ASUS' 24-Inch Padfone Docking Monitor

ASUS' Padfone started off as a smartphone with a special dock that allowed it to assume the role of a 10-inch tablet. A 24-inch all-in-one computer has now been added to the list. More precisely, ASUS brought the 24-inch ASUS Padfone Docking monitor to Computex 2012, as reported by Engadget. The phone dock is located at the foot of the monitor. Unfortunately, the panel lacks touch support, so you'll have to rely on the keyboard and mouse included in the package. Spec-wise, the ASUS Padfone Docking monitor has a native resolution of 1,920 x 1,200 pixels, four USB 3.0 ports and, for using it as any regular displays, HDMI input, VGA and DVI. We don't know when sales will begin, or for what price. For other weird things...

Read more »

Samsung Preps Galaxy S III Flavor with Quad-Core, 2GB of RAM

Samsung’s Galaxy S III Android flagship device was unveiled to the world with a quad-core application processor inside, complemented by 1GB of RAM. Since this CPU did not offer support for LTE networks, Samsung announced a new version of the device to address that, with a Snapdragon dual-core processor and 2GB of RAM to complement the lack of two cores. Basically, users in the non-LTE markets would get a quad-core phone, while those in LTE markets would have to settle with a dual-core one, while enjoying more RAM. However, it seems that the higher amount of RAM might soon arrive to the quad-core flavor of Galaxy S III as well, at least this is what a leaked document that emerged on phoneArena shows. The device is said...

Read more »

Samsung Builds 14nm and 20nm Chip Manufacturing Plant

While Intel's engineers are receiving honors for inventing 3D Tri-gate transistors, Samsung is setting up a new semiconductor fabrication line in Hwaseong, South Korea. Since the semiconductor industry is still in a bit of a bind, chip makers have to step up their technological advancement. UMC has already begun working on 28nm chips, and has set up a 14nm plant too. Now, Samsung is doing something similar. With an investment of 2.25 trillion Korean won, it hopes to build a new fabrication line by next year. According to exchange rates, that sum is the equivalent of $1.9 billion and 1.5 billion Euro. The plant will be located in Hwaseong, South Korea. It will produce chips based on the 20nm and 14 nm manufacturing...

Read more »

ZTE Tania Gets Launched in China

Chinese mobile phone maker ZTE has made official another new device for its homeland market, the ZTE Tania, which runs under Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system. The handset was announced for China Unicom, and it features a series of small enhancements when compared to the initially unveiled specifications. The smartphone’s application processor was upgraded from 1GHz to 1.4GHz, which should deliver a nice bump in performance capabilities. It is accompanied by 512MB of RAM and 4G of internal memory. The rest of the phone’s hardware specifications remain unchanged, and users will enjoy the same 4.3-inch touchscreen display that can deliver an 800 x 480 pixel resolution, as well as a 5-megapixel photo snapper on the...

Read more »

Even AMD Throws in Its Two Cents Regarding Tablets

Now that Advanced Micro Devices has shown its mettle on the tablet segment, it has taken a more active role in shaping consumer perception and expectations. Computex 2012 has proven to be less one-sided than the other trade shows of the past year. No longer has a single product type or company stolen the show. Advanced Micro Devices contributed quite a bit to this. Though Intel tried to draw as many people as possible to its ultrabook and Ivy Bridge-filled booth, AMD's Trinity got a lot of attention too. One reason for this was the game play demo of an A-Series APU breezing through a game that gave Ivy Bridge trouble. Another was the fact that AMD has already scored tablet design wins, like the Acer model based on...

Read more »

Eurocom Sells Fox 4.0 Notebook with NVIDIA Graphics

The GeForce GTX 680M graphics card is strong but not something that companies can actually use on a mainstream product, so Eurocom chose a different GPU when it made the Fox 4.0. Granted, the Fox 4.0 is still part of the upper half of the consumer laptop market. Pretty much every notebook with discrete graphics is nowadays. We say this because entry-level mobile GPUs aren't used anymore. The integrated graphics in Intel and (especially) AMD processors have made them obsolete. Nevertheless, compared to the likes of MSI's GTX 680M GT70, or Eurocom's own Racer 2.0 and Neptune 2.0, the Fox 4.0 (the base configuration anyway) appears quite tame. Instead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M, the IT player chose the GeForce GT...

Read more »

Lenovo IdeaPad Y580 Combines GTX 660M with Ivy Bridge

Lenovo did not let Computex 2012 pass without contributing somehow, and by this we are referring to more than the Windows 8 ThinkPad Tablet, the U310 and U410 Ultrabooks and the IdeaTab S2109 Tablet. There is a new laptop up for order on the company's website, although it would be just as accurate to say that there is a whole new bunch of them. Basically, the new IdeaPad Y580 is available in six different configurations. Depending on how much people are willing to pay, the resolution, storage and optical media will improve. The cheapest system has a price of $1,299, but there is a sale going on right now, so the tag is a much more appealing $1,039. According to exchange rates, those sums correspond to 1,038 Euro and 830 Euro,...

Read more »

Biostar Shows Hi-Fi AMD Trinity Motherboards

Well-known motherboard company Biostar has decided to get back in the high-end computer mainboard market segment. The company is usually manufacturing affordable motherboard solutions, but it has experimented with higher-quality designs before, and this year’s Computex is yet another such occasion. The Hi-Fi line from Biostar reportedly comes with a high SNR CODEC likely manufactured by Realtek and with OPAMP circuitry that uses higher grade electrolytic capacitors. The entire audio circuitry uses a separated PCB base and is isolated from the ground layer of the rest of the mainboard. This will help lower the interference from other components on the motherboard like most high-end audio solutions require. Another useful...

Read more »

AMD Radeon HD 7970 Takes Over World 3D Mark11 Record

Nvidia’s Kepler architecture is very impressive, as it sometimes overtakes AMD’s Tahiti-based cards, despite AMD’s chip having 21% more transistors and a 50% wider memory BUS. The rough power of AMD’s GCN architecture is still a considerable advantage for the Texas-based fabless GPU designer. In most GPU compute applications that don't have CUDA optimizations inside, AMD’s raw power shows huge performance advantage over Nvidia’s Kepler. On the other hand, Kepler uses less power and a less complex PCB. The 3D Mark11 E score (Extreme Preset) record was achieved also by a Radeon HD 7970 card. Now, Polish overclocking enthusiast Xtreme Addict reportedly managed to achieve a score of P15745 points using an MSI Lightning...

Read more »

First AMD Brazos 2.0 Motherboard Shown by Sapphire

The fight for the high sales/low price market segment has been won by AMD for the past year, and the company is getting ready to conquer even a higher percentage of the market. AMD needs huge volumes and it’s likely that the company will have to face shortages this summer, as spreading Brazos 2.0 and Trinity over all the market segments AMD is currently successful in will be pretty difficult. The Texas-based fabless CPU designer positioned Brazos for low-power small systems, netbooks, low-cost notebooks and cheap PC systems. Llano was also targeted for the low and mid-end notebook and desktop lines. Now AMD adds Windows 8 tablets, hybrids, mid to high-end UltraThin notebooks, all-in-one systems, and so on. As the...

Read more »

AMD LiveBox Mini PC Runs Fusion and 1 GB RAM

The world can never have too many mini PCs, especially when said mini PCs are made out of versatile processors and sell for a pittance. In this case, we can't really guarantee the product will be cheap. Advanced Micro Devices didn't say what price we should expect, or when shipments would be ready to start. But that's the thing: it's AMD, of all people, that brought a mini PC to Computex 2012. Engadget has the scoop. Called LiveBox, it gave visitors something else to gawk at besides the Lightning Bolt technology. We aren't looking at a Trinity machine here. Instead of an A-Series chip, AMD chose a Fusion C-60 APU, at 1 GHz. Said processor includes the Radeon HD 6290 graphics card and is backed by 1 GB of RAM....

Read more »

ARM-Based $74 PC Put Through Its Paces

Dropping by AliExpress online will show that a certain MK802 ARM PC is up for sale, so you can go and order one right now if you want. Many people will be reluctant to jump in blind though, so to speak. Fortunately, Brad Linder from Liliputing has what we all need: information. We'll get the facts out of the way first: MK802 is a small stick based on an Allwinner A10 ARM Cortex A8 processor. Said chip has a clock speed of 1.5 GHz and is backed by 512 MB of RAM (random access memory). Meanwhile, NAND Flash chips provide 4 GB of storage space. Not only that, but Rikomagic even tossed in a micro SD card slot, a full-size USB 3.0, mini USB and a mini HDMI port. People may have started to put two and two together: this...

Read more »

AMD Radeon HD7970 X2 with IceQ X2 Cooling Pictured

HiS has been a longtime partner of ATi and AMD and the company is well known for building high-quality video card using very effective and silent cooling systems. Now, HiS is planning to release a dual-GPU video card based on AMD’s Tahiti GPU. We don’t know yet the exact naming of the card, but it is sure to have “Radeon HD7970 X2” and “IceQ X2” in its naming scheme. The cooling system used is not exactly the same with the one that HiS announced three months ago. Check out the gallery to see how the original IceQ X2 looked when it was announced. The fan blades are different and the total thickness of the card make it occupy three expansion slots. HiS’ dual Radeon 7xxx card is likely to function at AMD’s default...

Read more »

Sapphire Somehow Turns Radeon HD 7750 Low Profile

HTPCs are often little more than glorified media players with web browsing, but it is perfectly possible to make truly strong compact PCs. All it takes is a strong CPU and a small enough video card. CPUs are easy to solve. As long as a micro-ATX or mini-ITX motherboard has the required socket, even high-end chips can be used. Graphics cards are trickier, since the moderately strong ones (or above) usually aren't all that small, not to mention that they have big, thick coolers. Sapphire decided to offer an exception and it chose AMD's Radeon HD 7750 card to achieve its purpose. Normally shaped as a standard-sized, dual-slot board, the adapter was turned into a low-profile model featuring a thin, single-slot fansink. Sapphire...

Read more »

AMD Demos Lightning Bolt Technology at Computex 2012

It looks like ASUS' solution to give AMD-based systems support for Intel's Thunderbolt technology was made more for its own benefit than AMD's. We say this because all evidence suggests AMD does not, in fact, need Thunderbolt at all. For some reason, no one besides the folks at NetbookNews has reported on AMD's Lightning Bolt technology. For those who don't remember, AMD first revealed the project back at CES 2012, as an alternative to Thunderbolt. Communicating over DisplayPort, the connection is shown, in the Computex 2012 Compal hands-on video embedded above, supplying video to four monitors at once, on top of the monitors of the laptop itself. That's a lot of strain for a single AMD Trinity APU to handle, but the chip doesn't seem to be having any problems. A...

Read more »

Canon Outs EOS Rebel DSLR Camera

After writing about so many laptops, tablets, motherboards and processors, we finally get to switch gears a bit, thanks to Canon and its new DSLR camera. The new product that the company has released is called EOS Rebel and is Canon's first digital single-lens reflex camera to boast a 3-inch, 1.04m dot LCD touchscreen. More than just a means to preview the photos and videos being or about to be shot, the panel allows for pinch-zoom and navigation via swipes. Not only that, but the panel has a special hinge that lets it rotate and swivel, opening up a slew of new angles from which pictures or videos may be taken. Speaking of which, video is encoded in HD quality and, thanks to a quiet AF servo, it allows less noise...

Read more »

PowerColor HD7970 X2 Devil13 Clocked Over 1 GHz and Priced

PowerColor’s Vortex III cooling system will take care of cooling the video card and your banker should take care of the funds needed to purchase the monster. The Taiwanese video card company is reportedly planning to charge $1,200 for the PowerColor HD7970 X2 Devil13 graphics adapter in the United States. In Europe, the gamers will certainly “enjoy” a higher price of €1,200 and that’s just because they live on the Old Continent. The thing is that PowerColor is not looking for an upper limit on the TDP and heat dissipation so the HD7970 X2 Devil13 will be clocked considerably higher than the default frequency of the normal AMD Radeon HD 7970. AMD’s reference Radeon HD 7970 has a 925 MHz default clock for the GPU, but...

Read more »