[geeks] iPad - NOT a 'Miss' for me I'm afraid

[gsm at mendelson.com]

On Wed, Feb 03, 2010 at 11:18:48AM -0500, Lionel Peterson wrote:

>I'm drawn to the dual-core Asus Atom 330 netbook, but at $449 I have
>to have a real need fo rth eextended battery life to shell out that
>kind of money... $399 would be an easier price-point, $349 and I'd
>have it in my hands now ;^)

I expect it will come down in price, and eventually they will replace the
single core ones. If Intel and Microsoft get behind Adobe in the Flash Wars, 
they will probably force it. 

In order to decode ANY compressed video stream in "HD" (any as in all, not
any as in one) you need to have a fast CPU and good video memory bandwitdth.

The single core ATOM will barely do 720p. In my experience it won't do it using
VLC or any other freeware MPEG-4 decoder, but there is a commerical one that 
will.

Of course Microsoft could eliminate the problem entirely by buying the company
and including the decoder (it's only one way) and including it in Windows.

It would be ironic if it really went against Apple, and in order to
produce the processing power needed for a 1080p netbook, Intel did produce
the quad core Atom they claim they are not going to.

Geoff.
-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm at mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM
New word I coined 12/13/09, "Sub-Wikipedia" adj, describing knowledge or
understanding, as in he has a sub-wikipedia understanding of the situation. 
i.e possessing less facts or information than can be found in the Wikipedia.