Hacktivity 2010 Conference Provides Plenty of Sound Bites
You would have had to travel all the way to Budapest in order to attend "Hactivity 2010," the largest hackers' conference in Eastern and Central Europe. But for those of you who didn't make it -- which we're assuming is everyone reading this -- we've dug up one of the more interesting sound bites. "The Internet is the greatest generation gap since rock'n roll," Bruce Schneier, a respected U.S. cyber security expert, said during the two-day event. "The older of us need to be prepared for a younger generation
Read More ...
Boxee CEO Avner Ronen Demos Boxee Box For HH, Impresses
The little HTPC (Home Theater PC) and media center software start-up, Boxee, has been making a splash on the web scene since it first debuted in public beta back in January 2010. The software was developed in an effort for cross-platform support and as such, has received a lot of air-play on the internet by end users, social media as well as Boxee's platform partners. With the ability to support a "soup to nuts" offering of web-delivered content from big name providers such as NetFlix, YouTube, CBS
Read More ...
Casio Unveils High-Speed ZR10 Camera for HDR Photo Buffs
Casio has been kicking out digital cameras like a boss, including a handful of new point-n-shoots just announced today. One of those is the new EXILIM EX-ZR10, a zoom-friendly camera Casio claims integrates high-speed shooting and high-speed image processing all rolled into one. Casio goes to great lengths trying to convince the HDR crowd this is the point-n-shoot for them. As such, the ZR10 boasts Casio's HDR technology, whereby "each press of the button actually takes several shots with different exposures
Read More ...
Nvidia Sees Potential of External Notebook Graphics
One of the problems with buying a notebook as a gaming machine is that most mobile PCs don't allow much in the way of upgrades. Once that GPU starts to spit and sputter on the latest titles, you might as well toss the whole thing in a river, or chuck it up on Craigslist if you can stomach the depreciation and inevitable lowball offers. External graphics has long been a promising solution to this dilemma, particularly since most notebooks do allow for CPU and RAM upgrades. It sounds great on paper, anyway, but
Read More ...
BlackBerry Torch 9800 Smartphone Review, RIMM Steps It Up
RIM's line of BlackBerry smartphones has been popular among business users for some time, but the brand has been losing market share in recent years to other platforms such as Android and iPhone. Now, the company is looking to turn things around with its new BlackBerry Torch 9800 smartphone and the new BlackBerry 6 operating system. RIM claims BlackBerry 6 "retains the familiar and trusted features that distinguish the BlackBerry brand while delivering a fresh, approachable and engaging experience that’s
Read More ...
Intel Test Marketing Artificially Constrained "Upgradeable" Processors
Intel's marketing division has a long history of partnering with OEMs in order to jointly promote a product, but the company's most recent initiative could create blowback from unhappy customers. According to information unearthed this past weekend, Intel is quietly testing the concept of "upgradeable" CPUs. Instead of buying a physical CPU and going to through the hassle of installing it, customers who purchase one of these systems could optionally purchase an upgrade card (current price: $50). Right now the
Read More ...
PlayOn's Web Player Brings Hulu, Netflix And More To iPad
And just like that, the iPad becomes an even more attractive looking tablet for those who are overly concerned with consuming media on it. Apple didn't exactly get off on the right foot by rejecting Adobe's Flash, which is a platform through which a vast majority of Internet-based multi-media is distributed. But since the iPad has been such a huge seller, many media companies and media distribution portals have been looking for new ways to work around that hurdle. HTML5 has definitely emerged as a major player
Read More ...
HP Debuts Omni 100 And TouchSmart 310 AIO PCs Along With New tm2 Notebook
Can you tell that companies are ramping up for the holidays yet? The flood of new machines has definitely begun, with Asus holding a mega media event last week, ViewSonic introducing the G Tablet and Samsung bringing the Galaxy Tab to all four major U.S. carriers. But today, Hewlett-Packard is stealing the show with a new array of machines that all look to take advantage of Windows 7 and touch. Let's get started with the big fella: the all new TouchSmart 310 all-in-one PC. This is HP's all-out assault on Apple's
Read More ...
High End Electronics Sales Increasingly Driven By Mobile Gadgets
In the not-so-distant past, companies like Best Buy and Circuit Ci and, uh, Best Buy typically filled fall/winter advertising with big-ticket items like high-end HDTVs, new sound equipment, and an assortment of computer equipment. This year, Best Buy is planning its promotions and sales differently in response to consumers who have grown tired of more traditional electronic devices. This year the 60" TVs are out and the iPad is in. Best Buy also plans to devote more floor space to gaming consoles and e-readers
Read More ...
Ocosmos OCS 1 Slider Runs Windows 7, Oak Trail
A new gaming handheld? In a world dominated by Sony and Nintendo? Believe it or not, it has happened before. Pandora, a small startup, has captured the hearts of emulation lovers by creating an self-branded handheld gaming platform that mainly focuses on playing ROMs from consoles that have long since been retired. And now, there's another company hoping to fill yet another portable gaming niche: Ocosmos. It doesn't really roll off of the tongue, but it's probably a name you won't soon forget once you see what
Read More ...
Fujifilm Debuts FinePix X100 APS-C Camera To Rival Micro Four Thirds
Mirrorless cameras are all the rage these days. Olympus and Panasonic have their Micro Four Thirds technology, Sony has their interchangeable lens family, and now Fujifilm has the FinePix X100. Now, we're just waiting for Canon and Nikon to join the fun, and full-fledged DSLRs will finally have their work cut out for them. These compact APS-C cameras offer many of the luxuries on a DSLR (full manual mode, fast shooting, great low-light performance, etc.), but at a fraction of the size and cost. They're more
Read More ...
CyberLink's Power2Go 7 Software Enables 128GB BDXL Burning
Remember BDXL? That's the format that the Blu-ray Disc Association was trumpeting during this year's Computex trade show, though 3D Blu-ray seems to have stolen the spotlight since. We doubt that it'll remain that way for too long, though. With multi-media swelling larger and 1080p content become more pervasive, there's a growing need for more storage. Changing formats entirely is usually too much of a system shock for consumers, so the BDA is trying to squeeze more onto less, so to speak. BDXL is a multi-layer
Read More ...
RIM Records Record BlackBerry Shipments In Second Quarter
Research in Motion announced that it shipped a record 12 million smartphones in the second quarter. With the announcement, RIM beat analysts' expectations. According to the manufacturer, BlackBerry smartphone shipments grew more than 45 percent in the second quarter of its fiscal year over the same quarter a year ago to 12.1 million. In the first quarter of its fiscal year, RIM shipped 11.2 million BlackBerry smartphones. The previous quarter RIM recorded shipments of 10.5 million units. According to RIM, the
Read More ...
BlackBerry Torch 9800 Smartphone Review
RIM's line of BlackBerry smartphones has been popular among business users for some time, but the brand has been losing market share in recent years to other platforms such as Android and iPhone. Now, the company is looking to turn things around with its new BlackBerry Torch 9800 smartphone and the new BlackBerry 6 operating system. RIM claims BlackBerry 6 "retains the familiar and trusted features that distinguish the BlackBerry brand while delivering a fresh, approachable and engaging experience that’s
Read More ...
OCZ Gold
I have 24g of DDR3 ram ,6x4g. at 9-9-9-24-trfc at107 command rate is 2 ,fsb 2:10, Dram freq is 667.5...697mhz,1215,1603
running on my asus rampage 111
2xGTX-465 vid's.
980x
Coolmaster HAF
60g ssd Boot,+4 big sata hdd's.
win 7 ultimate 64b
24in. sammy syncmaster
5-1 surround sound,logitech speakers
I race NASCAR online and i'm in WoW
no OC.
sure no worry about FPS these day's
what would be a good small easy boost to my ram and cpu?
Corsair H50 on cpu
air cooled the rest.
am i crazy at 65 for doin this?
this is my 8th pc build,I love doin it,since the 80's
Read More ...
Upgrade twin Nvidia 7950 GT's to single GTS 450?
Hi,
I've had 2 x 7950 GT's running in SLI mode on my PC for the last 3 years but I have started to notice my PC struggling with some of the newer games and thought it might be time for an upgrade. Trouble is when I bought my system before I had a fair amount of redundancy cash available to me but sadly now it's all gone
So, I can afford a single Nvidia GTS 460 (looking at an OC'd one) but not two. My question then is will one of these outperform my twin 7950 GT's enough to make it worthwhile upgrading?
Read More ...
New record!
This game i only played the beta once and got sick of it. Even though it was bad i didnt think this was going to happen.
The game all points bulletin has set a gaming record........ to bad the record is for the shortest lasting mmo game.All that work for nothing, to bad they didnt seem to notice the minor flaws( like all of the gameplay and plot).
On 16 September 2010, 2 months and 17 days after the release of APB, Realtime Worlds announced the shutdown of APB with this message:
APB has been a fantastic journey, but unfortunately that journey has come to a premature end. Today we are sad to announce that despite everyone's best efforts to keep the service running; APB is coming to a close. It's been a pleasure working on APB and with all its players. Together we were building an absolutely amazing game, and for that, we thank you. You guys are awesome! From all of the Realtime World staff we thank you for your continued support.—Ben Bateman, APB.co
Read More ...
Intel Test Marketing Artificially Constrained "Upgradeable" Processors
Intel's marketing division has a long history of partnering with OEMs in order to jointly promote a product, but the company's most recent initiative could create blowback from unhappy customers. According to information unearthed this past weekend, Intel is quietly testing the concept of "upgradeable" CPUs. Instead of buying a physical CPU and going to through the hassle of installing it, customers who purchase one of these systems could optionally purchase an upgrade card (current price: $50). Right now the program appears to be confined to Best Buy and a single Gateway, the SX2841-09e. There's no mention of that system at either companies' website; the specs for the SX2840-01 are available here. For now, the psuedo-upgrade only applies to one processor (the Intel Pentium G6951) and requires either an Intel DH55TC or DH55PJ, both of which use the Intel H55 Express chipset. If that model number sounds familiar, it's because Intel released the G6950 in Q1 of this year. We're guessing the G6951 either has a different GPU clock than its predecessor, or was specially designed to take advantage of this software 'upgrade.'
The G6951 is a 32nm dual-core Core i3 processor at 2.8GHz with 3MB of included L3 cache and no Hyper-Threading. After purchasing and entering an authorized activation code, the G6951 is upgraded into a G6952 and gains both Hyper-Threading and an additional 1MB of L3 cache. According to Intel's Retail Upgrade website, the performance difference between the two configurations looks like so:
Nearly all of these tests are Hyper-Threading friendly tests—single-threaded performance would only rise if a program was limited by the original 3MB of L3 cache
The best thing about Intel's Retail Upgrade plan is that it should work flawlessly and without any need to crack open a case. In days of yore, Intel included upgrade paths for its customers (think 486SX, OverDrive, Pentium OverDrive, etc). The compatibility, performance, and stability of the upgraded system often varied widely, making it difficult for a would-be buyer to determine which computer would be able to take advantage of a new processor (and which wouldn't). None of these factors would apply to an upgraded G6951 system; users could buy the G6951 solution and confidently plan to unlock the G9652 at a later date.
The $50 price tag, however, isn't much of a deal. According to Intel's own records, the G6950 currently sells for $87 in 1K lots. $51 higher up the ladder, there's the Intel Core i3-550. Compared to the G6950/6951, the i3-550 is 400MHz faster, includes Hyper-Threading, offers the same 4MB of L3, and officially supports DDR3-1333 as opposed to just DDR3-1066. As an added bonus, its GPU is 200MHz faster than the G6950's (though we don't know the 6951's GPU clock yet). Given Intel's current price structure, a Core i3-550 system is likely to be a better deal. (We'd feel a bit differently about this if the upgrade included Turbo Boost and/or a modest speed increase).
There are two other points of interest buried in the fine print. Intel states that in order to qualify for an upgrade "the computer system to have an upgrade-enabled Intel CPU, BIOS, and chipset, network hardware and software, as well as connection with a power source and the Internet." This is a rather interesting qualifier, given the fact that Intel is one of the largest OEM motherboard manufacturers. If this program takes off, we might see various other motherboard manufacturers licensing the right to build upgrade-capable motherboards in the not-too-distant future.
The other bit of information deals with revenue-sharing. According to this page meant for System Builders, Intel Upgrade Service offers revenue shares to you and your customers when upgrades are sold. (emphasis original.) This is classic Intel manuevering at work—if the program becomes popular, all of the major OEMs will sign up rather than risk missing out on a competitive advantage.
It's anyone's guess how consumers will react to the idea that they're buying what we'll politely call "constrained" processors. This is a potential issue Intel will have to handle with great care. As the original Pentium FDIV bug proved, consumers don't care if an issue actually impacts them or not. The same thought patterns that led millions of consumers to demand a new, flawless Pentium could lead to an outcry over allegedly crippled microprocessors.Â
Read More ...
BlackBerry Torch 9800 Smartphone Review, RIMM Steps It Up
RIM's line of BlackBerry smartphones has been popular among business users for some time, but the brand has been losing market share in recent years to other platforms such as Android and iPhone. Now, the company is looking to turn things around with its new BlackBerry Torch 9800 smartphone and the new BlackBerry 6 operating system. RIM claims BlackBerry 6 "retains the familiar and trusted features that distinguish the BlackBerry brand while delivering a fresh, approachable and engaging experience that’s powerful and easy to use." In other words, RIM says it has taken everything you like about a BlackBerry and added some cool new features and options that will improve your overall experience with the phone. In addition to new social networking and multimedia features, the Torch is also changing things up a bit by combining a touchscreen with a hardware keyboard. If you'll recall, many people felt RIM's first attempt at a touchscreen device (the BlackBerry Storm) was awkward. Will the Torch's touchscreen be better? This is just one of the many things we'll take a closer look at as we dive into our hands-on review of the BlackBerry Torch and the new BlackBerry 6 OS.
Read More ...
Ocosmos OCS 1 Slider Runs Windows 7, Oak Trail
A new gaming handheld? In a world dominated by Sony and Nintendo? Believe it or not, it has happened before. Pandora, a small startup, has captured the hearts of emulation lovers by creating an self-branded handheld gaming platform that mainly focuses on playing ROMs from consoles that have long since been retired. And now, there's another company hoping to fill yet another portable gaming niche: Ocosmos.
It doesn't really roll off of the tongue, but it's probably a name you won't soon forget once you see what they've produced here. The OCS-1 handheld is a slider-type device that looks a lot like Danger's old SideKick cellphones. The rounded edges remind us somewhat of the PlayStation Portable, but there's a full QWERTY keyboard underneath the display.
What makes this gaming handheld unique is that it's essentially a MID. Rather than running a stripped down, proprietary operating system, the OCS-1 runs a full copy of Windows 7. There are a pair of joysticks on the sides of the display, and the real power lies within. The unit that was recently demonstrated has a 1.5GHz Intel Oak Trail processor, which is one that isn't even out to the public yet. We had great expectations for this platform, but this particular use is both surprising and pleasing. It's not often that a new CPU is used in such an out-of-the-box application, but if this is the revival of the UMPC/MID, we'll take it.
Other specifications include Intel's GMA 600 integrated graphics, an SSD drive, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and a 4.8" display (with a 1024x600 resolution capacitive touch panel). That's enough to run the newest version of StarCraft in the palm of your hand, and probably a few older titles like Half-Life 2 as well. Since this device is a little ways out from production, there are no posted prices or release dates yet, but hopefully that will be happening soon.
Read More ...
HP Debuts Omni 100 And TouchSmart 310 AIO PCs Along With New tm2 Notebook
Can you tell that companies are ramping up for the holidays yet? The flood of new machines has definitely begun, with Asus holding a mega media event last week, ViewSonic introducing the G Tablet and Samsung bringing the Galaxy Tab to all four major U.S. carriers. But today, Hewlett-Packard is stealing the show with a new array of machines that all look to take advantage of Windows 7 and touch.
Let's get started with the big fella: the all new TouchSmart 310 all-in-one PC. This is HP's all-out assault on Apple's iMac, and the new 310 is looking sharper than ever. This one is a 20" machine, aimed at smaller bedrooms, college dorms, etc. It has a 1600x900 touch panel, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit and a 2.8GHz processor. But it's not an Intel chip; there's an AMD Athlon II 240e dual-core CPU in here. It also ships with 4GB of DDR3 SDRAM, 1TB of hard drive space, a slim-tray DVD SuperMulti drive, ATI Radeon HD 4270 integrated graphics, Gigabit Ethernet, integrated Bluetooth, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and a built-in HDTV tuner (a nice touch!). The machine also includes a wireless keyboard and optical mouse, with a starting price of $699.99 and a ship date of late September.
Next, there's the HP Omni 100, a new kind of all-in-one PC that tries to put simple, first. This model also shares the 20" footprint with a 1600x900 touch panel, along with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, a 1.8GHz Athlon II 260u dual-core processor, 3GB of DDR3 memory, a 500GB 7200RPM drive, DVD burner, ATI Radeon 4270 integrated graphics, Wi-Fi, inbuilt speakers, and a bundled keyboard/mouse. The price here starts at $499.99 with planned availability later this month.
Finally, the TouchSmart tm2, which is one HP's most famous notebooks of late, has been revised. It's a 12.1" multi-touch machine, but it's now available with Core i3 and Core i5 CPU choices along with AMD Mobility Radeon HD 5450 switchable graphics. The LCD swivels to convert it into a tablet PC, while Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit is the OS of choice. It also ships with a 500GB hard drive, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, 5-in-1 card reader, three USB 2.0 ports and a full-size keyboard. The tm2 will sell for $829.99 and up, with the new models shipping in late October.
In software news, HP is also launching their TouchSmart Apps Center, which will be available soon via an icon on the TouchSmart Carousel. It provides one-click (we mean, one-touch) access to free and subscription-based apps from companies who are creating touch-friendly programs. We can't overstate how badly this has been needed. Each time we review a touch panel AIO PC, we always struggle to find enough software that's touch-friendly. In the end, we never use the touch screen enough. But a touch-based app store could certainly change that, and we hope it does.
Read More ...
Fujifilm Debuts FinePix X100 APS-C Camera To Rival Micro Four Thirds
Mirrorless cameras are all the rage these days. Olympus and Panasonic have their Micro Four Thirds technology, Sony has their interchangeable lens family, and now Fujifilm has the FinePix X100. Now, we're just waiting for Canon and Nikon to join the fun, and full-fledged DSLRs will finally have their work cut out for them. These compact APS-C cameras offer many of the luxuries on a DSLR (full manual mode, fast shooting, great low-light performance, etc.), but at a fraction of the size and cost. They're more limited when it comes to lenses and accessories, but for many, they offer plenty of performance. If you don't need a full DSLR, the X100 (and the like) is probably good enough. 
The X100 is officially debuting at the Photokina trade show, featuring an APS-C CMOS sensor, Fujinon 23mm fixed focal length lens and a Hybrid Viewfinder. It also has a 12.3MP sensor, a 2.8" LCD on the rear for controlling the menus, various manual/semi-manual modes, ISO 200-6400, 720p movie support, an accessory hot shoe, SD/SDHC/SDXC card slot, and a new viewfinder system that apparently lets users switch between the EVF and OVF while displaying important information on the latter.
Unfortunately, Fujifilm is doing more teasing than releasing. The camera won't be on sale until early 2011, and no price estimate is given. We suspect it will be fairly pricey, though, particularly with the stunning design. Will it be enough to knock off any DSLRs? Possibly, at least ones at the entry level.
Read More ...
No comments:
Post a Comment