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Apple has standardized on low-end but reasonably snappy Intel-Nvidia technology for the redesigned Mac Mini released Tuesday and recently rolled-out 13-inch MacBook Pro.

In short, both the 13-inch MacBook Pro and Mac Mini offer Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz or 2.66GHz processors and an Nvidia GeForce 320M graphics chip. Moreover, this standard silicon is only a stone's throw from the white MacBook, which comes with the same graphics but does not offer the higher-end 2.66GHz Intel processor.

As spelled out by CNET's Rich Brown in his review of the new Mac Mini, performance is good … Read more

General Electric and an Ohio-based wind developer plan to build an offshore wind farm in Lake Erie in late 2012, the companies said Monday.

Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation (LEEDCo) and GE said they have formed a partnership to build a 20-megawatt wind farm in Lake Erie using GE's direct-drive turbines, which are designed for offshore wind. The companies announced the deal at the American Wind Energy Association's annual conference in Dallas.

The 20-megawatt project, planned for outside Cleveland, Ohio, will use GE's 4-megawatt turbines, which feature a gearless, direct drive technology designed for reliability, particularly in … Read more

BOSTON--Doubling the performance of clean-energy technologies every 18 months, as the semiconductor industry has seen with Moore's Law, is a tough goal to hit. But the same technical and business concepts that underpin Moore's Law can play out in green tech, say executives from General Electric and Intel.

More businesses are seeking to make money around energy technology and environmental sustainability. But the scale and speed of innovation needs to ramp up in order to tackle environmental problems and conserve natural resources, according to a panel at the annual Ceres conference here on Thursday. Ceres is a network … Read more

General Electric and Nissan plan to research "smart charging" technologies for electric vehicles to help consumers take advantage of cheaper electricity rates and keep the power grid stable.

The two companies on Monday announced a memorandum of understanding to undertake research mainly at GE's Niskayuna, N.Y., smart-grid lab for three years. The first phase of the work will focus on integrating electric car charging with homes and buildings. The second phase will work on integrating electric vehicles in the power grid, according to the companies.

"Together with Nissan, we will take a comprehensive look at what technologies will be needed in the car, on the grid and at home or work to make smart charging a reality," said Mark Little, the president and director of GE Global Research, in a statement.

Nissan last week began taking orders for the Nissan Leaf, an all-electric sedan that can go about 100 miles. The automaker plans to start delivery of the car in the U.S. and Japan by the end of the year.

As these plug-in vehicles come to market, though, people in the auto and utility industries say there still are a few issues that need to be cleared up to make the transition smooth for car owners.

In a blog post, GE scientist Matt Nielsen, who is taking the lead on the smart-charging research, said that GE and Nissan will seek to sort out which challenges are real and which are perceived by using computer simulations and gathering data.

Among the challenges Nielsen sees are equipping homes with the appropriate wiring for car charging, administering low-cost metering plans from utilities, and managing car cables so people don't trip over them. … Read more

We have our hands on the new 13-inch MacBook Pro here at CNET, and have been putting it through its benchmark paces. In the meantime, we've been eager to see what differentiates this 2010 update from the 2009 version. While we had a wish list of features we wanted to see included and were disappointed that a handful were omitted, there are some key improvements that we're glad to see.

The 2009 13-inch MacBook Pro was one of our favorite laptops, and we were greatly hoping that the 2010 update would feature Intel's new Core processor series. It turned out that Core i5 and i7 CPUs are only in the 15-inch and 17-inch 2010 MacBook Pros, while the new 13-incher still has a Core 2 Duo processor that's been bumped to slightly faster versions.

It's a bit disappointing, as it puts the aluminum 13-incher a step behind its older brothers for the time being, and makes the 2010 MacBook Pro 15-inch the leader of the new MacBook pack.

On the other hand, there are other modest but notable improvements. The integrated Nvidia graphics have been updated to Nvidia's new GeForce 320M processor. It's an improvement over the already serviceable GeForce 9400M integrated graphics the 13-inch MacBook Pro has had since fall 2008, and should help this MacBook keep pace with current games. It's not a high-level processor, but it's far more than any thin portable laptop in this range usually has.

Most importantly, the battery life on this new MacBook Pro has been boosted again. This year's boosts, according to Apple, come from a combination of CPU efficiency and new battery chemistry, despite having a similar-size integrated battery in the same slim chassis. Our early benchmarks show six hours of run time on our video playback battery drain test, approaching an hour longer than last year's model. … Read more

With nothing fresh on the outside, all the newness of the just-announced 15-inch MacBook Pro is on the inside, as iFixit illustrates in its latest teardown.

What is of interest to most, of course, is the Intel Core i5 and i7 processors. MacBook Pros use these chips--built on Intel's latest 32-nanometer manufacturing process--for the first time.

The Core i5 processor package (the upper Intel chip package in the photo) actually contains two chips (which can't be seen in the teardown, as it only shows the outside of the packages). But inside each Intel CPU is the processor die … Read more

The 17-inch MacBook Pro has always been the domain for a special subset of people: desktop-replacement connoisseurs, fans of higher-res screens, and graphic designers in particular. The spring 2010 17-inch MacBook Pro retains nearly all of the design features from the 2009 version, but the internal components have at last received a significant boost.

As we had expected and hoped, Apple's new 15- and 17-inch MacBook Pros have made the shift to Intel Core i5 and i7 processors, matching a move that the rest of the industry has rapidly made. The 17-inch Pro comes in a single 2.53GHz … Read more

If you're a MacBook user, you've likely been waiting on pins and needles as the rest of the industry has been unleashing Intel's new Core i3, i5 and i7 processors everywhere. There's good news and bad news here: while Apple has updated its MacBook Pro line to Core i5 and i7 processors, the new spring 2010 13-inch MacBook Pro still runs off an Intel Core 2 Duo processor. We can't say we weren't expecting a new processor here, and we're mildly disappointed. After all, we really loved the 2009 13-inch MacBook Pro, and … Read more

General Electric, the granddaddy of light bulbs, has developed an LED replacement for 40-watt bulbs that can last for 17 years.

GE on Thursday unveiled the Energy Smart LED bulb that puts out 450 lumens--about the same output as a 40-watt incandescent--while consuming 9 watts.

The company plans to show off the LED bulb at upcoming lighting conferences and to start selling it by this fall or early next year. It is expected to cost $40 to $50.

LED lights tend to give off light in a specific direction, which is why they are often used for spot lighting. The … Read more