IT-Code-News: IT News HeadLines (TechConnect Magazine) 02/03/2011

Thursday, March 3, 2011

IT News HeadLines (TechConnect Magazine) 02/03/2011

Asus ROG G74Sx gaming laptop packs Sandy Bridge, 3D, DirectX 11
Asus' ROG (Republic of Gamers) line of gaming notebooks is ready for an update and that's exactly what we're getting with the G74Sx model which is based on Intel's latest mobile platform (Huron River) and is equipped with the yes-unannounced GeForce GTX 560M graphics card.

Kingston releases two HyperX DDR3 kits for Sandy Bridge laptops
Catering to the needs of mobile computing enthusiasts, Kingston has now introduced a couple of new HyperX Series memory kits, the first to be specifically designed for notebooks/laptops based on Intel's Sandy Bridge-based Huron River platform.

Atom N570-powered Acer Aspire One D255E netbook now available
It was only yesterday that Intel officially introduced the Atom N570 dual-core processor and already Acer, the third-largest PC maker, has released a netbook powered by it, an updated version of the 10.1-inch Aspire One D255E.

New Trillian 5.0 build keeps chats moving along on multiple devices
Cerulean Studios has yesterday made available a new (still beta) Trillian 5.0 build which, besides fixes, brings updates that enable users to easy move communications from one device to another without losing track of anything and without cluttering up the client.

Packard Bell details its Sandy Bridge-based EasyNote NS laptop
Next month Packard Bell will start updating its mobile PC offer and release the EasyNote NS laptop featuring a 14-inch display, Sandy Bridge power, and a 'rounded industrial design' with a sleek finish in one of three colors - Ebony black, Garnet red or Moonstone white.

Facebook snaps up group messaging startup Beluga
Social network hegemon Facebook has recently expanded its ranks by acquiring (for an undisclosed sum) one Beluga Inc., a small startup founded by three ex-Google employees which has developed a 'group messaging' app for both iOS and Android devices.

LG / T-Mobile G-Slate tablet now up for pre-order
T-Mobile and LG have yet to say anything conclusive about the price tag (and release date) of their 3D-capable G-Slate but thankfully at least one store has jumped the gun and listed the incoming Android 3.0-based tablet, asking for it $700 (the recommended price tag is $799.99).

Techconnect Review Round-up 1/3/11
Today's review round-up...

Patriot Supersonic Magnum flash drive accelerates to 200 MB/s
Patriot is really putting the pedal to the metal at CeBIT 2011 where it is showing off the recently-announced Wildfire SSD which tops 500 MB/s, as well as a flash drive called Supersonic Magnum that is claimed capable of read and write speeds of up to 200 MB/s and 110 MB/s, respectively.

Intel giving netbooks a bit more power with the Atom N570 processor
Intel today took the veil off its second, mobile-prone dual-core Atom processor, the Atom N570 which features two cores clocked at 1.66 GHz (the N550 is @ 1.5 GHz), four threads, 1MB of L2 cache, support for DDR3-677 memory, and a TDP of just 8.5W.

Razer readies Dragon Age II-themed gaming peripherals and accessories
In an effort to milk the already abused Dragon Age franchise, Bioware and Razer have teamed up to introduce a few gamer-targeting peripherals and accessories 'tweaked' with some Dragon Age II DNA.

Zotac debuts Brazos-powered ZBox mini PCs
Zotac has embraced AMD's first Fusion platform (aka Brazos) and today announced a couple of ZBoxes powered by the E-350 APU (accelerated processing unit), the ZBox AD02 barebone and ZBox AD02 Plus mini PC/nettop.

Sharkoon taking the Flexi-Drive Extreme Duo flash drive up to 32GB
The Flexi-Drive Extreme Duo line of speedy flash drives is about to expand as today Sharkoon has announced that a 32GB model is coming up, still using SLC (single-level cell) NAND Flash memory and a single-chip controller to enable read/write speeds of up to 130 MB/s via the USB 3.0 port.

GeForce 267.24 beta

GeForce 267.24 beta driver available, brings tweaks, extra game support
Nvidia has today made available a new graphics card driver, the beta-tagged GeForce 267.24 which features support for the GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9, 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500 series desktop cards, the ION GPUs, but not for the GeForce GTX 560 Ti (the GeForce 267.26 works with the GF114-based card).

Seagate rolls out 3TB Barracuda XT hard drive
Seagate Technology, the world's second-largest hard drive maker has now begun shipping its beefiest Barracuda-branded internal HDD yet, the 3TB Barracuda XT which comes in a 3.5-inch form factor, works at 7200 RPM and has a SATA 6.0 Gbps interface.

Roccat unveils the Isku gaming keyboard, to release it in Q2
Sometime in the second quarter of this year Roccat is planning to let loose a new, gaming-oriented wired keyboard, a mode called Isku which features a 6-level illumination system and makes use of the EasyShift[+] technology which doubles the number of key functions available.

Thortech 80Plus Platinum 850W power supply on display at CeBIT
GeIL-owned PSU maker Thortech is showcasing at CeBIT its first unit to feature an 80Plus Platinum certification, the Platinum Plus 850W. This PSU has an efficiency of up 92%, and features a modular design, and a single 12V rail that delivers 100A.

VIA reveals the Eden X2 dual-core CPU, says it's for embedded systems
Three months after announcing the Nano X2, VIA Technologies has returned to the stage to introduce its second dual-core processor, one that is claimed to be perfect for industrial and commercial embedded systems due to its low power consumption.

G.Skill develops 550 MB/s, SandForce-based SSDs, calls them Phoenix II
G.Skill has officially joined OCZ, Patriot and Super Talent in the SandForce SF-2000 adopters club by showcasing at its CeBIT booth a solid state drive that is powered by SandForce's second-generation controllers.

MSI officially intros the R6950 Twin Frozr III Power Edition graphics card
We talked about it yesterday and today it became 'real', MSI's R6950 Twin Frozr III Power Edition has now been launched and is promoted as a high-end DirectX 11 solution that offers great features (especially for overclocking) and top performance.

Corsair offering blue-colored Vengeance DDR3 memory
If its rival Kingston has went from blue to black with its T1 memory then Corsair went ahead and announced some blue-colored Vengeance memory to complement the previously-released black Vengeance kits.

Kingston releases a trio of HyperX T1 Black triple-channel DDR3 memory kits
Kingston Technology is one again bringing the memory, this time the treat being specifically aimed towards gamers and enthusiasts who are running Intel X58-based systems. Kingston's offer consists of three triple-channel DDR3 kits which feature some sexy, tall and black T1 heatspreaders.

Corsair now shipping the Hydro H60 liquid CPU cooler
Announced in January, Corsair's third Hydro Series liquid cooler, the H60, has now begun to ship worldwide and should become available in stores in a matter of days. The H60 has been made in collaboration with CoolIT and it costs $79.

AMD Radeon HD 6990 slides into the sportlight, its specs get leaked
AMD's incoming flagship graphics card, the Radeon HD 6990 (codename Antilles) is expected to make its debut next week (on March 8th) but the ways of the interweb have made it so that nobody has to wait until then to know what it's all about.

Corsair Flash Voyager USB 3.0 flash drives set for April arrival
Yes, you read that right, Corsair's popular Flash Voyagers are going SuperSpeed and will be available in USB 3.0 versions in April. The incoming USB 3.0 drives will still have a rubber casing and will be both shockproof and water-resistant, as well as plug-and-play compatible.

Maingear goes after gamers with the Titan 17 notebook
As of later today, Maingear will be expanding its product offer so as to include a desktop replacement called Titan 17 which aims to provide gamers and professionals with loads of power which they can carry and use when on-the-move.

Deepcool aims to impress at CeBIT with the beefy Fiend Shark XT cooler
Deepcool is on site in Hannover for CeBIT 2011 to show off some of its newest products including the board-bending and head-turning Fiend Shark XT, a CPU cooler that weights a massive 1.8kg (1837 grams to be exact) but promises top performance.

AMD Fusion-powered Asus Eee Box nettops seen at CeBIT
Asus' Eee Box line of slim systems (read nettops) is set to get its Fusion on and proof of that can be seen at CeBIT where on display are two models based on AMD's Brazos platform, the C-50-equipped EB1020 and the E-350-powered EB1021.

AOC announces 27-inch monitor with MVA panel, LED backlight
AOC has this week revealed the e2795Vh, a 27-inch monitor claimed to be perfect for both home and office use which features a MVA (multi-domain vertical alignment) panel allowing for wide viewing angles (178/178 degrees), and an LED backlight - for a lower power consumption and better image quality.

Asetek shows off new CPU, GPU coolers at CeBIT
Like many other companies, Asetek too is taking advantage of CeBIT to reveal its latest creations, more specifically two sealed water cooling systems, one for fast and fiery graphics cards, and one for today's hottest processors.

FSP 80Plus Gold-rated, passive-cooled power supply seen at CeBIT
The FSP Group brought with it at CeBIT 2011 a multitude of highly-efficient power supplies, including one with an 80Plus Platinum certification, and an 80Plus Gold model part of the Aurum series which, although delivering 500W constantly, it lacks active cooling, it has no fan.

Samsung teases CTIA launch of 8.9-inch Galaxy tablet
The arrival of an 8.9-inch Galaxy tablet has pretty much been confirmed by Samsung Mobile who posted on its Facebook page a banner that says 'What's your Tab life?' and lists the number sequence '78910'. 7-inch and 10-inch Tabs we 'have' (the 10.1-inch isn't out yet) so what remains is the 89 (8.9).

Greenliant starts sampling industrial-grade embedded solid state drives
Greenliant is moving to expand its NANDrive family of solid state drives and so it developed three new SSD chips which are aimed specifically toward industrial applications and are ready to work at temperatures between -40 and +85 degrees Celsius.

LG's Optimus 2X dual-core smartphone to reach Europe this month
Released in LG's home market of South Korea in January, the Optimus 2X smartphone is set to become available in multiple European countries this month. The 2X is of course known for being the first phone to be equipped with Nvidia's tablet-popular Tegra 2 chip which boasts two 1GHz Cortex-A9 cores.

New Chrome Stable and Dev Channel builds outed
Google has kicked off CeBIT week by letting loose a couple of new Chrome builds, Stable one (version 9.0.597.107) which tackles 19 security bugs, and a Dev channel one (11.0.686.0) that comes with several fixes, has accelerated compositing turned on by default, and includes an updated V8 engine.

Techconnect Review Round-up 28/2/11
Today's review round-up...

Point of View comes out with faster GeForce GTX 580 Beast (watercooled) card
Point and View and the TGT squad are once again upping the graphics card ante by releasing a 'Beast 2' version GeForce GTX 580 card which features higher GPU/shader clocks than the first Beast while keeping the slim (9mm) copper full-cover waterblock made by Aqua Computer.

Intel debuts the 510 Series SATA 6.0 Gbps solid state drives
Following quite a long wait Intel has today finally launched its next-generation solid state drives which are known as the 510 Series, have a SATA 6.0 Gbps interface (their predecessors, the X25-M G2s are SATA 3.0 Gbps) and utilize 34nm NAND Flash memory chips.

Nvidia announces the CUDA Toolkit 4.0, developers will get this Friday
In its continuous effort to lure developers towards its technology solutions, Nvidia has today revealed the CUDA Toolkit 4.0, the latest version of the software package aimed at helping create/port applications so that they take advantage of Nvidia GPU power.

Green House intros the PicoDrive Dual Pro flash drives
Green House has today expanded its flash drive line-up through the release of the PicoDrive Dual Pro, a new family of USB 2.0 units which make use of a dual-channel design and are capable of read and write speeds of up to 30 MB/s and 24 MB/s, respectively.

Gigabyte preps the first Aivia series gaming mouse
This week at CeBIT 2011 in Hannover, Germany, Gigabyte Technology is planning to showcase its second peripheral in the Aivia series, a wireless gaming mouse which promises up to 100 hours of uninterrupted fragging and headshot-ing.

Active Media rolls out the Predator V3 SATA 6.0 Gbps solid state drives
Active Media Porducts has now introduced its newest flash-based storage solution, a 'server class' solid state drive which has a 2.5-inch form factor, packs MLC (muti-level cell) NAND Flash memory and is powered by Marvell's 88SS9174 (codename Van Gogh) controller.

Gigabyte to release GeForce GTX 560 Ti SOC clocked at 950 MHz
Gigabyte Technology is set to update its SOC (Super OverClock) family of graphics cards with a second model based on the GeForce GTX 560 Ti, the GV-N560SO-1GI-950 which has a GPU clock of 950 MHz, 50 MHz lower than the first GTX 560 Ti SOC introduced last month.

MSI readies Twin Frozr III-equipped Radeon HD 6950
Although it already has Twin Frozr II models available, MSI has decided to also release a Radeon HD 6950 equipped with the Twin Frozr III cooler which, compared to its predecessor, features a new propeller design for the two 80mm fans, allowing for 20% more airflow.

Efika MX Smartbook has its price tag slashed down to $199
Released back in September priced at $349, Genesi USA's Efika MX Smartbook has received a significant price cut and is now available for just $199. According to Genesi the price slash is intended at providing 'affordable state-of-the-art computing and Internet access' to more people.

AMD Radeon HD 6990 press shots hit the web, release still pending
AMD's first and probably only dual-GPU Radeon HD 6900 series card, the HD 6990 (codename Antilles) is looking increasingly good for a March introduction so its maker decided to up the hype meter by letting loose a few press shots of the upcoming beastie.

PNY GeForce GTX 550 Ti gets listed in Europe
Although its rumored release date is March 15, the GF116-based GeForce GTX 550 Ti is already making some appearances, with at least one model (made by PNY) being found on pre-order in multiple European stores.

Zalman unveils three new, USB 3.0-enabled drive enclosures
Zalman is now readying the release of no less than three all white and shiny drive enclosures that sport an USB 3.0 interface, the 2.5-inch HDD/SSD-supporting ZM-HE250 U3, and the 3.5-inch compatible ZM-HE350 U3 and ZM-HE350 U3E.

Gmail glitch 'cleans up' email accounts, Google already fixing things
Quite a horror moment was experienced by some 0.08% (Google's estimate) of Gmail users on Sunday as upon logging in they saw their accounts pretty much 'free' of all their received and sent emails, with only a handful of messages being left in the inbox.

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