Sony Puts Tablet S on Pre-Order in Australia

Sony Tablet S, one of the latest devices to be unveiled to the world with Google's Android Honeycomb operating system on board, is now available for pre-order in Australia, via the company's own website.  Sony has just added Tablet S to its Australian website in two different flavors, differentiated by the amount of internal memory, namely 16GB and 32GB. Both devices sport only WiFi connectivity capabilities.  The Sony Tablet S 16GB (Wi-Fi) arrives on shelves with a price tag of $579 (around $565 USD/ 417 Euros) attached to it.  At the same time, Sony lists the 32GB model as available for pre-order for a bit more, at $689 AUD (about $673.35 USD / 500 Euros). Both device models are available on Sony Australia's website here. Those...

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New iPhone 5 Cases in AT&T's Stores

The availability of a new iPhone model is drawing near, and the emergence of new cases for the upcoming device in stores at wireless carrier AT&T is a clear indicator of that.  The wireless services provider should launch the iPhone 5 model in the near future, and photos with cases that will fit the handset have already started to make their way to AT&T's shelves.  The iPhone 5 silicone sleeves reportedly arrived at AT&T only a few days ago, showing that Apple has come up with a new design for the device.  This is not the first time when cases for the upcoming iPhone models emerge at the United States-based wireless carrier.  A few weeks ago, we had the chance to have a look at what appeared to be cases for the...

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Intel Atom Cedarview CPUs Won't Support DirectX 10 After All

DirectX 10.1 support was one the major features Intel promised to deliver with the introduction of its new Cedarview Atom architecture, but recent reports suggest the chip maker wasn't able to keep up to its word as the Cedar Trail platform is limited at offering just DX 9 graphics. Intel launched the Atom Cedarview netbook and nettop chips just earlier this week without making to much of a fuss about them. Compared to their predecessors, these new processors were expected to bring a series of improvements to the graphics core and one of the most important features was the introduction of DirectX 10.1 support. However, according to CPU-World's findings it seems like DX 10.1 hasn't made its way the new Atom CPUs and that Intel has no plans of...

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'Free' iPhone 5 Upgrades Available Through Trade-In Program

NextWorth, a company that puts bread on the table through electronics upgrades and trade-ins, has announced a way for consumers to upgrade to the iPhone 5 for free. In fact, customers are promised some pocket cash as well, should their iPhone 4 be in mint condition. “NextWorth … announces a way for consumers to upgrade to the soon-to-be-announced iPhone for free and get an extra $50,” says NextWorth. “By trading in a 16GB or 32GB iPhone 4 on NextWorth.com in good working condition before October 4th, the service will guarantee $250 for the trade-in and lock in the price for 21 days.” The ‘free’ thing is actually based on the assumption that Apple will replace the iPhone 4 with the iPhone 5 without increasing the price for purchasing a brand...

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Elsa Outs Compact GTX 560 Ti Graphics Card for SFF Systems

Video card maker Elsa, has recently announced the introduction of a new solution graphics based on the GeForce GTX 560 Ti design, which uses a more compact PCB in order to make the card compatible with small form factor cases. Compared to Nvidia's reference design for the GTX 560 Ti, Elsa's latest creation measures only 170mm (less than 6.7-inches) in length, which makes it almost 60mm shorter than its counterpart. Elsa has achieved this feat by rearranging most of the components installed on the PCB, while also developing a more compact cooling solution that is also capable of coping with the heat produced by Nvidia's GPU. The new radiator design covers most of the card's printed circuit board and uses a pair of thick 8mm anodized cooper heatipes...

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Microsoft Security Essentials 2.0 vs. Kaspersky, Avira, AVG, Symantec, BitDefender on Windows 7 SP1

While Microsoft is busy improving the built-in antivirus capabilities of Windows 8, Microsoft Security Essentials 2.0 continues to be an excellent choice for customers looking for a free and basic security solution.  MSE 2.0 was certified by AV-Test.org in the latest series of benchmarks which involved Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1), and a total of 25 products, from suites to free AV.  Microsoft Security Essentials scored 11 out of a possible 18 points, and delivered a satisfactory performance, especially when compared to paid security suites.  “During July and August 2011 we continuously evaluated 25 home user security products using their default settings. We always used the most current publicly-available version of all products for the testing,” AV-Test said.  “They...

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Gigabyte's Newest PSUs Are Superb

Gigabyte's Super line of computer power supplies may not be exactly new, but the five members covered in its latest and succinct press release definitely are, even if they haven't reached stores yet. The new Superb Gigabyte PSUs are complaint with the ATX 12V v2.3 standard, have 80Plus certification, which means they are efficient (up to 82%), and also boast 120mm fans. They also come with over-voltage, over-current, under-voltage and short-circuit protection, plus sleeved cables. The E470C3 and E470C3 have an output of 470W, while the E570, E620 and E720 provide 570W, 620W and 720W, respectively (and obviously, the names say it all). The PSUs also have multiple 12V rails each and will make their appearance in the next few weeks.  How...

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Linux Could be Kicked-Out of Windows 8 PCs

Being advanced has its own pros and cons. And for the next generation of Windows 8 PCs, it’s going to be something very different. Following the news that the next generation of Windows 8 PCs will be equipped with a completely new booting specification known as UEFI or Unified Extensible Firmware Interface, we were able to receive a rather shocking update about the UEFI’s supposed desirable feature. It appears that Microsoft has gone a little cold, although the UEFI specification is somewhat captivating, we’ve also heard that the interface could most likely include a special secure boot protocol that will be required to all Windows 8 users. Yes, it is a security feature that can not only preserve your PC’s software sanity but can also ward...

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Nokia Promises Stunning Windows Phone Devices

In the next few months, the first Nokia handsets to run under Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system are expected to hit the market, and they are said to be stunning.  Reportedly, these are the exact words that Nokia’s Conor Pierce, general manager for UK and Ireland, used to describe the future smartphones from the company: “absolutely stunning.” In a recent interview with Pocket-lint, he also unveiled that the company's partners who saw the new devices were pleasantly impressed. “To the partners we have shown the device to, their words, not necessarily mine - although I agree - upon showing it to them. It's spontaneous and unprompted. They say ‘the first Nokia Windows Phone is absolutely stunning’ and that’s die hard gurus in this...

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Enable / Disable Hybrid Boot in Windows 8 Developer Preview Build 8102 M3

Microsoft has already demonstrated Windows 8 booting in some 8 seconds, which included the time it took to load Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI), the evolution from the traditional BIOS. The accelerated start-up time is the result of what the Redmond company has dubbed Hybrid Boot.  As the software giant explained it, Hybrid Boot brings the best out of two worlds, namely the old cold boot and hibernation.  When Hybrid Boot is enabled, Windows 8 doesn’t close kernel session, but just user sessions. In traditional hibernation, both user and kernel sessions are written to the hard drive.  What Hybrid Boot does is that it stores the kernel sessions on the HDD or SSD, accessing them extremely fast and transferring them...

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New Nokia and Samsung Windows Phones Leak from Microsoft

Microsoft's hardware partners are working on the release of new handsets powered by the company's Windows Phone Mango operating system, and some new such devices have emerged in a recent leak. Two Nokia phones and two handsets from Samsung have been recently listed on Microsoft Canada's website, yet they have been removed since.  The Nokia Sea Ray was one of the two devices from the Finnish handset vendor, while the other was the Nokia Sabre.  While the former was already spotted into the wild with the Windows Phone platform  on board, yet little is known on the phone that should be launched as the Nokia Sabre.  However, it seems that the name was actually spotted into the wild before, and that the device might become...

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Nokia Shuts Down Manufacturing Plant in Romania, 2,200 Employees Fired

Bad news for Romanian Nokia employees working at the manufacturing facility in Cluj, as the Finnish company has just announced its plans to shut down the factory.  According to Nokia, the planned closure will have a direct impact on approximately 2,200 employees.  After reducing its R&D operations in Smart Devices and Mobile Phones earlier this year, Nokia has started to cut down some of its manufacturing facilities across the globe. It seems that the Romanian factory is one of the first to be closed by Nokia, but the company also announced reductions of personnel at some of its manufacturing facilities in Salo, Finland, Komarom, Hungary, and Reynosa, Mexico. Even though these manufacturing facilities will remain opened, to serve...

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Ubuntu One Is Now Available on Windows

A client for the popular Ubuntu One online storage service from Canonical is now available for download for the Windows platform.  It's a known fact that lots of open source lovers have to work on Windows or Macintosh platforms at work and have Ubuntu installed at home.  Therefore, providing 5GB of free online storage, the new Ubuntu One client for Windows offers users the ability to store their files on a secure place, for syncing the data across multiple platforms.  "We believe in giving all users regardless of platform, access to one of the best personal cloud services available." was stated in the official announcement. "We want as many people as possible to be able to enjoy Ubuntu One and as a consequence, want to know more...

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