Logitech debuts Wireless Desktop MK710

Shane McGlaun | Networking | Feb 10, 2010 11:44 AM CST

Logitech has been making keyboards, mice, and other peripherals for Mac and PC users for years. The company is one of the biggest names in peripherals and other stuff for computers. Logitech has unveiled its latest wireless desktop called the MK710.

The desktop includes a keyboard and a mouse that each promise three years of use on a single set of batteries. The keyboard uses Logitech's Incurve keys with rounded edges for more comfortable typing. The keys also promise longer travel for comfort. The palms rest area is cushioned as well and the keyboard has an LCD to show caps lock and other notifications.

The mouse is a sculpted design for the right hand with several buttons that can be mapped. The scroll wheel uses the Logitech hyper-fast scrolling tech. Both the keyboard and the mouse connect to the PC via a Unifying receiver that barely sticks out of the USB port. The keyboard and mouse will ship soon for $99.99.

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Micron to Acquire Numonyx

Chris Ramseyer | Business, Financial & Legal | Feb 10, 2010 11:17 AM CST

The following news story was submitted by Jim Handy of Objective Analysis.

Late Tuesday Micron announced that the company had signed a definitive agreement to acquire Numonyx in an all-stock transaction. Micron will issue 140 million shares of the company's common stock, worth approximately $1.27 billion, to Numonyx shareholders Intel, STMicroelectronics, and Francisco Partners.

Micron Re-Enters NOR

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Dell's 2560x1440 27-inch UltraSharp display now available

Steve Dougherty | Displays & Projectors | Feb 10, 2010 4:08 AM CST

First unveiled at last months CES, Dell's very tasty UltraSharp U2711 monitor is starting to show up on the market now.

The real eye-catcher in terms of specs for this model is its native resolution' 2560x1440. It uses an IPS panel and sports a 6ms response time, contrast ratio of 1000:1 (80,000:1 DCR), typical brightness level of 350 cd/m2, 110% color gamut and also houses a card reader and four USB 2.0 ports for convenience.

Connectivity is rich with support for D-Sub, dual DVI, HDMI 1.3, DisplayPort and composite.

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NVIDIA Optimus tech takes the hassle out of changing GPUs in notebooks

Shane McGlaun | Laptops | Feb 9, 2010 11:40 AM CST

There are times when a notebook user needs less performance and more battery life from their notebook. There are also times when the user has an AC outlet and needs all the performance the machine can muster. Not so long ago that would have meant you need two machines to meet both of those needs.

NVIDIA unveiled its switchable graphics tech that let the user change between a discrete GPU and an integrated GPU when needed a while back. The catch was that the change often required the closing of open apps, a reboot, or logging out of the user account to complete. NVIDIA announced new technology today that make changing between two available GPUs in a notebook a process that needs no user input and happens seamlessly.

The technology is called Optimus and it will change between the available GPUs as the demands on the system change without input from the user. The new technology allows the user to continue working as well requiring no stops or closing of applications. The new tech will first surface in notebooks coming soon from Asus. Optimus is compatible with the latest GeForce 200M and 300M GPUs and will work with Fermi-based GPUs coming soon.

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NVIDIA shows a bit of interest in external graphics for notebooks

Steve Dougherty | Laptops | Feb 9, 2010 1:26 AM CST

Some comments made by a high-up executive of NVIDIA just recently indicate the company's interest in external graphics adapters for notebooks. Whilst there's no definitive plans to introduce products of this nature to market as yet, Rene Haas who is the general manager of the notebook GPU sector at NVIDIA believes it is a big oppportunity for success :-

I think it is a big opportunity. We have two strategies at Nvidia: one is to put graphics everywhere, the other one is to [find more ways to] integrate discrete chips into the box. I think there is definitely a place for [external graphics cards for notebooks], no question. We continue to look at whether this is a GPU [docking stations] or external devices.

ATI had already come out with something like this in 2008; an external graphics card in a sleek looking box, connected using XGP (External Graphics Port) technology, but this has yet to be really pushed in the market and there is currently only the one solution available from Fujitsu called the Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Graphics Booster which houses ATI's Mobility Radeon HD 3870 GPU and can be connected to Fujitsu's Amilo SA3650 or Acer's Aspire Ferrari One.

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Amazon offers new details on Kindle Development Kit active apps

Shane McGlaun | Software & Apps | Feb 8, 2010 11:46 AM CST

Amazon is doing very well with its Kindle eReader and the device is one of the most popular readers on the market. Amazon is being forced to up the pricing of the digital books that go along with the reader, thanks in large part to Apple.

Amazon announced a while back that it was launched a new Kindle Developers Program that would allow devs to build active content for the reader. Amazon announced recently that the KDK program was now rolling in limited beta and offered a few more details on the active content the program will produce.

Three pricing options for the content developed with the KDK will be available. The free option requires the app to be under 1MB in size and use under 100KB/user/month of wireless data. A one-time purchase plan will be for apps with data use of no more than 100KB/user/month. A monthly subscription plan will be used for apps that use more data. The largest app size allowed is 100MB and apps larger than 10MB will only be available to upload via USB.

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Club 3D readies up custom designed HD 5850 Overclocked Edition

Both NVIDIA and AMD partner Club 3D has just unveiled a non-reference version of AMD's Radeon HD 5850 graphics card which it simply calls the Radeon HD 5850 Overclocked Edition with its higher clock rates on tap.

There's more to the card than just higher clock speeds, however. It uses a custom PCB and cooler to make sure its 760MHz GPU and 1050MHz (4200MHz effective) memory clocks are as stable as a rock. But while those increases over the stock 725MHz/1000MHz setup don't seem like much, there's bound to be a lot of headroom for some manual overclocking goodness with this variant.

A bit about the cooler; it is of a dual-slot nature with the use of four protruding heatpipes that run to a large heatsink with aluminum fins of which a centrally positioned fan blows air directly down.

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New NEC USB 3.0 firmware update available

Steve Dougherty | Connectivity & Cloud | Feb 8, 2010 6:15 AM CST

GIGABYTE has just kindly let us know about a firmware update for the NEC USB 3.0 controller found on many of its latest motherboards. The update is primarily for the purposes of improving USB 3.0 device compatibility.

The new firmware is inclusive of an executable update tool which you simply run from within Windows to have your controller updated to the latest. Please note; this Update Tool is only suited to Windows 7 and Vista.

If you have one of these boards from GIGABYTE, then you have NEC's USB 3.0 controller which can be updated with the use of this firmware update tool :-

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ASRock announce True 333 series P55 Deluxe3

Steve Dougherty | Motherboards | Feb 5, 2010 8:14 AM CST

ASRock has announced a new P55 motherboard today which has it all. Dubbed the P55 Deluxe3, this board is one of ASRock's new True 333 series models which means it has SATA3, eSATA3 and USB 3.0 support.

Both SLI and Crossfire(X) are of course supported on this full ATX sized motherboard via the two residing PCI-E x16 slots. Also, what's nice to see here is that ASRock recognise the P55 chipset taxes needed bandwidth from the x16 PCI-E slots for SATA3 and USB 3.0 operation, so they have incorporated an additional bridge to take care of it so there are no tradeoffs no matter what your configuration is.

Along with P55's usual six SATA-II connectors, there are two additional white connectors controlled by Marvell's 6Gbps controller, and also a third powered eSATA-III/USB2.0 connector on the rear I/O.

Continue reading: ASRock announce True 333 series P55 Deluxe3 (full post)

SilverStone's HDDBOOST combines benefits of HDD and SSD

Steve Dougherty | Storage | Feb 4, 2010 1:43 AM CST

SilverStone has come up with an interesting device that works differently to anything else we've seen on the market up until now. The newly release HDDBOOST is designed to give a 'best of both worlds' setup using a traditional mechanical HDD and an SSD.

The device itself resides in a 3.5" drive bay in which an SSD can be mounted inside it. Meanwhile, a mechanical HDD can also be connected to the device via a second SATA port which allow the HDD and SSD to talk together in a unique automated way.

Once setup and the system is turned on, the device will mirror the front-end data on the HDD to the SSD so that all of the most commonly used files will be read from the faster flash drive. Unlike simply running an SSD on its own for your operating system drive, this device puts less wear on the drive as any new writes performed will be done to the mechanical HDD.

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