Microsoft to Unveil Windows Phone 8 at MWC

The next version of Windows Phone is expected to make an official appearance at the Mobile World Congress next month, some of the latest reports on the matter suggest.  Microsoft is expected to present the platform at the event, and should refer to it as Windows Phone 8, in line with the upcoming Windows 8 desktop client.  The Redmond-based software giant has been mum so far on the upcoming platform release, but some details on it did slip out via unofficial channels.  The upcoming OS version is reportedly codenamed Apollo, and is expected to arrive on devices in fall this year. However, Microsoft should start detailing it as soon as next month, ZDNet’s Mary-Jo Foley suggests.  One of the main changes that it will bring...

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Rumor: Nokia Lumia 910 with 12MP Camera Coming to Europe in May

Although rumors on a possible European release of the Nokia Lumia 900 have come and gone, there’s no official confirmation for it yet.  Nokia already stated that the Lumia 900 was especially designed for the North American smartphone market, but Europeans cannot accept that such a high-end Windows Phone device won’t be available for them. This was probably one of the reasons that made UK-based retailer Carphone Warehouse add the Lumia 900 to its online store with the “Coming Soon” tag, no later than yesterday. Unfortunately, a few hours after all the media jumped to the conclusion that Nokia Lumia 900 would finally reach European shores, the retailer removed the landing page of the smartphone without giving any explanations. This means...

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RIM’s 2012 Roadmap: Two BlackBerry 10s, Two Curves, One PlayBook

After getting a new Chief Executive Officer, Canadian mobile phone maker Research In Motion is looking forth to release some appealing new devices in 2012.  Rumor has it that the first BlackBerry 10-powered handsets from the company will arrive on shelves in the second half of the current year, and that they will be preceded by handsets in the Curve family.  Moreover, the company will make available a new PlayBook model, packing better hardware specs and more features than the original.  First in the line would be the said two new Curve handsets. Dubbed BlackBerry Curve 9230 and BlackBerry Curve 9320, they are said to be on their way to the market in the next couple of months.  The Curve 9230 device will feature EDGE...

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Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Will Have Next-Gen Menus

Mark Shuttleworth announced a few minutes ago, January 24th, on his blog that the next version of the Ubuntu operating system, Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin), will feature a HUD (head-up display) system, replacing the old menus.  "Say hello to the Head-Up Display, or HUD, which will ultimately replace menus in Unity applications." - said Mark Shuttleworth in the blog announcement. Developed in-house during the last 18 months, the next-generation menu system will definitely revolutionize both the Linux and Windows desktops. The old menus (yes, the ones that are now designed like in Mac OS) will be replaced by the new HUD system developed by Canonical. Take a look at the video above to see how the HUD feature works and how it will help us do our daily tasks better. We now understand...

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Nvidia GK104 Kepler GPU May Be Priced at $299 (€230)

Rumors regarding Nvidia’s next-gen graphics cards, code named Kepler, keep on arriving at a frantic pace, the latest of these claiming that the solutions based on the GK104 GPU will be priced at $299 (about 230 EUR). The $299 price tag was suggested by SemiAccurate, which apparently learned about it from various Nvidia AIB partners. From what we can tell this is only a preliminary price so Nvidia could change it a slightly until the final GK104 parts are shipped depending on chip volume and yields. No specifications were provided with this price, but last week a Chinese publication claimed that the upcoming GK104 core would feature a 256-bit wide memory bus, which would be connected to 2GB of video buffer. While the shader count and operating...

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Alienware 2012 Notebook Lineup Reportedly Revealed

Later this year, Alienware plans to refresh three of its most popular gaming notebooks out there, the M14x, M17x and M18x, to sport Intel’s new Ivy Bridge processors as well as discrete graphics cards from the AMD Radeon HD 7900 and Nvidia GTX 600 series. Making our way from top to bottom, the first notebook that we encounter is the massive 18.4-inch Alienware M18x, that has been introduced by Dell in the first half of 2012. While the info available about the specs of this laptop is rather limited at this point in time, we do know that the M18X R2 will arrive in both red and black, and that it will include support for dual-GPU configurations. Moving down a notch in Alienware’s lineup, we find the fourth revision of the M17X, a high-end 17-inch...

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Nokia Lumia 900 Coming Soon to Singapore, Czech Republic Gets It Too

Rumor has it that the Nokia Lumia 900 might be arriving in Europe no earlier than June. Nokia already confirmed that the smartphone was specially designed for the United States smartphone market, thus it will be unlikely to find this one outside the country. However, it appears that the folks over at UnwiredView have learned that the Lumia 900 is already available for purchase in Czech Republic for $765 (590 EUR) outright. In addition, a third-party retailer from Singapore also listed the Nokia Lumia 900 as ‘Coming Soon,’ but has yet to unveil any pricing options. In other news, UK-based retailer Carphone Warehouse has just issued an official statement confirming that the Lumia 900 will not be available in its stores anytime soon.  No...

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Asus 27-Inch ET2700 AIOs to Arrive in Europe Next Month

One month after making its North American debut, Asus’ large screen ET2700 all-in-one desktop is set to make its entrance in the European market, where it will battle it out with the 27-inch Apple iMac for the title of the ultimate AIO computer. Scheduled to arrive in Europe next month, the Asus ET2700 all-in-one series will be available in three versions, two of these coming with 10-point multi-touch support while the third model loses this ability. Touch compatible or not, the LED backlit panels used for these AIOs sport a native 1920x1080 pixel resolution and use the MVA (Multi-Domain Vertical Alignment) technology which enables them to eliminate color shift and deliver 178 degree viewing angles. On the inside, users are given the option...

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Nokia Releases MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan for N950, Detailed Changelog Included

No later than last week Nokia hinted to an upcoming release of an important update for Nokia N950 developer device, MeeGo PR1.2 beta. However, the Finnish company did not disclose any details regarding the update’s changelog. Although the update that is now available for download only for the N950, the final release will also be pushed to Nokia N9 units. MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan beta for N950 is available for download as OCF (One Click Flasher) and includes, but is not limited to, the following improvements: Software update notifications for content in Nokia Store; Face recognition for gallery and face tags for Facebook; Support for folders in the application view; Mail for Exchange global address book lookup; Mail thread support in the Email...

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Canon EOS C300 to Arrive in Japanese Stores on Jan 31, PL Version in March

Canon Japan has recently announced that the Canon EOS C300 cinema camera, which was unveiled in November last year, will reach Japanese stores by January 31st sporting a yet undisclosed price tag. Designed by Canon to come as an alternative to the RED cameras used by many in Hollywood, the EOS 300 draws its power from a Super 35mm CMOS sensor capable of supporting up to 4K resolutions. The sensor reads Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) video signals for each of the three RGB primary colors, a feature that Canon promises will decrease the incidence of moiré while realizing high resolution with 1,000 horizontal TV lines. Furthermore, the C300 sensor was also built in order to reduce rolling shutter skew, while its association with a DIGIC DV III...

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Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G Specs Spotted in UAProf

One of the Samsung handsets that will soon hit the shelves in the United States on the airwaves of T-Mobile is the Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G, a device made official several weeks ago.  The handset wasn’t detailed at that time, but more info on it is now available via a UAProf file, including the fact that it will pack a 720p Super AMOLED touchscreen display. The upcoming mobile phone is also expected to feature a dual-core 1.5GHz application processor when made available for purchase. Moreover, it should offer support for the wireless carrier’s 42Mbps HSPA+ network.  For the time being, these are the only specs that emerged on the new device. However, more should become available as its release date approaches. Something that should...

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$25 Raspberry Pi Trounces NVIDIA Tegra 2 and iPhone 4S Graphics

We've been keeping an eye out for the Raspberry Pi credit card-sized computer for a while now, and it looks like the small critter is not out to disappoint anyone.  One might argue that “critter” is definitely a demeaning word now that we know what the thing can do. According to reports, the device has a more than decent computing and graphics prowess, enough to blow the iPhone 4S and even NVIDIA's Tegra 2 platform out of the water.  The BCM2835 GPU is the reason for this latest bout of praise.  "What's really striking is how badly Tegra 2 performs relative even to simple APs using licensed Imagination Technologies (TI and Apple) or ARM Mali (Samsung) graphics,” says executive director (and Broadcom SoC architect) Eben Upton.  “To...

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Antec Kuhler H2O 920/620 Owners Get Free LGA2011 Brackets

Contacting a company about one of their products isn't something people usually relish, but the situation is different for Antec and its Kuhler H2O 920 and 620 CPU cooler. Owners of the Kuhler H2O or 920 or 620 that bought an LGA2011 motherboard after they got one of the cooler themselves might want to send an e-mail to Kuhler.eu@antec.com with a proof of purchase and shipping address. After all, there is no reason not to take advantage of Antec's offer to hand out free brackets for the LGA2011 socket. Understandably enough, Antec will ship the bracket with all Kuhler H2O 920 and Kuhler H2O 620 models once supply is ready, which will be at some point in February. If nothing else, getting the bracket will boost the reseller value of the closed-loop...

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Windows 8’s Sensor Support Explained

Windows 8 was meant to be used on mobile devices too, which means that support for sensors will also be included in it.  In fact, it appears that Microsoft has been keen on packing the functionality inside its upcoming platform, and that this was a focus from day one. Now, the company has provided some more info on what the support for these sensors involves.  “The first thing we explored about sensors was how Windows 8 should use them at the system level, to adapt the PC to the environment while preserving battery life,” Gavin Gear, PM on the Device Connectivity team, explains in a recent blog post.  Windows 8 will arrive with automatic display brightness control, a feature that was first introduced in Windows 7 via ambient...

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Evi Is No Match for Siri, Initial Tests Show

Yesterday we gave you the heads up on a new service that replicates Siri functionality on old-generation devices, including the iPhone 3G. Evi, as the app is called, is not up to the task, our experience has shown. Asking the most simple questions puts Evi in an awkward position where she has to say "I'm having trouble getting a response from my servers. You might want to try again in a minute." Sure you can get your answer on the third or fourth try, but that won’t cut it for a paid app that got downloaded by thousands of people yesterday after news broke out that it puts Siri on your non-4S iPhone. The culprit might by the flurry of requests hitting the True Knowledge servers, because when we gave the app a go the other day it worked just...

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Sony Alpha NEX-7 Availability Scheduled for Late February

Sony sure had a lot of problems getting the NEX-7 to market, but fortunately for the outfit the camera is now on track to become available at the end of February. Going for Sony’s flagship interchangeable lens camera will set you back $1,350 (1,043 EUR) for the 18-55mm kit version, while for another $1,300 you could also get the 24mm F.1.8 prime lens made by Carl Zeiss. Pocket Lint uncovered that Amazon would also carry the kit along with a small discount, but you’ll have to wait a few more days to get it as the retailer won’t start shipping it until March 16. As many of you know, the NEX-7 has a 24.3-megapixel sensor, can shoot AVCHD video, and can also capture up to 10fps in burst mode, making it one of the most powerful ILC cameras ar...

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AMD Radeon HD 7950 Overclocked and Tested Against the HD 7970

It might not be AMD’s fastest graphics card in the Radeon HD 7900-series, but the HD 7950 can do more than just hold its own against its more powerful sibling when overclocked. Doanim Haber has put this not yet released AMD graphics card to the test, both running at its default frequencies and overclocked to HD 7970 clocks, and the results are rather impressive. As you can see from the graphs enclosed in the gallery bellow this post, the HD 7950, which has more than enough power to take on the GTX 580 at stock speeds, can be turned into a “best” by simply raising the core to 925MHz and the memory to 1375MHz (5.50GHz effective). In this latter mode, AMD’s upcoming graphics card lags just 4% behind its older brother, while pricing is expected...

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Windows NT at the Core of Windows Phone 8

Codenamed Apollo, Windows Phone 8 will arrive on shelves as the next–generation mobile OS from Microsoft. The platform is said to be based on the same code as the Windows 8 desktop client, which was unveiled to the world in September last year.  Microsoft is said to plan the release of both new OS versions in fall. Nothing has been officially confirmed on this, nor have details been made available on Windows Phone 8.  However, recent rumors suggest that Windows Phone 8 will be based on Windows NT, which is also at the core of Windows 8. This means shared functionality, and possible similar device capabilities.  Given the fact that Microsoft is targeting Windows 8 mainly at the tablet PC area, it does make sense for it to have...

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0RChard Toughlet Rugged Tablet Marries Pixel Qi and Gorrila Glass

0RChard decided to make its own attempt at securing a spot on the tablet market, though it did not so much focus on multimedia support and convenience as it did on endurance.  Basically, instead of targeting consumers like most everyone else, 0RChard decided to offer something to enterprises, commercial companies and construction venues.  The result of its research and development efforts was a 7-inch slate going by the name of Toughlet and featuring a very hardy design.  The Gorilla Glass alone is enough of an indication that this thing isn't going to break very easily.  While the display itself is a Pixel Qi panel (impressive on its own thanks to its light absorption capabilities and readability under sunlight), it...

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DosPara Galleria QF580 Gaming Notebook Packs Nvidia GTX 580M Graphics

DosPara, a Japanese PC maker specialized in high-end gaming desktop and notebooks, has just updated its laptop lineup with a new model, dubbed the Prime Note Galleria QF580 which is powered by Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 580M GPU. The new notebook is housed inside a sober black chassis with an angular design that somewhat resembles a stealth fighter. Moving past the design of the Prime Note Galleria QF580 and taking a look at the specifications of this laptop, the first thing one notices is the Core i7-2860QM processor installed, which includes no less than four processing cores with Hyper-Threading support clocked at 2.5GHz. The fast Intel Sandy Bridge CPU is paired together with up to 16GB of system memory, as well as with an Nvidia GeForce GTX...

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Samsung Galaxy S III Specs and Launch Date Leaked

Samsung’s Galaxy S family of devices has already made a name for itself, through phones like the Galaxy S and Galaxy S II, and might soon climb to new heights.  Rumor has it that the South Korean mobile phone maker is already working on the next member of the family, the Galaxy S III, and that it will launch it sometime in April.  This means that we might see the device made official next month during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. For the time being, however, we’ll take the info with a grain of salt. But, since rumored specs of this device look so great, we’ll have a look at them.  The new mobile phone should arrive on shelves with an HD touchscreen display, though it will not be a 3D one. Although its actual size...

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