2011 was relatively quite for GPU releases, it featured more next-gen CPU and APU launches than anything else. We had a few different cards come out, but nothing revolutionary, until last week with AMD's launch of their Graphics Core Next (GCN) and the launch of the AMD Radeon HD 7970.

The new 28nm-based "Tahiti" chips have taken the world by storm, and have been a very impressive GPU, considering early drivers and whatnot. AMD are planning to launch a dual-GPU card codenamed "New Zealand" and will carry the AMD Radeon HD 7990 moniker, launching in Q1 2012.

This means we'll see AMD's dual-GPU beast before April Fools next year. Since Tahiti/HD 7970 is so energy-efficient, dual-GPU efficiency should be quite the sight to see. We should see two Tahiti GPUs sporting the same power of the single-GPU HD 7970's, with 6GB of total graphics card memory (3GB per GPU system).

In what could look like a pre-alpha video for Battlefield 4 (face it, COD:whatever comes next will feature the same engine as previous games), the U.S. Army has been financing a "game" called Dismounted Soldier Training System, commissioned by the government in May of this year for $57 million.

The contact was awarded to RealTime Immersive Inc. The simulator is said to be cutting edge, with the director of strategic programs at Intelligent Decisions, Floyd West, stating:

With CryEngine 3 being used for Crysis 2 and the capabilities that game engine provides, it allows us to make the most realistic simulation possible. We're able to transport soldiers to accurately recreated locales like Afghanistan and Iraq, where we can simulate everything from visuals to 360-degree sound.

Dropbox fans rejoice, Dropbox 2.0 for Android is now here. If you want some cloud storage for your Android-based device, you're in luck. Version 2.0 of the app includes new features and a totally revamped layout. A little arrow can be found to the right of each file in the app, which then leads you to a pop-out menu.

From the pop-up menu, you can share, delete, and favorite, which is a brand new feature to Dropbox. When in the main menu, you'll have three taps up top including Dropbox, Uploads and the new addition, Favorites. From Dropbox, you can put files into your cloud-based storage, which then puts them across all of your devices, and once a file is favorited, you can access it even without an Internet connection because it'll be stored locally on the device itself.

Dropbox also includes the ability to rename files directly from the app, as well as uploading files in bulk. If you like to upload from and export to local storage, you're in luck: you can now do this from the Uploads tab. Ice Cream Sandwich support has been baked in, as well as various bug fixes.

Earlier this week, Mozilla renewed their agreement with Google to be their default search engine in Firefox for another three years. Google Chrome engineer, Peter Kasting, has said: "Google is funding a partner," not a competitor. And its a great way of putting it, more revenue streams and people coming to your search engine, are better than none.

Kasting adds:

People never seem to understand why Google builds Chrome no matter how many times I try to pound it into their heads. It's very simple: the primary goal of Chrome is to make the web advance as much and as quickly as possible. It's completely irrelevant to this goal whether Chrome actually gains tons of users or whether instead the web advances because the other browser vendors step up their game and produce far better browsers. Either way the web gets better. Job done.

Samsung have a duo of products to release before Christmas, in the form of two new dual-SIM Android-powered handsets. The Galaxy Y Duos sports a 3.14-inch QVGA (243x320) touchscreen, 834MHz processor, HSDPA, a 3-megapixel rear-facing camera, and software wise we have Google's Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

The Galaxy Y Duos Pro is the same handset inside, but features a smaller 2.6-inch LQVGA TFT screen so make space for its physical keyboard. The new devices will hit Russia in January 2012, with the Galaxy Y Duos rolling out to Europe, CIS, Latin America, Southeast and Southwest Asia, Middle East, Africa, and finally, China.

Galaxy Y Pro Duos will arrive in Europe, CIS, Latin America, Southwest Asia, Middle East and Africa. Both phones sport the great feature of dual-SIM, which can be handy for those who want to either have one side for business, one for pleasure. Alternatively, if one carrier has better offers at certain times (or more data allowance), and then you could switch to the other SIM for everything else.

Ok. If I were rich enough, I admit it: there would be one of these in each of my rooms. But, Japan gets it first, as they are the country of not only vending machines, but super-new technology and tech items.

Developed by Japan-based tech companies Sanden and Okaya (as well as Intel), this "vending machine 2.0" features a 65-inch see-through display with full HD resolution as its biggest selling point. When there are no potential customers nearby, it turns into a digital clock and also includes various animations to attract people.

Of course, the facial recognition feature is one of the stand out features of the new vending machine 2.0. Once a person is standing in front of the machine, facial recognition picks up the gender and approximate age and serves up personalized ads. The machine is suggested to sell "luxury" items such as cosmetics and wine.

Amazon released version 6.2.1 of its Kindle Software. The aim of this update seems to be improving UI performance, which is something people have wanted since the Kindle Fire went on sale. The update is set to be delivered over-the-air, but for those who haven't received it OTA, you can download it manually, with some instructions below.

Amazon say that the 6.2.1 contains the following:

Enhanced fluidity and performance - The user interface felt choppy, especially with items like the coverflow or "carousel" feature. This update aims to improve that.

It is the season to be jolly... to be jolly, you really need $1 million in your bank account. But what good is $1 million spare when you don't own a Human Slinky costume! Well, you're in luck!

There is one for sale on eBay! The Veniamin Human Slinky costume, which is on sale right now for $1 million. But that's not the surprise. You don't just get the suit, you get the rights to perform the Human Slinky act exclusively worldwide for five years.

After the five years, you'll be allowed to rock the suit to private parties, etc. The suit and act was originally developed by Romanian artist Veniamen. Get that credit card out! Also, invite me to your event when you buy it.

PCI-Express 3.0 has been here for a little while now, but it has only been with the launch of the PCI-Express 3.0-capable AMD Radeon HD 7000-series that there has been some proper testing. The world's first 28nm GPU to support PCI-e 3.0 is here, people!

PCIe 3.0 increases per-land bandwidth from 500MB/sec to 1GB/sec, this means for an x16 slot, double the bandwidth from 8GB/sec to 16GB/sec. Impressive, but will we see anything close to double the performance? Not now, and not in games. GPU compute tasks do see a difference in performance, however.

Improving bandwidth and latency between the CPU and GPU is always a good thing, but for high-performance GPU compute tasks, this is the difference between night and day. AnandTech tested AMD's AES Encrypt/Decrypt sample application. The test bed consisted of an EVGA X79 SLI motherboard, with a BIOS provided by EVGA for the PCIe 3.0 toggle on/off.

Most people I know haven't even heard of 'Prometheus', so if you haven't, then check out the trailer below. The movie works two ways, by itself as a stand-alone Ridley Scott-directed movie, and secondly, a sort-of prequel to Ridley Scott's awesome 'Alien'.

Alien really changed things up in the genre when it came out, and paved the way for James Cameron's awesome Aliens. Prometheus looks much more epic in scale than what I thought it did, so for those of you who have (like me) watched the constant trickle of leaked screenshots, teasers and real lack of info, the trailer will really blow you away.

The atmosphere of Prometheus is thick, Ridley Scott has done an amazing job making it feel like it really is a totally different place to Earth. Something that has impressed me, a lot.