Tech

• Sources Detail the PlayStation 4's Processing Specs

  Next-gen system to sport AMD's A8-3850 APU and HD 7670 GPU.

  
  

  The PlayStation 4, reportedly codenamed Orbis, may utilize custom chips based on AMD's A8-3850 APU and Radeon HD 7670 GPU, sources have told IGN, offering the combined performance of both integrated and discrete graphics processors.

  According to the official product specs, the A8-3850 packs a quad-core 2.9GHz processor with an integrated graphics chip. The APU will work in tandem with the system's dedicated GPU, the HD 7670, a DirectX 11-enabled card clocked to 1GHz with up to 1GB of dedicated VRAM.

  

  User Submitted Concept Mock

   

  The HD 7670 is a rebranded version of last year's HD 6670, sporting identical specs across the board. If you recall, the HD 6670 is the same card that we reported will be used in the Xbox 720. The implication, of course, is that the two systems will effectively go toe-to-toe as far as discrete graphics are concerned.

  By current standards, the HD 6670 is an entry-level processor with a price of about $74.99. Benchmark tests place framerate performance for taxing titles games like Metro 2033 and Crysis 2 set to high settings at a resolution of 1920x1080 (1080p) with average framerates of just over 30 frames-per-second. The chip also supports HDMI1.4a output, which is necessary for the system's rumored 4k output. Naturally, a comparably lightweight operating system and console-optimized games will likely improve performance, but the PS4's real edge could come from the secondary GPU provided by the APU.

  Onboard the A8-3850 is an HD 6550D, which makes the APU capable of running games at baseline specs and lower resolutions without the help of a discrete GPU. When the APU is paired with the HD 7670, however, Sony will be able to utilize an asymmetrical CrossFire configuration to share the load of realtime graphics processing.

  Our sources caution that while current plans for the device make use of the the chipsets mentioned, it is possible that changes could be made prior to the system's launch.

  With publishers rumored to have already begun development for the system and the system slated for a 2013 release, additional details are sure to emerge over the next few months.

  UPDATE: For further clarification, the chips being used in the PlayStation 4 are based on the off-the-shelf parts detailed above and are being custom tooled for the console. Exact specs may vary.
  Apple Files Patent for Wireless ChargingDevices to utilize packaging for power and OS updates.

When picking up an iPod in its retail packaging, consumers are teased with a sticker that mimics what would actually be seen on the device, but that ruse may shift to the real deal in the future.

Apple Insider spotted a patent application by Apple that would enable boxed devices to stay charged and even up to date on OS versions by utilizing electronics within the packaging with the help of an RF power transmitter and an external power supply. With this implemented, customers would get a more accurate representation of the product and would definitely differentiate the devices from others on store shelves.

Although the idea is interesting as far as in-store marketing is concerned, this could possibly pave way for first-party wireless home charging docks.

Asus Padfone Arriving Mid-April, $1,000 for the Full Package

The tablet/phone hybrid is intuitive but costly.

As far as tablets are concerned, Asus is one of the larger companies that seems willing to try something a little bit different. Since it was announced, the Padfone has always been regarded as a peculiar product, although was worthy of attention if only because of its uniqueness.

Asus' phone/tablet combo -- not to be confused with a phablet -- is set to go on sale on April 20 in Taiwan, with pre-orders starting tomorrow, according to Engadget. To power to combination, the phone portion of the device is equipped with a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor.

On its own, the smartphone is priced at NT$17,990, roughly $610. Add the tablet and a BlueTooth headset and stylus, and you're looking at NT$24,980, or around $850. Throw in the add-on keyboard for the full package and cost jumps to NT$28,901, converting to a grand total of about $980.

At those prices, it will be extremely tough for Asus to get the Padfone off of shelves, which isn't a good thing considering how the company's Transformer Prime tablet has been performing. Prices are likely to differ once they hit stateside, but don't expect a big decrease in overall costs.

Google Announces Project Glass Wearable HUD

Get notifications, video chat and send text messages with the power of your glasses.

It looks like everyone is prepping to jump on the wearable HUD bandwagon, and Google has just announced some new technology for its entry, dubbed Project Glass.

Per the Project Glass Google+ page:

We think technology should work for you—to be there when you need it and get out of your way when you don’t.

A group of us from Google[x] started Project Glass to build this kind of technology, one that helps you explore and share your world, putting you back in the moment. We’re sharing this information now because we want to start a conversation and learn from your valuable input. So we took a few design photos to show what this technology could look like and created a video to demonstrate what it might enable you to do.

Please follow along as we share some of our ideas and stories. We’d love to hear yours, too. What would you like to see from Project Glass?

The masterminds behind the tech were nice enough to provide a video that showcases potential applications for Project Glass, including at-a-glance notifications, speech-to-text functionality and the ability to make video calls. Although there weren't any direct references to Android, it would likely be the platform of choice for the device.

We probably won't see the final product any time soon, but it's safe to say that Project Glass has piqued our interest. With the Google I/O conference just a couple months away, we hope to see more demos of the tech in June.

WANT: Inflatable Starship Enterprise Captain's Chair

Official Star Trek collectible available now for $25.

Tell Kirk to move over, it's your turn to be the captain of the USS Enterprise.

Brought to you by the folks at ThinkGeek, the Inflatable Captain's Chair is decorated in a manner that makes it seem right at home in your living room as well as among the stars. At full size, the chair measures at about 27.75” high, 29.25” wide, and 18” deep.

Before taking the Star Trek-themed chair where no man has gone before, keep in mind that it can only carry crew members up to 120 lbs. and has no proven floating capabilities.

The Star Trek Inflatable Captain's Chair can be picked up now for $24.99.

Hands-On with Instagram for Android

Take a tour through the new camera app and see how it compares to the iOS version.

Instagram is finally available for Android smartphone owners, and while it differs a bit from the iOS version, new users aren't left out of any dramatic features, aside from a couple photo effects and some sharing options.

Opening up the free app will get you to the home page, showcasing uploaded pictures from you and your friends. From here, the button layout at the bottom of the screen will let you easily access popular photos, updates in your social stream, your profile, home page, and the camera function.

Once into the camera portion of the app, you can either choose to take a new photo or pick one you already have on your phone, all of which is pretty self explanatory and difficult to do incorrectly. Once you've captured your subject, a series of filters and effects are made available to fine tune your photography.

Compared to the iOS version, all 18 filters all the same, with the exception of Android getting "X-pro" instead of "X-pro II." Additionally, the tilt-shift feature is missing with Android, but there are still plenty of options to get your pictures looking just right, including the Lux effect that make your shots appear more vibrant.

Once done creating your masterpiece you can add a caption and Geotag to your flick, then share to Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Foursquare. Apple users can share pictures through Email, Posterous and Flickr as well, but once uploaded, Android owners have access to additional options through the sharing capabilities of the operating system.

Aesthetically, the Android version of Instagram is almost identical, with minor tweaks to icons and tab highlighting. In regards to viewing your profile, the iOS app is actually inferior, first popping you to an unfriendly options screen while Android gets a quick and easy view of you and your activity, and much more intuitive search functionality.

The app is only on version 1.0, but is extremely stable and suffered no hiccups or forced closes when running on a Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

If tinkering with pictures is your type of thing, Instagram offers a noteworthy amount of features with an easy to use interface and handy sharing options. Since the app was just released today, updates are sure to arrive in the future, but as it is now, Android users have little reason to be envious of their iOS counterparts.

Instagram can be downloaded now through the Google Play Store.

Razer Wants to Know if You'd Like a Left-Handed Naga Mouse

With enough interest, Razer will produce another mouse for lefties.

Gaming mice aren't difficult to come by, but southpaws don't exactly have the same amount of choices as their right-handed brethren. Razer is ready to create left-handed versions of its Naga mouse, as long as interest is strong enough.

As reported by Engadget, Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan explained on Facebook that the company makes a loss on every sale of its left-handed DeathAdder mouse, although he is aware that a market exists and is willing to contribute to it.

In order to ensure that the financial risk of making this specialty mouse is at a minimum, the Facebook post must hit 10,000 Likes by April 21, 2012 for the company to begin development. And even at that number, Tan says they'd be taking a loss.

Once achieved, a left-handed Naga may reach your doorstep in about a year. At the moment, there are already 8,600 Likes on the post.

So, lefties, if you want another gaming mouse to choose from, the power is in your hands.

Research in Motion Posts $125 Million Quarterly Net Loss

Things have been tough for the BlackBerry manufacturer, and they aren't getting any better.

Research in Motion, providers of the BlackBerry brand, announced its Q4 2012 earnings numbers and things are looking grim.

The company reported a net loss of $125 million before adjustments and a 19% drop in revenue from the previous quarter to $4.2 billion. Smartphone shipments plummeted 21% from Q3 to 11.1 million units, with just over 500,000 BlackBerry PlayBooks shipped. Actual sales numbers were not specified.

RIM is still banking on the BlackBerry 10 operating system, but appears to lack so much confidence on its platforms that it won't make public projections for the foreseeable future.

To top it off, Jim Balsillie, co-founder and one of the company's CEOs just months ago, has removed himself from RIM's board. Research in Motion's CTO of software and its COO of global operations are also joining the going away party.

The latest version of the BlackBerry operating system is scheduled for release later this year. Only time will tell if it will be enough to keep the company afloat.

Nielsen: 50% of US Mobile Subscribers Have Smartphones

Smartphone adoption up from 36% last year.

Smartphone adoption has skyrocketed over the last couple of years and, according to a new Nielsen report, is now neck and neck with feature phones in the United States.

A year ago, 36% of mobile users had smartphones and now that number has jumped to 49.7%. The analytics company also pointed out that, during the last three months, two-thirds of mobile phone purchases were for smartphones.

As far as smartphone operating systems are concerned, Android accounts for 48% of the market share overall and for recent purchases, with iOS nabbing a noteworthy 43% of new consumers over the last three months and a 32% share of all smartphone owners.

Is Apple's A5X More Powerful Than NVIDIA's Tegra 3?

We see if Apple's "4x" claims hold up.

During Apple's keynote to unveil the new iPad, the company stated that its A5X processor boasted four times the graphics performance of the Tegra 3, NVIDIA's quad-core powerhouse. While claims of bold performance improvements are standard operation procedure for Apple events, such a narrow focus on a single competing product is rare. Naturally, NVIDIA was quick to respond, raising questions about the benchmark methods used and promising further analysis post-release.

With the help of benchmarking apps for iOS and Android, we've been able to conduct a few tests of our own with interesting results. While the Tegra 3 seems to trump the A5X in CPU performance, the new iPad makes clear gains in terms of graphics. Here's a more detailed look at what we've found.

Processing Speeds

For our testing, we used a third-generation iPad and an iPad 2, as well as a Tegra 3-powered ASUS Transformer Prime TF201 and a Tegra 2-powered Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.

When it comes raw CPU power, the Tegra 3's quad-core configuration blazes past the dual-core A5X, garnering GeekBench scores of 1540 and 750, respectively. Interestingly, the A5X's average score fell a few points short of the iPad 2's standard A5 chip, 753. Both the A5X and the A5 also fell shy of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1's Tegra 2, which received an overall score 905. The gains made by the Tegra 3 are easily chalked up to its two extra cores, but it is also boasts the highest clocking speed of the group at 1.6GHz, compared to the 1GHz clock of the A5X, A5 and Tegra 2.

The overall impact of the Tegra 3's gains over the A5X in terms of user experience, however, isn't as cut-and-dry. Software plays as critical of a role in performance as processing power, and without running the same OS, it's impossible to see how the two truly match up in terms of app load speeds, multitasking and other CPU-heavy tasks. What's more, Apple seemed to recognize that the A5X couldn't go toe-to-toe with the Tegra 3's CPU performance, and instead singled out the gains it makes in terms of graphics.

Did its claim of four times the performance hold up? Not quite.

Graphics Performance

For graphics testing, we used GLBenchmark 2, a cross-platform app for both Android and iOS. The app offers an array of detailed tests, both on-screen and off-screen, including two notable 3D tests: GLBenchmark 2.1 Egypt and GLBenchmark 2.1 Pro. While the on-screen tests allow user to watch the tests in realtime, the app currently lacks the ability to manually set the output resolution, thus limiting our ability to standardize the test across all four devices. Instead, the app ran at the native resolution of whatever device it was running on. Interestingly, the iPad 2 outperformed both the iPad 3 and Transformer Prime, while the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 fell far below the others.

For the Egypt test, the iPad 2 (1024x768) produced 6,709 frames at a framerate of 59 frames-per-second, while the new iPad (2048x1536) ran 5,974 frames at 53 FPS and the Transformer Prime (1280x800) generated 5,955 at a rate of 52 FPS. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 (1280x800), on the other hand, produced only 2,465 frames at a surprisingly low 21 FPS.

The Pro test, a more basic 3D gaming test, delivered slightly different results. The iPad 2 still lead the pack, though at a smaller margin, generating 2,986 frames at 60 FPS, while the new iPad producing 2,912 frames at a rate of 58 FPS. The Transformer Prime delivered 2,794 frames at 55 FPS, while the Galaxy Tab 10.1 offered 1,537 frames at 30 FPS.

For a more accurate sense of true processing power, we had to utilize the off-screen tests, which run at a fixed resolution of 720p. On a level playing field, the A5X's processing prowess came to light.

As you can see, when freed from the binds of the new iPad's staggeringly high-resolution display, the A5X was able to generate 15,412 frames at a rate of 138 FPS, while the iPad 2 rendered 10,143 frames at 90 FPS. Comparatively, the Transformer Prime pushed about 7,837 frames at 69 FPS and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 delivered 2,821 frames at 82 FPS.

The results were similar in the off-screen Pro test with the new iPad delivering 12003 frames at 240FPS, the iPad 2 7339 frames at 147 FPS, the Transformer Prime 2794 frames at 56 FPS, and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 2169 frames at 43 FPS.

As you can see, our independent testing indicates that the NVIDIA's Tegra 3 offers increased CPU performance, while falling short of the A5X in terms of graphics, though not quite matching the Apple's 4x claim. Of course, the only way to get true apples-to-apples results would be to test the chips on identical hardware on the same OS, but even our more imprecise methods showed impressive gains.

Netflix Splits Up DVD and Streaming Content Again

It looks like the company hasn't totally ditched its Qwikster plans after all.

At one point, Netflix wanted to completely separate its DVD and streaming video content with the introduction of Qwikster, a decision that was quickly reversed. Now, the company is splitting up the services again, but only when browsing for titles.

Unlike with Qwikster, the Netflix name will remain, but users who only subscribe to DVD or streaming will just see the catalog for each specific service, with DVD-only folks being redirected to dvd.netflix.com, reports Venture Beat. People who subscribe to both services will see the entire catalog.

Previously, browsing and search results would specify whether or not the title was available on DVD and/or streaming. Although this change makes sense for locating the content you can view, it also inherently removes the possibility of someone switching to a full-packaged subscription if they see that the titles they want to watch are on the other service. Streaming-only subscribers can still view the DVD library by clicking another tab, but the results don't show up in searches.

Another drawback to this move is that ratings have also been separated, so instead of pulling from anyone who's seen the movie or show, it only reflects reviews based on the format.

Netflix has been in a bit of a rough patch lately, with a drop in subscribers and stock value late last year following a price increase and the Qwikster events, in addition to Starz ditching the service last month.

Have PlayStation 4 Details Emerged?

Rumors of backwards compatibility and used-games hit the net.

Today, Kotaku posted a story containing alleged details on Sony's next home console, the PlayStation 4. Kotaku claims that the details of the story "come from a reliable source who is not authorized to talk publically about next-gen hardware but has shared correct information with [the publication] before." According to this source, the next PlayStation is codenamed Orbis and will launch in the 2013 holiday season. 

Go to this link for video http://ps3.ign.com/articles/122/1221819p1.html


Kotaku notes that the predicted specs of the Orbis currently include an AMD x64 CPU and AMD Southern Islands GPU. The source told Kotaku that "select developers" have already received dev kits at the beginning of the year and revised kits arrived around the time of the Game Developers Conference earlier this month. 

Furthermore, according to Kotaku's source, Orbis will not feature backwards compatibility with PlayStation 3 games and will incorporate some sort of used-games restriction. Apparently, once a consumer inserts a Blu-ray disc into Orbis it must be tied to a PSN account and can no longer be shared. The data can be installed onto the system and flagged as "downloaded" from the PSN so it can be re-downloaded for future use. Sources are "unclear" as to how the disc functions following this, though one possibility is that the disc can allow consumers to access trial content before purchasing the full game on their console. 

Transformer Prime Lawsuit Reveals Poor Tablet Sales

Court filings expose less than stellar sales numbers for Asus' latest tablet.

Asus' tablets may be able to keep their names, but not all is well for the Transformer Prime.

According to information within the court filings, TechCrunch reports that a mere 2,000 Transformer Prime tablets were pre-ordered as of last month, with 80,000 units scheduled for global shipment.

Even if you dismiss the 3 million third generation iPads sold in a single weekend, these numbers are still small in comparison to Amazon's Kindle Fire and Barnes and Noble's Nook Tablet, which begs the question: does a market for $500 Android tablets even exist?

Microsoft Shows Off Futuristic Transparent 3D Desktop

Applied Sciences Group teases us with the future of personal computing.

Using advanced 3D tracking technology and a Samsung transparent OLED display, Microsoft's Applied Sciences Group has created a science fiction-level desktop UI that shows a sample of what the future of computing could look like.

Spotted on BGR, intern Jinha Lee and researcher Cati Boulanger created a user interface that allows simultaneous use of physical input methods and hand gestures to navigate around a three dimensional space. The keyboard is oddly located behind the monitor, although this placement makes sense for quick switching between control options.

This tech likely won't reach consumers for quite some time, if ever, but as a demonstration it is a great example of where things can go if the proper resources are placed in the right hands.

UPDATE: Samsung: 5 Million Galaxy Notes Sold

Despite skepticism regarding its 5.3-inch display, the Galaxy Note is performing well.

It appears that people aren't totally turned off by the Galaxy Note's "phablet" form factor.Ubergizmo reports that Samsung has announced that the company has shipped 5 million units since the device was released in October 2011. 

It's important to note that shipped units does not equal sold units, but it is a decent indicator of how well the device is doing, even with its huge 5.3-inch display. At the beginning of the month, Samsung stated that they actually sold 2 million Notes globally but, despite how much we enjoyed the phone/tablet, we doubt that an extra 3 million actually reached consumers' hands in just a few weeks.

If anything is to be taken away from this announcement, it's that it looks like plus-sized phones will be sticking around for awhile, with the 5-inch LG Optimus Vu next up to bat.

UPDATE: Apparently, some of the information in Korean press release from Samsung was lost in translation. TechCrunch has verified with the company that 5 million Galaxy Notes were actually sold to consumers, as opposed to just shipped to retailers. It's nowhere near as much as heavy hitting phones like Apple's iPhone 4S or Samsung's own Galaxy S II reached, but it is impressive nonetheless.

FBI and Army to Use Unreal Engine 3 for Training

Epic Games and Virtual Heroes team up through the Unreal Government Network.

Most of us have seen Epic Game's Unreal Engine 3 in action and now the US Government will utilize the technology through the Unreal Government Network.

As reported by Gamespot, Epic Games signed a long-term reseller agreement with interactive learning simulation company Virtual Heroes, allowing departments of the United States government to create learning and training programs.

Some established applications include a multiplayer crime scene sim for the FBI Academy and an anesthesiology training program for Army Physicians. Epic's engine is also being used by a "top-five defense contractor" and a "national laboratory" by way of the UGN.

Sprint Open to Selling Future 4G LTE iPhones

CFO declined to say that a high-speed iPhone was in the works.

It is widely expected that the next iteration of the iPhone will be packing an LTE radio and Sprint is ready to get them on shelves should Apple decide to go that route.

As reported by Dow Jones, Sprint CFO Joe Euteneuer said that the company is free to offer an Apple iPhone that utilizes the high-speed wireless internet technology, although made no comments regarding whether or not the device is actually in the works.

Sprint's LTE coverage is not as prevalent as AT&T and Verizon's, but Euteneuer defended the company's 2012 LTE roll out schedule, explaining that, "If you make the assumption that they launch a device at a similar time that they did last year, you're basically done with the major markets."

Originally available exclusively through Cingular (now AT&T), the iPhone was later sold by Verizon as well, with Sprint joining the party with the release of the iPhone 4S. Sprint recently made a $15.5 billion deal with Apple to be an iPhone provider for the coming years.

Hasbro Loses Lawsuit Against Asus Transformer Prime

Asus' Android tablet can continue to roll out.

At the end of last year, Hasbro filed a rather reasonable trademark lawsuit against Asus in regards to the electronics manufacturer's Eee Pad Transformer and Transformer Prime tablets.

Via The Verge, PaidContent reports that the court came to the conclusion that the term "transformer," in regards to the tablet, was an accurate description of the device since a keyboard can be attached to turn it into a laptop. The judge stated, "There is nothing gimmicky about the Eee Pad Transformer or the Eee Pad Transformer Prime, nor can it be said that there is any similarity in the use or function between Hasbro and Asus’s products."

The judge continued by saying Hasbro had taken too long to act on the matter. Although the Eee Pad Transformer Prime was announced in November and released in December, the original Eee Pad Transformer came to the market in March of 2011.

2012 Google I/O Sells Out in 28 Minutes

Last year's passes sold out in an hour.

If you were planning to go to this year's Google I/O, we hope you set your alarm clock early and had your credit card ready because tickets for the event sold out in under 30 minutes.

Despite the price hike from last year -- 2011 tickets were gone 59 minutes -- $300 acedemic passes were nowhere to be found just 28 minutes after sales began, with $900 general admission tickets disappearing shortly after, Slashgear reports.

In 2011, the developer conference was home to the announcement of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and Google Music and 5,000 free Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablets for attendees with lady luck on their side.

The 2012 Google I/O will be held from June 27-29 in San Francisco and we'll be on location to deliver you all of the Android goodness as it gets dished out.

Hi-Res OS X Icons Suggest Future Retina Display Macs

Are Apple's computers next in line for Retina Displays?

With the introduction of the iPhone 4 and the latest iPad, it's apparent that Apple is at the forefront of consumer-grade hi-resolution screens, and it looks like Macs may be next in line to get the Retina Display treatment.

According to Ars Technica, out of place graphics have occasionally popped up during sessions with latest beta of Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, exposing large icons with double the resolution of standard image files.

Other hi-res UI images that popped up with Mac OS X 10.7.3 and the inclusion of native HiDPI display modes futher suggest that Apple has plans to raise the resolution bar once again, this time with its traditional computers.

Mountain Lion is expected to be released in its final form this summer alongside Intel's new Ivy Bridge processors and a purported redesigned line of MacBook Pros.

Additional Apple iPad Tests Debunk 'Heatgate' Claims

Compared to competitors, new iPad temperatures are noticeable but minor.

Recently, Consumer Reports put the new Apple iPad's heat issues to the test, revealing temperatures up to 116 degrees Fahrenheit under certain conditions. After a number of heated debates about the supposed "Heatgate", PC World went to work on monitoring a set of tablets, including Apple's latest and its predecessor, with results that more or less debunks previous claims.

Using a Raytek Raynger ST-Handheld Infrared Thermometer, readings were taken under different, but consistent, conditions for the new Apple iPad, the iPad 2, the Samsung Galaxy 10.1 LTE and Asus' Transformer Prime. While the latest iOS tablet regularly reported higher numbers than its competitors, the differences were minor and were nowhere close to Consumer Reports' claims.

PC World also pointed out that even with a larger 11666mAh battery, the new iPad fared reasonably well when compared to Samsung and Asus' tablets that are equipped with 7000mAh and 6930mAh batteries, respectively.

We experienced notable heat increases with our own third generation iPads, but never to a point of complete discomfort, especially when compared to notebooks, which are more likely to be found resting on someone's lap.

Samsung Galaxy S III rumoured to launch on March 30

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Recently a number of reports and rumours regarding Samsung's next flagship smartphone, Samsung Galaxy S III, have hit the Internet. The device was previously rumoured to be launched at the MWC 2012 event in February. However, Samsung came out with another Galaxy device, Galaxy S II plus, at the event. The Galaxy S III has been long rumoured to launch in first half of this year. According to the latest round of rumours, the Samsung Galaxy S III will be launched in London on the 30th of March.

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The fresh Samsung Galaxy S III rumours have been triggered by images of a store in London called Phones 4u with a banner with the message ‘Coming 30.3.12’ . Tech site Gizmodo, which published the photos, pointed out that previous rumours had hinted Samsung will announce its new flagship device in April or May but not in March. Also, Phones 4u had the Galaxy Nexus exclusively in the U.K. when it was first released, so “it’s possible Samsung’s done another deal with the high street retailer here too”.

Android Central in its report however says the teaser is of some mid-range of Samsung device not the Galaxy S III. “Let's not forget that this is a phone store in London. Samsung's last major London event was at the slightly more impressive Battersea Power Station, where the Galaxy Note and Galaxy Nexus were both on show. Taking all this into account, we're going to take a punt on this and say that it's likely to be something mid or low range,” the website states.

The Galaxy S III is supposedly going to have 7-mm width and will take on Motorola's RAZR XT910, which is touted as the world's slimmest phone. The device is said to have a 12MP camera with an LED flash. The display of the Galaxy SIII will be e a 4.8-inch Super AMOLED Plus with an HD resolution. It will most likely feature Samsung’s own quad-core Exynos SoC, up to 32GB on onboard storage and whole gig of RAM. You can read our previous coverage on Samsung Galaxy S III here.

HTC Titan II Windows Phone Landing on AT&T April 8

Equipped with a monstrous 16MP rear-facing camera

Joining the Nokia Lumia 900, the HTC Titan II will be adding to AT&T's lineup of Windows Phone devices on April 8.

Sporting an impressive 16MP rear-facing camera with an f/2.6AF lens, the Titan II will also be equipped with a 1.5GHz processor, 4G LTE connectivity, and a 4.7-inch super LCD display.

The HTC Titan II can be picked up for $199.99.

AT&T Nokia Lumia 900 Available Starting April 8

Nokia's latest Windows Phone is landing soon with an extremely affordable price tag.

The third Nokia Windows Phone is finally landing stateside for the affordable price of $99.99.

Our favorite smartphone from CES 2012 sports an attractive 4.3-inch 480x800 AMOLED ClearBlack display, a 1.4GHz processor, 512MB of RAM, an 8MP Carl Zeiss  rear-facing camera, and Windows Phone 7.5 Mango. With its polycarbonate aluminum body, the device is one of the better looking phones out there.

The 4G LTE AT&T Nokia Lumia 900 will be available starting April 8 in cyan or black.

Facebook postpones plans to alter privacy policy

Facebook has postponed its plans to update its privacy policy. The social networking giant had stirred up a new controversy as it planned to make various changes to its privacy policies, changes that included removing the word “privacy”.

Facebook said the changes would be applicable for users across the world. Among all major changes the name of its user privacy policy will be changed from “Privacy Policy” to “Data Use Policy”. The social networking company had also posted a PDF document that features all the changes that it intends to make in near future. In the document, Facebook also talks about complying with the local laws and deal with non-Facebook users.

"We strive to create a global community with consistent standards for everyone, but we also strive to respect local laws. The following provisions apply to users and non-users who interact with Facebook outside the United States..." it says, with the phrase "and non-users who interact with Facebook" being the new part.

Earlier, Facebook spokesperson Barry Schnitt in an interview with CNET said that change in name was incorporated in the company's privacy guidelines more than a year ago. “We're just making the Terms consistent,” he remarked. The spokesperson points out that the document featured many other wording changes, but they do not “outline any meaningful modifications to the company's practices”.

 Creative launches a range of new gaming audio products in India

 

Creative today launched a range of audio products for gaming enthusiasts in India. The product line range includes sound cards and headphones, along with an external sound card, which can be connected to a PC/Mac or even a gaming console.

Sound Blaster Recon3D:
The Sound Blaster Recon3D is powered by the Sound Core3D quad-core sound and voice processor. This USB audio enhancer delivers gaming audio to your Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC or Mac. The hardware accelerated THX TruStudio Pro and Dolby Digital decoding, the Sound Blaster Recon3D enhances even basic stereo sound into 3D surround audio on headset or speakers. The device has a proprietary Scout Mode that enhances the audio in gaming to a level that lets you hear you enemy’s footsteps even before they appear on screen adding to a realistic 360-degree audio effect.

The Sound Blaster Recon3D also supports optical audio in, but only supports 3.5mm out. Another disadvantage is that only one source can be connected to the device at a given point in time.

The Sound Blaster Recon3D is premium priced at Rs. 9,999.

Creative has also launched 3 gaming headsets in India today. Their details are as follows

1. Sound Blaster Tactic3D Wrath Wireless Gaming Headset:

Priced at Rs. 11,999 the Sound Blaster Tactic3D Wrath Wireless Gaming Headset boasts of delivering THX TruStudio Pro audio wirelessly. The device has illuminated ear cups housing 50mm FullSpectrum Speakers, a removable microphone, integrated volume and mute controls, and uncompressed wireless technology delivering THX TruStudio Pro-enhanced audio on your PC or Mac.

2. Creative Draco HS-850 gaming headset:

The Creative Draco HS-850 gaming headset boasts of audio quality that is close to reality. The device has full-size circum-aural earcups in soft leatherette. The swivel earcups fold easily for storage. The microphone on this headphone is detachable as well. The Creative Draco HS-850 gaming headset is priced at Rs. 3,999.

3. Creative Draco HS-430 gaming headset:

The Creative Draco HS-430 gaming headset is the cheapest headset launched by creative today and is priced at Rs. 1,999. The headset is lightweightmaking it extremely portable. The Creative Draco HS-430 gaming headset also boasts of a noise-canceling microphone that is detachable.

On the soundcard front, Creative has launched three of them in India today. The Sound Blaster Recon3D PCIe, the Sound Blaster Recon3D Fatality Professional and the Sound Blaster Recon3D Fatality Champion. The three soundcards are priced at Rs, 7,999, Rs. 11,999 and Rs. 14,999 respectively.

All the sound cards feature the SoundCore3D quad-core sound and voice processor, hardware accelerated THX TruStudio Pro technology, and CrystalVoice technology that enhances vocal quality of the mix and an easy switching between 5.1 channel speaker systems and headsets. Apart from the above-mentioned features, the higher end Fatality Professional features a special ERM shield for better stability and audio quality. The Fatality Champion features all of the above feature plus an I/O drive for audio controls and high quality beam-forming microphone.

Nvidia launches the GeForce GTX 680, with its new Kepler GPU

 

Nvidia has announced its flagship singe-GPU graphics card in the new GTX 600 series. Bearing the Kepler GPU, the GeForce GTX 680 GPU is based on TSMC's 28nm manufacturing process. It houses 3.54 billion transistors, supports DirectX11.1 and PCI Express 3.0 which gives double the bandwidth of PCI Express 2.0.

The GTX 680 (check out our review) has been priced at $499, or roughly Rs. 26,000. We wonder what price Nvidia and its partners will bring it at when they launch it in India. AMD's single GPU offering, the Radeon HD 7970, is available for roughly Rs. 38,000.

Nvidia has introduced some new technologies with the Kepler GPUs. Let us look at some of them:

Nvidia GPU Boost is a technique which dynamically boosts clock speeds based on the workload of the game and the headroom available. It not only changes the clock frequency but also the GPU voltage. In principle it looks somewhat similar to Intel's Turbo Boost technology. 

Adaptive VSync is another innovation that Nvidia has introduced with the GTX 680. Normally when your VSync is on, as soon as the frame rate drops below 60 FPS, you experience a stutter. With Adaptive Vsync, the Nvidia card automatically switches off the VSync when the frame rate falls below 60 FPS, thus reducing unwanted stuttering.  

Fast Approximate Anti-Aliasing or FXAA has been added as an option in the Nvidia Control panel, so you can switch it on and get a 4x AA image quality without a performance hit. 

Another AA feature introduced is called TXAA. There are two levels - TXAA 1 and TXAA 2 and according to Nvidia, with TXAA 1 enabled you can get an image quality similar to 8x MSAA but with a performance hit equivalent to 2x MSAA. On the other hand TXAA 2 will give you the image quality better than 8x MSAA with a performance hit equivalent to 4x MSAA. 

3D Vision Surround Sound can be supported on a single GTX 680. It has four display out ports - 2xHDMI, 1xDVI and 1xDisplayPort, so you can connect a 3-monitor system for gaming and have one monitor for your work. 

Apart from these new technologies, the card has managed to keep its TDP lesser than the GTX 580. The card comes with two six-pin power connectors with a maximum TDP of 195 Watts which is much lesser than the 250W seen on GTX 580. The memory bud width has come down from 384-bit (in GTX 580) to 256-bit. 

Here is a video where Ujesh Desai, VP Corporate Marketing Nvidia, introduces the latest features in the GTX 680

We have also put up the GTX 680 review, where you can see how it performs against the AMD flagship card - the Radeon HD 7970. 

Microsoft hints that Windows 8 will run Windows Phone 7 apps

In an interesting but not unexpected twist, it looks like Microsoft might allow Windows 8 to run all 70,000 Windows Phone 7 apps, and possibly all Windows Phone 8 apps as well.

The rumor stems from I’m A WP7, an app that helpfully reports the version numbers of operating systems that run the app. As you can see in the image below, the first two entries are for Windows Phone 7, but at the bottom it reports that “Windows 8.0 Desktop” version 6.2.8283.0 also uses the app. The current public build of Windows 8, the Consumer Preview, is 6.2.8250.0 — a lower version number — so it would seem that Microsoft is trying out Windows Phone 7 apps on internal builds of Windows 8.

At first I thought this might just be Windows Phone 7 apps running inside a Windows 8 development environment — a Visual Studio emulator or something — but the mention of “Jupiter” almost certainly blows that idea out the window. Though it hasn’t been confirmed by Microsoft, Jupiter is thought to be the codename of one of the core libraries that powers the new Metro-style Windows 8 apps. Metro apps can either be designed in HTML/CSS, or in XAML — and XAML is the same language used to create the user interface for Windows Phone 7 apps. This on its own isn’t a big surprise — XAML is a big part of many .NET technologies — but get this: The codename for Windows Phone 8 is Apollo, who in Greek mythology is the son of Zeus — and the Roman counterpart of Zeus is Jupiter!

In short, Windows Phone 8 is the son of Windows 8, which tallies with previous rumors that WP8 would even use the Windows 8 kernel. Taking a quick gallop through ancient history might seem a bit obtuse, but back in reality this is a no-brainer for Microsoft. Windows Phone 7 apps are just Silverlight apps, and Windows Phone 8 apps will almost certainly be XAML-based Metro apps. Microsoft has already said that WP7 and WP8 apps would work on Windows 8 with only a few changes to the code — but really, there’s no technical limitation that would prevent Microsoft from providing a framework that can run WP7 and WP8 apps as-is in Windows 8.

There are practical concerns, however. For a start, Windows Phone 7 apps are designed for low-res (800×480) portrait displays, while Windows 8 will generally be used in landscape orientation and at much higher resolutions. Thanks to the Metro style’s reliance on geometric shapes and typography, scaling itself probably won’t be an issue, but I foresee a lot of apps that hug the left and make very little use of the rest of the screen. The Windows Phone and Windows 8 app stores are obviously quite different as well — the approval processes are completely different, for a start — but this isn’t an insurmountable issue.

While it’s easy to attribute this to Microsoft taking a leaf out of Apple and Google’s playbook, it’s obviously better for consumers and developers alike if Windows 8 comes with as many apps as possible. Microsoft’s strength has always been the sheer size of its app and developer ecosystem, and the success of Windows 8 — especially on tablets — will come down to how well Redmond leverages its incumbent might. It is one thing to make Windows 8 apps easy to develop — you can write Metro apps in HTML and JavaScript! — but if Microsoft lets developers write a single app for Windows Phone and have it work across the entire ecosystem… well, it could catch Android and iOS rather quickly.

Copyright © 2010 Ziff Davis Publishing Holdings Inc.

Wishtel launches two 'Ira' Android budget tablets, starting Rs. 4,000 (80$)

 

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Wishtel India has launched 2 tablets in the Indian market, the Ira Thing and the Ira. The two tablets are priced at Rs. 4000 and Rs. 5,500 respectively, plus tax.

The specifications of both the budget tablets are the same apart from the fact that the Ira Thing has a resistive touchscreen and the Ira has a capacitive touchscreen. The battery of both the devices too is different.

The Ira Thing has a 2,200 mAh battery where as the Ira has a 2,800 mAh battery. Other specifications of the device can be found in the table at the end of the article.

The device comes preloaded with a bunch of apps such as a Web Browser, Media Player, Photo viewer, Office, MSN, Skype, Gtalk, Note pad, Clock, Weather and more.

The devices on display at the press event ran Android 2.2 Froyo but the manufacturers have confirmed that the device will launch with Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

Apart from Android, customers will have the option to use the tablet on the Linux Sugar OS.

Speaking at the event, Milind Shah, CEO, Wishtel, said:

“This launch is the first step in our long term vision of bringing people closer to technology by creating gadgets that truly touch their lives. By enabling support for Indian languages, we are providing the opportunity for hundreds of millions of Indians to join the tablet revolution that is sweeping the globe today. We also hope to reach out to those brilliant minds in India that are inhibited for the lack of proper resources.”

Richard Brown, VP International Marketing, VIA Technologies, Inc., added:

“With the introduction of the IRA and IRA Thing, Wishtel is leading the way in driving tablet innovation in India. The potential for these devices is breathtaking, particularly in areas such as education.”

Click to enlarge

From the specifications of the device and its build it is clear that Wishtel is aiming to take on theAakash and the Aakash 2 tablet that is being manufactured by Datawind for the India government.

Specifications of Wishtel Ira Thing i-Pad and Ira i-Pad

7-inch touchscreen with a resolution of 800x480 800MHz CPU 512 MB RAM OS: Android 2.2/2.3 4GB inbuilt storage expandable up to 32GB via MicroSD card Wi-Fi The device has a USB 2.0 port to which users can connect a 3G dongle Card reader Headphones jack 1.3MP front facing camera and no rear shooter Dimensions: 20.3 x 13.7 x 1.45cm Weight: 0.37 kg

Microsoft patents virtual reality goggles, gaming helmet

 

Microsoft appears to be taking augmented reality pretty seriously. The software giant has a pair of new patents that were discovered by Patent Bolt this week, detailing projector eyewear technology for use with a game console like the Xbox 360 and with future mobile devices.

The first patent describes a full-on helmet with attached, visor-like eyepieces and appears to be intended for Xbox gamers, according to the blog. The second reveals eyewear that resembles a pair of sunglasses—that's the tech Microsoft would attempt to integrate into future smartphones, media players, and other mobile devices, so it makes sense that it comes in a form that people might actually want to wear out in public.

The trouble with compact display systems built into goggles or eyeglasses like the ones Microsoft appears to be building, Patent Bolt notes, is that "the human eye can't focus on images less than a few centimeters away." This means the interface has to present a "virtual image" that appears to the eye as if it's actually further away than on the screen-slash-eyepiece where it really lives.

Microsoft's solution is to use a virtual-image projector that "comprises a laser configured to form a narrow beam, first and second dilation optics [each with a diffraction grating], first and second redirection optics, and a controller," according to Patent Bolt.

"The first dilation optic is arranged to receive the narrow beam and to project a one-dimensionally dilated beam into the second dilation optic," the blog explains. "The second dilation optic is arranged to receive the one-dimensionally dilated beam and to project a two-dimensionally dilated beam, which provides the virtual image.

"The first and second redirection optics are each operatively coupled to a transducer. The first redirection optic is arranged to direct the narrow beam into the first dilation optic at a first entry angle. The second redirection optic is configured to direct the one-dimensionally dilated beam into the second dilation optic at a second entry angle. The controller is configured to bias the transducers to vary the first and second entry angles."

The upshot is that the wearer of the helmet or glasses would see a projected 16:9 aspect ratio image "as if it were 21 inches in diagonal and viewed at arm's length."

What precisely Microsoft is planning to do with its projector eyewear technology is still unknown. The company could use stereoscopic capabilities—projecting slightly offset versions of images to each eye—to create a 3D effect, particularly for the gaming helmet.

The patent also notes that eyewear may be partially transparent. That points to augmented reality uses, Patent Bolt notes, since the wearer would be able to see both external objects and the virtual display images, possibly with text and images layered over real-world objects to give users information about said objects.

Microsoft isn't the only tech company out there working on such technology. Google is reportedly developing Terminator-like, Android-based heads-up display (HUD) glasses that function as a smartphone with a front-facing camera and a transparent LCD or AMOLED display for one eye.

The "Google Goggles" are said to be operated via voice input though 9to5Google reported in February that a user will also be able to tilt their head to perform certain screen navigations like scrolling and clicking.

Tech Fetish: The Podcast Returns!

The group is back to discuss the new iPad, Galaxy S III rumors, iPhone 5 rumors and more!

After a two week hiatus, IGN's consumer electronics and technology podcast, Tech Fetish, returns with host and executive editor of IGN Tech, Scott Lowe, and regular guests Mark Ryan Sallee and Justin Davis.

The group catches up on all of the biggest news, including:

• The New Apple TV 
• The New iPad
• The iPad 2 Price Cut
• OnLive iPad App Release Update
•  CBS CEO Discusses Apple's Television Service...Again
• Google Play Introduced
•  Steam Box Rumors Came and Went
• Google IO 2012 Dates Announced
• The Neo Geo Handheld is Real
• Apple's $100 Billion Plan
• 3 Million iPads Sold in First Weekend
• New iPad Runs Hot. Apple Responds
• Galaxy S III Images Leaked
• NVIDIA Introduces World's Fastest GPU
• Next iPhone to Have 4.6 Display, Maybe. Probably Not

Finally, we discuss the latest in mobile gaming, including Draw Something and Angry Birds Space.

Join Us at NVIDIA's GeForce GTX Meet-Up in San Francisco

Free food and drinks, giveaways and hands-on time with NVIDIA's latest GPU.

o celebrate the launch of the GeForce GTX 680, NVIDIA is hosting an event on Wednesday, March 28 in San Francisco, and IGN has 15 spots on the guest list to give away.

The event will take place from 7:00pm to 10:00pm in downtown San Francisco and will include free food and drinks, as well as hands-on time with games running on the company's flagship GPU, including Diablo III, Mass Effect 3, DOTA 2 and Skyrim in NVIDIA Surround. There will also be giveaways, photo kiosks and other assorted revelry.

For a chance to be among the lucky 15, click the link below for your chance to attend. Please provide your full name, age and email address. The event is only open to those 21 and over. The first 15 people who meet the eligibility requirements and confirm their RSVP will be selected.

Facebook Adds High-Res Image Viewer, Fullscreen Mode

Photo viewer updated for four times the viewing size

Avid Facebook users, rejoice! The embarrassing photos that your friend tagged you in are now viewable in high-resolution and fullscreen modes.

An update to the popular social networking site now allows users to upload and view photos in the highest available resolution, up to four times larger than previously possible. What's more, you can view photos in a new fullscreen mode by clicking an expand button in the upper righthand corner of any photo.

The feature is live and accessible now for all users.

Report: Next iPhone to Sport a 4.6-inch Display

Sources suggest that the new iPhone's display will be an inch larger than its predecessors'.

Since its introduction, the iPhone has retained a 3.5-inch display but, according to the Maeli Business Newspaper, Apple will be implementing a larger screen for its next smartphone.

Reuters reports that the newspaper received information that the new iPhone will increase the display all the way to 4.6-inches. LG and Samsung Electronics, the usual suppliers of iPhone displays, had no comment on the matter.

While it is not impossible to think that the new iPhone will have a larger screen, especially since Android manufacturers have been extending the norm for quite some time, jumping up an extra inch is highly unlikely due to the iPhone's aspect ratio.

LG Optimus Vu (L) and Apple iPhone (R). Credit: Mashable

Unlike the typical 5:3 or 16:9 rectangular aspect ratios found on phones -- Android devices in particular -- the iPhone's 3:2 ratio results in a more square-like display. If increasing screen size, the iPhone would become rather wide as well as tall. The result would be something along the lines of the awkward-looking LG Optimus Vu. Of course, Apple may switch up the formula with the next iPhone and drastically change its design, although that is unlikely.

Blik Introduces New York eCity Wall Graphics

Give your home a cool pixelated vibe.

Last month, the wizards at Blik treated our Los Angeles office to a custom wall graphic that featured retro gaming iconography, now you can give your house a similar pixelated vibe with the introduction of the company's new eBoy New York eCity graphic.

Available now, the graphic was designed by famed artists Kai Vermehr, Steffen Sauertig and Sven Smital and depicts famous New York landmarks and architecture. The vinyl comes with 58 individual pieces, which can be applied to a user's preference. The decals are easily removable and can be repositioned after initial application.

The eBoy New York eCity wall graphic is available now for $50 on WhatIsBlik.com.

Android 4.0 Rolling Out to AT&T HTC Vivid

Carrier to update 10 other devices in the coming months.

The Ice Cream Sandwich roll out has officially begun, starting with AT&T's HTC Vivid.

The Android 4.0 update has been available for those who wanted to manually get it, but the carrier is now pushing it out to Vivid owners. Along with the features included in the latest operating system, Sense 3.6 and third-party Beats Audio support are also along for the ride.

Additionally, AT&T plans to deliver ICS to the following 10 devices in the coming months:

• LG Nitro
• Motorola ATRIX 2
• Motorola ATRIX 4G
• Pantech Burst
• Pantech Element
• Samsung Captivate Glide
• Samsung Galaxy Note
• Samsung Galaxy S II
• Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9

Apple TV Review (2012)

A solid update that still falls short of the competition.

Of all the devices in Apple's product lineup, the Apple TV has always been an odd outlier. Unlike an iPhone or an iMac, the Apple TV doesn't have a clearly defined purpose of its own. Instead, its primary function is to serve as an extension of Apple's other core products and services in the living room, delivering streamlined access to iTunes content, media stored on other Apple devices and a modest collection of third-party streaming products, like Netflix, Vimeo, YouTube and others.

It's rumored that Apple will more clearly define its home theater product strategy later this year with the introduction of its first HDTV and integrated television service, but for now it has tweaked the Apple TV to incorporate an A5 processor with support for 1080p video, iCloud integration and a revised user interface. The result is a slightly refined user experience with some small, but appreciated, feature expansions at the same price of $99.

The new Apple TV's design is literally identical to the model released in 2010. It bears the same matte and glossy black palm-sized casing and the same array of ports on the back: power, optical digital audio, micro USB, HDMI and an ethernet port. The remote also remains unchanged, featuring a slim aluminum design with four-way directional pad, play/pause button and menu button. Inside, Apple has replaced the A4 chip from the last-gen model with a special single-core A5 processor. The new version also maintains the integrated 802.11 Wi-Fi receiver and 8GBs of flash storage for caching purposes.

The new A5 chip enables the system to support 1080p video, improved from the 720p-only capabilities of the last model. The feature should be a welcomed addition for videophiles, as now all iTunes content presented in HD supports 1080p output, as well as HD Netflix videos. For those with a discerning eye, the difference is definitely noticeable. Video is crisp and clean with only minimal compression artifacting, though image quality may vary by connection speed. Overall, however, I've found that connection and buffer times were incredibly fast, loading in a matter of moments.

What's most exciting about the new Apple TV are the changes that have been made to the system's OS, most notably iCloud integration. Now, if you've ever purchased a movie using your iTunes account or redeemed a digital copy of a Blu-ray, you can access and stream it to your TV. In effect, you can now make a single movie or TV purchase and access it in your home theater, on your home Mac, MacBook when traveling or your iOS device on the go. The result is a far more compelling case for moving film purchases to digital through one unified service.

Apple has also made some notable tweaks to the user interface, dropping the text-heavy design of yesteryear in favor of a new app-style icons, representing each of the device's core functions and third-party services. In all, there are 18 icons arranged in a grid of rows of 5. The list cannot be rearranged or reorganized in any way, but since the number of icons is currently few, it's not much of a hassle. Even with the shift toward more icons, the Apple TV still maintains heavy use of cover flow box art.

Overall, the improvements to the UI are a step in the right direction, but the experience still lacks the effortless look and feel that other Apple products have come to embody. Browsing media still feels somewhat clunky and the division between Apple's first-party offering and third-party services like Netflix is still apparent.

To help bridge the gap, Apple has made it possible to subscribe to Netflix with a single click, foregoing the lengthy sign up and verification process of the previous version. Now, all you have to do is load the Netflix menu and sign up using your iTunes account, billing the monthly charges to the associated credit card.

The one feature that is often glossed over on the Apple TV is its AirPlay support, which allows users to wirelessly display video content from an iPad, iPhone or iPod touch to their TV. If a friend comes over and has a movie loaded onto his or her iPad, they can simply connect to your home Wi-Fi network and watch it on your big screen. Owners of the latest iPad can also use AirPlay to wirelessly mirror their iPad interface to an HDTV, making it a great screen extension for productivity apps and presentations.

As I noted after the Apple TV was redesigned in 2010, there are also overlooked applications for AirPlay in regards to gaming. With games like Real Racing HD 2 supporting wireless on-screen multiplayer via AirPlay, the Apple TV more or less acts as an iOS game console, producing gorgeous visuals on a bigger display.

But the biggest flaw of the previous version of the Apple TV is the same in the current iteration: a comparative lack of content. While iTunes' library of video content is extensive and Netflix offers a lot of additional viewing, the Apple TV lacks other services like Hulu Plus, HBOGO and Amazon Instant Video, all of which can be found on the similarly priced Roku 2. While it may not be entirely within Apple's control to bring those services onboard, the product suffers from their absence regardless. Until Apple makes a deal or introduces its own alternative, the Apple TV will always fall short of being a truly all-inclusive home entertainment center solution.

At the end of the day, the new Apple TV is a solid iterative update, but the product still lacks a clear edge over the competition. For those looking for streamlined access to iTunes media and their digital library, it is adept solution at an impressively low price. But with a bulk of the changes being made available to existing Apple TV owners via downloadable software update, the only real benefit for those looking to upgrade is 1080p video output.

Mad Catz Announces MLG Controller Accesories

Customize the already fully-featured MLG Pro Circuit Controller.

In preperation for the MLG Pro Circuit Winter Championships, Mad Catz has announced a new line of accessories to let you further customize the already impressive MLG Pro Circuit Controllers.

To fine tune your analog sticks or D-Pads, a number of FightPad ProModule replacements will be available, allowing you to set your configuration to the specifications that you thumbs desire. With three different directional pads and concave and convex analog sticks, it shouldn't be too difficult to find a setup to your liking.

Each FightPad ProModule attachment can be picked up for $14.99.

The analog sticks can be further customized with spacers to adjust the height and caps to alter the joystick's surface. 4-packs of the spacers or caps come with a $9.99 price tag, 10 caps of all variations will set you back $19.99.

ProCables help you deal with the length of your controller cables and will be available in 1.5 meter and 3 meter varieties, with four color options for each variation. To ensure that the occasional wire trip doesn't cause danger to your console or controller, the ProCables feature quick-release connection points.

The 1.5 meter ProCable is priced at $19.99 and the 3 meter model will cost $24.99.

To add that final level of personal flavor, FacePlate Kits can be picked up for $14.99 a pop and come in 11 different colors.

All of the new MLG Pro Circuit Accessories are currently up for pre-order and will be available starting March 23.

iOS 5.1 Reveals 4G Apple iPhone in the Works

Code strings make direct reference to 4G and phone calls.

Even before the new iPad was announced, it has been expected that Apple's next iPhone will have real high speed wireless connectivity, and iDownloadBlog has discovered some coding in iOS 5.1 that directly makes reference to a 4G enabled phone.

Spotted on BGR, iDownloadBlog used a jailbroken iPhone 4 to take a look at the files hidden within iOS 5.1 (not to be confused with iOS 5.0.1). Within some data strings, 4G connectivity was mentioned, although some can be in place for the new LTE iPad.

Further digging resulted in locating a handful of user notifications, like one that says, "Enabling 4G will end your phone call. Are you sure you want to enable 4G?"

Obviously, this doesn't pertain to the iPad since it natively can't be used to make calls. Although there isn't any direct reference to LTE, as opposed to the HSPA+ 4G that current iPhone 4S users are receiving, it would be surprising if Apple doesn't go that route with its next smartphone.

The new iPhone is expected to be announced this fall.

NVIDIA Introduces GeForce GTX 680

New single-GPU card trumps AMD's latest effort.

 

Based on NVIDIA's Kepler architecture, the GTX 680 is a single-GPU card with a base clocking speed of 1,006MHz that comes equipped with DirectX 11 support, adaptive v-sync, and a new GPU boost feature, which adjusts the overall clock speed to maximize performance in realtime. The new card is capable of powering up to four monitors at once and is 3D Vision ready.

According to NVIDIA's performance data, the GTX 680 trumps AMD's 7970 in every way, delivering higher framerates in a vast array of titles, including Just Cause 2, Crysis 2 and others. Early reviews seem to echo NVIDIA's claims, with sites like AnandTechreporting gains of up to 28 percent in Battlefield 3.

The GTX 680 is available now for $499.

New Neo Geo Portable is Official, Coming this Year

Relive SNK's heyday on the go with the NeoGeo X

Not too long ago, pictures of an alleged Neo Geo portable popped up, with many quick to call the device fake and/or Photoshopped. Well, naysayers, the NeoGeo X is real, and it's coming in just a few months.

Joystiq reports that Tommo Inc and Blaze will be releasing the handheld, complete with a 3.5-inch LCD display, SD card support, A/V output, and a headphone port.

To make sure that you're ready to get your game on when the NeoGeo X is released, the following 20 classic NeoGeo titles come pre-loaded:

• Art of Fighting
• Baseball Stars
• Cyber Lip
• Fatal Fury
• Fatal Fury Special
• Football Frenzy
• King of the Monsters
• Last Resort
• League Bowling
• Magician Lord
• Metal Slug
• Mutation Nation
• Nam 1975
• Samurai Showdown
• Sengoku
• Super Sidekicks
• The King of Fighters '94
• The Ultimate 11
• Top Players Golf
• World Heroes

Tommo Inc will be handling distribution in the States, with the NeoGeo X slated for a release during the second quarter of 2012. Pricing has yet to be announced, but there is a sign up form where you can subscribe for additional information as it is released.

New Apple TV Supports 1080p, iCloud Movies

Apple has just announced the newest Apple TV. No, it's not a high definition television, but is the next generation model of the company's set-top box.

Aside from a revamped and more streamlined user interface, the new Apple TV supports 1080p videos, as well as iCloud movie integration.

For the most part, the rest of the device remains mostly unchanged, including the hockey puck aesthetics.

The new Apple TV can be pre-ordered today for $99, and will be available starting March 16.

Apple iPad Review (2012)

Powerful performance and a breathtaking retina display. Did I mention the retina display?

 

With the introduction of every new product, Apple is expected to reinvent the wheel, and not without good reason. For over a decade, the company has refined or reinvigorated not one, but several product categories. But even the wizards in Cupertino cannot escape the natural ebb and flow between evolutionary and revolutionary iterations.

With a largely similar aesthetic design, a higher resolution display, improved cameras, LTE connectivity and more powerful innards, the new iPad is a solid update over last year’s iPad 2.

But is it enough to satisfy consumers’ demands for constant innovation, or, more importantly, stave off the advance of competing products? Only time will tell, but as it stands, Apple remains the unrivaled champion of the tablet market with its latest iPad.

The most notable feature of the new iPad is without question the new retina display. At a staggering 2048x1536, the 9.7-inch display now packs double the resolution of the iPad 2 (1024x768) and a higher resolution than just about every HDTV on the market (1920x1080). With a pixel density of 264 pixels-per-inch (ppi), the new iPad falls short of the iPhone 4S, which offers 326 ppi. From a user’s perspective, however, the difference is negligible, if not completely unrecognizable.

The retina display is not only a substantial improvement over the iPad 2, it’s one of the best looking displays on the market. The most immediately recognizable benefit of the new high-res display is crisper, cleaner text. Much like we saw on the iPhone 4S, lines of text and individual characters are so smooth that you can’t see a single pixel, even when fully zoomed in. The impact for images and other graphical media is dependent largely on whether or not it is presented in high-resolution.

iPad 2 vs. new iPad.

Currently, the number of optimized websites and apps is small since the new iPad only hit stores a few days ago, but you can bet more are on the way. The iTunes App Store’s collection of new or optimized apps for the new iPad consists of 40 or so titles, including Flipboard, Twitter for iPad, Infinity Blade II, Modern Combat 3, Mass Effect Infiltrator, SketchBook Pro for iPad, Real Racing 2 HD and others. While each has been updated to render graphics and its UI at 2048x1536 resolutions, there aren’t any games that truly harness the power of the new A5X chip and 1GB of RAM in terms of advanced textures or more detailed characters and environments. At least, not yet.

Still, the very simple fact that the A5X can sufficiently output 3D graphics at such a high resolution without framerate performance issues is impressive. Games like Modern Combat 3 and Mass Effect Infiltrator look gorgeous and run smoothly, and load times are slightly faster.

After running GLBenchmark tests, I was able to get a better sense of how the new iPad compares to the iPad 2 and the NVIDIA Tegra 3-powered ASUS Transformer Prime. Unfortunately, the results cannot be considered an apples-to-apples comparison due to the fact that the GLBenchmark app runs at the native resolution of whatever device it is running on, thus making a standardized test impossible. All the same, despite running at a substantially higher resolution (2048x1536 vs. 1024x768 and 1280x800), the new iPad outperformed both devices. In the GL Benchmark 2.1 Egypt Standard test, the iPad 2 produced 6627 frames at a rate of 59 frames-per-second, while the new iPad ran 6633 frames at the same framerate. Comparatively, the Transformer Prime was only able to produce 5702 frames at 50 frames-per-second. With any luck, the GLBenchmark app will be updated to allow for set resolution testing but as it stands, we have only a rather vague sense of how powerful the A5X really is.

The introduction of the A5X processor, LTE networking and the retina display yielded two notable changes: a larger battery and, as a result, a slightly thicker and heavier design. In order to power these new power-hungry features, Apple ditched the iPad 2’s 25 watt-hour battery in favor of a 42.5 watt-hour battery, which bumped the overall weight of the device to 1.46lbs (up from 1.33lbs) and the thickness to 9.4mm (up from 8.8mm). Comparing the two devices side-by-side made the variations fairly noticeable, but in terms of real-life usage, there’s no considerable impact.

Click the image to find games optimized for the new iPad.

The benefit of the new larger battery is purely compensatory, and the overall battery life of the iPad remains unchanged at roughly 10 hours. Performance will vary based on settings and usage, but during testing I was able to achieve anywhere between 9 to 10 hours with Wi-Fi-only and 8 to 9 with 4G LTE with brightness set to about 60-percent.

Network connection speeds for 4G LTE models will vary by region, though in San Francisco, I was able to achieve downloads of up to 29Mbps and uploads of 16Mbps, which rivals or often surpasses broadband speeds. To sweeten the deal for users who were previously apprehensive about paying for a dedicated data plan, Apple has added mobile hotspot capability to the iPad. In the United States, the feature is only supported on Verizon versions of the device, though AT&T says they will soon offer the feature as well. What’s most exciting about the functionality is that it’s free to use with any Verizon data plan, whereas the same feature on your smartphone would require additional charges.

Apple has also upgraded the iPad’s rear-facing camera, which hitherto sported an abysmal 0.7-megapixel sensor. Now, the camera has a 5-megapixel sensor with the same image processing tech used in the iPhone 4S. While it doesn’t support high dynamic range (HDR) stills, it is now capable of recording 1080p video with image stabilization. In terms of image and video quality, the new iPad falls behind the iPhone 4S, but far beyond the iPad 2 and other competing tablets. What’s most confounding, however, is Apple’s choice to leave the front-facing camera unaltered at 0.3-megapixels. While a rear-facing lens is handy to have, the front-facing camera is critical for video conferencing. The front camera is still functional but the image quality is as grainy and uninspiring as ever.

The only software feature exclusive to the new iPad is voice dictation, which, like Siri, takes spoken words and converts them into written text. The feature is accessible as a microphone key on the on-screen keyboard and can be used in any app, first-party or otherwise, that uses text entry. Overall, the feature works well, though ambient noise and other factors could impact your experience. I found the feature most useful for quick drafts of tweets or emails, which I could then make quick formatting edits to.

What’s interesting is that voice dictation seems like a feature that could have been easily ported to older versions of the device via the iOS 5.1 update, but for reasons unknown, it’s limited to the latest model. The choice to implement only voice dictation and not the extensive voice-assisted functions of Siri is also somewhat odd. My first guess was that Siri’s need for constant connectivity to the Internet was a determining factor, but upon further investigation, I’ve found that voice dictation on the new iPad also requires a Wi-Fi or 4G LTE connection. When no connection is available, the dictation key disappears from the on-screen keyboard.

Several new and updated first-party apps accompanied the announcement of the new iPad, such as iPhoto and new versions of GarageBand, Keynote and others, but aside from retina display support, all are exactly the same and are available for older devices as well.

At the end of the day, what consumers are getting with the new iPad is a gorgeous new display with double the resolution of last year’s model, a powerful new dual-core CPU with quad-core graphics, 1GB of RAM, a new 5-megapixel rear-facing camera, voice dictation and optional 4G LTE networking with mobile hotspot support. If you already own an iPad or you weren’t interested in one before, the changes may not be enough to inspire a purchase, but for others, the new iPad is the best yet and is worthy of your consideration.

Windows 8 Consumer Preview Impressions

Comparing Windows 8 to previous versions is like comparing Windows Mobile to the latest in Metro-themed smartphones. Sure, they share the same foundation, but the user interface, as well as the overall approach to the operating system, are so vastly different that forgetting one is the best way to experience the other.

After a lengthy, albeit reasonable, download and install process of about an hour and a half, the Windows 8 Consumer Preview instantly hits you with Microsoft's new vision of what a GUI should be. Simplicity and minimalism are the key with Windows 8 and Metro-styling as a whole. Instead of the tried and tested icon- and menu-heavy method used for decades, the desktop is now populated with programs laid out in gridded tiles.

Those familiar with Windows Phone 7 or the latest Xbox 360 dashboard update will clearly see how determined Microsoft is to unify its various platforms. As it is with the mobile and home console interfaces, it takes some time to get used to the changes but, once settling in, it all starts to make sense.

Microsoft has taken what the "normal" user is accustomed to accessing and put it front and center. Customizing the desktop is no longer a priority, and the operating system's Start menu and Taskbar, time and battery status included, have become a thing of the past.

Even the right mouse click has been completed revamped. Instead of bringing up System-related options, a menu will pop up from the top, bottom, or both ends of the screen providing contextual controls depending on what program you are using or what screen you are on.

Possibly taking a cue from Apple's OS X, hovering your mouse to the extreme sides of the screen bring up additional menus. Send your pointer to the left and you'll get a list of recent and active apps; to the right and you'll get system options; bottom left and you can jump back to the home screen; and up top you'll see one of Windows 8's more interesting functions, the ability to split the screen between two programs.

The latter allows you to share your screen 20/80 (or vice versa). For the most part, this is handy for keeping at-a-glance information at bay. For example, placing the weather program on the smaller portion while using Bing Maps to plan your next voyage, or having your media player to the side so that you can flip through songs while using the main window for web browsing. Unfortunately, this also means that a desktop full of active windows is no longer something you can enjoy.

Ideally, this would be great for something like your Twitter stream, although an optimized app for the social network is not included in this build.

In addition to converting icons to squares and rectangles, Windows 8 has also implemented Live Tile technology. First party services like e-mail and the media player are integrated in a way that you are able to see incoming messages or check out what artist your listening to from the home screen without adding any space-wasting widgets or filling up your taskbar with open apps.

Oddly, some of Windows 8's first-party programs seem to have ditched browsing via vertical scrolling for a horizontal method. While this keeps in tune with Windows Phone and the Xbox 360, it appears that Microsoft forgot how much more useful a mouse's scroll wheel is for moving around than clicking or click-and-dragging along a static horizontal scroll bar.

Internet Explorer has received a complete redesign that more or less mimics what is found on Windows Phones. When at a website, the browser takes up the full screen. No menu bars, no task bar, just whatever distraction you are enjoying at the moment. Right clicking brings up the navigation bar, where you can process typical functions like entering an URL, going forward or backwards, or checking out your history and bookmarks. More complex commands like those found in the Tools section of the current version of IE are gone, making way for only the most commonly used functions.

Other first party programs have received a considerable update. Mail, in particular, is handled through a much-welcomed tabbed view.

Xbox connectivity has been integrated into the OS as well. An Xbox Live Games tile and an Xbox 360 Companion program come pre-loaded, allowing you to browse the same information you can find on the console. The Companion lets you connect with the Xbox 360, where you can browse for videos, music, and games on your PC, while controlling the console at the same time.

As you may know, the Metro UI isn't the only way to control Windows 8. With the click of the Desktop tile, you're instantly transported to a version of the OS that closely resembles and functions just like Windows 7, although without the Start button. As an alternative, you can still get to the Charms Bar by hovering your mouse over the right side of the screen to search for whatever file or program you need access.

Basically, this allows you to access the traditional desktop, complete with icons and windows, but manages to break up the experience and make it seem like Windows 8 isn't totally sure of what it wants to be.

Windows 8 has taken much of what PC users are familiar with and thrown it out the window (no pun intended) to bring a high level of simplicity and minimalism to a platform that has constantly become more complex over the years. It may take some getting used to, but the casual user will probably prefer the Metro-styling in the end. If you have the need to customize, alter, and modify your user interface (not to mention, clutter your desktop with files), you're probably better off sticking with Windows 7 until developers get more familiar with Microsoft's newest venture.

As a tablet or touch-enabled PC operating system, Windows 8 looks like it will be match made in heaven. While its good to see that Microsoft is paying attention to the latest form of computing, it feels like the OS is forgetting that most people will still be using a mouse and keyboard or trackpad to get around. And don't even get me started on the slide-to-unlock screen when starting up the OS.

If Windows 8 sounds like something you'd like to try out, the Consumer Preview is available for download now. If you've already made the leap, let us know what you think in the comments below!

Microsoft has yet to announce an official release date for the full retail version of the operating system..