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Nvidia touts thirty Tegra 3 smartphone designs for 2012, faster LTE with Icera i500 and next-gen 'Grey' processor

2012-05-25T16:56:00.000+08:00

Nvidia says its Tegra 3 system-on-chip is doing exceptionally well: the company claims 30 smartphones are slated to sport the quad-core silicon this year, double the 15 design wins that Tegra 2 had in 2011. Nvidia GM Mike Rayfield delivered the news at the company's annual investor meeting today, and he emphasized that many of these phones will be less expensive, too: 13 of them have a transfer price (not to be confused with a retail price) of under $300, compared to zero such phones last year.

Nvidia's building steam on the LTE networking front as well. This morning, Nvidia announced that its first LTE modem, the Icera 410, has been certified for AT&T's LTE network, which means that Qualcomm might have some competition (at least in the tablet space), and Mike Rayfield just introduced its successor: the Icera 500. While he didn't provide many details, he told investors that the i500 will have next-gen LTE speeds beyond what we've seen thus far, and it will be the modem paired with the company's next-gen Tegra processor for "Grey," the company's first integrated LTE silicon. We won't see Grey until next year, but Nvidia promises that its standalone Icera LTE technology will arrive later in 2012 with the aforementioned Icera 410.

Via The Verge

Google set to release new range of ICS devices

2012-05-16T13:28:00.000+08:00

Hand firmly grasping hat? Good. The Wall Street Journal is reporting on quite the bombshell today, noting that Google is about to cause its carrier partners in the States all sorts of grief -- indirectly, of course. Just weeks after placing its heralded Galaxy Nexus on sale for $399 unlocked, the report states that said move is only the beginning of a new initiative. Likely to be formally revealed at Google I/O, the mega-corp is planning to partner with a variety of OEMs (rather than just one at a time) in order to have up to five Pure Google (read: Nexus) devices available at once. Better still, the whole stable will ship with Android 5.0 (Jelly Bean) and will be sold directly from Google in unlocked form to consumers in America, Europe and Asia.

The move is significant in a myriad ways. For one, more unlocked Nexus devices means more choice when it comes to carrier selection. Furthermore, the move is likely to quell fears that certain partners may have about Google making Motorola Mobility its favorite after a $12 billion acquisition. Not surprisingly, Google's not commenting on the matter, but sources "close" to the situation say that the company's hoping to have the 5.0 cadre on sale by Thanksgiving -- you know, just in time for Black Friday and the looming holiday shopping season. We're all guessing that this will address the growing "app situation" head-on; by making a push to eliminate carrier-infused bloatware (while also providing early Android OS access to more partners), we're hoping that the whole "skinning" dilemma is addressed, too.

Engadget

Samsung releases Galaxy S III

2012-05-05T09:36:00.000+08:00

1 day ago

After leapfrogging Apple as the world's biggest phone marker just recently, Samsung has released an update of it's most popular phone model the Samsung Galaxy S series of phones.

Among the key changes are the hardware specifications that are being updated and some nifty nice features like allowing you to pick up a call just by holding the phone to your ear and not to switch off the screen when you are reading text on the screen.

For someone that is willing to hold out, you should wait as they might be releasing an offical phone for the refresher of the Google Nexus line of phones.

MemoRight FTM Plus Slim 7mm 240GB Solid State Drive Review‏

2012-05-01T22:31:00.003+08:00

Tweaktown has published a new review of the MemoRight FTM Plus Slim 7mm 240GB Solid State Drive. It is described as one of the SSD with the thinnest profile on the block, with it targeting the Ultrabook segment.

Tweak Town

Samsung comes out tops in phone market

2012-05-01T18:52:00.002+08:00

Research firm IDC is reporting that Nokia has been dethroned as the world's biggest phone maker bySamsung. In the first quarter of the year, Samsung shipped 98.3 million mobile phones, with Nokia andApple in second and third place. In the smartphone-only charts, the Korean company shipped 42.2 million of its Android and Windows Phone handsets, while Cupertino shipped 35.1 million and Nokia shipped a paltry-by-comparison 11.9 million.

Samsung, Apple and companies outside the top 5 all made big gains in the smartphone space, while Nokia, RIM and HTC all felt their numbers drop. Unsurprisingly, companies with big stakes in dumb phones suffered, with Nokia and LG losing big chunks of their market share to the big two and stalking horse ZTE, which has bested LG for fourth place. After the break, we've got the official tallies that you can pore over.

Velocity Micro Announces the Immediate Availability of Desktop PCs Powered by 3rd Generation Intel® Core® Processors

2012-04-30T09:50:00.001+08:00

Velocity Micro®, the premier builder of award winning enthusiast desktops, laptops, peripherals, and the remarkable line of Cruz™ tablets announces the immediate availability of 3^rd generation Intel® Core® processors on select Gaming, Home & Office, and Workstation systems, starting at just $849. By pairing an expert level of engineering with Intel’s latest processor generation, Velocity Micro continues to make some of the fastest, most efficient, most reliable PCs in the world.

“Intel’s 3^rd Generation Core Processors are a perfect fit to Velocity Micro’s enthusiast mentality as we continue to strive to build the best finely crafted desktops, tablets, and peripherals on the market,” said Randy Copeland, President and CEO of Velocity Micro. “The speed and power efficiency of these new processors will be a huge hit with our customers.”

Key features of 3rd Generation Intel Core Processors include:

· Built-in visuals which include a suite of visual enhancements that provide everything you need to enjoy a smooth, seamless, stunning experience on your PC

· Improved energy efficiency, allowing for innovative system designs and enabling more energy-efficient platforms that can meet ENERGY STAR requirements

· Unlocked 3rd gen Intel Core processors feature top-of-the-line speed, especially when overclocking

“Velocity Micro has always had a cutting edge product lineup, frequently offering Intel’s latest processors to their enthusiast customers on launch day,” said CJ Bruno, Intel VP, GM Intel Americas. “We’re excited that Velocity Micro has continued that tradition by making the 3rd Gen Intel Core processors available in their industry-leading performance desktop offerings.”

Velocity Micro systems now powered by 3^rd Generation Intel Core Processors include the Raptor™ Z90, Vector™ Z20, and the Edge™ Z40, an Editors’ Choice selection from both CNET and PC Magazine. For more information on these systems, to custom configure a Velocity Micro desktop, or learn more about Velocity Micro’s complete line of consumer electronic solutions, visit www.velocitymicro.com.

Giada releases new nano motherboard

2012-04-27T00:08:00.001+08:00

The versatile new NI-HM65T Nano ITX motherboard from Giada puts the power of a desktop computer into the tiniest possible space, just 12cm across. This tough but tiny powerhouse is perfect for industrial control, monitoring and automation tasks, and embedded applications, or even for home and office use. Built around Intel's HM65 Express chipset and the Sandy Bridge platform, this motherboard brings its users high performance and connectivity, while keeping power costs low. It provides all the industry-standard features of a desktop PC, but in a tiny 12cm by 12.8cm Nano ITX package, just a fraction of the size of an ordinary PC.

Powered by Intel's fast Core i7，i5, i3 or Celeron 867 CPUs, with by up to 4GB of memory, plus onboard integrated sound, video and graphics support, the Giada NI-HM65T can easily handle almost any computing task.

For industrial control and automation applications, the NI-HM65T offers rock solid reliability, and full compatibility with key industry standards, with a COM header to ensure support for legacy hardware. This extremely low profile board uses a 25mm high mini-ITX backplate, to reduce system space requirements.

With the creation and integration of their own PCI extension on the rim of the motherboard, Giada offers customers with specific requirements the ability to design and manufacture custom add-on boards for additional expandability.

On board there are two Mini PCIe slots. One can support a WiFi and/or Bluetooth card while the other allows users to add a mSATA or a high-speed internal SSD drive. The reliability and durability of an internal SSD drive is perfect for challenging operating environments where dust or vibration might make traditional hard disk drives unsuitable, such as factory floor or external digital signage – as well as offering enhanced performance and lower power consumption for everyday applications. Each board has undergone strict quality control tests, include 5 complete 24 hour tests at 65 C, and testing at -15 C for to ensure suitability for very low temperature environments. Nickel core inductors and solid capacitors are used to further enhance reliability and stability.

In addition to the mSATA drive, a 6Gb/s SATA 3 port supports a wide range of storage devices, including traditional hard disk drives, SSDs, and CD/DVD/BD optical drives. There is a SO-DIMM memory slot for up to 4GB of speedy 1066MHz or 1333MHz DDR3 DRAM.

There are two fast USB 2.0/1.1 connectors on the back panel. These can be used to connect devices such as keyboards, mice, printers, and cameras. USB can also be used to supplement the internal SATA disk drives with additional removable mobile storage for backup purposes, mass data transfer, or storing video, photos, and audio. The NI-HM65T supports Gigabit LAN for connection to a high speed network.

The NI-HM65T has graphics support integrated on board, with HDMI and VGA video outputs. The board also offers vivid 5.1 channel surround sound from the ALC662 audio interface, with a digital output S/PDIF connector for unimpaired audio quality even in environments with high EMI levels. The board's audio and video capabilities make it an ideal choice for dedicated embedded applications such as Smart TV controller or set top box.

The NI-HM65T provides superior performance while keeping operating costs very low. Shenzhen JieHe is very happy to be bringing this extremely versatile new mini-PC to the worldwide market. The company welcomes inquiries from new and existing customers throughout the world.

A 3D printer at an affordable price point

2012-04-26T11:34:00.000+08:00

The release of 3D printers have entinced many home users to get a printer to try it out, however at the thousands of dollars price tag, it is really out of reach for many of us.

Former Markerbot Exc have released a sub $500 3D printer that would soon hit the stores and allow home users to get one 3D printer.

The printer, which is now up for pre-order, can print plastic pieces up to 6" x 6" x 6", and "all you need to supply is a computer and power."

How is smartphones being made?

2012-04-22T01:05:00.003+08:00

Wonder how your smartphone is being made? Starting from the plastic mock-ups of the phone design to the engineering specs to how they decide to fit what component in the phone.

A brief summary from Engadget's website states that they would also have user focus groups whereby they starve the user of the phone for 2 weeks and see what features that they miss the most (Supposedly to put that feature in the new phone).

Even things like colour matter as they cannot be the colour of any carrier in the States or it might discourage other carriers to carry the phone. With all this fuss, HTC can spend more than $50,000 per phone phototype.

Via Engadget

Windows 8 Enterprise

2012-04-20T09:18:00.003+08:00

Microsoft has released a new edition of Windows 8 for the Enterprise user. Some of the new features that would be added includes the Windows to Go program whereby you can bring your office image of the computer to your home computer in a USB stick, allowing users to bring their own personal computer to work. In addition to that, they would simplify the use of VPN for office workers.

Have Microsoft ever thought of having the old classical Windows 7 start screen as default for Enterprise version as touchscreens are not even the dominant force in the PC market today? What do you think?

Read more at the press release on Microsoft's blog

Google reports $10.65 billion in revenue for Q1 2012, splits stock

2012-04-13T09:26:00.001+08:00

Google just announced its earnings for Q1 of 2012 and the company did not disappoint. It raked in $10.65 billion, a full 24 percent higher than last year for the same time period and a hefty improvement over last quarter. Of that rather sizable chunk of cash, $10.2 billion came from advertising revenues -- $7.3 billion of that placed on Google's own properties. GAAP net income for the quarter was $2.89 billion, more than twice that of Q1 2011, which brings its total war chest to $49.3 billion in cash on hand. Perhaps the biggest news for investors, though, is the 2-for-1 stock split, which is a perfect accompaniment for the skyrocketing price. It's worth noting however, that this new stock is a new class of non-voting shares.

Via Engadget

Cubitek Announces New Line of Extrusion Aluminum Chassis

2012-04-09T21:50:00.001+08:00

Cubitek, a manufacturer of PC chassis, is pleased to announce their new line of chassis – ICE Series. Including 5 new models, these ICE Series chassis using a 2.5(mm) extrusion aluminum construction are stronger than standard aluminum cases, yet thinner than other extrusion aluminum chassis on the market. This unique build gives ICE Series a strong frame while still keeping a more lightweight design.

5 Models from Mini-ITX to HPTX
Cubitek's ICE Series features five new models designed for different sized motherboards:
. Mini ICE   (US$169.90)
. Micro ICE   (US$259.90)
. ATX ICE    (US$279.90)
. EATX ICE   (US$319.90)
. HPTX ICE   (US$359.90)

Anti-Vibration Design
The sturdy extrusion aluminum frame translates to reduced vibration. The hard drives inside the cage body are mounted with thick rubber rings.

Efficient Thermal Cooling
The extrusion aluminum build dissipates heat faster than steel built chassis keeping your system cool. From mATX on up, all models feature a large 200(mm) fan in the front as well as a 140(mm) on the top and a 120(mm) fan in the back. The well-placed fans and interior layout keep your hardware at optimum system temperatures.

Motherboard Tray Designed for Cable Management
The motherboard tray is well-designed with large cut-outs for CPU cooler mounting and plenty of rubber protected holes to guide cables to the 0.7” (19mm ) space behind the motherboard tray. The u-shaped clips behind the motherboard allow you to easily fasten you wires ,making cable management easy and keeping your system neat and organized.

Easy Access Connectivity
All five models of the ICE Series feature an easy-to-reach I/O panel on the top of the chassis including: 2x USB 3.0 ports, 2x USB 2.0 ports, and gold-plated audio input/output with anti-jamming capabilities.

Razer releases new product that allows you to see your enemies

2012-04-01T12:13:00.000+08:00

22 hours ago

After the recent fuss over the production of a left-handed mouse, Razer have released a new product that allows you to tell between your friend or your foes through your eyes.

The Razer SnakeEyes would place all the vital statistics on the eyewear that you would be wearing, allowing you to tell who is the noob and who is the pro according to one beta tester. It can also tell you how to whip up a really delicious meal when you stare at the food in the fringe, according to another beta tester.

Check out the video released by Razer

Google sets to sell tablets on it's online store

2012-03-30T12:04:00.000+08:00

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

2012-03-28T09:29:00.001+08:00

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

2012-03-27T01:14:00.000+08:00

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

2012-03-27T00:34:00.000+08:00

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?

2012-03-26T08:10:00.000+08:00

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

2012-03-21T21:43:00.002+08:00

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

2012-03-19T20:59:00.001+08:00

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

2012-03-19T19:44:00.000+08:00

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

2012-03-18T01:06:00.001+08:00

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

2012-03-18T00:13:00.000+08:00

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

2012-03-15T15:49:00.000+08:00

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

2012-03-14T21:41:00.001+08:00

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