iPhone 5 "Spotted" By Enthusiasts in WWDC 2012 Logo

There’s a five (5) in the WWDC 2012 Apple logo if you look from just the right angle, many Apple enthusiasts agree. However, by connecting the squares you also get a two (2), and even an eight (8) if you look at the bigger picture. Despite the fact that Apple does hide clues in its logos occasionally, we have every reason to believe this is nothing more than simple speculation coming from people who love Apple products a tad too much. So much that they’ll see an iPhone in everything, pretty much like those people who see the Virgin Mary in their coffee dregs. Not to say there isn’t an offset chance Apple will announce its new iPhone at the WWDC 12 opening keynote, but the chances are so slim it’s not even worth bothering...

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Entry-Level Sony Xperia Tapioca (ST21i) Photos and Specs Leak

We have new info on Sony’s Android roadmap for 2012. We already know that the Japanese company plans to release several Android smartphones by the end of the year, along with at least a few carrier-bounded variants of these devices. Leaked back in January, Sony’s roadmap includes names such as Xperia S, Kumquat, Nypon, Pepper, Hayabusa, Tapioca and others. Some of these smartphone have already been announced and released on the market, but most of them are expected to arrive in Q2/Q3 2012. We already reported today on the recently leaked Sony LT29i Hayabusa, which is slated for a June release. Apparently, this will be Sony’s new Android flagship smartphone and will feature a 1.5 GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor and a 13-megapixel...

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Script: G5 Framework

The G5 Framework is a front-end framework for quickly deploying a basic website front-end, on which to add content and modify along the way. G5's main role is to speed up development, to reduce time with repetitive tasks by providing a batch of top-of-the-line tools out of the box. Whoever created more than 2-3 web projects can see the bright part in this philosophy. By not spending a huge amount of time in rounding up front-end utilities, which most developers end up modifying anyway to fit their overall architecture and design style, a developer has more time to spend on creative work, adding content, features or just testing. The G5 framework is basically a project wireframe (skeleton) on which other tools can be added. By...

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China Choosing the National CPU Architecture: MIPS and Alpha Seem Favorites

China’s high ranking representatives gathered at a top level meeting last month at their Ministry of Industry and IT to discuss ideas and initiatives regarding their own National CPU Architecture. For those less familiar with processor design, the first thing on the table is the decision on the ISA.  ISA is short for instruction set architecture and is defined by Wikipedia as: the part of the computer architecture related to programming, including the native data types, instructions, registers, addressing modes, memory architecture, interrupt and exception handling, and external I/O. An ISA includes a specification of the set of opcodes (operating codes / machine language), and the native commands implemented by a particular...

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Sony NEX-F3 Leaked Will Have 16.1 MP Sensor

Sony, like Nikon, is preparing to launch a new mirrorless digital camera, but at least we have a picture to show for it this time.  Don't be fooled by our report on the Nikon D600. The photo posted there is of the D800.  Now, though, Sony's rumored NEX-F3 has been pictured, although poorly.  The image isn't blurry or anything, but it definitely isn't very well framed.  Nevertheless, it will have to be enough for now, along with the few uncovered specs: a 16.3 megapixel sensor, built-in flash, a 180-degree tilting screen and the possibility to fine-tune manually-focused shots via a new peaking level feature.  People entertaining thoughts of buying this thing will have to be careful when getting...

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Sony LT29i Hayabusa with 1.5 GHz Dual-Core CPU and 13MP Camera Arrives in June

Sony’s 2012 Android roadmap leaked earlier this year, but aside from the Xperia S, P and U, none of the devices listed have been announced yet. Although we’ve already got several leaks on various Sony models that will probably make their debut by the end of the year, nothing has been confirmed yet. One such device is the Sony LT29i Hayabusa, which will presumably be the company’s new Android flagship smartphone. The phone was initially slated for a July release, but rumor has it that the device will be released one month earlier, in June. According to the guys over at PhoneArena, the LT29i Hayabusa boasts an impressive 4.55-inch HD Reality capacitive touchscreen display. The phone will be powered by an equally impressive 1.5...

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New “Dummy” GALAXY S III Pictured, It Looks Closer to the Final Design

Rumors on the upcoming release of the Samsung Galaxy S III continue to spice up our lives almost every day.  Aside from the numerous leaks on the phone’s specs sheet, there’s also quite an impressive gallery of alleged Galaxy S III that’s been fueled by “trusted source.” However, it appears that Samsung is safeguarding the design of its “next Galaxy” smartphone fiercely as the company has been reportedly using generic boxes for testing purposes, in order to keep the final design of its flagship device secret. Although we already know that all photos that have been lately leaked online are simply showing some of these test sample units, which have nothing to do with the final version of the Galaxy S III, at least we get...

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G.Skill Hosts Extreme Overclocking Competition

Enthusiast memory manufacturer, Taipei-based company G.Skill, has just announced on HWBOT's official page that they’d be hosting an overclocking competition having memory kits as prizes. This is following the release of the new extreme DDR3 lineup, called TridentX. The extreme overclocking contest will be held at HWBOT, the widely recognized authority in the overclocking field. The G.SKILL CUP OC competition begins on May 1st and will run until May 30th. There will be three competition stages :  Stage I: Max Memory Clock (the highest memory frequency achieved); Stage II: SuperPI 32M on the new Ivy Bridge platform (with no limit on the frequency); Stage III: Maxi  IGP result in Futuremark’s 3DMark06, as memory...

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Nvidia Prepares Faster Tegra 3 Version

Nvidia is reportedly working on an improved version of its very popular, but already semi-obsolete Tegra 3 mobile chips. Tegra 3 was quite an unlucky and short-lived chip. While it performed very well and still does, it came into the market together with the ARM Cortex A15 designs. Nvidia’s penta-core chip is a very innovative and well-performing chip. It has very low power feature for a chip its size and Nvidia practically delivered on everything it has promised about it. The market of mobile chips moves much faster than the CPU or GPU market that Nvidia has been accustomed with. In a very short period of time they launched the Tegra 3, but while they were working on this 4+1 novel architecture, the other ARM player on the...

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Acer’s V3 Ivy Bridge Laptop Spotted

Acer is reportedly preparing to launch the Acer V3 line of laptops in Japan. The V3 will come with 8GB of DDR3 memory and a plain 15-inch glossy screen. As usual, Japan gets all the goodies. It’s not that much that they’re closer to Taiwan and China, as it’s about the fact that the average income is so much higher, that everything new is selling for around double the price, and every device manufacturer wants a taste of those profits. Acer is preparing to launch a more down-to-earth laptop using Intel’s new Ivy Bridge architecture. This is a regular 15” laptop with a wide 15.6” screen size, sporting a regular 1366 x 768 HD resolution. It is powered by Intel’s Core i7-3612GQ processor. We’ve practically never heard of this...

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NVIDIA Gets Its First 20nm Test Chip from TSMC

Recently, NVIDIA has decided to speak about how closely it worked with TSMC on the Kepler GPUs, instead of both companies working separately.  Seeing the energy efficiency benefits, not to mention the better state of the 28nm node compared to 40nm (yield/shipment-wise), the two are going to keep collaborating on future products too.  That is to say, both NVIDIA and TSMC will adjust their chip creation/manufacture processes as needed.  In fact, the blog post where NVIDIA explored all this closed with a brief mention that the Santa Clara, California-based company had already received the first version of an enhanced PQV (Product Qualification Vehicle) test chip for 20nm.  It will take some time before...

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Prototype Raspberry Pi with the Prototyping Pi Plate

Raspberry Pi Linux computer, that little thing that has been getting more attention than anyone had expected, has begun to see compatible accessories cropping up.  Adafruit, an electronics component maker, has introduced the Prototyping Pi Plate, a PCB (printed circuit board) that can be installed on top of the Raspberry Pi and interface with its headers.  Half of the prototyping area is “breadboard” style and the other is in the “perfboard” style.  What's more, all the GPIO/I2C/SPI and power pins are broken out to 0.1 inches and there are custom tall header breakouts along the edges.  Basically, the Prototyping Pi Plate is supposed to help owners make those embedded computing projects the Raspberry...

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Nvidia’s GTX670 Pre-Orders in the Philippines for the price of GTX 680

A GeForce GTX 670 graphics card reportedly became available for pre-order in the Philippines. It’s made by Gainward and the price is around 470 USD. That is around 355 EUR for European buyers. While this may look like a good deal for the dwellers from the old continent, the American buyers might actually go for the GeForce GTX 680 flagship for 9% more money. The pre-order prices are always much higher than the launch prices and subsequent mass shipments that come with the first discounts. The online shop vows they’ll return any price difference between the pre-order price and the launch price. For those who don’t know, the GeForce GTX 670 card is based on salvaged Nvidia GX104 GPUs. These are GPU’s with malfunctioning units...

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First 64-Bit ARM Server Launched, Intel Watch Out

For months, even years, IT players and analysts have been saying how the ARM architecture won't ever score big on the server market if it doesn't offer 64-bit support, but this barrier has finally been brought down. Following the revelation of deals signed for the use of the ARM v8 architecture, which supports 64-bit registers, the first server based on a v8-compliant processor has been revealed. It isn't any specific server implementation that we are really interested in, however, but the actual chip that powers it. Part of the X-Gene line, the “server-on-a-chip” is a multi-core ARM v8 with L1, l2 and L3 cache, a high-performance memory subsystem, cloud server I/O (Integrated Ethernet and peripheral interfaces), Coherent...

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