Microsoft has applied for a neat patent for a smart inductive charger (via Being Manan). Inductive charging, used for example in the Palm Pre’s Touchstone, allows for contactless charging of devices in close proximity.

The charger couples inductive charging with an LCD screen that can be used to show off “weather conditions, sports scores, news headlines, and/or other selected items” through a wireless connection to a PC. More useful, I would think, would be some indication of the charging status of the device.

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Virtualization is a key enabling technology for the modern datacenter. Without virtualization, tricks like load balancing and multitenancy wouldn’t be available from datacenters that use commodity x86 hardware to supply the on-demand compute cycles and networked storage that powers the current generation of cloud-based web applications.

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The AMD Radeon HD 5570 has bowed and the usual suspects have reviews up.

Read More:
Anandtech, [H]ardOCP, Gizmodo

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Apple’s latest Mac Pro, jammed with multicore Nehalem-based Xeon processors, is designed to be a computing beast with power to spare for the most demanding tasks. Since the current Mac Pros became available in October of 2009, though, numerous users have reported a glitch, which appears to be related to audio processing, that causes those Xeons to run much hotter than expected. The problem also saps a surprising amount of performance as well.

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Sony’s upcoming motion controller for the PlayStation 3 was slated for a spring release, but without any hands-on time with the peripheral, any details on launch games, or any real details at all, it should come as a very mild surprise to learn that controller has been pushed back to autumn 2010.

“We have decided to release the Motion Controller in fall 2010 when we will be able to offer an exciting and varied line-up of software titles that will deliver the new entertainment experience to PS3 users,” said Kazuo Hirai, President and Group CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. 

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Quantum information is the physics of knowledge. To be more
specific, the field of quantum information studies the implications that quantum
mechanics has on the fundamental nature of information.
By studying this relationship between quantum theory and information,
it is possible to design a new type of
computer—a quantum computer.
A largescale,
working quantum computer—the kind of quantum computer some
scientists think we might see in 50 years—would be capable
of performing some tasks impossibly quickly.

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This year at CES the big story was 3D. Every meeting, every speech, and every party was, at some point, interrupted by some executive or PR person telling us to put on our glasses. Sony famously brought out Taylor Swift, and then asked you to watch Taylor Swift perform live in 3D on video screens… even though she was right there. 

You can read our own Jon Stokes’ take on the differing 3D displays and technology from CES to get caught up on the story. The question is: did the show sell you on the idea of 3D? The technology seemed mature and ready for your home—as long as you don’t mind wearing those ubiquitous glasses—but will interest from the press and electronics giants translate into consumer spending? We’re throwing the question to you.

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Early estimates for fourth-quarter PC sales are in, painting a much rosier picture than the past several quarters. Even Dell, which had a significant drop in market share for 2009, managed to turn in a slight increase in unit shipments for the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, HP moves into the top spot in the US, while Apple, despite showing an increase in units shipped, moved down to number five. Dell also took a hit worldwide, being bumped from the number two spot by Acer.

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Desktop versions of Intel’s next-gen processor architecture have made appearances in the top-end iMac models, but we shouldn’t have a long wait for mobile versions to show up in Apple’s portable line. A sales promotion for Intel retailers offers a chance to win a MacBook Pro featuring a Core i5 processor during the month of January, though such a machine does not currently exist in Apple’s lineup.

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Your next PC may cost you a bit more than expected if you buy later this year. Market research masters Gartner say that the price of building PCs will climb this year, reversing a six-year trend, due to component scarcity. That’s going to pose a bit of challenge to manufacturers who have focused on pumping out cheap netbooks during the economic downturn.

The biggest driver of the likely price increase is memory. The DRAM industry is in the midst of moving from DDR2 to DDR3, which means less of each type of RAM is being produced. DDR3 spot prices are up 23 percent over the last month; with memory comprising about a tenth of a PC’s overall cost, that’s a significant cost for OEMs to absorb.

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