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june 30th 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 sandy bridge-e delayed until january 2012 source http vr-zone.com/articles/sandy-bridge-e-delayed-untiljanuary-2012/12816.html june 30th 2011 too hot to handle sony issues bios update for 535,000 vaio notebooks at risk of overheating source http vr-zone.com/articles/too-hot-to-handle-sony-issues-biosupdate-for-535-000-vaio-notebooks-at-risk-of-overheating/12815.html june 30th 2011 wow what s going on at intel it seems like the company has decided to delay its entire consumer desktop roadmap as we ve now heard from a very reliable source that intel has pushed back the sandy bridge-e launch from q4 this year to january 2012 wow what s going on at intel it seems like the company has decided to delay its entire consumer desktop roadmap as we ve now heard from a very reliable source that intel has pushed back the sandy bridge-e launch from q4 this year to january 2012 we have a feeling that intel is doing an amd and what we mean by that is that intel is focusing on its server cpu business instead of on consumers amd delayed its consumer bulldozer launch in favour of its opteron cpus and it s possible that this is part of what made intel change its strategy the sandy bridge-e cpus are based on the same core as intel s upcoming lga-2011 and lga-1356 xeon processors and these are big chips which mean fewer chips per wafer as such it s entirely plausible that intel is trying to stock up on chips for its xeon platforms but this is only speculation from our side at this point in time as the sandy bridge-e cpus are set to replace intel s aging lga-1366 core i platform it looks like the enthusiast end of the market is going to have to wait another quarter before they can get their hands on the new platform this is going to disappoint quite a few people out there but this is still a very tiny market for intel and it s unlikely that it will affect intel s profits much if at all hopefully there won t be any further delays although it s also entirely possible that this is a calculated move by intel as the company launched a new lga-1366 cpu only this week but it s believed to be the last of a dying breed sony has just issued an urgent bios update for certain f and c series vaio notebooks the affected models were sold in the first half of 2010 and are at risk of overheating due to a faulty thermal management system according to sony the bios update should fix the issue more than half a million units worldwide are affected of which 120,000 are in southeast asia more than half a million vaio notebooks are at risk of overheating due to a faulty thermal management system according to sony a product recall was previously issued but sony now says that a bios update will fix the problem the affected parts have serial numbers starting with vpcf11 or vpccw2 and were sold in the first half of 2010 535,000 notebooks are affected worldwide about half of which are in the us of the remainder 103,000 are in europe 120,000 are in southeast asia and 52,000 are in japan the number of overheating cases reported so far is said to be between 30 and 40 no injuries have occured but the notebooks can get hot enough to warp the plastic casing and cause burns to check if your sony notebook is affected refer to sony s support website sony advises owners of affected notebooks to cease all usage until the fix has been applied 1

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june 30th 2011 published by vr-zone this is hardly the first notebook recall in recent years though recalls are more often due to notebook batteries in 2008 sony recalled 73,000 vaio notebooks due to a similar overheating issue sony was forced to recall over 4 million notebook batteries back in 2006 after a notebook battery exploded in japan skype announces updated client for android brings video calling to supported smartphones source http vr-zone.com/articles/skype-announces-updated-client-forandroid-brings-video-calling-to-supported-smartphones/12809.html june 30th 2011 according to the official press release skype for android 2.0 will allow users of android-powered smartphones to make and receieve free 1-1 video calls over skype between their android phone as well as with other skype contacts who are making use of the service on other platforms in addtion the client will work with both wifi and 3g data connections although skype recommends the use of a strong wifi connection for best results users will also notice that the user interface for skype s new client has been given an overhaul as shown in the image below according to skype this was done to ensure that users can easily gain direct access to all of the key functions that are available in the client for the longest time users of android smartphones could only watch in envy while their ios-totting friends were happily utilizing skype s services to initiate video calls among their fellow ios users but it seems that things are about to change for the better very soon this is because skype just announced the availability of an updated client which it has confirmed will be bringing that missing feature to the android platform android users let the video calls begin skype may have been present on mobile platforms for a long time but the unfortunate truth is that the android version of skype still has some way to go before it can be proclaimed to have finally achieved feature-parity with the one that is currently available for apple s ios this is especially true considering how skype for android still lacks support for video calls a feature that was made available for ios 4 in late december last year however just as good things always comes to those who wait it would seem that today is the day android users can finally have something to phone home about for skype has just announced the availability of an updated version of its android client which is designed to bring that missing feature to what is currently recognized as the fastest growing mobile os of course in addition to video calls users can also continue to make use of skype s services as a means to make calls to landlines and mobiles as well as send sms s to their friends and family members under skype s existing rates that being said you might want to hold your horses first vr-zone was given the opportunity to interview skype s mark douglas who confirmed that support for video calls is currently limitted to only four devices in the initial rollout and they are htc s desire s sony ericsson s xperia neo and xperia pro and google s nexus s although skype has confirmed that more devices will be added to its compatibility list in time however there is no way to get the feature working on unsupported phones as douglas has confirmed that the 2

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june 30th 2011 published by vr-zone app is closed-ended this means that devices which fulfill the minium requirements android 2.3 meets the os s video requirements but are not on the compatibility list will be locked out from making video calls via skype on their smartphone although they will still have access to all the other services also those of you who are hoping for a greater degree of integration of skype into android will probably be disapointed to know that the company has got no plans to do so but that is only because the developers are limitted to what google allows them to do via the sdk and last but defintiely not least no group video conferencing is not available on this new release although douglas did suggest that such a feature might eventually make its way into future versions of its mobile skype client once smartphones gain access to much more powerful and capable hardware above 8 usb 2.0 ports 2 usb 3.0 ports and a single hdmi display output gigabyte ga-z68xp-ud3-issd preview source http vr-zone.com/articles/gigabyte-ga-z68xp-ud3-issdpreview/12810.html june 30th 2011 above the power delivery system uses drmos driver +mosfet intel specifically designed the 20gb ssd 311 to be used as a cache drive with z68 s smart response technology now gigabyte has taken the msata version of the ssd 311 and bundled it onto a full-fledged z68 motherboard hoping to save you the hassle of purchasing the ssd separately we haven t had the chance to test out this unique motherboard yet but look inside for a quick tour above an additional two usb 3.0 ports are accessible via header a marvell 88se9172 controller provides two additional sata 6 gbps ports grey above gigabyte s trademark blue colour scheme 3

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june 30th 2011 published by vr-zone behind the scenes the making of the jay chou asus n43 notebook source http vr-zone.com/articles/behind-the-scenes-the-making-of-thejay-chou-asus-n43-notebook/12808.html june 30th 2011 above the two x16 slots can be used in a x8/x8 configuration for sli/crossfire gigabyte has used the realtek alc889 audio codec and rtl8111e ethernet controller today vr-zone barged into a secret asus design facility where jay chou has been spending some of his time to design and develop the n43 notebook we are shown with some of his works that are eventually incorporated into the final design of the notebook let us walk you through the workplace of jay chou now above the key selling point of this motherboard an onboard intel ssd 311 20gb solid state drive today vr-zone barged into a secret asus design facility where jay chou has been spending some of his time to design and develop the n43 notebook the asus designers revealed that jay chou spend some of his nights in this facility over the last 6 months entering only by the back door to avoid any unwanted attention his visits to asus are even kept a secret from most of the asus employees we are shown with some of his works that are eventually incorporated into the final design of the notebook let us walk you through the workplace of jay chou now stay tuned for our full review of the gigabyte ga-z68xp-ud3issd 4

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june 30th 2011 published by vr-zone this is the place where jay chou sat down with asus designers to ponder over the design colors and features that he wish to see in the notebook this is also the place he drew the j letter in calligraphy the asus designers eventually picked this one and a few others to mix and match to form the perfect j these are the j letter calligraphy drawn by jay chou and one of them is picked by the asus designer as the signature j found on the n43 notebooks the signature j letter is found on the box and notebook 5

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june 30th 2011 published by vr-zone initially he wanted a really bright pink but through numerous revisions the color is eventually toned down to the one you are seeing now that s all for the walk through of his workplace in the asus design facility olympus officially announces three new micro four thirds cameras source http vr-zone.com/articles/olympus-officially-announces-threenew-micro-four-thirds-cameras/12807.html june 30th 2011 jay chou and the asus designers have drawn this together and is eventually imprinted onto the notebook cover while panasonic may have claimed an early head start in this race with the recent launch of the gf3 it is clear that olympus is not about to let itself get outdone anytime soon for the company has just announced three new micro four thirds system cameras that look set to give panasonic s gf3 a run for its money vr-zone brings you the coverage not so long ago panasonic and olympus made headlines when they jointly announced the creation of the micro four thirds system the new standard was initially met with varying degrees of skepticism some pundits claimed that the concept was superfluous because the use of large lenses would negate any size-related advantages that micro four thirds was founded upon fast forward to 2011 and what was once considered a superfluous standard has quickly matured into one of the most popular segments in the digital camera market due to its ability to capture excellent stills in a compact-sized body as evidence of this success olympus saw it fit to announce not one but three new micro four thirds cameras today that at the national geographic store in vivocity singapore jay chou has written on some post it notes specifically wanting a hot pink color notebook and exceptional sound quality 6

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june 30th 2011 published by vr-zone the latest additions to the micro four thirds stable are the e-p3 olympus s flagship model and the smaller e-pl3 and e-pm1 hirobumi imano above olympus imaging corp s general manager for the design centre was given the task of officially unveiling the new devices to the world imano described how the new cameras reflect the design principles which have been a focal point of the company s pen cameras even since their conception a camera should not be a toy the olympus pen is a product that is designed to deliver the happiness of photography all over the world without two main obstacles difficulty in usage and price pen exludes a sense of class and refinement and its feature set is always expanding and today we will introduce the e-p2 s sucessor which sports the same design but is a completely different camera in its own regard along with two additional products he said in japanese smaller e-pm1 will get live guide which allows users to control the camera s background defocusing toshiyuki terada above senior manager of olympus slr division then described some of the new features of the new ep3 e-pl3 and e-pm1 in a nutshell the new e-p3 will feature a faster autofocus algorithm an extremely sensitive sensor capable of iso 12800 truepic vi technology and a capacitive oled touchscreen terada also announced the availability of two new largeaperture prime lenses for its entire micro four thirds camera lineup the 12mm f2.0 snap lens and the 45mm f1.8 portrait lens the e-pl3 will boast a tilting widescreen lcd display and support for high-speed continous shooting while the 7

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june 30th 2011 published by vr-zone lamptron to release sliderbased fan controller source http vr-zone.com/articles/lamptron-to-release-slider-based-fancontroller/12804.html june 30th 2011 lamptron a china-based manufacturer of computer modding accessories has announced the fc9 fan controller the fc9 uses sliders to control up to four fans and includes customizable led lighting see inside for more pictures as weak pc end-user demand and consequent inventory buildup at oems and that prices may continue to fall in july amd s next-generation opteron microprocessors which are based off the bulldozer microarchitecture will reportedly boast a new feature where by users can tweak the chip s maximum tdp thus allowing them to strike a balance between power consumption and performance netvolution has launched its very own avenue app store for microsoft s desktop windows operating system in which users can browse through apps by popularity and category and be informed about featured and new apps eurocom corporation has announced its support for the high-performance killer wireless-n 1102 highperformance wireless network adapter as another available wireless card option in its premium notebook solutions blizzard announced the availability of a new starter edition of the popular world of warcraft game in which gamers will be allowed to play for free until their character reaches level 20 after which their levels will remain capped until the full version is purchased and psp owners can expect to see more action from lord the most badass freakin overlord in the cosmos zetta for nippon ichi has confirmed that it will be porting the ps2 title makai kingdom over to sony s handheld gaming console and is expected to be released for sale on september 22 hardware news sentey burton full-tower computer case benchmark reviews description the sentey burton gs-6500 is a full tower enclosure developed for enthusiasts who desire high performance and a sexy exterior this case flaunts its multiple led fans and led buttons turning heads in the process the burton is one of several models belonging to the extreme division line of computer cases and it is available in 3 flavors the gs-6500 in glossy black the gs-6500b with blue highlights and grills and the gs-6500r with red highlights and grills it s pretty easy to glance at the exterior of this case and be charmed into submission dram contract prices may decline further says nanya description weak pc end-user demand and consequent inventory build-up at oems have put pressure on contract prices for dram nanya technology has pointed out prices may continue to fall in july as oem clients slow down their pace of orders nanya said team group tr1151 usb 3.0 42-in-1 usb 3.0 card reader review description usb 3.0 the big brother of the usb 2.0 bus standard which was introduced way back in 2000 is now here and in force after quickly gaining momentum in the market after both asus and gigabyte launched boards at ces 2010 with usb 3.0 chips onboard as a quick recap usb 3.0 claims to offer a ten times improvement over usb 2.0 which has a maximum bandwidth of 480mbit/s or 60mb/s usb 3.0 has a maximum bandwidth of 5gbit/s or 625mb/s while we are not sure if you would actually know someone who has achieved speeds this high the potential is there as the products that make up usb 3.0 such as chips and devices ramp up in terms of performance liteon ihes212 12x internal blu ray review xsreviews 8 lamptron is doing away with knobs on its latest fan controller the fc9 uses sliders instead to control the fan speed supporting up to four fans each channel can deliver up to 50w of power or just over 4a which is more than enough for high performance fans the dimensions of the fc9 are 148.5 x 42.5 x 75mm which means it will fit into a 5.25 bay the fc9 will be available in silver or black with both models including customizable led lighting the fc9 supposedly requires a 600w power supply for optimal operation but unless you really use that many high-powered fans it doesn t really make sense pricing for the fc9 has not been announced the daily vr-zone news summary 29 june 2011 source http vr-zone.com/articles/the-daily-vr-zone-news-summary 29june-2011/12798.html june 30th 2011 in today s news roundup nanya is claiming that the contract prices for dram could decline even further due to issues such

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june 30th 2011 published by vr-zone description blu ray might just be a stop gap before true hd streaming but for now it s one of the easier ways to get hold of high definition movies and other media especially since it s becoming more affordable while they used to cost hundreds of pounds now you can get yourself an internal one like the one we re reviewing today for around £60 this one is the liteon ihes212 12x internal let s give it a look ocz revodrive 3 x2 480gb pcie ssd review legit reviews description ocz gave everyone a hint of things to come at computex 2011 with a sneak peak of the third generation of the revodrive we ve been impressed with our previous encounters with this ssd line and this time is no different as we give the revodrive 3 x2 480gb pci-e ssd a test drive is it fast well how does 1500mb/s reads grab you oh yeah there s trim support too adesto to sample cbram description adesto technologies corp of sunnyvale in california is sampling a completely new type of ram called cbram the cb stands for conductive bridging and the ram differs from traditional dram in several important aspects first of all cbram is non-volatile and secondly it scales well down to at least 12nm where it is very difficult to manufacture traditional dram ­ to put it mildly amd s next-generation opteron bulldozer chips to feature adjustable tdp description advanced micro devices next-generation opteron microprocessors based on bulldozer microarchitecture will support capability to adjust maximum thermal design power tdp the technology will allow customers to regulate tdps in order to balance power consumption and performance of data centers consumer electronics and software news cooler master notepal infinite evo notebook cooler review description even as far as fans go i really thought i had seen it all 80mm fan 120mm fans all the way up to a single 20mm fan i have tested them all as far as standard fans go if i remember correctly i even tested a cooler with a rather large squirrel cage style fan that was the size of a hamster wheel i also recall that that fan idea didn t work out too well and offered very little in the way of actual cooling to the laptop this time around cooler master uses a blower style fan or rather a pair of them to do the cooling in the notebook cooler we received for testing with skypekit skype wants to be everywhere description skype opened up its development platform to all comers tuesday but it still has a disconnect between revenue generation and its platform efforts like many companies trying to build a dominant position in the technology ecosystem skype is navigating the path between dollars and devs windows gets an app store of its own avenue description windows users don t you wish there was a vendor-agnostic one-stop shop for downloadable software something with easily browsable categories ratings reviews and simple purchase options several companies are trying to make an apple app store-like software shop for windows yesterday we noted the launch of pokki a store that puts mobile-style applets on the pc desktop avenue is a user friendly lightning fast and immediately available option for fully functioning windows apps custom firmware alternatives for your wireless router description for most users a good wireless router is the one that you set up in a few easy steps and forget about it as long as it gets you online but beyond the stock features that came with your router there are many things that the hardware you bought might be capable of luckily for you people have been working on ways to get the fancy stuff running on your average $60 100 device after a relatively simple upgrade to a free third-party firmware you ll be able boost your wireless signal prioritize what programs get your precious bandwidth and do lots of other stuff usually reserved for pro-grade wireless routers nvidia gets excited about alienware notebooks description and it s all thanks to its own gtx 580m gpu the company says you can buy the alienware m18x notebook now if you re richer than the sense you have there s an option to have two of the gpus under the hood if it takes your fancy machines that feature the gtx 580m says nvidia are among the fastest directx 11 machines you ll find on the market it claims the gpus offer up to six times the tessellation performance of any other notebook gpu along with a performance increase of 20 percent compared to the last lot the world s fastest notebooks now support the world s fastest wireless card description eurocom corporation a leading developer of long lifespan fully upgradable notebooks high performance mobile workstations all-in-one desktops and mobile servers is announcing support for the killer wireless-n 1102 highperformance wireless network adapter as another available wireless card option in eurocom systems the addition of the killer wireless-n 1102 adapter by bigfoot networks gives eurocom customers an ultra high-performance wireless card for their custom built notebook the hp touchpad will come with its own facebook tablet app leaked pics description the world has been waiting for an official facebook tablet app and waiting and waiting but that app may not appear on the ipad first although facebook is working on an ipad app for sure instead facebook s first tablet app will appear on the hp touchpad which comes out this friday and runs the webos it bought with palm this app was not built by facebook but by hp much like how rim built the facebook app for the blackberry playbook using facebook platform gaming news world of warcraft is free until level 20 description sick of the 14-day trial in world of warcraft there is a change for the better calling it the starter edition blizzard will be making world of warcraft free-to-play until your character reaches level 20 and their levels will remain capped until you purchase the full version makai kingdom conquering psp in japan this september description fans of nippon ichi strategy rpgs like the disgaea series can definitely look forward to more of their 9

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june 30th 2011 published by vr-zone favorite titles re-released for the psp the ps2 title makai kingdom chronicles of the sacred tome known as phantom kingdom in japan will be out for sony s portable system in japan on september 22 onlive talking to sony and microsoft about streaming games description the service offered by onlive is quite intriguing as it allows you to play games on any number of platforms a high-end game plays just as well on the onlive microconsole which hooks up to your tv as it does on your pc or laptop regardless of the specifications of either computer at e3 the company even demonstrated the ability to stream games on an ipad figuring out a way to handle the controls on a touchscreen aside it s impressive two places onlive wouldn t mind also being available on are xbox 360 and playstation 3 it might seem like a stretch but it s in the process of speaking to both companies about possible support of new features it was definitely a good sign for users as it means that microsoft is definitely taking steps to ensure that internet explorer remains as up-to-date as possible with the latest web standards fast forward to the present and it seems that microsoft is not about let up development on internet explorer 10 any time soon for a quick visit to the internet explorer test drive home page reveals that the second platform preview for its upcoming web browser has already been made available for download yep all this in less than 80 days after the first platform preview was launched way to go microsoft internet explorer 10 platform preview 2 now available for download source http vr-zone.com/articles/internet-explorer-10-platformpreview-2-now-available-for-download/12803.html june 30th 2011 well it seems that microsoft sure is not about to take its time with its browser development schedule especially if this latest piece of news is of any indication in just less than 80 days the redmond giant has pushed out yet another platform preview for its upcoming internet explorer 10 web browser for developers to test and experiment with and based on what we have seen it appears that one thing is clear microsoft is deeply committed to enhancing a user s online experience with its web browser however unlike the first platform preview which had extremely little to show off to developers platform preview 2 is actually loaded with a ton figuratively speaking of new features which are bound to be of great interest to web developers especially if they have already committed themselves to the new html5 standard according to a blog post made by dean hachamovitch who serves as the corporate vice president in charge of the internet explorer team these new features come in the form of support for a wide variety of web technologies such as positioned floats html5 drag-drop and the html5 file reader api among many others most importantly though has got to be the fact that html5 forms are now supported as well although web developers were quick to note that microsoft s decision to not include support for the text-shadow attribute was a major disappointment if you would remember we heaped praise on microsoft in a story written two months ago when news broke out that the redmond giant had already commenced work on the next version of its internet explorer web browser and had even released a working platform preview of internet explorer 10 for developers to get their hands wet in spite of the fact that internet explorer 9 was barely even a month old at that time even though the platform preview had little to show in terms 10

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june 30th 2011 published by vr-zone a demonstration of positioned floats support in ie10 platform preview 2 interested well the usual disclaimer about pre-release software definitely applies even if the application comes direct from a company that is as established and reputable as microsoft considering that platform previews were never meant to be serve as full-fledged web browsers it goes without saying that this particular release like the one before it should not be used as one however if you just want to have some fun in playing around with the various new features mentioned above the second platform preview for internet explorer 10 can be downloaded off the internet explorer test drive home page here corsair hx1050 1050w psu review source http vr-zone.com/articles/corsair-hx1050-1050w-psureview/12801.html june 30th 2011 and html5 forms in addition to the various new features microsoft claims that the internet explorer 10 platform preview 2 application also boasts enhancements in a variety of areas such as web application performance and security it appears as if corsair has been releasing more highend power supplies than ram modules during the past few months it was only a few weeks ago that we reviewed the currently most powerful power supply corsair offers the ax1200 and the exceptional tx850 v2 today we are going to examine and review a unit in between those two their professional series hx1050 modular power supply it appears as if corsair has been releasing more high-end power supplies than ram modules during the past few months it was only a few weeks ago that we reviewed the currently most powerful power supply corsair offers the ax1200 and the exceptional tx850 v2 today we are going to examine and review a unit in between those two their professional series hx1050 modular power supply manufacturer s features and specifications 11

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june 30th 2011 published by vr-zone · guaranteed to sustain its full rated wattage at an ambient temperature of 50°c · up to 88 energy-efficiency under real-world load conditions · single +12v rail design providing up to 87.5a · multi-gpu ready · active power factor correction pfc with pf value of 0.99 · supports atx12v 2.2 and eps12v 2.91 standards backwards compatible with atx12v 2.01 · auto switching circuitry for universal ac input from 90-264v · over current/voltage/power protection under voltage protection and short circuit protection provide complete component safety · dimensions 150mmw x 86mmh x 180mml · mtbf 100,000 hours · safety approvals ul cul ce cb fcc class b tÜv ccc c-tick interested in licensing its webos for handheld devices apparently a number of companies are interested although this generally doesn t mean anything until a license agreement has been signed the inevitable looks like it s about to happen hp has started talks with various potential partners to see if anyone s interested in licensing its webos for handheld devices apparently a number of companies are interested although this generally doesn t mean anything until a license agreement has been signed according to bloomberg webos is being considered as a choice to google s android os and microsoft s windows phone 7 something that almost has to happen if hp wants the platform to survive it s a dog eat dog world in the mobile device os market with apple and google dominating it at the moment webos is somewhere at the bottom of the pecking order having been a proprietary solution owned by palm before hp bought the company and although it has a lot of unique features and several benefits over its competitors it lacks market share samsung is rumoured to be one of the companies interested but considering the company is already involved in just about every single mobile os platform bar ios at least directly this isn t entirely surprising the question is who else will jump on board as hp needs all the device partners it can get to grown the ecosystem for its webos especially as its lacking in developer support for apps the way the market has developed this has become a key part of any mobile os as if you can t offer the apps your customers want they ll go elsewhere hp is also expected to be putting its webos on its desktop and notebook computers but as a virtualised environment rather than as a dual boot solution the reason behind this move is so that users could access their mobile device apps even on their desktop something that could prove to be a small win for hp that said if it remains exclusive to hp pc s it s not likely to go down well with webos users as very few consumers tend to like to get tied in with a single brand for all their products notwithstanding apple users cmpsu-1050hx ac 100-240v input 13a-7.5a 50/60hz dc +5v +3.3v output max 30a 30a current max 180w 1050w combined wattage total power 1050w 50°c ambient temperature +12v 87.5a 9.6w -12v 0.8a 17.5w +5vsb 3.5a olympus set to launch new m4/3 cameras later today source http vr-zone.com/articles/olympus-set-to-launch-new-m43cameras-later-today/12800.html june 30th 2011 hp mulling webos licensing source http vr-zone.com/articles/hp-mulling-weboslicensing/12802.html june 30th 2011 the inevitable looks like it s about to happen hp has started talks with various potential partners to see if anyone s if you re looking at getting a new mirrorless camera then you might want to hold off a little bit as later today olympus is set to unveil no less than three new micro 4/3 cameras of which pictures of two models have already leaked full specs of one model has also made an appearance on the web ahead 12

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june 30th 2011 published by vr-zone of the launch and one of the headline features of olympus new models is superfast auto-focusing if you re looking at getting a new mirrorless camera then you might want to hold off a little bit as later today olympus is set to unveil no less than three new micro 4/3 cameras of which pictures of two models have already leaked full specs of one model has also made an appearance on the web ahead of the launch and one of the headline features of olympus new models is superfast auto-focusing the three new models are the pen e-p3 e-pl3 and e-pm1 all based around the m4/3 lens and sensor system so far full details of the e-p3 has tipped up alongside with a couple of pictures of the e-pm1 as far as the e-pl3 is concerned it seems like we might have to wait until the official launch later today as far as the e-pm1 is concerned we re looking at a tiny m4/3 camera albeit apparently not as small as panasonic s gf3 and it s meant to share its design but not size with the e-pl3 as far as specifications are concerned we ll have to wait for the official word from olympus but the good news is that we ll be at the launch event in taipei to bring you the full details of these new cameras and lenses msi s cx480 notebook features top mounted battery indicator source http vr-zone.com/articles/msi-s-cx480-notebook-features-top the e-p3 is olympus new high-end m4/3 mirrorless model and it features what olympus calls instant af this almost sounds too good to be true but olympus has created a sensor for its new cameras with 35 focus points that are spread across most of the sensor surface and it features what is believed to be infra-red sensors to further improve the af speed olympus claims that this camera has the fastest af of any camera with interchangeable lenses which says something about how good it should be further improvements over the e-p2 ­ a camera which shares a very similar body and design with the e-p3 ­ include an oled touch screen which is expected to feature a higher resolution compared to olympus current m4/3 cameras despite having a touch screen olympus has included a regular mode dial as well as two customizable scroll wheels for more advanced users the e-p3 is also olympus first m4/3 camera to offer 1080 video recording albeit only interlaced video at 60fps it records video in the avchd or mjpeg formats and it can also shoot in 720p a few new lenses are also expected and to get the most out of the new superfast af you need to team the camera up with the new lenses mounted-battery-indicator/12796.html june 30th 2011 so far we ve already seen quite a few notebook models from msi this year but the company is continually updating its line up and the new cx480 follows the cx640 in terms of overall design but it has a few features of its own msi has really started to get the fact that design matters and beyond having managed to put together something that looks attractive the company will also offer the cx480 in multiple colours and we have some exclusive pictures of the blue model so far we ve already seen quite a few notebook models from msi this year but the company is continually updating its line up and the new cx480 follows the cx640 in terms of overall design but it has a few features of its own msi has really started to get the fact that design matters and beyond having managed to put together something that looks attractive the company will also offer the cx480 in multiple colours and we have some exclusive pictures of the blue model 13

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june 30th 2011 published by vr-zone the standard 6-cell 4,400mah battery is said to be good for up to 8.5h of usage and a one hour charge replenishes 80 percent of the battery power the screen has an ambient light sensor and it adjusts the screen backlight automatically based on ambient light and there are 16 brightness levels at 2.2kg the cx480 is somewhat on the chunky side but still a fairly standard 14-incher it will be available in black white and blue as per our pictures no word on pricing as yet but we d expect it to be slightly cheaper than the cx640 which would put it in the very affordable category the cx480 is by all intents and purposes a fairly average 14inch notebook with a 1366x768 resolution screen a choice of an intel core i3-2310m or core i5-2410m processor and it should support up to 8gb of 1333mhz ddr3 memory that said msi has kitted it out with a geforce gt 520m graphics card with 1gb of dedicated ddr3 graphics memory and in as much as this is nvidia s most basic 500-series mobile gpu it should still prove to be a smidgen faster than intel s hd 3000 graphics rumour nvidia s nextgen kepler taped out amd southern islands in september source http vr-zone.com/articles/rumour-nvidia-s-next-gen-keplertaped-out-amd-southern-islands-in-september/12799.html june 30th 2011 add to that various storage options an optical drive 802.11b g/n wi-fi bluetooth 3.0 gigabit ethernet two usb 2.0 ports a usb 3.0 port hdmi d-sub a pair of audio jacks a memory card reader and a webcam and you got a somewhat better than average notebook however msi has added at least one nifty feature a battery charge indicator located next to the power button this consists of four green leds which will switch off in order and once you hit 10 percent battery life the last led will start flashing after an eternity at 40nm thanks to 32nm cancelation and 28nm delays the gpu industry is finally transitioning to tsmc s long long awaited 28nm hkmg process fudzilla reports that nvidia s next-gen gpu based on the kepler architecture has already been taped out on the amd side of things we have heard reports of southern islands tape-out dating all the way back to march 2011 amd s southern islands gpus could release as early as september with nvidia s kepler releasing earliest in q4 2011 more likely q1 2012 at this early stage there is still very little known about the next generation while amd has recently presented it s future gpu architecture at amd fusion developer summit the hd 14

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june 30th 2011 published by vr-zone 7000 generation is expected to be a tweaked version of the vliw-4 architecture currently used only in hd 6900 series of course it is possible that the one line of the hd 7000 series perhaps hd 7900 will feature the new amd s graphics core next architecture following a similar architecture split as seen in the hd 6000 series other rumours also suggest amd will be splitting gpu lines between tsmc and globalfoundries while optimistic rumours peg southern islands release date at mid-q3 semiaccurate suggests that september is a more likely release date for the first hd 7000 gpus the bottleneck as usual is tsmc and it remains to be seen when they can fab 28nm wafers and in what quantity incredibly the first 40nm gpu the hd 4770 was released over 2 years back pegged back at 40nm both nvidia and amd have only offered incremental performance upgrades for the geforce 500 and hd 6000 generations the gpu industry in general desperately needs an efficient 28nm process over to tsmc samsung to launch korea s first android-based smart home phone on july source http vr-zone.com/articles/samsung-to-launch-korea-s-firstandroid-based-smart-home-phone-on-july/12797.html june 30th 2011 well according to the official press release from samsung the upcoming portable media player which is also known as the galaxy 070 will be able to function as a mobile phone of sorts due to the use of voip to achieve this feat in fact to further convey the message that the galaxy 070 is capable of functioning as a mobile phone albeit without a sim card samsung has announced that it has teamed up with lg u for the galaxy 070 s official launch on the first of july this year where the device will reportedly be marketed as korea s first ever smart home phone to be based off the android operating system further sweetening the deal are the hardware specifications of the galaxy 070 samsung has confirmed that the device will boast a four-inch super clear lcd screen a rear-facing camera capable of capturing still images at a maximum resolution of three megapixels a t-dmp module wifi and bluetooth wireless connectivity 8gb of memory and support for additional storage via the use of microsd cards customers who purchase the samsung galaxy 070 smart home phone from lg u will be charged the same tarrifs that are currently has in place for existing internet phones however the company has also added that it will be enhancing the functionality of the device by allowing consumers to access the all-important android market on the galaxy 070 a decision which will definitely appeal to users considering how important a role apps play in the popularity of a mobile platform no information about the galaxy 070 s pricing has been revealed by either company considering how google s android operating system was originally designed to be an os which is meant to be used exclusively by smartphones it would be expected that samsung s idea of introducing a line of portable media players that are powered by android would raise more than just a few eyebrows however leave it to samsung to put a unique spin on its latest galaxy media player by launching it as a voip device that is capable of making phone calls via the power of the internet now that has got to be some rather creative thinking on the korean electronic giant s part now that a smartphone is capable of fulfilling just about every single task under the sun that consumers could possibly ask for would you pay good money to purchase an androidpowered device which is designed to serve as a portable media player much like the approach apple has taken with its iphone and ipod touch product lines well it seems that samsung believes that there is still a large enough market out there for such devices to justify the release of yet another addition to its galaxy line of portable media players however in what has got to be rather interesting twist to the story samsung will not be selling the its new galaxy player as the portable media player that it is supposed to be but as a mobile phone which is capable of making actual phone calls wait say what asus and jay chou jointly announce special edition n series notebook pc source http vr-zone.com/articles/asus-and-jay-chou-jointly-announcespecial-edition-n-series-notebook-pc/12795.html 15

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