Forget about the 193P+ Epson renew printer ranges Closer to the end of Chaintech mobos Intel price cuts in January iPod goes from mini to nano "Wireless" (audio) speakers for Logitech R520 shows it's face

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Forget about the 193P+   Posted on 08/09/2005 at 16:26 by Vincent

	We heard about it first last January under the 194P name. Officially named 193P+ in March, the first fast PVA Samsung (8 ms) monitor will have a life comparable to its response time. Samsung feel that it took them too long to release a fast PVA monitor and that other actors already have successfully released good MVA 8ms. 193P+ production will be stopped in October and it will be replaced by 6ms PVA 970P. Until this date, Samsung prefer not to push the 193P+, present it to the press and don’t want any tests done. This decision might be quite surprising because of the noise organised by Samsung around this monitor for over a year. We can however also think of the Fujitsu-Siemens P19-2 test, the first monitor equipped with the 193P+ PVA 8 ms panel. Such a choice is then understandable…

Epson renew printer ranges   Posted on 08/09/2005 at 14:34 by Vincent

	Epson renew most of their products. Mono function printers and entry level multifunction are replaced. One new photo multifunction and one more affordable 4”x6” dedicated printer than the previous one are released. In fact if you take a good look at it, it isn’t a revolution. Designs lack of innovation and characteristics are more or less identical. Main two changes are: Change from DuraBright to DuraBright Ultra ink. We saw the results (samples provided by Epson, so we still have to make our own tests). It isn’t just a name modification but a real quality progression. To begin with, new inks no longer have to be used with DuraBright paper but with standard photo paper. Photos produced are much brighter, colors more vivid (especially green) and ink drops less visible. They even completely disappeared from photos provided by Epson. It is a real difference compared to the C86 . Ice on the cake, new DuraBright Ultra ink cartridges will cost 9.99€ as compared to 11.95€ for current DuraBright (it will be however important to check ink quantity per cartridges). Release of a new PictureMate 100. This 149€ printer (as compared to 249€ for the PictureMate 500) is dedicated to 4” x 6” printers. It includes an LCD monitor and the cost per photo is 29 cents. Here is the list of new products: Generalist range C48, 59 €, 4 colors 2880 dpi, 12 ppm black D68 Photo Edition, 69 €, DuraBright Ultra ink, 17 ppm black, 9 ppm color, photo pack 10 pages 13 x 18 cm D88, 89 €, DuraBright Ultra inks, 22 ppm black, 12 ppm color D88 Photo Edition, 89 €, DuraBright Ultra ink, 22 ppm black, 12 ppm color, photo pack 10 pages 13 x 18 cm Photo range Stylus Photo R220, 99 €, 6 colors, 6 separated cartridges, up to 5760 dpi resolution, 57 seconds to print one 4” x 6” picture without margins Stylus Photo R245, 129 €, 4 separated cartridges, 0,29 € per 10 x 15 pictures, 1,5" color monitor and memory card player Stylus Photo R800 r, 349 €, UltraChrome pigmented inks, 1,5 picoliter ink drops, new red, blue, black inks (8 separated cartridges) 10 x 15 range PictureMate 100, 149 €, 1,5" LCD monitor, optional battery for 50 to 70 pictures, 29 centimes per print (ink + paper) Generalist multifunction range DX 3850, 99 €, DuraBright Ultra ink, 18 ppm black, 9 ppm color, scanner 600 dpi DX 4250, 129 €, DuraBright Ultra ink, 20 ppm black, 19 ppm color, scanner 1200 dpi DX 4850, 159 €, = DX 4250 + memory card player Photo multifunction range Stylus Photo RX520, 199 €, 4 separated cartridges, memory card player, transparent loader, 1,5" LCD monitor, 1200 dpi scanner Stylus Photo RX700, 399 €, memory card player, transparent loader, 2,5 LCD monitor, 3200 dpi scanner.

Closer to the end of Chaintech mobos   Posted on 08/09/2005 at 13:54 by Marc - source: Digitimes

	Chaintech today confirmed its decision to withdraw progressively from motherboard market. Chaintech will however pursue its activities in the graphic card market which represents 60% of current turnover. In October, Chaintech will also launch memory modules in partnership with Walton Advanced Engineering, Chaintech’s main stockholder (25%). Walton Advanced Engineering is specialised in tests, memory chip packaging and memory modules production.

Intel price cuts in January   Posted on 08/09/2005 at 13:48 by Marc

	According to Digitimes, next January at the same time than new 65 nm product releases, Intel will make several processor price cuts. Pentium D 8xx and Pentium 4 6xx price cuts will be reduced except for the PD 840 from $530 to $423. Celeron price cuts will be from 5.5 to 13.6%. 65 nm Pentium D and Pentium 4 will use the following denominations: Pentium D 9xx and Pentium 4 6x1, instead of Pentium D 8xx and Pentium 4 6xx for their 90 nm equivalents. This denomination make us believe that the change to 65 nm wont bring much to the Pentium 4 but will be more interesting for the Pentium D which is currently strongly restricted by heat dissipation.

iPod goes from mini to nano   Posted on 08/09/2005 at 13:39 by Marc

	Today, Apple released the iPod nano. Available in black and white, this 8,9*4,1*0,68 cm iPod weights 43g and is clearly smaller than the mini iPod (9.1*5.1*1.3 cm for 102g). It is however a bit bigger than the shuffle (4*2.5*0.84cm for 22g). Two versions, 2 and 4 GB are available with color monitors. Its autonomy is 14 hours for music only or 4 hours with a slide show. In the Apple Store, the iPod nano price is 239€ / US$199 for 2GB and 319€/ US$ 249 for 4 GB.

"Wireless" (audio) speakers for Logitech   Posted on 08/09/2005 at 01:54 by Marc

	Today, Logitech announced new Z-5450 digital 5.1 speaker set. This set particularity is that it doesn’t have any cable connections with rear speakers. They can then be placed freely within 8.5 meter from the base. There is still of course the power supply problem. As they aren’t connected to the amplifier you have to plug them to the mains. One cable is replaced by another which isn’t necessarily more discreet. Bandwidth announced is 35-20 KHz like the Z-5300. Woofer size is also similar. Power announced are slightly higher but aren’t near the Z-5500 : 38 Watts RMS for each front satellites, 40.5 Watts for rear, 42 Watts for central and 116 Watts for the subwoofer. It isn’t possible to know sound quality from these figures but they give an idea of the product positioning compared to existing Logitech products. Still, like the Z-5500 the Z-5450 features a decoder. It supports Dolby Digital, DTS, DTS 96/24 and includes an IR remote control. This speaker set should hit the market in September with an MSRP of 500€ whereas it is possible to find the Z-5500 at 300 €! For both cases rear speakers includes a cable. One is connected to the mains and the other to the amplifier. As the first solution is 200€ more expensive and as the Z-5500 quality is apparently better, choice is quite obvious.

R520 shows it's face   Posted on 08/09/2005 at 01:09 by Marc

	Even if it isn’t announced yet, information on the R520, ATI’s next GPU are already circulating. We begin of course with photos. Here are die pictures coming from HKEPC and of the “R520 XT” card coming from techPowerUp. According to the same source, R520 sales name could be Radeon X1800. We noticed that this PCB, which isn’t necessarily final, is longer than usual for ATI and remind us a bit the 6800 GT. Cooling system is identical to the X850 which isn’t necessarily a good thing. It is quite noisy. There should be several products released, XT for highest range (with a CrossFire version), XL and LE. techPowerUp mentioned respectively 600, 500 and 450 MHz GPU frequencies whereas the GDDR3 could be clocked at 650/700, 500 and 450 MHz. Of course, information about the chip frequency isn’t much useful as long as the final architecture is unknown. Announced date should be end of September / early October. Now we still have to find out whether if the entire R520 range will be available at the product announcement.