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COMPUTEX Taipei 2010 - Lucid had a strong showing today at the Hyatt here in Taipei. You know, the guys that want to free you from the VGA slavery so you can mix and match video cards as you see fit.

So far we have only seen Lucid tech on motherboards but that is obviously about to change. The above card will come from TUL and will be able to pair with just about anything else.

Just one new product is one thing but here we see that Lucid is not stopping here. Here we see a new dual GPU product that will be able to run with another GPU giving you three total.

COMPUTEX Taipei 2010 - Qualcomm along with its Snapdragon showcase were also showing off its new Kayak device which is a truly innovative device which is one of the products you tend to mention when someone asks what have you seen that stood out so far at the show.

The Kayak is a computer phone device designed on the cheap with people in emerging markets such as China, Thailand and South Africa in mind. Based on Qualcomm hardware, the Kayak looks like a normal phone, but it actually has a computer inside the platform. With a 3G module also installed, carries in the aforementioned countries will provide its customers with the device and a SIM card to provide not only voice connection, but also data connection especially in areas that are not connected by traditional phone lines or for folks who cannot afford a computer or want a different type of functionality that what something like a notebook or netbook offers.

So, use the cell network, you can pickup handset and make calls as normal and send text messages over the known SMS network, but you can also hook up a mouse, keyboard and monitor and using Qualcomm's free and included Linux operating system, users also have basic PC functions such as web surfing.

With high end tablets being all the rage, especially with the Asus Eee Pad and MSI WindPad wowing at Computex, a full featured tablet PC for children in at risk areas and in developing countries may seem like a far fetched idea. Marvell Technology Group and One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) have formed a partnership to make this a reality with their progressive goal of creating a family of educational tablets shooting for high functionality with a pricetag of under $100. Next year's CES is the date that OLPC and Marvell are shooting for to release this product.

Centering this tablet around OLPC's OX-3 and Marvell's Moby reference designs, the two groups are sharing a common goal: "to give children the power to learn, create, connect and collaborate using modern computer technology." Marvell already has the Moby tablet platform with a GHZ ARMADA processor, Bluetooth, GPS, 802.11n Wifi, and other features already in a pilot program at at-risk schools in Washington area. This platform is the first collaborative effort by the two companies that have been working together for a while.

Marvell and OLPC are looking to create more than just a platform like an e-reader or wireless device. OLPC's chairman Dr. Nicholas Negroponte said: "While devices like e-readers and current tablets are terrific literary, media and entertainment platforms, they don't meet the needs of an educational model based on making things, versus just consuming them. Today's learning environments require robust platforms for computation, content creation and experimentation - and all that at a very low cost. Through our partnership with Marvell, OLPC will continue our focus on designing computers that enable children in the developing world to learn through collaboration, as well as providing connectivity to the world's body of knowledge."

COMPUTEX Taipei 2010 - They say that looks can be deceiving and Corsair's whole thing with its new 600T Graphite mid-tower computer case is that its mid sized on the outside, but full sized on the inside.

Corsair has taken the fundamentals of its previous generation cases such as the 800D and 700D and applied it to the 600T which it is officially launching today. It takes many of the features we like with the 800D such as the smartly designed inside panel cable management and more, but then adds in some new changes.

For one, one of the drive bay racks can be removed providing support for video cards up to 15-inches in length. You can also remove the top extracting 200mm fan and replace it with a 2 x 120mm radiator and fans which as mentioned it pretty rare for a case of this size.

COMPUTEX Taipei 2010 - Yesterday we visited the folks over at Corsair at their suite at the Grand Hyatt and they were showing off a range of new products which improve on its usual suspects that we have came to known over the years.

First up we got an introduction from Jim regarding Corsair's brand new Airflow Pro which is a parametric display that is able to hook to the RAM by means of a simple link cable that is able to detect things like RAM temperature and usage. It is able to visually monitor up to six memory modules from the single meter, so all you folks out there run triple-channel memory setups are all set to go.

Secondly Jim gave us a run-down on Corsair's also brand new line-up of AX Professional Series Gold power supply units which as the name would suggest are 80 Plus Gold certified. They have all sorts of good stuff going on inside that are said to dramatically decrease the ripple effect and provide a very solid and stable system with its use of high-end parts that are usually reserved for server level power units.

Receiving a prototype of a cool new mobile device to go through the features and toys would be enough to keep most of us happy and occupied. The folks at Engadget think a little bit differently though. When they were told that the 5 inch Gorilla Glass display, made by Corning, was said to stand up to darn near anything the average consumer could throw at it, they decided to throw caution to the wind and put it to the test.

While they didn't exactly take a sledgehammer to the Streak or run a knock off of "Will it Blend?", this is a fairly impressive display, especially to the tech geeks like me who have small children and can see something like this happening to our own toys. You can almost hear the Streak chuckling at the tester banging on it with the pen with only a few ink spots left for his effort. Hopefully Corning's Gorilla Glass can catch on with more MIDs and help me take "will my kids destroy it?" out of the equation when shopping for a tablet or smartphone.

COMPUTEX Taipei 2010 - ... they gotta wear shades. Sometimes I just can't help myself but then again neither could NVIDIA today. Starting off a keynote speech asking for a moment to reflect on your technological achievements isn't a really bad way to kick things off, unless it's everyone's job in the room to already know everything you have accomplished.

Things have to be tough for the Green Team as of late and by starting off saying that we are going to look back only tells me you don't have a lot to say about your future. At that point I had a feeling it was going to be a show with a few prop tossed in. Here we see the NVIDIA CEO having a bit of a scripted conversation with ASUS' CEO. Not a bad prop to be able to call on.

At CES we experienced 3D and most of us have given it a shot in the movie theater but no one I have spoken with is ready to consider 3D TV in their home even though the tech is being pushed really hard now.

COMPUTEX Taipei 2010 - Gigabyte has two products that they will not be showing on the show floor but will have on hand for private eyes. Since my focus has been on the storage market for the last couple of years now I spotted these gems right away and thought about the possibilities all day.

With 24 memory slots this unnamed workstation / server board has a lot of potential for many things but what is interesting here is the 4x SAS connector in the back that would allow connection to an AIC MiniBOD right out of the box without the need for an additional HBA add in controller.

With SAS expanders the only real limitation is the amount of funds in your bank account. We would like to see Gigabyte move forward with this feature.

Silicon Power has a gob of external HDDs that it offers in different styles for different needs. The company has previously offered both flash drives and external HDDs and today it has added the new A80 external HDD to its line.

The A80 is a USB 3.0 external HDD that is rugged and designed to be water resistant to IPX7 standards. That means that the HDD can survive being submerged in up to a meter of water for up to 30 minutes and still operate.

The drive is also shock, vibration, and dust resistant. The USB 3.0 interface lets the drive offer up to 5Gbps of bandwidth and the A80 is compatible with USB 2.0 ports as well. The drive is offered in 640GB, 500GB, and 320GB capacities. Pricing and availability are unknown at this time.

COMPUTEX Taipei 2010 - Earlier on today we stopped by NZXT's booth at the Grand Hyatt to get a look at some of its upcoming products that will end up going on sale later this year.

NZXT showed us a range of different products, but the big one for designer and co-founder Johnny this year is the upcoming Phantom computer case that he kindly introduced to us. It's a white case made out of plastic with some attractive curves and some good design with some new concepts ideas that we haven't seen in the part.

With what we have seen from the likes of Ikonik, BitFenix, Corsair and now NZXT, consumers are going to have some really brilliant choices on the case market in a short time.

SID 2010 - With lesser power consumption being a strong point of focus in the computing industry Samsung has reached a very impressive milestone in developing an 18.5-inch sized display that uses just 6.3w of measily power to operate properly.

Given such low power requirements, Samsung has designed it so it can be powered entirely from USB ports. That's right; this 18.5-inch TN-film panel display can draw all the power it needs from just a couple USB 2.0 ports, with one of those USB 2.0 connections also acting as the display connection.

Other specs about the monitor include a native res of 1366x768, 1000:1 contrast ratio, 250 cd/m² maximum brightness and LED backlit illumination. The first fully working sample was demonstrated at the SID 2010 event and Samsung plan to debut it to the mass market in 2011.

COMPUTEX Taipei 2010 - MSI just got done with hosting its pre-Computex press conference and launched and showcased a host of new products.

Update: Sorry folks, we had a bad line when trying to get the video uploaded and as you may have noticed, it was partly cut off towards the end. We're working on resolving the signal issues for further video content to go up during the course of this week straight from the show floor.

As we expected during this show, MSI launched one of its first tablet computers, it's called the WindPad 110. It is a 10-inch tablet based on the Google Android operating system. The MSI PM that we spoke to was a little tight on full details, but she did tell us that the retail price should be around 499 USD and come out in a month or two after the Windows and Atom based WindPad 100 that we will cover a bit later.

BitFenix made the airwaves a little while ago with its launch and entry into the market highlighting itself as a high-end gaming hardware manufacturer. The team is built around well known tech people with plenty of experience in the industry from the likes of such well known past and present companies such as ABIT and CM Storm. The creation of the company is an interesting story, but best left for another time.

Yesterday we headed out to the brand spanking new BitFenix office and in our second video we got an exclusive hands-on video preview of their upcoming rugged and rubber coated Survivor mid tower computer case for gamers on the move. Again, this product was introduced to us by Swedish chap David who is the product manager and it is important to keep in mind that this particularly sample only just arrived in from the China factory and it is a prototype and not yet finished - i.e. it will go through some changes before the final retail version ships sometime in September with an estimated street price of around 140 USD.

The Survivor is like the Colossus a case like we have never seen before and it will most likely end up being the second product to be released by BitFenix. The rubber coating used is very soft and feels nice to touch. We also like the idea of the unique handle design that should make it easier for gamers to carry their system around to LAN parties and such.

BitFenix made the airwaves a little while ago with its launch and entry into the market highlighting itself as a high-end gaming hardware manufacturer. The team is built around well known tech people with plenty of experience in the industry from the likes of such well known past and present companies such as ABIT and CM Storm. The creation of the company is an interesting story, but best left for another time.

Yesterday we headed out to the brand spanking new BitFenix office and got an exclusive hands-on video preview of their upcoming and really impressive Colossus full tower computer case. The product was introduced to us by Swedish chap David who is the product manager and it is important to keep in mind that this particularly sample only just arrived in from the China factory and it is a prototype and not yet finished - i.e. it will go through some changes before the final retail version ships sometime in September with a very estimated street price of around 170 USD.

The Colossus is a very hip and new breed of computer case that will come in either white or black. It is a very important product for BitFenix since it is their very first product that will go on the market; the team does not intend on rushing it and will take as long as it needs to perfect it before it goes on sale.

Yesterday we visited the Ikonik office in Taipei where they gave us an early introduction of what they will be showing at the re-named Tabutex Computex event next week.

We were given an introduction to a total of three new computer cases including the SOHO, M1000 and the Optimus 1200. All very nice cases with varying uses, we really liked the Optimus 1200 model that has a front face that resembles Optimus Prime from Transformers.

We were also shown Ikonik's new Vulcan+ series of power supplies which come in sizes of 850, 1000 and 1200 watt. They look like they have the moves to impress with 80 PLUS Gold certification. Watch our video above to get a close-up look at all of the new products.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), who aren't the first company people think of when it comes to government entities on their side, may be making a push to make wireless devices users happy by taking a deeper look into wireless carriers and their billing practices.

The fact that they have been investigating billing practices and outrageous early termination fees is not eally recent news; however it seems that FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and his team have been turning up the heat on the big boys in wireless. According to a survey released Wenesday, many consumers have been "shocked" by extra fees on their bills and also have reversed findings that the wireless market is competitive, instead calling the industry "concentrated."

According to the report, "The FCC surveyed about 3,000 Americans about these billing issues. What it discovered is that one in six mobile users say they have experienced a sudden increase in their monthly bill that is not caused by a change in service plan. The survey indicated that 84 percent of respondents said their mobile carrier did not contact them when they were about to exceed their allowed minutes, text messages, or data downloads. And about 88 percent said their carrier did not contact them after their bill suddenly increased."

Analysts at Forrester have released a report saying that Microsoft needs to answer the Apple iPad with a Windows based tablet to compete with the iPad and many other tablets coming into the market, arguing that tablets are "the next important computing form."

In the report released Thusday, JP Gownder and Sarah Rotman Epps from Forrester, stated: "To keep its products front and center, Microsoft needs a partner to produce a successful Windows tablet that competes with the Apple iPad. At stake is nothing less than the future of the operating system." Strong sales of the iPad have shown that the market is wide open to these types of devices. With the Zune never quite gaining the popularity of the iPod, Microsoft can't be wanting to fall behind Apple on another platform.

"Windows can't afford to cede ground on tablets--and not just out of fear that Apple is defining the next generation of computing device," the Forrester researchers said in their report. "Google, too, has its hungry eyes trained on Microsoft's plate and is pushing its Chrome OS as a consumer- and wallet-friendly solution for Netbooks."

AMD is looking forward to demonstrating Fusion-ready systems at Computex which will be the first to combine a traditional processor with a graphics processing core on a single die for mainstream processing.

Ryan over at PC Perspective has managed to scoop up a good amount of detail on AMD's plans to roll out Fusion into the market. AMD's first APU (accelerated processing unit) is codenamed Llano and will cater to the notebook market. Its formula is a combination of four x86 processor cores with a Redwood-class DX11 capable performance GPU on the same die.

The core is said to be built on GlobalFoundries 32m SIO process using High-K metal gate transistors. This means ATI GPUs manufactured by AMD rather than TSMC; the first time this has ever happened.

Today we attended a ViewSonic press conference in Taipei where the company used the event to launch a range of new eBook e-readers appropriately held at the eslite bookstore.

Next up Mike Chen, a ViewSonic product manager for its digital media business unit, introduces the special editor VEB632 JinYong Reader e-reader that is at the top-end of ViewSonic's new eBook range. It will go on sale in Taiwan in July with a rather rich street price of 14,800 NTD or around 462 USD at today's rate.

Yin Yong is a very famous Chinese martial arts novelist who has written some 36 books on the ancient Eastern fighting art that are enjoyed by Chinese all around the world. The VEB632 e-reader comes bundled with all of Jin Yong's books included on the 2GB of internal storage. The e-reader sports a six-inch e-ink display that supports an 800 x 600 resolution with up to 16 levels of grey. This model is slightly bigger and heavier than the previous VEB620 model we looked at, but it comes in at a still quite nimble and comfortable 250 grams or around 9 ounces.

Today we attended a ViewSonic press conference in Taipei where the company used the event to launch a range of new eBook e-readers appropriately held at the eslite bookstore.

First up Mike Chen, a ViewSonic product manager for its digital media business unit, introduces the cheapest of its new e-readers, the VEB620 eBook. But when we say cheap though, don't let they confuse it. It comes packed with features and the only thing it really misses out on is wireless connectivity, so you will either need to use a microSD card or copy books etc over via USB from your computer.

The unit will go on sale in Taiwan in a week or so with a street price of 6,990 NTD - which works out to be around 217 USD at today's exchange rate. The device comes with a six-inch screen with 16 levels of grey that is capable of an 800 x 600 resolution. It weighs in at a rather light and comfortable eight ounces or around 227 grams. It was really nice to hold and is made using soft plastics that feel good.