The notebook that thinks it's a desktop
Acer says its new Aspire 1700 is "the first portable with a true 17in screen", as distinct from the Apple PowerBook's widescreen. But in Acer's case, we might quibble about "portable". The screen is big, but so is the rest of it. This is a 7.2kg portable built mainly from desktop PC parts, except for the 90-minute battery. It has big feet to lift it off the table, and a big down-facing fan. Still, the case does allow room for a proper keyboard and numeric keypad, DVD/CD-RW, floppy, 80GB hard drive, stereo speakers and a sub-woofer. You can play CDs without opening the case, and if you need an even bigger screen, it has a VGA monitor port, and S-Video to connect to a TV set - plus four USB 2.0, two Firewire and other ports. But much the biggest thing about this boxy beast is the smallest thing: the price. A low-end model with half a gig of memory and a 2.66GHz Pentium 4 will cost only £1,291. No road warrior would aspire to a battleship like this, but as a multimedia desktop replacement, it could be a big winner.
Wireless
Monk in the Cloud
Drinkers at the Old Monk in Leman Street, London, might notice more business types toting laptops than usual today. For the Old Monk has become one of over 200 pubs dotted throughout the UK, (interestingly there are only two so far in London) that, via a service called The Cloud, are offering wireless internet connections alongside beer and peanuts.
Access to The Cloud's wireless system is free until July 1, after which would-be surfers will either buy pay-as-you-go vouchers or be billed by a network provider such as BT OpenZone.
In a bid to tempt corporate users, the company promises that its Wi-Fi system will offer a secure connection to company VPNs (virtual private networks) as it has run a private DSL line to each pub.
The Cloud hopes to cover 600 pubs by the end of June, and 3,000 by the end of 2003.
www.mycloud.net
Faster wirefree
Intel is bringing forward the launch of Centrino processors that feature 802.11g Wi-Fi compatibility to the fourth quarter of 2003. Their planned debut was not intended until the second quarter of 2004.
While the 802.11b format, as used by existing Centrino notebook PCs, offers speeds of 11mbps, 802.11g, which works on the same wavelength as 802.11b (2.4Ghz) has much quicker theoretical download speeds of 54mbps. The new format is also backwards compatible with 802.11b. Although 802.11g has yet to be formally ratified, 802.11g products from companies like Linksys and Apple have sold well.
www.intel.co.uk
Wi-Fi mobiles
Coming soon are mobile phones that can switch between Wi-Fi and existing phone networks. Handset manufacturer Motorola is reported to be nearing completion of its first Wi-Fi phone, while another US company, Calypso, claims to have a model ready to launch in the US very shortly. The C1250i uses 802.11b technology to connect to Wi-Fi networks at speeds of 11mbps and is compatible with existing hotspots. Calypso says the handset will harness the fast download speeds to offer real-time video conferencing at far superior levels than even 3G networks. www.calypsowireless.com
Broadband
X-systems is hoping to throw a lifeline to rural communities desperate for fast internet connections. It has launched a Wi-Fi service that uses 802.11b technology to deliver internet speeds of between 1mbps to 4mbps to both businesses and consumers.
The company is inviting countryside dwellers to register their interest in wireless broadband via its website. It claims it requires only 50 users to sign up to enable a cost-effective system to be installed. The initial broadband connection will be provided either by a leased line or via satellite.
<A HREF="http://www.x-broadband.co.uk"" TARGET="_NEW">www.x-broadband.co.uk
Mobile
Cookies for mobiles
A UK firm is marketing a system that acts in a similar way to a cookie - but for mobile phones. Bango's Fingerprint system allows pseudonymous authentication of mobile phones, meaning firms can track their customers for marketing purposes without knowing their full details. The system is already being used by a ringtones vendor. Rob Bamforth at IT analysis firm Bloor Research says the service is like those that process credit card payments for ecommerce sites, but covers marketing as well. "It's essentially third-party verification of who you are, but without disclosing all the information about yourself," he says. www.it-analysis.com
Bluetooth screen
US company MicroOptical looks set to become the first to market an LCD screen that connects wirelessly via Bluetooth to mobile phones and PDAs. The DV-1 viewer, a 12bit QVGA display, clips on to eyeglasses and delivers images significantly larger than those seen on the phone or PDA's screen. The company claims the battery-powered viewer is, unlike many LCD devices, readable in all lighting conditions. MicroOptical hopes to launch a version of the DV-1 later this year.
www.microopticalcorp.com
Hardware
Hyper-Intelligent
Until now, you had to buy Intel's most expensive 3GHz Pentium 4 or a Xeon processor in order to get hyperthreading (HT), which in some cases provides a dramatic increase in processing power for no extra cost. This week, however, Intel announced HT in three slower Pentiums running at 2.4, 2.6 and 2.8GHz. There are also new ancillary chip-sets numbered 865G and 865PE, formerly code-named Springdale, which support HT and the faster 800MHz system bus. HT enables a single processor to work as two. This can mean heavyweight background tasks run much more smoothly. But if you only run one program at once, it doesn't help, and may even reduce performance slightly.
www.intel.com/info/hyperthreading
Think again
IBM has renamed and redesigned its PC line so that what used to be NetVista desktops are now ThinkCentres. (IBM's corporate slogan is Think, and it has long used the name for ThinkPad note book PCs.) The ThinkCentre S50, M50 and A50p models are designed to reduce the cost of ownership for corporate buyers. All can be opened easily without tools, the hard disk is mounted in a caddy, and Rapid Restore Ultra software provides one-button backup and recovery. The ThinkCentre S50 is the space-saving model, and measures just 309 x 359 x 85 mm - less than half the size of the NetVista. The ThinkCentre M50 is certified to support Red Hat and SuSE Linux. A "value priced" ThinkCentre A30 will appear later this year
Multimedia
It is difficult to describe onedotzero to the initiated. Is it a film festival? An exploration of the art of computer graphics? A club night showcasing cutting-edge visuals? For the past seven years the east London-based festival has travelled the world capturing the best in digital moving image.
This year's festival is now on at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, but if you can't make it before Monday, onedotzero_select is the first of a series of DVD releases allowing you to experience the best in digital moving image in the comfort of your home.
A mixture of new material and highlights from the past seven years, the disc features graphic design collectives such as Tomato and Shynola as well as footage from an excellent live performance of The Light Surgeons, considered by many to be the finest purveyors of club visuals in the world.
www.onedotzero.com
