Intel Sandybridge Taiwan Launch: Dancing Robots & Girl Bands!?!?

Nicole Scott | Science, Space, & Robotics | Mar 31, 2011 1:34 PM CDT

Intel Taiwan hailed the launch of the 2nd Generation Core i Series with the 'Intel Get 2gether Party' that was as flashy as the speeds Sandybridge delivers! The event was as star studded as it was flashy with celebrities such as Janet Hsieh, Big Mouth & the Korean girl band Visual Dream. In true APAC style there were dancing robots, scantily clad girls, asexual male dancers, WIDI demos, 3D glasses and a bevy of peace signs every where we turned!

The 2nd Generation Core i Series, code name Sandybridge have been knows for sometime, with their official release happening back at CES. What this launch was about was getting Taiwan excited about the processors hitting the streets and becoming available for purchase. Intel APAC GM Navin Shenoy swung Taipei to join in the celebration that involved all of Taiwans major OEMs.

In case some how you've managed to miss it, highlights of the 2nd Gen processors are built around a new 32nm microarchitecture. This includes more energy-efficient performance and improved 3D and graphics performance along with the latest version of Intel's Turbo Boost 2.0.

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Google Announces +1 Search Rating Interface

Trak Lord | Internet & Websites | Mar 30, 2011 2:24 PM CDT

About an hour ago, Google announced the addition of the "+1" search rating feature, now available through your Google profile. Google is touting the +1 as a way to refine search to be as friendly and familiar, literally, to the user as possible.

Google users will soon start to see these icons popping up next to search results based on the participation of friends and family in their already existing social connections. Google claims they're going to be implementing +1 "slowly", but if you want to get in on the launch, check out Google's Experimental Search Site for more information. In order to use the new feature, users must have a Google account as well as a Google Profile- it won't pop up randomly on its own. At least, not yet.

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AMD want Fusion in next-gen consoles

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Mar 29, 2011 10:26 PM CDT

This is actually good, just after my editorial are consoles holding back gaming tech, we have AMD saying Fusion would be great in consoles. I see this as a double-edged sword.

Consoles with 10 year life cycles just cannot sustain a single GPU/CPU combo. If the APU selected for a next-gen console is shipped with lets say 40-percent of its performance unlocked and future firmware/updates to the console unlock more and more power, it would allow a much better life cycle to games.

But, having a single APU in the next-gen consoles will only hinder them after a few years and we'll be back to the point that we are now. Console exclusives that hold back the immense power found in moderately priced systems (under $800). AMD still think that this is a future for them and I really think they will have an opportunity in the next-gen Microsoft-based console.

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Valpak & Junaio Launch Augmented Reality Coupons

Trak Lord | Virtual & Augmented Reality and 3D | Mar 29, 2011 9:20 PM CDT

Valpak has got a brand new bag. And it's not a giant blue bag stuffed with coupons, either. It's a mobile augmented reality channel that uses geo-locational user information to display mobile-based deals in or near your vicinity.

Neato.

With the recent success of Groupon and LivingSocial, it does not come as a surprise that Valpak entered the mobile arena, especially after launching an iPhone app. Unlike a normal app, this one is in full Augmented Reality, so you actually perceive mobile coupon deals overlaid onto the physical world, i.e. wherever you're pointing your smartphone.

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Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City announced

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Mar 29, 2011 7:59 PM CDT

Capcom confirmed yesterday that they will ship the new Resident Evil title, Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City this Winter. The game will ship on all three major platforms, Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

Operation Raccoon City is being developed by Vancouver-based Slant Six Games, Capcom have said that the new Resident Evil title will take the series in a "completely new direction" and is set to offer a style of gameplay "yet to be seen from the franchise". Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City will be a third-person, squad-based shooter set in the year 1998, during the events of the Resident Evil 2 and 3 titles.

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"Color" Commentary: $41 Million, Angry Reviews

Trak Lord | Gaming | Mar 29, 2011 7:51 PM CDT

The internet is very, very angry.

An media sharing application named Color that just received $41 million in funding is pissing everybody off. Color promises the user the ability to share photos and videos with everyone in the general area. The caveat is that everyone has to also be using Color, one of the many sources of complaints on the user reviews on the App Store. Users are also very unhappy about the user interface, which they claim is very counter-intuitive and does not have any sort of tutorial explaining its various functions.

Here are some reviews I pulled off the App Store:

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Crysis 2 to not get Direct X 11 patch, yet its listed on NVIDIA's site advertising it as a DX11 title, what the?

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Mar 29, 2011 7:27 PM CDT

After posting some news yesterday about Crysis 2 rumored to be getting a DX11 patch any second now, I've woken up this morning to see Kitguru are reporting that the DX11 is not coming. I read more into it and Kitguru state "we have no information as to how, or where this "Crysis 2 Direct X 11 patch is coming" was sourced from.

Well, I did some digging and found a great little picture on NVIDIA's own website. I've posted this picture above and the tag for it says:

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Cancer-detecting device now capable of detecting HIV?

Anthony Garreffa | Current Affairs | Mar 28, 2011 11:02 PM CDT

Technology, it's a wonderful thing. It's even better when used in a medical-based environment, the engineers who invented the microfluidic device are hopeful it can be used in developing countries.

Mehmet Toner who is a Harvard Medical School professor of biomedical engineering along with MIT aeronautical engineer Brian Wardle came up with adapting Toner's project (on which he worked on for four years) which is being used in hospitals currently. Wardle used his knowledge of aeronaturics to streamline the carbon nanotube-studded device, making it stronger and capable of collecting cancerous cells eight times better than Toner's original device was capable of.

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MySpace Loses 10 Million Users in Four Weeks

Trak Lord | Business, Financial & Legal | Mar 28, 2011 3:04 PM CDT

MySpace has seen better days. And months. And years, for that matter. After eliminating "major redundancies" to the tune of about 500 positions, MySpace's company profile is beginning to resemble more and more their color scheme: black and blue all over.

Everyone is pointing the finger at Facebook, the White Whale of social media- and they're all correct. Facebook's success has overshadowed MySpace for the last two years, if not longer. It got to the point where CEO Mike Jones was forced to admit in November of 2010 that MySpace couldn't compete anymore, would be rebranding itself as a social media entertainment destination of sorts. For all of you keeping track, Yahoo pulled a similar maneuver in the past few years when it failed to stack up to Google in Search- they repositioned themselves as an entertainment news site. And furthermore, if anyone reading this is old enough to remember AOL when it didn't own like 23498 blogs, they did pretty much the same thing when their subscription service tanked (you know, when people realized they could just download an internet browser?).

Despite the repositioning efforts which netted the implacable MySpace 95 million unique users, its reported that the site went from 73 million to 63 million unique users in a four-week span between January and February.

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Apple Worldwise Dev Conference Kicks Off June 6th in San Francisco

Trak Lord | Trade Shows | Mar 28, 2011 1:34 PM CDT

Mark your iCal's: Apple's annual Worldwide Developer's conference will be held June 6-10, right here in San Francisco at the Moscone Center (apple really likes this place, having held many a launch and conference in this same location).

If you're on Apple's mailing list, you probably already received an email with all the normal fanfare and wonder of an email from Apple. Brevity is the soul of both Wit and Marketing, and Apple figured that out a long time ago. The tagline for this year's event is "the future of iOS and Mac OS", which presumably has something to do with running out of large jungle cats with which to name the latter.

Phillip Schiller, Apple's SVP of Worldwide Product Marketing:

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