IT-Code-News: IT News HeadLines (TechConnect Magazine) 24/04/2009

Windows 7 RC leaked online
As you'd expect it didn't take long for the recently-compiled Windows 7 RC build (7100) to find its way online, and the timing is pretty much perfect, right before the weekend. Making the rounds on torrent sites (we won't mention names, places or people), the 32 and 64bit Windows 7 Ultimate RC ISO images weight in (about) 2.36 and 3.05GB respectively.

Those who don't want to mess with leaks will have to wait for Microsoft to make the build public, and that is likely to happen on May 5th.

Western Digital reports sales dip, profit increase for March quarter
It seems that the cost-cutting moves made by Western Digital last year are paying up nicely as, despite falling sales, the company has managed to increase its profits in the quarter ended March 27, a period in which it acquired SSD maker SiliconSystems for $65 million. According to the recently-provided report, Western Digital shipped about 31.6 million drives in Q3 FY 2009, made sales of $1.6 billion, down just over 11% sequentially, and saw its net income reach $50 million, more than three times than of the previous quarter.

"We are pleased with our financial performance in the March quarter, reflecting continued profitability and cash generation," said John Coyne, president and CEO of Western Digital. "We managed our market segment participation, product mix and costs to optimize our returns in a challenging environment. We have taken a series of actions to resize and restructure the business to remain profitable and cash flow positive at a $1.5 billion quarterly revenue level and the effects of these actions are already showing up in our results."

Western Digital expects the current quarter to result in a revenue between $1.45 billion and 1.6 billion.

Cooler Master to release limited edition CM 690 Pure Black chassis
After bringing sexy black back with the Black Label bundle, Cooler Master is now preparing more of the same with the limited edition (300 units?) Pure Black CM690 mid-tower chassis. Basically and all-black version of the previously-released CM690, the upcoming case measures 213 (W) x 482 (H) x 524.5 (D) mm, has five exposed 5.25-inch bays, features tool-free installation for optical drives and PCI cards, has a top-placed I/O panel with one eSATA, one FireWire, two USB and two audio ports, and comes with three 120mm fans (front, rear and side panel).

The CM690 Pure Black is expected to become available in September.

Pictures courtesy of Cowcotland.

Google rolls out Product Search for iPhone and Android
Google Product Search can certainly be a useful tool when trying to find the right thing for the right price so to make it even more useful a mobile version of it has now been launched. For starters available only for the Apple iPhone and Android devices, the mobile product search can be tried out by visiting Google.com with the smartphone's browser and clicking on the 'shopping' link that appears with the search results. The service works just like the desktop version and provides users with dedicated product pages that include ratings charts and technical specifications, the ability to sort out products by price, and more.

According to Google, Product Search for mobiles is currently accessible in the US and UK but hopefully it will be expanded to include other countries (and phones) soon.

PowerColor announces the custom Radeon HD 4890 PCS+ cards
AMD partner and newfound friend of Arctic Cooling, PowerColor has now introduced the (first two) Radeon HD 4890 PCS+ series graphics cards. Pictured below, the RV790-powered PCS+ HD 4890: Battle Forge Edition and PCS+ HD 4890 feature a 256-bit memory interface and 1GB of GDDR5 memory, 800 Stream Processors, CrossFireX support, dual-DVI connectivity and a custom, dual-slot cooler made by ZEROtherm boasting 4 heatpipes, 52 aluminum fins and a fan that will automatically adjust its working speed depending on the GPU temperature. As its name suggests, the PCS+ HD 4890: Battle Forge Edition comes bundled with EA Phenomic's RTS BattleForge.

In terms of clocks, the PCS+ Radeon HD 4890s reach 950 MHz for the GPU (850 MHz stock) and 4400 MHz for the memory (3900 MHz). The cards are expected to ship very soon so keep an eye out for them.

Asus intros the Express TV Stick TV tuner
Taiwan-based Asus has now revealed the Express TV Stick, the "world's first" hybrid TV tuner boasting no less than 4GB worth of storage space. Seen below, the tuner has a USB 2.0 connection interface, offers digital TV (DVB-T free to air) and analog TV reception, and includes the Pop-Up TV technology which will instantly display TV channels without requiring manually launched programs.

Bundled with a must-have remote controller, the Asus Express TV Stick should become available in the near future.

Microsoft reports fall in sales, profit for Q1
The global financial and economic crisis has hit Redmond hard in the first three months of this year and forced Microsoft to report its first on-year decline in revenue since going public in 1986. To detail, in the quarter ended March 31st, the Windows maker and breaker has seen its revenue reach $13.65 billion, down 6% compared to the same period last year, while net income and diluted earnings per share were of $2.98 billion and $0.33, down 32% and 30% on-year respectively.

"While market conditions remained weak during the quarter, I was pleased with the organizationأ¢آ€آ™s ability to offset revenue pressures with the swift implementation of cost-savings initiatives," said Chris Liddell, chief financial officer at Microsoft.

While not providing an outlook for the current quarter, Microsoft kept the faith by reiterating that Windows 7 is on tracks for a release in the fiscal year 2010 which starts in July, and by saying that several other major products, including Office 2010, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Mobile, have reached development milestones during the past quarter.

MSI readies 2GB-equipped GeForce GTX 285 SuperPipe
Introduced last month, MSI's SuperPipe line-up of graphics card is about to be updated to include a new, memory-rich model. The N285GTX SuperPipe 2G is a custom GeForce GTX 285 that boasts 2GB of GDDR3 memory and comes equipped with the dual-slot Twin Frozr cooling system which makes use of two fans and five copper heatpipes - three 6mm pipes and two 8mm SuperPipes.

While MSI hasn't revealed the card's clocks, it's likely the N285GTX SuperPipe 2G comes with stock frequencies - 648 MHz for the GPU, 1476 MHz for the 240 shaders and 2484 MHz for the memory. Other than that, the card features a 512-bit memory interface, 3-way SLI and DirectX 10 support, CUDA and PhysX capabilities, and two DVI connectors.

The price of the N285GTX SuperPipe 2G hasn't been announced but it's possible it will hit stores at over 330 Euro.

DAEMON Tools Lite 4.30.4 is up for grabs
The free version of everyone's favorite optical media emulation app, DAEMON Tools has now received a new update. The 4.30.4 release includes:

- Windows 7 beta support (SPTD 1.58)
- Protected images creation: أ¢آ€آœPasswordأ¢آ€آ‌ field on Disc Imaging dialog
- Compressed images creation: أ¢آ€آœCompressأ¢آ€آ‌ option on Disc Imaging dialog
- أ¢آ€آœImage Catalogأ¢آ€آ‌ item was moved to the first level of Main Menu
- MDF-file type association option
- Languages updates

Bugs fixed

- Devices speeds detection
- Lite-ON DHXXXXX drives supporting
- Large RAID volumes issue
- Mounting B6T DVD images
- Setup improving: Unicode supporting
- Some minor interface bugs

DAEMON Tools Lite v4.30.4 can be downloaded from this page.

CFD unveils the Interceptor series SSDs
Japan's own CFD has now announced a new line-up of solid state drives, the SSD Interceptor. The family includes 32, 64, 128 and 256GB 2.5-inch drives which boast MLC (multi-level cell) NAND flash memory, a SATA 3.0 Gbps interface and apparently 32MB of cache memory.

Yet unpriced, the drivers are expected to offer read and write speeds of up to 200 / 95 MB/s (32 and 64GB drives) and 240 / 150 MB/s (128 and 256GB models) and to be backed by a one-year warranty.

Friday, April 24, 2009

IT News HeadLines (TechConnect Magazine) 24/04/2009

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