Asus UX31 Ultrabook Also Gets Priced

Together with the UX21 that we reported about a bit earlier today, Asus has also released some information regarding the pricing of its 13.3-inch Ultrabook, dubbed the UX31, which is also expected to be launched by the end of this year. The UX31 notebook features the same sleek styling as its smaller brother since it uses a similar anodized aluminum uni-body chassis paired with an aluminum keyboard and glass touchpad. The mere 17mm depth of the Asus UX31 also adds to the overall style of the device, making it one of the nicest looking Ultrabooks to be revealed until now. Moving past its style and construction, we find that the UX31 also features some impressive hardware, to the heart of it standing an Intel Core i5-2557M processor. Apart from...

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BlackBerry Torch 9860 Arrives in India at $577

A new mobile phone from Canadian handset vendor Research In Motion is now available for purchase in India, namely the BlackBerry Torch 9860, a Blackberry 7 OS-powered device.  The new smartphone went for sale in the country only a few days ago, with a price tag of Rs. 28,490 attached to it (around $590 / 430 Euros), a recent article on timesofindia reads. This is the direct successor of RIM's Storm series, packing an touch only design, unlike the newly released Torch 9810, which also offers a sliding QWERTY keyboard.  The new mobile phone offers one of the largest touchscreen displays that a BlackBerry smartphone packs, namely a 3.7-inch screen, which can deliver a 480 x 800 pixel resolution.  Moreover, the same as other new...

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Chemistry 101 1.00

The study of chemical elements can be a pleasant activity, especially when the teacher is fun to work with. Chemistry 101 is the software that can guide you through the basics and explain everything along the way.  Whether it is a school task or a simple curiosity, getting acquainted with the periodic table of the chemical elements can be done at home, nowadays, thanks to the Internet and offline resources we can access. If going through books and using cardboard graphs is not your game, perhaps specialized software can save the day. In this respect, Chemistry 101 is a program that will surely fit the bill for most users, first of all because it comes free of cost. It also has many other benefits like its rather small size, friendly interface...

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Microsoft Thinks They Got Windows 8 Right

Windows 8 Developer Preview Build 8102 Milestone 3 (M3) has been available for download for more than a week now, and news of the upcoming Windows client from Microsoft is bound to have reverberated around the world.  The first taste of Windows 8, offered at BUILD, was certainly met with a great deal of enthusiasm from those attending the conference, as well as for early adopters waiting for the bits with bated breath.  The reimagined Windows has also managed to spark some positive feedback from those that got to play with the early development milestone of the operating system, just a pre-Beta M3 release at this point in time.  Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer underlined the good reception that the Windows Developer Preview received during the company’s Financial Analyst Meeting...

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Windows 8 PCs with UEFI Secure Boot Won’t Lock Out Other Platforms

Users will be in full control of their PCs and will be able to install any operating system they want, Microsoft stressed, ending the controversy over the possibility that Windows 8 machines with UEFI Secure Boot could lock out third-party platforms. Not the case, the software giant says.  Tony Mangefeste, from Microsoft’s Ecosystem team set the record straight in a post on the ‘Building Windows 8’ blog, noting that customers will have the possibility of disabling UEFI secure boot, to install even older operating systems, including Linux, on their PC.  Windows 8, in combination with UEFI 2.3.1 addresses a security hole in the current design of BIOS which lets any loader, including for malicious code such as rootkits, start ahead of...

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DoTA 2 Open Beta Coming Soon, Valve Says

After the recent leak of the Dota 2 closed beta, Valve, the developer and publisher of the new strategy title, has revealed that it's changed its own plans for the pre-release version of the game, and that it's going to open the beta stage to everyone in the near future. Valve's current big project is Dota 2, with the company working hard to launch a proper follow-up to the extremely popular Defense of the Ancients mod that appear for Blizzard's WarCraft III real time strategy title. Its plans were spoiled a bit, as the files from the current Dota 2 closed beta stage were leaked at the beginning of the week. Now, after seeing the results of the reveal, Valve has confessed that it's changed its strategy for the Dota 2 beta, and that it's going...

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HP CEO Sacked Because of Disappointing Decisions

All those who believed HP's recent business decisions weren't going to come across well have gotten their confirmation in how HP sacked its CEO and chose someone in his stead, not even bothering with an interim. Meg Whitman, former eBay chief executive officer (CEO) and one time candidate for the position of California Governor has become the new CEO of HP. With this move, Leo Apotheker is stepping down after only serving for several months. The press release outlining this decision did not go into details about why this sudden move was taken, though it is true that there was forewarning. Yesterday, the rumor had already leaked that HP is considering something of this sort, after the board of directors got disappointed in his decisions. The...

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Bing HTML5 Video Homepage Makes Its Debut

A new, amazing Bing homepage experience is now live, pushing user experience to an entirely new level, certainly well beyond anything else that search rivals have to offer.  The first ever Bing HTML5 video homepage has just made its debut today, making Microsoft’s search / decision engine come alive in a spectacular way.  Users visiting Bing.com using Internet Explorer 9, IE10, or any another browser that supports HTML5 are now welcomed not by a static background image, but by a video wallpaper.  The Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, Bob Glusic / Wilderness video is the background of the Bing homepage, according to information supplied by the Redmond company.  “Today we’re really excited to announce the first ever video...

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AMD to Refresh Its A-Series APU Lineup in Q1 2012

In the first quarter of 2012, AMD plans to refresh its A-Series APU lineup to include three new chips based on the Llano architecture that will slightly improve on the specifications of their predecessors. The new APUs will be call the A8-3820, A6-3620 and the A4-3420, and the first two feature a quad-core design while the latter is a dual-core part. Making our way from top to bottom, the first chip that we encounter is the A8-3820 which is set to replace the similar A8-3800.  AMD has kept the modifications brought to this SKU to a minimum as it settled for increasing its operating frequency from 2.4GHz to 2.5GHz, while the maximum Turbo speed was also increased to reach 2.8GHz. The graphics core also remained unchanged as it features...

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iPhone 5 Coming to New Carrier in Japan, Report Says

KDDI Corporation, a Japanese telecommunications operator, has reportedly secured its rights to carry the next-generation iPhone 5, effectively stealing away Softbank’s exclusive grip on Apple’s elusive handset in the country. The news comes via a Nikkei publication quoted by Marketwatch, according to whom KDDI Corp. has entered an agreement with Apple Inc. to sell the fifth-generation iPhone in the country. Citing sources close to the matter, Nikkei Business noted that KDDI’s move impacted Softbank’s stock, which is only natural since there will now be two iPhone carriers in Japan, instead of just one. Should KDDI eventually sell the iPhone 5, analysts say Softbank will post far less profits. The Tokyo Stock Exchange lists KDDI's shares higher...

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