Microsoft claims 60 million Windows 8 sold

Cebit 2013 kicks off

 

Cebit is still the world’s largest trade show and this year it is expected that some 400,000 people will turn up at this event, based in Hannover, Germany. Microsoft was one of many to hold a press conference the day before the show officially starts and naturally Redmond talked about services, hardware as well as software

A part of the press conference that was held in German (many visitors and press would rather hear it in an English ed. ) what has caught our attention is the fact a managing director of Microsoft Germany Christian Illek said that Microsoft sold 60 million Windows 8. It gets even better, as he continued with the claim that Windows 8 has a faster start than Windows 7. This only makes sense if Microsoft counts upgrade numbers, where it was providing Window 8 upgrades for peanuts. The number was quoted back in January and interestingly enough it didn’t change

The 60 million figure comes from upgrades and OEMs sales for new PCs, but we are not sure if it includes Windows RT. We expected the number to grow a bit faster. It is interesting that Microsoft thinks that it’s time to get away from desktop and jump into the future, which is pretty much confirming what Apple and Google have been doing for a while with a mobile touch revolution of their own



Microsoft thinks it can push Win tablets and notebooks to enterprises offering business users the look and feel of proper Windows 8 applications. Let’s see how that goes. Having phones, Surface tablets, notebooks and hardware partners, as well as a host of services, should be Microsoft’s idea of success. Let’s see how that goes as Apple got under too many skins with its iPad, which was nothing less than an unbelievable success

Apparently the Surface Pro sold out in 128GB variant in USA and Germany will get this tablet at some point in Q2 2012 at price that should be similar to US, albeit with the euro currency sign in front

MSI showcases Z87 motherboard

Cebit 2013: First glimpse of Haswell board

 

A Haswell motherboard made an unscheduled appearance a whole quarter before the actual launch at MSI's booth at Cebit 2013. Obviously the board is not ready to launch, but it was cute to see that Intel refers to the board as Socket 115x as it doesn’t want to reveal the exact number of pins. If you want to count them you will end up with 1150 pins

Obviously, the board is not backward compatible with Ivy Bridge or Sandy Bridge, so people who want to upgrade will have to start from scratch all over again

The board is currently not painted in any fancy colours. It is done in reference yellow and looks like a throwback to the nineties, but at the end it will be coated in something cooler

The lay out is quite nice, you can see three PCIe slots 16X as well as four additional PCIe 1X slots. Once can easily notice that the board will aim toward the upper market segment and should be a nice overclocker least due its high quality power components

It still comes with a PS2 slot as well as two USB 2.0, six USB 3.0, two HDMI and a Display port. There is a place for optical audio, analogue audio and one network card. The back side hides eight SATA ports, diagnostic port, passively cooled chipset as well as four DDR3 memory banks. MSI sticks with this clean design without much logos on the front of the board, and it looks like it will stick with that for the future

This is how the board of the future looks like, Haswell is just right around the corner, well Q2 Computex launch

Microsoft and EA in deal on new console

Details still unclear how the deal will work

 

Sources are confirming to Fudzilla that a report on CVG is apparently accurate; Microsoft and Electronic Arts have entered into a partnership agreement of some type that will see the publisher provide some exclusive content, or maybe even staggered releases that favor Microsoft’s new console

While it isn’t exactly clear what the deal will involve, it is not something that is new to Microsoft. They have partnered with publishers before to provide early or timed releases that favor its systems or additional content that is exclusive to Microsoft’s console only. It isn’t clear what the deal might include

Whispers have suggested that the deal could perhaps involve either DICE’s Battlefield 4, or maybe the yet to be announced Respawn Entertainment title that we now know we will be hearing about for the first time at E3. Still, we suspect that it could be a more far reaching deal that involves a few things; and this seems to be the likely outcome

While EA was not a part of Sony’s press conference for the PS4, it has since confirmed that it is supporting the platform and plans to release titles for the system. EA has yet to confirm what those titles might be, but we expect it to hear more about this at the upcoming Microsoft Xbox Next event and word is that the announcement will be big

Galaxy S4 comes on March 14

New York launch

 

Samsung has sent out press invites for the Samsung Galaxy S4 launch. The invitation named “Ready 4 The show, come and meet the next Galaxy,” has been sent out or hand delivered at the Mobile World Congress

The place is New York, the date is 14th of March 2013. There are way too many rumours about the phone, some claim that it is powered by the Exynos 5 Octa, while others say Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 600 will be the heart and soul of the new phone. We can only guarantee that neither Apple’s A7 or Nvidia Tegra 4 will be in this phone. It will be wise to expect screen size close to 5 inches, full HD resolution, and a battery bigger than 2100 mAh. A better camera with more than 8 megapixels, NFC and Gorilla Glass are also on the way, but we don’t know whether Samsung will stick with micro SD support in the S4.

We just hope that Samsung has something better in store than the thin plastic wrapped around the Galaxy S3. Of course, there is no doubt that this phone has the potential to be the best selling Android phone to date

 

ZTE Grand Memo 5.7 is first Snapdragon 800 phone

MWC 2013: 720p, but 3200mAh battery and LTE

 

Many companies want to piggyback some of the Galaxy Note hype and with that in mind ZTE has just announced the Grand Memo 5.7-inch phone. This is the first announced phone that is running yet to be available Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 SoC

The ZTE Grand Memo 5.7-inch phone has a 1280x720 display, which is kind of disappointing as high end phones of today come with 1920x1080 full HD screens. The phone comes with 2GB RAM and 13-megapixel rear-facing camera as well as 1-megapixel front camera. Naturally the phone can playback 1080p video and promises good video, multimedia and gaming experience

The Snapdragon 800 should be the interesting part as many expect that this SoC will be chasing Tegra 4 as well for Exynos 5 Octa processor for the performance crown

Since this is quite a big phone it comes with a 3200mAh battery, which is just 100mAh better than the one in the Galaxy Note 2. ZTE is using a Mifavor user interface specially designed for smartphones as well as it's own Z cloud service

The phone will ship with Android 4.1 its 8.5 mm slim but ZTE doesn’t share the width, or weight of the phone. It has 16GB of storage as well as LTE, thanks to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor. Qualcomm's WCN3680 802.11ac/.11n dual-band Wi-Fi is also on board. The phone supports Bluetooth, MHL, DLNA and once it jumps to Android 4.2 it can likely support Miracast open wireless display standard

ZTE did share the any pricing or availably information but ZTE Grand Memo 5.7 looks like a decent competitor to the Galaxy Note 2.

All Sony-owned studios working on PS4 titles

Not clear what that means for future PS3 titles

 

All of the studios at Sony Worldwide are working on PlayStation 4 titles, according to Shuhei Yoshida, the big boss at Sony Worldwide Studios. That means all 12 first-party studios are hard at work on PS4 offerings and not all of those have been announced

While we learned some of the titles that are in development, we don’t know all of them. What isn’t clear is where that leaves the PlayStation 3 in Sony’s eyes. Does this mean that the company is done producing first party titles for the console? It is hard to say, but we do know that it is going to be less likely that we see much more from Sony for the PlayStation 3.

Again, this is another blank that we look to see filled in at E3. While Sony will be stopping development for the PlayStation 3, we already know that a number of developers are still planning PlayStation 3 releases, and in many cases dual releases for both the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4.

Samsung announces Galaxy Note 8.0

MWC 2013: Sammy takes on iPad mini 

Although it was already rumored and listed in several markets, Samsung has officially unveiled its newest Galaxy Note device, the Galaxy Note 8.0. Aimed to be a direct competitor to Apple's iPad mini, the Galaxy Note 8.0 is based on a 1.6GHz quad-core CPU, it features support for phone calls and support for Samsung's praised S-Pen stylus

 

The new Galaxy Note 8.0 will fit snugly between Samsung's Galaxy Note 10.1 and Note II. As noted earlier, it is built around an 8-inch 1280x800 screen and powered by an Exynos chipset with 1.6GHz clocked quad-core CPU paired up with 2GB or RAM. It will be available with 16 or 32GB built-in storage with microSD card slot for expansion, 5-megapixel main camera and 1.3-megapixel front one, Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean OS, Samsung's S-Pen and a hefty 4,600mAh battery

The connectivity side includes 802.11abgn WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 and A-GPS with GLONASS. According to Samsung, we will see WiFi-only, 3G and 4G LTE versions. Unfortunately, the availability date has not been announced. Unofficial listings put the price at upwards of €400 for the cheapest SKU, so it's hardly a bargain

Samsung shows its HomeSync device

MWC 2013: Android-based TV-connected device

In addition to the Galaxy Note 8.0 and press invites for the Samsung Unpacked event set for March 14, Samsung also unveiled a TV-connected device based on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, the Samsung HomeSync

 

The heart of the HomeSync is a 1.7GHz dual-core CPU paired up with 1GB of RAM, 8GB of flash and 1TB of HDD storage. As noted, the Homesync runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean OS and will also feature Gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth 4.0, 802.11bgn dual-band WiFi, optical audio and HDMI 1.4 outputs

There are not too many details regarding the device, but Samsung's press release does state that it will support 1080p resolution, some sort of streaming from other Galaxy devices, access to Google Play Store, remote control from smartphone as well as support for eight different password protected user accounts

Unfortunately, Samsung did not shed any details regarding the price but it is scheduled to appear in "selected countries" in April

Nokia announces Lumia 720 and 520 smartphones

MWC 2013: Finns roll out two mid range Lumias 

During its keynote at MWC 2013, Nokia announced two new Windows Phone 8 Lumia smartphones, the Lumia 720 and the Lumia 520.

Both smartphones feature the same dual-core 1GHz Snapdragon CPU and 512MB of RAM and, of course, run on Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 OS.

The higher priced Lumia 720 is built around a 4.3-inch ClearBlack 800x480 display with new sensitive touch technology that works with gloves and nails. We are still looking at full plastic body that will feature many colors and exchangeable panels. It features 8GB of internal storage expandable by microSD card slot, wireless charging support, NFC, 1.3-megapixel front and 6.7-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics with f/1.9 aperture resulting in great low-light performance

The Lumia 720 will launch in Asia and some selected European markets with a price set at €249 and is expected in Q2 2013.

The Nokia Lumia 520 is launched to bring Windows 8 Phone to the masses and thus we are looking at an entry level smartphone built around a 4-inch 800x480 IPS screen with the same super sensitive touch. As noted earlier, both smartphones feature dual-core 1GHz CPU and 512MB of RAM. The Lumia 520 comes with a more modest 5-megapixel rear camera with f/2.4 aperture that is capable of recording 720p video and features 8GB of storage space with microSD card slot

Nokia Lumia 520 will be available in five colors and has a suggested price of €139 ex. VAT. The shipping will start in Q1 2013 in selected markets while the worldwide availability is expected in the Q2. It will also show up in the States as well under the Lumia 521 name at T-Mobile

HP announces its own Slate 7

MWC 2013: An affordable 7-inch tablet

HP did not miss out on opportunity to show off its gear at the Mobile World Congress 2013 in Barcelona and it used the show to announced its new 7-inch tablet, the HP Slate 7.

The Slate 7 is pretty much what you can expect from an entry level tablet, as we are looking at dual-core Corex-A9 based CPU clocked at 1.6GHz, 8GB of internal storage expandable by a microSD card slot, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean OS, 3-megapixel rear camera, all the usual connectivity options and 7-inch 1024x600 screen

The good part of the story is that we should see it on retail shelves as of April, with a suggested price tag of US $169.99.

Asus announces Fonepad tablet

MWC 2013: 7-inch tablet with Intel inside

In addition to the new Asus Padfone Infinity, Asus unveiled its new affordable 7-inch Android tablet as well, the Fonepad. The interesting part of the story is that Asus went for an Intel platform rather than ARM on this rather unusal device

Built around a 7-inch 1280x800 IPS panel, the Fonepad is based on Intel's Lexington platform with single-core Atom Z2420 CPU clocked at 1.2GHz, 1GB of RAM and PowerVR SGX540 GPU. It also comes with full phone and 3G HSPA+ support and will run on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean OS, and it also features 5GB of free Asus Webstorage to boot

The Fonepad will actually be available in two different versions. The European one will feature 16GB of storage (expandable by microSD card slot) and a 1.2-megapixel front camera while the APAC region one will cut down the internal storage to 8GB but also feature a 3-megapixel camera on the back. The European Fonepad will launch in April for €220 while the APAC one is coming in March for US $249.

Intel officially announces its Clover Trail+ Atoms

MWC 2013: Three dual-core SKUs for up to 2.0GHz

Intel is showing up all over the Mobile World Congress 2013 show in Barcelona and has also officially announced its new generation of Atom CPUs aimed at tablets and smartphones, the Clovertrail+.

Intel is sort of mixing things up with its codenames and while the Lexington platform is rather lonely in the value smartphone market, the performance market is getting quite crowded and confusing. After all, we are talking about Intel

As you may remember, Medfield was Intel's 32nm Atom SoC aimed at smartphones, while 32nm Clover Trail was aimed at Windows 8 tablets. The new 32nm Clover Trail+ is aimed at perfomance smartphone as well as tablets

Essentially Clover Trail+ is an upgraded Medfield platform that adds a second Saltwell based CPU core and keeps the Hyper Threading support so you practically have four threads with the new Clover Trail+. The GPU also got updated to PowerVR SGX544MP2 which has much more power than the SGX540 used in the Medfield. The SGX544MP2 is quite similar to the SGX543MP4 GPU found in the Apple A5X chip but has double triangle performance. It features 8 SIMDs, and offers 34.1GFLOPS of performance at its reference clock

As noted, we are looking at three different SKUs. The top part, the Atom Z2580 is clocked at up to 2.0GHz while the SGX544MP2 GPU can boost up to 533MHz. Next in line is the T2560 with up to 1.6GHz clock and same GPU that works 400MHz while the last one is the Atom Z2520 clocked at up to 1.2GHz with the SGX544MP2 clocked at 300MHz

The new platform supports LPDDR2 2x32-bit 1066MHz memory interface, can do 1080p@30fps encode and decode, has WUXGA (1920x1200) display support, 16- and 2-megapixel primary and secondary camera with support for continuous shooting and mobile HDR and features XMM 6360 modem

With the introduction of the new platform, Intel also updated the reference platform adding Android 4.2 Jelly Bean support, and of course, Intel Clover Trail+ chipset

Asus announces Padfone Infitiny

MWC 2013: Improved screens and Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chipset

During its keynote at MWC 2013 in Barcelona, Asus unveiled its latest Padfone smartphone/tablet dock device, the Padfone Infinity

The main device is the actual smartphone built around a 5-inch 1080p Super IPS+ touchscreen with 441ppi, so it can proudly stand neck to neck with any competitor. The tablet dock is also improved and now features a 10.1-inch IPS 1920x1200 screen. The heart of the smartphone is Qualcomm's Snapdragon 600 chipset with quad-core Krait CPU clocked at 1.7GHz, Adreno 320 GPU and 2GB of RAM

The rest of the features include a 13-megapixel main snapper capable of recording 1080p@30fps and a 2-megapixel front camera for video calls. The smartphone features a brushed aluminum unibody design while the dock is made out some sort of plastic back, at least as far as we could tell from the press shots. The connectivity side features all the usual 802.11abgnac WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC (integrated in the smartphone) as well as 100Mbps LTE

The tablet dock also comes with its own 5,000mAh battery while the smartphone is powered by a decent 2,400mAh one. Of course, the tablet dock has some extra connections and features an improved loudspeaker that uses Asus' 3rd generation Sonic Master audio enhancing technology. According to Asus, there will be a 32 and 64GB version of the Padfone Infinity

Unfortunately, the Padfone Infinity will not be available in the US of A, but it is expected to show up in Europe as of April with a price set at €999/£799, tablet dock included

AMD's John Taylor talks about PS4 APU

Xbox Next all but confirmed

Since Sony decided to keep it simple and talk about games and everything except the actual hardware inside the Playstation 4, AMD's John Taylor not only decided to write a blog post and elaborate on it, but also gave quite a good hint on what we can expect in the near future

First of all, we noticed that John Taylor, previously working as Director of GBU Marketing has now become the Vice President of Global Communications and Industry Marketing at AMD, so we are quite sure that we will see quite a few interesting things from him down the road. In case you missed it, John Taylor was leading the product communications at AMD from 2006, before  joining the GBU marketing team

Although he does not reveal any precise details regarding the APU itself, John did shed some light calling it a semi-custom APU. As you already know, an APU is a single chip that combines the CPU And GPU with various system elements including memory controllers, specialized video decoders, display outputs and similar things. What makes it interesting is the actual level of customization that can be done for customers that have a very specific demands

If you read between the lines, it is quite clear that the APU inside the Playstation 4 will not be the last custom part we will see. It pretty much all but confirms that AMD has scored the Xbox Next win as well completing the "Holy Trinity" of consoles. The customization might be an interesting deal as it also means that Xbox Next APU might be a bit different than the one found in the PS4. Of course, it could still end up with the same AMD Jaguar CPU cores that are the main part of the PS4 APU probably the similar GPU part but with such a level of customization, anything is possible

AMD's VP of Global Communciations ans Industry Marketing, John Taylor, finished its blog post with quite an interesting line stating that this is going to be a very exciting year for gamers, especially for those with AMD hardware in their PCs and consoles as AMD has even more game-changing announcements still to come

You can check out the full blog post here

LG Optimus G coming to Europe

For selected markets and enhanced with Jelly Bean 4.1.2

 

LG has announced that its Optimus G will hit Europe as of this month, starting in Sweden and closely followed by other European markets, including France, Germany and Italy, which means it will spread like horse meat in frozen foods

The European version of the LG Optimus G will feature Google's Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2 OS and in case you missed it, we are talking about a smartphone designed around a 4.7-inch 1280x768 IPS touchscreen protected by Gorilla Glass 2. European LG Optimus G will also feature LG's True HD IPS Plus display paired up with Zerogap Touch technology in order to provide the smoothest, most sensitive touch experience, in addition to sharpest and most vivid display, according to LG

Although not detailed in the announcement, we are pretty sure that this one will also be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro SoC with 1.5GHz quad-core Krait CPUs, Adreno 320 GPU and LTE paired up with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. It features 13-megapixel main snapper and 1.3MP front one as well as the 2,100mAh battery

HTC One shows up in Germany

Yours for a mere €661

 

After showing up in the UK, the HTC One has found its way to O2 in Germany as well and it is selling for €661.

 

The O2 network in Germany also offers it with on a €25.99 per month plan and even throws in €99 Beats headphones if you order the One before April 30th. According to what we could see on O2's site the phone is schedule to ship to its eager customers in 12 days, or sometimes on 6th of March

Our favorite European price search engine shows that it is starting to appear all around the Europe with a lowest price tag set at €669,90.

In case you missed it, the new HTC One smartphone comes with a machined aluminum unibody case, features a 4.7-inch Super LCD 3 screen with 1080p resolution which adds up to 468ppi protected by Gorilla Glass 2 and Qualcomm's Snapdragon 600 chipset, with a quad-core Krait 300 CPU clocked at 1.7GHz, Adreno 320 GPU and 2GB of RAM. Of course, main rear UltraPixel camera with a 4-megapilx BSI sensor and a f/2.0 lens is also one of its key features

Via GSMArena.com

Partners line up for GTX Titan launch

EVGA, Zotac, Gigabyte, Palit and others

Back when the GTX Titan was leaked we already told you that EVGA and Asus will not be only partners to carry this card and today as partners line up for launch it looks like our sources were spot on. The word is that Europe will apparently be limited to Asus and EVGA (although we did recieve a press release from Zotac Europe), but the rest of the world will get it from other partners as well

Since partners have to follow Nvidia's reference design to the letter, each and every GTX Titan card is identical so we are going to put all partners in one basket. In case you somehow managed to miss it, the GTX Titan is based on Nvidia's 28nm GK110 GPU with 15 SMXs for a total of 2688 CUDA cores, 224 texture units and 48 ROPs. The GPU works at 873MHz base and 876MHz boost clock and the card come with 6GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 6008MHz and paired up with a 384-bit memory interface

As it was the case with Nvidia GTX 690 dual-GPU graphics card, Nvidia again designed a similar blower-style cooler that does an extremely good job keeping the Titan well cooled without generating too much noise. Nvidia claims that the cooler will even be less noisy when compared to the GTX 680 one

With a steep $999 price tag, the GTX Titan is aimed at the enthusiast part of market and it is quite similar to what Intel does with its Extreme Edition CPUs. So far we stumbled upon, or recieved details from EVGA, Zotac, Gigabyte and Palit but we are sure that most, if not all partners will follow

PS4 to arrive in North America in November

Price tag not among the announcements

Sony’s new console will be called the PlayStation 4, and as for the hardware, we had already pegged most of that. Consider us surprised at the news that the new system will be using GDDR5 and offer a Blu-ray drive that is able to support the BDXL format, which means that it can handle 100GB discs if developers and Sony wish to offer titles that either need it or developers want that kind of capacity

The system will use the new DualShock 4 controller that offers a touch pad in the middle of the controller. It isn’t yet clear what it might be used for or how it will be used. It will offer a headphone jack, as well as a light bar that will used to identify the player or whose turn it is. The controller offers a share button which uses technology from Gaikai to stream your live game video to friends. The controller is said to have been tweaked for a tighter feel and better playability and latency reduction

As we had told you about previously, there will be no backward compatibility directly on the PS4, but using The PlayStation Cloud you will be able to stream PS1, PS2, and PS3 games to your console. It isn’t known how the service will work or what it will cost or what the minimum bandwidth requirements will be. We do know that using this technology owners of the PlayStation Vita will be able to play PlayStation 4 games on the Vita remotely like a Wii U. Sony has not filled in all of the details on this yet, either, but more information is coming

A number of games were confirmed for the PlayStation 4, including: KillZone: Shadow Fall, Driveclub, Infamous: Second Son, and The Witness from Jonathan Blow. The PS4 will also be getting Diablo 4, Quantic Dream and Deep Down from Capcom. There will be a new Final Fantasy game that we will hear more about at E3. Yes, it comes as no surprise the PS4 will be getting Destiny from Bungee and Sony-exclusive content, as well

So, the PlayStation will be available for purchase in North America this November, but as expected, Sony offered no price tag. Sources tell us that we should expect two models, with one being around $400 and the other to be around $500. It is suspected that Sony will launch in Japan prior to the release in North America, but whispers continue that it might be early 2014 till the console arrives in Europe. Sony isn’t talking about any of that yet, only saying that the console will start shipping in November

EVGA announces more than one GTX Titan

Titan SuperClocked and Hydro Copper incoming

 

In addition to the reference clocked and cooled Nvidia GTX Titan, EVGA shed some light on its upcoming GTX Titan SuperClocked and the GTX Titan Hydro Copper. Both will be available as a Signature Edition cards as well. It looks like that EVGA is once again Nvidia's premium partner and is the only partner to announce more than one GTX Titan graphics card, at least so far

Although there are not many details regarding the GTX Titan Superclocked and Hydro Copper as clocks are listed as TBD, it appears that EVGA already has a Swiftech waterblock prepared for the Titan. The Superclocked version will retain the original cooler. As noted, both the Superclocked and the Hydro Copper version will be available as a Signature Edition that is bundled with a limited edition EVGA Gaming poster, Titan Signature t-shirt and EVGA Gaming mousepad

Unfortunately all four Titan cards from EVGA are listed as "coming soon" so we will have to wait a bit for it. According to our sources, these EVGA Titan cards might be ready in next few weeks. Of course, the GTX Titan SuperClocked will be first followed shortly by the GTX Titan Hydro Copper. You can check them out here

Sony releases PS4 technical specs

No real surprises, from what we see

 

Along with the announcement of the PlayStation 4, Sony has released the official specs of the system. From what we see, there really are no surprises; we had gotten the majority of it right from what we knew already. So, here is what will be making up the PS4:

- Single Chip Customer processor/ CPU AMD Jaguar x86-64bit 8 cores / GPU AMD Next Generation Radeon graphics engine capable of 1.84 TFOPS

Memory - GDDR5 8GB Shared (Sony calls it Unified) – Will deliver 176GB/second of bandwidth

Hard Drive - Built-in Rumored 160GB & 500GB in initial System offerings

Optical Drive - 6X Blu-ray XL drive with 8X DVD read ability Supports Blu-ray XL 100GB discs

 I/O - Super-Speed USB 3.0.

Communications - 10/100/1000 Ethernet / 802.11 b/g/n wireless / Bluetooth 2.1 EDR

 AV Output - HDMI / Analog-AV out / Optical Digital Output

Sony says that the specifications are subject to change without notice, but sources tell us that this is what they have settled upon and we do not expect it to change. We expect that Microsoft’s specs will be similar and capabilities to be similar, as well, from a hardware perspective

Geforce GTX Titan is a decent overclocker

Tweaked to up to 1176MHz

The full official reviews of the new GTX Titan are scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday 21st of February, but that did not stop some sites from revealing at least some hints on the actual overclocking potential

The rumored overclocking boost with GPU Boost 2.0 is expected to hit the 1100 to 1150MHz range, but Guru3d.com apparently managed to push it all the way to 1176MHz. Of course, overclocking potential depends on the actual potential of the GPU and it is different on each graphics card but this hint of overclocking potential certainly sounds good

We will surelly keep an eye out for official reviews from the usual suspects tomorrow, just to see if there is any way to justify the US $999 price tag. No, there isn't. Ed

You can check out more here

MSI teams up with Qualcomm

Killer E2200 chip to appear on motherboards at Cebit

MSI has announced its partnershup with Qualcomm Atheros that will result with implementation of Killer Networking technology on both MSI's notebooks and a new lineup of gaming motherboards scheduled to appear at Cebit show in March

MSI plans to introduce a new line of gaming motherboards that will use the latest Killer E2200 chip. According to MSI, the new Killer E2200 chip has many advantages including Windows 8 compatibility and Linux supported drivers that were not found on the previous E2100 chip. MSI and Qualcomm Atheros also joined up to create a new and upgraded driver and user interface that will allow gamers full control over their network traffic and prioritization

As noted, MSI will showcase the new gaming line of motherboards with Killer E2200, as well as an "exiting new range of gaming products" at Cebit scheduled to kick off on March 5th

Nvidia Geforce GTX Titan leaked

Availability next week 

You might have noticed that we skipped the February 18 launch rumor for the GTX Titan that has been floating around the net, We were told that such a hard-launch date is simply impossible. Of course, the 18th of February did bring something new,  what appears to be an official set of Nvidia slides for the GTX Titan launch

According to the leaked slides, the GTX Titan is exactly what has been rumored for a while, an impressive beast based on Nvidia's GK110 GPU. It features 14 SMX clusters for a total of 2688 CUDA cores and works at 837MHz base and 876 boost clock. It is capable of providing 4.5 Teraflops of single and 1.3 Teraflops of double precision compute performance and features 6GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 6000MHz and paired up with a 384-bit memory interface

The TDP is set at 250W and it needs one 6-pin and one 8-pin PCI-Express power connectors. The cooler appears to be quite similar to the blower-style cooler seen on the GTX 690, with a vapor chamber based heatsink, with an extended fin stack and advanced fan control. It features two DVI, HDMI and one DisplayPort outputs and has quad-SLI support

According to Nvidia slides, the GTX Titan scales pretty well in SLI and brings much better performance with lower acoustics when compared to the GTX 680. Egypthardware site posted a benchmark slide that compares the Titan with the GTX 680 and the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition

The official launch should be tomorrow, while availability is expected sometime next week, at least by some partners. The price is rumored to be $999, but we will know for sure tomorrow

You can check out more here

Nvidia Geforce GTX Titan leaked

Availability next week 

You might have noticed that we skipped the February 18 launch rumor for the GTX Titan that has been floating around the net, We were told that such a hard-launch date is simply impossible. Of course, the 18th of February did bring something new,  what appears to be an official set of Nvidia slides for the GTX Titan launch

According to the leaked slides, the GTX Titan is exactly what has been rumored for a while, an impressive beast based on Nvidia's GK110 GPU. It features 14 SMX clusters for a total of 2688 CUDA cores and works at 837MHz base and 876 boost clock. It is capable of providing 4.5 Teraflops of single and 1.3 Teraflops of double precision compute performance and features 6GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 6000MHz and paired up with a 384-bit memory interface

The TDP is set at 250W and it needs one 6-pin and one 8-pin PCI-Express power connectors. The cooler appears to be quite similar to the blower-style cooler seen on the GTX 690, with a vapor chamber based heatsink, with an extended fin stack and advanced fan control. It features two DVI, HDMI and one DisplayPort outputs and has quad-SLI support

According to Nvidia slides, the GTX Titan scales pretty well in SLI and brings much better performance with lower acoustics when compared to the GTX 680. Egypthardware site posted a benchmark slide that compares the Titan with the GTX 680 and the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition

The official launch should be tomorrow, while availability is expected sometime next week, at least by some partners. The price is rumored to be $999, but we will know for sure tomorrow

You can check out more here

MSI Geforce GTX 680 Lightning-L graphics card shows up

Same card lower clocks

MSI's Geforce GTX 680 Lightning-L graphics card has showed up in Japan and it is possible that we will it in other markets as well

Apparently not much has been changed compared to the original GTX 680 Lightning, as the PCB and feature set look about the same. The only thing that is different are the clocks. Set at 1019MHz and 1084MHz for base and boost GPU, they are somewhat lower. For comparison, the original GTX 680 Lightning worked at 1100MHz for base and 1176MHz for Boost GPU clock

The new Lightning is still cooled by MSI's Twin Frozr IV GPU and it comes with 2GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 6008MHz. With the same feature set it is expected that this SKU will have a rather decent amount of overclocking headroom as well, depending on the GPU below the cooler, of course

Although it has not been officially launched, we will surely keep an eye out for it in other markets as well

Techpowerup.com

Nvidia officially reveals Geforce GTX Titan

Rumored single-GPU beast comes to life

As expected, Nvidia has finally unveiled its lastest Geforce graphics card, the GTX Titan. Based on the 28nm Nvidia GK110 GPU the new GTX Titan packs a total of 2688 CUDA Cores and certainly aims to be the new king on the single-GPU throne

The slides that were leaked yesterday have pretty much detailed the GTX Titan, but in case you missed them here are the headline specs. We are looking at Nvidia's 28nm GK110 GPU with 14 SMX clusters for a total of 2688 CUDA cores. It works at 837MHz base and 876MHz boost clock and comes with 6GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 6008MHz and paired up with a 384-bit memory interface. The GPU is provides 4.5 Teraflops of single precision and 1.3 Teraflops of double precision compute performance. The TDP is set at 250W and it needs 6- and 8-pin PCI-Express power connector

Nvidia also included the new GPU Boost 2.0 feature that adds additional enthusiast perks to the card. According to Nvidia, the GPU Boost 2.0 should provide performance, control, water cooling optimization and display overclocking

According to what we know so far, the NDA for reviewers is set for Thursday, 21st of February, or simply a day after tomorrow so we'll have to wait a bit to see some official benchmark numbers, unless some of them show up early of course. The availability is, according to our sources at least, expected sometimes next week and as far as we know, the new GTX Titan will not be limited to just EVGA and Asus and should end up with a US $999 end-user price tag

You can check out the Nvidia Geforce GTX Titan dedicated site here

Xperia Z coming to EU market

Available on February 21st in Germany

Xperia Z can be easily considered as one of the most impressive and most talked about Xperias ever launched and judging by a post over at Sony Germany's Facebook page, it will be available as of February 21st

The Xperia Z should be available, at least in the Sony Store in Berlin, on the 21st of this month and although there is no word about other EU markets we are pretty sure it will show up all around the EU on the same date

In case you somehow managed to miss it, the Xperia Z features a 5-inch 1080p screen, quad-core Krait CPU paired up with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage, 13-megapixel camera and waterproof casing with an impressive glass back

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Nvidia rolls out Geforce 314.07 WHQL driver

One for Crysis 3

Nvidia has released its latest WHQL-certified Geforce 314.07 driver. Based pretty much on previously released beta drivers, the new 314.07 brings slightly better performance improvement in Crysis 3 as well as some other games

According to Nvidia, the Geforce 314.07 WHQL is the Geforce Game Ready driver for the Crysis 3 and one to have in case you are ready to spin up that game today. The release notes for the new driver also pointed out that EA recomends GTX 560 or higher GPU for Crysis 3 and Geforce GTX 680 in case you want all the eye candy

In addition to up to 5 percent in Crysis 3 and up to 65 percent of SLI performance improvement for the same game, the new Geforce 314.07 WHQL driver also provides significant performance increase in games like Assassin's Creed III, Call of Duty: Black Ops II and Far Cry 3, when compared to the older Geforce 310.90 WHQL driver. Most of these performance improvements were already available wiht the Geforce R313 set of beta drivers

You can find the new driver here

Gainward Galapad tablet goes on sale in Europe

€179 for a quad core 7-incher

 

Gainward has been a loyal Nvidia partner for year and it is now taking the relationship to a new level. No, it is not moving into Nvidia’s HQ, but it is entering the tablet market with an affordable Tegra tablet

The Gainward Galapad 7 is a low cost 7-inch tablet powered by Nvidia’s Tegra 3 clocked at 1.3GHz. The screen resolution is 1024x600, which is still the norm in the 7-inch world, but it’s a notch under the Nexus 7. At least it is an IPS screen, which is not always the case in this price range

The Galapad 7 has 1GB of RAM, 8GB of storage and a microSD slot. A micro-HDMI output is also on board, along with USB 2.0, GPS and Bluetooth 3.0. It has a 3500mAh Li-polymer battery, which makes in relatively light. It weighs 330g and measures 196x122x9.9mm

Gainward’s first tablet is already on sale in Europe and prices start at €179. It is a bit pricier than the Asus MeMo Pad ME172V, Acer’s Iconia Tab B1 and Lenovo’s Ideatab A2017A, but then again it is based on a much faster chip. It is also significantly cheaper than the Nexus 7, which usually sells for €230+ in Europe. All in all it sounds like a fair deal for a speedy Jelly Bean tablet

PS4 said to offer PS3 compatibility via cloud

Will use acquired technology from Gaikai to make it work

 

Rumors suggest that Sony is planning to put the purchase of cloud gaming company Gaikai to work in the PlayStation 4 by using it to deliver PlayStation 3 backward compatibility via the cloud. This means that it will be possible to play older titles via streaming from the cloud, according to sources

By using the streaming technology as a gateway to offer compatibility for older titles, the system gets around the difference in processors between the new offering and the previous CPU that was used. The technology has been used to stream PC games at a 720p resolution, but streaming the PlayStation 3 style games using that type of architecture could be tricky, to say the least

Sources that we spoke with, however, are warning that to deliver a PS3 game even at 720p with the additional overhead will take some additional bandwidth; so bandwidth requirements could be much higher than that for delivering a PC game, for example

It isn’t clear if this will be announced by Sony as their backward compatibility option on the PS4 or if this will be ready to go on launch day. We do know that at least right now Sony isn’t planning to deliver any PS4 games using this cloud technology. It is also unclear how this will work for those that already own PS3 games, and if there will be any additional charge for using it or whether an Xbox Live Gold-like membership will be required