Sunday, September 19, 2010

IT News HeadLines (HotHardware) 18/09/2010


HotHardware
Verizon Wireless Plans 4G Connectivity In 30 Cities This Year
All of the nation's top cellular providers are fighting to get their next generation, 4G networks up and running as fast as they can. This week, we learned that Verizon Wireless plans to offer 4G connectivity in 30 NFL Cities by the end of this year. Back in August, a roadmap of Verizon Wireless' 4G plans leaked that indicated the carrier plans to have upwards of 120 million people covered by the end of 2010. The carrier plans to offer 4G connectivity for all of its customers at some point and has put a great
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Sony Claims iPhone, iPad No Threat To Gaming
According to Sony executives, the recent growth in cell phone / mobile device gaming poses no danger to the company's gaming-focused products. Instead, Sony's president of Sony's etworked Products & Services Group, Kazuo Hirai, believes new interest in gaming is an opportunity. "It’s something that will lead to broadening the customer base of the overall game industry, Hirai said in an interview in Chiba prefecture, near Tokyo, yesterday.  "People who had never played a game before may enjoy it
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Intel Hedges On USB 3, Plans To Integrate Feature in 2012
USB 3.0 has been a popular feature ever since its introduction ~12 months ago, but a recent disclosure from Intel could slow the standard's march towards ubiquity. According to information released at IDF, Intel won't introduce a USB 3-powered chipset until 2012. This doesn't bode well for anyone hoping to buy an Intel platform that supports much in the way of upgrades. We already know existing Nehalem CPUs and motherboards won't support Sandy Bridge; it's possible Intel won't introduce native USB 3.0 support
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HotHardware Video Podcast - Sept. 17 2010
We're back again this week with another HotHardware video podcast chatting it up about recent developments in tech hardware and related industry news.  This week we cover all the goodness coming out of Intel's Developer Forum that Marco attended in San Francisco, as well as hot new netbook, notebook and WiCast products from Asus, ViewSonic's G Tablet, the new, cost-effective NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450, and we dig deep into the reader mail bag.  You don't want to miss this, honest.  Well, you shouldn't
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Samsung Galaxy Tab U.S. Carrier Release Dates Leaked?
Samsung's Galaxy Tab is undoubtedly the iPad-killer hopeful. There have been dozens of tablets announced since Apple's did so with their iPad early in the year, but few have received as much attention as Samsung's Galaxy Tab. It's possible that the acclaim of the Galaxy S has rolled over the Tab, and now Samsung's relishing the opportunity to provide its first Android 2.2 tablet to four major U.S. operators. Last night in New York City, Samsung announced that the 7" slate would come to AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile
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Cheap PSU
I'm looking for a cheap PSU to power a Athlon II x2 245 2.8GHz CPU based rig. It's going to be a pretty basic system. 1 hard drive, 2 fans, no CD/DVD drive. A mid range GPU though I have not picked it out yet. Maybe a Nvidia 450 at the highest. It's a budget build. Just looking to put something together for my little bro. I seem to have bad luck with PSUs in general, so searching for a cheap one feels like searching a minefield. Not to mention I have just not been keeping up with the PC biz the last year.
Thanks in advance!

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Sony Claims iPhone, iPad No Threat To Gaming
According to Sony executives, the recent growth in cell phone / mobile device gaming poses no danger to the company's gaming-focused products. Instead, Sony's president of Sony's etworked Products & Services Group, Kazuo Hirai, believes new interest in gaming is an opportunity. "It’s something that will lead to broadening the customer base of the overall game industry, Hirai said in an interview in Chiba prefecture, near Tokyo, yesterday.  "People who had never played a game before may enjoy it on their iPhone or Android cell phone and may want to play more at their home.”

Sony has launched several high-profile products/capabilities in the past 12 months (think the Move, 3D gaming, and the execrable PSP Go) and is confident that it can continue to deliver an experience superior to a mobile phone or other MID. In this case, the company is probably right—interface and screen size are both tremendously important; attempts to integrate gaming and communication have failed more often than not (Ngage, we're looking at you.)

What's particularly interesting here is Hirai's second comment, where he states: "People..may enjoy a game on their iPhone or Android and may want to play more at their home." The clear implication here is that while a mobile device may handle the mobile version of a game, the 'real' game will be waiting at home. There's nothing new about porting a game across multiple platforms, but Hirai's comment implies we may start seeing more games explicitly designed to complement each other.


Ahh, nostalgia.

We'll use a well-known example to illustrate the point. In the Squaresoft classic Final Fantasy VII, players eventually gained access to the Gold Saucer casino. Inside the Casino there were a wide variety of minigames one could explore or compete in. What you did in the Gold Saucer had little to no impact on the larger story, but the mini-games were fun in their own right.

Today, a location like the Gold Saucer could potentially be accessed by a mobile device linked to one's game account. Rewards, bonuses, or additional gear would be ready and waiting when the player logged in again on a PlayStation. This type of linkage could easily be turned into a selling point; with the mobile client available either for a small additional price or included for free when buying the Collector's Edition of a game.

Sony has already extended the PlayStation brand into portable devices with the PSP series, so the concept already has traction. We don't want to dismiss the complexity of creating a cross-mobile gaming platform, or the process of deciding what hardware/interface options a phone or MID must have in order to qualify as "PlayStation compatible." We predict Sony will at least explore a software licensing deal for one reason—money. According to iSuppli, if phones sold in 2009 are counted as gaming devices they account for 93 percent of all the mobile gaming devices sold. Handhelds—including both the PSP and the DS—accounted for just three percent of the market.

Handhelds still dominate actual game sales, with 67.l percent of the market, but mobile phones are steadily gaining on handheld devices (when evaluated strictly in terms of graphics and processing power). The realities of ergonomic design guarantee that there'll be a market for handheld gaming for a long time, but the mobile market represents an ocean of revenue. One way or another, Sony will try to find a way to tap it. 

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HotHardware Video Podcast - Sept. 17 2010
We're back again this week with another HotHardware video podcast chatting it up about recent developments in tech hardware and related industry news.  This week we cover all the goodness coming out of Intel's Developer Forum that Marco attended in San Francisco, as well as hot new netbook, notebook and WiCast products from Asus, ViewSonic's G Tablet, the new, cost-effective NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450, and we dig deep into the reader mail bag.  You don't want to miss this, honest.  Well, you shouldn't miss it.  Okay, please don't miss it?


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Intel Hedges On USB 3, Plans To Integrate Feature in 2012
USB 3.0 has been a popular feature ever since its introduction ~12 months ago, but a recent disclosure from Intel could slow the standard's march towards ubiquity. According to information released at IDF, Intel won't introduce a USB 3-powered chipset until 2012. This doesn't bode well for anyone hoping to buy an Intel platform that supports much in the way of upgrades. We already know existing Nehalem CPUs and motherboards won't support Sandy Bridge; it's possible Intel won't introduce native USB 3.0 support until Ivy Bridge. That transition shouldn't require new motherboards/sockets—Most Core 2 motherboards that supported Conroe also supported Penryn—but Intel has a history of changing motherboard sockets/compatibility at the drop of a hat.


The lasers make it faster.

It's always been odd that Intel, who designed the reference controller for USB 3, has been so slow to incorporate it. The current theory is that Intel has pushed back USB 3 integration in favor of its own Light Peak standard. Light Peak could potentially serve as the long-awaited universal connection standard that's capable of handling everything from Internet to HD audio/video to driving additional monitors simultaneously, but it'll take time to get device support rolling. If Intel backs USB 3 simultaneously, there's always a chance that Light Peak would be shoved out of the market before ever having a chance to prove itself.

Whatever Intel's reasoning, enthusiasts should be little affected. NEC's dual-port USB 3 chip has become a staple on a full range of Core 2 Duo/LGA1156/LGA1366 motherboards, while Asrock has already released an X58 motherboard with four USB 3.0 ports. By this time next year, it'll be hard to find a midrange Intel or AMD board that doesn't offer at least two USB 3 ports. Intel's decision not to ship USB 3 support in 2011 will slow adoption, but the fact that motherboard OEMs have already pushed the feature into sub-$100 boards means they view it as an important technology consumers want to buy. 

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مرسلة بواسطة Abdalrhman Albayyat
في 5:00 AM
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