Siri Leaks Upcoming New Ability to Speak Japanese

The personal assistant application on Apple’s iPhone 4S has leaked its own ability to speak Japanese, according to a few tipsters. The screenshots above (courtesy of 9to5mac) are testimony that Siri is now able to speak Japanese, although the feature may not be fully enabled just yet. The Siri FAQ states that “Siri understands and can speak” English (United States, United Kingdom, Australia), French (France), and German (Germany), and that in 2012 Siri will support additional languages. Those are Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Italian, and Spanish, though Apple hasn’t confirmed support for these just yet. For those asking if they can use Siri in any of these languages in other countries, the answer is Yes. The service does keep track of your...

Read more »

ZTE’s Light II (V9A) Tablet Arrives in the UK

Chinese manufacturer ZTE has just made a new Gingerbread-powered tablet PC, the ZTE Light II, also known as V9A, official in the UK.  The tablet PC was made available with a 1.4GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 application processor inside, along with 4GB of internal storage, and support for HSPA connectivity.  The new device was released with a 3-megapixel photo snapper on the back, complemented by a 0.3MP front camera destined for making video calls.  The new Android 2.3 Gingerbread-based device will become available for purchase in the UK starting with late February or early March, ZTE announced.  The tablet comes with a price tag of £235 (around $370 / 280 Euros) attached to it, which makes it a rather affordable 7-inch tablet...

Read more »

HTC Velocity 4G Coming to Germany on March 1, Europe’s First LTE Smartphone

We already reported last week that HTC and Vodafone plan to launch Europe’s first LTE smartphone, HTC Velocity 4G. Today, both companies officially announced that the superphone would be exclusively available from Vodafone Germany on March 1. According to Vodafone, HTC Velocity 4G will be priced for under 200 EUR (265 USD) with a new two-year agreement.  The guys over at AndroidPit report that the LTE-enabled smartphone is set to reach about 16 million households. LTE network coverage in Germany is about 90%, which is pretty amazing for a European country. HTC Velocity 4G supports LTE download speeds up to 100 Mbps, as well as upload speeds up to 50 Mbps. Although the smartphone is powered by Google’s Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating...

Read more »

16GB White Galaxy Nexus Possibly En-Route to Verizon Wireless

Rumor has it that the Samsung Galaxy Nexus will soon hit shelves at Verizon Wireless. The carrier already offers the black variant, which is priced at $299.99 with a new two-year agreement. However, for some reason Verizon will launch a 16GB model rather than the “standard” 32GB version which is now available for purchase. The folks at Droid-Life, citing sources close to the matter, speculate that a 16GB metallic silver version will also be launched at Verizon Wireless along with the white version of the Galaxy Nexus. No word on the price yet, but rumor has it that the 16GB white Galaxy Nexus will be available at Verizon Wireless for only $199.99 with a new two-year agreement. The same price tag will be attached on the metallic silver version...

Read more »

Appro Supercomputer Goes Live at University of Tsukuba in Japan

Appro, a provider of supercomputing solutions, has just announced that the Center for Computational Sciences (CCS) at the University of Tsukuba in Japan has deployed and started operating a new Xtreme-X Supercomputer developed by the company. The Appro Xtreme-X Supercomputer is a hybrid system featuring a combination of CPUs and GPUs in each compute node to achieve higher performance than traditional processor-only systems. Each compute node offers 2 CPUs based on the not-yet-released Intel Xeon E5 CPUs based on the Sandy Bridge-E architecture and 4 GPUs from Nvidia’s Tesla M2090 Series. Each node provides 2.99 TeraFlops of computing power, which according to Appro is the world's fastest GPU accelerated node for massively clustered systems....

Read more »

Arctic VGA Coolers Are Compatible with AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series GPUs

Arctic has just updated the specifications sheets of three of its mid-range VGA coolers to mention their compatibility with AMD’s upcoming Radeon HD 7770 and HD 7750 graphics cards based on the Cape Verde core. Three VGA coolers manufactured by Arctic will be compatible with these HD 7000 Series graphics cores, namely the Accelero Mono Plus, the Accelero L2 Plus and the Accelero S1 Plus. According to Hardcore Hardware, no special mounting accessories are required for installing Arctic’s third-party cooling assemblies on the new Radeon HD graphics cards. Users who want to build a quiet gaming or HTPC computer will also be glad to know that the Accelero S1 Plus can work with the Radeon HD 7770 and HD 7750 GPUs, without requiring any additional...

Read more »

Quad-Core Huawei Ascend D1 Q with Android 4.0 to Be Announced at MWC 2012

Chinese company Huawei has big plans for this year’s Mobile World Congress trade fair. After introducing the world’s slimmest Android smartphone, the Ascend P1 S, during the International Consumer Electronics Show, Huawei is about to announce its most powerful smartphone. The handset maker has started to send invitations for one of its events at the MWC 2012, in Barcelona. The company invites media and fans to see for themselves as “Huawei Device takes a leap into the future of mobile communications to unveil their fastest smartphone yet.” Shortly after launching the Ascend P1 S, Huawei confirmed plans to debut an entire lineup of top-tier smartphones, which will be called “Diamond” series. It looks like the first Diamond series device will...

Read more »

Windows Phones to Become Cheaper with Nokia Lumia 610

Soon, the price for Windows Phones will reach a new low, some of the latest reports around the Internet suggest.  Finnish mobile phone Nokia is expected to launch a new budget Windows Phone device, one that will arrive on shelves as Lumia 610, and which should be cheaper than the already available Lumia 710. According to the guys over at TechRadar, Nokia plans on pricing the upcoming device aggressively in the UK to gain more market share.  The Lumia 710 smartphone is currently available for purchase in the UK at £199.99 on PAYG at O2, which pushes the yet-unannounced device to a much lower price point.  The smartphone, set to become official at the MWC show in Barcelona, is said to be running under Microsoft’s next Windows...

Read more »

iPad 3 Launch Date Confirmed - March 7

Reports citing reliable sources are confirming that Apple’s iPad 3 event will be held Wednesday, March 7, and that AT&T and Verizon Wireless will be carrying the new tablet on their LTE networks, hoping to spur widespread adoption of the standard. A report from iMore reveals that Apple is holding its iPad 3 announcement early next month on a Wednesday. We had already predicted March 7 as the date of Apple’s special event. More importantly, the blog (which has been accurate on Apple rumors in the past) cites sources as saying that the iPad 3 features an LTE chipset from Qualcomm. The new radios will allow it to roam on AT&T’s and Verizon’s 4G airwaves. A Wall Street Journal piece cited by the entire Apple blogosphere seems to confirm...

Read more »

LG Optimus 3D 2 Photo and Some Specs Leak Ahead of MWC 2012

One of the first 3D Android phones launched on the market, the LG Optimus 3D is one of the last smartphones showcased at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2011 that gets the Android 2.3 Gingerbread upgrade. One year after Optimus 3D’s launch, LG plans to announce the phone’s sequel, the Optimus 3D 2. Also known as LG Optimus 3D Max or LG CX2, the device is expected to go official at the end of the month, at the MWC 2012, in Barcelona. The first rumors on the Optimus 3D 2 leaked a few weeks ago, along with some of its specs and two photos that show the slim smartphone’s front and back parts. Today, another render of the smartphone emerged, but this one shows a white-themed Optimus 3D 2.  According to Oled-Display citing ETNEWS, the Optimus...

Read more »

AMD Opteron 6200 Series CPUs Power New 12 Tflop EURO/CFD HPC Cluster

EURO/CFD, an engineering company specialized in numerical calculation, has just announced that it acquired a new HPC cluster built around AMD’s Opteron 6200 Series “Interlagos” processors, which can deliver 12 TeraFlops of performance at its peak speed. In order to achieve this feat, the cluster installed by EURO/CFD utilizes no less than 1,054 computing cores which are seconded by a whopping 6TB of RAM system memory. All the computers forming the cluster are then connected to one another via a fast InfiniBand QDR type network, while data is stored both locally and on a remote system. “Turning this 1 000 cores corner is a real pride for our small company. Thanks to this investment in our HPC cluster, we ensure our position as major expert...

Read more »

Intel LGA 1150 Socket Will Be Compatible with 2014 Broadwell CPUs - Report

Intel’s LGA 1150 socket that will be introduced together with next year’s Haswell processors will also be compatible with the company’s upcoming Braodwell CPUs, which are expected to arrive in 2012 fabricated using the 14nm production node. This information was unveiled by a recently leaked Intel slide that details the company’s 2013 Haswell processors and the Lynx Point chipset accompanying it. According to this slide, the LGA 1150 socket that Intel plans to introduce at the same time with the successor of Ivy Bridge will also be compatible with the company’s 2014 desktop CPUs. Even though most of us expected this to be the case, it’s nice to see a confirmation from Intel’s part. The slide leaked by Donanim Haber also gives us some info...

Read more »

New Intel Sandy Bridge-EP Processors Spotted, Arrive in the Xeon E5 CPU Range

Four more Sandy Bridge-EP processors from Intel’s soon-to-be-unveiled Xeon E5 product series have been recently spotted in some official documents published by Fujitsu and ASRock. The chips were uncovered when a CPU-World reader came across the configuration page of the Fujitsu CELSIUS M720 system, which included the two Xeon E5-2600 SKUs that nobody had heard of before. The processors are called the Xeon E5-1603 and E5-1607, and even though their specifications were lacking, CPU-World managed to find them on the ASRock website, mentioned in a CPU compatibility list for LGA 2011 SKUs. The CPU support list contains specifications of Xeon E5-1603 and E5-1607, along with details on two members of E5-4600 series, dubbed the E5-4620 and E5-4650. According...

Read more »

Nvidia Kepler GK104 Graphics Cores Start Reaching AIBs

Nvidia has apparently started shipping the first GK104 graphics cores based on the Kepler architecture to its add-in board (AIB) partners, suggesting that the launch of its first 28nm video cards is getting near. According to reports from the Far East, which have been gathered by SemiAccurate, Nvidia’s most important add-in board partners have begun receiving the first GK104 cores at the start of last week. The GPUs delivered by Nvidia were in various states of functionality, but since they are only meant for early hardware design and testing these are more than adequate for the task. Furthermore, this seems to suggest that Nvidia is committed to get Kepler out as soon as possible. If all things go as planned, AIBs need between 4 and 6 weeks...

Read more »

AMD Radeon HD 7770 Specs Confirmed by GPU-Z Screenshot

With two days left to go until AMD launches its Radeon HD 7700-series of mainstream graphics cards, a GPU-Z screenshot of the Radeon HD 7770 has made its appearance on the Web, confirming the specs of this GPU. This graphics core will come as the direct descendant of the Radeon HD 5770 and its HD 6770 rebrand, since it targets the same mainstream performance class, but this time it will utilize the new Cape Verde XT core. Much like the Tahiti GPU that AMD has used for the graphics cards in the Radeon HD 7900 series, the Cape Verde graphics cores are also based on the Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture. Despite the similar architecture, the Cape Verde XT GPU has a much smaller die (123mm2 vs 365mm2 for the Tahiti GPU), since it packs only...

Read more »

Audiophile-Grade Audioengine D1 USB DAC Now Available

USB digital-to-analog convertors (DACs) are nothing new, but Audioengine has decided that it’s time to take this concept one step further and recently released the audiophile-grade D1 USB DAC. While on the outside this might look like your average USB DAC, the D1 makes no compromises and features a high-end AK4396 DAC with TI NE5532 headphone amplifier. Thanks to this configuration, over USB, the D1 supports a maximum of 96kHz rate at an impressive 24 bit resolution, while over its integrated optical port it delivers 192kHz @ 24 bit resolution. Furthermore, there’s also an RCA jack on the back, so you can connect even high-end audio speakers to it. If these specs have you convinced, the Audioengine D1 could be yours right now for $169 (about 128 EUR), which is a good price considering the...

Read more »

CyanogenMod 9 Lands on LG Optimus 2X and T-Mobile G2X

CyanogenMod 9 is not final yet, but development builds for the various devices that are supported by it have already started to emerge.  Some handsets that are not officially supported also got a taste of it, and, among them, we can count the LG Optimus 2X and the T-Mobile G2X, the two siblings that landed on shelves with model numbers LG P990 and LG P999, respectively.  On his Google+ page, Ricardo Cerqueira explains that there are issues with the two ROMs, especially since these are unsupported devices.  Updates for them might be released in the future, although nothing is certain at this point. Even so, those who would still like to get a taste of the software can do so now. Download links for the two builds are available...

Read more »

Nokia N9 with Ice Cream Sandwich on Video

Nokia N9 has got a taste of Google’s Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system not too long ago, and is now showing some more of it in the video embedded above.  Some info on the progress registered with the porting of Ice Cream Sandwich to this mobile phone emerged only a few days ago, and more on the matter is now available via the said video.  Clearly, the MeeGo-based Nokia N9 can perform well when Android 4.0 is loaded on it. Those who might have had doubts before should reconsider their position towards this port.  Of course, there is a variety of issues that still need to be taken care of when it comes to loading ICS on N9. After all, the project is still in an incipient phase.  However, it becomes clear that all those who will want to change the OS on their...

Read more »

Nokia's MWC 2012 Lineup Leaks: Lumia 610, PureView 808, Asha 202 / 203 / 302

It looks like Nokia is reading for something big at the Mobile World Congress trade fair, which is set to kick off on February 27, in Barcelona, Spain. Although there’s no word on any high-end smartphone that might be announced at the end of the month, except the global version of Lumia 900, word on the street is that the Finnish company will launch no less than six new devices at MWC 2012. The guys over at Pocketnow found out the names of the phones that will be released in Barcelona at the end of the month, but they couldn’t get any details on these devices. According to them, Nokia plans to debut no less than six new phones at the exhibition: two Windows Phone devices, one Symbian smartphone and three feature-phones. Aside from the global...

Read more »

Samsung Makes GALAXY Tab 2 (7.0) Official

Today, South Korean mobile phone maker Samsung Electronics has announced the upcoming availability of a new flavor of its GALAXY Tab tablet PC, one that runs under Google’s Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system.  The new GALAXY Tab 2 (7.0) brings along great multimedia capabilities, along with all of the features that Google has included in its Android 4.0 operating system.  Samsung’s GALAXY Tab 2 (7.0) arrives on the market with a 7-inch touchscreen display, the same as its predecessor, and also offers support for 3G (HSPA+ 21Mbps) and WiFi connectivity. Featuring a 1GHz dual core application processor, the new device will arrive on the market in the UK in March, and will reach more countries around the world soon afterwards.  This...

Read more »

AMD A-Series Trinity APU Specs Unveiled, Top at 3.8GHz

After we presented a series of basic info about AMD’s upcoming A10- and A8-Series APUs last week, a new leak has now reached the Web to reveal not only the names of these chips, but also their specs, including CPU and GPU clock speeds. Just as it has previously done with Llano, AMD decided to split the Trinity APUs into four product series, covering everything from the high-end to the low-end processor market. The most advanced of these APUs will be launched in the A10-Series, which includes the A10-5800K and the A10-5700, according to Donanim Haber. Both of these chips pack four processing cores, 4MB of Level 2 cache memory, support for AMD’s Turbo Core technology and DDR3-1866 memory, as well as an on-board Radeon HD 7660D GPU with 384...

Read more »

Garmin Shows Off Its BlueChart iPad App at Miami Boat Show

In conjunction with the Miami International Boat Show, Garmin International announces its BlueChart Mobile marine app for iPad and iPhone that lets mariners enjoy the same accurate BlueChart data in Garmin chartplotters on an iPad or iPhone. The BlueChart Mobile app will be showcased in the Garmin booth (#1689) at this year’s show Boat Show in Miami, where interested parties will be able to test its ability to access ActiveCaptain, a web-based community that provides real-time content generated by mariners for mariners. ActiveCaptain co-creator and owner, Jeffrey Siegel, will be at the Garmin booth this Friday, as well as in the morning of Saturday, February 18, 2012, to highlight the program and its functionality within the BlueChart Mobile...

Read more »

CDMA Nokia Lumia 800 Emerges En-Route to China CDMA Nokia Lumia 800 Emerges En-Route to China

Nokia’s first Windows Phone out there, the Lumia 800, was made available only in a GSM flavor, yet it seems that the Finnish handset vendor is considering the launch of CDMA versions of the device as well. The company is getting ready to make the smartphone available for mobile phone users in China, and will do so in the near future. When unveiling the Lumia 800 last year, Nokia did say that it had plans for making the device available in China as well, and the first signs that things have been put in motion have just started to emerge. The CDMA flavor of Lumia 800 is expected to become available in the country via China Telecom as soon as next month. Apparently, Nokia is also preparing the launch of Nokia Lumia 710 in...

Read more »

Sapphire Radeon HD 7770 Pictured Ahead of Launch

With just a few more hours to go until the Radeon HD 7770 becomes official, a picture of an upcoming HD 7770 graphics card built by Sapphire has just reached the web giving us a glimpse at the successor of the popular Juniper HD 5770/HD 6770 solutions. For this next-gen midrange graphics card, Sapphire decided to go with a design similar to the one used for some of its Radeon HD 6770 graphics cards. This relies on a single large central fan to ventilate both the PCB of the video card, as well as a heatsink that draws the heat away from the GPU via a thick copper heatpipe. On the connectivity front, things are also surprisingly familiar as Sapphire’s creation sports the usual 3 display output configuration which comprises DVI, HDMI and mini-DisplayPort...

Read more »

Mac Pro Refresh in Q3 with 8-Core Ivy Bridge CPUs - Report

Apple is preparing to refresh its Mac Pro line of workstations, according to a report from China, but don’t hold your breath just yet, as the sources behind this leak say it’ll happen as late as the end of Q3 2012. M.I.C. Gadget has been reliable on Apple rumors in the past, so it should be worth noting that the blog has learned that “Apple is close to finally updating the Mac Pro.” As one of Intel’s most valuable partners, Apple has already received “engineering samples for the new [Ivy Bridge] processors, with 8 cores and a shocking 20MB of cache,” according to the blog’s sources. The overheating issues plaguing existing machines are gone, the sources added, “and the manufacturing yield is now high enough for Apple to maintain its high...

Read more »

XFX Radeon HD 7770 Black Edition Pictured

The Radeon HD 7770 might not be out yet, but the first leaked pictures of an XFX HD 7770 have already reached the Web, letting us all have a look at this next-gen midrange gaming graphics card. Right from the get-go, it becomes apparent that this new Black Edition HD 7770 is somewhat a replica of XFX’ Radeon HD 7970 BE, since it packs the same Double Dissipation cooler design. For the HD 7770 however, this has been shrunk, since the card has a much lower TDP than its 7900-series counterparts, according to TechPowerUp. Despite this change, the Double Dissipation cooler is still a much better option than AMD’s reference design, as XFX claims this can be up to 13dBA quieter and 7°C cooler than those stock HD 7770’s. The card’s operating clocks...

Read more »

Enpirion Makes DDR Memory Run on 1.4W Less

Enpirion has announced the completion of the EV1320 VTT 2 Amp source/sink DDR termination converter, which accepts input voltage of 0.95 to 1.8V. This new converter measures 3 x 3 x 0.55 mm and can make do with a printed circuit board area of just 80 square mm. Enpirion also made it possible to operate more than one device at the same time, boosting efficiency and cost effectiveness for any applications that rely on large DDR memory capacities. That includes everything from servers to notebooks, tablets, ultrabooks, solid state drives and embedded computers. In layman terms, the EV1320 VTT converter allows DDR memory to work with an efficiency of 96 percent, which equates to 1.4 Watt power saving compared to standard LDO (low drop out) regulator-based...

Read more »

Samsung Galaxy Ace DUOS, Galaxy Y DUOS and Y Pro DUOS Now Available in India

Korean handset maker Samsung has just announced the availability of three brand new dual-SIM smartphones in India, Galaxy Ace DUOS, Galaxy Y DUOS and Galaxy Y Pro DUOS. According to the company, these are the first dual-SIM smartphones launched by Samsung on the Indian market. Although the Galaxy Y DUOS and Galaxy Y Pro DUOS have already been officially unveiled back in December, the Galaxy Ace DUOS is a brand new smartphone. Indian customers prefer dual-SIM devices and Samsung is trying to boost its market share based on customers’ needs and preferences.  Even though these are the first dual-SIM smartphones introduced in India, Samsung previously launched two dual-SIM feature-phones, the Champ Deluxe DUOS and Star 3 DUOS. The brand...

Read more »