By Cyrris , 24th July 9:20 pm
It doesn’t get much more convincing than shots of the CEOs shaking hands. The official announcement hasn’t been made as I write this, though I expect it to come shortly afterwards.
To be honest, I’m not sure what to make of it. AMD’s latest price cuts (which, if you are interested, are huge and worth checking out) show that it’s now on the back foot with Intel’s new chip being crowned performance king. ATI’s video cards seem to be fine, but last time I checked, it’s AMD motherboard chipsets were somewhat lacking in the reliability department (though were blazingly fast). Perhaps from that point of view it’s a good thing - it’s consolidates AMDs position and it can probably give ATI what it needs to make chipsets that aren’t just fast, but also bug-free.
As far as AMD and Intel competition goes, I don’t see this merger changing anything substantially. What I am worried about though, as some have noted already, is the potential loss of balance which we currently enjoy between Nvidia and ATI. Watching these two slog it out for graphics cards, chipsets, and even console graphics has been fun to watch, and reassuring that competition is fierce enough for consumers to benefit. Nvidia makes great AMD chipsets - though it did tick me off when their SLI would only work on said chipsets. Likewise, I don’t like the idea of CrossFire only working on ATI chipsets. It limits choice. With AMD and ATI now snuggled up, and with the potential for them to offer bundled deals and the like, I see hard times ahead for Nvidia. If that means more fierce competition then great, but then if it means everything is split between two camps, with Nvidia deciding to refocus it’s work towards Intel, then the consumers will again lose out on choice.
By Cyrris , 23rd July 3:49 pm
Since the launch of Intel’s impressive new Core 2 line of CPUs, I’ve read a flurry of reviews to get a good idea of the performance increase people are likely to see. Make no mistake - Intel is back in the game, and at least for the time being, AMD can only resort to huge price cuts to keep up. What caught my eye recently though is the online stoush between two hardware review sites which I frequent. On the left we have [H]ard|OCP, a hardware enthusiast website which is pretty well known and well regarded. On the right we have FiringSquad, a gamer-centric site which focuses heavily on both hardware and the games you play on it. Also well known, also well regarded. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen two hardware sites at each others throats - the last time I recall was between Tom’s Hardware and the now defunct Amdmb.com. That got pretty ugly, and frankly isn’t the kind of thing I like to be reading about when I go to a hardware review site. This time however, I am a little more interested in the subject at the centre of the debate.
» Read all of “[H]ard Journalism“…
By Vermouth , 25th June 3:29 pm
Television about technology is an atrocious, unsalvagable heap of dung. The two fields are just not meant to be married - as sensible as the pairing would seem. If there can be a network for golf or cooking surely there can be a network devoted to the world of gaming and technology? Well the sad answer is no - what television management want and what tech enthusiasts want are completely incompatible. Fortunately for me and all us other nerds out there, just as one medium is proving unsatisfactory a new medium is on the way.
» Read all of “Tech and Television“…
By Vermouth , 16th June 2:22 am
I recently moved into a new apartment half-way across the country from my family. I knew I’d need to make a lot of calls across the country in order to talk to my folks. Traditionally doing something like this would involve calling the phone company and signing up for some kind of deal on long distance. Well either that or signing my soul over to a cell phone company in a package deal where I’m committed to them for a lenghty contract. Not so fast, I signed up for Vonage and it’s really one of the best deals I’ve gotten in years and if something similar is available in your area I’d highly reccomend trying it.
Vonage is a telecommunications company that could not have existed until very recently. Rather than having to lay down lines from point to point, or even tap into specific lines already down, it uses the internet to route all your phone calls. All the calls are handled as Voice Over IP traffic. You get a box, plug one end into the phone and another into the router; after that everything else is just like working with the phone company. Once it’s plugged in you just pick up the phone, get a dial tone, and you’d never know the difference. The sound is clear, the installation painless and the price is wonderful. It’s a flat rate of 25 dollars a month which is less than half of what I would have had to pay the phone company for unlimited local and long distance phone calls.
This is a really easy service to use, it’s perfect fo the average Joe to use instead of dealing with the phone or cable company. Never once did I have to sit on hold for 40 minutes like I always do when my cable modem needs installation, nor will I ever get a surprise phone call because I called my mom for a little bit longer than I expected. Of course the big Tel-coms aren’t going anywhere, they for one thing have a great deal of inertia and broadband penetration rates are dramatically lower than telephone penetration rates. But just as MCI took on Ma’ Bell and managed to lower prices for consumers, VoIP phones are giving consumers even one more option, one we really should consisder as it’s a good one.
By Plagiarize , 9th May 3:57 pm
A rather lackluster press conference came to a shocking end, as first, Sony unveiled that the Dual Shock 3 has some of the functionality of the Wii controller (though not all) claiming this to be a major innovation, despite acknowledging that developers have only been aware of it for two weeks. It’s one thing to borrow an idea from a competitor, espescially when it’s a good idea, but to call it innovative and attempt to dodge the issue of where the inspiration came from, is more than a stupid move.
Then came the price point. $499 for a PS3 with a 20 gig hard drive. $599 for a PS3 with a 60 gig hard drive.
Talk about double ouch.
» Read all of “Sony drop ball instead of bomb. Fanboys cry.“…
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