Mitsubishi Launches Mini DLP Pocket Projector

Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America’s Presentation Products Division, the industry leader in home entertainment projector technology and innovation, today introduced its PocketProjector™, one of the world’s smallest LED projectors. Weighing just 14 ounces and fitting easily into the palm of a hand or a coat pocket, the tiny projector is built for fun and creative applications. It can be battery powered or used with a universal car adapter for truly mobile video on the fly.

The PocketProjector has one of the shortest projection distances of any mobile projector on the market today: Users can easily create a 20-inch diagonal screen with only a little over a foot of projection distance, and a 40-inch screen image in less than a yard. With a special suggested retail launch price of $699, the affordable PocketProjector is the next must-have gadget, and the coolest gift for 2005.

“For digital cameras, handheld gaming and portable DVD players, the PocketProjector is the newest display tool or toy of choice,” said James Chan, director, projector product marketing for Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America. “This projector can go where no projector has gone before. Just imagine being able to whip out a big screen from your coat pocket – people are going to have so much fun with it.”

The PocketProjector powers on or off instantly for quick and easy start-up, and can display images from a notebook computer, portable DVD player, and gaming consoles for immediate use almost anywhere. It is lighted by three Lumileds™ LEDs (red, green, blue) that produce an SVGA (800 x 600 pixels) image formed digitally by the latest DLP™ chip by Texas Instruments. The projector’s advanced lighting technology is rated to last an unprecedented 20,000 hours; with an average use of five hours per day, the lamp is expected to last over 10 years.

The PocketProjector will ship with a protective slip cover and AC power cord. Mitsubishi also plans to offer Convenience Packs with suggested retail prices from $199, which will contain application-specific cables, accessories and small screens for consumer and industry segments. An optional extra battery base will be available for a suggested retail price of $149.

“Our new PocketProjector is one of the most advanced products I’ve seen in a long time,” said Aki Ninomiya, vice president, Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America. “It establishes new standards and creates all new applications and markets for projection displays.”

Pricing and Availability
Mitsubishi’s new PocketProjector will be available in July 2005 through online retailers and major retail channels at a suggested retail price of $699. Optional battery pack and Convenience Packs will also be made available upon release of the projector.

IBM Announces POWER5 Server for Entry-Level Unix Segment

IBM today announced it will offer the latest in a new series of aggressively priced IBM POWER5(TM) processor-based servers. The new IBM eServer(TM) p5 510 is designed to bring impressive POWER5 performance and advanced virtualization capabilities to an entry level UNIX® and Linux® server, making POWER5 affordable for every small and medium business.

The IBM eServer p5 510 delivers AIX 5L(TM) V5.3 functionality to a new level in the marketplace. Never before has IBM offered such an advanced eServer p5 system to the UNIX marketplace at a starting price under $4,000. The p5-510 is offered standard with a three-year warranty, further lowering the long-term cost of owning the widely-acclaimed p5 server.

Unlike IBM's competitors, this low-end server is available with high-end feature options such as advanced virtualization. The compact p5-510 is capable of leveraging optional IBM Virtualization Engine technology and Micro-Partitioning(TM) capabilities to allow clients at the server market's entry-point to support UNIX and Linux applications simultaneously -- with stunning performance characteristics across operating systems.

"With the introduction of the p5-510, IBM is taking advanced AIX 5L and POWER5 technology and making them available in an aggressively priced entry-level system," said Karl Freund, vice president, IBM eServer pSeries®. "IBM's commitment to capture the growing opportunity in high-volume and channel-based UNIX server sales takes a great leap forward with the introduction of this innovative server."

The system's slim form factor, innovative design features and system flexibility combine to provide a system unmatched by HP and Sun -- with superior performance to comparable offerings:

Performs 1.79X better than the Sun Fire V240 on integer
Performs 1.46X better than the Sun Fire V240 on floating-point
Performs 2.3X better than the Sun Fire V250 on NFS file serving
Performs 1.1X better than the HP rx2600 in Java Virtual Machine serving

The IBM eServer p5 510 is a one- to two-way rack-mount system that supports AIX 5L Versions 5.2 and 5.3 as well as Linux operating systems. Unique IBM technologies such as mainframe-inspired IBM Virtualization Engine(TM) and Micro-Partitioning capabilities offer scalability and applications management options for companies looking to run business-critical and replicated branch applications in retail, wholesale, distribution, financial services and healthcare organizations that support remote stores, branches, regional offices or kiosks.

IBM's 64-bit POWER5 processor-based servers are increasingly becoming the system of choice across the industry -- for clients with multiple locations, clients and Independent Service Providers (ISVs) to business partners, value-added resellers (VARs) and distributors.

New Server Powers Core Banking Systems for TEMENOS Group AG
Founded in 1993, TEMENOS Group AG is a provider of integrated core banking systems software to over 300 financial institutions worldwide.

"The banking industry demands that their applications run with excellent performance in a highly secure environment," said Mark Gunning, General Manager, Temenos North America. "With Temenos applications running on IBM's POWER-based p5-510 systems, we're offering customers, small and large, a robust 64-bit platform that will help to advance banking solutions substantially with new levels of speed, performance and functionality."

Advanced Systems Group, IBM Premier Business Partner
Advanced Systems Group is an IBM Premier Business Partner in Southern California that offers a broad range of business solutions including enterprise application infrastructure, data archive/protection and e-business; all based on state-of-the-art IBM hardware and middleware backed by their own professional services.

"We're looking forward to adding the p5-510 to our growing list of reliable, scalable and secure IBM eServer p5 servers that come in a variety of sizes to fit the needs of our varied customer base -- from small- and medium-sized businesses to large enterprises," said David Browning, Executive VP of Advanced Systems Group. "This new entry-level 64-bit POWER5 system with virtualization options will allow us to offer our customers an attractively priced platform with greater performance and more capabilities in a smaller footprint then that of other UNIX competitors."

Agilysys Inc., IBM Distributor
Agilysys Inc. is a leading distributor and one of the largest solution providers of enterprise computer products, computer system solutions and services.

"We're excited to see IBM extend its flagship line of UNIX systems in a 1- to 2-way POWER5 server," said Bruce Slaven, Director of Product Marketing, Agilysys Inc. "The form factor, power and precision of these low-cost, high-performance systems is attractive to our customer base and is sure to help us meet our high-volume sales objective."

IBM eServer p5 510 Express
The new system will also be offered as a part of IBM's Express program -- joining a rapidly expanding portfolio of Express server, storage and software solutions -- representing a comprehensive set of products for the specific needs of mid-sized clients. IBM Express solution offerings are powered by IBM systems with IBM TotalStorage, running IBM middleware and ISV applications, backed by the largest network of IBM Business Partners, IBM Global Financing and Global Services.

Pricing and Availability
IBM plans to make the IBM eServer p5 510 and the 1-way p5-510 Express available on February 18, 2005. The 2-way 1.5 GHz p5-510 Express is planned to be available in April 2005. The system will be available in a 1- to 2-way rack with maximum memory of 32GB. The p5-510 supports AIX 5L Version 5.2 and 5.3, Novell SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9 (SLES 9), and Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 3 (RHEL AS 3). The p5-510 will have a starting price of $3967 (excluding operating system) and includes a 1.5 GHz POWER5 processor, 512MB memory, 1 73.4GB 10K rpm disk drive, and three-year warranty.

Dell Venue smartphone review the venue where style and professionalism call home

Being a latecomer to any party is never a good decision to make, and it seems that Dell is about to find that out for itself the hard way now that its first Android-powered smartphone, the Dell Venue, has only been introduced to the market recently when countless other manufacturers have already established themselves as major players in the Android ecosystem. And going up against such big players is definitely not the easiest of tasks, even if Dell has an advantage in the form of the Android operating system beingextremely popular with consumers, which gives it an extremely large market to play with right from the get-go.

However, there is also the possibility that Dell could be adhering to the wise saying of "better late than never", and that it is always better to release a well-tested and stable product that will appeal to consumers as opposed to tacking on cutting edge technologies that have a knack for bleeding end-users a lot more than they are worth. But is that always the case? Well, we are about to find out shortly, right after these hardware specifications.

Dell Venue hardware specificationsProcessorQualcomm Snapdragon QSD8250 system-on-a-chip with 1GHz Scorpion CPUMemory512MB RAMDisplay4.1-inch AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display with native 800 x 480 resolutionOperating SystemAndroid Froyo (v2.2.2) built over Linux kernel 2.6.32.9Cameras8MP rear-facing cameraStorage capacity1GB, expandable with MicroSD cards of capacities up to 32GBFrequency bands2G: GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G: HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100Wireless connectivity802.11 b/g, Bluetooth + A2DP + EDRWeight164g

Latest iPhone launched in New Zealand

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Tech-savvy New Zealanders queued for up to 15 hours to snap up the latest Apple iPhone on Friday, kicking off the second phase of the smartphone's global roll-out.

Retailers in New Zealand began selling the iPhone 4S at 12:01am (1101 GMT Thursday), attracting a crowd of about 100 in Auckland, where Telecom Corp. laid on pizza and entertainment for the Apple faithful.

University of Auckland student Amy Yang took time out from exams and lined up from 8:30am Thursday to ensure she was first in line for the phone, screaming with delight when All Black Dan Carter presented it to her.

Yang, 19, admitted she was not quite sure who Carter was before he gave her the phone.

"I knew his look because of rugby, but I didn't know his name," she told The New Zealand Herald.

The iPhone 4S was initially launched on October 4 in Australia, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, the United States and Canada, one day before Apple co-founder

Apple plans to make the iPhone 4S available in more than 70 countries by the end of the year.

Mythos la date officielle

On connait désormais la date de sortie arrêtée de Mythos, le MMO hack & slash sous l'égide de Frogster. C'est dès le 28 avril prochain que les serveurs ouvriront leurs portes pour ce MMO gratuit. Sachez qu'une version boîte est également prévue. Elle sera vendue 9,95 euros et contiendra un accès anticipé aux serveurs dès le 26 avril, un pack d'objets de la boutique en ligne d'une valeur de dix euros ainsi qu'un familier exclusif illustré sur cette news. Et pour ceux qui ne peuvent pas attendre si longtemps, la beta fermée est encore en cours tandis que la beta ouverte verra le jour le 12 avril 2011. Aiguisez vos lames !

· Forum Mythos

DFI 662-TMG G with New SiS662 Chipset

First Motherboard on SiS662 Chipset, supporting the latestIntel Core 2 Duo, with SiS966 Southbridge featuring SiS Mirage 1 Graphics, theDFI 662-TMG/G as been announced. Here are some key features of the new chipset.

DFI Unveiled LANParty LT X48-T3R Board

LANParty LT X48-T3R, a real monster empowered byThermalRight

Although the Chinese New Year festival was important to DFI’s headquarters,the R&D team of DFI hasn’t slowed down at all, in order to launch the newproduct of X48 motherboard well ahead of the preset schedule. DFI’s LANParty UTX48-T3R is now just around the corner, ready to greet our enthusiasts throughoutthe world. This motherboard, based on Intel LGA775 socket CPU, will fullysupport the latest Intel 45nm process Quad-core CPU. Our LANParty LT X48-T3Rfeatures the highest end of Intel X48 + ICH10R chipset. It provides enthusiastswith a powerful measure that supports the latest CrossFire technology and thefastest FSB1600MHz, DDR3 1333 memory. Besides this, a server grade model, LP UTX48-T3R provides even more goodies such as the utmost Volterra 8-phase DigitalPWM, full solid state aluminum capacitors, and Marvell’s dual gigabit LAN chipwhich surely enhances the overall teaming function. Users kept telling DFI thatthe BIOS design is the “soul” of a motherboard; we listened and now we arecoming up with the most elaborated version of BIOS for every finished board thatrolls out from our factory. For enthusiasts, this means the ability to tweaktheir monster gear with unlimited choices of BIOS environment. The combinationof Genie BIOS and CMOS Reload is the ultimate weapon to help every knight of ourenthusiasts to beat the beast, over again and again.

You will also be happy to notice an eye-catching feature on our LANParty UTX48-T3R board, a powerful heat pipe cooler, we called “heat freezer”. It is afirst-in-industry invention that resulted from our cooperation with TheThermalRight Company, a world renowned, professional manufacturer in thecomputer cooler industry. ThermalRight is highly regarded by the computer worldfor its creativity and expertise in the heat dissipation process. It has beenwith great honor that DFI involves ThermalRight in developing a supreme qualitycooler such as our “heat freezer” for servers. Every LANParty UT seriesmotherboard is now equipped with the exclusive sub-assembly. For this, DFI hasjust pushed the motherboard standard a step farther. While you are serious inthe game world, you would not want to miss a board with the utmost,state-of-the-art heat freezer feature.

Specification:
ProcessorSupports core 2Duo, Core 2 Quad and Core 2 Extreme
ChipsetIntel X48+ICH10R
FSBSupports 1333/1600MHz
MemorySupports DDR3 Memory
DisplaySupports CrossFireX Technology
AudioDFI Bernstein Audio module
StorageProvides 6 x SATA II port
RAIDSupports RAID 0/ 1/ 0+1/ 5
IDE: Supports IDE interface

X48 + ICH10R: The Intel® X48 Chipset supports the latest multi-coreprocessors, FSB 1600MHz, 45nm processing; It is regarded as the module withcutting-edge performance and energy efficiency. Intel® X48 chipset, while itsover-speed protection is removed for maximum over clocking, and with optimizedsystem memory capabilities, can provide very fast booting, reduce applicationload time, and achieve extra power savings.

DDR3 memory: The DDR3 memory is a choice for the next-generation PCsystem. DDR3 memories support data rates of 1,600 MT/s and clock frequencieselevated from 400 MHz to 800 MHz, effectively double the speed of DDR2. The DDR3supply voltage has also been lowered from 1.8V to 1.5V, cutting powerconsumption by up to 30 percent, while no performance is sacrificed.

PCIE Gen 2 Technology: PCIE 2.0 doubles the bus standard's bandwidthfrom 2.5 Gigabit/s to 5 Gigabit/s. This means that a x32 connector can transferdata at up to 16 GB/s in each direction. It also works perfectly compatible withPICE 1.0.

The CrossFireX: Supports ATI CrossFireX™ Technology, real dual PCI-EGen2 x16 or three PCI-E Gen2 x8 connectivity for up to the latest 2 or 3-way ATICrossFireX™ VGA cards. It supports the physics and provides the ultra realistic3D rendering.

Functionality of Teaming: LANParty series provides Dual gigabit LAN togamers as a regular and basic feature. Nowadays, it is almost a must when userswant to grab information from DVD contents and highly loaded games to engage ininstant fighting with buddies on LAN games. For that reason, DFI LP UT X48-T3Rprovides another unique function, Teaming function to all the heavy users ofInternet/ LAN. It features double-bandwidth to meet the needs. Moreover, it hasa fail-over function that if one LAN port crashes, the other one will continue.Needless to say the teaming function gives you the performance, connectivity andback up functions that you will ever need.

Serial ATA 3.0GBps/ (SATA II): This high speed storage measureimproves data transfer rate. DK 790FX provides 4 Serial ATA ports with up to 3Gbps speed and can support RAID 0/ 1/ 0+1/ 5 as well.

The Digital PWM: DFI is the first motherboard manufacturer to replacethe ordinary PWM with Digital PWM in the industry. Digital PWM uses specialcomponents to supply stabilized and sufficient current to accommodateenthusiasts ' needs in OC or gaming. The heat dissipating fins of the PWMcircuit stabilize current flow to the whole system including AMD quad cores CPU.

Bernstein audio: DFI’s Bernstein audio module is the newest provisionthat demonstrates excellent on-board audio quality of LANParty UT X48-T3R. Theboard is innovative in many ways that greatly surpasses those of Karajan's.Location wise, it is now placed to the PCI slot vicinity for easy mounting. Youwill also notice that the new audio module certainly achieves a perfect noisereduction than any of the previous models. Since that Pro-gamers or power usersexpect the best quality for their output devices, and the noise reductionfeature here is just the right answer. It is noteworthy that Bernstein audioadopts Realtek ALC885 high definition codec and is certified by Microsoft VistaPremium. It features a DAC SNR of 106dB and ADC SNR of 101dB. It also supports asampling speed at the highest 192 KHz, 10 DAC channels, 3 Stereo ADC channels(7.1 + 2 channels) and 24bit PCM. Besides, please do not forget that it provides“Full-rate Lossless Content Protection Codec” that can decrypt ContentProtection for HD-DVD that will come in the future, and please you with theclearest image quality of DVD playing.

EZ Switch: For easier manipulation, DFI has created a handy way foroverclockers to switch the on and reset buttons while the system is there
without a chassis cover.

The debug light: The debug LED can help users to detect what sort ofproblems they are facing. It has a total of 40 different signal codes to helpusers to fix hardware issues in just a blink of the eyes.

Top quality Japanese Capacitors: DFI LANParty series strictlyincorporates only the supreme and refined components into every motherboard. TheJapanese-made highest-end capacitor is just one of our insistences. The superblong life, highly stable, and reliable Japanese capacitors are the rock solidparts used for our super overclocking platform.

CMOS Reloaded Technology: CMOS Reloaded is a creative design for BIOSsettings. It is absolutely the first-in-industry of our products to meetenthusiast’s need since 2003. Overclockers can simply backup and load with theCMOS Reloaded for their OC BIOS setting. No hassles to start over again from thevery beginning stage of fine-tune procedure should an OC failure occurs.Instead, the enthusiasts can save a stable setting during the O.C. process andkeep overclocking in a convenient and uninterrupted way.

Genie BIOS: Enthusiasts always take great pleasure in that they cansqueeze a little more performance from the system while overclocking.Considering this, DFI has offered a variety of BIOS options for enthusiasts.There are memory voltage option, NB & SB option, CPU VCore option, and HTvoltage option. In fact, we have created unlimited numbers of OC environment forour enthusiasts.

Persona 3 sur PSP

C'est à travers les pages de Famitsu que l'adaptation sur PSP du jeu de rôle Shin Megami Tensei : Persona 3 vient d'être annoncée. Conversion fidèle du titre PS2, Persona 3 Portable proposera tout de même un nouveau personnage féminin ainsi que quelques ajouts de contenu et de nouveaux modes de difficulté. Le jeu est prévu pour le 1er novembre 2009 au Japon.

Persona 3 Portable PSP

Dharma Point to release N-Key Rollover Gamer Keyboard (Japan)

With an estimated retail price of 3,980 Yen (~49USD), this keyboard is slightly less expensive than other ‘gamer’ targeted keyboards which generally contain a horde of bells and whistles such as LED screens and other such nonsense.

It’s not all bare-bones though, because this keyboard does pack a punch with its special plunger-structured actuator, which allows gamers who type faster than they can think to hit the keys at any particular angle without their fingers slipping off the keys. It doesn’t matter what angle you hit the key at, it will reliably move perpendicularly and depress without slipping.

That’s not all though, the keyboard is built for heavy use. Apparently the keyboard supports up to 20 million key presses with its super durable construction. That should last any avid gamer a while. (Unless you play Starcraft, in which case it will probably last you a week). Each keystroke has a distance of 3.8mm give or take 0.4mm, and a depression property of 35-75g.

As far as special features go, while not exactly living up to the super nerdfest standard of Razer et al., it does contain a couple of neat perks. One is that you can simultaneously press all keys without the keyboard giving you any trouble or making that annoying PC speaker BEEP sound. Another is that you have the ability to lock the Windows key, which is a pretty cool option for when you are playing full screen games and don’t want to accidentally tab-out and crash your game.

Being a Japanese product, the layout of the keyboard is Japanese 109, but don’t worry its pretty much the standard Qwerty format you are used to. It’s not one of those Kanji keyboards that you only ever see in movies like Tomorrow Never Dies.

Another cool feature about this keyboard is that the cable can be shifted so that it extends from the center, left, or right of the keyboard, allowing you to organize your desk in perfect gaming Feng-Shui. The rubber stands on the base of the unit are also non-slip, which is another necessary requirement for those frantic gaming sessions.

The keyboard has dimensions of 448x148x34~43mm, and a weight of 1,170g. The cable length is approx 1.8m.

Oh, one more thing, it works over USB. Duh.

Product Page: http://www.dharmapoint.com/products/DRTCKB109UP1

ASUS Wins Six iF Design China 2010 Awards

ASUS Wins Six iF Design China 2010 Awards

NX, N and G Series Notebooks, Eee PC™ 1016 Netbook, RT-N56U Router and the Upcoming EeeNote Impress International Expert Jury

For their outstanding value proposition comprising superior design quality, innovation, workmanship, material selection, functionality, environmental friendliness, ergonomics and safety, six ASUS products — the NX, N and G (G53 and G73) Series notebooks, Eee PC™ 1016, EeeNote and RT-N56U Black Diamond gigabit router — have snagged iF Design Award China 2010 awards.

ASUS NX Series Notebooks

The ASUS NX Series, featuring SonicMaster technology co-developed with audio innovation house Bang & Olufsen ICEpower®, is a breakthrough in notebook design. They are the world’s first notebooks to feature two touch pads, positioned at either side of the elegant keyboard, which serve as an intuitive and enjoyable way for users to manage and play multimedia content. They are also the first notebooks in the world to sport speakers that are integrated into the lid as opposed to the main chassis, as well as a flawless polished aluminum finish realized with the help of aluminum craftsmen. With oversized resonance chambers that are ten times larger than those found on regular notebooks, NX Series notebooks effortlessly deliver a wider sonic range, louder volume and deeper bass.

ASUS N Series Notebooks

ASUS N Series notebooks are designed to deliver the finest audio and video experience on a portable platform. From the ergonomic sunken hinge that enables users to select the optimal viewing angle, to the sound wave-inspired arc of the notebooks’ elegant profile, every design element of N Series notebooks reflects their entertainment prowess. N Series notebooks also boast ASUS’ exclusive SonicMaster technology, a new audio hardware and software standard co-developed with Bang & Olufsen ICEpower®. SonicMaster produces results on par with standalone audio systems.

ASUS ROG Gaming Series Notebooks (G53 and G73)

The ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) G53 and G73 notebooks are purpose-built for power gamers. Inspired by the F-117 stealth fighter, these matte-finished notebooks offer top-end hardware specifications and a unique twin rear exhaust thermal design that keeps them cool yet silent. A large backlit keyboard and rubberized palm rest, both inclined at approximately five degrees, provide users with comfort over long hours of gaming.

ASUS EeeNote

The ASUS EeeNote reinvents note-taking and reading with its ultra-responsive 8-inch 2540 dpi touch resolution screen and page refresh rate of just 0.1 seconds. Its smooth lines and aluminum chassis hint at its ability to handle information seamlessly, while a specially designed, easy-to-grip stylus slots neatly into a dedicated receptacle when not in use.

ASUS Eee PC™ 1016

The Eee PC™ 1016 represents ASUS’ first foray into netbooks for the business market. Its simple and clean squared-off chassis with a finish reminiscent of brushed aluminum exude professionalism, yet is casual enough for daily personal use. Extremely thin and light, the Eee PC™ 1016 delivers more than 13 hours of battery life and syncs conveniently with a wide range of devices, making it the ultimate business companion.

ASUS RT-N56U Black Diamond Gigabit Wireless Router

The ASUS RT-N56U redefines consumers’ perceptions of routers with leading looks to match its leading dual-band gigabit performance. With its slim form factor, diamond-shaped pattern and glossy black finish, the RT-N56U is as much a fashion statement as it is the most technologically-advanced wireless router to date.

These award-winning products will be showcased at an exhibition organized by iF in October 2010.

ASUS Radeon HD 6990 up for pre-order

AMDs latest monster graphics card, the dual-GPU Radeon HD 6990 has not been launched yet. However, EXPreview has reported that a Dutch website, SALLANDhas already started a pre-order for ASUS version of the HD 6990.

More specifically, the model of the ASUS card is EAH6990/3DI4S/4GD5. The card is based on the reference design and itsspecifications are in line with those that have been leaked on the Web so far - two Cayman XT GPUs,830MHz core clock and 1250MHz memory clock.

There is a single DVI output connector and four mini DisplayPort connectors.

The card is priced at 715 Euros, which works out to US$999.

Source: EXPreview

Apple loses Dutch appeal for Samsung Galaxy Tab ban

Apple has lost its appeal in the Netherlands over its attempt to get the Samsung Galaxy Tab, the primary rival to its iPad tablet computer, banned in the country.

A lower Dutch court originally dismissed Apples case in October, but Apple was hoping to change their mind with an appeal. The appeals court, however, decided that there was no basis for an injunction banning sales of Samsungs products, as it deemed that the products were sufficiently different to negate accusations of copying.This is a big win for Samsung, which needs to prevent sales bans similar to that secured by Apple in Germany. Samsung lost its own case there against Apple for one of the patents it claimed the Cupertino, California-based firm infringed, and Apple has upped the heat by filing fresh German complaints against Samsungs smartphone range.The two companies have been at each others throats over the past year, suing and counter-suing in multiple countries, resulting in bans, appeals, reversals of bans, and a general mockery of the patent system.The legal war has shown an ugly side of the technology industry, where healthy competition is replaced by lawsuits and complaints to antitrust regulators. While the giants of the smartphone and tablet arenas battle it out, its the little guys, the consumers, that ultimately lose out.Source: Reuters

TBI - The Binding of Isaac annoncé sur console

En voilà une bonne nouvelle, Edmund McMillen - créateur de Gish ou Super Meat Boy pour ceux ne le connaissant pas encore - vient d'annoncer que sa dernière production verra le jour sur console. Actuellement exclusive au PC, The Binding of Isaac aura droit à une refonte pour son arrivée sur téléviseur.

En effet, devant porter le code sur d'autre formats que le flash, les développeurs en profitent pour apporter quelques améliorations ainsi que du contenu supplémentaire. En plus d'être fourni avec le DLC Wrath of the Lamb, le jeu offrira de nouveaux objets, ennemis, boss et mode de jeu, soit autant d'ajouts qui deviennent impossibles avec la version flash. En effet, le moindre patch prenant des proportions hallucinantes, les développeurs ont décidé laisser tomber la version flash pour se concentrer sur le remake.

C'est avec impatience que l'on attend de voir les nouveautés qui seront apportées à ce titre déjà excellent, et l'on espère qu'un mode co-op sera bien de la partie comme l'indiquent les premières rumeurs. Cependant, il faudra être patient car le jeu n'est pas attendu avant 2013 et les plateformes encore à préciser. Pour le moment, on peut quasiment être sûr de le voir débarquer sur Xbox 360, PS3 et PC, mais une version Ouya n'est pas à exclure, si leur éditeur accepte. Pour ceux qui l'attende sur WiiU ou PS Vita, il ne reste plus qu'à prier.

· Forum The Binding of Isaac

ATi Crossfire X Logo amp; Performance Scaling

CJ showed us how the ATi Crossfire X logo looks like and boards will use thislogo if they are certified for multi-GPU (Tripod or Quad). AMD revealed theperformance scaling for Crossfire X as below :

1 GPU = 1 x performance
2 GPU = 1.8x performance
3 GPU = 2.6x performance
4 GPU = 3.(?)x performance

ASRock launches its AMD 900-series chipset motherboards

The launch of AMD 900-series chipset motherboards appear to have been more or less up to the motherboard manufacturers and ASRock seems to have been a little bit behind Asus, Gigabyte and MSI, but has today announced two new models. What were looking at is one 990FX board and one 970 board.

First up we have the 990FX Extreme4 which is an updated version of the 890FX Deluxe 4, but with a few tweaks here and there. For starters ASRock has changed the capacitors to a fancier looking kind with a silver and gold packaging, but its unlikely that theres any major functional difference, but its very visible. Of course the CPU socket and retention mechanism has changed as well, but the power phases, chipset location and most of the heatsinks remain the same. The southbridge have been kitted out with an updated heatsink though.

Other changes include a pair of Etron USB 3.0 host controllers in lieu of the Renesas chips on the older board. ASRock has also kitted out the board with a Broadcom Gigabit Ethernet controller which should be seen as an upgrade over Realtek. The final change we noticed is a move to UEFI away from BIOS, but this was a fairly predictable move as well.

The second board is the 970 Etreme4 which is very similar to the 870 Extreme3 2.0, but not quite the same board. The rear I/O is identical of the two boards, but some of the on-board features differ, some quite significantly. As both models support AM3+ CPUs there are no changes around the CPU or PWM area, but the 970 Extreme4 has gained support for ASRocks multi-media remote via a USB 2.0 with a CIR connector right next to it.

ASRock has also changed USB 3.0 host controller supplies to ASMedia and in this case we have both rear and front ports. The only downside here is that the front pin-header has replaced a couple of fan headers. The slot layout has been improved ass well with a second x4 PCI Express slot tacked on at the bottom of the board and ASRock is claiming that the board works in dual x8 for the topmost two slots, something the 970 chipset isnt supposed to support, but the switches are there suggesting that it works. Finally ASRock changed the Ethernet controller, in this case a move from Atheros to Realtek.

No word on availability or pricing as yet, but wed expect both boards to be available shortly.

Source: ASRock

Apple in iPhone talks with China Mobile

Apple is in talks with China Mobile, the worlds largest mobile phone network, to offer the iPhone to millions of Chinese consumers.

Xi Guohua, chairman of China Mobile, confirmed that the two companies had entered discussions, indicating that both sides are keen to ink a deal.China Mobile rules a whopping 67 percent of the Chinese telecommunications market, with over 660 million customers, but lack of support for the iPhone is seen as a contributing factor to a steady drop in customers, who are going to China Unicom and China Telecom, both of which offer Apples flagship device. This deal is therefore extremely significant for the long-term success of the company.However, there are problems with compatibility between the iPhone and China Mobiles 3G network,which employs the unique TD-SCDMA standard. This means Apple will be forced to offer only 2G on its devices.This problem is expected to be resolved with the introduction of the next iPhone and LTE in China, but the latter is unlikely to happen until 2014 or later, according to analysts.Source: BBC

Apple updates Maps app in response to warning from Australian Police

Its not very often that Apple gets a black eye over its products, but ever since the release of Apple Maps the company has been facing a lot of criticism and has resulted in the firing ofRichard Williamson, manager of the Maps team, as well as countless memes about how bad Apple Maps is.

Recently, we heard that the police in Victoria, Australia, issued a warning that people should not use Apple Maps after finding several motorists were led to the middle of a national park with high temperatures and no water.

It turns out that the people were looking for the city of Mildura, but instead found themselves in the middle of Murray Sunset National Park which is about 70 kilometers away from the city.

“Police are extremely concerned as there is no water supply within the Park and temperatures can reach as high as 46 degrees, making this a potentially life threatening issue,” Victoria’s Acting Senior Sergeant Sharon Darcy noted in the warning. “Some of the motorists located by police have been stranded for up to 24 hours without food or water and have walked long distances through dangerous terrain to get phone reception.”

via VentureBeat

Apparently the police service has been in touch with Apple over the issue and until the problem is resolved are recommending that people use one of the other map offerings available for the iPhone.

Update: Apple has pushed out an update that corrects the problem and has Mildura in its proper place.

ASUS P1 portable LED projector to launch in Japan on 7 April

After a year since its appearance at CeBIT, the ASUS P1 portable LED projector is finally making its way to retail shelves. ASUS will be releasing the P1 portable LED projector on April 7 in Japan, with a retail price of 44,800 yen (approximately US$545). The compact P1 weighs a mere 415g and measure 125×130×33.5mm which is about the size of a CD case. The projector has instant on/off capabilities such that it has no warm-up time to project your image or the need to cool down after power off.

Incorporating LED technology, the ASUS P1 features a native resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels, 200-lumen brightness, and boasts a lamp lifespan which is up to four times longer than conventional projectors. The projector also has a short throw ratio of 1.16:1, which means that it can project a 40-inch screen at a distance of just one metre away.Other specifications include 16.77 million color reproduction, 2,000:1 contrast ratio, aspect ratio of 16:10 / 16:9 / 4:3, automatic keystone correction, 28db noise and connectivity including USB 2.0, composite and VGA.

Source: watch.impress.co.jp

ASUS Unveils EN6800GT Dual Card

Asus has revealed it's Dual GPU 6800GT and is alreadyfinalizing research and details, and expects to finish by month end. The card works like two 6800GT cards SLIed, and performance is estimated to be about 1.7times when compared to a single GPU 6800GT.

Another Samsung ad pokes fun at Apple's iPhone 5

Samsung is going out of its way to make the iPhone 5 look inferior to the Galaxy SIII in every way. It’s apparent that Samsung has a grudge against Apple, but in the end consumers decide which slick smartphone to pick up.

The Cupertino-based tech giant is running on all cylinders now that it knows consumers are dying to get their hands on the iPhone 5. Demand for the latest Apple flagship smartphone is so immense that Apple has to push back deliveries of pre-orders by a week or two.

Many people will argue that the Galaxy SIII has components that either match or outclass that of the iPhone 5, but Apple’s marketing prowess has already turned the iPhone into a symbol of status and refinement.

It remains to be seen whether or not Samsung’s campaign to convince people that the iPhone isn’t all that special will be successful. But at least it’s a bit of a change of scenery from the patent wars and trolling that have been plaguing many headlines in recent months.

ASUS Overclocking Championship 2007 Video on You-Tube!

Check out the fun footage of the ASUS Overclocking Championship held in Singapore, on Youtube!

AOpen Aeolus PCX6600GT-DVH128

AOpen unveils the latest Aeolus PCX6600GT-DVH128 card equippedwith its Silent technology. The technology allows detection of thermal level ofthe GPU and select a optimum fan speed automatically (8 speeds to choose from)where the quietest operation is at 25db.

ASUS Launches U Series Bamboo Collection

The ASUS U Series Bamboo Collection is designed for thefashion and eco-conscious users who want good looks and sufficient computing powers in a laptop. It sports smoky brown bamboo exteriors, andbrushed aluminum interior surfaces and a chiclet keyboard that seem rather elegant.

On top of that, the Taiwanese manufacturer has also put a lot of intelligent technology into U Series Bamboo Collection notebooks such asSuper Hybrid Engine (SHE), which monitors processing loads and delivers just the right level of power. SHE alsoworks alongside NVIDIA Optimus technology to conserve energy and hence extend battery life.

Other feature include Syncables technology that enableshasslefree syncing with desktop PCs, notebooks, smartphones and digital cameras.

The ASUS U Series Bamboo Collection is scheduled to be available from August at a retail priceof S$1,799 (w/GST).

AMD To Cut Sempron Prices In Early May

AMD plans to lower the unit prices for Socket 754 Sempron processors in early May, with the maximum cut being 15%. The price reduction for the entry-level K8-compatible CPUs will help AMD with its plan to phase out its Socket-A processors by the end of the third quarter but will continue producing K7 processors as customers have requested it do so. Prices for AMD’s Athlon 64 lineup will remain unchanged from levels set earlier this year.

ATi R520 Has 700Mhz+ 16 Pipes Core

ATI wants the R520 to clock at 700 MHz clock or even higher but it's still undecided as it's too early to decide on the final number. ATi still has some time so it won't release those chips in August - it aims to introduce and ship the cards toward the very end of Q3. Some chips will work at even higher frequencies, much more than 700 MHz. R520 might actually have only sixteen fragment pipelines but will be able to fight Nvidia with its ultra higher clock but this is something that we cannot confirm at this stage.

AMD reduces Radeon HD 7970, 7950 and 7770 pricing

If youre looking at picking up one of AMDs fairly recently launched Radeon HD 7970, 7950 or 7770 graphics cards, but havent gotten around to it yet, then we have good news for you. AMD has finally decided to lower its prices to a somewhat more affordable level, especially in the case of the two high-end models.

The Radeon HD 7970 stands for the biggest price drop, of US$70 compared to the launch date and you can already pick up some cards for the new MSRP of US$479. This puts the Radeon HD 7970 at a US$20 lower price point than Nvidias GeForce GTX 680, although were not sure if this is enough to sway users over to the Radeon HD 7970.

A US$50 saving is what youll be seeing for the Radeon HD 7950 which has come down from US$449 to US$399. This will likely make some of the overclocked Radeon HD 7870 cards a tough sell; especially models priced in excess of US$370. That said, it seems like some of AMDs partners are dropping the prices here as well, without any official word on the matter from AMD, as we spotted Radeon HD 7870 models going for as little as US$330.

Finally the Radeon HD 7770 has been reduced by US$20, from US$159 to US$139 making it a pretty attractive option to the Radeon HD 6850 which is retailing at around the same price point these days and offering similar performance, albeit drawing more power.

The Radeon HD 7970 and 7950 will also come with three games for a limited time, as part of the three for free promotion. The games are Deus Ex: Human Evolution (including the Missing Link DLC), Dirt: Showdown (expected in May) and Nexuiz, a DX11 first person shooter (again expected in May). Presumably the games will be digital download only.

Source: Hardware Canucks

AMD Ships First quot;Interlagos quot; CPUs based on Bulldozer

SUNNYVALE, Calif. ­ Sept. 7, 2011 ­ Today, AMD (NYSE: AMD) announced revenue shipments of the first processors based on its new x86 “Bulldozer” architecture. Initial production of the world’s first 16-core x86 processor, codenamed “Interlagos,” began in August and shipping to OEM customers is already underway. Compatible with existing AMD OpteronTM 6100 Series platforms and infrastructure, “Interlagos” is expected to launch and be available in partner systems in the fourth quarter of this year. Many of the initial shipments have been earmarked for large custom supercomputer installations that are now underway.“This is a monumental moment for the industry as this first ‘Bulldozer’ core represents the beginning of unprecedented performance scaling for x86 CPUs,” said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager, AMD Products Group. "The flexible new ‘Bulldozer’ architecture will give Web and datacenter customers the scalability they need to handle emerging cloud and virtualization workloads.”Update :AMD starts shipping Bulldozers, but only server variety

AMD Trinity slides leaked, 17W APU detailed

ComputerBase has leaked a couple of slides from AMDs CES 2012 press deck, covering performance gains expected over Llano, as well as battery life. The focal point is certainly the 17W variant designed for "ultrathins" - AMDs answer to ultrabooks.

Performance improvements expected for mobile Trinity are upto 25% for the CPU and 50% for the GPU over equivalent mobile Llano A-Series APUs it will succeed. The APUs benchmarked were 35W variants for both Trinity and Llano. However, these numbers are just projections and may vary with the final shipping product. AMD claims the 25% CPU performance increase is in the PC Mark Vantage Productivity benchmarks - a benchmark which has traditionally favoured Intel CPUs. The massive 50% uplift in GPU performance is in 3D Mark Vantage benchmark, while actual games may not scale as much. Trinity will also bring notable performance improvements to the desktop, though of lesser magnitude than the mobile variants - roughly 15% for the CPU, 30% for the GPU.

Trinity introduces Turbo Core 3.0 and new video capabilities - possibly including VCE (Video Compression Engine) to take on Intel QuickSync. The battery life is stated to be 12 hours at idle, and as much as 3:20 hours / 200 minutes running 3D Mark 06 workfload. However, battery capacity used was not mentioned for these tests.

AMDs power efficiency improvements not only improve battery life and performance, but also enable new platforms. Trinity will be available in 17W variants - directly competing with Intels ULV products. Trinity 17W APUs will find themselves in "ultrathins" - AMDs answer to Intels "ultrabooks". However, the key difference is lower pricing, as AMD seeks to drive ultrathins into mainstream markets.While Intel ULV parts are restricted to dual-core, AMD is bringing all four cores to 17W.

Trinity is set to release in mid-2012, and will directly compete with Intels Ivy Bridge. While Intel will continue to maintain a dominant lead in raw CPU performance, Trinity is expected maintain AMDs leadership on the GPU front. The 17W quad-core Trinity is especially shaping up to be a very promising product, competing with dual-core Ivy Bridge, and driving thin and light notebooks into more affordable mainstream segments ultrabooks are unlikely to achieve for a while.

Source: ComputerBase

Asus launches new NX90 and N-series notebooks, promises great sound quality for customers

I am willing to bet that if one were to compile a checklist of the features consumers look for when purchasing a laptop, speaker quality will probably rank near the bottom, if at all. And it is easy to understand why: after all, notebooks are designed for the flexibility of work or entertainment while on the move, and blasting your notebook speakers at maximum volume while on the train or at Starbucks is the fastest way to earn yourself a spot in STOMP's webpage. Or more specifically, under the 'Ugly Commuters' section.

But to say that manufacturersare contented with things as they are would be a mistake: after all, the mobile computing industry has taken strides to provide a more surreal audio experience while on the move, but it comes with a caveat;such notebooksusually requirean output toa decent set ofaudio hardwarebefore any improvement becomes noticeable. This presentstwo set of problems: we don'texactly want to cart our impressive 5.1 setup out with us to the train or park, and cheap headphones will all but render any improved sound quality a moot point.

However, it seems that ASUS is determined to eliminate the hassle ofusing external output devices for better sound, and that is readily apparent in the new NX90 desktop-replacement notebook which was launched yesterday in Singapore.

According to ASUS, the Core-i7 powered NX90 uses speakers which are 10 times larger than those found in most notebooks today. This, in addition to the hardware being co-developed with Bang & Olfsen's ICEpower technology, allows the NX90 to attain audio qualities which are supposedly comparable to those found in full surround systems.

“This is the collaboration with ICEPower by Bang and Olfsen. We included a new direction of audio techinology, bringing audio to the consumer, bringing audio in portability....we'll continue to go on, to find more ways to innovate our products. that's where our commitment is; for our consumers to our business partners all over the world,” said Joseph Hoo, country manager for ASUS Technology.

Besides its sound quality, the NX90 also boasts a unique yet unconventional design:it features a polished aluminium surface instead of brushed metal or plastic, has two touchpads instead of one and thespeakers aremounted outside the notebook's frame, resulting in a slightly oversized yet elegant end-result.

Koh Siew Hock, Head of Southeast Asia Marketing for Intel, praised the NX90 for redefining the boundaries of notebook design.

“The Core i7 from Intel offers gaming performance but the real deal about the entire processor series is that it's very smart, it's very intelligent, it can adapt to the consumer and that is the kind of thing that ASUS has really built onand innovated on. And that product is the NX90, a very contemporary form factor. it challenges our conventional thinking of what a PC or notebook should look like, should feel like,” he said.

Asus also took the opportunity to introduce a new line of notebooks: the mainstream-oriented N-series which follow a more conventional design while still retaining decent audio quality, thanks to the company's joint-development with Bang & Olfsen. Available in 15-inch (N53JN) and 17-inch (N73JN), the N-seriesfeature Intel's Core i5 processors, dedicated Nvidia GPUs and will be available for sale immediately, along with the NX90. A 14-inch (N43JF) variant of the N-series is due to hit retail storenext month.

N43JF

N53JN

N73JN