Motorola Atrix HD gets Jelly Bean

AT&T rolls out an update

Around five months since it was released on AT&T, Motorola's Atrix HD has been given the green light to get a taste of Jelly Bean

According to AT&T, the new update is already available via OTA and includes all the usual updates expected from Jelly Bean as well as few updates that are unique to Motorola's smartphones. The Motorola Atrix HD is the fourth phone from AT&T that runs on Jelly Bean OS, following Galaxy Note II, Galaxy S III and the HTC One X+.

Motorola's Atrix HD is definitely one of the rare smartphones to get the Jelly Bean update so "soon" after its launch

Via Engadget.com

Kingston rolls out 128GB Wi-Drive model

Wi-Fi enabled external storage

Kingston has announced the release of the 128GB version of its Wi-Drive, a Wi-Fi enabled, battery powered, external storage device

Previously available in 16, 32 and 64GB capacities, the Wi-Drive now boasts even more storage, 128GB to be precise. The Wi-Drive features integrated W-Fi and has a battery life of around four hours, according to Kingston

The Wi-Drive is designed to offer easy file sharing and pocket-sized portable storage for Wi-Fi enabled devices like Apple iPad, iPhone and iPod touch as well as Android devices, like Kindle Fire or Google's Nexus family, which lacks microSD support

It also features the Wi-Drive App that is available on Apple App Store, Google Play and Amazon Appstore in case you are running any of those Kindle devices. It allows simultaneous data access and file sharing for up to three users

Unfortunately, the price or the actual availability date have not been announced, but a quick check on our favorite search engine shows it listed at around €150 in Europe

Radeon HD 7950 has no problems with Windows 8

But it is outclassed by the GeForce GTX 660 Ti

 

There is a bit of an outcry in the gaming crowd after the Radeon HD 7950 failed to impress the reviewers at Tech Report in a faceoff with the GeForce GTX 660 Ti

Extreme Tech though that the Radeon HD 7950 was going to win hands down. AMD has released new graphics drivers which promised a performance increase and the outfit has worked closely with the developers of many of the holiday season's top games. But when it came to the test only the FPS averages were competitive with the GeForce. The 7950 produced frames at an uneven pace and the frame time plots for the Radeon were riddled with latency spikes

The reviewers were so surprised they took the 7950 out for a closer look and they started to wonder if upgrading the test rigs to Windows 8 might have played a role. So it ran the same tests in Windows 7 and it turned out that it made very little difference

AMD spokesman Antal Tungler is on the ball and said that the review had "raised some alarms" internally at the company. AMD is investigating and hoped to have some answers for us "before the holiday." It appears that AMD also expects the 7950 to perform well in FPS-based benchmarks and give the GeForce GTX 660 Ti a good kicking too

More here

Consumers interested in Apple smart TV

Willing to pay hefty premium

 

Apple and Google will soon expand their handbag fight to the TV market. Although both outfits were expected to introduce smart TV products this year, they didn’t materialize

Analysts are now weighing in on Apple’s smart TV and they seem rather impressed by the potential of the smart TV market. Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty believes Apple could sell more than 13 million “iTV” units, once it gets round to launching them, of course

A recent survey found that 18 percent of US households owned a smart TV, but only 13 percent knew how to connect it to the internet. So while TVs are getting smarter, consumers are not. The survey also showed that 11 percent of consumers are “extremely interested” in buying a fruity smart TV, while 36 percent said they are “somewhat interested.” Basically the survey indicates that consumers are more interested in Apple’s vaporware TV set than new iPads and iPhones

Almost half of consumers said they would be willing to pay over $1,000 for the new device, but 10% of consumers said they wouldn’t mind paying $2,000. Younger consumers, in the 18 to 29 age bracket, said they would pay a 32 percent premium to get an Apple TV. Well, what they probably meant to say is that their mum and dad would be willing to pay such a premium to buy them a new TV. Older and more sensible consumers are less keen to dish out more money, but they would still accept a 15 to 22 percent premium

13 million TVs at $1,000 a pop translates into a $13 billion opportunity for Apple, but the “iTV” business would still be much smaller than the Mac business, let alone Apple’s phone and tablet business

More here

Analyst: Medfield can’t compete with ARM chips

But 22nm parts could be different

 

Nomura analyst Romit Shah believes Intel’s Medfield doesn’t have what it takes to take on the likes of Qualcomm and other ARM players in the smarpthone space

Shah points to Motorola’s Razr i and Razr M as an example. Although the Intel based version seems competitive at first glance, once you factor in the added power drain of LTE, Medfield starts to lose its edge

Shah noted that the Intel based handset lacks LTE, which consumes 25 to 30 percent more power than 3G radios

“This difference could explain the 10-15% better battery life for the RAZR-I,” wrote Shah. Furthermore, he goes on to conclude that Medfield doesn’t seem to be ahead in terms of performance, either. The latest high-end Android and WP8 phones are based on ARM SoCs, and the fastest among them feature Snapdragon S4 quad-cores

Shah points out that Intel has an advantage in some web browser tests, but that’s pretty much where the good news ends

“While Medfield appears to have superior performance on SunSpider (50% better than Snapdragon), it scored below Snapdragon and Tegra 3 on the other two benchmarks,” he wrote

Intel’s next generation 22nm SoCs could turn things around, but they will also face obstacles. Shah believes convincing customers to split R&D resources between two architectures won’t be easy. Furthermore, OEMs would have to rely to a single x86 chip supplier, rather than several different ARM players

More here
http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2012/12/12/intels-medfield-has-no-edge-on-qcom-snapdragon-says-nomura/

Yahoo rolls out new web email

Targeting Gmail

Yahoo is issuing a new version of one of its most popular products

The new versions of its popular web email product are the first major product makeover since chief executive Marissa Mayer took the helm of the struggling internet company five months ago. Yahoo released new versions of its Yahoo Mail app for smartphones and tablets and a revamped version of its web-based mail product for PCS. Ironically the product cuts out ancillary features and that apparently makes it faster

Mayer said that customers said that they wanted fewer distractions when it comes to email. They just want to quickly login, communicate, and get on with their day. Yahoo is the number one web email product in the US and number three worldwide, behind Google's Gmail and Microsoft's Hotmail

Vivek Sharma, General Manager of Yahoo Mail & Messenger, said the group of new mobile apps was part of Yahoo's goal of ensuring that its products are available across all major mobile platforms — a move that he said should help Yahoo's email stay popular with the younger generation of users

The new PC version of Yahoo Mail features fewer ads, primarily by doing away with pass-through web pages that users previously encountered before they could access their inbox and which appeared after a user sent an email

AMD retires four CPUs in Q2 13

Making room for Vishera

AMD plans to retire quite a few Zambezi desktop FX cores and replace them with superior Vishera cores. The transition is already happening in Q4 2012 and it will be complete next year

AMD plans to retire FX 8150 eight-core, FX 6200 six-core and FX 4170 quad-core chips in Q1 2013 and it plans to retire an additional four processors in the following quarter. The AMD FX 8120, a 3.1GHz octa-core with turbo capability of 4GHz, 125W and 7MB of cache, retires in Q2 2013. AMD also plans to retire the six-core FX 6100 clocked at 3.3GHz to 3.9GHz with turbo, at 95W TDP

Not even quad-cores will be spared as FX 4130 with 3.8 to 3.9GHz clock, four cores, 4MB cache and 125W TDP as well as the FX 4100 with 3.6GHz to 3.8GHz with turbo, will reach its end of life in Q2 2013.

They all get replaced by FX 8350 and FX 8320 in the eight-core 125W market, FX 6300 in 95W six core market and FX 4300 in 95W quad-core market that are available since late October

Intel talks up 22nm SoCs

ARM wrestling

 

Thanks to a long spate of bad luck over at AMD, Intel now finds itself in a rather safe market lead, at least in high-end and server markets. However, in the low-end and mobile, Intel has a lot of catching up to do

ARM still dominates the mobile market and Intel is looking to take on the British chip designer with new 22nm SoCs of its own. Intel outlined its SoC strategy at the 2012 International Electron Devices Meeting in San Francisco the other days

The cunning plan involves 3D tri gate transistors and Intel’s 22nm fabrication process, or in other words it is a brute force approach. Intel can afford to integrate the latest tech in cheep and cheerful 22nm Atoms, thus making them more competitive in terms of power efficiency

Since Intel leads the way with new manufacturing processes it already has roughly a year of experience with 22nm chips, while ARM partners rely on 28nm, 32nm and more often than not, 40nm processes. Intel’s next generation SoCs will also benefit from other off-the-shelf Intel tech, such as 3D tri-gate transistors

Analysts believe Intel has what it takes to come up with a (very) competitive mobile chip, but it will take some time. Volume production is expected sometime in 2013, but that is as specific as Intel is willing to get at this point

More here

Powercolor launches HD 7850 Fling Force graphics card

Adds few more fan blades

Powercolor has announced yet another graphics card that will be a part of its HD 7800 series lineup, the Powercolor HD 7850 Fling Force Edition

The new HD 7850 Fling Force Edition still features 1024 stream processors, works at 910MHz for the GPU and comes with 2GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 4.8GHz and paired up with a 256-bit memory interface

The Fling Force Edition name comes from the cooler attached to the card that feature additional fan blades. According to Powercolor, a few more blades add up to 10 percent more aiflow thus providing much better cooling for the new card

The new Powercolor HD 7850 also comes with Gold Power Kit design that features PowerPAK SO-8, Ferrite Core Choke and solid capacitors, providing better power efficiency and stability when overclocked. It features DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort outputs

Intel committed to socketed CPUs

Told you it was a silly rumour

 

Rumourmongers used to be better at what they did. Earlier this week we saw Nokia debunk daft rumours of a possible Android phone and now it’s Intel’s turn to kill an equally outlandish rumour

Last week it was reported that Intel could ditch socketed processors as early as 2014. For some reason the rumour got a lot of traction and Intel was eventually forced to respond. In a chat with Maximum PC, Intel spokesman Daniel Snyder said the chipmaker will remain committed to desktop enthusiast and channel markets and that it will continue to offer socketed parts in the LGA package for the foreseeable future for our customers and the Enthusiast DIY market

Snyder did note that Intel cannot comment on specific long-term product roadmaps, but even so it is quite obvious that Intel will continue developing LGA processors for some time, depending on how we interpret foreseeable future

Of course, the low-end market is a different story. Both Intel and AMD have been churning out cheap ITX boards based on Atom and Brazos chips for a couple of years now, but using the same approach with pricey high-end components would be very difficult indeed

More here

BioShock Infinite delayed again

Now has new date of March 26th 2013

 

Sources tell us that based on a recommendation of Epic’s former Production Director, Rod Fergusson, Ken Levine says that BioShock Infinite could benefit from another three or four weeks of development. Fergusson fell in love with Infinite and is reportedly living in a hotel in the Boston area as he continues to work on the game

So, yet again, BioShock Infinite has been delayed from the original release date. If there is anything good about the news it seems that March 26th is set in stone; and we will see it release for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC when it arrives

Perhaps the best news is that the release isn’t being rushed to make a release date; and instead, Levine wants to get it right, rather than just get it out. While we have not seen much of the actual game since the announcement, more should be revealed in next month or so as we inch closer to the release of the game

LG Optimus 2X finally getting Android 4.0 ICS

 

Unlocked devices for now

 

The world's first Tegra 2 smartphone, and the one that ended up in the Guinness World Records book as the first dual-core smartphone available to the public, is finally getting its taste of Google's Ice Cream Sandwich OS

The new V30a update includes Ice Cream Sandwich OS and LG's launcher and is currently rolling out to unlocked devices across the Europe. Carrier-locked ones will have to wait a tad bit longer but that one should eventually come as well. As you remember, LG already updated the Optimus 2X in the South Korea and it was just a matter of time before it hits Europe, despite earlier rumors that ICS update will never come

Unfortunately, the Jelly Bean update is probably out of the question and we honestly hope that LG will eventually do better with updates when it comes to the Optimus G and Optimus 4X HD

More here

Intel updates its CPU roadmap

Upgrades entry-level Pentiums

 

Chipzilla will upgrade its entry-level desktop Pentium and Celeron product lines in the first quarter of 2013. The move has been revealed in an updated roadmap found by Digitimes

It appears that in the first quarter, Intel will launch Ivy Bridge-based 22nm Pentium G2130, G2020 and G2020T and Celeron G1620, G1610 and G1610T processors, while its existing Sandy Bridge-based 32nm Pentium G870, G645 and G645T as well as Celeron G555, G550 and G550T will be phased out of the market. Intel wants no more orders for the Core i7-2700K, Core i5-3450, Core i5-2310, Core i3-2105 and Pentium G440 by the end of 2012.

Intel is set to release several Ivy Bridge-based dual-core processors for notebooks including Core i7-3687, Core i5-3437U, Celeron 1037U, 1007U, 1020M and 1000M in first-quarter 2013. This will set things up for the release its Haswell-based processors in the third quarter. Single-core Celeron processors including the Celeron 807 and B730 will be chopped this year. Sandy Bridge-based 32nm processors currently still account for 60 per cent of desktop shipments, while Ivy Bridge-based 22nm processors account for 34 per cent

Atom should make up four per cent of shipments and Sandy Bridge E series 2 per cent, the roadmap said. This will change in the first half of 2013, with the launch of the new Pentium and Celeron processors. When this happens Ivy Bridge-based processors' proportion will rise to 75-78 per cent, Sandy Bridge and Atom will together have less than 20 per cent and Haswell, which is set to launch in the second quarter of 2013, will have 4 per cent

Ivy Bridge E, Sandy Bridge E and Sandy Bridge-based processors will together account for 4 per cent by the middle of the year, Atom will stay at 4 per cent while Haswell will have 20 per cent. Ivy Bridge-based products still the mainstream processor in the market

It looks like Chipzilla will announce 20nm 530 series MLC SSDs in the first quarter of 2013.

More here

OCZ releases new Vector Series SSDs

Barefoot 3 controller paired up with MLC NAND

 

OCZ has finally released its newest Vector Series of solid state drives, based on Indilinx Barefoot 3 controller, rather than the now standard Sandforce controller

Available in 128, 256 and 512GB capacities and standard 2.5-inch, 7mm ultra-slim form factor, the new Vector SSD Series uses the Indilinx Barefoot 3 controller paired up with MLC NAND chips and SATA 6Gbps interface. OCZ decided that the new Vector Series is quite good enough to be called "a groundbreaker" in performance, reliability, efficiency and endurance

With up to 95k IOPS in random 4k read and up to 100k IOPS in random 4k write it certainly has enough punch to be quite a performance groundbreaker. The 128GB version can deliver 550MB/s sequential read and 400MB/s sequential write performance, as well as 90k IOPS of 4k random write and 95k of 4k random read performance

The 256GB and 512GB versions both feature the same 550MB/s of sequential read and up to 530MB/s of sequential write performance with aforementioned 100k/95k IOPS random write and read performance

The new Vector Series SSDs also come with TRIM and Idle Time Garbage Collection performance optimizations and are bundled with Acronis cloning software registration key and 3.5-inch desktop adapter

Although the official price has not been announced a quick check at our favorite price search engine shows that it sells for around €150 for the 128GB one, around €270 for the 256GB version and around €500 for the 512GB version. In case you are coming from the USA, Newegg.com currently lists it at US $159.99, $289.99 and $569.99 with free shipping for all three models

All we need now are some reviews to see how well does it actually perform against the Sandforce-based competition

PC players want GTA 5 for PC

Petition collects 75,000 signatures

 

While Rockstar has not committed one way or the other if their upcoming release of Grand Theft Auto 5 will or not be released on the PC, PC fans are taking no chances. PC gamers supporting the release of GTA 5 have taken to collecting online signatures to show Rockstar their support for a PC version. So far, the group has been able to collect over 75,000 signatures of support for a PC version

The plan is to reach its target of 100,000+ signatures and then they hope to approach Rockstar to show them how much support a PC release already has. Rockstar has offered a number of their Grand Theft Auto titles on the PC, and the developer has not closed the door on the possibility of the game being released for additional platforms beyond the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

While Rockstar boss Dan Houser has apparently acknowledged that he is aware of the petition, beyond suggesting that he is watching it he would only confirm that no decision has been made whether they are considering other platforms for potential release

Sapphire announces new Edge VS Series Mini PC

Trinity based Edge VS4 and VS8

Sapphire has announced a new and very interesting addition to its Edge Mini PC lineup, the all new Edge VS Series based on latest AMD Trinity APUs. Placed in an almost identical case as the previous Edge Mini PCs, the new Edge VS packs a lot more punch thanks to AMD's Trinity quad- and dual-core APUs

The Edge VS4 and the Edge VS8, as Sapphire decided to call them, are both based on AMD's mobile APUs, packed in the same case and feature 2GB or 4GB of DDR3 SO-DIMMM memory, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11bgn WiFi and Bluetooth 3.0, mini DisplayPort and HDMI outputs, four USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 ports and a card reader. Both systems come with pre-installed Free DOS and support Windows 8, 7 and Vista OS

The main difference between the Edge VS8 and the Edge VS4 is in the choice of the APU and although not officially detailed, judging by the specs, the Edge VS8 features AMD's A8-4555M quad-core Trinity APU clocked at 1.6GHz with 2.4GHz Turbo, 4MB of L2 cache (2x2MB) and integrated HD 7600G GPU with 384 stream processors and 320/424MHz clocks. The Edge VS4 uses AMD's dual-core A4-4355M APU clocked at 1.9GHz with 2.4GHz Turbo, 1MB of L2 cache and integrated Radeon HD 7400G GPU with 192 stream processors and 327/424MHz clocks

In case you are wondering, the quad-core A8-4555M has a 19W TDP while the dual-core A4-4355M is rated at 17W. The Edge VS8 also features a larger 500GB hard drive as opposed to the 320GB drive in the Edge VS4. The new Edge VS series will also be offered as a barebone, in case you want to go with a large HDD, SSD, or up to 16GB of RAM memory

Unfortunately, the price has not been announced but a quick check at our favorite price search engine show them listed at around €450 for the Edge VS8 and around €380 for the Edge VS4.

Point of View launches HDMI Smart TV Dongle

Android 4.1 and wireless keyboard included

Point of View has announced and launched a rather unique piece of hardware, the HDMI SmartTV dongle. The tiny contraption even runs on Google's Android 4.1 OS and comes bundled with a wireless keyboard

Point of View has been pushing Android tablets lately and it been doing quite well for that matter. Although it is quite hard to battle the likes of Samsung, Google or Apple, Point of View made an impact in the low-end and mid-range market. This new piece of kit takes the Android approach a step further. The HDMI SmartTV dongle features a dual-core Cortex A9 processor that turns your TV into quite capable Smart TV, without much hassle

Spec-wise, the SmartTV dongle is based on Rockchip's RK3066 dual-core Cortex A9 SoC clocked at 1.6GHz and Mali-400MP GPU. It also features 1GB of DDR3 RAM memory and 4GB of internal storage, expandable with a microSD card. It integrates 802.11bgn WiFi, has full size USB 2.0 Host and mini USB 2.0 port for charging. It even comes bundled with a rather neat looking wireless keyboard with trackpad

As noted, the new POV HDMI SmartTV dongle runs on Google's Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and should be available in stores (at least in Europe) as of next week with a suggested retail price set at €99.

1TB optical discs coming in 2015

Someone is still developing those things

Optical storage is all but obsolete on most platforms and with ever increasing internet speeds, cheap HDDs, cloud storage and other emerging technologies there’s not much chance we’ll see an optical tech revival anytime soon

Howevr, Fujifilm begs to differ. The outfit has developed a new recoding method that is said to deliver as much as 1TB of storage on a single disc. The new discs can store 25GB per layer, much like Blu-ray discs, but unlike Blu-ray the new double-sided discs have 20 layers

The new recording method uses two-photon absorption technology to increase the number of layers and it employs a 405nm Ti/S laser

The new method will potentially make 15TB discs possible, making them as cheap as magnetic tape yes, people still use those, too

Fujifilm hopes to commercialize the new disc by 2015. We are not convinced that there is still a consumer market for the new technology, but some businesses could find it handy

More here

Powercolor announces PCS+ HD 7870 Myst. Edition

Tahiti LE in disguise

We already wrote about the upcoming Tahiti LE GPU and Powercolor has just announced its newest PCS+ HD 7870 Myst. Edition based on the new GPU

Although not officially mentioned in the announcement, the new Powercolor PCS+ HD 7870 Myst. Edition is indeed based on the Tahiti LE GPU and features a total of 1536 stream processors. It is based on the same PCB as Powercolor's PCS+ HD 7870 with "Gold Power Kit" that should provide stable operation and power efficiency

The new PCS+ HD 7870 Myst. Edition works at 925MHz base and 975MHz Boost clocks for the GPU and features 2GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 6GHz and paired up with a 256-bit memory interface

The entire card is cooled by a dual-slot cooler with 92mm center placed fan and SSU-shape heatpipes. The new card is UEFI ready and supports Windows 8 Fast Boot function and features DVI, HDMI and two mini-DisplayPort outputs

According to our info, the new cards based on the Tahiti LE GPU should perform similar to the already available factory overclocked HD 7870 GHz Edition graphics cards and should be priced similarly as well

Western Digital adds 4TB HDD to Black line

, 7200 RPM, 4TB HDD.,3.5-inch

Western Digital has updated its Black line of hard drives with a new 4TB model that combines fast access times and reliability without compromising the capacity

Thanks to its fast performance, Western Digital's Black line was always aimed at gaming, high-performance desktop systems as well as workstations, and since it was previously limited to 2TB of capacity, the new model will certainly be extremely popular

Spec-wise, the new WD Black 4TB spins at 7200RPM, has 64MB of cache, SATA 6Gbps interface and features an integrated dual processor. It also uses what WD calls "dual actuator technology," a new head positioning system that uses two actuators in order to improve positional accuracy over the data track. The primary actuator uses conventional electromagnetic actuator principles for coarse displacement while the secondary one uses piezoelectric motion to fine tune the head positioning resulting in a higher degree of accuracy. It also features IntelliSeek, StableTrac and NoTouch technologies

The new 4TB WD Black (model WD40001FAEX) is already shipping to select distributors and resellers and has a suggested retail price set at US $339, which is pretty higher than US $179.99 for the 2TB one

Nvidia rolls out Geforce 310.61 Beta driver

For Planetside 2 and Hitman: Absolution

Following the recent release of the Geforce 310.54 Beta driver for Call of Duty: Black Ops II and Assassin's Creed III, Nvidia has now released a new Geforce 310.61 Beta driver version for PlanetSide 2 and Hitman: Absolution

The new Beta driver brings all of the fixes seen in previous Beta drivers and, as noted, brings improved compatibility for Planetside 2 and Hitman: Absolution

As it was the case with the entire Geforce R310 driver lineup, this one also supports all Geforce graphics cards since the Geforce 8 Series

You can find the new driver here

Droid DNA 5-inch hits Verizon

1080p LTE beast available

 

Verizon wireless has just launched the Droid DNA, a wonderfully spec’d 5-inch phone with an 1080p screen

Aside from the groundbreaking display, the DNA also boasts a big battery, 2GB of memory, LTE, NFC as well a Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core and many will want to get this phone for $199 with a two-year contract

Contract free, the phone is also priced rather reasonably at $599, and it can be purchased here

Continuous photo shooting with its 8-megapixel camera as well as Beats Audio might make a difference for some consumers, so they are worth mentioning

It comes with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and with its resolution is beats just about any phone currently available in the US market

If AT&T or Verizon are the carriers of your choice, the DNA is a good choice, while some still may opt for T-Mobile and its limited 4G network. Regardless of your choice it’s quite clear that HTC’s Droid DNA is one of the top devices that many US consumers would like to see under their Xmas tree