Some Intel Santa Rosa Chips To Have Seperate HD Decoder

Multitaskers rejoice!!!

Intel is going to start using seperate decoders for HD DVD and Blu-ray playback in certain versions of their Santa Rosa chips. Now your little graphics card won't have put up with your love of High-Def on its own.

That means no more computer slow down when you're watching Planet Earth on Blu-ray (or HD DVD) and checking out Porn at the same time.

That's a win for me, and a win for you-thanks Intel.

Intel brakes out the big guns for lappies

Attention all laptop gamers!!!

Intel's prepping a mobile version of their Core 2 Extreme processor. It's expected to give laptops (gaming laptops in particular) a nice shot of adrenaline without zapping your battery (Intel claims the dual-core CPU will have energy-saving features). It'll use Intel's Santa Rosa 800MHz front-side bus, though actual clock speeds are still up in the air. It's expected to come out in Q3, so you might wanna wait if you're shopping for a gaming notebook.

Clickity clack for the article. [Laptoping]

Dell XPS m1330 performance ultraportable

Dell hits the streets with there most impressive laptop yet, the Dell XPS m1330! The Dell XPS m1330 has some nasty specs in it too:

• 13.3-inch screen, configurable with LED backlight! (300cd/m2, or 220 with CCFL backlight)
• Core 2 Duo processor (up to 2.4GHz), Santa Rosa chipset (965PM/GM)
• Up to 4GB DDR2 SDRAM
• 32GB SSD drive or spinning-platter drive options up to 250GB
• Slot-loading dual-layer DVD±RW drive!
• Optional NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS / 128MB
• WWAN option for Verizon, Sprint, or AT&T
• Ethernet, 802.11a, a/g, or n options, Bluetooth option
• Integrated 2 megapixel webcam (VGA only on LED-backlit display)
• HDMI, VGA, 1394, (2) USB 2.0, integrated media reader (MS, SD, xD), dual mini-PCI slots, fingerprint reader
  
• Dimensions with LED 12.5 x 9.4 x 0.87 - 1.33-inches (318 x 238 x 22.1 - 33.8mm) / with CCFL 12.5 x 9.4 x 0.97 - 1.43-inches (318 x 238 x 24.6 - 36.3mm)
• Weight starts at 4 pounds

No word on availability or price but you can bet that we'll be all over it when it is.

New Apple MacBook Pros Boost Graphics and Memory: Goes on diet

Apple site is back up!!!

And at last, here are the new Santa Rosa-based Apple MacBooks, loaded with faster Core 2 Duo processors. Same design and LED backlit LCD screens, but raising speeds and including more memory and NVIDIA 8600M GT graphics at the same $1,999 and $2,499 prices. And all this shaving 0.4 pounds off its weight. Click below for full specs and information about the also-revamped 17" model.

Check out some of the sexeyness after the jump. [Apple]

AppleStore is Down, As Expected

AppleStore is down again and that most probably means new MacBook Pros with Santa Rosa chipsets. Or free White Castles/In and Out burgers in every order to celebrate the iPhone launch.

I'm hoping for both though!!!

iMac Gets Dressed Up For WWDC

All right, let’s fire up the rumor mill about what’s coming our way at WWDC. Could it be a brushed metal iMac, ala Mac Pro, perhaps, with a Santa Rosa chipset? It’s buzzing around that the newest iMac will also be super sized to proportions larger than the current 24-inch model. I'll bet that this is the case because the 17-incher was axed not too long ago and flat-panel prices are plummeting.

Oh and don’t forget that the Macbook Pros could be upgraded tomorrow.

Fun stuff!!!

Sony Introduces VAIO FZ Series

Sony joins the fray of Santa Rosa craziness!!!

Sony delivers the goods today with the new VAIO FZ series of laptops. These new notebooks go on sale in the next week or so and will retail from $1400 and up.

The standard should be a 15.4-inch display with XBRITE technology, a Blu-Ray drive, dedicated media controls, HDMI output, 802.11n WiFi with a/b/g support, an ExpressCard 3/4 slot, and internal card readers that handle SD and Memory Stick formats. But the $1400 base model, the FZ130, comes with a 1.8GHz Core 2 Duo, 1GB of RAM, Intel X3100 video (ouch), and 160GB of hard drive space, plus a DVD-RW burner.

These babies will have Blu-Ray drives and a nice sleek design. These should be the best looking Vaios yet!!!

Samsung joins the Santa Rosa party

Everyone and their mamas keep pumping out new Santa Rosa equipped laptops. Samsung joins in with their new model the Aura R70.

When the Aura R70 hits the world expect 1.8GHz to 2.0GHz Core 2 Duos processors with 2 to 4MB caches and Intel 965 Express chipsets. It will also include a GeForce 8400M GS with 128MB, which has Pure Video HD processing to process H.264 high definition video and pump it to a a 15.4-inch screens and also through its HDMI port. The screen itself has 1,280 x 800 pixels, but there should be an option of 1,680 x 1,050 available.

The only disappointing fact about this unit is that it doesn't seem to support either 802.11n (only a/b/g) or Intel's Turbo Memory, the cache technology that Santa Rosa uses to speed up Vista operation.

But maybe the best thing going for it will be the price, which in the UK will be $1,399, and that's tax included. Not bad!!

Quad-Core Penryn

Intel is due to release the Santa Rosa processor next month, but they are already reporting the release of a reported quad-core Penryn mobile processor. This is strange for Intel to report about an upcoming processor that will succeed the processor that hasn't been released yet.

But they do give us a little in site on the newer processor. The Santa Rosa successor will likely be based on the 45- nanometer Penryn design and offer high-end gaming notebooks a insane amount of power. Intel demonstrated the ability to over clock these processors, but cooling them would be another issue.

Release of the new Penryn processors are due in the first half of 2008.