Mighty Gadget Blog: The latest technology news & reviews in the UK

3D is now obviously what every major tech gadget producer is aiming at with everything now coming in 3D. As a user I’m still not totally convinced but I’ve only watched the odd football match in 3D and not got my eyes on a decent 3D movie or game yet. LG recently launched the LG R590 3D laptop in Korea and it’s expected to hit our shores soon.

Powered with Intel’s Core i7 processor and 1GB of NVIDIA graphics goodness this 15.6” laptop ops for the polarising 3D effect and comes bundled with a fetching pair of the cheaper polarised frames. The 3D effect comes from the TriDef software we saw on Lenovo’s recently released IdeaPad Y560d 3D laptop, it converts the 2D images on the go into a 3D image, that when fired through a polarised screen into your Joe 90s the image “comes to life”. The laptop is also capable of HD quality sound and has the option for a Blu-Ray drive.

We have no details on the exact date of release or price but LG have also gone on to say they’re planning a plethora of 3D gadgets, including monitors for PC gaming and even 200” projectors with 3D capabilities.

The Tegra was the original powerhouse in the mobile world powering the soon to be Microsoft Kin Mobile phones and also that “not for Britain” PMP the Zune HD. With stiff competition from Qualcomm’s Snapdragon, mobile Intel chips and ARM, all good at what they do. TEGRA never failed to impress in its reviews and actions delivering application speed and HD video with ease.

Now Nvidia are planning to release the next TEGRA chip sometime this year, hoping to launch in conjunction with the 3rd generation of Android. Yes that’s right rather than sticking with Microsoft NVIDIA has obviously spotted the potential in Google’s OS and it’s rise in popularity in the mobile market. Co-Founder Jen-Hsun Huang has said that the future holds plenty of TEGRA powered Android phones and tablets to confirm this. He’s also gone on to point out that their main rival will be the iPad and it’s chipset the A4, currently the iPad’s chip and the planned next processor to be in the iPhone 4.0.

“The bar is pretty high for all the mobile players and they need a processor that can keep up with the A4. If not be much better than what the A4 can do because they have to take on the leader in the space.” – Huang on the Apple A4 processor

“I think the second generation Tegra has been doing incredibly well because Android is doing incredibly well. So we’re going to come to market with second-generation Tegra with the third generation Android.” Huang on Tegra and Android.

Certainly will make for a more interesting competition in the future for sure.

Fudzilla are reporting that ION 2 should launch toward the end of the year.

Industry sources have told them that the new Ion 2 will have a decreased die size, should have much faster graphics and much more shaders.

The ION 2 will have more than double (32+) the number of shaders of the original Geforce 9400M /MCP79 /ION chip.

Microsoft have announce its Zune HD will be powered by Nvidia’s Tegra chipset giving the OLED PMP brilliant visuals, great performance and better battery life which we all know is a massice problem when playing video on a PMP. Nvidia’s Tegra can give 1080p output on HDMI. The Zune itself will only do 720p playback but if its powered by the Tegra, this will give the Zune great rendering capabilities and it will be interesting to see how the UI can get the full potential of it.

Microsoft has kept quiet on the full specifications of the Zune HD but on an official Zune Insider Podcast, presenter Matt Akers said the Zune was “like a mini laptop in your hand” after confirming that it would indeed use the Nvidia Tegra. Still waiting for a UK release date and price…….. can’t wait!!

Nvidia have announced that they’re updating they’re mobile series of graphics cards with five DirectX 10.1-capable chips(G210M, GT 230M, GT 240M, GTS 250M, GTS 260M) just in time for Windows 7 release, but disappointingly after the MacBook upgrade, which will contain the older series of GPU. Smaller(40Nm),  less demanding on power consumption, improved performance and more importantly to NVIDIA, cheaper to make.

Check the images for how they compare to the other cards.

Source : Gizmodo, Ubergizmo

NVIDIA 3D Vision is a clever little gadget that will bring 3D tech to your PC without having to buy a dedicated screen.

It is now on sale in the UK from a variety of retailers and works by lashing up a pair of wireless 3D specs to an infrared transmitter and use some software that displays two different pictures simultaneously, so there’s no flicker.

You should then get depth perception in PC games which should be handy for shooters.

You will need a PC running Vista and compatible graphics card and you will also need a monitor or TV that can run at 120Hz and higher.

Nvidia GeForce 3D Vision plus a 120Hz Samsung SyncMaster LCD should now be available for around £400

Neo Win are reporting some exclusive details about the new Microsoft Zune HD. They are claiming that these details have been confirmed by sources within Microsoft so in theory they should be true, which would mean we may be in for quite a treat from the new Zune HD.

Zune HD specs:

• Appoximately a 3.6 inch OLED touch screen
• NVIDIA Tegra processor/gpu
• 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB versions
• HDMI Connection to stream straight to your TV
• HD Radio.
• Web Browser.
• WiFi compatible, with wireless marketplace.
• Released, early fall.
• International Release
• Home AV packs, Car packs, Charge packs.

Image from Engadget

Netbooks have always been perceived as low cost, basic computers for general web and email type activities. Well Asus says no to that preconception and has decided to fit its Asus N1oJ netbook with a Nvidia GeForce 9300 discrete graphics chip.

The rest of the spec includes a 10" 1,024x600 native resolution screen, Intel Atom N270 CPU, 1GB of RAM, and Windows XP. With a price of £455.

Obviously you wont be playing Crysis on this but Cnet did manage to play Unreal Tournament III.