This morning we are getting a look into how ASUS performed during the first three months of 2013. The short story is that the company saw a revenue of $3.5 billion which stemmed from strong Tablet sales. ASUS was able to parlay that $3.5 billion in revenue into a solid $202 million in pure profit.

The company did see a significant drop in PC Component and Notebook sales over the same time period in 2012 and 2011, the company says that those drops were offset by tablet sales. Asus sold a whopping 3 million tablets during the first quarter of 2013.

Continuing with the good news, Asus has managed to gain a stronger foothold in the US and has increased its market share from 17 percent in 2012 to an impressive 23 percent already this year. This makes up the seventh straight quarter that ASUS has managed to grow revenue, as well as market share, but analyst are predicting that the company's performance will flatten out during the 2013 Q2 timeframe.

Samsung's galaxy just expanded by yet another member, with the just-announced Galaxy Core. Samsung's Galaxy Core is aimed at the lower-end of the smartphone spectrum, but does have dual-SIM support.

The Galaxy Core features a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal flash storage backed up by an expandable microSD card slot. We also find a 4.3-inch WVGA TFT LCD with a 800x480 resolution, 5-megapixel rear-facing camera with an LED flash and a VGA front-facer. Samsung's Galaxy Core arrives with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean with the usual TouchWiz on top.

There'a an 1,800mAh battery inside, and 3G services. What makes this stand out a little when compared to other Galaxy smartphones, is the fact that Samsung will release a single-SIM edition in July, which will be preceded by the dual-SIM version in May. Samsung says the dual-SIM-capable Galaxy Core will be able to access both SIM cards "simultaneously", but how this will work exactly hasn't been explained.

We're seeing more and more details from motherboard manufacturers and their upcoming Haswell-capable motherboards, with ASRock walking into the spotlight today with a bunch of details on their entire Z87 lineup of motherboards.

ASRock will be releasing 11 motherboards in the Haswell range, with top three of these boards featuring the Z87 Express chipset: the Z87 Extreme11, Z87 Fatal1ty Professional and Z87 OC Formula. The Z87 Extreme11 is available in the /ac option, which is on-board 802.11ac Wi-Fi for some seriously high-end wireless networking. This is ASRock's best board, and features everything you'd need - Thunderbolt, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, SLI/CrossFire compatibility, and more.

Most have been expecting Google to unveil Android 5.0 "Key Lime Pie" at Google I/O in a couple of weeks, but ahead of that HTC have teased an event scheduled for May 16 in San Francisco, where HTC developers will talk about new features on Android 4.3.

These new features will include Bluetooth Low Energy and Open GL ES 3.0. The members of the group will be receiving "an overview of the BLE specification and take us through the new APIs with some hands-on demos with various devices, heart rate monitors, key finders, and multi-sensor kits (temperature, pressure, humidity, accelerometer)".

We should see a new Neuxs phone unveiled at Google I/O with Android 4.3 inside, as well as LTE capabilities and hopefully, expandable storage. I'm guessing we'll also see a screen bump from 4-inch to 4.7-inch or so.

Our Ask the Experts section has a new question, where we have Jeremy in the US after a 32GB kit of DDR3 RAM.

Q: I am in the middle of a new PC build and have almost all of my components except memory and a few other misc items. My motherboard is the ASUS Rampage Extreme IV and I am wanting to go with a 32GB kit.

I have been searching forums and trying to get a clear answer on what is the best but no luck so far. In the past I have had Corsair but recently been looking at Geil, G.Skill, and a few other brands. My PC will be a gaming machine and want something that will perform extremely well as well as overclocking too. Any help and feedback would be much appreciated.

Thank you.

A: You can view the answer to Jeremy's question right here.

Valve have just made Left 4 Dead 2 available to Linux users, in beta form. The first-person zombie shooter is now available under the Ubuntu OS, if you'd like to go ahead and try it out.

Early reports pegged the earlier versions of the game running at single-digit frame rates, which is obviously not good enough. There's now a fully functional beta client available on Steam.

A very interesting new awareness campaign is hitting the streets, in the hope of stopping child abuse, as well as help their victims find support. The ANAR Foundation have begun using lenticular printing, which has allowed them to create outdoor ads that appear differently to adults and children.

If an adult walks past, the display will read "sometimes, child abuse is only visible to the child suffering it". But, if viewed from the average height of a ten-year-old child, the advertisement is very different. The image of the child is changed to that of an abused child, and includes ANAR's hotlin number, telling kids "if somebody hurts you, phone us and we'll help you".

This type of advertisement seems perfect for kids who are in danger at that moment, where they might have been kidnapped for example, or if their parents or guardian, or someone close to them, has been abusing them and they didn't know how to reach out to someone.

PC & Tech Authority have just posted a bunch of pictures of their exclusive look at Gigabyte's Z87X-UD3H motherboard, and boy does it look good. The Haswell-capable board features a slick color scheme consisting of black, grey and blue.

The Gigabyte Z87X-UD3H comes with three full-sized x16 PCIe slots, three x1 PCIe slots, and still, a PCI slot. There's eight SATA ports, 4 DIMM slots, on-board power/reset/CMOS clear buttons, and a SATA power connection that will give the motherboard more power if needed. Gone are the usual molex connectors for some more power, thankfully.

BlackBerry aren't letting the smartphone war pass them by, with leaks of their new handset appearing on the Internet. DGtle have a report, claiming they have some specs on the upcoming mid-range BB handset.

The new BlackBerry R10 will keep it's bigger brother's 3.1-inch screen and 2GB of RAM. Dropping what the Q10 had, the R10 will have a slightly less capable camera, a 5-megapixel shooter, 8GB of storage and 1,800mAh battery. This isn't too bad, but it is a step down from the Q10 specs. We should hear more on this smartphone during the BlackBerry Live conference next week.

Samsung's latest ad for the Galaxy S4 aimed at the American market is here, taking some swipes at Apple's iPhone. The ad centers around a high-school graduation party by the pool, where the graduates are using Galaxy S4 smartphones.

Their parents, the 'oldies' are using iPhones, while the youngsters show off their cool features on the Galaxy S4. These features include the ability to swipe your hand in front of your S4 to answer the call, or use your S4 to turn on and control your compatible TV. They also touch phones together to transfer photos, all making the iPhone look like it's stuck in 2007.

Someone has a little too much time on their hands, but has made something unbelievable cool - a disc changer for the Xbox 360 made from Lego. Yes, Lego. The Changer uses 3 x NXT's and is controlled through Bluetooth.

The Changer is made from 3 NXT's, 7 NXT servos, an RC motor, a light sensor, two color sensors and around 3000 parts. The claws of The Changer are operated with a pneumatic system with the disc selected by the user sending The Changer a message between 1 and 32 as The Changer holds 32 discs. The average change time for discs sits at around 42 seconds.

Tim Clemente, a former FBI counterterrorism agent claims that there is a 'Person of Interest'-type surveillance network used by the US government to monitors their citizens. Clemente talked about this when he appeared on CNN Wednesday night.

The discussion turned to the Boston Marathon attack, and past telephone calls with Katherine Russell and her deceased husband, suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev. The former FBI agent said those conversations would be available to investigators. Clemente discussed the issue in an exchange, below, with host Erin Burnett:

BURNETT: ' Tim, is there any way, obviously, there is a voice mail they can try to get the phone companies to give that up at this point. It's not a voice mail. It's just a conversation. There's no way they actually can find out what happened, right, unless she tells them?'

 

CLEMENTE: 'No, there is a way. We certainly have ways in national security investigations to find out exactly what was said in that conversation. It's not necessarily something that the FBI is going to want to present in court, but it may help lead the investigation and/or lead to questioning of her. We certainly can find that out.'

 

BURNETT: 'So they can actually get that? People are saying, look, that is incredible.'

 

CLEMENTE: 'No, welcome to America. All of that

Ouya have pushed out 'Project Update #25' and included inside is an update on the shipping status of their Android-powered console. For the week just gone, they have "successfully eclipsed 50 percent of units shipped and remain ahead of schedule to complete all shipments by the end of May".

Because they are this far in the game now, Ouya have completed their first production run, with all of their tools operating as needed to get all of the Ouya units to consumers. Other events this week for Ouya include the Limited Edition consoles rolling off the production line. International shipments have been slowed down because of an issue with the power adapter, which was caught early enough to be rectified before units began shipping.

The Limited Edition Ouya consoles should begin shipping in the coming days, meaning I should get mine in the next couple of weeks!

We're counting down the days until Microsoft's reveal of the next-generation Xbox, but there are going to be a slew of rumors and talk between now and then. The latest piece is from Windows SuperSite reporter, Paul Thurrott.

Thurrott said last week that a subsidized next-gen Xbox would be priced at $299 and carry a $10 monthly fee - this is incorrect. Thurrott has taken to Twitter to say that his source suggests the cheaper console would feature a $15 per month fee. The Verge reporter Tom Warren, corroborated the rumor, tweeting "yup" and noted that the subscription "includes family" as well.

If the rumors are correct, it looks like Google have chosen LG once again to make their upcoming next-generation Nexus smartphone. The Korea Times' sources have said that Google founder Larry Page met with LG CEO Koo Bon-joon recently, discussing ways to improve their relationship.

The same sources to The Korea Times said that the two companies are already working on a Nexus successor, adding that LG may be looking for ways to work with Google on future smart televisions and wearable computing, such as Google Glass. We should find out more in just a few weeks time at Google I/O.

Windows Phone isn't doing too well against iOS and Android, we all know that, but Microsoft is obviously working on a plan to push Windows Phone into more consumers' hands.

This plan, according to AllThingsD, is to sell the super-cheap Nokia Lumia 521 in huge numbers at Walmart. Selling them in large numbers will require a cheap price, so how does $150 off contract sound? Considering the iPhone and Galaxy S4 both sell for around $200 or so, on a two-year contract, the Lumia 521 at $150 outright would be quite a steal.

The Lumia 521 features a 4-inch 800x480-pixel display, dual-core 1GHz processor and a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera.

Tesla Motors' CEO, Elon Musk, announced last month a partnership with two major banks that would see consumers enjoy the option of in-house financing when purchasing their Model S electric car.

Musk said that consumers could own the Model S electric car for less than $500 per month at the time, but has since revised these figures. Under the new plan, future owners of the Model S would expect the monthly cost to be around $580, which takes into consideration the projected savings from using electricity versus gas, depreciation and a few other factors. Tesla also notes that the cost for business use could be a low as $315 per month.

The new plan also involves an updated resale value guarantee, which states that the resale value on the Model S would be higher than Audi, BMW, Jaguar, Lexus or Mercedes. Tesla have also extended the amount of time an individual can finance a Model S from 63 months to 72 months, through Wells Fargo and US Bank.

LG have had a great last six months or so, with the Optimus range of smartphones as well as the Nexus 4 all selling well. Now Evleaks is back with another leak, of what could be a future LG smartphone.

You'll notice from the picture above that this smartphone doesn't have any physical buttons, just the LG logo in the bottom center and the usual earpiece and front-facing camera up top. There's a curved glass feature on display, which looks gorgeous. This shouldn't end up being the next-generation Nexus device, as there's the LG branding displayed to all.

I think we're seeing the beginning stages of the next-gen Optimus devices.

I don't usually get excited over tech demos or browser upgrades, but this one sure has me excited. Mozilla is showing off a tech demo of Epic's Epic Citadel demo playing directly in Firefox. See for yourself in the video they created, embedded below:

The video provides some impressive figures: over one million lines of C++ compiled to JavaScript.

Today, Epic and Mozilla are making the Epic Citadel demo available, so that you can try it out for yourself. For best results, we suggest using a newer version of Firefox Nightly (Firefox 23 or better) which includes optimizations for asm.js and support for Web Audio API. The demo will also run in Firefox 20 (the current released version) because the core technologies are just standard web technologies, but there will be some performance degradation and a lack of Web Audio-dependent audio effects. The demo will also work in other browsers but it heavily depends on the quality of the WebGL implementation, memory management and JavaScript engine.

The future of the web looks bright. It's time to hear your input. What do you think of the tech demo?

The Solar Impulse is a plane powered completely by the sun. Its wings, which are the size of a Boeing 747's, are covered in solar panels which generate and store electricity in batteries so the plane can fly 24/7 without ever needing to stop to refuel. The plane is currently on a journey across the United States, with the first leg being from Mountain View, CA to Phoenix, AZ.

The first leg of the journey will take about 20 hours to complete due to the plane being rather slow moving. In fact, the plane only moves at around 40 MPH. You can track the Solar Impulse on its journey via the live stream and site set up by the creators. The stream shows a Google Earth view of the terrain below the plane, while the site has current speed, direction, temperature, engine settings, and battery status.