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First look at Henry Cavill as Superman, Kal-El's new Kryptonian threads shown off

Anthony Garreffa | TV, Movies & Home Theatre | Aug 4, 2011 7:39 PM CDT

The first look at the new Superman suit is now available and I must say as a loving, adoring Superman fan that I'm quite excited. This is my Star Wars, my Star Trek. Superman is being rebooted under the helm and help of Christopher Nolan (of the Batman reboot and Inception fame) and directed by Zack Snyder of 300 and Watchmen fame. Henry Cavill plays Superman and photos have been making their way to the Internet for weeks now, but WB decided to get out ahead of time to show off the suit instead of a leaked smartphone shot or similar.

First look at Henry Cavill as Superman, Kal-El's new Kryptonian threads shown off | TweakTown.com

As you can see, it has a very Batman/Spiderman reboot feel, very "techie" and out-of-this-world, so they've nailed the Kryptonian feel of it. How do I think Henry looks? Right now, he definitely looks like the Man of Steel, rather than the Boy of Steel that Brandon Routh gave in Superman Returns. I really can't wait to see the direction this movie takes, I just hope Snyder uses practical flying rigs and not 90% CGI flying scenes like we saw in Returns.

Also, this is where our new Image system comes in handy, slide your cursor over the image for a high-resolution shot. It's 1.2MB and should give your eyeballs a bit of a work out. Enjoy!

Continue reading: First look at Henry Cavill as Superman, Kal-El's new Kryptonian threads shown off (full post)

ZOTAC and CoolIT join forces with new water cooled products

Steve Dougherty | Video Cards & GPUs | Aug 4, 2011 7:54 AM CDT

Following the launch of its DisplayPort to dual HDMI adapters yesterday, ZOTAC makes headlines again today with a couple more products.

ZOTAC and CoolIT join forces with new water cooled products 02

In collaboration with water cooling specialists CoolIT, ZOTAC has introduced the liquid-cooled GeForce GTX 580 Infinity Edition which has CoolIT's OMNI self-contained water cooling system mounted.

ZOTAC ships the card with increased clock rates of 815/1630MHz on the core and shader, and 4100MHz on the 1536MB of GDDR5 memory. The card itself is otherwise much a standard fare with its 512 CUDA cores, 384-bit memory interface and dual-DVI and single mini HDMI outputs.

Continue reading: ZOTAC and CoolIT join forces with new water cooled products (full post)

Borderland 2 gets its announcement on, get ready for more lootage

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Aug 3, 2011 9:25 PM CDT

Gearbox Software has officially announced the development of the sequel to Borderlands. The sequel will be based on the rustic planet of Pandora (Avatar, anyone?) and will have players traversing uncharted lands to discover new "mysteries." As usual at the time of a new game announcement, details are very low but Gearbox are promising to deliver an "ambitiously crafted story" that unfolds alongside new characters, skills, environments, enemies, weapons and equipment.

Borderland 2 gets its announcement on, get ready for more lootage | TweakTown.com

Wow, I'm pretty sure that's also known as "stating the obvious." If Borderlands 2 follows its previous title, we can expect the same four-player, role-playing, FPS lootfest that the original game made oh-so much fun. Hopefully this time round, the PC version is at least worked on. The original Borderlands stank of console port, which was very disappointing to say the least.

More information will be available about Borderlands 2 shortly in the form of next month's issue of Game Informer magazine as well as the game being shown off at Gamescon in Cologne, Germany on August 17-18 and finally at PAX Prime on August 26-28. The official release window for Borderlands 2 is slated for Take-Two's 2013 fiscal year which runs from April 1, 2012 through to March 31, 2013.

Continue reading: Borderland 2 gets its announcement on, get ready for more lootage (full post)

NVIDIA promises next-gen Kepler GPU this year

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Aug 3, 2011 9:14 PM CDT

There have been rumors flying about NVIDIA's upcoming next-gen Kepler-codenamed GPU for a while now, that it would be delayed until 2012 because of issues with the adaption of the 28nm-based process. But, Chris Malachowsky spoke at their GTC Workshop Japan event, saying that Kepler is still on track for launch this year. Chris was careful with wording, saying only that the parts would begin "shipping" by the end of the year which could mean a paper launch and not an actual card-in-your-hands-giving-you-sexy-times launch.

NVIDIA promises next-gen Kepler GPU this year | TweakTown.com

Kepler is meant to deliver a threefold increase in double precision performance per watt over the previous Fermi, as well as being easier for developers to utilize GPGPU applications. Whatever, NVIDIA, just give me the damn cards now please.

Continue reading: NVIDIA promises next-gen Kepler GPU this year (full post)

Qualcomm says they'll replace dedicated consoles with mobile devices and SoCs

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Aug 3, 2011 8:48 PM CDT

Smartphones and tablets are edging ever-so-close to the now ageing consoles in terms of capabilities, with the future not looking bright for the old consoles. SoC (System on Chip) creators such as NVIDIA and Qualcomm have some very powerful technology coming out and Qualcomm has gone as far as saying that future SoCs will be capable of beating current-generation consoles such as the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in terms of graphics and that we'll see a move from console and PC gaming to mobile-based gaming.

Qualcomm says they'll replace dedicated consoles with mobile devices and SoCs | TweakTown.com

Their vision is to have a device such as a smartphone or tablet based on a high-end SoC, plug it into the wall or tether to a display (either wirelessly or through HDMI) and you've got a portable gaming console. Qualcomm is committed to delivering both the hardware and software support needed to bring developers to these platforms.

Most players in the SoC market are looking at doing this as the smartphone and tablet market expands at what seems to be a never-ending rate. With console sales slowing down, there is no better time for next-generation console announcements from the juggernauts of Microsoft and Sony. The transition from console and PC-based gaming to mobile-based gaming won't happen overnight, as there are too many AAA franchises on the big boy platforms.

Continue reading: Qualcomm says they'll replace dedicated consoles with mobile devices and SoCs (full post)

MSI readies up new 15.6-inch GTX-570M equipped gaming notebook

Steve Dougherty | Laptops | Aug 3, 2011 10:06 AM CDT

MSI has just unveiled another gaming laptop with it already showing up in a few stores and being available for pre-order elsewhere.

MSI readies up new 15.6-inch GTX-570M equipped gaming notebook | TweakTown.com

The new GT683DX laptop is a 15.6-inch sized unit using one of NVIDIA's most recent high-end mobile GPUs, the GTX 570M with 1.5GB GDDR5 memory. The rest of the default specs include a 1920x1080 Full HD display, 2nd-gen Intel Core i7-2630QM CPU, 4GB of DDR3-1333MHz memory, 1TB (500GBx2 / RAID 0) storage, 8X DVDRW, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth, 2xUSB 3.0, 720p webcam, 2.1 Dynaudio sound system and a 9-cell battery.

Depending on how much extra you may like to spend over the $1,600 odd base price, you can switch things up for a 120GB SSD+750GB HDD, 12GB RAM, Blu-ray drive and matt-finish display.

Continue reading: MSI readies up new 15.6-inch GTX-570M equipped gaming notebook (full post)

Android takes nearly 50% of global smartphone market

Google's Android OS has taken an amazing 48% of the smartphone market in Q2 of 2011, which is an all-time high according to a report by market research firm Canalys. Android overtook Symbian in Q4 of 2010 to become to top smartphone platform representing 32.9% market share at the time. Smartphone shipments have increased exponentially also, seeing a total of 107.7 million units shipped in Q2 of 2011 which is a 73% year-on-year growth.

Android takes nearly 50% of global smartphone market | TweakTown.com

Android was also the biggest driver of smartphone shipments in Q2, with Android-based smartphone shipments being 379% year-over-year higher, coming in at 51.9 million total units shipped. This is thanks to Android being on so many different branded phones such as Samsung, HTC, LG, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, ZTE and Huawei.

Apple also did well, iOS taking Nokia's Symbian platform on and winning, rising from third to second place. 20.3 million iPhones were shipped and Apple took a 19% market share in the smartphone world. Apple also became the world's leading individual smartphone vendor, taking the throne that was previously owned by Nokia. Samsung also passed Nokia, with Nokia facing a rapid decline in demand across multiple markets.

Continue reading: Android takes nearly 50% of global smartphone market (full post)

Sony PlayStation Vita arriving in Europe in October?

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Aug 2, 2011 11:32 PM CDT

Sony have previously said their next-generation portable gaming machine, PlayStation Vita, will launch globally by the end of the year and have said more specifically, that'll it'll be in the fall. Blockbuster have jumped the gun, with IGN nabbing their flier which suggests the PS Vita will hit UK retail shelves on Friday, October 28, 2011. The advertisement suggests that both Vita models will arrive in Europe after two months. Will we see a US or Japan release at the same time? We don't know.

Sony PlayStation Vita arriving in Europe in October? | TweakTown.com

As we can see from the above image (if true), the Vita will be £$229.99 for the Wi-Fi only model, with the 3G & Wi-Fi Vita at £279.99. Pricing doesn't seem too bad considering Sony has promised a PlayStation 3-level experience, as the Vita sports a quad-core ARM Cortex A9 processor with a multi-core PowerVT SGX543MP4 graphics chip that is four times as fast as the PSP. The Vita will come with a 5-inch OLED screen with a resolution of 950x544, two micro-analog sticks to simulate the Dual Shock experience, front and rear-facing cameras, as well as a two-finger multitouch pad on the back of the Vita unit.

Sony is hoping that the front and rear touch screens will offer new three dimension-like motion gameplay experiences never before seem on any device through "touch, grab, trace, push and pull" finger motions. A Sixaxis equivalent with a gyroscope and accelerometer is also available to let players control games by moving and tilting the Vita itself.

Continue reading: Sony PlayStation Vita arriving in Europe in October? (full post)

WD brings Current-Season On-Demand TV and Acclaimed Movies to its WD TV range with Hulu Plus

Anthony Garreffa | TV, Movies & Home Theatre | Aug 2, 2011 11:15 PM CDT

WD have today announced that its making the Hulu Plus subscription service available to its WD TV Live Plus and WD TV Live Hub family of media players. WD TV customers can now watch hit TV shows, movies and catch up on previous seasons of their favorite shows.

WD brings Current-Season On-Demand TV and Acclaimed Movies to its WD TV range with Hulu Plus | TweakTown.com

Hulu Plus compliments the already strong content offerings such as Netflix, Blockbuster, Cinema Now, Pandora, YouTube, Facebook and many others. The Hulu Plus subscription service will allow WD TV customers in the US to watch nearly every episode from dozens of current hit programs all season long from networks such as ABC, Comedy Central, FOX, MTV, NBC and VH-1.

Series such as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,South Park, Modern Family and Grey's Anatomy, to Glee andFamily Guy, to The Office and 30 Rock, dozens of classic shows like Battlestar Galactica, The X-Files, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, Arrested Development, Saturday Night Live, Miami Vice, Ugly Betty, Quantum Leap, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Roswell andAlly McBeal, and hundreds of movies from Miramax and the Criterion Collection.

Continue reading: WD brings Current-Season On-Demand TV and Acclaimed Movies to its WD TV range with Hulu Plus (full post)

NVIDIA looking to improve multi-monitor support in next-gen 600 series?

Steve Dougherty | Video Cards & GPUs | Aug 2, 2011 10:18 AM CDT

As many of us know, the next big move we're waiting for from NVIDIA since Fermi came about is the release of its next-generation 600 series cards, dubbed Kepler. As the days roll on following a somewhat uneventful past 8 months or so in the VGA market, it's looking pretty certain that Kepler should come about around the start of 2012.

NVIDIA looking to improve multi-monitor support in next-gen 600 series? | TweakTown.com

Kepler will be one of the first products to use TSMC's new 28nm process (with them getting a warmup session on some mobile 28nm GPU parts initially). Of course, it's safe to assume there will be a number of additional features on tap from NVIDIA with these next-gen cards, one of which looks to be in the way of better multi-monitor support.

As reported via the source link below, NVIDIA is apparently taking serious notice of the clear success that is Eyefinity with so many folks jumping aboard and making use of 3-screen gaming bliss since its inception.

Continue reading: NVIDIA looking to improve multi-monitor support in next-gen 600 series? (full post)

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