iFixit: MacBook Pro Retina Display Is an “Engineering Marvel”

After tearing down the newest MacBook Pro giving it the lowest repairability score ever, the techies at iFixit weren’t satisfied. They wanted to tear down the computer’s flagship component and assess the engineering behind it. And they did. In fact, after the iFixit team was done taking it apart piece by piece, they concluded that “the Retina display is an engineering marvel.” “Its LCD is essentially the entire display assembly,” iFixit explained. “Rather than sandwich an LCD panel between a back case and a piece of glass in front, Apple used the aluminum case itself as the frame for the LCD panel and used the LCD as the front glass.” They’ve managed to pack five times as many pixels as the last model in a display that’s...

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Oppo Finder, World’s Thinnest Smartphone, Now on Pre-Order

Today, mobile phone users in China can pre-order the Oppo Finder smartphone, the thinnest currently available Android handset in the world. He phone was made available through Oppo’s website, and it will remain on pre-order until June 24th. Units will start shipping on July 1st. The Oppo Finder features a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus touchscreen display, a dual-core 1.5GHz application processor, and 1GB of RAM. It also arrives on shelves with 16GB of internal memory, along with an 8-megapixel photo snapper on the back, with LED flash and full HD video recording. It also sports a 1.3MP front camera. The smartphone is powered by Google’s Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS. Its main selling point, however, remains the 6.65mm...

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NEC Releases NC900C Digital Camera Projector

LCD display and projector maker NEC Display Solutions of America has released one of the latter types of products: the Digital Cinema Series NC900C. NEC describes the NC900C as “the perfect answer” for people in need of a projector that is both good and affordable. We can't really be sure how affordable though, not without a price, and NEC has yet to provide it. Sales will only start in December 2012, so we still have to wait for several months. It is strange how some IT companies announce products so many months before mass availability, but we shall leave the mystery of “why” alone for now. The NC900C has HDMI 1.4a support, dual HDSDI 3G interface and even Universal Serial Bus (USB), plus two Gigabit Ethernet ports. NEC...

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ZTE’s Grand X LTE (T82) Single-Chip Smartphone Now Official

On Monday, Chinese mobile phone maker ZTE made official a new Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich-based smartphone, the Grand X LTE (T82). This is the first single-chip LTE smartphone from the company, destined to become available for purchase in various markets in Asia Pacific and Europe during the third quarter of the year. The new Grand X LTE (T82) smartphone arrives on shelves with the latest MSM8960 chip from Qualcomm, which was designed on advanced 0.28nm technology. According to the handset vendor, their new single-chip model is expected to prove faster and more energy efficient than most mobile phones available on shelves today. The Grand X LTE (T82) packs WiFi connectivity, along with a 1.5 GHz dual-core application...

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Super Talent Announces USB 3.0 Express ST2 Flash Drives

Super Talent has formally launched the USB 3.0 Express ST2 series of flash drives, composed of ten different members and based on a 2-channel architecture. Super Talent's press release doesn't precisely specify what the capacity options are. It does offer sufficient hints for us to guess though. For one, the series is supposed to be made of “an industry leading 10 different USB 3.0 flash drives.” Secondly, the USB sticks are said to be available in two colors: blue and red. Thirdly, the ST2 series has a maximum capacity of 32 GB. As such, it is only logical to draw the conclusion that the USB 3.0 Express ST2 series is made of 2 GB, 4 GB, 8 GB, 16 GB and 32 GB drives in red and blue iterations. The smaller three will be...

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SanDisk Releases Its Fastest USB Flash Drive

SanDisk has just finished releasing several flash drive units, one of which is capable of the highest transfer speed ever. And by highest, we mean highest among SanDisk's devices, though you would be hard-pressed to find a quicker device of this sort anywhere else. Long story short, the transfer speed, over USB 3.0, can touch 190 MB/s, allowing 3 GB files to be copied in 20 seconds and 40 GB files to be moved in four minutes. The SanDisk Extreme USB flash drive is already selling, in capacities of 16 GB to 64 GB. The prices are of $64.99 / 51.50 Euro to $159.99 / 126 Euro. “Whether consumers are seeking super-fast transfer speeds, maximum storage capacity or a stylish fashion statement, we offer a drive to meet their...

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D-Link's SharePort DIR-505 All-In-One Mobile Companion

Having an all-purpose connectivity device can help quite a bit when traveling, especially if you own a whole bunch of mobile devices like external HDDs/SSDs, phones, tablets and laptops. D-link decided to build such a device, called DIR-505 SharePort All-In-One Mobile Companion. It plugs into a wall power socket and immediately assumes the role of multi-mode wireless router/AP, Wi-Fi hotspot and repeater. Not only that, but it even has an integrated Ethernet port and an USB connector. Buyers can download the D-link SharePort app for free and use it to share digital content (music, videos, photos, etc.) between an external HDD/SSD/ flash drive and iOS / Android devices (slates/phones). Sales should already be possible...

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Quad-GPU GK104 Graphics Card Inbound

Once in a while, we run into claims and reports that are truly mind-boggling, outrageous even, and this one we are about to cover definitely fits the definitions of both terms. In case the title wasn't direct enough, we'll be blunt again: it is rumored that a maker of graphics cards will launch a video card equipped with four Kepler graphics processing units. And yes, those GPUs will be GK104, the best available 28nm NVIDIA chips and the same ones used on the GTX 680 and the dual-GPU GTX 690. The report went as far as to say that a prototype had been demonstrated, in secret, during Computex 2012 in Taipei, Taiwan. A four-GPU graphics card is essentially the idea of a graphics card marketing stunt taken to the logical...

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Next D800 Camera Firmware on Its Way, Report Says

D800 will receive its next incremental software update in the upcoming week to fix a few issues related to wireless flash trigger and green cast matter, according to Nikon Rumors. The first issue has been spotted by users and is related to CLS (Creative Lighting System), which wirelessly provides the link between your camera and flash units. Nikon has provided a workaround for this. Nikon recommends the following steps as a workaround while a solution is being developed: Set internal flash to “TTL” mode or, Fire the external flashes in groups A and B in mode “TTL” or “AA.” The second issue concerns the color of D4/D800s LCD screen compared to D700/D3s, which makes images look slightly greener. This will also be fixed with...

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Synology Reveals DiskStation DS112+ SMB NAS

Yet another Synology NAS device has appeared, bearing the name of DiskStation DS112+ and powered by a 2GHz processor. It runs DiskStation manager 4.0 (DSM 4.0), the operating system installed on every Synology NAS Server. That said, the aforementioned 2 GHz CPU is backed by 512 MB of memory. The performance, thus, reaches 107 MB/s when reading and 76 MB/s when writing. Furthermore, in addition to LAN ports, Synology gave the new DiskStation a pair of USB 3.0 connectors.  “With DiskStation DS112+, Synology has introduced an invaluable selection for SMB users where high performance meets eco-friendly design,” said Peter Chen, product manager of Synology Inc. “This is the best option for providing users with...

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Microsoft Surface, Built Specifically for Windows 8

On Monday, Microsoft made official its first own-branded Windows 8-based PC, Surface, a tablet packing the latest advancements in the industry and designed specifically to fit the next-generation platform from the company. In fact, two tablets were unveiled on Monday, one powered by Windows RT, featuring an ARM processor inside, and another sporting Windows 8 Pro, which is based on a third-generation Intel Core processor. With Windows 8, Microsoft managed to reinvent Windows, through bringing a set of optimizations for use on touch devices, and through packing the platform with all the features that users need today to stay connected at all times, while enjoying great performance on their PCs. While on stage at the unveiling...

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Google’s Nexus 7 to Be WiFi Only, Hits Shelves in July

During Google I/O, the developer event held in San Francisco between June 27-29, Google and ASUS are expected to unveil the first tablet PC in the popular Nexus line of devices. The slate is said to sport a 7-inch touchscreen display, while featuring a price tag of under $200 initially. Moreover, recent reports suggest that it would arrive on shelves only with WiFi connectivity capabilities packed inside, and without a back camera. A recent article on DigiTimes claims that Google will pack it only with a front camera for making video calls. Reportedly manufactured by Quanta Computer, the device is said to have already started shipping, and to be on track to hit shelves in July. A number of over three million units is...

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TP-Link Launches JetStream Gigabit L2 Managed PoE Switch

Power over Ethernet devices are a real boon when setting up security or any other sort of networks that need connected devices in places that are hard to reach, so TP-Link has decided to provide one. The PoE standard describes a network cable that, in addition to maintaining the web connection between the host device and a client, also delivers energy to that client. As such, connected security cameras, or other such things, don't need to be plugged into a power socket. However, in order for such setups to be possible, both the host and the client must support the function. TP-Link has released one of the former: the JetStream Gigabit L2 Managed PoE Switch (product name TL-SG3424P). It has twenty-four 1000Mbps...

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Celestica Halts Hardware Manufacturing for RIM

Canadian mobile phone maker Research In Motion has lost one of its original device manufacturers, Celestica Inc. The ODM company announced that it would reduce the manufacturing of hardware for RIM in the next three to six months. The impact on its revenue is expected to be of less than $35 million. Celestica has been one of the main suppliers for the struggling handset vendor, and it will work closely with it during the transition period. RIM has been losing market share lately. It missed targets for the fourth quarter of its fiscal year 2012, as announced in late March, and it presented low expectations for the first two quarters of fiscal year 2013. Before the end of this year, the company will bring to shelves handsets...

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AMD Will Move to 28nm Bulk Manufacturing in 2013

Advanced Micro Devices already uses TSMC's 28nm High-Performance manufacturing process for highly-complex chip designs, but its lesser chips have yet to progress to that node, something that will be corrected by next year. Since we have mentioned Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, we are, naturally, talking about AMD's Graphics Processing Units, not its CPUs. As far as we know, AMD's central processing units will get to the 22nm or 20nm node by 2014. Intel will have 14nm chips by that time, but we've already seen that a smaller node doesn't necessarily mean better chips, not if the processors are built properly. Keep in mind that AMD said, months ago, that it would no longer bother trying to push its manufacturing...

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Nokia 808 PureView Goes Official in the United States

Just as expected, Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia announced on Monday the upcoming availability of its Nokia 808 PureView smartphone on the United States market. The handset, made official at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, was long rumored to be on its way stateside, and things were finally made official. It will be launched in the country via Amazon, featuring a price tag of $699 (€555) and offering support for AT&T’s 3G network. The handset will also offer support for T-Mobile’s 2G bands. The Symbian-based mobile phone will become available for pre-order on Amazon later this week, but users can already sign up on Nokia’s website to receive info on when it will become available for purchase. The Nokia...

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Microsoft Unveils Two Windows 8 Surface Tablets

On Monday, at a media event in Los Angeles, Microsoft announced the upcoming availability of two own-branded tablet PCs powered by the next-gen Windows 8 operating system. Dubbed Surface, the two devices will arrive on shelves with Windows 8 Pro and Windows RT on board, respectively. With these two tablet PCs, the software company once again breaks tradition. They were conceived, designed and engineered entirely by Microsoft employees, and they are based on the 30 years of hardware manufacturing expertise that the Redmond-based company enjoys. At the aforementioned event, Microsoft also showcased a series of accessories that, the same as the two tablets, pack advances in industrial design and feature attention to detail. “Surface...

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