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august 4th 2011 published by vr-zone vr-zone.com stuff for the geeks vr-zone stuff for the geeks is a bi-weekly publication covering the latest gadgets and stuff for the geeks interesting msata adapter launches in japan source http vr-zone.com/articles/interesting-msata-adapter-launches-injapan/13213.html august 4th 2011 want to use an msata ssd for some ssd caching action but don t have the right motherboard well even if you just want to use an ssd for caching and don t have the right motherboard this can be a hassle an adaptor has appeared in japan that allows for an easy solution for those inclined to get ssd caching on their system and it s a rather peculiar looking setup want to use an msata ssd for some ssd caching action but don t have the right motherboard well even if you just want to use an ssd for caching and don t have the right motherboard this can be a hassle an adaptor has appeared in japan that allows for an easy solution for those inclined to get ssd caching on their system and it s a rather peculiar looking setup the company behind the adaptor is called kuroutoshikou and it s a company that tend to come up with all sorts of unusual bits of hardware in this case we re looking at a fairly standard size pci express x1 card with a marvell 9130 sata 6gbps controller on it it features what marvell calls hyperduo technology which allows for easy setup of ssd caching this chip is already available on a few raid cards but this is where things get interesting kuroutoshikou s card has an msata slot for the ssd and a sata 6gbps connector to which the hard drive is attached for most users this is just an extravagant way of setting up ssd caching as using a 2.5-inch ssd would most likely cost less however if you have a compact case or a low profile case with limited drive space then this card would very well come in handy at 3,980 yen s$61 it s not the cheapest route to go either but it s at least reasonably competitively priced compared to a similar raid card gigabyte s g1.sniper2 features pci express gen 3 support source http vr-zone.com/articles/gigabyte-s-g1.sniper2-features-pciexpress-gen-3-support/13212.html august 4th 2011 one feature that so far has been a bit of a secret with regards to gigabyte s just launched g1.sniper2 motherboard is that it features pci express gen 3 support or rather it has a set of digital switches that should support pci express 3.0 unless something is drastically changing by now and the introduction of intel s ivy bridge processors we also scored some exclusive hands on pictures of the board so click on through for those one feature that so far has been a bit of a secret with regards to gigabyte s just launched g1.sniper2 motherboard is that it 1

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august 4th 2011 published by vr-zone features pci express gen 3 support or rather it has a set of digital switches that should support pci express 3.0 unless something is drastically changing by now and the introduction of intel s ivy bridge processors we also scored some exclusive hands on pictures of the board so click on through for those the g1.sniper2 is only the first of many motherboards to come from gigabyte that will feature digital switches with pci express gen 3 support over time the company will transition all of its dual x8 pci express slot motherboards to these switches so in other words expect new revisions of your favourite gigabyte motherboards in the next few months nothing has really changed since the board first made an appearance but it s officially up on gigabyte s website as of today one feature we like is the bundled front panel that not only adds a pair of usb 3.0 ports to the front of your case but also a powered esata port and the somewhat slightly less useful quck boost button that automagically overclocks the system another feature we weren t aware of and that has been long coming is the fact that all of the fan headers on the board are of the 4-pin type or in other words all the fan headers support pwm fans so what about the g1.sniper2 well we ve already reported about it and even posted a few pictures of the board and now we have a few hands on pictures as well as one of the packaging the board comes in a fancy display box as it rightly should as this is a premium product as a side note with regards to pci express 3.0 support in theory every 6-series chipset motherboard should support pci express 3.0 if the board in question only has a single slot connected straight to the cpu that said even boards with pci express 2.0 switches will allow the top slot to operate at gen 3 speeds although at reduced bandwidth then again none of this is any good until intel launches ivy bridge in march or april next year and that s when we ll find out how compatible things really are as currently no-one can say if it ll all work as intended 2

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august 4th 2011 published by vr-zone lg unveils optimus 3d and white optimus 2x in taiwan source http vr-zone.com/articles/lg-unveils-optimus-3d-and-whiteoptimus-2x-in-taiwan/13210.html august 4th 2011 lg electronics has announced the availability of two new additions to its optimus line of android-powered smartphones in taiwan today the optimus 3d and a white variant of the optimus 2x smartphone which was recently introduced to the market this year according to the company the new optimus 3d smartphone is capable of bringing the 3d cinema experience to users a feat made possible by the technology used to power it more details after the break lg has also claimed that the optimus 3d smartphone will feature dual-rear-facing cameras which can be used to capture videos or still images in either stereoscopic 3d or conventional 2d while the captured content can then be outputted to a larger external display such as television sets via the builtin hdmi-out port or by streaming the content via a local network an option made possible due to the optimus 3d boasting support for dlna lg electronics has announced the availability of two new additions to its optimus line of android-powered smartphones in taiwan today the optimus 3d and a white variant of the optimus 2x smartphone which was recently introduced to the market this year touted as the world s first smartphone to make use of what it calls its naked eye 3d technology lg claims that the optimus 3d smartphone does away with the need to make use of specialized 3d glasses thus allowing for the immediate appreciation and sharing of 3d content such as video files or still images this is made possible by the smartphone s use of a 4.3-inch glassless 3d display that is capable of displaying content at wvga resolutions 800 x 480 3

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august 4th 2011 published by vr-zone oh and one more thing the smartphone is reportedly capable with google s 3d youtube video streaming service as well here are a few more pictures of the press event that took place in taipei today the optimus 3d will initially ship with version 2.2.2 of the android operating system preloaded into it although lg has announced that it intends to provide users with an upgrade path to gingerbread some time in the future the phone will also reportedly be pre-loaded with three 3d games namely nova asphalt 6 and let s golf 2 while up to seven more 3d titles will be made available for download at no charge the hardware specifications for the lg optimus 3d smartphone are as follow last but definitely not least lg also unveiled a white variant of its optimus 2x smartphone in taipei 4

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august 4th 2011 august 4th 2011 published by vr-zone sapphire has released the hd 6950 toxic edition which at 880mhz core clock is supposedly the fastest factory overclocked hd 6950 in the world sapphire has released the hd 6950 toxic edition which it claims to be the world s fastest hd 6950 as far as we can tell this claim is true at the moment the core clock on this card has been pushed all the way to 880mhz which is on par with reference hd 6970 speed memory clock is a decent if not outstanding 1300mhz amd radeon hd sapphire hd 6950 6950 toxic edition core clock 800mhz 880mhz memory clock 1250mhz 1300mhz the hd 6950 toxic edition s heatsink looks rather similar to the reference amd design which also uses a vapor chamber and a blower fan sapphire has also retained the dual bios feature which is good news for bios modders this feature was implemented in the reference design but taken out by some other vendors presumably to cut costs sapphire also includes a custom overclocking utility no information about pricing and global availability has been announced for either smartphone sapphire releases world s fastest hd 6950 source http vr-zone.com/articles/sapphire-releases-world-s-fastesthd-6950/13209.html view the original press release below sapphire toxic model is fastest hd 6950 yet sapphire technology the world leading supplier of graphics solutions mainboards and other pc 5

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august 4th 2011 published by vr-zone products has just announced the sapphire hd 6950 toxic edition the fastest production card in its class the sapphire hd 6950 toxic edition ships with clock speeds of 880mhz for the core and 1300mhz 5.2 gb/sec effective for the memory making it the fastest production hd 6950 on the market this has been achieved by building the card on a high specification pcb with digital vrms for excellent power regulation and 8 6 pin power connectors it has a high performance cooler featuring a vapor chamber blower fan and a new perforated backplate to increase airflow out of the system case like the standard hd 6950 the sapphire hd 6950 toxic edition boasts true dx 11 capability and the powerful configuration of 1408 stream processors and 88 texture processing units a dual bios feature allows enthusiasts to experiment with alternative bios profiles and settings performance can be further enhanced with sapphire trixx the company s dedicated overclocking tool which allows memory and core clock speeds and voltages to be modified and monitored and is available free to download with its two dvi one hdmi and two minidisplayport outputs the sapphire hd 6950 toxic edition supports a wide range of monitor configurations including amd eyefinity with up to four screens the sapphire hd 6950 toxic edition has the latest gen3 on-board hardware uvd unified video decoder considerably reducing cpu load and delivering smooth decoding of blu-raytm and other video content for both vc-1 and h.264 codecs as well as mpeg files the uvd can decode two 1080p hd video streams simultaneously and display hd video in high quality with windows aero mode enabled the card has hdmi 1.4a which also supports stereoscopic 3d output the sapphire hd 6950 family is supported by amd s directx 11 whql certified graphics driver which delivers support for all of the key directx 11 level features required for new gaming experiences and acceleration of the latest generation of browsers transcoding and other high performance applications amd app acceleration for more details please visit www.sapphiretech.com good news for skype users on android waiting patently for video call support an additional 17 devices were supported on their latest skype 2.1 for android good news for skype users on android waiting patently for video call support on their mobile device an additional 17 devices were supported on their latest skype 2.1 for android for folks who are using android devices not listed above but you are on android 2.2 you could try some luck with enabling video calling in your skype settings by going to skype settings after launching the app and select enable video calling of course if you do not see the settings you are out of luck and do not meet the minimum requirements set by skype skype 2.1 for android gives video call for more android devices source http vr-zone.com/articles/skype-2.1-for-android-gives-video-callfor-more-android-devices/13207.html august 4th 2011 next generation apple iphone is said to be 4g-capable source http vr-zone.com/articles/next-generation-apple-iphone-is-saidto-be-4g-capable/13206.html august 4th 2011 6

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august 4th 2011 published by vr-zone looks like the next generation iphone is surely arriving with many rumors about the phone brewing almost every week well this time it seems that china mobile has confirmed the new iphone is going to be 4g-capable now the question is will the new phone be an entirely new iphone 5 or an improved iphone 4 such as iphone 4s or 4g according to gizchina china mobile was reported to have reached an agreement with apple to bring its 4th generation td-lte mobile data connection to the next generation iphone although the news isn t exactly new it could hint that the next generation iphone would be an iphone 4s type device with 4g capabilities rather than a brand new iphone 5 design this would make sense with some of the rumors that the next generation iphone which could be the iphone 5 iphone 4s or iphone 4g has actually started carry network testing regardless of whether it would be a new designed iphone 5 or just a rehashed improved version of the iphone 4 many users are waiting for the phone s arrival avatar kinect is a new social entertainment experience that brings your avatar to life avatar kinect can capture your facial expressions and voice so that when you smile nod or speak your avatar will do the same you can invite up to seven friends to join you in 24 imaginative virtual stages ­ discuss the latest celebrity gossip or news on the talk show stage try out your hysterical comedy routine on the performance stage or wager who will win the big game in the sports party stage on top of that you can share the fun by capturing animated videos you can post online for your family friends or fans to enjoy the kinect sensor can record your session with a producer s editorial eye following your performance zooming and panning just like a real tv production share your video recording with friends by uploading it to kinectshare.com and downloading it to your computer you can also post it to your favorite social networking sites like facebook twitter and youtube avatar kinect is available for free to all xbox live gold members but to celebrate its release avatar kinect has been unlocked for all xbox live members free or gold to enjoy from 25 july to 8 september avatar kinect and kinect sparkler promise more fun on xbox kinect source http vr-zone.com/articles/avatar-kinect-and-kinect-sparklerpromise-more-fun-on-xbox-kinect/13205.html august 4th 2011 aside from dancing and motion-gaming on the xbox kinect you can have more fun with the new additions of avatar kinect and kinect sparkler in kinect fun labs avatar kinect captures your facial expression so that your avatar will do the same and you can have talk shows with friends with your avatar kinect sparkler lets you do finger drawing onscreen with sparkler and you can even draw in 3-d kinect sparkler was launched in kinect fun labs on 28 july and it transforms simple finger painting into an aerial light show using brand new kinect tech such as background removal and detailed finger tracking use your body as a stencil and your fingers to paint with light or write with sparklers turning your room into a canvas you can also draw in 3-d moving the sparklers in front of and behind your foreground image and then view your creation from multiple angels by moving your head share your masterpiece with friends and family by uploading it to kinectshare.com kinect 7

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august 4th 2011 published by vr-zone sparkler will be available in kinect fun labs for 240 microsoft points randi zuckerberg leaves facebook source http vr-zone.com/articles/randi-zuckerberg-leavesfacebook/13204.html august 4th 2011 since our last update many of you have asked how the bootloader unlocking process will actually work and in particular why htc s most recently released devices still have a locked bootloader rest assured we re making progress toward our goal to roll out the first software updates in august to support unlocking for the global htc sensation followed soon by the htc sensation 4g on t-mobile and the htc evo 3d on sprint because unlocking the bootloader provides extensive control over the device and modifications may cause operation security and experience issues new devices will continue to ship locked but will support userinitiated unlocking using a new web-based tool so how will this work the web tool which will launch this month requires that you register an account with a valid email address and accept legal disclaimers that unlocking may void all or parts of your warranty then plug in your phone to a computer with the android sdk loaded to retrieve a device identifier token which you can then enter into the web tool to receive a unique unlock key via e-mail finally apply the key to your device and unlocking will be initiated on your phone we re excited to bring bootloader unlocking to developers and enthusiasts and we feel this new web tool will meet your needs and continue to provide customers with the best experience thanks to the community for supporting these efforts that s right htc will be giving you the freedom to unlock your bootloader only after you accept a disclaimer notifying that all or parts of your warranty may be null and void freedom comes at a price what do you think of this htc s take on unlocked bootloaders randi zuckerberg the sister of founder mark zuckerberg has decided to leave facebook to start her own company in an interview with mashable randi quoted that her resignation is a natural extension and had been considering the move for a really long time no news on who will be succeeding her position but randi was the director of marketing in facebook a major role in this top social media company her new company rtoz media will be focusing as the role to help companies to become more social htc to unlock bootloaders with a trade-off source http vr-zone.com/articles/htc-to-unlock-bootloaders-with-atrade-off/13203.html august 4th 2011 remember how htc s locked bootloaders could be such a pain everyone was pleased when htc announced that they are going to unlock bootloaders on their mobile devices well here is a update from the company on their facebook ultrabooks too expensive according to taiwan notebook makers source http vr-zone.com/articles/ultrabooks-too-expensive-accordingto-taiwan-notebook-makers/13201.html august 4th 2011 remember how htc s locked bootloaders could be such a pain everyone was pleased when htc announced that they are going to unlock bootloaders on their mobile devices well here is a update from the company on their facebook apple s recently launched macbook air starts at us$999 and the taiwanese notebook makers are very concerned about apple s pricing and claim that unless intel lowers its cpu prices for its ulv models ultrabooks will end up way past intel s suggested us$1,000 starting price point we re having a feeling of déjà vu here with the failed culv platform which wasn t quite as big as a failure as it s been made up to be but it was another platform that was simply too expensive 8

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august 4th 2011 published by vr-zone august 4th 2011 apple s recently launched macbook air starts at us$999 and the taiwanese notebook makers are very concerned about apple s pricing and claim that unless intel lowers its cpu prices for its ulv models ultrabooks will end up way past intel s suggested us$1,000 starting price point we re having a feeling of déjà vu here with the failed culv platform which wasn t quite as big as a failure as it s been made up to be but it was another platform that was simply too expensive it s easy to point fingers at apple but in this case we can t but wonder if some of the notebook manufacturers have overreached in terms of what they thought they could produce at a certain price point the notebook makers are now putting pressure on intel to lower its cpu prices for them to be able to hit the target pricing for ultrabooks part of the problem is said to be changes in the production process as most if not all components will be soldered onto the main pcb of the ultrabooks to help reduce weight and thickness ssds are also required to meet the slim profile alongside li-polymer batteries and several other changes even so intel s cpus are said to bear about one third of the total cost of an ultrabook which sounds a bit steep intel has a fairly limited range of ulv processors but even so intel s ulv core i5 models have a list price of us$250 which is only a quarter of the us$1,000 price point in all fairness intel is hoping to get machines in the market for less than this but there s the oem core i3-2357m which we sadly don t know what intel is charging for but it ll be substantially less than us$250 and if we d make an educated guess this cpu should end up somewhere around the us$200 mark intel also has a couple of budget friendly dual core ulv celeron models at us$134 and although they re not very attractive in terms of performance the cost is comparatively low the question is if the notebook makers are willing to make this kind of a trade-off especially after the low-end culv notebooks failing to gather any kind of momentum and in the end even the high-end models ended up being sold at close to cost a repeat of this situation would be a disaster for the notebook makers and this seems to be the main reason why they re being so cautious about the ultrabook market segment that said some innovation would go a long way to convince consumers to go for an ultrabook over a regular notebook despite the slightly higher price we have a feeling that one reason why apple s 13.3-inch macbook air is so popular is because of the higher resolution screen an option that s rare to see on windows notebooks and it s not exactly a super innovative feature vr-zone was one of the regional media invited to bangkok thailand to witness the launch of philips new consumer c e and v-line and the business p b and s-line monitors by mmd at the event mmd also showcased philips new ergosensor technology that claims to help correct a user s posture as well as their 27-inch 3d monitor for those who do not know mmd multimedia displays is a wholly-owned company of tpv which claims to be the largest manufacturer of pc monitors and lcd tvs in the world and mmd markets philips monitors under the global brand license agreement with philips today mmd announces the launch of their new c-line which is the premium range eline essential range and v-line value range consumer monitors b-line business s-line standard or small business and p-line professional business monitors the pline b-line and s-line business monitors are available now at all mmd distributors philips launches new consumer and business monitors source http vr-zone.com/articles/philips-launches-new-consumer-andbusiness-monitors/13194.html 9

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august 4th 2011 published by vr-zone the philips moda is a 23.6-inch lcd monitor under the cline of premium consumer monitors has a two-tone elegant finish with a die-cast pure aluminium stand the moda has backlit controls with two hdmi input and a vga connector according to the company there is no dvi input as it is phasing out and did not catch on consumers mmd also introduced a pure white version of the philips moda right picture as well as one with the proprietary lightframe technology the philips moda is scheduled to be available next week the white version in october and the one with lightframe in december just before christmas at press time the 23.6-inch philips moda model 248c3lhsb will be retailing at an s$349 the 21.5-inch eline model 227e3lphsu at s$229 and the 27-inch model 273e3lhsb at s$489 philips ergosensor monitor also showcased at the event was the prototype philips ergosensor technology which mmd claims to be the first in the world to offer a true optimized ergonomic viewing experience on their display with an integrated camera above the display the monitor uses advanced detection technology to measure a user s interpupillary distance whether their head is in an inclined position detects how long the user has been sitting in front of the display etc and gives appropriate advice to the user at the rear of the monitor are usb dvi and vga connectors the ergosensor can only detect a single user at any one time and thus if there are few users crowding in front of the monitor the display will not be able to provide accurate advice according to a mmd executive the ergosensor monitor takes approximately less than two minutes to detect and monitor the user and an attention prompt will popup at the bottom right of the screen to inform the user the philips ergosensor monitor is scheduled to launch from december this year no pricing information is available at press time more to come motorola publishes specifications of upcoming droid bionic smartphone on website source http vr-zone.com/articles/motorola-publishes-specifications-ofupcoming-droid-bionic-smartphone-on-website/13200.html 10

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august 4th 2011 august 4th 2011 published by vr-zone now this has got to be one of those classic oh no they didn t cases in action although most people would probably have not expected motorola of all companies to have made such as slip-up apparently the company has somehow managed to leak some precious information about an upcoming droid bionic smartphone on its own website needless to say the mistake was discovered and the website s content modified to appear as if the information never existed but not before its screenshots have started circulating around the depths of cyberspace have you been lusting for more information about motorola s upcoming bionic smartphone well the good news is that users do not have to wait any longer in order to find out what kind of specifications motorola s upcoming droid bionic smartphone will sport when it is finally released for it seems that motorola has somehow managed to accidently post up the complete specifications for the aforementioned smartphone on its developer page well ahead of schedule nice has pointed out that the original bionic only had 512mb of memory and utilized a tegra 2 system-on-a-chip soc for its processing needs whereas the phone that was listed on motorola s developer homepage boasted a 1ghz texas instruments omap 4430 dual-core processor and 1gb of memory in addition the leaked specifications from motorola has also revealed that the upcoming bionic will be a cdma-only mobile phone which boasts built-in support for 4g mobile broadband connectivity via lte hdmi 1.4 along with 4gb of secure storage and 9gb of non-removable shared storage lastly the smartphone will also feature a 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen display that sports a native resolution of 960 x 540 qhd an eight-megapixel rear-facing camera a vga camera for the front and most importantly will be preloaded with version 2.3.4 of the android operating system now all we need is for motorola to conveniently leak out some information about an expected release date along with pricing details for the upcoming bionic smartphone and everything will be just right oh and just one more thing motorola has already pulled the information about the droid bionic smartphone from its developer page as we would have expected but thanks to the power of screenshots and the internet a copy of the full specifications sheet has been published by droid-life which you can access from this link if you are interested in finding out more about the upcoming smartphone strontium gamma 115gb matrix 120gb ssd review source http vr-zone.com/articles/strontium-gamma-115gb-matrix-120gb-ssd-review/12848.html august 4th 2011 just about every memory manufacturer has jumped on the solid state drive bandwagon and singapore-based strontium is no exception we take a look at two ssds from strontium s matrix and gamma product lines singapore-based memory manufacturer strontium is one of the more recent entrants to the consumer ssd market they currently have two ssd product lines the gamma series which uses the sandforce sf-1222 controller and the matrix series which uses the marvell 88ss9174-bld2 controller today we ll be looking at the strontium gamma 115gb and strontium matrix 120gb both drives are backed by a three year warranty according to a report published by droid-life the model number for the bionic that was listed on motorola s specification page may be referencing the older xt865 which is already available for sale on the market but that is more of a typographical error on motorola s part as the xt865 sports specifications which are vastly different from those that were listed out on the site for example droid-life 11

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august 4th 2011 published by vr-zone power consumption warranty temperature controller interface strontium strontium gamma 115gb matrix 120gb sandforce sf-1222 marvell 88ss9174bld2 supports supports 1.5/3.0gbps sata 6/3.0gbps sata i/ii interface iii/ii interface supports sata fully compliant 3.0gb/s ncq and with ata/atapi-7 ahci commands standard fully compliant supports smart with ata/atapi-7 self-monitor standard analysis and reporting supports smart technology self-monitor analysis and trim support o/s reporting support required technology supports secure trim support o/s erase and write support required protect function supports secure erase and write protect function supports dynamic and static wear levelling humidity operating shock vibration mtbf form factor compliance random 4k write performance of 50,000 iops 4k aligned active 2.0w idle 0.5w 3 years operating temperature 0°c +70°c storage temperature -20°c 85°c 0°c~55°c 95 rh 10cycles 1,500g duration 0.5ms half sine wave 20g peak 10~2khz with 3axis >1,000,000 hours 2.5 fully compliant with rohs directive ce and fcc compatibility random 4k write performance of 50,000 iops 4k aligned active 150mw 3 years operating temperature 0°c +70°c storage temperature -20°c 85°c 1,500g duration 0.5ms half sine wave 2 ­500 hz at 3.1g >1,200,000 hours 2.5 fully compliant with rohs directive ce and fcc compatibility lg unveils two new cinema 3d tvs in korea source http vr-zone.com/articles/lg-unveils-two-new-cinema-3d-tvs-inkorea/13199.html august 4th 2011 supports dynamic data integrity and static wear under powerlevelling cycling 6,000 times data integrity under powercycling 6,000 times supports f/w upgrade function 25nm mlc maximum sequential read speed 280 mbps maximum sequential write speed 270 mbps lg electronics has announced the availability of its new cinema 3d-capable led-backlit high-definition television sets hdtvs the 47-inch 47lw9800 and 55-inch 55lw9800 touted as the crown-jewel of 3d-capable television sets the korean electronics company has claimed that the new lw9800 series of hdtvs boast the most advanced technologies and features ever developed by it more details after the break lg has announced the availability of its new cinema 3dcapable led-backlit high-definition television sets hdtvs the 47-inch 47lw9800 and 55-inch 55lw9800 the new htdvs have been claimed by lg to be the crown-jewels of 3d-capable television sets and that they both feature the most advanced technologies and features ever developed by the company flash performance 25nm mlc maximum sequential read speed 415 mbps maximum sequential write speed 175 mbps 12

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august 4th 2011 august 4th 2011 published by vr-zone according to the official press release issued by lg the new 47-inch 47lw9800 and 55-inch 55lw9800 3d-capable lcd tvs sport what the company calls its nano full led and trumotion 480hz technology lg claims that its nano full led lighting technogy makes use of an extremely thin film printed with minuscule dots to disperse light more evenly across the screen with the result being brighter clearer and smoother pictures while trumotion 400hz ensures that images displayed by the telvision stay silky smooth no matter how fast the action in addition lg has also claimed that the 47lw9800 and 55lw9800 will make use of the company s passive cinema 3d display technology which is reportedly capable of eliminating common symptoms of discomfort experienced by users who own television sets which make use of the conventional active 3d technology such as dizziness or disorientation this has made it possible for the korean electronics company to deliver affordable and comfortable 3d glasses which are affordable lightweight and battery free thus ensuring that user comfort is not affected last but definitely not least lg has added that the new 47-inch 47lw9800 and 55-inch 55lw9800 3d-capable lcd tvs will come bundled with various smart tv features such as support for online connectivity multi-screen display and the inclusion of a built-in web browser to allow it to access the internet along with a smart motion remote control for operating the tv set no information about pricing and global availability for the aforementioned television sets has been released at this point of time although lg claims that the products were first launched in korea two days ago the logitech revue may have made the headlines recently over its drastic price drop from us$249 to us$99 but that does not mean that all is not going well for the google tv set-top box at least where end-users and the hacker comunity are concerned apparently some enterprising developers have managed to successfully flash the revue with version 3.1 of the android operating system honeycomb well before logitech plans to roll out its own official android 3.1 firmware update come summer this year so logitech has slashed the price of its revue google tv set-top box by almost 60 from us$249 to us$99 while that might sound like a typical response for any company whose product is not doing very well on the market it would seem that the latest bit of news regarding the revue might be just the kind of information that could potentially help renew consumer interest in logitech s google tv set-top box apparently a group of enterprising hackers have somehow managed to flash the revue with a custom android 3.1 rom aka honeycomb and details on how to do so have somehow managed to leak onto the internet complete with pictorial evidence and yes this custom rom apparently comes preloaded with the android market app hackers successfully flash logitech revue with honeycomb 3.1 source http vr-zone.com/articles/hackers-successfully-flash-logitechrevue-with-honeycomb-3.1/13198.html if you will remember our earlier article we mentioned that logitech has already planned to roll out a software update that will see existing revue set-top boxes gain access to both the android 3.1 honeycomb operating system and the android 13

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august 4th 2011 published by vr-zone market at once however with the revue now going for as low as us$99 we really would not be surprised to hear of consumers actually purchasing one of those revues just to satisfy their curiosity by trying to see if they can flash the device s stock firmware with a custom build of the honeycomb operating system toshiba unveils new standardheight 1tb hard disks for notebooks source http vr-zone.com/articles/toshiba-unveils-new-standardheight-1tb-hard-disks-for-notebooks/13197.html august 4th 2011 well that sure didn t take very long in less than two weeks after we published the news of western digital s success in rolling out what was probably the world s first standardheight 1tb-touting mobile hard disks for notebooks out comes toshiba with its own variant of such a hard disk the mq01abd100 which the japanese company has claimed is specially designed for devices such as high-performance notebooks and hard disk-based media recorders remember the news we posted some time back about western digital unveiling what was probably the world s first standardheight mobile hard disk that boasted as astronomical storage capacity of 1tb well the good news is that users who are in need of a new high-capacity hard disk but want more options to choose from will probably have much to look forward to this is because western digital s scorpio blue hard disk has found itself a new competitor in the market for standard-height mobile hard disks boasting 1tb of storage space and it comes in the form of toshiba s latest product the mq01abd100 according to toshiba the new mq01abd100 hard disk sports an areal density of 744gb/in2 and boasts a power consumption of no more than 0.55 watts when idle along with a 25 improvement in energy efficiency over its moreconventional hard disk models such as the mk7559gsxp in addition toshiba claims that the new mq01abd100 hard disk produces lesser noise as well peaking at 24db during seek operations and features standard specifications such as 8mb of cache a platter speed of 5,400rpm support for version 2.6 of the sata specification and a maximum shock tolerance of up to 8,820 m s2 when non-operational 3,920 m s2 when operational 14

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august 4th 2011 published by vr-zone no details about pricing and availability for the new mq01abd100 hard disk has been announced by toshiba at this point of time although akihabara news is claiming that the device is expected to debut in japan come mid-august this year japan to start selling microsoft s new touch mouse next month source http vr-zone.com/articles/japan-to-start-selling-microsoft-s-newtouch-mouse-next-month/13196.html august 4th 2011 the specifications of the mouse have remained mostly unchanged since its initial debut way back at ces this year it makes use of microsoft s signature bluetrack technology which is reportedly capable of allowing users to utilize the touch mouse on virtually any surface while a nano receiver serves as the link which connects the mouse to one s pc in addition the touch sensors on the microsoft touch mouse are also said to be capable of recognizing different finger sizes a trait which could potentially allows users to map various flicks and gestures to different fingers last but definitely not least itmedia has claimed that the microsoft touch mouse draws power from two aa batteries and is reportedly capable of providing up to three months of uptime on a fresh set of batteries oh and it is available in any colour you want as long as it is black remember the microsoft touch mouse that was first unveiled at ces this year you know the one that reportedly supports three-finger gestures is supposed to be available for sale only in the second half of the year and is said to be the direct competitor to apple s magic mouse well it seems like the wait for the mouse to finally reach our shores may soon be at an end now that microsoft has announced the availability of the new touch mouse in japan approximately seven months ago we ran a story describing what was essentially microsoft s answer to apple s multitouchcapable magic mouse the microsoft touch mouse which first debuted at ces and was touted to be capable of supporting gestures made by up to a maximum of three fingers unfortunately microsoft did not release any concrete details about the mouse s release date at that point of time preferring to simply claim that consumers could expect to see the device hit retail shelves starting from the second half of the year old twitter users to be upgraded to new twitter this week source http vr-zone.com/articles/old-twitter-users-to-be-upgraded-tonew-twitter-this-week/13195.html august 4th 2011 are you still using the old twitter interface which has now been dubbed by many as old twitter well if you are you might want to actually start getting used to the new interface which the popular microblogging service has rolled out way back last year the company has confirmed that it plans to upgrade all existing old twiiter users to the new interface by this week well change is never easy right well looks like twitter has finally decided to get serious about its plans for upgrading the user interface for its popular online social networking and microblogging service apparently we have just received word from the company itself that the new twitter user interface which was first unveiled to users way back in september last year will soon take over as the default interface when users access twitter and that the old twitter interface will be going the way of the dinosaur when that happens this week and if you thought we were making this up this official tweet from the company itself that was seemingly made only a should dispel all remaining doubt that the ui change due to take place within this week although twitter has seemingly decided to not provide an exact date for the global rollout of the new twitter interface fast forward to the present and it seems that the long wait for microsoft s new touch mouse might soon be at an end especially if this latest announcement made by the the redmond giant s japan office is of any indication apparently the touch mouse is expected to be made available for sale in japan come september this year and that it will reportedly be retailing at the price of 7980 yen or approximately us$103 15

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