A little later than some would have expected, but as the saying goes, better late than never. Corsair has just updated its good ole' Voyager GT, Voyager and Survivor families of Flash Drives to USB 3.0, giving a significant boost in transfer rates across the board.

While the Voyager GT and Flash Survivor series stick to their traditional designs externally, the Voyager (non GT) in USB 3.0 form is more compact in stature. The Voyager GT USB 3.0 gives read and write rates of up to 135MB/sec and 83MB/sec, respectively, featuring a rubber housing to make it water resistant and coming in two capacity sizes of 32 and 64GB at respective pricing of $59 and $129.

As for the Flash Voyager (non GT), this one also uses rubber housing, measuring 73 x 22 mm and coming in 8 and 16GB capacity sizes costing $17 and $24, respectively. The Flash Survivor on the other hand features a unique anodized 'aircraft-grade' aluminum housing giving it shock, vibration and water proof attributes. It comes in 8 and 16GB capacities, costing $28 and $35, respectively.

Following leaked details on AMD's Radeon HD 7000 series graphics cards earlier in the week, some new slides (said to be straight from AMD) have since popped up which add some more meat to the equation.

We are assured that the HD 7000 family will use the first VLIW4 circuits at 28nm. In usual fashion the series will be rolled out in steps, with each sub-series based off different base architectures. Looking at the latest leaked roadmap, we can ascertain that AMD is initially planning the launch of four different GPUs making up three series, said to be scheduled for a Q4 2011 launch.

There will be the Radeon HD 7870 and HD 7850, HD 7670 and HD 7570. They will be equipped with GDDR5 memory across the board and sport 768 to 1536 Radeon cores (stream processors).

Enjoy your 1080p screen? Well, maybe it's time for an upgrade. Sony have released their VPL-VW1000ES projector that has a 4k resolution - that's 4096x2160 pixels folks! More than four times the resolution of a 1080p picture. What would you do with it? Well, Sony Pictures has more than 60 theatrical releases shot in native 4K resolution, but there is no way of getting that onto a disc and into customers hands right now with current technology.

Sony reps do claim however, that they're in talks with the Blu-ray Disc Association to iron out a standard compression method to squeeze 4K movies onto discs and they have already promised that the upcoming Spider-Man movie will be the first one. But, Spider-Man has a release of July 2012 which should tell you that Sony don't want to talk specific dates and their calendar definitely doesn't have any definitive strikes on it.

The VW1000ES does sport a 4K upscaler, meaning that it will boost your current 1080p content to new heights. It also features 2,000 ANSI lumens, which Sony claims is enough to throw up a screen of 200-inches, and also offers 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio thanks to Sony's Iris3 technology and latest SXRD panel. Control over IP is included as is the ability of 3D. Sony are set to launch this puppy in December and hopes the price will be "under $30,000".

While many have anticipated its presence in Windows 8 through several reports for a while now, Microsoft has just confirmed that the virtualization technology popular on Windows Server, "Hyper-V" will in fact be a part of its next-gen consumer level OS. This is not a feature the majority of folks using Windows 8 will be singing sweet melodies about, but for some it will no doubt be a true god send. If you're not even sure what it means or does, but are quick to sit forward in your seat and learn more, you can head over to this link for a detailed rundown.

Another interesting addition to Windows 8 talked about via the source is that of MinWin, which is essentially just the core kernel and operating system components of Windows, making it the most stripped down version of Windows possible. While it has showed up in Windows 7 and started when Vista came out, apparently for Windows 8 its role will be much more significant and purposeful, especially when combined with the powerful virtualization features of Hyper-V.

When the Xbox 360 and PS3 games launched, we were told it would usher in a new era of "1080p gaming", that has really never taken off. Apart from a few games, most AAA titles run at sub-HD or HD (720p) resolutions. Battlefield 3 will be no exception. DICE's rendering architect has tweeted that the game will run at 1280x704 as it saves good performance and memory for the game. While this is not surprising, I don't see how console owners can get angry at this. The consoles are 5 - 6 years old now, hardware of that day could never run games at 1920x1080 at 30fps consistently with constantly upgrading game engines and graphical details.

The tweet says "BF3 is 1280×704 on both PS3 and 360. Removing a few lines from 720p saves good performance and memory for us." It can also be seen in the picture below:

This is why it pays to have a PC that can be upgraded over time. New consoles have never needed a better excuse to be launched - come on Microsoft and Sony, do it now.

Apple's next-gen iPad 3 is set to have a "massively upgraded" battery, but will cost Apple anywhere between 20 and 30% more per unit according to Cens.com. The new battery is reported to go into production early next year and has been designed to be both thinner and lighter with a longer service life than the current iPad 2. With the iPad 3 rumored to have a higher resolution screen, this would impact battery life. Apple would be smart to combat this with an upgraded battery.

The news site says:

We knew they were coming soon, just not sure exactly when. Today marks the day the world's first 4TB capacity HDD hits the scene with Seagate beating its competitors out to the milestone. However, the it isn't in naked form at this time and comes as part of their GoFlex Desk external HDD family.

The official announcement from Seagate on the new unit doesn't go into specifics about the 4TB 3.5-inch drive itself, but we are presuming it uses a 4x1TB platter arrangement. As for specific features on the 4TB GoFlex Desk, it uses USB 3.0 for its connectivity and comes pre-loaded with software to assist in automatic, continuous data backup (with encryption) and the included adapter has an illuminited gauge that makes it quick and easy to look at the available space remaining on the drive.

Seagate is now shipping the USB 3.0 4TB GoFlex Desk with a price tag of $249 US. There's word of a Mac version on the way too, shipping later this month with FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 connectivity.

A little birdy has leaked out some specs on AMD's next generation Radeon HD 7000 series of graphics cards, though the information is most certainly still questionable at this stage with the lack of confirmation on any of it.

Codenamed Southern Islands, these next-gen chips will be 28nm (TSMC) based and as the chart above denotes, sitting at the top of the hill is the dual GPU wielding HD 7990. As per tid bits of info on the two Tahiti XT/Pro Cores the card will use, the max stream processor count is estimated to be around 4000 ALU, with the card featuring a TDP of >300W.

Head on over to the source link for a better idea of how the complete lineup is likely to shape up, with details on 8 known SKUs in the 7000 series shared. But remember, it's all potentially very loose information just at this point, so do remember to take it with a pinch of salt.

Originating from its own media database to confirm the source, MSI is taking a pretty vicious swipe at GIGABYTE for apparently giving somewhat misleading information to its buyers in the way of native PCI-E Gen 3 support on its motherboards.

Using a batch of freshly produced, detailed slides that are now being distributed about the web, MSI makes an effort to educate people on what a true PCI-E 3.0 board is all about and how to tell if a motherboard carries proper PCI-E 3.0, with its primary intent at this stage of the game to point out that GIGABYTE's boards are lacking in this respect and will not deliver quality PCI-E 3.0 connectivty.

MSI goes on to say in its slides that apart from GIGABYTE's G1.Sniper2, GIGABYTE's 40 odd motherboards with "Ready for Native PCIe Gen. 3" association are anything but and that GB is misleading its buyers to think otherwise.

This news certainly won't gel well for many of you at a time when we thought launch was imminent - AMD is once again choosing to delay the launch of its FX-Series desktop processors, now planned for release in October.

AMD's rescheduling for October is supposedly due to AMD wanting to make sure they hit all the right performance price-points with the first wave of models; thus they are said to be introducing seven models straight out the gate comprising four 8-core FX-8000 series chips, one 6-core FX-6000 series chip and two 4-core FX-4000 series chips.

Looking at a chart compiled by the folks at Xbit labs after gathering data from unknown sources, the initial line-up of models will include the FX-8150 (a 3.6GHz part), FX-8120 (3.1GHz - avail. in both 95 and 125W variants) and FX-8100 (2.8GHz) as far as octo-core models go. The six-core model to accompany them is the FX-6100 running at 3.3GHz, while the two quad-core models are the FX-4170 and FX-4100, running at 4.2GHz and 3.6GHz respectively.

ASUS has just released a new Micro-ATX sized Fusion motherboard to market of which they look to have put a solid amount of effort into. Based on the Fusion "Zacate" processor platform, the new E45M1-M PRO is in most ways similar to another in their existing Fusion line-up, the E35M1-M PRO, but this one's brains are that of the newer, faster E-450 dual-core APU.

The E-450 runs at a clock speed of 1.65GHz using two Bobcat architecture x86-64 cores with Radeon HD 6320 DX11 graphics (80 stream processors), and DDR3-1333MHz memory controller. The board itself runs measurements of 244 x 183 mm and gives a single PCI-E x16 slot, a PCI-E x1 slot and two legacy PCI slots for expansion possibilities.

ASUS has decked it with a 3-phase VRM and an EPU chip to help improve on energy efficiency. A couple DDR3 DIMM slots reside on the board and give a single channel config. The most eye catching feature is the large passive heatsink setup that manages to cover both the APU and Hudson M1 chipset. If you feel it's necessary, there is also the option of attaching a fan to it to help lower temps further.

Here's an innovative, yet simply executed piece of tech MSI has come up with for future graphics cards. Word has come out that MSI has been testing a new feature it's looking to help make its already kickass lineup of non-reference graphics cards stand out even more.

MSI calls it "Dust Removal Technology", which is obviously to help rid your card of a negative scenario that affects every card sooner or later - dust buildup, translating to heat buildup. MSI say that enough dust buildup can eventuate to a rise in temperatures by as much as 15c, and from personal experience I can say that's not an exaggeration. Their new founded technology is quite simple in principle really.

The way it works is by simply running the fans in an opposite rotation at 100% speed for the first 30 seconds of system startup. This would result in air being drawn from the heatsink itself and pushed back out through the intakes of the cooler. While it certainly wouldn't remove every single bit of dust from the heatsink, MSI say it does work to significantly reduce dust accumulation in those tough to clean areas.

With the ultrabook market really heating up of late, word of what ASUS has planned for this market segment by the second quarter of 2012 should ensure it's more lively again. We've seen a few pre-release Ultrabooks shown off lately from the likes of Acer, ASUS and Toshiba and they are already gathering quite a bit of attraction, but apparently ASUS will have some particularly aggressively priced Ultrabook models hit the scene in April 2012.

Digitimes reports that following the launch of 5 or 6 ultrabook models (11.6-inch and 13.3-inch variants) this coming October at tentative pricing starting at US$899 and going up, ASUS will then shift its focus onto Ivy Bridge and dish up ultrabooks based on this platform ranging from US$600-$900 for the entry-level segment; that is if ASUS' CEO Jerry Shen has his facts straight.

An Ivy Bridge powered ultra book for US$600? That oughta shake up the entire notebook market somewhat; certainly in the more entry/mid-range sectors where a similar amount of money to chunkier, heavier notebooks gets you a lighter, sleeker design without a performance or battery life trade-off.

While the wraps are still tightly sealed on the iPhone 5's complete official specs, many reports floating about combine to give a fair idea of what's on the cards with Apple's 5th gen smartphone.

There's still quite a bit of umm'ing and ahh'ing going on, but the folks over at Tech-Reviews help and draw a conclusion as to the most probable specs of the phone, basing their thoughts on the many reports and tid bits of info that have leaked in recent months.

As suspected for quite a while now, they believe the phone will use the new A5 dual-core CPU found in the iPad 2, a 3.7-inch display (but are hoping for a 4-inch using the latest Quantum Dot LED Technology), an 8MP camera, possibility (but not a probability) of 4G LTE support and NFC (Near field communication) Payment, a vaguely heard of, super convenient payment technology that simply requires the phone be waved in front of the counter in stores. They also acknolwedge reports that indicate Apple might be partnering with Paypal for NFC.

I'm sure all you Deus Ex: Human Revolution players (including me) hate the splash screens before the game loads up... Scaleform, Dolby Digital, AMD, but there's no way of disabling these screens from within the game. A modder who has done mods similar to the DX:HR one is responsible and it lets you mess with a bunch of settings. Here's what it can do:

Instantly spawn any items, like weapons, ammo, weapon mods, and consumables,

Instantly unlock any augmentations,

DICE has confirmed that their upcoming COD killer, Battlefield 3, will be limited to 30fps on consoles. There's a mixed reaction to this, console fans are upset that they're not getting 60fps and PC fans are saying "well, if you want 60fps, you buy a PC." Considering that Battlefield: Bad Company 2 was limited to 30fps on consoles and still looked great (for a console), then the next-gen Frostbite 2 engine, with much more advanced graphics, detail and destruction with more FPS than a console-tweaked Frostbite 1.5 engine that powered Bad Company 2 - is not surprising.

DICE's general manager discusses the frame rate, AI, environmental destruction and tips for success in the video below from IGN:

I agree with some of the comments on the source, if you want 60fps - you spend the money on a PC and play the real beast. For an ageing console, 5 - 6 years now, not much can be squeezed out of it from a game of this scale. Console exclusives (for example, on the PS3 with Uncharted) they can really squeeze every drop from the console as there's only a single baseline spec to work with.

Often we'll see the release of yet another notebook cooler into the market that does little to stand out and impress us with anything we haven't already seen before. However, Thermaltake have stepped forward in radical fashion and announced today something that does indeed have its eye catching attributes straight off the bat.

Appropriately dubbed the "Massive 23 GT" notebook cooler, it sports a beefy 200mm fan which can operate between 5 and 800RPM, giving up to 24 dBA of sound output. The overall unit measures 352 x 293.1 x 41.4 mm, weighing in at 907 grams and supports notebooks sized anywhere between 10 and 17 inches.

Thermaltake has constructed the eye catching red and black themed Massive 23 GT notebook Cooler out of a mixture of metal and plastic, giving it anti-slip rubber feet, a flip-up valve design with five angled settings and a built in two-port USB 3.0 hub for extra devices.

LG have introduced a new TV range dubbed "Dual View". The new Dual View televisions allow gamers to use the same television but see different images thanks to a new style of 3D glasses. The new tech was shown off by Microsoft and is set to go on same with a limited number of LG TV's, displays two separate pictures on the same screen, and then uses the power of the new 3D -style glasses to ensure each player can see a different image each.

Screen cheating be gone! This new tech is only available on the Xbox platform and works with LG's Cinema 3D range, inclusive of the new flagship LW980T. Gamers will have to slap down more dinero for additional pairs of special glasses. Usually gamers play with split screen, but this new tech would allow both gamers a full-screen gaming experience, with each of them looking at completely different images.

Cool, huh?

It's been a busy week for Samsung with several announcements coming out, and in closing they have introduced quite an interesting device like no other.

While at first it looks to be your run of the mill slim, external optical drive, the SE-208BW has some other features lurking that you'd never normally associate with such a device. It doubles up as a wireless access point or repeater.

In efforts to highlight these exclusive features, Samsung actually refers to this device as a "Smart Media Hub" as opposed to an optical drive. As well as being able to connec to a PC via WiFi, it also has the ability to work with tablets and smartphones. It has DLNA compatibility allowing for easy streaming to other electronic devices (phones, TVs, tablets etc.) and gives support for Dynamic DNS which helps turn it into a private server. The residing USB port can be used to plug a flash drive in which can then have its contents shared across the network.

External graphics solutions for the mobile platform has been a talked about subject for several years now, and while we've seen a few forms of these on display at various trade shows and in prototype form around the web, the big players are yet to really make a firm jump into this area.

However, it's still definitely on the cards according to NVIDIA. Fuad of Fudzilla was recently at NV headquarters where he got to have a chat with general manager of NVIDIA's notebook division, Rene Haas and while the finer details of what's planned were retained, he did say that external graphics is something they are working on and the word 'Thunderbolt' was also mentioned, possibly meaning it'll be the connection of choice to ensure enough bandwidth is provided.

Fuad goes on to say that the conversation gave him the impression that external graphics may well surface sometime in 2012, using 28nm NVIDIA mobile parts (initially at least).