AMD Radeon HD 7950 Benchmarked, Significantly Faster than Nvidia’s GTX 570

The next graphics card in the Radeon HD 7000-series, the Radeon HD 7950, was just benchmarked by a Chinese website who found out that AMD’s upcoming solution is significantly faster than an Nvidia GeForce GTX 570M. The Radeon HD 7950 graphics card used, which ran at AMD’s default frequencies, was paired together with an Intel Core i5-2500K processor and put through several loops of 3DMark 11. At the end of these tests, AMD’s upcoming solution received a score of P6139 which puts it right between the last-gen HD 6970 and its older brother, the HD 7970 (the cards scored P5471 and P7728, respectively). To see how the Radeon HD 7950 stacks up to its competition, the tester also run the 3DMark 11 benchmark on the same system but with an Nvidia...

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Ready to Run on the PlayStation 4

Dust 514, the ambitious new shooter from EVE Online developers CCP, might be ready to launch in early 2012, but the development team working on it believes that the basic structure of the game allows it to work just as easily on a possible PlayStation 3 as it does on current hardware. Speaking to Develop, Hilmar Pétursson, who is the chief executive officer at CCP, reports, “If there is a PlayStation 4 – which I can tell you now I have no idea if there is – but if there was, we would build Dust for that console as well.  “It will most likely be a revision of the experience, as with all updates, and could allow people to play across PS3 and 4.” The executive says that his company knows how to deal with constantly advancing technology...

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Intel Ivy Bridge Dual-Core CPUs to Arrive in Early May, Says Report

After bringing to market its first Ivy Bridge processors at the beginning of April, Intel will continue to expand its CPU lineup with new chips based on this architecture, and they are expected to arrive in early May. Previously, all we knew about the launch of the second batch of Ivy Bridge processors was that Intel planned for them to arrive in Q2 of 2012, but Fudzilla has now uncovered that their release is actually scheduled for the week of May 6 (May 6-12). This launch will include the Core i7-3520M and Core i5-3360M, as well as the ultra-low voltage (ULV) based Core i7-3667U and Core i5-3427U, the former featuring a TDP of 35W, while the latter are 17W parts. In addition to these dual-core mobile chips, Intel will also reportedly unveil...

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24 Cities Got New 45 Degree Aerial Imagery in Google Maps

Google is wasting no time in updating imagery in Google Maps. Already, it's at its second update of the year for aerial imagery. 24 cities now boast new images to provide a fresher perspective.  Most are in the US, but there are several cities in Europe and one in South America as well, in Brazil. "The second 45° imagery update of 2012 includes new imagery for 17 U.S. and 7 international locations in Google Earth and Google Maps," Bernd Steinert, Geo Data Specialist at Google, announced. The full list of cities is available in the announcement. Among the more interesting locations is Porto Alegre, in Brazil, the only city from the Southern hemisphere to get an update, and Ulm in Germany. A little over a week ago, Google Maps got updated...

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EK Readies Asus DirectCU II Radeon HD 7970 Top Water Block

Even though the Asus DirectCU II HD 7970 Top is not yet available for purchase, EK has already started working on a water block for Asus’ high performance graphics card. The company got the word out through Legit Reviews and believes that the water block will be available at the end of February or early March. Little else is known at this point in time about this EK creation, but it’s fairly certain that it will feature a full-coverage design similar to that of the regular Radeon HD 7970 water block. More info about the Asus DirectCU II HD 7970 Top video card is available in this article, so make sure to check it out, while the video above describes in great detail how to install an EK water block on your own HD 7970.&nbs...

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Intel Integrated Graphics Challenges AMD & Nvidia in the CAD Space

Intel’s integrated graphics have made a lot of progress in the last couple of years, and now the company has decided to go after AMD and Nvidia in the professional CAD market, with the P3000 GPU found inside its Xeon E3 processors based on the Sandy Bridge architecture. In order to achieve this feat, the graphics cores integrated inside Intel’s Xeon E3-1200 processors have now gained OpenGL certification, as well as support for a wide series of high-end architecture and engineering design applications. The list includes programs such as AutoCAD, RevIT, Inventor, Adobe Photoshop CS5, and Adobe Premiere Elements, while SolidWorks and 3Ds Max should also be added to the list in the not so distant future.  VR-Zone had the chance of playing...

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Motorola Sends Invites for DROID RAZR Soak Test

Although Motorola promised to deliver the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade to DROID RAZR in Q1 2012, it’s still too early for the update to come out. However, this doesn’t mean that the DROID RAZR should not receive other software updates meant to fix some of the issues and improve the overall performance of the smartphone. The folks over at Droid-Life claim that the handset maker has just started to send invites to a soak test for a new project. Invitations are sent via email to those who own a Motorola Feedback Network account. There are no details on the upcoming software updates, but rumor has it that this might be the Android 2.3.6 build 6.12.173, which was leaked a while ago. More details on the software update will be released...

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Windows 8’s Metro UI on Android via Skydroid

Android users who would like to get a taste of the Windows 8 user interface on their Android-based mobile phones will soon be able to do so through an application called Skydroid. Available from the guys over at the XDA-Developers forums, the app will bring the Windows 8 Metro UI on Android, though it appears that it won‘t be an exact replica of the interface. Instead, it will be only inspired by Windows 8.  The software will come with Dialer, SMS, Email, Calendar, People with IM and social, Player, Gallery, Camera, Browser, Notes, Stock + Currency converter, Alarm, News, File manager, Settings, Launcher, and more.  With five people working on the project, all looks promising. However, the software will not be released before...

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Motorola ATRIX 4G Gets CyanogenMod 9 ROM

The ATRIX 4G is one of the first Motorola smartphones to feature a dual-core processor. Unveiled last year, in February, Motorola ATRIX 4G was initially delivered with Android 2.2 Froyo on board.  However, Motorola and AT&T deployed the Gingerbread upgrade last year, so users could take advantage of the new features offered by Google’s latest operating system Even though the phone is rather old, its hardware configuration recommends it for an Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade, but Motorola has yet to make any announcement regarding the ATRIX 4G updates. The phone is equipped with a 1GHz dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, which is complemented by a ULP GeForce graphics processing unit. In addition, it packs 16GB of internal memory, 1GB...

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Windows Phone Build 7.10.8745 Emerges

A few weeks ago, Microsoft started pushing out the 8107 software update for the handsets running under its Windows Phone operating system.  Apparently, the company is gearing up for the release of a new update for Windows Phone users, one that would sport Build number 7.10.8745.  The upcoming software update was just spotted online, in the database of the popular WP Bench application. The new firmware was spotted on an HTC 7 Pro smartphone.  Moreover, it appears that it was accompanied by a 7.10.8714 build, but no info on either of them has emerged until now.  Chances are that the new Windows Phone Builds would be part of the upcoming Tango branch, which should be released in the near future.  Moreover, some suggest...

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Casio G-Shock Rugged Smartphone Showcased at CES 2012

Casio is a well-known watchmaker, but company has decided to enter the smartphone market as well. The G’Zone Commando, Casio’s first try on Android devices seems to have been successful as the company plans to launch even more Android phones this year.  Last week we reported about Casio’s first high-end Android smartphone that was supposed to feature a quad-core processor and a large 4.5-inch or 4.7-inch Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen. Today, we have more details on Casio’s upcoming devices courtesy to the folks over at G-shockzone. It appears that a certain G-Shock rugged smartphone has been spotted earlier this month at the International Consumer Electronics Show, in Las Vegas. Casio’s G-Shock smartphone was showcased at CES...

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Sony Confirms ICS for Tablets and Xperia Smartphones in Spring

Sony is set to make the new Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system available for some of its devices in the coming months.  The company has confirmed once again that it will deliver the OS upgrade to its Xperia smartphones in spring, and that the Tablet S and Tablet P devices will also receive it at that time.  The two tablets are reportedly running under the new platform internally, and things are more than encouraging.  However, Sony wouldn’t offer a specific release timeframe for the update, which means that we’ll have to wait for the availability period to learn more on the matter.  The company’s entire 2011 Xperia family will receive the new software update, but specific info on when that will happen hasn’t...

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Stable MIUI 4.0 ROM for Samsung Galaxy S II Now Available for Download

A ‘very stable’ version of MIUI for Samsung Galaxy S II has just been released and is now available for download. XDA Developer user adyscorpius confirms that the new MIUI 4.0 ROM for Galaxy S II works ‘flawlessly,’ except the standard CyanogenMod 9 and MIUI v4 problems, which have yet to be fixed in future updates. The current build is based on CyanogenMod 9 and MIUI Android 2.1.20. Although the developers confirm that the MIUI Themes still don't work, there’s a workaround that will enable users to take advantage of this feature. Simply create a folder in /data/system/theme and the problem will be solved. Furthermore, the permissions manager will ask users for permission to manage root. This needs to be accepted. Other than these two known...

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Imagination Technologies Readies Discrete GPGPU PCIe Card

Imagination Technologies is about to launch a PC graphics card, of sorts, even though it hasn't actually done anything in this field for many years. The company is building on a bet it made last year, when it bought Caustic Graphics. Caustic actually managed to create FPGA chips that they used for the creation of accelerators capable of real-time ray tracing. After it got bought, Caustic kept on preparing the market for this technology, finally seeing success at CES 2012, or so reports say. If Imagination Technologies impresses enough people with the upcoming PowerVR Discrete GPGPU PCIe Cards (second half of 2012), it could become a competitor to NVIDIA's Quadro and Tesla GPU compute accelerators. Don't be fooled by the photo, though. As...

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Intel Readies Core i3-3120ME and i3-3217UE Ivy Bridge CPUs

Besides desktop and mobile parts, Intel’s Ivy Bridge CPU lineup will also include a series of embedded processors. Recently the specs of two such models have been uncovered and published online. The processors in question are the Core i3-3217UE and i3-3120ME, both of these featuring similar specifications and coming with two computing cores with Hyper-Threading support. Starting with the Core i3-3217UE, this is an ultra-low voltage CPU with a base clock of 1.6GHz, no Turbo Boost support (as it’s the case with all Core i3 CPUs) and 3MB of Level 3 cache memory. Just like Intel’s mobile Ivy Bridge processors, the chip incorporates an HD 4000 graphics engine clocked at 350MHz, which can go as high as 900MHz when the need arises. The new Intel...

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Canon EOS 5D Mark III Full-Frame DSLR Spotted in the Wild

After a pretty long wait, Canon seems to be finally getting ready to release the EOS 5D Mark III digital SLR as the camera has just been spotted being put through its paces in Kenya, Africa together with Canon’s upcoming 200-400mm zoom lens. From the pictures provided by Aperture Academy, it seems like the new EOS 5D Mark III will be pretty similar to the current 7D and 5D Mark II, but with a slightly larger display and a redesigned button arrangement. The most important of these modifications is the inclusion of a “Rate” button placed on the left of the screen, while the removable battery grip has now received the addition of a joystick. Other changes seem to include a new scroll wheel and a somewhat modified interface, but unfortunately,...

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Kingmax Quad-Channel DDR3 Memory Works at 2200MHz

Memory maker Kingmax has just announced the introduction of a new line of high- speed DDR3 memory compatible with quad-channel systems that was designed in order to run at speeds of up to 2200MHz. The Kingmax memory modules will be available both in a kit form and as standalone DDR3 sticks, but no matter the option one choses, all of these feature similar specs with speeds starting at 1333MHz and going all the way up to 2200MHz. In the case of the lower clocked 1333MHz, 1600MHz, and 2000MHz DIMMs, Kingmax set the memory timings at CL9, while for the 2200MHz sticks these have been loosened a bit and run at CL10. Operating voltages also vary depending on the speeds that the memory is run at, with the entry-level Kingmax solutions requiring...

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AMD Brazos Epson Endeavor NP30S Mini-PC Makes Appearance

Taking a short break from the printer business, Epson has released in Japan a new ultra-thin small form factor PC based on AMD’s Brazos platform, which targets casual computer users more interested in style than performance. Dubbed the Endeavor NP30S, the system resembles to some extent Sapphire’s Edge HD nettop/mini-PC, but it features a more elegant all-white case that definitely adds more than just a dash of style to the Epson PC. Moving past its looks, on the inside the NP30S is powered by an AMD C-60 accelerated processing unit which sports dual Bobcat x86 processing cores clocked at 1GHz and Radeon HD 6290 integrated graphics, featuring some impressive multimedia capabilities. This means that Epson’s PC can handle HD video playback...

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AMD Android 4.0 Tablet Visited CES 2012, Courtesy of MSI

A report has surfaced about a certain tablet that was shown off during CES 2012, which, for one reason or another, did not get media attention until now.  No explanation for this perceived oversight has been offered, especially considering that the item was actually quite unique.  Quite simply, it was an AMD Fusion (though not anymore) APU-powered slate loaded with the Android 4.0 operating system from Google.  For those unaware, Android 4.0 is the other name that the Ice Cream Sandwich is known by.  The tablet was made by MSI (Micro-Star International) and is called WindPad 110W.  Unfortunately, Advanced Micro Devices itself did not play a part in the creation of this Android-loaded version.  Instead, MSI made...

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