Zotac ZBOX Nano AD10 Plus Fanless Nano miniPC

It seems like Rory Read was right when he said that today’s home and mobile computers have roughly enough computing power and that it’s time that the computer market should refocus on features and capabilities rather than raw performance.

The success of the tablet market and especially the ARM-powered devices has proven that the new CEO of AMD was actually right and that features and new abilities are what the users are searching for. One of the latest crazes in the computing market if the fanless or silentPC craze that has been gaining more and more popularity during the past half-decade. The small form factor (SFF) market niche has also been popular during the past ten years with Shuttle being the loudest supporter of the movement.

Fanlesstech.com has gotten news that Zotac is preparing some fanless versions of its famous Nano miniPC systems and considering how small the company’s systems currently are, we can’t help but wonder how and if this news will become a reality, FanLessTech reports. A fanless Nano miniPC will mean a unique combination of amazingly small SFF systems with efficient passive cooling solutions.

Zotac ZBOX Nano AD10 Plus Powered by AMD Zacate
Image credits to Zotac

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Samsung Preparing a True iPad Killer

There might be a simpler explanation on why Apple  is so adamant on getting at least some small win in the courts against Samsung.

That explanation may be the fact that any design-related legal precedent could allow Apple to further annoy Samsung in the event the Korean giant brings a superior product to the market. Many think that Apple is trying to get those 10 percent of the tablet market that Samsung has, but the reality is that the Cupertino giant is actually preparing for the likely event that some company might actually release a superior competing product. The obvious candidate for such a feat is Samsung with their rumored P10 WQXGA tablet, sporting a 2560 by 1600 pixel resolution with a display density of 256ppi.

This product might have it all. We’ve reported here about the impressive performance of Samsung’s next generation ARM Cortex A15 processor which is very likely to end up inside the P10. Thus, Samsung’s next tablet will have a bigger screen, a higher resolution, mainly the same pixel density, more computing power and a larger battery allowed by the increased size. It seems like Apple is not quite ready with an alternative and the company doesn’t want to let Samsung enjoy this possible win. Sure, the American tablet expert might come with something superior in the future, but that new generation iPad seems to be far enough so that Samsung might enjoy six or even twelve months of superiority and good sales.

This would not only allow Samsung to increase its market share, but it would also embed it as a true and superior alternative to Apple’s products and that’s something the Cupertino giant fears the most.

Samsung Tablet Design
Image credits to Samsung

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TransPhone TP730 Smartphone/Tablet Hybrid

China, one of the largest smartphone markets in the world, is home of many handset manufacturers who are trying to copycat some of the most successful devices launched by renowned brands, such as Samsung, Nokia, Apple, HTC and other.

Datang Telecom is one such company, which is trying to bring its own product as a cheaper alternative of the Asus Padfone, on the Chinese market. Dubbed TransPhone TP703, Datang Telecom’s product is a smartphone/tablet hybrid, which is exclusively aimed at the Chinese market. We doubt that the company has the resources to bring this device to other markets, not to mention that it will have to compete with other devices available in those markets. TransPhone TP703 comprises a 3.5-inch smartphone and a 7-inch tablet, which are sold together for a price that has yet to be disclosed by the manufacturer. Little is known about the phone’s hardware configuration, though we’ve been confirmed that the handset is equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and an Adreno graphics processing unit.

In addition, the phone’s battery should provide up to three days of standby time, up to 40 hours of talk time, or up to 73 hours of music playback. However, these numbers can only be achieved while the phone is inserted in the 7-inch tablet. The TransPhone TP703 measures 115 x 59.5 x 12.5mm, while the tablet is a bit larger (obviously). Both devices come with capacitive touchscreen displays, but this is the only information confirmed by Datang Telecom. While we wait for more details on the TransPhone TP703 to emerge, we suspect the hybrid will go on sale in China by the end of the month.

Even though there are no details on the pricing options, TransPhone TP703 should not be priced higher than $400 USD (325 EUR) outright. Stay tuned for more updates on the matter. via GSMInsider.

TransPhone TP703
Image credits to beareyes.com

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Sharp SH530 with 5’’ Screen, Dual-SIM,and Android 4.0.4

Sharp is reportedly gearing up for the release of a new smartphone on the shelves in China, namely the dual-SIM capable Sharp SH530.

The company hasn’t provided specific info on the device as of yet, but the phone has already been spotted at large, with a 5-inch touchscreen display on the front. Interestingly enough, although if features such a large display, the new smartphone does not appear set to enter the high-end segment of the market. In fact, it should land with mid-level capabilities, most probably set to keep its cost down once it is made available for purchase on the Chinese market, AndroidGreed notes. The large screen is said to boast a WVGA (800×480 pixels) resolution, and should hide a 1GHz dual-core MTK MT6577 application processor beneath it.

The handset would pair the dual-core CPU with 512MB of RAM, as well as with 16GB of internal memory. It’s yet uncertain whether it would feature a microSD memory card slot as well. On the back, the new device would sport a 5-megapixel photo snapper with video recording capabilities, complemented by a 1.3MP camera on the front for making video calls. Other specifications of the new device also include support for HSPA connectivity (up to 7.2Mbps), A-GPS, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, and the like. The handset will also pack two SIM card slots. The new Sharp SH530 is said to measure 140 x 80.85 x 9.9 mm and to weigh 176 grams. The mobile phone is said to be running under Google’s Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system.

According to a recent post on ePrice Hong Kong, the new Sharp smartphone should hit shelves in China very soon, with a price tag of around $300 attached to it. Sharp hasn’t provided official info on the new device as of yet, but it might not be too long before it does that, so stay tuned to learn additional details on the smartphone.

Sharp SH 530
Image credits to AndroidGreed

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Thecus N7510 7-Bay NAS Device

Thecus has formally launched the N7510 network-attached storage device, which has the potential to pack more storage space than any other NAS unit on the market.

The N7510 is part of the same series as its 2-bay N2800, 4-bay N4800 and N4510U, but is in a league of its own. With an Intel Atom processor as the heart, the product boasts 2 GB of DDR3 system RAM (random access memory) and SATA III support (SATA 6.0 Gbps). Indeed, all seven bays can house 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch drives featuring that connection, though backwards compatibility with SATA II is present as well. That said, owners will have the option to select up to three multiple RAID modes from the following list: RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, JBOD. For those who aren't versed in such things, RAID is a way of combining one or more drives in order to attain higher performance and security.

Speaking of which, McAfee antivirus protection is installed on the N7510, particularly useful when trying to access it with a PC or consumer electronic that lacks defense of its own. Moving on, Thecus outfitted the newcomer with an HDMI output, permitting HDTVs or smart TVs to stream media without a PC's help. As for normal connectivity, a pair of USB 3.0 ports is part of the NAS's I/O, along with a 6 Gbps eSATA port.  We'd love to be able to provide a price for the 7-bay NAS, but Thecus' press release did not specify one. It did, however, promise that “this NAS will offer lots of power and lots of storage capacity without spending lots of money.”

Then again, even if the NAS itself is cheap, the large-capacity HDDs needed to fill it definitely won't be, even with the worst of last year's flood consequences over and done with.

Thecus N7510
Image credits to Thecus

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Apple Asymmetric Screw Rumor Was Fake

The rumored asymmetric screw, allegedly designed by Apple with the purpose of keeping prying hands out of its gadgets, has been confirmed as a fabrication by a firm that specializes in motion graphics.

“We wanted to test this, how easy is it to spread disinformation?” said Lukasz Lindell blogging for Day4, the company in question. They reportedly sketched out this strange asymmetric screw in a 3D program, rendered the image, put it in an email, sent it to themselves, took a picture of the screen and anonymously uploaded it to a forum with the text, “A friend took a photo a while ago at that fruit company, they are obviously even creating their own screws.” The alleged leak spread like wildfire in the tech media where anything that looks bold enough to be Apple’s invention guarantees a ton of hits.

“Apple is the world’s largest company, so they can take a few knocks,” Lindell wrote. “The community around Apple is often very active, especially before an upcoming Keynote where it is expected that the company will introduce new products.” “In September [there] is one, and everyone expects the iPhone 5 to be announced. Rumors are flowing about the phone, its appearance, its features, its materials and so on. We found this was a fitting goal for our test,” said Lindell. The company felt their experiment was well intended, and they still do, as “it raises a concern about how we consume information today.”

They point out that big players like Yahoo, Wired and Macworld ate up their “leaked” photo in a jiffy. For those who feel betrayed or misled into believing the asymmetric screw was really an Apple invention, Lindell has a few words of apology. “Finally, we just want to say sorry to you who feel cheated, but the meaning behind the experiment may provide a longer-term results, that we become more thoughtful about things we see on the Internet.”

Apple rumored asymmetric screw was fake
Image credits to day4.se

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HIS X 7970 AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition with 20 Power Phases

HIS seems to be trying to get back on top as the world’s most innovative video card manufacturer and the first move is launching a new AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition video card.

This new card uses an impressive custom PCB with 20 power phases. The official name of the card is simply HIS X 7970, but this simple moniker hides very interesting and useful design characteristics. Right from the start, HIS makes it clear that this is a custom PCB and even offers us a simple comparison table against AMD’s reference HD 7970 GHz Edition video card. The HIS X 7970 AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition video card comes with 20 power phases and two 8-pin power inputs. Moreover, the card doesn’t share the PCIe power line for fueling the GDDR5 memory. Yet, it uses a separate input form one of the 8-pin power inputs. The default frequencies are exactly 1 GHz for the GPU and 6 GHz for the 3072 MB of GDDR5 memory.

However, the PCB and improved cooling system should help overclocking enthusiasts reach very good results. The cooling system is the company’s new IceQ X2 design that uses two 90-millimeter fans with special twisted fan blades and four heatpipes, overclockers.ua reports. The interesting part is the fact that HIS finally decides to use two 8mm heatpipes for the IceQ X2 design and thus will be able to achieve considerably improved cooling results than solutions with 6mm heatpipes. Multimedia enthusiasts will be happy to find out that this is an Eyefinity 6 video card able to drive 6 monitors at the same time through the use of 4 mini Display Port connectors, one DVI and one HDMI outputs. There is no official information or pricing, but we can’t wait to see this one in action.

HIS X 7970 AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition video card
Images credits to Overclockers.ua

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Intel Preparing Faster Core i7 3770K for Q1 2013

We already reported here that LGA2011 won’t receive another upgrade until next summer, but the LGA1155 are possibly in for a treat during next spring. Intel’s 22nm yields are so good that the company might milk the architecture for a while longer.

We’re inclined to believe this because there’s a long period between the Core i7 3770K launch and the 2013 Haswell quad-core launch. That’s too long to go without product announcements, in our humble opinion. Since the yields are so good, Intel will likely launch yet a faster processor just to spoil AMD’s FX8350 launch and distract people’s attention from it.

Obviously, nobody expects AMD’s top desktop CPUs to surpass Intel’s Ivy Bridge flagship any time soon, so there is basically no need for Intel to rush the Haswell launch early next spring.

Intel Ivy Bridge Marketing Shot
Image credits to Intel

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MSI Another Mini-ITX Motherboard

It wasn't that long ago that Gigabyte released a new mini-ITX motherboard, after several other companies did the same, and now Micro-Star International is joining in.

The name of the small form factor mainboard that MSI is just about ready to start selling is B75IA-E33, based on the fact that the B75 express chipset is used. We say “just about ready” to ship because MSI is not, in fact, selling the item yet. Not even the price has, thus far, been published. Fortunately, the corporation did provide all other relevant details of the motherboard, so prospective buyers can at least get an idea of what they are in for. The LGA 1155 socket will hold any Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge central processing unit, while two DIMM slots allow for up to 16 GB of DDR3-1600 MHz RAM to back it up (random access memory).

Three SATA 3.0 Gbps ports will handle the storage, along with a single SATA 6.0 Gbps connector for particularly speedy hard disk drives (HDDs) or solid-state drives (SSDs). Furthermore, a PCI Express 3.0 x16 slot is part of the feature set, meaning that even this small platform can receive an add-in graphics adapter. Other specs include a 24-pin ATX connector, a 4-pin CPU power plug, Gigabit Ethernet, 6-channel HD audio, 7.1-channel optical SPDIF, several USB 2.0 ports, four USB 3.0 ports (two via headers, only two on the back panel) and, of course, more than one video output (DVI, D-Sub and HDMI).

It should be a simple matter to create an HTPC or even a small gaming system, for LAN parties and such, should the situation call for it. The UEFI BIOS and 4-phase VRM may even reel in some enthusiasts, even though Z77 is considered the overclocker-ideal chipset. Finally, the various inputs and outputs, as well as the Intel Small Business Advantage technology, make the MSI B75IA-E33 a good business PC board.

MSI B75IA-E33 mini-ITX motherboard
Image credits to TechPowerUp

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This Is What the Assembled iPhone 5 Should Look Like

Images and actual YouTube footage of some leaked iPhone 5 parts are finally beginning to draw an accurate picture of what the next-generation smartphone from Apple will look like. The unibody design is all but confirmed, or so believes Don Lehman, a Chicago-based industrial designer, who has decided to release an analysis of the hardware.

Despite being regarded as the first unibody case ever used in a smartphone, Apple’s iPhone enclosure is not all the same piece of metal. Designer Don Lehman says “The leaked design has three pieces of metal instead of four. It still has two U-shaped pieces at the top and bottom, but this time the two flat sides become one single piece of metal that also comprises the back of the device.” “That single piece of metal is the unibody backplate,” he outlines. Apple’s reasons for employing a unibody design are numerous, but the key aspects are strength-to-weight ratio and reduced thickness.

“The same properties that unibody designs give to Apple’s laptops apply to this design as well: stronger, lighter, and thinner,” explains Don. “You can see from this picture the tool path of the CNC machine that made the unibody backplate of this design.” “The tool path sort of looks like the lines that are made when a farmer plows a field. This started out as a single block of metal and the CNC carved that metal out until you have what you see here,” he writes, pointing out to the (first) image below (click to enlarge). Although Lehman is “fairly convinced” that this is what the iPhone 5 will look like, he does take other possibilities into account.

He believes this could also be a very elaborate hoax, though whoever went through the efforts of crafting the parts might as well work on Apple’s design team, he suggests. Another possibility is that this leak is an intentional decoy made by Apple. “Now THAT would be amazing,” writes Lehman. “I’m secretly rooting for this option if only because it would be so diabolically awesome.” The designer also theorizes that it could also be “an early model or sample of a design that Apple is working on.”

iPhone 5 almost fully assembled, lacking the printed circuit board (PCB) and other electronics inside
Images credits to iLab Factory

iLab Factoryが入手した、次期iPhoneと思われるパーツ
http://www.macotakara.jp/blog/index.php?ID=17255
Video credits to macotakara

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Motorola RAZR HD and RAZR MAXX HD in October

Rumors on the upcoming Motorola RAZR HD have come and gone, but the US-based handset manufacturer has yet to confirm the availability of the smartphone.

Several live pictures have already leaked in the wild, which indicates that the RAZR HD is real and might arrive in the market sooner than expected. In this regard, the folks over at HotHardware have been able to confirm through a “very reliable source” close to the matter, that Motorola Mobility plans to launch both RAZR HD and RAZR MAXX HD sometime in October. However, the company may be forced to delay the release of the smartphone if it doesn’t sell enough Motorola RAZR and RAZR MAXX devices by that time. This means that these HD models might arrive by year’s end. Although both handsets are reportedly shipped with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system out of the box, there’s a chance that Motorola might decide otherwise and offer the RAZR HD and RAZR MAXX HD with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean onboard.

Motorola RAZR HD and RAZR MAXX HD will follow the same design line as the original RAZR model, so expect them to be equally slim and stylish. Still, the latter will surely be a bit thicker due to the high-capacity 3300 mAh Li-Ion battery, which should provide around 17 days of standby time. On the inside, each smartphone will be equipped with a 1.5 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor, complemented by 1GB of RAM. We still don’t have any details on the size of the displays, but, as the name of the smartphones suggests, both handset will feature HD (720 x 1280 pixels) capacitive touch screens. There’s also an 8-megapixel rear photo snapper with autofocus, LED flash and full HD (1080p) video recording, as well as a secondary front-facing camera for video calls. Stay tuned for more updates on the matter.

Motorola RAZR HD
Image credits to XDA forum user "siloner"

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World’s Most Powerful GeForce GTX 660 Ti Video Card, ASUS GeForce GTX 660Ti DirectCU II TOP

Like we’ve reported here, Nvidia has charged the $300 price point and it’s mostly using custom pre-overclocked cards as the strategy and the GK104-300-KD-A2 GPU as the weapon of choice.

ASUS’ new DirectCU II TOP graphics adapter is, at the moment, the fastest GTX 660 Ti model in the world. The famous Taiwanese manufacturer never went for Nvidia’s reference design, but has gone for a custom GTX 670 PBGC instead. The ASUS GeForce GTX 660Ti DirectCU II TOP video card clocks the GK104 GPU at an impressive 1050 MHz right out of the factory and that’s a 16 percent overclocked compared to what Nvidia recommends for the GTX 600 Ti cards. There are 2048 MB or GDDR5 video memory on board that work on a narrower 192-bit BUS and are clocked at the reference 6008 MHz effective reference frequency, videocardz reports.

We’re quite disappointed that ASUS went to so much trouble with the custom PCB, the much improved cooling system and the extreme factory overclock on the GPU, but left the memory frequency untouched. We believe that a 10 percent overclock would have made the ASUS GeForce GTX 660Ti DirectCU II TOP video card absolutely unique. As the card is set up, right now it’s the fastest, but in the future some manufacturer might even go further. The price is slated at a rather high 359 EUR and that’s almost $442 for the American buyer.

ASUS GeForce GTX 660Ti DirectCU II TOP video card and Cooling System
Images credits to videocardz

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