Qualcomm SnapDragon S2 Humiliates Intel Medfield [Video]

In an interesting development, Qualcomm has decided to leave being its noble and non-combative attitude towards Intel or other competitors. The company has just posted a video where they compare a two-year-old SnapDragon S2 to a 2012 Atom Medfield. While synthetic benchmarks portray Medfield as a valid competitor for last year’s top performing ARM gang, the real-life experience proves that the performance is considerably inferior to a Qualcomm SoC that was launched two years ago. The video compares the Sony Xperia smartphone to the unpopular Lava XOLO that has an Intel Atom Z2460 SoC inside. The Medfield SoC looks pretty much OK in benchmarks. It’s definitely not comparable with this year’s top performing ARM processors, but it’s hanging tight with the 2011 pack. Moreover,...

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Transcend 128 GB JetFlash 760 USB 3.0 Flash Drives

Well-known computer memory and storage manufacturer Transcend has just launched two new flash drive series that feature impressive capacities and high transfer rates. The new thumb drives are using the new USB 3.0 connection technology and thus are able to deliver high speeds. The official names for the two series are Transcend JetFlash 760 and JetFlash 600. The company also touts high transfer rates even on the standard USB 2.0 ports as the internal layout of the NAND chips is a dual-channel one. The company further offers the free download of the exclusive Transcend Elite data management software, which features intelligent backup scheduling and the often required 256-bit AES file encryption capability. The USB sticks...

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Windows Phone 8 Emulator and SDK Video Walkthrough Emerges

Microsoft is still a few weeks away from officially launching the Windows Phone 8 platform, yet some more info on what it would have to offer to its users is now available, courtesy of the pre-release SDK that was provided to some developers not too long ago. A video walkthrough with the SDK and the included emulator has emerged over at WPCentral, though the entire platform is now yet visible to the public. Apparently, Microsoft has locked down a few areas of the SDK, so as to make sure that yet unannounced features won’t leak online. However, a few details on what to expect are still available in the video. Windows Phone 8 has been long rumored to be planned for a late October launch, which means that it won’t be long before users will be able to enjoy it first hand, so...

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BlackBerry 10 Native SDK Beta 3 Available for Download

Following the unveiling of new features and capabilities of the upcoming BlackBerry 10 platform, Canadian handset vendor Research In Motion also announced the availability of updated developer tools for those interested in building applications for the OS. Among them, we can count the third beta flavor of the BlackBerry 10 Native SDK, which provides a nice range of enhancements over the previous releases, and which takes one step closer to the final flavor of the development kit. “Our APIs have evolved to a point where they are stable and functional enough to advertise backwards compatibility,” RIM notes in a blog post. “We also support a full feature set of APIs in the Native SDK – from connectivity APIs such as email...

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Negative Pressure Liquid Cooling System

Most people don't have a reason to care about data centers, the so-called “server farms” responsible for the continued availability of all the world's websites, but that shouldn't stop them from taking a look at the new cooling technology designed for them. Cooling is one of the things that consume the most power in a data center or server. Knowing that such clusters waste around 90% of all the power they eat, coming up with better solutions is a priority. The California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (CALIT2) at the University of California San Diego is demonstrating one such solution: the negative-pressure liquid cooling system. A rack-based, direct-to-the-chip, leak-free technology, it can be...

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Maingear Alpha 24 Super Stock, All-in-One with Ivy Bridge CPU and NVIDIA Graphics

The Alpha 24 Super Stock all-in-one personal computer is described by Maingear's CEO Wallace Santos as the proof that people don't need to sacrifice anything when choosing an all-in-one over a standard desktop PC. The so-called disadvantages that all-in-one systems have compared to desktops are multiple: lack of upgradeability, lower top performance potential, little overclocking support (if any) and, of course, a higher price. Maingear decided to eliminate these drawbacks, or at least offer enough to completely counterbalance them. The overclocking issue is easy: people who consider buying an AiO aren't thinking of tweaking the clock by default. The lack of upgradeability and performance issues were solved in a single...

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JEDEC: DDR4 Memory Standard Is Now Official

JEDEC is an international organization that encompasses many memory chip manufacturers, module manufacturers and other technology companies. The organization develops and sets the standard specification in the DRAM memory field, and now it has officially launched the DDR4 standard. This means that now DDR4 mainboards and memory modules will start appearing from various manufacturers as there currently is a standard that will ensure compatibility between the different devices. Many believe that DDR4 will not be too popular during the next 12 months as DDR3 has greatly surpassed its specifications, and this will make initial DDR4 implementation look less impressive than DDR3-based ones. Also, just like any new technology,...

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