Thursday, March 10, 2011

Ubuntu on Motorola Xoom

The Motorola Xoom just out - and without Flash, or 4G card reader - it is already hacked. A user has successfully installed Ubuntu 9.10 on the shelf, as amended ARM. Installation is not simple, the instructions are online, but Android and Ubuntu running in parallel on the shelf. The advantage of the latter is that it uses a fast ARM SoC (Tegra 2) and it offers a screen resolution of 1280 x 800, making it more efficient to animate a basic netbook Ubuntu even if the price is obviously not the same.

Asus E-P6X58 WAS: X58 Workstation

Who said that the LGA 1366 was already dead? Asus has indeed to announce the launch of a new motherboard "professional" based on an X58 chipset and equipped with such a socket: the P6X58 WS-E. Designed for workstations, this motherboard has six DDR3 slots and a chipset-2000 NVIDIA NF200. Five PCI-Express x16, CrossFireX compatible and 3-way SLI, are available.

Note also the presence of two Gigabit Ethernet controllers, six SATA 3Gbps ports, two SATA 6 Gbps ports, two USB 3.0 and FireWire controllers and 7.1 audio. In short a complete motherboard, which has unfortunately not yet the price ...

Browser: Almost finished version of RC: Firefox 4 impressions

After a long test phase, the team of Mozilla-designer Alex Faaborg has set: the individual tabs in Firefox 4 walk up there and should provide more clarity when browsing - and take advantage of this arrangement already. Friends of the old designs to make the placement with a few clicks. Instead of using classic menu bar, you control all future options to save space on a color-highlighted button.

No keyboards for the tablets

According to Digitimes, users touch pads do not buy an external keyboard. Indeed, if users of historical tablets, those who worked with TabletPC, usually bought a keyboard, users of the latest generation of tablets, iPad in mind, shun the input device. In fact, less than 20% of users iPad buy an external keyboard, be it fixed model that connects to the dock connector or Bluetooth model.

Apple has been producing a large amount of keyboard and dock them - because of the high price - do not sell. And for the iPad 2 comes out March 25 in France, the company no longer offers fixed keyboard, only the Bluetooth model is optional. In fact, the keyboard is a tool used primarily for content creation, while the current consumer tablets are thought to be primarily of consultation, which limits the interest of the physical keyboard.

GIGABYTE X58A-OC: Designed for Overclockers, for Overclockers

Gigabyte announced the launch of the Gigabyte GA-X58A-OC, the first plate in the world designed from scratch for extreme overclockers. Has been designed specifically for overclocking, and defines a new category of plates designed especially for enthusiasts, incorporating aspects of isolation and tweaking never seen before.

"The GIGABYTE X58A-OC amazing technologies and unique features such as the PWM switch, a complete set of hardware buttons to OC, onboard SATA power connectors for multiple graphic settings and switch DualBIOS so far only been discussed in private ideas forums and emails, "said HiCookie, in-house expert on overclocking GIGABYTE.

Three new screens from Asus Designo

The manufacturer Asus has unveiled three new LCD models in its range Designo: The ML229H (21.5 inches), ML239H (23 inches) and ML249H (24 inches). Have a system of LED backlighting, these displays Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) display a dynamic contrast ratio peaked at 50 million: 1 and a maximum brightness of 250 cd / m².

The response time of 21.5-inch models and 23 inches is 5 ms, while the ML249H must be satisfied with a response time of 8 ms. Equipped with VGA and HDMI inputs, these models are finally a power saving mode simply called Eco-Mode. The prices of these LCD screens as well as their availability date are currently unknown.

Intel: Core i7 and 10 four Xeon disappear

Intel has just retired a number of processors, namely four Core i7, two Pentium Xeon and 10 models. The Core i7 Extreme Edition-980X (box and tray versions) therefore draws his bow, as the Core i7-920XM, i7-i7-820QM and 720QM (tray and box), Celeron T3100 and T3000 and the X7460 Xeon , L7455, L7445, E7450, E7440, E7430, E7420, E7310, E7220 and L7345 (tray and box versions).

Intel will accept orders for these processors until 30 September 2011. Shipments of Core i7-980X, 820QM, and 720QM 920XM well as the Celeron T3000 and T3100 will be held March 9, 2012 at the latest, while the Xeon concerned will have a slight reprieve, the deadline for delivery is fixed March 7, 2014.

Racing game for PS3. Motorstorm - Apocalypse: Sony releases Demo Version

In "Apocalypse" swish "Motorstorm" fans by earthquake. Sure, that is hardly possible in such environments, normal race. So PS3 gamers a first glimpse of the unusual competitions will receive, Sony released a demo version of "Motorstorm - Apocalypse". But not in this country: German PS3 users look into the tube.

Unreal Engine 3 DX11 makes sparks

Epic Games has released the beta of March of the Unreal Development Kit Beta and proposed a new demo. This is a milestone for the company that officially marks the arrival of DirectX 11 in its kit. The video, available on YouTube, shows the demo Samaritan in real time. It would still requested the use of three GeForce GTX 580 and uses the physics engine of NVIDIA APEX.

The final development kit supports Shader Model 5, tessellation and other DirectX features. The latest beta brings better management of bokeh in the effects of depth of field. It also adjusts the quality of textures according to their position and importance on the image and provides a dynamic creation of ombres.Évidemment, this kind of demo is not always representative of what one finds in a game that constraints of time and very different way, but it is breathtaking.

WebOS PC will arrive in 2012

HP has said that its operating system WebOS disembark on PC next year. He hopes this will u way to distinguish their machines from the competition. The objectives of the firm by cons are still unclear. That is what the G PD revealed during an interview with Bloomberg magazine. We already knew that the company wanted to integrate the system into its computers from Palm (see "WebOS arrives on PC"), but HP had not yet given a date.

The next CEO of Sony Japan will

Howard Stringer, Sony PD-G is talking about his succession and if nothing definite has been decided, he says Kazuo Hirai as an "obvious candidate". He was the first PD G Sony Corporation not to be Japanese. At the head of Sony America before his inauguration, he was called to replace Nobuyuki Idei as the company was struggling.

He spearheaded major movements of restructuring the firm and brought the field of media. Sony has thus pointed out, inter alia, with the release of the latest films Spider-Man. Mr. Stringer has worked for 30 years at CBS, which said its investment in the media. The era Stringer nevertheless seems to be ending.

Swiftech Launches cooler Polaris 120

Swiftech manufacturer has unveiled the Polaris 120, a cooling system for processors in LGA 775/115x/1366 and 754, 939, 940, AM2 and F / 3. In tower format, this cooler shows dimensions of 135 x 91 x 152 mm and weighs up to 849 grams on the scale. It consists of an aluminum radiator crossed by five copper heat pipes of 8 mm in diameter, a base also copper and a 120mm fan.

This operates at speeds between 750 and 2500 revolutions per minute, the noise from 13.2 to 41.5 dB (A). Expected next week, the Polaris 120 should be offered at a suggested retail price of 59.95 dollars.

Zalman Announces CNPS11X Extreme

Zalman has officially unveiled the new heatsink CNPS11X Extreme CPU. Unveiled for the first time at CES 2011 in Las Vega - this takes a special heat sink design, called V-shape, consisting of two aluminum radiators positioned to form an angle of 45°. This configuration increases the surface area of dissipation and allows the fan to quickly dispose of the heat.

The two radiators communicate with the base contact to the CPU via 5 heatpipes composite (sintered axial groove), while the cooling fan has a diameter of 120mm and operates between 1000 and 1950rpm. The Zalman CNPS11X Extreme has dimensions of 135 x 80 x 154 mm and weighs 600 grams and is compatible with most AMD and Intel sockets.

Games Tip of the Day: Bullet Storm's success made easy: Masters of Destruction

The success of "Master of Destruction 'you get when you gather with a 2000 action skill shot points. What at first sounds is difficult, with the right knowledge of the area no problem. Two paths lead to the silver trophy (PS3) or the 40 gamer points (Xbox 360): Either start the campaign mode, the second chapter of Act 5, or select the echo-mission "shopping center" ("The Mall").

In both variants, the same approach: Fight your way through the beginning of the section until you reach the room with the broken gate. Slip into it, you do the first mutant, and open the door to your colleagues. Important: In the middle of the room stands a bottle. Destroy it does not! You need the substance later.

The plant announces Logitech Z906 5.1 audio

Surround Sound Speakers z906 is the name of the last audio 5.1 speaker system designed by Swiss specialist Logitech. It is a product for home theater that can be used in combination with different types of devices (DVD, DVR, Blu-Ray, Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3, Wii, iPods and laptops and PC). The system offers a total power of 500W RMS split between the subwoofer 169W, 268W to the satellite side (4 x 67W) and 69W of the station.

Scandyna Announces stereo kit Smallpod Pack

Scandyna has announced a new model of its popular speaker stereo Smallpod intended primarily for computers, laptops and MP3 players. Equipped with a power of 2 x 16 Watt, the Scandyna Smallpod Pack has integrated amplifier, frequency response of which extends from 28 Hz to 22 kHz (-3dB) thanks to the driver diaphragm for greater excursion.

The tweeter has a diameter of 19 mm while the sensitivity is limited to 86 inputs with 4-ohm dB/1W/1m. The active speaker includes a stereo amplifier with line-in minijack, a mono output and a subwoofer output. The signal to noise ratio is shown to be equal to 75dB and the distortion is 0.1% at 1 Watt and salt 1% at maximum power.

Acer DX241H: the screen with built-in browser

The manufacturer Acer has just unveiled the DX241H, a 24-inch LCD Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) rather original. Indeed, it has a built-in web browser - Chrome case - to surf the web independently, without a computer. To do this, the DX241H has an Ethernet controller, but it is also possible to use a WiFi adapter that can connect to one two USB 2.0 ports available.

This LCD monitor also supports the DLNA standard and is able to share multimedia content stored on a memory card - a card reader is integrated - or a USB key. Among the features more traditional techniques, we note the dynamic contrast ratio of 80,000: 1, brightness 300 cd / m² or the response time of 2ms.

More speed, better usability: released Release Candidate: Firefox 4.0

Compared to the current final version 3.6 is waiting for Firefox 4.0 with many new features. For example, the browser displays when you call a Web page all security-related information, so access stored passwords, cookies, or the indication that the page tries to determine the location of the user. So you are able to restrict access to sensitive data or to prevent it.

The user interface of Firefox 4.0 shines with new luster. The designers have cleaned up: Only a few switches and buttons are visible. This creates more space for the display of web pages. The tabs move to the head of the browser. In terms of speed, the competitors, especially Google Browser "Chrome", have caught up or overtaken the mighty fire fox already.

GeForce GTX 550 you already on sale in Hong Kong

As often happens in such cases the first people to be able to buy new hardware are those of the Asian countries, sometimes before they are officially introduced to the market. It 's the case of the GeForce GTX 550 Ti: new nVidia card dedicated to the mainstream and expected to debut on March 15, but already available on the retail channels in Hong Kong.

The price listed is 1180 HKD, which at current exchange rates is equivalent to about $ 129 (taxes included). The technical solution for this talk so far emerged of a GPU running at 900MHz with 192 GF116 CUDA Cores running at 1800MHz. The total video memory is 1 GB, with 192-bit memory bus width and total forms of GDDR5 clocked at 4100 MHz effective rate of just the communication bus is creating much discussion among fans, because the grouping ROPs in the architecture of the Fermi and derivatives can be used with 192-bit memory of a quantity of 768MB (or double).

Kinect for Xbox 360 by Guinness world record!

Microsoft has now gained two new records with the Kinect controller for the Xbox 360 since his debut, November 4, 2010, were sold over 10 million units of the device, including 8 million in the first 60 days. The result is insufficient to give Microsoft the Guinness world record for the consumer electronics device sold a lot faster which will be officially included in the next print edition of the book Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition.

Two new Asus Eee PCs based on AMD Brazos

ASUS netbook family has prepared new Eee PCs based on AMD's APU eZacate Ontario. Eee PC Models 1215B 1015B 12-inch and 10 inch will be to keep company with those Acer Aspire One 522 and HP Pavilion dm1z using the same platform. The solution uses the APU 12-inch the fastest available AMD currently in the catalog, or the E-350 dual-core processors operating at 1.6 GHz and better known by the codename of Zacate.

iPad 2: 512 MB of RAM and CPU S5L8940

If the iPad 2 has not yet been dismantled, the first tests fall and you learn two things about the technical characteristics: the machine has 512 MB of RAM and processor is different. To recap, the amount of memory depends on the devices iOS. The iPhone, EDGE and iPhone iPod touch 1G and 2G are content with 128 MB of RAM, the iPad, the iPhone 3G and iPod Touch 3G and 4G have 256 MB of RAM and 4 is equipped with the iPhone 512 MB of RAM.

The CPU Nvidia Denver photo: ARM 64-bit

During his conference dedicated to financial analysts, CEO of Nvidia Jen-Hsun Huang revealed the first photo of the innards of the Denver project. Or maybe not. As shown by a member of the Xtreme Systems forum, the photo display in the presentation of Mr. Huang is very likely that a portion of a deformed Fermi GPU.

Nvidia has added over blocks embodying the various units of CPU Denver. Such an assembly can prove two things: a) Nvidia already has a precise idea of the architecture of its future ARM CPU, b) Nvidia has not yet produced the CPU, and therefore did not show silicon. This corresponds rather well to the roadmap that Nvidia has raised for his project Denver.

Tom's Guide: OLED TV soon?

Our colleagues and neighbors at Tom's Hardware just published a dossier on screens tomorrow, especially with OLED TV. Quality, durability, screen size, finesse or power consumption: the OLED is a technology that is still uncommon, but nevertheless promises to be the successor of the LED and plasma. Alas, the major diagonal OLED are currently reserved for technical demonstrations.

So when will the OLED TV worthy of the name?

ICS: Bouygues will pay

Yesterday, Apple has posted version 4.3 of IOS, which causes the connection sharing via Wi-Fi to iPhone 4, a feature already present from Android 2.2. Bouygues Telecom took the opportunity to activate support for this mode on the device IOS, the company failing to officially support connection sharing before.

Good news, the service is currently free: even if the operators have the technical capability to detect a shared connection from a phone via the User Agent (which may be changed), Bouygues has decided not to do so. The transferred data are therefore included in the package "data" the phone, either the smartphone or a computer that is used.

Safari and IE fall Pwn2Own

The famous competition Pwn2Own saw Safari and Internet Explorer dropped from the first day. The system at the apple was hacked by a French company that has exploited a flaw in WebKit. This contest is part of the CanSecWest conference that brings together experts in computer security. The first to force the browser to execute arbitrary code with the machine wins.

This year, they were also forced to escape the sandbox and other limits imposed by the operating system. Clearly, they must be able to take full control of the system through the browser. As usual, the first machine was struck by a falling apple. It must be said that experts like to harp on the MacBook and this year was no exception.

TDJ: NB Enermax Aeolus Premium

Our fellow Cowcotland just put online a test of the Enermax Aeolus Premium, a cooling system for laptops 17 inches. Showing the dimensions of 350 x 335 x 45 mm and weighs 1.3 kg, the Aeolus is composed of an aluminum frame, a metal mesh grille and a 250 mm fan running at a speed between 650 and 850 revolutions per minute.

Verdict?

Introduces ASUS motherboards and their releases for Blu-Ray

ASUS has presented at the CeBIT 2011 the new version of its P67 motherboard series, designed to meet the needs of the community ROG (Republic of Gamers) and market requirements. B3 based on the updated Intel chipset, are the first motherboards that offer a platform for this new technology. He has also presented its new releases in the multimedia field for recording and playback of Blu-Ray and a unique set of headphones to enjoy better sound quality at any time, anywhere.

Logitech Z906 speakers replace the Z-5550

Logitech has announced the release of its new 5.1 speaker kit that comes out eventually replace Z5500 six years ago. The Z-5500 are known to be home theater speakers interesting. Many use them on their computer and even in their living room. Successors Kit Z-680, they represented good value for money, but disappointed because audiophiles mediums too low.

At that time, the Z-5500 we were also seduced (cf. "kits 5.1 Logitech Z-680 Z-5500 VS). The Z906 is trying to renew the experience again the ingredients that made the success of its predecessor. We find similar enclosures of 67 Watts RMS for satellites and 165 watts for the subwoofer and the amp that has the same inputs (coax input, RCA and 3.5 mm for the management of six channels) with not one, but two optical connections and more.