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HTC Sensation 4G Review - A Sensational Smartphone

2011-07-29T14:57:00.000-07:00

HTC Droid Incredible 2 Review

2011-07-29T14:53:00.000-07:00

SAP, Google Bring Consumer Tech To Big Data Sets

2011-07-29T14:43:00.000-07:00

AMD A8-3850 : An HTPC Perspective

2011-07-28T15:04:00.000-07:00

The AMD A8-3850 Review: Llano on the Desktop

2011-07-28T15:01:00.000-07:00

Heavy Traffic To Google+ Appears To Be Falling.

2011-07-28T14:52:00.000-07:00

ASRock A75 Extreme6 Review and Desktop Llano Overclocking

2011-07-27T16:11:00.000-07:00

Sony Updates Vaio Z: Light Peak and An External GPU

2011-07-27T16:08:00.000-07:00

Fox Pay Wall Blocks New TV Shows for Eight Days

2011-07-27T15:58:00.000-07:00

OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2 (480GB) Preview: 200K IOPS & 1.5GB/s for $1699?

2011-07-26T15:00:00.000-07:00

Apple Thunderbolt Cable & Promise Pegasus RAID System Available Now

2011-07-26T14:58:00.000-07:00

SUSE Linux Agreement with Microsoft Extended Four Years

2011-07-26T14:46:00.000-07:00

Optimus Top to Bottom: NVIDIA Releases the GeForce GTX 570M and 580M

2011-07-25T14:54:00.000-07:00

Acer Iconia A500 - Honeycomb on a Budget

2011-07-25T14:51:00.000-07:00

Qualcomm Buys Gesture Technology for Mobile Chips

2011-07-25T14:40:00.000-07:00

OCZ Vertex 3 MAX IOPS & Patriot Wildfire SSDs Reviewed

2011-07-24T14:56:00.000-07:00

Google TV 2.0 Coming to Logitech Revue This Summer

2011-07-24T14:54:00.000-07:00

National Cybersecurity Fight Goes Local

2011-07-24T14:43:00.000-07:00

Samsung Droid Charge Review - Droid Goes LTE

2011-07-23T14:46:00.000-07:00

BitFenix Shinobi: The Budget Ninja

2011-07-23T14:43:00.000-07:00

RIM's QNX-Based PlayBook Will Get Android App Player

2011-07-23T14:34:00.000-07:00

Update: AMD Resigns from BAPCo Over SYSmark 2012 Concerns; NVIDIA & VIA Also Leave, BAPCo Responds

2011-07-21T14:54:00.000-07:00

LG Revolution: LTE for the Masses

2011-07-21T14:52:00.000-07:00

Android Tablet Sales Rise, But iPad Still Dominates

2011-07-21T14:40:00.000-07:00

The HTC Flyer Review

2011-07-20T16:02:00.000-07:00

Nokia N9 and N950 Officially Announced - MeeGo Running on OMAP 3630

2011-07-20T16:00:00.000-07:00

Daytona Project Will Help Researchers Crunch Data

2011-07-20T15:51:00.000-07:00

Motorola Droid 3 Pops up in GLBenchmark - A Verizon XT883 with OMAP4

2011-07-19T14:42:00.000-07:00

A tipster dropped a link our way early this morning to a GLBenchmark 2.0 results browser page that might be of interest to many.

Hit that page and you'll find a complete run of the current GLBenchmark 2.0 suite, and a bit of a confirmation about what is and isn't the upcoming Motorola Droid 3. It isn't Tegra 2, it's OMAP 4430.

First off, the hardware specifications that we can glean from the information page seem to make it a virtually identical match with the specs of the Motorola Milestone 3, or XT883. That means a qHD 960x540 display likely 4" in size, hardware five-row QWERTY keyboard, Android 2.3.4, a possible 1 GB of LPDDR2 (512 MB is the other less-desirable, rumored number), 8 MP rear camera, front camera, and of course an accompanying CDMA2000 baseband for Verizon.

Given the number of recent flagship Motorola product launches with Tegra 2 SoCs, starting with the Motorola Atrix, the Droid X2, and the now-delayed Droid Bionic it seemed that a flagship (read: QWERTY keyboard-packing) summer Motorola Droid launch with Tegra 2 was inevitable. From the results page, it now seems that the Motorola Droid 3 will include a 1GHz OMAP 4430 SoC with PowerVR SGX 540 graphics, and not a Tegra 2.

The model in the results browser is codenamed "Solana" which matches the codename we've heard about for the Verizon-bound Motorola Droid 3. The photos below are of the XT883 which the Motorola Droid 3 will undoubtedly bear an uncanny resemblance to.

Motorola Milestone 3 - XT883 for China (courtesy: Motorola Mobility)

The benchmarks themselves paint an interesting picture, and while we're at it I've tossed in some other devices we have in-hand but haven't finished our full reviews of yet for comparison with these results from the Motorola Droid 3. Again GLBenchmark 2.0 runs we're reporting here are at native resolution for the respective devices, which we've now included in the description line for comparison. For a quick refresher, WVGA is 800x480, FWVGA is 854x480, and qHD is 960x540.

I've highlighted the previous Motorola Droid 2 results (which we reviewed last year) just for fun to illustrate how far we've come in one calendar year.

The Motorola Droid 3 results are impressive, edging out the Adreno 220-packing HTC Sensation and EVO 3D in the more demanding Egypt test, but not quite in Pro. No doubt this is thanks at least partially to the newer Imagination drivers which give a small performance boost.

Alienware's M17x R3: An Antidote to Clevo

2011-07-19T14:38:00.000-07:00

We've had our hands on quite a few gaming notebooks here, but most of the time they're Clevo-based machines. These aren't necessarily bad notebooks; they're fast, typically have good screens, and they get the job done.

Yet they also have some persisting drawbacks: build quality isn't often that hot, the battery is a glorified UPS system, and they feature some of the worst keyboards on the market. ASUS, MSI, Toshiba, and HP all offer fairly compelling alternatives, and today Alienware brings us a particularly interesting contender in the form of the M17x R3.

Truth be told, I was ambivalent about laying hands on the M17x R3. Gaming notebooks can tend to be gaudy affairs, and Alienware's notebooks (at least on the shelf) are practically exemplars of this goofy kind of excess. But there's something to be said for a little bling, and if the whole thing feels right, who's to really complain if it looks like the gaming equivalent of a racecar bed?

Performance-wise, it's definitely going to feel right. Alienware has upgraded the M17x R3 with Sandy Bridge processors, and graphics options start at the AMD Radeon HD 6870M, upgradeable to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M. Or you can go for the big daddy like our review sample has: the AMD Radeon HD 6970M.
Alienware M17x R3 Gaming Notebook
Processor Intel Core i7-2720QM
(4x2.2GHz + HTT, 3.3GHz Turbo, 32nm, 6MB L3, 45W)
Chipset Intel HM67
Memory 4x2GB Hynix DDR3-1333 (Max 4x4GB)
Graphics AMD Radeon HD 6970M 2GB GDDR5
(960 stream processors, 680MHz/3.6GHz core/memory clocks, 256-bit memory bus)
Display 17.3" LED Glossy 16:9 1080p (1920x1080)
LG Philips LGD 02DA
Hard Drive(s) 2x Seagate Momentus 750GB 7200-RPM HDD in RAID 0
Optical Drive Slot-loading Blu-ray/DVDRW Combo (HL-DT-ST CA30N)
Networking Atheros AR8151 PCIe Gigabit Ethernet
Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 a/b/g/n
Bluetooth 3.0
Internal WirelessHD (with external receiver included)
Audio IDT 92HD73C1 HD Audio
Stereo speakers
S/PDIF, mic, and two headphone jacks
Battery 9-Cell, 11.1V, 90Wh
Front Side N/A (Speaker grilles)
Right Side MMC/SD/MS Flash reader
Slot-loading optical drive
2x USB 2.0
eSATA/USB 2.0 combo port
HDMI in
Left Side Kensington lock
VGA
HDMI
Mini-DisplayPort
eSATA/USB combo port
2x USB 3.0
S/PDIF, mic, and two headphone jacks
Back Side AC jack
2x exhaust vents
Operating System Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Dimensions 16.14" x 11.96" x 1.75-1.77" (WxDxH)
Weight ~9.39 lbs
Extras 3MP Webcam
Backlit keyboard with 10-key
Flash reader (MMC, SD/Mini SD, MS/Duo/Pro/Pro Duo)
Internal WirelessHD
Configurable lighting
Warranty 1-year standard warranty
2-year, 3-year, and 4-year extended warranties available
Pricing Starting at $1,499
Price as configured: $2,503

The Sandy Bridge processor at the heart is the major part of this refresh of the M17x. You can custom order all the way up to the Intel Core i7-2820QM (the 55-watt i7-2920XM isn't available), but the i7-2720QM presents a nice balance of performance and value. With a 2.2GHz nominal clock rate capable of turbo-ing up to 3.3GHz on a single core (or 3GHz on all four cores), the i7-2720QM should offer more than enough processing horsepower. Alienware also joins four DIMM slots instead of two to the i7's memory controller allowing for a maximum of 16GB of memory, enough to get some serious work done.

Handling graphics duties is the AMD Radeon HD 6970M, basically a mobile version of the desktop Radeon HD 6850. This is arguably the fastest mobile GPU currently available, duking it out with NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 485M for the top slot. It features 960 stream processors, a 680MHz core clock, and 2GB of GDDR5 clocked to an effective 3.6GHz on a 256-bit bus for a staggering 115.2 GB/sec of memory bandwidth. The M17x R3 also supports GPU switching, allowing you to switch to the IGP while on the battery to substantially improve running time. Unfortunately the solution here isn't quite as automatic or seamless as NVIDIA's Optimus, but it gets the job done.

The M17x R3 sports two drive bays, but the storage options offered on the Dell website leave something to be desired. The default configuration is a pair of 320GB, 7200-RPM hard drives in RAID 0 and in fact outside of a single 256GB SSD option, everything is RAID 0. Understanding that the M17x R3 should be spending most of its life on your desktop, this is nonetheless a disappointing set of options. Ideally you'd want an SSD serving as the boot drive and a HDD handling mass storage duties. I use a RAID 0 on my desktop for my scratch video drive and gaming drive, but honestly for the latter it's not a substantial improvement. In a notebook, even one that will live its life on flat surfaces, this is still a questionable choice.

From here there are three fairly sizable selling points for the M17x R3: HDMI in, wireless display, and 3D. The HDMI input is only 1.3 and can't support 3D should you configure the M17x with the 120Hz 3D screen option, but for connecting your PS3 or Xbox 360 it's sufficient and works basically as a passthrough to the laptop screen. The built-in wireless display connectivity isn't tied to Intel's Wi-Di but instead uses WiHD. Like most wireless display technologies, though, I had some trouble getting this one working right. While Vivek is a big fan of things like Intel's Wi-Di, I'm not really sold on it; you still have to connect a receiver box to your TV's HDMI port, and frankly, if you can afford to buy this notebook, you can afford to buy a dedicated blu-ray player with Netflix and Hulu functionality built in. Finally, there's a 120Hz 3D-capable panel option for those so inclined, but unfortunately our review unit didn't include it so there's no way to test it.

Schmidt Says Google Will Defend HTC in Fight with Apple

2011-07-19T14:25:00.000-07:00

Google will support HTC in its patent battle against Apple, Eric Schmidt says. He is a former Apple director. Schmidt accused Apple of resorting to lawsuits instead of innovations and said "We will make sure" HTC doesn't lose. An analyst said Google needs to protect Android licensees, and the battle between HTC and Apple could be long.

Google's executive chairman is sticking his mouth into the middle of the Apple vs HTC battle. Eric Schmidt defended HTC against a company where he used to sit on the board of directors.

At Google's Mobile Conference in Tokyo on Tuesday, Schmidt pledged Google's support Relevant Products/Services for HTC in its patent battle against Apple. HTC is appealing a U.S. International Trade Commission ruling that the company trespassed on two Apple patents with its Google Android-based smartphones. Apple had charged that HTC violated 10 patents.

Grace Lei, general counsel for HTC, said the company will "vigorously fight these two remaining patents through an appeal before the ITC commissioners who make the final decisions."

Schmidt's Mouthful

"We have seen an explosion of Android devices entering the market and, because of our successes, competitors are responding with lawsuits, as they cannot respond through innovations," Schmidt said. "I'm not too worried about this."

Although he didn't say exactly how Google would help, whether via attorneys or financial help or some other support, Schmidt did say, "We will make sure they don't lose, then."

Google has a lot at stake. The company just announced that it sees 550,000 Android activations a day, outpacing Apple's iOS, Microsoft's Windows Relevant Products/Services Phone 7, and the BlackBerry OS.

Schmidt said of a once-close ally, without naming names: "The big news in the past year has been the explosion of Google Android handsets, and this means our competitors are responding. Because they are not responding with innovation Relevant Products/Services, they're responding with lawsuits. We have not done anything wrong and these lawsuits are just inspired by our success."

Defending Licensees

Avi Greengart, an analyst at Current Analysis, said if Google believes that HTC is being sued over intellectual property that is actually core Android functionality, then it would be understandable for Google to ensure its licensees are protected.

"We are at a stage of the market where intellectual property is incredibly important and valuable, and everyone is suing everyone else," Greengart said. "There are some companies at which IP is an important part of the overall corporate value. If you don't properly monetize that intellectual property, your shareholders get understandably upset. The way you monetize that is to get people to license your patents. In cases where that doesn't work, you bring them to court."

Greengart said some IP suits are about licensing terms. In such cases, he said, it's about trying to level the playing field and taking full advantage of the innovations the company brought to market and getting full value for them.

"Patent suits tend to be a long process," Greengart said. "If you follow cases on a day-by-day blow by blow, you often end up assuming things are more dire than they actually are for any of parties involved."

Sigma Designs Skini Platform: Home Convergence using Hybrid STBs

2011-07-18T15:00:00.000-07:00

Smartphones are fast becoming the personal convergence device, replacing the digital cameras and camcorders as well as the portable PMPs (personal media players).

However, there is another aspect to the convergence paradigm being played out at the residential level. Today's connected home has multiple devices for various purposes. For example, I have a modem and a wireless router to make sure that all my devices can connect to the Internet. I have also been through umpteen boxes bringing media from online streaming services as well as my NAS to the TV. Home control and automation systems (helping with energy management, home monitoring etc.) are also installed by service providers and commercial integrators. Wouldn't it be nice to have a single device to manage all these aspects? The icing on the cake would be if such a device were to be easily installed by the consumers themselves (saving money in the process for the service providers like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon).

Today, Sigma Designs is launching [PDF] Skini, a reference platform for products aimed at changing the way consumers interact with the living room. A thin client with over-the-top (OTT) and cable / telco connectivity in one box, the Skini platform also benefits from being a part of the Z-Wave home control solution. The ease of use of the products based on this platform is supposed to make professional installation unnecessary.

The current crop of Smart TVs may bring the Internet to your living room. Unfortunately, putting OTT services like Netflix directly into a device that has a longer update cycle (consumers don't go out and buy a TV every two years) is not really a good idea. For example, your current TV might probably not support HD audio passthrough back to an AV receiver. It is not implausible that Netflix might be able to stream videos with HD audio in the future. It is beneficial for consumers to just update their WDTV-like box for enjoying the new feature, rather than buy a new TV. This makes the television a bad candidate for the home convergence device.

A set top box (not the traditional ones only, but includes media streamers too), on the other hand, has a much shorter update cycle. It makes definite sense for this to be the convergence device. Now, let us take a look at what Sigma Designs has put in Skini towards this:

* Video Decoder [ Sigma Designs 8670 ]

This is the heart of the STB. Using a decoder chip targeted towards the IPTV market (the next-gen version of the SMP 8652 chip used in the Dune Lite) lowers the power consumption and BOM cost. For example, this chip requires only 32b DRAM instead of the 64b used in chips like the SMP 8643 / SMP 8655. Readers should note that this is not a decoder chip targeted towards the videophiles (so don't expect Blu-ray capabilities even for ISOs), but more towards OTT applications like Netflix. Sigma is undoubtedly one of the leading decoder SoC manufacturers for connected set top boxes, and we have no doubt that the appropriate SoC has been chosen for this platform.

* Powerline Networking [ CG2110 ]

This enables Skini's networking capabilities. The platform doesn't need to be equipped with an Ethernet port or a Wifi solution because it can grab content from the network using this section. Conforming to the 200 Mbps HomePlug AV standards, the CG2110 is a product from Sigma's CopperGate acquisition. With ClearPath technology (which I had covered here earlier), this product looks pretty capable. However, my main source of worry is that I am yet to spot this chip in any retail shipping powerline networking product. Sigma Designs indicated that products based on the chip are not in the retail market, but only being shipped to service providers. I am trying to find out more information about who they are.

* Z-Wave Wireless RF Home Control

Z-Wave is the defacto standard for wireless RF communication within the home. With the integration of Z-Wave technology, the Skini becomes another part of the connected home. Due to its RF nature, any product based on Skini can be easily hidden behind the display, and yet be remote controlled. In addition, becoming a part of the Z-Wave mesh network also enables it to control other connected devices.

The Skini platform looks to be a good first step towards making convergence in a residential setting realistic and affordable. However, the networking gateway aspect remains incomplete as yet. Consumers using devices based on Skini still need a router / modem to connect their network to the outside world. Residential gateways based on G.hn silicon can interface with either coax (cable) or phone lines (DSL) to connect to the service providers' networks. We will have to wait for Sigma's G.hn products to mature before the next convergence step is taken.

All the technologies involved in Skini seem to be based on market proven technologies. Only the powerline networking segment continues to remain an unknown entity outside the Sigma Designs labs. ODMs picking up the Skini platform can be expected to launch products in the market around a year or so from now.

UPDATE: The official press release is linked here [PDF]. We were given to understand during the briefing last week that the reference platform would be named 'Skini'. However, the PR today doesn't have any special tag for it. We are letting our news piece stand as-is.

AMD's Graphics Core Next Preview: AMD's New GPU, Architected For Compute

2011-07-18T14:57:00.000-07:00

We’ve just returned from sunny Bellevue, Washington, where AMD held their first Fusion Developer Summit (AFDS). As with other technical conferences of this nature such as NVIDIA’s GTC and Intel’s IDF, AFDS is a chance for AMD to reach out to developers to prepare them for future products and to receive feedback in turn.

While AMD can make powerful hardware it’s ultimately the software that runs on it that drives sales, so it’s important for them to reach out to developers to ensure that such software is being made.

AFDS 2011 served as a focal point for several different things going on at AMD. At its broadest, it was a launch event for Llano, AMD’s first mainstream Fusion APU that launched at the start of the week. AMD has invested the future of the company into APUs, and not just for graphical purposes but for compute purposes too. So Llano is a big deal for the company even though it’s only a taste of what’s to come.

The second purpose of course was to provide sessions for developers to learn more about how to utilize AMD’s GPUs for compute and graphics tasks. Microsoft, Acceleware, Adobe, academic researchers, and others were on hand to provide talks on how they’re using GPUs in current and future projects.

The final purpose – and what is going to be most interesting to most outside observers – was to prepare developers for what’s coming down the pipe. AMD has big plans for the future and it’s important to get developers involved as soon as is reasonably possible so that they’re ready to use AMD’s future technologies when they launch. Over the next few days we’ll talk about a couple of different things AMD is working on, and today we’ll start with the first and most exciting project: AMD Graphics Core Next.

Graphics Core Next (GCN) is the architectural basis for AMD’s future GPUs, both for discrete products and for GPUs integrated with CPUs as part of AMD’s APU products. AMD will be instituting a major overhaul of its traditional GPU architecture for future generation products in order to meet the direction of the market and where they want to go with their GPUs in the future.

While graphics performance and features have been and will continue to be important aspects of a GPU’s design, AMD and the rest of the market have been moving towards further exploiting the compute capabilities of GPUs, which in the right circumstances are capable of being utilized as massive parallel processors that can complete a number of tasks in the fraction of the time as a highly generalized CPU. Since the introduction of shader-capable GPUs in 2002, GPUs have slowly evolved to become more generalized so that their resources can be used for more than just graphics. AMD’s most recent shift was with their VLIW4 architecture with Cayman late last year; now they’re looking to make their biggest leap yet with GCN.

GCN at its core is the basis of a GPU that performs well at both graphical and computing tasks. AMD has stretched their traditional VLIW architecture as far as they reasonably can for computing purposes, and as more developers get on board for GPU computing a clean break is needed in order to build a better performing GPU to meet their needs. This is in essence AMD’s Fermi: a new architecture and a radical overhaul to make a GPU that is as monstrous at computing as it is at graphics. And this is the story of the architecture that AMD will be building to make it happen.

Finally, it should be noted that the theme of AFDS 2011 was heterogeneous computing, as it has become AMD’s focus to get developers to develop heterogeneous applications that effectively utilize both AMD’s CPUs and AMD’s GPUs. Ostensibly AFDS is a conference about GPU computing, but AMD’s true strength is not their CPU side or their GPU side, it’s the combination of the two. Bulldozer will be the first half of AMD’s future APUs, while GCN will be the other half.

Amazon Launches Kindle Textbook Rental Program

2011-07-18T14:46:00.000-07:00

University students will be able to rent textbooks through Amazon's Kindle Textbook Rental program -- even if they don't own a Kindle e-reader. With free Kindle reader apps, Kindle Textbook Rental participants will be able to read the textbooks on multiple computing devices. Besides saving money, students will be able to keep study notes.

Amazon.com has launched Kindle Textbook Rental -- a new program that enables university students to rent the textbooks they need for courses while realizing substantial savings off the list prices of selected titles from Elsevier, John Wiley & Sons, Taylor & Francis, and other textbook publishers. Even better, students don't need to own a Kindle e-reader to participate in the program.

Students will be able to access Relevant Products/Services Kindle editions of textbooks they rent on PCs, Macs, iPads and many smartphones by downloading free Kindle reading apps. According to the online retail giant, tens of thousands of textbooks are available for the 2011 school year.

Students will be able to select the rental period that best applies to their needs: From 30 days up to 360 days. Students now have the "option to rent Kindle textbooks and only pay for the time they need -- with savings up to 80 percent off the print list price on a 30-day rental," said Amazon Vice President Dave Limp.

Text Highlights and Notes

Students can determine whether Kindle editions of the textbooks they need are available by searching Amazon's online Textbooks Store, where they can even preview portions of selected titles using Amazon's "look inside" feature. If a title is available for rental, the student merely needs to select the desired rental period and click on the "rent now" button.

For example, the Kindle edition of the textbook Operating System Concepts is priced at $70.80 but can be rented for 30 days for $29.46. Additionally, students in need of additional time will be able to extend the rental period by paying for the additional days they require.

Amazon's Whispersync technology synchronizes the reader's bookmarks as well as saves notes and highlighted text across multiple devices. What's more, the new program gives students the ability to search for keywords and phrases within any textbook.

Rent Once, Read Everywhere

Students will be able to retain their personalized notes as well as highlighted text. So even after the rental period ends, they will continue to have access to their study notes and highlighted text -- for review before taking an exam Relevant Products/Services, for example.

"Normally, when you sell your print textbook at the end of the semester, you lose all the margin notes and highlights you made as you were studying," Limp said. "We're extending our Whispersync technology so that you get to keep and access all of your notes and highlighted content in the Amazon Cloud, available anytime, anywhere."

Kindle Textbook Rental delivers a "rent once, read everywhere" experience similar to what consumers get when they purchase the Kindle edition of any book title. So students will be able to seamlessly access the textbooks they rent across all the computing Relevant Products/Services devices for which free Kindle reading apps are available.

Amazon's Kindle technology opens the door to the possibility that two or more students could form a study group and share Relevant Products/Services a single Amazon account. In theory, the participants in a study group would be able to share their insights via the notes they enter as well as the text segments they highlight.

Sandy Bridge Buyer’s Guide

2011-07-17T16:31:00.000-07:00

Intel released its second-generation Core CPUs back in January. Unfortunately, the excitement generated by the release of the fastest mainstream desktop processors was quickly dampened by the Cougar Point chipset recall.

To be clear, this issue affected only the earliest Sandy Bridge-compatible motherboards, and not the Sandy Bridge CPUs themselves. This issue is now fixed—there are no defective motherboards available through reputable North American retailers like Newegg and Amazon. In the almost half-year since the initial Sandy Bridge CPU release, the platform has matured, with CPU variants available for almost every budget and a number of niches, as well as motherboard chipsets with a variety of feature sets and in form factors from mini-ITX to extended-ATX. Succinctly, the second-gen Core CPUs are astonishingly powerful and sip electricity. As Anand aptly described them, “architecturally it’s the biggest change we’ve seen since Conroe.” I agree with Anand—not since I upgraded from an AMD Athlon X2 3800+ to an Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 at the end of 2006 have I been so impressed by a new CPU as I have by the Core i7-2600K.

This is the first guide I’ve written for AnandTech that will not be ‘fair and balanced’ for both AMD and Intel. I hoped this month’s guide would detail higher-end builds featuring and comparing AMD’s Bulldozer CPUs and Intel’s Core i5 and i7 chips, but unfortunately, AMD’s release of its high-end desktop Bulldozer SKUs is now delayed until September. The midrange Llano desktop APUs are scheduled for retail availability in early July, and Llano-based laptops are already showing up here and there online (though as of the time of writing, they are not available for actual sale). Thus, AMD’s entire product line will be refreshed within the next few months. With the imminent release of radically new APUs and no currently available AMD CPUs that can compete with Intel’s higher-end CPUs, this month’s guide focuses on the second-generation Intel Core processors. I simply don’t think it makes much sense to build an AMD system at least until Llano’s desktop release—unless you need a budget rig and you need it right now. And lest I be accused of favoritism, next month’s guide will likely focus on Llano-based desktop computers.

It’s also a great time to build an Intel-based computer. The successor to LGA 1155 (the Sandy Bridge socket), LGA 2011, is not due out until late this year, and looks to supersede LGA 1366 at Intel’s highest-end of the desktop CPU spectrum. Other than supporting Sandy Bridge-E CPUs, LGA 2011 will offer PCIe 3 (which current GPUs can’t take advantage of) and native USB 3.0 (even though third-party USB 3.0 controllers are already shipping on many Intel and AMD motherboards). Considering how capable the Core i5-2500K and Core i7-2600K are today, it’s unlikely Sandy Bridge-E will field any model that’s astonishingly faster than what’s already available. Thus, if you buy a Core i7-2600K now, you’ll be at the near pinnacle of desktop computing for at least 5-6 months. I think there are times to buy and times to wait. It’s a bad idea to buy right before a lineup refresh (as is the case with AMD today), but it’s also unwise to delay building a system to hold out for the next big thing when that’s half a year away and unlikely to be that much better!

This Just In: OCZ's Vertex 3 MAX IOPS 120GB, The New Mid-Range King?

2011-07-17T16:28:00.000-07:00

I mentioned in our Mid-Range SSD Roundup that most SSD vendors like sampling the best balance of capacity/performance when it comes to SSD review samples.

For the SandForce SF-2281 with 25nm NAND that just happens to be 240GB. Unfortunately there's a pretty big fall off in performance when going from 240GB to 120GB due to the decrease in total number of NAND die (8GB per die x 32 die vs. 16 die). I've explained this all before here.

Enter OCZ's MAX IOPS drive. Using 32nm Toshiba Toggle NAND instead of 25nm IMFT ONFI 2.x NAND the die capacity drops to 4GB, which means you get twice as many die per NAND device. The end result? 240GB Vertex 3 performance for slightly more than 120GB Vertex 3 pricing.

I ordered the 120GB MAX IOPS drive at the beginning of the week and just got it in yesterday so I've only had a small amount of time to test with it thus far. Check out the 120GB MAX IOPS drive vs. the Intel SSD 510 in Bench using our 2011 storage test suite. Expect the full review in the coming days.

Review: Google All the Time on the Chromebook

2011-07-17T16:16:00.000-07:00

Chromebook laptops are Google's way of showcasing its "cloud computing" philosophy, in which everything you need is available on the Internet. Google believes storage and services are better handled by Internet-connected data centers located far from you. Computers running Windows tend to keep files and programs on individual machines.

New laptops running Google's Chrome operating system offer a new approach in portable computing Relevant Products/Services: Games, productivity Relevant Products/Services tools and anything else you might need are handled by distant computers connected to the Internet.

With this method, you don't store Relevant Products/Services data Relevant Products/Services on a hard drive inside the computer Relevant Products/Services. That streamlines things, at the cost of having stronger, standalone applications that normally handle these tasks. But the trade-off might be worth it for the more casual consumers of online content.

Google already has a good variety of online services that will be key to any success for the set of laptops known as Chromebook. There's Gmail for messages, Google Plus for sharing photos and links and Google Docs for word processing, spreadsheets and other common tasks. Other companies also make free programs, which run through Google's Chrome browser.

All that is important because you can't install Microsoft Office or other software suites on the Chromebook. Everything done on the Chromebook has to be Web-based.

Chromebook is Google's way of showcasing its "cloud Relevant Products/Services computing" philosophy, in which everything you need is available on the Internet. Google believes storage Relevant Products/Services and services are better handled by Internet-connected data centers located far from you. By contrast, computers running Microsoft's Windows Relevant Products/Services tend to keep files and programs on the individual machines in front of you.

Samsung Electronics Co. and Acer Inc. are making the first Chromebooks using Google's Chrome Web browser and an underlying operating system based on Linux.

Samsung's cheaper, Wi-Fi-only model retails for $429. It comes co-branded with Google's Chrome logo on the cover. It has two USB ports and slots for an SD memory card and a SIM phone card. You can connect an external monitor to it. You can also connect to the Internet wirelessly through Wi-Fi, but there's no Ethernet port to allow wired connections to a network Relevant Products/Services or Bluetooth capability to connect to untethered external devices.

For $70 more, you can get a model that can connect through Verizon's 3G cellular network when Wi-Fi isn't an option. That's the model I tested, though I didn't end up needing the 3G capabilities because I always had Wi-Fi at work, at home and in cafes.

The unit I tried only had a 16 gigabyte solid state storage drive, but that's fine. I wasn't planning on hoarding video Relevant Products/Services clips or music files. Documents, for the most part, are supposed to be stored online as part of Google's cloud philosophy.

Chromebook is a lean, mean browsing machine Relevant Products/Services primarily because it urges users to move away from the local storage of content and data. Google's approach is to have you store your photos in a Web-based album such as Picasa, rather than in your "My Pictures" folder on your machine. Google Docs can store your writings and Google's Music beta (still invite-only at this stage) is positioned to handle your music collection.

Although you'd think it be slower storing your files elsewhere, the experience is actually faster because the Chrome system doesn't have to be loaded with programs handling various tasks. You simply call those up online as you need them.

This approach will require faith. There is certainly more control and better access Relevant Products/Services to storing content locally, and there's more privacy as well. With its growing suite of services, though, Google is betting some habits will change with time.

The Chromebook took me to my login screen less than five seconds after turning it on. Less than five seconds later, I was staring at the Chrome browser and an initial offering of apps such as YouTube, Google Talk and Gmail. With my home Windows 7 install, I would likely still be starting at the Windows start-up logo in this same time frame.

I began by adding some of my own favorites to the browser, which essentially served as my home screen for launching apps. I pulled several apps from Google's Chrome Web Store.

Tweetdeck was among the better Chrome apps for displaying my Twitter feed. Adjusting the Tweetdeck application to full screen delivered an experience that is almost the same as what I'd get when using Tweetdeck's standalone application with a desktop Relevant Products/Services PC Relevant Products/Services.

Another decent app for Chrome is Wikihood. It's a Wikipedia-styled page that uses your wireless Relevant Products/Services connection to determine your location and then provides you with some fast facts about the vicinity you're in. As I sat sipping coffee in an Atlanta cafe, Wikihood revealed to me that I was near the site of the Atlanta Campaign, a series of battles fought during the Civil War around Atlanta. There was links to information about the area in case I decided to explore on foot.

Popular Science has a slick app for Chrome, though it's more about form than function. Upon launching, the app delivered the magazine's online articles with beautiful photos and artist's renderings of scientific topics that covered the entire screen. The articles aren't extremely long; more than a tweet but shorter than a 3,000-word long-form piece that some of the magazine's readers might be accustomed to.

Aside from the apps, there isn't too much personalization you can do here. There is no desktop to dress up with family photos or high-resolution screenshots from "Avatar." There is no Microsoft Quick launch toolbar or Apple Dock for accessing frequently used programs. It was just me and Chrome, and this quieter approach wasn't half bad.

There is a media player for playing content such as music and video stored on an SD card, which can be inserted into a slot at the front left corner of the Chromebook. The software didn't have many features, such as equalizer settings, but it worked fine when I wanted a little background music.

Not all is rosy with the Chromebook. At one point I lost the wireless connection at my office, and the online magazine I was reading suddenly rendered a lot of broken links. I edit a lot of photos and video, and those tasks just aren't possible with the degree of control I'm used to without some standalone applications.

When you're offline with the Chromebook, you are truly going off the grid and you're not likely to accomplish much of anything. It's a brick without a connection to the cloud.

The Chromebook isn't the best choice as your only computer, but it's a fine second computer for the type of casual use that is becoming the primary activity for many people busy living in their social graph.

Intel SSD 710 and 720 Series Specifications Revealed

2011-07-16T14:42:00.000-07:00

In our Intel roadmap article published in May, we shortly previewed Intel's upcoming 700 Series SSDs. Back then there wasn't much to talk about as very few specs were known. Today we have some additional details to share, thanks to German site ComputerBase.de.

Intel SSD 700 Series
Series 710 720
Codename Lyndonville Ramsdale
Capacities (GB) 100/200/300 200/400
NAND type 25nm MLC-HET 34nm SLC
Cache (DRAM) 64MB 512MB
Interface SATA 3Gb/s PCIe 2.0
Read speed 270MB/s 2200MB/s
Write speed 210MB/s 1800MB/s
4KB read 35 000 IOPs 180 000 IOPs
4KB write 3 300 IOPs 56 000 IOPs
Power (active/standby) 4W/0.095W 25W/8W
Security AES-128 encryption AES-256 encryption
Data path protection LBA tag checking End to end data protection

I want to start off by saying that these SSDs are aimed at enterprise use. If you want an SSD for your gaming rig, you should look at our mid-range SSD roundup for example.

The Intel 700 Series is meant to replace the X25-E lineup, Intel's enterprise series, which hasn't been updated since late 2008 so it's long overdue. However, neither of these is an exact successor. The 710 Series is closer with its 2.5" form factor and SATA 3Gb/s. The 710 Series is actually pretty close to the 320 Series in terms of specs: sustained write is slightly higher but random performance is a bit lower. The biggest difference between the 320 and 710 series is the NAND type. 320 Series uses regular MLC that you can find inside any mainstream SSDs; 710 Series is Intel's first enterprise level SSD to use MLC NAND, but not just any kind of MLC—it will use MLC-HET NANDs. MLC-HET offers more write cycles per cell so longetivity is increased, which is crucial for enterprises. The only downside is that MLC-HET will only last for 3 months after all write cycles have been used, whereas normal MLC will last for 12 months. However, this shouldn't be an issue due to the increased amount of write cycles. For the record, MLC-HET with 20% over-provisioning (OP) appears to offer roughly 65 times greater endurance than normal MLC.

The 720 Series will be Intel's first PCIe SSD. To take full advantage of it, you will need at least a PCIe 2.0 x8 slot since a x4 slot will only provide up to 2GB/s while the 720 Series provides read speeds of up to 2.2GB/s. It will use 34nm SLC NANDs, which is pretty common for high-end enterprise SSDs due to SLC's much better endurance. The 720 Series promises up to 36PB (yes, as in 36000TB) of 8KB writes for the 400GB SSD. That is nearly 1000 times more durable than 25nm MLC and over 10 times more durable than 25nm MLC-HET.
320 Series 710 Series 720 Series
Capacity (GB) 80 160 300 100 200 200 400
Endurance (TB) ? ? ? 500/900 (20% OP) 1000/1300 (20% OP) 18000 36000
Reliability (MTBF-hours) 1.2 million 2.0 million N/A

One of the biggest and most needed upgrades from X25-E is the much better encryption support. X25-E offered only ATA password protection, which is way too vulnerable by today's standards, especially when considering that even the mainstream 320 Series supports 128-bit AES. 720 Series will take that one step even further by supporting 256-bit AES encryption. This is very important for enterprises handling confidential data; you don't want your data get into the wrong hands and you are ready to pay the premium for the best protection.

This update is essential for Intel to stay competitive in the enterprise SSD market. It has already been 2.5 years since the last update and when considering the progress of SSDs during this time, it's surprising that the update hasn't take place sooner. There isn't much news on the release schdule so the best we've got is what we have already posted: Q2'11 for 710 Series and Q4'11 for 720 Series SSDs. The 710 Series seems to be the low-end offering and it's basically the same as the 320 Series with improved endurance. The 720 Series, on the other hand, is an SSD for heavy enterprise use with features making it suitable for such use. OCZ has pretty much been the dominator of PCIe SSD market but Intel's 720 Series could offer some serious competition in the high-end PCIe SSD market.

Annual Toshiba Refresh Brings Llano...and Some Style

2011-07-16T14:39:00.000-07:00

The regular refreshes that come from notebook vendors aren't often the stuff of exciting news. It's generally a processor update, maybe a slight change in shell design.

With Toshiba's 2011 refresh that's not entirely untrue, but this year they've timed their update to coincide with the launch of AMD's Llano APU and NVIDIA's launch of the GeForce GTX 560M. Their Fusion finish is also getting a much needed update along with the top-of-the-line Qosmio. Bottom line: there's a lot going on at Toshiba.

Toshiba's Satellite is broken down into three different lines: the budget-minded C-series, the mainstream L-series, and the performance-oriented P-series. Starting from the bottom, we have the C-series, which launched earlier this year and currently offers AMD's Zacate processors, from the C-50 up to the E-350. The only major update here is that Toshiba will now be shipping a 17.3" model, putting a large desktop replacement notebook in the reach of more budget-oriented consumers. These start at $379.99, and the Toshiba rep noted that the 17.3" C-series model would be around $499. Yes, Brazos in a 17.3" notebook.

When you bump up to the L series, you get access to Sandy Bridge, but now there's also Llano. Sandy Bridge-based Intel Core i3 and i5 processors will be available, with AMD-based models now sporting A4 and A6 dual- and quad-core processors. Notebooks will range from 13.3" up to 17.3".

The updated Fusion finish remains one of glossy plastic's last strongholds in retail, but the textured appearance makes it far less liable to pick up fingerprints and all the usual mess that comes with gloss; unfortunately Toshiba is still sticking with the glossy keyboard. Finally, the line will come with USB charging, a wide variety of colors (including a very attractive brushed aluminum blue as an alternative to the gloss), and in some configurations a Blu-ray drive. The 14" L745 series starts at $449.99, the 15.6" L755 series starts at $483.99, and the 17.3" L775 series starts at $579.99.

UPDATE: Toshiba let us know the 13" L735 will only be available with Intel processors. It's a shame; that form factor seems like a great place for Llano.

The P700 line may seem the most compelling, though. While these still sport the Fusion X2 finish, it's been toned down and the keyboard has been replaced by the slightly glossy island-style found on the Portege and the new Tecra lines. That keyboard is still a little bit problematic, but it's a major improvement on the older glossy flat keys. In addition, Toshiba implements Waves Audio and USB 3.0 along with USB charging across the entire line, and these notebooks will feature Sandy Bridge processors all the way up to i7 along with AMD's A6-3400M. Some configurations will also include WiMax, Blu-ray, and even NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M graphics with Optimus. The 14" P745 starts at $699.99, the 15.6" P755 starts at $629.99, the 17.3" P775 starts at $629.99, and if you want to make the jump to 3D there'll be a 17.3" P775 3D model at $1,199.99 that includes a 120Hz screen and active shutter glasses.

Last but not least is the new Qosmio X770. If you're like me you probably thought last generation's Qosmio was ostentatious at best, bulky and gaudy at worst. The X770 has had a major facelift and it's a real improvement. Red remains the signature color for the sleeker, slimmer new Qosmio but honestly, the red backlighting behind the keyboard looks downright evil, which may or may not be your cup of tea (it's mine). The 17.3" X770 comes equipped with a Core i5 or i7, a GeForce GTX 560M standard, and up to a 1080p screen. It starts at $1,199.99, but peaks with the X775 3D which comes equipped with a 120Hz screen and active shutter glasses at $1,899.99.

All of these notebooks are expected to become available by the end of the month, and we're planning on getting one of the new Qosmios in hand as soon as possible.

Windows XBox Seen as Part of Unified Ecosystem

2011-07-16T14:28:00.000-07:00

Remarks made by Microsoft's Andy Lees at the company's Worldwide Partner Conference are igniting rumors that the next-generation Xbox device could run Windows as its operating system. The expected time frame for this integration could be about four years, timing that would coincide with the expected refresh of the XBox and Windows 8.

Analysts are chewing over the implications of Microsoft's announced plans to create a unified Relevant Products/Services ecosystem for phones, computers and other devices. One thing that could mean is that the next generation Xbox device Relevant Products/Services could run on a version of Windows Relevant Products/Services.

Andy Lees, who heads up Microsoft's Windows Phone division, said at the company's Worldwide Partner Conference in Los Angeles that the time is approaching when there won't be an ecosystem for phones and tablets. "They'll all come together," Lees said, hinting at "a single ecosystem and not ecosystems themselves."

Ten-Year Lifespan

The expected time frame for this integration could be about four years, according to sources who spoke to The Escapist blog, timing that would coincide with the expected refresh of the XBox and Windows 8. Thisismynext's Nilay Patel also noted that Lees said the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant wants to provide "coherence and consistency" across devices, "particularly with Xbox." Sources told Thisismynext that Microsoft may even give up the name Windows, the company's best established trademark, for something entirely new during that 2015-2016 time frame.

Michael Inouye, digital home analyst for ABI Research, said reports of the Windows Xbox are "certainly credible," but he added, "the implementation of a cross-platform/device OS might not happen as some are envisioning. The branding might span devices as may some of the critical components, but I would expect the next Xbox to remain a 'separate' platform."

It is unlikely, he said, that the next Xbox will be able to install non-gaming or non-browsing software such as the Office productivity Relevant Products/Services suite.

"The Xbox will remain a game/media machine Relevant Products/Services first and foremost, which is why the Xbox and Xbox 360 operating systems were designed separately from Windows," said Inouye. "This isn't to say there aren't any shared components, but they are separate operating systems. I would expect some aspects like a Microsoft application storefront/service Relevant Products/Services to be cross platform/device as well as other features/services like Internet Explorer, social networking, video Relevant Products/Services marketplaces, etc. We are already seeing some of this with Xbox Live."

Controlling Your Experience

Another concern, he said, was that Microsoft must limit what users can install and do on its gaming platform to ensure the Xbox is optimized for media and games.

"In addition there are security Relevant Products/Services issues that also favor a closed/protected system as well -- e.g., content protection and protecting users from malware."

But Microsoft and other major players in the gaming industry may have to do something to ramp up interest in platform-based games: A new survey by NPD found that sales of games suffered a major drop in June, bringing in revenue of $995 million, compared to $1.1 billion during the same month in 2010, a 10 percent drop.

Software sales fell 12 percent, and game accessories fell 11 percent, a likely result of greater use of free or cheap downloadable game apps for tablets and smartphones.

Microsoft can worry less: The Xbox 360 dominated the market in May with 34 percent of all game revenues, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Samsung Central Station: The Future of Laptop Docking?

2011-07-15T16:05:00.000-07:00

Back at CES 2011, Samsung showed us something that may have seemed a bit futuristic back then but which is now reality. They showed us a monitor that connects to your laptop wirelessly and on top of that, the monitor acts as a USB hub and the USB devices connect wirelessly too. Samsung calls this technology Central Station. You simply connect a small USB dongle to your laptop, take the laptop within the monitor’s range and your laptop automatically connects to the monitor and peripherals attached to it, wirelessly. You walk away and the monitor goes black. Pretty simple, right?

Background

During the last few years, laptops have become powerful enough for people to use as their main computer. Sales figures support this too. If we look at for example Apple’s sales figures, twice as many desktops were sold compared to laptops in 2002. However, during the recent years, laptops have stolen a huge portion of the sales of desktops, making the situation the opposite of 2002: laptops now outsell desktops by a two-to-one ratio.

While laptops can now offer performance sufficient for some real work, there is one thing that they cannot offer: screen real estate. Most laptops have around a 15” screen, but resolutions vary a lot depending on the model and price range (1366x768 at the low-end, and up to 1920x1200 in higher-end models). 22-24” monitors with resolutions of 1920x1080 have more or less become the standard for desktops and such monitors can be had for ~150$ nowadays.

Because laptops lack screen real estate, a laptop with a separate monitor at home has become a very common setup. This gives you portability when on the go and a desktop-like setup when at home with extra screen size/resolution. However, this kind of setup has one big setback in that you need to plug in a bunch of cables when you get home to use your external monitor and other peripherals. With a desktop, you just turn the computer on or wake it up from the sleep mode; there's no hassling with cables required. While you could call one lazy if it’s too much to plug in a few cables, you often end up either using the laptop on the desk with the monitor all the time, or you never plug in the monitor and it sits on the desk unused.

Laptop docking stations have offered a solution, but there are several shortcomings. First off, not all laptops have a design suitable for docking (Apple’s laptops come to my mind). Second, each laptop dock is only suitable for certain laptop models, so if you buy a new laptop you most likely have to buy a new laptop dock as well. A new dock will easily set you back at least $100, which is quite a lot for an ugly piece of plastic. Finally, many consumer laptops don't even have suitable docks, which rules out a docking station completely.

This is where Central Station becomes interesting. You don't need to connect any cables and you don't need an ugly dock. Everything is wireless.

The AMD Llano Notebook Review: Competing in the Mobile Market

2011-07-15T16:03:00.000-07:00

AMD announced the acquisition of ATI in 2006. By 2007 AMD had a plan for CPU/GPU integration and it looked like this. The red blocks in the diagram below were GPUs, the green blocks were CPUs. Stage 1 was supposed to be dumb integration of the two (putting a CPU and GPU on the same die). The original plan called for AMD to release the first Fusion APU to come out sometime in 2008—2009. Of course that didn't happen.

Brazos, AMD's very first Fusion platform, came out in Q4 of last year. At best AMD was two years behind schedule, at worst three. So what happened?

AMD and ATI both knew that designing CPUs and GPUs were incredibly different. CPUs, at least for AMD back then, were built on a five year architecture cadence. Designers used tons of custom logic and hand layout in order to optimize for clock speed. In a general purpose microprocessor instruction latency is everything, so optimizing to lower latency wherever possible was top priority.

GPUs on the other hand come from a very different world. Drastically new architectures ship every two years, with major introductions made yearly. Very little custom logic is employed in GPU design by comparison; the architectures are highly synthesizable. Clock speed is important but it's not the end all be all. GPUs get their performance from being massively parallel, and you can always hide latency with a wide enough machine (and a parallel workload to take advantage of it).

The manufacturing strategy is also very different. Remember that at the time of the ATI acquisition, only ATI was a fabless semiconductor—AMD still owned its own fabs. ATI was used to building chips at TSMC, while AMD was fabbing everything in Dresden at what would eventually become GlobalFoundries. While the folks at GlobalFoundries have done their best to make their libraries portable for existing TSMC customers, it's not as simple as showing up with a chip design and having it work on the first go.

As much sense as AMD made when it talked about the acquisition, the two companies that came together in 2006 couldn't have been more different. The past five years have really been spent trying to make the two work together both as organizations as well as architectures.

The result really holds a lot of potential and hope for the new, unified AMD. The CPU folks learn from the GPU folks and vice versa. Let's start with APU refresh cycles. AMD CPU architectures were updated once every four or five years (K7 1999, K8 2003, K10 2007) while ATI GPUs received substantial updates yearly. The GPU folks won this battle as all AMD APUs are now built on a yearly cadence.

Chip design is also now more GPU inspired. With a yearly design cadence there's a greater focus on building easily synthesizable chips. Time to design and manufacture goes down, but so do maximum clock speeds. Given how important clock speed can be to the x86 side of the business, AMD is going to be taking more of a hybrid approach where some elements of APU designs are built the old GPU way while others use custom logic and more CPU-like layout flows.

The past few years have been very difficult for AMD but we're at the beginning of what may be a brand new company. Without the burden of expensive fabs and with the combined knowledge of two great chip companies, the new AMD has a chance but it also has a very long road ahead. Brazos was the first hint of success along that road and today we have the second. Her name is Llano.

Google's Mobile Strategy Pays Off in Second Quarter

2011-07-15T15:53:00.000-07:00

Despite a rocky economic landscape in numerous global markets, Google's earnings prove that the company's bets on its traditional advertising strategy and its new mobile advertising strategy are paying off handsomely. Google says its second-quarter earnings exceeded $9 billion, and that the company would continue making investments.

In good news for the tech sector, Google on Thursday announced earnings for the quarter ended June 30, 2011. Google reported revenues of $9.03 billion.

"We had a great quarter, with revenue up 32 percent year on year for a record-breaking over $9 billion of revenue," said Larry Page, CEO of Google. "I'm super excited about the amazing response to Google+ which lets you share Relevant Products/Services just like in real life."

At a company press conference, Page said the company would continue making significant investments while keeping financial management tight.

"Of course, I understand the need to balance the short term with the longer-term needs because our revenues and growth serve Relevant Products/Services as the engine that funds our innovation Relevant Products/Services," Page said. "But our emerging high-usage products can generate huge new businesses for Google in the long run, just like search, and we have tons of experience monetizing successful products over time."

By the Numbers

GAAP operating income in the second quarter totaled $2.88 billion, or 32 percent of revenues. That compares to GAAP operating income of $2.37 billion, or 35 percent of revenues, in the year-ago period. GAAP net income in the second quarter of 2011 was $2.51 billion, compared to $1.84 billion in the year-ago period.

Google-owned sites generated revenues of $6.23 billion, or 69 percent of total revenues. That's a 39 percent increase over second quarter 2010 revenues of $4.5 billion. And Google's partner sites generated revenues, through AdSense programs, of $2.48 billion, or 28 percent of total revenues, a 20 percent increase. Revenues from outside of the United States totaled $4.87 billion, 54 percent of total revenues. That's fairly consistent with the year-ago period at 53 percent.

Operating expenses, other than cost of revenues, were $2.97 billion in the second quarter of 2011, or 33 percent of revenues, compared to $1.99 billion in the second quarter of 2010, or 29 percent of revenues. In the second quarter, free cash flow was $2.60 billion.

Google vs. Apple

"Google's mobile Relevant Products/Services advertising strategy is paying off royally," said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund IT Relevant Products/Services. "Google reminds me of Microsoft in many ways. They have so many irons in so many fires they are bound to fail more often than they succeed. And the stories of those failures tend to dominate headlines because it's juicier news."

High-profile publicized failures aside, King said, Google's core business is healthy. And despite a rocky economic landscape in numerous global markets, King said, Google's earnings prove that the company's bets on its traditional advertising strategy and its new mobile advertising strategy are paying off handsomely.

"There were some stories published last week on rumors that Apple has drastically discounted the advertising rates for its own mobile advertising strategy. Businesses don't make radical price cuts in their service Relevant Products/Services offering when they are succeeding," King said. "They usually cut costs when those services are having a problem. It's kind of interesting to see Apple slicing rates a week or so before Google announces a fairly majestic bump in earnings driven at least in part by its own mobile strategy."

TouchType Rolls Out New Android Keyboards

2011-07-14T14:29:00.000-07:00

New entrants to the keyboard app market include the SwiftKey X for smartphones and SwiftKey Tablet X. TouchType's latest apps offer a Fluency 2.0 language inference engine, which marks the latest evolution in artificial intelligence-driven text entry. Fluency 2.0 uses machine learning to predict and correct what the user will type.

Not satisfied with the keyboard that comes with your Android device Relevant Products/Services? Now, you have yet another option in what is becoming a crowded market: the SwiftKey X.

TouchType on Thursday rolled out two new Android keyboard apps: SwiftKey X for smartphones and SwiftKey Tablet X. The two virtual Relevant Products/Services keyboards are TouchType's second market offering. The company launched an Android keyboard app last year that has been downloaded more than 1.5 million times.

"The keyboard app market is definitely a growing space. I don't know how much room there is for everyone, and overall it remains to be seen whether it's better to allow innovation Relevant Products/Services around the keyboard or just provide a really good one to start with," said Avi Greengart, an analyst at Current Analysis. "Even Apple is providing a split keyboard option for the iPad Relevant Products/Services with the next iOS."

SwiftKey's Latest Bells

TouchType's latest apps offer an upgrade over the original, including what the firm calls a Fluency 2.0 language inference engine, which marks the latest evolution in artificial intelligence-driven text entry. Fluency 2.0 uses machine Relevant Products/Services learning to predict and correct by observing how a user composes text and then predicts what they will likely type next.

TouchType also taps a cloud Relevant Products/Services-based personalization service Relevant Products/Services that learns from a user's message history to predict and correct words. Then there's Touch Interaction Modeling, a technology that conducts real-time analysis of the user's touchscreen typing precision to improve word accuracy and predictions.

Like the upcoming iOS, SwiftKey Tablet X offers a split-key layout for thumb typing on the larger touchscreen tablet Relevant Products/Services form factor. Other new features include keyboard themes and customizations, support Relevant Products/Services for more than 20 languages, and the ability to type in up to three languages at once with language-aware auto-correction.

Competing Innovations

There are other options, or, as Greengart said, consumers can depend on hardware Relevant Products/Services makers to innovate. For example, Greengart said virtual keyboard app competitor Swype has the widest distribution. Swype allows users to move their finger from letter to letter to form words rather than press the virtual button.

"Many vendors have included Swype pre-loaded on some of their phones. With tablets there is even more real estate there to differentiate your keyboard," Greengart said. "Google encourages developers to plug in different keyboards and other elements into the Android OS."

Beyond Apple's upcoming innovations, Greengart also pointed to HP's work on the TouchPad keyboard, which has a numbers row.

"It's a trade-off as to how much of the rest of the screen you want to give up to have larger keys. Everyone's preferences may be slightly different," Greengart said. "HP gives you the option to change that around. Certainly the ability to have number keys available without having to go to a separate layout is convenient."

SwiftKey X supports all Android 2.X smartphones and retails at $3.99. SwiftKey Tablet X supports all Android 2.X and 3.X tablets and retails at $4.99.

The Llano Desktop Preview: AMD A8-3850 CPU & GPU Performance

2011-07-13T14:58:00.000-07:00

If you haven't gotten the hint, today is all about Llano. The big story is of course Llano's notebook appearance; however, in the coming weeks you'll be hearing a lot more about Llano on the desktop as well. This is AMD's Socket-FM1, the brand new socket that'll be used for desktop Llano parts:

If you read our Computex coverage, the socket should look pretty familiar. Motherboard manufacturers all over Taiwan are busy readying their Socket-FM1 boards for retail release. In fact, there was so much interest in desktop Llano on behalf of the motherboard manufacturers that a number of Socket-FM1 boards and CPUs made their way off the island as Computex ended.

Existing Socket-AM3 coolers will work on FM1 motherboards

By now you may have already seen a lot of information leaked from AMD's Llano presentations, as well as its desktop strategy. In the past few days performance numbers have been revealed as well. While we're hard at work on our full review of AMD's desktop Llano APU, we wanted to chime in with some thoughts on Llano's desktop performance.

AMD isn't ready to disclose pricing or the entire product matrix for Llano on the desktop, but what we do have is the high-end desktop Llano SKU: AMD's A8-3850.

The 3850 has four cores running at 2.9GHz and doesn't support Turbo Core. On the GPU side it has the full Radeon HD 6550D configuration with 400 shader processors running at 600MHz.

Sandy Bridge's GPU performance is the target, but how much better will AMD do on the desktop? Let's find out.

Desktop Llano Motherboards: The ASRock A75 Extreme6 Preview

2011-07-13T14:55:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since we've discussed AMD motherboards at AnandTech—over the next few months, I am hoping to bring them back. To start, we have our first Desktop Llano product on the test bed—the ASRock A75 Extreme6.

Unfortunately, what I've been testing is still 'a work in progress'—so there are issues with the BIOS and design still to be decided. For now I'll let you know what I've found, in terms of performance and design. But when the full board comes my way with release information, I'll post a full review.

The desktop Llano series is the mainstream jewel in the AMD calendar. As Anand has discussed, the Fusion APU architecture of AMDs plan is split between the Brazos platform (with Ontario and Zacate) of sub 18W processors with Bobcat cores, and the Lynx platform (with Llano) for 25-100W processors. The former has 1-2 Bobcat cores, whereas with Llano we're dealing with 2-4 K10 cores.

In terms of motherboard design, the Llano processors absorb any form of Northbridge, and the motherboard will use a series of 'Fusion Controller Hubs', codename Hudson. The desktop version will use the Hudson-D series Fusion Controller Hubs, with the A75 Desktop 'Lynx' models under the Hudson-D3 header. The main selling points will be the six native SATA 6 Gbps ports and the four native USB 3.0 ports.

The Lynx platform comes up with some interesting points: hybrid CrossfireX with any 6-series GPU and the APU, native USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gbps, and dual channel DDR3-1866 native support. Here's some comparisons with P67:
Hudson-D3 P67
Codename Lynx (Desktop) Sandy Bridge
SATA 6 Gbps + 3 Gbps 6 + 0 2 + 4
Memory Support DDR3-1866 DDR3-1333 / 2133 OC
PCIe 16x or 8x/8x 16x or 8x/8x
RAID 0,1,10 0,1,5,10
USB 3.0 + 2.0 + 1.1 4 + 10 + 2 0 + 14 + 0
Display Output VGA + 1 dedicated /
4 shared (HDMI/DVI/DP) from APU VGA + 3 HDMI/DVI/DP
FIS-Based Switching No Yes
Overclocking Clock Multiplier

For displays, two four-lane interfaces are dedicated for Display Port 1.1, DVI and HDMI—but various combinations aren't possible:

AMD are keen to point out the power consumption curves generated by the gating of the processor and system, depending on various sleep states—citing a one second recovery from S3.

But alas, most of the hype regarding Fusion and Llano is CPU based. In terms of the motherboard, it's up to the designers to get creative, so let's take a look at the ASRock A75 Extreme6.

App Allows Facebook View Inside Google+

2011-07-13T14:43:00.000-07:00

An Israeli app is bringing together rivals Facebook and Google+. Google+Facebook creates a view of your newsfeed from Facebook within Google+, but some are warning about security flaws in the app's code that may leave your system vulnerable. Experts say the concept of Google+Facebook shows social media users want the best of both worlds.

Want to try out Google+, the newest social networking site, without giving up your Facebook account? You guessed it. There's an app for that.

"Google+Facebook" was created by Crossrider, an Israel-based startup that boasts that it took about a day to create the app, downloadable from its web site for users of Google's Chrome and Mozilla browser. It creates a view of your newsfeed from Facebook within Google+. About 100,000 people have already checked out the app so far. But a founder of the company, Koby Menachemi, said the product is not perfect, and some observers agree, even saying it may harm your computer Relevant Products/Services.

Malware Alert

A commenter on the social news site Reddit, RogueDarkJedi, caused a stir with a post detailing what he said were security Relevant Products/Services flaws in the app's code and warning that downloading the program may be essentially adding malware.

Among other concerns, RogueDarkJedi noted that, "The API makes multiple references to a premium service Relevant Products/Services. What this means is that if the author of the plugin fails to pay the service money, Crossrider can force all users of the plugin to install additional crap. This is a forced change that you cannot opt-out of."

Menachemi responded with a point-by point rebuttal, noting that "Crossrider DOES NOT install any extensions other than the specific extension the user has downloaded and confirmed to install!"

According to its web site, Crossrider is an "easy to use, JavaScript/jQuery framework to create cross-browser extensions in minutes. We started Crossrider after going through the pain and frustration of building our first extension."

Google+ already has an estimated 10 million users, gaining a better public reception than Google Buzz, which was launched in February, 2010, and widely panned because it automatically added and linked Gmail users, raising privacy concerns.

In an interview with Reuters, Menachemi described his app as "a site within a site ... If users want a feature to post updates on both networks, we will. If they want to comment on their Facebook screen, we will do it."

Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT Relevant Products/Services, said Google+Facebook shows that social media users want the best of both worlds.

"I think its popularity is interesting and reinforces the differences between Facebook & Google+," said King. "If they were essentially equivalent, I doubt Google+ would be enjoying its flush or initial interest. Clearly a significant number of users want to easily move between the two sites."

Never Say Never

Does Google+ stand a chance over Facebook?

"In IT, I never say never," said King. "Plenty of high flyers have blown it by losing sight of what they do best and their customers want most. Plenty of non-entities went from 0 to 100 mph faster than anyone expected. Google's blown it numerous times, but the company still dominates its core markets. I'm not ready to count them out."

The app also shows the recent impact of Israeli tech startups. Another firm from the Jewish state that caused a recent stir is Tawkon, which makes an app that estimates radiation from cell phones.

"Many major vendors have research facilities in Israel, and numerous Israeli start-ups have succeeded," said King.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Review: The Sleekest Honeycomb Tablet

2011-07-12T15:07:00.000-07:00

I remember standing in the audience of Samsung's CTIA press conference as it announced, for the first time ever, pricing and availability of its unreleased Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 8.9 before shipping.

The smartphone (and early tablet) industries have gone this long without having to really compete based on price, mostly because in North America the carriers subsidize much of the cost. If every device costs $199 under contract, why get carried away with details like how much it actually costs?

The Galaxy Tab however was playing in a different space. While Apple ultimately caved to the pressures of carrier subsidies with the iPhone, the iPad remains completely unsubsidized and its followers buy it by the millions. The magical price point is $499 and it was at Samsung's CTIA press conference that it announced it would be matching Apple's $499 price point, and even dropping slightly below it for the 8.9-inch version.

At the time it seemed like a bold move, enough to give Honeycomb the fighting chance it needed. The Galaxy Tab would be thinner and lighter than the iPad 2 but competitively priced as well. This wouldn't be another Xoom.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (top) vs. ASUS Eee Pad Transformer (bottom)

Then ASUS showed up. At $399, the Eee Pad Transformer not only offered a different usage model to the iPad and Galaxy Tab, it brought a lower price tag as well. Availability has been slim thanks to component shortages, but with the Eee Pad selling for $399 the Galaxy Tab at $499 all of the sudden seems overpriced.
2011 Tablet Comparison
Apple iPad 2 ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Motorola Xoom WiFi Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1
SoC Apple A5 (Dual ARM Cortex A9 @ 1GHz) NVIDIA Tegra 2 (Dual ARM Cortex A9 @ 1GHz) NVIDIA Tegra 2 (Dual ARM Cortex A9 @ 1GHz) NVIDIA Tegra 2 (Dual ARM Cortex A9 @ 1GHz)
GPU PowerVR SGX 543MP2 NVIDIA GeForce NVIDIA GeForce NVIDIA GeForce
RAM 512MB 1GB 1GB 1GB
Display 1024 x 768 IPS 1280 x 800 IPS 1280 x 800 1280 x 800 PLS
NAND 16GB 16GB 32GB 16GB
Dimensions 241.2mm x 185.7mm x 8.8mm 271mm x 175mm x 12.95mm 249.1mm x 167.8mm x 12.9mm 256.6 x 172.9 x 8.6mm
Weight 601g 695g 730g 565g
Price $499 $399 $599 $499

Based on specs alone you'd be right. Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 has the same NVIDIA Tegra 2 tablet SoC inside,

1GB of LPDDR2 and 16GB of NAND on-board. You get a 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 PLS display and 802.11n WiFi support. It's worth pointing out that we're now well into the month of June and NVIDIA continues to be the only SoC vendor shipping in Honeycomb tablets. Samsung originally had plans to ship its own Exynos SoC in the Galaxy Tab but Tegra 2 remains the port of choice for all Honeycomb vendors at this point. Whether or not NVIDIA can win twice in a row with Ice Cream Sandwich later this year remains to be seen.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (left) vs. ASUS Eee Pad Transformer (Right)

Where Samsung gives you something more for your money is in build quality and form factor. While Eee Pad Transformer feels surprisingly good for a cost reduced tablet, it doesn't feel nearly as slim or portable as the Galaxy Tab 10.1. It's no wonder Samsung went back to the drawing board on this one, the result is something that in many ways feels better than the iPad 2.

Apple still gets the nod in terms of quality of materials. The aluminum back of the iPad 2 is unbeatable. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 however feels lighter, a bit more rugged (I'm less concerned about scratching plastic than I am marring aluminum) and a little more comfortable to hold as a result. Against the Eee Pad there's no competition. I can live with the Eee Pad, but I much prefer the feel of the Galaxy Tab 10.1. The new Tab just feels like a device from this year - a compliment that, until now, I had only given to Apple.

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 measures just 8.6mm thick, 0.2mm thinner than the iPad 2. To be honest you really can't tell the difference, both devices feel thin. Ever after holding them back to back it's near impossible to tell that Samsung has built a thinner device. The most tangible difference in feel is the weight, not just in overall mass but in terms of weight distribution. The Galaxy Tab seems to carry the weight a bit better than the iPad, a bit more evenly.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (left) vs. Apple iPad 2 (right)

Now is as good a time as any to point out that although Samsung calls this the Galaxy Tab 10.1, it's really the new Galaxy Tab 10.1. Originally Samsung announced a much thicker version at Mobile World Congress, a month prior to the CTIA announcement. With the much thinner iPad 2 hitting the market after the original 10.1 announcement, Samsung scrapped plans for the original and unveiled the thinner 8.6mm version as the new Galaxy Tab. The original Galaxy Tab 10.1 is now known as the Galaxy Tab 10.1v.

Discrete HTPC GPU Shootout

2011-07-12T15:05:00.000-07:00

The popularity of Intel's HD Graphics amongst HTPC enthusiasts and the success of the AMD APUs seem to indicate that the days of the discrete HTPC GPU are numbered. However, for those with legacy systems, a discrete HTPC GPU will probably be the only way to enable hardware accelerated HD playback. In the meanwhile, discrete HTPC GPUs also aim to offer more video post processing capabilities.

In this context, both AMD and NVIDIA have been serving the market with their low end GPUs. These GPUs are preferable for HTPC scenarios due to their low power consumption and ability to be passively cooled. Today, we will be taking a look at four GPUs for which passively cooled solutions exist in the market. From AMD's side, we have the 6450 and 6570, while the GT 430 and GT 520 make up the numbers from the NVIDIA side.

Gaming benchmarks are not of much interest to the HTPC user interested in a passively cooled solution. Instead of focusing on that aspect, we will evaluate factors relevant to the AV experience. After taking a look at the paper specifications of the candidates, we will describe our evaluation testbed.

We will start off the hands-on evaluation with a presentation of the HQV benchmarks. This provides the first differentiating factor.

While almost all cards (including the integrated graphics on CPUs) are able to playback HD videos with some sort of acceleration, videophiles are more demanding. They want to customize the display refresh rate to match the source frame rate of the video being played. Casual HTPC users may not recognize the subtle issues created by mismatched refresh rates. However, improper deinterlacing may lead to highly noticeable issues. We will devote a couple of sections to see how the cards handle custom refresh rates and fare at deinterlacing.

After this, we will proceed to identify a benchmark for evaluating HTPC GPUs. This benchmark gives us an idea of how fast the GPUs can decode the supported codecs, and whether faster decoding implies more time for post processing. We will see one of the cards having insane decoding speeds, and try to find out why.

Over the last few months, we have also been keeping track of some exciting open source software in the HTPC area. Aiming to simplify the player setup and also take advantage of as many features of your GPU as possible, we believe these are very close to being ready for prime time. We will have a couple of sections covering the setup and usage of these tools.

Without further ado, let us go forward and take a look at the contenders.

HP Shifts webOS Strategy with Executive Shuffle

2011-07-12T14:53:00.000-07:00

Hewlett-Packard is changing its webOS strategy, starting by installing a new chief to lead an accelerated global expansion. Jon Rubinstein, the visionary behind the mobile operating system, is shifting over to a product innovation role, while Stephen DeWitt has been appointed the webOS division senior vice president and general manager.

When HP bought Palm for $1.2 billion last year, the computing Relevant Products/Services powerhouse named Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein as head of the webOS division. It was a natural appointment, especially considering that Rubinstein was the visionary behind the mobile Relevant Products/Services operating system.

Fast forward a year and HP is changing its strategy. HP says it's accelerating the global expansion of webOS -- and the company has selected a new executive to lead the charge.

HP has appointed Stephen DeWitt as senior vice president and general manager of its webOS global business unit. Rubinstein is shifting over to a product innovation Relevant Products/Services role within the company's Personal Systems Group.

HP's webOS Intentions

Charles King, principal analyst at Pund IT Relevant Products/Services, isn't surprised by the move. In his view, vendors in commodity technology markets wrestle with the challenge of clearly differentiating their products in the marketplace. When every vendor has access Relevant Products/Services to the same CPUs, storage Relevant Products/Services technologies, operating systems and applications, he said, oftentimes the vendor with the prettiest or cheapest box wins the sale.

"With the Palm acquisition HP believes there is a way to leverage webOS to allow the company to make significantly different offerings in the personal systems space than its competitors," King said. "I am not sure how well that's going to work for them. Palm was a company in decline when HP acquired it, and I'm not sure that a significant portion of the market is clamoring for PCs and laptops that have webOS add-ins."

HP's Spin

Todd Bradley, executive vice president of HP's Personal Systems Group, and a member of the executive board, spun Rubinstein's reappointment as a move to position the right leaders in the right roles to drive long-term growth for webOS.

"Stephen DeWitt has a proven ability to build and scale Relevant Products/Services organizations into global, multibillion-dollar operations, and I am confident that he will take webOS to the next level," Bradley said. "At the same time, we continue to leverage the core strengths of Silicon Valley icon Jon Rubinstein to apply his considerable talents across the PSG portfolio."

HP was quick to point out that DeWitt has dramatically improved PSG's profitability and share Relevant Products/Services position in the Americas region since coming to HP in 2008. He is succeeded by Stephen DiFranco, head of the Solutions Partners Organization for the Americas region at HP.

DeWitt's Track Record

DeWitt, who has been leading the PSG Americas region at HP, is where the buck now stops for all things webOS, including engineering, research and development, sales, marketing and go-to-market support Relevant Products/Services.

DeWitt enters the new role with a full plate. He's charged with spearheading the creation of a fully integrated, global developer and independent software vendor program to deliver new consumer and business applications. His team also will create a dedicated mobility Relevant Products/Services practice with HP's partner community, with the goal of delivering consumer and enterprise Relevant Products/Services solutions globally.

"As part of our investment in the future of webOS, we are working in lock step with the developer community, our channel partners and the start-up community to create an application ecosystem that delivers on HP's mobile connectivity strategy," said DeWitt.

No sour grapes from Rubinstein, who was named senior vice president for Product Innovation in the Personal Systems Group at HP. HP said the firm would leverage his passion for building exceptional consumer products and his long history of driving game-changing innovation, such as webOS. Rubinstein said, "With webOS under Stephen DeWitt's proven leadership Relevant Products/Services, I'm looking forward to my new role and driving further innovation for webOS and other PSG products."

Computex 2011: ASRock HQ Tour and Booth

2011-07-12T06:53:00.000-07:00

he visit to ASRock was more like I would expect when visiting such a place – I was only allowed to take pictures in certain areas, such as the main offices, but not in places such as the new product development, or regarding product testing.

It was all fairly open plan – the design and testing employees were all within earshot of one another, or a short walk down the corridor.

The first thing that struck me was a wall of motherboards:

I was told that these are products for testing and future reference. As with any major manufacturer of any sort of business, knowing your competitors product is vital in predicting what will come out next and what your product needs to have the competitive edge. ASRock are no different: there were various other manufacturers products dotted over all the desks – particularly GPUs as ASRock do not currently make their own.

Testbeds were built using design PCBs with nothing attached, which is a good idea if you have plenty laying around. Whilst walking through, I had a sense that the engineering section, in terms of cleanliness, was less polished – lots of space was taken up with motherboards for testing or motherboards for shipping, and the filing system seemed to consist of ‘let’s stack this here or there’. Nevertheless, I did see people hard at work!

As part of the tour, I was introduced to the engineers in charge of the ASRock Intel and AMD platforms, as well as the Vice Presidents in charge of Research and Development. I spent most of my time talking to the engineer behind the designs of the Fatal1ty products – ASRock’s higher end platforms designed at gaming. We had a long chat based on what I feel various market segment needs, some of ASRock’s design philosophy, and how design should meet price targets but still be competitive. At one point it was suggested that we make a X79-IAN, however after chatting to the VP of Sales, I would also have to be in charge of marketing…!

Part of the areas in which I was not allowed to take pictures included some product testing – particularly with regards extreme temperature and humidity. There were three main units, each around six foot high and five foot wide, using a combination of heaters and liquid nitrogen to create environments below 0ºC and above 70ºC at a range of humidity, all the while looping various stability tests.

Last year, I was told by ASRock that over 8 million motherboard units were sold worldwide (compared to 20+ million by ASUS), with a revenue in excess of $300 million – not bad for a company with around 250 employees worldwide. I was constantly told that ASRock are continually looking to expand, but require the appropriate staff to do so.

Computex 2011: ECS HQ Tour, Q&A and Booth

2011-07-12T06:50:00.000-07:00

Despite being a motherboard reviewer, I’ve never had the chance to ever see inside the HQ of any of the prominent consumer and OEM motherboard vendors. Most of us decide which price and performance segment we want with our processor, and find a motherboard that fits the frame from reviews.

There’s actually so much to designing and producing a motherboard that I didn’t realize before, so having a chance to see how ECS works and produces product from start to finish is one that I jumped at.

On floor 13 out of 20 of the ECS HQ in Taipei, I was shown one of the many research and design rooms at the motherboard manufacturer. In each cubicle were tens of motherboard products all being worked on by testers, BIOS coders, signal processors, trace designers, product marketers and so on. First, I was given a brief demonstration behind the motherboard product design from the engineer’s point of view. This in itself was interesting, going through the many stages of initial idea, to design, to testing, to debugging, and finally production:

* Motherboard segments decided by product/project manager, often dictated by cost
o Discussions: Specifications, Schedule, Other Details
* Schematic Design
o Data Research based on standards and chipset/IC specifications
o Initial schematic CAD design, checked and double checked
* PCB Design
o Layer by layer – impedance for signal traces and signal integration
o Placement of components due to thermal, current and spatial consideration
o Layout as per design guidelines to avoid interference
o Initial PCB design in ECS factory
* Motherboard Sampling
o Provide Bill of Materials
o Revision 0.1 PCBs from factory
* Motherboard Testing and Debugging
o Complete test process – functionality, signal quality, power management, stability (3DMark), compatibility (software, games), electromagnetic disturbance testing
o Fix design errors by checking signals and reworking the design. Repeat as necessary
* Motherboard Revision/Mass Production
o Revise all must-fix items and confirm all solutions are implemented
I was allowed to take an alarming amount of pictures whilst walking around the engineer’s cubicles, so I photographed anything and everything. For example we have BIOS engineers working on ECS’ new UEFI (out in July, apparently):

Power engineers working on trace lines:

Designers working on the latest marketing and taking pictures of products:

And a variety of desks full of equipment and testing beds:

As part of the tour, the soldering room and oscilloscope testing were also shown:

The oscilloscope was used for output signal testing – when the output is too high or low, the engineers will suggest changes to resistors and/or capacitors to improve the quality of the test PCBs.

I managed to find an ECS X79R-A on one of the desks similar to what we’d seen at the booth, and took some pictures. This clearly shows that ECS are well on their way to an X79 product for launch – if I get one in to test I’ll let you know how it performs.

Iriver and Google Partner on New E-reader

2011-07-12T06:35:00.000-07:00

And since launching Google eBooks in December, the company has added new retailers --growing to include more than 250 independent bookstores -- and made Google eBooks available in Android Market. Google also extended its affiliate network and updated its family of Google Books APIs.

Not satisfied to compete with Facebook alone, Google has now set its sights on Amazon's digital empire. On July 17, Google and iriver will debut an e-book reader to compete with the Kindle, the Nook and other emerging devices.

Dubbed the iriver Story HD e-reader, the new device Relevant Products/Services is the first integrated with the open Google eBooks platform. The platform lets consumers buy and read Google e-books over Wi-Fi. The iriver Story HD e-reader will make its debut at Target stores for $139.99.

The device offers a high-resolution e-ink screen and a QWERTY keyboard and gives consumers over-the-air access Relevant Products/Services to hundreds of thousands of Google eBooks for sale and more than 3 million for free. One of the key differentiators is that the device lets consumers read the books via Wi-Fi so they don't have to download them or transfer them from the e-reader with a cord.

Google's Indie Push

"We built the Google eBooks platform to be open to all publishers, retailers and manufacturers," Pratip Banerji, product manager at Google Books, wrote in a company blog. "Manufacturers like iriver can use Google Books APIs and services to connect their devices to the full Google eBooks catalog for out-of-the-box access to a complete ebookstore."

Much like the Kindle and the Nook, the iriver Story HD also lets consumers store Relevant Products/Services their personal e-books library in the cloud Relevant Products/Services -- picking up where they left off in any e-book they are reading as they move from laptop Relevant Products/Services to smartphone Relevant Products/Services to e-reader to tablet Relevant Products/Services.

Although Google doesn't have the title library that Amazon and Barnes & Noble offer, Google eBooks does offer the ability to read Google eBooks on any device with a modern browser, on Android and iOS devices using the Google Books mobile Relevant Products/Services apps, through the Chrome Web Store app and on compatible ereaders.

And since launching Google eBooks in December, the company has added new retailers --growing to include more than 250 independent bookstores -- and made Google eBooks available in Android Market. Google also extended its affiliate network Relevant Products/Services and updated its family of Google Books APIs.

More Expensive than Kindle

Still, Phil Leigh, a senior analyst at Inside Digital Media, is not overly impressed with the new market entrant. Although iriver has a strong reputation for competing in the generic MP3 player market, he said the e-reader product is very similar to the Kindle and it's not priced at a discount. Kindle with Special Offers sells for $114.

"The shopping experience at Google Books is not nearly as easy as it is at Amazon. Part of the reason it's not as easy is because I'm not as experienced with it and I think I am typical of most consumers," Leigh said. "But also I think it is more cumbersome. Amazon has learned over the years how to simplify the shopping experience. I don't think this e-reader will be competitive."

Antec Sonata IV vs. Progress: Round Four

2011-07-10T14:57:00.000-07:00

Reviewing the Antec Sonata IV presented an interesting opportunity for me: while the other cases we've reviewed thus far have been experiences with new hardware, the Sonata IV is the next in a line of cases I'm particularly familiar with.

I've built machines in every model from Antec's main Sonata range; my dad's computer is in an old Sonata, my ex-girlfriend's computer is in my old Sonata II, and a close friend's machine is purring along in a Sonata III. As a result, it's a chance to see how Antec's design has evolved over time. But it's more than that: the Sonata line has for a long time been a go-to for quiet computing with reasonable thermals. Has that changed with the Sonata IV?

At first glance, the Sonata IV looks an awful lot like the Sonata III but a little bit larger and with the ventilation changed around. For the Sonata IV, Antec seems to have relaxed their less-is-more approach a little bit in a bid to get with the times. While power consumption of mainstream desktop machines hasn't grown tremendously over the past few years, each successive generation of Sonata has seen a more substantial power supply included with it. The Sonata II's was rated at 420 watts and the Sonata III's at 500W - still more than enough for most modern systems. The Sonata IV ratchets things up to a 620W Antec Neo ECO, 80 Plus certified. It's an awful lot of power for what's otherwise a relatively modest enclosure.
Antec Sonata IV Specifications
Motherboard Form Factor ATX, Micro ATX, Mini ITX
Drive Bays External 3x 5.25"
Internal 4x 3.5", 1x 2.5"
Cooling Front -
Rear 1x 120mm Antec TriCool exhaust fan
Top -
Side -
Bottom -
Expansion Slots 7
Front I/O Port 2x USB 2.0, 1x USB 3.0, mic and headphone jacks
Top I/O Port -
Power Supply Size ATX; 620-watt Antec Neo ECO 80 Plus power supply included
Clearance 11" (Expansion Cards), 180mm (CPU HSF), 260mm (PSU)
Weight 21.1 lbs.
Dimensions 18.9" x 8.1" x 17.3"
Price $160 MSRP; starting at $131 online

What's not immediately obvious here is that Antec has physically expanded the Sonata IV's dimensions a bit from its predecessors as well. The Sonata III was a fine case, but getting a video card like the ATI Radeon HD 5870 in was extremely difficult; the back end of the card butts up squarely against the hard drive trays. The IV is about half an inch longer and taller, though width remains unchanged.

Another thing that has expanded but unfortunately in exactly the wrong way is the price tag: part of the appeal of the earlier models was that they were good cases with good power supplies for a good price. They tended to top out at $120 in retail stores, could be found for about $100 if you knew where to look, and were a great one-stop for a quick and easy build. At an MSRP of $159, though, the Sonata IV stops being an intriguing value proposition and starts to compete against enthusiast enclosures like the Corsair Graphite 600T and even Antec's own P183.

We can currently find the previous generation Sonata III for $114, compared to $131 for the Sonata IV, so mostly you're paying $17 extra to move from a 500W PSU to a 620W 80 Plus PSU. That's a fair proposition, but as noted we used to see the III going for closer to $100 online, so $30 for the PSU upgrade becomes a somewhat questionable value.

In Win Commander II 1200W

2011-07-10T14:53:00.000-07:00

Since we've had some 750W and one 520W PSU reviews of late, we thought it might be time for another high-power model.

The In Win Commander II 1200W is an 80 Plus Bronze certified power supply with modular cables. In the package we find a large number of modular cables, a user manual, some cable ties, four screws, and one power cord. That last item was a bit of a surprise, as In Win provides a 10A cable while the maximum input current is rated at 15A. In Win should provide a 16A cable, at least if they expect users to actually come anywhere near the 1200W power output. At maximum load and 82% efficiency (80Plus Bronze), the Commander II 1200W can draw approximately 12.7A.

As mentioned in the summary, this PSU comes with four +12V rails. Combined they can deliver up to 1032W. Every single +12V rail is rated for up to 40A, though you obviously won't be able to put that much of a load on all rail simultaneously. +3.3V as well as +5V are rated at 150W combined, while the standby rail is specified with 3A. And in the way of more confusing stuff, the combined power of the large rails is just 1079W with 21W on the -12V and +5Vsb, which means this is really an 1100W PSU; 1200W seems to be the peak power. (We're getting close to the point where that 10A power cord makes sense now....)

In Win uses a fan from Young Lin with the model number DFB132512H. H stands for "high rotations per minute" (1700RPM). This double ball bearing type fan has a peak power consumption of 3W. There are also three guide vanes at the bottom of the fan, where other manufacturer usually use a foil.

Microsoft Inks English-Language Search Deal With Baidu

2011-07-10T14:42:00.000-07:00

Meanwhile, in addition to the Microsoft English search-engine deal, Baidu is pressing forward to make its search engine even more attractive for the 470 million Chinese Internet users. Last week, Baidu announced plans to invest $306 million in Qunar, becoming the firm's majority shareholder.

Google's loss appears to be Microsoft's gain. The search engine landscape in China just changed in the wake of a search partnership between Microsoft and Baidu, the nation's largest Internet search engine.

Microsoft and Baidu inked a deal that will serve Relevant Products/Services Bing's English-language search functions to Baidu's Chinese users. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Announced Monday, the partnership rolls out more than a year after Google yanked its search engine out of mainland China as censorship controversies pitted the communist nation against the American search titan. When Google moved its servers to Hong Kong, the company handed Baidu handed nearly half its market share Relevant Products/Services. Baidu now holds 83 percent of the market there.

China's English Searchers

Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence, received a statement from Microsoft indicating the partnership is currently limited to China. However, he noted, it appears to be a significant deal for Microsoft, which has been struggling to establish a foothold in the world's largest Internet market.

"Microsoft now gets to piggyback on Baidu's 80 percent China search market share," Sterling said. "It's not clear however what the volumes of English language search are in the country."

Not clear, but certainly important enough to Baidu to hook up with Bing. "More and more people here are searching for English terms," Kaiser Kuo, the company's spokesman, told the New York Times on Monday. "But Baidu hasn't done a good job. So here's a way for us to do it."

Censorship Issues

Google could not immediately be reached for comment on the Baidu-Microsoft deal, but declined to speak with other news outlets. Refusing to censor results on Google.cn, the Internet giant has started directing search traffic to Google.com.hk. Google started offering uncensored search in simplified Chinese via its Hong Kong servers in March 2010.

Microsoft seems willing to play ball under China's rules. A Microsoft spokesman told the New York Times, "Microsoft respects and follows laws and regulations in every country where we run business. We operate in China in a manner that both respects local authority and culture and makes clear that we have differences of opinion with official content management policies."

Baidu's Travel Bets

Meanwhile, Baidu is pressing forward to make its search engine even more attractive for the 470 million Chinese Internet users. Last week, Baidu announced plans to invest $306 million in Qunar, becoming the firm's majority shareholder. The move comes about a year after Google announced plans to acquire ITA Software, a maker of flight information software.

Qunar offers Chinese consumers real-time searches for air and rail tickets, hotels, and tour packages. Qunar also provides travel-related resources such as group-buying deals and user discussion forums. According to iResearch, a China-based independent research firm, Qunar ranked number one among travel Web sites in China as measured by daily unique visitors in March 2011. Qunar has the widest coverage of any travel search engine in China, with more than 11,000 air routes and 102,000 hotels worldwide.

"Travel has long been one of the top categories on Baidu, and the number of travelers in China has been growing very rapidly, so this is a market of obvious strategic importance to us," said Jennifer Li, Chief Financial Officer of Baidu. "Our investment in Qunar will create an even better search experience for users planning trips."

Zotac ZBOX: Brazos Goes HTPC

2011-07-09T14:55:00.000-07:00

Promising the GPU prowess of ION with Atom-like power consumption, AMD’s Fusion E-series (Brazos) Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) finally enables truly minuscule small form factor (SFF) home theater PCs (HTPCs).

Besides full hardware acceleration for important codecs like H.264/AVC, MPEG2 and VC-1, audio enthusiast finally have an alternative to Intel HD graphics for multi-channel LPCM and HD audio bitstreaming for Dolby TrueHD/DTS-MA. Sporting a 1.6GHz AMD E-350, the ZOTAC ZBOX Blu-ray AD03BR-PLUS-U all-in-on HTPC provides a chance to find out how AMD’s APU solution stacks up in the increasingly completive smallest-of-the-small HTPC market.

The ZBOX AD03BR-PLUS-U arrived in retail friendly packaging including a laptop-style power adapter, DVI-to-VGA (DSUB) adapter, manual, driver CD, and an OEM copy of CyberLink’s BD Solution in the box. An operating system (OS) was not included though, so buyer’s will need to purchase (or download in the case of Linux solutions) that separately. While the thought behind including BD Solution is appreciated, the revision of PowerDVD (PDVD 8) included on the disc is three versions behind the newest release (11) and lacks support for the ZBOX’s HD audio over HDMI feature, so it’s really just a stand-in until users purchase a more capable replacement. With that in mind, unless disc authoring is an important feature to you, I think a slightly lower MSRP is preferable to the outdated software bundle.
Zotac ZBOX AD03BR-PLUS-U Specifications
Dimensions 11.02” (280mm) x 7.36” (187mm) x 1.5” (40mm)
APU (CPU + GPU) AMD E-350 (2x 1.6GHz CPU + Radeon HD 6310)
RAM 1x 2GB DDR3-1066 (two slots available, 8GB max)
Optical Drive Slim slot loading Blu-ray (4x BD, 8x DVD-RW, 24x CD-RW)
Storage Samsung 250GB (5400RPM 8MB)
Networking Realtek GbE
Ralink 2.4GHz 802.11b/g/n
I/O 1x HDMI
1x DVI-I
1x TOSLINK (optical S/PDIF)
1x Mic, 1x Headphone
2x USB 3.0
1x USB 2.0
1x eSATA/USB 2.0
1x 6-in-1 Card Reader
Expansion 2x Mini PCIe (one available)

Looking at both the ZBOX and its specifications, including a 2GB SO-DIMM and a 2.5” 5400 RPM hard drive, it should be clear that this mini-PC has more in common with a laptop than a “normal” HTPC. Unlike most laptops, there is still a small window for upgrades with one mini PCIe slot (the other is filled with a 2.4GHz 802.11n card) and a free SO-DIMM available. The system is very compact, which pays obvious dividends in size, but this is also a limitation with the cooling solution being the most tangible, immediate artifact. As with most laptops, the ZBOX is very quiet under minimal load but fans quickly spin up when the system is stressed to produce an audible hum in environments with a low noise floor. That said, the form factor is generally a good match for an E-350 Fusion based system, but ZOTAC’s [understandable] preference for product flexibility influences the placement and availability of external ports that hampers the execution more than I prefer in a dedicated SFF HTPC.

Taking a closer look at the I/O options on the front, we find a slot loading Blu-ray (BD) drive, 6-in-1 card reader, analog audio in (Mic) / out (Headphone), and USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports. On the rear of the unit are another USB 3.0 port, Ethernet, combo eSATA/USB 2.0, DVI-I (video only), HDMI, TOSLINK (optical S/PDIF), Kensington lock, and the power input. Depending on the intended use the port layout may not be an issue, but the lack of options on the rear creates a less visually appealing install in a few scenarios. Specifically, we have the following concerns:

* Analog audio output is only available on the front, so users without an HDMI display or audio/video receiver (AVR) that accepts HDMI/TOSLINK will need to attach a 3.5”-to-stereo adapter to the front of the ZBOX
* USB 3.0 ports are not able to reliably wake the PC from standby, so at least one device (keyboard, mouse, keyboard-mouse combo, or infrared receiver) must be installed on the front USB 2.0 port.
* When using an eSATA device, either a USB hub (which can also cause resume issues) must be attached to the front or only one device can be used to wake from standby

That said, the AD03BR-PLUS-U is mountable with VESA hardware provided, so that can be an attactive workaround to an unsightly dongle situation.

The ZBOX’s American Megatrends BIOS has quite a few knobs and dials, but I only found the need to adjust two items. The first is that by default the “OnChip SATA Type” is set to “Native IDE”; unless you are planning to install Windows XP, AHCI is a better option because it supports features like NCQ, disk hot swapping, and TRIM (which is important for SSDs). The second is that I disabled the “Backlight Control”, which is strictly a personal preference. When this setting is enabled a blue ring lights the right side of the ZBOX when it is on. This can be desirable in the right environment, but when enabled it also pulses slowly in standby (S3), and that’s an unacceptable distraction in most locations. The BIOS and startup screen are available over HDMI and DVI, so it is easy to do all of the configuration and installation on a TV at full resolution (i.e. 1080p/720p) if desired.

It should also be noted that the current “release” BIOS has an issue where settings changes are not persisted reliably when power is removed, so a beta BIOS should be applied.

Acer Moves Forward in Time

2011-07-09T14:52:00.000-07:00

Acer's popular TimelineX line of notebooks has undergone a refresh to Sandy Bridge and brought a healthy number of upgrades to the hardware with them, including a major (and much appreciated) change to the keyboard.

With models topping out at just 1.15" thick and 5.6 pounds in the case of the 15.6" model, these notebooks are made for performance in a thin-and-light form factor. So what is Acer bringing to the table today?

Their TimelineX line of thin-and-light notebooks is being released in 13.1", 14", and 15.6" models. Acer's press release is a bit cagey on details for the specific models (except to cite model numbers and weight), but there's some impressive engineering at work here. The 13.1" 3830T tips the scales at 4.12 pounds, while the 14" 4830T weighs in at 4.88 pounds and the "big daddy" 5830T remains a relatively svelte 5.6 pounds. Each of the notebooks comes equipped with an HD webcam with a 1280x1024 resolution, Intel 2nd Gen Core i3 or i5 processors, gigabit Ethernet, and 802.11b/g/n wireless networking. The 14" and 15.6" models also include integrated optical drives.

What's most appreciated (at least to me) is the change to a chiclet-style keyboard instead of the dire floating island keyboards that have plagued older Acer notebooks, but what may be most interesting to the rest of you is the inclusion of NVIDIA dedicated graphics. While we wouldn't expect the 13.1" model to sport anything other than the IGP, Acer has announced that the GeForce GT 520M and GT 540M would both be available in the new TimelineX notebooks.

Acer expects the notebooks to be available in retailers starting today with an MSRP starting at just $599

Review: Google Plus a Thoughtful Answer to Facebook

2011-07-09T14:37:00.000-07:00

The Google Plus social network seems aimed at people who are more interested in sharing things with people or groups with similar interests rather than simply amassing the biggest number of online "friends." Its seamless integration with other Google services, from search to online documents, makes it easier to share things online.

My first thought about Google Plus: "Here we go again." After Google's earlier attempts at social networking failed spectacularly, it was easy to scoff at this seeming Facebook wannabe.

Its "Picasa ultimatum" didn't help much either. If you have an account with Picasa, Google's photo-sharing service Relevant Products/Services, the first thing Google asks is whether you'd want to share Relevant Products/Services your Picasa photos. Say no, and you're not allowed to sign up at all. That seemed unnecessarily harsh.

But I quickly became addicted to Google Plus, a free service that the company is testing with a small group of users for now. It has smart and thoughtful solutions to some irksome limits entrenched in other social-media sites, mainly related to privacy settings and how to share links and posts with groups.

Google Plus seems aimed at people who are more interested in sharing things with people or groups with similar interests rather than simply amassing the biggest number of online "friends." Its seamless integration with other Google services you may use, from search to online documents, makes it easier to share things online.

I found privacy settings much easier to manage Relevant Products/Services on Google Plus than on Facebook. The Picasa ultimatum forced me to learn about the settings. After all, the first thing you're likely to do after joining is limit who can see your photos.

Privacy -- deciding whom you share different posts with -- seems to be top of mind on Google Plus. That's a relief after Google's earlier debacle with Google Buzz, which had arrived unsolicited and initially created circles of friends automatically based on whom they've corresponded with on Gmail. That meant your boss could see lists of people you've been corresponding with for a new job.

With Google Plus, no one gets added automatically. Once you sign up, you add people -- similar to how you follow people on Twitter. Then, rather than throwing everyone into the same bucket, you choose a circle to put them in.

Four circles are standard: "friends," "family," "acquaintances" and "following." You can follow anyone without being accepted, whereas Facebook requires the consent of both sides.

You can create new circles, too, such as "co-workers" and "cousins." Facebook has customizable groups, as well, but I found the groups on Google Plus much easier to use and quicker to navigate.

Separating people into categories can seem awkward at first. I felt impolite putting people in "acquaintances" rather than "friends" even though no one can see which circle you put them in. But once you get used to it, you can easily share photos of your beach vacation with just your friends -- your actual friends, not the broad Facebook definition. Those photos could be off-limits to your boss or your great aunt Zelda, say.

Any post or link goes only to the circle or circles you designate, and you can drill down to sharing with just one or two people, or no one. You can also make a link public to share it with everyone -- including people who have added you to their circles but whom you haven't added to yours.

However, the privacy settings aren't perfect. Although you can choose to share a post with a limited number of people, the recipients can re-share the post further. It takes some digging to figure out that you can disable re-sharing by clicking on an icon to the right of a post. Google Plus is in very early testing, so these types of settings could still change.

Unlike Facebook, Google Plus also lets you edit posts after you post them and decide for each post whether to allow comments, a feature I liked.

Two other features, the ability to group video Relevant Products/Services chat via webcam, called a "Hangout," and the ability to chat with a group, called a "Huddle," have proven to have so much appeal that Facebook quickly followed suit. The company said Wednesday that it will also roll out group chatting and video chatting by teaming with Internet phone company Skype. It will be interesting to see if Facebook ends up adding other Google Plus features.

Other facts: Google Plus has a "+1" button rather than a "Like" button, but the feature is similar. The only difference is, once you sign up for Google Plus, you see this "+1" button next to every single Google search item, which feels a bit Big Brother-ish.

On that note, whenever you are on the main Google site or any of its progeny, you also have a black Google bar across the top of your browser, with a Google Plus link. That makes it easy to log on at odd moments. A red notification box alerts you to Google Plus activities, such as when people add you to one of their circles.

Google Plus has a few gaping holes.

For example, you can't search ... yet. And there are no addictive third-party apps such as "FarmVille," which people have sunk countless hours playing on Facebook.

Another thing you can't do easily, strangely, is send a message. To do that you have to create a post and only select one person to see it. It's not rocket science, but with Facebook you can simply click on a person's profile and send a message instantly. I realize Gmail is a button click away, and Google Plus is intended to be a sharing site rather than a full-service social media site, but I still wanted this feature.

Overall, in my early testing, I find Google Plus a compelling answer to some existing problems in social media. Because of its integration with other Google services and its general ease of use, I would probably prefer using Google Plus to Facebook or Twitter.

But it all depends on how many people sign up. A sharing site isn't much fun if no one is around to share with. For now, I can't invite friends to join. Google Plus is free, but the company is restricting new sign-ups. Even those who already got a coveted invite are told to try joining later because Google Plus had exceeded its capacity.

That points to widespread interest the service and its potential to challenge Facebook. Unlike Google Wave and Google Buzz, which never resonated with users, Google Plus does seem more attuned to what people actually want.

As my co-worker put it, Google Plus is the "grown-up Facebook."

Do we really need that? We'll see.

be quiet! with new 80 Plus Gold and Platinum PSUs

2011-07-08T15:02:00.000-07:00

be quiet!, a German brand from Listan, showed some interesting new products at Computex. Late this year, be quiet! [Ed: silliest name award pending] will present one of the first 80 Plus Platinum PSUs.

This 850W model has modular cables and offers a feature called "overclocking key" that allows the customer to choose between a +12V single rail or multi rail design. This PSU will be a part of the new Dark Power Pro P10 series. This series has 80 Plus Gold products starting from 550W.

In addition to the P10 line, be quiet! will launch the Straight Power E9 series in September. These will also be modular PSUs, with 80 Plus Gold certification and prices similar to their predecessors. The most interesting feature could be their 135mm Silent Wings fan. Previously, they have had models with up to 120mm. be quiet! also presented a model called Efficient Power for the international market that will be less expensive than the E9 and P10 series.

WarFactory Sentinel: Gaming on a Grand

2011-07-08T15:00:00.000-07:00

Getting the monster gaming machines from boutiques in house for testing is often at least interesting if for no other reason than to see just how fast a computer can get when all bets are off, but most of us just don't have four or five large to shell out for a gaming machine.

What if we still want to play but can only afford to pay a reasonable price? This is the market that boutique builder WarFactory is aiming for with their price and power efficient Sentinel. Does it deliver?

WarFactory sent us their exact stock configuration for the Sentinel, and you'll find visiting their site that they try to keep from swamping the buyer with options. "Here is the standard configuration we ship, and then if you want you can tweak it." It's appreciated, but more than that, this inexpensive build seems to be a relatively thoughtful, balanced configuration.
WarFactory Sentinel Specifications
Chassis CoolerMaster HAF 912
Processor AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition
(spec: 4x3.2GHz, 45nm, 6MB L3, 95W)
Motherboard ASUS M4A87TD Evo Motherboard with AMD 870 and SB850 chipset
Memory 2x4GB G.Skill Sniper DDR3-1333 (expandable to 16GB)
Graphics ASUS GeForce GTX 460 TOP 768MB GDDR5
(336 CUDA Cores, 700/1400/3680MHz Core/Shaders/RAM, 192-bit memory bus)
Hard Drive(s) Corsair Force F40 40GB SATA 3Gbps SSD
Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gbps HDD
Optical Drive(s) ASUS DVD+/-RW Drive
Networking Realtek PCIe Gigabit Ethernet
Audio VIA VT1818S HD Audio
Speaker, mic, line-in, and surround jacks for 7.1 sound
Optical out
Front Side 2x USB 2.0
Mic and headphone jacks
Optical drive
Top -
Back Side 2x PS/2
6x USB 2.0
Optical out
6-pin FireWire
eSATA
Gigabit ethernet
2x USB 2.0
Speaker, mic, line-in, and surround jacks for 7.1 sound
2x DVI-D
Mini-HDMI
Operating System Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Dimensions 19.5" x 9.1" x 18.9"
Weight 17.8 lbs (case only)
Extras Corsair 650TX 80 Plus Certified PSU
Warranty Limited lifetime warranty
Pricing $1,089

Hey, we're testing AMD hardware for a change! While the biggest and baddest boutique builds inevitably include an Intel Core i7, WarFactory is gunning for value with the Sentinel and their CPU choice reflects that. The 3.2GHz quad-core AMD Phenom II X4 may not be as fast as Intel's chips, and it certainly isn't a "green" CPU, but it's entirely serviceable for gaming as you'll see later.

WarFactory includes the 955 Black Edition with its unlocked multiplier by default, but curiously doesn't ship with an overclock, nor can it be ordered with one. An overclock isn't strictly necessary but may have helped ameliorate the performance difference between the Sentinel and Intel-powered competition somewhat. Recognizing just how far DDR3 prices have fallen, WarFactory also straps 8GB of G.Skill DDR3-1333 to the Phenom II's integrated memory controller in two 4GB sticks.

Performing gaming duties is the ASUS GeForce GTX 460 TOP 768MB. NVIDIA doesn't really seem to have kept to their spec clocks on this, one of its best price/performance cards, but the 700MHz core clock (and corresponding 1.4GHz on the 336 CUDA cores) is among the lowest available. Still, that isn't a major complaint as the GTX 460 768MB is a perfectly reasonable video card and suitable for gaming up to 1080p.

Reflecting the fundamental sea change in the industry is the Sentinel's storage subsystem. The operating system drive is a Corsair Force F40 40GB SSD using SandForce's SF-1200 chipset, while mass storage duties are handled by a Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB mechanical drive. The only curiosity here is the use of the Caviar Blue when the Caviar Black with SATA 6Gbps connectivity is largely bog standard in other boutique builds. I don't think it makes much of a difference in terms of performance, but it's an odd choice nonetheless.

Finally, we come to the motherboard, enclosure, and power supply. The ASUS M4A87TD EVO has all the modern connectivity you could ask for, including USB 3.0, and WarFactory smartly opted for a name brand quality power supply in the Corsair 650TX. This is an easy place for a manufacturer to cheap out, and we're grateful WarFactory chose not to. The CoolerMaster HAF 912 is an inexpensive chassis, but it's one that proves that cheap and inexpensive don't mean the same thing. The case is solid, feature-rich, and reasonably quiet.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this review is WarFactory's "limited lifetime warranty". The company was founded in 2009, so obviously they haven't been around as long as most of their competitors, but they're making a pretty big claim there. With no overclocking and a selection of high quality parts, the hope is most hardware will never fail (at least not before you retire the system and upgrade). In a sense, offering such a warranty isn't really that different from a 3-year warranty, and if the company folds you'll be stuck with a useless slip of paper, but we do give them credit for not going the cheap 1-year route that we've seen elsewhere.

Report: Decline in Tablet Shipments

2011-07-08T14:47:00.000-07:00

"Although media tablet sales were not as high as expected in 1Q11 due to slower consumer demand, overall economic conditions, and supply-chain constraints, we believe... the market will sell close to 53 million units for the year and continue to grow long-term," said Jennifer Song, a research analyst at IDC.

Tablet shipments are tanking, but the future looks bright, according to new data Relevant Products/Services from IDC. The firm is reporting that worldwide media tablet Relevant Products/Services shipments dipped a significant 28 percent in the first quarter of 2011 to 7.2 million units. But the firm has raised its shipment forecast for 2011 to 53.5 million units, up from 50.4 million.

IDC reports demand for tablets may not be quite as strong as media hype suggests, and notes the e-reader market saw a similar seasonal dip. E-reader shipments declined by 3.3 million in the first quarter. However, IDC said, e-readers saw a 105 percent year-over-year growth as the devices continue to grow.

"Like the PC Relevant Products/Services market, media tablets had a bit of a challenging quarter in Q1, as concerns about general macroeconomic issues and the post-holiday letdown took a toll on demand," said Bob O'Donnell, vice president, of Clients and Displays at IDC. "We expect the rest of the year to be much stronger, but we believe vendors who continue to focus on the telco channel for distribution will face serious challenges."

The iPad Relevant Products/Services 2 Effect

Apple recently launched the iPad 2 with strong success, but other tablets have struggled to find a sweet spot among consumers. Still, even Apple's shipments were down in the first quarter -- in fact, shipments were well below expectations. IDC attributes the dip to supply Relevant Products/Services chain hiccups on screens as well as the pre-release announcement of the iPad 2 several weeks before its actual availability.

Meanwhile, mobile Relevant Products/Services phone vendors, like Samsung and Motorola, found moderate success with their telco carriers distribution strategy. Nevertheless, sales were stymied by many consumers' unwillingness to sign up for the 3G/4G data plans that the carriers typically require along with these devices, IDC reported.

On the e-reader front, Barnes & Noble's Color Nook helped the company to take the lead in the e-reader market for the first time. Amazon's Kindle was second, but IDC said the lack of a color offering has clearly impacted the company's previous dominance in the e-rseader market. IDC forecasts the worldwide e-reader market to ship 16.2 million units in 2011, a 24 percent increase over 2010.

"Although media tablet sales were not as high as expected in 1Q11 due to slower consumer demand, overall economic conditions, and supply-chain constraints, we believe with the entrance of competitive new devices in second half of 2011, the market will sell close to 53 million units for the year and continue to grow long-term," said Jennifer Song, a research analyst at IDC.

Up or Down?

But some analysts are questioning the way IDC calculates its forecasts. Actual numbers are not supporting future forecasts, according to Rob Enderle, principal analyst at The Enderle Group.

"This showcases the nature of IDC. IDC is a firm that is funded largely by industry players. This isn't a firm that is funded by buyers. It's funded by sellers. If you sell numbers that show declining forecasts, people won't buy the reports," Enderle said.

"They know that they've got to show rosy forecasts in order to get people to invest in their services and so that's where you get this discord. When you see a dichotomy like this, one where numbers are going up on one hand but actual numbers are dropping on the other, you really do want to start questioning the forecast."

Toshiba Thrives in the Tablet Market

2011-07-07T14:50:00.000-07:00

We had an opportunity to meet with representatives from Toshiba this afternoon to talk about their upcoming consumer hardware, but while the majority of it is still under NDA (including some very exciting notebook refreshes), one of the biggest announcements is ready to go today: the Toshiba Thrive, their entry into the tablet market.

The Thrive may seem like an also-ran alongside many of the other Tegra 2-based tablets on the market, but Toshiba has some very special sauce they’ve liberally applied to this release. The Thrive is a 10.1” tablet sporting what appears to be an IPS panel (it passes the viewing angle tests) and Android 3.1, and while it’s a little on the chunky side, there are some very good reasons for that. Toshiba’s reps stressed that they were gunning more for a better bridge from their notebook business and wanted a tablet that was as user-friendly as possible.

For starters, they’re keeping Android largely stock with three notable inclusions. The first is Toshiba’s own file manager, which I found to be very easy to use and understand. If you’re at all used to Windows 7’s file manager, Toshiba’s will be an easy transition. Another inclusion is a single application for handling media playback: photos, videos, and music are all available here, making it easy to get to your media. Finally, coupled with their playback software is their “Resolution Plus” software which dynamically upscales video to high definition, tweaking color balance and contrast. Purists may or may not like it, but I found it did improve the viewing experience.

The rest of the Thrive is marked by a desire to make it as easy to use and personalize as possible. The back panel has a comfortable, slightly-rubberized texture to it, but it’s also removable and swappable with differently-colored aftermarket panels. What’s under it is a user-removable and replaceable battery. Along the sides of the tablet are volume and power controls along with a lock switch that prevents the display from rotating. There’s a combination microphone/headphone jack, but Toshiba made it a point to go full-sized wherever possible with ports to ease the transition to tablet computing, and as a result they include a full-sized SD card reader, USB 2.0 port, and HDMI port. There’s also a mini-USB port. Finally, the face of the Thrive features a 2-megapixel camera while the back has a 5-megapixel camera.

Toshiba expects retail availability in the next few weeks. MSRP is $429 for the 8GB version, $479 for the 16GB model, and $579 for the 32GB. That's a lot less than the Motorola Xoom and similar to the Acer Iconia A500; while all offer the same level of performance (thanks to Tegra 2 hardware), differences in the industrial design and pricing will play a major role. Toshiba will also be offering docking stations, including one with USB and HDMI connectivity for external keyboard, mouse, and display use.

HP Veer 4G Review - Getting Us Excited for Pre 3

2011-07-07T14:48:00.000-07:00

We touched on the Veer when it first hit our doorstep with a this just in post, and since then I’ve been using the device daily and trying to get an understanding for where it fits in both HP’s vision for WebOS and the greater scheme of things among all smartphones.

The Veer’s launch is quite honestly a puzzling one. Usually launches are top down - launch the big flagship first, then reduced size and price ‘lite’ editions afterward that build off the flagship’s success and appeal to niches that aren’t served by the primary device either due to cost or size. For that reason, the Veer launch initially seemed a bit backwards, but factor in HP’s desire to get excitement for WebOS 2.0 started and ignite interest for the Pre 3, and things begin to make sense.

Size Comparison: (Left to Right) HTC EVO 4G (Sprint), Palm Pre Plus (AT&T), HP Veer 4G (AT&T)

The HP Veer 4G (henceforth just Veer) is the Palm Pixi’s obvious spiritual successor. It’s refreshed with a faster SoC, better camera (but without an LED flash), WiFi, WebOS 2.0, and repackaged in a different, smaller form factor. The two bear the same exact same screen size and resolution (2.6 inch, 320x400), and both include a keyboard in a diminutive package. One of the Palm Pre’s original differentiators was the inclusion of a keyboard, and thus far every WebOS device has likewise included one. For extremely small devices, hiding a keyboard somewhere isn’t exactly an easy task.

Left: Palm Pixi, Right: HP Veer 4G

The Pixi included one by sticking it beneath the display, resulting in a long and skinny phone that ended up having a funny aspect ratio. The Veer, however, keeps a much more Palm Pre - like form factor with sliding keyboard.

If the Palm Pre full size devices could be described as feeling like smooth river rocks in the hand, the Veer is more of a pebble. It truly feels like a scaled down Palm Pre. It’s small - no, that doesn’t even do it justice. It’s downright tiny.

The Veer has an outline just smaller than that of a credit card, and hides a four-row QWERTY keyboard away in the slider and only tacks on 4.25 mm of thickness and 10.5 grams in the process compared to the Pixi.

Gallery: HP Veer 4G Gallery

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While the overwhelming trend right now is ever increasing display size, it’s obvious that HP recognizes an unfilled niche on the other side of the spectrum for something incredibly small. There’s definitely a market for devices with pocketable size that don’t “print” with tight fitting clothing. I’m told by my female friends that having a small device that fits those criteria is a big part of smartphone shopping. That said, the Veer is still thicker than a bunch of other phones, which is perhaps an even more important criteria for female shoppers.

Whether the Veer goes in the front pocket or is small enough to make it into the back pocket is ultimately a matter of clothing choice and personal preference. I will say that it’s refreshing to carry something around that doesn’t weigh my pants down, though at times it’s easy to forget there’s anything in there at all when checking to make sure you’ve got keys, wallet, and phone.

U.S. Internet Providers To Aid Anti-Piracy Effort

2011-07-07T14:37:00.000-07:00

Regarding the new copyright enforcement initiative, Verizon points out that its employees will not be policing the Internet themselves nor will they be invading the privacy of the provider's subscribers. The cooperative effort "is designed to notify and educate customers, not to penalize them," Milch said.

U.S. Internet service Relevant Products/Services providers Cablevision, Comcast, Time Warner, and Verizon have agreed to adopt an anti-piracy framework proposed by the music, television and movie industries. Under the new copyright alerts system, Internet account holders based in the United States will be notified whenever their ISP addresses appear to have been involved in the downloading of copyright-protected content from illicit online sources.

The three goals of the new anti-piracy initiative are to effectively alert subscribers that their Internet accounts are engaged in illegal activities, protect copyrighted content and promote access Relevant Products/Services to legal online content, according to the Center for Copyright Information representing the interests of legitimate multimedia content providers.

Verizon believes this is a sensible approach to the problem of online-content theft and, importantly, one that respects the privacy and rights of our subscribers, noted Verizon General Counsel Randal Milch. Hopefully, it will "set a reasonable standard for both copyright owners and ISPs to follow, while informing customers about copyright laws and encouraging them to get content from the many legal sources that exist," Milch said Thursday.

Policing The Internet

Under the new copyright alert system, registered account holders will receive a notification each time copyrighted content from an illicit source has been downloaded from the Internet using their IP addresses. The system offers consumers potential benefits, such as alerting account holders that their home wireless Relevant Products/Services systems have been compromised by one or more individuals engaged in illegal activities.

Moreover, parents previously unaware that their children were engaged in content theft would have an opportunity to take corrective action. The Pew Research Center reports that 88 percent of children between the ages of 12 and 13 are using the Internet, as well as 95 percent of teenagers between the ages of 14 and 17.

Additionally, the new notification system will be used to educate adult account holders about the illegal nature of downloading copyright-protected content from illicit web sites, as well as the financial penalties that U.S. courts may impose on copyright violators.

"We are confident that -- once informed that content theft is taking place on their accounts -- the great majority of broadband subscribers will take steps to stop it," said James Assey, executive vice president of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association. "That's why the educational nature of this initiative is so critical."

Mitigation Measures

Cablevision, Comcast, Time Warner and Verizon have all agreed to begin sending out copyright infringement alerts later this year or in 2012. However, the four ISPs will continue to refrain from revealing the name, address and other personal information about any specific ISP account holder to others unless ordered to do so by a U.S. court.

Verizon points out that its employees will not be policing the Internet themselves nor will they be invading the privacy of the provider's subscribers. The cooperative effort "is designed to notify and educate customers, not to penalize them," Milch said.

Still, all four U.S. ISPs have agreed to impose "mitigation measures" on the ISP accounts of unrepentant copyright transgressors. These disciplinary actions may include reducing the account's Internet download speeds or redirecting suspected offenders to a landing page containing educational information about copyright law.

On the other hand, such drastic measures will only be taken after the subscriber has received a minimum of five notifications. "Failure to respond to these alerts will lead to additional steps designed to ensure that the account comes into compliance Relevant Products/Services," the Center for Copyright Information advised.

Computex 2011: Biostar, Jetway and Giada Motherboards

2011-07-06T14:53:00.000-07:00

Along with the main retailers, the minor ones are also showcasing products. We’ve reviewed Biostar products before at AnandTech, but not Jetway and Giada, both of which are now selling consumer level products in North America.

Our main criticism with Biostar in the past is PCIe and feature placement. On one series of products, Biostar has to a certain extent listened – the Z68 series have spaces between the PCIe x16 and space for a PCIe 1x and PCI. However, the video outputs on the TZ68A+ are all spread out – meaning a lack of USB ports (two USB 2.0, two USB 3.0), only 2.1 channel audio, and no space for multiple LAN connections. The SATA ports are also odd:

The TA990FXE however goes the other way – the video outputs are nicely positioned, as well as the SATA ports. But the board offers four full length PCIe all next to each other and no other PCIe available if two dual slot GPUs are used.

Jetway has been producing motherboards for quite a while – if you’ve ever searched Newegg, you’ll find a few products in various categories and price points. In terms of recent developments, Jetway has surprisingly produced a P67 and a Z68 board – what they deem their ‘Hummer’ series for their enthusiast consumers. Two main features stand out when looking at the board – one if they have the rights to use the Hummer name in North America, and two that the memory compatibility is only to DDR3-1333 MHz. You would expect higher-end products for enthusiasts to support the higher end memory speeds, but it’s up to the consumer to decide if they need it apparently. (Apologies for the images, Jetway decided to put a highly reflective glass in front of all their motherboards.)

Jetway have a series of Q67 products, mainly aimed at business and industry: one in particular has up to 10 COM ports possible – at the expense of only having one SATA port. For AMD, they actually had a Hudson-D3 platform at the booth – again with the Hummer branding, and with 1333 MHz memory compatibility. Though one thing I do like is that the extra power for the PCIe is at the bottom – as is becoming more common, the PSU is at the bottom of the case, so having this extra 4-pin power at the bottom of the board makes sense.

Gallery: Computex 2011: Jetway

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Giada is a division of the Shenzhen Jiehe Technology Development (JEHE) company based in China. They have been selling in Asia for a while, and I noticed them starting to sell product over at Newegg for the US market. So out of curiosity, I stopped by the booth at Computex to examine their range of products and a talk with the sales rep. Giada’s current situation is to slowly move into various low-level motherboard segments within North America – currently they focus on mini-ITX platforms and the OTX form factor for all-in-one PCs (which is contrary to Intel trying to utilise thin mini-ITX).

For mini-ITX, Giada had an H55, H61 and H67 motherboards on show, all using one PCIe x16 and mini-PCIe. At first glance the only thing that looks fairly odd is that the SATA ports are found just inside the DIMM slots, presumably making it hard to fit in cables if the slots are filled with memory and/or a large GPU is used. An E350 Fusion board was also on the show, offering two mini-PCIe, using SO-DIMM memory and a rather odd SATA positioning as well. I would also point out only one fan header on most of these models, suggesting that no serious coolers or fan controls would be present.

There was an ATX size Z68 on show, but apparently Giada has no intention of releasing this in North America just yet. From the design, it doesn’t look too bad for the color scheme – there didn’t see much in the way of power delivery for overclocking however, and presumably no support for memory greater than 1333 MHz.

Dell's Latitude Gets Rough and Ready

2011-07-06T14:50:00.000-07:00

First, the smaller update: the Dell Latitude E6420 ATG is a basic refresh of their previous E6410 ATG. The E6420 benefits from an update to Sandy Bridge hardware in a 14” chassis. The ATG line is for Dell's semi-rugged notebooks, and the E6420 is already available with 2nd Gen Intel Core i5 or i7 processors, Intel's HD 3000 integrated graphics, and up to 8GB of DDR3. The E6420 ATG starts at $1,949.

Next is the E6420 XFR. Dell’s XFR offerings are true ruggedized notebooks, designed to withstand a six foot drop and the harshest of climates. The E6420 XFR is designed from a specialized polymer called PR72, a composite Dell claims is stronger, lighter, and less expensive than the traditional magnesium alloy. Additionally, the E6420 XFR uses a special emulsion process for the glass, has a fully-enclosed fan, and the media bay is hot-swappable: you can swap in an optical drive, another battery, another hard drive, or even a legacy port cluster.

The E6420 XFR has been updated to run Sandy Bridge processors, offering an Intel Core i5-2520M or i7-2620M. The 14” impact-resistant screen keeps the nominal 1366x768 resolution, but is outdoor viewable and can be configured with a touch-sensitive surface. Graphics duties are handled by Intel’s integrated graphics, but an optional upgrade to NVIDIA Quadro NVS 4200M graphics with 512MB of DDR3 is available. It's worth mentioning that Dell's E6420s are internally compatible with images from their non-rugged Dell Latitude line to make them as easy to service as possible.

The E6420 XFR starts at $4,432, but while that may seem rather high it's pretty typical for fully ruggedized laptops.

Finally, Dell is also offering a fully-ruggedized tablet, the XT2 XFR. The XT2 XFR still runs using Intel's aging Core 2 Duo SU9600 (and corresponding GMA 4500MHD), but if you need a tablet that's built for punishment, the XT2 XFR is the one. In our conversation with Dell they did mention that an update to an XT3 XFR was already planned for next year. The XT2 XFR starts at $3,069.

As an interesting tidbit brought up in our conference with Dell, they pointed out that these ruggedized notebooks are designed largely for military and law enforcement purposes. That means that in order to consistently be able to service units in theatres of war, Dell has multiple parts depots set up in the Middle East as well as technicians on hand. After all, if a computer is mission critical it's not like our troops can just wait while it gets shipped back to the States. We thought this was a cool bit of information worth sharing with the rest of you.

Sony Networks, At Last, Fully Restored Online

2011-07-06T14:39:00.000-07:00

Regarding the Sony Playstation 3 network hack, Gartenberg noted that Sony can recover from this episode, if they start "doing things right," such as showing that they are taking greater precautions, and, when things go wrong, "acknowledging that and being more pro-active" in fixing the problems and informing customers.

Sony's online networks are finally, fully back online. On Monday, the electronics and software giant said that its PlayStation Network and Qriocity services will be up again in Japan, the last market to be restored.

The services to Japanese customers resumed Wednesday, about two and a half months after the outage Relevant Products/Services of the Sony networks due to hacker attacks. Services in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere were restored weeks ago, but the Japanese government required Sony to provide details and assurances about the security Relevant Products/Services of their networks before allowing them online again.

'Huge Black Eye'

In May, Kazushige Nobutani, director of Media and Content Industry in the Japanese Ministry of Economy, said that the government had indicated in meetings with Sony that it wanted two things. The first was "preventative measures," as the government felt the company had not provided details about how it was going to avoid another such outages in the future.

The other component sought by the government was a plan to regain confidence among users.

To help restore confidence among users, Sony had offered a "Welcome Back" campaign of various giveaways. While those offers have mostly concluded in the main Sony markets, it is just now being offered to Japanese customers.

Michael Gartenberg, Research Director at the Gartner Relevant Products/Services Group, said that the outage was "a huge black eye for Sony," in that it showed the company was "not adequately protecting user data Relevant Products/Services and was taking their time" in informing users of a breach that affected confidential customer Relevant Products/Services information.

'Errors, Breaches Happen'

Over all, Gartenberg said, the outage was "a series of lessons in 'how not to use social media' to respond to a crisis. He added that, at this point, some users might "think twice about giving their information to Sony," not only because of the company's approach to handling customer data, but because "there have been so many Sony properties coming under attack."

Gartenberg noted that Sony can recover from this episode, if they start "doing things right," such as showing that they are taking greater precautions, and, when things go wrong, "acknowledging that and being more pro-active" in fixing the problems and informing customers.

"Errors and breaches happen," he said, "and a lot depends simply on how you respond."

The company has been criticized by industry observers and members of Congress for not revealing earlier that users' personal data was possibly stolen. The initial security breach was noticed by Sony on April 19, PlayStation Network (PSN) was shut down on April 20, and users were notified of the data breach and possible loss of personal information on April 26.

Sony has said that it wasn't sure about the data loss until April 25. Chief Executive Howard Stringer has said that talking about the loss of data before it was confirmed would have been "irresponsible." He has compared it to finding out if things are missing when "your house has been burglarized," before you call the police.

Computex 2011: New All-In-One CPU Water-Cooling

2011-07-05T15:13:00.000-07:00

In the modern era, we’ve had systems from CoolIt, Corsair, Antec and others who are trying to bridge the barrier between high-end air-cooling and low-end water-cooling. At Computex, it is clear to see that there are a few more options on the horizon for consumers.

Cooler Master has produced all-in-one water-cooling systems in the past – I cite the Aquagate and Aquagate Mini for socket 462 systems many years ago. The technology was young and prices were close to a DIY water kit. However, with the Project A-L2, Cooler Master hopes to enter this segment again.

Still in the early design phase, Cooler Master wants to aim first at performance – their system is using a 450 litres/hour pump. This has the effect of having a large, heavy base near the CPU, which is against the current trend of small CPU blocks. The initial design is for a standard 120mm radiator and fan at $80-$100 projected price, though I’m told that a dual length radiator version may be in the design phase.

What was interesting though was that the heat transfer block was on display – Cooler Master openly had the internals of the water block out on show. I was told that by using many different meshes bound together, that hopefully the maximum transfer of heat will occur. As long as the heat transference from the copper base to the copper mesh is sufficient, it could work very effectively – however, we don't know of other mesh designs.

Thermaltake had two such units on display – the BigWater A80 and the dual 5.25” bay Bigwater 760 Plus. The A80 unit is again very typical of what we currently see on the market in this segment – a CPU block with a pump leading out to a radiator. The A80 unit is slightly different however, as the tubing to the radiator is a lot larger than what I’ve encountered previously. The included fan is rated at 101CFM and the pump at 120 litres per hour.

The BigWater 760 Plus has design roots in traditional water-cooling, but utilizing the fact that many enthusiasts may have some unoccupied 5.25” bays. The radiator is placed in this dual bay design with a fan and the pump, so we have a traditional waterblock and tubing. This unit runs at 500 litres per hour, rated at 16 dBA, and designed in-house. There is no word on pricing or release dates yet.

In other news, during Computex Corsair released their H80 and H100 all-in-one CPU water-cooling solutions, to build on their H50, H60 and H70. The H80 is an upgraded H70, with what looks like a beefier pump and fan control system in a double thickness 120mm radiator design. The H100 is a dual length radiator design, with more advanced fan controls.

The 2011 Mid-Range SSD Roundup: 120GB Agility 3, Intel 510 and More Compared

2011-07-05T15:10:00.000-07:00

A year ago whenever I'd request an SSD for review I'd usually get a 128GB drive built using 3x nm 4GB 2-bit MLC NAND die.

These days the standard review capacity is twice that as most drives ship with 25nm NAND, using 8GB die. Seeing a bunch of scores for 240GB+ drives however is frustrating to all involved. At these capacities you're almost always looking at two die per NAND device, which has significant performance benefits due to interleaving. Most SSD controllers have eight NAND channels and with sixteen NAND deviecs with two die per device that's four NAND die that the controller can interleave access between for each channel. The 128GB drives by comparison halve the number of NAND, which only allows the controller to interleave requests among two die.

How read interleaving works on a single channel

Not only are these 240GB+ drives the best case performance you'd see from a particular SSD, they are also very expensive. At around $2/GB you're looking at over $500 for a high end 240GB+ SSD. I've spent the past few weeks gathering modern SSDs with 128GB of NAND on-board to provide a look at a more balanced point in the price/capacity spectrum.
Mid-Range 2011 SSD Roundup
Specs (6Gbps) Corsair P3 128GB Crucial RealSSD C300 128GB Intel SSD 320 160GB Intel SSD 510 120GB OCZ Agility 3 120GB OCZ Vertex 3 120GB
Controller Marvell 6Gbps Marvell 6Gbps Intel 3Gbps Marvell 6Gbps SF-2281 SF-2281
Raw NAND Capacity 128GB 128GB 176GB 128GB 128GB 128GB
Spare Area ~6.9% ~6.9% ~15.3% ~12.7% ~12.7% ~12.7%
User Capacity 119.2GB 119.2GB 149.0GB 111.8GB 111.8GB 111.8GB
Number of NAND Devices 8 16 12 16 16 16
Number of die per Device 4 2 1 - 2 2 1 1
NAND Type 32nm Toggle 34nm ONFI 2.0 25nm ONFI 2.1 34nm ONFI 1.0 25nm ONFI 2.1 25nm ONFI 2.1
Street Price $229.99 $234.99 $304.99 $284.49 $279.99 $252.99
Cost Per GB $1.797 $1.836 $1.906 $2.222 $2.187 $1.976
Corsair Performance Series 3

The first drive in the roundup is the one I've had the longest: Corsair's P3.

The P3 is based on the same Marvell controller used by Crucial in the C300 and Intel's SSD 510, however it's using what appears to be Marvell's standard firmware and as of yet Corsair hasn't provided any firmware updates to the drive. Internally the P3 uses 32nm Toshiba NAND on a very small PCB:

There are 8 NAND devices, making this a fully populated controller. Each NAND device has four 32nm die internally:

At $229.99 the P3-128 is the most affordable drive in our roundup, and it's a 6Gbps drive so it should be able to post some pretty high sequential numbers.
Crucial RealSSD C300

The C300 is nothing new, we reviewed this drive last year. I still don't have a 128GB version of the updated m4, however as we discovered in our review of the 256GB m4, performance isn't necessarily better than the C300. In many cases the m4 is actually slower than the C300.

The 128GB drive uses Marvell's 6Gbps controller (with Micron's own firmware) and features 34nm ONFI 2.0 NAND:

With sixteen NAND devices on the PCB, each package has two 4GB die inside it.

The C300 is pretty affordable by today's standards. The 128GB drive we tested here is selling for $234.99.
Intel SSD 320

Based on Intel's X25-M G2 controller but with new firmware the 320 adds features like real time encryption, however 6Gbps isn't in the cards with this drive:

Intel sent along the 160GB version of the 320, which has a pretty unusual NAND configuration. Remember Intel's controller is a 10-channel architecture and on the front of the PCB we have ten 25nm NAND devices:

These are 16GB NAND devices (two 8GB NAND die per package). That alone is good for the 160GB drive capacity, but the 320 needs more spare area than its predecessor so 160GB won't cut it. Flip the PCB over and you see two 8GB NAND devices:

I'm not entirely sure how Intel is striping data across all of the NAND. It's likely that Intel is simply just interleaving more operations on two of the channels. The 160GB 320 is the most expensive drive here at $304.99, but that's mostly because of the drive's capacity. In terms of cost per GB, the 320 is middle of the road here at $1.906 per GB.
Intel SSD 510

While the 320 is Intel's mainstream drive, the 510 is the high performance 6Gbps offering for enthusiasts. Intel is using Marvell's 6Gbps controller, again with its own custom firmware. The drive uses Intel's 34nm NAND and doesn't support the encryption features of the 320.

Since it uses 34nm NAND, Intel has 16 NAND devices internally each with two 4GB die:

The 510 is our second most expensive drive here at $284.49 and the most expensive on a cost-per-GB basis as well ($2.222):

OCZ's Agility 3 & Vertex 3

OCZ was the first to ship a SF-2281 based drive and now there are multiple offerings in the OCZ lineup. The Vertex 3 uses 25nm IMFT synchronous NAND, while the Agility 3 uses 25nm IMFT asynchronous NAND. As I hinted at in our review of the 240GB Agility 3, I fully expect a lot of pricing fluctuation between these two lines depending on availability of NAND. As a result, today you can buy a Vertex 3 from Newegg for less than you can an Agility 3. Obviously at the same price the Vertex 3 is the recommended drive but I expect to see these two flip flop more in the future.

Internally the Agility 3 (and Vertex 3) use 16 NAND devices with one die per device:

OCZ is very aggressive on Vertex 3 pricing, you can get the 120GB version today for $252.99.
The Test
CPU

Intel Core i7 965 running at 3.2GHz (Turbo & EIST Disabled)

Intel Core i7 2600K running at 3.4GHz (Turbo & EIST Disabled) - for AT SB 2011, AS SSD & ATTO
Motherboard:

Intel DX58SO (Intel X58)

Intel H67 Motherboard
Chipset:

Intel X58 + Marvell SATA 6Gbps PCIe
Intel H67
Chipset Drivers:

Intel 9.1.1.1015 + Intel IMSM 8.9

Intel 9.1.1.1015 + Intel RST 10.2
Memory: Qimonda DDR3-1333 4 x 1GB (7-7-7-20)
Video Card: eVGA GeForce GTX 285
Video Drivers: NVIDIA ForceWare 190.38 64-bit
Desktop Resolution: 1920 x 1200
OS: Windows 7 x64

Toshiba To Launch Breakthrough Glasses-Free 3D Laptop

2011-07-05T14:57:00.000-07:00

Toshiba is also marketing the Qosmio F750 to developers and other creators, noting that product concepts, architecture plans, medical information or educational tools "can be viewed with unparalleled realism and greater depth." The Qosmio F750 is powered by an Intel Core i7 processor and Nvidia Geforce GT540M graphics processor.

Toshiba UK will begin selling what it calls the first glasses-free 3D laptop Relevant Products/Services next month. The awkwardly named Qosmio F750 will allow viewing of both two- and three dimensional content such as games and movies. But the drawback is that only one person at a time can enjoy the 3D effects by sitting directly in front of it.

Toshiba did not announce the price of the 15.6-inch display Qosmio F750, which will debut in England, but some press reports estimated it at a hefty $2,100.

The Qosmio is part of a growing slate of glasses-free 3D products hitting the market, from Nintendo's recent 3DS portable game player to smartphones such as HTC's 3D 4G, which debuted this month and several televisions, including Toshiba's REGZA GL1.

For Solo Gamers

So where does a 3D laptop fit in and what is its intended demographic?

"This seems aimed more at hard-core gamers than anyone else, due to the audio system," said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT Relevant Products/Services, referring to the distortion-free stereo speakers designed for Dolby Advanced Audio HDMI-CEC optimzation. "I doubt Alienware will stay up late worrying about it, though. I suppose you could also use it for 3D films but the single-user limitations would kill showing off for your date."

Alienware, a subsidiary of Dell, is a Miami based maker of computers designed especially for gaming.

Other laptops on the market that support Relevant Products/Services 3D include the Fujitsu Lifebook, HP's Envy 17 and the Asus G51JX.

Toshiba lists five 3D laptops on its Web site: The Qosmio X775 ($1899.99, Satellite 5775 ($1,199.99) and three models of the Satellite A655 ($1,299 each).

The Qosmio F750 uses a "lenticular" screen which creates a slightly different perspective for each eye to create the 3D effect with full HD resolution for vivid images, and Toshiba says a 120Hz refresh rate will eliminate blur or ghosting.

The integrated webcam tracks the user's eye movements, allowing the laptop to adjust the 3D effect to match the eye position. Both 2D and 3D images can be displayed simultaneously so users can browse web sites while watching 3D content.

Productivity, Too

Toshiba is also marketing the Qosmio F750 to developers and other creators, noting that product concepts, architecture Relevant Products/Services plans, medical information or educational tools "can be viewed with unparalleled realism and greater depth."

The Qosmio F750 is powered by an Intel Core i7 processor, Nvidia Geforce GT540M graphics processor with a SATA 640 gigabyte hard drive with 6GB DDR3 (1333MHz) random access Relevant Products/Services memory. It also has a Blu-rayTM XL re-recordable drive and runs Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system, with Wi-Fi 802.11 and Bluetooth 3.0.

In its hands-on review of a test model, Engadget said the "the videos we saw were pretty mouthwatering -- at least once our eyes and brain adjusted to the 3D effect" and "The eye-tracking system was remarkably quick." But reviewer Sharif Sakr noted that the single-user 3D limit was "a major downside."

Computex 2011: Silent and Single Slot GPUs

2011-07-04T15:16:00.000-07:00

In general, we see a trend in the market preference for quieter, smaller, cheaper, and more powerful GPUs. In reality, we might see two or three of these features in a product, at the expense of the other(s).

I took the opportunity to visit as many vendors as my time allowed in Computex to find GPUs which could potentially fit into these categories.

On the NVIDIA side of things, Zotac where showing two silent models. The first is actually a PCI card, rather than PCIe – a GT 430 with 512 MB DDR3 memory on a 128-bit bus, running at 700 MHz core speed and1600 MHz memory. A purely silent card, it has a single slot design and supports DVI-I, HDMI, and VGA. It’s interesting to see a PCI card on sale – they have their uses mainly in industrial applications, but due to the PCI specifications there’s a bandwidth limitation which may hinder any significantly faster GPU.

The Zotac 520 ZONE Edition, with 48 CUDA cores and 1 GB DDR3 memory on a 64-bit bus, runs at 810 MHz with 1600 MHz memory. Again, this is a silent card, but a dual slot solution, supporting DVI-I and mini-HDMI.

Sparkle, apart from competing with Gigabyte and ASUS on SKU naming complexity, had three silent cards on display – a GTS 450 (SXS4501024DSSNMP), a GT 440 (SXT4401024S3LNMP) and a GT 520 (SXT5201024S3LNMP). The GTS 450 version supports two DVI ports and a mini-HDMI, whereas the other two give the standard VGA, HDMI, and DVI connectors. The GT 440 is a single slot solution, and all three have 1GB memory.

In terms of raw power in the veil of silence, we have to look at the AMD side of things and Powercolor, who have wrapped a HD6850 (yes, you read that right) in a passive heatsink using 5 heatpipes – this thing is massive:

The issue that probably bugs me the most about this card is I can see people using two in Crossfire. In order to shift that much heat, the case will require sufficient cooling – i.e. fans, and thus defeat the point of silent running.

Powercolor also had two more sensible passive solutions on show: a HD6670 and HD6570.

In a similar vein, over at the AMD booth, they had selected passive cards from various manufacturers – an ASUS EAH6670, a Gigabyte HD6770 (GV-R677SL-1GD), a HIS 6570 Silence and an XFX HD5670 (HD-567X-ZNH).

Gallery: Computex: AMD Booth

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Even though there is a distinct trend to produce graphics cards with dual slot coolers, it does pique my interest when a manufacturer has a single slot solution to what is typically a dual slot answer. This is often at the expense of length, fan noise, and cost of heatsink materials, but in terms of performance per unit volume, a good single slot GPU can sometimes be the answer.

So enter the Powercolor HD6850 Single Slot Edition. Again, you read that right – a single slot 6850. This card isn’t significantly longer than the standard 6850 from looks, put I’d wager that the fan must work hard to push air through when the card is working at a full load.

On the professional side of things, Sapphire had a FirePro V7900 on display as a single slot solution. The V7900 is the 1280 streaming processor variant with 160 GB/s memory bandwidth, and differs from the commercial equivalent by utilizing features most people don’t need but professionals do. My usual perception in terms of a environment using professional GPUs (i.e. clusters for simulation) is that more per machine is usually better, so I could see up to 7+ of these in one motherboard – perhaps.

Moneual Sonamu G100: Back to the Future

2011-07-04T15:13:00.000-07:00

One of the joys of doing case reviews is getting to see more exotic designs from smaller vendors looking to make their mark. Some of them are like ASRock has traditionally been with desktop motherboards, innovating in new (and often strange ways) and adding features or going after markets bigger names don't traditionally gun for.

Such is the case with Moneual's Sonamu G100, an enclosure designed specifically to reduce standby power consumption of not just your desktop, but reduce or even eliminate the power consumption of the peripherals plugged into it. That's the theory at least, but how does it work out in practice?

Judging from the press pamphlet, Moneual's claim to fame with the Sonamu G100 is that it can substantially reduce the amount of wasted power drawn by peripherals connected to it. This is handled by a power outlet on the back of the case and toggled using the "Green Button" at the front top. And yes, I said "power outlet." As you'll see later, there's the usual input power, but there's also a three-pronged power outlet that allows you to effectively put the Sonamu G100 directly between the wall and your peripheral hardware.
Moneual Sonamu G100 Specifications
Motherboard Form Factor Micro ATX, Mini ITX
Drive Bays External 1x 5.25"
Internal 3x 3.5"
Cooling Front -
Rear 1x 60mm exhaust fan, 1x 60mm fan mount
Top -
Side -
Bottom -
Expansion Slots 4
Front I/O Port 2x USB 2.0, mic and headphone jacks, SD/MMC card reader
Top I/O Port -
Power Supply Size Micro ATX; 300-watt power supply included
Clearance 8" (Expansion Cards), 105mm (CPU HSF)
Weight 11 lbs.
Dimensions 16.5" x 5.75" x 14"
Price $139

The Sonamu G100 includes a 300W Logisys brand micro ATX power supply, rated for "250W average, 350W peak," which can be swapped out and replaced with a bit of work. This power supply is honestly pretty dire, and you'll see more once we really get into it.

Judge: Google Wi-Fi Snooping Lawsuits Can Proceed

2011-07-04T15:02:00.000-07:00

A federal judge will has rejected Google's claim that data transmitted wirelessly without password protections are essentially publicly accessible radio broadcasts, saying it is illegal to eavesdrop on electronic communications not "readily accessible to the general public." Google says allegations that it violated the Wiretap Act are "without merit."

A judge ruled that Google Inc. overstepped its bounds by enabling its vehicles to collect emails, Internet passwords and Web surfing behavior while photographing neighborhoods for the search giant's popular "Street View" mapping feature.

Google has apologized for the snooping, promised to stop collecting the data Relevant Products/Services and said what it did was inadvertent but not illegal.

But a federal judge late Wednesday rejected Google's claim that data transmitted wirelessly without password protections are essentially publicly accessible radio broadcasts. It's the first such court ruling of its kind.

U.S. District Court Judge James Ware said that wireless Relevant Products/Services networks accessed by millions in their homes, coffee shops and wherever Wi-Fi is offered are not exempt from the Wiretap Act, which makes it illegal to eavesdrop on electronic communications that are not "readily accessible to the general public" such as cell phone conversations.

Ware said that Google employed sophisticated computer Relevant Products/Services tools, including use of a so-called "wireless sniffer," to capture, store Relevant Products/Services and decipher "data packets" transmitted wirelessly.

Google said in a statement that it was reviewing the decision to determine whether to appeal. The company said it still believes the allegations that it violated the Wiretap Act are "without merit."

Jim Dempsey, an Internet privacy expert at the Center for Democracy & Technology, said the wiretap law needs updated to address this issue. Dempsey said the law was last amended in 1986 to address "CB radios and baby monitors" and doesn't discuss wireless networks.

"I don't think anyone doubts that it should be illegal to intercept someone's communications," Dempsey said. "It should clearly be a crime to intercept those things. But I think it's equally clear that the law doesn't clearly cover that issue right now and that the law is really a mess."

German regulators uncovered the data collection in 2010 when they asked Google about the type of data its specialized street view vehicles were collecting. Each vehicle was equipped with nine cameras to photograph 360-degree images of streets and powerful antennas with custom software to capture wireless signals. Google said it used the captured data to improve its location-based services such as its Street View feature unveiled in 2007.

The company blamed overzealous engineers for creating software to collect sensitive data it had no intention of using and has promised to destroy the information as soon as it's legally permissible. Aside from the lawsuits consolidated in Ware's courtroom, the company is the target of government investigations in the United States and abroad.

The Federal Trade Commission, for instance, criticized Google in 2010 for collecting potentially sensitive information over unsecured wireless networks for several years before realizing it. But the FTC said it was satisfied that Google improved its internal privacy controls, including privacy training for all 23,000 of the company's employees.

A Federal Communications Commission probe is still ongoing.

WWDC 2011: iOS 5

2011-07-02T14:40:00.000-07:00

After giving us a look at OS X 10.7 Lion in its WWDC keynote today, Apple turned to what is seen as the more important of its OS platforms at the moment: iOS.

iOS 4 is still a perfectly usable smartphone and tablet operating system today, but advances made by both Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 have made it look a little long in the tooth. With iOS 5, Apple must both keep pace with its competitors advances and outmaneuver them in other areas.

First, let's talk availability and system requirements: iOS 5 will be available after Lion, at some unspecified date this fall. Apple didn't talk at all about a new iPhone onstage (meaning that, as the rumor mill has long suggested, we probably won't see a new iPhone this summer), so it's uncertain whether iOS 5 will show up along with revised hardware, or whether it will be used to help modernize the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS that Apple is currently selling.

That leads us to system requirements, where the news is happier: iOS 5 will support all the same devices that iOS 4.3 does, meaning that the iPhone 3GS, the iPhone 4 (both GSM and CDMA), the 3rd and 4th generation iPod Touch, the iPad and iPad 2, and the new Apple TV will all get iOS 5 when it comes out. Apple didn't say whether any major features would be left out for older devices - the iPhone 3G, as you may remember, didn't get multitasking or Home screen wallpaper support with the iOS 4 update, and it took a significant speed hit as well - but the speed (and, perhaps more importantly, the RAM) gap between the current crop of iOS devices and the previous generation isn't as wide as that between the 3GS and the 3G.

We'll most likely see some features excluded from older devices just because they're older devices (as we did when the Find My iPhone app was made available free of charge), but none of the iOS 5 features Apple talked about today seem like anything that older hardware will be technically unable to handle.

Now, on to the features: as with OS X, Apple is advertising a hyperbolic number of new features (200) in iOS 5, but they chose to focus on ten of them. Continue reading for a brief overview and analysis of those features.

WWDC 2011: iCloud

2011-07-02T14:38:00.000-07:00

We've already talked about Lion and iOS 5, Apple's other WWDC topics, and both look like worthwhile extensions of existing products, but Apple squeezed its most interesting announcement in at the end of the keynote: iCloud, its long-anticipated cloud computing service.

Steve Jobs sees iCloud as an attempt to remove your PC or Mac from the center of your digital life - previously, you could keep all of your music and photos and documents on your PC, and sync them to other devices as needed. As those peripheral devices have proliferated and become more capable, though, it has become more of a hassle to keep everything where you need it at all times. Enter iCloud, a (mostly) free service which completely replaces the $99-a-year MobileMe.

iCloud is a place to store music, documents, pictures, backups, mail, and more, but it takes a more active role than does Dropbox or Amazon Cloud Drive in that it can immediately sync any content stored up there to all of your devices. In Jobs' Grand Vision, your PC or Mac is now just another device that ties into iCloud, rather than the main storage hub for all of your stuff.

Since the vast majority of iCloud is free, you can sign up for it automatically by inputting your Apple ID in a supported device. By default, every iCloud user is given 5GB of storage space for all of their stuff (excluding content synced via the Photo Stream service and content you purchase through any of Apple's many digital storefronts, none of which count toward the 5GB limit). This is competitive with Amazon's Cloud Drive service, though Apple doesn't seem prepared to offer storage increases for any cost at the moment.

All of this is being provided to users courtesy of their recently-opened North Carolina data center - you can rest, Apple enthusiast press: you finally know what it's for.
The Components of iCloud

iCloud has a lot of different pieces, but they're all basically doing the same thing: syncing your content between devices while hiding as many seams as possible from the end user. From MobileMe, you gain the ability to sync contacts, calendars and mail (you'll get a free @me.com email address, if you want) between all your devices. This is perhaps the least exciting part of iCloud, since this stuff is all already offered via Microsoft Exchange by Google and plenty of other mail providers, but I suppose it could help remove the barrier to entry for novice users who want to take advantage of this sort of thing.

You get into more interesting territory when you start looking at actual files, rather than just mail and contacts. For example, things made in Pages, Numbers, or Keynote on your iPad can automatically sync to any other device with those apps using Documents in the Cloud - third-party word processors and other apps should easily be able to take advantage of this functionality, since Apple is making the iCloud storage APIs available to them (this isn't always a given with Apple technologies).

Photo Stream does the same thing with photos - a photo taken on your iPhone can automatically make the trip to your iPad without any intervention on your part. To save space, Photo Stream will automatically sync your 1000 most recently added pictures, as well as older ones that you manually specify. You can also import older pictures into iPhoto on a Mac to enable sharing them via Photo Stream.

In my iOS coverage, I noted that one of iOS 5's primary goals was to remove the need for a PC, and iCloud further supplements that with its Backup functionality. Any device with your Apple ID can be backed up to the cloud daily, and that data can be restored in the event of failure to a reloaded or replaced device. This, of course, removes the need to do a full backup of your iOS device to your computer via a USB cable.

With iCloud, the App Store, iBooks, and iTunes also gain the much-needed ability to show you your purchase history, which also allows you to download any previously purchased app, book, or song to any registered device at no extra cost. This is Kind of a Big Deal from the iTunes end, since the music industry has typically wanted to classify any song copying - even from a legally-purchased CD to your computer - as piracy. The Mac App Store already has a section for previously purchased apps, and it's nice to see this no-brainer feature finally show up in iOS.
iTunes in the Cloud

Speaking of iTunes, let's talk about iTunes in the Cloud, iCloud's most interesting (and only potentially non-free) feature.

What you get for free is what I've described above: the ability to download previously-purchased 256kbps AAC files to any registered computer, and the ability to do the same with any newly-purchased music as well. However, for $24.99 a year, you can gain access to iTunes Match, which really unlocks the potential of iTunes in the Cloud.

If you subscribe to the service, iTunes Match goes through your entire music library and attempts to match your songs to content in the iTunes store, and everything that gets matched is treated the same way as a song you purchased from iTunes from then on - this method gets you out of having to upload all of your old songs to the service, as you have to to use the Amazon Cloud Player or the Google Music beta. You are even given the opportunity to re-download the songs in Apple's standard DRM-free 256kbps AAC format, in the event that your songs are encoded at a lower bitrate. Songs that can't be matched to content in the iTunes store can be uploaded manually.

Whether this service is worth $24.99 a year to you is, well, up to you, but since it's a flat fee it definitely becomes more valuable the more music you have. Whether you like it or not, Apple's answer to the streaming music question is important just because it's coming from the market leader - while OS X is a distant second to Windows and iOS is slowly losing general market share to Android, Apple and iTunes are unquestionably dominant in the digital music market, and their system is sure to get a lot of attention from consumers.
Thoughts on iCloud

That's the basic rundown on iCloud. I don't know that Apple is doing anything truly new with the service (there are plenty of ways to sync content between different devices that you can go out and try right this very second), but as usual, the closed nature of their ecosystem means that they've ultimately got more control over the way it works and, thus, a potentially more seamless and satisfying service.

The major downside is, of course, that if you're not deep into Apple's pockets (by which I mean, if you don't work with Apple devices and only Apple devices), you aren't going to get the full benefits of iCloud. Your Windows computer will surely be able to take advantage of the iTunes features, but you aren't going to get that seamless access to Photo Stream or mail sync. This is, of course, intentional, but it's sad to see what could be the most complete cloud computing solution on the map limited just to Apple's products.

RIM Responds To Anonymous Employee Complaints

2011-07-02T14:26:00.000-07:00

Anonymous letters from Research In Motion employees calling for change are getting a response -- sort of. RIM says, in essence, that management knows what it's doing and the financials aren't so bad. The anonymous RIM letters mention discontent among silent workers.

Several Research In Motion employees are writing anonymous letters to management calling for change -- and the company is responding. The online letters point out the BlackBerry maker's missteps in recent years while Apple and Android gained major momentum.

"I have lost confidence. While I hide it at work, my passion has been sapped. I know I am not alone -- the sentiment is widespread and it includes people within your own teams," one letter said. The writer, described as a "high-level employee Relevant Products/Services," also called RIM's transition chaotic and behind schedule.

"Mike and Jim, please take the time to really absorb and digest the content of this letter because it reflects the feeling across a huge percentage of your employee base," the writer continued. "You have many smart employees, many that have great ideas for the future, but unfortunately the culture at RIM does not allow us to speak openly without having to worry about the career-limiting effects."

Laundry List of Complaints

The anonymous writer suggested a laundry list of changes for RIM. Namely, a focus on the end-user experience, recruiting senior software leaders, enabling decision-making, cutting projects to the bone, recognizing that developers (not carriers) can now make or break the company, getting serious about marketing, offering greater accountability and less mouthing off to the press, and driving more engagement and interaction with employees.

"Now would be a great time to internally re-brand and re-energize the workplace. For example, rename the company to just 'BlackBerry' to signify our new focus on one QNX product line," he wrote. "We should also address issues surrounding making RIM an enjoyable workplace. Some of our offices feel like Soviet-era government workplaces. The timing is perfect to seriously evaluate our position and make these major changes."

RIM's Response

RIM's response? The BlackBerry maker sort of pooh-poohed the letter:

"It is obviously difficult to address anonymous commentary, and it is particularly difficult to believe that a 'high-level employee' in good standing with the company would choose to anonymously publish a letter on the web rather than engage their fellow executives in a constructive manner, but regardless of whether the letter is real, fake, exaggerated or written with ulterior motivations, it is fair to say that the senior management team at RIM is nonetheless fully aware of and aggressively addressing both the company's challenges and its opportunities."

RIM then took the opportunity to point out some of its financials, including nearly $3 billion in cash and no debt, net income last quarter of $695 million, and 67 percent international revenue growth in the first quarter over the year-ago period. RIM also noted that it shipped 13.2 million BlackBerry smartphones last quarter.

The Vision is Right

IDC Analyst Al Hilwa pointed out that all companies that experience hyper-growth can become stressful places to work and it is not surprising that some employees at RIM are venting.

"The technical vision for RIM is in the right place. I think their plan for leveraging the mobile Relevant Products/Services opportunity beyond smartphones is the right one, and their management should get the credit for initiating it," Hilwa said. "The vision has been accompanied by some technical execution challenges such as maintaining focus on the smartphone Relevant Products/Services OS transition and building out the developer strategy for the new platform. The outlined switch to QNX on the phones will help them if they can put devices in developer hands early enough to ramp up on building applications."

Hilwa added that, "Some of the advice given by the anonymous letter writers is probably applicable to any number of companies, and, there is no doubt that many in RIM's management wake up every day to work on solving these very problems."

WWDC 2011: OS X 10.7 Lion

2011-06-28T14:42:00.000-07:00

Apple kicked of its Worldwide Developers conference this year with a keynote meant to showcase three of its biggest software undertakings at the moment: Mac OS X, iOS, and iCloud, the latter of which being its new cloud computing service.

Apple covered their new products from oldest to newest, which means that Mac OS X 10.7 was first on the chopping block. Apple's Phil Schiller and Craig Federighi took the stage to demonstrate ten of Lion's purported 250 new features (don't get too excited - things like desktop wallpapers have been counted as new features in the past, so Apple is likely being very generous with its counting here).

I'm going to take you down that list, but because most of it is stuff we've seen before in one form or another in other Apple demos of Lion, I want to front-load the piece with pricing and release information for Lion, since those are the most interesting new facts we got out of Apple today.
Price and Release Date

First: Lion will go for $29, the same price as the current Snow Leopard upgrade, and it will release at some point in July. Pre-Snow Leopard upgrades of the OS were typically priced at $129, with a 5-license Family Pack being available for $199. Next, Lion will be made available only on the Mac App Store as a ~4GB download - there is, as of this writing, no plan on Apple's part to release Lion on a physical disc that you can buy. That $29 App Store purchase is good for all Macs you have registered to your App Store account.

There are, of course, positive aspects and negative aspects to this approach, and there's other stuff that we just don't know: how will this impact businesses and schools who would like to volume-license the OS? How will clean installs be handled, in the case of a crashed hard drive or otherwise trashed OS? What about people with slow or unreliable Internet connections? We'll just have to wait and see.
System Requirements and OS X Server

The first one: System Requirements. This is one of the many areas in which Microsoft and Apple differ in their OS strategy - while Microsoft makes certain recommendations about the type of PC that will give you a good Windows experience, there are very few configurations that will actually prevent the operating system from installing. Apple, on the other hand, prefers to drop support entirely for Macs that it feels are insufficient to run OS X. This goes all the way back to the 10.4 days, when Macs without FireWire were no longer eligible for OS X upgrades.

This time around, the OS will drop support for the 32-bit Core Solo and Core Duo chips shipped with the first Intel Macs in 2006. This is Apple's latest baby step toward a world where Macs use a 64-bit OS, 64-bit programs, and 64-bit drivers by default. They've been pushing this issue slowly but surely for most of OS X's development - indeed, recent Mac Pros and MacBook Pros are already set to use Snow Leopard's 64-bit kernel right out of the box, though most models still default to the 32-bit kernel.

Some have had success hacking the developer releases to run on these processors, but since these computers can only support up to 2GB of RAM, since they were only sold for a few months before being superceded by Core 2 Duo Macs, and since there are already 64-bit only apps in the App Store that won’t install on these older Macs under Snow Leopard, the decision to drop official support for these models is probably a prudent one that shouldn’t impact a huge portion of the OS X userbase (though expect those who it does impact to be very vocal about it).

Lastly, a brief word about Mac OS X Server: Back in the day, Apple's server OS either came preinstalled on the (now discontinued) XServe, or as a separate $999 unlimited-client package installable on any desktop Mac. Then came the $999 Mac Mini Server, which axed the Mini's optical drive in favor of a second internal hard drive - this drove the unlimited-client server software's price down to its current level of $499. In Lion, OS X Server is now an App Store download instead of a separate OS, and it costs $49.99. This is a substantial discount on what was already a substantial discount, and it should help to drive adoption of OS X server by small businesses and schools with a lot of Macs.

Toshiba Tecra R850: Business Class on a Budget

2011-06-28T14:40:00.000-07:00

Toshiba won't mind if we say that their previous business class notebooks looked...kind of cheap. They were bulky and unattractive, largely feeling like consumer notebooks with matte instead of glossy plastic.

Yet when we visited with Toshiba to talk about their Tecra refresh, we were impressed, and Toshiba's reps were only too happy to put the new Tecras next to the old ones to demonstrate the stunning new weight loss plan the notebooks were put on. And the best part? While the Tecras have gotten a healthy refresh, their prices remain remarkably affordable. Is the 15.6" Tecra R850 the notebook you've been looking for?

I'm not sure even Toshiba was prepared for the kind of success the Portege R700 experienced. In many ways the design was a bit of a divergence from their usual fare, but it diverged in the right ways and hit a portable computing sweet spot for a lot of users. Toshiba's designers took the lessons of the R700 to heart and fashioned their new Tecra R840 and R850 notebooks after it, resulting in a pair of remarkably thin but still sturdy and classy-looking business notebooks. We have the 15.6" Tecra R850 on hand, and it offers a healthy amount of performance and value. Check it out:
Toshiba Tecra R850 Specifications
Processor Intel Core i7-2620M
(2x2.7GHz + HTT, 3.4GHz Turbo, 32nm, 4MB L3, 35W, vPro Enabled)
Chipset Intel QM67
Memory 1x4GB DDR3-1333 (Max 2x4GB)
Graphics AMD Radeon HD 6450M 1GB GDDR3
(160 Stream Processors, 600MHz/1.6GHz Core/Memory clocks, 64-bit memory bus)
Display 15.6-inch LED Matte 16:9 1366x768
(Toshiba TOS5091 Panel)
Hard Drive(s) Hitachi Travelstar Z7K320 320GB 7200-RPM SATA 3Gbps Hard Disk
Optical Drive DVD+-RW Combo Drive
Networking Intel 82579LM Gigabit Ethernet
Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6230 802.11a/b/g/n (WiDi capable)
Bluetooth 3.0+EDR
Audio Realtek ALC269 HD audio
Stereo speakers
Combination headphone/microphone jack
Battery 6-Cell, 66Wh battery
Front Side -
Left Side AC adapter port
Exhaust vent
VGA
DisplayPort
USB 3.0
ExpressCard/34
Memory card reader
Right Side Combination headphone/microphone jack
2x USB 2.0
eSATA/USB 2.0 combo port (sleep charge capable)
Optical drive
Ethernet jack
Kensington lock
Back Side -
Operating System Windows 7 Professional 64-bit SP1
Dimensions 14.9" x 9.9" x 0.82-1.19" (WxDxH)
Weight 5.29 lbs
Extras Webcam
Flash reader (MMC, SD/Mini SD, MS/Duo/Pro/Pro Duo)
USB 3.0
Bluetooth
Fingerprint reader
Docking port
Warranty 3-year standard parts and labor warranty (1-year on battery)
Pricing Starts at $879
As configured $1,349

For starters, it took us a long time to get Intel's fastest mobile dual-core i7 in house last generation, but Toshiba makes it available right out of the gate. The Core i7-2620M is the fastest dual-core Sandy Bridge mobile processor on the market, with a 2.7GHz nominal clock speed able to turbo up to 3.2GHz on both cores and 3.4GHz on a single core. It also sports a full 4MB of L3 cache (mobile i5s only offer 3MB). In a move that seems to be fairly common with these business-class notebooks, Toshiba also only populates one of the memory channels with a single 4GB DIMM, leaving the second one free for a future upgrade.

Graphics duties are handled by the AMD Radeon HD 6450M, and unfortunately there's no hybrid graphics solution in place: the Tecra R850 runs on the 6450M all the time; that means no access to Intel's Quick Sync technology either. Toshiba also still inexplicably continues to opt out of AMD's mobile driver program, much to the detriment of their end users. As for the 6450M, it's a welcome upgrade from the tired Mobility Radeon HD 5470. It features 160 stream processors clocked at 600MHz and 1GB of GDDR3 strapped to a 64-bit memory bus, running at an effective 1.6GHz. This is still a decent upgrade from the Intel HD 3000, and Toshiba's decision to go with AMD is predicated largely upon EyeFinity, which the R850 supports.

Storage duties are handled by a Hitachi Z7K320 320GB, 7200-RPM hard drive, a welcome change of pace from Toshiba's habit of using their own dog slow mobile drives. The Z7K320 is a single-platter drive that tops out at just 7mm in height, and while the 320GB of capacity seems slight it should still be enough for most users. Toshiba also has a hard drive impact sensor built into the Tecra R850 that parks the head when motion is detected.

Rounding things out is a healthy connectivity suite featuring both USB 3.0 and eSATA, along with sleep USB charge capability and gigabit Ethernet. Toshiba even includes an ExpressCard/34 slot for future expansion, and the docking bay port on the bottom of the notebook is identical across the Portege R800 and Tecra R840, allowing for the same dock to be used for multiple notebooks.

T-Mobile Pushes Advanced Camera on MyTouch 4G

2011-06-28T14:30:00.000-07:00

A smartphone boasting an advanced camera with no shutter lag has been introduced by T-Mobile. The HTC MyTouch 4G Slider's camera is being billed as being as good as any digital point-and-shoot camera. T-Mobile's Andrew Sherrard said the Android 2.3-powered HTC MyTouch 4G Slider takes photo sharing to a new level.

Betting that, for a growing number of smartphone Relevant Products/Services users, it's all about the pictures, T-Mobile and HTC have come out with a slider phone that packs an eight-megapixel camera with no shutter lag. The MyTouch 4G Slide is just one of a handful of phones on the market promising 4G data Relevant Products/Services speeds -- in this case via T-Mobile's expanding HSPA+ network Relevant Products/Services -- with a superfast dual-core processor.

However, T-Mobile is playing up the photographic capabilities rather than the MyTouch 4G Slider's surfing prowess, calling it the most advanced camera on any smartphone and as good as any digital point-and-shoot device Relevant Products/Services. That means it not only can take good pictures, but share Relevant Products/Services them quickly.

Leave Your Camera at Home

In addition to the quick shutter, the camera has a backside illuminated sensor with dual LED flash.

"Knowing that the best camera is the one you've got with you, we set out to create a new best-in-class smartphone that allows our customers to leave their cameras at home," said Andrew Sherrard, senior vice president of marketing for T-Mobile USA. "Our newest MyTouch device takes capturing and sharing memories to a new level by combining high-quality smartphone hardware Relevant Products/Services with features that customers would expect from a top-of-the-line digital camera."

Powered by Google Relevant Products/Services's Android 2.3 and with HTC Sense 3.0, this MyTouch has a 3.7-inch WVGA super LCD touchscreen display with Swype, and a slide-out full QWERTY keyboard. It has a 1.2-gigahertz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor.

The MyTouch 4G Slide will be available in black or khaki at T-Mobile stores and select retailers in July for $199 with a two-year contract.

Are cameras really a major differentiator for smartphone buyers?

"Can't hurt," said consumer-devices analyst Avi Greengart of Current Analysis. "People really do use their cameraphone as their only camera, particularly in informal situations. T-Mobile already has 4G phones in its lineup, so a terrific camera can be a differentiator."

He said the best news about the camera isn't the high megapixel count or the advanced sensor. "It's that there is essentially no shutter lag, which means you can capture images with this cameraphone that others might miss," he said.

'Innovative Software'

T-Mobile credits "innovative software Relevant Products/Services features [that allow] for an instantaneous shot at that precise moment." The camera is also equipped with a trademarked SweepShot for capturing panoramic and ClearShot HDR: or capturing objects in bright settings that won't be affected by high-contrast lighting. BurstShot mode captures multiple photos in a quick burst.

The video Relevant Products/Services camera offers HD 1080p with audio recording and the ability to edit videos directly from the device, and images can instantly be shared to social media and photo-sharing sites.

The new HSPA+ device comes as T-Mobile is expanding its network to seven additional markets: Barnstable, Mass.; Chico, Calif.; Lancaster, Penn.; Ogden, Utah; Redding, Calif.; Vineland, N.J.; and Winchester, Va.

Computex 2011: The ROG Releases

2011-06-27T14:58:00.000-07:00

This week at Computex, along with the ASUS announcement of the Padfone, the UX series, and the $199 MeeGo netbook, we also have had a glimpse into what the Republic of Gamers line will have for enthusiasts and overclockers very shortly, including the Danshui Bay concept reported on earlier.

One of the more interesting products on display was the G74SX 3D which was previewed at CeBIT also – a 3D capable gaming laptop that doesn’t require glasses. It uses a CMOS camera and an NVIDIA 560M under the hood, combined with an advanced detection algorithm to find where the user is, to change the 3D perspective accordingly.

ASUS were keen to point out the new fan design technology utilising dual fans pulling air from the middle of the bottom of the laptop to the back. It was also emphasised that this improves sound quality as there is no fan disturbance of noise from the sides.

Gallery: ASUS ROG: G74SX

The other interesting product due for release was the ASUS ROG Matrix GPU - a new ASUS designed GTX 580 aimed at performance. Using an overclocked 580 chip, the PCB itself has three buttons on the card to adjust the voltage and the fan speed to 100% - any MHz overclocking has to be done in the BIOS however. In case all fails, there is a safe-mode button on the rear to revert to the card’s default settings.

The odd thing about the GTX580 is that at the ASUS booth, which had a live demonstration, in order to promote the onboard voltage tweaking settings, had a display showing that the voltage can be adjusted from a +50 mV offset, to a 1250 mV offset. Bearing in mind that the chip at default runs around 1 V, adding a +1250 mV offset gives 2.25 V – this is around 0.5 V more than extreme overclockers use.

In terms of design features for the gaming segment for motherboards, supposedly including the Rampage Extreme III Black Edition on show, ASUS were keen to stress the use of Intel controllers for networking, onboard audio in the form of the SupremeFX Fi-2 supporting EAX Advanced HD 5.0 and THX TruStudio Pro, but also what ASUS calls its Thunderbolt card.

The Thunderbolt card is an ASUS solution utilising Xonar’s experience in sound and Bigfoot’s Killer NIC in the form of a PCIe 1x card, despite having the previously mentioned features on the motherboard. Thus when you purchase a Thunderbolt branded product, you get theoption of using either, but end up paying for both.

The card uses the Bigfoot Killer NIC and software to help prioritize traffic from various applications (read: games) over other network traffic, while the built in headphone amplifiers and software tools help customize the gaming sound experience.

As always with this type of announcement, there’s rarely mention of price or release date – however at the ASUS booth, I was informed to expect the ROG Matrix 580 at the end of June.

Computex 2011: Danshui Bay Concept Motherboard

2011-06-27T14:56:00.000-07:00

ASUS have been coming to Computex to sensationalize and dazzle the press with concepts for years, and this year is no different, regardless of whether something is technically feasible or not.

Last year, we saw the ASUS Immensity motherboard concept that was never put into production – an X58 featuring a 5450-type integrated GPU and a Lucid Hydra chip to combine any discrete GPU combination on board. This year takes a turn for the surreal.

Introducing the Danshui Bay concept:

Simply put, ASUS are wanting to combine two chipsets on one motherboard – the X58 socket 1366, and the X79 socket 2011. If we completely disregard the technical challenges this faces, it provides the interesting idea of something that might be possible in the future: You want to upgrade your machine to the latest chipset and processor. Rather than throw your old processor away or sell it on, you could buy a motherboard that lets you harness the power of the old processor and a new processor together, in some form of chimerism.

As for the technical challenges in producing such a product, I could reel off a whole list. For a start, chipsets are not designed to talk to each other. Processors need dual QPI links to talk to each other of the same model – how that would work with different socket processors with different caches and core counts is also a mystery, as with 1366 you would need an appropriate Xeon. With two chipsets, you’ll have to have a different set of memory for each processor, and possibly getting a mismatch there based on dual/tri/quad channel memory. Each processor requires its power and a set of PCIe each – unless you disregard the PCIe of one of the chipsets but then you would have to have at least the processor of the other socket in order to run a discrete GPU. The same goes with SATA ports, I/O connectors, USB headers, and so on.

Obviously, this board presented is a mockup – merely bits and pieces put together. It’s showing sixteen SATA 3 Gbps and six SATA 6 Gbps for a start, as well as no significant power delivery and an obscene form factor. ASUS only want to know that if there was a demand for such a product, despite the technical limitations.

Apple's iPad Accounts for 97 Pct of U.S. Tablet Traffic

2011-06-27T14:46:00.000-07:00

ComScore reports Apple's iPad dominates U.S. tablet traffic with 97 percent, leaving just three percent for rivals from BlackBerry, ASUS, Motorola and Samsung. An analyst said, "Without a doubt, the iPad is the device to beat in the marketplace." Except for India, newspaper sites were more likely than average to be accessed by non-computers.

Apple's market-leading iPad Relevant Products/Services drives more than 97 percent of tablet Relevant Products/Services traffic in the U.S. That leaves competitors like the BlackBerry PlayBook, ASUS Eee Pad, Motorola Xoom, and Samsung Galaxy Tab with a paltry three percent. So says a new study from comScore called Device Essentials.

The study demonstrates how difficult it is for tablet competitors to steal market share Relevant Products/Services from a dominant, first-to-market Apple. While some companies are just working to get their first tablets to consumers, Apple has already introduced the iPad 2.

"Without a doubt, the iPad is the device Relevant Products/Services to beat in the marketplace. We are not seeing a whole lot of demand right now for some of these other devices," said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Gartner Relevant Products/Services. "There is still a lot of opportunity, though. The market is nascent in terms of how it might grow. The real question that consumers are asking is why they shouldn't buy an iPad. Companies are struggling to provide that answer."

Where Android Wins

The iPad's contribution to total non-computer Relevant Products/Services device traffic is highest in Canada at 33.5 percent. Brazil has the second-highest non-computer device share of traffic coming from the iPad at 31.8 percent. In Singapore, where non-computer devices comprise nearly six percent of total traffic, the iPad accounts for 26.2 percent of this traffic.

iPod touches contribute a notable percentage of non-computer device traffic across most countries, according to comScore, while other devices such as e-readers and gaming systems contribute only a very modest percentage.

What does this mean for Android-powered tablets? A massive game of catch-up. ComScore pointed out how Android tablets are significantly behind Apple in the U.S. market. However, the Android platform actually beats Apple in the smartphone Relevant Products/Services space, where Android boasts 35.6 percent versus Apple iOS's 23.5 percent.

Apple Still Dominates

ComScore's Device Essentials study also examined site-content traffic by geography and device type. Among the markets studied, the United Kingdom had the greatest share of non-computer device traffic going to the category at 9.8 percent, followed by Singapore at 8.8 percent, and Japan at seven percent.

ComScore also analyzed the extent to which non-computer device traffic to the newspaper category was overrepresented relative to the category's share of total Internet traffic. With the exception of India, the newspaper category was significantly more likely than average to be accessed via non-computer devices across all countries studied. Brazil offered the highest relative skew in newspaper-category traffic, followed by Chile and the U.K.

Finally, comScore looked at the division between access Relevant Products/Services over mobile Relevant Products/Services networks and access via Wi-Fi/LAN networks. In the smartphone market, 47.5 percent of iPhone traffic occurred over Wi-Fi networks, compared to 21.7 percent for Android phones. For tablets, an overwhelming 91.9 percent of iPad traffic occurred over Wi-Fi networks, compared to 65.2 percent for Android tablets.

Hands on and Benchmarks of two MSM8x60 Phones - HTC Sensation 4G and HTC EVO 3D

2011-06-26T16:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday evening I met up with HTC, who let me take a quick look at a number of their upcoming unreleased phones, including the HTC Sensation 4G and HTC EVO 3D.

Naturally, the first thing I did was sit down and run a couple of benchmarks during our limited time with the phones, and get an overall feel for the devices. I also spent some time with the HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa - the two Facebook phones - though my focus was more look and feel for the form factor of the ChaCha given the fact that both are just MSM7x30.

The two phones I played around with the most are both based on Qualcomm's MSM8x60 SoC. For a quick refresher, the MSM8x60 consists of two 1.2 GHz scorpion cores (though MSM8x60 can clock all the way up to 1.5 GHz), and Adreno 220 graphics. As a reminder, the x in MSM8x60 tells us what air interfaces the cellular baseband supports - 2 for GSM/UMTS, 6 for GSM/UMTS + EVDO/CDMA2000. Thus, the MSM8260 is in the Sensation, MSM8660 for the EVO 3D.

HTC EVO 3D

First up is the HTC EVO 3D, which is the as of yet unreleased 3D phone with WiMAX support destined for Sprint. WiMAX is provided by the same SQN1210 we've seen used in other HTC WiMAX phones. On the back are two immediately apparent 5 MP cameras for stereoscopic capture, and two LEDs for illumination. I didn't measure exactly how far apart the cameras are, but it appears comparable to the separation I saw with the LG Optimus 3D back at MWC.

Unlike the Sensation, the back of the EVO 3D is a plastic material that's lightly soft touch. It actually feels good in the hand thanks to the ridges that run diagonally across the lower three-fourths of the device. HTC's industrial design for the back of the EVO 3D also continues the blood-red theme that started back with the original EVO and Incredible. Underneath the battery cover however it's black however, no more bright red. The EVO 3D has a very large 6.57 Whr battery, one of the largest (if not the largest) I've seen in a smartphone to date.

On the side of the EVO 3D is the 2D/3D toggle switch and shutter button, which is the largest and most pronounced I've seen so far. It's readily locatable and has great click. Like most other phones with camera buttons, the EVO 3D's is a two-step button.

The front capacitive buttons are relatively standard fare and match what we've seen on the previous EVO brand smartphones. The EVO 3D and Sensation are both topped with a brilliant Super LCD (IPS) qHD 960x540 LCD display. While I didn't have any of my display analysis tools with me, at first glance viewing angles seemed very good, as did overall contrast. I'm still a fan of the good 'ol RGB stripe present in LCDs, and unlike other qHD LCD displays (like in the Atrix and Droid X2), the Sensation and EVO 3D both are free of Pentile. I think they look brilliant, and even though I'm still skeptical about qHD until it's officially added to the Android supported resolution table, I was pleased with the increased resolution available when browsing web pages.

The EVO 3D also includes an autostereoscopic display (glasses-free 3D) achieved through the use of a parallax barrier. There was Green Hornet preloaded in 3D, along with a few games that I didn't get a chance to launch, and the camera application. Inside the camera, it's essentially the same fare as what I saw with the LG Optimus 3D - you get a live 3D preview when you're shooting stills or video in 3D. You can shoot 2D video in 720P H.264, or 3D video which squeezes the left and right frame into one 1280x720 frame, effectively giving you 720P 3D video with half the horizontal resolution. You lose half the horizontal resolution using the parallax barrier anyhow, so what you see is truly what you get.

Gallery: HTC EVO 3D Tour

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I found the EVO 3D's display a bit more challenging to align my head with and keep in an optimal location for viewing 3D than I remember the LG Optimus 3D being. In addition, I did notice a bit of ghosting. That said the underlying technology is the same as what virtually all the commercially available "glasses-free" 3D implementations are presently.

HTC Sensation

The EVO's obvious sibling is the HTC Sensation, which trades the 3D display and dual camera setup for some truly awesome industrial design. I've been salivating over the Sensation for a while now after first seeing pictures and renders of it, and in person it doesn't disappoint one bit, this is the clear new flagship device for HTC.

The Sensation is a unibody design, meaning the entire case of the phone is one solid piece. The top and bottom (silver and black in the photo) regions are plastic, but serve as RF windows for the antennas that are printed on the inside. One continuous metal structure runs around the entire edge, and onto the front of the display as well, and necessitates a rather unique strategy to hold the phone together. Press on a tab at the bottom of the phone, and the whole back case slides upwards off of the phone. As a result of the unibody construction, the Sensation has an awesome in-hand feel that's notably solid.

The front is again the same 4.3" Super LCD in the EVO 3D, just minus the parallax barrier that sits atop it. There's a slightly convex shape to the display, with a gentle curvature at the edges on all four sides. HTC has also slightly changed the Android button logos - they're more modern and minimalist now. Button order seems to have settled down, and remains the same as the Desire HD/Inspire 4G.

The Sensation also trades the dual 5 MP camera system for one 8 MP camera. Rumor has it that image quality on the Sensation is another step better than the 8 MP camera systems from the Inspire 4G/Desire HD due to both improvements in Qualcomm's ISP from MSM8x55 to MSM8x60, and some more software enhancements in the camera application and drivers by HTC. I didn't get to transfer any photos or videos off the device, but we'll find out soon enough. The Sensation's battery is 5.62 Whr which is notably smaller than the EVO 3D's. I was told by LG back at MWC that their own parallax barrier consumes on the order of single digit mA of current, and that in general at this size all do, so we'll see if the reason for the EVO 3D's larger battery is WiMAX soon enough.

Gallery: HTC Sensation Tour

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The Sensation looks like a serious contender and will do some serious dual-core battle with the G2x when it arrives on T-Mobile stateside.

Both the EVO 3D and Sensation also have the new HTC Sense, including glanceable lock screen, new animations, and a number of other enhancements. I have to say that it's nice to see HTC finally building information into the lock screens, and it looks good.

Last but not least are the HTC ChaCha and Salsa, the two Facebook phones. I didn't spend as much time with these two other than to quickly take some pictures and play with the ChaCha's keyboard, which makes it the more interesting of the two. The keys on the ChaCha are super clicky and have excellent communication. I'm intrigued by this form factor and wonder if HTC will try and make a more flagship Android device with keys on the front, sort of like their own attempt at BlackBerry form factor, similar to the Droid Pro. In my limited time with the ChaCha, I was impressed by the bend separating the keyboard region from the display, and the display dot pitch.

Both the HTC ChaCha and Salsa are based on MSM7x30.

Computex 2011: SuperTalent Introduces SandForce Powered USB3 Stick

2011-06-26T16:03:00.000-07:00

The very first enthusiast SSDs had their roots in USB drives. Memory vendors that were making USB sticks thought to put a bunch of NAND in parallel behind a rudimentary NAND to SATA controller and you had an SSD. Performance characteristics looked great on paper but of course there were teething problems.

These days the reverse has happened. High end USB sticks now look a lot like small SSDs. USB 3.0 SSDs were either too bulky to carry around or weren't that impressive from a performance standpoint, but SuperTalent just showed me one that is quite tempting.

This is the SuperTalent USB 3.0 Express RC8, it's a USB stick that has a SF-1222 controller just like the previous generation of high end SSDs:

With four NAND devices on board, the RC8 actually has 8-channels feeding two die per package. Two channels are routed to each device, hence the use of BGA NAND vs. TSOP. SuperTalent uses 25nm IMFT NAND for the drive.

Performance as a result is quite impressive. Over USB 2.0 you're looking at a maximum of around 40MB/s, but over USB 3.0 you can hit 200MB/s with highly compressible data:

Worst case performance for incompressible sequential writes over USB 3.0 is still only 32MB/s thanks to the one-die-per-channel architecture (as well as inherent SF limitations). Read speed is still excellent however at nearly 180MB/s.

The performance characteristics make this drive less ideal for copying large compressed videos to, but great for general use. In fact, running/installing applications or even running a full OS environment from the drive is likely a pretty good experience.

SuperTalent will offer the RC8 in 25GB, 50GB and 100GB capacities (with 32GB, 64GB and 128GB of NAND on board).

Expect availability starting late this month and pricing to be inline with standard SF-1222 based SSDs (~$110 for the 50GB drive).

HP To Showcase webOS Apps in Digital Magazine

2011-06-26T15:53:00.000-07:00

A new way to find webOS mobile apps for Hewlett-Packard's upcoming TouchPad is a digital magazine called webOS Pivot. The electronic magazine will feature articles about apps and link to them in the webOS App Catalog. HP sees Pivot as a way to help developers market webOS apps. HP is also offering discounts to longtime developers.

Instead of simply allowing users to search and wander through an app store Relevant Products/Services for its soon-to-be-released TouchPad tablet Relevant Products/Services and other webOS devices, Hewlett-Packard is launching a digital magazine with reviews and other information about the apps Relevant Products/Services as an alternative entry point. The monthly magazine, called webOS Pivot, was announced by the company on Thursday, and it's intended to complement the webOS App Catalog.

The App Catalog is HP's store, but it has been lagging compared to the app stores for Android and Apple devices. Currently, there are only about 10,000 apps in the webOS App Catalog.

'Growing Platform of Opportunity'

A user can enter the App Catalog directly, or find expert opinions, editorials, columns, feature stories, and images about the apps in the Pivot electronic magazine first, and then be directed to that app in the App Catalog.

The content will be oriented to a given region, and the magazine, which will automatically be updated wirelessly each month, will be available in English, French, German and Spanish. There will also be articles about developers who create webOS applications.

Richard Kerris, HP vice president for webOS developer relations, said the company wants application developers "to experience webOS as the growing platform of opportunity, and we're investing in new ways to help market their applications on our platform."

But Pivot is only one of the steps HP is undertaking to encourage application development for the TouchPad, which goes on sale July 1. Other steps include a new discount structure based on the amount of time a developer has been in the webOS or Palm developer program, and the number of active applications from that developer in the App Catalog.

'Very Creative Solution'

Sarah Rotman Epps, an analyst with industry research firm Forrester Relevant Products/Services, called Pivot "a very creative solution to helping users discover quality apps." She added that, as HP can't yet compete with market leader Apple in the number of apps, it is trying to compete on the basis of quality and findability.

Epps described the search experience in Apple's App Store as "horrible." For instance, she said, you can only find an app having to do with "fitness" if that word is in the title. But, she noted, Fitness magazine's digital products won't be found if you search for "exercise."

Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for consumer technology at NPD Group, pointed out that, for the Apple and Android app stores, there are even several app-discovery applications, although he noted that this leads to practical -- not to mention philosophical -- questions about how to find an app-finding app.

On the big question of whether Pivot is likely to make a significant difference in TouchPad's sales, especially if other tablet makers pick up the magazine idea, Rubin noted that Pivot won't be HP's only way to differentiate its webOS line.

Infrastructure as a Service: Benchmarking Cloud Computing

2011-06-25T15:38:00.000-07:00

Building and deploying a heavy duty web service from the ground up is a long and costly process. At the IT section of AnandTech, we mostly focus on the fun part of the process: choosing and buying a server.

However, there is much more to it. Designing the software and taking care of cooling, networking, security, availability, patching and performance is a lot of work. Add all these time investments to the CAPEX investments in your server and it is clear that doing everything yourself is a huge financial risk.

These days, almost everybody outsources a part of this process. The most basic form is collocation: you rely on a hosting provider to provide the internet bandwidth and access, the electricity, and the rack space; you take control of rest of the process. A few steps higher is unmanaged dedicated hosting services. The hosting provider takes care of all the hardware and networking. You get full administrative access to the server (for example root access for Linux), which means the client is responsible for the security and maintenance of his own dedicated box.

The next step is to outsource that part too. With managed hosting services you won’t get full control, but the hosting provider takes care of almost everything: you only have to worry about the look and content of your web service. The Service Level Agreement (SLA) guarantees the quality of service that you get.

The problem with managed and unmanaged hosting services is that they are in many cases too restrictive and don't offer enough control. If performance is lacking, for example, the hosting provider often points to the software configuration while the customer feels that the hardware and network might be the problem. It is also quite expensive to enable the web server to scale to handle peak loads, and high availability may come at a premium.

Cloud Hosting

Enter cloud hosting. Many feel that cloud computing is just old wine in new bottles, but cloud hosting is an interesting evolution. A good cloud hosting starts by building on a clustered hosting solution: instead of relying on one server, we get the high availability and the load balancing capabilities of a complete virtualized cluster.

Virtualization allows the management software to carve up the cluster any way the customers like--choose the number of CPUs, RAM and storage that you want and make your own customized server; if you need more resources for a brief period, the cluster can provide this in a few seconds and you only pay for the time that you actually use this extra capacity. Best of all, cloud hosting allows you to set up a new server in less than an hour. Cloud hosting, or Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), is definitely something new. Technically it is evolutionary, but from the customer point of view it offers a kind of flexibility that is revolutionary.

There is a downside to the whole cloud IaaS solution: most of the information about the subject is so vague and fluffy that it is nearly useless. What exactly are you getting when you start up an Amazon Instance or your own cloud at the Terremark Enterprise Cloud?

As always, we don’t care much about the marketing fluff; we're more interested in benchmarking in true AnandTech style. We want to know what kind of performance we get when we buy a certain amount of resources. Renting 5GB of RAM is pretty straightforward: it means that our applications should be able to use up to 5GB of RAM space. But what about 5GHz--what does that mean? Is that 5GHz of nostalgic Pentium goodness; or is it 5GHz of the newest complex, out-of-order, integrated memory controller, 1 billion transistor CPU monsters? We hope to provide some answers with our investigations.

Qualcomm Uplinq 2011 Day Two Keynote - HTC and Nokia

2011-06-25T15:36:00.000-07:00

HTC CEO Peter Chou talk about where HTC has been, its plans for the future, and make an announcement about HTC Sense development. After that was Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, who outlined a five step plan for carving out its own mobile ecosystem in a joint partnership with Microsoft.

First up was HTC CEO Peter Chou, who started by taking a look at HTC's history in mobile and gave a very high level tour of a number of very popular devices. Devices like the first iPaq, the HTC Universal, HTC Touch, HTC G1, and HTC EVO were given as key landmark devices in the history of HTC since its first devices in 1999.

The emphasis everyone has placed on the mobile revolution message is that growth isn't slowing down, it's accelerating.

Peter reiterated some stats - in 2010, HTC shipped 25 million smartphones, and in the first quarter of 2011 shipped 9.7 million smartphones. HTC claims it is the top five smartphone brand in the world, and in some markets number two and three. Just like Paul yesteday, Peter reiterated that mobile is becoming a lifestyle and contributing to societal change, a definite allusion to recent social events in Egypt.

The next major topic was HTC Sense. HTC believes strongly that its Sense UI is more than just a skin and contributes to class leading user friendliness, that makes it more intuitive and contributes to the overall holistic experience. That's something I think a majority of enthusiasts would disagree with, but for the vast majority of the market, there's something to be said for Sense. As an aside, we'd like to see a toggle to disable or enable Sense for users.

Peter talked about what's different in the new Sense UI. Revamped smoother animations and a completely different lock screen with at-a-glance information are the two major features. The idea behind the new lock screen is very similar to the WP7 glanceable information paradigm, namely that the most frequently accessed quick information should be presentable without having to dive into applications and then back out.

HTC and OnLive entered into a partnership earlier this year, and showed off a video of the HTC Flyer working as a thin client for the mobile gaming platform. It wasn't stated whether the latency being shown in the video was the result of the Flyer being connected over WiFi or cellular connectivity, where there's considerably more latency.

Though HTC has had one of the most active Android lineups, starting with their release of the first ever Android phone, the G1, Peter reiterated that HTC remains committed to Windows Phone 7. Though HTC has become a top Android vendor in the US, it's important to give users choice and have a diverse OS portfolio if you're in the handset manufacture business.

Microsoft and HTC go way back to the original Pocket PC and later Windows Mobile days, and it's clear that the relationship hasn't taken a back seat.

The real news out of Peter's keynote was the announcement of HTC Dev. HTC Dev is - as the name implies - HTC's own developer platform, and enables Android developers to build applications and experiences tailored for HTC Sense enabled phones. HTC OpenSense is the SDK which will allow developers to integrate into the Sense UI framework and deliver a Sense look and feel in applications, to maintain consistency, and also do things like access the Sense APIs for contact management, social feeds, and similar.

On the hardware side of things, OpenSense gives developers a common platform for accessing hardware that's unique to HTC devices, for example the HTC Flyer's tablet pen. HTC Dev isn't launched yet, but users can sign up to be notified and see a brief overview of the whole program, here. HTC gave examples of Linked-in building a contact merge application using OpenSense, and Picassa building tying into Sense's gallery all using Sense APIs. In addition, a third party HTC Flyer application leveraging the pen was shown off. As an aside, I'd love to see Microsoft port OneNote to HTC Flyer or other active digitizer/styli Android tablets.

HTC was scant on any more detail about what all will be possible with both the OpenSense SDK through HTC Dev, but no doubt we'll find out more closer to its launch.

Chrome, Firefox Browsers To Get Tighter PDF Integration

2011-06-25T15:27:00.000-07:00

Better PDF functions are being built into Google's Chrome browser and Mozilla's Firefox. Beyond user convenience, avoiding the PDF plug-in from Adobe Systems removes a favorite hacker target. Chrome 13 beta saves web pages as a PDF file for reading away from an Internet connection. Firefox is getting a pdf.js spec to render web pages as PDFs.

Browser developers at Google Relevant Products/Services and Mozilla are working on new ways to more tightly integrate PDF capabilities. Google was the first browser maker to integrate a PDF reader in Chrome instead of a plug-in vulnerable to hacker attacks. Now Chrome developers have taken the next step.

A new print-preview function in Chrome 13 beta lets web surfers convert any web page into a PDF file. Users on a Wi-Fi-only notebook Relevant Products/Services, media tablet Relevant Products/Services, or PDF-compatible e-reader should find this capability useful because web content can now be stored as PDF files for later reading where hot-spot access Relevant Products/Services is unavailable.

"Print preview uses Chrome's built-in PDF viewer to display the page you want to print, and it updates automatically as you adjust your print settings," noted Google software Relevant Products/Services engineer Chris Bentzel. "You can also choose to save any web page as a PDF file, using the 'Print to PDF' option that's automatically included in the printer list."

From Web To PDF

Using print preview is a straightforward process. Users encountering a web page they wish to print can click on the tool icon in the upper right corner of the Chrome 13 browser to select the print menu option. Print preview automatically appears in a separate window that shows users what the web page currently being viewed will look like when printed.

The Print To PDF option is among the available selections in the drop-down menu next to the word "destination." Users can even specify a single page or pages of content to be printed from among those displayed in the preview window. Click the Print button to save the selection as a PDF file.

Chrome's lack of a print-preview function has been among the top Chrome user requests since Google started requesting user feedback in 2008, according to Bentzel. Having finally implemented it on Windows Relevant Products/Services and Linux, the Mac version will be coming soon. "Thanks for being patient with us on this one!" Bentzel added.

Building a New PDF Engine

Mozilla's developer community is working to eliminate the use of a native-code PDF plug-in from Adobe Systems by building a secure PDF rendering engine into future Firefox browser releases. However, the developers are approaching the problem in an entirely different way than Google's developers.

"Google's Chrome browser goes through quite some pain to sandbox the PDF renderer to avoid code-injection attacks," Mozilla researcher Andreas Gal wrote in a blog. "An HTML5-based implementation is completely immune to this class of problems."

Firefox developers are working on a new open-source specification dubbed pdf.js for rendering PDF files quickly and securely from within the browser that is based on HTML5/JavaScript coding.

"Our most immediate goal is to implement the most commonly used PDF features so we can render a large majority of the PDF files found on the web," Gal wrote. "We believe we can reach that point in less than three months. The entire code so far is less than one month old, and it already renders a large set of PDF features."

AVADirect's Clevo X7200 Redux: AMD 6970M CF Takes the Crown

2011-06-24T14:46:00.000-07:00

A little over seven months ago, we took at look at a Clevo X7200 courtesy of AVADirect that featured a desktop hex-core processor and a pair of NVIDIA's then-fastest mobile graphics cards, the GeForce GTX 480M. Since then NVIDIA has refreshed their mobile top end, and while we hope to review the GTX 485M in SLI soon, in the meantime we have another pair of mobile parts that have been making waves: the AMD Radeon HD 6970M.

Since our previous review, nothing has changed about the Clevo X7200 whitebook that AVADirect sent us. At its core, it's still an X58-based monster of a notebook, and the review unit we received is essentially comparable to the last one with only minor differences between the two.
AVADirect Clevo X7200 Gaming Notebook
Processor Intel Core i7-990X
(6x3.46GHz + HTT, 3.73GHz Turbo, 32nm, 12MB L3, 130W)
Chipset Intel X58 + ICH10R
Memory 3x4GB Crucial DDR3-1333 (Max 3x4GB for now)
Graphics 2x AMD Radeon HD 6970M 2GB GDDR5 in CrossFire
(960 stream processors, 680MHz/3.6GHz core/memory clocks, 256-bit memory bus)
Display 17.3" CCFL Glossy 16:9 1080p (1920x1080)
LG Philips LP173WF1-TLC1
Hard Drive(s) OS: Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB
Data: 500GB Seagate Momentus XT 7200RPM Hybrid
Optical Drive 6x Blu-ray/8x DVDR Combo (HL-DT-ST CT21N)
Networking JMicron JMC250 Gigabit Ethernet
Killer Wireless-N 1102 802.11a/b/g/n
Bluetooth 2.1
Audio Realtek ALC888 HD Audio
5.1 speakers
Four audio jacks
Battery 9-Cell, 14.8V, 5300mAh, 78.44Wh
Front Side N/A (Speaker grilles)
Right Side 4 x audio jacks
3 x USB 2.0
Kensington lock
Left Side 9-in-1 Flash reader
(Optional HDMI In)
Optical drive
Mini 1394
eSATA/USB combo port
2 x USB 3.0
HDMI Out
Ethernet jack
CATV
Dual-link DVI
Back Side AC jack
4 x Exhaust Ports
Operating System Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Dimensions 16.5" x 11.3" x 2.22-2.4" (WxDxH)
Weight ~13.0 lbs
Extras 3MP Webcam
98-key keyboard with 10-key
Flash reader (MMC, SD/Mini SD, MS/Duo/Pro/Pro Duo, xD)
Warranty 1-year standard warranty
2-year and 3-year extended warranties available
Pricing Starting at $2118
Price as configured: $4463

Since our previous review, Intel updated their top end processor to the Core i7-990X; it's a minor 133MHz speedbump, but the 990X is still one of the fastest, if not the fastest, processors available today. This is a desktop processor in a "mobile enclosure," running at a nominal 3.46GHz on all six cores and able to turbo up to 3.73GHz. Our review unit this time around is also down a Crucial RealSSD C300, so we'll have to settle for "just one" instead of two in RAID 0.

It's worth noting our display panel in this review unit is actually different than the previous one; the last one had a HannStar panel but this one includes an LG and as you'll see in our screen tests, it's both better and worse.

And of course, there's the reason we're all here: two AMD Radeon HD 6970M GPUs in CrossFire. The 6970M is basically the mobile equivalent of AMD's desktop Radeon HD 6850, with 960 shaders in the old VLIW5 configuration and a 256-bit memory bus. Clocks are much lower, though: the 6970M runs at only 680MHz on the core and 900MHz on the GDDR5 (for an effective 3.6GHz). To compensate for the mobile market, AMD stacks it with 2GB of video memory instead of the 1GB found on desktop cards.

For this review we're going to eschew the usual look at the notebook and its build quality; this is the same shell we reviewed last year, so there's nothing new to say. You can read the previous overview if you have any additional questions.

TI Announces OMAP4470 and Specs: PowerVR SGX544, 1.8 GHz Dual Core Cortex-A9

2011-06-24T14:44:00.000-07:00

The last time we visited TI's OMAP 4 SoC was at Mobile World Congress, there we benchmarked the LG Optimus 3D and came away decently impressed with performance even on a pre-launch device.

Back then, Anand wrote that the remainder of this year and the next is going to be a heated battle for dual core and quad core SoCs fighting in the tablet and smartphone space. After today, you can add Windows 8 to that list as well. Today, TI is announcing its latest SoC, the OMAP4470, which offers a 20% increase in CPU clocks and an entirely new SGX 544GPU over OMAP4460.

OMAP4470 is architecturally very similar to OMAP4460 with a number of notable changes. First off is that 20% increase in CPU clocks from 1.5 GHz in OMAP4460 to 1.8 GHz in OMAP4470. TI's comparison point for most of the OMAP4470 specs is the OMAP4430 which has its two Cortex-A9s clocked at 1.0 GHz. The two Cortex-M3 cores remain clocked at 266 MHz for handling multimedia processing and background realtime events. The end result is an effort to both let the two Cortex-A9s remain idle for more of the time, and unburden them during heavy processing. TI feels this dichotomy of two big and fast Cortex-A9 cores for web browsing and very computationally intensive tasks augmented with two ligher weight, low power Cortex-M3 cores offers it unique power savings potential. The two Cortex-M3 cores can offload Thumb and Thumb-2 instructions, as well as some hardware multiply and divide operations from the A9s.

The real interesting change with OMAP4470, however, is a similar two-pronged approach on the GPU side of things. First, OMAP4470 moves from the PowerVR SGX540 present in OMAP4430 and OMAP4460 to a more powerful single core (MP1, if you will) PowerVR SGX544 GPU which offers 2.5x the performance of OMAP4430's SGX540.

If you recall from Anand's excellent iPad 2 GPU exploration, SGX543/544 features four USSE2 pipes each with a 4-wide vector ALU churning thorugh 4 MADs per clock. I'm reproducing his table below, but if you mentally replace SGX543 with SGX544 you get the same picture. As an aside, the difference between SGX543 and SGX544 is purely that full DirectX 9 compliance is offered in the latter, making it a possible shoe-in for future Windows 8 platforms.
Mobile SoC GPU Comparison
PowerVR SGX 530 PowerVR SGX 535 PowerVR SGX 540 PowerVR SGX 543/544 PowerVR SGX 543/544MP2 GeForce ULP Kal-El GeForce
SIMD Name USSE USSE USSE USSE2 USSE2 Core Core
# of SIMDs 2 2 4 4 8 8 12
MADs per SIMD 2 2 2 4 4 1 ?
Total MADs 4 4 8 16 32 8 ?
GFLOPS @ 200MHz 1.6 GFLOPS 1.6 GFLOPS 3.2 GFLOPS 6.4 GFLOPS 12.8 GFLOPS 3.2 GFLOPS ?
GFLOPS @ 300MHz 2.4 GFLOPS 2.4 GFLOPS 4.8 GFLOPS 9.6 GFLOPS 19.2 GFLOPS 4.8 GFLOPS ?

If you recall the clocks for the OMAP4430, and OMAP4460, you can start to see where TI's 2.5x claim over its own OMAP4430 comes into play. Going from 304 MHz to 384 MHz is an ~25% increase in clock speed, which adds into the 200% increase in MADs per clock from the change from USSE to USSE2 going from SGX540 to SGX544. Do the math and it works out to almost exactly 2.5x.
TI OMAP 4xxx SoC GPU Comparison
OMAP4430 OMAP4460 OMAP4470
GPU Used PowerVR SGX540 PowerVR SGX540 PowerVR SGX544
Clock 304 MHz 384 MHz 384 MHz

The next part of what's new in OMAP4470 is inclusion of a new hardware composition system for doing display composition without taxing the SGX544. TI wouldn't disclose whose IP this is, but did acknowledge that it's from a third party and includes a dedicated 2D graphics core for compositing the entire display. Ordinarily this is done on the GPU, but TI hopes to accomplish the same composition on this hardware accelerator in a more power and bandwidth efficient manner for driving large displays while maintaining low power profile.

When big 3D applications kick in, then SGX544 powers up and takes over, but for the majority of UI paradigms, TI believes its hardware composition engine can enable power savings - analogous to the way the two Cortex-M3 cores augment the two Cortex-A9s. It's an interesting approach, and TI claims the hardware composition abstraction layer (HAL) is already completed to enable Android and other mobile OSes to leverage that acceleration immediately.
OMAP 4470 vs. 4430 Feature List - Provided by TI
Feature Benefit
Two ARM Cortex A9 MPCores @ 1.8GHz per core 80% increase in Web browsing performance
Two ARM Cortex-M3 cores Smart multicore processing optimized for low-power and real-time responsiveness
SGX544 GFX Core running at 384 MHz 2.5x overall graphics performance increase; support for DirectX, OpenGL ES 2.0, OpenVG 1.1, and OpenCL 1.1
Hardware composition engine with dedicated 2D graphics core Frees GPU to manage intensive tasks; maximizes power- efficiency
Display subsystem Supports as many as three HD displays and up to QXGA (2048x1536) resolution; HDMI supporting stereoscopic 3D
Dual-channel, 466 MHz LPDDR2 memory Higher memory bandwidth enables rendering and compositing of multilayer content at high resolutions
Complete pin-to-pin hardware and software compatibility Rapid transition and maximum re-use of investment from OMAP4430 and OMAP4460 processors

The real hope with OMAP4470 is the ability to drive very high resolution displays as well, up QXGA (2048x1536) and maintaining HDMI 1.4a stereoscopic 3D support. TI expects OMAP4470 devices to arrive in the first half of 2012 with sampling happening in the second half of 2011.

Nokia Phone 7 'Leak' May Have Been Planned

2011-06-24T14:36:00.000-07:00

The "leak" of a video showing Nokia CEO Stephen Elop demonstrating the first Windows Phone 7 device may have been intentional. The crystal-clear video of the Sea Ray device generated substantial buzz on the Internet, exactly what Nokia and Microsoft need. An analyst said Nokia and Microsoft knew the Phone 7 demonstration would be "leaked."

Nokia and Microsoft's first collaboration Relevant Products/Services generated a substantial amount of buzz this week after a video Relevant Products/Services of the smartphone Relevant Products/Services appeared on a Hungarian web site -- the kind of buzz Windows Relevant Products/Services Phone 7 will need to gain traction in the smartphone market. The device Relevant Products/Services, code-named Sea Ray, was unveiled at a Nokia Connections event in Singapore by CEO Stephen Elop and Jukka Kiiskinen, a Nokia sales manager.

"This is something that is super-confidential and we don't want to see it out on the blogosphere," Elop said.

Really?

Someone in the audience had other ideas.

A crystal-clear video with clear sound from what seems to be a fixed high-quality camera found its way onto Technet.hu, and then quickly made its way to tech sites around the world.

Struggling to catch up to Apple's iPhone and Google Relevant Products/Services's Android-powered devices, Nokia and Microsoft, who recently announced a major collaboration, can use all the publicity they can get to create a bigger market for the Windows Phone 7 devices they will release this fall, observers say.

"One thing Apple fans do for Apple and Android fans do [for Google] is create publicity," said Strategy Analytics wireless Relevant Products/Services analyst Alex Spektor. "It would serve Relevant Products/Services Microsoft well and serve Nokia well to build similar buzz since those are the ecosystems they are trying to fight in that space."

Photos of, and details about, Apple and Android products are routinely leaked to tech blogs. The most famous recent example is the iPhone 4 prototype that ended up on Engadget and Gizmodo last year, months ahead of release. The companies involved routinely decline to comment on "rumors," but in this case there is no disputing the leak since Elop is seen holding the phone in the video.

While Nokia may not have deliberately leaked the video, it clearly didn't make a serious effort to keep the device under wraps, Spektor said.

"They're all intelligent people," he said. "They know that anything you share Relevant Products/Services with the general public, whether its developers or any group, unless they are under a direct [nondisclosure agreement], it is liable to leak out. So they did this either knowing the risk Relevant Products/Services or wanting to build some buzz."

The Sea Ray demonstrated by Kiiskinen is almost identical to the MeeGo-powered Nokia N9 smartphone launched earlier in the week, with a slim form and pillow-shaped back, except for three mechanical Windows Phone buttons on the bottom of the 3.9-inch screen and a side button that apparently will control the eight-megapixel camera. Much of the demonstration was of features already seen in the release of the MeeGo operating system update last month.

Other specs of the phone, such as the processor speed, weren't disclosed, nor were details on price, release date, or carrier partners.

Carrying Innovation

"They are trying to show that the innovation that Nokia is bringing with the [MeeGo] form factor will carry over into the Windows space," Spektor said.

MobileTrax analyst Gerry Purdy also wonders if the video on the Hungarian site is really an unplanned leak.

"They need all the help they can get," he said. "I wouldn't be surprised if they leaked it. Their focus is on the European market, to begin with. This gets them publicity about the fact that Nokia Phone 7 is now becoming real."

The challenge for Microsoft and Nokia is to show that their collaboration is a good marriage, Purdy added. "Nokia knows how to make good phones better than anyone, and Microsoft is good at software Relevant Products/Services. They have to leverage that into a product people will want to use. The market adoption looks promising. We'll have to see how it goes."

Windows 8: IE10, Touchscreen Keyboards and File System Access

2011-06-23T14:58:00.000-07:00

Microsoft showed us IE10 on Windows 8, which honestly has a very iOS-like feel to it. You get smooth scrolling and panning, with a PlayBook style support for tabs. It's amazing how much of the Windows 8 UI looks a lot like RIM's first tablet.

The URL bar is hidden by default but it's actually at the bottom of the screen when revealed. Microsoft has a couple of touchscreen keyboard options, a standard mobile OS keyboard and a split version that lets you type with two thumbs while holding a tablet.

Microsoft also showed that you've got full access to the underlying file system regardless of whether you're in standard Windows mode or the new tile based start screen with lighter weight HTML5 apps.

Overall I'm very impressed with what Microsoft has shown thus far. It's a pretty well done mix of a tablet based UI without giving up the traditional Windows interface.

Micron's P320h: A Custom Controller Native PCIe SSD in 350/700GB Capacities

2011-06-23T14:55:00.000-07:00

SSDs are beginning to challenge conventional drive form factors in a major way. On the consumer side we're seeing more systems use new form factors for SSDs, enabled by mSATA. The gumstick form factor used in the MacBook Air and ASUS UX Series comes to mind. SSDs can offer performance in a smaller package, thus helping scale down the size of notebooks.

The enterprise market has seen a form factor transition of its own. While 2.5" SSDs are still immensely common, there's a lot of interest in PCIe solutions.

The quick and easy way to get a PCIe SSD is to take a bunch of SSDs and RAID them together on a single PCIe card. You don't really get a performance benefit, but it does help you get a lot of performance without being drive-bay limited. This is what we typically see from companies like OCZ.

The other alternative is a native PCIe solution. In the aforementioned example, you typically have a couple of SATA SSD controllers paired with a SATA to PCIe RAID controller. With a native solution you'd skip the RAID controller entirely and just have a custom SSD controller that interfaces directly to PCIe. A native PCIe SSD is just an SSD that avoids SATA entirely, thus avoiding any potential bottlenecks. Today Micron is announcing its first native PCIe SSD: the P320h.

The P320h is Micron's first PCIe SSD as well as its first in-house controller design. You'll remember from our C300/C400/m4 reviews that Micron typically buys its controllers from Marvell and simply does firmware development in house. The P320h changes that. While it's too early to assume that we'll see Micron designed controllers for consumer drives as well, clearly that's a step the company is willing to take.

The P320h's controller is a beast. With 32 parallel channels and a PCIe gen 2 x8 interface, the P320h is built for bandwidth. Micron's peak performance specs speak for themselves:

Sequential read/write performance is up to 3GB/s and 2GB/s respectively. Random 4KB read performance is up at a staggering 750,000 IOPS, while random write speed peaks at 341,000 IOPS. The former is unmatched by anything I've seen on a single card, while the latter is a number that OCZ's recently announced Z-Drive R4 88 is promising as well. Note that these aren't steady state numbers nor are the details of the testing methodology known so believe accordingly.

There is of course support for NAND redundancy, which Micron calls RAIN (Redundant Array of Independent NAND). Micron calls RAIN very similar to RAID-7 with 1 parity channel, however it didn't release information as to what sorts of failures are recoverable as a result. RAIN in addition to typical enterprise level write amplification concerns result in a some pretty heavy overprovisioning on the drive as you'll see below.

Micron will offer the P320h in two capacities: 350GB and 700GB. The drives use 16Gbit 34nm SLC NAND (ONFI 2.1). The 700GB drive features 64 package placements with 8 die per package - that works out to be 16GB per die, or 1TB of NAND on the card.

The 350GB version has the same number of package placements (64) but it only has 4 die per package, which works out to be 512GB of NAND on board. Obviously with twice as many die per package there are some interleaving benefits which result in better 4KB random write performance.

Pricing is unknown at this point, although Micron pointed out that it is expecting cost to be somewhere south of $16 per GB (at $16/GB that would be $5600 for the 350GB board and $11,200 for the 700GB board).

Wyoming Embraces Google Apps as FTC Eyes Probe

2011-06-23T14:45:00.000-07:00

All state workers in Wyoming are using Google Apps for Government as the state became the first to fully embrace Google's cloud services. Google Apps for Government includes Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Sites, Video and FISMA-certified security. Gov. Matt Mead expects the move to Google Apps will save $1 million a year.

Wyoming is rolling out the red carpet for Google Relevant Products/Services's cloud Relevant Products/Services services, officially becoming the first state in the nation to implement Google Apps for Government for all state workers. After implementing the cloud services and migrating about 10,000 workers to the new platform Wednesday morning, Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead took part in a ribbon-cutting ceremony, of sorts. Instead of a ribbon, though, he cut a network Relevant Products/Services cable about eight months after the state gave Google the green Relevant Products/Services light.

Google Apps for Government includes Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Sites, Video and FISMA-certified security Relevant Products/Services. Disaster recovery Relevant Products/Services is included at no extra cost. Other states are using some of these apps Relevant Products/Services, but Wyoming is the first to go statewide.

A Cool Million Bucks

"Not only has Wyoming cut the cord and gone to cloud-based computing, allowing more mobility Relevant Products/Services for and collaboration Relevant Products/Services between employees, this is also the first time all of our employees have been on a shared e-mail platform," Mead said. "This means greater efficiency, and it will almost certainly lead to better service Relevant Products/Services to the public."

He pointed out that the Google Apps for Government move also saves money in costs related to servers, licensing and staff. Compared to what the state would have spent for equivalent features in its previous system, Mead anticipates dramatic savings associated with e-mail storage Relevant Products/Services and overall security. More than $1 million a year, to be exact.

"My office was in the first wave to transition to Google Apps, and I am pleased to say it has already made a big difference," Mead said. "Among its many features, Google Apps has provided efficiencies for scheduling and for keeping the office running smoothly."

FTC Targeting Google Again?

Google may be celebrating the government win, but the search giant could be headed for another government loss. The Wall Street Journal reported that the Federal Trade Commission is requesting information from Google.

The agency's five-member panel of commissioners is preparing to send its formal demands for information to Google within days, Journal sources said, and other companies are likely to receive official requests for information about their dealings with Google at a later stage.

In March, Google agreed to settle FTC charges that it used deceptive tactics and violated its own consumer privacy promises when it launched its Buzz social network in 2010. The regulatory agency said Google's practices violated the FTC Act.

Google's proposed settlement bars the company from future privacy misrepresentations, requires it to implement a comprehensive privacy program, and calls for regular, independent privacy audits for the next 20 years.

Windows 8 Running on ARM, NVIDIA Kal-El Notebook Demoed

2011-06-22T15:03:00.000-07:00

Microsoft just showed Windows 8 running on three different ARM platforms: a single-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon, a dual-core TI OMAP 4430 and a quad-core NVIDIA Kal-El notebook.

The same interface we showed you earlier exists on these systems, and the same applications can run across both systems (assuming the apps have been ported to ARM).

You get a standard Windows 8 desktop as well as the new tiled start screen. USB devices will work and MS even did a demo of copying files off of a USB thumb drive.

NVIDIA had a Kal-El based notebook and tablet on display. Microsoft showed task manager displaying all four threads during H.264 decode acceleration.

This is the Windows 8 Tablet & PC Interface

2011-06-22T15:00:00.001-07:00

Here's a quick look at the new start screen for Windows 8 running on a Dell XPS Development Tablet. The tablet supports both touch and external keyboard interfaces. The UI is ridiculously smooth, it seems even quicker than Windows Phone 7.

On tablets Windows 8 will support PlayBook like bezel gestures (the gestures actually take place on the first pixel next to the bezel, apparently not in the bezel itself). Gestures for the OS take place on the left/right edges of the screen, while app gestures happen on the top/bottom bezel.

Swipe in from the right to reveal the start button, and swipe in from the left to multitask. You just swipe between active apps like you would on a PlayBook.

The interface doesn't require a touchscreen, Microsoft showed how you can multitask or switch between screens using a keyboard on a standard PC as well. This will be a common interface across all Windows 8 devices, tablet or standard PC.

Tapping the start button switches between the standard Windows desktop and the new tile interface. You can even display multiple applications on the screen at the same time using Windows 8's snap feature.

With a widescreen display (apparently snap isn't supported yet on 4:3s) you can display two apps side by side in the new tablet style UI:

You can even have a standard Windows 8 desktop on one side and a new Windows 8 app on the other.

Microsoft also mentioned that Windows 8 will have the same system requirements or lower vs Windows 7.

Best Buy Launches Its Own Music Cloud Service

2011-06-22T14:51:00.000-07:00

Music cloud services from Apple, Amazon.com and Google got more competition as Best Buy launched its Music Cloud. The Best Buy Music Cloud copies from Apple's iTunes and is available for iOS, Android and BlackBerry mobile devices. Best Buy will charge $3.99 for its Music Cloud, but will offer a demo version for now with 30-second playbacks.

Seems like everyone has their heads in the clouds these days. With a growing emphasis on synchronizing media purchases and applications on multiple mobile Relevant Products/Services devices and computers, retailer Best Buy is launching Music Cloud.

The service Relevant Products/Services is available for devices powered by Apple's iOS, Google Relevant Products/Services's Android, and Research In Motion's BlackBerry operating systems and requires downloading software Relevant Products/Services that enables music streaming.

The desktop Relevant Products/Services app copies libraries and playlists from iTunes (required) on a home computer Relevant Products/Services and puts them in an account to be accessed on multiple mobile devices. It's powered by Catch Media's Play Anywhere service.

Listen on the Bus

"With Best Buy Music Cloud, your digital music lives in one place but you access Relevant Products/Services it from wherever you are," according to the Best Buy web site. "Enjoy all your music when you're at a friend's house, in the car, on the bus, walking to work ... virtually anywhere."

"You can store Relevant Products/Services your favorite songs and playlists for when you're offline," it adds. "You can select just a single song, a playlist, or even an artist, allowing you to continue listening when you don't have coverage."

The premium version is available for $3.99 and, for now only, a demo version is available with 30-second playbacks of your songs.

Early reviews are mixed. "I quickly became familiar with the controls and was impressed with the customizability of the library," wrote Everything Mobile blogger Brian Joseph.

But PC Relevant Products/Services magazine's Mark Hachman found the software "inflexible, and painful, and with some odd design decisions, to boot."

Best Buy's Music Cloud comes on the heels of Apple rolling out iCloud to synchronize media purchases across computers and its mobile devices. iCloud was the major announcement by CEO Steve Jobs at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference this month. Google and Amazon.com have also launched cloud Relevant Products/Services music services.

Why is this Cloud Different?

"This is going to need a differentiation to do well in the market," said analyst Michael Gartenberg of Gartner Relevant Products/Services Research. "A lot of music services have come and gone over the years. Others, like Rhapsody, still struggle to grow their user base. They need to explain the value proposition to consumers on why this model works."

But Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT Relevant Products/Services, said success will depend on how well Best Buy markets the idea. "Apple certainly has the high ground in traditional MP3 music sales, but cloud computing could level the playing field considerably," King said. "I'd say they have a shot."

Richfield, Minn.-based Best Buy, which has about 1,150 stores, has managed to weather the recession, unlike competitors like Circuit City, which closed its stores in 2009 but still sells online. It's increasingly looking beyond traditional retail to stay competitive.

Earlier this month, at the E3 conference Relevant Products/Services, Best Buy announced a Reward Zone Gamers Club that offers points toward purchases.

Windows 8 on AMD, Intel, NVIDIA, Qualcomm & TI: Let the Race Begin

2011-06-21T14:48:00.000-07:00

I'm in the audience of Microsoft's Partner Preview for Computex 2011, basically an event to give a sneak peak of the future of Windows to press and MS partners here in Taipei.

Of course I'm talking about Windows 8. On stage there are several systems running a wide variety of hardware. Microsoft has machines from AMD, Intel, NVIDIA (presumably a Tegra 2 or Kal-El notebook?), Qualcomm and Texas Instruments. That's five players when Windows 7 really only launched on platforms from two different silicon vendors.

We've got a race here folks and it's anyone's game. Intel has the lionshare of traditional PCs, but Qualcomm is really the Intel of the ultra mobile world. How this race plays out over the next two years is going to be very interesting. With five players here today, you can expect that list to dwindle over time. Remember when there were 4 players in the x86 CPU race?

Kingston Wi-Drive Offers Wireless iPad Storage Expansion

2011-06-21T14:46:00.000-07:00

Dozens of companies have built entire businesses supplying accessories to the iPod and iPhone. With the iPad, storage vendors are trying to get a piece of the pie by addressing the inherent storage limitations of the platform.

Without an SD card slot, your iPad is stuck with however much storage you buy it with. Upgrading isn't possible and higher capacity models are sold at a pretty steep premium. Seagate and now Kingston are offering 802.11 enabled, battery powered external storage devices to use with the iPad or any device with a web browser (iOS or not).

While Seagate went the mass storage route with a 500GB hard drive, today Kingston is announcing its Wi-Drive an external 16GB or 32GB wireless addition deisgned for mobile devices. The Wi-Drive can support up to three simultaneous users either through a free iOS app or by connecting to the Wi-Drive via a web browser.

You get your content onto the Wi-Drive via USB and then can access it wirelessly via your mobile device. Kingston is promising up to 4 hours of battery life.

The 16GB version will retail for $129.99 while the 32GB version will set you back $174.99.

Personally I see the need for expandable tablet storage, but I'm not entirely sure what the sweet spot is. For users who use the iPad as their only computing device, these devices are going to make a lot of sense. I plan on looking at both the Seagate solution and the Kingston Wi-Drive after I get back from Computex.

Xbox Kinect Will Put Ads in Video Games and TV Content

2011-06-21T14:33:00.000-07:00

Advertising is coming to Microsoft's Xbox Kinect, and a NUAds suite of tools will let users interact with the ads on an Xbox console. The ads on Xbox Kinect will give agencies an opportunity to create new kinds of ads. Rival Nintendo's new Wii U also could display Kinect-style ads on its 6.2-inch tablet-like screen, though no plans have been announced.

Microsoft announced a new option for advertisers at the Cannes International Advertising Festival this week. The Xbox Kinect gaming console is going to use voice and motion commands to let consumers interact with ads while they are playing their favorite video Relevant Products/Services game or watching online content.

Dubbed NUAds, short for natural-interface ads, the new suite of advertising tools will let users interact with advertising right from their Xbox Kinect video-game console dashboard Relevant Products/Services. Users can also interact with ads embedded in games or other video content. It's a move to take advertising a few steps beyond the old-fashioned boob tube.

"When you have highly interactive people and a passive medium, they are interacting with their phone or their laptop Relevant Products/Services while watching TV," Mark Kroese, the general manager of the advertising business Relevant Products/Services group at Microsoft, told The New York Times. Kroese introduced the ability to use voice- and gesture-controlled interaction with advertisements and other content on Xbox. He said the ads "create a natural way for the user to engage with the TV."

In-Game Ad Action

What does all this mean to Xbox Kinect gamers? It means that soon, they'll be able to say "Xbox tweet" and have the content shared online with your friends.

Here's another example. Say you're watching a TV show. You'll be able to interact using your voice to do things like schedule a reminder to be sent to your phone of shows that you don't want to miss this summer.

NUAds also offers some interesting location-based interaction services for advertisers. For example, if you say "Xbox Near Me" when watching an advertisement for cars, Xbox Kinect will serve Relevant Products/Services up a map with local dealerships. In another example, Microsoft's Steve Clayton asks you to imagine an ad for pizzas or a movie ad that takes you to cinemas that show the film locally.

"This represents a great opportunity for agencies and advertisers to generate new kinds of ads and ad creative. They have to rise to the challenge, however," said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence. "It will take some time for them to figure out how to effectively leverage what is a completely new ad platform. It's really all about whether they can truly take advantage of the capabilities of the Xbox platform."

Will Wii Compete?

Kinect for Xbox 360 lets players use their body and voice to control games and entertainment. Essentially, the body becomes the controller. The high-tech sensors learn how players move, how they play, hears their voice, and makes them one with the game.

The all-in-one Xbox 360 4GB Console with Kinect includes the new Xbox 360 4GB console, a Kinect sensor, and Kinect Adventures for $299.99. Consumers who already have an Xbox 360 console can buy the stand-alone Kinect for $149.99. That includes the Kinect sensor and Kinect Adventures.

Wii hopes to compete with the Kinect with the Wii U, whose controller with a 6.2-inch screen promises to drive new gaming experiences and the ability to customize entertainment. Nintendo hasn't announced any plans for in-game advertising with its new system.