Google sets to sell tablets on it's online store

According to the Wall Street Journal, Google is planning to sell Android tablets made by Asus and Samsung. The line of tablets that are being sold includes the all popular Galaxy line of tablets by Samsung and the Transformer Prime tablets.

This is after Google's CEO Eric Schmidt hinted that the next version of Android would be released alongside with Asus.

Via WSJ

Rovio snaps up Futuremark Games studioes

Rovio, the Finnish company that created the all popular Angry Birds, snapped up the game studio department of Futuremark. Futuremark is a company that creates benchmarking software to test computers and gaming rigs.

This strategy is seen to be a way that the marker of Angry Birds is trying to diversify from the reliance it has on Angry Birds as it's main source of income. It has proved to be very successful so far as they are creating a lifestyle that children can live with, with examples of a theme park that has opened and plush toys to keep the young child excited.

Lets see if they can create a global media presence like how Disney had done with it's brands of Mickey Mouse.

TteSports MEKA G-UNIT Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review at Nikk Tech

Gamers and enthusiast alike have a plethora of gaming keyboards to choose from to cover their needs from impressive ones filled with bells and whistles such as the ones manufactured by Logitech and Roccat and from the more durable ones such as the Mechanical Keyboards manufactured by SteelSeries, Razer, Qpad and TteSports. Today we will be taking a thorough look at the latest Mechanical Keyboard offering by TteSports that listens to the name MEKA G-UNIT.

Android smoked Windows phone contest and guy won

According to Engadget, an Android phone user participated in the contest that Microsoft had to 'prove' that Windows phones were way better in terms of speed than Android phones. All the person had to do was to complete a given task and prove that it performed better on his Android phone than the customer rep's Windows phone and he can win a $1000 Special Edition Laptop.

The task that was given to this user was to “bring up the weather of two different cities.” He managed to surpass the Microsoft employee in terms of speed after powering up the phone as he disabled the lock-screen and it was that lock-screen that hobbled down the speed of the Windows phone.

Microsoft initially refused to declare him a winner but after a huge uproar in the online sphere, he was awarded the prize.

Had a bad experience with a staffing firm?

I have recently came across this website ( www.5BowlsofSoup.com ) that do reviews of staffing and consulting firms with a particular emphasis on firms in the IT industry. They focus on  staffing  companies  across the US, including the ones who staff all the hottest technology startups like Facebook and Zygna are located. You would like to work in such startups as they are the ones that gives you with the best perks like a Gym in the office or even time off to peruse social work.

Even if your employer is nice, the likelyhood of you meeting a nasty staffing agent that got you the job is high. It becomes worse if you have no savings and need to depend on that pay check to pay your daily expenses and the staffing agency is delaying your pay check by months.

Hence you would need to read the reviews that are on this website before you agree to sign on the job introduced by the staffing agency. It is run by a community of people that comes forward to contribute their experience that they had with various staffing  agencies, hence you are also welcome to contribute any reviews of any staffing agency that you have came across.  And if the agency is not one of the 2500+ listed, they'll quickly add them for you. 

They have a very unique system whereby they use soup  bowls to rate the agencies with a maximum of 5  bowls for a good staffing agency and none if they are really that bad.

So what are you waiting for? Read the reviews or contribute your experience with the staffing companies you have come across.

What HTC is doing now

Photo from Techcrunch 

Techcrunch recently published an article on the recent technological purchases that HTC is making to improve the  technological advantage that HTC is having.

As they might be seen as acquiring new technologies for their line of phones, however, I see it as a way that HTC is trying to differentiate itself by branding the phones according to the different user types that they are trying to sell to. 

The technological race is going to run it's due-course soon, with the processing power of tablets and smartphones pushing to Quad Cores and having 512MB RAM on some phones. The smartphone market is going to be saturated and there would not be an difference between Samsung, HTC or even Apple. 

The reason why Apple is still able to sell is due to the fact that the Steve Jobs effect have not died off. The gadget is still seen as something cool and something that is user-friendly. The Android platform would still attract the geeks crowd hence for HTC to stand out, it has to have phones that are branded differently. However, at the end of the day, they are emphasising on customer service and experience. 

Remember that they were the first phone maker to introduce a free pick-up and delivery service for phones that require repairs? I had a problem with my HTC phone quite some time back and they even send their manager down to get it resolved after 5 months of not being able to solve the problem. They provided me a decent phone when my phone was repaired. 

The recent Dropbox integration is all about the user experience as they would want to access their files wherever they go. 

Apple announces dividend and share repurchase program for 2012

So finally Apple has unveiled what it is going to do with the massive pile of cash that it has on it's desk. After Buffett told Jobs what he can do with the money, Steve decided to keep the money instead of giving it to it's shareholders.

Apple plans to "initiate a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share sometime in the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2012, which begins on July 1, 2012." 

 Additionally, the Company's Board of Directors has authorized a $10 billion share repurchase program commencing in the Apple's fiscal 2013, which begins on September 30, 2012; we're told that said program will be executed over three years, with the main goal being to "neutralize the impact of dilution from future employee equity grants and employee stock purchase programs.".

Evercool releases new YOHO Laptop Table‏

EVERCOOL Thermal Corp., Ltd. the professional and well-known cooler and fan brand.

 

 

More and more people place importance on storage. Nevertheless, people that search for furniture, do not only ask for more space to store their items, but also ask for easy to store furniture. To meet this demand, EVERCOOL have created “YOHO Laptop Table”. This laptop table can be used with laptops of different sizes, and its retractable metal frame makes its legs easy to fold or extend.

 

In order to meet different users’ demands, YOHO Laptop Table provides two types of tables: NT-111 and NT-112 models. The distinction between the two models is that NT-111 has one 8cm fan to provide a silent and effective cooling for laptops. On the other hand, the NT-112 does not provide a fan, and it can only be used as a small table to place your laptop.

 

This table has been made of environmental high-density fiber with aluminum holders to make YOHO stable and durable. The ergonomics design allows users to adjust heights and angles to provide a greatly comfortable use.

 

An USB cable management can be found in the base of the NT-111. This USB cable management allows users to store their USB power cord. Depending on using environments, the good design of YOHO allows users to use it on the bed, sofa or on the ground.

TakeMS releases new set of SSDs

My all time favourite German brand (TakeMS) has released a new set of SSD to complement the current range of SSD that they have in their product line. It now offers High-Performance SSDs with thenew SandForce processor with capacities of up to 480 Gbytes.


The new SSD series is provided with the high-speed processor SandForce SF-2281, which is particularly suitable for high transfer rates of SATA 3.0 interfaces. A performance with reading and writing throughputs of up to 550 MB / s and 500MB / s are possible. The UTX-2200 allows fast system starts and accelerated data access as well as the rapid copying of large files, presentations and videos.


The UTX-2200 with its ECC engine offers TRIM support and "Global Dynamic and static wear-leveling", which significantly extends the life of the SSD.

The UTX-2200 is available in capacities of 60, 120, 240 and 480 GByte. takeMS offers a warranty of two years

Don't expect a Xbox update this year

As reported in Engadget, Microsoft is not releasing a new console at E3 this year.

This comes at the back of the success that Microsoft had with Kinect and are trying to squeeze one more year of sales from the current Xbox 360 model.

Microsoft maybe seen to be boosting it's software aspect of the Xbox by increasing the entertainment options that comes along with the device to fight the current battle with mobile gaming on Tablets and smartphones.

IT Show 2012 Booth Babes

Here is another post for those who love our booth babes section. Event is called IT Show 2012, held in Singapore just last week.




Razer booth! Photo taken from Today Newspaper

Who would want to miss Felicia Chin??? Those who got the Olympus XZ-1 (First 88 customers) can take a photo with her!

24nm Flash SSD Faceoff - SanDisk Extreme Retake and Plextor M3 Pro at Tweaktown

On February 28th we published our first review of the SanDisk Extreme 240GB, the first 24nm flash drive on the market with a SandForce flash processor unit. In the review we focused mainly on the low price point of the drive since the performance was still very close to the large number of Team SandForce drives using 25nm IMFT flash. What we didn't know at the time was our test systems were compromised in some way. I would love to give an explanation, but I honestly don't have one. It wasn't just the primary test system, but both identical systems and even a fresh build system based on another chipset, the older P67 test rig.

To make matters worse, even a brand new build based on another company's Z68 board did the same thing. After spending 18 to 20 hours a day working on the issue Chad Sebring chimed in with an idea, look at the drivers. All of the systems were using the same chipset drivers, but we were trying different RST drivers. After downloading a different set of drivers from a different web page we had TRIM again. It's safe to say that for the next couple of weeks I will hate computers. I HATE YOU COMPUTERS!!!"

For more information, please visit -http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/4613/24nm_flash_ssd_faceoff_sandisk_extreme_retake_and_plextor_m3_pro/index.html

The old giant (Yahoo) VS the new giant (Facebook)

We see this all the time. The losing company would often sue the bigger company for damages due to patent infringement and we know it often does not help the ailing giant.

Now the stakes are being fought between the Social Media giant (Facebook). With things like News Feed, Sharing and advertising models being those that are in infringe with the patents that Yahoo had filed.


“Facebook’s entire social network model, which allows users to create profiles for and connect with, among other things, persons and businesses, is based on Yahoo’s patented social networking technology,” Yahoo’s lawsuit reads, in part.


Via AllthingsD

As reported earlier that Galaxy S II users are not getting any Ice-Cream Sandwich love, now Samsung is releasing ICS for European users.



The rest of Samsung users, fret not, because Samsung has affirmed that its Android 4.0 update for the Galaxy Note, Galaxy S II LTE, Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 10.1 will follow shortly. 


Via Engadget

CeBit Booth Babes

The recent post on CES babes received lots of views and was a hot favourite among readers. Today I shall post some CeBit show babes (All photos are from SSD Review)

More Via SSD Review

Supertalent releases PCI-E SSD

Supertalent released their PCI-E SSD in CeBit this week. The RAIDDrive UpStream uses a SandForce controller to handle data-transfer speeds of 1GBps. That's roughly twice the speed of SSDs that, like the pokier but cheaper hard drives they typically replace, use the SATA interface.

SuperTalent also showed a product that has been announced, the higher-end RAIDDrive II, which Carcione said "just started shipping." It comes in capacities up to 2TB by packing in eight SSDs onto a single PCIe card. Transfer speeds are 2.4GBps for writing data and 2.8GBps for writing. It costs about $5,000, though, so casual users need not apply.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-57392477-264/supertalent-shows-lower-cost-pcie-based-flash-storage/#ixzz1oaEeg3M2

Samsung Galaxy S II gets some Ice-Cream love

According to Engadget, Samsung users are going to get a taste of the latest Android OS (Ice-Cream Sandwich) in two days time, coming along with the update would be the  Sammy's TouchWiz UI. 


Cannot wait for the Face unlock feature for Galaxy S II! 


Update: Samsung confirms that the date for the rollout is not true and would further update 

Asus to get the next flavour of Android

Google is set to release it's new flavour of Android some time next year. Asus is set to team up with Google to be the first to release updates to their devices. It is also set to release brand new products to coincide with the release of the new version of Android.

Via Techradar

PlanOn Introduces SlimScan - World's First Credit Card-Sized Receipt Scanner

PlanOn System Solutions introduced SlimScan, the world’s first credit card-sized portable full color scanner that lets you scan and organize receipts and business cards on the road.  A full-featured, powerful, tiny high resolution color scanner so small (dimensions: 2” x 3.1” x .12”) and light that it easily fits into your wallet or credit card holder -- SlimScan goes everywhere you go for scanning as fast and easy as pulling out your wallet.  With its convenient size and advanced scanning technology, SlimScan is perfect for capturing crisp clear full-color digital images of small, easily misplaced items, like receipts, business cards, handwritten notes, as well as photos, articles and other printed materials, anywhere, any time.

Features Preview Screen – Connects to Windows through USB

Crafted in classy, durable stainless steel, SlimScan features a convenient preview screen that lets you instantly view, zoom-in and pan scanned images on the fly.  Its elegant compact design sets a new standard for professional-class portable scanners with unprecedented convenience and powerful scanning functionality.  The only portable scanner that puts instant, one-touch scanning in the palm of your hand, SlimScan connects directly to Windows PCs through USB to quickly upload and edit scanned items. 

Receipt Management System (RMS) Software Included - Import Business Cards into Outlook, Word, Excel, & Databases

With PlanOn’s included powerful, yet straightforward Receipt Management System (RMS) software, you can easily scan, edit and organize receipts, import them to a computer for viewing, transfer them into an expense database, and create Excel reports which can be easily emailed.  RMS’ business card capture module also lets you easily organize scanned business card contacts by meeting, trade show, conference, or business event.  Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software can convert scanned images into editable form so you can import the contact information into Outlook, Microsoft Word or Excel spreadsheets to facilitate your follow up.

Storage Options releases new tablet

Storage Options, the UK-based technology brand, has launched its fastest ever tablet PC and the world’s most powerful tablet under £200 to use the Android 4.0 operating system and support the output of 3D content. 

The new Scroll Extreme has been added to the popular and award-winning Scroll tablet portfolio. It is packed with a variety of innovative new features and is the cheapest high quality tablet of its type in the world, at only £189.99, initially exclusive with eBuyer.com and available to pre-order from 1^st March.

Operating on Android’s latest tablet operating system 4.0, commonly known as Ice Cream Sandwich, the Scroll Extreme delivers a smooth and intuitive user experience with a superior performance powered by its 1.2GHz Cortex A8 processor.

Paul Evison, Head of Brand for Storage Options commented: “The last few months have been truly staggering for us at Storage Options. We have been blown away by the support we have received for the Scroll Excel and we were obviously delighted when it was picked as The Gadget Show’s favourite budget tablet back in November. We have always known that our customers wanted quick, slick and responsive devices that are packed with features, without the burden of a premium price tag and the Scroll Extreme really does deliver exactly that. This is the first tablet we have produced on the Android 4.0 operating system and the whole user experience is vastly improved and far more intuitive than previous versions of Android.”

The new slim-line and lightweight aluminium unit boasts 1.2GHz Cortex A8 processor with Mali-400 dual core graphics processing and 1GB DDR3 RAM with 8GB Memory built-in and the ability to expand through a micro SD Card up to 32GB, making it easily the most powerful and fast Scroll ever created.

Paul adds: “Our development team are really proud of this device and I think our customers are going to be blown away at the standard we have achieved for such a low price. The user experience is really impressive on its 9.7 inch screen and the fact it supports Flash helps it to provide a much richer viewing experience all round.”

The Android 4.0 operating system makes popular actions more visible and lets the user navigate with simple, intuitive gestures. An entirely new typeface optimised for high-resolution screens has improved readability and brings a more polished feel to the Extreme’s interface. New virtual buttons in the system bar enable the user to navigate more easily. Multitasking has also been made easier and more visual.

With a 16-bit G-sensor, enabling the ten inch screen to rotate 360 degrees, teamed with Flash support and a responsive, capacitive touch screen, the Scroll Extreme is perfect for internet browsing, social networking, reading E-Books, online TV and video services.

The Scroll Extreme also has the ability, like its smaller cousin the Scroll Excel, to output 3D content directly to a 3D TV, or monitor, by downloading 3D content to the tablet and played back on a big screen through a mini HDMI cable. It will also output 1080p HD video content in the same manner.