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CES 2012 - Cameron is still in Vegas for a couple of more days but I darted back home to coach youth basketball. After spending the last two days of CES in a steak coma I'm ready to get back to work and finish up the CES coverage. The show was really good this year with more than 152,000 visitors and more than 20,000 products launched.

OWC (macsales.com) was exhibiting on the show floor with a booth that was absolutely jam packed with enthusiasts. Industry insider Andy Marken from Marken Communications personally gave us the tour. The first stop of the day tipped up a little PCIe action. Here we see a new OWC PCIe SSD that uses a Marvell RAID controller and four custom SandForce SF-2281 controlled SSDs. Each SSD uses Toshiba NAND flash and different capacity sizes should be available. The capacity will ramp up quickly with four slots. The Marvell controller supports several different levels of RAID including 0,1,5 and 10. Performance will only be limited by the PCIe 2.0 4 lane link so we are expecting some amazing performance out of this product.

OWC is also venturing into the miniSAS market with new external drive systems from the Jupiter product family.

CES 2012 - Here we are looking at the near $2800 Razer Blade, is the fastest PC I have ever seen boot with my own eyes first off. Beside the raw speed of this unit, there have been a few really innovative additions included. The mouse pad has been moved to the right and has LED lit function buttons that will change the operation of this multi-touch LCD mouse pad. This will allow for real time stats to be displayed, even the option to get on the net and watch game play video as the game is still on the main screen. I know that is a lot of money to pay for a mobile gaming system, but this is the coolest laptop/notebook that I have ever had the pleasure of using.

They also made something that was awarded for CES 2012, Project Fiona! This is essentially a tablet with a thick aluminum frame added to support the handles of the game pad controllers that are derived from the Hydra Nunchucks. This is still in development, and there are beta testers with new requests, and Razer is working out all of the final details still. I for one like the idea, and hopefully Fiona makes her way to store shelves, as I think there is a ton of potential here!

For those Star Wars freaks out there Razer is delivering a newly painted and backlit kit of this keyboard featuring the mouse pad of the Blade along with a Naga mouse. Another cool feature of mouse and keyboard combo is that it doesn't matter which side of the force you are on, the keyboard and LCD mouse pad will illuminate and sport either icon and its coloration. The mouse pad under the Naga mouse is also part of the combo, and will reverse teams with a flip of the inner white section of the pad.

CES 2012 - During my meeting with Tony at SilverStone I saw a few cases around the room that looked very familiar, yet not exactly what we have seen to date. For instance we have the chassis seen here. At first glance you are thinking this is the FT-03, and it is, but in m-ITX form factor this time! Various changes were made to the cooling system shrinking in fan diameter, as well as the entire chassis getting much smaller, offering this new solution, the FT-03 Mini.

With three of the four side panels removed you can get a look at the interior design of the FT-03 Mini, and can also now see that this chassis will use a SFX power supply to aide in keeping the overall size of this chassis to bare minimum. I was told these should be arriving sometime in March, but pricing was not discussed at this time.

I also took a look at the GD06 and reviewed it not too long ago, but I guess there were some requests that came from users in what might improve the user's experience. For instance the GD07 pictured here, near the power button is a power LED that now has a dimmer switch on it, and also has a power button lock out mechanism to disable any accidental power downs from curious children's fingers. There are also some interior changes that have been made, and I was told to expect mine soon, so that I can show you in more detail what is new there.

CES 2012 - I found ARCTIC on the floor at CES and found a few coolers on display. Here we have the i30 in this image. There is an a30 model for AMD mounting which is exactly the same as this i30 model sans the mounting hardware, of course that has to be different. This four pipe cooler was in full operational speed, and both were dead silent. I just spoke with Daniel while I was in Las Vegas, and was told this cooler is in transit right now, so expect this review very soon!

On the wall behind the CPU cooler display were the new series of GPU coolers. This is a redesign of the original Twin Turbo Cooler. The Twin Turbo II has a changed heat pipe arrangement under it, but since they were mounted to the display I couldn't get a great image of it. You can tell from the top that the fan spacing has been changed, the black shroud has been increased in size, and this cooler still connects to most of the older cards, as well as a few that the original did not.

Next to the Twin Turbo II was mounted next to this new design as well. Here we have the Accelero Xtreme which is just like the one I reviewed previously, but this time is specifically designed to work with the AMD HD 7970. The main change to the cooler for this card is the addition of a few millimeters of extra copper to the base of the cooler to allow contact with the die height of these new cards.

CES 2012: I'm trying not to get excited for Windows 8-based notebooks, or ultrabooks, until something comes out that makes me sit back and think "Wow". Well, I think I'm getting to that point with Lenovo's ultrabook, IdeaPad Yoga 13.

Intel requires that all 13.3-inch (or smaller) ultrabooks to be, at most, 18mm thick. However, there is a provision that if the ultrabook has a touchscreen, it can be up to 20mm thick. Lenovo's IdeaPad Yoga 13 sports a touchscreen, yet measures up at just 17mm thick. Yoga 13 does all of this without losing battery life, as Lenovo rates the Yoga good for over eight hours of use.

It doesn't just sport a touchscreen, it's an IPS panel to boot. The panel features very wide viewing angles that are perfect, as the Yoga's hinge allows the display to swing open 360-degrees and can convert itself into a tablet. Once the display spins beyond 180-degrees, the keyboard turns off and you can hold the unit and interact with it just like a tablet. Yoga 13 includes a soft-touch coating on the palm rest that ensures the system is easy to hold and won't slip or scratch if you place it on something in tablet mode.

CES 2012: AMD, you funny. Thunderbolt has been here for nearly twelve months now, and at CES, AMD unveiled a concept they call Lightning Bolt. For one, I love how they've kept the name virtually identical to Thunderbolt, and secondly, how long until Intel or Apple release something called Spaedon or Maedon or something to that affect, you know what I mean.

What is AMD's Lightning Bolt capable of? It can deliver USB 3.0, DisplayPort and Power over a single cable with miniDisplayPort connectors. It's designed to be simple, and affordable. For notebooks, there is a mux, which can combine power, DisplayPort and USB 3.0 into a single DisplayPort-like cable. The other end of the cable would connect to a Lightning Bolt breakout box that would provide the three connectors: USB 3.0, DisplayPort and Power ports.

The cable is a standard mini-DP cable, with changes to two of the pins. AMD's goal is to aim for affordable, single-cable docking stations for notebooks. AMD says that the cost of the mux and associated components on the notebook side would be just, one dollar. Eventually, the mux will be built into the notebook, and you'd just see a mini-DP interface with a little symbol that would indicate Lightning Bolt.

Microsoft has shown its strength just now, with the Xbox taking in nearly half of all consumer spending from physical sales in 2011. Roughly $6.7 billion, or 40-percent of consumer retail spending, was spent on the Xbox, breaking into two separate categories. $2.1 billion on consoles, and $4.6 billion on games, according to NPD data released today.

These figures take into account U.S. retail sales of new physical videogame content, inclusive of portable and console hardware, games and accessories. In the collective sectors, they generated revenues of $17.02 billion last year, an 8-percent decline from 2010's $18.6 billion in generated revenues. Out of that $17.02 billion, Microsoft took a very respectable 40-percent of those sales.

The report doesn't include sales from digital formats, with things like downloadable content, social and mobile games, used and rental sales. Those so-called "newer" categories generated $7.24 billion in revenues last year, an increase of 7-percent over 2010. Whilst the increase in spending on alternative formats was there, it wasn't enough to offset the declines in physical retail. Consumer spending across both categories was between $16.3 and $16.6 billion, falling 2-percent from last year.

Facebook has previously held presidential debates, Twitter has had live concerts, but now theater has taken the social networking stage. Berlin's Maxim Gorki Theater used Facebook to host a live theater experience on Monday, which is what they have called, Facebook's first performance.

Maxim Gorki Theater used Theodor Fontane's Effi Briest, and performance a special adaption for the "online Facebook stage", reported Reuters. A spokesperson for the theater told Reuters:

CES 2012: Research in Motion (RIM) unveiled at CES a software update for its slate, BlackBerry PlayBook, PlayBook OS 2.0. PlayBook OS 2.0 includes native e-mail, contacts and calendar applications. The former two serve as hubs for not just PlayBook messages and contacts, but those in your social networking accounts like Twitter, LinkedIn and more.

The e-mail app offers a bunch of text formatting options to do, well, normal things like bold, italicize, create bullet points, change font type, color or size. The calendar app is reportedly standard, but has been said to include good things with the cross-app integration. BGR reports that the contacts are tied to meeting entries in the calendar for quick and easy access. The calendar also syncs with popular services from Google, AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail and Microsoft Exchange.

PlayBook OS 2.0 also revamps the homescreen, now allowing users to group applications into folders and place your most used applications on a dock. A "reading view" mode is included in the browser, which is similar to Apple's desktop and mobile Safari browsers, as well as an improved version of BlackBerry Bridge, which sports a remote control function that allows you to type, navigate and perform gestures on a PlayBook using a BlackBerry smartphone.

CES 2012: Google have plans to update their television service software by year-end, where they'll also be adding content and making it easier than ever for users to find shows. According to director of product management, Rishi Chandra, Google TV will undergo annual software updates.

Chandra went onto say:

ASRock have just announced today the 2012 Global OC Competition with Furturemark. This new worldwide competition requires those who wish to participate to submit their highest 3DMark 11 Physics Test score by overclocking their CPU.

Of course, there are restrictions. All entries require the use of an ASRock Sandy Bridge, or Sandy Bridge-E motherboard and Intel 2nd Generation Core processors, or Intel Core i7 Extreme processors. Participates also need to upload their 3DMark 11 Physics Test score to 3DMark.com and then get the chance to win the top prize which is a very cool $3,000. Total prize pool is $13,0000, which makes it one of the largest OC tournaments in recently years.

There are two separate events: Sandy Bridge and Sandy Bridge-E platforms. The scores will be reviewed on a weekly basis, and will be awarded with the prize of US$650 and US$1,000, respectively. There will be four weeks to submit the results, with the participant who submits the highest score in those four weeks deemed the final champion for each group respectively. The final champion in the Sandy Bridge-E platform will be awarded with the prize worth US$3,000, whilst the Sandy Bridge platform contest will win a final prize worth US$2,000.

CES 2012: eBay CEO (and new interim PayPal CEO) John Donahoe, revealed at his CES keynote yesterday a number of new mobile payments forecasts for not only eBay, but PayPal, too. PayPal VP David Marcus said a few days ago that PayPal had surpassed its expectation of $3.5 billion in mobile payments in 2011, reaching $4 billion for 2011.

Donahoe said in his CEO keynote that eBay reached $5 billion in mobile GMV (gross merchandise volume), this is a 100-percent jump on 2010's GMV. Donahoe also projected yesterday that eBay would reach $8 billion in mobile GMV in 2012, with PayPal reaching $7 billion in transactions in 2012.

Mobile has more than 65 million downloads of eBay's mobile applications across all platforms. More than 890,000 new eBay shoppers completed their very first eBay purchase via the mobile apps in 2011, an 113-percent increase year-over-year. Donahoe also announced a new strategic partner in eBay's RedLaser barcode scanning app, who is it? Well, it's Best Buy. The app was updated last fall to include integration from PayPal and Milo to give users the ability to buy now for either in-store pick-up, or home delivery later.

Telstra have just unveiled the details of a new "white label" 3G mobile service that they plan to sell to telco customers in a bid to boost its dropping wholesale revenues. While they'll offer access to their 3G network, Telstra keep the keys to their full Next G package, where it won't let rivals access it.

Telstra's 3G wholesale product will cover 97-perent of the population and sport typical download speeds of between 550Kbps to 3Mbps. The new wholesale plan will rollout in two phases, the first will roll out to offer post-paid-only services, while the second one which is planned for late-2012 will provide resellers with a fully fledged white label mobile service. This will le them offer pre-paid, post-paid, and wireless broadband services.

By not offering full speeds on the white label service, they stop cannibalisation of their superior Next G products, this protects their premium product lineup. Telstra have said:

I've just moved house, and as most of you would know its hectic. The thing I hate the most? I haven't had any time to play Battlefield 3. Radeon HD 7970s are out, and it feels like they're here with a sole purpose to tease me. Like a lingerie model dancing in front of you and your hands have been cut off, you know what I mean?

Well, DICE's Alan Kertz has now come out and given some more information on a forthcoming Battlefield 3 update, and has had the following to say when asked the questions below, I've put his answers in bold.

- When asked if sniper rifles would be getting a fix in terms of their red dont/holo inaccuracy when trying to aim down sights: "Indeed"

CES 2012 - As I showed up late to this meeting, I was greeted with open arms to a table full of goodies new to the peripherals market. Seen here is a collection of some of the lightest and most balanced mice I have ever played with. As we discussed the mice, all five versions of the SteelSeries mice (Kinzu V2, Sensei, Diablo III, and Ikari) are offering what I was told is an almost invisible user experience. With these mice there aren't any crazy DPI numbers to tinker with and get used to. The plan here was to offer an experience of natural movement to make you feel the mouse is part of your body and should give the user a very comfortable feeling, or in SteelSeries' own words "they have failed." From the little time I did have with these mice, I really think they are onto something with this line of attack on the mouse market.

There was also this pair of SteelSeries FLUX headphones sitting on the table. These headphones are really well thought out for users on the go. By this, I mean that they are fully collapsible to save room when not in use, but offer great sound and a really creative hidden option. These cans will hook up to a PC or any mobile device and also offer a daisy chain option. This means that with one set plugged into a device, with a the provided cable, you can connect a second pair of headphones right to the first pair making watching a movie on a laptop or tablet with your significant other or anyone really easy!

Next up is the SteelSeries ION wireless controller. This handy "little" gaming controller was designed to work specifically with tablets, but can be used on any system. The main objective here was to offer a D-pad, dual analog joysticks, the typical four button layout, and a pair of paddle buttons at the top to be able to slide into your front pocket. Again the point here is to keep mobility simple in size so you don't have to lug around a full sized XBOX controller, but instead offers a similar layout in a smaller unit that still feels great in your hands while using it.

CES 2012 - For any respectable company to overlook the potential of the iPad and iPhone market, it's just silly, as there are literally tons of users out there. Cooler Master jumped on board and is offering various stands for both notebooks and tablets. In this image you will see the ARC holding the MAC notebook, the JAS and L Stand behind it, and an un-named simpler design in the back. These aluminum units will only be available in silver to go along with the Apple products and offer grey rubber padding to keep from damaging your devices.

Next in line is the Wave Stand which is geared for iPads. This is a fold able unit that allows for easy stashing in a bag while on the go. Once you are at a table or any flat surface, you pull out the Wave, and unfold the middle of it to allow you to rest the iPad on it for easier use of the device. Again this unit is all aluminum, but has grip with the large black rubber pas that support the iPad on the legs as well as the pad that rests against the back of the device. The nice feature with this device is that it isn't solely intended to the Apple crowd, but will work with any tablet on the market.

Ever wanted a cover for your iPhone that would make it look like a top tier CM chassis? Well now you can with the introduction of a trio of black silicone rubber covers. This one is the HAF X edition that takes styling from the HAF X and molds it into the cover. In the HAF X variant, there is also a place provided to place a stylus.

CES 2012 - From the front of this mid tower version of the HAF X, Cooler Master wanted to offer all of the things that made the HAF X a success, but wanted to offer mid-tower buyers a similar offering. The front the HAF XM keeps a lot of the styling cues that the HAF X offered such as the full mesh front, three optical drive bays, and two hot swap drive bays just below it.

The HAF XM will ship with a trio of 200mm fans, one in the front and two in the top. The top two can be removed to allow for a slim triple 120mm radiator, but does offer more room in the top cover for those who don't mind a little modding for the fittings to pass through the top of this chassis if a thicker radiator is a must. You also will find removable hard drive bays which can hold an addition six storage drives, and the back, under the 120mm exhaust fan, offers eight expansion slots for those Quad-Fire or Quad-SLI users.

One feature that users raved about in the original HAF X was the PSU wiring cover to keep a clean look on the inside as the mass of PSU wiring gets routed into the back side of the motherboard tray. That handy little cover is also going to be in the HAF XM to offer users the same cleanliness that the HAF X owners already enjoy having.

CES 2012 - As I started my tour through the CM suite during my meeting with them Cameron led me to the air coolers and started introductions. Down along the front are a trio of the X6 soon to be on the market. This cooler has an unusual fin shape and orientation once installed onto a board. This cooler is twisted on a slight angle, so once installed it will actually blow warmed air from the cooler toward the back of the chassis still, but it will also be angled to blow out the top of the chassis as well. This four pipe cooler will also come with an option of either the red fan or the traditional black fan that we have seen on many of their coolers to date.

The X6 also uses a very unusual fin design to add as much surface area to this cooler to attain the best performance possible from this design. Here Cooler Master uses a honey comb arrangement to maximize the amount of aluminum that the fan on the front can cool. The X6 will be hitting the market very soon, and I will be putting it through its paces for you as soon as possible.

Placed behind the X6 on a taller platform, almost denoting its dominance I had the new TPC-812 cooler explained to me. Looking at the top of the cooler tips you off to the use of something I have not seen in CPU cooling. CM is using dual vertical vapor chambers that are specified to handle 120W each. On top of the 240W of vapor chamber cooling, these heave gauge fins also sport six heat pipes in the cooler for a rating of 300W+ in total cooling power in this cooler.

CES 2012 - There once was a day when phones shipped with a wall charger that was USB with a plug on the end, and car chargers were all sold separately, and were specific for each device. Here CM is offering a single USB and dual USB charging solution that derives it power from the cigarette lighter of any vehicle. Just plug in either of the Car chargers while you are traveling and keep those batteries topped off so you don't kill the battery at the worst time possible.

Also on the table is a pair of Power Fort chargers for mobile devices. Both the 5600mA and the 6600mA on the go chargers are themselves charge up via USB. Once the unit it at a full change you can simply unplug it and throw it in your backpack, laptop bag, or for the ladies, in your purse. These are designed to be used out and about when you mobile device is losing its charge. If I remember the numbers correctly, with the 6600mA version, when fully charged it will recharge up to three tablets or five phones.

This is a great companion for those constantly on the go, or even offers a few days worth of charges for those who may be in a primitive environment with no available power, such as camping, or at tens of thousands of feet over the earth.

CES 2012 - As any ASUS user will tell you, on the ROG series there is already a pretty full gamut of offerings for software overclocking and control of various features that come with their motherboards and add-on devices. As seen in this screen shot, there are now seven windows of opportunity. We all know there is a version of CPU-Z and GPU-z, along with the GPU Tweak program, as well as others, but there is a couple of hidden gems in this image.

The first offering I am going to cover is the new ROG Exchange program. What this offers is the ability to go to a database on ASUS' web site and pick from a multitude of pre-clocked configurations saved into a file that users can download. You simple pick through a list of offering with your board and processor and find the file you think fits your needs and let the software load it into the bios for you. Also with this software, you can be in the driver's seat and load bios files that you have found to work well and share it with everyone else. This should make overclocking much easier for those who don't have the time to learn everything in the bios, and let the professionals do all the tedious testing for you.

Anyone remember MEMSet? Well for me personally, it has been broken since the release of the P55 chipset, and has been rendered pretty much useless. Asus picked up that burnt out torch, lit it, and is now running full speed to its users for a functional version of an on the fly Windows environment memory timing adjustment application called Mem TweakIt. Now ASUS users will have the option to do a bit of tinkering with their memory on the screen before you go into bios and apply new stable timings.