Aristo Pico Series to be based on the ultra low power VIA C7-M processor platform. Building on the success of the Aristo Pico 640 and 740, the Aristo Pico 840 has been custom designed for both the professional on the go and the digital traveler looking for on-line entertainment on the move.

VIA dual-core Nano CPU for netbooks out by 2010

Chip and computer hardware parts maker VIA unveiled its roadmap for future Nano chips at the Embedded Technology 2008 show in Japan held last week, according to a Wednesday report. The roadmap revealed VIA won't be releasing a dual-core Nano CPU for netbooks until an estimated date of June of 2010, leaving the market wide open for competitor Intel and its dual-core Atom CPU. The Taiwanese company also revealed it will release a Nano E-series chip in the spring of 2009, which will bump up the front system bus speeds from the current 800MHz to 1,333MHz and use a 65nm process.

Netbook Sales May Be Cutting Demand For Laptop PCs

When Brian Pelowski started seeking a PC for his wife a couple of months ago, he wanted a machine that was lightweight and cheap. The couple are graduate students in Philadelphia and he's skittish about the rough economy. He opted for a pint-size $300 device known as a netbook instead of a traditional laptop, which normally costs at least twice as much. "She walks to school and can stick this in her big side bag without it taking up a lot of room or killing her shoulder," says Pelowski.

S3 Graphics Bundles Corel® WinDVD® For Industry-Leading High-Def Multimedia Experience

Fremont, California, November 26, 2008 – S3 Graphics, a leading provider of graphics and multimedia technologies, today announced it will bundle Corel® WinDVD® for Blu-ray™ playback on the Chrome 400/500 Series graphics cards. The seamless integration of S3 Graphics’ ChromotionHD™ 2.0 video engine on Chrome 400/500 GPUs and the world’s leading playback software, Corel WinDVD, gives users an incredibly vivid, cinematic HD playback experience for single and multiple (Picture-in-Picture) video streams on high-resolution digital displays. 

MIC: Worldwide Netbook PC Shipment Volume to Reach 22.64 Million in 2009 

According to statistics of the ITIS project, a project initiated by Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs and conducted by Taipei-based MIC, worldwide notebook PC shipment volume in 2009 is forecasted to reach 138 million units, growing about 11.3% compared to the expected shipment volume of 124 million units in 2008. Worldwide netbook PC shipment volume in 2009 is forecasted to reach 22.64 million units, growing 102% compared to the expected volume of 11.21 million units in 2008. The combined shipment volume of notebook PCs and netbook PCs is expected to grow 18.8% in 2009 compared to 2008, making these two product types the main growth driver of the global PC industry.

S&P pins hopes on China and India

Standard & Poor's has said that China and India could help mitigate the effects of the global economic crisis in Asia by recording positive growth during 2009.
According to S&P, China will post growth of eight per cent, while India should enjoy a brisk rate of seven per cent. "(The) Asia-Pacific [region] is expected to be able to roll with the punches - although some economies such as Japan and Singapore are likely to experience quarters of negative GDP growth," explained Subir Gokarn, S&P’s Asia-Pacific region chief economist.

Smart Bro has come up with a novel marketing technique for one of their pre-paid kits. Smart Bro is giving an HP 2133 Mini-Note through a raffle lucky draw. It should definitely influence people’s preference when they are opting for a new mobile Internet solution. You simply have to sign up for your Smart Bro account which will earn you a raffle entry for the lucky draw. A raffle will be offered on a weekly basis till December 13 2008.

“All you have to do is simply load up Php30.00 into your Smart Bro account and this will earn you 1 raffle entry. Of course the more you load the more raffle entries you earn, like Php60 load gets you 2 tickets; Php100 for 3 tickets; Php300 gets you 10 tickets and Php500 for 16 raffle tickets."

To join, subscribers must first activate and register their SMART Bro Prepaid account in SMART Web Connect.

The S3 Graphics 400 GTX series graphics card has left its mark in the technology world. Now, with their newly launched 500 series, S3 Graphics are set to swing again. With their recently announced next generation Chrome 500 graphics processors and new Chrome 530 GT card, S3 Graphics is introducing some unique new technologies to the graphics card market. Stunning HD audio is can now be fed through a HDMI port using an on-board Dolby 7.1 digital surround sound processor as well as offering support for the latest graphics architectures including DirectX 10.1 and the latest OpenGL 3.0. In addition to this it will also have GPGPU (general-purpose computing on graphics processing units) for parallel data workloads where a GPU is more efficient than a CPU. To find more about these newly launched products from S3 Graphics, click here.

These days high definition multimedia, games and movies are becoming more commonplace and therefore in order to enjoy them, an upgrade to a better graphics card is a must. S3 Graphics has recently announced the integration of Corel WinDVD software with their Chrome 400/500 graphic cards to offer Blu-ray playback with all the trimings including single and multiple (Picture-in-Picture) video streams ideal for high-resolution digital displays. The S3 Graphics ChromotionHD 2.0 video engine can utilize the power of Corel WinDVD to deliver high-quality HD decoding for playback of the latest video codecs, including H.264, VC-1, and MPEG-2 for Blu-ray movies. To find out more details check out S3 graphics’ press release. Corel's WinDVD will also be bundled with S3 Graphics' latest Chrome Series graphics cards including the Chrome 530 GT.