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

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.