Since the very beginning of the tablet revolution in 2010 – 2011, Seagate Technology has been promising to introduce special versions of hard drives for slates. Last year the company finally launched 2.5” 5mm thick HDDs which could be installed into tablets. However, none of the major tablet makers have …
Read More »Apple iPhone 6 and new iPads might be at risk due to low A8 chip yields
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. recently started to produce Apple’s next-generation A8 system-on-chips for upcoming iPhones and iPads, according to media reports. However, according to another report, the Cupertino, California-based consumer electronics giant could face difficulties with the A8 because of relatively low production yields. A number of Taiwan-based media outlets …
Read More »Former chief exec of Apple plans to launch a new smartphone brand
John Sculley, the former chief executive officer of Apple who ousted Steve Jobs from the company back in the eighties, plans to launch a new firm that will sell smartphones. The company will start to operate in India as early as next month. The first device from the yet-unnamed brand …
Read More »Asus preps Ares III graphics card with two AMD ‘Hawaii’ chips
Asustek Computer is known for exotic products that require exceptional engineering skills and which deliver performance and capabilities that are unique for the whole industry. At present the company is busy with a new “world’s first” project: a graphics card based on two AMD Radeon R9 290X “Hawaii” graphics processing …
Read More »First Nvidia Tegra K1 benchmarks: faster than everything which exists
A Chinese web-site has published what it claims to be the first benchmarks of Nvidia Tegra K1 system-on-chips based on 32-bit and 64-bit cores as well as Kepler-class graphics engine. In case the results are correct, then the Tegra K1 is considerably faster than all the other mobile application processors …
Read More »Razer redefines gaming keyboards with new mechanical switches
Razer, a leading maker of PC peripherals designed for gamers, has introduced its new BlackWidow-series keyboards that use the all-new mechanical switches which were designed specifically for gamers. Keyboards with mechanical switches have a number of advantages over mainstream keyboards that use dome switches or buckling spring switches since they …
Read More »AMD readies FirePro graphics card featuring Hawaii graphics chip
In the recent years Advanced Micro Devices has been extraordinary slow with advancements of its professional graphics cards line. To a large degree, this is a result of overall slow progress of discrete GPU performance these days, but for those who need performance now this hardly matters. The situation may …
Read More »Microsoft’s Cortana voice assistant described, caught on video
It is not a secret that Microsoft Corp. is preparing to finally roll-out a voice assistant called Cortana along with the upcoming update for Windows Phone 8.1 operating system. While the assistant is supposed to compete with Apple’s Siri as well as Google’s Google Now services, the newly released information …
Read More »Bill Gates, Satya Nadella opposed move to buy Nokia – report
Microsoft Corp.’s acquisition of Nokia Corp.’s devices and services division is indisputably one of the most important deals in the history of the two companies. Nonetheless, this does not mean that the decision was initially supported by everyone at Microsoft. Apparently, Bill Gates, a co-founder of the software giant, and …
Read More »Apple to axe 13” non-retina MacBook Pro with CD/DVD drive
When Apple introduced its MacBook Pro laptops with retina displays in 2012, it was clear that the company will transit all of its advanced laptops to the new display technology simply because it wants to clearly differentiate from its rivals. Since then, Apple has ceased to sell MacBook Pro with …
Read More »Windows 8.1 spring update 2014 goes gold, on-track for April
Microsoft Corp.’s Windows engineering team has released Windows 8.1 spring update 2014 to manufacturing, according to a media report. The new update will be released early next month and will bring a number of improvements in terms of feature-set as well as fix bugs, incorporate updates, enhance security and so …
Read More »Toshiba reveals new 15K hard disk drives for enterprises
Toshiba Corp. has introduced a new breed of hard disk drives with 15K revolutions per minute spindle speed designed for mission-critical enterprise applications. The new AL13SX-series hard drives are among the fastest HDDs in the industry that will join solid-state drives in data centers that require massive storage capacities. Toshiba …
Read More »AMD introduces Radeon R9 280 graphics card for $279
Advanced Micro Devices on Tuesday introduced its new offering for the sub-$300 market segment of discrete graphics cards, the Radeon R9 280. The novelty is not really something new as it is based on two years old code-named Tahiti graphics processing unit and resembles the Radeon HD 7950. Nonetheless, it …
Read More »AMD debuts low-cost socketed APUs, introduces AM1 platform
Advanced Micro Devices on Tuesday announced a new breed of accelerated processing units (APUs) featuring new-generation low-power Jaguar x86 cores that will be available in pin-grid array (PGA) packaging and will be compatible with FS1b sockets (commercially known as AM1). The new chips will be branded as Athlon and Sempron. …
Read More »OCZ introduces Z-Drive 4500 PCIe family of SSDs
OCZ Storage Solutions, a subsidiary of Toshiba Corp., on Tuesday introduced its new Z-Drive 4500 PCIe family of solid-state drives designed for enterprises. The new series delivers even higher performance in comparison to OCZ’s Z-Drive R4 and takes advantage of multiple new technologies. The new OCZ Z-Drive 4500 PCIe solid-state …
Read More »Sony PS4 sales surpass six million units worldwide
Sony Computer Entertainment on Tuesday announced that shipments of its PlayStation 4 video game consoles had surpassed six million units, making it one of the fastest selling Sony system ever. The number significantly exceeds the amount that the company planned to sell this fiscal year and demonstrates tremendous interest towards …
Read More »Samsung announces Chromebook 2 family of laptops
Although Samsung Electronics has cut its notebook shipments plans for the year and even has decided to withdraw from certain markets, the company does not give up its Chromebook initiative. This week the firm introduced a new family of Chromebooks that offer higher performance, increased productivity and stylish design. Samsung …
Read More »Microsoft announces changes to executive team
Microsoft Corp. on Monday announced significant changes to the leadership team. As a result of the changes, the software giant will lose Tony Bates and Tami Reller, who played significant roles at Microsoft in the recent years. Satya Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft, wants to ensure that the senior …
Read More »Imagination: we are looking to move up the performance ladder
A representative for Imagination Technologies, a leading developer of mobile graphics processing technologies, said that the company was looking forward to increase performance of its solutions so substantially that to be able to address fully-fledged personal computers. Imagination Technologies once sold its Kyro graphics processing units for desktop PCs. Although …
Read More »Apple introduces CarPlay: the right way to use iPhone in cars
Apple on Monday introduced CarPlay, a new way to use iPhone in cars that allows to integrate services provided by the iOS platform into the vehicles’ infotainment systems. Multiple leading makers of vehicles already announced plans to adopt CarPlay. Apple is the first designer of smartphone platforms that has created …
Read More »Toshiba boosts storage of mobile devices with new NAND modules
Toshiba Corp. this week said that it had developed the world's fastest device controller for embedded NAND flash memory modules compliant with the universal flash storage (UFS) 2.0 and UFS unified memory extension (UME) 1.0 standards defined by JEDEC standard-setting organization. The company has also created embedded NAND flash memory …
Read More »Microsoft to offer free Windows 8.1 with Bing operating system
Microsoft Corp. is reportedly working on free versions of Windows operating system. The initial product is expected to be called Windows 8.1 with Bing and will mostly be an experimental one. The software giant supposedly wants to investigate how it can monetize its OSes without charging computer makers or end-users …
Read More »Samsung vows to release 64-bit application processors this year
It was a bit disappointing that Samsung Electronics did not reveal its 64-bit application processors for mobile devices at the Mobile World Congress 2014 under its Exynos Infinity initiative. Nonetheless, the company vows that it will introduce its first ARMv8-compatible chips later this year. Samsung’s arch-rival Apple has been selling …
Read More »Sales of Apple TV grew to $1 billion in 2013, says Tim Cook
Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple, said on Friday that sales of Apple TV set-top-box in 2013 were worth more than a billion. While the number is small for Apple, it means that its TV initiatives are slowly but surely taking off and the STB is clearly no longer …
Read More »Intel readies 750-series SSDs with PCI Express interface
Intel Corp. is working on its next-generation 750-series solid-state drives aimed at performance enthusiasts and professionals that will sport PCI Express interface in order to maximize its speeds, according to a source with knowledge of Intel’s plans. The new drives will be available late this year. It is not a …
Read More »Qualcomm unveils world’s first 20nm 4G/LTE A chip for cars
Qualcomm this week introduced the Qualcomm Gobi 9×30 platform, which supports 4G/LTE Advanced Category 6 with up to 300Mb/s downlink data rates. The platform is aimed at automotive solutions and is one of the world’s first chips to be made using 20nm process technology. The Gobi 9×30 will improve vehicle …
Read More »Intel reveals 730-series ‘factory overclocked’ SSDs
Intel Corp. on Thursday unveiled its new lineup of high-end solid-state drives (SSDs) aimed at performance-demanding users. The new Intel 730-series SSDs are the first drives featuring controller and NAND components binned and qualified for higher clock-rates, yet, the manufacturer claims ultimate reliability of the drives. Intel solid-state drives 730-series …
Read More »Microsoft to continue to use ‘Nokia’ and ‘Lumia’ brands
Nokia has been one of the most recognized brands in the last 15 – 20 years and it will not disappear from the market of phones after Microsoft Corp. acquires devices and services division of Nokia Corp. later this quarter. The software giant claims that it will continue to use …
Read More »Sapphire readies Radeon R9 290X graphics card with 8GB of memory
Sapphire Technology is working on a new version of AMD Radeon R9 290X-based graphics card with 8GB of GDDR5 memory onboard, a media report claims. The solution with enlarged frame buffer is projected to become available shortly and offer unbeatable performance in ultra-high resolutions. The world’s number one supplier of …
Read More »AMD debuts its first GCN-based GPU for embedded applications
Advanced Micro Devices this week introduced its first graphics processing unit for embedded applications that is based on the latest GCN [graphics core next] architecture. The new Radeon E8860 will bring graphics capabilities of embedded applications to the level of new-generation video-game consoles, such as Microsoft Xbox One and Sony …
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