Nokia 6630 Music Edition

Nokia today announced the Nokia 6630 Music Edition, a special music version of the iconic 3G smartphone. The Nokia 6630 Music Edition has been designed with enhanced music functionality to make it convenient for you to take your music collection with you while on the move.

The updated music player makes it easier than ever to manage and play your music files. The included 256-megabyte memory card lets you store up to 15 CDs worth of music while support for up to 1 GB RS-MMC means you'll never have to be without your favorite tunes. You can transfer music to the Nokia 6630 Music Edition quickly and easily, with the included Nokia PC Suite software or with the bundled Nokia USB MMC/SD reader. Connecting your favorite headphones is a snap with the Nokia Audio Adapter and its 3.5 mm stereo jack.

"The Nokia 6630 Music Edition is a fantastic combination of music, smartphone and 3G," said Tuula Rytilä-Uotila, Director, Imaging EMEA, Nokia. "You can carry a good portion of your music collection with you where ever you go and with the Nokia Audio Adapter, you can quicky connect your favorite set of music headphones."

Available in either Rustic Red or Aluminum Grey, the Nokia 6630 Music Edition is easy to personalize with a new selection of themes and ring tones pre-installed. You can also benefit from the wide range of smartphone features, including a 1.3 megapixel camera, mobile broadband access with WCDMA networks, mobile email, streaming video and much more.

ECS Motherboards now equipped with Solid Capacitors

ECS stated that the CPU consumes the most power during heavy computation, therefore the CPU power regulation area requires much more durable components. Thus, ECS opted the option of using solid capacitors instead of traditional electrolytic capacitors in areas around the CPU for all their motherboards. Solid capacitors typically operate at 10% lower temperature, offer 1000 times more electrical conductivity, have better reliability and longer lifespan. ECS also guarantees that they are using authentic solid capacitors unlike some manufacturers which use traditional electrolytic capacitors but cover them up with a solid capacitor shell.

Gadgets Affordable, customized headphones that sound nice, too

You might think a customized set of headphones would cost an incredible amount of money, but that is not the case with iFrogz headphones.

I went through the ordering process for a pair of the NervePipes and the choices seemed never-ending. With more than 200,000 combinations, users can customize everything including the headband, sidepieces, hinges, speakers, ear cushions and artwork to go on the side of the speakers.

If you're looking for a high-end set of noise cancelling headphones, this is not what you want. If you want a fun set of headphones to display some personality without costing a small fortune, then give these a try.

The sound was a little tinny and lacking bass. Even with that, every song I listened to was fine at all volume levels, making these a great deal for the $34.99 price tag.

The company offers other styles that can be customized. The Custom Flow model ($19.99) is a set of traditional earbuds, which can be customized with three pieces: the base (the www.ifrogz.com

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A new book, "Digitally Daunted" by Sean & Jean Westcott (Capital Books, $15.95), is the book I've always wanted to write Â- but didn't.

To sum it up, it answers all the questions that my family and friends constantly call me about. Which camera should I get, what is HDMI, does GPS really work, etc.

In today's technology era, many things are easy to figure out but missing one small, simple step can be critical. So if your VCR is still blinking 12:00, get yourself a copy.

The contents are exactly what the authors say it is, "The Consumer's Guide to Taking Control of the Technology in Your Life."

It's divided up into seven categories: your computer; connecting to the Internet; telephones: landline and cellular; television; cameras; media; and probably the most important - what went wrong. Within each category there are breakdowns for most everything you don't know and need to know.

For example, within the camera category users will be instructed on choosing the right camera by explaining the differences in specific features. Users will be instructed on basics about the resolution and the never ending megapixel questions along with lenses and other accessories.

Very often getting the camera is the easy part. Getting your images into a computer can be a challenge. The book explains photo editing, storage (CRITICAL!) along with printing and digital frames. For those who are into the video end, there is a whole section on camcorders.

It doesn't end there, as each category is well-explained for the technology challenged.

Details: www.digitallydaunted.com, $15.95

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Cernium has introduced Archerfish, claiming it is the world's first mobile video intelligence surveillance system for home or office use. It is capable of notifying users of situations via email or SMS on web-enabled smart phones, PDAs, or on any PC computer.

With this system, users can select specific events to be notified about to avoid unnecessary alerts. The alerts can include anything entering the view of a camera or programmed to send video for a specific time of day to capture a specific event with a point-and-click setup.

The cameras can be set up in different zones for specific purposes to detect any motion or just to cover something simple like the front door area to see when something is delivered or even when kids come home from school.

An internal sensor trigger will have the unit create a video clip when it's set off I situations such as a door or window having movement.

If an Internet connection is temporary lost, the system stores the video and sends it on once the connection is restored.

The initial system includes the Archerfish Smartbox, SmartPortal along with two cameras and cables. Multiple SmartBox systems can be purchased and used in multiple locations, but all managed from a single Archerfish SmartPortal.

Additional camera's can be purchased ($200) since the system can use up to four.

The Smartbox itself does not store any footage, all video is sent through Archerfish's SmartPortal & is hosted offsite

The Smartbox does not store any video internally, all the video is hosted offsite. Users can attach any USB storage device (not included) to record all video from cameras.

Details: www.MyArcherfish.com, $2,499

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Contact Gregg Ellman at greggellman(at)mac.com.

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(c) 2009, Gregg Ellman.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

Des bus pour Cities XL

Très attaché à Cities XL, Monte Cristo annonce aujourd'hui un patch destiné à enrichir un peu plus leur dernière création.

La nouveauté principale est le système de bus qui devrait permettre de désengorger les centre-villes trop pollués. Mieux vaut tard que jamais, la carte de New-york s'enrichit de la Statue de la Liberté et des fameux gratte-ciels indissociables de la grosse pomme. Le "palais des glaces" quant à lui prodiguera connaissance et sagesse à vos concitoyens, tandis que la grande roue sera un nouveau lieu de distraction. Enfin, le mode solo n'est pas oublié car le coût des échanges avec la mafia Omnicorp devrait être significativement réduit.

Le patch se télécharge automatiquement lors de votre connexion au serveur et vous pouvez retrouver plus de détails sur les bus

Cut-and-paste to be available on Windows Phone 7 in early 2011

Therecently launched Microsoft Windows Phone 7 is fast, has a nice user interface and various features you will find on most smartphones on the market today. However, itdoes not havecut-and-paste function. It seems rather weird that the software giant didnot includethe functionfor the phone at launch, though the Windows Phone 7 also did not support Adobe Flash, tethering and full multi-tasking.

According to a Microsoft executive's blog posting,cut-and-paste should be availableon Windows Phone 7 in January 2011. Other addition features are also said to be coming soon next year. In case you didn't know, the Apple iPhone also did not have cut-and-paste feature when it was first launched.

Source: eWeek

Event in Singapore Licence2Play Gaming and Electronics Fair

Asiasoft is the first booth you will see when you walked into the Hall. Besides the MMOG games for you to hands on, there is a long queue of people waiting to purchase ingame merchandise.

Also at the frontaregame booths selling PC and console games at attractive prices. We saw aboy playing a Star Wars game on Nintendo Wii with a blue-lit lightsabre. Looks enjoyable no doubt.

Theinter-schoolcompetition was already underway and according to the organizer, there are 13 schools participating. Looks like everyone is enjoying a good time.

Aside from PC and console gaming, there's also the table board games such as World of Warcraft: The Board Game.

D-Link New N-Router For Gamers

D-Link, the company that introduced the first gaming router on the market,today began shipping the next generation of its successful gaming router, theDraft 802.11n Xtreme N™ Gaming Router (DGL-4500) with GameFuel™ technology andbuilt-in Network Activity Display.

As the newest member of the GamerLounge product family, the D-Link® Xtreme NGaming Router offers the power of D-Link Draft 802.11n Wi-Fi combined with anupdated version of D-Link's award-winning GameFuel technology. This intelligentpacket processing engine is integrated directly in the router, giving onlinegames priority for bandwidth over all other Internet applications, e-mail andFTP transfers. These technological advancements boost gaming to maximum speedsto provide the ultimate "no lag" gaming experience.

"Designed with gamers in mind, the Xtreme N version of our gaming routersurpasses the high-performance demands of today's online interactive video gameswith the fusion of D-Link GameFuel technology, Gigabit ports and the latestDraft 802.11n wireless local area network (WLAN) connectivity," said DanielKelley, director of marketing, D-Link Systems, Inc. "For serious online gaming,where every millisecond counts, gamers need the fastest router available to givethem a competitive edge. This is that router.

"Gamers will also enjoy the luxury of having an on-board OLED display to quicklymonitor settings and performance to keep their gaming home network running atits peak."

Optimized for both PC gaming and today's popular game consoles such as MicrosoftXbox® and Sony PlayStation®, the D-Link Xtreme N gaming router provides gamerswith increased control to maximize online performance by incorporating D-Link'sXtreme N Duo wireless technology (allowing users to choose the 2.4Ghz or 5Ghzband), a high-performance CPU and a Network Activity Display for instant reviewof network settings. The DGL-4500 Xtreme N Gaming Router includes Gigabit WANand LAN ports for ultimate performance when used as a wired router, which isideal for LAN parties.

The included Network Activity Display, a bright organic light-emitting diode (OLED)display on the router for monitoring important network activity, was createdaround the idea of "You can never have too much information". The NetworkActivity Display provides time-saving benefits for avid gamers wanting tomonitor their network performance and keep it running at optimal levels. Amongthe settings available for viewing, customers can quickly check the gamingrouter's security types, network speeds, wireless network names, and much more.Gamers can also use the available D-Link Network Monitor Yahoo!® Widget forreal-time network information delivered right to the desktop.

Designed exclusively for gamers, by gamers, the D-Link Xtreme N Gaming Routerenables users to setup a high-performance gaming network that offers the fastestwired and wireless speeds available from a single broadband device. Thegame-centric user interface of the gaming router allows for the configuration ofmultiple ports or port ranges in the firewall simply by selecting the game titlefrom a menu. With an easy-to-use Web interface, the D-Link Xtreme N GamingRouter can be accessed quickly to change settings and adjust performance forindividual applications.

The new gaming router is easily configured through the advanced features sectionof the product's web-based interface. The D-Link Xtreme N Gaming Router featuresrobust security to help protect the wireless network from intruders, supportingthe latest wireless networking security standards, including Wi-Fi ProtectedAccess (WPA and WPA-2), and advanced firewall features such as Network AddressTranslation (NAT), Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI), and Virtual Private Network(VPN) Pass-Through/Multi-Sessions.

The DGL-4500 features four gigabit LAN ports, one gigabit WAN port and a USBPort for Windows® Connect Now, along with three external reverse SMA dual bandantennas.

Price and Availability

The D-Link Xtreme N Gaming Router (DGL-4500) is now available from selectD-Link retail outlets and will be available through D-Link's network ofvalue-added resellers, distributors and www.dlinkshop.com this quarter. Themanufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) is $ 239.99.

Epson introduces world's lightest GPS running monitor

Today,Seiko Epson announcedthe worlds lightest GPS-enabled running monitor. The monitor boasts an extremely thin design, long battery life,uses GPS to provide runners with accurate distance, pace and other data, andwears comfortably on your wrist. Epsonplans to release a commercial version of the monitor in Japanthis yearand it would be the companys first entry into the electronic sporting goods market.

The running monitor can operate for up to 12 hours on a full charge with GPS tracking on which is more thansufficient for long-distance events, from full marathons to trial runs. The long battery life also means that the monitor will require less frequent recharging;a runner who uses it for five hours a week with GPS tracking on would not need to recharge the unit for a full two weeks. Epsons GPS running monitor weighs about 50 grams and measures just 13mm thin, which iscomfortable to wear on the wrist. It also offers water resistance of up to 5 bars, or 50 meters of water, compared to other GPS watches that can be fully submerged in water no deeper than one meter for a maximum of 30 minutes.

Apple quot;Before contacting the genius bar, have you tried turning it off and on again quot;

As anyone who has tried to troubleshoot a computer will tell you, the first thing to do is usually to try turning it off and on again. I myself have been doing it for years. Most of the time, this will solve your problems, but the general public seems quite unaware of this handy all-round solution. Resetting the device has been a running joke on the comedy TV series "the IT crowd" (theres a montage below, for your amusement), because its something tech support has to say over and over again.

Apple has seemingly caught on to this fact. Currently, when making a genius bar reservation for fixing your iPhone, apple tells the user to try resetting it first, likely saving the company a lot of time, and frustration for their support staff. Curiously, the suggestion is not presented when reserving tech support for an iPad or iMac, even though it is fairly universal in terms of devices.

Apple Australia offers to refund misled customers on new iPad

According to Apples senior counsel Paul Anastassiou, the company has proposed refunds to customers in Australia who feel that they have been misledabout the new iPads 4G broadband functionality. Apple will also publish clarifications on its website and at sales outlets with regards tothe incompatibility of the new iPadwith 4G networksupport in Australia. Anastassioualso said that the company hasnever claimed the new iPadwould work fully on existing 4G network operated by Telstra Corp, and it had been widely reported by the local media ahead of the iPad launch that it wouldnt be compatible.

TheAustralian Competition & Consumer Commission, or ACCC,haslodged a complaint at the Federal Court in Melbourne, accusing Apple of false advertising about the new iPads4G+Wi-Fi being able to work in Australia.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Apple New iMac G5

Touted as "the world's thinnest desktop computer," the new iMac resembles athicker version of Apple's LCD Cinema Display series, with the entire computer,including optical drive and power supply, built into a single case two inchesdeep. The system comes in three models. The low-end machine, priced at $ 1,299,is based around a 17-inch LCD and 1.6GHz PowerPC G5 processor, and comes with a533MHz front-side bus, 256MB of DDR-RAM, and a slot-loaded CD-RW/DVD combodrive. The middle system, priced at $ 1,499, ups the speed of the processor to1.8GHz with a 600MHz front-side bus, and swaps the combo drive for a DVD-RWSuperDrive. Both models come with an 80GB Serial-ATA hard drive. At the top ofthe range comes a 20-inch version, identical to the midrange model other thanthe larger screen and a 160GB hard drive; it is priced at $ 1,899. Apple claimedthe iMac will begin shipping worldwide in mid-September.

ASUS Shrinks Radeon HD 7950 DirectCU II

Without much fuss, ASUS slipped out a revision of its Radeon HD 7950 DirectCU II graphics card. The revision breaks away from the common board design between the HD 7950 and HD 7970 DirectCU II models, and uses newer, compact PCB and cooler. The revision could ready ASUS for future price cuts of the GPU.

The new board design will be applied to both the standard and TOP variants. Its most notable feature is the reduced length, which appears to be down by an inch, if not more. Its unclear if there are any casualties of this design change. The cooler appears to be just a compacted version of the original, that looks a little less rough on the edges. According to one source, the new cooler features denser aluminum fin stacks, and uses six heat pipes to transport heat, instead of five on the original design. A secondary heatsink runs the entire length of the obverse side of the PCB, drawing heat from memory, MOSFETs, and other hot ancillary components, and cools them under the air-flow of the main heatsink.

The display output configuration is also changed, with the revision featuring two dual-link DVI apart from one-each of HDMI 1.4a and standard-size DisplayPort 1.2; in comparison to the original featuring two mini-DisplayPorts, and just one dual-link DVI. Apart from the design changes mentioned, both the base and TOP models of the new HD 7950 DirectCU II graphics cards retain the clock speeds of the originals. The base model ships with 800 MHz core, 5.00 GHz (effective) memory; while the TOP model ships with 900 MHz core and 5.00 GHz (effective) memory.

The revised ASUS HD 7950 DirectCU II graphics cards will initially sell at the same prices as those of the originals, although its expected that the revisions will give ASUS a better cushion against falling prices.Based on the 28 nm "Tahiti" silicon, the Radeon HD 7950 from AMD features 1,792 Graphics CoreNext stream processors, 112 TMUs, 32 ROPs, a 384-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface holding 3 GB of memory, and support for the DirectX 11.1 API.

Analyst Downgrades NVIDIA; Claims no quot;Major Catalysts quot; until Second Half 2012

NVIDIAs recent enthusiasm over Tegra 3 wasnt met with as many design wins as the analysts expected, and the fact that 2011 came and went without Kepler didnt went unnoticed with the financial analyst community.

If you feel that NVIDIA stock is unjustifiedly low at "just" $16 mark, the fact is that there are financial analysts who will call the company out if they feel theyre underperforming. According to 111-year old Sterne Agee investment group, NVIDIA is doing just that - underdelivering. The analyst firm announced theyre removing NVDA from "Catalyst Driven Idea List", their in-house overview of progressive companies.

Vijay Rakesh and Mark Kelley, financial analysts with the group weighed heavily on NVIDIAs loss of Tegra 2 design wins and lack of major design wins for Tegra 3, as well as increased competition from AMD:

"We had put NVDA on our Catalyst Driven Idea list on January 3 ahead of anticipated catalysts at CES and Mobile World Congress (MWC). While there were some catalysts at CES with the quad-core Tegra 3 integrating Touch on its Ninja 5th core, CES also saw a Win8 Tablet prototype running an NVDA Tegra. While we believe there could be more catalysts with MWC February 27, we believe NVDA shares are fairly valued here. MWC catalysts could include Tegra 3 handsets with Icera baseband and some 7-10 tablets running Android Ice Cream Sandwich.

Overall PCs Continue to be Weak & New Tablet Ramps are Just Getting Announced - We believe near term PCs are seasonally weaker, and while HDD supply is improving, we believe PC demand continues to be weak. Also for NVDA, Tegra 2 into tablets is ramping down, and while the company could have new Tegra 3 design wins into tablets, we believe the production ramp on any new tablets in the April Q will not be as material.

Discrete GPU Competition -- With AMD ramping 28-nm Radeon HD7970 which delivers 5-30% better graphics performance than competitor GPUs on the market, paired with integrated APU Llano and INTCs Ivy Bridge-Haswell, we continue to believe the core discrete GPU market could have some structural challenges."

The question remains if this removal from the list and claim that the stock price is a bit too high for their internal PT (Price Target). You can read the full report here.

Athlon 64 X2 6400+ quot;Black Edition quot; Appears

Athlon 64 X2 6400+ "Black Edition" clocked at 3.2GHz has made its firstappearance in Japan according toImpress.Expect it to hit retail by 20th August with pricing is between US$ 220-248.

ASUS To Ship 500K Xonar D2X Sound Cards

ASUS plans to ship 500,000 Xonar D2X audio cards which adopt C-Media's solutions in 2007 after seeing satisfactory sales following the card's introduction at CeBIT 2007. The audio card, which will primarily target the gaming market, features 3D sound processing and supports Dolby Digital Live, DTS and 5.1 surround sound. C-Media is reported to earn US$ 10-20 for each Xonar D2X Asustek sells. If Asustek reaches its target of shipping 500,000 units in 2007, or 100,000 units per month, the design house can expect royalty payments to reach US$ 5-10 million.

Apple files for sales ban on eight Samsung smartphones

Apple is seeking to immediately capitalise on its US court victory by filing for a sales ban on eight smartphones made by rival Samsung.

The Korean electronics giant was found guilty of infringing six of seven Apple patents last Friday, with the judge ordering Samsung to pay out $1 billion in damages, less than the $2.5 billion sought by Apple, but still a major blow to the company.Worse for Samsung, many of its products will likely be wiped off the US market in the short term, including the Galaxy S II and Droid Charge, along with six other devices that Apple wants banned. 28 of Samsungs products are covered in the lawsuit, but most of these are no longer available.Samsungs flagship model, the Galaxy S III, escaped the trial, but Apples victory over features and design elements could allow it to target the device in another case, with a potential fast tracking option as a contempt proceeding, according to legal experts cited by Reuters.A sales ban is not guaranteed, but the chances are high following the court outcome. Samsung is expected to try to delay a ban in order to make an appeal and is already preparing to modify devices to remove infringing features, the typical method employed to circumvent such injunctions. Samsung is likely to also delay upcoming product launches to ensure they wont fall victim to an attack by Apple.The situation does not just affect Samsung, however. All manufacturers using Googles Android platform will be concerned about being next on Apples hit list and may also be forced to make design changes.Source: Reuters

ASUS PC-DL Deluxe Dual Xeon Board

-Support Intel Xeon 3.06GHz+
-Intel 82875P (Canterwood) MCH
-Intel 82801ER (ICH5R)
-4 DIMM slot up to 4GB of PC2700 ECC DDR
-AGP 4x/8x slot
-PCI (32/64-bit, 33 Ìhz)
-Intel 82547EI CSA Gigabit Ethernet controller
-Serial ATA RAID
-Promise PDC20378 with RAID 0, 1, 0+1
-6 USB 2.0, 2 IEEE 1394
-AD1985 6'ch Audio

Android On The iPhone

This is perhaps one of the interesting stuff to catch our eye. Android OS onApple's iPhone. There is a video, check it out

The author quotes that it should be pretty simple to port forward to the iPhone 3G. The 3GSwill take more work

ASUS Introduced TA-89 Series Chassis

ASUS has announced the TA-89 Series chassis – which incorporates an advancedventilation design, injury-proof installation, easy access to hardwarecomponents and a large hardware capacity for customized PC building.Additionally, its stable and well-built frame and independent USB port designprovides users with convenient access to USB devices and avoids mutualinterference when multiple USB devices are connected.

Advanced Ventilation Design

The TA-89 supports dual 80mm rear and front fans, with the option of upgradingthe front fan to a 120mm large fan in order to create even better airflow atlower fan speeds and a quieter computing experience. The side venting holes pullin cool air to lower CPU and graphic card temperatures and the air-duct funnelsthe cool air towards the CPU, while unique rear venting holes enhancesventilation around the add-on cards. This comprehensive cooling design enableslong and continuous operations for the most powerful processing platforms andincreases overall system performance and stability.

Easy-Access Installation

The screw-less hard drive cage with user-friendly holders and side panels withthumbscrews enable easy system upgrade and maintenance. The Injury-proof harddrive cage and folded metal edges protect fingers from scrapes and cuts. Thespring-opened optical drive door allows quick access to optical devices, andintelligently located USB ports avoid mutual interference when multiple USBdevices are connected. All of these features make the TA-89 series aneasy-access DIY installation chassis.

Outstanding scalability

The TA-89 provides support for four 5.25-inch and six 3.5-inch drive bays, sevenPCI slots, two USB ports and two audio ports to support an array of opticaldrives, hard disks, sound cards, LAN cards and peripherals.

 

Specifications

The TA-89 series is now available.

ATi Crossfire On 24th Sep

ATI is getting ready to release its first Crossfire motherboards and retail boards should follow, and some even ready at the launch date. ATI plans to lift its NDAs on the 24th. One of the key problems with Crossfire was the linking external cable that caused a few weeks delay. Just a little later, ATi will announce Radeon X1800 XT Crossfire edition master cards.

ASRock's Fatal1ty X79 Champion arrives, will cost you a kidney

Were not unfamiliar with high-end motherboards by any means, but ASRocks Fatal1ty X79 Champion is only likely to be overshadowed by ASRocks own X79 Extreme11 and that is if ASRock actually decides to launch that beast of a board. That said, features dont come cheap and youll have to pony up the cost of about two regular motherboards to get your hands on the Fatal1ty X79 Champion if early pricing is anything to go by.

The differences between the Fatal1ty X79 Professional and Fatal1ty X79 Champion are surprisingly large, starting with the memory slot where the Fatal1ty X79 Champion has no less than eight DIMM slots in total for some 64GB action. Continuing around the CPU socket, ASRock has actually gone for a more basic VRM design with 12+2 phases compared to 16+2 phases for the Fatal1ty X79 Professional, although this is likely due to the additional memory slots.

Spot the last minute quick fix

In terms of expansion slots, the Fatal1ty X79 Champion sports five x16 PCI Express slots with slot one and five operating in dual x16 mode, slot one, three and five or one, four and seven operating in a x16/x8/x8 mode and the final configuration allows for a x16/x8/x8/x8 option using slot one, three, five and seven. The board also has space for two x1 PCI Express slots, of which at least one could be usable if needed, as long as no more than three dual-width cards are being used.

Beyond the six Intel SATA ports – two SATA 3Gbps and two SATA 6Gbps – ASRock has added a Marvell SE9230 four port SATA 6Gbps controller to the Fatal1ty X79 Champion, although its not clear if this uses one or two PCI Express lanes, as the chip has support for both options. Other board level features include two front USB 3.0 headers via a TI TUSB7340 host controller, three headers for six USB 3.0 ports, a header for a FireWire port and a serial port, power and reset buttons, a Voltage readout point and a POST80 debug LED.

At the rear of the board we have a PS/2 port, two USB 2.0 ports, no less than eight USB 3.0 ports via two TUSB7340s, two eSATA ports via an unspecified SATA 3Gbps controller, a FireWire port, two Gigabit Ethernet ports via a pair of Broadcom chips and 7.1-channel audio with S/PDIF out courtesy of a Creative Sound Core3D.

Considering the insane amount of on board features, we cant but feel a little bit disappointed with the bundled accessories, as all you get is a front USB 3.0 unit, a rear USB 3.0 bracket and the various SLI bridges and a mere six SATA cables. Another issues with the Fatal1ty X79 Champion is the form fact, as for whatever reason, ASRock saw fit to go with a server/workstation CEB form factor which measures 305x267mm. This means that the Fatal1ty X79 Champion might not fit in some standard ATX chassis, as although the board is as wide as an ATX motherboard, its 23mm deeper. ASRock appears to have gone with a standard ATX layout for the screw holes though, but this is something worth keeping in mind.

We presume youve already guessed that this is a seriously expensive motherboard and although we only have Japanese pricing to go by at the moment, ASRock is selling the board for a massive 37,980 Yen in Japan. In more familiar currencies, thats US$466 or S$582, which you could get a good motherboard and a CPU for if youd pick something a bit more sensible. Then again, if you were sensible, then this would probably not be the kind of motherboard youd be considering buying in the first place. The official retail date is apparently set for the 27th of this month, so youll have to wait a little bit longer to spend your hard earned cash in this case.

Source: ASRock

AMD To Demo Virtualization On Socket F Opteron

AMD today unveiled its upcoming processor with virtualization technology to visitors of the Linux World tradeshow. This new chip, currently referred to as "Rev F," builds on the existing 90 nm architecture, but will come with the new socket 1207 and use DDR2 memory. Rev F is scheduled to be available in the third quarter of this year. Visitors of Linux World are first to actually see the company demo its virtualization technology previously code-named "Pacifica" and now called "AMD-v." The demo at the tradeshow has simply purpose to show the virtualization feature and not possible performance gains the dual-core Rev F CPUs will bring. The processor on site runs at a clock speed of 2.6 GHz.

AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition Launched

AMD launched the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition graphics card. In its crosshairs is NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680, and retaking the single-GPU performance crown. The new chip, apart from a fully-configured ASIC, features ≥1000 MHz GPU clock speed.

Unlike what previous reports from various sources in the media have been suggesting, the HD 7970 GHz Edition is not based on a new ASIC, or even a new revision of the existing "Tahiti" one. Instead, it is made from hand-picked (binned) high-performing Tahiti chips, from existing batches. It goes with the internal codename "Tahiti XT2." The chip attains high clock speeds and overclocking headroom purely out of tolerance to higher voltages, or higher quality (low leakage) silicons, which can attain higher clock speeds at typical voltages.

Speaking of clock speeds, AMD implemented PowerTune with Boost, a technology that sounds similar to NVIDIA GPU Boost. AMD clocked the HD 7970 GHz Edition at 1000 MHz (core), with 1050 MHz (core Boost). The Boost frequency is active for most applications, although some apps with unreal loads (eg: Furmark) can send the frequency down to 1000 MHz. AMDs Boost technology uses a "predictive" algorithm that takes into account how an application behaves, and how it should tune clock speeds (between Boost, nominal, and throttle p-states), and how the GPU voltage should be adjusted on-the-fly to support the clock speeds. Stability and performance seem to be a greater priority than power draw.

The memory clock of the HD 7970 GHz Edition isnt left untouched, it is stepped up to 1500 MHz,. using the same Hynix-made GDDR5 chips that go into the GeForce GTX 600 series. Thanks to the 384-bit wide memory interface, the card ends up with a memory bandwidth of 288 GB/s. The rest of the component load-out is identical to that of the HD 7970.

The 28 nm Tahiti silicon packs 2,048 Graphics CoreNext stream processors, which at the given clock speeds, breaches the 1 TFLOP/s double-precision floating-point performance mark. The chip is armed with 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs.

Like the HD 7970, the new HD 7970 GHz Edition draws power from a combination of 8-pin and 6-pin PCIe power connectors. AMD rates its peak power consumption at 250W, just 49W short of that of the GTX 690. Display outputs include dual-link DVI, HDMI, and a pair of mini-DisplayPort connectors. The card can pair with any three more Tahiti-based ones, in CrossFire configuration (that includes HD 7970 (925 MHz), HD 7950, and even HD 7970 X2).

AMD is pricing the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition at US $499. It should be mostly sold as non-reference designs though its add-in board partners.

ASUS to introduce ultra-thin laptop, UX Series

Weighing just 1.1kg, 17mm in thickness, aluminium finishing and featuring a large touch pad, the UX Series is going to be a centre of attraction in this years Computex. It is said that the UX Series will be released somewhere in Q3 this year.

Source: TCMagazine, 4Gamer

ASUS and Jay Chou jointly announce special edition N series notebook PC

The event kickstarted with a symphony comprised of ASUSlaptops,conducted by ASUS chairman Jonney Shih and Taiwanese celebrity Jay Chou playing the piano. And later, both unveiled theJay Chou special edition N-series notebook PC.

No, it isntexactly a celebrity endorsement;Chou was the chief designer who has worked with the ASUS design centre on the laptop. Shih said that the companys vision is to produce more of such distinct products which are incomparable and he is happy to have Chouas the designer for the special edition N-series. To conceptualize the design, itboils down to howthe combination ofthe consumers sixth senses and ASUS advanced technologies, and bring out the incomparable experience to the users. According to Chou, he had used "incomparable" as the theme for one of his concerts and that the design of the special edition N-series is very much like east meets west.

Shih also presented Chou withan honored employee pass which means the celebrity is officially working for the company.

Here are some pictures of models with the ASUS special edition N-series laptop:-

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A-Data Readies S596 Turbo SSD for Release

A-Data is preparing to release the S596 Turbo SSD, targetingenthusiasts.



Encased in a brushed aluminum enclosure, the 2.5” SSD boasts a JMicronJMF616 chip, 128Mb DDR2 cache buffer, both SATA II and USB 2.0interfaces, MLC NAND flash memory, TRIM support, “static wear-levelingtechnology” (for extended lifespan), and supports data transfer rates upto 210Mb/s (write) and 260Mb/s (read). Available in capacities of 32Gb,64Gb, 128Gb and 256Gb, the S596 Turbo SSD is bundled with a 3.5"converter and a 60-day trial version of Norton Internet Security 2010.Pricing and availability has not been set yet so stay tuned for moreupdates.


News via [Softpedia]