Opera downloads double in Europe after Windows Choice Screen roll-out
Opera Software, one of the main contesters of the 'link' between Internet Explorer and Microsoft's operating systems, has declared itself pleased with the browser market happenings following the introduction of the Windows Choice Screen.
According to the Norwegian company, European downloads of its latest desktop browser - Opera 10.50, have been higher than those of its predecessors, a big influence being exactly the release of the Choice Screen early this month.
From the data studied, Opera concluded that more than half the 10.50 downloads in Europe came via the Windows ballot screen which means people are more willing to try IE alternatives, now that they are offered an easy way to find and install new browsers. As for the increase in downloads enabled by the Choice Screen, it's over 100%, with some countries, like Poland, Spain and Italy, seeing a jump of over 200%.
Since Microsoft has agreed to keep the browser screen for at least five years, it's probable that Opera, as well as other companies developing browsers, will grab more market share leaving IE to dream of its former glory. We're game!
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BenQ intros the V2410T and V2410B 24-inch monitors
BenQ has today announced a couple of variations of its December-launched V2410 LCD monitor, the V2410T and V2410B. Both new displays have LED backlighting which enables them to consume 44% less power than CCFL monitors, and feature a native resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, a 5ms response time, the Senseye image enhancement technology, and a button on their lower right side to active a mode in which aspect ratios other than 16:9 are displayed without geometric distortion.
The V2410T model boasts height adjustment and is aimed towards corporate use, while the V2410B lacks this function to save costs.
BenQ's V2410T and V2410B are expected to ship in Europe and China next month with recommended price tags of $319 and $279, respectively.
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Eye-Fi Center software available for download
Announced back in January together with the Eye-Fi Pro X2, the Eye-Fi Center application for managing Eye-Fi wireless SD memory cards has now been released and is awaiting download.
The Eye-Fi Center, which works with all Eye-Fi models, comes with improvements over the existing Eye-Fi Manager software functionality and offers users new sharing capabilities, enabling them to upload photos from mediums other than their WiFi-ready memory cards. The new software is made up to two components, the Eye-Fi Helper, a small app that runs on your computer and the actual Eye-Fi Center (an Adobe Air application), which runs independently of a web browser or internet connection, and is available here for Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Mac OS X (10.5 & 10.6).
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AOC iF23 monitor features IPS panel, shiny frame
AOC is currently readying the introduction of the iF23, a 23-inch LCD monitor with an IPS panel which was unveiled a couple of months ago at CES 2010. The new display has a photo-frame design with a glossy blue/white finish, a native resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, a brightness of 250 cd/m2, a 6ms response time, a dynamic contrast ratio of 100,000:1, and D-Sub, DVI connectivity.
The iF23 is backed by a three-year warranty and is set to cost under $370.
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Leaked Nvidia slide shows final GeForce GTX 480 design
No empty boxes this time ladies and gentlemen, but not clocks or hands-on pictures of Nvidia's GF100 cards either. Still, there's this 'confidential' slide about the GeForce GTX 480 depicting the upcoming card's final design and cvasi-general specs.
As confirmed by the slide, the 10.5-inch long GTX 480 is packing a beefy, dual-slot, three-heatpipe cooler, has a 384-bit memory interface and 1536MB of GDDR5 VRAM, two PCIe (6-pin and 8-pin) power connectors, and a consumption of under 300W (299W?). Nvidia's DirectX 11 card also has 3-way SLI support, dual-DVI and mini HDMI outputs and no love for anything Evergreen.
The GeForce GTX 480 and GTX 470 will be introduced on March 26 but more leaks are likely on the way before that.
Picture courtesy of DonanimHaber.
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NEC doubling USB 3.0 controller production amid high demand
What's got two names, no real support for either AMD and Intel but scores in popularity? Yes, it's USB 3.0 aka SuperSpeed USB, the standard which is in so high demand these days that NEC is planning to double production of its USB 3.0-ready µPD720200 host controller. NEC's USB 3.0 chip has become available in September 2009 and last month surpassed 3 million shipped units, having found its way into multiple devices, including a lot of motherboards (both Intel and AMD-powered).
"The strong sales of NEC Electronics' USB-IF certified host controller clearly indicates the extraordinary adoption of SuperSpeed USB into consumer products," said Jeff Ravencraft, president and chairman, USB-IF. "Introduced just over a year ago, SuperSpeed USB has become the world's most widely watched technology, dramatically enhancing the speed with which consumers can transfer their data by providing the fastest USB experience available."
Since the need for SuperSpeed USB is expected to rise, NEC has begun ramping up production of the µPD720200 controller and aims to manufacture 2 million units per month as of April.
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Google Maps for Android added Latitude widget and more
Google Maps for mobile has moved up to version 4.1 in order to provide Android users with a few new features to simplify and speed up their on-the-go location searching/viewing experience. First up, the update brings a tweaked search results page which offers more info without extra tapping, a swipe function for moving through results, plus support for quick switching between multiple Google Accounts.
Thew new and improved Google Maps for Android also comes with a Latitude widget that can be added to the home screen panel and let you see Latitude friends who are near, or right behind you.
To get Google Maps for your Android 1.6+ smartphone check out the Android Market.
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Yahoo expanding its social focus with Citizen Sports acquisition
After months of shedding more or less dead skin, Yahoo has grabbed some credit cards card and went out shopping for something to boost its social strategy. Hours of window shopping later, Yahoo has returned home holding a paper that will soon make it the owner of Citizen Sports (citizensports.com), a site with over 39 million users in the US which provides sports news, information and programming.
Based in San Francisco, Citizen Sports also links to social networks like Facebook, MySpace and hi5 via specific apps to bank on the social network trend and access a bigger user base. Through the acquisition, which is rumored to be valued at up to $50 million, Yahoo! Sports content will be integrated into Citizen Sports' network, while Yahoo! Sports users will get access to the social features offered by Citizen Sports apps.
"Yahoo! is in a unique position to combine our deep expertise in content and aggregation technology to offer a highly personalized social experience," said Bryan Lamkin, senior vice president, Consumer Products Group, Yahoo!. "Sports has been among the earliest online categories to experience rapid social proliferation, and the combination of Citizen Sports leading products with our world-class sports experience on Yahoo! Sports is a win-win for sports fans globally."
Yahoo is expected to close the Citizen Sports deal in Q2.
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LSI sampling 1500 MB/s PCIe solid state drive
Less than two months after announcing its partnership with Seagate, LSI Corp. has proudly announced that it has begun to sample the LSISSS6200 PCI-Express SSD which targets enterprise servers. The new storage solution makes use of the SAS protocol and is claimed to deliver up to 150,000 4K random I/Os per second (IOPS), as well as 1,500 MB/s sustained sequential I/O and 1,200 MB/s sustained random I/O, regardless of read/write mix.
"The new LSISSS6200 card utilizes the industry's most widely deployed software stack to deliver an enterprise-capable, drop-in storage solution," said Steve Fingerhut, senior director of marketing, Storage Components Division, LSI. "Providing customers with a new tier of storage between system memory and low-cost disk drives, without sacrificing reliability or simplicity, PCIe-based SSS solutions represent the next evolution in storage architectures for market segments requiring extreme performance."
LSI's PCIe drive has a capacity of up to 300GB and is available to some unnamed OEM customers. No word yet on a release.
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SilverStone Treasure TS03 turns 5.25-inch bay into a dual-drive tray
SilverStone has recently released something called Treasure TS03, a device taking up one 5.25-inch bay that can house both an optical drive and a 2.5-inch HDD or SSD. Available in black and white, the TS03 supports 12.7mm (slim) PATA or SATA optical drives, enables hot-swapping for 2.5-inch SATA disk or NAND drives, and also provides two USB 2.0 ports.
SilverStone's 3-in-1 storage device is backed by a one-year warranty and can be found priced at $50.
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