IT-Code-News: IT News HeadLines (TechConnect Magazine) 02/07/2009

Techconnect Review Round-up 2/7/09
CPU & Motherboard

- ASRock X58 Extreme Intel X58+ICH10R Core i7 Mainboard @ OCWorkbench
- Gigabyte MA790GP-UD4H (AMD 790GX) @ HardwareZone
- EVGA X58 3X SLI Classified Motherboard @ HotHardware
- GIGABYTE MA790FXT-UD5P AM3 Motherboard @ TweakTown
- Biostar TA790GX XE @ TrustedReviews

Storage

- OCZ Vertex 120GB SSD @ Hexus
- Kingston SSDNow M-Series SSD Upgrade Kit @ TweakTown
- Iomega eGo 320GB pocket external hard drive @ RegHardware

Graphics cards

- Sapphire Toxic HD 4890 Vapor-X @ Guru3D
- Sparkle GeForce GTX 275 Video Card @ Legit Reviews
- Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 X2 @ Ultimate Hardware

Enclosures & PSUs

- OCZ FATAL1TY 550w PSU @ Tech-Reviews
- NZXT Khaos أ¢آ€آ“ Aluminum Full Tower @ Techware Labs
- Maxcube Amoris 6010 case @ Overclockers Club
- Corsair CX400W Power Supply @ Hardware Secrets
- Thermaltake V9 case @ AMDZone
- NZXT Panzerbox Mid Tower Case @ Hardware Canucks
- ThermalTake VF7001BNS DH101 enclosure @ OC Online
- In Win Matrix HTPC Case @ HitTech Legion
- Antec CP-850w PSU @ XSReviews
- Enermax Liberty Eco 620W Power Supply @ [H] Enthusiast

Displays

- Samsung UE40B7000 @ TechRadar

Cooling and modding

- Nexus TDD-9000 Liquid Cooling Pad Laptop Cooler and CoolIT Domino A.L.C Watercooling Kit
- Kingwin XT-1264 HTC Cooler @ OCIA
- Evercool Buffalo CPU cooler @ Pure OC

Peripherals

- Jetart MP2000 Multi-Functional Pad @ Hardware Bistro
- Rosewill RM-8500 mouse @ Bjorn3d

PCs

- Lenovo ThinkPad T500 Laptop @ DriverHeaven
- HP Pavilion dv2-1030ea @ TechRadar
- Acer Aspire Timeline 5810T-354G32Mn @ TrustedReviews
- Toshiba NB200 @ RegHardware

Photo and video cameras

- Sony HDR-TG7 camcorder, Canon IXUS 95 IS and Fujifilm FinePix S2000HD @ TechRadar
- Ricoh CX1 @ TrustedReviews

Sound

- Radius Atomic Bass Earphones for iPhone @ ThinkComputers
- Maximo iM-590 iMetal Earphones @ techPowerUp
- Soundmatters SLIMstage 40 slimline speaker @ TechRadar
- Crystal Audio SSB-1 Surround Soundbar and Teufel Concept E 400 and Decoder Station 5 @ TrustedReviews

Other

- Panasonic DMP-B15 Blu-Ray player and Samsung HT-BD7200 Blu-Ray home cinema @ TechRadar

Mozilla plans Firefox 3.5.1 release for later this month
With Firefox 3.5 out and closing in on 8 million downloads, Mozilla is forging ahead with development and is already working on the first update for the new browser release. Known as Firefox 3.5.1, the upcoming patch will fix at least three topcrashes (frequently observed crashes) and bugs which were very close to delaying the actual 3.5 release.

According to this week's Mozilla status meeting, Firefox 3.5 will arrive in mid- to late July, most likely at the end of the month.

Lower cost ultra-thin laptops have build problems, says analyst
The new ultra-portable laptop segment is something that Intel, together with an increasing number of manufacturers, are betting on these days, yet despite the support, it's apparently off to a rather rocky start. According to Broadpoint AmTech analyst Doug Freedman, the cheaper (under $1,200) super-thin portable PCs that have begun coming out, are already showing their design weakness as their plastic back covers are cracking, giving users and companies a serious headache.

Given their price restrictions, the new laptops use plastic and not metal like Apple's MacBook Air for their casing, and there's only so much plastic can withstand, especially when used in such thin machines. Freedman says that ODMs (original design manufacturers) have already expressed their concerns and are advising their customers to order metal enclosures for their ultra-thin laptops. If the voice of the ODMs is heard then we should see a lot more full/partial metal 'slims' coming out in the future, which is good, but will also require us to pay a bit more for them. But you can't have it all, right?

Green House readies full line-up of 1.8-, 2.5-inch PATA SSDs
Already preparing some new SATA models, Green House has today announced that it will also release quite a few solid state drives that make use of the old and grey PATA interface. Coming in 1.8-inch and 2.5-inch form factors, he PATA drives will be available with either SLC (single-level cell) or MLC (multi-level cell), the former category including 16, 32, and 64GB models, while the latter will go from 16 to 128GB.

According to Green House, the upcoming SSDs have a MTBF (mean time before failure) of over 2 million hours, have a maximum power consumption of 1.5W and provide read and write speeds of up to 65 (SLC) | 60 (MLC) MB/s and 55 | 35 MB/s (for the 1.8-inch drives), and 70 (SLC) | 60 (MLC) MB/s and 60 / 40 MB/s (for the 2.5-inch versions). No word on pricing yet.

Sony and Sharp still can't agree on LCD plant plan
What begun in February last year with high hopes of riches and LCD, the joint venture between Sony and Sharp, is now a panel-less relationship in which both parties involved are beating around the bush. When they signed the agreement forming the venture, both companies set up a plan to built a top-notch $3.52 billion LCD panel manufacturing plant and set April 2009 as the date it would kick off production. Fast forward until today and the facility's construction has been delayed, with the new goal being to have it done and operational in October, 2010.

Sharp, which would own about 66% of the plant was hoping to reach an agreement with Sony regarding the plant's funding by the end of Q2 (June 30th) but that deadline has passed and nothing has been signed yet. The problem is apparently Sony, who's not too keen on spending much cash, especially after posting a $1 billion loss for the financial year ended this past March. Still, with LG and others looking to increase their LCD panel manufacturing capacity, the Japanese heavyweight (Sony) may want to reconsider as the grim economic period won't last forever.

A-Data unveils the 64GB Xupreme flash drive
Introduced in November (2008), the XPG Xupreme family of flash drives is receiving its first update with the introduction of a model with 64GB of storage space. The new high capacity drive measures 66 (L) x 19 (W) x 10 (H) mm, weights 15 grams, features an aluminum casing and has a USB 2.0/1.1 connection interface.

The 64GB Xupreme supports Windows ReadyBoost, is 'true' Plug and Play, and delivers read speeds of up to 30 MB/s. The drive should become available in the next few week with a price tag of around 150 Euro.

Arctic Cooling to deliver the MX-3 thermal compound
Arctic Cooling is currently gearing up to introduce the successor of the almost famed Arctic MX-2 thermal compound, the Arctic MX-3. The new paste contains carbon microparticles which enable it to have a high thermal conductivity (8.2 W/mK), it features low thermal resistance, is non-capacitive and non-corrosive, and will ship in a 4g syringe.

The metal-free MX-3 is expected to start selling later this month for $12.25 / 8.95 Euro. For a bit more creamy info on the MX-3 check out this page.

MSI provides almost full scoop on X400 ultra-portable
The fourth member of the X-Slim family of laptops, the 14-inch X400 has now been PR-ed by MSI to keep us craving while the ultra-portable makes it into stores. The slim new laptop measures 349 x 234 x 24.5 mm and weights as low as 1.5kg, features a 14-inch display with a top resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels, comes with Windows Vista Premium pre-installed, and is equipped with an Intel ULV processor, 2GB of RAM, GMA 4500MHD integrated graphics and a 320 or 500GB hard drive.

The X400 also packs a 1.3 megapixel camera, has Gigabit Ethernet and WiFi, a 2-in-1 card reader, and either a 4- or 8-cell battery providing up to 4 or 9 hours of operation, respectively. Still to pricing details, unfortunately.

Dell mislabels monitor at $15, gets orders for 140,000 units
Somebody working at Dell is in big trouble as the US-based company got a major headache from an error on the Taiwanese version of its website that saw a 19-inch monitor being priced at $15 instead of $148. News of this 'offer you can't refuse' got out really quickly and so over 26,000 customers placed orders for almost 140,000 monitors before the price was changed.

Dell, like other manufacturers, has has mislabeling issues before but never was such a large number of orders made so it's logical that it won't honor them, at least not at $15 a pop. Unfortunately for Dell, the Taiwanese Consumer Protection Commission came into play after receiving hundreds of complaints and requested that the company compensate the customers that placed orders for the monitor. In case it doesn't the Commission said it would take legal action against Dell.

Dell has stated that it will provide compensation to buyers but that will likely be in the form of a discount (which surely won't be of 90%).

Google rolls out Gmail labels improvements
In the hopes of increasing the use of labels within its email service, Google has now introduced a number of changes to Gmail that specifically target its labeling toolkit. Right from the start users will see that labels have moved to the left of the inbox above the chat list, and no longer have their own section - this makes for easier navigation. Another update enables users to control which labels are shown, leaving the rest "hidden" under the 'more' link so only the most important/frequently used labels are there for an easy view.

Last but definitely not least, Google has added the ability to drag mails onto labels or vice versa to labels and archives messages in one step. Drag and drop also works for moving labels into the "more" menu to hide them. Encore.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

IT News HeadLines (TechConnect Magazine) 02/07/2009

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