Latest News - Page 3005

CES 2013 - For those that weren't aware, a few weeks ago I was given the golden unicorn of keyboard from CoolerMaster, the Trigger with Cherry MX Green switches, and to keep my response short without giving away too much of the review that is soon to hit TweakTown's front page, let's just say I am very impressed and even so much that I have now given away the Matias Tactile Pro 3 that used to be what I would say is the best keyboard I have had, until I got the Trigger that is!

So as I was about to leave the room housing most of the peripherals and a couple of very well modded HAF XB, I caught what most would think is a keyboard that is a bit odd looking. This new keyboard, I was told, will also be offering a green switch version is the new Stealth mechanical keyboard. While the design isn't finalized, the legends on the key caps have been moved to the front edge of the keys. This does two things. One is that you will never wear off the numbers, letters, or words on the keys, and secondly, it will leave your friends a bit dumbfounded as they take a quick glance at this board and assume there are no legends on the keys at all. There were also talks of using double shot moldings on these key caps, or possibly laser etching caps and backing this board with LEDs to allow the much smaller legends on the caps to be much more visible to those that desire to see their keys as they type.

I was told we could expect to see the Stealth (based on a Filco) very soon, barring any issues with the supply of the very hard to obtain green switches, and I for one am very excited to give this ten keyless keyboard some time on my desk so I can express my thoughts about this exciting, yet slightly irregular concept. I know that the keyboard elite are also drooling, and as soon as I get my hands on one, I will be bringing this to the forefront as soon as possible!

CES 2013 - Broadcom announced something that most people would usually look past thanks to its name, but the BCM7445 features some very impressive abilities.

The new processor from Broadcom is designed for Internet-connected video devices, and is one of the first to support the new video compression technology otherwise known as H.265, MPEG-5 and HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding). The new chip is the successor to the hugely popular H.264 standard, also known as AVC and MPEG-4 Part 10.

H.265 brings some cool new tech, where it can firstly match the quality of H.265 yet use just half the network bandwidth - which will improve streaming video at the same data rate or reduce network usage at the same quality. The Broadcom BCM7445 also supports UltraHD video, which pushes four times as many pixels onto displays without even getting into image quality improvements through the roof.

CES 2013 - AMD's new Radeon HD 8000M is something special for mobile computing, as its the first mobile GPU that is based on the Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture. These GPUs are built on the 28nm process and feature DirectX 11.1 support, as well as the cool AMD tech found in ZeroCore and Enduro.

The Radeon HD 8000M lineup will include 8500M models (384 stream processors, 650/1125MHz), 8600M series models (384 stream processors, 725/1125MHz), 8700 series models (384 stream processors, 850/1125MHz) and a higher-end 8700M that will feature 640 stream processors, 700MHz core and only uses GDDR5.

AMD have pulled their rubber rebadging stamp out of the 'why aren't we over this yet' cupboard, and are currently stamping rebrands of the HD 7000 family into the HD 8000 family to OEMs from top to bottom. Even the Radeon HD 8970 is a damn rebadge of the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition which sports 2048 stream processors, 1GHz core clock and 3GB of GDDR5 clocked at 6GHz, all sprinkled on a 384-bit bus.

CES 2013 - Something quite astounding shown off at CES 2013 was from AMD where they had a dark room called the AMD SurRound House. The SurRound House was filled with TVs and looks like it's quite incredible to experience.

Bill Herz, Chief Multimedia Technologist at AMD, lead people into a room that was filled with 10 "windows", or 1080p-capable TVs. These TVs when added up are pushing a resolution of 10,800x1920 - I'll let you sit there for a minute thinking of that resolution - which is 20 megapixels of imaging. The resolution is pumped at 30 frames per second, which is 600 megapixels per second.

It's not all just about video, either, as audio is an equal part of the SurRound House experience. There were four speakers per TV, providing 32 channels of audio showcasing discrete digital multi-point audio. The audio is to lead the visual experience, telling your brain where to expect to look based on the audio.

CES 2013 - Valve are not letting media into their "private booth" (as they call it) at CES 2013 in Las Vegas to see the "Steam Box".

We were told by Valve staff at the booth that the company tried to book a private suite, but they were all booked out. We actually think it was a brilliant marketing scheme to create hype about the forthcoming Steam Box gaming console. The early prototype box that is on display at the Valve booth is hidden behind plexi glass with tight security. It's just a small form factor PC at this stage that isn't anything that special, probably showing off some early Linux based Steam (Box) OS software, if we can call it that. It's a good idea to grab loads of attention at the show.

If recent stories are to be believed, it would seem that Valve has not yet selected as a system design as yet, and it's in talks with its partners to see who gets the design win. That, or there will be various versions of the Steam Box hardware offered by various hardware partners. None of this can be confirmed at this stage, so treat it as speculation.

CES 2013 - Gigabyte is producing two new low-profile mini-ITX boards that are used in All-In-One (AIO) systems. These boards have lower clearance requirements than a normal board and utilize SO-DIMM like a laptop. The back I/O panel is also around half-height and Gigabyte has two identical boards, with the only difference being the chipset.

One board features the B75 and the other features the H77. Both boards are identical in looks, layout, everything, except for this small detail. Gigabyte says they are one of the few, if not the only, company making boards based upon the B75 chipset.

In other Gigabyte news, we reported earlier that Gigabyte is virtually the only motherboard maker putting two Thunderbolt ports onto motherboards. They are showcasing the benefits of this by driving four monitors to make up a 4K resolution output device. We managed to see their display in person and grab an image of it in action:

CES 2013 - Gigabyte had a suite full of notebooks and tablets and the really cool one out of the group was the S1185. This tablet features a full 17 watt Core i5 processor, combined with a full HD IPS display. It comes with a smattering of ports and around five hours of battery life.

The really cool and unique feature that I haven't seen on any other tablets is the inclusion of a mouse-like touch sensor that works much the same way as the nubs in the middle of the keyboard. It also features two mouse buttons on the other side to allow for a nearly full mouse experience while not using the keyboard dock.

Speaking of the keyboard dock, the tablet has a dock that features both a keyboard and a touchpad, in case you need that precision that only comes from using a mouse. Really, the system is nearly a convertible notebook more than a tablet, though it will be just a tablet if that's what you want.

CES 2013 - NZXT has just release its latest flagship PC Case, the Phantom 630. The new Phantom has been engineered to satisfy even the most demanding enthusiast. Its fully modular internal drive-bay design ensures that you will be able to configure a system to match what ever needs you may have.

Remove all drive bays to accommodate extra radiators or a large reservoir, or leave a few in place and still be able to fit a radiator or reservoir. The Phantom 630 comes with two SSD mounts located behind the motherboard tray for a minimalistic setup with maximum cooling capability.

Featuring a single channel 30w fan controller and a dual level motherboard tray, the Phantom 630 is designed for maximum airflow and cooling capabilities. Offered in Matte-Black, Gunmetal, and White colors, the Phantom 630 will be available for $179.99.

CES 2013 - We just hit the OCZ booth at CES here in Las Vegas where we got an exclusive look at the new Vector PCI-E prosumer / workstation SSD.

You all should know of the consumer SATA-III Vector SSD, but now OCZ has upped the ante and introduced a PCI-E version for workstations and those with lots of money. It uses a PCI-E Gen.2 x4 interface with two Indilinx Barefoot 3 controllers, which enables it to deliver up to 1000MB/s of read performance and a very solid 140,000 IOPS. It will also come with a five year warranty and comes in sizes of 256GB, 512GB and 1TB. We don't have details on pricing at this stage, but we'll just say, start saving.

Chris and Paul were able to run some early numbers on the Vector PCI-E as you can see in the photo below. Under ATTO we see read speeds of 1020MB/s and write speeds are not too far behind at around 960MB/s.

CES 2013 - Corsair is one of those companies that doesn't like to box themselves into a corner, and today has been a perfect example of this. The company have announced their Voyager Air product, which is the first all-in-one mobile wireless drive, home network attached storage, USB drive and wireless hub.

Voyager Air comes with up to 1TB of storage, a rechargeable battery, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and USB 3.0 connectivity. Voyager Air will allow so many segments of the market from office-type users, to home theater enthusiasts to experience a consolidated collection of their wares, be it music, movies or documents. Voyager Air is capable of working and being accessed from either Windows or Mac, and better yet - with the free Corsair app, streaming to Android and Apple products.

Voyager Air is a self-contained streaming media server with a wireless hub built-in, meaning that it can wirelessly stream digital content to other devices where no Internet connection is required. A perfect solution, in my opinion, when going away on holiday or even for the weekend where you want to drag along a bunch of movies or TV episodes with you.

CES 2013 - Corsair are unstoppable today, announcing the next-generation of their awesome Vengeance lineup of gaming peripherals. Not only that, but current owners of the Vengeance 2000 wireless gaming headset will receive an upcoming free software update which will give them Dolby Headphone 2.0 7.1-channel surround sound support - not bad for free, eh?

First off we have the Vengeance K95 Gaming Keyboard, which the team at Corsair have started with the innards of the K90 keyboard and added a "never-before-seen level of precision, technology and styling". The Vengeance K95 is the most advanced keyboard in the Vengeance gaming lineup. The K95 sports a black anodized brushed aluminum chassis with some sexy white LED lighting and has been upgraded to the Cherry MX Red key mechanical switches on every key on the keyboard - including the function and macro keys.

Each key on the Vengeance K95 is individually backlit which gives some supreme customizability options, with the overall backlighting capable of being adjusted over four levels of intensity. Corsair's Vengeance K95 also features 18 dedicated macro keys that can be customized through the included software, or on-the-fly with both macros and lighting profiles stores on onboard flash memory. The Vengeance K95 wraps up keyboard awesomeness with full anti-ghosting, 20-key rollover and a 1ms reporting rate.

CES 2013 - Corsair have announced the release of the Dominator Platinum Light Bar Upgrade Kits, which allow users to pimp their ride, or should I say RAM, with lighting for their Dominator Platinum DDR3 RAM.

Each of the Dominator Platinum Light Bar Upgrade Kits will include two light bars which will replace the existing bars that come stock on the memory, sporting translucent colored inserts which come in Cerulean Blue and Arctic White which will allow the user to customize the lighting color. The light bars are designed in a way that the new top openings radiate more light upwards.

The Upgrade Kits come with an installation tool which makes installing the kits an easy affair, taking just minutes to get your RAM looking beautiful. Corsair will be selling the Dominator Platinum Light Bar Upgrade Kits in February through selected resellers and distributors with a suggested retail price of $29.99 in the US.

CES 2013 - IDT revealed new hardware today that is focused on impending NVMe products. IDT is leading the charge to provide controllers powering the first wave of NVMe equipped SSDs.

First up we noticed the IDT reference SSD board. This is a 2.5" form factor SSD which can be used in numerous applications. This reference board is provided as a template for resellers to manufacture and pattern their own devices after. This SSD will be used in enterprise applications, and actually connects via the PCIe interface.

We were allowed to pop off the cover of the SSD, and it is a very heavy milled chassis. There are also thermal pads that shed heat into the heavy milled chassis. The thickness of the case and the thermal pads point to a processor that while powerful, probably creates a bit of heat. Heat typically correlates directly to power draw, and unfortunately we do not have power draw figures for this controller.

CES 2013 - Check out the following picture. It was taken by a camera about a half-inch from the screen. As you can see, text on 1080p at 55"+ is somewhat blurry.

Now, check out the following. Different TV, same picture and roughly same screen size. Only difference? 4K resolution.

That's pretty impressive, right? You can clearly see the difference between the two and how 1080p, when stretched to a large screen size, becomes blurry. But why should you care? Why should you buy a 4K TV? The simple answer: you shouldn't. Now, you're probably saying "Why not?!?!" and the answer is simple.

CES 2013 - Alright, Qualcomm - settle down, you're blowing me away here, ok? Most people expected Qualcomm to release the Snapdragon S5 at CES, but it looks like that won't be happening.

Don't be upset, though, because we still have some new chips to get all hot and bothered over - with the new SoCs arriving as the Snapdragon 600 and 800. These new SoCs will be baked into future high-end smart devices, such as Smart TVs, smartphones and tablets. We should expect the new Snapdragon 600 and 800 SoCs in the next three-to-six months, with both of the new chips sporting some pretty incredible specifications.

The Snapdragon 800 is claiming that it is 75% faster than the Snapdragon S4 Pro, which is quite the claim. If we do see these types of performance gains, it'll be thanks to a shift to 28nm HPm (High Performance for mobile) fabrication process, an upgraded Hexagon V5 digital signal processor, a shift over to 800MHz LPDDR3 memory which should compete against the PC-like bandwidth that Samsung will enjoy with Exynos 5, an all-new Krait 400 architecture which will offer clock speeds ramping up to 2.3GHz and an all-new Adreno 330 GPU that will sport double the computer power.

CES 2013 - Acer have confirmed the rumors that they were working on a 7-inch tablet that would be priced at around $99 - but it won't quite reach that sub-$100 price point unfortunately.

The tablet in question is the unreleased 7-inch Acer Iconia B1-A71, which will debut at "less than $150". We should expect a $149.99 price tag, which would make sense, as it's still "under $150". It will sport Android Jelly Bean as its mobile OS and the company describers the tablet as "the most premium experience at its price point".

Acer have confirmed some of the rumored specifications - and it does not look too bad at all - I'm loving the idea of microSD expansion for a sub-$150 tablet, nice work Acer!

CES 2013 - Panasonic's Live @ CES 2013 event is now live - and we're greeted with the prospects of multiple products being announced by the Japanese electronics giant.

14:52 US PST: And that's a wrap!

14:52 US PST: All of these products will be shown off in Panasonic's booth - which we'll report on more over the coming days.

CES 2013 - Samsung are about to start their CES 2013 Press Conference in a matter of minutes and we're here to bring it all to you live. What could they unveil? A new lineup of Ultrabooks? Some new Smart TVs? More of a tease of their new Ultra HD 4K TVs? Something completely new? We'll find out soon enough!

13:47 US PST: And that's it! A bunch of announcements and unveilings from Samsung - what did you like most?

13:46 US PST: SAFE - Samsung for Enterprise is making it safer for a bring-your-own-device to work world. On-device encryption is included, keeping your enterprise safe. Samsung are going to continue pushing into this area.

CES 2013 - ASUS released the latest edition of its ARES Graphics Card line today and it, as usual, is a beast. The ROG ARES II is the fastest most powerful GPU available to date, and it looks almost as good as it preforms!

The ARES II features exclusive ASUS DIGI+ VRM and Super Alloy Power technologies for greater stability and product longevity. This GPU Monster is powered by two AMD Radeon HD 7970's, 6GB GDDR5, and is water cooled from the factory. Clocks are set at 1050MHz Base, 1100MHZ Boost, and 6600MHz Memory. Max resolution is set at 2560x1600 through a DVI connection.

ASUS has only manufactured 1000 of these beauties and each one is numbered for collect-ability. No word yet on pricing for the ARES II but with the previous ARES and MARS cards selling in the $1500 range, it is not far fetched to think the ARES II will be in that same range, if not higher.

CES 2013 - Kingston has debuted what they are calling the world's fastest and largest flash drive, the DataTraveler HyperX Predator 3.0 USB Flash drive. It is currently shipping in a 512GB model, with a 1TB model just over the horizon later this quarter. Read and write speeds come in at 240MB/s and 160MB/s respectively.

"Our new DataTraveler HyperX Predator 3.0 allows users to store their entire digital world on a portable USB 3.0 Flash drive," said Andrew Ewing, Flash memory business manager, Kingston. "The large capacity and fast USB 3.0 transfer speeds allow users to save time as they can access, edit and transfer applications or files such as HD movies directly from the drive without any performance lag."