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february 12th 2011 published by vr-zone copper block has been machined to house two watlow firerod cartridges inside its body rated able to generate 150w at 240v input voltage each a small pt100 sensor is installed inside a hole at the highest possible point of the copper core only half a mm lower than the top of the copper block the head of the sensor is at exactly the top center point of the copper core where an actual cpu gpu core would be active media launches flip usb flash drive february 12th 2011 active media products manufacturer of ssds doms and innovative usb drives has unveiled the capless flip usb flash drive measuring 46 x 13 x 8mm the tiny device has a usb 2.0 interface nand flash memory chip and comes in 4gb and 8gb capacities available in fire orange or white colors the flip can be purchased directly from amazon at msrps of us $12 4gb and us$20 8gb active media products press release fremont california february 7 2011 active media products a leading manufacturer of ssds doms and usb drives today announced the new flip pivot usb 2.0 flash drive an ultra-slim pivot style drive the flip drive is designed in fire orange and white racing colors giving it a unique look and the drive is extremely small and ultra-slim making it a highly portable storage device stated active media products vp of sales jerry thomson copper core in order to make our testing station compatible with every cooler ever made we went with a very simple design using interchangeable pcbs creating custom pcbs by drilling exact holes at specific points is very easy therefore by being able to easily install different pcbs and adjust their height compared to the top of the copper core we gained the ability to emulate any cpu core precisely and install any cooler despite its design size shape weight and or retention mechanism by being able to use any custom pcb and any size copper core we ensured the usability of our testing station indefinitely the pivot style lid protects the drive when not in use and you ll never have to worry about losing the lid because it conveniently flips open giving instant access to your data pack 4gb or 8gb of data securely onto the flip drive it is designed to fit easily on a keychain or in a pocket or clipped to a backpack load up to 2000 mp3 songs or up to 2400 six megapixel photos onto your flip drive to take with you anywhere cpu test pcb 14

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february 12th 2011 published by vr-zone just weeks ago hacker geohotz released the code to jailbreak sony s playstation 3 console online since the leak sony has been working hard to contain the spread of the code and in what seemed like a victorious end to the episode had successfully been awarded a temporary restraining order against geohotz himself this new flip drive is available today through amazon at approximately $12 for the 4gb model and $20 for the 8gb the flip drive is available in fire orange or white about active media products based in the heart of silicon valley active media products llc is dedicated to developing creative new media products that improve performance and enhance the user s experience our focus on innovative product development enables us to bring new technology to market a step ahead of the competition amp is a leader in small form factor ssds and manufactures the wink and the endangered species line of usb drives this prevented the hacker from distributing the code online and also sent out a stern warning to potential hackers just today though a spokesperson for sony was spotted retweeting the code on his twitter page kevin butler a fictional spokesperson for sony re-tweeted the code from user evixa an added his own quibble saying lemme guess you sank my battleship just when it seemed that everything was coming to an end this is yet another embarrassing smack in the face for sony fictional spokesperson for sony accidentally retweets ps3 hack code february 12th 2011 apple files patents for touchscreen oled technology currently in use on smartphones february 12th 2011 when news came out that sony s playstation 3 game console was hacked into by hacker geohotz it sent everyone including sony into a frenzy whilst sony has been successful in stopping the spread of the code thus far it was conveniently broadcasted to the world again this time via twitter it is well known that oled technology is superior to both conventional lcd and even the recent super lcd technology currently in use on every single single device that has a screen needless to say apple has also got its eye on this particular technology as well and clearly intends to integrate with its line of touch-based electronic devices but it appears that the cupertino giant might have plans to use this technology against the competition why else would the company being filing patents over touchscreen oled technology which appear to be currently in use for a company that always claims to be on the bleeding edge of technology apple s line of consumer electronics products especially its ipod iphone and ipads have consistently been 15

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february 12th 2011 published by vr-zone missing out on a certain display technology which is currently in use by some of its competitors yep we are talking about that expensive display technology known as oled which supposedly offers much faster response times and better power efficiency as opposed to conventional lcd panels needless to say it is hardly surprising that apple would attempt to discover ways in which it can integrate oled technology into its products and one-up the competition while in the process of doing so and as it turns out apple is indeed keen or have at least expressed an interest in doing so but as most people would have already known by now whenever apple is interested in any technological-related advances it almost always means one thing fancy a look a some new patent applications consideration the fact that apple has had no prior experience in working with oled displays it would make sense that it is not possible for them to come up with an entirely new method of implementing such displays so suddenly and needless to say broad patents make for great offensive weapons in patent lawsuits as it almost grantees that competitors would find themselves running afoul of apple s patented methods but we can only wait and see if things will really turned out as speculated source and images patently apple sony shows off new translucent dslr that consumers will never own february 12th 2011 dslrs are well known for being available in any colour the user wants them to be as long as it is black and once again leave it to sony to break the mould by exhibiting a new camera over at the cp camera and photo imaging show that sports a one-of-a-kind translucent plastic body the only problem this camera will never see the light of day in an actual photographer s hands a quick look at the patent applications reveal that apple probably has an intention to implement oled technology into a future release of consumer electronic devices indeed the first diagram features a rather technical illustration of how an oled panel might be able to fit into a device that makes use of touchscreen technology along with the possibility of implementing the touchscreen-enabled oled displays on devices such as mobile phones media players and even a notebook also included in the second filling are descriptions regarding layouts for touch sensors signal routing other details still as informative as this may be it fails to change the fact that apple is probably one of the last entrants into the oled game more importantly it appears that apple might make use of these patents to attack competitors simply because they cover extremely broad methods of implementing oled display technology in a wide variety of devices if one takes into if there is one universal feature about dslrs which applies to most manufacturers in the market it has to be the fact that most of the cameras available in the market that fall under that category typically come with only one available colour black of course that is not necessarily a bad thing after all professionalism plays a huge part in the selection of photography gear and needless to say totting around candycoloured dslrs to a professional photoshoot does not do one s professional image much help at all still there are times where life needs to be a little more colourful that just dealing with things in black and white and it would appear that sony s latest camera which debuted in the cp camera and photo imaging show held in japan might just support that fact indeed gracing sony s exhibit was nothing 16

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february 12th 2011 published by vr-zone lesser than a new translucent sony alpha dslr complete with the company s proprietary translucent mirror technology come with zero new consumer-centric features what a way to be a wet blanket microsoft looks rather nice doesn t it apparently a website known as petapixel claims that this transparent alpha dslr spotted in the show is actually the body for the japanese electronics giant s upcoming sony alpha a77 dslr outfitted with the same translucent mirror technology as mentioned in the previous paragraph the a77 is expected to replace the company s current a700 dslr and will feature various new features such as 1080p video recording and a high-resolution aps-c sensor which sounds suspiciously like a certain highresolution aps-c sensor we talked about quite some time ago of course with the a77 being an upcoming model it should be expected that sony is not about to let the cat out of the bag by revealing too much information about it and it seems to be working apparently no one has the faintest idea as to when the a77 will be released and how much sony intends to sell it for that being said we can at least say that we have positive information about a certain fact the translucent body you see up there well it s not for sale yep you heard that right what you mean you were actually hoping that sony would think of selling its prototype device sorry to spoil your hopes dude source and image petapixel well microsoft surely took its time with this one after all it has been at least an entire month ever since we brought news of an alleged leak of an rtm release of sp1 build for windows 7 only for the redmond giant to step in and caution overenthusiastic users against downloading a service pack that was never meant to be used and on top of that microsoft apparently started work on sp1 for windows 7 as far back as march last year which makes it one of the longer development times windows have spent on a service pack needless to say users from all over the world are anticipating the day microsoft makes the inevitable announcement of when service pack 1 for windows 7 will be released and what new features they can look forward to and this is where we have the classic good news bad news situation playing out once again the good news is that the wait is officially over microsoft has just announced in a blog post that it has signed off an sp1 build for rtm today as usual technet and msdn subscribers will get first dibs on the update these users will be able to download it from their respective portals on february 16 while normal windows users have to wait until february 22 to get their copy via windows update unfortunately this is also where the bad news part comes in with sp1 for windows 7 being under development for almost an entire year chances are that some users would be expecting microsoft to awe with tons of new features like what happened for xp and vista but this is not the case for windows 7 for microsoft has confirmed that sp1 will come with no new usercentric features according to a blog post made by microsoft s windows server and cloud division senior technical product manager michael kleef the update will sport two new features intended for windows server 2008 r2 dynamic memory and remotefx the former can be considered as an enhancement to windows server s hyper-v feature it allows hyper-v windows 7 sp1 finally marked for rtm home users need not apply february 12th 2011 as always one can always count on microsoft to kill off any interest in what has to be one of the more highly-anticipated software releases for the year after generating a huge deal of hype over what would eventually be the first service pack ever for its popular windows 7 operating system thanks a couple of supposed leaks the software giant has apparently thought that it would be a nice touch to announce that sp1 for windows will 17

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february 12th 2011 published by vr-zone users to increase virtual machine density with existing resources without sacrificing performance or scalability remotefx on the other hand appears to be the more appealing feature in his blog post kleef claims remotefx s grants windows remote desktop and virtual desktop infrastructure clients the ability to leverage a server s gpu to provide hardware acceleration for applications which make extensive use of opengl and direct3d this makes it very useful in certain business environments where thin clients can easily be used to run applications which have minimum hardware requirements way above what the remote client system can offer and if you are thinking of attempting to make use of remotefx to play that copy of crysis sitting on your desktop pc on your netbook via remote desktop while on the move well you might want to stop thinking about it right now because remotefx can only be used over lan ouch consumer is never the smartest kid on the block since their job mostly comprises sitting around and making unreasonable demands from oems and hardware developers under the pretext of spurring innovation and with dual-core processors starting to find their way into smartphones thanks to consumer demands it seems that broadcom is not about to let itself fall behind indeed the company has just announced its own dual-core system on a chip which is specially targeted for high performance smartphones in an announcement posted on its product page broadcom claims that the new bcm28150 smartphone processor is an advanced 1080p multimedia smartphone system on a chip soc which features a dual-core processor based off the arm cortex a9 architecture the processor cores reportedly utilizes broadcom s proprietary merlyn app processor and videocore iv mobile graphics to provide fast and seamless hardwareacceleration of 1080p video content and 3d games at the smartphone s native resolution and since a smartphone soc is mostly useless if it does support commonly-used wireless communication protocols it should probably be of no surprise that broadcom has taken steps to ensure that its soc plays nice with existing standards accordind to the company the bcm28150 features built-in support for edge wcdma 4g hspa and hsdpa and is intended to be used with the android operating system although broadcom has claimed that the soc will also work with other open mobile operating systems last but not least broadcom has confirmed that the complete bcm28150 smartphone platform currently codenamed broadstone will include the following hardware the 40nm bcm28150 hspa system-on-a-chip soc smartphone processor the bcm2091 radio frequency rf ic the bcm59056 advanced power management unit pmu with charger and audio support and broadcom s wi-fi bluetooth fm a-gps and nfc connectivity technologies technical specifications are as listed below broadcom launches new soc for smartphones boasts 1080p video playback february 12th 2011 do you remember the days where totting a smartphone that boasted qualcomm s snapdragon platform and singlecore scorpion processor was an instant passport to large amounts of geek credentials well it appears that the days of single-core processors on smartphone are all but gone and broadcom apparently seems to think so after all why else would the company launch a new dual-core system on a chip for specially designed for high-performance smartphone computing barely as 18 months ago single-core computing on a mobile internet device such as smartphones were considered as the only viable method that provided users with just the right mix of power and energy drain after all one must remember that smartphones were originally intended to be used as business tools and not as fashion statements or mobile entertainment devices fast forward to the present and today the smartphone has moved from being a mobile business tool to a mobile entertainment device for consumers thanks to the introduction of the iphone needless to say the average 18

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february 12th 2011 published by vr-zone msi unveils x-slim x370 wind u270 and cr650 with amd s new generation dual core e-350 processor february 12th 2011 the u270 and x370 come with user-friendly hardware and software including the msi s-bar that lets you control major os and hardware hot keys as well as msi s own application software with a simple click of the mouse no pricing details available yet runcore launches expresscard ssd and usb 3.0 host card in one february 12th 2011 msi have launched their new powerful performance notebook computers which include the 15.6-inch cr650 the 12-inch wind u270 and the 13.4-inch x-slim x370 all three notebook pcs are equipped with amd latest generation dual core e-350 processor and amd radeon hd 6310 discrete graphics that supports directx 11 and long battery life the msi cr650 above picture features turbo battery shortcut that lets you control digital multimedia with your mouse srs pc sound that can reproduce sound faithfully when you listen to your favorite songs or watching videos and cinema pro technology that claims to offer similar audio experience of live performances films and recording studios notebooks have limited upgradability at best and if you re lucky to own one with an expresscard slot then you will know how frustrating it is to have to swap between two different cards especially if one of them happens to be a storage upgrade chinese ssd maker runcore has come to the rescue with a product that should appeal to notebook pc users at least as long as the price is right the expresscard 34 ssd with a built-in usb 3.0 host controller the card is called the runcore pro iv expresscard ssd and it contains a 64gb ssd that connects to your notebook via the expresscard interface it also hass a usb 3.0 host controller which allows you to connect usb 3.0 devices to your notebook which means that you ll be able to take advantage of fast external storage devices add to the fact that runcore has implemented a usb 3.0 host feature that lets you connect the pro iv to a desktop pc with usb 3.0 connectivity or usb 2.0 for that matter to copy data at high speed the wind u270 sports a 12-inch 16:9 wide display weighs a portable 1.3kg and is less than an inch thick it features msi s proprietary eco power-saving design which allows the battery to last twice as long as conventional notebooks it is also sheathed in color film print which not only looks stylish but protects against smudging and wear the ssd part may not be all that impressive compared to the latest generation of ssds and it actually compares more to recent usb 3.0 flash drives with a read speed of 110mb/s and a write speed of 80mb/s but it is still not too bad considering how unique this product is on the market sadly runcore didn t announce a launch date or any kind of pricing but we d expect the pro iv to sell in excess of us$200 considering it is a 64gb ssd and a usb 3.0 host controller in one the 13-inch msi x-slim x370 not only looks good but it is also super slim yet comfortable to use it weighs about 1.4kg and boasts powerful multimedia and processing capabilities both 19

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february 12th 2011 published by vr-zone hp unveils touchpad tablet and two smartphones veer and pre3 february 12th 2011 specifications qualcomm snapdragon dual-cpu apq8060 1.2-ghz processor 9.7-inch diagonal xga capacitive multitouch screen 1024x768 16 gb or 32 gb of internal storage hp webos hp has announced their new touchpad webos tablet device which boasts to introduce fun and mobile productivity the company has also introduced two new smartphones veer and pre3 which also run webos wi-fi 802.11b/g/n a-gps 3g only bluetooth wireless technology 2.1+edr with a2dp stereo bluetooth support 3.5mm headset/headphone/microphone jack internal stereo speakers and beats audio front-facing 1.3-megapixel webcam light sensor accelerometer compass magnetometer and gyroscope rechargeable 6,300mah battery hp has unveiled their first webos slate the hp touchpad it features a 9.7-inch capacitive multitouch display virtual keyboard instant-on access support for adobe flash player 10.1 beta in the browser and access to thousands of webos applications designed for entertainment and mobile productivity the touchpad boasts to offer unified experience across various devices you can answer calls or view your short message service sms messages from the slate or use the exclusive touchto-share feature to share web urls from your webos phone to the touchpad with hp synergy simply sign in to your facebook google microsoft exchange linkedin and yahoo accounts and your contacts calendar and email automatically populate on the slate amazon.com has also announced that it will launch a free kindle app for hp webos tailored for touchpad that will give user access to more than 810,000 titles from amazon s kindle store you can also buy and sell on amazon.com do internet banking buy movie ticketsor check the latest news other features include 1.3-megapixel front-facing webcam 16 or 32gb internal storage wi-fi 802.11b/g/n and bluetooth wireless connectivity and a-gps the touchpad also comes with built-in hp touchstone technology for easy charging and is compatible with the hp touchstone for touchpad sold separately you can charge in either portrait or landscape mode even without removing the touchpad case sold separately availability hp touchpad is scheduled to be available this summer pricing and availability will be announced at a later date micro-usb connector built-in hp touchstone technology for easy charging hp touchstone for touchpad sold separately and hp touchto-share to share web addresses between touchpad and compatible webos phones dimensions 190 x 242 x 13.7 mm weight approximately 740g the daily vr-zone news summary 9 feb 2011 february 12th 2011 in today s news roundup review of kingston hyperx special edition sandy bridge 1600mhz cl9 review of sunbeamtech twister 120 cpu cooler nokia drops meego phone before launch hp s palm set to unveil tablet video game review dungeons and more hardware news description kingston s khx1600c9d3x2k2/4gx is a kit of two 256m x 64-bit 2gb 2048mb ddr3-1600mhz cl9 sdram synchronous dram memory modules based on sixteen 128m x 8-bit ddr3 fbga components per module 20

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february 12th 2011 published by vr-zone each module kit supports intel xmp extreme memory profiles description the twister 120 incorporates our newest isoturbo technology for increased cooling the dual 120mm mfdb fan spins in opposite direction which allows for more concentrated airflow combined with the three 8mm heat pipes and large fin area the twister 120 offers one of the best cooling capabilities in its class description xigmatek s aegir cpu cooler does indeed bring a lot to the party with excellent cooling performance and a robust yet easily installed mounting solution this cooler ranks at the top of its class white leds in the fan frame add a bit of visual interest to the smoky pwm fan and will fit nicely into many color schemes for the enthusiast thet cares about this sort of thing description adata started to introduce speedy usb 3.0 flash drives to the market one of them being the superior series s102 16gb model these products have different read/write speeds depending on the capacity and thanks to their very high read speed performances we can use them successfully for booting live usb linux distributions or for transferring the windows 7/vista install kits to speed up the os installation description with the launch of the gtx 570 series some manufacturers including gainward also came up wit their overclocked gtx 570 models and golden sample that provide an increase of performance of almost 2.5 to 9.3 consumer electronics and software news description nokia has stopped developing its first smartphone using the meego operating system two industry sources close to the company said description ever hear of coloud i didn t until one of their sets of headphones appeared on my doorstep for review their new line is called colors and they re aptly named as you can get them in many different colors description the vatican put its foot down wednesday over the idea of confessing by iphone after news that us users can now download an application for the apple gadget that helps the faithful gain absolution description hp has plenty riding on the event which will showcase the webos mobile operating system the most valuable asset the company acquired when it bought handheld pioneer palm last summer for $1.2 billion hp plans to roll out webos in a number of products across its portfolio description korean manufacturer lg electronics has filed lawsuits over alleged patent infringements in sony s playstation 3 console and bravia tvs description it seems in this day and age everybody wants a piece of the pc peripherals market this time corsair famous for manufacturing pc hardware released its own lineup of high-end speakers and headsets packing in many popular features the corsair hs1na usb gaming headset comes with 7.1 virtual surround sound and massive 50mm drivers gaming news description you don t know jack returns in a package that finally brings the game onto the current generation of consoles without losing any of the irreverence that originally made it a hit with solo and multiplayer online and off options it s a fun title to stick in when you re not grinding away in fallout or fragging people in black ops description publisher kalypso and developer realmform studios have introduced dungeons which on first blush looks like a spiritual successor to the famed series you play a dungeon lord who builds deathtrap dungeons to spread his influence on the land above and must protect his dungeon heart from invaders all while trying to keep the denizens happy enermax readies naxn series psus february 12th 2011 enermax is preparing to release its naxn line-up of psus designed for both gamers and enthusiasts available in modular naxn 82 and non-modular naxn 80 models they feature heat and air guard functions multiple protection circuitry ocp ovp ac uvp dc uvp opp otp scp and sip active pfc and are cooled by a silent 120mm 135mm fan for naxn 82 fan naxn 80 enermax is preparing to release its naxn line-up of psus designed for both gamers and enthusiasts available in modular naxn 82 and non-modular naxn 80 models they feature heat and air guard functions multiple protection circuitry ocp ovp ac uvp dc uvp opp otp scp sip active pfc and are cooled by a silent 120mm 135mm fan for naxn 82 fan 21

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february 12th 2011 published by vr-zone naxn 82 the 80plus certified naxn 80 psus have two 12v rails and are available in 350w 450w 500w and 600w capacities the 82plus certified naxn 82 come in 750w 850w models with two four 12v rails respectively the flexi-drive accelerate duo features a special controller supporting data transfer speeds up to 110mb/s read and 70mb/s write via its usb 3.0 interface they can be found in store shelves around eu at msrps of 69.90 32gb and 124.90 64gb sharkoon releases flexi-drive accelerate duo flash drives february 12th 2011 thermaltake ships level 10 gt february 12th 2011 sharkoon has announced the flexi-drive accelerate duo series of affordable usb 3.0 flash drives aimed at mainstream users measuring 72 x 19 x 8mm and weighing about 16g these ultra-portable aluminum flash drives are available in 32gb and 64gb variants thermaltake well-known amongst enthusiasts for its high performance thermal solutions and pc cases has unveiled the long awaited level 10 gt successor to the best-selling level 10 super-gaming modular tower chassis sharkoon has announced the flexi-drive accelerate duo series of affordable usb 3.0 flash drives aimed at mainstream users measuring 72 x 19 x 8mm and weighing about 16g these ultra-portable aluminum flash drives are available in 32gb and 64gb variants thermaltake well-known amongst enthusiasts for its high performance thermal solutions and pc cases has unveiled the long awaited level 10 gt successor to the best-selling level 10 super-gaming modular tower chassis 22

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february 12th 2011 published by vr-zone it supports all microatx atx extended atx motherboards and has room for four optical devices six hdds ssds and eight pcie expansion cards the massive level 10 gt is cooled by four colorshift turbo fans x1 top 200mm x1 front 200mm x1 side 200mm and x1 rear 140mm exhaust fan and has three rear pre-drilled holes for water-cooling tubes it is now available through major retailers and e-tailers at a msrp of us$279.99 measuring 584 x 282 x 590mm and weighing 12.7kg the all black full tower boasts a myriad of features an improved cable management system convertible top-vent 240mm watercooling design hinged side-panel door five hot-swappable hard drive bays multiple usb 2.0 3.0 esata connectors and a built-in fan controller photofast announces highperformance usb 3.0 card reader february 12th 2011 card readers don t tend to be all that exciting these days mostly because they all do the same job and perform about the same not so with the new cr-8600 from photofast which is one of the first multi-format usb 3.0 card readers to hit the market it offers three to four times the performance of the best usb 3.0 card readers with current generation memory cards and will potentially offer even better performance with faster memory cards card readers don t tend to be all that exciting these days mostly because they all do the same job and perform about the same not so with the new cr-8600 from photofast which is one of the first multi-format usb 3.0 card readers to hit the market it offers three to four times the performance of the best usb 3.0 card readers with current generation memory cards and will potentially offer even better performance with faster memory cards 23

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february 12th 2011 published by vr-zone wireless networking has become a ubiquitous technology these days that few of us would want to live without but the 802.11 wi-fi standard isn t without flaws most of the problems tend to be related to either range or speed and the latter is looking set to get a big boost by the end of 2012 when the 802.11ac standard is expected to launch with a draft moniker tacked onto its name much like the 802.11n draft standard that we lived with for so long the 802.11ac standard will bring with it gigabit speeds but unlike the current 802.11b/g/n standards it will not operate on the 2.4ghz band instead 802.11ac will be using a frequency close to 6ghz 802.11a and some 802.11n solution operates at 5ghz today which means that there might be yet another round of complaints from various countries around the world that are already using that frequency range for other transmissions the 0.1 draft standard of 802.11ac is expected to be approved by the end of february according to the ieeee 802.11 task group that are working on ratifying the standard but we won t see any retail devices until the end of 2012 by which time we should see interoperable devices in the market according to some research done by in-stat and quoted by cnet we can expect no less than a billion 802.11ac devices by 2015 although we d take this with a pinch of salt as the 802.11n has as yet to replace the aging 802.11g standard in most places outside the home one of the major advantages 802.11ac should bring with it is sufficient bandwidth for streaming hd video around the home something the 2.4ghz 802.11n standard isn t quite up to task to do there are of course 5ghz implementations of the 802.11n standard that does a great job of streaming even multiple 1080p hd streams such as the solutions from quantenna but these are still fairly rare by having a single universal standard we should see a quicker uptake of this technology which in turn should mean more devices that will use it on the downside the usb wi-fi dongle might be dead at least unless the hardware makers adopts the usb 3.0 interface which is yet another standard that has as yet to gain universal approval although this is really only going to be an issue on older devices but as the 802.11ac standard is expected to be built into both notebooks and other mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones it s really just a matter of time before it ll gain enough traction in the market initially it s likely that hardware will carry a price premium over 802.11n solutions but this is all par for the course when moving to something faster and better in the it industry the cr-8600 supports all standard memory card formats such as compactflash sd sdhc sdxc memory stick hs memory stick memory stick xc and the various mini and micro formats of the sd and memory stick cards so far photofast has tested it with a range of the latest generation of memory cards and have reached read speeds of 96.75mb/s and write speeds of 67.73mb/s using a compactflash udma 7 card read speeds of 84mb/s and write speeds of 48.24mb s using an sdxc ush-i card and finally read speeds of 43.18mb/s and write speeds of 43mb/s using a memory stick pro-hg card judging by these numbers it s pretty clear that a usb 3.0 card reader makes sense for those using the latest generation of memory cards with their digital cameras and camcorders as the same udma 7 compactflash card only mustered 34mb s read and 33mb/s write performance using a usb 2.0 card reader the cr-8600 should hit retail sometime in march with worldwide availability and a retail price of around us$30 gigabit speed 802.11ac standard should launch by end of 2012 february 12th 2011 wireless networking has become a ubiquitous technology these days that few of us would want to live without but the 802.11 wi-fi standard isn t without flaws most of the problems tend to be related to either range or speed and the latter is looking set to get a big boost by the end of 2012 when the 802.11ac standard is expected to launch with a draft moniker tacked onto its name much like the 802.11n draft standard that we lived with for so long 24

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february 12th 2011 published by vr-zone nvidia hdmi 3d now coming to an acer monitor near you february 12th 2011 1,000,000 1definitely not static and a fast response time of 2ms however the real draw of the gn245hq still lies in its 3d capabilities and needless to say acer has clearly pulled out all the stops in this aspect according to the taiwanese oem the gn245hq is the world s first monitor to feature builtin support for nvidia s stereoscopic technology over hdmi along with the more conventional method of transmitting 3d content over dual-link dvi and since the gn245hq has the ability to receive and display stereoscopic 3d content via hdmi-in it should come as little surprise that the monitor is theoretically capable of supporting a variety of video input device such as digital tv set-top boxes blu-ray disc players and even video game consoles however chances are these features will be all but useless to the average joe at this point of time especially if one takes into account that most countries still lack a 3d broadcasting infrastructure for content producers to take advantage of essentially rendering the gn245hq useless in just about everything except gaming that being said if the idea of spending good money on a 23.6-inch monitor that can only be used for gaming purposes sounds like the very thing you have in mind we d suggest that you start fattening up that piggy bank of yours by feeding it with all that hongbao money acquired over the lunar new year with its relatively fat pricetag of us$677 trust us when we say that your wallet will need all the food it can get playing games on the pc is definitely one of the more enjoyable ways to pass the time thanks to the wide variety of pc-only titles and the introduction of extremely powerful hardware specially dsigned for such purposes that being said if something is worth doing then it is definitely worth overdoing as well and gaming is no exception and what better way to enhance one s gaming experience than to top of the package with a 3d capable monitor from acer for that added degree of realism gaming is probably one of the few digital entertainment options which most of use find ourselves unable to give up on and for good reason after all nothing can come close to replacing the thrill and exhilaration of blasting the brains off a virtual enemy s head with a double barreled shotgun at point blank range especially after a hard day at work or in school that being said taking a trip down to virtual reality town would definitely be a lot more satisfying if one could actually feel as though he or she was being placed directly into the thick of action as opposed to merely watching animated heads bob around a computer screen fortunately users who crave such realism no longer have to take the trouble of investing in a large and expensive 3d television set because acer has just released its new 3d-capable gn245hq monitor which the company claims is particularly well suited for all forms of media consumption gaming included more than a million amd fusion chips shipped february 12th 2011 amd s fusion chips have been heatedly debated recently the promise of higher performance with less heat less power consumption and lower cost seems to have proven itself true with amd shipping over a million of these chips in less than six months of the product entering consumer markets acer claims that the led-backlit full hd gn245hq will sport a 23.6-inch form factor along with various features such as an extremely high but meaningless contrast ratio of promising low power consumption low heat emissions and increased performance amd s zacate and ontario chips based on the fusion platform have been selling like hotcakes the fusion chip is basically a core processor as well as a 25

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february 12th 2011 published by vr-zone graphics processor combined on a single die also called apu or accelerated processing unit these fusion chips have been delivering as promised the hp dm1z equipped with the first of these apu chips was recently tested and the results were astounding the zacate platform for netbooks easily outperforms intel s dual-core atom chips and is hot on the heels of intel atom nvidia ion based netbooks furthermore these chips consume less power and as a result develop less heat than their intel and nvidia counterparts combine desirable characteristics with a low cost price and the answer is clear manufacturers are snapping up these chips at an alarming rate as of current the only fusion-powered netbook available locally is the sony vaio y series however the number of fusion-based notebooks is poised to increase steadily in the near future as the intel atom-based netbooks begin to phase out the fusion platform was announced a long time ago but it was only recently that the chips were showcased and later went on retail with such effort and time spent on innovating it is no wonder that the results produced from these chips are nothing short of stellar such a technological advance shows that the future of mobile gaming need not mean large laptops with loud fans high heat output and the inability to run on battery-powered sources for more than an hour damage control after the news of the defect in its 6-series cougar point chipsets was made public needless to say this led to a abrupt halt on all shipments of the affected chipset until today that is the chip giant has just announced that it intends to resume the shipment of the affected chipsets but with a catch simply put intel knows that it has a reputation to uphold and having to deal with hordes of angry consumers whose machines are experiencing premature hardware failures is definitely not going to do itself any favors for its corporate image as such the company has just announced in a press release that the affected chipsets will only be shipped to oems who are committed to shipping the intel 6 series chipset in pc system configurations that are not impacted by the design issue will be receiving these shipments this means that oems which want to make use of the faulty chipsets for their pcs have the responsibility of ensuring that the machines are configured in such a way its boards do not sport connectors interfacing the faulty cougar point part examples of such implementations include making use of the chipsets in closed configurations such as notebooks or in the case of desktop configurations installing a pcie sata card to provide additional sata ports only when these conditions are met will intel allow the respective oems to continue receiving shipments of the 6series cougar point chipsets intel resumes shipments of faulty 6-series chipsets to oems with one specific condition february 12th 2011 dell showcases prototype windows 7 tablet and business pcs february 12th 2011 remember that whole hoo-ha intel caused among oems system builders and enthusiasts last week when it found out about the major blunder it made to the design of its 6-series coguar point chipsets well it turns out that the chip giant has decided that decided to resume shipment of the affected chipsets to oems but only if the latter fulfills a certain condition dell has showcased their new 10-inch windows 7-based device and business pcs at the recent company s dell means business event in san francisco as most would have already been aware intel s pr personnel were having the time of their lives attempting to perform at the recent dell event steven lalla vice president and general manager of dell commercial client product group showed a prototype 10-inch business tablet device that is running windows 7 operating system the tablet is designed 26

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february 12th 2011 published by vr-zone for users who want mobility security manageability and easy integration with existing infrastructures according to the company the intel-based tablet would also come in android flavor though it may not be under the streak family no pricing has been revealed for the windows 7 business tablet though dell said it could be available by june this year cost would be fairly high the htc saga will sport a 4-inch screen possibly running android 2.3 gingerbread and has front and rear built-in camera it is still not known whether the htc saga will have at least an 8-megapixel camera and supports lte 4g network from the leaked pictures the htc saga could be named htc desire 2 after all we would only know when the company made the announcement at mobile world congress that is happening in barcelona next week eleventh beta for firefox 4 goes live prepare for a more private internet february 12th 2011 other new products unveiled at the event include laptops desktops workstations and latitude xt3 convertible tablet above picture htc saga pictured is this the htc desire 2 february 12th 2011 playing with beta software is never the wisest of choices especially if the developer in question has a release schedule which is completely out of whack with what most typical endusers would expect and if you currently happen to be testing out the beta builds of mozilla s browser you d better prepare to start hitting the download managers for the company has just rolled out its eleventh beta release of firefox 4 photos of a new htc smartphone were leaked online just a week before mobile world congress and it was said to be htc saga could this be the successor to the htc desire is there such a concept known as privacy when the internet is concerned many might want to think that they have the right to prevent content providers from tracking visitor behavior such as browsing preferences and online habbits after all it does sound a little disconcerting to know that data that could potentially be used to identify oneself is easily floating around the depths of cyberspace with determined hackers and spammers waiting to spring on the slightest opportunity to blast out spam mails about the latest in men s health supplements not exactly the nicest of thoughts naturally the increased awareness about online privacy or rather the lack of it has spurred browser developers into searching for ways that could assist in preventing an ignorant user from unknowingly giving away such information without her consent and it seems that mozilla has finally settled on what it believes is the best possible solution to implement a do not track feature in its just-released eleventh beta of firefox 4 htc has done very well last year with their q4 2010 financial announcement of a net profit of more than us$500 million and that is mostly thanks to google s android mobile platform with recent leak of the new htc saga smartphone many speculated that this could be the successor to htc desire or formerly known as the htc desire 2 the htc saga looks similar to the nexus one except that it does not have the trackball below the display however the phone looks to be using an integrated design which means the 27

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february 12th 2011 published by vr-zone the eleventh beta of firefox 4 can be downloaded from the mozilla 4 beta page here and just to make it clear beta software is usually anything but stable so the usual warning of vr-zone not being responsible for unfortunate mishaps such as exploding pcs and data mysteriosuly disappearing off hard disks applies according to a blog posting made by one of the browser s developers the do not track feature allows users to set a browser preference that will broadcast their desire to opt-out of third party advertising-based tracking by transmitting a do not track http header with every click or page view in firefox when enabled web sites will be told by firefox via a header that the user does not wish to be tracked online the advantages to the header technique are that it is less complex and simple to locate and use it is more persistent than cookie-based solutions and it doesn t rely on user s finding and loading lists of ad networks and advertisers to work of course one might be tempted to wonder why mozilla had to take an entire year to realize that the internet needed such a feature to better safeguard user privacy unfortunately it seems that users who have been waiting that long for such a privacy feature will probably wind up being very disappointed for now this is due to the fact that while the feature is confirmed to be functional on the browser s end the same cannot be said for the millions of websites in cyberspace today which neither recognize nor support the new do not track header and while firefox believes that the chicken-and-egg problem can be solved when content providers and webmasters have no choice but to honour user preferences after receieve large enough numbers of the header appearing in their server access logs we d guard against unmerited optimism until some concrete results finally show up after all do users really think that content providers would sacrifice potential ad revenue to be gained from such tracking over some moral issue about privacy 28

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