MTI Micro has said they have manufactured a working prototype and the results look promising. Aiming at replacing the current widely used Lithium Ion batteries, they claim these new Fuel Cell’s will last twice as long. The biggest concern and question, is what happens to the byproduct of the chemical reaction? Fuel Cells generate energy when methanol reacts with oxygen as it passes through a membrane within the fuel cell. The byproduct of this reaction is water and low volumes of carbon dioxide. MTI Micro states they have found a way to recycle the byproduct back into its own Fuel Cell thus eliminating the excretion of water. The downside: You can’t plug it into the wall and recharge like Lithium Ion batteries, instead you must squirt in more methanol fuel or replace the “fuel” cartridge. The Inquirer reports.

July 27th, 2006 was the day that changed AMD’s future for years to come.  It was the day that Intel debuted the Core 2 Duo series.  But AMD already knew what was coming, hence why October 25th, 2006(initially announced July 24th, 2006) AMD acquired ATI Technologies to pursue Intel.  At the time, they were 18-24 months behind Intel’s technology advancements with multi-core processors.  Currently, they both sell quad core models but Intel still holds the performance crown by big margins.  They’re catching up but slowly.  In the mean time they’re suffering because even once AMD enthusiants have switched to Intel processors because they are superior.

To help counter-balance the slowing economy and the lack of sales, the layoff’s will begin mid-April and end Q3 of 2008 which will span throughout all groups and levels across the company’s global operations.  God speed AMD.

Nvidia’s outlook is grim. But with Intel integrating GPU’s into the core’s of their upcoming processors and AMD doing the same with ATI’s acquisition, we already knew this fate didn’t we? Nvidia for the most part was left out in the cold.

Now, here we are in Q2 of 2008 and Nvidia’s stock prices have plummeted 40% over the past three months. Several factors contribute to this. First and foremost, most low end systems have integrated graphics for desktop use. This sector is mainly from home budget oriented PC’s to business computers. Secondly, the PC gaming market is dwindling down, succumbing to the console markets. Even Electronic Arts announced they will not be making Madden 2009 for the PC. Third, investors know that Intel and AMD now have the upperhand because eventually GPU’s will be integrated into the CPU’s thus eliminating or at least drastically reducing the need for a video card for low-mid range applications.

What do you think Nvidia needs to stay alive?

 Engadget.com shows a brief video of the introduction for Intel’s “Moorestown” motherboard. Perhaps the smallest motherboard in the world, it fits in the palm of your hand and will hold the CPU, chipset, Wifi adapter, 3G cellular radio, and memory upon release sometime in 2010. Most likely this archeitecture will use Intel’s recently announced new mobile chips called the Atom.

I’m sure most if not all of you have heard about the whole Creative Labs fiasco by now.  Creative Labs sound cards have pretty much sucked in Windows Vista, buggy drivers to blame.  Not to mention some crippled drivers for the same cards in XP.  Creative Labs publically bashed him and threatened legal actions, the internet community as a whole backlashed against Creative, even some, boycotting their products.  Well, Daniel_K speaks out publically in an email sent to Wired.com’s Blog, where he discusses his point of view and all the hard work that he offered for other frustrated Creative Lab product owners.

I just recently got Verizon Fios back in November.  I previously had Comcast’s “advertised” speed of 8Mbps/386Kbps service.  In reality, I only got about 4.5Mbps downstream, which nowadays for broadband is utter crap.  I switched to FIOS and now have 20Mbps/5Mbps for $50/month and it’s a BIG improvement!  I predicted that a lot of people would leave Comcast for Verzion, Comcast would revamp their networks in a year or two to try and catch disappointed Verizon customers at the end of their contracts.  50Mbps would be impressive, but not for $150/month.  I don’t even see high end gamer/movie buff’s going for this with today’s economy.  That price needs to come down under $100.  More details are over at Ars Technica.

AT&T will be rolling out the new Microsoft Surface toys in select AT&T stores starting April 17th.  New York, Atlanta, San Fransico, and San Antonio will be the guinea pig’s in this experiemnt.  Depending on how well these units do will determine how many of the 2,200 other AT&T stores they will be deployed(or lack thereof).  Microsoft Surface is a 30″ touchscreen table-like display that is too expensive currently for everyday consumers but will be taking hotels, casino’s, and restaurants by storm if it’s successful.

According to this Engadget article, the DOJ has approved the XM and Sirius merger. Now it’s awaiting the FCC approval. Hopefully all current subscribers will get combined channels from both companies as part of their subscriptions. Details to follow soon.