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Gadgets and gizmos Wednesday

Robert Hallock October 8, 2008 10:21 AM ET in Tech

Aside from RIM’s official unveiling of the Storm, not much is at play in the world of gadgets today. Nevertheless, here are a few links to get you started:

  • Harnessing the power of frickin’ laser beams for 20Gbps terrestrial wireless? 10Gbps at 800m? Daddy like!
  • Just in case you haven’t heard, Intel released the Core 2 Duo E7300 and E5200 some weeks back. While you probably wouldn’t want to court the E5200, the 7xxx series is rather a fantastic bargain.
  • RIM’s BlackBerry Storm was officially unveiled. It supports quad-band GSM, EV-DO Rev. A, HSPA/UMTS, no WiFi, a weird clicky touchscreen, a wacky app store and some other bits and bobs. Give it a peek if you’re a smartphone afficianado.
  • AMD will soon start pushing its GPU-on-CPU “Fusion” technology pretty hard. To prep the market for its coming, AMD is resorting to a bizarre and arguably useless utility to “prep your computer for gaming.” Seriously, it’s just weird.

As usual, check back to this post as news rolls in throughout the day.

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3 Comments:

  1. Shorty
    Sniping teh enterpwise!
    9 Oct '08, 1:48 am

    The question is ... will the Storm make an impact? I had two friends (both who realise I am a blackberry fanboy so to speak) ask me yesterday if I had seen it and was I getting one? I have only just got my BlackBerry bold. So I guess the Storm is later on my list of personal acquisitions.

    Personally, I feel the storm looks good but the lack of Wi-Fi seems very strange. The Bold, later Pearl and late model Curve devices all have it. Why exclude it from their "iphone" killer? Will that sour the potential purchasers who are used to the seamless nature of the iphone?

  2. Robert Hallock
    Cad
    9 Oct '08, 2:00 am

    The lack of WiFi is undoubtedly due to the ridiculous array of mobile radios. I'm sure they simply ran out of room. As much as I like EV-DO, it's not a standard that's terribly viable given the global (and US) saturation of GSM and, more specifically, HSDPA 3G coverage. They should have offered it without CDMA and swapped in a WiFi radio.

    Given the state of the US and Canadian markets, this simply would not be viable. AT&T in the US and Rogers in Canada already carry the iPhone, making it extremely unlikely that either of them would carry the Storm. It wouldn't sell well against the iPhone and I'm sure neither of them are willing to risk eroded profits.

    More frustratingly for RIM, they are a company that is not well-known. Even if the Storm were in every way better than the iPhone, it would be a relative failure. RIM lives in obscurity for your common phone-buyer who's hyped about the iPhone.

    In the end, the phone is nothing more than a placation for Verizon and the minuscule number of CDMA carriers in the far east. Despite RIM's attempts to make inroads in the consumer market with colored Pearls, they've got a long way to go and probably will never get there.

  3. Shorty
    Sniping teh enterpwise!
    9 Oct '08, 7:02 am

    An articulate and very accurate analysis there Rob, I agree wholeheartedly

    We have a similar scenario here. One of RIMs principle UK carriers here in the UK _was_ o2. o2 were initially getting all the RIM exclusives but since they became the sole carrier for the iPhone, that relationship appears to have soured. The iPhone is so horribly over-exposed here that I do think the Storm is going to struggle to make the same impact. The market perception seems to remain as:

    iPhone - consumer
    BlackBerry - business

    .. and never the twain shall meet. I have been using a BB as a consumer device for years now, the way it's presented and marketed is still relatively poor (as you clearly state).

    Do I think the Storm could be better than the iPhone? Quite possibly but until I actually get to play with one, I can't tell you. I will however report back once I have had a proper trial with one

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