It's looking like we will soon need to change this category to "Laptops & Ultrabooks" as more and more manufacturers are dropping Netbooks from the US market. Toshiba has confirmed that they will soon be joining the ranks of Dell and Lenovo who have also pulled out of the US Netbook market. It looks like tablets and Ultrabooks have killed the Netbook star.

Part of the reason for the change is that Netbooks have very little profit margin. So not only were sales slipping, but Toshiba wasn't making very much on the few sales that remained. Instead, Toshiba has decided to focus more on their Portege Ultrabook line and Excite tablet line. Looking at the money reasoning, you can see why. An Ultrabook sells for $800 or more which allows quite a bit more profit margin.

Another reason to focus on tablets is the upcoming Windows 8 which is designed with tablets in mind. Additionally, users like the higher performance capabilities of an Ultrabook as more and more users need to do more with their computers. It's pretty hard to play any sort of game or type any long message on a Netbook. If you still want one, HP, Acer, and ASUS are still offering them in the US. They will range from $200-$500.

POST A COMMENT

If you are a collector of Apple gear, this is one piece of rare hardware you don't want to miss. An original first generation iPad prototype has been put up for auction on eBay. The device is running internal test software and features dual docking ports. The second port was to allow charge while in a horizontal orientation.

The device is said to be fully functional, save the touchscreen not working. The auction already has 1 bid at $4,800 and the seller has offered the option to Buy It Now for $10,000. Curiously enough, it looks as though Apple almost went with this design as early teardown images show the second ribbon cable.

The dock cable was most likely scrapped for aesthetics as it does look pretty bad. But nevertheless, this prototype up for auction does appear to be the real deal based upon that fact and the Switchboard software fact. Considering the touchscreen doesn't work and the fact Apple tends to get upset when people have prototype hardware, I don't know if I would risk $4,800+ on the device.

POST A COMMENT

The AMD FX series of processors is known for overclocking pretty well. It currently holds the world record for fastest clock speed ever achieved and looks to be breaking that once again. A new CPU-z validation screen shot has shown up online. It details the feat even though HWBot rejected the the posting.

The rejection was most likely due to the fact that the overclocker didn't provide much in the way of detail about the cooling system used. When I say much, I mean any. What we do know is that the chip was clocked at a massive 8805.6MHz and was achieved by overclocker Ksin. Speed like that comes only when an overclocker uses extreme cooling such as liquid nitrogen or liquid helium.

To achieve the feat, Ksin used a base clock of 303.29 MHz and a multiplier of 29.0. To reach these clock speeds, an incredible 1.86 volts were pumped through the core. As such, it is recommended that you don't try this at home as that will kill your chip very quickly. Other components of the system include an ASUS Crosshair V Formula motherboard and 4 GB (2x 2 GB) of ADATA memory. The memory was clocked at 1417 MHz.

It appears that the posting has now been removed at the time of writing. I imagine this is due to the lack of cooling information.

UPDATE: The reason that the score was pulled from HWBot is because the Pi score indicated that the frequency could be bugged. This doesn't mean that it is, but that the possibility exists.

It's always a difficult task to choose the next profile picture that you're going to use. You put a lot of thought into the process and probably look at several photos for a while before deciding. You may even ask a friend or two what they think. It turns out that there is also some cultural influence into the decision as well.

Your profile picture has different qualities depending on your culture. According to a new study, Americans tend to focus on the face and usually have a close-up shot where the face takes up most of the frame. This is contrary to Taiwanese users who tend to have some background visible and a much smaller portion of the frame taken up by the face.

The study was done twice after the first one found the correlation. The second time around they increased the sample size and locations in which they were drawing participants from and the findings still held true. The study also showed that Americans preferred a more intense facial expression such as a huge smile while Taiwanese tended to have a less intense expression.

The researchers explain:

Overall, the two studies clearly showed that East Asian Facebook users are more likely to deemphasize their faces compared to Americans. Specifically, East Asians living in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan exhibited a predilection for context inclusiveness in their profile photographs, whereas Americans tended to prioritize their focal face at the expense of the background.

Details surrounding Huawei's new Emotion UI aren't plentiful or clear, but we do know somethings. Samsung, HTC, and now ZTE all have custom user interfaces for their Android phones so it seems as though Huawei doesn't want to be left behind. As such, Huawei is now working on a UI called Emotion UI, likely for ICS.

Considering the other manufacturers' UIs works on Ice Cream Sandwich, it makes sense that that is what Huawei will be targeting. The new UI will be unveiled June 9 and will become available sometime in July. Updates will be pushed to currently shipping Huawei Android phones so that they will get the new user interface.

Functionality of the new UI is not clear. Huawei is using words such as "emotional," "simple," and "smart" when describing it, but that doesn't exactly tell us that much. This UI also may not make it out of China, although it could as Huawei is trying to become a global manufacturer. The only downside to this custom UI is that updates will now take longer when new Android versions come out.

POST A COMMENT

Our Deal of the Day is 16GB Kingston DataTraveler 101 G2 USB 2.0 Flash Drive - $10.74.

Get the 16GB Kingston Digital DataTraveler 101 Generation 2 USB 2.0 Flash Drive (DT101G2/16GBZET) for just $10.74! Free shipping if you have Amazon Prime or order $25+.

16GB KINGSTON DATATRAVELER 101 G2 USB 2.0 FLASH DRIVE

POST A COMMENT

Our Download of the Day is Dropbox 1.4.7.

Not much has changed since the previous version of Dropbox, but this is TweakTown after all. Tweaking is what we do, living on the bleeding edge of software revisions, also, the number being higher is better, right?

The full changelog is very short, just a single change for version 1.4.7:

- Add missing translations.

You can get Dropbox 1.4.7 here.

POST A COMMENT

We talked about NVIDIA prepping two more GPUs, but at the time we thought they'd be GK104-based. New reports have surfaced, where it might seem like the GEFORCE GTX 660 would be a GK106-based part.

The GTX660 based on the GK106 architecture would sport 768 CUDA cores, 4 SMXs, 64 texture units, 2GB of memory with an interface of 256-bit. Pricing isn't too bad, where we should expect the GTX 660 to hit $349 or so. But, in this market, with this much competition, is that too muhc to pay?

Would you grab one of these GPUs at $349? Or would you be looking at something from Team Red if you were getting into the $350-ish territory? Thoughts?

POST A COMMENT

Minecraft has been phenomenally successful over the time it has entered multiple alpha and beta builds before it even hit version 1.0. But now developer Mojang has continued to update the game, and it is getting close to 30 million registered users.

Minecraft spans quite the assortment of devices, including Android, iOS, and Xbox versions of the game. The Xbox Live activity stats showed that the game was the most popular arcade game last week.

But better than that, Minecraft came in second place among all Xbox Live games, where it only lost to the ever-so-popular Call of Duty franchise. Not too bad for a game that doesn't really amp up the graphics. We're also looking at seeing a Lego tie-in as well, where the officially endorsed Lego Minecraft Micro World being available for pre-order and should hit select shelves this summer.

There's also MineCon, an entire convention dedicated to the game.

POST A COMMENT

It was only a month ago that we reported that Oppo were about to claim the title of the world's thinnest smartphone, at just 6.65mm thick, but now they have. Enter the Oppo Finder.

Oppo's Finder grinds down some very nice specs into its slim 6.65mm phone, where we'll find a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 4.3-inch AMOLED Plus display, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. Advancements in engineering of memory chips and other electrical components of smartphones have reportedly made it possible for manufacturers to slim phones down to this point.

Right now, the biggest problem for engineers is heat from the CPU and GPU. But, for those of you who want a super-slim phone, you could grab one of these. Oppo Finder pre-orders start on June 6, and it will be priced at around $632.

POST A COMMENT

A Microsoft-sponsored IDC report claims that the annual support costs for a Windows XP systems are five times higher than a Windows 7-based system, as part of Microsoft's latest efforts in pushing more people toward Windows 7.

Microsoft have also issued a statement that has told organizations if they have not started "the migration to a modern PC, you are late". Windows XP gets orphaned by the software company with no further support or patches in April 2014, close to 13 years since it launched.

The report states that 42-percent of Windows' non-home installed base remains on the ageing Windows XP OS. If this continues, 11-percent of all Windows users will continue to be powered by Windows XP when the security patches end in 2014. As for support costs: IT workers' time and worker productivity costs jump by 25- and 23-percent respectively in year four.

Back in July of 2011, Research in Motion slashed 10-percent of its global workforce, laying off 2,000 employees as "a prudent and necessary step for the long term success of the company".

But, it looks like they could be repeating the process according to AllThingsD. They're reporting that RIM will announce another major global restructuring that will include "at least" 2,000 job cuts. A source has told AllThingsD:

RIM has about 16,500 employees worldwide now. That number will be down to 14,500 before the summer's over. ...14,500 or less.

The cuts are expected to not just be a certain section, but company-wide, with everyone from marketing to sales, to legal and operations expecting to have jobs cut. The question is, will this help? Did it help last time? Are RIM cutting the fat from the company, or digging right in and removing the meat?

POST A COMMENT

NVIDIA plan to bake Tegra 3 SoC's into 30 smartphones by the end of the year, says NVIDIA's Mobile Business Manager, Mike Rayfield. Rayfield unleashed the information at the company's annual Analyst Day.

Considering that half the year is already gone, and there's only a single Tegra 3-powered smartphone on the market, that's quite the call. One more is about to hit European countries next week. Last year, NVIDIA released just 15 Tegra 2-powered handsets.

Rayfield did note that out of the 30 smartphones destined to sport Tegra 3, 18 of those would be heading over to China and would be priced at under $300 each. That means that the rest of the world should see 12 handsets, but no word on pricing or models at the moment.

POST A COMMENT

Just when you thought your 10.1-inch tablet was the best thing on the block and bought all the boys to the yard, ViewSonic are ready to unveil their milkshake 22-inch Ice Cream Sandwich-powered tablet.

ViewSonic will unveil their 22-inch Android ICS tablet at Computex next week, with the marketing department over at ViewSonic designing an ad that promotes the 22-inch tablet as a device that not only "touch" but "connect".

What are ViewSonic trying to connect with here? I know they're going to connect with wallets, and souls, but what else? 22-inch is quite amazing for a tablet, and we'll be sure to bring you some in-person shots of this tablet when we run amok on the floors of Computex next week!

POST A COMMENT

With the news we reported just hours ago of Facebook wanting to make their own smartphone, this news makes even more sense. Pocket-lint is reporting that Facebook is looking at buying Opera Software, the boys and girls behind the Opera web browser.

This would allow the social networking giant to enter the browser space along with Google, Apple, Microsoft, Mozilla and even Yahoo, who just launched their own browser not that long ago. If it were to acquire Opera, it would definitely be an even stronger competitor against Google, not just for a browser, but for social networking.

Opera's mobile browser is already impressive, and if Facebook were to acquire them, that's one thing they wouldn't have to bother building from the ground-up, it would just be a slot in, change some things around and go. Opera claims to have over 200 million users across all of their platforms, so that's a nice start for Zuckerberg and co.

POST A COMMENT

There are multiple sources saying that the 'pebble blue' version of the Samsung GALAXY S III will be delayed due to a manufacturing issue with the back case, but no more specifics have been made available.

XDA Developers is reporting that Samsung have ditched approximately 600,000 rear casings for the phone and that they are retooling the production process. The white version is reportedly OK, and will still be hitting shelves and hands across the world.

Just when I thought I'd be able to buy one of each color when I'm in Taipei for Computex. Samsung, you disappoint. Looks like it's two of the white-colored versions now!

POST A COMMENT

We've heard the rumors before, and with the power that social networking giant Facebook has, it would not surprise me to see them release a smartphone. But, can a smartphone really succeed in this world of super-powered smartphones, built around Facebook?

Well, according to employees of Facebook, some engineers have been sought out by engineers there, as well as others who have been briefed on Facebook's plans, reckon that the company wants to release its own smartphone by 2013. These people spoke out in anonymity, fearing their jobs or relationship with Facebook.

Facebook have reportedly hired ex-Apple software and hardware engineers who worked on the iPhone, and one who worked on the iPad, these same employees said. One thing that would boost the 'is Facebook building a phone' argument, is CEO and founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg has said he's worried that if he doesn't create a mobile phone in the near future that Facebook will simply become an app on other mobile platforms.

Instagram have been doing more than just rolling around in pools of money since their acquisition from Facebook, the exposure to millions upon millions of socially-connected users has its benefits. Last month, the photo sharing website saw a 78-percent surge in unique visitors in the United States.

This surge made Instagram the highest gaining site on the Internet for the month, according to analytics firm comScore. From comScore's reports, Instagram.com had close to 14.6 million unique U.S. visitors in April, which is up from the 8.2 million the month before. Considering that Instagram's bread and butter is from mobile applications for the iPhone and Android, this is a pretty big feat for the photo sharing service.

But, April was a huge month for Instagram: on April 3 they released their long-awaited Android app, and just a few days later Facebook announced they were acquiring the company for close to $1 billion in cash and shares. Both of these events would've triggered a surge in Instagram activity, as seen from the comScore report.

POST A COMMENT

We've surely all read or heard about the IPO from social networking giant Facebook, and how it has been a disaster since day one, but ranked as one of the worst of the decade? Well, according to Bloomberg, it is. Bloomberg have declared it as the worst large IPO of the past decade, based on the first five days of trading.

During an interview on Bloomberg TV, markets reporter Sheila Dharmarajan compared Facebook to four other poorly performing IPOs: Blackstone Group, General Motors, Mastercard and MF Global. Given that these companies aren't just run of the mill small businesses, it's a good comparison to the social networking giant. As the picture shows above, Facebook are in quite the pickle, compared to say VISA who were trading very well after a week.

Foxconn recently inked an agreement with Sony to learn how to make the new touch screen for the Apple iPhone. New reports have surfaced that show that Foxconn wants to completely take over the iPhone manufacturing business. Currently Foxconn's Zhengzhou produces about 200,000 iPhones per day which accounts for 70% of production.

If Foxconn has their way, they would like to double that plant's output to 400,000 a day. With this increase comes the risk of damaging workers' health or having to hire additional workers. It remains to be seen just how Foxconn intends to increase the production of this plant. It's current productions account for 52.7 percent of the total exports of the Henan province.

This is great for Foxconn if they are able to. But it's not the best strategy for Apple. Think about what would happen if there were a fire at the plant and all of a sudden there was no iPhone being manufactured. It's unlikely that this would happen as I'm sure there are plans in place to prevent it, but it shows that Apple shouldn't put 100% of production into one company or factory.

POST A COMMENT