Sapphire launches HD 7950 Mac Edition graphics card

Designed for Mac Pro desktops

 

Seen and detailed at Cebit 2013 earlier this month, Sapphire has now officially launched its new HD 7950 Mac Edition graphics card designed to be used with Mac Pro desktop systems

The new Sapphire HD 7950 Mac Edition, based on AMD's GCN architecture, will bring a new level of graphics perfomance improvement to Mac Pro users in a wide range of applications including gaming, audio or video editing and content creation. According to Sapphire, the HD 7950 Mac Edition will bring over 200 percent improvement in games, up to 30 percent in general benchmarks and up to 300 percent in graphics intensive benchmarks when compared to the Nvidia 8800GT which is commonly used in Mac Pro systems

Although there are no precise details regarding the clocks, Sapphire noted that the card comes with 3GB of GDDR5 memory and delivers up to 2.87 TFLOPS of single precision compute power as well as hardware support for Open GL 4.2, Open CL 1.2 and AMD HD3D tech and APP acceleration. It also comes with all advanced post-processing and scaling operations, courtesy of AMD GCN architecture, including de-blocking de-noising, automatic de-interlacing, Mosquito noise reduction and edge enhancement as well as advanced image quality enhancement technology, such as adaptive anti-aliasing and 16x angle independent anisotropic texture filtering

It features two mini DisplayPort outputs with a maximum reoslution of 3840x2160 per display under Mac OSX as well as a Dual-link DVI port with HDCP (2560x1600) and 3GHz HDMI 1.4a port (3840x2160 maximum resolution). As noted by Sapphire, the new HD 7950 Mac Edition works on all Apple Mac Pro models from 2010 with an available PCI-Express x16 slot and needs two 6-pin PCI-Express power coonectors that are supplied with the card

For those PC users that simply like the look of the new HD 7590 Mac Edition, Sapphire decided to include a dual BIOS switch that switches between non-UEFI MAC OS X/Windows BIOS and UEFI hybrid BIOS for Windows

Unfortunately, Sapphire did not shere any details regarding the price or the availability date

Intel shows off new web-based TV design kit

Getting ready for show time

 

Chipzilla has unveiled a new reference design kit for a Web-based TV set-top box. The box will use an Atom processor and Hillcrest Labs' motion control technology

According to a press release, the fact that the remote alongside Hillcrest's Freespace Motion Engine software will give subscribers the ability to control their TVs with "mouse-like navigation and point-and-click simplicity." Intel is showcasing the software at the TV Connect 2013 conference in London

Chipzilla thinks that operators want better ways to help consumers find and navigate shows and applications

"With Freespace, we're creating an out-of-the box, motion-ready reference solution for operators and OEMs globally," an Intel spokesman said

Intel plans to release an Internet-based TV service and box this year. The chipmaker will provide the hardware and services to consumers and that the box would use a camera that could detect who is in front of the TV. Intel's kit is intended to allow equipment manufacturers to make set-top boxes and media servers based on the dual-core Atom CE5300.

The chip giant says it pre-integrated a media engine, broadcast stacks, virtualization, and motion control technology to reduce testing. Intel intends to make the reference design available to manufacturers next month

AMD brings HD 7790 launch forward

  

Reviews coming on Friday, 22nd of March

 

According to our sources, AMD has brought the official launch of the Radeon HD 7790 forward and first reviews should be up on Friday, 22nd of March

The decision for the new official launch date did not change many things as the retail/e-tail availability is still expected in April, but we guess that AMD wanted to have a head start in order to do as much damage possible to Nvidia's GT 650 Ti Boost graphics card. The sample cards should already be in the hands of selected members of the press, according to our sources

To make things even sillier, Nvidia came up with the GT 650 Ti to counter the AMD Radeon HD 7790, and now AMD is countering that with a preemtive launch. It is a good thing these guys didn't run the US or USSR during the Cold War. We'd all be a layer of fine, irradiated dust right now.Mr. President, we must not allow a mineshaft gap. Ed

In case you missed it, the Bonaire based Radeon HD 7790 is expected to feature 768 stream processors and a 128-bit memory interface, at least according to early GPU-Z screenshots. It needs a single 6-pin PCI-Express power connector, should be available in versions with 1 and 2GB of GDDR5 memory and feature two DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort outputs

The Radeon HD 7790 aims to fill the gap between the HD 7770 GHz Edition and the Radeon HD 7850 graphics and should be priced accordingly

ASUS plans Intel based Andriod phone

Atom goes main stream

 

The dark satanic rumour mill has manufactured a hell on earth yarn which claims that ASUS has plans to launch an Intel-based Android smartphone in June

The report comes from Digitimes quoting its typewriters, er upstream manufacturing sources, so there might be nothing in it. However if it is true it means that ASUS will be targeting the mainstream market segment with an Intel Atom Z2580 device
The phone is said to share some characteristics with Lenovo’s K900 and will sport a display ranging from 5-5.5”.

Little else is known about the phone. Intel has been trying to push its Atoms in the emerging markets, such as India and Africa, versus developed markets which is already saturated by the competition from Qualcomm, Nvidia and Samsung with its Exynos chipsets. So this would be a change of tactics

More here

Sony announces mid-range Xperia L smartphone

4.3-inch dual-core smartphone

 

In addition to the Xperia SP high mid-range smartphone, Sony also revealed a slightly cheaper Xperia L 4.3-inch smartphone based on Qualcomm's MSM8230 chipset

The 4.3-inch 854x480 touchscreen is far away from 720p screens usually found in higher priced smartphones, but it should be enough for most consumers. Sony decided to go for Qualcomm's MSM8230 chipset that features two Krait CPU cores clocked at 1GHz, paired up with an Adreno 305 GPU. The rest of the specs include 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage space expandable by microSD card slot

Just like the mid range Xperia SP, this Xperia L also features 8-megapixel Exmor RS sensor camera with HDR-mode for both pictures and video mode as well as a dedicated shutter key. It also features a front 0.3-megapixel VGA camera for video calling

Connectivity wise, the Xperia L will feature 3G HSPA, WiFi, Bluetooth and NFC support. It should feature 1900mAh battery and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean OS

Unfortuanately Sony did not reveal any details regarding the price of the Xperia L, either, but according to rumors and early listings it should be priced at less than €300 in Europe. The Xperia L should also be available in black, white and red color in Q2 this year

Nvidia release Geforce 314.21 beta drivers

 

Tomb Raider performance/stability fixed 

 

Nvidia has released a new Geforce 314.21 beta driver that is mostly aimed at improving performance in Tomb Raider 2013.

The new beta driver improves performance and stability in Tomb Raider and adds a couple of new SLI and 3D Vision profiles. As you remember, there was a considerable performance difference between otherwise comparable Nvidia and AMD GPUs. Nvidia already apologized and explained that the company only received a final version of the game a few days before the launch and it has been working closely with Crystal Dynamics to resolve all game issues as quickly as possible

The most noticable issues were with a huge performance hit when TressFX hair was enabled as well as some game crashing on 600-series graphics cards that should hopefully be fixed with the new Tomb Raider update and Nvidia's Geforce 314.21 beta driver update

You can find the new beta driver here

AMD releases Catalyst 13.3 beta 2 driver

  

Tomb Raider, Far Cry 3 and Sim City 5 fixes

 

AMD has released Catalyst 13.3 beta 2 driver that fixes performance issues in some of the latest titles, including Tomb Raider 2013.

The full list includes performance improvements of up to 16 percent in Sim City 5 and up to 5 percent in Far Cry 3 as well as latency performance issues noticed in Tomb Raider and Hitman: Absolution

AMD also resolved slight corruption seen in Tomb Raider with TressFX hair enabled for Crossfire and single GPU configurations

As it was the case with all most recent driver updates, this one is also compatible with AMD Radeon HD 5000, 6000 and 7000 series desktop graphics cards as well as AMD Mobility HD 5000, 6000M and 7000M series graphics cards

You can find the AMD Catalyst 13.3 Beta 2 driver here

Samsung Galaxy S4 coming to UK on April 26th

Pre-orders start March 28th

 

Although there is still no word regarding the price of the new Samsung Galaxy S4, some UK carriers and retailers/e-tailers have announced both the availability and the pre-order dates set for April 26th and March 28th

It is no wonder that most, if not every UK carrier will be offering Samsung Galaxy S4 including Three, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile, O2, EE and Tesco Mobile, as well as some retail/e-tail shops, including Carphone Warehouse and Phones 4U. According to current information, EE, Orange and T-Mobile will start taking pre-orders from 28th of March while availability is expected on 26th of April

There are, of course, some differences between offers from various carriers as some will charge extra for the LTE while other will give it for free, once LTE service is available

You can check out more over at CNET.co.uk

Lenovo unveils new 14-inch ThinkPad T431 Ultrabook

A new era for the ThinkPad

 

Lenovo has turned a new page with its Thinkpad line of notebooks by announcing the new ThinkPad T431 that features no less than 26 design changes that should mark a new era in Thinkpad history

According to Lenovo, the new Thinkpad comes as a result of an 18-month research and developement process that resulted in 26 major design changes, but it still retains the recognizable look and feel of a good old Thinkpad. Despite the fact that it fits all the Ultrabook parameters, Lenovo wanted to make sure that it is still a rugged and durable Thinkpad that meets the mil-SPEC 8 standard

Built around a 14-inch 1600x900 matte display with 250 nits of brightnes and the thinnest bezel on any T-series Thinkpad so far, the new Thinkpad T431 ended up with 331x226x20.6mm (13.03x8.89x0.8-inches) dimensions and 1.63kg (3.6-pounds) weight. The rest of the specs include up to 3.3GHz clocked Intel Core i7-3687U CPU, Intel HD graphics, up to 12GB of RAM, up to 1TB of HDD space or SSD option, 720p webcamera, optional backlit keyboard, WiFi, Bluetooth, Gigabit Ethernet and WWAN connectivity options, VGA output, card reader, two USB 3.0 ports and bunch of other expected features including a 47WHr (3-cell) sealed battery

In addition to a slimmer and more clean design and thinnest bezel so far, the main design change is with the touchpad as the standard and quite recognizable Thinkpad touchpad has been replaced with a new button-less version developed by Lenovo and Synaptics. As you can see it does not feature any buttons, it is quite larger and supports up to 20 different gestures

The new Thinkpad T431 will be available with either Windows 7 or Windows 8 OS and Lenovo already hinted that we might see versions with a touchscreen in a near future. It will be available as of April with a starting price of US $949.

Samsung Galaxy S II and Galaxy Note should get Android 4.2.2

Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II to end at Android 5.0

According to the first pre-list compiled by Sammobile.com, Samsung plans to deliver an Android 4.2.2 update to a wide range of devices, including the Galaxy S II and, the first-gen Galaxy Note as well as update some of the recently released devices to Android 5.0.

The compiled pre-list comes from an insider that revealed details to Sammobile.com and includes a wide range of devices that will see Android 4.2.2 as their last update, including the Galaxy S II/Plus/Advance, Galaxy S III mini, Galaxy Ace 2 and the first Galaxy Note. The insider also revealed Samsung plans to update Galaxy S III/III LTE, Galaxy S 4, Galaxy Note 8.0, Note II and Note 10.1 to Android 5.0.

The information also reveals that a bunch of mid-range 2012/2013 devices will be getting a value pack update. Of course, the official announcement regarding the Android 5.0 update is expected as soon as Google officially announce it at its Google I/O event and we guess that we will see the Android 4.2.2 update-list confirmation somewhere around that timeframe as well

Of course, since this is a pre-list, Samsung could still add or remove some devices from it

You can check out more here

First Radeon HD 7790 pictured

  

Tested in 3DMark

 

It was just a matter of time before we see some pictures of the upcoming Radeon HD 7790 based on the Bonaire GPU, and Sweclockers.com managed to get their hands on one, post some pictures and even do some testing in 3DMark

Although the GPU-Z v0.6.8 does not officially support the new Bonaire GPU, some info gathered from it can be accurate as it is reported by the driver. Of course, the amount of stream processors, memory interface and TMU/ROP count might be slightly different than what the actual screenshot shows. If the GPU-Z screenshot ends up to be true, we are looking at 768 stream processors and a 128-bit memory interface

The pictured card comes from Sapphire and will be a part of their Dual-X series. It features custom PCB and Sapphire's own dual-X cooler with two 80mm fans. The new HD 7790 will apparently need a single 6-pin PCI-Express power connector and feature two DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort outputs

Sweclockers also did some test with the 3DMark Fire Strike and 3DMark 11 benchmarks and compare it to the Radeon HD 7850. The new HD 7790 graphics card (or at least this SKU from Sapphire) ends up just slightly slower than the HD 7850 which is pretty much in line with what we have been hearing for quite a while

According to the mentioned GPU-Z screenshot, the Sapphire HD 7790 Dual-X might end up clocked at 1075MHz for the GPU and 6400MHz for either 1GB or 2GB of GDDR5 memory paired up with a 128-bit memory interface

According to earlier rumors, the new HD 7790 is scheduled to appare in retail/e-tail as of next month and should fit,l price and performance wise, between the HD 7770 GHz Edition and the Radeon HD 7850 graphics card

You can check out more here. via Techpowerup.com

EVGA showcases Superclocked Titan

Running 3Dmark

 

In case that you don’t think that Nvidia’s new Geforce Titan is fast enough, EVGA has something for you. It turns out that EVGA already has superclocked Titan cards and Cebit it showed off two of them in SLI mode at Cebit

The system that was running two EVGA GeForce GTX Titan SuperClocked cards in 2-way SLI, EVGA Z77 FTW mobo, Intel Core i7 3770K CPU as well as Kingston HyperX Beast 4x 8GB @ 2133MHz (KHX21C11T3K4 /32X) memory. The EVGA Geforce GTX Titan Superclocked has 2688 CUDA cores, a base clock of 876GHz (up from 837MHz), boost clock of 928 MHz (up from 876 MHz at default Titan) and it has 6144MB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 6008MHz, just like the reference board. The bottom line is that the GPU and boost clocked are overclocked and the SLI was stable all the time, we were told



As far as we know, EVGA’s Superclocked Titan is the first card to deviate from the original clock, so it should provide slightly higher performance than reference cards. It was cool to see Kingston’s HyperX 3K SSD 240GB used as the system drive, along with no less than six HyperX 3K SSD 240 GB in RAID 0 for storage via Adaptec’s RAID 6805E adapter. The PSU of choice was Cooler Master’s Silent Pro Hybrid 1300W and the rig also featured a Cooler Master Seidon 240M cooler

Superclocked cards are coming soon, and they will end up a bit more expensive than default cards

Buffalo shows off Thunderbolt SSD

740MB/s read, 600MB/s write

 

Buffalo showed off their DriveStation Mini Thunderbolt SSD Edition at Cebit, and it is a rather strange beast

The device brings users two 2.5 "Solid State Disks in a small form factor fan cooled enclosure. The unit can be addresses as a JBOD (Just a Bunch of Disks), or using software RAID 0 & 1. In RAID 0 is the read performance tops out at a maximum 740 MB/s while the write performance hits 600 MB/s. The units two Thunderbolt connections gives users the ability to chain them together

The device will come with a power supply and a Thunderbolt cable in the box. This device comes in configurations starting with 256GB (128gb x 2) for €470, 512GB (256gb x 2) for 660 euros, and 1TB (512gb x 2) for €1100.

Point of View announces two new tablets

Mobii 945 and Mobii 1045 quad-core tablets

 

Point of View has today expanded its tablet range with two new models based on quad-core Cortex A7 CPUs, the 9.7-inch Mobii 945 and the 10-inch Mobii 1045.

Both tablets ship with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and feature the same quad-core Cortex A7-based CPU clocked at 1.0GHz, paired up with PowerVR SGX544 MP2 GPU and 2GB of DDR3 memory. The Mobii 945 is built around a 9.7-inch 2048x1536 IPS touch-screen and features 16GB of internal storage expandable by up to 32GB via microSD card slot, 802.11bgn WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 for connectivity, 1.3MP front and 5.0MP back cameras, micro USB 2.0 and mini HDMI 1.4 ports. The exact dimensions are 241x187.5x9.9mm

The larger but most likely cheaper Mobii 1045 has a slightly impressive 10-inch IPS 1280x800 touch-screen and will be available with either 8 or 16GB of internal storage also expandable by up to 32GB via microSD card slot. The rest of the features include 802.11bgn WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0, two micro USB 2.0 ports and a mini HDMI 1.4 output. It also has a 1.3MP front camera but the back one is cut down to 2.0MP. The precise dimensions of the Mobii 1045 are set at 263x174x10.5mm

Point of View has announced that both tablets are expected to hit retail/e-tail shelves by the end of March. Unfortunately, the price has not been announced but according to our details the Mobii 945 should end up at around €279 while the Mobii 1045 should go for €259.

Asus Transformer AiO officially announced

Coming this Spring at US $1,299

 

Asus has now officially announced its tablet/All-in-One hybrid that will be known as the Asus Transformer AiO. The new Transformer AiO features a 18.4-inch tablet based on Nvidia Tegra 3 and Android 4.1 OS and paired up with a Intel Ivy Bridge based dock that turns it into a decent Windows 8 All-in-One

As noted, the tablet, and AiO when the tablet is docked, features an 18.4-inch 1920x1080 LED-backlit IPS touchscreen with 10-point multi-touch. The dock part of the AiO will feature 3rd generation Intel Core i7-3770, Core i5-3350P or Core i3-3220 CPU depending on the SKU, Geforce GT 730M 2GB graphics card, up to 8GB of DDR3 1600MHz RAM and up to 2TB of SATA HDD storage. It also apparently has its own 802.11abgn dual-band WiFi, Gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth 4.0, four USB 3.0 and one USB 2.0 port, HDMI output, memory card reader, and an optional DVB-T, Hybrid DVB-T or Hybrid DTMB tuner

The tablet part on the other hand is based on Nvidia's venerable Tegra 3 chip, has 2GB of DDR3 memory and 32GB of on-board storage. It also comes with 802.11abgn dual-band WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0+EDR, one mini-USB 2.0 port, an microSD card slot and 1MP front facing camera. The battery in the tablet a 38W Li-ion battery rated for up to 5 hours of use. Just in case you are wondering, the tablet has 294 x 466 x 18mm dimensions and weighs a hefty 2.4kg

According to Asus, the new Asus Transformer AiO is scheduled to be available in selected markets from Q1 2013, but it has been already revealed that the USA can expect in on retail/e-tail shelves this Spring with a US $1,299 price tag

Sapphire improves Mac Pros

Radeon HD 7950 Mac Edition is with us

 

Sapphire has introduced the world’s highest-performing graphics card for Mac Pro desktops, the Radeon HD 7950 Mac Edition

The card will hit the market this spring and will give Mac users something nice to play with. Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 Mac Edition is similar to that which Windows uses have been able to enjoy for ages. Until now Mac users can only really experience this quality in their own heads and project it onto their Apple hardware

This features 1792 stream processors, 112 texture units, 32 render back ends and will be clocked at 800MHz; the board sports 3GB of GGDR5 memory connected using 384-bit memory bus and clocked at 5GHz. Of course it is not cheap. One of these will set you back $450, however in Apple land, particularly at this end of the market this is pretty competitive

The card launches with a special BIOS as well as milky white vapor-chamber-based cooling system, reports PCGamesHardware.de

Nvidia hops on Playstation 4 train

Will provide support for PhysX and APEX

 

Nvidia has announced support for the upcoming Sony Playstation 4 by bringing its Nvidia PhysX and APEX software development kits (SDKs). While some details, like how will it actually run on AMD hardware, remain unclear, it is quite interesting to see that Nvidia still wants to be a part of the Playstation 4 gravy train

As noted by Nvidia, developers use PhysX and APEX for collision detection and simulation of rigid bodies, clothing, fluids, particle systems and similar stuff across a wide range of platforms. While it is still not clear on how will Nvidia implement its PhysX and APEX SDKs on AMD hardware, Nvidia did note that both are designed to run on a variety of CPU architectures and can be accelerated by any CUDA architecture-enabled Nvidia GPU, Geforce 8-series or higher

This move raises some eyebrows and actually makes us wonder whether Nvidia has been holding back with PhysX support. If it can work on Playstation 4 eight-core Jaguar-based custom APU, then it should work on any decent CPU today. Of course, it is still not clear if it will be run or the CPU or the GPU part of the APU, but in any case, it still shows that PhysX could work on any GPU or CPU if Nvidia really wanted it to

Asus working on short GTX 670 graphics card

Calls it Asus GTX 670 DirectCU Mini

 

Asus is apparently working on what might easily end up to be a most powerful graphics card that you can pair up with a mini-ITX motherboard and squeeze inside a small mini-ITX PC system, the Asus Geforce GTX 670 DirectCU Mini

In case you are wondering, the entire graphics card is 17cm long which is exactly the size of a mini-ITX motherboard (17x17cm) and it was a perfect chance for Asus to make its quite impressive P8Z77-I DELUXE Z77-based motherboard just a bit more appealing. According to Techpowerup.com, the new Asus GTX 670 DirectCU Mini uses 5-phase VRM and needs a single 8-pin PCI-Express power connector

As far as it can be seen from the first pictures, the cooler appears to take up two slots and features a rather hefty aluminum heatsink cooled by a single fan. Unfortunately, the new GTX 670 DirectCU Mini is still in its "developement" phase so we are not looking at a final design and have no idea regarding the price or the availability date

You can check out more pictures over at Techpowerup.com

Temash chip pictured

Looks quite small

 

We had a chance to spend some time with AMD, learning about the company’s new low-power processor strategy and its commitment to crack the tablet and convertible market. The magic formula is a chip called Temash, a 28nm part that comes in dual and quad versions. It features Jaguar based cores and the dual-core fits tablets just fine

AMD sees opportunities in a variety of tablets and hybrids with its AMD A6 and A4 Temash processors. Some of the key features that AMD wants to promote are that the powerful graphics, as the new chip features 100 percent more graphics performance than the Hondo based Z60. Since Temash based tablets have much faster graphics it turns out that AMD wants to make it clear that these tablets will do well in PC gaming on a tablet

Temash is designed to have full Windows compatibility and support, as well as for superior HD media. AMD also thinks that the turbo dock can work its advantage, as it getting up to 40 percent better performance when you dock the tablet sounds quite nice. AMD still has to win a few design wins and include some big names to make a significant impact on the tablet market. We have quite a few generations of iPad and AMD has its second generation tablet chip, but the first one that can have some impact on the tablet market

Compared to Intel, AMD can do quad-core low power chips that will have much better graphics than any Intel Atoms available, and let’s not forget that Intel currently has only dual-core Atoms

Kinect understands a clenched fist

Microsoft will finally understand its customers

 

Software king of the world Microsoft will finally get a clear indication what customers think of its products with the next generation of Kinect

The new machines will have improved resolution and other features, but it seems that Volish Researchers have managed to make it identify the difference between an open hand and a fist. According to i-Programmer the latest work on the Kinect uses the same sort of machine-learning approach

It uses a large number of images of people's hands and supervised training to distinguish between open and closed hands. It takes a lot to do this as it uses forests of decision trees, which is the same general method used to implement the skeleton tracking

It will make Kinect incredibly useful. It will mean that the user interface to distinguish a "pick up" or "grip" gesture. Not only can you move the hands within an image, close both hands to grip the image points and move apart to zoom. It is not clear when Vole will install the software in any of its products yet. When it does it will be able to identify that you are shaking your fist at the screen and screaming “curse you Steve Ballmer, we hates you forever” which would be cathartic

AMD Richland notebooks to have face unlock

Play music and swipe pictures like a Jedi

 

AMD has demonstrated notebooks powered by the soon to be launch Richland A6 and A4 processors and it has showed us some of the unique features that might help them differentiate from the competition

With a bit of help from the front facing camera, AMD plans to enable features such as face unlocking as well as hand gesture recognition and use the power of Richland’s GPU to make everything run smooth. Michal Lisiecki, Product Marketing Manager AMD EMEA, a bloke who spends a lot of time around notebooks, demonstrated how these features work. He unlocked his notebook just by looking into a predefined square, but as a security measure he had to blink. He was able to use this AMD Richland exclusive software to log on Facebook

He also demonstrated how you can use hand gestures to play, pause or skip music. The same feature worked with pictures and you could just wave your hands and swipe through your pictures. The technology works up to one meter from the camera and it was intuitive, easy to get a hang of and almost flawless. One of the features needed a few repetitions but as overall it looked almost ready for market

AMD plans to bundle this software with Richland based notebooks, All-in-Ones and similar machines that will come in the near future. The downside to touch technology is that screens end up with a lot of smudges on the screen, but with the Jedi hand wave picture swap, it will help the cause of keeping the screen just a little bit cleaner

Not all rosy with AMD Never Settle Reloaded

Cebit 2013: Issues with retailers

 

AMD’s latest gaming promotion, better known as the Never Settle Reloaded bundle, did work for all people who got the vouchers

We tried the codes ourselves and it was not that hard to redeem the code. In fact it was a rather simple process. Still we heard a few reports where people claim that they didn’t get their codes as retailers simply forgot to pass them on

We heard that one retailer was giving away codes to anyone who bought any graphics cards, including Nvidia cards, and this is definitely not something that AMD had in mind

Some people took to AMD’s gaming webpage at Facebook to complain, telling AMD that they didn’t get their codes. Something went wrong in execution as we heard that retailers didn’t necessarily put the codes in the boxes. They were simply handing them out to people. We can see how this could go wrong on many levels

The problem was not related to AMD, it was just that some people in retail didn’t really pay attention to some of the details and terms of the giveaway

Let us know in a comment section that you got / didn’t get your code

Ivy Bridge E delayed to Q4

Cebit 2013: Server guys responsible

 

Ivy Bridge E, Intel’s ultra high end chip that is set to replace the Core i7 3970X, has been delayed. It doesn’t look like it was anything major. Our sources tell us that the decision was made by Intel server guys who did not want to launch this chip in Q3 as originally indented

Since Q3 starts in July, a relatively slow month for IT, the normal time to launch products is late August or September, but at this time there is no confirmation that this will happen at this time

Sandy Bridge E, or Core i7 3960X, was launched in Q4 2011, November 14th to be precise. This can give you a clue on when to expect the successor

Originally Ivy Bridge E was supposed to launch in Q3, one quarter after the launch of quad-core Desktop Haswell processors. Ivy Bridge E works in X79 motherboards but we do expect that a few key motherboard vendors will have their newer versions ready for the launch of the new $999 flagship processor

If Intel continues at this pace, it will take quite a while before we see Haswell E in action

Microsoft changes Office terms

Allows you to transfer it

 

Software giant Microsoft has finally worked out that users will not buy its new Office 2013 if it is tied to one machine. Vole thought it was a pretty neat idea to force users to buy a new version of the software if their machine died and they had to install it on a new computer

A Microsoft spokesman said that Redmond had received some rather strong customer feedback on the new terms. We suspect that some of the feedback may have involved lots of four letter words and dead animals being posted to Microsoft HQ. Writing on the company blog the spokesman said that “based on customer feedback” Microsoft has changed the Office 2013 retail license agreement to allow customers to transfer the software from one computer to another

This means customers can transfer Office 2013 to a different computer if their device fails or they get a new one. Previously, customers could only transfer their Office 2013 software to a new device if their PC failed under warranty. While the license agreement accompanying Office 2013 software will be updated in a future release, this change is effective immediately and applies to Office Home and Student 2013, Office Home and Business 2013, Office Professional 2013 and the standalone Office 2013 applications

These transferability options are equivalent to those found in the Office 2010 retail license terms, the spokesman said

GRID 2 loses cockpit cam

Limitation of consoles is the problem

 

News from Codemasters has indicated that they have had to remove the cockpit camera view from their upcoming release known as GRID 2. The reason for the decision is said to be the limitation of the current generation of consoles. The developer has apparently admitted that if the game were a PC-only release, the cockpit camera would have stayed in

According to GRID 2 producer Vincent Muelle, the removal of the cockpit cam was necessary in order to push other things in the game. The decision has received criticism from fans who had grown used to having access to the cockpit cam, which is view that players have grown accustomed to since it has been in every Codemasters’ release

Codemasters is standing by the decision, while claiming that only 5% of the players ever used the in-car view. Other views will be a part of GRID 2 and the decision was made in the best interests of the game, according to the developer

More here

MSI shows off feature packed gaming motherboard

Cebit 2013: Z77 backed by Qualcomm's E2200 chipset

 

MSI's latest gaming motherboard made its debut here at Cebit this week, the Z77A-G45 Gaming. This motherboard like most of MSI's other high end products utilized their Military Class III high quality components

The board utilizes Intel's Z77 chipset and supports 32GB DDR3 memory through 4 DIMM slots.  MSI has support through the BIOS to for over-clocking the memory up to 3000MHz.  Like most modern motherboards USB 2.0, USB 3.0, and SATA 6Gb/s are all supported support.  The PCI-e 3.0 slots also enable users to use either SLI or Crossfire configurations

Recently MSI standardized on the Sound Blaster Cinema suite of audio technologies for their gaming motherboards.  The Sound Blaster Cinema 7.1 audio which is featured on this design allows users to enjoy upgraded surround sound through their stereo headphones, as well as enhanced gaming sound effects.  The chipset also features smart volume control for long gaming sessions

Another main component in this system is a dedicated network processing unit (NPU) utilizing Qualcomm's Killer E2200 chipset.  The chip allows for classification, prioritization, as well as network traffic mitigation. This allows these tasks to be offloaded from the CPU and OS to provide users with extra performance.  Another feature of NPU is that it bypasses the Microsoft Windows network stack by sending specific traffic around the it.  This keeps applications from having to wait for the OS to perform multiple operations including classifying, sorting and preparing the data for exchange

Last but not least MSI has chosen to add a dedicated Gaming Device Port.  This USB port is optimized for high polling rate mice (500 to 1000 Hz) which are up to 8 times faster than traditional USB mice. The additional gold plating on the ports was added to enhance the durability

MSI has not announced pricing but expects the board to be on shelves later this month

Next DirectX codenamed Blue

Cebit 2013: No DirectX 12

 

In case you have been wondering what comes after DirectX 11.1, the next big iteration is currently known as DirectX blue. The blue comes from the Windows Blue codename that Microsoft has for the ninth major iteration of Windows

Upcoming graphics hardware will definitely go down the blue road, but at this point we don't what will be the major difference between DirectX 11 and DirectX blue. Both Nvidia and AMD are working on DirectX Blue chips as we speak, but they are still quite a long way off

Using such a codename for Windows is nothing short of ironic, due to Windows blue screen conotations. Also, it brings back fond memories of a famous Redmond demonstration that made Bill Gates even more popular. Of course, the USB printer demonstration failed and ended with a blue screen, in front of some rather amused members of the press

In any case, DirectX blue is the future of graphics and it is coming in 2014, or perhaps even later  

Samsung Galaxy S IV accessories begin to arrive

Cebit 2013: Now all we need is the phone itself

 

While Samsung is readying their announcement for the next generation of Galaxy S phones, accessory vendors are already jumping on the bandwagon with accessories for the unannounced Samsung Galaxy S IV here at CeBit in Hannover

The only problem is that they are still speculating on the exact dimensions of the new device. The Samsung GT-I9500 is all but certain to be announced next week on March 14 in New York City as the much-anticipated awaited Galaxy S IV

AMD has working Malta 7990 cards

Cebit 2013: Still not ready to show them

 

We have heard that AMD was mulling whether to show off the dual-GPU card known as Malta at Cebit and in the end it didn’t. Partners are telling us that they still haven’t got samples that they can show to the public

Many have confirmed the existence of Radeon HD 7990 dual-chip successor, as well as the Malta codename and only thing that we know is that it is realistic to expect the card in Q2 2013, so from April onwards. At this time there is no set date for the launch

It has been a while since AMD launched the Radeon 7990, and it was carried by a limited number of partners. Now we hear that Malta will end up with more than just three partners. It will definitely be more reasonably priced than the Asus Ares II that sets you back $1500 or €1250 and it seems like €999 is  the target, although we don’t have the exact figure yet

The prototype Malta cards work, but we hear that AMD simply didn’t want to show any, at least not to general public at this time

Zotac announces StreamBox and RAIDbox devices

Wants a piece of that market as well

 

Best known for its graphics cards and motherboards, Zotac made quite a push into the mini-PC market as well with its ZBOX series mini PCs, available in various sizes. Today, Zotac announced two new products that tap into the streaming and storage enclosure market as well, the StreamBox and RAIDbox

The StreamBox is designed to be easy to use by users of all skill levels and is used to bridge the gap between mobile devices and television sets for easy audio, video and image sharing from any smartphone, tablet or notebook via DLNA protocol. It also supports display mirroring capabilities for Android devices that have support for Miracast. The full specification list includes USB file playback capability, 10/100 ethernet port and 802.11abgn WiFi (2.4GHz and 5GHz) connectivity

The RAIDbox is a customizable USB 3.0 storage enclosure that can take up to two mSATA SSD modules that can be set to work in RAID 0, RAID 1, JBOD and BIG mode. It is USB powered, has fully a tool-less design and supports both Windows, Mac OS X (Mountain Lion) and Ubuntu 12.04.

Unfortunately, Zotac did not shed any details regarding the price or the avilability date