iPod classic refreshed, only comes in 120GB flavor now

Steve Jobs just announced that the iPod classic will only come in a single $249 120GB config from now on. Seriously, that's the only model of classic available now, storage junkies -- better snap up those outgoing 160GB models while you can.

ATI Radeon HD 4670 and 4650 released, tested

ATI just announced its new mainstream graphics cards, the Radeon HD 4670 and 4650. At the heart of both cards is a 55nm 320-core TeraScale GPU, which is a modified version of the RV770 chip found in the Radeon HD 4800 series -- it's a lower spec chip, but it has essentially the exact same feature set. The $80 HD 4670 has 512MB of GDDR3 RAM, while the $60 HD 4650 uses 512MB of GDDR2 memory; both are relatively power-sipping with 60 watt and 50 watt draws respectively under full load. Should be out soon -- HotHardware just tested an HD 4670 and found it to be quite a performer

AMD slashes prices on triple-core Phenom X3 processors

AMD may have some new dual-core Phenom processors around the corner, but it looks like those wanting to build an AMD rig on the cheap don't have to wait until then, as the company has just slashed the price on its triple-core Phenom X3 processors, a move that follows some similar price cuts just a few weeks ago. As of now, you can get an X3 8450 for $104 (down from $125 in July), an X3 8650 for $119 (down from $145), an X3 8750 for $129 (down from $175), or even an X3 8750 Black Edition with overclocking support for just $134. As TG Daily points out, that pits the processors up against the low-end of Intel's Core 2 Duo offerings, which certainly makes 'em an attractive option for those looking to get the most bang for the buck.

Google's Brin says Chrome headed to Android, probably

from Engadget by Thomas Ricker

Filed under: Cellphones

As the root of our name implies, desktop browsers aren't really our thing in Engadget-land. Still, we're pretty sure that you've managed to learn about Google's new Chrome browser even without our assistance. However, when we hear Google's co-founder, Sergey Brin discussing Chrome on Android, well, we're all in. Even though neither has been released out of beta yet, Brin said that the Webkit-based Chrome browser is expected to soon supplant the Webkit-based browser in Android. "Probably a subsequent version of Android is going to pick up a lot of the Chrome stack," Brin said before adding, "My guess is we'll have 'Chrome-like' or something similar," when asked about the brand name. While we have lingering doubts about the likely stability of the initial 1.0 Android OS release, version 2.0 with Chrome is likely to be killer in every sense of the word to Symbian Nokia, Microsoft, and Apple. Of course, we'll be first in line for the HTC Dream regardless.

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Intel bolsters its offerings with three new CPUs

from Engadget by Donald Melanson

Filed under: Desktops

Intel is keeping a rightly low-key approach with this announcement, but if you're somehow not satisfied with any of its current processor offerings, you may find something more to your liking among the three it slipped out over the Labor Day weekend. Those include the 45nm Core 2 Quad 8200, which clocks in at 2.33GHz with 4MB of L2 cache and a 1333MHz FSB, and gets a somewhat more budget-friendly $230 price tag at the expense of support for things like Intel's Virtualization Technology and Trusted Execution Technology. If that's a bit much, you can also now snag the dual-core, 2.5GHz E5200, which packs 2MB of L2 cache and 800MHz FSB for $84, or the single-core 65nm Celeron 450, which rolls in at a respectable 2.2GHz and includes 512K of L2 and an 800MHz FSB for a mere $53. Hit up the read link below for the complete breakdown.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Sprint's HTC Touch Diamond: September 14 for $249.99. Honest.

from Engadget by Chris Ziegler

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Now that Uncle Walt has gone and opened the floodgates, details are starting to pour in on Sprint's imminent release of the Touch Diamond, a device that should actually manage to get the carrier damn close to the top of the Windows Mobile pile (for a short while, anyway). PC Magazine is now reporting that it'll be available on September 14 for $249.99 on a two-year contract after $100 rebate, a sum that would put it squarely in the "average" category for on-contract smartphone pricing in these parts. Of course, with the Touch Pro allegedly just around the corner, it remains to be seen just how much love this thing is going to get; nothing like a good, old-fashioned QWERTY-versus-touchscreen fight, is there?Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

120GB Zune sold just a little bit early

from Engadget by Nilay Patel

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Whoop -- looks like the 120GB Zune couldn't wait for its formal debut on the 9th. Yep, sold to our tipster at a Fry's in Atlanta for $250, just like we'd heard. Anyone else spot one -- or better yet, the blue flash Zune? One more pic after the break.

[Thanks, Joe]

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Next generation Atom processors for netbooks scheduled for Q3, 2009

from Engadget by Thomas Ricker

Filed under: Handhelds, Laptops

Just as you were getting your head wrapped around Atom-branded Diamondville-class processors based on a Silverthorne architecture, along comes the next generation. Expected to arrive in Q3 of 2009, the new 45-nm Pineview processors will come in hyperthreaded single- and dual-core versions like the current generation Atom 2xx- and 3xx-series. However, the procs will be based on a new Lincroft micro-architecture boasting an integrated graphics core and memory manager that connects to memory via DMI, not a FSB. Unfortunately, the all important TDP power-draw off your tiny netbook's battery in currently undefined. Hit the read link for the full roadmap and processor timeline if that's the kind of thing that twirls your propellor.

[Via RegHardware]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Dogs and cats living together: Sony and PNY set to re-release Ghostbusters on a flash drive

from Engadget by Nilay Patel

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Storage

It's not clear what format or resolution it's going to be in, but Sony and PNY have just announced that they're teaming up to release one of the best movies ever, 1984's Ghostbusters, on a flash drive. That's the first full-length studio movie to go out this way, but knowing Sony, we're expecting a crazy proprietary format that only plays in a heavily DRM'd player. Even still, it's definitely a start -- and coupled with the plan to stream Hancock exclusively to Bravia Internet Link owners, it certainly seems like the company is warming up to alternative forms of distribution. Now if we could just get some DRM-free HD content in a standardized format, we'd be all set, no?

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Google Chrome will boost pre-emptive contextual advertising

from The Forrester Blog For Interactive Marketing Professionals by Steven Noble

[Posted by Steven Noble]

Chrome — the new web browser from Google — has generated online buzz for all sorts of reasons, but there has been almost no talk about its impact on contextual advertising.

To me, it's clear: Chrome is part of Google's plan to allow us to buy ads within almost any electronic application or media.

Today, many of the applications we use are ad-free zones. For example, most word processors and video editors are free of advertising. The same is true of the on-screen applications that we use to control most consumer electronics devices.

Web applications are different. For a start, we access them through a web browser — think of Hotmail or Gmail, for example. This means that the owners of web applications can provide contextual advertising. For example, anything labelled "sponsored links" in this Gmail screenshot is an ad.

Use of web applications is on the rise, and Chrome will accelerate the trend. To see why, download a copy of Chrome yourself (Windows only at this stage), and point it at a web application like Google Reader. I found it incredible how quickly it handled tasks like scrolling through my news feeds.

Then, read the comic that Google commissioned to launch Chrome. You'll see why Google believes Chrome is not just a faster way to use web application, but also a more reliable one.

Now, return to viewing your web app in Chrome, and select "Create application shortcuts" from the Page menu. Chrome will create a simple, clean, stand-alone version of your web application that you can access like any desktop software. The screenshot above is an example of what you get.

Note: I'm not suggesting Chrome will snatch massive marketshare from Internet Explorer overnight. There are countless reasons why most users stick with the browser they know. Even for a Chrome fan like me, access to my favourite plug-ins will keep me using Firefox for some time yet.

However, by providing a much better experience with web applications, Chrome will encourage more people than ever to use them. Meanwhile, competition from Chrome will encourage Apple, Microsoft and Mozilla to improve their rival browsers. Indeed, the Mozilla team is already trialling some nifty (and quite unrelated) step-changes in how we use Firefox to access web applications. As all browsers improve, more and more people will gradually be drawn towards using web applications.

And that will provide more opportunities than ever for companies like Microsoft and Google to sell contextual advertising.

So, what's the takeaway for interactive marketers? For me, this signals a subtle shift in the potential role of contextual advertising in the sales and marketing process.

Today, contextual ads are powerful because they appear when internet users are either searching for a topic or reading about it. Plug "ironing press" into Google and you'll see search ads based on that term. Click through to an online magazine that reviews ironing presses, and you'll probably see contextual ads there too.

In the future, contextual ads will be available even when the consumer is not searching for information. Write a letter about your whiplash in a future online word processor, and there's no reason a personal injury lawyer couldn't show you their ad. Watch the 2005 AFL Grand Final repeatedly on a future web-based personal video recorder, and there's no reason why Rebel Sport couldn't pitch you its Sydney Swans merchandise. Plan a long journey using a future web-based in-car navigation system, and there's no reason the Road Traffic Authority couldn't remind you of the dangers of fatigue.

Furthermore, there's no reason future ads could not "talk back" to web applications — helping you plan rest stops in your long journey, for example.

All this has been tried before on "heavy" platforms like interactive TV, but nothing beats a simple web application mashup for fast and low-cost efficiency. This will be the breakthrough.

The end game will be a situation in which the interactive marketer can offer the user what they need before they realise they need it. To win in this world, interactive marketers will have to become anthropologists, completely immersed in how their customers live their lives.

Sony, Samsung both claim "world's first" 200Hz LCD

Sony, Samsung both claim "world's first" 200Hz LCD TV

from Engadget by Donald Melanson

Filed under: HDTV

We already caught sight of Sony's Bravia Z4500 LCD TV with 200Hz "MotionFlow" before and after it was officially unveiled at IFA, but it wasn't the only such set on the scene, with Samsung also touting a "world's first" 200Hz LCD TV of its own. Apparently, the distinction is that Samsung supposedly had the world's first prototype, while Sony will actually be the first to market with one. All this is also slightly further complicated by the fact that Sony and Samsung have each also already introduced 240Hz LCD TVs in Japan, although we're chalking those up to the usual 50 / 60Hz, NTSC / PAL differences. One thing that is clear, however, is that both sets sure are impressive, and you can get a taste of each by checking out Engadget en Español's round-up at the link below.

Back from Slow Food Nation and I Spent $180 At Whole Foods

If you’ve been reading our coverage of Slow Food Nation, it is clear I was having the time of my life. I will never buy, taste and cook the same way again. And I was so inspired that I contemplated leaving the city to work on an orchard in Maine (it was a fleeting thought, but none the less…)

After returning from San Francisco, I took my new found enthusiasm and my re-usable shopping bags to Whole Foods for some groceries. And let me tell you, every time I reached for the local and organic option on the shelf, I heard a ka-ching! ring in my head.

For everything Slow Food and its leaders have done to bring its mantra of “good, clean and fair” food to the public, I can’t help but question about how absurd this must sound to the average American family.

Let’s examine the food from this weekend: the Victory Garden in in their heart of the Civic Center housed gorgeous edible garden and a farmers market of sorts for the entire weekend. Free samples were enjoyed by all but when it came to purchasing food, I paid $6 for 2 peaches. Now I’m extremely fortunate that i can spend $6 but for some people, $6 can buy a fast food dinner for 3 or 4 people.

And the cheese, albeit amazing, was $26 a pound. Yes my friends, $26.

I know the benefits of supporting local and organic farming and I choose to vote with my fork each time I shop at a Farmer’s Market. But what are the alternatives for the average American family? And could they have been better addressed this weekend?

Planting a garden was a resounding suggestion from all of the Slow Food leaders. I’ve had the great pleasure of making an entire salad including broccoli, Brussels sprouts, peppers, lettuce, carrots, celery, cabbage, mint, basin, thyme and rosemary all grown no more than 10 steps from my kitchen. But the food not lawns movement implies that you a) have a lawn and b) have a disposable income to pay for the garden.

Sometimes change from the top and change from the grassroots can meet comfortable in the middle. And I know this movement has inspired some of the most amazing projects in undeserved communities. I just wish I would have heard their voices, their recommendations, and their struggles throughout the conference.

takepart and tell us your healthy eating tips

Related:

TakePart at Slow Food
Hungry for Change

Why I won’t be using Google’s Chrome much

from 451 CAOS Theory by Jay Lyman

I’ve been excitedly anticipating the release of the new Chrome browser from Google, but now that it’s out in beta for Windows, I don’t think I’ll be using it very much.

It’s too bad, because I was just thinking what a good thing Apple’s Safari and Mozilla Firefox have been, pushing innovative features and forcing the more dominant player, Microsoft, to more aggressively advance its own Internet Explorer browser.

So Chrome only shines for Windows, at least for now. Odd, I think, coming from a company that is heavily reliant on Linux and full or at least well-stocked with its own Linux users and developers. It also adds to Google’s somewhat peculiar series of statements and moves on open source licenses.

It’s even more frustrating to see Google release Chrome — which itself is open source and, like Safari, based on the Webkit open source framework — but not support Linux. For all of its talk about choice of browser, Google’s rollout of Chrome only highlights the lack of choice on OS.

However, it is not these issues or reservations that will keep me from using Chrome. I’ll shut down my primary computer and boot it up in Windows to give Chrome a try after things have calmed a bit, but I really don’t enjoy using my Windows very much (not as much as Linux), and use is limited mainly to Webinars and rare instances when a vendor or project provides support only for Windows. Luckily for me, those instances are occurring less and less. And when Google gets around to putting Chrome on Linux, I’ll be ready to really take it for a drive.