Tech News and Gossip thread...

[Astrotoy7]

This is interesting - looks like Galaxy are showing of some single slot GTX 470s. My being able to read Turkish yields no extra advantage I'm afraid - even though this was originally reported on Turkish site Donanim Haber, Bright Side of News have done a decent job at summarising the article without missing anything fabulous.

 

Id love to see a single slot GTX 480 with some more moderate temps \o/ and where the hell is that GTX 490 all us folders pine for

 

 

mtfbwya

[Char Ell]

Is it permissible to use Fudzilla as a source in this hallowed thread? Anyway, the folks at Fudzilla claim the dual GF100 got scrapped due to overly high power consumption (not a big surprise there if you ask me). Supposedly the "new and improved" GF104 will be used in NVIDIA's dual-GPU card to compete with the 5970.

 

Dual GF100 Fermi to be replaced with dual GF104 card

 

I may be interested in the GF104 if its rumored specs turn out to be real. Trying to keep to no more than a single 6-pin power connector for my rig's graphics card and with an alleged 150W TDP and 256 SP's/CUDA cores/whatever-the-latest-term-is the GF104 sounds like it may have a shot at that.

[Astrotoy7]

lolz. Good ole Fudzilla. The main thing that irks me about them is how they sometimes forget to tell you about a source. Also, when a post starts out with "It looks" bolded, rather than telling you about their source, it's usually time to reach for the salt.

 

That all being said, this sounds plausible Though the fact that eternal nvidia fanboys brightside haven't said anything is perhaps a cause for mild concern

 

EDIT: A techPowerUp post dated March 26th discusses most of what has been spouted by the Fudsters. The Source of the techpowerup article is German site 3dcentre, which you can read Google translates English mangling of HERE Interesting stuff to say the least.

 

If team green can pull it off.. it's going to melt crysis face, a good two years after everyone has stopped playing it

 

mtfbwya

[tk102]

Some mega-epic-awesome news was reported by TechCrunch today, notifying that the upcoming Android 2.2 build Froyo(all Android builds are named after desserts) will have in-built USB tethering and the ability to make your phone a wifi hotspot.... no more third party apps or hackarounds required

Ah, something Palm's WebOS has been doing on Verizon since January and since April for free.

 

But only android has that geeky Linux allure of course.

Hmm...

[Astrotoy7]

tk !! Where have you been man!

 

For those who aren't phone OS phanboys like tk and me, WebOS is indeed also built on a Linux kernel....but unlike android is NOT fully open source (some propietary snippets in there which are about the only thing Palm did right business wise!)

 

As previously reported. Palm have taken a fabulous concept/product like webOS and turned their company into a basket case because they do not have the hardware nouse of someone like Motorola, Samsung, SonyEricsson, HTC or dare I say Apple. Subsequently, they were snapped up by HP just last month.

 

The HP[alm]acquisition has the potential of being a stunning combination - we'd all love to see a webOS tablet.

 

The mass market appeal that android is achieving is most definitely not because it flaunts its Linux underpinnings.

 

eg. Oz's largest Telecommunications co. has just jumped on the android bandwagon in a huge way - and nowhere in all its web or TV/radio/print presence has the Linux factor been mentioned in their official releases. Saying "Google's exciting new operating system" sounds much cooler

 

Same goes for when you visit Verizon's DROID site for US users, vodafone in UK etc.

 

They want to promote the device as an iphone alternative, and bringing in the Linux factor is probably not the best way to advertise that. In fact, the only places you will find that really flaunt the android/linux angle are linux focussed sites like linuxfordevices.com and dev sites like xda. ie. places where non tech savvy mortals will never tread.

 

The smartphone market is going to get every interesting very quick! With iPhoneOS4 and Windows Phone 7 around the corner, Android going from strength to strength, a healthy WebOS device presence would be a welcome addition.

 

* * *

 

In other news, the Google IO Conference wrapped up recently - with most of the news being more exciting to developer folk. Three things that were announced that hold particular interest:

 

*VP8 web video format launched as open source WebM project. has already been incorporated into nightly builds of chrome and FF. Adobe already announced as partners, and early indications are that MS will support it for IE9. This is really great news for devs who were starting to feel ill at the thought of H.264 licensing fees demanded by Apple/MS.

 

*Google Wave is now open to the public

 

*Chrome Apps store is being developed, to tie in with future Chrome OS devices. A demo of an entirely browser based 'plants vs zombies' and lego star wars was shown, indicating the interesting potential of the ChromeOS. Whether it takes off is still too hard to call. >>source

 

* * *

 

Engadget has just published its HTC EVO 4G Review. Looks like a truly amazing device for those lucky enough to live in a 4G zone, and who don't mind phones 'big n beautiful'. This thing is Huge - and is capable of 720p video out via built in HDMI

 

To illustrate the hugeness...Here's a pic of it next to the nexus 1 which is essentially the same size as an iphone.

 

mtfbwya

[urluckyday]

^Pretty. I wants!

[Astrotoy7]

^Pretty. I wants!

 

if your're a zune fan, you may want to see how WP7 pans out first.. An LG prototype was being shown off the other day across the interwebs

 

 

Pretty slick looking. MS have also announced that the WP7 phones will be incorporating their own version of maps/navigation via its Bing service.

 

* * *

 

Owners of slightly older lappies may be excited at the prospect of MSI external GPU dock. Recently unveiled at Computex, It connects via an express card slot and has its own power supply - currently rated at 84WTDP - which would limit it to something such as the Radeon 5670.

 

Future versions will sport USB3 and a higher TDP capacity. Having the freedom to put an updated Dx11 GPU in two year old lappie is great news IMO - and having it in an external dock takes away the heat concerns when you're throttling an internal mobile-gpu. If implemented well, it sounds like a super idea.

 

Here's a piccie, and more info at original source bit-tech.net

 

 

mtfbwya

[Astrotoy7]

The Google I/O Conference has wrapped up, and on top of the stuff mentioned above, and confirmation of Android 2.2(Froyo), which some Nexus1 users have already received as an over the air update, the other *bug* news was Google's announcement of their plans to get into the webTV game.

 

Other companies have tried it before, how will they go?? They have some heavy sitters on their side already, like intel, logitech and sony. Indications are it will have Hulu integration, though I imagine that is still limited to US users only

 

Here's an intro video here:

 

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mtfbwya

[Char Ell]

I like the concept. If I had a Google TV that displayed at 1080p, would Hulu's 480p stream still do it for me as far as image quality goes? I've never really looked into it as I'm still using a 480 CRT for my TV. I've heard the term upscaling but since my TV doesn't display at a resolution that could even utilize upscaling...

 

I wonder what ISP's are thinking about their network bandwidth utilization if this really takes off. I'd drop my cable TV service and go with Google TV if I could get all the programming that I wanted through Google TV. If you had a lot of people doing this though I can't imagine that the cable TV companies would be that thrilled.

[Astrotoy7]

I like the concept. If I had a Google TV that displayed at 1080p, would Hulu's 480p stream still do it for me as far as image quality goes?

 

Alot of online content, even p2p still gets pumped out at sub 480p and looks fine even on a 1080p display. You only really notice if you're sitting up close

 

It's hard to see how Google TV is going to pan out at this stage. The HTPC crowd want it to be an uber device with tuner support, whereas these first iterations are instead chosing to usurp control of existing set top boxes through IR blasters and such.

 

I can see it being something built into HDTVs in the future, like current internet enabled TVs, but whether it takes off depends on how user friendly the interface is and what the content is like.

 

mtfbwya

[Astrotoy7]

nvidia's new beta drivers are out - 257.15. I don't know why there is a 60point version jump, but it looks like its here to stay, as they are official beta drivers, not a .inf tweak job by some anonymous nerd on a creepy tech forum

 

 

 

expreview did a nice little rundown of some performance differences, using a GTX480 test bed:

 

 

Speaking of Fermi, the GTX 480M has been announced.... Grill Force in a lappie?? Sounds a bit scary to me, but no benchies yet, so the jokes must be put on hold

 

Also, Guru3D got their hands on a Zotac 480, with some noticeable temp differences from the references benchies. You can read the review >>here

 

 

In other amusing news, Michael Arrington, founder of tech blog TechCrunch has finally had his chickens come home to roost. Famous for shooting his mouth off about Yahoo, it seems he met his match in feisty Yahoo CEO, Carol Bartz, who firmly told him to "F**k off" in an interview.

 

I wont embed vid directly, but you can see Carol drop the F bomb, and the whole interview in context at this brightside article

 

Arrington is an archetypal chubby tech geek with a big mouth, Carol is a pioneering woman in the 'mans world' of tech. She has worked for Digital, 3M, and took autodesk to its modern day strength. In comparison to that, Arrington hasn't done much at all - which Carol pointed out to him in tremendous fashion

 

lolz

 

mtfbwya

[Astrotoy7]

Here's a couple of interesting vids.

 

First is the famous chrome speed test vids, released by Google to showcase the speed of chrome

 

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Recently, Opera did a parody of this. Some think its funny, others lame - probably a combination of both. I like the 80s Adidas Tennis Jacket one of those opera dudes are wearing

 

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In other news, Brightside got their hands on an AMD Magny Cours 24-core setup with 128GB DDR3. They're running it through tests on W7 and Server 2008 and will report the results soon.

 

$9K of kit I wonder if it can fold??

 

Finally, not a usual bit of tech news, but very cool nonetheless - have a look at the precise flight of the quadrocopter. I wonder if that type of precision can be replicated in a full scale version

 

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mtfbwya

[Negative Sun]

Sooo...

 

iPad launched today in the UK...

 

429 motherf***ing pounds for a 16Gb WiFi only tablet PC that won't run Flash and cannot multitask yet, what the uber f***???

 

I really hope the UK shows itself more intelligent than the yanks, don't get me wrong I have an iPhone and I love it but the iPad is just retarded!

[Astrotoy7]

I'm with negsun on the ipad. They cost $1000 AUD here - way too much for what it does. I personally do not know anyone who has one, or plans to get one.

 

There are alot of ipad comparison charts around. This is my favorite one.

 

Show spoiler

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There are a lot of android+tegra2 tablets just around the corner, as well as chrome OS ans Win7 devices - and then there's the tantalising prospect of the HP device with Web OS. So the best advice anyone can give on a tablet purchase.... wait!

 

Here you go negsun, this might cheer you up

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mtfbwya

[Astrotoy7]

COmputex is on and the international tabletgasm is building momentum... two of the most interesting entries are by Asus....

 

The EEE Pad, which will come 12 and 10 inch versions, running Win or Win CE7 respectively. The most interesting thing here is that Asus are pushing they will have 10 hours of battery life.... If Asus can deliver a full W7 tablet with 10 hours battery life, theyre going to sell a bucketload of these.....

 

 

 

Also presented is the EEE Notepad, boasting 2450dpi no less.. which will provide very realistic handwriting and sketching support.

 

Asus and MSI also annouced their android tablets, which will feature tegra 2.

 

I'm sure this isn't the last tablet news we'll be getting...........Tablets ahoy!

 

mtfbwya

[Astrotoy7]

Toshiba have been showing off some flexible LCD - the screen containing a sensor that responds to being bent to adjust zoom. Pretty snazzy - would be great for a a flexible reader, but surely color e-ink or amoled or pixelQI would be more energy efficient ??

 

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edit: speaking of PixelQI - have a look at this video comparing visibility of an ipad LCD vs a pixelQI screen. Apple has managed to dupe the world that LCD is a great idea for a tablet device that you can cart around - but as well know LCD isn't the best for larger rooms with less even lighting or outdoors.

 

This vid shows the difference between these grade of screens - its good to know the developers of this tech are working closely with manufacturers to ensure its competitive and as fully featured as possible on launch, rather than push it out early for the heck of it. source

 

Look closely... The ipad is actually on! Compare to the lappie with the PixelQI screen.

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mtfbwya

[Astrotoy7]

Here's some very interesting news from AMD/ASUS > Theyve just been showing off the X58 "Immensity" mainboards, which packs a 5770 as an integrated GPU. It also includes the Hydra chip which will allow you to utilise the included 2 pci-e x16 slots to make get a tri-Xfire setup going.

 

They'll be shipping next year apparently, but no word on price yet. I'd love to see if team green can pop a 460+ on a mainboard... and make temps manageable

 

Finally, Android fans have been rejoicing Ewok village style with the announcement that a PlayStation1 emulator is now in the works from star emu coders, including ZodTTD who did the PSX emu for iPhone. Can't wait! Final Fantasy IX on the HTC desire's AMOLED screen is going to be delicious The 1GHz snapdragon processor should ensure that the performance is nice and smooth from the get-go...unlike the iphone versions.

 

mtfbwya

[Char Ell]

That is a sharp looking screen. I would definitely like to have a laptop or smartphone that had an easy to view screen in sunlight.

[Astrotoy7]

That is a sharp looking screen. I would definitely like to have a laptop or smartphone that had an easy to view screen in sunlight.

 

At this stage, PixelQI screens are planned for netbooks, readers and the notion ink adam android tablet which can do the greyscale/colour switch.

 

No firm release date on any of them

 

mtfbwya

[Negative Sun]

Iphone 4 launches

 

I want one, now, simple as that!!!

 

I'm no Apple fanboy, in fact I think the iPad is retarded and Macs far too overpriced, but man I'm such an iPhone fanboy it's unreal!

[Astrotoy7]

Iphone 4 launches

 

I want one, now, simple as that!!!, but man I'm such an iPhone fanboy it's unreal!

 

cmon negsun, you obviously havent held the HTC Desire in your hands.

 

I loved Steve Jobs WWDC Keynote today --- looks like Apple is keeping to their target demographics>>

 

Gramps

 

Octomoms

 

Negsun and chainz

 

Interesting keynote though - funny how they've jumped in with MS, using bing as their search engine... a clear FU message to Google/Android

 

I do like the slimness and higher rez of the screen All in all good for competition I guess(and a few disco pants jokes )

 

EDIT: The gaming and graphically minded may want to check out the new DirectX June 2010 Redist. Released today!

 

mtfbwya

[Astrotoy7]

Finally some facts and figures - contrary to popular belief ie. console fanboyz, gramps or octomomz who are too frightened of DIY PCing - the PC is not dead, nor on its way to being dead.

 

There is a great article over at brightside looking at some new figures showing 20% growth of the PC market.

 

PC is Dead? Think Twice...20% Growth in 2010

 

In the near future, as bluray is integrated into PC gaming, this can only take off further.

 

For those of thus that follow the pc market this isn't a huge surprise, a market that is about to die does not keep cranking out high end kit.

 

mtfbwya

[acdcfanbill]

Rumors of our death (PC Gamers) have been greatly exaggerated.

 

Though to be fair, these are just estimates. I will be interested to see what they have to say dec 2010 about it.

[Astrotoy7]

I will be interested to see what they have to say dec 2010 about it.

 

If you're a financial type Billy, JUNE is December

 

* * *

 

EVGA have just announced their GTX 480 Superclocked edition 529USD - it aint cheap No benchies yet to see how hot it sizzles at the higher clocks.

 

 

mtfbwya

[Astrotoy7]

Here is a great article Anandtech did on the new 360

 

It's actually quite comparable in size to a PS3 slim, the only part of the PS3 that is actually slimmer is the front part which tapers downwards. There's some more pics comparing the new 360 to PS3 old/slim, and wii here at engadget

 

 

*smaller

*65nm process

*cooler

*quieter

*less power draw

*internal slot for HDD, internal 802.11n

*glossy black

 

I'll be getting one the day theyre released here, since RDR, Alan Wake and FFXIII are no go on the almighty PC.

 

Finally, a pic of one laying on its side!

 

* * *

 

Also, for you driverjunkies:

 

*nvidia 257.21 WHQL went official on June 15 2010

*nvidia 258.49 WHQL went leakily official on G3D on June 18 2010

 

mtfbwya