Rock -- Engadget

Rock posts

Birthday boy gets box of rocks instead of Nintendo DS

by Darren Murph, posted Apr 29th 2009 at 12:41PM

No, you're not being mercilessly attacked by an unyielding feeling of déjà vu for no good reason -- we really have seen something eerily similar to this happen before. This go 'round, we've got a totally innocent ten year old boy who was given Guitar Hero for DS prior to even owning a console; as the mother finally ended the tease, she handed him a shiny new DS handheld for him to unwrap. Unfortunately for everyone involved, all that was tucked inside was a couple of stones, a Chinese newspaper and boatloads of disappointment. After the Walmart store from which she purchased it referred her to the Big N, she furiously admitted the following: "They don't want to do nothing. They want me to keep the box of rocks. I'm not buying a box of rocks for $138." Thankfully, Wally World finally refunded her and threw in a $20 gift card for the trouble (after being hounded by a local news station, mind you), but the real damage -- losing all hope in humanity -- will never be undone. Ever.

[Via plugged in]

Stone Neo 101 drops into the netbook pond, doesn't cause a ripple

by Donald Melanson, posted Apr 17th 2009 at 4:22PM

We haven't heard much from Stone since it fulfilled its destiny and bought Rock Computers last year, but it looks like the company is now finally having a go at a netbook of its own, and blending right in with the masses with its just-announced Neo 101 model. As you can no doubt guess, this one packs a standard issue 10.1-inch 1,024 x 600 display and an unspecified Atom processor, along with built-in WiFi and optional 3G, a pair of USB ports and, somewhat notably, an ExpressCard slot for a bit of expansion. You'll also get a slightly better than usual three-year warranty, which apparently doesn't add much of a premium to the netbook's £275 price tag (or about $400). Look for this one to be available in the UK starting May 1st.

Anthropomorphic robot shows off its Rock, Paper, Scissors-playing skills

by Laura June, posted Feb 22nd 2009 at 10:45AM

BERTI (built by a partnership of the Bristol Robotics Laboratory and Elumotion Ltd.) is a fully automated robotic torso designed to perform "credible conversational gestures." The robot is capable of quite complex hand movements, and, in the demonstration video above, plays a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors with a fine gentleman wearing a Goldfinger t-shirt, becoming another addition to the long line of gaming bots. Hit the read link to find out more info about BERTI and the project.

[Via Robots.net]

Rock rolls on, unveils four new Centrino 2-based gaming laptops

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 15th 2008 at 10:18AM

It's hard to stop a rolling stone, don't you know? Just months after you figured you'd never hear of Rock again, the recently rescued outfit has introduced a few Centrino 2-based lappies of its own. At a high level (tenth time you've heard that today, office dwellers?), we've got the Xtreme 780 with a Core 2 Duo Extreme X9100 and GeForce 9800M GTX, the Xtreme 620 with a Core 2 Extreme T9500 and 512MB GeForce 9800M GT, the Pegasus 520 and the Pegasus 320. As for pricing, you can expect a mild level of sticker shock when the crew goes up for pre-order later today. Check the read link for the full rundown of specs -- try not to get lost in there.

[Via Pocket-lint]

Stone buys Rock -- could this be any more perfect?

by Darren Murph, posted May 24th 2008 at 11:35PM

When Rock fell under administration earlier this month, we honestly had no idea if we'd ever see that swank Pegasus 210 hit the market. Today, we still have no clue about the latter, but we do know that the failed company has been caught by the most impeccably named suitor Planet Earth has to offer: Stone. Reportedly, Stone Group will dish out "an undisclosed sum" for Rock, after which the two will meld together and form an all-powerful, completely unstoppable boulder. Watch out Mount Rushmore, you've got some serious competition now.

[Via vnunet]

Rock falls under administration, now up for sale

by Darren Murph, posted May 8th 2008 at 10:13AM

Hope you weren't really counting on getting yourself one of those Pegasus 210s. In a sudden announcement made today, Dominic Wong and David Langton of Deloitte & Touche LLP were appointed as Joint Administrators of Rock Group Plc. In layman's terms, that means those fellows will be attempting to achieve a sale of the now-defunct company. Reportedly, the failure of Rock is "partly attributed to the cash flow difficulties faced as a result of stock misappropriation by a former employee," though further details were omitted. As it stands, the admins are currently negotiating with potential suitors in order to place the outfit in more capable hands, but there is still a possibility that no one will bite. For more information on how all of this could affect you (you know, things like warranties and whatnot), check out the full release in the read link below. 'Tis a sad day folks -- Rock is dead (at least for the moment).

[Thanks, Peter]

Rock's new Pegasus 210 12-inch ultraportable

by Paul Miller, posted Apr 2nd 2008 at 2:03PM

It's no secret that 2008 is shaping up as a stellar year for ultraportables, and now even perennial clunker manufacturer Rock is getting in on the action. The new Pegasus 210 is built on Intel's UMPC internals, with a 800MHz A110 processor doing the "heavy" lifting. The laptop sports 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth and optional HSDPA connectivity, along with a 80GB 1.8-inch HDD, 1GB of RAM, a 4-in-1 card reader and a PCMCIA slot. There's no disc drive, but there is a full complement of ports on the 2.2 pound laptop. You can pick one up for a rather palatable £799 in the UK (about $1,582 US).

[Via BIOS]

Rock officially offering Blu-ray (and HD DVD, still) drives on laptops

by Darren Murph, posted Mar 4th 2008 at 11:51AM

Although Rock began offering a Blu-ray option on its pricey gaming rigs soon after Toshiba threw in the HD DVD towel, prospective buyers were forced to specifically inquire in order to get one. Now, however, the company has finally bit the bullet and began offering internal BD drives as an option on its gamut of gaming laptops. Reportedly, Rock's CEO Nick Boardman proclaimed that he was "disappointed that HD DVD didn't make it," but noted that even if you have a machine on order right now, you can "stick with HD DVD, downgrade to DVD-RW or upgrade to Blu-ray" sans issue. Interestingly, the company is still offering up HD DVD drives as "standard," but we suppose it has to move that suddenly worthless inventory somehow, eh?

[Via Tech Digest]

Rock unfazed by fallout, still offering HD DVD as standard on laptops

by Darren Murph, posted Feb 25th 2008 at 1:39AM

While many stores are slashing down HD DVD player prices as much as management will allow, it seems that one diehard supporter is casting a blind eye to the whole format war meltdown. Rock -- which tooted its own horn after making HD DVD standard on many of its laptops -- hasn't changed its approach one iota. Even now, the firm is still offering up internal HD DVD drives (and writers) in a plethora of its machines, and curiously enough, there's not even an option to select a Blu-ray or combo player. C'mon Rock, we know you're just trying to clear out inventory, but at least give prospective buyers a choice in the matter, would ya?

Update: Looks like a DVD-RW "downgrade" option is currently available for those that inquire, and Blu-ray options should be added in due time. Thanks, Felix!

Read - Pegasus 670
Read - Xtreme 770
Read - Xtreme SL8
Read - Xtreme SL Pro

Rock's Xtreme XL8 promises twin GeForce 8800M GTXs

by Darren Murph, posted Feb 1st 2008 at 10:30AM

Merely two days after Dell added NVIDIA's GeForce 8800M GTX to its beastly M1730, it seems that Rock is looking to up the graphical ante as well. Reportedly, the firm is gearing up to unleash the (likely rebadged) Xtreme XL8, which will house an Intel X6800 quad-core processor, a delightful pair of NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTXs, up to 1TB of storage space and a 17-inch 1,920 x 1,200 resolution panel to boot. Furthermore, you'll find an Ethernet jack, Draft-N wireless card, an obligatory (no, really) HD DVD drive and a presumably laughable battery life. Waiting for the sting? Try £2,500 ($4,976) to £3,000 ($5,971), with pre-orders going live later this month.

ROK acquires majority share of Rock, The Rock has no comment

by Darren Murph, posted Dec 11th 2007 at 2:15PM

In a move that sounds an awful lot more comical than it actually is, ROK Entertainment has acquired a majority shareholding in Rock, the laptop manufacturer. The former stone specializes in providing mobile content / entertainment, and apparently, it's hoping to share "expertise in IPTV, place shifting, mobile internet and mobile entertainment platforms" with the latter. Essentially, ROK sees convergence between laptops and mobile technologies as imminent, and while specifics of the agreement weren't really detailed, we're already getting anxious to start sidetalkin' on our next Rock machine.

Rock making HD DVD standard on select laptops

by Darren Murph, posted Oct 4th 2007 at 7:12AM

Although Toshiba has been quite a player in bringing HD DVD to more and more laptops, Rock is now boasting that it is the first company to "feature HD DVD as standard" on lappies. Granted, it's only standard on select machines, but at least it's a start. The firm's Pegasus 670 features the obligatory HD DVD reading / DVD writing drive along with a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7700 processor, a 15.4-inch WSXGA panel, up to 4GB of DDR2 RAM, NVIDIA's 512MB GeForce 8600M GT graphics card, WiFi, gigabit Ethernet, and Windows Vista. The higher-end Xtreme 770 is available with most of the same specs, save for the 512MB GeForce 8700M GT, 17-inch WSXGA+ display and a number of additional ports. An HD DVD-equipped Rock laptop can be yours for as low as £999 ($2,037), but if your credit card is up for some pain, you can ratchet that figure way on up.

[Via Stuff]
Read - Pegasus 670
Read - Xtreme 770

White Stripes album sold on limited edition USB drives

by Darren Murph, posted Jun 12th 2007 at 8:09PM

For fans of Jack and Meg, it's probably a long-standing dream of yours to purchase the Icky Thump album on limited edition thumb drives complete with cartoon renditions of the rockers, but even if it that understandably bizarre scenario never actually crossed your mind, you can still make it a reality. Apparently, the White Stripes are offering up their latest album on two fairly rare USB drives, each sporting 512MB of internal space, an artistic rendition of one of the band mates, and thirteen rockin' tracks in Apple Lossless format. Only 3,333 of each will be created, and while just one will run you a whopping $57.50, you may as well grab the duo for a discounted $99. Of course, we're still not entirely certain if these things are actually licensed by the band, but it's safe to assume that a seven nation army of fans will have these bought up before the legal teams can even get their case together.

[Via BoingBoing]

CompAmerica's new 'most powerful laptop on Earth,' the Orca Extreme

by Evan Blass, posted Apr 2nd 2007 at 9:05AM

With the way CompAmerica goes around bragging about the superiority of its laptops, you'd think that the company was some high end, boutique gaming manufacturer -- instead of one of the many companies simply offering rebadge after rebadge. Just like other 'bigger than life' players such as Eurocom and Rock, ol' CA makes most of its loot selling machines originally available from Clevo, so it should be no surprise that its latest 'most powerful laptop on Earth' -- the 17-inch Orca Extreme -- is really just that D900C we saw last month. You know, Core 2 Extreme CPU, dual GeForce 7950 GTX cards in SLI, up to 4GB of RAM, and of course those three hard drives that can offer up to 600GB of storage in RAID 0. This whale of a laptop can be yours immediately -- that is, if you don't already own one of its doppelgangers -- starting right around $2,600.

[Via laptoping]

Rock to roll out 22-inch all-in-one Meivo HTPC

by Evan Blass, posted Mar 16th 2007 at 3:50PM

"Xtreme" laptop OEM Rock has just announced its upcoming Meivo all-in-one PC, a Vista-powered 22-inch monster that features Core 2 Duo processors and several internal tuner options. Coming at the end of April for an even £1,000, Meivo is built around a 1,680 x 1,050 panel sporting side-mounted memory card slots and USB ports, with WiFi, Bluetooth, 7.1 output, and a pair of drive bays rounding out the specs. As far as tuners go, you get your choice of analog, digital, or hybrid -- all MXM compliant for easy expansion and upgrades. Probably not the best machine for power computing, but for watching the full season of Jericho so far on CBS Innertube from bed, this would make a good choice.

Read - Press release
Read - "Teaser" site
[Via Shiny Shiny]