Latest News - Page 3204

The courts have spoken and the people have shed a tear. Newzbin has just taken its place next to many other user friendly "content" websites and P2P software. Any announcement on the Newzbin website states:

Newzbin Closed

Regrettably the Newzbin website has to close as a result of the legal action against us. More details here: https://deepsharer.wordpress.com/2010/05/18/newzbin-gossip/

There are very few times in life where getting something that's supposedly worse that what you ordered is a good thing. Receiving a video card that has not even been released yet could be one of those times. Imagine the surprise of the guy who was possibly shipped a Galaxy GTX 465, which is not slated for release until June 1st, instead of the GTX 470 he ordered.

He apparently became suspicious when he installed the card and the NVIDIA drivers would not take and he had to change the device id to get it to install. The card identifies with the reported GTX 465's lowered clocks and 1024mb of RAM. No pictures of the card's inside's yet or a true verification of a new card or a possible BIOS error, but you can follow his thread at the source link and decide for yourself.

Apple's iPad is popular. While this is not exactly news, the data shown that Apple's iPad is selling 200,000 units a week while Macs are only pacing 110,000 a week is. The new tablet is outselling the rest of the Mac lineup combined and nipping at the heels of the 245,000 units per week the iPhone are garnering according to a report by RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky.

"Checks indicate that US iPad sales remain strong post-launch, driven by rising consumer visibility to iPad's user experience, sustained PR/word-of-mouth marketing, 3G iPad launch, and broadening iPad apps/content," Abramsky stated in a note to his clients. The strong sales which have the iPad sold ut in many Apples stores and Best Buy locations with people on waiting lists to get a hold of the iPad have made analysts increase their fugures of iPad sales in 2010 to exceed 8 million from the 5-6 million previously expected.

With the Australian and European launch coming on May 28th, the demand for the already hard to find iPad may reach epic proportions. Hopefully Apple can get these rolling out faster with a worldwide market coming soon.

Lee-Woo-jong, vice president of marketing at Samsung Mobile Display, spoke at the Global Technology Summit and had confident words for the future of Samsung in the booming smartphone market. Samsung ranks as the largest display maker for mobile devices in the world and the biggest maker of the AM-OLED display screen that is becoming used more and more in next generation devices due to it being thinner, less power hungry, and having better image quality than previous generation models.

Smasung stated they would be investing 2.5 trillion won (2.15 billion dollars US) into the next-gen screens, forecasting mobile device shipments to grow to 2.1 billion units with around 260 million of these units being smartphones; a jump of around 50 percent. "Strong growth of smartphones will drive robust expansion in the AM-OLED market, which we expect to grow by 30 times to 600 million units by 2015 when shipments of mobile devices are expected to grow to 2.6 billion units," Lee said.

Like many next-gen items though, cost has been the only real roadblock to a greater market saturation by the AM-OLED market. While the screens are working their way into smartphones, the high cost of implementation into bigger items such as televisions and PCs are still pretty steep.

After a brief stumble with the first release of the firmware 0002 that left a handful of users locked out of their drives Crucial is ready to give it another go. An hour ago we recieved word that the new update tool is ready for mass consumption so users can update their RealSSD C300 drives to the latest 0002 FW that has working TRIM.

To implement the firmware update, please follow the source link below.

The Crucial Performance Lab, in conjunction with the Micron Compatibility Lab, has performed extensive testing of the new update tool functionality, and we've confirmed it works properly across multiple platforms. Before implementing our revised C300 firmware update, please take the following items into consideration and under advisement:

Logitech is one of the key partners in the Google TV platform that is due out in the form of HDTVs and devices this fall.

Logitech's role in the platform is to provide a Google TV companion box as well as accessories to enrich the whole experience of this new and improved web TV from your couch. As Junien Labrousse, Executive VP Products of Logitech recently explained in a video just uploaded to YouTube (below), Logitech will not only provide a companion box that leverages the famous and popular Harmony Remote technology, but included in the package will be a controller that is said to be optimized for the Google TV experience that combines a compact keyboard, remote control and touch pad.

In an effort to pull even more of your hard earned dollars, Logitech will also offer more products such as a HD camera which will allow you to talk with your friends from the comfort of your couch, said Labrousse. Also expect apps to hit soon that allow the ability to turn your smartphone into a Google TV controller. They are going all out here, that's for sure.

Google continues its worldwide international takeover plan today with the introduction of Google TV.

Information is coming out thick and fast right now and everything is still developing - stick with us here. It's been mentioned in the past on and off, but today Google officially introduced it today at its I/O developer event.

In short, though, what is it? It's basically a platform that brings Internet to the TV. We have seen many try this before and heard about it before, but none really as big as Google have tried it or pulled it off to any grand level. Of course this is a good move for Google to expand YouTube's reach even further by bringing it to the true masses in the form of simple and easy to use consumer devices.

ASUS are doing something very different to anything we've seen before with their premium X58 offering, the Rampage III Extreme. The board in itself is nothing all that unusual for a high calibre enthusiast offering of today; all the goodies and then some are in place; albeit, the lack of additional NF200 bridge chips for 4-way SLI action is a bit of a minus if a rich geek is looking to go all out.

However, that's where ASUS is doing something very different in conjunction with a separately sold ROG series product suited specifically to this motherboard which it calls the 'ROG Xpander'. This device is a daughterboard of sorts that attaches to the two full bandwidth PCI-E x16 slots on the Rampage III Extreme. It gives not one, but two nForce 200 bridge chips, pumping out two x16 links each to the residing four PCI-E x16 slots also on the ROG XPander.

In order to function, it requires a fair amount of additional grunt with connectivity for 1x 6-pin PCI-E power and 3x 4-pin Molex power; though not all of these may be needed for it to work properly, depending on your overall configuration.

After acquiring On2 in the second half of last year, maker of the VP8 video codec, Googles plans were to open-source this codec eventually and they've done just that today with an official launch.

Google has announced the VP8 codec as part of a new format it calls WebM, which is a container (based on Matroska) that includes both VP8 video and Ogg Vorbis audio streams.

The format has been designed so that it'll run well on low-power devices like netbooks, tablets and handhelds; it'll also be an option for YouTube playback which will push the adoption rate much faster. H.264 patent licensing issues aren't of concern with this as WebM is open-source and licensed royalty free under a BSD-style license.

Twitter has been a popular application for a while now both for those sitting at a computer or on the go. Until now, there has been no official app released by Twitter for Apple iPhone and iPod Touch users. This has been changed as Twitter has officially released a Twitter app that can be downloaded for free from the iTunes App Store.

The mobile team at Twitter has put in quite a bit of work making this app easy to use on the device and you do not even need a Twitter account to use the app. Functions include checking out Top Tweets, finding popular users, and locating tweets by geographic region are included as well as a streamlined signup process to get your own account started on Twitter.

As someone who has only recently jumped on the Twitter bandwagon, I found myself surprised that this is something that is only now coming to fruition, as seeing people tweeting from their mobile devices is becoming pretty standard fare these days with the popularity of the site. Twitter's user experience analyzers obviously found this out as users have been clamoring for this for a while now and now that it's here, Apple and Twitter fans can rejoice and tweet on!

Remember that modified HD 5970 from Power Color we first heard about back in April which gave not six, not eight, not even 10, but 12 mini-Display ports for 'Eyefinity12' lovin' ? - A bunch of new images released from PowerColor themselves today let us know it's definitely a reality and is coming to market very soon; most likely being prepared for launch during Computex early next month.

These new pictures show the card for the first time with its cooler assembly mounted and a large and proud "12" stickered on it, of which it deserves to scream out loudly and proudly given its the first of its kind to give this level of extended multi-monitor support.

In confirming its specs, being based on the HD 5970 it uses a couple Cypress 40nm GPUs and features a 2x256-bit memory interface with 4GB of GDDR5 memory onboard. In order to give enough room for all the connections on the I/O as well as providing an exhaust for heat buildup, the card will take up three slots. However, if you won't initially be using more than six monitors, PowerColor has designed this monstrous card so that you can easily remove the daughter board with the other six mini-DisplayPorts on it.

The third and cheapest member of the GTX 400 series of top-end graphics cards from NVIDIA is launching when Computex gets underway; that being the GTX 465.

The first images of a final retail version of the card have leaked out from ASUS, including a box shot and also confirmation of specs. NVIDIA were quick to have the information and images pulled by the source, but thankfully other sites got hold of the good stuff before this occured.

Being one of the first GTX 465's out of the gate, the ENGTX465/2DI/1GD5 is of course a referenced designed card. It uses a quiet carbon fibre theme with a basic ASUS logo stamped on it. The card is said to be about 10 inches long, which would make it slightly longer than the GTX 470 which seems a bit odd, but it may use a different circuit board. Time will give the answer on that one.

PC peripheral maker KeySonic has just added the KSK-5200 RFM wireless keyboard into its lineup this week which will attract many HTPC owners looking for a compact keyboard/mouse solution in the lounge.

This unit includes a scroll wheel and couple mouse buttons on the left, whilst on the right is a trackball, doing away with the need for a separate mouse.

Measurements of the keyboard come in at a tidy 388 x 42 x 185 mm, quite a good size considering the additional mouse functions on the sides. KeySonic has also implemented its SoftTouch membrane technology to give silent strokes on all keys. There are 12 hotkeys on the keyboard for multimedia and internet related tasks. It uses 2.4GHz wireless connectivity, working at a range of up to 10 metres and requires four AA sized batteries.

A chinese website has leaked details of a significantly revised version of AMD's ATI Radeon HD 5670 graphics card coming out very soon. Whilst existing HD 5670's are based on the 40nm redwood core, the new ones will use the larger Juniper core that is used on the faster HD 5750 and HD 5770 cards. It's anyones guess at this stage as to why AMD felt the need to do this to an existing model in its HD 5000 series lineup rather than making it a separate SKU. Too many defective Juniper cores, perhaps?

Juniper gives up to 800 stream processors, but these will be cut back to 640 for the new HD 5670s. That's still a good jump on the 400 available in the redwood core, though. The memory and its interface will remain unchanged; 128-bit GDDR5 running at 4GHz effective, whilst the core will be clocked in at 750MHz. Pricing is expected to stay at the same level; around $90 for the 512MB variant and $110 for the 1GB model.

As seen above, chinese website Inpai.com has pics of both Sapphire and PowerColor versions of the new Juniper powered HD 5670s and they look much the same as their Radeon HD 5700 series models.

Visa and DeviceFidelity originally announced a couple of weeks ago that they were partnering up to build an iPhone case that would allow the iPhone to be used as a credit card at retailers that support no-swipe payment systems. This release was quickly pulled, but has resurfaced and been made official with pictures and an official release.

DeviceFidelity released a near field communications chip last year that was put into a micro-SD card that could be used in compatible phones to let them act as contactless credit cards. Unfortunately, there are no current iPhones with microSD slots. The new case, named "In2Pay", plugs into the dock connector at the bottom of the iPhone and provides the power and interface for DeviceFidelity's microSD card and the communications chip. Connect the case, download the corresponding app, and you're paying with just a wave of your phone.

This is an interesting development that expands your iPhone's usefulness. I wonder if this paves the way for other microSD cards to transfer other types of files and storage to the iPhone. It seems a logical step and not out of the realm of possibility. The case seems slick and small enough to keep on your phone all the time and not just during a shopping spree. Support is only for Visa cards at this time, so don't throw away your Mastercards or American Express just yet.

Android users everywhere are pretty fired up about all of the capabilities being brought to their phones with the "Froyo" update, Android 2.2. Speedier performance, WiFi hotspot capabilities, and tethering are just the tip of the iceberg. Now it is being reported that Android is taking a direct shot at Apple's list of "iPad optimized" (read: Adobe Flash-free) sites with a link to an Adobe Mobile website after the upgrade is completed.

This link is said to take Android users to a page that gives an option to either receive a full list of sites that are Flash 10.1 enabled or visit the Adobe site to receive Flash products. The list of sites is already live for the Droid and Nexus One products and seem to change according to the device that is being used, which is a bit odd but may change in the future after 2.2 is officially launched.

Flash capability is obviously something that Android is banking on to increase their market share over Apple products. With Adobe and Google working together to connect Flash with all of their products including their Chrome browser and upcoming Chrome OS, lines seem to be drawn in the sand in the mobile device wars between these two heavyweights.

GPU acceleration is one of the biggest talks of the town when focusing on ways to go beyond the limitations of older, traditional computational methods and we're seeing it being harnessed in more and exciting ways as time goes on.

One of the biggest software makers of all, Microsoft is now taking it on for use in their latest Office 2010 product suite with the help of AMD and their supporting Radeon HD 3000, 4000 and 5000 series graphics cards. PowerPoint users in particular will be able to benefit in several ways if running one of these graphics cards in their system. But there's also many other new capabilities and benefits across the board when making use of graphics acceleration versus earlier Office releases.

AMD Product Manager, Andrew Dodd has constructed a blog posting that explains many reasons why GPU acceleration in MS' Office is something to really get excited about if you're a regular Office user (and there's so many of us that are). Here's an extract of some of the new features in Office 2010 that will be able to make good use of GPU acceleration :-

We first heard a whisper about a week ago that Seagate have apparently been working hard at pushing the capacity barrier further with the 3.5-inch form factor and are looking to bring out a new enterprise level Constellation ES series of drives later this year with a whopping 3TB capacity.

Confirmation from Seagate themselves has now been given that the company is in fact developing 3TB drives for launch later this year. But as is the case with 2TB drives currently, being the top capacity model means a much less attractive GB per dollar ratio.

Another issue of the increased capacity has been mentioned as well; the need for a system that is able to fully understand the Long LBA (logical block addressing) standard. The requirements for that included the use of new supporting drivers, updated BIOS and a 64-bit copy of Vista, Windows 7 or modified versions of Linux. 32-bit users will be out in the cold.

A new survey has shown that price drops could be the only thing holding tablets and ereaders back from really taking off in the worldwide market. The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) conducted a survey of around 13,000 consumers in 14 countries to get a feel for market feelings on devices like the Apple iPad and Amazon Kindle.

73 percent of those polled that were familiar with these devices said they were planning to purchase one of these items within one to three years. However, most U.S. consumers were only polled to be willing to pay 100-150 dollars for a device like the Kindle or 130-200 dollars for a multiple usage device like the iPad; significantly below current market value.

"I think we're already at the starting point of mass adoption," said John Rose, who conducted the survey for BCG. "As with other major mass market consumer devices the prices will come down. They always do."

Wacom has been making pen tablets and pen enabled displays for specialty industries for a long time. The company makes displays aimed at the professional designer and medical industries. The screens let artists draw directly on the screen and doctors can do things like make notations directly on digital x-rays.

Wacom has unveiled a pair of new pen-enabled displays called the DTU-2231 and the DTU-1631. Both are interactive pen displays and are aimed at presenters and other uses. The 2231 is a 21.5-inch screen with a 1920 x 1080 resolution and the 1631 is a 15.6-inch screen with a 1366 x 768 resolution.

Both of them share many of the same features including 512 levels of pressure sensitivity with two side switches on the pen that are customizable. The screen supports video pass-through with DVI and have a built-in USB hub. The 2231 will sell for $1899, the 1631 will sell for $1249, and both are available now.