GIGABYTE X79-based board, G1. Assassin 2 - if looks could kill, well, you'd be dead already

Anthony Garreffa | Motherboards | Oct 19, 2011 6:09 AM CDT

GIGABYTE has just walked into a room and they've got their latest board on them, as they've walked through the metal detectors, a security guard has asked them "Do you have any metallic items, keys, loose change", and just as they've whipped their trench coat open to not reveal an arsenal of weapons as Neo did in The Matrix, they've shown a gun against their thigh underneath their stocking.

Enter, GIGABYTE's X79 series motherboard, the GIGABYTE G1.Assassin 2. Just look at that heatsink array... it is shaped like a damn pistol! GIGABYTE, why have you done this? It just makes you even more awesome than you were before. The G1.Assassin 2 sports the X79 chipset, which is set to support the upcoming LGA2011 socket CPUs. The board itself features Bigfoot Networks' Killer E2100 platform, as well as an on-board Creative Soundblaster X-Fi digital audio processor.

But its the revised 'Locked and Loaded' heatsink array that will attract people to this motherboard. You can't call the board an Assassin if its not deadly. The previous Assassin board sported an AK47-themed clip, and now this one takes it up a notch to a pistol. 'Locked and Loaded', GIGABYTE surely are ready, taking aim at the competitors motherboards, literally.

Continue reading: GIGABYTE X79-based board, G1. Assassin 2 - if looks could kill, well, you'd be dead already (full post)

HTC are reviewing Ice Cream Sandwich, will determine their upgrade path soon enough

Samsung has had the advantage when it comes with Google's Ice Cream Sandwich/Android 4.0 OS, but it doesn't mean that other smartphone manufacturers have been left out of the race. HTC have released an official statement to confirm that its looking at Google's latest OS, and combing through its new features and functionality.

HTC say that they're figuring out how to make it happen without forcing sacrifices to the usability and performance of each HTC product. Whatever HTC cook up, it'll be good to see how they integrate their amazing Sense UI with the new Ice Cream Sandwich UI. HTC are careful not to commit to the new Android, and it has not given any particular timeframe or roadmap. The full statement is shown below:

We are excited about the latest update for Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, and are currently reviewing its features and functionality to determine our upgrade plans. Our goal for Android updates is to give every customer an improved user experience, which means balancing each phone's unique hardware, HTC Sense experience and the Android kernel. While our goal is to upgrade as many of our recent devices as possible, we are committed to maintaining every phone's performance and usability first. Please stay tuned for more updates on specific device upgrade plans.

Continue reading: HTC are reviewing Ice Cream Sandwich, will determine their upgrade path soon enough (full post)

Microsoft shows off Omnitouch, turns any surface into a navigatable touchscreen

Microsoft researchers have unveiled Omnitouch, a new system that uses a Short-Range Depth Camera together with a Pico-Projector and turns any surface area into a navigatable touchscreen. Microsoft, in a joint project with Carnegie Mellon University reveals that the technology works in a similar way to Microsoft's Xbox Kinect, but is "modified to work at short-range" to track finger movements.

In the video below, you can see that the projector superimposes a virtual keyboard image onto a hand, arm, notepad or wall, which a user can tap or drag their fingers and access it like a normal touchscreen device. Of course, in its test stages, it looks completely dorky, but this is some future tech.

It shows a shoulder-based system, with a Kinect sensor sitting on the users shoulder, as well as the Pico-Projector, with the demonstration showing how "you can tap on your hand or drag your interface out to specify the top left and bottom right border," explains researcher Hrvoje Benko.

Continue reading: Microsoft shows off Omnitouch, turns any surface into a navigatable touchscreen (full post)

iPhone 4S screen quality issues, not again, Apple

Early adopters, and theres a lot of them (over 4 million reported) may be experiencing issues with their latest Apple-branded magical toy, the iPhone 4S. There is an open discussion on Apple's discussion forum where iPhone 4S owners are reporting issues they are having with their iPhone 4S' display.

The majority of complains are that the iPhone 4S has a yellow tint, especially noticeable when compared and placed next to an iPhone 4. There are other complaints too, with people saying they're experiencing color washouts and contrast in the same discussion thread.

This is the same issue that was experienced on the iPhone 4 when it was first released. The problem with the iPhone 4 display is that the smartphone shipped so quickly after it was built that screens continued to show signs of a yellow adhesive used during manufacturing. Eventually, the yellow residue from the adhesive disappeared leaving a normal looking display.

Continue reading: iPhone 4S screen quality issues, not again, Apple (full post)

Battlefield 3 open beta stats - over 8 million people participated

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Oct 19, 2011 2:31 AM CDT

EA and DICE have revealed some interesting stats regarding the open beta of Battlefield 3 with some impressive numbers indeed. Over 47 billion shots were fired, 2.2 billion regenerated health contributed by Assault players.

19 million people "lost their dog tags at the end of a knife" (I think I only took two people down with a knife, boo), 21 million M-Com stations were destroyed, 635.6 meters was the longest recorded headshot (I did one at around 550m, so I was close!), 1.5 billion kills were registered and finally, 8,125,310 users participated in the Battlefield 3 open beta.

Impressive numbers to say the least. I'm very surprised at the number of players though, over 8 million! That is a huge chunk of gamers. I would love to know the split on what platforms they used too... was it more on PC? Xbox or PS3?

Continue reading: Battlefield 3 open beta stats - over 8 million people participated (full post)

Ultimate FPS Simulator, sports Battlefield 3 and will be shown off on 'The Gadget Show'.

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Oct 19, 2011 2:09 AM CDT

Well, my dear wife: I have now found what I want for Christmas. One of these, please. Fan of Battlefield 3? Want some 360-degree, almost real life FPS simulation? Well, on Monday the 24th of October, watch The Gadget Show at 8PM on Channel 5.

This is a [truly] unique FPS simulator in which it turns gaming to near reality as you move, aim, fire and get shot within a 360-degree immersive environment. The team used a pre-release copy of Battlefield 3 and poached a team of top technology experts from across Europe to built a true one-of-a-kind simulator.

It sports the world's first, portable omni-directional treadmill designed by Swedish-based company MSE Weibull, the simulator lets you control the movements of your Battlefield 3 character with your own body (!). Now get ready for the best bit, it also sports 12 paintball markets that allow the player to feel the real punch of bullets - you will feel your enemies shoot you, for real.

Continue reading: Ultimate FPS Simulator, sports Battlefield 3 and will be shown off on 'The Gadget Show'. (full post)

Samsung Galaxy Nexus now official, get your specs, photos and excitement here

The Samsung and Google co-event to launch both the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Google's Android 4.0/Ice Cream Sandwich mobile OS has just happened and with it, brings a slew of news for Samsung/Google fans.

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus sports a 1.2GHz dual-core OMAP4460, a 4.65-inch HD Super AMOLED display pushing 1280x720, Android 4.0/Ice Cream Sandwich, 1GB of RAM, 16/32GB on-board storage, NFC, a 5.1-megapixel rear-facing camera w/LED flash and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera. Very nice indeed. The biggest point of that is not actually hardware, but software. Google's Ice Cream Sandwich is set to be the stand-out star here.

The Galaxy Nexus also includes something different, a panorama mode for the camera, as well as Bluetooth 3.0, USB 2.0, Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n, accelerometer, compass, gyro, proximity sensor and even a bloody barometer - you know, just in case you wanted to know the current atmospheric pressure.

Continue reading: Samsung Galaxy Nexus now official, get your specs, photos and excitement here (full post)

EB Games Expo 2011, Gold Coast, Australia wrap-up

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Oct 18, 2011 2:02 PM CDT

While Australians have generally been jealous of the expos around the world such as E3 in the US and GamesCom in Europe, we now have had our taste of a Games Expo in the form of EB Game Expo 2011. Gaming is a huge deal these days, with the industry worth a crazy $74 billion, with the industry generating more incoming that Hollywood does making movies - if that's not big enough, I don't know what is!

13,000 tickets were sold to EB Games Expo 2011, this was even before the event had started! The only way to get in after that was to line up at the door and see if you could try your luck there. Tickets were available to Australian gamers months before the event itself, with general admission tickets purchased online setting you back $29.95. VIP experience tickets were available (limited to 400 per session) at $99.95. The VIP tickets gave you access to the "VIP-only" lines to try out games.

Which FPS was more popular? Modern Warfare 3 or Battlefield 3? Well, if you guessed MW3, you were wrong. Activision's queue, while long (wrapping around their huge stand) was just no match for EA Games' queue for Battlefield 3. Another huge line was seen, which was for, of course, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Continue reading: EB Games Expo 2011, Gold Coast, Australia wrap-up (full post)

Logitech launches COD: MW3 G9X Mouse and G105 Keyboard

Steve Dougherty | Peripherals | Oct 18, 2011 1:51 PM CDT

Logitech's got its sights fixated on COD: Modern Warfare 3 as the perfect reason to introduce a couple new gaming peripherals to market with the game's logos proudly stamped on them to attract the mass of COD+Logitech fans out there.

There's the new Laser Mouse G9X and Gaming Keyboard G105 on offer. Briefing the G9X mouse to begin with, it has a dual-mode scroll wheel and on the fly adjustable DPI settings from 200 up to 5700 DPI. There is also an adjustable weight system where up to 28 grams can be added and the grips are interchangeable, too.

Underneath the mouse is of course the laser sensor and some sleek polytetrafluoroethylene feet, while internally there is enough on-board memory to store up to five profiles. The mouse is not wireless, however, requiring USB connectivity.

Continue reading: Logitech launches COD: MW3 G9X Mouse and G105 Keyboard (full post)

AMD already working on a B3 revision of Bulldozer?

Steve Dougherty | CPU, APU & Chipsets | Oct 18, 2011 12:36 PM CDT

Given the ill received launch of AMD's FX (Bulldozer) CPU family no thanks to the lack of what mattered most, performance, it's hard to imagine how AMD can do much to rise above anytime soon, or even maintain the foothold they had in the market previously in terms of offering a more aggressive price/performance alternative.

However, it's looking like AMD still may have another playing card up its sleeve yet; this in the form of a new (B3) revision of the chips being worked on. A mention of the new stepping was spotted in a public AMD document entitled "BIOS and Kernel's Developers Guide (BKDG) for AMD Family 15h Models 00h-0Fh Processors"

This is potentially a good sign if what we saw from the Phenom launch is anything to go by. Many of you would recall When the first B2 stepping processors in the Phenom lineup were found to be flawed by the TLB (translation lookaside buffer) issue, which incurred quite the performance hindrance of at least 10%. It wasn't until AMD rectified the issue with the launch of the B3 stepping Phenoms four months later that Phenom became a lot more attractive.

Continue reading: AMD already working on a B3 revision of Bulldozer? (full post)