Blog - Tim Smalley - Page 3

Where's the innovation? Right in front of you!

Posted on 27th Jan 2009 at 14:56 by Tim Smalley with 3 comments

It's fair to say that the current economic crisis has hit the technology industry - we've seen big layoffs at many of the biggest tech companies, with AMD, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Sony and Western Digital all announcing significant workforce cuts. However, some companies argue that it's not just the recession that is killing their revenues - they're citing the rise in popularity of netbooks as a major catalyst as well.

Frankly though, the industry appears to be looking for a scapegoat and the success of low cost, ultra portable devices like netbooks seems fitting from the industry's perspective, but that doesn't make it right.

For example, Microsoft blames the rise of netbooks on its lower profit margins because it has to sell Windows at a lower price in order to compete with Linux-equipped netbooks. While that is fair enough, it is not a reason to hate netbooks - instead, Microsoft should think of it as another sale, because the netbook was and never has been sold as a replacement to traditionally more powerful machines.

Shiny, but not polished

Posted on 6th Sep 2008 at 07:55 by Tim Smalley with 22 comments

Google surprised just about all of us in the bit-tech office when it announced Chrome - its first foray into the browser market. Tim Smalley has been playing around with the first beta for a few days and has some thoughts on the browser's direction.

The Sea of Grey

Posted on 29th Feb 2008 at 07:35 by Tim Smalley with 28 comments

With so many great products in the £100 to £150 price range, there's never been a better time to buy a performance mainstream graphics card... or has there? Tim Smalley mulls over the ups and downs of having lots products to choose from.

A Phenomenon in Warsaw

Posted on 21st Nov 2007 at 08:12 by Tim Smalley with 19 comments

Last week, I spent some time with AMD in Warsaw, Poland with the intention of finding out what's going on inside the newly-crowned platform company. The three elements that make up the Spider's web were the talk of the town, but I left somewhat disappointed.

Performance per what?

Posted on 20th May 2007 at 18:22 by Tim Smalley with 84 comments

Many manufacturers have started to use the term "Performance per Watt" in an effort to draw attention away from increasing power requirements. Tim Smalley thinks it's time these manufacturers started focusing on lower power consumption before this obsession gets out of hand.

bit-tech: The Next Generation

Posted on 6th Apr 2007 at 10:01 by Tim Smalley with 49 comments

In the wake of Wil's departure, there have been some changes to the cast and crew behind bit-tech in recent months. Tim Smalley talks about the changes you're going to see in the next chapter of bit-tech's success.

Don't Upgrade Now; Quad-Core is coming soon

Posted on 20th Jul 2006 at 20:36 by Tim Smalley with 99 comments

Just last week, Intel released its Core 2 Duo processors with a bang. This week, Chief Executive Paul Otellini says that quad-core will be with us by the end of this year. With all of the moving and shaking, Tim Smalley looks down the road ahead.

Q.A. Gone M.I.A.

Posted on 13th Oct 2005 at 16:49 by Tim Smalley with 32 comments

With the pace that the industry is moving forwards at right now, we often come across problems when manufacturers send us products that are not ready to be sold to the consumer. Tim Smalley discusses the realities of getting kit before anyone else and the flaws in publishing reviews before a product is ready to ship.