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With the growing demand for mobile computing devices, factors such as longer battery life and fast charging are becoming increasingly important. We often hear about “breakthroughs” in battery technologies, but the promised deployments have always been ambiguous or just plainly out of reach. Yesterday, however, Toshiba went a step further by promising that its first fuel cell powered device will launch in just a few short months.

The company hasn't specified what the product will be, though a mobile phone seems most likely given that Toshiba showed a cell phone based on a fuel cell last week at the Ceatec show in Japan. The upcoming products are based on direct methanol fuel cell technology, which besides offering improved battery life and faster charging, is also seen as a greener source of energy than traditional batteries.

The massive amount of Eee PC sales we heard about earlier this week has helped Asustek rake in a lot of cash. Contrary to an overall global trend of hardware companies struggling, or at least seeing losses, Asustek is expected to grow significantly in the near future, as they are already doing now. The reasoning, cited by an Asustek CEO, is the Eee PC.

They claim the low cost of the hardware is what is making them so attractive, and able to sell so well – an easy correlation to make, as everybody loves to get good hardware on the cheap. That probably won't last, though, with their latest Eee hardware models consistently stepping outside the realm of “cheap.” If they want to keep up their current growth, they will have to keep a profile of cheap hardware available.

AMD's recent success with the Radeon series has been largely at Nvidia’s expense. After both financial and technological setbacks, many have wondered what Nvidia’s plan going forward is to recover. A recent interview has revealed much about what they are up to, in which Jen Hsun Huang spoke about the company’s future, CUDA, GPUs and chipsets.

It's pretty short, but to the point. Nvidia still sees the standard processor as something that is giving diminishing returns, and will wane faced with specialty processors like current GPUs using CUDA technology. They also don't see their chipset business as suffering – quite the opposite, they see themselves as “years” ahead of AMD. It's a short but interesting read on what Nvidia feels is really going on today.

The Eee is doing very well for Asustek, with a massive 700,000 units shipped last month alone. That was a new record for the company, and they expect it to help carry their total units shipped for the quarter to 1.7 million. Increased competition from companies like MSI, Acer and others hasn't seemed to stop the Eee PC's explosive growth.

Some data that might be interesting isn't mentioned. For instance, how many of that 700,000 are part of the “lower-end” models of the Eee versus the “higher-end,” and how many are an Eee desktop versus an Eee netbook. If Asustek sees a large number of the Eees in the “high-end” being sold, it may be even more reason for them to continue to adapt the Eee to a wide market. It has already left the realm of being “entry-level” or being just a netbook, though it's too early to tell if the Eee will fare well when faced up against run of the mill laptops.

CyberPower has just introduced the Gamer Xtreme XI, an Intel Core 2 Extreme based system designed with gaming and performance computing in mind. The Gamer Xtreme XI combines a factory overclocked Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 quad-core processor running at an impressive 4.0GHz, with a pair of powerful Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 cards featuring SLI and PhysX support.

CyberPower claims their system can handle even the most graphically intense computer games, but as you might expect it also carries an obscenely high price tag. Starting at $4939, this beast features 4GB of Corsair’s DDR3 PC1333 Dual Channel memory, twin 500 GB SATA II 7200 RPM hard drives in a RAID-0 configuration and a LG Blu-ray / HD-DVD optical drive, all this enclosed in an NZXT Khaos full tower case – which offers no extraordinary features and at $400 is just a poor choice (read our review) for an already expensive gaming rig. For an already generous price tag, they could have done better in that aspect.

The CyberPower Gamer Xtreme XI should go head to head with the likes of the HP Blackbird 002 and Alienware Area-51 ALX and can be ordered now (and further customized) at CyberPower’s website.

Asus is looking to cater to the “smaller is better” crowd with the introduction of a new Eee PC Model, the S101. The incredibly slim netbook boasts a closed height of only 1.8cm and a weight of only 1kg, making it one of the lightest and thinnest notebooks available. On top of the small profile, it also supports some newer features that earlier model Eee PCs do not – such as 802.11n wireless support, an SSD up to 64GB in size, Bluetooth support and more.

They've also tweaked the power consumption of the unit, which they claim has given this machine up to five hours of continuous use. Whether that means simply idly or actually using a demanding application they don't say, but five hours of battery in such a small machine is impressive.

What's not impressive is the price. The lowest-priced version, which has a tiny 16GB SSD with Windows XP, is $699. That's the same price a 32GB version with Linux costs. For the full 64GB SSD flavor, you're now running into the $799 range. That's beyond “low-end” laptop and right up into the “midrange” laptop. Asus has definitely made the Eee PC exit the market it originally broke into.

Early last month, we heard news about Nvidia looking to reduce the number of partners that resell their hardware. The intention, they claimed, was to reduce market clutter, thinking it would be easier on end users to select from a handful of vendors rather than dozens.

Little information was revealed as to how many and specifically what vendors would be cut. The rumors hinted at primarily smaller partners. Today, a bit more information has been discovered. It's still not officially coming from Nvidia – they aren't saying a word about this – but apparently at least five partners in the EU will be cut, which may include Foxconn and Club 3D. If this is true, it lends more truth to the notion that Nvidia wants to remove “smaller” partners from the reseller list.

It may be an image issue that Nvidia is fearing, which would be especially bad for them given that current estimates put AMD at the head of the game in terms of GPU technology. Nvidia might see their large number of partners as detracting from the “Nvidia image.”

Sony has decided to take on Amazon, with the introduction of a new handheld book reader that is intended to compete with the Kindle. The new eBook reader will rely on a touch-screen interface that is intended to maximize screen space at the cost of bulky buttons. An interesting note is that Sony has already stated that this device was released in Japan – and did horribly. That might seem like a good sign to abandon the unit, especially after Sony concluded that many in the U.S. didn't like the idea of reading a book on a screen. So what is Sony's marketing plan? A rather viral one, in which Sony has trained a thousand people in using the device and have sent them around the U.S. to parade around stores and show it off.

That aside, it does have some interesting features. The interface can be gesture-driven, which might give people a more “real” experience when reading an eBook. It can be used with a stylus, or directly with the hands – another point that might make it attractive. Unfortunately, it also costs $399 – and I don't need to spend $399 in order to read a book. That's not much more than the Kindle, though, so if Amazon can make it succeed perhaps Sony can as well.

Kingston has announced that it is teaming up with Intel to market flash memory-based drives for laptops and servers. The company plans to resell drives made by Intel to its partners, which include Dell, HP, IBM and others, and provide them with testing and technical support.

This is a bold move for Kingston, which traditionally has taken a “wait and see” approach to new technologies. A good example of this is how they waited years to enter the flash-based memory card market, which now makes up for a quarter of their $4.5 billion in yearly sales. The SSD market is not nearly as mature, but clearly the company sees the technology's potential. Teaming up with Intel certainly puts Kingston in a very good position going forward to sell drives for integration into notebook and netbook systems.

Roughly four months after its official announcement, Acer’s Predator gaming desktop is finally set to combat the likes of the HP Blackbird 002, and Alienware Area-51 ALX. This highly stylized PC sports Core 2 Quad CPUs, Nvidia GeForce 9 series graphics, a liquid cooling system and, perhaps more importantly, non-stratospheric prices.

The Predator will be offered in two configurations, with a ‘low-end’ $1,649 version featuring a 2.5GHz Q9300 Core 2 Quad processor, GeForce 9600GT graphics, 4GB of RAM and dual 640GB drives configurable in RAID 0, 1 or 5. The upgraded model goes for $2,199 and bumps things up to a 2.83GHz Q9550 Core 2 Quad, GeForce 9800GTX graphics, and three 640GB hard drives. Both rigs run the 64-bit version of Windows Vista Home Premium and are SLI-capable, so you can upgrade them post-purchase.

Acer is also rolling out a new G24 high-performance 24-inch LCD display to go with the system, featuring a 1,920 by 1,200-pixel native resolution, a 2ms response time, and contrast ratio of 50,000:1, for $399.99.

We’ve already seen the SpursEngine co-processor being touted in a couple of Toshiba Qosmio laptops, but the chip is now set to make its debut in the discrete graphics cards market. Leadtek and Thomson both plan to introduce add-in video cards based on SpursEngine in the coming weeks, with prices ranging from around $290 to $470.

SpursEngine is based on the same Cell processor architecture as the chip used in Sony’s PlayStation 3 console and features four processing cores. The card makers didn't particularly emphasize on the SpursEngine as a graphics processor, but rather as a powerful engine capable of encoding or decoding high-definition video thanks to hardware MPEG2 and H.264 codecs, which suggest their cards will be targeted at the media PC niche market rather than being competitors to AMD and Nvidia products.

Western Digital has added more “Green” hard drives to their hardware offerings, with the introduction of several new Caviar Green drives. The 3.5” drives are heralded as very power-efficient and quiet, with the low power consumption being their biggest selling point. Based on a 333GB per-platter design, the drives are available in sizes from 500GB to 1TB. The 1TB model will have 32MB of cache, all other drives will have less.

WD claims the power reduction is as much as 20%, on top of giving a 10% performance boost, compared to the first generation Caviar Green drives. That's certainly a win-win, but since the 1TB drives start at $219, there is a price premium for the quiet and cool drives.

MSI's Wind lineup will see two new additions in the near future, following the discovery of two more versions of the notebook that will soon be offered. The new hardware includes the “Luxury edition” Wind, which is a lot less different from their existing hardware than you'd imagine with such a name. The biggest difference with the “Luxury” edition will be the inclusion of a 6-cell battery as opposed to a 3-cell battery, which should give a considerable boost to battery life.

The new machines are also expected to come with a Draft-N wireless card, a significant upgrade from the other models that only support b/g. They'll also be adding Bluetooth support. Not much else is changing in the unit. Processor, RAM, HDD and other hardware is remaining the same.

With every iteration of “netbooks” looking more and more like run of the mill laptops, MSI certainly has some interesting schemes for their Wind series, such as this new “Luxury” edition on top of others like their “Love edition” model.

At the CEATEC show in Japan today, TDK announced it has achieved a new milestone in surface recording density for hard disk drives. Using its prototype TMR head, the company was able to reach a surface recording density of 803 gigabits per square inch, shattering Toshiba’s previous 378 gigabits per square inch record.

In terms of a single 1.8-inch double-sided disk, this amounts to about 260GB capacities. The bump was made possible by combining the TMR head with recent perpendicular magnetic recording technology, and TDK researchers believe it’s still possible to reach 1 terabit per square inch. However, the company did not mention when it plans to use the technology to build high-capacity drives for notebooks and other portable electronic devices.

SanDisk today reached yet another milestone in their pursuit to squeeze more and more storage into mobile devices, with their microSDHC and Memory Stick Micro (also referred to as M2) now available in capacities of up to 16GB – quite a feat for a media format that’s about the size of a fingers nail.

The 16GB microSDHC card is listing for $99.99 while the 16GB M2 lists for $129.99. The larger capacity should be welcome news for those who use their phones or PDAs for storage-intensive purposes, including music and video playback, high-definition digital camera functions, and gaming – be sure to check your device’s compatibility before purchasing, though, as the new microSDHC format might not be compatible with all devices that support the microSD cards.

SanDisk's new memory cards come with five year limited warranties and will be available from Best Buy Mobile stores in October and Verizon Wireless stores in November.

Last year’s introduction of the 65nm quad-core Barcelona chips was met with great disappointment and concern, amid numerous manufacturing delays and bugs that ultimately held them up by a whopping eight months after being introduced. It was a costly and embarrassing setback for AMD, but the company says it will not repeat the same mistakes as it prepares to launch its next generation server chip, dubbed “Shanghai,” which is already in production.

Shanghai will be their first 45nm processor and the company is counting on several factors to improve performance over Barcelona, such as moving the cache memory from 2MB to 6MB and adding support for HyperTransport 3. According to Pat Patla, general manager of AMD's server and workstation chip business, Shanghai chips should outperform their Barcelona equivalents by about 20%.

The company is expected to begin commercial shipments of its quad-core server chips made using 45nm process technology in Q4 2008, followed by desktop CPU parts using the same fabrication process a few weeks later or early 2009.

Nvidia has mentioned in the past that they are working on a 40nm manufacturing process for their GPUs, a natural upgrade from the existing 55nm parts. They haven't given many details beyond that, though now it is rumored that the first 40nm parts will begin making their way out of factory doors during the middle of next year.

Whether or not they will beat AMD to that mark isn't clear. AMD's RV870 chip, which will be a 40nm part, is also scheduled to come out around the same time – roughly Q2 of 2009. Cards from both companies will see the obvious reduction in power consumption, so the real question is which company will produce the faster card. At the moment, it seems like AMD will – because Nvidia is apparently going to be using their existing G92 architecture to manufacture 40nm parts.

Given that the existing Radeon parts are doing well to beat the G92, things are not looking up for Nvidia.

Corsair is expanding their Flash Voyager USB drive family today, with the introduction of a new unit. The new Flash Voyager stick will boast a 64GB capacity in a compact keychain-sized chassis, like their existing Flash Voyager units, and will of course be built in the same enclosure they pitch as being durable and resistant to damage from things like being dropped and water.

The tiny flash drive won't be cheap, opening up with a $250 price tag. For that price you'll get the standard suite of software they include with the drives, along with a lengthy warranty.

Whether in flash drive or SSD formats, solid-state storage in general has seen an explosion in the past two years. Capacity and performance has skyrocketed, quickly catching up with mechanical disks. If it continues at this rate, we might see flash capacity on par with desktop hard drives in just a few years.

If you have been waiting for solid state drives to jump out of early adopter territory, the time is finally coming. SSD makers have been battling it out for months to bring faster, cheaper models to the masses, with Super Talent just recently announcing a pair of new high quality SATA-II SSDs that break previous price barriers.

The new drives are both part of the Super Talent MasterDrive LX series, available in capacities of 64GB and 128GB, which are expected to retail for $179 and $299 respectively – that’s $30 to $90 cheaper than comparable drives from RiDATA and about $4.95 cheaper per GB than Intel’s disks. There are concessions on performance, though, with Super Talent’s drives offering a maximum read speed of 100MB/s and write speeds of only 40MB/s.

Both drives will go on sale this week and will be backed by a rather short one-year warranty.

AMD has introduced its latest graphics cards in the 4000-series today, a couple of entry-level offerings targeted at those who would like to upgrade from the underpowered IGPs shipping with many systems. The new Radeon HD 4550 and HD 4350 are based on the same GPU architecture first introduced with the popular Radeon HD 4800 series, but with nearly everything reduced in order to lower the price tag.

Both cards offer just 80 stream processors (versus as much as 800 for the Radeon 4800 series) but they still offer UVD 2.0 video processing and support DirectX 10.1 gaming. The 4550’s core is clocked at 600MHz with 512MB of on-board GDDR3 memory, while its lesser sibling, the 4350, is essentially the same but uses only 256MB of slower GDDR2 memory. Either consumes less than 20 watts even under strain and optionally use passive cooling that renders them completely silent.

Both the 4550 and 4350 should be available in October for $59 and $39, respectively. Next month will also see the launch of the Radeon HD 4830, which will pack 640 stream processors, a 256-bit memory interface, GDDR3 memory, and HDMI with 7.1 audio for less than $150.