p. 1

june 20th 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 hp s touchpad priced coming july 1st source http vr-zone.com/articles/hp-s-touchpad-priced-comingjuly-1st/12703.html june 20th 2011 hp has finally unveiled the official pricing for its first two touchpad tablet skus and we re looking at 16 and 32gb with wi-fi for now although 3g models are set to follow suit the question that remains unanswered is if hp s webos will have enough pull to win over consumers and business users alike from apple and the vast array of android tablets already available in the market hp has finally unveiled the official pricing for its first two touchpad tablet skus and we re looking at 16 and 32gb with wi-fi for now although 3g models are set to follow suit the question that remains unanswered is if hp s webos will have enough pull to win over consumers and business users alike from apple and the vast array of android tablets already available in the market what s on offer is a 9.7-inch screen with 1024x768 resolution a screen size and resolution that many an ipad user should be familiar with on the inside hp hasn t skimped on the hardware though with a dual-core qualcomm snapdragon apq8060 soc clocked at 1.2ghz 3g models would have and equivalent msm model paired with a healthy 1gb of ram other features include 802.11a/b/g/n wi-fi bluetooth 2.1 edr which is a bit surprising considering the snapdragon soc supports both bluetooth 3.0 hs and bluetooth 4.0 a micro usb 2.0 port a headphone socket beats audio branded speakers and a front facing camera for video calls but oddly enough not one around the back of course there are features like light sensors an accelerometer a gyroscope and a digital compass built in as well but the non 3g versions of the touchpad lacks a built in gps the battery is rated at a healthy 6,300mah which is about the same as apple s ipad at 740g the touchpad isn t light in fact it s one of the heaviest arm tablets out there albeit only just hp s webos main strength is multitasking something it does better than most other hand held device operating systems but this alone isn t going to make it a winner the biggest problem for hp is going to be the lack of apps for the touchpad at launch although most standard apps come pre-installed at us$499.99 for the 16gb hp wants 99 cents more than apple charges for an ipad and the 32gb follows the same route with a price tag of us$599.99 at least it s also roughly the same you d expect to have to pay for a motorola xoom but you can pick up asus 32gb eee pad transformer for the same price as hp s 16gb touchpad the proof will be in the pudding as they say and hp is really going to have a tough time convincing both consumers and business users that its webos is the way forward intel adds new ulv mobile cpus to its line up source http vr-zone.com/articles/intel-adds-new-ulv-mobile-cpus-to-itsline-up/12702.html 1

[close]

p. 2

june 20th 2011 june 20th 2011 published by vr-zone evga outs geforce gt 545 for retail market source http vr-zone.com/articles/evga-outs-geforce-gt-545-for-retailmarket/12701.html june 20th 2011 this one nearly slipped us by but intel launched no less than four new ulv mobile cpus on sunday ranging from a mere 1.1ghz all the way to 1.8ghz these are of course all sandy bridge based cpus and we re looking at two core i7 s a core i5 and last but not least intel s first ulv sandy bridge celeron details of three of the models leaked a month ago but now we know how much they ll cost as well this one nearly slipped us by but intel launched no less than four new ulv mobile cpus on sunday ranging from a mere 1.1ghz all the way to 1.8ghz these are of course all sandy bridge based cpus and we re looking at two core i7 s a core i5 and last but not least intel s first ulv sandy bridge celeron details of three of the models leaked a month ago but now we know how much they ll cost as well starting at the bottom we have the dual core mobile celeron 847 which unsurprisingly is intel s slowest ulv sandy bridge processor at a mere 1.1ghz oddly enough it s still a 17w tdp cpu despite having a mere 2mb l3 cache no hyper threading and no turbo boost and of course that very low clock speed it s also worth remembering that intel s celeron and pentium sandy bridge cpus have inferior graphics to the core i models next up we have the core i5-2557m which is a step up from the current and so far only ulv core i5 the 2537m here we re looking at a dual core cpu with hyper threading clocked at 1.7ghz which is a 300mhz jump in speed over the 2537m the top turbo frequency has also been boosted from 2.3ghz for the 2537m to 2.7ghz for the 2557m although the l3 cache remains the same at 3mb the first ulv i7 is the 2637m which end up faster than the 2657m as this is yet another dual core 1.7ghz part the 2637m also beats the 2657m when it comes to turbo frequency as the older top of the range ulv part stops at 2.7ghz whereas the 2637 goes all the way to 2.8ghz the final cpu is the core i7-2677m which is a 1.8ghz part with a turbo frequency of 2.9ghz and at full turbo speed it gets quite close to intel s entry level 25w lv core i7-2629m in terms of single core performance although with a slower graphics clock pricing is as follows in quantities of 1,000 units mobile celeron 847 us$134 core i5-2557m us$250 the same as the core i5-2537m core i7-2637m us$289 the same as the core i7-2617m and finally the core i7-2677 is us$317 the same as the core i7-2657m pretty impressive stuff for 17w tdp cpu s now let s see some nice 11.6 to 12.5-inch notebooks that take advantage of the new cpus the nvidia geforce gt 545 originally an oem card has hit the retail market thanks to evga the evga geforce gt 545 is based on the gf116 gpu and has been paired with 1.5gb of gddr3 memory running on a 192-bit bus 2-way nvidia sli is supported and the card does not require additional power the nvidia geforce gt 545 originally an oem card has hit the retail market thanks to evga the evga geforce gt 545 is based on the gf116 gpu which is also the chip powering the faster geforce gtx 550 ti a fully-enabled gf116 has 192 cuda cores 32 texture units and 24 rops for the geforce gt 545 some portions of the gpu have been disabled leaving it with 144 cuda cores and 24 texture units the number of rops and memory bus depends on the memory type used on the gt 545 there are 24 rops and a 192-bit memory bus if gddr3 memory is used and 16 rops and a 128-bit memory bus if gddr5 memory is used as for the evga card the company has decided to go with 1.5gb of gddr3 memory hence its geforce gt 545 has 24 rops and a 192-bit memory bus the graphics core clock and memory clock are 720mhz and 1800mhz respectively similar to reference operating frequencies for the gddr3-equipped 2

[close]

p. 3

june 20th 2011 published by vr-zone variant 2-way nvidia sli is supported and the card does not require additional power connectors patriot introduces g2 series amd edition memory kits source http vr-zone.com/articles/patriot-introduces-g2-series-amdedition-memory-kits/12699.html june 20th 2011 patriot has introduced the new g2 series amd series memory kits which are designed for amd 9-series platforms more details inside gregory wade managing director of research in motion southeast asia said that the new blackberry bold 9900 will make its asia debut at communicasia 2011 whereby this year the event is held at marina bay sands.convention the blackberry bold 9900 is our flagship device in the bold franchise it is the ultimate communication performance and productivity device and i sincerely believed it is the best blackberry built ever with its premium design and highend functionality the blackberry bold 9900 combines the qwerty keyboard plus a vivid touchscreen is sleek and the most powerful blackberry smartphone yet featuring the new blackberry 7 os wade said blackberry bold 9900 quick hands on the patriot g2 series amd edition modules have low profile heatsinks which aid heat dissipation and yet not obstruct large cpu coolers the g2 series amd edition memory kits will be available in two speed flavors of 1333mhz and 1600mhz there will be two different capacities 4gb 2 x 2gb and 8gb 2 x 4gb in low and enhanced cas latencies to suit the needs of various users patriot will provide standard lifetime warranty as well and the kits are expected some time late june research in motion unveils blackberry bold 9900 in singapore source http vr-zone.com/articles/research-in-motion-unveils-blackberrybold-9900-in-singapore/12700.html june 20th 2011 this evening research in motion unveiled the latest blackberry bold 9900 in singapore the bold 9900 claims to be the thinnest and most powerful blackberry smartphones yet with the renowned blackberry keyboard brilliant touchscreen display and the new blackberry 7 os vr-zone brings you the coverage the blackberry bold 9900 sports a brushed stainless steel frame and besides the qwerty keyboard you can also navigate and type messages on the touchscreen display overall user experience is quite good and the device is pretty responsive 3

[close]

p. 4

june 20th 2011 published by vr-zone pricing and availability information has yet to be released though but we will let you know once we got the details the daily vr-zone news summary 20 june 2011 source http vr-zone.com/articles/the-daily-vr-zone-news-summary 20june-2011/12698.html june 20th 2011 on the right we spotted the 3.5mm audio jack and the microusb connector for charging the phone s battery and connecting to the pc for file transfer in today s news roundup analysts are predicting that demand for usb 3.0 is set to experience a huge spike as a result of amd s introductions of new chipsets that integrate support for it into the core logic chipset and that intel s upcoming ivy bridge platform when released in 2012 will see support for the standard reach even higher levels word has it that apple is planning something major for the thunderbolt interface which will not only change the way users work with their macs but will also help stimulate demand for the interface as well hp has released a new wireless computer mouse which is reportedly capable of connecting to pcs through a wifi connection as opposed to most existing wireless mice which require the use of additional hardware such as bluetooth dongles engineers from google s chrome team have claimed that future versions of the chrome browser will be capable of predicting a user s next link and automatically pre-rendering pages to further reduce loading times sony unveils a new variant of its playstation 3 console the cech-3000b which is said to be both slimmer and less power hungry than its predecessor in japan and dice has confirmed that the console ports of battlefield 3 will have their framerates locked to 30fps in order to allow a greater degree of graphical detail whilst enabling the consoles to cope better with vehicles and multiplayer hardware news 80 million 3.0 devices set to be shipped in 2011 description 2011 should be a much bigger year for the technology especially in mobile pcs driven by the first chipsets from amd that integrate superspeed into the core logic chipset intel is expected to follow with its ivy bridge chipset in 2012 this all will lead to sales of usb 3.0-capable devices to 80 million units is this summer the real debutante ball for thunderbolt description thunderbolt intel s new high speed data transfer tech has arrived but it s been on the market now since february and we ve heard a lot of noise but have yet to see it really do much in the way of changing how we use our macs signs indicate that this summer could be the time we do see that happen ocz vertex 3 240gb max iops edition ssd review legit reviews description we ve done quite a few ssd reviews this year and frankly some of the drives we test seem like carbon copies of the one before save for different branding performance tends 4 here we see the power button on the top of the blackberry bold 9900 the rear holds the battery compartment and the 5-megapixel camera that can capture 720p videos the blackberry bold 9900 also supports near-field communication nfc and comes with orientation sensor accelerometer digital compass magnetometer proximity sensor.

[close]

p. 5

june 20th 2011 published by vr-zone to be relatively equal at least within the standard deviation of the benchmarks used and it s rare for a drive to really stand out the vertex 3 mi is one of those rare drives that in a sea of virtual ssd homogeny distinguishes itself with all around performance perceptively better than any other single sata iii interfaced drive we ve tested to date except maybe the gigabyte x58a-oc intel x58 express motherboard review description back at ces during the g1-killer launch we were shown something pretty special besides the g1 we mean while tim handley was telling us about the virtues of the g1-killer line-up he flashed us a picture of a new board that was still under development this was an early image of the x58a-oc the concept was a streamlined product intended just for overclocking and performance you still get audio and lan on the board but for the most part the extras that are on many boards are gone of course with the items removed other pieces have been dropped in to handle the extra voltage and current load from pushing the cpu and multiple gpus to extremes despite the lack of all of the extra features the price is still $380 from newegg.com corsair vengeance 1866 mhz ddr3 memory benchmark reviews description corsair is a well-known name within the memory market and although they have diversified in recent years their main focuses is still memory their most recent addition to their arsenal line is the vengeance which fits in-between their xms and dominator lines of ram benchmark reviews will be looking at the corsair vengeance 1866mhz 9-10-9-28 cmz8gx3m2a1866c9 kit which is perfect for sandy bridge systems which require memory speeds to be divisible by 266.66 mhz in order to run at their rated speeds since prices have for high performance ddr3 have plummeted in the recent years this kit is priced at only $104.99 compared to the comparable dominators $169.99 price benchmark reviews will see if corners were cut to reach this price or if vengeance is the frugal enthusiast best friend asus bc-12b1st internal 12x bd-combo drive review @hi tech legion description the asus bc-12b1st drive can read a blu-ray disc and has the ability to burn data onto a dvd media the asus bc-12b1st bd-combo drive can reach read speeds of 12x for bd-rom discs and 16x for dvd-rom discs as for data burning speed the asus bc-12b1st bd-combo drive can burn a dvd r disc up to 16x and store data on cd-r discs up to 48x using asus e-green technology the bc-12b1st bd-combo drive conserves energy by closing unused drive applications while the optical tuning strategy employed by the bc-12b1st drive when burning results in excellent error-free burning using a sata interface and being compatible with a windows operating system makes the asus bc-12b1st a great addition to your pc-based home theater system raidsonic icy box ib-nas6220 hdd network mediaserver review real world labs description the icy box ib-nas6220 hdd network mediaserver by raidsonic is the ideal choice for people looking for a cost-effective dual-bay nas solution without the advanced functions and extra features found on more expensive solutions consumer electronics and software news hp shipping a mouse that connects using wi-fi description wireless mice are pretty handy but not everyone can utilize them the same way some run off bluetooth which requires for the computer to have bluetooth hardware ­ not a standard part an alternative is for an external usb dongle that adds a bluetooth or rf receiver hp is now selling a third option that uses a wi-fi connection which these days is standard on laptops to add a wireless mouse on a windows 7 system without the requirement of bluetooth or use of any additional dongles razer chimaera wireless gaming headset review madshrimps description the razer chimaera gaming headset offers wireless connectivity for maximum liberty of movement features large cups for confortable wear during long gaming sessions a uni-directional microphone with a flexible mic boom and an easy to use charging dock skype rolls out bespoke low-bandwidth client for hardship locations description a bespoke low-bandwidth version of skype has now been rolled out to 90 hardship locations providing unhcr employees with both free and low-cost voice and video calls over the internet even when connection quality is poor by the end of 2011 the aim is for skype to be in at least 80 of unhcr hardship locations and available to more than 3,000 staff members future versions of chrome will predict your next link prerender pages automatically description chromegoogle engineers are known for doing whatever it takes to shave precious milliseconds off of page loads but it s pretty rare to see them steal a page from the past in pursuit of their goal upcoming releases of chrome however will do just that adding link pre-fetching/pre-rendering to the latest editions of the company s flagship browser google s father s day reminder sparks backlash description in buzz-like fashion google set off a backlash among some u.s gmail users unhappy to see a call dad reminder automatically show up in their inboxes on sunday the search giant meant to use father s day as a chance to show off gmail s built-in voice calling feature that google launched in 2010 instead it has sparked another embarrassing episode for google earning it another social black eye canon brings multi-color rebel t3 hues to us description after previously limiting the production runs to a handful of countries like australia and canada canon on monday brought new colors of the rebel t3 to the us the dslr now comes not just in conservative black but but also the previously seen red hue as well as brown and metallic gray the palette swap is the first in years for the rebel after the company stopped shipping the camera in silver gaming news sony unveils greener lighter ps3 slim in japan description sony s mystery new ps3 model was uncovered on monday with a new model in japan the cech-3000b 5

[close]

p. 6

june 20th 2011 published by vr-zone a japanese version of the cech-3001b should be betterbehaved than the old model with a 200w power draw instead of 230w on the current slim ps3 the newer design would be lighter too at 5.7 pounds instead of the usual 6.6 battlefield 3 on console will run at half pc frame rate description over the weekend dice confirmed that battlefield 3 will run at 30 frames per second on consoles half the framerate of the pc version the developer claims that this will allow a greater degree of graphical detail whilst enabling the consoles to cope better with vehicles and multiplayer experience it can support full high definition hd 1080p video playback as well as hd hdmi output xu explained of course that is not discounting that the mediapad is equipped with qualcomm s dual-core 1.2ghz processor and supports huawei device s hi-space cloud solution and google android market according to huawei the company will have the wi-fi and 3g versions though the offering would differ from country to country no pricing information is available at press time though the mediapad is said to be available in q3 this year huawei mediapad hands on huawei launches mediapad world s first 7-inch android 3.2 honeycomb dual-core tablet source http vr-zone.com/articles/huawei-launches-mediapad-world-sfirst-7-inch-android-3.2-honeycomb-dual-core-tablet/12697.html june 20th 2011 it was just two weeks ago when chinese networking and telecommunications equipment company huawei introduced their new range of android smartphones this afternoon huawei had a global launch of their mediapad which touts to be the world s first 7-inch dual-core tablet to run android 3.2 honeycomb os victor xu chief marketing officer of huawei talked about the company s position and goal which is to be the top five leading vendor in the handset space worldwide by 2015 and leader in mobile broadband device and home device connected home solution this year we are proud to launch the the first android 3.2 operating system for a 7-inch tablet one important feature is the high definition display of this device the mediapad has a rated 217 ppi pixels per inch compared to the competitors in the market to give you a better visual experience the tablet can also provide you with the very best entertainment the mediapad has a aluminium uni-body which feels very sturdy and at 7-inch it doesn t really feel very heavy while the tablet claims to incorporate android 3.2 honeycomb os the one we hands-on was said to be a prototype model running android 3.1 from what we gathered from huawei android 3.2 is said to be optimized for 7-inch tablet devices with improvement including graphics performance and google maps functionality 6

[close]

p. 7

june 20th 2011 published by vr-zone at the top of the mediapad holds the power button and the volume controls on the upper left hand corner of the display is the 1.3-megapixel front camera designed for video calls biostar ta75m opening the rear compartment revealed the sim card and microsd memory card slots on the right side close to the rearcompartment are the power mini hdmi and microusb connectors biostar to release amd apu motherboards source http vr-zone.com/articles/biostar-to-release-amd-apumotherboards/12696.html june 20th 2011 bi ostar ta75m biostar will be releasing new amd motherboards based on the a75 chipset in july to coincide with the official worldwide launch of the llano apu more details inside biostar ta75a 7

[close]

p. 8

june 20th 2011 published by vr-zone biostar will be releasing three motherboards based on the amd a75 chipset namely the ta75a ta75m and ta75m the biostar ta75a is basically an atx motherboard whereas the ta75m and ta75m are microatx form factor motherboards the biostar ta75a will feature the upcoming fm1 processor socket four ddr3 memory slots two pci express x16 expansion slots allowing crossfire and six sata3 ports it also has usb 3.0 7.1-channel surround sound and blu-ray audio output see the full press release here it is often said that the rumour mill is not the most credible source to go mining for information but there are always rare instances where data obtained from such sources can turn out to be right on the money and this particular case appears to be a shining example of one of those rare instances apparently the rumour that hp s upcoming pre 3 smartphone will be powered by version 2.2 of the webos operating and that skype will be fully integrated into the aforementioned operating system has been proven to be true and a german blog known as webos blog claims to have in its possession a bunch of screenshot that should be enough to put all other claims to the contrary to rest according to the webos blog the integration of skype into webos 2.2 has been done in such a way that users are able to set the pre 3 to allow the routing of all international calls through skype and its voip protocol which would be extremely convenient if they intend to make use of skype as their main means of making phone calls alternatively the pre 3 also allows users to configure webos in such a way that the operating system will automatically prompt them to select between skype and the carrier s telephony services for every phone call as shown in the screenshot below hp pre 3 shows off skype integration source http vr-zone.com/articles/hp-pre-3-shows-off-skypeintegration/12695.html june 20th 2011 some time back rumour had it that hp was planning to launch its pre 3 webos-powered smartphone with version 2.2 of the operating system instead of the newer 2.3.1 and that support for skype will be fully integrated into said operating system thus negating the need to install a separate standalone app if a user wanted to engage in some voip telephony as it turns out those rumours were right on the money this time read on for more information 8

[close]

p. 9

june 20th 2011 published by vr-zone in addition webos blog also claims that users do not have to import their contact lists over from skype as the hp pre 3 supports the making of skype calls directly from the smartphone s contact list this essentially eliminates any remaining need to have a discreet skpye app installed on the pre 3 unfortunately webos blog was not able to provide any specific dates for the hp pre 3 s release although most sources claim that hp is still sticking to its plans for a mid to late july release for germany and the us here s hoping that it will not take too long before the pre 3 starts showing up for sale as part of a bundle from one of our own local telcos more hidden features in windows 8 revealed source http vr-zone.com/articles/more-hidden-features-in-windows-8revealed/12694.html june 20th 2011 we may still be months away from the rtm release of windows 8 but that has not stopped developers and curious hackers from getting their hands dirty with the various leaked builds of microsoft s upcoming operating system in the hopes of turning up new unheard-of features that might eventually debut in its final release and from the looks of it it seems that microsoft has indeed hidden quite a few surprises in windows 8 which may very well challenge most people s perception of what an operating system should be 9

[close]

p. 10

june 20th 2011 published by vr-zone location although how microsoft intends to implement it without running afoul of privacy issues remains to be seen there may still be a long time before the finalized build of windows 8 will ever see the light of day outside of microsoft s labs but as it is always the case with unreleased software one can always count on the large number of curious users and enterprising hackers to start pouring over leaked builds of microsoft s upcoming operating system in a bid to find out more about various features which microsoft has yet to announce publicly after all when one has an operating system as ubiquitous as that of windows it really goes without saying that any major release will be the subject of intense scrutiny and interest especially when it has the potential to completely change the way things are usually done in windows as it turns out some enthuasiasts have managed to get hold of a leaked copy of a new windows 8 build build 7989 and has since proceeded to reverse-engineer certain system files in leaked build this has resulted in some rather interesting results that seemingly hint at a variety of unannounced features which microsoft may have in store for windows 8 for example one particular code dump suggests that microsoft may be looking to follow in apple s footsteps by offering its own app store for windows 8 ostensibly to make it easier for users to download popular software applications however the code also seems to suggest that microsoft has got bigger plans in mind for the app store as there are references to what appears to be the capability to license and unlock various features in the operating system through it as shown in the image below this discovery has led to speculation that microsoft may decide to do away with the various skus introduced for vista and windows 7 opting instead to ship a single bare-bones image with most of the features disabled by default thus allowing users to purchase and unlock the features of their choice as and when needed last but definitely not least the code dumps also seems to suggest that windows 8 may come with built-in sms capabilities once again this makes perfect sense considering how microsoft has been attempting to pitch its windows operating system as being suitable for use on non-pc devices such as tablets and with most tablets already being 3gcapable and are thus able to accept sim cards it might not be too much of a stretch to speculate that windows 8 may even feature built-in calling capabilities to complement its sms functionality of course there are bound to be more surprises in store for consumers as windows 8 passes through each stage of the development process and suffice to say the features we have described today are probably nothing more than the proverbial iceberg s tip still considering how much microsoft has managed to achieve at this point of time we cannot help but feel that the company might just be able to outdo itself when windows 8 is finally released for retail mitsubishi releases new 23inch 120hz widescreen ips monitor source http vr-zone.com/articles/mitsubishi-releases-new-23inch-120hz-widescreen-ips-monitor/12693.html june 20th 2011 additional code dumps have also unearthed information of two unannounced features that appear to be in line with microsoft s aims of putting windows 8 on a wider variety of devices instead of limiting itself to desktop and notebook pcs the first such feature concerns geo-location which supposedly allows microsoft to track a windows 8-powered machine s need a new monitor with an extremely high refresh rate if so look no further than mitsubishi for such needs the japanese company has just announced the release of a new 23-inch monitor in japan that boasts an ips display panel capable of supporting full hd resolutions and a refresh rate of 120hz among other features read on to find out more about mitsubishi s new monitor ips panels who needs them considering how they usually tend to suffer from much slower pixel response times which 10

[close]

p. 11

june 20th 2011 published by vr-zone usually results in ghosting when used for various tasks such as gaming or video playback well tell that to people who require near-perfect colour accuracy image quality and an extremely wide viewing angle on their displays which have been widely accepted as some of the needs that can only be solved by ips monitors and leave it to mitsubishi to provide consumers with yet another choice in the market for high-end ips monitors with the introduction of its new rdt233wx-z widescreen monitor as shown below quick look kingston hyperx plug n play ddr3-1866 sodimm source http vr-zone.com/articles/quick-look-kingston-hyperx-plug-nplay-ddr3-1866-sodimm/12623.html june 20th 2011 at first glance the rdt233wx-z looks just like any other typical lcd monitor available for sale on the market today except that its hardware specifications are anything but typical according to mitsubishi the matte ips panel used in the assembly of the 23-inch rdt233wx-z monitor is not only capable of displaying content at full hd resolutions 1920 x 1080 but also delivering extremely high refresh rates of up to 120hz mitsubishi also claims that the rdt233wx-z also comes built-in support for what it calls its giga clear engine ii technology which is supposedly capable enhancing video playback by delivering crisp and high quality images in addition mitsubishi has also confirmed that the rdt233wxz supports pinp or picture in picture technology and boasts a variety of video input ports such as having two hdmi ports a dvi port a vga port and even the old japan-only d5 port unfortunately it would seem that mitsubishi has no plans release the rdt233wx-z for sale outside of its domestic market so chances of having the monitor appearing for sale in a country that is not explicitly spelt japan are next to zero still if you happen to have a wad of cash to burn and a japanese friend who is willing to help you ship the monitor over to your residence the rdt233wx-z can be yours for 54,800 yen approx us$683 once it is officially introduced into the japanese market on june 29 this year we received an interesting set of notebook memory in the mail recently kingston claims these hyperx plug n play modules will run at ddr3-1866 speed right out the box so we decided to take them for a quick test drive kingston recently sent us a pair of hyperx notebook memory modules rated for a whopping ddr3-1866 what s more kingston says these plug n play memory modules should automatically run at ddr3-1866 when installed in a compatible platform how is this possible you ask at the start of this year jedec updated the ddr3 specification to officially support ddr3-1866 and ddr3-2133 speeds this raises the speed ceiling for spd profiles serial presence detect which are used by a system to automatically determine and select the maximum speed supported by both the memory modules and the platform as enthusiasts would know when using modules rated above jedec s official speeds memory speed and timings have to be set manually to fully exploit the module s capabilities alternatively xmp extreme memory profile can also be used if both the motherboard and memory support it but changing memory settings is usually impossible on notebooks which renders the updated jedec specification of greater significance there than on the desktop this is where kingston s hyperx plug n play ddr3-1866 sodimm comes in to take advantage of the new speed ceiling 11

[close]

p. 12

june 20th 2011 published by vr-zone we first installed these modules in a asus n82jv which uses a previous-generation arrandale intel core i7-620m processor and a intel hm55 chipset disappointingly the notebook decided to run the hyperx modules at the same ddr3-1333 speed as the default modules albeit at much tigher timings next stop was a fujitsu lifebook nh751 using the latest mobile sandy bridge platform at this point we were feeling somewhat pessimistic since both intel and fujitsu list support for only ddr3-1333 to our surprise the modules worked exactly as advertised kingston sells the hyperx plug n play sodimm modules in 4gb and 8gb kits ddr3-1866 as well as slower ddr3-1600 parts are available in the table below you ll see that the slower parts are actually rated for tighter timings at ddr3-1600 part number capacity 8gb 2 x 4gb rated timings ddr3-1866 cl11-11-11 @1.5v ddr3-1600 cl10-10-10 @1.5v ddr3-1333 cl8-8-8 @1.5v 4gb 2 x 2gb 8gb 2 x 4gb ddr3-1600 cl9-9-9 @1.5v ddr3-1333 cl8-8-8 @1.5v ddr3-1066 cl6-6-6 @1.5v 4gb 2 x 2gb click on a part number to view its datasheet we received the ddr3-1866 8gb kit in typical hyperx fashion kingston has decided to prettify the modules with heatspreaders being very thin they shouldn t cause any compatibility issues unlike the notoriously oversized heatspreaders found on some hyperx desktop modules there s even a ddr3-2133 spd profile but the timings for that are so loose there s really no point let s find out how much of a performance advantage these modules will give us over standard ddr3-1333 modules of the same capacity benchmarks installation the fujitsu lifebook nh751 has the following specifications 12

[close]

p. 13

june 20th 2011 published by vr-zone processor chipset memory graphics storage operating system intel core i7-2630qm intel hm65 samsung kingston hyperx ddr3-1333 plug n play 2 x 4gb 9-9-9-24 ddr3-1866 2 x 4gb 11-11-11-32 intel hd graphics 3000 nvidia geforce gt 525m 1gb optimus 500gb 7200rpm microsoft windows 7 home premium sp1 64-bit the performance increase so far is marginal which is hardly surprising since we ve encountered the same results on desktop sandy bridge 13

[close]

p. 14

june 20th 2011 published by vr-zone likewise gaming performance shows hardly any gains when using the faster ddr3-1866 modules we had been hoping for a bigger increase when using intel hd graphics since it shares system memory conclusion kingston s hyperx plug n play notebook modules don t provide any noticeable performance advantages in return for their considerable asking price there are far more costeffective ways to improve your notebook s performance such as replacing that slow 5400rpm drive with a speedy solid state drive furthermore these modules only worked for us on a recent sandy bridge notebook and even then we can t guarantee that they work on all sandy bridge notebooks since intel doesn t appear to support such high memory speeds officially if kingston were to provide a notebook compatibility list a tall order we know or even a cpu/chipset compatibility list we would at least feel somewhat safer when spending this much on memory kingston hyperx plug n play ddr3-1866 sodimm price based on an average of online stores we were unable to find this item on sale in singapore lulzsec promises retribution against hackers responsible for attacking sega source http vr-zone.com/articles/lulzsec-promises-retribution-againsthackers-responsible-for-attacking-sega/12692.html june 20th 2011 now this has got to be an interesting twist to sega s recent woes of having the personal information of its subscribers compromised after a successful attack by hackers on its database apparently the well-known hacker group known as lulzsec has not only made an announcement to distance itself from the attack the group has even put up a notice claiming that it wants to help sega by threatening to retaliate against those who were responsible for forcing the company s service offline looks like vigilantism is still alive and well in the virtual world after all so you have read the news about sega being the latest victim in a string of cyber attacks that have seen many huge corporations being forced to take their servers offline in a bid to perform damage control and prevent hackers from further compromising any more personal information however in this case sega can probably thank its lucky stars that it did not suffer the same kind of damage and data loss that some of its fellow victims have faced while the company did not deny that it did lose a huge chunk of personal information as a result of a successful attack on one of its databases it has also assured users that the most important piece of information which is 14 pros cons plug and play in compatible minimal performance gains notebooks twice the price of the cheapest memory not be compatible with some notebooks especially older ones retail price us$148

[close]

p. 15

june 20th 2011 published by vr-zone june 20th 2011 the credit card details of its subscriber base was still safely secure in its servers according to a report posted by zdnet sega has confirmed that the attack has resulted in its sega pass service being forced offline and that the information that had been stolen as a result of the attack consists of personal information such as names dates of birth email addresses and passwords that that subscribers typically use to access the service although it was quick to point out that the damage is not as severe as most people may have imagined it to be for example the company has revealed that the stolen passwords stored in its database were encrypted and not stored in plain text as such hackers or individuals in possession of those passwords will have their work cut out of them in the form of decrypting the information in order to obtain a subscriber s original passphrase and even then sega is clearly taking no chances having taken additional measures to prevent unauthorised access by resetting the passwords for all its subscribers so the possibility of having someone successfully gaining access to sega pass with a stolen password is decidedly slim more importantly sega also revealed that the server used to store its subscribers credit card information is in the custody of an external service provider and was therefore safe from the attack however it would seem at least one prominent hacker group does not condone such actions and has gone out of its way to offer sega its assistance in finding and exacting vengeance on those hackers who perpetuated the attack indeed a quick look at lulzsec s twitter page reveals that the hacker group does mean business this time round singapore telco operator m1 has announced the launch of their long term evolution lte based network which claims to be the first in south east asia region however the coverage at launch will only be limited within the financial district though the company said that it will be expanded nationwide by q1 next year today m1 has announced the launch of its long term evolution lte based next generation mobile network on 21 june 2011 which claims to be the first in south east asia m1 s dual band lte network operating on both the 1.8 ghz and 2.6 ghz frequency bands will have an initial theoretical downlink speed of 75 mbps and uplink speed of 37.5 mbps by end 2012 the theoretical downlink and uplink speeds will be upgraded to 150 mbps and 75 mbps respectively at launch the lte network covers areas within the financial district which include marina bay suntec shenton way and other areas shown in above pic coverage is progressively expanding and is scheduled to be nationwide by the first quarter of 2012 by the way just for the record a total of 1.3 million accounts were compromised in the recent attack against sega s database now that is definitely food for thought the launch will involve customers from m1 s enterprise sector these customers will be able to access m1 s next generation mobile network service via usb modems on existing mobile broadband plans at s$59.40 with gst per month an expanded range of lte devices including tablets and smartphones are expected to be available later this year m1 claims to be first to launch south east asia s lte network source http vr-zone.com/articles/m1-claims-to-be-first-to-launch-southeast-asia-s-lte-network/12691.html blackberry playbook officially available in singapore on 23 june source http vr-zone.com/articles/blackberry-playbook-officiallyavailable-in-singapore-on-23-june/12690.html 15

[close]