Category: Computers (Page 20 of 33)

      CrunchPad steamrolling toward production

      November 15, 2009 /

      CrunchPad.It’s been a long time since we’ve heard anything about Michael Arrington’s CrunchPad, the slim little web tablet the TechCrunch founder was developing. As Arrington has it, though, the project is moving forward, headed for production at some still unannounced date. The price has gone up from the original $200 to somewhere between $300 and $400.

      A few months back everyone thought the CrunchPad was dead, doomed because of rising production costs. While the price has gone up, the new range is definitely reasonable, but what about the features? The longer the CrunchPad gets delayed, the less likely that it can really be competitive. Apple already has a desirable tablet in the works and ereaders like the Nook are getting sturdy enough to make the CrunchPad look irrelevant.

      I can’t say a November release for $400 would have been better, because that’s the weird price point everyone seems to want to avoid. At this point, though, the CrunchPad needs some new life, or it’s going to be a huge flop.

      Source: YouTube (Gillmor Gang)

      Computers, News

      Snow Leopard won’t kill the Hackintosh

      November 5, 2009 /

      Snow Leopard.Developer builds- who can trust ’em? You may have seen this coming, but the newest most recent build of Snow Leopard, version 10.6.2, restores support for Intel’s Atom CPU. Yes, that means your hackintosh is safe if you’ve made the 64-bit upgrade.

      As to reasons for the flip-flop, there’s still no word from Apple. That likely means it was a bug, or an unintended consequence of some other change to the system. As such, I’d like to officially recant all those things I said about Apple going after the hacking community in light of a tablet release. It just ain’t happening, folks. Carry on.

      Apple, Computers

      Snow Leopard to kill Atom CPU support?

      November 2, 2009 /

      Hackintosh Dell mini.Nothing’s official just yet, but the latest Snow Leopard developer build, version 10.6.2, does away with Atom CPU support. It’s not a big deal to the average Mac user, but for anyone who has put the hours of dedication and frustration into making a Hackintosh, it’s a huge deal. It would effectively kill Snow Leopard for the little lappies, at least until someone can find a workaround.

      For the few among us running OS X on a Dell Mini or other such devices, you’re going to be stuck on 10.6.1 if you made the upgrade work. It has to make you wonder, though, if Apple isn’t targeting the tiny community ahead of the tablet release to encourage a few more purchases. Then again, the community is so small and the anticipation of an Apple tablet so great that it’s hard to imagine that to be the case.

      Apple, Computers

      Study shows $600 as critical price point for Apple tablet

      October 26, 2009 /

      Apple Tablet.Mac addicts are almost proud to spend hundreds of extra dollars when it comes to buying a computer, but an Apple tablet might not just be for Mac nerds. The general expectation is that Apple’s tablet will be like the iPhone or an iPod, bridging the gap between the diehards and the average consumer. With the average consumer, though, price becomes more important, and as a recent study by Retrevo suggests, $600 might be the break point.

      According to Retrevo, 68% of Mac users would be willing to spend over that $600 point on Apple’s tablet. In fact, 41% are willing to break $800 for the device. That hangs in line with what we know about Mac users’ spending habits. PC folks, on the other hand, aren’t so easy to persuade. Granted, there are still armies of them willing to pay premium dollar for the Apple brand, but not nearly as many by percentage.

      From the survey results, it looks like 36% of PC users would consider spending over $600. Strangely enough, only 16% would spend in the $600-$800 range, while 20% were willing to break the $800 mark. Still, that leaves a huge base of people dreaming sub-$600, a price that I just can’t imagine we’ll see.

      Apple, Computers

      PC manufacturers may have overanticipated Windows 7

      October 23, 2009 /

      Too many PCs in the warehouse.Now that Windows 7 has officially launched we’ll get to see if PC manufacturers were a little overzealous in their anticipation of the new OS. Comments from AMD toward the end of last week suggested there might be a little too much PC stock because of the new Windows OS.

      AMD has lowered its expectations for Q4 sales because of the high buildup for Windows 7. But a new OS doesn’t necessarily mean buying a new computer. For a lot of people, Windows 7 is just a fix for Vista – a remedy to that compelling desire to put fist through laptop when using Microsoft’s previous generation of operating systems.

      If anyone’s to blame for misguided expectations, I’d say it’s Microsoft. Ballmer came out way too late in the game to say “hey, it might not be as big as we thought.” Prior to that it sounded like Windows 7 might save the planet.

      Computers

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