These are my specifications for my 2010 PC. The only change I have planned for it is a solid state drive, but who knows when I’ll find one I like at the price point I like.

Oh, boy. The slippery slope of getting back into PC hardware has resulted in more PC related posts.

Today’s interesting tidbit comes in the form of a Radeon HD 6000 launch rumor. According to an HIS senior marketing manager, we should expect the next video card series from AMD/ATI to be anounced around the fourth quarter of this year. Excited? Well, not really.

We can expect bumps in performance, but forget about landscape altering new technologies. This is more about getting more performance while lowering power consumption — “efficiency” is the word I’m looking for. I’m all for more performance at a lower power (and hopefully monetary) costs, but I doubt I’ll be upgrading any time soon.

Or $210 ~ $220 king for us Canadians.

If I was going to plop down $200+ for a new video card, I would make it an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460. According to The Tech Report and AnandTech, NVIDIA have redeemed themselves after the somewhat disappointing high end cards.

Now,  I just purchased a Radeon HD 5770 for about $174 and if you’re wondering if I would have waited for this video card, the answer would have been: “No”.

I have a new rule for upgrading video cards:

It must offer at least 200% increase in performance for $200 or less (after taxes).

That may seem like a lot to ask for, but that’s more than what I got when I upgraded from my 7900 GT.

The only thing I may regret is the inevitable shuffling of pricing which may knock the Radeon HD 5770 down the pricing ladder. However, I doubt we’ll see that price drop before we the Radeon HD 5850′s.

The iPhone 4 was officially unveiled at Apple’s WWDC 2010 today.

It’s the same looking phone that was leaked by Gizmodo a few months back, so the look of it shouldn’t have surprised me, but it did. An Apple presentation adds that special something which makes their products look even more attractive. I don’t know how they manage to do it, but Apple are excellent marketers like that.

Anyways, this post isn’t about selling the iPhone 4, it’s about what’s new to the phone.

So here’s the gist of it.

Hardware

• 24% thinner than iPhone 3GS/aka the “thinnest smartphone on the planet” at 9.3 mm
• Stainless steel frame which acts as an antenna and frame
• Glass front and back for visual quality and scratch resistance
• Powered byApple’s custom built A4 processor (same processor as the iPad’s)

Display

• 3.5 inch display (same as 3GS)
• 4x pixel density for the display (960 x 640 resolution vs 320 × 480 of the 3GS)
• 800:1 contrast ratio
• IPS display technology

Camera

• 5 MP camera w/LED flash
• Records HD video 720p @ 30fps
• Also has a front facing camera which enables FaceTime video chat via Wi-fi only (2010)

Other

• 802.11n support
• Six axis gyroscope
• iOS 4 will feature Bing as well along with the other stuff mentioned previously
• iMovie (video editing) app for iPhone
• iPhone OS 4 renamed to iOS4

Availability/Pricing

• White or Black $199 USD for 16 GB, $299 USD for 32 GB, 3GS going $99 USD for 3GS
• On sale June 24th for the U.S
• On sale July 2010 for Canada

As always, I urge people to bask in the Apple marketing and visit their website. The way they hype the most mundane of details is really something else. I actually thought the “Retina Display” was something revolutionary and not a simple bump of screen resolution. It’s impressive, but it isn’t as grand innovation as they made it out to be.

As for me getting one of these? Probably not. I still don’t see the need to pay $50 for a phone. If only the iPad 2 got this kind of treatment.

Today is iPhone OS 4.0 conference day. Engadget was there to transcribe the info, but if you’re lazy or would like a bulletpoint version the new info, here it is.

• Over 100 new user features including Bluetooth keyboards, Home screen wallpaper, spell checker, wake on wireless and more
• 7 tentpole features unveiled
  • Multitasking – Sever services including  background audio, background location, VOIP, Local notifications, Push notifications, Task completion, fast app switching
  • Folders – Now can organize apps with folders and place them on the dock etc.
  • Unified inbox – All your e-mail accounts in one inbox, can organize by thread, fast inbox switching, open attachments with apps
  • iBooks – eBook reader, book store, sync page and book marks across platforms
  • Enterprise – Better data protection, mobile device management, SSL VPN support, Exchange Server 2010 support, wireless app distribution
  • Game Center – “Xbox Live!” for iPhone OS 4.0 including leaderboards, friend invites, matchmaking & achievements
  • iAd – New in-app mobile advertising platform which includes more interactive ads which developers can buy “ad space”,
• Release windows:
  • Coming Summer for iPhone & iPod Touch
  • Coming  Fall for iPad
• Certain iPhone OS 4.0 features (ie: multitasking) will only work with iPhone 3GS & 3rd generation iPod Touch devices. (Poor iPhone 3G owners)

Pretty darn exciting features coming for iPhone OS. I wonder if the iPad will get exclusive features or not. It may actually convince me to let go of my complaints and get one .

I’m a bit late on this, but it looks like both AnandTech and Tech Report reviews are essentially saying the same thing: the AMD/ATI Radeon HD 5850 and 5870 are better buys.

While these new NVIDIA video cards are “10 and 15% faster”, they do cost more, consume more power, run hotter and run louder than their AMD/ATI counterparts. So why bother with these new cards? There doesn’t seem to be a reason to.

I hope a price war between these two video card giants starts up. That’s when I can make a real purchasing decision because, quite frankly, they’re both a bit too expensive for my tastes.

$250 or less please. $200 would be better!

So you may have heard that Apple announced the iPad. If you haven’t seen what this new fangled gadget is, I suggest you go watch Apple’s hype video.

It’s a beautiful gadget and Apple does a hell of a job selling it. But is it right for me? Will it replace my current Dell Mini 9 netbook? My gut reaction was: “Yes. Netbooks are doomed.” However, after some time to digest and get away from Apple’s marketing talk, I don’t think I’d get one. Even if it is just $499.99 USD.

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