Memory Maker Expands Horizons, Hynix Becomes SK Group Member

We've learned that the SK Group, an industrial conglomerate from South Korea, has invested an undisclosed sum of money into Hynix Semiconductor.  What this means is that Hynix will henceforth be called SK Hynix and will start making other sorts of semiconductors besides memory chips.  The company is already a major supplier of such units, which include NAND and DRAM as the most important types.  Unfortunately, even though NAND has been doing more or less well, the DRAM market continues to disappoint.  Granted, Hynix is not nearly close to landing in Elpida's position (bankruptcy).  Still, it could use some other business outlets, and the new investment will enable precisely that.  “This is a historic moment....

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HTC One X and One V to Hit Shelves in China on April 2

It looks like HTC has decided to debut its One series of smartphones in China and Taiwan. The first to hit shelves will be HTC One X and One V, along with the One X Deluxe Limited Edition. According to China Times, the smartphones will start shipping on April 2 in Taiwan and China, followed soon by the UK and other European countries. To recap, HTC One X, One S and One V are expected to arrive in the UK around April 5 via multiple carriers and leading retailers. All free smartphones will be available for free on select plans. Taiwanese Android fans will be able to purchase the HTC One X starting next week for around 2900 yuan (460 USD or 345 EUR), or the more affordable HTC One V for 1900 yuan (300 USD or 225 EUR) off-contract. While the...

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The New iPad Is a 25-Hour LTE Hotspot

If you’re one of the lucky owners of a third-generation iPad on Verizon’s LTE network, you can use it as a personal hotspot for about 25 hours on a single charge. This, according to the people at AnandTech. Unlike DisplayMate Technologies, they were less interested in the new iPad’s battery and more intrigued by its 4G wireless capabilities. With the display turned off and a 42.5Wh battery driving Qualcomm’s MDM9600 LTE chip, “you get tons of life out of the new iPad as a personal hotspot,” reads the review. Theoretically, you could download almost 200 gigs of data in a single day (should wireless Internet be cheaper). The normal battery life of the new iPad on a single charge is 10 hours. Apple says that if you use LTE to browse the web,...

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Videotron Offers a Free GALAXY Nexus upon Each GALAXY Tab 10.1 Purchase

Regional operator Videotron has just kicked off an interesting deal for Android fans. The Canadian carrier has recently launched the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 4G, and is now trying to raise the hype around these devices. Starting today, customers who are into these Android devices can purchase the Galaxy Tab 10.1 4G and receive the Galaxy Nexus for free through Videotron.  Although this is a limited-time offer, Videotron does not offer an end date for this promo, though it mentions it’s available while supplies last. According to the carrier, this offer “is for residential customers subscribing simultaneously to Videotron's mobile service and "Internet on your tablet" service data add-on with a Samsung Galaxy Nexus...

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LG Lucid 4G Goes Official at Verizon with Gingerbread and 1.2 GHz Dual-Core CPU

We reported on LG Lucid’s upcoming release at Verizon Wireless about a week ago. Today, the carrier made it official and added the 4G-enabled smartphone to its portfolio. LG Lucid will be available for purchase exclusively from Verizon Wireless starting March 29, both online and at the carrier’s store locations. Customers who wish to acquire this affordable 4G smartphone must pay as low as $79.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate and with a new two-year agreement. No word on the no-term price yet. Obviously, the main selling point of the LG Lucid is the 4G support. Other than that the smartphone has pretty neat features, which puts it in the mid-range category. Slim and compact, the LG Lucid measures 119.1 x 62.2 x 11.4 mm and weighs around 140g...

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Script: Nibbleblog

Nibbleblog is an open-source blogging platform for all the passionate bloggers out there. Unlike WordPress, Habari or Movable Type, Nibbleblog uses a complicated XML system to store data without the need of a database. This allows Nibbleblog to be installed in places where the aforementioned systems will never run. All while providing the same features those systems provide, allowing bloggers to publish news and articles without any restriction or compromising their posts' quality. Some of its features include WYSIWYG editing, themes, i18n support, SEO-ready, file browsers, plugins, graphic installer and many more. Check out the Nibbleblog demo on their website. Default admin credentials are username: admin and password: demo. If interested,...

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Your New iPad’s Battery Is Fine, Tests Reveal

While some are convinced that the new iPad’s battery is flawed, actual tests conducted by Lex Friedman writing for Macworld indicate otherwise. In fact, as Apple pundit John Gruber himself asserts, it’s pure nonsense to think that “Apple, of all companies, would design a product that gets damaged if you do the obvious thing and simply leave it plugged in overnight.” Gruber points out to a piece by Lex Friedman, technology editor for Macworld.com, whose own tests have cropped up positive results regarding the 42.5-watt-hour rechargeable lithium-polymer battery. “Your new iPad’s battery is fine,” writes Friedman. “Despite some media reports suggesting that Apple’s newest tablet suffers from a pair of battery-related issues, Macworld’s own...

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Giada Presents the Smallest Sandy Bridge Mainboard in the World

The small piece of hardware supports Intel’s Core i5 and i3 series CPUs along with the new Celeron 867. It is based on the Intel HM65 Express chipset and has only one SO-DIMM DDR3 memory slot that supports up to 4 GB or RAM. For expansion we have two Mini-PCIe connectors; one being Mini-PCIe and one is mSATA. The board also has one SATA III 6 Gb/s port and one RTL8111E Gigabit controller made by Realtek. Audio is supported by the ALC662 High Definition Audio Codec  also made by Realtek and has S/PDIF Optical ports next to the two USB 2.0 ports on the rear side. The small Nano-ITX mainboard also comes with an HDMI port and a DC-in power jack for a 12V/19V power adapter and has one COM connector and one Fan header. All this comes in a...

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Mysterious Nokia Fluid Emerges, Possibly Powered by Windows Phone Platform

It looks like Nokia plans to further expand its Windows Phone lineup with new devices. A certain Nokia Fluid has just emerged, though no details on the device’s specs sheet are available for the moment. The folks at MyNokiaBlog were tipped on the mysterious Nokia Fluid’s appearance at Occasional Gamer site, a place where various handsets are spotted before their official announcement. Nokia Fluid is listed among other phones that are powered by Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform, which might suggest that this is some sort of Lumia device that has yet to be announced. A little bit above the Nokia Fluid’s name, one can also notice the “Qualcomm Fluid” name, which probably means the handset is equipped with a Qualcomm chipset inside. Stay tuned...

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7 GHz Ivy Bridge Intel Chip Tears Through Super Pi

Intel's Ivy Bridge CPUs are really painting themselves as hardcore chips, even now.  Of course, it might be more accurate to say that the people who got their hands on them early on are to blame for the hype.  Then again, when a chip turns out to be an overclocking beast like Core i7-3770K, you really don't need to put too much effort into marketing anymore.  Sure, only a handful of enthusiasts will buy the thing, but everyone else also has a cause to gawk.  After all, it isn't every day that a CPU reaches 7 GHz and smashes through one of the most challenging benchmarks ever.  Long story short, the Core i7-3770K was pushed to 6961.6 MHz and finished the Super Pi 1M test in 5.187 seconds.  Likewise, the same...

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Tyan Announces the Newest Generation of Platforms Supporting the E5-2600 Intel Processor

Tyan unveiled eight new platforms supporting the new Intel E5-2600 processor on their official website. This new line of products comprises five models of motherboards with different options each and four barebones. The dual socket Intel Xeon E5-2600 mainboards are designed for various applications including HPC, GPU computing, virtualization and high-density servers. They are all based on Intel’s C600 chipset and feature two high-speed QPI links and Quad Chanel DDR3 support. The smallest mainboard family member is the TYAN S7050 (S7050A2NRF) and has 16 DIMM slots in dual 4 + 4 configuration for each CPU socket, the aforementioned Intel C602 PCH, the Nuvoton 5577D Super I/O chip and a Pericom PI3PCIE3412 PCI-E Switch. It supports up to 128GB...

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Samsung Releases HMX-QF20 Wireless Camcorder

Samsung made second spot on the list of greatest semiconductor providers (which Intel leads), but it deals in many other sorts of products as well, like cameras. As it happens, a camera is precisely what the company has recently revealed for the South Korean market. True, the item isn't selling just yet, but it won't be long before that either. The name of the camera is HMX-Q10, although it's more of a camcorder really. It has a 5MB BSI CMOS sensor, optical image stabilization and Schneider-KREUZNACH lens with 20x optical zoom and 40x digital zoom. Also, Wi-Fi is present, for easy streaming and access to social networking sites. Furthermore, Samsung tossed in an enhanced Switch grip function, an accelerometer and a 2.17-inch touchscreen. Prospective...

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Synology Intros the RackStation RS812+ and RS812RP Server NAS Solutions

The new Synology RackStation RS812/RS812RP+ rackable solution offers a very scalable and high-performance alternative for your network attached storage needs. This is a very fast unit that can deliver an average writing speed of around 175 MB/s and an average read speed of approximately 202 MB/s, as claimed by Synology on their own official website.  The tests were performed in RAID 5 mode with Link Aggregation enabled. The unit offers two LAN connectors with fail over support and hot swap capabilities for fast changing of the hard disk drives. The CPU driving the whole device is working at a frequency of 2133 MHz and it is fed by 1 GB of DDR3 RAM that can be further expanded to 3 GB. The maximum internal capacity is 16 TB, being...

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Official MIUI ROM for Samsung GALAXY Nexus Now Available for Download

The first MIUI ROM for Samsung Galaxy Nexus has just been released online and is now available for download.  Although it’s still in beta, this ROM is less laggy than last week’s version. However, don’t expect it to be as smooth as ICS builds officially released by Google. One of the most popular custom ROMs for Android devices, MIUI is also known for its stylish look.  The latest ROM for Galaxy Nexus, which was developed by RootzWiki forum user leech, does not feature an app drawer, but those who are not content with this fact can go ahead and install Nova launcher or anything else instead. Another alternative would be to simply put all applications into a folder and place the folder on the dock, so that when the folder is opened,...

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iPhone 5, Proview, Foxconn Now on Tim Cook’s Agenda

Reports have emerged regarding Tim Cook’s mysterious visit to China, with several sources confirming that Apple’s CEO is there on business. "Tim is in China meeting with government officials. China is very important to us and we look forward to even greater investment and growth there," said Carolyn Wu, Apple’s China spokeswoman. Wu did not offer any details. During a quarterly earnings call, last year Cook said China had become the company's second largest market trailing only the United States.  Research carried out by IDC says the country is expected to become the world's largest smartphone market this year. Apple currently has deals in place with two wireless operators in China to sell the iPhone. However, the California company...

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Teso K116 Is an Ultrabook-Tablet Halfbreed

There's something to say about companies that make x86 products, namely that they are definitely tenacious when it comes to developing mobile devices that don't use an ARM chip.  On this particular occasion, we get to look at the info available on the Teso K116 Tablet/Ultrabook, from the company by the same name (Teso).  Measuring 11.6 inches in diagonal, it is actually a tablet, of sorts, with a keyboard dock.  In other words, the design idea is more or less similar to the one used by the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer tablets.  Since we're on the subject, the LCD panel offers a native resolution of 1,366 x 768 pixels and capacitive touch support.  The insides are what really matter though, starting with the Intel Ivy...

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ECS Shows the Thinnest Sandy Bridge Socket 1155 Mainboard

What’s Thin Mini-ITX exactly? Well, it’s a standard Mini-ITX format mobo that is ensured to fit its IO panel into the height limitations of a standard motherboard RJ45 LAN connector. The standard is quite new and it likely attempts to achieve complete clearance to half of the height of the usual IO shield. ECS showed two new boards in its Thin Mini-ITX family: the ECS CDC-TI based on a fanless design of the Atom D2700 / D2550 / D2500 Dual Core processors and the ECS H61H2-TI Thin Mini-ITX motherboard can support socket LGA1155 Intel 2nd and 3rd Generation Core processors. The ECS CDC-TI pictured here has Solid Capacitors to better support its CPU and memory and features two DDR3 SO-DIMM slots that offer support for up to 4GB of RAM. It can...

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