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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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)...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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....

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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...

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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,...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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