AMD Working on Trinity 2.0

We’ve always wondered why wouldn’t AMD further develop the successful Trinity architecture and move directly towards Kaveri with GCN graphics. Now there is work in the market that the company might indeed be working on an upgraded version of today’s successful APU. The rumor doesn’t say anything clear, but there may be a new stepping to the hardware version that could bring lower power consumption for the mobile market or an increased frequency in the desktop sector. While many fear that this would be a Brazos 2.0 move, we don’t share their opinion. AMD never bothered to improve Brazos too much because Intel never bothered to improve the Atom line and as AMD’s Zacate architecture was clearly superior, there was no need for...

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Despite of Negative Reactions, Microsoft Might Prepare Surface 2

On October 26th, Redmond-based software giant Microsoft will make available for purchase the very first tablet PC it has ever designed to work with Windows 8. Called Surface, the device has already seen a negative reaction coming from the company’s hardware partners, but it seems that Microsoft is already looking at the next generation of touch devices. When unveiling Surface, Microsoft said that it was meant to be a symbol, to show the world what great hardware could be designed to go along Windows 8. Moreover, the company’s Corporate Communications Chief, Frank Shaw, posted on Twitter recently that these are only two tablets, and that Microsoft was using a literary license when calling them “our new family of PCs built...

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Retina MacBook Pro Battery Costs $500 to Replace, iFixit Says

After performing a complete teardown and a full analysis of Apple’s MacBook Pro with Retina display, repair shop iFixit has released 15 repair guides and an estimate of how much it would cost you to replace the non-user-removable battery. Although iFixit gave the new MacBook Pro the lowest reparability score ever for an Apple laptop, that didn’t stop their tinkering minds from writing no less than 15 repair guides covering key parts like the logic board, the trackpad, speakers and fans, even the flash storage. In them, iFixit details the proper methods that one needs to follow to repair certain parts. They also sell the necessary tools to get the job done. Calling Apple’s design direction “disturbing,” iFixit notes, “We...

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AMD Piledriver FX-8350 Vishera Processor Benchmarked

A screenshot of what’s supposed to be an AMD Piledriver FX-8300 Vishera engineering sample has apparently surfaced on the Internet. The screenshot depicts information about a processor throttling down to 1404 MHz and only using 0.948 V under these conditions. The picture was posted on the Coolaler forums and, considering the TDP listed, it can only describe the features of an FX-8350 or a FX-8320 processor, as these are the only Piledriver FX parts that have 125-watt TDP, Legit Review reports. This means that AMD is almost ready with the processor, and only testing and verification need to be completed. There is also the possibility that this is a simple fake. Unfortunately, the CPU-Z screenshot is all that has been made...

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MSI GeForce GTX 660 Ti Power Edition

MSI has been letting people snap pictures of its new GTX 660 Ti design using the famous Twin Frozr cooling solution. We reported about the card here and now we can confirm that it is indeed a GeForce GTX 660 Ti, but the 3GB VRAM specification shown by GPU-Z has been proved wrong. The hardware experts from videocardz.com have managed to get some more pictures of MSI’s new $299 flagship, and the new data shows that the amount of memory on the card will be in fact 2GB and not 3GB as the GPU-Z screenshot showed. The GK104 GPU is base clocked at 1020 MHz with a 1098 Mhz Boost option, while the memory runs at the same 6008 MHz. MSI's GeForce GTX 660 Ti Power EditionImage credits to VideoCardz...

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Exogear Stackable Battery Pack

Exogear has introduced the Exovolt Plus, a battery pack that can stack with “sub battery” units to create portable charging stations with virtually unlimited power capacity. Detailed here, the product costs around $90 / €72.95, while every extra stack ships for $50 / €40. That seems like a lot, but the universal device support (30-pin, USB and micro-USB ports) might compensate for the price tag. For those who want some technical details, each kit is the equivalent of a 5,200 mAh battery and the main piece (Exovolt Plus) gets four LED battery power status indicators. Exogear has the product page up and running at the other end of this link. We don't know for sure when shipments will begin (the company only says the Exovolt...

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Zotac ZBOX HTPC with NVIDIA GeForce GT 520M

Zotac's collection of ZBOX mini PCs has just grown, or at least received a new possible hardware component. The company issued a press release in which it reveals the newest graphics card available to buyers of the home-theater personal computer: NVIDIA GeForce GT 520M 512 MB. The rest of the specs are the same: Atom S2550 dual-core CPU (1.86 GHz), 2 GB of DDR3 RAM, a 2.5-inch SATA HDD, two USB 3.0 ports, four USB 2.0 ports (1 front, 1 top), Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, DVI and HDMI video outputs, etc. “We’re pleased to inject the power of NVIDIA GeForce graphics to our award-winning ZOTAC ZBOX for users that demand energy-efficiency with a graphics kick,” said Carsten Berger, marketing director, ZOTAC International....

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Nikon Camera with Android-Loaded Leaked Through Indonesian Filing

There should soon be a particularly verbose announcement on the part of Nikon, but serendipity has dictated that the world learn of the subject matter before that came to pass. Nikon is about to launch a new camera. This would not be all that strange on its own. After all, that's what Nikon does. What is strange, or at the very least unusual enough to warrant our attention, is the choice of operating systems: the camera will run Android. We've heard of Android cameras before, but only as part of concept design schematics and second-hand rumors. In fact, Samsung's “Galaxy Camera” trademark is the only real evidence that the OS will cross over to this device type in the near future, not counting a very small demo at...

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AMD New Radeon HD 7750 with 900 MHz GPU

American fabless CPU and GPU designer, Texas-based company AMD is stealthily introducing a new revision of the HD 7750 GPU that has an increased default frequency. The reason for this move is either the recent Nvidia GTX 650 and 650 Ti launches that we reported here and here, or the simple fact that AMD’s GCN chips have very good yields. We’re inclined to think that the motivation is a combination of the two. The new cards are using the same cooling system, but they feature a slightly different PCB, videocardz reported. The cooling system has remained exactly the same, as the “Cape Verde” GPU is a very cool piece of technology when compared with other GPUs, but we would have liked to see more custom single-slot designs. The...

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MSI OC Certified, New Series Motherboard Brand

Micro-Star International has issued a press release with the express purpose of announcing a new, high-end motherboard brand, not an actual product or product family. That isn't perfectly accurate of course, since the corporation did mention the MSI Z77 MPower by name, but the main body of text focused on generalities. MSI OC Certified is an extension of MSI's Military Class certification, one that goes beyond even Military Class III tests. For those who need a recap, Military Class III motherboards are tested for stability, high voltage endurance, etc. OC Certified platforms are guaranteed to be able to run in overclocked conditions in high temperatures even when air flow is weak or absent. To give some perspective,...

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ARM Mali-600 GPUs Extremely Powerful

The world’s most successful fabless CPU designer, British company ARM has just launched the new Mali-600 GPUs for powerful tablets, TVs and smartphones. The new chips bring more than 1000% the performance exhibited by the popular Mali-400 generation of GPUs. The new products launched today are the Mali-T624, Mali-T628 and Mali-T678. They are all part of the ARM Midgard GPU family. ARM says that the most powerful Mali-T687 design is an updated version of the fast Mali-T658 and, considering that the T658 was already up to ten times faster than the Mali-T400, we can only imagine how the T678 will perform. The T678 design looks like a doubled Mali-T624 and the Mali-T628 looks just the same, but there is likely a frequency...

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