Huawei Ascend D Quad Confirmed for July

Dubbed “the fastest quad-core Android smartphone,” Huawei Ascend D quad was announced back in February at the Mobile World Congress 2012.

Although the handset maker did not reveal any details regarding the phone’s pricing tag and release date, we thought that the Ascend D quad might hit shelves as early as May.

However, Chinese site CNMO reports that Huawei will start mass production of Ascend D quad only in June, which means shipping will be scheduled for July. 

Huawei Ascend D quad will be delivered with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box. The smartphone packs a quad core Huawei K3V2 processor clocked at 1.2 GHz, 8GB of ROM, 1 GB of RAM and microSD card slot for memory expansion (up to 32GB).

It also sports a large 4.5-inch IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen display that supports HD (720 x 1280 pixels) resolution. Huawei also included Dolby Mobile 3.0 Plus sound enhancement for a better multimedia experience.

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Sleipnir 3.0.14 Available for Download (for Windows)

Sleipnir web browser received an update today, incrementing the version number to 3.0.14. Although there aren’t too many modifications available the changes are notable in some cases.

The new revision brings to the table improvements and squashes bugs menacing the stability of the program.

The highlights of this build include increasing the usable memory in the application as well as improvements to reusing threads processing when operating multi-threads.

Fixes refer to forceful termination of the application when closing tabs displayed with Gecko; another repair takes care of an issue that caused an operation to fail when trying to bring tabs together and open them using "OpenSelectedLinks"(Ctrl+G).

The application is available for download from this link.

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Toshiba Intros 7-Inch LT170 Android Tablet Powered by Freescale SoC

Back at the start of January, we found out that Toshiba was preparing a new low-cost 7-inch tablet. Little was known about the slate at that time, but recently the LT170 was made official by its Japanese maker.

Design wise, Toshiba’s new tablet doesn’t seem to differ all that much from the pictures that were leaked at the start of this year, as it includes the same black and blue colorway and overall shape.

However, we now have some more details about the specs of this tablet, which Notebook Italia revealed it was powered by a 1GHz Freescale i.MX53 system-on-a-chip (SoC) device, which includes a single Cortex A8 core.

In the LT170, the SoC is paired together with 512MB high speed DDR3, while for storage purposes Toshiba went with 8GB of Flash memory.

This can be expanded by installing a microSD card, and users can also access other external storage devices by connecting them to the included micro-USB port. 

All of these are powered by a Li-ion battery that Toshiba claims can offer up to seven hours of autonomy in video playback mode.

Weight wise, the 11.5mm (0.45-inches) thin 7-inch Toshiba tablet tips the scale at just 362g (a little less than 0.8 pounds).

Other features include a front mounted 0.3MP webcam, a 2MP rear snapper, accelerometer and ambient light sensors, as well as Android Market and Toshiba Places support. The 7-inch screen has a resolution of 1024x600 pixels.

According to the source, the Toshiba LT170 tablet should become available in Europe at the end of this month.

Pricing is said to be set at 299 EUR (a little less than $400 US) and the tablet is already available for pre-order from various online retailers.

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Asetek Demos Liquid Cooled Alienware M18x Notebook, Video Included

Asetek, a company well known for its maintenance-free liquid cooling solutions, showcased a new technology that allows such cooling systems to be used inside gaming notebooks, workstation-grade laptops and AIOs.

The liquid cooling system was demonstrated inside an Alienware M18x notebook and it comprises three compact radiators, three waterblocks and a water pump.

The latter is placed right under the palm rest area, while the three waterblocks are used to cool the two Radeon HD 6990M GPUs installed inside the M18x and the notebook’s Core i7-2920XM CPU.

To showcase the power of its liquid cooling system, Asetek overclocked both the CPU and the GPUs installed in the notebook.

In the case of the Core i7 processor, this had its frequency increased from 3.5Ghz to 4.4GHz, while the Radeon HD 7990M graphics cards had their operating clocks raised from 680MHz to 800MHz.

According to Asetek, this enabled the M18x to reach a 23 percent higher 3D Mark Vantage score, while also reducing the noise output of the stock air-cooled laptop. 

“We see a growing need for higher performance personal computers, driven by ever more powerful modeling software for engineering, scientific and financial work, and for content creation and gaming,” said André S. Eriksen, founder and CEO of Asetek. 

“We also see high performance hardware expanding to more portable, sleeker devices like the highly successful M-series of notebooks from Alienware.

“For laptops and AIOs to deliver workstation and gaming PC performance, these machines must be able to take full advantage of desktop grade performance hardware. We have identified this need and designed our cooling solution to target these thinner machines,” concluded the company’s rep.

If you want to learn more about Asetek’s new liquid cooling technology, or see it in action, make sure to check out the video bellow.

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Ceramic White GALAXY S II WiMAX Coming to Japan via KDDI

The WiMAX version of the Galaxy S II was launched in Japan in mid-January, but customers could only choose the black color variant. 

However, starting on March 24, those who still wish to grab the smartphone will be able to get it in white as well. 

The folks at SammyHub have just learned that the ceramic white Galaxy S II WiMAX will be available for purchase at KDDI this weekend.

There are no differences whatsoever between the two color versions, but customers may want to check the smartphone’s regional availability at the carrier’s site.

Just like the black-themed variant, the ceramic white Samsung Galaxy S II WiMax will be shipped with Android 2.3 Gingerbread on board. 

Still, the South Korean handset maker promised all Galaxy S II models will be upgraded to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich by the end of the year.

In fact, Samsung has already started to push the update for unlocked Galaxy S II devices, but carrier-bounded units, like KDDI’s Galaxy S II WiMAX, will get it later.

Unlike the original Galaxy S II, the WiMAX version comes with a slightly larger 4.7-inch Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display that supports HD (720 x 1280 pixels) resolution and features Corning Gorilla Glass coating.

The smartphone also packs a more powerful processor in comparison with the original model, which features a 1.2 GHz dual-core CPU. The WiMAX model, which will soon go live at KDDI, is equipped with a dual-core processor clocked at 1.4 GHz.

Furthermore, Galaxy S II WiMAX boasts an 8-megapixel rear photo snapper on the back, which features LED flash, autofocus and full HD (1080p) video recording, as well as a secondary 2-megapixel camera for video calls.

It also comes with 16GB of internal memory, 1GB of RAM, microSD card slot for memory expansion (up to 32GB), and NFC (Near Field Communications) support.

White Galaxy S II WiMAX Japan regional availability

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iPad Developers Can Easily Port Apps to Windows 8, Microsoft Shows

This fall, the world will get a full taste of the next generation operating system from Microsoft, Windows 8, as well as of the applications designed specifically for it. 

Over the past several months, the Redmond-based software giant has been providing developers with details on what they need to do to have applications up and running on Windows 8, and is not delivering more of these. 

Among them, we can also count info on how app builders would be capable to port their applications from Apple’s iPad to tablet PCs running under the upcoming OS. 

In fact, the company has published a case study on its website to demonstrate how iPad developers could take advantage of Windows 8’s capabilities to enhance their applications while porting them to the new platform. 

Applications that target Windows 8 specifically need to be built based on the new Metro UI principles that Microsoft has introduced last year when unveiling the platform. These applications will be distributed through Microsoft’s new application portal, the Windows Store.

“In this case study we want to help designers and developers who are familiar with iOS to reimagine their apps using Metro style design principles,” the company notes on its website. 

“We show you how to translate common user interface and experience patterns found in iPad apps to Windows 8 Metro style apps. 

“We draw on our experience building the same app for the iPad and for Windows 8. We use common design and development scenarios to show how to leverage the Windows 8 platform and incorporate Metro style design principles.”

The case study brings to the spotlight a connected photo journal that provides users with the possibility to easily view and manage their photos and videos online. The app also offers a timeline view.

After building the application for the iPad, the team at Microsoft started porting it to Windows 8. On the company’s website, they show how each component of the iPad application can be translated into Metro style design.

Developers interested in getting started with the building of applications for the next gen platform from Microsoft can now download the Windows 8 Consumer Preview Build 8250, available on this page.

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Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 Price Reportedly Set at $499 (375 EUR)

Rumored for quite some time to be released at a $549 price point, Nvidia’s upcoming GeForce GTX 680 graphics card based on the company’s Kepler architecture is now said to be priced at $499 (about 375 EUR).

According to Fudzilla, Nvidia’s add-in board (AIB) partners have received the new price earlier this morning.

No reason for this alleged price cut was given, but this makes the GTX 680 a much better deal than before, especially considering the leaked benchmarks to show up so far, that place its performance over that of the AMD Radeon HD 7970.

Despite the new $499 price tag received by the company’s AIBs, the card’s official "Recommended Retail Price" or European price still hasn’t been provided by Nvidia, so things could still change in this regard.

The GK104 graphics core the GTX 680 is said to be based upon packs 1536 stream processors, and a 256-bit wide memory bus that is connected to 2GB of video buffer.

Nvidia has apparently clocked the VRAM at an impressive 1,500MHz (6GHz data rate), while the base GPU frequency is set at 1,006MHz.

As we previously revealed, Nvidia’s next-generation Kepler graphics core will also feature support for a new technology called Dynamic Clock Adjustment.

Apparently, this works similarly to Intel’s Turbo Boost technology to automatically increase the graphics core frequency to a maximum of 1058MHz, when the video card works below its rated TDP.

Speaking of TDP, the GTX 680 is expected to fit inside a 195 Watt thermal envelope, and gets its power from two 6-pin PCI Express connectors that are stacked one on top of the other at the rear of the PCB.

As far as the video output configuration is concerned, the GTX 680 will come equipped with a pair of dual-link DVI ports, an HDMI port, as well as with a DisplayPort 1.2 connector. The GeForce GTX 680 is expected to be made official on March 22.

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30 Indonesian Women Settled Madagascar

Despite its proximity to Africa, the original continent for our species, the large island of Madagascar was not settled until about 1,200 years ago, making it one of the last natural bastions to be conquered by humans. New studies show a group of just 30 Indonesian women populated this land. 

Scientists have always wondered about why this island displays such rich biodiversity, and why such unusual animals populate it. The answer appears to be very simple – evolution was allowed to follow its natural course here without human interference, LiveScience reports.

Experts from the Massey University believe that a vessel carrying a small group of Indonesian women – as few as 30 – capsized near Madagascar. The survivors were the ones who populated this land, which might explain how an entire culture was trans-located across the entire Indian Ocean. 

Of the original group, experts calculated that 28 were Indonesian and two were African. These precise numbers were extracted from analyses conducted on the mitochondrial DNA of 300 native Madagascans and 3,000 Indonesians.

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Photo of MetroPCS’ Optimus M+ Emerges

US wireless carrier MetroPCS is expected to release a successor for the LG Optimus M smartphone that arrived on shelves last year. 

Said to appear as the LG Optimus M+, this device will deliver a wide range of improvements, though it will retain the affordable price tag. 

MetroPCS’ LG Optimus M+ should pack a 3.5-inch touchscreen display when released, which is the first noticeable change from the original device. Last year’s smartphone packed a 3.2-inch, 64,000-color HVGA display. 

However, it appears that the new device keeps the same resolution for its screen, though it increases the number of supported colors to 256,000. 

Additionally, the leaked specifications list for this device unveils the fact that it will arrive on shelves with an 800MHz application processor inside. 

Another improvement will be spotted when it comes to the mobile phone’s photo snapper, which is a 5-megapixel camera on Optimus M+ (compared to the 3.2MP camera packed with its predecessor). Not to mention that the new phone also features flash. 

According to a recent article on Pocketnow, which also brought to the web leaked photos with this mobile phone, LG also packed Bluetooth 3.0 EDR inside Optimus M+ as an improvement over the predecessor’s Bluetooth 2.0 capabilities. 

The new smartphone is powered by Google’s Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system – there are no details available on whether it will receive an upgrade to the newer Ice Cream Sandwich platform but, based on its specs, we can presume that it won’t.

LG Optimus M+ features model number MS695 and should arrive on shelves at MetroPCS in the near future, although no specific info on the matter has been officially unveiled for the time being. 

Until more on this new Android mobile phone for MetroPCS emerges, have a look at the photo attached to this article to get an idea of what it would look like.

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Script: stopcensorship.js

stopcensorship.js was born after the recent massive protests against bills like SOPA, PIPA or ACTA. The library is a protester's best friend, visually previewing a future in which the Internet is controlled by corporations and not the content creators.

When including stopcensorship.js on a web page, using a complex algorithm, the library chooses random words which it censors by adding a black strip/box over them.

As you can see from our screenshot above, random words are scratched out. Every time the user reloads the page, other words are censored.

At the top of the page a small bar is shown, with a button that can remove the censorship bands and allow users access to the page. Also a link to the Stop American Censorship campaign (default) is included. This link can be edited to point to your own protest campaign's website.

The library's download package also contains a PHP file which can be used as a WordPress plugin for embedding the library on WP-powered sites.

Here's a demo of stopcensorship.js in action. Bugfixes and issue requests are handled via its GitHub account.

Download stopcensorship.js from our Scripts section here.

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The iPad 3 Has WiFi Problems Now

Heat isn't the only thing new iPad adopters are complaining about. The new-generation of tablets appears to be having some WiFi issues too.

Buyers of the new Apple iPad are growing a thread on Apple Support Communities with complaints about the tablet’s wireless capabilities.

One user says “I am in a hotel with my laptop and new ipad3. The laptop wifi reception is as strong as it gets, but the iPad only registers a weak signal. Anyone else having similar problems? Any suggestions?”

Another chimes in to say “I am seeing this too. I am currently writing this from mymipad 1 because my new iPad RIGHT BESIDE ME doesn't pick up my wifi signal….”

“Same here ipad2 has twice the wifi range with the same settings as the ipad3. The screens nice but I may return mine if this is the way they all are,” says another.

Forum user “stlsteve” actually had high hopes for the tablet. He picked up the new iPad from Best Buy, as he prepared to go on his honey moon in Hawaii.

He had imagined he’d catch up on some news reading once he’d arrive, but no cigar:

“I picked mine up at Best Buy on Friday on my way to the airport for our honeymoon in Hawaii (Kauai). What a disappointment it has turned out to be. Pictured myself reading the news with it each morning over long, relaxed breakfasts and coffee and in a lounge chair by the pool. Instead, I am sitting in a baautiful restaruant typing this with my big awkward laptop. The iPad goes back to Best Buy when I get home,” he writes.

Apple may address the WiFi connection issues, and the alleged overheating of the tablet device, in a future software update. It has also been reported that the tablet doesn't charge while running some games. For now, all these remain to be confirmed as widespread issues.

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Area Reveals VGA-to-TV Converter

Today's HDTVs can usually connect to PCs just fine, but that's only because they have HDMI or other PC-compatible ports.

Regular TVs, those that only have composite or S-Video inputs, or other common plug, can't do the same, even if they are otherwise suited for such a task.

Area decided to do something about this, leading to the making of the SD-DSCV.

Basically, this is a VGA down-scan converter device, in other words an adapter that turns VGA output into legacy/TV-compatible signals, with outputs to match.

Of course, sacrifices had to be made: the maximum resolution is of 1,024 x 768 pixels.

In addition to the video ports, the Area SD-DSCV has an USB cable, which draws power from that interface.

April 9 is when sales will start, in Japan at least, for the price of 4,980 JPY (US $59.4 / 44.751 Euro).

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Green House Releases PicoDrive Micro Flash Drives

If you're living in Japan and happen to own an ultrabook, you might want to take a look at the new USB 2.0 flash drives that Green House put together.

Called the PicoDrive Micro line, they are said to be convenient for owners of such mobile PCs because they are very small and light themselves.

More precisely, they measure 22.6 x 14.9 x 8.5 mm (0.88 x 0.58 x 0.33 inches) and weigh 3.1 grams.

When plugged in, they only stick out about 9mm from the port, which makes them nearly invisible and, thus, negligible.

The storage capacities available to choose from are 4 GB, 8 GB and 16 GB, while the prices are of 1,480 JPY ($17.7 / 13.30 Euro), 2,980 JPY ($35.6 / 26.78 Euro), and 4,980 JPY ($59.5 / 44.75 Euro), respectively.

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ASUS Builds 18.4-Inch K Series High-End Laptop

High-end laptops with discrete GPUs may not show up all that often anymore, what with all CPUs having integrated graphics now, but they still make the cut from time to time, as ASUS clearly shows.

ASUS has completed a new member for the K-Series of mobile personal computers, one that carries the name of K93SM.

It tops the graphics performance of normal Sandy Bridge notebooks through the use of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 630M GPU.

Granted, the 630M isn't the strongest of discrete graphics, but it definitely beats the GMA HD inside the CPU and even has 1 GB of memory.

That said, buyers will get to select between the Intel Core i5-2450M and the Core i7-2670QM processors.

Up to 8 GB of RAM (random access memory) are present, along with a hard disk drive of 500 GB or 1 TB.

In other words, the read and write speeds, as well as access times, might not be the best, definitely not on par with those allowed by SSDs or hybrid drives.

Then again, ASUS isn't advertising the K93SM as an ultimate gaming beast, so there wasn't much need for that in the end.

Moving on, an 8x DVD writer is included in the feature set, although it is possible to replace it with a 6x Blu-ray combo unit.

Other specifications include Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, an USB 3.0 port, a 3-in-1 card reader, a chiclet keyboard and the IceCool technology, which makes sure the palm rest stays comfortable.

As for the 18.6-inch screen, it has a native resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels and LED backlighting.

ASUS sells the K93SM for 849 Euro to 1,149 Euro and loaded with Microsoft's Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit operating system. That means between $1,127.38 and $1,525.75, or so exchange rates would have us believe.

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MSI Radeon HD 7970 Lightning Overclocked to 1800MHz, Memory Runs at 7.70GHz

MSI’s Lightning video cards have always been great overclockers, and the newly introduced Radeon HD 7970 Lightning seems to be no exception to this rule, as the card recently managed to reach an impressive 1800MHz GPU and 7.7GHz memory overclock.

The graphics card achieved this 89% core overclock by being cooled with liquid nitrogen and was put through a run of 3DMark 11.

With the overclocked graphics core and the 3GB of GDDR5 memory working at 1925MHz (from the regular 1.375GHz) Elmor, the Swedish overclocker behind this feat, managed to reach a score of P15035, reports TechPowerUp.

This is truly impressive for a single-GPU video card as it greatly surpasses the previous 3DMark 11 world record established by Nvidia’s GTX 580, which stood at P13144.

Besides the MSI-built Radeon HD 7970 Lightning graphics card, the rest of the system used in the overclocking attempt comprised an Intel Core i7-3960X Sandy Bridge-E processor clocked at 5,207MHz, and an MSI Big Bang XPower II motherboard.

The AMD Radeon HD 7970 is AMD’s most powerful single-GPU graphics card to date and was officially introduced at the end of December 2011.

At its heart there stands the Tahiti XT GPU that is based on the company’s new Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture and includes 32 Compute Units, for a total of 2048 stream processors that are joined by 128 texture units, 32 ROP units and a 384-bit wide memory bus.

All the hardware logic that AMD had to cram into this GPU, makes Tahiti XT the most advanced graphics core ever built, since it features no less than 4.31 billion transistors packed inside a 365mm2 die made using TSMC’s 28nm High-K process. 

The current single-GPU 3DMark 11 world record is held by an Asus DirectCU II Radeon HD 7970, which scored P15063 in this benchmark.

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Samsung GALAXY S III Photo and Specs Leak, Might Be Real

Rumors on Samsung Galaxy S II sequel continue to pour in every day. Although we still don’t know for sure exactly when the smartphone is announced or any specs sheet details.

This is probably due to the fact that Samsung hasn’t decided yet when to launch the Galaxy S III. For all we know the smartphone might still be in development with features that could be introduced at the last minute.

Several images with the alleged Galaxy S III have already leaked, but we don’t know for sure if they’re the real thing or simple mockups.

Today, we have new info on the Galaxy S III specs sheet, along with a brand new photo that might be a real thing. 

However, this has to be taken with a grain of salt until Samsung comes forward with an official statement or more trustworthy sources confirm or denies it.

It appears that Dutch site GSM Helpdesk has been tipped by an anonymous source that the Samsung Galaxy S III is still on track for a May 22 release, though we’re just been told by a Samsung China exec that the smartphone will in fact be announced in April.

The unknown source also claims that the upcoming Galaxy S III will measure 131 x 64 x 8 mm and it will weigh around 125g (battery included). There’s a 1750 mAh Li-Ion battery inside, which has yet to be rated for autonomy. No word on wireless charging.

It will boast an impressive 4.7-inch Super AMOLED Plus with HD (720 x 1280 pixels) resolution. 

On the back, the smartphone sports an enhanced 12-megapixel camera with LED flash, autofocus and full HD (1080p@60fps) video recording. A slow-motion feature for the video camera has been reported as well.

The insides of the phone are a bit of a mystery, as the source only confirmed it would come with a quad-core processor clocked at 1.5 GHz, but avoided any comments regarding the info that leaked a few days ago which said the Galaxy S III would be equipped with an Exynos all-in-one chipset.

It will also pack 1GB of RAM and 32GB of internal memory. No word on the microSD card slot, but 32GB onboard memory seems quite a lot.

In the connectivity front, the following features have been confirmed by the anonymous source: HSDPA+ (42Mbps) and HSUPA (5.76Mbps), Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and HDMI output. It’s also rumored that the phone will be able to handle “dual carrier HSPA.” 

Last but not least, Samsung Galaxy S III will be powered by Google’s Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system, but there’s nothing mentioned about TouchWiz UI.

We’re waiting for more sources to confirm at least some of these leaked features. Until then we can only speculate on the Galaxy S III hardware and software configuration.

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Nikon Short on D800 Digital SLR Camera

Remember the Nikon D800/D800E? The first camera that gained USB 3.0 certification? It looks like some people might have to wait for it longer than planned. 

Nikon is poised to start shipping the D800 and D800E tomorrow (March 22, 2012). 

Unfortunately, people may not be able to get one, and it isn't because of a product delay, not exactly. 

The company is going to formally release it on time, but it has warned that there will probably be a shortage of supply. 

Pre-orders have already surpassed Nikon's expectations, and with the number of customers only set to increase, this is understandable. 

We aren't about to go through all the specs of the camera again. You're all better off going here and getting the rundown anyway. Just don't have a heart attack when you see the prices.

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This Is Why the New iPad Runs Hotter

Raymond Soneira, president of DisplayMate Technologies, suggests the temperature at which the iPad 3 operates is nothing short of a miracle, considering all the factors that come into play when the tablet is running at full brightness.

"The LED power at maximum brightness is 2.5 times that of the iPad 2," Soneira said in a telephone interview with the people at CNet.

Soneira explained that “[Apple] had to jack up the number of LEDs so the peak brightness is the same as on the iPad 2. That absolutely makes it warmer," he said.

Soneira carried out his own tests and found that the new iPad didn’t get uncomfortably warm when held in hand.

However, he did wish to highlight four key factors that contribute to the tablet’s warmer operating temperature. From the report:

1. Twice the LEDs: That means more heat coming from more LEDs. This is especially a problem at full brightness. 
2. 2.5X the power needed: The brightness efficiency is lower because the new iPad has more pixels (which means more transistors) compared to the iPad 2. More pixels and transistors take up more space, meaning less opportunity for light to pass. "So they basically have to blast light through the LCD to make it come out." Soneira adds: "I measured the LED power at maximum brightness--it's two and a half times greater than on the iPad 2." 
3. Battery generates more juice: The battery has to push out more power. This makes the battery warmer. 
4. Traditional LCD technology: Sharp's power-efficient IGZO technology was not ready for the new iPad. That forced Apple to use traditional--and less power efficient--amorphous silicon tech.

Soneira concluded that, “not only do the LEDs need two and a half times more power but the battery is going to run warmer.”

Apple’s new iPad boasts a 70 percent larger battery, “so what happens is that if you run your new iPad at full brightness, the battery run time is less because you only put in 70 percent more battery but you're using 150 percent more power," he said.

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Galaxy S III in April, Samsung China President Says

Samsung’s next flagship Android smartphone – the Galaxy S III – might become official as soon as next month, the latest reports on the matter suggest. 

Previously, the South Korean mobile phone maker has been rumored to plan the release of Galaxy S II’s successor for April or May, with an official word from Samsung that denied a possible release set for the next month. 

Today, however, we learn that the vendor might indeed be set to launch the smartphone in April, and that Samsung Greater China President Kim Young-Ha has confirmed that. 

According to him, the handset vendor has accelerated the production and moved the launch date from May to April. He also confirmed that Samsung was determined to become more aggressive on the smartphone segment and that it aimed at gaining even more market share than before. 

Galaxy S III is turning into the most expected smartphone of this half of the year, yet Samsung has to officially confirm its release date.

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iPad 3 Doesn’t Charge While Playing Graphics-Intensive Games

Consumer Reports has confirmed using a thermal imaging camera that Apple’s new iPad does tend to run a tad hotter than its predecessor. But, during their tests, they also found a more serious issue, apparently.

“Using a thermal imaging camera, Consumer Reports engineers recorded temperatures as high as 116 degrees Fahrenheit on the front and rear of the new iPad while playing Infinity Blade II,” reads the reviewers’ report.

“That’s within one degree of the 117-degree average temperature recorded at Furnace Creek Station in Death Valley, CA in July…”, said Consumer Reports.

When news broke out that the new iPad might exhibit overheating issues, Apple issued a statement claiming the device operates “well within our thermal specifications.”

However, Apple’s tech specs page for the iPad 3 states that its tablet computers should operate in temperatures between 32º F and 95º F.

“We ran our test while the new iPad was propped on the iPad Smart Cover, plugged in, and after it had run Infinity Blade II uninterrupted for about 45 minutes,” Consumer Reports explains. “The device’s 4G connection was not turned on, though its Wi-fi link was. The ambient room temperature was about 72 degrees.”

One Consumer Reports engineer said that, during their tests, he had held the tablet in his hands. “When it was at its hottest, it felt very warm but not especially uncomfortable if held for a brief period,” he noted.

However, Consumer Reports then noticed that the new iPad did not charge when running “Infinity Blade II,” despite being connected to a power source via cable.

“We also noticed that the new iPad wasn’t charging while the game was running and it was plugged in. In fact, the battery continued to drain. It charged normally, however, when we weren’t running a game,” their report reads.

Infinity Blade II is known to be one of the most graphically-demanding games on the App Store. It has recently been updated to support the new iPad's Retina display. It appears that the updated game is putting the A5X's four GPU cores to even more work (provided that Consumer Reports used the latest version of the game in its tests).

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Intel Scraps 3.4W Thunderbolt Cactus Ridge Chipset

As some may know, Intel is working on a new series of Thunderbolt chipsets, but it looks like the so-called Cactus Ridge line is not going to be as large as initially planned.

The Santa Clara, California-based company was known to be developing a 3.4W Cactus Ridge chip known as L3510H.

Now, though, it is said that the product has been scrapped in favor of the 2.8W L3510L. Truthfully, the latter isn't that different from the former, so we can understand the move.

Intel would have probably made some modifications if it had gone through with the initial plan, but now it doesn't have to.

L3150 has four channels and will replace Light Ridge 82523EF/EFL, the one launched back in late 2010.

It is smaller and more energy efficient too, not to mention more feature-packed: a DisplayPort redriver, a connection manager and a link controller exist. Samples are poised to be ready in April (2012).

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Nokia Maps and Nokia Drive Updated for Lumia Phones with Offline Navigation and More

Finish handset maker Nokia has just released updates for two of the most popular Windows Phone apps, Maps and Drive. 

Nokia Drive 2.0 is now available for download for Lumia smartphones. The latest version brings offline route planning and navigation, as well as notice of speed limits.

The user interface's design has been slightly improved, along with the application's overall performance. 

According to Nokia, Drive 2.0 also includes advanced dashboard with more details and list of recent destinations. Currently, Nokia Drive 2.0 provides is available in 100 countries on 6 continents.

Nokia Maps has been updated to version 1.3 and now allows users to see traffic situation in several countries. Aside from that and a few design improvements there's nothing notable worth mentioning. 

Nokia Drive 2.0 and Nokia Maps 1.3 are now available as free download in the Windows Phone Marketplace.

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Fujitsu Shows Off Stylistic m532 Quad-Core Android Tablet

Fujitsu isn’t that big of a name in the mobile space, but the Japanese company is looking to change that in the near future with the introduction of a new tablet, called the Stylistic m532, rocking Nvidia’s Tegra 3 quad-core chipset.

Ignoring the high-res screen trend imposed by Acer’s Iconia Tab A700 and the Asus Transformer Infinity, the m532 is built around a 10.1-inch screen capable of pushing a “mere” 1280x800 pixels.

Pop the display out and inside you will find Nvidia’s Tegra 3 SoC placed alongside 32GB of Flash storage, which should be enough for many users.

If this however doesn’t satisfy your needs, you can also expand the storage space available by installing a microSD card.

The slot required by this sort of cards is placed on the side of the tablet, right near a SIM card slot, a mini-HDMI output and a micro-USB port, the latter being used for charging and/or connecting the tablet to a computer.

An interesting addition is the presence of a bottom dock connector, but so far we don’t know if the Stylistic m532 will use a regular charging dock or something along the lines of the optional keyboard/docking station available for the Asus Transformer Prime.

Fujitsu’s Stylistic m532 also includes two cameras, one front webcam sporting a 2MP resolution and a rear 8MP snapper with flash.

From the video provided by Notebook Italia, one gets to see that the m532 sports quite a thin profile, while the back uses a nice black matte finish with a rubber feel to it.

Fujitsu’s tablet is expected to arrive in May this year, featuring a €549 (around $720) price tag. The Stylistic m532 slate runs the Android 4.0, aka Ice Cream Sandwich, operating system.

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