Comcast Unveils Online Viewing of Cable TV Shows

Comcast Unveils Online Viewing of Cable TV Shows

Comcast, which announced the service in July before reaching a deal for majority control of NBC Universal, becomes the first cable TV operator to offer cable content online at no additional charge. Until now, programs available for free online have been generally limited to shows from the over-the-air broadcasters or to older movies.

Comcast Corp. customers can now watch several cable TV shows and movies over the Internet, a move aimed at helping the cable TV operator manage the flight of viewers to online video.

Comcast hopes that by making the service Relevant Products/Services available starting Tuesday exclusively to subscribers, it can keep them from defecting to rival TV providers or the Internet.

Comcast, which announced the service in July before reaching a deal for majority control of NBC Universal, becomes the first cable TV operator to offer cable content online at no additional charge. Until now, programs available for free online have been generally limited to shows from the over-the-air broadcasters or to older movies.

Other subscription-TV operators with similar plans in the works include Time Warner Cable Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc.'s FiOS service.

The Comcast service, renamed Fancast XFinity TV from On Demand Online when first announced, will initially be available only to those who buy both Comcast's TV and Internet services. Those customers will be able to access the programs on computers anywhere, even at a friend's house using a rival broadband service.

In six months, Comcast said cable TV customers who use another Internet service provider will have access as well.

Customers can authenticate up to three devices -- for now PCs, but mobile devices are possible next year -- to access the cable content.

All told, Comcast is making thousands of hours of programming available from 27 cable and broadcast channels. But what's actually offered will vary by cable channel, with such channels such as TBS offering shows the day after they appear on cable TV and others offering past seasons.

Channels offered are HBO, Cinemax, Starz, A&E, History, CBS, BBC, E!, Style, G4, Hallmark, MGM Impact, Discovery, TLC, Animal Planet, Univision, Music Choice, C-SPAN, Travel Channel, Ovation TV, AMC, WE, IFC, Sundance, TNT, TBS and Mi Cine. Networks such as CBS already make some shows available for free; more programming from them will be offered through the Comcast arrangement.

As is the case on cable TV, premium channels such as HBO won't carry ads. But other cable channels will have ads within the show itself and on the Web page on which it appears.

And what each customer Relevant Products/Services can watch depends on the cable TV package subscribed.

Comcast said it will be adding more programmers to the lineup.

Comcast itself owns such cable channels as The Golf Channel and E!, and if regulators approve a deal to buy a 51 percent stake of NBC Universal from General Electric Co., it'll also have control of Bravo, CNBC and other popular channels.

Comcast's own cable entertainment channels, but not the sports networks, are being offered through the new service. NBC Universal's cable channels aren't included.

Some cable channels are concerned that if they make shows available online, audiences will watch it there instead of on television, yet they won't get credit for the online viewership in the Nielsen ratings, which help set advertising rates. Comcast said it's working with Nielsen to address those concerns. Comcast declined to say which cable channels were worried about ratings.

Subscribers can log on through Comcast.net and Fancast.com. Comcast said it's working with other cable channels to provide access through their own individual Web sites.

Some programs are available in high-definition and more HD content will be added. Comcast said there's enough bandwidth Relevant Products/Services to handle HD. Its Internet customers on average use about 2 gigabytes to 4 gigabytes of their 250 gigabytes monthly allotment.

Neon Targets IBM with Unfair-Competition Suit

Neon Targets IBM with Unfair-Competition Suit

IBM is being sued by Neon Enterprise Software for mainframe software anticompetitive practices. Neon says IBM is blocking its zPrime software, which it says can save IBM System z mainframe users 20 percent of their annual mainframe costs. Another company also challenged IBM on its mainframe business with a similar antitrust lawsuit in August.

On Monday, IBM Relevant Products/Services came under legal fire from Neon Enterprise Software. The company filed a lawsuit alleging that Big Blue is blocking System z mainframe owners from using its zPrime software.

Neon Enterprise Software filed its suit in the Austin division of the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas. The company claims IBM is violating the Lanham Act and state unfair-competition laws, and that Big Blue is liable for business disparagement and tortious interference with prospective contracts.

Neon is also seeking a declaratory judgment with respect to claims IBM made concerning the characteristics of zPrime. Specifically, Neon is seeking actual and enhanced damages, disgorgement of IBM profits, a declaratory judgment, and reasonable and necessary attorneys' fees.

Understanding zPrime

Neon zPrime is a proprietary software product that makes it possible for IBM System z business application workloads, such as IMS, DB2, CICS, TSO/ISPF and batch, to run on Big Blue's lower-cost zIIP and zAAP specialty processors. As Neon sees it, consumers would benefit from dramatic cost reductions in processing workloads on mainframe computers by using zPrime -- if IBM would allow it.

Neon points to rigorous testing conducted by nearly 50 organizations that has validated that zPrime can save System z mainframe users 20 percent or more of their annual mainframe costs under conventional-use pricing structures. The company held a webinar in October to emphasize the need for competition in the mainframe market with products such as zPrime.

"zPrime can safely and significantly reduce IT Relevant Products/Services costs while optimizing legacy application investments. It does so without sacrificing functionality or disrupting mainframe environments in any way," said Richard Ptak, principal and analyst at Ptak, Noel & Associates. "The innovative features in zPrime make it even easier for organizations to benefit from the significant cost savings to be achieved by taking advantage of specialty processor capacity."

Neon said zPrime is legal to use, free of any intellectual-property infringements, and, based on customers' legal reviews, has not jeopardized any standard contracts customers have with IBM. If a zPrime user ever loses the primary zPrime benefit of saving money, the company offers the option of cancelling the contract and receiving a prorated refund from Neon for any unused license fees.

Comparing IBM To Apple

"Neon's claims have no merit, and its product offers no innovation Relevant Products/Services," said Steve Eisenstadt, an IBM spokesperson. "Neon's software deliberately subverts the way IBM mainframe computers process data Relevant Products/Services. This is akin to a homeowner tampering with his electrical meter to save money. IBM has invested billions of dollars in the mainframe this decade, and we will vigorously protect our investment."

Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT, said Neon isn't the first -- and probably won't be the last -- company to challenge IBM's mainframe business. T3 Technologies filed a similar antitrust suit against Big Blue in August.

"IBM is not the only company that is telling users what software they can or can't run on its hardware Relevant Products/Services, and they are not the only company telling application vendors what they can do on their hardware," King said. "You don't have to look much further than Apple computer to see a vendor that's engaged in a similar sort of behavior."

"I personally think that Neon's claims are verging on the hysterical," he said. "It's a fact of life in the IT industry that vendors with proprietary hardware and software tend to make very loud statements about the way that those products should and shouldn't be used."

High-Speed Wireless Could Be in Products Next Year

High-Speed Wireless Could Be in Products Next Year

The Wireless Gigabit Alliance has completed a new specification that makes possible wireless LANs 10 times faster than today's Wi-Fi. The new WiGig spec is backward compatible with existing Wi-Fi hardware and may appear in products in the first quarter of 2010. But consumer adoption of the WiGig specification may be slower.


The Wireless Gigabit Alliance, or WiGig, has completed a new specification that makes possible high-performance Relevant Products/Services wireless display and audio with rates 10 times faster than current-generation wireless LANs. The new spec works to extend Wi-Fi technology Relevant Products/Services and supports backward capability with existing Wi-Fi devices. WiGig members will have access to the spec to provide faster wireless in new products in the first quarter of 2010.

"When we launched the WiGig alliance in May, we announced our plan to complete the industry's first unified 60-GHz specification by Q4 2009, and we are proud to deliver on this promise to the industry," said Dr. Ali Sadri, president and chairman of WiGig. "We're rapidly paving the way for the introduction of the next generation of high-performance wireless products -- PCs, mobile handsets, TVs and displays, Blu-ray Disc players, digital cameras, and many more."

Getting into the Consumer Ecosystem

Craig Mathias, a principal with the wireless and mobile advisory firm Farpoint Group, said WiGig has reached a milestone by completing its specification as promised by year-end. "By complementing Wi-Fi and enabling multi-gigabit speeds, he said, "the versatile specification is a very significant achievement on the road to the next generation of wireless LAN Relevant Products/Services products."

Michael Gartenberg, a vice president at Interpret, is also impressed with the new spec. When it comes to wireless, he said, faster is always better. But there remains an important question to be answered: How do you get consumers to keep upgrading their gear?

"Consumers have to upgrade everything if they are going to get the total benefit. That means it's not only my router, but it's my routers and my computers and my phones and my media players and all the other gadgets that are out there," Gartenberg said. "As the consumer ecosystem gets larger every year, it takes longer and longer for these standards to really become standard for use."

Is Fast Too Fast?

WiGig members seem prepared to cross that bridge when they come to it -- and the group is attracting new members. Four new companies joined WiGig in the fourth quarter, giving the group nearly 30 industry leaders under its banner. Nvidia has joined the organization's board of directors, and AMD, SK Telecom, and TMC have joined as contributor members.

"Nvidia recognizes the general market trend toward wire-free interfaces. Today, display interfaces are at an inflection point where the next-generation solutions will feature wireless display connections for PCs, game consoles, notebooks and mobile devices with PC monitors and TVs," said Devang Sachdev, technology marketing manager at Nvidia and a WiGig board member. "Nvidia supports open standards for wireless transmission of data Relevant Products/Services for display and interfaces such as PCIe, USB, etc., and we see this as aligned with WiGig's work."

Still, there is the time factor when it comes to marketplace adoption. It takes time, for example, for new routers to become available. It takes time for the technology to make its way into laptops and iPods and smartphones.

"We are not even at the point where I can get 802.11n on every device, even if I wanted to, because they haven't quite adopted it across the board, and yet we are already on to one generation beyond n," Gartenberg said. "This may be a case where fast may be too fast and it's going to take a little time for consumers to catch up."

When Power Supplies Attack!

When Power Supplies Attack!

Where there's smoke, there's usually fire—except inside your computer's case. There, things may get dangerously heated without your ever glimpsing a flame.


When we were testing out a power supply in PC Labs the other day, our noses knew right away that something was up—specifically, the temperature of one or two of the components we were working on, judging by the not-so-lovely overheated-metal odor we couldn't escape.




Normally you'd expect a computer emitting wisps of gray smoke and sinus-offending miasmas to not boot. But ours did—and perfectly well, which is why it took us several seconds longer than it usually might to figure out the problem.

One of the cables attached to the system's modular power supply had malfunctioned. And, when that happened, the components to which it attached, shall we say, did not react well. The SATA data connector fused itself to the system's optical drive, but came apart with enough tugging—taking the entire connector with it. The hard drive, attached to another connector on the same cable, looked completely unscathed, but steadfastly refused to boot in any of the three systems we tried it in.




In addition, the SATA data cable connecting both the optical and hard drives to the motherboard had been affected as well, melting and blowing out two of the motherboard's SATA jacks. This is probably because the residual heat from the power cable needed somewhere to go. Still, we were more than a little surprised to see just how bad the damage was to a cable that had no direct contact with the PSU.





We're still trying to track down the exact cause, but it's not as easy as we thought it would be. Given the complete and utter annihilation of the cable, and the fact that the other, non-modular power cables from the PSU still work just fine, it may have been some sort of really unfortunate mismatch—this cable and this PSU just didn't know how to communicate with each other and thus had a literal blow-up.






We contacted representatives from two major power supply manufacturers, Antec and Thermaltake, to see what they had to say. Antec told us that its tech support reps have "found . . . exactly one other reported case of this happening the past three years." According to Thermaltake, it may be a case of miswiring, which only happens in one out of about every 10,000 PSUs. The Thermaltake rep also recommended using a multimeter to test the PSU beforehand to avoid any problems, however rare, that might crop up.


At least the motherboard itself wasn't irreparably damaged. The system was able to boot before and during the incident—and it worked without any noticeable problem once the smoke had finally cleared. (Although, of course, we tested it with the barest-bones setup we thought we could get away with.) And, thankfully, though those two SATA data jacks on the motherboard are gone, the other four work, so the board is still usable. Just a bit more... charred than it was last week at this time.

Check out the slideshow for photos of the wreckage. Have you had incinerated any of your PC's components—just by turning on your computer? Send us your photos and stories.

LED lights creep toward mainstream in 2010

LED lights creep toward mainstream in 2010

The first contact many consumers have with LEDs is when stringing lights on the Christmas tree. But improvements in the energy-efficient lighting technology mean that more people will start screwing in LEDs for general lighting next year.

Semiconductor research company iSuppli on Tuesday forecast double-digit sales growth in the next three years for all types of LED lights, which are increasingly used in everything from street lights to flat-screen TVs. Although LEDs are still mostly used for other lighting applications, LEDs have started to penetrate the residential market as a replacement for incandescent or compact fluorescent bulbs, it said.

A recent Sylvania survey shows that three-quarters of Americans have tried different energy-saving light bulb technologies, such as halogen (left), compact fluorescent (center), or light-emitting diode (right).
(Credit: Osram Sylvania)

"While the retail prices for LED light bulbs are still about an order of magnitude higher than those traditional incandescent lamps, customers increasingly are becoming aware of the power savings and long life benefits of solid-state LED lights," according to iSuppli.

LED manufacturers have already released 40-watt replacement bulbs with the traditional Edison shape while some, such as Lemnis Lighting, are marketing a 60-watt replacement that consumes only 6 watts.

Not surprisingly, high upfront costs are a significant barrier to broad adoption. The Lemnis 60-watt replacement costs about $50 and a 40-watt replacement from Osram Sylvania costs about $35.

Still, consumers are considering their options. Osram Sylvania on Wednesday released results from a survey that found 74 percent of consumers changed to a more efficient bulb this year, with 12 percent using LEDs.

The company anticipates that consumers will increasingly consider LEDs for efficient lighting because of the 2007 law to phase out incandescent bulbs in the U.S. by 2012. Nearly two-thirds of people will consider lower-energy options for replacements, although more than half said the price is a "key consideration," according to company representative Stephanie Anderson.

Osram Sylvania plans to introduce a 60-watt replacement in the spring of 2010, which is a more popular lighting choice that could draw more consumers. The cost will be in the same range as its 40-watt replacement, Anderson said.

"There is an appetite for new technologies. Consumers are not mourning the loss of the 100-watt incandescent," she said.

The Department of Energy hosts the Lighting Facts Web site, where it lists manufacturers and offers a volunteer labeling system with information on light output and efficiency, expressed in lumens per watt.

TeliaSonera Opens First Commercial LTE 4G Networks

TeliaSonera Opens First Commercial LTE 4G Networks

Stockholm-based TeliaSonera has launched the first commercial LTE 4G networks in Stockholm and Oslo. The TeliaSonera networks provide 10 times faster broadband links for laptops using Samsung modems. TeliaSonera expects to add mobile devices to the network and build a 4G network in Finland. U.S. carriers are working on LTE.

TeliaSonera has launched the world's first commercial mobile services based on Long-Term Evolution (LTE) -- the final stage in the development of fourth-generation (4G) mobile technology Relevant Products/Services based on the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) standard. Starting Tuesday, laptop Relevant Products/Services users equipped with dedicated 4G modems in Stockholm, Sweden, and Oslo, Norway, can access super-fast mobile broadband connections that are 10 times faster than turbocharged 3G networks can deliver now, the company said.

The use of mobile broadband in the Nordic countries is exploding and customers need higher speeds and capacity, noted TeliaSonera President Kenneth Karlberg. "This is why we launch 4G services in both Stockholm and Oslo," Karlberg said. "Being first out with new technology gives us unique experience that we can use on all our markets" and "we will continue the rollout to offer our customers new communication services for the future."

Waiting in the Wings

Ericsson is supplying the infrastructure Relevant Products/Services for TeliaSonera's 4G city network Relevant Products/Services in Stockholm, while China-based Huawei is delivering the same for the carrier's 4G city network in Oslo. The 4G modems for use in both cities, which are being offered as USB dongles, are being supplied by Samsung Electronics. Though TeliaSonera initially will be targeting laptop users, the company said handheld 4G mobile devices are expected to become available in the next stage of its LTE rollout.

The Nordic carrier also has plans to roll out LTE services in Finland next year using frequencies awarded to the carrier as a result of last month's Finnish 4G frequency auction. TeliaSonera says it will start building its LTE infrastructure in Finland immediately with the aim of opening the network for the first pilot customers during the first quarter of next year.

Though TeliaSonera is first out the gate with LTE, ABI Research noted that other overseas operators with LTE plans include NTT-DOCOMO and KDDI in Japan; Tele2 and Telenor in Europe: and KT and SK Telecom in South Korea, beginning in 2010. However, the research firm's analysts don't expect LTE to have a major impact on the global cellular industry until 2011 at the earliest, when China Mobile intends to launch LTE services in the world's largest cellular market.

Spectrum availability is the primary factor impacting carriers' deployment Relevant Products/Services plans, noted ABI Research Senior Analyst Nadine Manjaro. "In countries where telecommunications regulators are making appropriate spectrum available, many operators have announced plans to launch LTE," Manjaro said. "Where no such spectrum allocations exist, operators are postponing LTE plans."

A $3.3 Billion Investment

Mobile carriers the world over are expected to begin testing LTE technology on their networks beginning in 2010, including Verizon Wireless, MetroPCS Wireless, and U.S. Cellular in the United States. "Vendors will be shipping base-station equipment in significant quantities in 2010 ahead of limited trials that typically last about a year, followed by full commercial launches," Manjaro observed.

ABI Research expects wireless operators to spend about $3.3 billion on an estimated 142,000 LTE base stations worldwide in 2011. Moreover, the firm's analysts forecast that LTE base-station equipment spending should rise sharply between 2011 and the end of 2012.

Most of the estimated 142,000 base stations to be deployed worldwide will have completely new baseband and RF components, Manjaro noted. "Operators will generally try to keep the new LTE networks separate from their legacy networks," she said.

However, the deployment of all these LTE base stations is only the beginning, noted ABI Research Vice President Jake Saunders. "Due to LTE's propagation characteristics and higher frequencies, operators will eventually have to deploy extra sites to iron out gaps in coverage," Saunders said.

World's first 4G service goes live

The world's first commercial LTE mobile broadband services went live.

The world's first commercial LTE mobile broadband services went live in the centres of Oslo and Stockholm on Monday, through the Scandinavian operator TeliaSonera.

Offering theoretical maximum speeds of 100Mbps and real-world speeds of 20-80Mbps, the services are about 10 times faster than predecessor HSDPA. As of Tuesday, people in Norway and Sweden will be able to buy a mobile dongle that supports the long-term evolution (LTE) of 3G. (TeliaSonera is calling its network '4G', but the official IEEE definition of that term cites 100Mbps as a minimum speed.)

"We are very proud to be the first operator in the world to offer our customers 4G services," TeliaSonera mobility chief Kenneth Karlberg said in a statement on Monday. "The use of mobile broadband in the Nordic countries is exploding, and customers need higher speeds and capacity. This is why we launch 4G services in both Stockholm and Oslo."

At launch, TeliaSonera's LTE services cover around 400,000 people in the centres of Stockholm and Oslo. However, the operator said it is adding base stations every day. It will first introduce the services in the largest cities in Sweden and Norway, followed by sites in Finland, where it recently received an LTE licence. TeleSonera said it hopes to get the licence for a Danish rollout early in 2010.

LTE, which is an all-IP technology, offers high speeds and capacity, and lower latency, than its predecessors. This makes it more suitable than 3G for services such as streaming HD video, videoconferencing and online gaming.

In a press conference in Stockholm on Monday, Karlberg said LTE makes it possible "to do everything that you can do on the fixed network, but on top of that, [the network adds] the mobility dimension". He said this combination of mobility and fixed-line-quality speeds and bandwidth would allow for "applications that we haven't seen so far".

"We invite those customers who are specifically interested in being early adopters of 4G," Karlberg said, adding that TeliaSonera knew the LTE experience would not be "perfect from start".

TeleSonera is releasing limited quantities of Samsung modem dongles for the launch. However, these can only handle 4G and are unable to fall back to 3G networks when outside 4G coverage. The operator said that in the second quarter of next year, it will provide dongles that can handle both standards.

The first services will cost 599 Swedish crowns (£52) per month. Until 1 July 2010, TeliaSonera is applying no data cap, but after that date it will put a 30GB-per-month cap in place.

The infrastructure for the Stockholm LTE network is being supplied by Ericsson, while the Oslo deployment is based on Huawei equipment.

Huawei also announced on Monday that it has completed its first UK-based LTE trials, held in conjunction with O2, that reached maximum downlink throughput of 150Mbps. The trial took place in the Slough area, where O2's headquarters are located.

"We are pleased to collaborate with Huawei on this LTE trial, which will allow us to better understand this emerging technology and prepare us in offering our customers next generation mobile broadband services in the future," O2 chief technology officer Derek McManus said in a statement

Foxconn Shows Off Bamboo PC Cases

Foxconn Shows Off Bamboo PC Cases

Foxconn giving PC some wood.







Looking to make your computer a little more earthy? Foxconn is making a PC cases out of bamboo. Sadly, only the front covers are bamboo, but we've got to save some of it for the pandas.

Foxconn has the Bamboo One and Bamboo II, with the first one being for traditional mid-tower form factors and the second for smaller, HTPC applications.

(Images from Chinese site PCPop.)

SLI & Centrino 2: Gaming Laptops Battle

SLI & Centrino 2: Gaming Laptops Battle

Roundups of any sort are always tricky. Matching apples to apples is rarely possible, and the brand loyalists are always quick to defend their build of choice. So we made this roundup easy. We reached out to some of the most prolific names in gaming notebooks and asked them to send us their best and brightest example of a gaming machine. Price be damned, we wanted to see some stunning performance numbers.


Four vendors—Alienware, ASUS, Eurocom, and Killer Notebooks—responded to our call. The other big names you might expect to see in a cage match like this all came up with reasons to pass. Dell preferred to have Alienware represent its best efforts (R.I.P. XPS?). VoodooPC’s Envy is armed with Intel’s GMA X3100 integrated graphics core and is not suitable for gaming in any capacity. Falcon Northwest wanted to wait for new graphics adapters, and though they became available toward the tail end of our testing, the show had to go on. And OCZ’s Hypersonic brand didn’t have anything available at retail. Nevertheless, we still managed to round up a motley crew of performance-oriented systems at a number of different price points.

The first, Alienware’s m17x, got out of the gate before anyone else with Nvidia’s new GeForce 9800M GT graphics adapters—in SLI, thanks to a bridge chip mated to Intel’s PM965 chipset. It also boasts 1 TB of storage, a Core 2 Extreme CPU, and perhaps the classiest chassis design we’ve ever seen. Last month we took a look at Alienware’s smaller m15x. While that notebook was a solid piece of kit, the Area-51 m17x is decidedly more tenacious in its approach to mobile performance.

Next up, ASUS’ G71 represents the first Centrino 2 laptop design to land in our labs. Its hardware manifesto is significantly more mainstream than the configuration that Alienware sent in. However, there’s something to be said for a fully modern notebook with the latest power-saving technology. We expect the G71 to serve up a better balance between price, performance, and battery life.

Eurocom’s exotically-named Montebello is the third offering in our line of potent portables. Smaller than the other three contenders with a 15.4” LCD, it effectively hides Intel’s fastest dual-core mobile processor, the latest Centrino 2 platform, and an Nvidia GeForce 9800M GT graphics card inside a fairly pedestrian shell. This one’s probably the biggest surprise in the bunch.



Finally, Killer Notebooks submitted its own weapon of mass destruction, the Odachi. Laden with a 3 GHz desktop processor, two of the fastest mobile GeForces in SLI, three 7,200 RPM hard drives striped together, and 4 GB of DDR2 memory, it’s the gun in this knife fight. But you do give up some aesthetic appeal in favor of all that muscle.

Read on as we introduce the hardware in each notebook, get hands-on with look and feel, and benchmark each machine in our standard suite of tests.

Hardware Comparison

Model	Alienware m17x	ASUS G71	Eurocom Montebello	Killer Notebooks Odachi
CPU	Core 2 Extreme X9000	Core 2 Duo T9400	Core 2 Extreme X9100	Core 2 Quad Q9650
Memory	4 GB DDR2-800	4 GB DDR3-1333	2 GB DDR3-1333	4GB DDR2-800
Chipset	PM965	PM45	PM45	P965
Graphics	2 x GeForce 9800M GT	GeForce 9700M GT	GeForce 9800M GT	2 x GeForce 8800M GTX
LCD	17” (1920x1200)	17” (1920x1200)	15” (1680x1050)	17” (1920x1200)
Chassis	Alienware	ASUS	Clevo	Clevo
Storage	2 x Samsung 500GB SpinPoint H6	2 x WD 250GB Scorpio Blue	1 x Hitachi 320GB Travelstar 7K320	3 x WD 160GB Scorpio Black
Networking	GbE + 4965AGN	GbE + WiFi Link 5100	GbE + WiFi Link 5300	GbE + 4965AGN
Battery	6,600 mAh	5,200 mAh	4,400 mAh	6,600 mAh
Camera	2 MP	2MP	2MP	2MP
Optical	2x DL BR, DVD+/-R/RW Combo	DVD+/-R/RW Combo	DVD+/-R/RW Combo	DVD+/-R/RW Combo
Warranty	Up to 3-year 24/7 phone w/on-site service (extra $300)	2-year hardware/1-year battery/30-day zero bright dot + free two-way overnight shipping	Up to 3-year return to depot with tech support ($245 extra)	1-year global warranty/30-day dead pixel guarantee

Benchmarks and Settings

3D-Games Benchmarks and Settings

Benchmark	Details
Crysis	Version: 1.2.1 Video Mode: 1280x1024, 1680x1050, and 1920x1200 Overall Quality: High Demo: CPU-Benchmark2 + Tom’s Hardware Tool
Unreal Tournament 3	Version: 1.2 Video Mode: 1280x1024, 1600x1200, 1920x1200 Sound and DirectX10; Window off Video Quality: Texture Details: 1, Level Details: 1, Demo: WAR-OnyxCoast-FPS Time: 12/60
World in Conflict	Version: 1.0.0.9 Video Mode: 1280x1024, 1680x1050, and 1920x1200 Video Quality: low details Demo: Game-Benchmark
Supreme Commander Forged Alliance	Version: 1.5.3599 Video Mode: 1280x1024, 1680x1050, and 1920x1200 Video Quality: game default Demo: WallaceTX_006_006 Benchmark: Fraps 2.9.4 - Build 7037 Start time 00:48:20 (60 seconds) realtime play

Audio Benchmarks and Settings

Benchmark	Details
iTunes	Version: 7.7.0.43, Audio CD (Terminator II SE), 53 min, Default format AAC

Video Benchmarks and Settings

Benchmark	Details
TMPEG 4.5	Version: 4.5.1.254 Video: Terminator 2 SE DVD (720x576, 16:9) 5 Minutes Audio: Dolby Digital, 48000 Hz, 6-Channel, English Advanced Acoustic Engine MP3 Encoder (160 kbps, 44.1 KHz)
DivX 6.8.3	Version: 6.8.3 - Main Menu - default - Codec Menu - Encoding mode: Insane Quality Enhanced multithreading Enabled using SSE4 Quarter-pixel search - Video Menu - Quantization: MPEG-2
XviD 1.1.3	Version: 1.1.3 - Other Options / Encoder Menu - Display encoding status = off
Mainconcept Reference 1.5.1 Reference H.264 Plugin Pro 1.5.1	Version: 1.5.1 MPEG2 to MPEG2 (H.264) MainConcept H.264/AVC Codec 28 sec HDTV 1920x1080 (MPEG2) Audio: MPEG2 (44.1 kHz, 2 Channel, 16 Bit, 224 kbps) Codec: H.264 Mode: PAL (25 FPS) Profile: Tom’s Hardware Settings for Qct-Core

Application Benchmarks and Settings

Benchmark	Details
Grisoft AVG Anti-Virus 8	Version: 8.0.134 Virus base: 270.4.5/1533 Benchmark Scan: some compressed ZIP and RAR archives
Winrar 3.80	Version 3.70 BETA 8 WinZIP Commandline Version 2.3 Compression = Best Dictionary = 4096 KB Benchmark: THG-Workload
WinZIP 11	Version 11.2 Compression = Best Benchmark: THG-Workload
Maxon Cinema 4D Release 10	Version: 10.008 Rendering from a scene (Water drop at a Rose) Resolution: 1280x1024 – 8-Bit (50 frames)
Adobe Photoshop CS 3	Version: 10.0x20070321 Filtering of a 69 MB TIF-Photo Benchmark: Tomshardware-Benchmark V1.0.0.4 Programmed by Tomshardware using Delphi 2007 Filters: Crosshatch Glass Sumi-e Accented Edges Angled Strokes Sprayed Strokes

Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings

Benchmark	Details
3DMark Vantage	Version: 1.02 Options: Performance Graphics Test 1 Graphics Test 2 CPU Test 1 CPU Test 2
PCMark Vantage	Version: 1.00 PCMark Benchmark Memory Benchmark Windows Media Player 10.00.00.3646
SiSoftware Sandra XII SP2	Version 2008.5.14.24 CPU Test = CPU Arithmetic / MultiMedia Memory Test = Bandwidth Benchmark

Nvidia, AMD Shares Jump After Intel Scraps Chip

Nvidia, AMD Shares Jump After Intel Scraps Chip

Intel had a lot riding on Larrabee, if only mainly in regard to its reputation. Intel heavily hyped the chip as a challenge to Nvidia and AMD. Because of Intel's size -- Intel's $112 billion market capitalization is 20 times AMD's size and about 13 times Nvidia's -- it can be a major threat in any market it throws itself into. But graphics has been a problem.


Shares of Nvidia Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. jumped Monday after rival Intel Corp. scrapped plans to make a new graphics chip that would have challenged both companies.

Nvidia's stock rose $1.83, or 12.8 percent, to close Monday at $16.09, while AMD's gained 66 cents, or 8.4 percent, to $8.52. AMD's stock was also upgraded

The gains signaled investors' relief that Nvidia and AMD won't have to square off -- at least immediately -- against the world's biggest semiconductor maker in the market for standalone, or "discrete," graphics chips.

Intel disclosed that it no longer plans to release a chip code-named Larrabee to the general public as planned next year, saying the "silicon and software development are behind where we had hoped to be at this point in the project."

The company had a lot riding on Larrabee, if only mainly in regard to its reputation.

Intel heavily hyped the chip as a challenge to Nvidia and AMD. Because of Intel's size -- Intel's $112 billion market capitalization is 20 times AMD's size and about 13 times Nvidia's -- it can be a major threat in any market it throws itself into. But graphics has been a problem.

Intel is the world's leader in selling the central processing units (CPUs) that act as the brains of personal computers and servers, with about 80 percent of that market. It is also the leader in overall graphics processors for computers, with more than half of that market, because its "chipsets," which connect the main processor to the rest of the computer, have graphics capabilities.

But Nvidia and AMD's ATI division are the two biggest players in the market for standalone graphics chips, which are more powerful and are becoming more of a necessity as computers are called upon to process more complicated visual images, such as games and Internet video and digital home movies.

Intel has tried and failed to crack that market before, attempts that have left the company "tainted as a can't-do graphics company," said Jon Peddie, president of Jon Peddie Research, which tracks graphics chips.

Ambrish Srivastava, an analyst with BMO Capital Markets, called Intel's decision on Larrabee "more than a poke in the eye, as Intel has been talking up its discrete graphics effort for quite some time now."

One reason Intel hasn't been as successful in graphics as it has in CPUs is because graphics chips are designed differently than CPUs, and are built around the idea of doing lots of things at once, which is called "parallel computing Relevant Products/Services" in industry jargon, instead of one at a time. Graphics chips have many more processing "cores" than CPUs and handle data Relevant Products/Services differently. It's a different engineering challenge, and one that Intel wasn't able to conquer to its satisfaction in the timeline it gave for Larrabee.

Nvidia said in a statement that "the fact that a company with Intel's technical prowess and financial resources has struggled so hard to succeed with parallel computing shows just how exceptionally difficult a challenge this is."

Still, Intel insists it is not out of the fight. The company, based in Santa Clara, said the Larrabee project isn't dead: the chip will still be used internally for software development. And Intel said it will announce plans for other standalone graphics products in 2010.

Intel's stock slipped only 9 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $20.37. Larrabee wasn't expected to be a big part of Intel's business, said analyst Ross Seymore with Deutsche Bank, who called Intel's decision a positive development for AMD and Nvidia.

Also Monday, analyst Stacy Rasgon with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. upgraded AMD's stock, saying the settlement last month with Intel, under which Intel will pay AMD $1.25 billion and both companies will drop their lawsuits against each other, clears "the biggest roadblock" for AMD to fully untangle itself from its manufacturing division, which it recently spun off but is still reporting in AMD's financial results.