Tablet market begins to slump due to poor Android sales

Poor sales of Android tablets is having a negative effect upon the overall tablet market, with a sharp decline in shipments across the sector.

The fourth quarter of 2011 saw record-breaking shipments of 28.2 million units, partly due to Christmas sales, but the first quarter of 2012 saw a large drop, even bigger than that expected when the normal seasonal slowdown is taken into consideration.The International Data Corporation (IDC) predicted a drop of 34 percent, but the figure was 38.4 percent, with strong sales from Apple failing to make up for a steep drop in Android shipments.Apple shipped 15.4 million iPads in the fourth quarter of 2011, but that figure dropped to 11.8 million in the first quarter of this year. Its market share increased from 54.7 percent to 68 percent, however, ensuring it remains in first place.Amazon showed strong potential in the fourth quarter of 2011, shipping 4.8 million units and grabbing 16.8 percent of the market, but this share fell to just over 4 percent in the first quarter, allowing Samsung to regain its spot in second place.Despite the weakness in Android shipments, IDC predicts that they will rebound quickly, particularly with new products from Samsung and Lenovo, which many see as viable alternatives to the iPad. New low-cost products from Amazon and Google will also play a huge role in restoring the might of Android.The launch of Windows 8-based tablets in the fourth quarter of this year will have a dramatic effect on the market, with the effect of Microsofts operating system yet to be determined. IDC predicts that Apple will stay in top place and that it will be the runners-up who will be competing most fiercely.

Toshiba Celebrates 25th Anniversary With Libretto W100 And Portege R700

Tay Choon Song, Senior Manager of Marketing Services and e-Business, Toshiba Computer Systems Division, kicks off the event and talks about the company's 25th year in mobile computing business.

"We want to be known for not only quality products but we also want to be known for products that are really innovative and customers would want. To celebrate our 25th anniversary, we are going to run two consumer campaigns. The first is a Twitter campaign whereby the public can send their birthday greetings and best greetings will win some prizes (starting 25th June). The second campaign is augmented reality campaign which starts in August. Consumers can literally blow out candles on a birthday cake on a PC and win some prizes and promotions" says Tay.

Patrick Liew, Intel Country Manager (above pic) was on stage to congratulate Toshiba on their anniversary.We also saw a videoplayback ofSteve Ballmer, CEOof Microsoft,sending his congrats to the Japanese manufacturer.

Melvin Seah, Manager of Product Marketing for South and Southeast Asia, Toshiba Computer Systems Division, was next to present and talk about the new Toshiba products - Portege R700 and Libretto W100.

Thermalright Preps Shaman For Release

Thermalright is readying the Shaman, its latest cooling solution forgraphic cards, for release.







Compatible with all Fermi, Evergreen, Barts and Cayman series of graphiccards, the nickel-plated cooler boasts eight 6mm copper heat-pipes,aluminum fins, and is equipped with a TY-140 140mm fan that runs atspeeds of up to 1,300 RPM for cooling. Pricing and availability has not beenannounced yet so stay tuned for more updates.


News via [Softpedia]

Xigmatek Readies Utgard Tower Chassis

Taipei based Xigmatekis ready to unveil the Utgard,a black mid- tower case featuring nine 5.25” drive bays, a top sidepanel with two eSATA, four USB 2.0 ports, audio connectors andbuilt-in fan controller.

According to Techconnect, Utgard is likely to feature tool-freeinstallation of PCIe cards, optical devices and appears to support upto 6 fans (1x rear, 2x side, 2x top and 1x front) and a bottom placedPSU holder. More details about the Utgard chassis will probably be madeavailable at the upcoming CES 2010 so folks, stay tuned for moreupdates!

News via [Techconnect]

Transcend announces 4GB aXeRam DDR3-2400 memory kit for dual-channel Core i7 platforms

August 4, 2010

Transcend Information, Inc. (Transcend), a global leader in memory and storage products, today launched 4GB aXeRam™ DDR3-2400 dual-channel memory kits designed for use with Intel's LGA 1156 Core i7 systems. With the ability to operate at a blazing-fast clock frequency of 2400 MHz at 1.65V, these new XMP-ready DDR3 kits outperform standard reference modules by approximately 60%.

Transcend's top-of-the-line 2400MHz dual-channel kit boosts system performance with a perfect combination of low voltage, high clock speed, and low latency. Each 4GB DDR3 kit contains two identically matched modules rated at 2400MHz with timings of 9-11-9-28 and an operating voltage of a mere 1.65V, offering theoretical memory bandwidth up to an incredible 38.4GB/s. In practice, the 2400MHz clock speed shows a 60% performance increase in real world applications compared to standard 1333MHz memory, allowing overclocking enthusiasts and hardcore gamers to take their Intel Core i7 platform to the next level.

The aXeRam DDR3-2400 dual-channel memory kit has been tested for use on Intel P55-based motherboards, including ASUS P7P55D Premium and ASUS P7P55D Deluxe. Thanks to its use of high thermal efficiency aluminum heat sinks with cooling fins, the kit delivers amazing overclocking performance while maintaining cool temperatures.

To ensure extra stability and signal integrity at high clock speeds, all aXeRam modules are comprised of 128Mx8 high-quality DDR3 FBGA chips and use robust PCBs that fully comply with rigorous JEDEC (Joint Electron Device Engineering Council) standards.

Transcend aXeRam DDR3 2400MHz Memory Kit Specification

Part Number: TX2400KLU-4GK
Description: 4GB aXeRam DDR3 2400+MHz Dual Channel Kit (2GB x 2, 9-11-9-28, 1.65V)
Key Features: Kit of two, optimized for dual channel use, XMP-Ready

Sparkle GeForce 6600 GT Cards

SPARKLE Computer Co Ltd, an award winning, professional VGA manufacturer andsupplier ofVGA cards is pleased to announce its GeForce 6600 GT and GeForce 6600PCI Express Solutions.

Armed with the latest PCI Express technologies, these cards will be the nextstep in graphics progression from AGP as the new bus doubles the AGP 8xbandwidth delivering over 4 GB/sec in both upstream and downstream datatransfers. The 6600 Series will deliver even more realistic effects for nextgeneration games.

The GeForce 6600 will be available in both 128MB and 256MB versions with DVIand HDTV as standard and will have a core clock speed of 300MHz. The 6600 GTwill be available in 128MBGDDR3 with a clock speed of 500MHz and has the addedbenefit of being NVIDIA Scalable Link Interface (SLI) multi GPU ready which willdramatically scale performance as it allows the user to run 2 graphics cards inparallel. This card will also have a high-speed GDDR3 memory interfacedelivering fluid frame rates for the most advanced applications.

Both cards will offer Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0cShader Model 3.0 Support todeliver superior performance for all Direct X9® applications. The cards alsoboast an on-chip video processor delivering unmatched video performance andquality. Kevin Wang, sales director comments, “ The 6 Series is a new era ingraphics delivering more realistic effects for next generation games. He added“The 6600 series is an exciting move forward in the transition from AGP to PCIExpress and we will look forward to seeing the reception given to the cards bythe market this September.”

TP Vision wants to Expand Philips, Readies MIPS-Powered Tablet

With Philips announcing the spinoff of their TV division to TPV (Hong Kong based world’s largest manufacturer ofcomputer monitors), there were a lot of questions about the future development of the brand. First and formerly, the new company is named TP Vision and it combines Philips Television and TPV.

The newly formed company will tie in the strength of Philips brand name with new and innovative products, all following the company design and style guidelines. At least, is what Maarten de Vries, newly appointed CEO said to us in Dubrovnik.New Philips, i.e. TP Vision will push the market with LED and 3DTVs, switch to OLED TV when it becomes viable and stick to design principles the original brand had, without the corporate overhead Philips TV division had to endure while it was a part of parent company.

The company will fight to expand the hospitality business unit, i.e. corporate sales. De Vries gave an example that Philips is already present in 80% of hotel chains in Europe region, and that the Philips brand tied nicely for the healthcare segment, where TVs were sold to accompany commercial medical equipment.As far as future goes, the company plans to put as much cards on the Smart TV trend as possible, with 80% of 2012 line-up being "smart", i.e. running an operating system with extended functionality.

The company will expand the functionality of TVs with products from Philips Consumer Lifestyle division. Weibo Vaartjes, Executive Vice President at Philips and General Manager of Philips Consumer lifestyle talked about devices that span from home cinema sound bars, audio products to unannounced devices such as the seven inch MIPS-powered tablet, initially for the China market. It looks like MIPS has found a sweetspot, which is ultra-cheap, or should we write ultra-affordable tablets which with a 7" capacitive touch screen and about a gigabyte of local storage run for $79. The question is, can Philips survive the performance downfall when compared to higher performing ARM processors?

In our talks with company representatives, weve heard that the ultimate target for TV manufacturers is to offer Android powered device to serve as the remote, and drive the sales and profit margin up on that functionality.

The question remains, would you buy a TV that comes with a tablet?

Rumour NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 release during PAX East 2011

As has been rumoured for quite a while now, the GTX 590 is expected to sport two fully enabled GF110 GPUs. The power consumption is rumoured to be through the roof - likely breaking the PCI-SIG certification limit of 300W. The GTX 590 is certainly going to be an exclusive, ultra-enthusiast product, with limited availability.

AMDs competitor - the Radeon HD 6990 - which was earlier planned for a December 2010 release, is also expected to finally release some time in March.

Source: DonanimHaber

Sapphire launches Radeon X800GT

August 12 , 2005, Hong Kong: Delivering new levels of performance in the mid range graphics market, Sapphire Technology Limited, the leading supplier of ATI-powered graphics accelerators, has just launched two new models of graphics accelerator in the Sapphire RADEON X800 family.

Sapphire’s RADEON X800GT series will deliver new levels of performance to anyone looking for a PCI Express solution at affordable prices. Based on the highly successful X800 architectures, two models will be available, both using a 256-bit memory interface and featuring 8 pixel pipelines, offering a choice of memory size and clock speed options.

The Sapphire RADEON X800GT 256MB is equipped with DDR3 memory and operates with a standard core clock speed of 475MHz and memory speed of 490MHz (980MHz effective). The Sapphire RADEON X800GT 128MB uses 256-bit DDR1 BGA memory; and has standard core speed of 475MHz and memory speed of 350MHz DDR (700MHz effective). Both types ship with Sapphire’s recently announced TRIXX overclocking tool which will enable the performance of these cards to be accelerated and maximised to give the user unrivalled performance in this class.

Dual monitor operation is supported, and the provision of both VGA and Video-Out connectors allows simple connection to CRTs, TFTs and TVs. Accessories provided include: S-Video cable, Composite Cable, Dongle, DVI to VGA adapter and 7-pin S-Video to HDTV.

Sapphire’s Radeon X800GT fully supports Microsoft DirectX® 9 and incorporates ATI’s SmartShader™ and SmoothVision™ technologies for the better enjoyment of top gaming titles, digital photography, video editing and web surfing. Sapphire’s Radeon X800GT delivers the best graphics and video at its price point.

Transcend Unveils SSD18C3 Portable SSD

TRANSCEND PRESS RELEASE

Transcend Information, Inc. (Transcend), a worldwide leader in memory and storage products, today announced a new addition to its SSD family, the SSD18C3 Portable Solid State Drive. The new portable SSD combines the benefits of USB 3.0 with all the performance and durability advantages of solid-state technology, providing unparalleled speed and stability that conventional portable hard drives cannot compete with.

Turbo Mode: Data transfer rates up to 260 MB/s

The new USB 3.0 SSD18C3 is a true Solid State Drive, based on high quality NAND flash memory. It includes an innovative device driver engineered to dramatically enhance USB transfer speeds. Once installed, the SSD will switch into Turbo mode, boosting data transfer speeds up to an incredible 260 MB/s when connected to a USB 3.0 port. This exceptional performance makes the SSD an ideal storage solution for read-intensive applications; even an entire DVD movie takes a mere 15 seconds to process. Also compatible with USB 2.0, the SSD18C3 ensures that users will be able to transfer files on computers not yet equipped with a SuperSpeed USB 3.0 port.

Extra durable with rubberized exterior

Due to the absence of moving parts, the SSD18C3s internal SSD runs silent and cool, and can withstand excessive shock or vibration. To add more durability, the SSD is housed in a vibration-absorbing and slip-resistant silicone outer shell. Its robust housing and shockproof storage technology make the SSD18C3 perfect for users who need high performance on the go, without having to worry about accidental impact damage. Aabout the size of a deck of pokerbout the size of a deck of poker playing cards, the SSD18C3 is ultra light and easy to carry.

One Touch auto-backup & JetFlash Elite software

The SSD18C3 offers an array of state-of-the-art features, including an extremely convenient One Touch auto-backup button. The One Touch backup system, which can be enabled with the preloaded Backup Manager software, allows users to instantly backup and synchronize their data with one easy button press. Users can also download Transcends exclusive JetFlash Elite data management tools to help them use their SSD more productively, such as for automatic website authentication, or checking non web-based email accounts remotely just by plugging the SSD into any computer with Internet access.

Transcends new SSD18C3 Solid State Drive is now available for a suggested price of US $224 for the 64 GB model and US $448 for the 128 GB model.

YouTube launches localized service in Singapore

The world’s most popular online video sharing site,YouTube, has made its official debut in Singapore. Singaporeans can now find their favourite local content easily, andsharethem across the globe. All you need to do is go to URL youtube.com.sg or select the location "Singapore" at the bottom of the YouTube website.

In conjunction with this launch, YouTube has formed partnership agreements with top Singaporean media companies such asInteractive SG, Valleyarm / Music Services Asia, World Sport Group, Warner Music Group, Refinery Media, and Oak3. The partners are establishing a strong presence on YouTube to easily distribute their content and grow their audience. YouTube has also secured a masthead advertisement on the Singapore home page for opening day from local telecommunication operator,SingTel. At the launch, SingTel has expressed plans to launch a new YouTube channel and seeks to find a suitable host who could well be the next social media star on youtube.com.sg.

The video sharing sitehas also signed a licensing agreement withComposers & Authors Society of Singapore(COMPASS) thatallow music artists to earn revenue on YouTube. Revenue is generated when advertisements are displayed against YouTube partner’s videos. This means that under the agreement, Singaporean authorscanreceive payments from their associations when rights holders distribute them.

For Xbox 360owners,the companyhas also announced that YouTubeservice will be available on the gaming console in November next month. While no details are out, it should come in the form of an online update. No word as to when the YouTube service will be available on other game consoles like Sony PS3 though.

According to Adam Smith, director of Product Management for YouTube Asia-Pacific, with todays launch, YouTube will be globalized to 35 countries around the world.

"Every day, the 35 countries generate close to 3 billion video views on the YouTube platform, and that figure is a 50% increase of the 2 billion last year. What we see is that every single minute, there are 48 hours of videos uploaded. One of the trends we are watching very closely is how YouTube is expanding from being primarily a desktop service to one that is available wherever people are, with mobile playing an incredible part; we have over 400 million views a day on the mobile platform. And that is important over here, in Asia" said Smith.

Transmeta Efficeon Fanless Digital Entertainment Center Initiative

Transmeta today announced that its new fanless Digital Entertainment CenterInitiative, including several new designs that take advantage of thehigh-performance and low heat characteristics of the Transmeta Efficeon(TM)processor, has gained Microsoft Corp.'s support and is suitable for use withWindows XP Media Center Edition 2005.

These new Digital Entertainment Center designs, powered by the Efficeonprocessor, are cost effective solutions with full support for Microsoft WindowsXP Media Center Edition 2005. Consumers can be assured that the Efficeonprocessor meets or exceeds the performance requirements necessary for runningMedia Center Edition 2005. These new designs include recording and playbackfeatures and have the ability to manipulate multiple video and/or audio trackssimultaneously without losing valuable data or information.

"Transmeta's new designs enable the creation of ultra-quiet Media Center PCs,"said Bill Mannion, Director of Windows XP Consumer Marketing at Microsoft. "Thiswill hasten the adoption of the PC as the center of the home entertainmentsystem, providing video and audio content on demand for use throughout thehome."

"Transmeta is very excited to have Microsoft's support for our new DigitalEntertainment Center Initiative, as we feel that Microsoft's involvement was avery important step in making this new initiative a success" said Arthur L.Swift, senior vice president of marketing at Transmeta. "Transmeta has beenworking in conjunction with Microsoft to ensure that the Efficeon processortakes full advantage of the new advances available in Windows XP Media CenterEdition 2005."

Transmeta also announced the Efficeon(TM) Processor Technology EvaluationPlatform and Reference Design Kit for the next generation of energy efficient,high performance, fanless and compact designs.

The Efficeon Technology Reference Design Kit is a manufacturing-ready referencedesign comprising schematics, PCB layout, bill of materials, reference designguide and drivers with BIOS support available from multiple BIOS vendors. Thehardware platform is a 4-layer Mini-ITX form factor motherboard, measuring 170mmx 170mm, including on-board video/graphics, audio, Ethernet, USB 2.0, and IDEinterfaces. Designed for customers demanding high performance in low powerdesigns, the manufacturing ready reference design kit allows for rapidevaluation and adoption of Transmeta's technologies for a diverse range ofindustrial and computing products including embedded systems, automotiveapplications, quiet media centers, high performance consumer electronic devicesand more.

"With Transmeta's increased focus on intellectual property licensing, thisplatform is an attractive vehicle for potential licensees to evaluateTransmeta's processor technology," said Arthur L. Swift, senior vice presidentof marketing at Transmeta. "The high level of integration of this completesystem design showcases the ability to integrate our efficient technology intonext generation applications requiring x86 compatibility in high performancecompact designs."

The reference design kit includes an Efficeon TM8820 in a 21mm x 21mm package.The TM8820 supports Transmeta's powerful AntiVirusNX(TM) Technology, which worksin conjunction with Microsoft's Windows XP Service Pack 2 and offers enhancedsecurity and safer computing by detecting and disabling common forms of computerviruses and worms. Additionally, the included Efficeon processor featureslead-free packaging developed in accordance with industry wide initiatives suchas the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) and Waste Electrical andElectronic Equipment (WEEE) and is aligned with Japan Electronics andInformation Technology Industries Association (JEITA) to remove lead and otherhazardous materials from product packaging.

Features of the Efficeon Technology Evaluation and Reference Design Platform

Transmeta TM8820 CPU available in two frequencies and wattages: 1.5GHz at 7watts TDPmax and 1.0GHz at 3 watts TDPmax
One DIMM socket supporting DDR DRAM, board supports up to 1GB
ULI M1563 Southbridge with HyperTransport interface
XGI XP5 AGP graphics controller with 32MB frame buffer
Realtek ALC655 AC97 audio CODEC supporting 6-channel audio output
National Semiconductor PC87360 Super I/O controller
VGA and S-Video outputs
One PCI expansion slot
Primary and secondary UDMA133 IDE ports
10/100 Mbps Ethernet with status LEDs
Four USB 2.0 ports
Operates from a single 12V DC input, no ATX power supply required
Secure Digital (SD) Card header

Availability
The Efficeon Processor Technology Evaluation Platform and Reference Design Kitwill be available to customers in Q1 2005.

The Reinvention of Normal by Amazon

Amazon “reinvented normal” according to an updated ad in which the latest Kindles were also part of the new and relaxing pop culture.

The way people and information interact has changed dramatically in the internet era, and suffice it to say, Amazon has played a role in popularizing gadgets that are capable of delivering digital content at amazing speed and clarity. The Kindle brand is nothing short of an epic success, which Amazon has taken advantage of to elevate itself to new heights in the online retail business.

But let’s get back to Amazon’s recent ad, and ask ourselves, “What is normal?” Is being normal a cultural, or geographical, or demographical phenomenon? Quite honestly, there’s just no way to define what is universally normal.

That said, the Kindle has played its part in popularizing information through digital publishing. You want a book? Click the buy button and download it to your Kindle or tablet.

It wasn’t normal in the 90’s for people to download a full textbook onto their computers, but then it was normal for people back then to have dialups that did not make it feasible to download a lot of large files. Technological innovations from many different areas have contributed to redefining the way information flows, and consequently, changing peoples opinion on what is normal.

Amazon has managed to unify many of those innovations and packaged it into their Kindles, thus, making it easier and faster for people to learn what they want when they want. Hence, the new norm is being able to read/listen/watch whatever you want whenever you want (I still prefer reading paper bound books, though).

Okay, there’s no point in trying to dwell on a marketing campaign, and I’m sure many of you are not prone to the manipulative efforts of big time conglomerates. So we’ll just leave it at that, and you decide what Amazon has done to reinvent normal.

SiS PCI-E Southbridges In Mass Production

SiS has begun volume production of its latest south bridge chipsets, the SiS 965 and the SiS 965L, with the aim to compete with Intel’s forthcoming PCI Express-based 915 chipsets. SiS 965 and the VT8251 both will be paired with north bridge chipsets that are compatible not only with Intel’s 915 architecture but also existing platforms. Motherboards built using the SiS 965 are expected to hit the shelves in July. SiS also plans to launch the SiS 966 south bridge in the fourth quarter. The SiS 966 will provide support for four PCI Express x1 slots, compared with just two of the SiS 965. VIA and ALi plan to start marketing their PCI Express-compatible south bridge chipsets, the VT8251 and M1573, respectively, in the third quarter.

Steve Jobs To Appear In WWDC, Rumors Aplenty

Update: Looks like we hit it right from guessing the name. The new iPhone is iPhone 4. Check out WWDC 10 iPhone 4 highlights here

Apple's WWDC 10 is around the corner,an annual event that will start on June 7 to 11th.

Attendees can also download (login required) the WWDC 10 app for their iPhone or iPad to check out the latest information.

Steve Jobs will making his keynote in the event on June 7th 10pm Pacific Time (1amJune 8th Singapore Time), who wants to make a guess on what is going to be announced.

C'mon, it isn't that tough.


The Next iPhone
The most exciting news that folks are looking forward is the announcement of the next iPhone. What will it be called? Could it be iPhone HD ? iPhone 4G ? iPhone 3G X or perhaps just the iPhone 4 ?

With phone photos popping up in countries and speculations of specifications floating around, it will be more than a surprise if Jobs pull off a different looking model in the event.

There are just too many possibilities, will video conferencing with a front camera finally become a reality ?


What do you think this next-gen phone is going to be called ?


iPhone OS 4

Jobs announced the upcoming iPhone OS, showing off a lineup of features and improvements to be included in iPhone OS 4.

It is very possible that some kind of announcement will be made as developers have gotten hold of the beta release quite a while. How will this new OS relate with the next iPhone.

The hype is there.





Safari 5

There are also possibilities with Steve Jobs announcing Safari 5 as 9to5Mac reports that Safari 5 will be launched in WWDC, introducing a slew of improvements relating to performance, usability and better support for HTML 5.

A new feature "Safari Reader" will also be integrated which is in general a RSS reader, Bing! will also be included as one of the search engines along with Google and Yahoo!


Having said all this, what do you readers think that will be announced in WWDC 10 ?

Vantec AeroFlow 2 Coolers

VA4-7245(AMD)
VP4-7245(P4 478pin)

Vantec is going to release AeroFlow 2 CPU Coolerin Late February, 2004, improving on one of the best price/performance heatsinkson the market. The AeroFlow 2 features a larger copper core and an enhanced4-way aluminum fin design that not only draws heat away faster, but allows moreair to reach the CPU itself. The AeroFlow 2 utilizes a powerful, 70mm fan thatis quieter and more reliable than its predecessor. This advancements combine tomake the AeroFlow 2 the perfect way to cool your processor.

Feature:

AeroFlow Heat Sink Design
Copper Core For Superior Heat Dissipation
High Quality Ball Bearing Fan
Easy Installation

Package includes:

Thermal Paste x 1
Installation Guide x 1

Specifications

Vantec @ Computex 2011 Storage, storage, and more storage

So Vantec will not be exhibiting any of their enthusiast-centric products in this years Computex. Of course, that is a little unfortunate, as we were hoping that they would have some new PSUs or cooling fans to show off to the enthusiast market. However, the lack of any new enthusiast hardware also means that Vantec is free to showcase other upcoming products it has it the pipeline, such as the various new additions to its NexStar line of storage solutions, such as hard disk docking stations and NAS devices.Which, of course, is exactly what they have done this year.

The first product Vantec has on its list is the NexStar NST-D400S3 dual SATA-to-USB3.0 hard drive docking station, which boasts support for dual SATA hard drives at SATA1 to SATA3 speeds with capacities of up to 6TB.

Also available are Vantecs NAS solutions as well, such as the NexStar FX NST-640NU-NR4, which is a quad-bay NAS hard drive enclosure which supports gigabit Ethernet, USB print servers and redundancy solutions such as RAID0, RAID1 and JBOD.

If quad-bay NAS solutions sounds like overkill to you, Vantec also has a dual-bay version available for users. Unlike the NST-640NU-NR4 described above, the dual-bay NexStar FX NST-620SU3-R2 lacks support for external gigabit Ethernet and USB print servers, but makes up for that by including support for external USB3.0 devices.

Alternatively, users who do not require multi-bay solutions but need support for data transfer via gigabit Ethernet and external USB print servers can opt for the NexStar FX NST-610NU-N1, which is a single-drive NAS enclosure.

Last but definitely not least, Vantec also unveiled their NexStar FX NST600NU, which is a gigabit NAS adapter designed for use with USB storage devices.

Zotac launches tiny AMD E-series powered ZBOX nano

If youre on the hunt for a tiny PC – and were not talking Mac mini small here, we mean really tiny – then Zotac might just have what youre after in the shape of its ZBOX nano, a 127x127mm AMD E-series APU powered computer. It might not have the most powerful hardware, but youll have a hard time finding anything smaller with as many features crammed into it.

We first saw this tiny box on display at Computex, but back then it was featuring a VIA Nano CPU, but it seems like either Zotac changed their mind, or they just made another SKU with AMDs E-series APU. Zotac will apparently be offering the ZBOX nano with either an AMD E-350 or an E-450, although the initial version appears to be sporting the E-350. Despite its small size, the ZBOX nano is missing very little in terms of features.

For starters, looking around the back we find two USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, a Gigabit Ethernet port, an eSATA port, a DisplayPort, an HDMI port and an antenna for 150Mbps 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 3.0. Around the front is a pair of audio jacks, a memory card reader that takes most of the regular formats apart from CF cards and an IR receiver. Internally theres only room for a single SO-DIMM and a 2.5-inch drive. A remote control is also bundled that works with Windows MCE and for some reason Zotac is also supplying an additional IR receiver that connects via USB.

Although at 127x127mm the ZBOX nano is tiny, its quite chubby at 45mm tall. It does of course have an external power brick as its power source and Zotac supplies a VESA compliant mounting plate that allows the entire system to be mounted on the back of an LCD screen. Overall its a pretty neat little package, but if the Japanese price is anything to by, its horrendously expensive, as in Japan it retails for 27,500 Yen (S$433) and the Plus model which comes with 2GB of DDR3 RAM and a 320GB hard drive is even pricier at 35,000 Yen (S$550) which makes it questionable if this is the route to go down. That said, prices in Japan are usually higher for electronics, but even so, it doesnt seem worth the money. At the time of writing there were no details to be found on the Zotac website relating to the ZBOX nano.

Source: Impress PC Watch

Samsung launches affordable Omnia W Windows Mango smartphone

If the recent reports are of any indication, Windows Phone 7.5 (also known as Mango) is arriving earlier than expectation. And Korean company Samsung has recently announced the launch of their new smartphone based on theWindows Phone 7.5 mobile operating system, the Omnia W.

Measuring 115.9 x 58.8 x 10.9mm and weighing 115.3g, the Samsung Omnia W sportsa 3.7-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen (800x480 pixel resolution). It is equipped with a 1.4GHz processor,8GBstorage, 5-megapixel camera and supports 14.4Mbps HSDPA networks.The Omnia W will retail ataround US$420 before taxes and subsidies, and commercially available starting in Italy fromend of October and then gradually rolledout to other parts ofEurope, CIS, Latin America, Africa, South East and South West Asia.

Source: PC World

Steam launches Big Picture Mode

Big Picture Mode is a new full screen UI accessible via a button in the upper right corner of your Steam window. Its intended mainly for people who enjoy playing their games on a TV, as opposed to a computer, and has an easily navigated and sleek interface with increased gamepad support.

The main window in Big Picture Mode

The new interface reminds somewhat of other full screen UIs, such as the windows media center, but is far better organized and less cluttered. The main window cycles between the Steam store, community and library, and are explored via mouse, keyboard or gamepad. Games are organized in nice, high resolution icons in a grid thats easy to navigate. The same can be said for the store and community features as well

To celebrate the new UI, Steam is having a sale until December 10, where theyre offering some of their more controller friendly games for very reasonable prices, some of which are on as much as 75% sale.

The Zii Mystery Is Unravelled - Creative's Nano-Sized Supercomputer

About two weeks ago Creative put up a teaser site about something called the Zii. It quite obviously wasn't a sound chip, so everyone was left wondering what Creative had gotten up to this time.

A short while ago we finally got to know what this Zii thing actually is. The Zii is a System-on-a-Chip, comprising a processor, motherboard, SDK, middleware, operating system etc. In case you're wondering, Zii stands forZEN II, or Zen 2nd Generation.

Soon to be officially unveiled at CES, the Zii may well become one of themost important products ever launched by Creative, perhaps even surpassing the Sound Blaster of yore. Creative has invested many years and more than US$1b into the development of the Zii, which will form the coreof many future Creative products.

If you remember Creative's buyover of 3DLabs back in 2002, it's now clear that the intention was to get hold of 3DLabs' next generation graphics architecture, rumored at the time to be highly scalable and programmable. Between that time and now the only chip that has come out of 3DLabs is the DMS-02 application processor, which is also ARM based and fully programmable.

The 3DLabs brand will soon be no more though, as Creative will shortly be announcing the formation of Zii Labs, comprised of former 3DLabs personnel as well as some staff from Creative Labs' Personal Digital Entertainment group. Their first product is none other than the Zii, or in more technical parlance the ZMS-05 SoC.

Each ZMS-05 SoC has dual ARM-926 cores with 48 programmable processor elements (PE)churning out10GFlops of processing power.The chipis able to re-program itself in real-timeto suit the needs of the application being executed, so there's probably a software stack on top controlling the PEs.

In addition, the Zii chip has the ability to shut down unused PEs and wake them up when necessary, thus saving power. For instance,more PEs will be activated when performing intensive tasks such as playing 3Dgamesorplaying backHDvideos.

The advantage of this design is unlimited scalability. Creative is claiming a Teraflopcomputer with the footprintof an A4 sheet, and a Petaflop super computer with 147456 ZMS chips in 576 blade servers.

Creative's main competitors will not be the x86 arena dominated by Intel and AMD, but rather other ARM manufacturers, such as Texas Instruments, Freescale, and more recently Nvidia with its Tegra SoC.

The Zii looks to have various potential markets, including some of the most lucrative such as mobile phones, handhelds,set top boxes, media players etc. It's plausible, though not certain, that the Zii might spark off a turnaround for Creative, which has been seeing falling margins for some time now.

Creative is going to make the SDKs available to developers today, and is also working with many OEM partners worldwide to bring out products based on the ZMS. One familiar name is MSI, which will be working closely with ZiiLABS for their future low cost, high performance Internet-ready devices.

Still, the very first Zii-based products are likely to be Creative-branded - VR-Zone has learned that the first one is an iPhone-like device. Wewill continue to digout more details about this, so stay tuned!

Please head over to http://www.zii.com/and http://www.ziilabs.com/for more information

Sapphire's GO Vertical with Vista Competition

Sapphire invites the enthusiast and casual gamers to celebrate the launch ofthe SAPPHIRE HD 2900 XT series with the ‘GO Vertical with Vista’ campaign! NowMicrosoft, AMD, SAPPHIRE and ZEROtherm combine to offer the chance to win a copyof Microsoft Vista together with hardware to maximize the experience! A fullpackage of Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate Edition, AMD Athlon X2 5000+, andZEROtherm BFT90 cooler are to be won. Simply fill out a brief form andquestionnaire on Sapphire's Website. That’s all! Winners will be selected everyweek!

Twitter opens up through transparency campaign

In an effort to make their business more transparent, Twitter has released some rather interesting figures in regards to its compliance to remove copyrighted materials and government requests.

In the category of copyrighted content removal, Twitter received 3,378 requests from January 1 to June 30 this year. Out of the 3,378 requests, Twitter complied with about 600 of them—so the compliance rate is roughly 20%.

However, when it came to government requests for user information and withholding of content, Twitter complied 75% of the time. Another thing to note is that the majority of the government requests are through agencies in the United States.

Christine Chen, Spokeswoman for Twitter, told Venture Beat that “the more transparent that companies and governments are, the more meaningful the public debate can be about the free flow of information online.” Get full details on what exactly Twitter is trying to do here.

Valve launches beta of Mobile Steam app for iOS and Android devices

Valve has just announced a closed beta release of its Steam application for both iOS or Android devices. At this time the app lets gamers across the globe chat with Steam friends as well as being able to browse community groups, user profiles, screenshots and user-generated content for their favorite titles.

It also keeps you in the loop while on the go in terms of all the regular deals Steam has going for game purchases and of course the latest gaming news.

Gabe Newell, co-founder and president of Valve said, "The Steam app comes from many direct requests from our customers. Seeing which of your friends are online and playing a game, sending quick messages, looking at screenshots for an upcoming game, or catching a sale - these are all features customers have requested. Mobile is changing way people interact, play games and consume media, and the Steam app is part of our commitment to meet customer demands and expand the service functionality of Steam to make it richer and more accessible for everyone".

In order to get in on the mobile Steam action, you just need to grab the Steam app for your iOS or Android device, which is of course free of charge, then log into your Steam account via the app to express your interest in the beta. As the service gathers some real momentum, more and more Gamers will be added.

Source: Steam