Pioneer Computers rolling out low-cost 10-inch Android table :: Posted by THRASHER2
As if it didn't have enough mobile devices on offer, Australian company Pioneer Computers now has on pre-order a new Android tablet, the 10-inch DreamBook ePad 10 Plus which is loaded up with Android 2.2 and costs just 299 AUD (~ 327 USD).
This latest device measures 272 (L) x 170 (W) x 10 (H) mm, weights 700 grams, and has a 10-inch (1024 x600) touchscreen LCD, a 1 GHz ARM11 processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of flash storage, a 1.3 megapixel camera, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, a G-sensor, an USB port, a HDMI output, and a 3800 mAh battery allowing for up to 4 hours of operation
The DreamBook ePad 10 Plus is expected to start shipping this month.
link
Read More ...
Gigabyte readies a second, factory-overclocked Radeon HD6970 :: Posted by THRASHER2
After a little more work in its labs, Gigabyte has managed to build a new non-stock Radeon HD 6970, one that makes use of the WindForce 3X (tri-fan) cooler, like the GV-R697OC-2GD, and has its GPU and memory clocked at 920 MHz 5500 MHz, respectively (880/5500 MHz stock, 900/5500 MHz for the R697OC).
Gigabyte's card also features an Ultra Durable VGA+ design (2oz copper PCB, a Proadlizer capacitor, Ferrite Core and Metal Chokes, Low RDS MOSFET), 1536 Stream Processors, a 256-bit memory interface, 2GB of GDDR5 VRAM, CrossFireX support, and four display outputs - two DVI, one HDMI and one DisplayPort.
Gigabyte's GV-R697OC2-2GD has yet to be priced (or dated for that matter).
link
Read More ...
Intel's 'Cedar Trail' 32nm Atom platform detailed :: Posted by THRASHER2
For the second half of this year Intel has planned the release of its first 32nm Atom solutions, and one of them is the 'Cedar Trail' platform (the successor of the very popular 'Pine Trail') which targets netbooks, nettops, all-in-one PCs and is reportedly scheduled for a Q4 arrival.
Cedar Trail will combine something old - the NM10 chipset also part of Pine Trail with something new, the 32nm-manufactured Cedarview processors, and will offer a lot of updates over the current offer, like Blu-ray 2.0 support, full 1080p playback, plus the Intel Wireless Music, Intel Wireless Display, PC Synch and Fast Boot technologies.
Going back to the main upgrade, the Cedarview CPUs, these have a TDP of 10W, 1MB of L2 cache, a DDR3 memory controller, and an integrated graphics core supporting the DirectX 10.1 API. The Cedarview line-up consists of two models, the D2500 boasting two cores clocked at 1.86 GHz and two threads, and the D2700 with two cores @ 2.13 GHz and four threads.
Beside Cedar Trail, this year Intel is expected to introduce two more 32nm Atom products, the awaited Medfield SoC (System-on-Chip) for smartphones and other mobile devices and the Cloverview SoC for tablets.
link
Read More ...
EKL's Alpenföhn Peter VGA cooler gets listed :: Posted by THRASHER2
Seen at CeBIT 2011 in Hannover, the Alpenföhn Peter high-end VGA cooler from EKL, which is claimed to be the first one supporting two 140mm fans, has now become available for pre-order, its expected arrival being May 18.
Seen below, EKL's cooler measures 253.8 x 44 x 100 mm, it weights 590 grams, and features a copper base, twelve 6mm copper heatpipes (all these are nickel-plated), 84 (according to CaseKing, 91 according to EKL) aluminum fins, and a PCI bracket that can hold two 140mm or four 120/92/80mm fans.
Peter costs €54.90 and can be used with the following cards:
- AMD Radeon X1600, X1900, HD 2600, HD 3450, HD 3650, HD 3690, HD 4650, HD 4670, HD 4750, HD 4830, HD 4850, HD 4860, HD 4870, HD 5670 / 5750, HD 5770, HD 5850, HD 5870, HD 6850, HD 6870, HD 6950, HD 6970
- Nvidia GeForce 6600 series (except AGP), 7400, 7600, 7800 GT/GTX, 7900 GS/GT/GTX, 8800 GT/GTS (G92)/GTX/Ultra, 9600, 9800 GT/GTX/GTX+, GT 210, GT 220, GT 240, GTS 250, GTX 200, GTX 460, GTX 470, GTX 480, GTX 550 Ti, GTX 560 Ti, GTX 570, GTX 580
link
Read More ...
MSI announces the Wind Top AE2070 all-in-one PC :: Posted by THRASHER2
Feeling the need for more Sandy Bridge-based all-in-one PCs? Then you're in luck as MSI today introduced a new Wind Top series unit, one AE2070 which comes with a sleek, white casing (which has been added a transparent frame), and makes use of the proprietary Wind Touch 4 user interface.
MSI's AiO runs Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit, it measures 513.2 x 392.1 x 87.7 mm and has a 20-inch (1600 x 900) touchscreen, an Intel Pentium G620 or Core i3-2100 processor, up to 8GB of RAM, Intel HD 2000 integrated graphics or GeForce GT 540M discrete graphics, a 500GB hard drive and a DVD writer.
The AE2070 also has Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, a 6-in-1 card reader, a 0.3 megapixel webcam, two 3W speakers with SRS Premium Sound, two USB 3.0 ports, and a HDMI output. Unfortunately, pricing info is missing.
link
Read More ...
Intel working on 50 Gb/s interconnect technology :: Posted by THRASHER2
Despite the fact that Thunderbolt has barely made its debut, Intel is already hard at work on something that would make its 10 Gb/s technology seem old and obsolete, a new interconnect solution capable of 50 Gb/s transfers.
Intel's new, speedy technology makes use of silicon photonics and will be able to deliver data over a distance of up to 100 meters, via a cable thinner than the Thunderbolt (10 Gb/s) and USB 3.0 (5.0 Gb/s) wires.
The upcoming interconnect is expected to be introduced by 2015 and it could be integrated into anything from PCs and tablets, to set-top boxes, smart TVs and smartphones. According to Intel, the new tech is aimed at being complementary to Thunderbolt but surely at the end, there can be only one.
link
Read More ...
Acer debuts the AMD-powered Aspire G3100 Predator desktop :: Posted by THRASHER2
Having already launched the Intel Sandy Bridge-powered G3600, Acer has now let loose a new Aspire Predator desktop PC, one that retains the sexy black with orange accents chassis and optional features (like the Easy-swap drive bay) but utilizes and AMD platform.
Named G3100, this fresh Predator comes equipped with a Phenom II hexa-core processor, up to 8GB of RAM and a maximum of 6TB of storage space (via three 2TB hard drives), a DVD or Blu-ray Drive, an AMD or Nvidia graphics card, a multi-in-one card reader, Gigabit Ethernet, and optionally, USB 3.0 connectivity.
One G3100 configuration is now on sale for €649 and it packs a 2.6 GHz Phenom II X6 1035T chip, 4GB of RAM, a 1TB (7200 RPM hard drive), a GeForce GTX 460 1GB graphics card and a DVD writer (BEd: Can we get an encore, I mean credit?).
link
Read More ...
OCZ unveils the VeloDrive PCIe x8 solid state drives :: Posted by THRASHER2
OCZ has now announced a new storage solution that utilizes a PCI-Express x8 interface, the SandForce-powered VeloDrive which utilizes four SF-1565 controllers in (hardware or software) RAID and targets small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), enterprise clients and system integrators.
The VeloDrive packs MLC (multi-level cell) NAND Flash memory, has a MTBF (mean time before failure) of 2.5 million hours, a low-profile PCB, and is capable of transfer speeds of up to 1GB/s and of 130,000 4KB random write IOPS.
"The VeloDrive is the latest addition to our comprehensive lineup of PCIe SSDs. A truly configurable solution, it helps a range of customers accelerate their application performance," said Daryl Lang, VP of Product Management, OCZ Technology Group. "The ability to run the VeloDrive in multiple modes provides clients with the freedom to use the raid stack of their choice. This maximizes performance and creates faster, more seamless deployments with RAID stacks that may already have been qualified for their unique usage model."
OCZ's VeloDrive is backed by a 3-year warranty and will become available (soon) in 00GB, 600GB, and 1.2TB capacities.
link
Read More ...
NZXT intros the FS-200 200mm LED-equipped case fans :: Posted by THRASHER2
No new case this time from NZXT, no, today the Californian company is releasing a trio of fans, 200mm in size, which feature red, blue or green LEDs, a rifle bearing, 11 blades, a working speed of 700 RPM (+/- 200 RPM), and a sound output of 20.16 dBA.
Known as FS-200, these fans have sleeved cables, are bundled with a splitter allowing owners of the NZXT Phantom case to control the LEDs of two fans simultaneously, they are backed by a two-year warranty, and are set to become available in mid May priced at $17.99 (per piece).
link
Read More ...
Enermax SpineRex full-tower case released in Europe :: Posted by THRASHER2
As promised last month, Enermax has now launched in Europe the SpineRex full-tower PC case which is set on housing the highest-end systems. This 'king-size' chassis measures 544 (D) x 213 (W) x 591 (H) mm, is black both inside and out, and supports everything from E-ATX to ATX and micro ATX boards.
The SpineRex features a 1.0 mm SECC steel structure and includes a top-placed I/O panel with USB 2.0 (x 4), eSATA (x 1) and audio ports, five exposed 5.25-inch bays, modular HDD cages that can hold up to eight drives, quick release bay covers (with a mesh design), a rail-based mounting system for ODDs/HDDs, thumb screws for PCI cards, and four rear openings with rubber grommets for the tubing of water cooling systems.
Enermax's case supports up to six fans and already has three pre-installed - there are two front 120mm Vegas fans with blue/red LEDs (operating at 1000 RPM) and one 250mm side fan working at 600 to 900 RPM. The SpineRex costs £129.90 in the UK and €159.90 in continental Europe.
link
Read More ...
Zotac comes up with the Brazos-based FUSION-ITX :: Posted by THRASHER2
Zotac has just announced its newest product based around AMD's Brazos platform, a mini-ITX motherboard called FUSION-ITX WiFi A-series which is supposed to be a great choice for a low-power, compact HTPC.
The FUSION-ITX WiFi A-series board features a pre-installed (and passively-cooled) E-350 APU with two x86 cores @ 1.6 GHz and Radeon HD 6310 (DirectX 11) graphics, two DDR3-1066 SO-DIMM slots supporting up to 8GB of memory, four SATA 6.0 Gbps ports, one PCI-Express x4 slot, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, 7.1 channel audio, two USB 3.0 ports (plus two move via a pin header), an eSATA connector and three display outputs - DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort.
Zotac has yet to reveal its new board's pricing.
link
Read More ...
AMD rolls out Catalyst 11.4 drivers :: Posted by THRASHER2
New features and performance enhancements
AMD has rolled out a new version of its WHQL-certifired Catalyst driver, Catalyst 11.4. Featuring support for AMD Radeon HD 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000 and 6000 series graphics cards as well as Radeon 3000 and 4000 series chipsets, the new driver brings couple of new features to AMD Catalyst Control Center, GPU Compute enchancements as well as few performance improvements for some of the games.
The new features for the AMD Vision Engine Control Center and Catalyst Control Center include new task based Display Management controls, new Eyefinity setup group, and AMD Catalyst update notification that is found inside information center. The GPU Compute part got the OpenCL runtime that includes performance enhancements supporting zero-cpy on APUs and increased performance for PCIe transfers between CPU and discrete GPU.
The list of performance improvements include games like Call of Duty: Black Ops, Battleforge, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Aliens vs. Predator, Civilization 5, Far Cry 2, Just Cause 2 and Lost Planet 2, but are all limited to AMD HD 6900 and Radeon HD 6800 series graphics cards, on both single and multi-GPU configurations.
You can find the new driver as well as the full release notes here.
link
Read More ...
Intel's SSD lineup revealed :: Posted by THRASHER2
Full lineup for 2011
Leaked Intel's SSD roadmap shows that the 510 and 320 series will not be alone on the market as Intel plans to roll out quite a few SSDs during 2011, including the long awaited Lyndonville drives as well as the Ramsdale and Larsen Creek in Q3 and a new refresh for 500 and 300 series in Q4.
The Lyndonville 710 SSDs, the replacement for the X25-E, will be introduced later this quarter and will be available in 100, 200 and 400GB capacities. These drives will feature SATA 3Gbps interface and will use 25nm MLC HET chips, all packed in a 2.5-inch case. The 700 series will also be updated in Q3 by Ramsdale 720 SSD available in 200 and 400GB capacities with 34nm SLC chips and PCIe 6Gbps interface.
The Q3 also brings update to value part of the Intel's SSD lineup via 3xx Larsen Creek drives that will have 20GB of capacity, have 34nm SLC chips, and will be available with either SATA or mSATA 3Gbps interface.
The fourth quarter will also be quite interesting as it brings an update for entry-level with Paint Creek that will be available in 40 and 80GB capacities and will use 25nm MLC chips in combination with the mSATA 3Gbps interface. The same quarter also brings updated 500 series drives, and these 520 Cherryville drives will be available in 64, 120, 240 and 480GB capacities. They will use 25nm MLC chips and will feature a SATA 6Gbps interface.
According to this slide, Intel will push pretty hard into SSD market and we honestly hope that this competition will bring the those prices down.
You can find more details as well as the slide here.
link
Read More ...
Nvidia officially nods for SLI on AMD motherboards :: Posted by THRASHER2
AMD 900 series chipset with SLI
Although it was already rumoured back in March, Nvidia has now officially confirmed that it is licensing SLI technology to motherboard makers for use with AMD CPUs, so that AMD's upcoming, performance-oriented Bulldozer chip can be used with a pair of Green Goblin GPUs.
On its blog, NVidia's Tom Petersen confirmed the rumours that have been around for quite some time and announced that motherboards based on AMD's upcoming 990FX, 990X and 970 chipsets will have SLI support, in case you want to go that way. Tom Petersen mentioned Asus, MSI, Gigabyte and ASRock as first manufacturers that will offer SLI-enabled boards, but other vendors are also expected to join.
Tom Peterson also showed a rather perculiar picture of Asus' Crosshair V Formula motherboard box that shows Nvidia SLI sticker among all other red and one Phenom II sticker, something that honestly just looks weird.
It looks like you won't have to abandon your Nvidia card if you are waiting for some AM3+ fun after all. You can find Tom Peterson's blog here.
link
Read More ...
Three Foxconn workers arrested for leaking iPad details :: Posted by THRASHER2
At least they didn't kill themselves
Three Foxconn employees have have been arrested and charged for leaking details of the design to accessory companies.
Rumours about the case designs of the second-generation iPad popped up in December. However details of the device's size and design that turned out to be accurate and Foxconn suspected a leak from the inside.
A local Shenzhen newspaper said the three employees were formally charged by police with violating Foxconn trade secrets. Foxconn may have been prompted to act on the suspected leak either directly by Apple or in an effort to maintain its relationship with the company.
Previously Foxconn's attempts to deal with people suspected with leaking ideas have ended up with people hurling themselves off buildings rather than face more questions from its security guards.
link
Read More ...
“Only” 250,000 Xooms sold :: Posted by THRASHER2
Not bad considering
The tame Apple press has rounded on Motorola for only managing to flog 250,000 of its Xoom tablets. Varous rags have claimed that it proved that Apple was superior in every way and that the tablet failed to live up to its hype.
However 250,000 Xooms is not bad for a tablet which was even more expensive than the iPad, which was launched before it had integrated 4G or fully supported Flash. Xoom, was supposed to be the best answer to the iPad yet, and also introduce the world to Honeycomb, Android’s tablet-optimized OS. In comparison Samsung shipped more than 600,000 Galaxy Tabs in its first month and first day sales for the BlackBerry PlayBook are expected to outdo both the Galaxy Tab and the Xoom: Some analysts predict BlackBerry sold 50,000 units in one day.
We don't think that Motorola will be too upset, it reported $3 billion in net revenues, 22-percent more than last year’s first quarter postings. Currently 79 per cent of the world's tablets are the iPad, but given that hardware makers keep insisting on copying Apple's model of an overpriced tablet, without the deranged fanboy base to prop it up, they are on a hiding to no where.
What they should be doing is flogging tablets that do more than the iPad for half the price. This is how they managed to knock out Apple from the PC and notebook market. Sheesh, it is not rocket science.
link
Read More ...
Zotac launches Fusion ITX board :: Posted by THRASHER2
Passive cooling, WiFi, USB 3.0
Zotac has introduced its first AMD Fusion motherboard and the company appears to have spared no expense developing it.
Simply dubbed Zotac Fusion ITX, the board features all-solid capacitors, passive cooling and wireless. In addition, it features two USB 3.0 ports, 1 eSATA 6gbps port and DisplayPort on top of DVI and HDMI outputs.
Of course, like all other Brazos boards it is based on AMD’s E-350 processor and A50M FCH. However, there is a downside to packing all these neat features into an ITX board and it is price. At €129, it is the priciest Fusion board on the market, but then again it does offer some advantages over Asus’ E35M1-I Deluxe, which sells for €122 sans DisplayPort.
Retailers expect to start shipping Zotac’s Fusion ITX next week.
link
Read More ...
Android tablets fail to deliver on value front :: Posted by THRASHER2
Roundup: Mostly harmless for Jobs’ Mob
With an ever increasing number of Android and Windows tablets hitting retail, one might expect Apple’s dominance in the market to be short lived. However, sales figures, reviews and user opinions paint a rather different picture.
The delayed introduction of Google’s Honeycomb OS added to the mix, but it is hardly the only issue vendors are facing. Several weeks ago, after Apple introduced the iPad 2 and slashed the price of the original iPad we could only conclude that the old, discounted iPad offered the best value for money in the tablet market. This has to be the first and only time an Apple product offered good value for money, which speaks volumes about the competition, or lack thereof.
The whole point of Android tablets was to offer good value for money, but somewhere along the road manufacturers seem to have lost the plot, quite badly. A quick glance at our price search engine reveals dozens of Android tablets, ranging in price from just €79 to €899, which is what consumers are expected to pay for LG’s 8.9-inch Optimus Pad.
There are some tempting offers, you can easily get a 10-inch tablet with a dual-core Cortex A9 for under €200, but we would stop short of recommending them. They are based on obsolete Android versions which are unlikely to be updated and user reviews are, you’ve guessed it, terrible. To be honest, nobody should expect iPad functionality and style for €100 or €150, but nonetheless the great unwashed seem largely unimpressed with cheap Android tablets. The only exceptions are a couple of Archos models and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, but even they aren’t doing too well in user reviews and worse yet, the Galaxy costs €299. The same goes for Toshiba’s Folio 100, Dell Streak 7 and even Acer’s new Iconia A100 – they are not bad, but all of them cost more than €330.
This is almost iPad money, which sort of beats the whole point of getting an Android tablet to begin with. The cheapest first generation iPad is still available in Europe, for about €370. At €400 to €500 we are already talking about rather pricey kit and this is Apple’s turf. The cheapest iPad 2, 16GB sans 3G connectivity, is priced at €450. Android tablets in the same price range don’t really offer better value for money. True, you might get 3G on some of them, or 32GB of storage, but this is hardly enough to take on the iPad 2.
The Acer Iconia A500, HTC Flyer, Motorola Xoom and Asus Eee Pad Transformer all cost about €500. This is about the same as the original iPad with 32GB of storage and 3G connectivity. It is worth noting that aforementioned Android tablets feature dual-core processors, but many of them lack 3G. This is where it gets truly ugly for the Android team. An iPad 2 32GB with 3G is hard to come by in Europe, but prices start at about €550. In our opinion, this is already too much for a tablet, but some vendors beg to differ.
Although it’s not an Android tablet, Blackberry’s Playbook 32GB with 3G costs €599. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 8.9 16GB goes for €699 and the 10-inch version is listed at €749. As we said earlier, LG’s Optimus Pad takes the cake with a whopping €899 price tag.
With all this in mind, it is rather interesting to see punters who have been complaining about Apple’s iPad pricing for the past year praising equally overpriced Android tablets. Objectively speaking, there are few reasons to go for any Android tablet at the moment. The really cheap ones are pants and they are simply not worth looking into. New Honeycomb models are rather good, but they cost as much as the iPad, sometimes even more, whilst at the same time offering very few features that would give them a competitive edge over Apple. On the other hand, Apple’s prolific iPad offers more apps, superior build quality and better resale value, as it will depreciate much slower than its nameless Android counterparts.
Be as it may, we still believe €400 or €500 is simply too much for any tablet, regardless of the OS or brand. So, while the competition might be largely harmless for the Jobs mob, the whole idea of paying that much for a tablet is rather pointless.
link
Read More ...
Core i7 2920XM is the fastest mobile CPU until Q4 2011 :: Posted by THRASHER2
Certain replacement with Ivy Bridge
Intel’s fastest quad core Sandy bridge mobile part is called Core i7 2920XM and this is a 2.5GHz clocked notebook quad core with eight threads. This 32nm CPU has 8MB of cache and graphics running at 650MHz and when necessary, it will turbo to 1300MHz.
The CPU itself can turbo to 3.5GHz, which is pretty nice for a mobile quad core. The bad thing is the 55W TDP, which practically translates to hot lap. Of course these CPUs usually land in 17'' gaming notebooks as they can benefit from quad cores and eight threads.
According to Intel’s current plan, this CPU remains the fastest one until at least Q4 2011 and it leaves an option for potential update in Q4 2011. One thing is for certain - this generation gets replaced with Ivy Bridge in first half of 2012, most likely already in Q1 2012 but we cannot confirm this now.
The price of this CPU remains unchanged at $1096.00 apiece, at least until something faster comes out.
link
Read More ...
Sony says sorry :: Posted by THRASHER2
Bows in regret
Senior executives from Sony bowed to the cameras as they said sorry for allowing one of the biggest hacks in history. There are many that would appreciate the Japanese show of humility.
However there will be many PlayStation network users who wish they had gone all the way and disembowelled themselves while composing a haiku on the briefness of human existence while their friends scatter cherry blossom into the wind.
Kaz Hirai, executive deputy president of Sony Corporation, apologised for the problem yesterday saying it was a "highly sophisticated attack by a skilled intruder." Sony is set to compensate customers who have been locked out of the PlayStation Network following the security breach which caused it to be shut down on April 20. Punters will get compensation in the form of free downloadable content and a free subscription to the PlayStation Plus enhanced online premium service.
This might make the customers happy but credit card companies are expected to lose a fortune in the hack which gave cyber criminals names, addresses, countries, email addresses, birth dates, PSN and Qriocity usernames, passwords and online handles. The technology company said its staff had been working day and night to restore operations and that it hoped to have some services up and running within a week.
Since the hack the company has added automated software monitoring, enhanced data protection and encryption, new firewalls and a better ability to detect software intrusions.
link
Read More ...
Smartphone and tablet converge :: Posted by THRASHER2
The less useful meets the useless
Motorola is spending a lot of time and money merging the smartphone and the tablet.
The new Atrix smartphone-laptop combo will be rolled out as Android "alternatives" to tablets and other toys. Reviews for the best suggest that when it is operating in a laptop configuration it is a bit sluggish.
Sanjay Jha, chairman and chief executive officer of Motorola Mobility, has lots of plans for Atrix, which he sees as an "alternative" way of merging smartphones and computing. Yeah, he is talking about an iPad alternative but the Atrix has the advantage that it is actually designed to be useful in a desktop framework, where as tablets are about as useful as a chocolate teapot.
Jha's theory is that you will see multiple devices from Motorola and it will expand its range of lap-dock devices so we cover a wider price range and deal with enterprise and consumer customers. One thing he is looking at is a Motorola phone on a quad-core processor that when plugged into the laptop dock would provide performance that's a lot closer to a true laptop than current Atrix products.
We suspect that if you will stick it to your ear it might catch fire. Your ear, not the tablet.
link
Read More ...
Available Tags:Android , Gigabyte , Radeon , MSI , Intel , Acer , OCZ , Zotac , AMD , Catalyst , SSD , Nvidia , motherboards , iPad , Fusion , i7 , CPU , Sony , Smartphone , tablet ,
No comments:
Post a Comment