vr-zone tech news for the geeks sep 2011 issue

September 1st, 2011 Published by: VR-Zone

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VR-Zone.com | Stuff for the Geeks!VR-Zone | Stuff for the Geeks is a bi-weekly publicationcovering the latest gadgets and stuff for the geeks.

Apple's considering USB 3.0as an addition to ThunderboltSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/apple-s-considering-usb-3.0-as-an-

addition-to-thunderbolt/13467.html

September 1st, 2011

A lot of people have been disappointed over Apple's lack ofinterest in the USB 3.0 standard, but thanks to a little bird, VR-Zone has heard that the company is still looking at USB 3.0 asa potential feature to add on future products. As to when andhow this might happen is not something we know, but fromour understanding it'll happen before Intel integrates USB 3.0support into its chipsets.

A lot of people have been disappointed over Apple's lack ofinterest in the USB 3.0 standard, but thanks to a little bird, VR-Zone has heard that the company is still looking at USB 3.0 asa potential feature to add on future products. As to when andhow this might happen is not something we know, but fromour understanding it'll happen before Intel integrates USB 3.0support into its chipsets.

Sadly we can't reveal all the information at hand, as not onlywould we cause problems for our source, but also the entirecompany in question, but suffice to say, Apple has been lookinginto USB 3.0 host controllers, especially as the price has finallyreached an affordable level. A USB 3.0 host controller is pricedat somewhere between US$2-3 in large quantities today whichshould be compared to US$10-15 for Intel's Thunderbolt chip.It's also important to remember that Thunderbolt not onlyrequires a host chip, but also a device chip and additionalchips on the device end depending on the type of device.This makes Thunderbolt a very expensive solution for simplestorage device etc.

For this simple reason it makes sense that Apple is consideringimplementing USB 3.0 support into its products, especially asthe device end is very simple and equally affordable, if not evencheaper than the host end. USB 3.0 can of course not matchthe performance of a device connected over Thunderbolt,but that level of performance is often not required by theconsumer market and Apple is seemingly catering more andmore towards consumer. Backwards compatibility is another

bonus that USB 3.0 offers and in reality there's no reason fora device with USB 2.0 ports today.

In related news, we're also hearing that Apple is working withsome of its partners to create more affordable Thunderboltstorage solutions suitable for demanding consumers or smallbusinesses that don't need the throughput offered by high-end RAID enclosures. Further on the subject of Thunderbolt,Intel might allow third party companies to create deviceside Thunderbolt chipsets, although the company is notconsidering allowing the competition in on the host side.

Exclusive preview of LenovoIdeaPad U400Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/exclusive-preview-of-lenovo-ideapad-

u400/13466.html

September 1st, 2011

VR-Zone was one of the media to get an exclusive previewof the new Lenovo IdeaPad U400 notebook PC in Singapore.Although it is not the U300 UltraBook, the U400 is designed asan affordable laptop with style and good functionality. Detailsinside.


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The 14-inch Lenovo IdeaPad U400 looks extremelystylish with round edges and from its exterior design, it isinevitable to draw comparisons with the renowned AppleMacBook Pro. According to the company, the U400 we seehere is a prototype unit. Its chassis is made of aluminiumwhich makes it fairly durable and comes in graphite grey at thispress time. The laptop has spacious palm rest, a huge multi-touch touchpad with left/right clickable buttons and uses achiclet-styled keyboard for comfortable typing.

On the right, we find the system recovery button, air vent, LANand USB3.0 port, while on the left holds the headphone jack,two USB 2.0, HDMI out connectors and a slot-in DVD drive.

The power button is on the top left corner of the keyboard,and we did not find any notification LEDs as the body is onepiece aluminium. Needless to say, it is impossible to replacethe battery or even upgrade the memory modules withouthaving to void the unit's warranty. Looking at the dxdiag.exeinformation, the U400 is equipped with 2.2GHz Intel Corei3-2330M, 2GB DDR3 memory and ATI Radeon graphics.

The Lenovo IdeaPad U400 is currently available as anexclusive bundle with StarHub MaxInfinity Ultimate 100Mbpsfibre home broadband plan (S$99.30 per month). The U400offered with StarHub is valued at S$1,899 and comes with2.7GHz Intel Core i7-2620M, 4GB DDR3 memory, 500GBhard disk, ATI Radeon HD 6470M graphics (1GB VRAM),DVD SuperMulti drive and preinstalled with Windows 7 HomePremium. According to Lenovo, the IdeaPad 400 would beretailing soon at their authorized resellers and retail storeswith similar hardware specifications and price point.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray pre-orders began; retails on 9September in SingaporeSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/sony-ericsson-xperia-ray-pre-orders-

began-retails-on-9-september-in-singapore/13464.html


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September 1st, 2011

Sony Ericsson has a booth at the COMEX Show 2011, locatedon level 6, hall 602, booth number 6341, to showcase theircurrent offerings which include the Xperia Arc, Xperia Mini,Xperia Mini Pro and Xperia Play. But if you were at their booth,you would notice a banner that says taking pre-orders of theXperia Ray. Yes, pre-orders have started, which means the newXperia Ray Android smartphone is arriving here in Singapore.

The much anticipated Sony Ericsson Xperia ray is comingto Singapore with pre-orders commencing today. Measuringjust 9.9mm thin, the Xperia Ray sports a 3.3-inch screenand runs the latest Android platform for smartphones(Gingerbread 2.3). The phone packs a powerful 1GHzprocessor, Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA Engine, a8.1-megapixel camera with Exmor R for mobile and highdefinition video functionality.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray will be available for sale on 9September at a recommended retail price of S$598. If you pre-order the Xperia Ray smartphone from today until 9 Sept, youwill receive an exquisite gift from Mont Blanc.

Pre-order of the Xperia Ray is available at M1, Singtel andStarhub, Sony Ericsson Concept Stores (Parkway Parade andAng Mo Kio Hub) and selected Sony Stores and Sony Centres.Also available at COMEX 2011, Hall 602 at the Sony EricssonBooth 6341. Redemption of gift at Mont Blanc boutique atMandarin Gallery from 10 Sept to 30 Nov, while stocks last.

HP TouchPad at COMEX 2011draws huge (angry) crowdSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/hp-touchpad-at-comex-2011-draws-

huge-angry-crowd/13460.html

September 1st, 2011

HP Singapore announced the promotion prices for theirWebOS-based TouchPad tablets just a day before the COMEXShow. Needless to say, there are a lot of enthusiastic buyerswho want to grab the special offer. But in the end, manywere angry and disappointed when they found out the tabletshave been fully redeemed even before the show started.UPDATE: HP has issued a statement that due to safety andsecurity concerns, the sale of the standalone HP TouchPads atCOMEX will be discontinued. However, HP PCs purchase withpurchase offers for the HP TouchPad will still be available atthe COMEX show.

UPDATE: HP has issued a statement that due to safety andsecurity concerns, the sale of the standalone HP TouchPadsat COMEX will be discontinued. However, HP PCs purchasewith purchase offers for the HP TouchPad will still be availableat the COMEX show.

At the COMEX Show 2011, the 16GB HP TouchPad is goingfor S$126 (w/GST) while the 32GB version is selling at S$201(w/GST). However, only 100 units of each model will be soldwith only one tablet per person, and on the first two days ofthe show. On top of that, the company will only accept cashpayment; no credit cards or NETS, and there will also be non-returnable and non-refundable policies. With such attractiveprice tags, ever since HP USA announced the US$99 TouchPadtablets just about ten days ago, it makes sense why people aregoing "ga-ga" over them.

Unfortunately, the arrangement for the COMEX promotionwas badly planned. There was no mention as to where onecan queue to get the TouchPad tablets. Not even on the HPSingapore Facebook Page. Not to mention, the commentson the popular social networking website are not veryencouraging either, with some citing the obvious fact that whythe company is only selling 200 units each day when there areso many people who would kill to buy the tablet. HP Singapore


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only said that if you missed the special promotion, you can stillpurchase it with their purchase-on-purchase program whichinclude buying either a HP TouchSmart610 -1138d, 1178d,1188d; HP Pavilion dv4-3020TX, or HP Pavilion dv6-6144TX,dv6-6105TX and dv6-6106TX. You can then get the chance tobuy the HP TouchPad 16GB and HP TouchPad 32GB for S$49(with GST) and S$119 (with GST) respectively.

VR-Zone was at the COMEX Show 2011 around 10am,and learnt that all the TouchPad tablets have alreadybeen redeemed even before the 12pm official opening time!Apparently, the company had handed out queue numbers tothose "in queue" when there was no mention anywhere (noteven on their Facebook page) as to where the queue would takeplace. One of the lucky buyers (above pic) was 83 in the queueand said that he was there since 6.45am in the morning. Thismeans that by 8am, all 200 queue tickets would have been soldout. The best part was that, there was a huge crowd waitingoutside the halls and they were unaware of this. The hallswere opened 30min earlier at 11.30am and the mad hordeall ran to the HP booth at the rear, only to be left angry anddisappointed when they learnt that all the TouchPad tabletshave been redeemed.

Check out the crowd pic and video below:-

Notebook PCs promotion @COMEX Show 2011Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/notebook-pcs-promotion--comex-

show-2011/13462.html

September 1st, 2011

The COMEX Show 2011 is here. For those who are hunting fora new notebook PC, well, there are some good offers from thevarious manufacturers including ASUS, Sony, Samsung andToshiba. Who knows you might find something that would suityour computing needs.

ASUS

The K series laptop is one of ASUS star products whichfeatures highly durable premium aluminum textures andcomes in variopis stylish colors - red, green, blue, pink andblack. The 14-inch ASUS K43SJ29i5 which is equipped with2.9GHz Intel Core i5-2410M processor, 4GB DDR3 memory(after free upgrade), 500GB SATA hard disk, Nvidia FeForceGT520M with 1GB VRAM, DVD Super-Multi double layerdrive, and preinstalled with Windows 7 Home Premium, isselling at S$799 (U.P. S$999).

The slightly more power variant, K43Sv29i7, which comeswith 2GHz Intel Core i7-2690QM processor, 6GB DDR3memory (after free upgrade), 640GB SATA hard disk, NvidiaGeForce GT540 with 1GB VRAM, DVD Super-Multi doublelayer drive, and preinstalled with Windows 7 Home Premium,is retailing at S$1,099 (U.P. S$1,398).

Dell


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Gamer enthusiasts who are looking for a powerfulyet portable gaming laptop would have to check outthe latest Dell Alienware M14x. In terms of hardwarespecifications, the Alienware M14x is equipped with IntelCore i7-2630M processor, 4GB dual-channel DDR3 SDRAM,500GB 7200rpm SATA hard disk and Nvidia GT555Mgraphics with 1.5GB DDR3 memory. The 14-inch gamingmonster, which is one of Dell's star products, is sellingat S$2,299. But if you want a slightly lower Intel Core i52410M processor variant with Nvidia GeForce GT555M (1.5GBVRAM), 4GB DDR3 SDRAM, and 500GB SATA hard disk,you can get it at S$1,999 with free Razer Gaming Mouse andHeadset.

Samsung

Powered by 2.3GHz Intel Core i5-2410M processor and comeswith 4GB DDR3 memory, 640GB hard disk, Nvidia GeForceGT520M graphics with Nvidia Optimus technology and Blu-ray combo drive, the Samsung RC420E is designed for workand play. If the attractive price tag of S$1,099 (U.P. S$1,299)isn't enough to swing you over, the manufacturer also throwsin free Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security software,carrying case and second year extended local warranty.

Sony

Incorporating a 14-inch display with LED backlight, theVAIO C features 2.3GHz Intel Core i5-2410M processor, 4GBDDR3 memory, 500GB hard disk, AMD Radeon HD6630M(1GB VRAM) graphics and preloaded with Windows 7 HomePremium 64-bit operating system. Available in four stylishcolors of black, orange, green and pink, the VAIO C (model:VCPCCA15FGD) is selling at a decentS$1,399.

Acer

The Acer Aspire 4750G-2634G50MN is one of the few veryattractive purchases at the COMEX Show. Inside the 14-inch notebook PC are 2GHz Intel Core i7-2630QM processor,8GB DDR3 memory (after free upgrade), 500GB hard disk,Nvidia GeForce GT540 graphics with 2GB VRAM, DVD+RWcombo drive and preinstalled with Microsoft Windows 7Home Premium operating system. For such high-specificationmachine, it is selling at S$1,098.

Toshiba


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At the Toshiba booth, the Satellite P745 stands out amongits peer with its sleek and stylish looks. In the hardwaredepartment, it comes with 2.3GHz Intel Core i5-2410processor, 8GB DDR3 memory, 750GB SATA hard disk,Nvidia GeForce GT525M with 2GB VRAM and Optimustechnology, DVD SuperMulti drive and preloaded withWindows 7 Home Premium. All these at an attractive price ofS$1,399 (U.P. S$2,199).

COMEX 2011 Lucky DrawRedemption Counter on Level6 Suntec Exhibition CentreSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/comex-2011-lucky-draw-redemption-

counter-on-level-6-suntec-exhibition-centre/13461.html

September 1st, 2011

Making a purchase at COMEX 2011? Remember to redeemand fill up your Lucky Draw Coupons on Level 6. For every$100 spent at the show, you will get a chance to win up to$20000 cash.

Lucky Draw:

For every $100 spent during the show, you will get a chanceto win

1st Prize: S$ 20,000 Cash2nd Prize: S$ 3,000 Cash

3rd Prize: S$ 2,000 Cash

4th Prize: S$ 1,000 cash

5th Prize: S$ 900 cash








The COMEX 2011 Show Lucky Draw Results will be publishedin the New Paper on 12th September 2011.

Making a purchase at COMEX 2011? Remember to redeemand fill up your Lucky Draw Coupons on Level 6. For every$100 spent at the show, you will get a chance to win up to$20000 cash.

Lucky Draw Redemption Counter / Organiser's Office

Coupon Filling Up Area


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Driving to COMEX 2011? -Carparks Full AlreadySource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/driving-to-comex-2011--carparks-full-

already/13459.html

September 1st, 2011

Our correspondent on the ground managed to snap thispicture just now - looks like visitors to COMEX 2011 @ SuntecCity will have to take public transport or park their carssomewhere else as all the parking lots near the exhibitionarena is unavailable.

Our correspondent on the ground snapped this picture justnow - looks like visitors to COMEX 2011 @ Suntec City willhave to take public transport or park their cars somewhere elseas all the parking lots near the exhibition arena is unavailable.

Considering that this is a weekday and just the start of theshow, we don't expect the situation to change anytime soon.

AMD FX-Series LineupRevealedSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/amd-fx-series-lineup-

revealed/13458.html

September 1st, 2011

As we move ever closer to the release of AMD's FX-Series,Gigabyte has revealed a CPU compatibility list for its 990FXmotherboards, which all but confirms the final FX-SeriesSKUs. As expected, there will be 8-core, 6-core and 4-coreCPUs, with the flagship clocked at 3.6 GHz.

The final shipping stepping is B2. The top part, FX-8150, isclocked at 3.6 GHz, with a TDP of 125W. Next in line is theFX-8120, clocked at 3.1 GHz. There are two versions - 125Wand 95W. This suggests that the FX-8120 was initially targetedfor 95W but may ship with a 125W TDP to begin with. The final8-core CPU is the FX-8100, clocked at 2.8 GHz.

The sole 6-core CPU will be FX-6100 at 3.3 GHz while the 4-core CPU will be FX-4100 clocked at 3.6 GHz. Both feature95W TDP, and will likely compete up against the Core i5 series.All CPUs feature 8MB L3 cache. This suggests that FX-6100and FX-4100 are likely to be Zambezi with 1 module and 2modules disabled, respectively, rather than native 3-module /2-module dies.

The clock speeds mentioned in the table only refer to the basefrequencies, with no mention of Turbo Core.

The latest rumours still suggest a launch in September, whileother rumours suggest mass availability may happen only inOctober.

COMEX 2011 Pricelists nowavailable @ http://vr-zone.com/comex/pricelistsSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/comex-2011-pricelists-now-available--

http-vr-zone.comcomexpricelists/13457.html


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September 1st, 2011

Samsung Series 7 notebookshave big screens in smallfootprintsSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/samsung-series-7-notebooks-have-big-

screens-in-small-footprints/13456.html

September 1st, 2011

Even if the rumours about Samsung's interest in HP's PCbusiness were refuted by the company, if Samsung's Series 7notebook announcement is anything to go by, the companyhas a bright future in the notebook market. The Series 7 isSamsung's new performance line of notebooks, but possiblythe most impressive feature is the fact that Samsung claimsthat they've managed to stuff a larger screen size inside asmaller chassis size, but is this even possible?

Even if the rumours about Samsung's interest in HP's PCbusiness were refuted by the company, if Samsung's Series 7notebook announcement is anything to go by, the companyhas a bright future in the notebook market. The Series 7 isSamsung's new performance line of notebooks, but possiblythe most impressive feature is the fact that Samsung claimsthat they've managed to stuff a larger screen size inside asmaller chassis size, but is this even possible?

One slight issue with the announcement is that variousSamsung websites contain slightly different details withregards to the exact specifications and features, so we'llsuggest a smidgen of caution here. The Series 7 carries thesub brand Chronos borrowed from the Greek god of time, asSamsung claims to have added several new features that helpsto reduce the boot time of the system and in general speedthings up.

Most of the speed increase comes from what Samsung callsExpressCache, which sounds a lot like Intel's Smart Responsetechnology, but apparently it's not, as Samsung is using a muchsmaller 8GB SSD, whereas Intel's Smart Response requiresat least 20GB of SSD storage. It works more closely to thatof a Seagate Momentus XT hybrid drive; albeit with the SSDpart being fitted to the notebooks PCB rather than inside thehard drive. Combine this with something that Samsung callsFastStart and you end up with a claimed POST time of twoseconds and a cold boot time of 19 seconds.

In terms of battery life, Samsung claims an impressive 9h ona single charge and the company goes on to say that its "LifePlus" battery technology keeps 80 percent of the cells originalcapacity for up to 1,500 re-charge cycles. As such Samsungclaims that its batteries can last up to five times as long as someof its competitors.

This is all great stuff, but the real selling point of the Series7 in our opinion is that Samsung has managed to squeezea larger screen size into a smaller notebook size. As such,the model with a 14-inch screen is the size of a 13.3-inchnotebook, the model with the 15-inch screen the size of a 14-inch notebook and the model with the 15.6-inch screen the sizeof a 15-inch notebook. If that wasn't good enough, Samsungis offering 1600x900 resolution panels across the board, allsporting 300nits brightness. It gets even better though, as allfour models have matt screens, which is a really welcomed


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addition and hopefully something that Samsung's competitorswill pick up on.

As for the actual hardware specs, well, Samsung will belaunching with Intel's updated Core i7 and Core i5 processorsand all but the 14-inch model (or is that 13-inch?) will comewith a quad core CPU, while the smaller model will have tomake do with a dual core CPU. All models also have discreteAMD graphics, 6GB of DDR3 memory and a 750GB hard driveas standard. Do keep in mind that this is the US spec and thismight be different in other markets. The rest of the specs canbe found in the somewhat messy table below.

We almost forgot to mention that the keyboards features bluebacklight and that Samsung has of course implemented a pairof USB 3.0 ports and a slot-loaded optical drive in all models.The trackpad is also massive and very similar to the one foundon Apple's MacBook's. Price wise we're looking at a startingprice of US$999.99 (S$1,205) stretching all the way to US

$1,299 (S$1,565) and Samsung is expecting to start selling the

Series 7 on the 2nd of October in the US. Check out the videobelow for some additional details.

OCZ's SSD caching solutionlaunchesSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/ocz-s-ssd-caching-solution-

launches/13455.html

September 1st, 2011

It's hard not to call OCZ an innovative company as they keepcoming up with new ways of either connecting your SSD ortake advantage of SSD technology somehow in your PC. Thelatest addition to the RevoDrive series of PCI Express basedSSDs is the RevoDrive Hybrid and if you've been around for awhile, you might remember that once upon a time ISA cardswith a hard drive strapped to them weren't so uncommon andthe RevoDrive Hybrid somewhat harkens back to those days.

It's hard not to call OCZ an innovative company as they keepcoming up with new ways of either connecting your SSD ortake advantage of SSD technology somehow in your PC. Thelatest addition to the RevoDrive series of PCI Express basedSSDs is the RevoDrive Hybrid and if you've been around for awhile, you might remember that once upon a time ISA cardswith a hard drive strapped to them weren't so uncommon andthe RevoDrive Hybrid somewhat harkens back to those days.

Although the Hardcards as they were known as, are long sincehistory it looks like we'll once again shove hard drives into ourexpansion slots, at least if OCZ has anything to do with it. Earlydetails from the Flash Memory Summit last year suggestedthat OCZ was working on a hard drive caching solution using aRevoDrive with a pair of SATA connectors on it, but apparentlythis idea was scrapped in favour of the RevoDrive Hybrid.

OCZ demoed an early version of the RevoDrive Hybrid back atComputex, but quite a few things have changed since then. Ok,so OCZ is a couple of months later than it planned, but these


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things happen and there are some upsides and downsidesto this. For starters larger 2.5-inch hard drives have becomewidely available and the RevoDrive Hybrid will now ship witha 1TB drive rather than a 500GB drive. The SSD part has alsobeen boosted from 60 to 100GB which should hopefully meanimproved performance and OCZ is claiming speeds of up to910MB/s in the press release alongside 120,000 IOPS at 4Krandom writes, all very impressive numbers indeed.

The not so good news is that the price also went up, froman estimated US$350 to US$499.99 making the RevoDriveHybrid a very costly SSD caching solution. This clearly puts itoutside of your average consumers reach as well, but hopefullyOCZ will consider launching more affordable options in thefuture.

Thermaltake ToughpowerGrand 1050W PSU ReviewSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/thermaltake-toughpower-

grand-1050w-psu-review/13454.html

September 1st, 2011

Thermaltake is a well known company and carries a goodreputation as a high quality PSU manufacturer. Not toolong ago we had a look at one of Thermaltake’s mainstreampower supplies, the TR-2 800W unit. Today we are going toexamine and review one of the company’s best products, theToughpower Grand 1050W unit, a power supply aiming tosatisfy the craving needs of hardcore enthusiasts. Let us havea closer look at it.

Thermaltake is a well known company and carries a goodreputation as a high quality PSU manufacturer. Not toolong ago we had a look at one of Thermaltake’s mainstreampower supplies, the TR-2 800W unit. Today we are going toexamine and review one of the company’s best products, theToughpower Grand 1050W unit, a power supply aiming tosatisfy the craving needs of hardcore enthusiasts. Let us havea closer look at it.

• Compliance with Intel ATX 12V 2.3 & SSI EPS 12V 2.92standards.

• 80 PLUS Gold certified – with 87-93% extreme highefficiency @ 20-100% load to cut down electric cost.

• 24/7 @ 50oC: Guaranteed to deliver 1050W continuouspower.

• Pure aesthetic design with uncompromisingperformance.

• Proprietary dual ball bearing 14cm flower-shape fanenables longer lifespan and lowers overall noise outputby dramatically reducing bearing frictions.

• 100% 105oC (221oF) Japanese made electrolytic& solid state capacitors: provide uncompromised

performance and reliability under the harshest operatingenvironment.

• Double-forward switching circuitry: offers low powerloss and high reliability.

• Unparalleled DC to DC converter provides highestefficiency, most stable performance, and perfectregulation.

• 3oz PCB design reduces heat generation and allowsgreater efficiency.

• Robust & dedicated +12V output: comes with dual +12Vrails design providing up to 40A for 12V1 and 80A for12V2.

• FanDelayCool Technology allows 14cm fan to continue tooperate 15-30 sec after system shuts-down to ensure allcomponents are properly cooled.

• Multi-GPU ready: comes with 8 x PCI-E 6+2pin forcutting-edge gaming machine.

• Auto switching circuitry for universal AC input from90-264V.

• Active Power Factor Correction (PFC) with PF value of0.95 at full load.

• High reliability: MTBF>120,000 hours.

• DIMENSION: 5.9”(W) x 3.4”(H) x ?7.1” (L);150mm(W)x 86mm(H) x 180mm(L)

• Built-in industry grade protections: Over Current, OverPower, Over Voltage, Under Voltage, Over Temperatureand Short-Circuit protection.

• Safety / EMI Approvals: CE, TUV, FCC, UL, CUL, GOSTand BSMI certified.

Acer finally launches theIconia SmartSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/acer-finally-launches-the-iconia-

smart/13453.html

September 1st, 2011

Sometimes waiting for something good can take too long andin the case of the Iconia Smart from Acer, which was firstannounced back at the Mobile World Congress in Februaryhas finally launched, well, at least in Taiwan. That said,the company did deliver on its September launch date,although judging by the fact that no hardware changes wereimplemented, it feels like the phone is about six months late.

Sometimes waiting for something good can take too long andin the case of the Iconia Smart from Acer, which was firstannounced back at the Mobile World Congress in Februaryhas finally launched, well, at least in Taiwan. That said,


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the company did deliver on its September launch date,although judging by the fact that no hardware changes wereimplemented, it feels like the phone is about six months late.

We got some hands on time with the Iconia Smart at Acer’slow key launch event in Taipei and not much has changedsince February. The only really good news is that Acer has putAndroid 2.3 on the Iconia Smart which does at least put itat level playing ground with the competition. To be fair, theIconia Smart doesn’t have a ton of direct competitors thanksto its 4.8-inch screen with a 21:9 aspect ratio and 1024x480resolution and this is the saving grace of what can only bedescribed as something of a hybrid tablet.

Despite its fairly large size at 141.7x64.5x13.6mm, it’ssurprisingly slimmer than the Samsung Galaxy S II with its4.27-inch screen as it’s 66.1mm wide. That said, at 185gthe Iconia Smart is bordering on obese when you’re talkingphones, but if you consider it a competitor to say the DellStreak for example, then it’s actually quite light and pocketfriendly.

Kudos to Acer for hosting the entire presentation from anIconia Smart thanks to its micro HDMI port, this is a first tous, as we haven’t seen any other company brave enough to hostan entire presentation including demos from the device beinglaunched.

Sadly the tech specs are a bit long in the tooth now with asingle core 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 SoC, 512MB of RAMand 8GB of internal storage the Iconia Smart is pretty averagein terms of spec today, no matter if you compare it to othersmartphones or to tablets. Other features include 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, A-GPS, an 8 Megapixel camera thatcan shoot 720p video, a micro HDMI and USB port and finallyHSDPA speeds of up to 14.4Mbps and HSUPA speeds of up to5.76Mbps.

Overall Acer has come up with a unique form factor, but wedon’t think this on its own is going to be enough considering allof its competitors are now offering dual core devices on theirhigh-end devices. Luckily, Acer has priced the Iconia Smart ata reasonable NT$14,800 (S$615/US$510) which does at leastmake it competitive price wise and we’d expect actual retailpricing to drop lower than this quite quickly.

We’ve added a few more pictures from the event on the nextpage.

HP Singapore unveilsTouchPad pricing at COMEXShow 2011Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/hp-singapore-unveils-touchpad-

pricing-at-comex-show-2011/13452.html

September 1st, 2011

While HP has officially dropped their WebOS-based TouchPadtablet pricing to US$99, there was no news whether the pricingwould be applied at this part of the world. Well, apparentlythe company has unveiled the latest pricing of the TouchPad,though there are some terms and conditions. Details inside.


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According to HP, the 16GB and 32GB HP TouchPads willbe available at S$126 (with GST) and S$201 (with GST)respectively, for the first two days of COMEX Show. However,only 100 unit of each of the versions will be available each dayand that the purchase is limited to only one unit per personregardless of whether it is 16GB or 32GB. Best of all, the modeof purchase is cash and carry only; no credit cards or NETS,and it will be a non-refundable and non-returnable. So, ifyou want to grab one, you will have to be quick. The unitswill be available at HP booth 8428 (specifically the HP Directcounter), Hall 402/403.

For those of you who are purchasing the HP TouchSmart610-1138d, 1178d, 1188d; and HP Pavilion dv4-3020TX, HPPavilion dv6-6144TX, dv6-6105TX and dv6-6106TX, you willalso get to buy the HP TouchPad 16GB and HP TouchPad32GB for S$49 (with GST) and S$119 (with GST) respectively.The purchase-with-purchase HP TouchPad will be available atRewardsLINK in a first come first serve basis, while stocks last.

RewardsLINK can be located at 3 Temasek Boulevard #02-163Suntec City Mall, Singapore 038983.Opening hours: Monday – Sunday, 11.00am – 7.00pmEve ofX’mas /New Year/CNY: 11.00am – 3.00pm. Closed on X’mas,New Year and CNY

A*Star's ACRC: Singaporeaims for SupercomputingHeightsSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/a-star-s-acrc-singapore-aims-for-

supercomputing-heights/13450.html

September 1st, 2011

In the Asia-Pacific region, Singapore may be smaller in scalecompared to the resources of China, Japan or Korea whenit comes to the scientific, research and engineering base, butit has had accumulated expertise and user base to justify

having large computer systems, even up to the supercomputergrade, for a long time. A*CRC is a unique combination ofdiverse high-end hardware resources led by a team of expertsto support the growing user base.

A Choice of Systems for Every User

In the Asia-Pacific region, Singapore may be smaller in scalecompared to the resources of China, Japan or Korea when itcomes to the scientific, research and engineering base, but ithas had accumulated expertise and user base to justify havinglarge computer systems, even up to the supercomputer grade,for a long time.

Top Singapore universities, NUS and NTU, as well as variousinstitutes and even companies involved in rendering farms oroil exploration simulations have been using large computerhere, either vector or parallel single image supercomputers,or clusters of standardised servers. As the usage increased,leading to many disparate systems in various locations, theGovernment agency A*STAR created A*STAR ComputationalResource Centre (A*CRC) where, at least for the numerousinstitutes under the A*STAR umbrella as well as other researchbodies in Singapore, there was now a centralised high endsupercomputing resource base.

Located on the 17th floor of the humongous Fusionopolisbehemoth of a building on top of the soon to open One-North Circle Line MRT station in Ayer Rajah area, A*CRC hasone of world's rare heavy-duty supercomputer data centreslocated on a high floor of a tall building. It is dividedinto five functional areas: Computational Systems, Storage,Networking, Operations, and HPC Software.The two dozenstaff, headed by Dr Marek Michalewicz, Director, and StephenWong, Deputy Director in charge of systems, among others,provide support for over seven hundred of local, and someinternational, users on a variety of systems. A*CRC operatesanother data center with large storage, located at the Biopolis,aimed mainly at bioinformatics users.


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Now, A*CRC can't yet fight in size with multi-petaflop systemsthat can now be found in Japan or China, but the centre hasdiversity of hardware platforms that makes it interesting: fromtheir 2048-core Westmere-EX single-image shared memorymachine with 12 TB RAM, the largest of its type in the region,to a 3,800+ core Xeon DP Fujitsu general purpose cluster,AMD Opteron SMP cluster combination as well as one of thelargest IBM Power7-based RISC clusters in the region.

The first one would obviously make hackers salivate - howabout seeing a Linux (or Windows, as the machine couldrun it too) task prompt showing 2048 cores available with12,000 GB system memory - and there's a good reason forit. Too long there was an overemphasis just on the TOP 500supercomputer ranking in terms of peak and tested GFLOPsor TFLOPs according to the (in)famous Linpack linearalgebra benchmark routine, however the underlying systemarchitecture can influence the real application executionpotential even more. Dr Marek's team has, over the pastfew years, consciously diversified the available resources forvaried usage types so, whether your application can scale to1,000 cores in a single task, or you just dump 1,000 simpleunconnected threads at the same time, there is the right kindof system to run either kind of jobs - plus many other types -in the centre.

.

There are three types of computer systems right now atA*CRC:

• Cluster of large number of small, dual processor nodesfor heavy loads of many serial jobs as well as highlyparallel codes that run well with message passing (MPI);The Fujitsu BX900 450-node cluster of dual-XeonDP'small' nodes, each with two CPU sockets and 24 GBor more RAM per node, all connected via genericInfiniband QDR, is the main resource here. Its 45TFLOPs performance capability puts it close to the ~ 50TFLOPs class where the world's Top 200 systems startright now.

• Cluster of smaller number of larger nodes, more suitablefor large memory-footprint applications with higherdegree of CPU and thread communication. There are 2

main systems here, one being a brand new IBM p755Power7 cluster of 30 nodes, each with 32 cores runningat 3.3 GHz and 128 GB RAM per node; the other one isan older 32-node cluster of 8-socket quad-core Opterons,made by HP, but its excellent PCIe I/O bandwidth aswell as 128 GB RAM per node make it good for hostingmultiple GPGPUs, for instance.

• SMP machine, aimed at very large tera-scale tasks interms of both processor and memory load, like the abovementioned SGI Altix UV with its 256 eight-core IntelXeons put together sharing 12 TB RAM, all under oneLinux OS boot. Each of the cores runs at 2.66 GHz withpeak 4 flops/cycle, offering theoretical peak performanceof over 21 TFLOPs in a single machine.

What would seem to be good to add here to the resource,I feel, would be a nice visualisation cluster, driving a ~100 Mpixel 3-D CAVE-style VR facility. Such combinationis normally driven by dozens of tightly interconnected dual-CPU workstations, each with a powerful Open GL GPU ortwo, which use Chromium or similar parallel OpenGL softwarelayer to parallelise real-time 3-D across dozens of GPUs at thesame time. Cave Automatic Virtual Environment, which reallygives the user an immersion of being in a virtual world 'cave'recursively acronyms as CAVE anyway. A*CRC sister instituteIHPC has a small setup of this type already for awhile.

Machines alone, even with petabytes of associates storage,huge ventilation, power and backup facilities, and hardwaresupport staff monitoring the usage constantly, are notenough. A*CRC expert team helps the users acquire the rightapplications - commercial or open source - or, where needed,additional hardware that can be housed at the premises- as well as user code tuning and optimisation. And, asmore users from within and outside A*STAR, including NUS,NTU, associated schools and commercial, as well as selectedinternational collaborations, are added to the roster, thepressure to increase resources is constant. It may soundunbelievable to an outside user, but most of the A*CRC systemresources are constantly used, every moment, at 90% to 100%usage. Imagine your computer's CPU loaded at that level for,say, 5 years of its life, non stop!


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Therefore, to keep up with the user requirements and alsocompeting centres in the region, A*CRC has to increase itscapacity rapidly, as soon as possible. After all, Japan andChina both have multiple petaflop-class systems right now,including the world's largest one in Kobe reaching close to 10PFLOPs at RIKEN right now. While we can't have a petaflopmachine in Singapore yet as of today, a slightly smaller one,say half-petaflop cluster of large core-count noder, wouldmake very good sense right now, to attract more users toour shores and provide a good base for an even largernational level supercomputing core. This takes an investmentin systems, infrastructure and of course people, but wouldcement Singapore's role as the high performance computingcentre of the region.

In the Part 2 of the story, we will look at some good applicationand code examples how A*CRC users actually make fullutilisation of thousands of cores and terabytes or memory, atone go, as well as challenges in configuring, benchmarkingand maintaining huge supercomputer systems of this sort,especially in our hot, humid climate here.

COMEX Show 2011Promotions: SamsungSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/comex-show-2011-promotions-

samsung/13449.html

September 1st, 2011

Samsung will be showcasing their range of products fromlaptops, smartphones, LCD TVs, Blu-ray players, homeentertainment systems to tablet devices, video camcorders anddigital cameras at this week's COMEX Show 2011. TheSamsung booth can be located on level 4, booth 8321, 8328.

Samsung D7000 LED TV

The LED D7000 incorporates improved backlight scanningtechnology with Samsung’s new 3D proprietary frameinterpolation algorithm, which improves 3D picture qualityand creates sharp 2D and 3D pictures and smooth frametransitions without blurring. With access to Smart Hub, theLED D7000 Series is an ideal media center, complementingconsumers’ ever connected and mobile lifestyles.

Usual Price: 46-inch - S$4,499; 55-inch - S$5,999COMEX Promotion:TBA

Samsung NX11 Camera

Equipped with a built-in flash and electronic VGA (640x480)viewfinder, the NX11 sports a 3-inch AMOLED LCD screenwhich reduces glare from sunlight so that images can be seenunder any lighting conditions. The NX11 also provides highquality video with 720p HD recording, and its large APS-Csensor allows the videos to be recorded with shallow depthof field, providing effects similar to in-motion picture movies.The NX11 will come complete with an 18-55mm i-Functionlens, as well as two new i-Function lenses, a 20mm pancakeand a 20-50mm zoom silver color lens.

COMEX Promotion: S$999 with 20-50 mm i-Functionstandard kit lens


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Samsung Series 9, 900X3A, 13.3-inch Notebook

With a maximum thickness of 16.3mm and an ultralightweight of 1.31 kg, the 9 Series Notebook 900X3A sports ahigh quality screen boasting market-leading 400nit brightnessand 16 million colors. It also comes equipped with anIntel CoreTM i7/i5 Processor, solid state drive and genuineWindows 7 Home Premium. Using Samsung’s innovativePowerPlus charging technology and a power-efficient andadvanced Lithium-Polymer battery, it has a battery lifespanthat lasts up to 6.5 hours.

COMEX Promotion:S$2,488

Samsung GALAXY S II

The Samsung GALAXY S II features a 1.2GHz dual-coreprocessor, HSPA+ connectivity providing data transfer ofup to 21Mbps, a Super AMOLED Plus touchscreen display.At just 8.49mm in thickness, the new smartphone is apowerful evolution of its predecessor in speed, screen and slimdesign. Weighing 116g, the GALAXY II has a 4.27-inch SuperAMOLED Plus screen, making improvements in screen size,colour gamut and power consumption.

COMEX Promotion:16GB - S$998

Samsung GALAXY Tab 10.1

The GALAXY Tab 10.1 features Samsung’s own TouchWiz userinterface implemented on the Android Honeycomb platform,offering superior multi-tasking and enhanced user interactionand navigation. It is the world’s thinnest mobile tabletavailable, at 8.6 mm and weighs approximately 560g. TheGALAXY Tab 10.1, with its WXGA TFT LCD display (1280x 800) is powered by 1GHz dual core AP. It is the perfectdevice for sharing and enjoying media content with family andfriends.

COMEX Promotion:16GB 3G version - S$848

M1 announces new mDatamobile broadband plansSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/m1-announces-new-mdata-mobile-

broadband-plans/13448.html

September 1st, 2011

M1 Limited (M1) has announced that it will launch four newcompetitively priced mobile broadband plans for customers onSeptember 1 this year. The new plans, which are claimed tobe aimed at providing a better mobile surfing experience toconsumers, will reportedly start from the low price of S$12 amonth and will be differentiated by data bundle sizes.

M1 has announced the availability of four new mData mobilebroadband plans for customers starting from September 1 thisyear. According to M1, the new plans, which start from the lowprice of S$12 per month, will help the company to provide abetter mobile surfing experience to customers

The new plans will be provisioned at the speeds of 7.2Mbps or 21 Mbps theoretical download speeds, althoughM1 has claimed that users can expect to experience typicaldownload speeds ranging between 0.6 to 6.7 Mbps under mostcircumstances. M1 has also confirmed that customers who optto go for the 7.2 Mbps package will be given the chance to


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choose from a range of plans valued from $12 for 5GB to $40for 50GB.

Last but definitely not least, the company has also confirmedthat mData’s monthly mobile broadband data usage bundlewill be capped at a maximum of $69.30 to help eliminate thelikelihood of consumers suffering from a heart attack causedby astronomically high data charges due to freak incidents.

The full list of mData mobile broadband plans from M1 are asfollow:

COMEX Show 2011Promotions: MicrosoftSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/comex-show-2011-promotions-

microsoft/13446.html

September 1st, 2011

Microsoft is making a great presence at this year's COMEXShow with great promotions on their keyboards, mice and webcameras, as well as XBox 360 and Kinect games. You can alsotrade in your old console and receive up to $150 off a new Xbox360, as well as pre-order for the higly-anticipated GEARS OFWAR 3. Their booth can be located on level 6, booth 6126.

Microsoft Touch Mouse

The newly launched Microsoft Touch Mouse is optimallydesigned for Windows 7 PCs. The new multitouch mouselets you click, flick, scroll and swipe, so it is easy, fun andinteract more intuitively on your PC. The top of the TouchMouse is composed of a matrix of capacitive touch-sensingelectrodes to track the position of the user’s fingertips alongits surface.

COMEX Promotion: S$99 (Free S$10 shopping voucher)

Microsoft Comfort Curve Keyboard 3000

The Comfort Curve Keyboard 3000 features an ergonomist-approved contour layout that creates an organic arc toencourage natural wrist posture. It has a slim and glossydesign makes a modern statement while minimizing clutter onyour desktop, and media keys that provide one-touch access topopular media functions, such as play, pause and volume.

COMEX Promotion: S$27

Microsoft LifeCam Studio

Enjoy great video chat with friends and family with the newMicrosoft LifeCam Studio webcam. It incorporates a full highdefinition 1080p sensor that can deliver widescreen videoat 16:9 at up to 30 frames per second. With ClearFrameTechnology, it can offer smooth, detailed video with animproved de-noiser, which reduces image graininess —especially in low light.

Usual Price: S$149COMEX Promotion: S$129


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Gears of War 3 Limited Edition Xbox 360 console

Custom designed with artwork inspired by Gears of War 3,Xbox 360 is offering this exclusive console with Wi-Fi built-infor easier connection to the world of games and entertainmenton Xbox LIVE. This limited offer also includes a copy of thegame Gears of War 3, two custom-designed Xbox 360 wirelesscontrollers, and a 320GB hard drive. Available only for alimited time.

COMEX Promotion: S$649

COMEX Show 2011Promotions: HPSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/comex-show-2011-promotions-

hp/13445.html

September 1st, 2011

Even though HP has announced the price drop of US$99for thier TouchPad tablet devices, there is still no news asto whether the company will be offering that price tag toconsumers. (Probably the reason why we have yet to receiveall the promotions). Well, here are some of the great deals ontheir printers and all-in-one devices. You can check out theirbooth on level 4, hall 401, booth 8150.

HP Officejet 6500A Plus e-All-in-One

The HP Officejet 6500A Plus e-All-in-One allows smallbusinesses to get professional colour and laser performanceat a low cost per page. Featuring HP ePrint, users can printanytime, anywhere using any mobile device1. The printer alsofeatures a 2.36-inch (5.99cm) color touchscreen display toeasily copy, fax, print, scan and more.

COMEX Promotion Price: TBA

HP Officejet 100 Mobile Printer

The HP Officejet 100 Mobile Printer is designed to be easy touse and requires minimal maintenance. Whether you are inthe office, in a car, or at an airport, you can print wherever youwant, knowing that you will get the same quality you expectfrom desk-top printers.



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HP Laserjet Pro CM1415FNW

The HP LaserJet Pro CM 1415FNW is the first LaserJet printerthat allows users to print from the Web and mobile devices.Users can minimize environmental impact with the Instant-on Technology and Instant-on Copy. It features wireless andEthernet connectivity which lets you print from anywhere inthe office via a shared network.


HP Photosmart Premium Fax e-All-in-One C410a

The HP Photosmart Premium Fax e-All-in-One C410a is an all-in-one that allows you to do more. You can boost your homeprinter capabilities by easily faxing, scanning and copying withthis 50-page automatic document feeder (ADF), and printphotos and web content without a PC. With the revolutionary

HP ePrint technology, users can print anytime, anywhere andfrom any mobile device.


COMEX Show 2011Promotions: OlympusSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/comex-show-2011-promotions-

olympus/13444.html

September 1st, 2011

Photographer enthusiasts would be delighted with some of thegood promotions on Olympus digital cameras including theOlympus E-PL1, E-P3 and E-PL3 which use micro four-thirdssystem, and XZ-1. The Olympus booth can be located on level4, hall 404, booth 8205.

Olympus E-P3

The Olympus E-P3 claims to be the flagship of the PEN seriesof new generation Micro Four Thirds system cameras withthe world’s fastest autofocusing (AF) achieved through theFAST (Frequency Acceleration Sensor) AF system and alens incorporating the MSC (movie and still compatible)mechanism. It also boasts superb image quality and highISO12800 sensitivity, thanks to the new 12.3-megapixel HighSpeed Live MOS Sensor with full HD movie compatibility andnew TruePic VI image processing engine.

Usual Price:

Option 1: E-P3 14-42mm Lens Kit - S$1,298 (w/ GST)Body (Available colours: Black, White and Silver)

M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 14-42mm II R f3.5-5.6

Bundled with 8GB SD Card

Option 2: E-P3 Twin Lens Kit - S$1,548 (with GST)Body (Available colours: Black, White and Silver)


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M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 40-150mm R f4.0-5.6 lens



Olympus E-PL3

Launched on 29 June, the Olympus E-PL3 is designed as thecentrepiece of Olympus’s popular PEN series of versatile, high-performance interchangeable-lens digital cameras. It is thefirst PEN series camera with a swivel type 3.0-inch displaythat can tits 80-degree up and 45-degree down for improvedfunctionality and compatibility with size reduction.

Option 1: E-PL3 14-42mm Lens Kit - S$998 (w/ GST)Body (Available colours: Black, White, Silver and Red)



Option 2: E-PL3 Twin Lens Kit - S$1,248 (w/ GST)Body (Available colours: Black, White, Silver and Red)


M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 40-150mm R


Olympus E-PL1

Availabile in white, champagne gold, and black, the OlympusE-PL1 is an entry-level micro four-thirds camera that isequipped with a new Live Guide interface which makesit easy for photographer enthusiasts and beginners. Withthe dedicated Movie mode button, you can quick access tomovie shooting at any time. The E-PL1 also comes withsix Art Filters, including new Gentle Sepia, for enhancedphotographic creativity.

E-PL1 14-42mm Lens Kit - S$698 (with GST)Body (Available colours: White, Champagne Gold, and Black)

M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 14–42mm

Olympus XZ-1

The Olympus XZ-1 uses the brightest i.ZUIKO DIGITALf1.8 lens which is the first to be designed for a point andshoot digital camera. It has a large f1.8-2.5 aperture thatassures maximum brightness from wide-angle to telescopicand combines with the large 1/1.63-inch high-sensitivity CCDsensor to achieve amazing picture quality close to that ofdigital SLR cameras.

Usual Price: S$698COMEX Promotion Price: TBA


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Razer announces Stealthversions of BlackWidowand BlackWidow UltimatekeyboardsSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/razer-announces-stealth-versions-of-

blackwidow-and-blackwidow-ultimate-keyboards/13443.html

September 1st, 2011

Razer has announced the availability of the new Stealthversions of its BlackWidow and BlackWidow Ultimate series ofmechanical gaming keyboards. According to the company, thenew Stealth Edition keyboards have been designed to offer thetactility of a typical mechanical keyboard, but with the addedbenefit of having a much quieter feedback that is reportedlyideal for the “true silent assassins of gaming”.

If you love Razer's line of mechanical gaming keyboards butcannot stand having to deal with the annoying clicky soundsproduced by the keyboards' mechanical switches any longer,you are in luck. This is because Razer has just announcedthe availability of the new Stealth editions of the BlackWidowand BlackWidow Ultimate mechanical keyboards, which thecompany claims have been designed to deliver the sameperformance as the non-Stealth versions, but with the addedbenefit of more quiet feedback.

As they are essentially the same keyboards with quieterswitches, the BlackWidow Ultimate Stealth Edition andthe BlackWidow Stealth Edition have access to all of thefeatures that are present on their non-stealth counters. Inthe BlackWidow Ultimate Stealth Edition's case, this includessupport for anti-ghosting across the entire keyset to allow forup to six simultaneous key presses, programmable keys withon-the-fly macro recording, keys for media control and audiojacks.

The BlackWidow Stealth Edition, on the other hand, dropsthe anti-ghosting support that is present on the Ultimateedition, but otherwise sports the same features present on theBlackWidow Ultimate Stealth Edition, such as programmablekeys with on-the-fly macro recording, buttons for multimedia

control and the option to disable the Windows key whilegaming.

The Razer BlackWidow Stealth Edition and BlackWidowUltimate Stealth Edition gaming mechanical keyboards arenow available for purchase from Razerzone.com at the price ofUS$79.99 and US$139.99 respectively.

COMEX Show 2011Promotions: NortonSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/comex-show-2011-promotions-

norton/13442.html

September 1st, 2011

While consumer products like digital cameras, smartphonesand laptops are hugely popular at PC Fairs, security solutionsare also well sought after. Norton will debut their newInternet Security 2012, Antivirus 2012 and Norton 360 V5.0at tomorrow's COMEX Show 2011. Symantech's main booth islocated on level 6, booth 6251.

Norton Internet Security 2012

The new Norton Internet Security 2012 offers various securityfeatures such as the Norton Identity Safe that provides a


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streamlined interface with improved login and form detectiontechnology; Norton Management which makes it easy for usersto download, transfer, update, or renew your Norton productsfrom anywhere right over the Internet; and Norton OnlineFamily that helps to keep your kids safe online as it trackswhere your kids go and what they do online.

COMEX Promotion Price: S$29 (1 user license); S$49 (3 userlicense); S$79 (5 user license)

Norton Antivirus 2012

If you only need the anti-virus protection, the newNorton Antivirus 2012 has all the features that are adequatefor your use. It comes with Norton Management which is alsofound on the Internet Security 2012 for users to download,transfer, update, or renew your Norton products; NortonInsight, the latest version of Norton’s exclusive reputation-based security technology, checking where files came fromand how long they have been around to automatically identifyand stop new online threats before trouble arises. It alsodoes Insight checks on every downloaded file for safety andprotects users against dangerous applications by promptingif they may harm the health and stability of your computerbefore you install them.

COMEX Promotion Price: S$39 (1 user license); S$69 (3 userlicense); S$119 (5 user license)

Norton 360 V5.0

The Norton 360 V5.0 features groundbreaking new reputationservice technology that provides unmatched real-time threatdetection to guard against viruses, worms, spyware, bots,Trojans, rootkits, identity thieves, and other digital dangerssuch that users can browse, purchase, and bank online withoutworry. It has an automated set-it-and-forget-it backup withweb access that lets you quickly and easily retrieve andrestore digital photos, music, financial documents, and otherimportant files in case of loss or damage. The Norton 360 canalso automatically tunes up users’ PC to help keep it runningwell.

Usual Price: S$64.99 (1 user license); S$158.99 (3 userlicense); S$199.99 (5 user license)COMEX Promotion Price: S$59 (1 user license); S$99 (3 userPremier Edition license with 25GB online backup storage); S$159 (5 user license)

Additional special offers:

Any 1-user purchase will entitle customer to 1 chance at thelucky drawAny 3-user or 5-user purchase will entitle customer to have 3tries at the lucky draw

Top prize each day will be the latest Lenovo IdeaPad Tablet K132GB bundled with Norton Mobile Security

Other prizes include Xbox Kinect 4GB, TomTom GPS XXL 550and Sandisk 4GB Cruzer Edge USB drive

Samsung announcesavailability of new mobilephones with Bada 2.0Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/samsung-announces-availability-of-

new-mobile-phones-with-bada-2.0/13441.html

September 1st, 2011

So you want a new smartphone to play around with, but do notwish to get involved with the fan war that is currently ragingbetween Android, Symbian, BlackBerry OS, Windows Phone 7and iOS users, don't you? If so, don't sweat it; Samsung has justannounced the availability of a new batch of smartphones thatwill be preloaded with the latest version of its Bada operatingsystem, Bada 2.0

Getting a new smartphone is always something that is worthlooking forward to, but the possibility of getting into flamewars with users or various mobile operating systems is avery real problem with some would like to avoid as much aspossible. If this sounds like what you are consciously lookingout for in your choice of smartphone platforms, the goodnews is Samsung has just announced the availability of a newbatch of smartphones that are powered by its latest Bada 2.0operating system.

According to the machine translation of Samsung's recentpress announcement, it seems that the Korean electronicsgiant intends to release at least three new smartphones basedoff the Bada operating system for sale on the market sometime soon. Known as the Samsung Wave 3, Wave M and WaveY, Samsung claims that the new smartphones are designed tobe premium products that will cater to users who reportedlydesire smartphones that feature a robust platform.

Not much information about the new smartphones have bereleased by Samsung, although the company has claimed thatthe new Samsung Wave 3, which is touted as the flagshipmodel for the new Bada-powered smartphones, will feature afour-inch Super AMOLED display of an unknown resolution,as well as support for wireless connectivity via Bluetooth 3.0and WiFi under the b, g and n bands. In addition, the companyhas also confirmed that the Wave 3 will sport a processorclocked at 1.4GHz and what is reportedly a five-megapixelcamera.


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On the other hand, the Samsung Wave M will sport a 3.65-inch display that is capable of displaying content at HVGAresolutions, along with a five-megapixel camera, and a sleekdesign which is reportedly aimed at making it easy for userswith smaller hands, such as women, to have a comfortable gripon the phone.

Last but not least, Samsung has also announced theavailability of the new Samsung Wave Y smartphone, whichwill make use of a 3.2-inch TFT LCD display capable ofdisplaying content at HVGA resolutions, along with a two-megapixel camera and a slew of features designed to make iteasy for the first-time smartphone user to get the most out ofthe Bada operating system.

No details about pricing and global availability of the newsmartphones have been released by Samsung at this point oftime.

COMEX Show 2011Promotions: DellSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/comex-show-2011-promotions-

dell/13439.html

September 1st, 2011

Check out the exclusive offers from Dell at tomorrow'sCOMEX Show which include the Alienware M14x, Inspiron13z, Inspiron 14 and Inspiron 15R laptops, and Inspiron620MT desktop PC. The Dell's booth is located on level 4,booth 8251, 8230, 8139, 8418. On top of that, the company willbe providing free shuttle bus services from various locationsaround Singapore to ferry visitors to COMEX 2011, as well asvarious activities including the chance to win attractive prizes.


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Dell Inspiron 13z Notebook

Powered by Intel Core i3 2330M processor, the Dell Inspiron13z sports a 13.3-inch HD WLED True-Life display (1366x768)for your mutlimedia enjoyment. It comes with 2GB DDR3SDRAM (1333Mhz), Intel HD graphics 3000 video card,320GB 7200RPM SATA hard disk, and is preloaded withMicrosoft Windows 7 Home Premium operating system.

Usual Price: S$899Comex Promotion Price: S$799 + free DVD-RW drive worthS$99

Dell Inspiron 620MT Desktop

The slim and high-performance Inspiron 620MT lets youdo more and share more. It comes with Intel Core i5 2310processor, 4GB memory,1GB AMD Radeon 6450 video card, 1TB SATA hard disk andpreinstalled with Windows 7 Home Premium OS. The Inspiron620MT is also bundled with 20-inch LED monitor with 1-yearwarranty with in-home service.

Usual Price: S$1,099Comex Promotion Price: S$949 + additional S$50 off forAmex customers

Dell Inspiron 14 (N4050) Laptop

The compact and responsive Inspiron 14 (N4050) is all youneed to get your work done wherever you go. It offers a 14-inch HD WLED True-Life display (1366x768), and is equippedwith 2.3GHz Intel Core i5 2410M processor with Turbo Boost2.0, 4GB DDR3 SDRAM (1333Mhz), 1GB AMD Radeon HD6470M video card, 500GB SATA hard disk and preloaded withWindows 7 Home Premium operating system.

Usual Price: S$999Comex Promotion Price: S$899 + additional Belkin backpackworth S$39 for Amex customers + free 2nd year warrantyupgrade worth S$99

Dell Inspiron 15R Laptop

The Dell Inspiron 15R comes with stylish designs that claimto fit every personality and full features that let you stayconnected and entertained anywhere, anytime. Specifications-wise, it comes with 15.6-inch HD WLED True-Life display(1366x768), Intel Core i7 2630QM processor, 6GB DDR3memory, 1GB Nvidia GT 525M video card and 640GB SATAhard disk.

Usual Price: S$1,349Comex Promotion Price: S$1,099 + free exchangeable lid andsecond year extended warrantyworth over S$168


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Dell Alienware M14x Laptop

If you are looking for a high performance gaming laptop,you must check out the Alienware M14x at Dell's booth.Incorporating high-end hardware components including IntelCore i5 2410M processor, 1.5GB Nvidia GeForce GT555M withNvidia Optimus switchable graphics technology, 4GB DDR3SDRAM and 500GB SATA hard disk, the Alienware M14xclaims to be the most powerful 14-inch high definition gaminglaptop in the universe.

Usual Price: S$2,099Comex Promotion Price: S$1,999 + free Razer Gaming Mouseand Headset worth over S$168

Sony launches new digital 3Dsurround sound headphonessystem in JapanSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/sony-launches-new-digital-3d-

surround-sound-headphones-system-in-japan/13440.html

September 1st, 2011

Sony has announced the availability of its new digital 3Dsurround sound headphones system, the MDR-DS7500, inJapan, According to the company, the new headphones isdesigned to faithfully reproduce the same quality of soundwhich artists and film-makers have originally intended forconsumers to hear.

Sony has announced the availability of its new digital 3Dsurround sound headphones system, the MDR-DS7500, inJapan. According to the company, the new headphoneshave been specially designed to ensure that it is capable ofdelivering to consumers a faithful reproduction of the kind ofsound which artists and film-makers have originally intendedfor consumers to hear.

According to a machine translation of the Japaneseelectronics giant's recent press release, the new MDR-DS7500headphones has been touted to be the industry's first suchheadphones to be optimized for 3D surround sound usedin the playback of 3D video content. Sony claims that theheadphones feature the Dolby Pro Logic II z decoder which isreportedly capable of delivering 7.1 channel surround soundfor greater depth and realism. In addition, the company hasalso added that the MDR-DS7500 has been furnished with3D VPT technology to further enhance the realism of theheadphones' surround sound system.

Additional features available on the MDR-DS7500 includewhat appears to be the capability to accept audio inputdirectly via HDMI, various pre-set audio modes such as NewCinema Mode, Game Mode and Voice Mode for optimal audioplayback quality under specific conditions, as well as theability to be remotely controlled. Last but not least, Sonyhas also confirmed that the NDR-DS7500 will feature built-insupport for BRAVIA Sync, where users can remotely control acompatible BRAVIA television set via the headphones.

Full specifications for the MDR-DS7500 surroundheadphones are as follow:

The MDR-DS7500 surround headphones are expected tomake their way onto retail shelves in Japan for sale comeOctober 10 this year at the suggested retail price of 49,350 yen(approx US$643) after taxes.

Samsung announcesavailability of new portablemedia players in KoreaSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/samsung-announces-availability-of-

new-portable-media-players-in-korea/13438.html


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September 1st, 2011

For most people, the fact that their smartphones boast thecapability to provide basic audio and video playback meansthat there is little need to invest in a dedicated portable mediaplayer when their smartphones can satisfy that need. However,it seems that there are enough people who believe in the valueof having such a dedicated media player for Samsung to justifythe release of yet another such device, and it comes in the formof its new YP-R2 and YP-Z3 players.

Who needs to invest in a portable media player when thehumble mobile phone, which boasts the ability to deliver basicmedia playback support, is fast becoming the device of choicefor portable media playback while on the move? Well, tell thatto Samsung; the Korean electronics giant has just announcedthe availability of two new portable media players, the YP-R2and YP-Z3, in Korea.

According to the machine translation of Samsung's pressrelease, the new YP-R2 and YP-Z3 portable media playersfeature the Korean electronics giant's SoundAlive technologywhich allows for increased audio playback quality such as bassenhancement as well as three-dimensional sound. In addition,the YP-R2 will sport a three-inch WQVGA touchscreen andcome bundled with the DivX codec for better video playbacksupport.

On the other hand, the YP-Z3 will come with a 1.8-inchdisplay (non-touchscreen) and make use of physical buttonsfor navigation. Last but definitely not least, Samsung hasconfirmed that the media players will be capable of playing

back most common audio formats, such as MP3, WMA, Acc,Ogg and more importantly. Flac.

The YP-R2 will be available in black silver color at the priceof 149,000 won or approximately US$139 (4GB) and 169,000won (approx US$158) for the 8GB variant , while the YP-Z3will come in Mercy Mellow White, Cherry Pink and Mint Blue,and will be sold at the price 119,000 won (aprox US$111)for atotal of 8GB storage space.

ASUS announces availabilityof new O!Play Mini Plus set-top box in SingaporeSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/asus-announces-availability-of-new-o-

play-mini-plus-set-top-box-in-singapore/13437.html

September 1st, 2011

Want to hook up a home theatre PC (HTPC) of sorts to yourTV set but don't wish to deal with all the hassle involved inconfiguring it? Don't worry, there is a set-top box for that, andit comes in the form of ASUS's new set-top media player box,the O!PlayMini Plus, in Singapore. According to ASUS, thenew device is designed to offer access to a multitude of onlineservices for endless entertainment from both video and socialmedia websites, among many others.

ASUS has announced the availability of its new set-top boxfor home theatre systems, the ASUS O!Play Mini Plus, inSingapore. According to ASUS, the new O!Play Mini Plusis designed to designed to offer access to a multitude ofonline services for endless entertainment from both video andsocial media websites, along with many other media-relatedfeatures.


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In an official announcement made by the companyyesterday, ASUS claimed that the new O!Play Mini Plusset-top box will feature built-in support for various onlinemedia streaming and social networking services, such as“Mediafly, Dailymotion, Facebook, YouTube, Picasa, Flickr(and) thousands of internet TV and radio stations. ASUS hasalso touted the new O!Play Mini Plus set-top box as being theworld's first device to support Acetrax, the most popular onlinevideo on demand service in Europe.

On the specifications side, it would appear that the new O!Play Mini Plus set-top box has got just about everything anaverage user will need to get the system working right out-of-the-box. According to ASUS, the device will feature built-in support for gigabit Ethernet and WiFi N connectivity, whileutility tools such as O!Direct and O!MediaShare enable usersto stream media files from a variety of devices straight to anHDTV without complicated setups, as well as stream contentfrom a desktop PC or notebook to the TV.

Full specifications for the new O!Play Mini Plus set-top box areas follow:

No details about the O!Play Mini Plus set-top box's pricing hasbeen announced by ASUS at this point.

Zotac launches tiny AMD E-series powered ZBOX nanoSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/zotac-launches-tiny-amd-e-series-

powered-zbox-nano/13436.html

September 1st, 2011

If you're on the hunt for a tiny PC – and we're not talkingMac mini small here, we mean really tiny – then Zotac mightjust have what you're after in the shape of its ZBOX nano, a127x127mm AMD E-series APU powered computer. It mightnot have the most powerful hardware, but you'll have a hardtime finding anything smaller with as many features crammedinto it.

If you're on the hunt for a tiny PC – and we're not talkingMac mini small here, we mean really tiny – then Zotac mightjust have what you're after in the shape of its ZBOX nano, a127x127mm AMD E-series APU powered computer. It mightnot have the most powerful hardware, but you'll have a hardtime finding anything smaller with as many features crammedinto it.

We first saw this tiny box on display at Computex, but backthen it was featuring a VIA Nano CPU, but it seems like eitherZotac changed their mind, or they just made another SKUwith AMD's E-series APU. Zotac will apparently be offering theZBOX nano with either an AMD E-350 or an E-450, althoughthe initial version appears to be sporting the E-350. Despiteits small size, the ZBOX nano is missing very little in terms offeatures.


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For starters, looking around the back we find two USB2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, a Gigabit Ethernet port, aneSATA port, a DisplayPort, an HDMI port and an antenna for150Mbps 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 3.0. Around thefront is a pair of audio jacks, a memory card reader that takesmost of the regular formats apart from CF cards and an IRreceiver. Internally there's only room for a single SO-DIMMand a 2.5-inch drive. A remote control is also bundled thatworks with Windows MCE and for some reason Zotac is alsosupplying an additional IR receiver that connects via USB.

Although at 127x127mm the ZBOX nano is tiny, it's quitechubby at 45mm tall. It does of course have an externalpower brick as its power source and Zotac supplies a VESAcompliant mounting plate that allows the entire system to bemounted on the back of an LCD screen. Overall it's a prettyneat little package, but if the Japanese price is anything to by,it's horrendously expensive, as in Japan it retails for 27,500Yen (S$433) and the Plus model which comes with 2GB ofDDR3 RAM and a 320GB hard drive is even pricier at 35,000Yen (S$550) which makes it questionable if this is the routeto go down. That said, prices in Japan are usually higher forelectronics, but even so, it doesn't seem worth the money. At

the time of writing there were no details to be found on theZotac website relating to the ZBOX nano.

AMD Trinity to feature RadeonHD 7000 GraphicsSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/amd-trinity-to-feature-radeon-

hd-7000-graphics/13434.html

September 1st, 2011

AMD first demonstrated next-gen Trinity APUs at FusionDeveloper Summit in June this year, also revealing Trinitywill feature a GPU part based on the VLIW-4 architecturecurrently only used in Radeon HD 6900 series. Fudzilla havenow leaked a Globalfoundries slide which mentions the GPUpart of Trinity will be branded as part of the Radeon HD 7000family.

AMD first demonstrated next-gen Trinity APUs at FusionDeveloper Summit in June this year, also revealing Trinitywill feature a GPU part based on the VLIW-4 architecturecurrently only used in Radeon HD 6900 series. Fudzilla havenow leaked a Globalfoundries slide which mentions the GPUpart of Trinity will be branded as part of the Radeon HD 7000family.

The slide mentions upcoming Orochi die, set to release asZambezi or FX-Series on the desktop and Valencia (Opteron4200) and Interlagos (Opteron 6200) on servers. AMD'snext-gen Fusion APU, Trinity, is set to feature next-genPiledriver architecture cores, as revealed in recent roadmaps.As mentioned before, the GPU part will be part of the RadeonHD 7000 family, and is rumoured to feature the VLIW-4architecture. The overall improvement in theoretical GFlopswill be 50% over Llano. Of course, while this may not indicatea 50% increase in real-world performance, Trinity is set to be a


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major step forward for the Fusion initiative. Trinity is expectedto release in the first half of 2012.

In addition, Fudzilla also reports that the next-gen 28nm partswill now also be branded under the Radeon HD 7000 moniker,as expected.

Corsair adds roomier SKUs tothe Force GT SSD seriesSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/corsair-adds-roomier-skus-to-the-

force-gt-ssd-series/13433.html

September 1st, 2011

So far Corsair has only offered fairly small sized SSDs inits high-performance Force GT series of SSDs, but now thecompany has added a pair of new, roomier models to theseries. The new capacities are 180 and 240GB, a doubling ofthe two previously largest models.

So far Corsair has only offered fairly small sized SSDs inits high-performance Force GT series of SSDs, but now thecompany has added a pair of new, roomier models to theseries. The new capacities are 180 and 240GB, a doubling ofthe two previously largest models.

These SandForce SF-2280 driven SSDs have also gained asmall performance increase on the write side, with bothmodels offering write speeds of up to 525MB/s, up from515MB/s for the 120GB drive. A small increase perhaps andthe sequential write speed is still stuck at 555MB/s. As with theprevious models, Corsair is bundling both drives with a 3.5-inch adapter.

We're expecting one of the new models for testing andalthough neither comes in cheap, we'd expect Corsair to becompeting for a top spot in terms of raw SSD performance withthese models. As for pricing, the 180GB model has an MSRP ofUS$379 (S$459) while the 240GB model comes in at US$489(S$590), which is pretty much in line with other SSDs basedon the latest generation of SandForce controllers.

COMEX Show 2011Promotions: SonySource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/comex-show-2011-promotions-

sony/13432.html

September 1st, 2011

At the COMEX 2011, Sony will have some great promotionson their products including the Cyber-shot DSC-WX30, VAIOZ notebook PC and the recently launched NEX-5N mirrorlessinterchangeable lens camera. The company will occupy theusual area on the Concourse on level 3, and their booth canalso be seen on level 4, booth 8210.

Sony VAIO Z Series Notebook PC


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The Sony VAIO Z series is designed as a high performance yetthin and light PC. It is equipped with second generation IntelCore i7 processor, SSD in RAID ) configuration and full highdefinition LCD display for your multimedia enjoyment. TheVAIO Z comes with an optional Power Media Dock with AMDRadeon HD 6650M (1GB VRAM) and Blu-ray disc player.

COMEX Show Price: TBA

Sony NEX-5N Interchangeable Lens Camera

This new compact NEX-5N from Sony is built on thepopularity of the NEX-5 and claims to offer superbresponsiveness, image quality and creativity of a DSLRcamera. It features 16.1-Megapixel Exmor APS HD CMOSsensor and new BIONZ processor enabling ISO 25600 highsensitivity, full high definition movie with 50p/25p, manualfocus, full P/A/S/M exposure control and improved audio. TheNEX-5N also comes with a tilt-angled 3-inch Xtra Fine LCDtouchscreen display for viewfinder.


Sony Cyber-shot WX30

Launching at COMEX, the super-compact and stylish Cyber-shot WX30 offers a wide range of imaging options for stills, fullHD video and 3D shooting. It is also the first-ever Cyber-shotWX series model to feature a spacious 3-inch Xtra Fine LCDwide touch screen for beautifully simple fingertip operation.


COMEX Show 2011Promotions: PROLiNKSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/comex-show-2011-promotions-

prolink/13430.html

September 1st, 2011

PROLiNK will showcase several new products at the COMEXShow 2011, which include the new wireless pan/tilt networkcamera, Bluetooth keyboard, wireless presenter, and threedevice servers. The PROLiNK booth can be located on level 6,hall 602, booth 6231.

PROLiNK PPS2101, PPS2101N and PPS2104N Device Server

The new device servers with Sharehub technology are availablein three models, in 1-port (wireless and wired) as well as4-port wireless versions. Unlike regular print servers whichonly allow the user to share the use of standard printers, thenew Sharehub device servers can be used for sharing evenmultifunction printers. You can also share data in USB deviceswithin the network (acts as a network-attached storage device)and even playback music to USB speakers.

COMEX Show Price: S$69 (PPS2101), S$79 (PPS2101N) andS$85 (PPS2104N)


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PROLiNK PIC1003WP IP Camera

This new PROLiNK PIC1003WP IP camera claims to be one ofthe easiest IP cameras to set up in the market, and comes withwide range pan/ tilt capabilities as well as built-in micro-SDcard interface for video storage.

COMEX Show Price: S$299

PROLiNK PKM-3810B Bluetooth Keyboard

Aesthetically designed and very user-friendly, the PROLiNKBluetooth keyboard is a must for users who value functionalityas much as beauty. It is sleek and slim, comes with 12 hotkeys,and has a transmission range of up to 10m.


PROLiNK PWP102G Wireless Presenter

The wireless presenter, on the other hand, is bothergonomically designed and easy to use and setup. Theadditional function of the Optical Finger Navigation (OFN)technology allows the user to even use this device as an “airmouse” to remotely control your computer.


Renesas announces its firstSATA 6Gbps to USB 3.0 bridgecontrollerSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/renesas-announces-its-first-

sata-6gbps-to-usb-3.0-bridge-controller/13429.html

September 1st, 2011

Judging by today's announcement, Renesas has realised thatit only has so much time left in the so far for the company,very profitable USB 3.0 host controller market and it'snow branching into other USB 3.0 markets. As such thecompany has announced its first USB 3.0 peripheral chip,the µPD720230 which is a SATA 6Gbps to USB 3.0 bridgecontroller.

Judging by today's announcement, Renesas has realised thatit only has so much time left in the so far for the company,very profitable USB 3.0 host controller market and it'snow branching into other USB 3.0 markets. As such thecompany has announced its first USB 3.0 peripheral chip,the µPD720230 which is a SATA 6Gbps to USB 3.0 bridgecontroller.

The only other company we're currently aware of that hasa SATA 6Gbps to USB 3.0 bridge solution is ASMedia, so ifRenesas can deliver the µPD720230 on time in October asper the press release, then the company might just manage


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to hit the market at the right point in time. Renesas hasone advantage over its competitors, as it's only one oftwo companies that we're aware of that can offer UASPlicenses and as such the company has of course added UASPsupport to the µPD72023. This means that there should be aperformance improvement when used with UASP compatiblehost controllers.

As such, Renesas own host controllers as well as those foundin AMD's A75 and A70M chipsets should see not only aperformance advantage when used with the µPD720230, butUASP also adds support for command queuing, somethingthat the standard bulk-only transfer protocol lacks. With over40 million Renesas controllers already in the market, that's apretty decent install base to start making accessory chipsets forand unless its competitors licenses UASP support, we're goingto have to wait until Windows 8 until we get universal UASPsupport.

The press release doesn't talk too much about performance,but mentions speeds of up to 370MB/s using ATTO. This is avery impressive figure, but ATTO tends to produce numbersthat are in general higher than that seen in other benchmarksand as such we'd take this number with a grain of salt. On theother hand, we'll try to get hold of a bridge for testing to see ifRenesas can deliver on their claims.

Renesas has also implemented support for the U1 and U2power states which are part of the latest USB 3.0 specificationfor bridge devices, something VLI is already supporting in itsVL701. Renesas claims that this can help reduce the powerconsumption at idle by up to 40 percent, although we presumethis is when hard drives are used rather than SSDs.

Renesas expects to kick off production volumes of around500,000 chips a month and samples are already available.There seems to be some confusion about the pricing though, asthe Japanese press release mentions US$3 per chip in samplevolumes, while the English press release puts the price at US$3.50. We wouldn't expect to see products in the market basedon the µPD720230 until early 2012.

Sony VAIO Z review:Portability, meet PowerSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/sony-vaio-z-review-portability-meet-

power/13345.html

September 1st, 2011

Where Apple innovates, others follow, right? Well, apparentlynot for Sony, especially if the company's recent update to itsVAIO Z line of ultra-thin and highly portable notebooks areof any indication. With frills such as an extremely thin body,high-performance hardware for its assembly and the inclusionof an external graphics solution for added firepower, it wouldseem that Sony has had Apple finally beaten at its own game.Or has it? VR-Zone investigates.

As far as most people are concerned, Apple appears to be theonly computer OEM that is capable of churning out notebooksthat not only boast cutting edge and futuristic designs, but arealso thin enough to be capable of being transported around ina typical manilla envelope. However, it would seem that thedesign crown is no longer Apple's to dominate, especially ifthe introduction of Sony's new VAIO Z ultra-thin notebookis of any indication. With access to Intel's i7 range of mobileprocessors, a 13-inch LED backlit display that is capable of1080p resolutions, a docking station that doubles up as anexternal graphics solution, and copious amounts of RAM,Sony's intent is clear. The company is aiming to go head-to-head against Apple in the market for premium, ultra-portablenotebooks, a segment which Apple has enjoyed undisputedsuccess in for the longest time, with other OEMs mostlyplaying catch up to the Cuptertino giant.

That being said, good design and performance, while vital,cannot make up for a sloppy user experience, and suffice to saySony will have its work cut out for it in order to ensure thatits new VAIO Z is capable of delivering a decent experiencethat is worthy of its futuristic design. And that is what we arehere to find out in today's review of the Japanese electronicsgiant's new (and oh-so-droolworthy) VAIO Z ultra-portablenotebook.


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New SONY VAIOZ VPCZ217GG/N/X notebook PCspecifications Processor Intel Core i7-2620M clocked

at 2.7GHz (up to 3.4GHzunder TurboBoost), 4MB L3cache

Chipset Intel HM67 Chipset Graphics Card Onboard Intel HD Graphics

3000 Display LED backlit 13.3-inch full

high-definition display (1920x 1080) TFT VAIO DisplayPremium screen

Operating System Windows 7 Professional SP1(x64 version)

Memory 8GB DDR3 SDRAM (2 x 4GBcustom DIMM)

Storage capacity 256GB intenal flash memory(128GB SSD x 2 under RAID0)

Wireless Connectivity Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR, WiFi(802.11a/b/g/n)

Weight 1.165kg including bundledbattery pack

Considering how the docking station for the new Sony VAIOZ notebook is in itself both an attraction and a unique systemof sorts, we decided that it deserves its own little list ofspecifications as well:

VGP-PRZ20A externalPower Media Dockspecifications Graphics Card 1GB AMD Mobility Radeon

HD 6650M Optical disc drive BD-ROM with DVD

SuperMulti Dimensions 148.0 x 16.65 x 220.0 mm Weight 685g

September 6th, 2011 Published by: VR-Zone

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Single chip DIMM is close tobecoming realitySource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/single-chip-dimm-is-close-to-

becoming-reality/13500.html

September 6th, 2011

Things just got really interesting in the memory market space,as Invensas Corporation, a subsidiary of Tessera Technologieshave come up with a way to shove as much memory as thatfitted to a SO-DIMM into a single chip. The technology isknown as xFD or multi-die face-down packaging and it'll bedemonstrated at IDF San Francisco next week.

Things just got really interesting in the memory market space,as Invensas Corporation, a subsidiary of Tessera Technologieshave come up with a way to shove as much memory as thatfitted to a SO-DIMM into a single chip. The technology isknown as xFD or multi-die face-down packaging and it'll bedemonstrated at IDF San Francisco next week.

The xFD packaging is interesting in more ways than one, asalthough it's currently used to stack several DRAM wirebonddies into a single BGA package, it's possible that we couldsee other types of memory put into xFD packaging as well.Invensas claims that its xFD packaging can not only save 25to 35 percent space in vertical height, but it can also improveelectrical performance by 50 to 70 percent in speed-bin yieldand provide a 20 to 30 percent heat transfer advantage ofstandard dual-die packages.

Now as you might've gathered by now, xFD isn't necessarilygoing to bring cheaper memory, even though Invensas claimsthat it's cheaper to manufacture if you consider the memorydensity improvement. xFD will be available in either DFD(Dual Face Down) or QFD (Quad Face Down) which as thename suggests puts two or four DRAM dies inside a single chip.The xFD packaging supports x4, x8 and x16 data bus width,although the chip size will of course get bigger with largerchip sizes. The DFD packages will measures 11.5x11.5mmor alternatively 11.5x14mm while the QFD packages willmeasures 16.2x16.2mm.

Invensas claim to have tested and validated its xFD packagingat speeds of up to 2133MHz and although the company iscurrently targeting the server and datacentre market space,we can see this technology trickle down in consumer relatedproducts in the not too distant future and the company ismentioning mobile computing as one of its target marketsbeyond servers. If it proves to be cheaper to manufacture thantraditional memory packaging technology while delivering onthe performance claims, we might soon be back to the daysof single rank DIMMs (memory chips on only one side). TheDRAM business isn't exactly making a lot of money these daysand a solution like this might very well be able to reduce thecost of a single DIMM by a significant amount, simply byallowing for a component cut.

That said, for now the technology will most likely be used todouble or quadruple the memory size on server level DIMMs,which should not only help boost the amount of memory youcan put in a server, but hopefully also allow to reduce theoverall total memory cost by reducing the total DIMM countin many a server. So good news all around then? Well, we'llhave to wait and see how popular Invensas xFD packagingtechnology turns out, but in theory we could see products inthe future where only a chip or two make up an entire DIMM,quite a change from how things are today.

Source: Invensas

Lenovo announces IdeaPadU300s Ultrabook, and U300and U400 laptopsSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/lenovo-announces-ideapad-u300s-

ultrabook-and-u300-and-u400-laptops/13498.html


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September 6th, 2011

It was only last week when VR-Zone had an exclusive previewof the IdeaPad U400. Today, Lenovo has announced its newrange of luxury laptops, which come in the form of IdeaPadU300s Ultrabook, as well as the U300 and U400 laptops.The new IdeaPad U series laptops are designed for fashionistasand provide everything they need in a slender, mobile andsuper chic package.

Lenovo IdeaPad U300s Ultrabook

The super slim U300s Ultrabook features second generationIntel Core i7 processor with Intel Turbo Boost Technology2.0, and boots quickly in about10 seconds with EnhancedExperience 2.0 RapidDrive SSD technology. It has a 13.3-inch16:9 widescreen high definition display, 4GB DDR3 memoryand up to 256GB solid state drive. The U300s is built from asingle-piece aluminum shell to create a sleek and lightweightproduct weighing in at less than 1.4kg and measuring just14.9mm thin.

Available in Graphite Grey or limited-edition ClementineOrange with scratch-resistant coating, the U300s comeswith other smart technologies including Breathable Keyboard,an Intel Advanced Cooling Technology that allows air to flowin through the keyboard and out of the sides and rear hinge.

With Lenovo Long Life Battery, the U300s provides up toeight hours of productive use or an incredible 30 days onstandby. And with Lenovo RapidCharge its battery can becharged to 50% capacity in just 30 minutes. Other featuresinclude Bluetooth, 802.11n Wi-Fi, USB 2.0 and USB 3.0connectors, as well as an integrated 1.3-megapixel webcam.

Lenovo IdeaPad U300 and U400 Ultraportable Laptops

Equipped with second generation Intel Core processors, theLenovo IdeaPad U300 and U400 boast boot up times of under17 seconds thanks to the optional RapidDrive SSD technology.The U300 sports a 13.3-inch display while the U400 has a14-inch high definition display and AMD Radeon HD5470M1GB graphics. Both models have specifications that supportup to 8GB DDR3 memory, up to 1TB HDD storage and upto 256GB SSD storage. The U400 also has an integrated slot-loading DVD-RW drive. The Long Life Battery on the U300lasts for up to six hours of productivity and up to seven hourson the U400. Both laptops also feature the same BreathableKeyboard technology as the U300s.

Pricing and Availability

The Lenovo IdeaPad U300, U300s and U400 will be availablein Singapore from October 2011 onwards. All three laptops areavailable in a cool Graphite Gray color, and the U300s alsocomes in limited-edition Clementine Orange. Prices for theselaptop models will be announced closer to the availability date.

Genius Intros SP-U150X USBSpeakersSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/genius-intros-sp-u150x-usb-

speakers/13499.html


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September 6th, 2011

Peripherals major Genuis rolled a new line of cute-lookingUSB stereo speakers for PCs and Macs, particularly notebooks.The SP-U150X as it's called, comes in three variants basedon the color of a ring around its dome - black, yellow, andgreen. The speakers feature 2-inch drivers, which can deliver2W (RMS) output per speaker. Its shell is made of piano-black (glossy) ABS, with a matte front finish, and a glossy ringaround its dome. It takes input in two ways. It can act as a USBaudio device and run entirely off a USB connection, or it cantake a 3.5 mm line input while drawing power from USB.

Peripherals major Genuis rolled a new line of cute-lookingUSB stereo speakers for PCs and Macs, particularly notebooks.The SP-U150X as it's called, comes in three variants basedon the color of a ring around its dome - black, yellow, andgreen. The speakers feature 2-inch drivers, which can deliver2W (RMS) output per speaker. Its shell is made of piano-black (glossy) ABS, with a matte front finish, and a glossy ringaround its dome.

The SP-U150X set takes input in two ways. It can act as aUSB audio device and run entirely off a USB connection, or itcan take a 3.5 mm line input while drawing power from USB.Either ways, it needs the USB cable plugged in. Apart from its4W total maximum output, the speakers offer full frequencyresponse range from 100 Hz to 22 KHz. Measuring about 10

cm high, Genius notes that its rounded-triangle shape is "eye-catching". The set weighs about 400 grams.

The Genius SP-U150X speakers are now available in NorthAmerica for US $20.

Images Courtesy: Genius

Shenzhen Files 1: New MobilePhone Formats appear -UMEOX V3 credit card sizephone, and moreSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/shenzhen-files-1-new-mobile-phone-

formats-appear--umeox-v3-credit-card-size-phone-and-more/13497.html

September 6th, 2011

Our experienced well weathered strategic adviser, NebojsaNovakovic, covers here his discoveries and experiences fromvisits to various electronics hubs around the world. Thistime, his first thoughts on interesting hardware coming fromShenzhen - we start with UMEOX and its unique mobilephones.

When you get to Shenzhen, you'll get overwhelmed by thesprawling green city of over 14 million, and thousands ofgleaming skyscrapers, with a huge metro system that seemseven cleaner - and less crowded yet more modern - than theone we have in Singapore. If you're an electronics or computersbuff, this is probably heaven on earth for you, more so thanTaipei. There are dozens of electronics malls, many of themaround Huaqiang Lu's SEG Plaza, having everything under thesun from the weirdest resistors or oddball CPUs to LCD or LEDpanels, power supplies, drives... anything, you name it.


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However, the design capability of Shenzhen's own companieshas also improved dramatically, leading to many newbrands appearing in the market, including the currently hotsmartphone and tablet arena. Some of them even try to openup new market niches with unique models. A case in point wasUMEOX, a local Shenzhen mobile phone design firm, whichuses large contractors as FOXCONN and CHANGHONG formanufacturing, besides its own assembly facility - some 6million units last year. I saw their ultra compact phone model,V3, which may not have too many features, but is slim andbasically close to credit card size.

With roughly 9 x 5 cm dimensions, and just 5.8 mm thickness,this Infineon ULC2-based unit, sold to Alcatel in France andPearl in Germany, among others, is the first phone that I knowof, that can be carried INSIDE THE WALLET. The simple lowcost quad-band 2G phone, as you can see here, isn't intendedfor mobile Net or other fancy activities, but for what thephones were originally used for: calls and messages. I guess atouchscreen 3G version could add even those mobile surfingcapabilities.

UMEOX also offers SOLO, a rugged, water/shock/dustproof design with huge back solar panel for total outdoorindependence, but again it is a 2G phone, aimed at keycommunication functionality important when away fromurban areas, rather than sophisticated Net surfing or such.It is also fine when the sun goes down, as, once the batteryis charged, there is still 250 minute talk time. According toMs Sandy Zhang in UMEOX marketing, this phone was also

exported to Singapore, besides other usual global markets.Other stuff they design includes oversize button senior citizenphones with SOS buttons, as well as tracker devices. They don'tseem to have a very high end 'flagship' mobile phone model,though, which is a pity as having a good flagship often benefitsthe sales of same vendor's lower end units, as the users havemore confidence in the technological capability of the vendoritself. More on these, as well as other interesting gadgetrycoming out of Shenzhen labs, on these pages soon.

Hitachi GST first with singleplatter 1TB hard drivesSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/hitachi-gst-first-with-single-

platter-1tb-hard-drives/13496.html

September 6th, 2011

One Terabyte per platter hard drives isn't breaking news thesedays, but Hitachi GST has put a twist on things by launchingseveral new models with a single 1TB platter in them. Thenew drives are also available in smaller sizes, but this is wherethings get strange, as despite being a single 1TB platter drive,some of the models will only offer 250 or 320GB of usablestorage space.

One Terabyte per platter hard drives isn't breaking news thesedays, but Hitachi GST has put a twist on things by launchingseveral new models with a single 1TB platter in them. Thenew drives are also available in smaller sizes, but this is wherethings get strange, as despite being a single 1TB platter drive,some of the models will only offer 250 or 320GB of usablestorage space.

It's pretty clear that the hard drive market has reached a stagewhere the drive makers are wasting a lot of potential storagespace on hard drive and we end up with a pricing scheme thatdoesn't reflect the actual value of the storage space. Today a160, 250, 320 and 500GB hard drive can be had for the sameprice and in one case we're looking at twice the capacity for thesame model from the same manufacturer. No wonder there'sso much consolidation going on in the industry, as there'sreally not much money to be made from hard drives these days.


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Hitachi GST's new models include the 1TB Deskstar 5K1000.Bwhich is a 5,400rpm drive with 32MB cache and a claimedpower saving of 23 percent compared to the new Desktar7K1000.D. The 7K1000.D on the other hand is available in250, 320, 500, 750GB and 1TB sizes and as the name suggestswe're looking at a 7,200rpm drive here, again with 32MBof cache. Both models do of course sport the SATA 6Gbpsinterface and they also comes with what Hitachi GST callsHiVERT which the company claims reduces idle power by upto 15 percent.

Alongside the two new consumer models, Hitachi GST alsolaunched a pair of new CinemaStar DVR drives, namelythe 5K1000.B and 7K1000.D. The biggest difference herecompared to the Deskstar drives is that they've been optimisedfor video recording and playback. Both models comes incapacities from 250GB to 1TB and features' what Hitachi GSTcalls CoolSpin technology, as well as HiVERT, 32MB cache anda MTBF of 1.2 million hours and a slightly lower noise levelthan the desktop equivalent models.

New ASUS Fusion ZacateMicro-ATX Board Is A NotchFasterSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/new-asus-fusion-zacate-micro-atx-

board-is-a-notch-faster/13494.html

September 6th, 2011

Motherboard major ASUS unveiled a new micro-ATXmotherboard based on the AMD E-450 accelerated processingunit (APU), the E45M1-M PRO. This board is nearly identicalto the E35M1-M PRO, except of course its faster APU. TheAMD E-450 is clocked at 1.65 GHz, a mere 50 MHz jumpover the E-350, but the real improvement here is that theGPU core speed that jumps to 600 MHz thanks to TurboCoretechnology.

Motherboard major ASUS unveiled a new micro-ATXmotherboard based on the AMD E-450 accelerated processingunit (APU), the E45M1-M PRO. This board is nearly identicalto the E35M1-M PRO, except of course its faster APU. TheAMD E-450 is clocked at 1.65 GHz, a mere 50 MHz jumpover the E-350, but the real improvement here is that theGPU core speed that jumps to 600 MHz thanks to TurboCoretechnology.

The E35M1-M PRO is a micro-ATX motherboard measuring244 x 183 mm. It is powered by AMD E-450 Fusion "Zacate"processor platform, aided by AMD Hudson M1 chipset. Theplatform offers a wealth of connectivity and performance perWatt for its price. The E-450 APU and Hudson M1 chipset arecooled by a common low-profile heatsink, an optional fan canbe attached to it for better cooling. A 3-phase VRM powersthe APU, which is goverened by an ASUS EPU chip that worksto improve energy efficiency. The APU is wired to two DDR3DIMM slots that support single-channel DDR3 memory withspeeds of up to 1333 MHz.

Expansion slots include a PCI-Express 2.0 x16, a PCI-Expressx1, and two legacy PCI slots. The PCI-Express slots are wiredto the APU. Compared to Intel Atom "Pineview" based desktopboards, this platform provides a wealth of connectivity. TheE-450 APU embeds a Radeon HD 6320D graphics processorthat's DirectX 11-compliant, and is driven by 80 streamprocessors. Display outputs include one each of HDMI, DVI,and D-Sub (VGA). In terms of storage, there are no less thanfive SATA 6 Gbps ports, and one eSATA port with 6 Gbps data-rate.


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The Realtek ALC-887 chip used on this board is an 8-channel HD audio CODEC, but it's wired to a 6-channelaudio jack cluster. Those seeking 8-channel output can stilluse the TOSLINK connector, which gives out 7.1 channeloptical SPDIF output. Other connectivity includes one gigabitEthernet connection, two USB 3.0 ports, and a Firewire portapart from a number of USB 2.0 ports on the rear panel, andvia internal headers. We don't expect the ASUS E45M1-M PROto be priced significanly higher than the E35M1-M PRO.

Images Credit ASUS

Intel gives up MeeGodevelopment; Samsung eyesto take overSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/intel-gives-up-meego-development-

samsung-eyes-to-take-over/13495.html

September 6th, 2011

According to news reports, chip manufacturing giant Intelmay be shifting its focus from MeeGo platform to smartphoneand tablet development, and it was said that Korean companySamsung may be intending to take over the platform.

The MeeGo platform has suffered a huge blow, especiallywhen Nokia has announced their Windows Phone in Februarythis year. This means that the production quantity of

MeeGo products will be diminished, especially when themajority of companies are going for Android and Windowsplatform instead. Intel has denied giving up on MeeGo,and the company expressed that it will continue to MeeGodevelopment. However, it is questionable as to what futureplans the chip maker would have for the platform. And evenif the chip maker is still actively involved in MeeGo, thedevelopment looks to be stalled.

If Samsung should buy over the MeeGo system, it wasspeculated that it may not use the plaform directly, since thecompany already has its own Bada platform, alongsidewith Android and Windows Phone. It is likely that thecompany could integrate MeeGo with Bada, or we may seeMeeGo-based devices in the near future.

Reallusion unveils Visualizeimage editing tool for iPadSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/reallusion-unveils-visualize-image-

editing-tool-for-ipad/13493.html

September 6th, 2011

Reallusion has unveiled their new Visualize application whichis designed for Apple iPad users who want to do some imageediting on their tablet device. Visualize is an image editingtool that allows users to make cutouts and stylized imagecomposition. You can give this software a try; Visualize is nowavailable in iTunes store.

Reallusion have launched a brand-new visual applicationfor the iPad market, which combines the power of free-hand cutouts, visual templates and layered compositiion. Itis a image editing application that can create instant PNGcutouts by importing and editing images directly from theiPad camera or the Internet. Cutouts can be saved in theonboard gallery folders, to expand the current collection, or beretouched for further layering and compositing. Customizingand compositing images are made easy, thanks to a widerange of stationeries, symbols, icons and arrows, foundin over seven item categories. You can rotate, scale andtransform images or use the embedded slider controls forpixel-accurate positioning. The same can be done for changing


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color settings, and adjusting edge properties with specialeffects such as feathering, shadowing, or white edging.

Users can now import snapshots and clippings directly fromonline websites with the use of a rectangular cropping tool.Images can also be manually cut out with just a flick of thefinger, using the intuitive lasso tool. You can also add text bysimply typing and later adjusting the background and fontsettings. Last but not least, you can also further customize yourprojects by dropping in background images with addedspotlight, and color effects to enhance the look. When ready,simply export the projects to Facebook, Picasa, Dropbox orsend them as a email attachment to colleagues.

You can download the latest trial in your iTunesStores - http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/visualize-free/id456857776?ls=1&mt=8 , or visit Reallusion to get moreinformation: http://iphone.reallusion.com/

Here's a demo introduction video of Visualize

New update for Angry BirdsSeasons - Mooncake FestivalSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/new-update-for-angry-birds-seasons--

mooncake-festival/13492.html

September 6th, 2011

The Angry Birds Seasons has been rather quiet with no newupdate until few days ago. Well, there are only so manyfestivities in a year and we would assume that there won'tbe any more to add to the game. The good folks at Roviohas announced the new "Mooncake Festival" stages for AngryBirds fans. If you have not updated the game, it is time to doso now.

The Mooncake Festival is popular among Chinese, in China aswell as the Asia region. And it is interesting to see Rovio, thecompany behind the popular Angry Birds game, coming upwith new update for the Angry Birds Season using the Chineseholiday (in some countries) as theme. According to Rovio,there are 30 brand new levels with lanterns, pagodas andharvest moon. Besides the bonus stage which is unlockablewhen you get three-star achievement for every stage, there

are also eight hidden pieces of mooncakes in the stages. Findall eight mooncakes and you will be rewarded with anotherbonus level. The Angry Birds Seasons - Mooncake Festivalis available for download on the iPhone, iPad, Android andSymbian devices.

In addition, the Angry Birds Seasons also gets another theMighty Eagle like the regular version. The Mighty Eagle is aone-time in-app purchase and costs US$0.99 / £.59 / €.79.Basically, you can use the Mighty Eagle to skip a level, unlockthe next level so as to advance in the game. However, you areonly entitled to skip one level every hour. The Mighty Eaglealso lets you attain new highscores and achievements.

VMware to bring BusinessCapabilities onto SamsungSmartphones, TabletsSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/vmware-to-bring-business-capabilities-

onto-samsung-smartphones-tablets/13482.html

September 6th, 2011

Virtualization giant VMware has announced a strategicpartnership with Samsung that could well be a strongshot-in-the-arm for the adoption of the Android platformin businesses. In a nutshell, the collaboration meansthat Samsung will integrate the just-announced VMwareView 5 and VMware Horizon Mobile with its mobilesmartphones and tablet devices. VMware View 5 is anupdate to VMware's desktop virtualization solution withimproved bandwidth utilization and graphics, while (themore interesting) VMware Horizon Mobile will essentiallysee VMware's mobile hypervisor technology installed ontocompatible hardware.


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Announced at VMware conference last week, VMware HorizonMobile is a way for businesses to securely manage anemployee's mobile work environment separately from theirpersonal space. This means that workers can continue to useand customize their Android-based phones without havingto worry about messing up their company's settings andconfigurations. Moreover, personal emails and apps will notbe interspaced with work-related ones, allowing employees thefreedom and flexibility to use a single Android device for bothwork and play.

Within the mobile work environment, IT admins retain thefull ability to remotely manage installed applications andconfigurations. Everything here is saved within an encryptedvirtual container that can only be accessed after keying ina password - including new notifications. It is clear thatthis technology offers enhanced protection against misplacedor stolen devices, even as its sandboxed nature eliminatestraditional fears of invasion of privacy when allowing the ITdepartment full access to personal devices.

One criticism about VMware Horizon Mobile however, isthe potential performance reduction that running Androidon top of Android. On its part, VMware has asserted thatthe performance reduction is only 10 percent, and that thecompany hasn't heard any complaints pertaining on that front.

No specifics have been offered about which Samsung phonesmight incorporate the technology, though it is understood thatLG also plans to make phones available with the technology.In the meantime, VMware has put together a short video clipwhere you can see VMware Horizon Mobile in action on anAndroid smartphone here.

Intel's new Sandy Bridge CPUlands, others receives pricecutSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/intel-s-new-sandy-bridge-cpu-lands-

others-receives-price-cut/13490.html

September 6th, 2011

Remember all those new Intel Sandy Bridge CPUs we'vebeen writing about over the past couple of months that weresupposed to launch in September, well they've arrived. Nowplease don't panic, as none of the models are likely to causemuch of a stir as we're looking at minor updates at the most,although one or two of them as we've already mentioned,might be worth a closer look.

Remember all those new Intel Sandy Bridge CPUs we'vebeen writing about over the past couple of months that weresupposed to launch in September, well they've arrived. Nowplease don't panic, as none of the models are likely to cause

much of a stir as we're looking at minor updates at the most,although one or two of them as we've already mentioned,might be worth a closer look.

Let's start with the desktop models where we have a new,slightly faster mid-range Core i5 model, a new top of the rangeCore i3 model, a new Core i3 model with HD3000 graphicsand a new slightly faster power efficient Core i3 model, all asper the table below. We also have two new, faster Pentiummodels alongside a new slightly faster low power Pentiummodel. Possibly the most important new chips though are thefirst Sandy Bridge Celerons which means you can get dual coreSandy Bridge action for sub US$50, although with quite a fewfeatures snipped off.

Desktop CPUs Price US$Core i5-2320 6M cache, 4Cores, 4 Threads, 3.00GHz,95W TDP

$177

Core i3-2130 3M cache, 2Cores, 4 Threads, 3.40GHz,65W TDP

$138

Core i3-2125 3M cache, 2Cores, 4 Threads, 3.30GHz,65W TDP

$134

Core i3-2120T 3M cache, 2Cores, 4 Threads, 2.60GHz,35W TDP

$127

Pentium G860 3M cache, 2Cores, 2 Threads, 3.00GHz,65W TDP

$86

Pentium G630 3M cache, 2Cores, 2 Threads, 2.70GHz,65W TDP

$75

Pentium G630T 3M cache, 2Cores, 2 Threads, 2.30GHz,35W TDP

$70

Celeron G540 2M cache, 2Cores, 2 Threads, 2.50GHz,65W TDP

$52

Celeron G530 2M cache, 2Cores, 2 Threads, 2.40GHz,65W TDP

$42

Celeron G440 1M cache, 1Cores, 1 Thread, 1.60GHz,35W TDP

$37

Celeron G530T 2M cache, 2Cores, 2 Threads, 2.0GHz,35W TDP

$47

On the mobile side we have three new quad cores, of whichone is an Extreme Edition part which is 200MHz faster thanits predecessor with a 200MHz higher Turbo clock. The othertwo quad cores also receive a 200MHz speed increase overtheir predecessors, with the rest of the features seeminglyremaining the same. There's also a new dual core Core i7model, but here we're looking at a more modest 100MHz speedincrease. Finally we have a 300MHz faster Celeron model.

Mobile CPUs Price US$


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Core i7-2960XM (8M cache,4 Cores, 8 Threads, 2.70 GHz32nm

$1,096

Core i7-2860QM (8M cache,4 Cores, 8 Threads, 2.50 GHz32nm

$568

Core i7-2760QM (6M cache,4 Cores, 8 Threads, 2.40 GHz32nm

$378

Core i7-2640M (4M cache, 2Cores, 4 Threads, 2.80 GHz32nm

$346

Celeron B840 (2M cache, 2Cores, 2 Threads, 1.90 GHz32nm

$86

As for price drops, well they only apply to Intel's Core i5 andCore i7 65W TDP S models and 45/35W TDP T models on thedesktop side and the price drops are very minor at betweentwo to six percent. Considering that these CPUs are still notthat widely available to consumers, this is not likely to affectconsumers that buy their own CPUs to any larger degree.

TYAN Intros S5515 Single-Socket LGA1155 Server BoardSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/tyan-intros-s5515-single-socket-

lga1155-server-board/13489.html

September 6th, 2011

As more businesses move online, the hosting industry isonly set for growth. With dedicated hosting, leasing a singlemulticore processor-powered server is an ideal option forsmall businesses. Often it's boards such as the TYAN S5515released today, that make up such servers. The S5515 isa micro-ATX motherboard based on the Intel Q67 Expresschipset, which takes in second generation Core i3/i5/i7 "SandyBridge", and Xeon E3-1200 series processors in the LGA1155package.

TYAN is known most for its vast portfolio of enterprisemotherboards of all shapes and sizes, all architectures andsockets. At the outset the S5515 could look like a sub-pardesktop board, but closer inspection reveals that everythingis located in the right place for server setups. Intel Q67Express "Cougar Point" is a viable choice of chipset as itgives nearly all management features one would expect fromIntel's server chipsets. These include Intel Trusted ExecutionTechnology (TXT) with supported processors, Intel ActiveManagement Technolgy (AMT), and the nearly-universal IntelRapid Storage Technology (RST).

Active Management Technolgy gives network administratorsa wealth of remote management tools, including hardwareKVM over network helping with remote repairs and host basedsetup. Trusted Execution Technology ensures a high degreeof trust and control over the machine and adds a line ofdefence against software-based attacks aimed at stealing data.Rapid Storage Technology allows administrators to build andservice storage volumes connected to the chipset AHCI/RAID-compatible SATA controller.

Measuring 243.8x243.8 mm, the TYAN S5515 complies withthe micro-ATX form-factor. There are four expansion slots,including a PCI-Express 2.0 x16 wired to the processor, aclose-ended PCI-Express x8 that's electrically x4 and wired tothe chipset, a PCI-Express 2.0 x1, and a legacy PCI. In termsof storage connectivity, there are six SATA ports, the two portscolored blue run at a max speed of 6 Gb/s, while the rest runat 3 Gb/s. RAID modes 0, 1, 10, and 5 are supported, and canbe managed over RST.

The LGA1155 processor is powered by a 3+1 phase voltageregulation circuitry, there isn't any exotic digital PWM stuffhere, but one can count on the board to be making use of high-grade chokes and MOSFETs. The four DDR3 DIMM slots arewired to the processor, and support up to 32 GB of unbufferednon-ECC DDR3-1333/1066 MHz memory.

There are two gigabit Ethernet connections, handled byIntel 82583 controller that comes with a suite of networkmanagement tools and a driver that spreads processing loadsover multiple CPUs. Realtek ALC888 7.1 channel HD audioCODEC handles audio, it is wired to 6-channel jacks, whichisn't a big concern in an enterprise environment. Display


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connections include DVI, D-Sub (VGA) and DisplayPort.Miscellaneous connectivity includes two USB 3.0 SuperSpeedports, serial (COM) over header, and a number USB 2.0 ports.The TYAN S5515 is available now.

Image Courtesy TYAN

Sony Singapore unveils newNWZ-A860 Walkman MP3playerSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/sony-singapore-unveils-new-nwz-

a860-walkman-mp3-player/13486.html

September 6th, 2011

Even though many users do use their smartphones to listen totheir favorite songs, there still exist a group who prefer to relyon the dedicated portable MP3 player. Sony Electronics AsiaPacific has recently unveiled their new NWZ-A860 WalkmanMP3 player that features a stylish exterior design, Bluetoothwireless connectivity, and claims to deliver premium soundquality for audiophiles on the move.

Featuring superb audio technologies, Bluetooth wirelessconnectivity, and sophisticated designs, the Sony NWZ-A860Walkman MP3 player is designed to deliver great qualityfor audiophiles on the go. It claims to deliver premiumsound quality, thanks to the company’s unique Clear AudioTechnologies. The Advanced Digital Amplifier ‘S-Master MX’technology also helps to improve bass reproduction andlowers noise levels, and Digital Sound Enhancement Engine(DSEE) ensures crystal clear reproduction of high frequencysounds.

The Bluetooth connectivity allows users to share their favoritephotos with friends who have Bluetooth-enabled mobiledevices. The Sony NWZ-A860 also sports a responsive 2.8-inch touch panel display for ease of navigation and image

and video viewing. Transferring music from Windows MediaPlayer or iTunes is an easy task, thanks to the Sony MediaGo application. And with SensMe Channel, it automaticallycategorises music tracks into different channels and playsmusic to match the time of day and even the user’s mood,Other features include Karaoke Mode that can reduce thevolume of vocals for party time sing-alongs, and SynchronisedLyric Features let users follow along as they learn the words totheir favorite songs.

Intel SSD 710 Lyndonville forEnterprise DetailedSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/intel-ssd-710-lyndonville-for-

enterprise-detailed/13485.html

September 6th, 2011

Intel's latest generation of solid state drives has come fullcircle with new enterprise-grade SSDs in the 2.5-inch SATAform-factor. Called the Intel SSD 710 series, and codenamed"Lyndonville", the new series succeeds previous-generationX25-E series in a similar way SSD 320 series does to thelast X25-M drives. It makes use of NAND flash memory builton the 25 nanometer fabrication process, steps up capacities,lowers price per gigabyte, and adds new features that improvethroughput and endurance, which are key in datacenters. Wescored some information that gives you a fair idea of what toexpect from the new drives, and especially why you shouldn'tbe neophobic with the new Intel SSD 710.

Intel's SSD 710 takes a new approach to addressing the'problem' of not being able to achieve good price per gigabyteratios with single-level cell (SLC) NAND flash memory. SLCNAND flash has been preferred in the enterprise computingindustry, due to its high cell endurance to rewrites, andthroughput. With the new SSD 710 series, Intel will introducethe new High Endurance Technology Multi-Level Cell (HET-MLC) NAND flash. These new chips are claimed by its makersto offer endurance comparable to SLC, while giving users thecapacity advantage that MLC offers.


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Intel's SSD 710 drives come in three capacities - 100 GB, 200GB and 300 GB - and the endurance rating varies between thethree. With 4 KB write endurance, while the 100 GB model israted to offer 500 TB (900 TB with 20 GB overprovisioned,leaving 80 GB unformatted capacity), and the 200 GB modeloffers 1 PB or 1000 TB (1.5 PB with 40 GB overprovisioned,leaving 160 GB), the 300 GB model tops the charts with 1.1PB endurance (3.0 PB with 60 GB overprovisioned, leaving240 GB). The SSD 710 300 GB gets very close to X25-E 64 GBwith 4K write endurance and 4K random write performancein IOPS. The figures paint SSD 710 to have most durable MLCNAND flash ever made, and should build confidence in serverbuilders.

Apple iPhone 5 cases spottedin China hints a "Tear drop"design, similar to Macbook AirSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/apple-iphone-5-cases-spotted-in-china-

hints-a-tear-drop-design-similar-to-macbook-air/13484.html

September 6th, 2011

With the launch of the highly anticipated Apple iPhone 5drawing closer each day, it looks like there a new batchof iPhone cases have been spotted even before the phone isavailable. From the looks of the cases, it hints at the iPhone 5may be adopting a Macbook Air-like "Tear drop" design.

Yes, it looks like another new batches of Apple cases have beenspotted in China. Unlike the ones that were reported from acompany in Shenzhen, China, which have thinner form factorand larger display, the latest cases showed that the iPhone5 may have a "Tear Drop" design, which is similar to theMacbook Air. The cases have a thinner point closer to the homebutton end of the iPhone and it looks to become thicker asyou go up the body to the camera and power button. Thismay mean that the phone could be adopting a Macbook Air-inspired design. From the reports, the cases are currently inmass production, though it is still unknown whether they aredesigned for the new iPhone 5, iPod Touch or even a newdevice from Apple. Let's wait and see.

Logitech introduces BedsideDock for iPad and New TabletSpeakerSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/logitech-introduces-bedside-dock-for-

ipad-and-new-tablet-speaker/13483.html

September 6th, 2011

Logitech Singapore has introduced their new Appleaccessories which include the Bedside Dock for iPad andTablet speaker. The Bedside Dock comes with a speaker thatproduces full stereo sound and includes a bass enhancer, andlets you wake up to your own music or FM radio, The LogitechTablet Speaker is easy to set up, boasts up to eight hours ofbattery life, and you can watch a full-length movie or two withgood quality audio.


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The Logitech Bedside Dock features an alarm that lets youwake up to your own music, tone or FM radio. The internalclock syncs with the clock on your iPad, so it is always accurate.The speaker offers full stereo sound and includes a bassenhancer and you can even dock your iPad and charge it whenthe speaker is turned off.

Pricing and AvailabilityThe Logitech Bedside Dock is expected to be available inSingapore by mid October for a suggested retail price of S$99.

The Logitech Tablet Speaker is a compact, clip-on,rechargeable speaker that offers maximum convenience andportability.Attach your iPad or other tablet devices securelywith the rubberized clip and plug the 3.5mm audio cable intothe headphone jack. It features with up to eight hours ofbattery life depending on usage, which is good enough to watcha full-length movie or two. The speaker also charges overUSB, which means you never need to worry about replacingbatteries.

Pricing and AvailabilityThe Logitech Tablet Speaker is expected to be available inSingapore by mid September, for a suggested retail price of S$59.

The Desktop Experience 'justanother App' in Windows 8Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/the-desktop-experience-just-another-

app-in-windows-8/13481.html

September 6th, 2011

In case you missed it, Steven Sinofsky, who is the presidentof Windows and Windows Live division has started bloggingabout Windows 8 since the middle of August. Amongother nuggets of information, he has revealed to date thenext iteration of the Windows operating system that willincorporate robust USB 3.0 support as well as native supportfor ISO and VHD files. In addition, Sinofsky touched on a topicof immense interest when he wrote about the GUI (GraphicUser Interface) this week that we can expect to see in Windows8.

In the blog titled "Designing for Metro style and the desktop,"Sinofsky confirmed that Microsoft will incorporate both thetouch-friendly Metro experience (Think Windows Phone 7)while also retaining the traditional desktop. A few reasonswere given against starting from a clean slate with a Metro-only touch interface, one of which would be the "hundredsof thousands of existing apps" designed with the desktop inmind.

Sinofsky elaborated:

"The mechanisms that people rely on today (mice,physical keyboards, trackpads) don't suddenlybecome less useful or "bad" just because touch is alsoprovided as a first-class option. These tools are quiteoften the most ergonomic, fast, and powerful ways ofgetting many things done."

Moreover, he cited the popularity of remote desktop programsfor tablets and phones as evidence of the desktop's versatility. With these considerations in mind, Microsoft has opted for amore nuanced approach in the form of a Metro style interfacethat will work well with touch (and which includes the mouseand keyboard), in addition to support for a desktop interface.

What I found interesting though, was the revelation thatit will be possible to stay "permanently immersed in theMetro world" as Sinofsky puts it. Users who opt for suchan experience will work exclusively in Metro, without everneeding to see the desktop. The desktop code will not evenbe loaded for such users, assured Sinofsky, which means zeropenalties in terms of memory, battery life and performance. On the other hand, users who require the desktop experience


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can seamlessly switch to it. Indeed, Sinofsky encouragedseeing the Windows desktop "as just another app."

On a more serious note, this update appears to dovetail wellwith earlier news that the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer willbe shipping with Windows 8 in a 2012 refresh. Assumingthat Microsoft can deliver a truly seamless Metro/Desktopinterface, there could well be a surge of demand for Windows8 tablets that convert into a laptop by snapping on a keyboard. Rather than the prospect of a bleak post-PC world, a Windows8 "convertible" would conceivably serve the needs of users forboth work and play.

Toshiba Smartens STOR.E TVFor Living Room GoodnessSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/toshiba-smartens-stor.e-tv-for-living-

room-goodness/13474.html

September 6th, 2011

Content consumption media is in a state of flux. From discplayers to media players that take USB mass storage devices,the evolution is on at breakneck pace. Hard disk drive vendorssuch as Toshiba and WD have taken the initiative to combinetheir external hard drive expertise with media center hardwareto eat into the markets of both HTPCs and media playersin one go. At this year's IFA event, Toshiba unveiled itssecond generation of hard drives tailor-made for the livingroom. The STOR.E TV series of hard drives pack media playerhardware making the drive a single-device solution for mediaconsumption. The consumer electronics giant unveiled twomodels: STOR.E TV 2 and STOR.E TV Pro. Check them out onthe next page.

Content consumption media is in a state of flux. From discplayers to media players that take USB mass storage devices,the evolution is on at breakneck pace. Hard disk drive vendorssuch as Toshiba and WD have taken the initiative to combinetheir external hard drive expertise with media center hardwareto eat into the markets of both HTPCs and media playersin one go. At this year's IFA event, Toshiba unveiled itssecond generation of hard drives tailor-made for the livingroom. The STOR.E TV series of hard drives pack media playerhardware making the drive a single-device solution for mediaconsumption. The consumer electronics giant unveiled twomodels: STOR.E TV 2 and STOR.E TV Pro.

Both models measure 235 x 195 x 50 mm. While the STOR.ETV 2 is strictly a hard drive media player, the STOR.E TV Prohas wired networking capabilities that connects your HDTVto the web, and allows web-browsing. Both come in variantsbased on the capacity of the hard drives they pack: 500 GB,1 TB, 1.5 TB and 2 TB. Both drives connect to your TV usingHDMI and composite. Apart from the in-built hard drive, thedevices provide one USB 2.0 port, with which you can plug inany USB mass storage device (a flash drive or another portablehard drive), and transfer data from it, without taking the driveback to your PC. Add to this, a 3-in-1 media card reader. Thedrive itself connects to a host PC over USB 2.0. The newSTOR.E hard drives allow you to play a wide range of popularvideo formats, including H263/H264, MPEG4, DivX/XviD,VC1/WMV, VP8; and audio formats including MPEG,OGG,MP3/MP2, WMA, WAV, APE, FLAC, AAC, and PCM.Video isstreamed out at 1080p, and the digital audio passed throughsupports Dolby Digital, DTS 2.0+ formats.

Things take a turn for the awesome with STOR.E TV Pro. Thisdevice provides all features of the STOR.E TV 2, but addsan ethernet port with which it can connect to the web, or anetwork. Toshiba bundles a compact bluetooth remote thatfeatures a QWERTY keyboard and a trackpad. The hard driveallows web-browsing at 1080p resolution. Toshiba howeverdidn't mention in its press release if it supports Adobe Flash,giving it access to a wealth of online videos. "The vast majorityof TVs in the home do not provide web access," said MarcoPerino, General Manager, Digital Products Division, ToshibaEurope GmbH. "We've been looking for a plug-and-playapproach to connect these 'stand-alone' TVs to the web anddesigned the multimedia console STOR.E TV PRO," he added.

Toshiba expects a market release of these two in the fourthquarter of 2011.

Show Babes @ Comex 2011Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/show-babes--comex-2011/13480.html

September 6th, 2011

We take a look at the show babes that are in Comex 2011. Sadly,our favourite from ACRyan isn't here this time. Enjoy!


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A new legend is born however, A.C Ryan gets a new show babein Comex. Yes, she is rather tall and slim

^^

Toshiba babe in red


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Babe in 3D holds a LG Optimus 3D Urbanears


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Canon, delighting you always

Samsung announces Wi-Fioptical drive and then someSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/samsung-announces-wi-fi-optical-

drive-and-then-some/13479.html

September 6th, 2011

Over the years we've seen a lot of peculiar bits of hardwarelaunch, but Samsung's new SE-208BW optical drive with Wi-Fi interface is among the strangest we've ever seen. Samsungcalls it the Smart Media Hub rather than an optical drive, asbeyond being able to connect to a PC over Wi-Fi, it also workswith tablets and smartphones.

Over the years we've seen a lot of peculiar bits of hardwarelaunch, but Samsung's new SE-208BW optical drive with Wi-Fi interface is among the strangest we've ever seen. Samsungcalls it the Smart Media Hub rather than an optical drive, asbeyond being able to connect to a PC over Wi-Fi, it also workswith tablets and smartphones.

The SE-208BW looks just like a regular external slim-lineoptical drive with the exception of the small Wi-Fi logo on it.Interestingly, the SE-208BW has an Ethernet port and USBconnectivity and it will also work as either a Wi-Fi access pointor a Wi-Fi repeater, although as to how useful the repeatermode will be depends on where your Wi-Fi router is located.Delving deeper into the networking features of the SE-208BWwe find a Dynamic DNS server and thanks to a spare USBport, it can thus share data on a USB storage device over thenetwork.

The optical drive can be used for backing up data straightfrom your Wi-Fi devices, although we're not quite sure as toexactly how this process would work. If you happen to owna DLNA compatible TV or media player, then the SE-208BWcan stream media to it thanks to Samsung's Allshare software.The optical drive will read and write CDs and DVDs, with CDspeeds of up to 24x for both read and write, while DVDs willbe read at 8x with single layer write once discs written at 8x,dual layer discs at 6x, DVD-RAM discs at 5x, +RW discs at 8xand finally –RW discs at 6x speed.

Samsung didn't mention a price in the press release andyou'll have to wait until early next year to get your handson the SE-208BW. Despite the slightly bizarre nature of theSE-208BW, we have to applaud Samsung for creating a truelyunique convergence device, the question is, is there a marketfor it?

Powered by USB to a greenfutureSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/powered-by-usb-to-a-green-

future/13478.html

September 6th, 2011

Today we're kicking off something new here at VR-Zone withthe introduction of the first feature written by a guest writer.If this proves to be popular we'll be doing more of these kindsof stories about various topics written by industry insidersfrom a wide range of technology companies. So please click onthrough and let us know if this is the kind of thing we shoulddo more of in the future.


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Our first guest writer is René F. Koch, the CTO of LeaderElectronics Inc. which is one of the largest OEM/ODMdesigners and manufacturers of power adapters and varioustypes of power supplies. Leader Electronics Inc. has over 40years of experience in the industry making product rangingfrom phone chargers, to notebook chargers all the way tovarious industrial solutions. René has been working for LeaderElectronics Inc. for over a decade in various positions at thecompany and his guest feature is about where things seem tobe heading as far as device charging is concerned and whywe’re heading in that direction.

The Universal Serial Bus, or simply USB, has from its launchalways been able to provide power to the connected device andit’s now transforming into the new Universal Power deliverysystem, according to a recent publication from the USBimplementers forum. The strength of USB has always been itsability to provide power, next to a means of being an interface,as this allowed for a single cable connection to be used witha wide variety of devices like Human Interface Devices (mice,keyboards, etc.), microphones, speakers, storage devices andso on.

Until recently, the current limit was 500mA for configuredhigh-power devices and 100mA for un-configured or low-power devices; with a standardized bus voltage of 5V thisresults in a maximum power of 2.5W, similar to the powerneeded for a normal mobile phone charger. The EuropeanUnion was interested in making this the mandatory mobilephone charger standard, as that could result in major "Green"benefits. Most people have had multiple mobile phones overthe past decade; as functionality increased, people would buynew models, leaving their old phone with a still functionalcharger as waste, while buying multiple chargers, for home,work and in the car for example. Waste is a growing concern,especially in electronic goods; the EU therefore, figured thisa good opportunity to reduce the amount of waste, as thechargers do not offer any additional functionality with newlyreleased phone models.

Although most major mobile phone brands agreed to theproposed standard and signed the MOU that was initiatedby the EU, most of them are not yet willing to ship their

products without a charger; this is especially true for higher-value products. The rationale is that a lower quality charger,which does not completely comply with the requirements,could render mobile phones useless or even worse, makingthe battery explode as seen in the past. Nevertheless, thefuture trend is set for a universal charger and is destinedto become reality. Other types of products take advantagefrom this initiative, especially those that are battery operatedand are charged by USB; look at Digital Cameras, tabletsand smartphones. Even products that do not even need tocommunicate over USB, like wireless DECT phones or LEDflash lights use USB ports to connect to their charger.

If you wanted to use more power from a USB port than 2.5Wyou could choose to use two USB plugs, as often is the casewith external 2.5-inch hard drives, alternatively, an externalpower supply could provide the additional power. Now, withthe introduction of USB 3.0, the current capability was raisedup to 900mA for super-speed ports, almost doubling thepower delivery capability. Meanwhile, an additional featurewas added to the USB standard in order to provide more powerto connected devices, in particular to be able to charge batteryoperated handheld devices. The new standard is known as the“Battery Charger Standard” and in late December last year,V1.2 was released, which allows currents beyond 1.5A, up toa maximum of 5A, resulting in a power delivery capabilityup to 25W. The key feature of this charging standard is adedicated USB mode which is initiated by a resistive pull-up / -down configuration of the data pins. With a maximum currenthandling capability of 1.8A for the connector-pins in a microUSB plug, the cables and connectors of the USB standard arenow the limiting factor to deliver more current and, as thevoltage is standardized to 5V, also to power.

This is where the new power delivery standard will comein, as the Voltage will be negotiable in the future, by digitalcommunication between the host and connected device, andcould go as high as 60V DC; limited for safety reasons to themaximum Voltage of a Safe Electrical Low Voltage (SELV); aVoltage that does not result in a shock hazard when touched.In theory this could mean up to 100W, with the 1.8A of currenthandling capability as maximum limit (1.8A * 60V = 108W).Handling higher currents, like the absolute limit of 5A, asdefined in all USB specifications, even if connectors and cablescould handle this current, is however not a good solution forenergy efficient transport of power.

Current creates losses in cables and connections; the lower

the current, the lower the power loss. (Ploss = I2 * R). Assuch 100W would be the maximum power that could bedelivered over a single USB port, which means that whenusing a 4-port USB hub, up to 400W could be delivered.This power level goes way beyond the practical needs of mostcomputing equipment; dedicated gaming or CAD computers,or their imaging peripherals might need more power, butthen again, this power delivery system is not meant to powercomputer systems but rather peripherals, with a possibleextension to charge notebook computers or other handheldbattery operated devices. Thinking about the opportunitiesand possibilities this power delivery standard could offer, itcould very well change the world of power electronics, andpower delivery as we know it.


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Energy Performance standards, which are mandatory inmost western parts of the world, focus on active modeenergy efficiency and off-mode, stand-by and no-load powerconsumption.

Active mode energy efficiency is quite clearly the capabilityof the system to perform a certain action while limiting theenergy required doing so. Although actions are not alwayseasily translated into power, the EU tries to generalize actionsand reflect a certain calculation on them in order to establishthe system performance of that action in relation to the usedpower consumption to perform said action. (The U.S.D.O.E. isstarting similar activities)

There are three modes of operation while the system is notactually performing its primary task:

· Off-mode, in which the device / system is still powered,but not performing any action;

· Standby-mode, in which the system is idle, waiting foran instruction to perform its primary action, and

· No-Load, in which the power supply is connected, butthe device is not connected to the power supply.

Basically, any energy draw during these three modes ofoperation is waste, as there is no action being performed.

An additional state of non-active mode is now added to thescope, which is referred to as “networked stand?by”. Thismode comes into scope when thinking about all the USBpowered devices that do not have their own power supply.At this time, each connected device needs to draw less than500mW of power while in a non-active mode according tomandatory energy efficiency regulations. The USB standardactually defines a “suspend” mode in which no more than2.5mA (12.5mW) can be drawn from the bus, but does notmandate a suspend mode.

Connecting 4 devices to one USB hub, would result in astand-by consumption of 2A (4 * 500mA), while the USB hubitself should also draw less than 500mA. As the system canbe considered to be idle during night time, the total powerconsumption of this configuration could add up to 2.5A * 5V =12.5W. This is a lot of wasted energy, but still in-line with thecurrent regulations. In order to reduce this waste, there is anobvious need for smarter power distribution. Using USB canprovide all the hardware needed to grow into an eco-systemthat incorporates smart power distribution, without the needfor new standards, connectors or interfaces.

Acer unveils its firstUltrabook, the Aspire S3Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/acer-unveils-its-first-ultrabook-the-

aspire-s3/13477.html

September 6th, 2011

It turns out the leaked pictures of Acer's Ultrabook turned outto be the real deal after all, as the company has unveiled itsAspire S3 series of Ultrabooks at IFA in Berlin today. The press

release makes bold claims of 1.5 second resume times (fromsleep) and up to 50-days battery life (this time in deep sleepmode), something that will be interesting to see if Acer canreally deliver on.

It turns out the leaked pictures of Acer's Ultrabook turned outto be the real deal after all, as the company has unveiled itsAspire S3 series of Ultrabooks at IFA in Berlin today. The pressrelease makes bold claims of 1.5 second resume times (fromsleep) and up to 50-days battery life (this time in deep sleepmode), something that will be interesting to see if Acer canreally deliver on.

Ace is still being coy with regards to some aspects of thespecifications of the Aspire S3 and there are a few blanks inthe press release. However, what we do know is that as with allthe other Ultrabooks, Acer will be using Intel's ULV Core i3,i5 and i7 processors. In the storage department we're lookingat a 320 or 500GB hard drive, or a 240GB SSD options. It'sworth noting that Acer has implemented what it calls GreenInstant On which is some kind of SSD caching technology butwe're not sure if this is Intel's Smart Response technology ora different solution like the one used by Samsung in its Series7 notebooks.

Other features will include a 13.3-inch 1366x768 display, anHDMI port, an SD card reader, a single headset jack and sadlywhat appears to be a pair of USB 2.0 ports. Less noticeablefeatures include a 1.3 Megapixel webcam, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fiand Bluetooth 4.0+HSR. The notebook itself is a mere 13mmthick and weighs in at 1.4kg. It has a similar chiclet keyboard tothat found on the current TimeLineX series of notebooks fromAcer, but it has a much larger touchpad.


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Acer claims up to 7h battery life, but this is for the SSDequipped model, so expect that to be less on the hard drivemodels. It's a shame that Acer couldn't have made a thinnerscreen bezel, similar to that seen on Samsung's Series 7, as inas much as the Aspire S3 being a thin and light notebook, thethick screen bezel kind of ruin things a bit.

The Aspire S3 will start shipping in selected regions thismonth, with broader availability in October. It seems like Acerdidn't manage to hit Intel's sub US$1,000 price point with theAspire S3 as the most basic model which we expect to havea Core i3 CPU and a 320GB hard drive will retail at €799 (S$1,375/US$1,140) while the top of the range SSD equippedCore i7 model is expected to retail at €1,199 (S$2,060/US$1,710).

You can find some additional pictures on the next page.

Nikon COOLPIX S100 @ S$449Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/nikon-coolpix-s100--s-449/13475.html

September 6th, 2011

Nikon Singapore is pleased to announce that the sales date forCOOLPIX S100 officially starts on, 1st Sept, 2011, Thursdayand the recommended retail price for the COOLPIX S100is S$449. Price and Sales Date for the remaining models(COOLPIX AW100, P7100, P1200pj, S4150, S6150, S6200 andS8200) will be announced at a later date.

Nikon Singapore is pleased to announce that the sales date forCOOLPIX S100 officially starts on, 1st Sept, 2011, Thursdayand the recommended retail price for the COOLPIX S100 is S$449.

ProductName

ColorsAvailable

Specifications& MajorFeatures

RecommendedRetail Price

COOLPIXS100

• Silver

• Black

• Gold

• Red

• Pink

• Purple

• 18.1mm slimand stylishdesign

• 16.0megapixelswith 3.5”OLED touchpanel

• 5x opticalzoom with28mm wide-angle

• BacksideilluminationCMOS sensor

• Full HDmovierecording

S$449

Note: Thismodel waslaunchedexclusivelyduringCOMEX Show2011.

W.e.f 1st Sep2011 onwards,it will beavailable inthe market forsale.


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• 3Dphotographyscene mode

• Filter Effectmode

Price and Sales Date for the remaining models (COOLPIXAW100, P7100, P1200pj, S4150, S6150, S6200 and S8200)will be announced at a later date.

ProductName

ColorsAvailable


COOLPIXAW100

• Black

• Blue

• Orange

• Camouflage

• Nikon 1stAW Seriescompactcamera

• Waterproof,shockproof,cold-resistant

• 16.0megapixelswith 3” LCD




• Built-in GPSand electroniccompass

COOLPIXP7100

• Black • 10.1megapixelswith 3” LCD

• 7.1 opticalzoom

• 28mmwide-angleto 200mmtelephoto lens

• Fasterresponse andlesser noise

• SpecialEffect mode

• Tone levelinformationdisplay

• Full HDmovierecording withstereo sound

COOLPIXS100

• Silver

• Black

• Gold

• Red

• Pink

• Purple

• 18.1mm slimand stylishdesign

• 16.0megapixelswith 3.5”OLED touchpanel




• 3Dphotographyscene mode

• Filter Effectmode

COOLPIXS1200pj

• Black

• Pink



• Brighterprojection upto 60” display

• Projectimages viaiPhone,iPad or iPodTouch*

• SpecialEffect mode

*via dedicatedcable

COOLPIXS4150

• Silver

• Black

• Bronze

• Red

• Purple

• 14.0megapixelswith 3" LCD


• Pet PortraitMode


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• Filter EffectMode

• Built-inoriginalanimatedcharacters

COOLPIXS6150

• Silver

• Black

• Red

• Pink

• Violet



• TouchShutter,SubjectTracking



• HD movierecording

COOLPIXS6200

• Silver

• Black

• White

• Blue

• Red

• Pink

• 16.0megapixelswith 2.7” LCD


• High-speedresponse

• Special andFilter Effectsmode

• Hand-held/tripod nightlandscapedetection

COOLPIXS8200

• Silver

• Black

• Red

• 16.1megapixelswith



• High-speedresponse

• Targetfinding AFfunction

• Continuousshootingfunction

• Smile timercontinuousmode

• Night Scenemode

• Special andFilter effectmode

• EasyPanorama


• Still imageduring movierecording

Tablets promotion @ COMEXShow 2011Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/tablets-promotion--comex-

show-2011/13473.html

September 6th, 2011

If you are looking to get that Tablet device, well, you reallyneed to drop by the COMEX Show. Now. There are some goodpromotions from the various vendors including the SamsungGalaxy Tab 10.1, ASUS Eee Pad Slider and Motorola Xoom andwe have noted them down in the next page.

ASUS


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The ASUS Eee Pad Slider was announced in August, but itwas only retailing officially at the COMEX Show. The EeePad Slider sports a 10.1-inch WXGA (1280x800) capacitivetouch IPS display, and is powered Nvidia Tegra 2 dualcore processor, 1GB DDR2 memory with 15GB eMMC flashmemory, It also has a slide keyboard for ease of typing.Other features include integrated 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth+EDR, high definition audio CODEC, stereo speaker, 1.2-megapixel front and 5-megapixel rear cameras, and up to 8hrbattery life. According to ASUS, the Eee Pad Slider is preloadedwith Android 3.1 though it will be upgradeable to Android 3.2in the near future.

The ASUS Eee Pad Slider is retailing at a S$759 (U.P. S$899)for this show.

Samsung

Despite the lawsuit between Apple and Samsung, and withcourt orders that the GALAXY Tab 10.1 is forbidden to besold in some countries (yet), the highly-anticipated tabletdevice is fortunately selling here in Singapore, and also atthe COMEX Show 2011. Weighing just 565g and measuring8.6mm, the Samsung GALAXY Tab 10.1 is equipped with1GHz dual core processor, support for Flash Player 10.3, 3-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and 2-megapixel frontcamera, and preinstalled with Android 3.1. The GALAXY Tab10.1 is selling at S$848 without contract and comes with free

leather pouch (worth S$68) for the first 100 customers andfree stylus pen (worth S$28) for the first 10 customers perday. If you sign up with the telco operators such as M1's FibreBroadband 100Mbps plus Mobile Broadband (mData Lite) atS$75/month, you can get the Samsung GALAXY Tab 10.1 forfree.

Acer

Acer is known for their range of desktop and notebookPCs, though recently the company also came out with theirtablet devices. The 10.1-inch Acer Iconia Tab A500 tabletincorporates Nvidia Tegra 250 dual-core processor, and comeswith 1GB DDR2 memory (and 32GB eMMC memory), ultralow power GeForce GPU, Acer Nplify 802.11b/g wireless, 5-megapixel rear camera with auto focus and 2-megapixel frontcamera, and runs Android 3.0 Honeycomb. The Acer IconiaTab A500 is selling at a competitive S$599 (U.P. S$799).

Huawei

The new Huawei MediaPad claims to be the world's first tabletto be preinstalled with Android 3.2 Honeycomb operatingsystem. It has an aluminium uni-body chassis, 1.2GHzdual core processor, 7-inch 217ppi ultra clear screen andsupports 1080p full high definition video playback (up to sixhours). The MediaPad is not available for sale yet, but at thisCOMEX Show 2011, you can preorder it at S$598 (U.P. S


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$628). For those who preorders will also get the mini-HDMIcable, carrying case and 16GB SD card for free (worth S$168).

Parallels unveils Desktop 7 forMac and new Mobile app foriPad, iPhone and iPod TouchSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/parallels-unveils-desktop-7-for-mac-

and-new-mobile-app-for-ipad-iphone-and-ipod-touch/13472.html

September 6th, 2011

This morning, Parallels announced their new Desktop 7 forMac which claim to provide Mac OS X Lion user experienceeven on Windows platform which is running on Mac machines.The upgrade is available today for current Parallels Desktopusers (you can purchase at Nubox booth at the COMEX Show2011), while the retail package and downloadable version aregoing to be available next week.

According to Parallels, there is a growing number of Macusers, both home and business, who want to run Windowsapplications on their machines. And if you are looking to geta software that can run both Mac and Windows applicationsside-by-side without rebooting, check out the latest ParallelsDesktop 7 for Mac. It offers Mac OS X Lion functionalityincluding full screen, launch pad and mission control foryour Windows prograns; run multiple copies of OS X Lionor Windows and applications on the Mac machine; use iPad,iPhone or iPod Touch to watch and listen to Flash videos inWindows on the Mac; access and even run various operatingsystems like Windows, Chrome OS, Ubuntu etc anytime,anywhere.

The Parallels Mobile app is compatible with the iPad, iPhoneand iPod Touch devices and allows users to have completeremote access of their Mac anytime, anywhere. The ParallelsMobile also works with Parallels Desktop 7, which means youcan run Flash videos and audio from Windows on your Mac,via your iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch devices.

The Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac is available today as anupgrade for current Parallels Desktop users (and at theNubox booth at the COMEX Show 2011). The packaged retailsoftware as well as downloadable version will be availableon 7 September, next week. You can purchase the packagedsoftware at all Nubox retail outlets, Apple retailers includingepiCentre, Mutlmedia Integrated, iStudio, Juzz1, Infinite,Challenger, Mac Shop and Sapura, as well as from AppleOnline Store. The Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac will retail at S$129; the student edition at S$69; Paralles Desktop 7 Switchto Mac Edition at S$159 and upgrades available for customersat S$69. A special pricing of US$49.99 is available online forusers who are currently using WMware Fusion who want tohave a solution that is fully compatible with Lion. If you havepurchased Parallels Desktop 6 for Mac from an authorizedreseller on or after 1 August, you will be eligible for freeupgrade to Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac.

The Parallels Mobile app is available in the Apple iTunes AppStore with an introductory price of US$4.99; the standardretail price is US$19.99. Current users of free Parallels Mobileapp will get a free upgrade to the new functionality via anupdate on their devices.


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John Eng, vice president, marketing and alliancesfor Parallels, said that the company has 75% market share indesktop virtualization - running Windows and Mac operatingsystem side-by-side without the need of rebooting. Eng saidthat 50% of the customers who go to Nubox, who is alsoa partner of the company, are new to Mac, and want to get aMac but still want to run the Windows applications.

"You may ask what kind of applications do people run on theMac? We did a poll of about half a million of our users andfound that there are more than 10,000 discrete (Windows)applications that they use," says the vice president.

HTC announces HTC RadarWindows Phone 7 with MangoupdateSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/htc-announces-htc-radar-windows-

phone-7-with-mango-update/13471.html

September 6th, 2011

Even though Nokia has said that their Windows Phone 7 wouldbe out in Q4 this year, it looks like some phone makers mayhave theirs out earlier than the Finnish company. Today, HTChas announced their first Windows Phone 7 with the highly-anticipated Mango update, which comes in the form of HTCRadar. The HTC Radar is scheduled to go on retail in Singaporein October.

Taiwanese phone manufacturer HTC has unveiled theirWindows Phone HTC Radar which is designed to keep youclose to friends, family, news and entertainment that matterto you. The HTC Radar is the company's first Windows Phone7 with Mango update. It features a compact aluminium uni-body, a built-in 5-megapixel rear-facing camera with f/2.2aperture, 28mm wide-angle lens and back-illuminated sensorfor improved low-light performance. The HTC Radar canalso capture 720p high definition videos. The smartphonealso incorporates Virtual 5.1 surround sound for a rich audioexperience, and web browsing is fast and smooth with HTML5support. You can also get an amazing mobile gaming withXbox LIVE that lets you access to a great selection of gamesfor Windows Phones.

Creative announces quad coresound cardsSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/creative-announces-quad-core-sound-

cards/13470.html

September 6th, 2011

Once upon a time there were as many sound card makers asthere were graphics card makers, but today only one of the oldcompanies are still alive, good old Creative (what happenedto the Labs bit on the end?) and today the company hasannounced its first quad core sound cards based on its recentlyannounced Sound Core3D audio processor. This might soundlike total overkill for a sound card, but it's not four identicalcores, instead we're looking at very specific audio DSPs thathave their own tasks to perform.

Once upon a time there were as many sound card makers asthere were graphics card makers, but today only one of the oldcompanies are still alive, good old Creative (what happenedto the Labs bit on the end?) and today the company hasannounced its first quad core sound cards based on its recently


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announced Sound Core3D audio processor. This might soundlike total overkill for a sound card, but it's not four identicalcores, instead we're looking at very specific audio DSPs thathave their own tasks to perform.

The Sound Core3D handles the processing for Creative's newCrystalVoice feature, THX TruStudio Pro and all other kindsof audio processing beyond that. The glaring omission inthe press release is that there's no single mention of X-Fitechnology which suggests that Creative has moved on anddecided to drop the X-Fi moniker for its new soundcards. EAXAdvanced HD 5.0 is still part of the package though, so gamersneed not to worry.

As for the new features, CrystalVoice adds acoustic echocancellation, support for beam-forming which in this caseis a kind of noise cancellation technology which requiresadditional microphones, general noise reduction, automaticloudness adjustment for the microphone and various voiceeffects and equalizer features. THX TruStudio Pro gets theCrystalizer treatment, a throwback to the X-Fi days, surroundsound support, a smart volume feature, something calleddialog plus which enhances the voices in games and moviesand finally a bass enhancer.

As for the new sound cards, first up we have the Core3DPCI Express which is seemingly sharing its basic design withCreative's first PCI Express card, although the PCB looksextremely void of components for a sound card. We're not sureif the chunk of metal in the centre of the card has any kind offunction, as there's a small Creative branded chip further downon the PCB which we suspect is the Sound Core3D rather thansomething hidder under the purported heatsink. As to the pin-headers, your guess is as good as ours as to what they're for.

Next up we have the shrouded Recon3D Fatal1ty Professionalwhich comes with the beam-forming microphone and a nicepiece of metal wrapped around the PCB with a small window init. This brings us to the Recon3D Fatal1ty Champion of whichwe have as yet to see a picture. This should be the same card asthe Recon3D Fatal1ty Professional, but with an I/O drive thatsports headset jacks, volume control and various other audiojacks.

The fourth and final product, the Recon3D USB which is quitedifferent from the PCI Express cards, as although this is a USBaudio device it packs connectivity for a headset, line in/out andan S/PDIF input. The S/PDIF input allows for Dolby Digitaldecoding for use with headphones for surround sound. On theright hand side you'll find a three step microphone boosterand on the right hand side is a feature that might make theRecon3D USB popular, a switch that lets you select betweenPC, Xbox 360 and PS3.

However, the features don't stop here, as the Recon3D USBcan be upgraded with wireless connectivity and it can beconnected to Creative's Tactic3D Omega headset and Creativewill offer a bundle of the two later this year. The Recon3D USBis expected to hit retail in October for a price of US$129.99 (S$157).

As for the PCI Express cards, Creative didn't mention anyactual launch date, although the press release stated that theRecon3D Fatal1ty Champion won't be available until Q1 nextyear. As a side note, apparently both Gigabyte and MSI hassinged up as OEM partners for the Sound Core3D, so it'll beinteresting to see what kind of onboard audio solutions the twocompanies can come up with in the future.


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Creative launches tiny ZEN X-Fi3 media playerSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/creative-launches-tiny-zen-x-fi3-

media-player/13469.html

September 6th, 2011

We can't say that we've been blown away by Creative'srecent additions when it comes to media player, but the justannounced Zen X-Fi3 is an interesting device that might notappeal to everyone with its tiny 2-inch screen and touchsensitive controls, but it seems like a step in the right directioncompared to some of its past products. In fact, the Zen X-Fi3seems to be the bigger brother of the Zen Style which launchedback in May.

We can't say that we've been blown away by Creative'srecent additions when it comes to media player, but the justannounced Zen X-Fi3 is an interesting device that might notappeal to everyone with its tiny 2-inch screen and touchsensitive controls, but it seems like a step in the right directioncompared to some of its past products. In fact, the Zen X-Fi3seems to be the bigger brother of the Zen Style which launchedback in May.

What we're looking at is a tiny 65x45.5x12.5mm portablemedia player that weighs in at a mere 45g, although Creativehas somehow managed to pack in a 262k colour screen albeit ata mere 2-inches large with an unspecified resolution, but thisis just the start. Around the screen you'll find a set of capacitivetouch buttons that gives you access to the menu and handlesnavigation and playback. There are a pair of volume controlson the right hand side, with a micro SD card on the left side,a headphone jack and a microphone at the top and finally anA/V jack, a mono speaker and somewhat strangely enough amini USB connector at the bottom, were we really would'veexpected a micro USB connector by now.

The Zen X-Fi3 also packs Bluetooth 2.1 with AVRCP and A2DPsupport, but maybe more importantly the apt-X audio codecwhich is meant to vastly improve audio quality when combinedwith an apt-X compatible Bluetooth headset. As the namesuggests Creative has of course added support for its X-Fitechnology and the Zen X-Fi3 packs X-Fi Crystalizer and X-FiExpand. An 8GB and a 16GB model will be on offer, althoughif that's not enough, up to 32GB micro SD cards are supported.Let's not forget the built in FM radio as well as the ability tooutput video to a TV via the A/V jack in the bottom, althoughyou'll have to splash out extra on the composite video cable.

As for media support, the Zen X-Fi3 will play back most digitalaudio formats such as FLAC, DRM free AAC, MP3, WMA,WAV and Audible files, although we're missing support forOGG. If you want to go blind, you can also watch movies on thetiny 2-inch screen, as the Zen X-Fi3 will play WMV9, MPEG4Simple Profile and AVI files in either DivX4/5 or XviD format,although the top resolution for video is 640x480. Creativeclaims a battery life of up to 20h for audio and 5h for video.

Price wise you're looking at S$149 for the 8GB version and S$189 for the 16GB version, both of which will be available fromthe end of October.

Something Went WrongAn error occurred creating the PDF version of this zine. Most likely this was caused by some invalid HTML in one of the stories in the zine. The error has been recorded and we will look into fixing it as soon as possible. It will then be possible to re-create this zine in future.


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Gelid GX-7 CPU Cooler reviewSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/gelid-gx-7-cpu-cooler-

review/13564.html

September 14th, 2011

Gelid is one of the few companies which focus entirely ondesigning and supplying cooling solutions for PC systems; atleast at the time of this review. It is a relatively new company,founded only back in 2008, which is based in Hong Kong andhas Swiss management. Today we are going to have a closelook at their latest CPU cooler, the GX-7.

Gelid is one of the few companies which focus entirely ondesigning and supplying cooling solutions for PC systems; atleast at the time of this review. It is a relatively new company,founded only back in 2008, which is based in Hong Kong andhas Swiss management. Today we are going to have a closelook at their latest CPU cooler, the GX-7.

Manufacturer features and specifications

• 7 Power Heatpipes

• Unique Heatpipes Arrangement

• Optimized Heatsink with Multi Air Channels

• Wing 12 PL Blue Fan

• PWM Fan Control

• 3 Years Warranty

Air Flow (CFM/CMH): 75.6 / 128.6Bearing: Nanoflux BearingCable Length (mm): 500Current (A): 0.45DC Voltage (V): 12Fan Dimensions (mm) 120 (l) x 120 (w) x 25 (h)Fan Speed (RPM): 600 - 1800Heat Sink Dimensions (mm): 130(l) x 65 (w) x 159 (h)LED Color: Blue

Life time MTTF at 40C (h): 100'000Noise Level (dBA): 10 - 26.8Number of LED: 4Static Pressure (mmAq): 2.66Warranty (years): 3Weight (g): 720 (heatsink and fan)

Applications:

Intel Socket 775, 1366, 1155and 1156:

All Pentium D/ Pentium 4/

All Celeron D

All Pentium Dual-Core/Extreme/

All Core 2 Extreme/ Core 2Quad/ Core 2 Duo, Core i5,Core i7

AMD Socket AM2/ AM2+/AM3/ AM3+/ FM1:

All Athlon 64 X2, Athlon 64

All Athlon II,

All Sempron, Phenom,Phenom II

All A Series AMD APU Llano

Photos of Gigabyte's X79motherboards from IDFSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/photos-of-gigabyte-s-x79-

motherboards-from-idf/13563.html


By asking nicely, we were sent some pictures from IDF ofGigabyte's upcoming X79 motherboards, well, at least fourout of the five models we understand the company is goingto launch come November. That said, these aren't the finalboards, thanks to Intel's last minute SCU errata, so Gigabytewill have to implement a few changes before these boards hitretail.

By asking nicely, we were sent some pictures from IDF ofGigabyte's upcoming X79 motherboards, well, at least fourout of the five models we understand the company is goingto launch come November. That said, these aren't the finalboards, thanks to Intel's last minute SCU errata, so Gigabyte


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will have to implement a few changes before these boards hitretail.

Starting at the top we have the G1.Assassin 2 X79 and thebiggest surprise here really is the re-designed heatsinks whichare much less in your face than the current models. Thatsaid, Gigabyte might very well change this before the board islaunching, but we'll just have to wait and see if we'll get a gunthemed heatsink or not on the final boards. Expected featuresinclude a Killer NIC, Creative X-Fi audio and 3-way SLI andCrossFireX support. We also spotted a Marvell controller for apair of eSATAp (eSATA/USB combo) ports and a Fresco LogicUSB 3.0 host controller on the board. One feature we couldn'tfigure out what it's for is the blue and green button on therear below the 4GHz overclock button, although it could besome kind of BIOS switch to select between the primary andsecondary BIOS.

Next up we have the GA-X79-UD7 and as you might've noticedfrom the colour scheme and the Gigabyte OC logo on thechipset heatsink, this is the next generation overclockingboard from Gigabyte, despite the model name. It's pretty clearthat Gigabyte has crammed in a few extra power phases on this

board and we're also looking at tantalum capacitors. The boardhas four x16 PCI Express slots and if you have a chassis witheight or more rear expansion slots, you can fit four graphicscards to this board thanks to a sensible slot layout. Gigabytedidn't add any eSATA ports to the UD7, but once again wenoticed a couple of Fresco Logic USB 3.0 host controller.

For those wanting to use more than four DIMMs the GA-X79-UD5 is the way to go, as this board sports a total of eight DIMMslots. This is a more well-rounded motherboard in terms offeatures, although it still has space for up to three graphicscards. Around the back we're looking at one eSATAp and oneeSATA port as well as a pair of USB 3.0 ports and even aFireWire port for those that still utilize this interface. If theUD5 is priced right, we'd expect this to be the most popularmodel among Gigabyte's X79 boards.


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Last, but by no means leas we have the GA-X79-UD3 which isa slightly more basic board, although strange enough beyondthe UD7 this is the only board with seven slots and it appears tobe able to be kitted out with four x16 cards, although we're notquite sure how the slots are wired. No eSATAp on this model,but at least it has a pair of eSATA ports and support for tworear and two front USB 3.0 ports, all via Fresco Logic chips likethe previous models.

You might've noticed that we haven't mentioned the SATAports on any of the boards and the reason for this is simple,Intel's last minute chipset errata. All boards will as such havetwo SATA 6Gbps ports and four SATA 3Gbps ports, but beyondthis we don't really know what Gigabyte will offer. We spottedadditional Marvell chips for a pair of extra SATA ports on someof the boards and it's very likely that Gigabyte will add morethan just a pair of additional SATA 6Gbps ports to all of its X79boards. We'll make sure we get a closer look at the new boardscome November, as by then Gigabyte should have close to finalboards to show us. The missing model that wasn't on displayat IDF should be the GA-X79-D3, but we don't have any detailsabout this model as yet.

We've added a few additional pictures on the next page as well.

Sony PS3 in "Splash Blue" and"Scarlet Red", to launch on 17NovemberSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/sony-ps3-in-splash-blue-and-scarlet-

red--to-launch-on-17-november/13562.html


At the Tokyo Game Show 2011 press conference today, SonyComputer Entertainment has announced the limited edition"Splash Blue" and "Scarlet Red" of their popular PlayStation3 game console. Both new editions will be available from 17November 2011.

Sony Computer Entertainment Hong Kong (SCEH) hasannounced the 320GB PlayStation3 (PS3) (CECH-3000Bseries) in new "Splash Blue" and "Scarlet Red" colors. Thecolors will be available in limited quantity at a suggested retailprice of S$429 from 17 November. The “Splash Blue” gameconsole is a refreshing metallic blue color which is reminiscentof “the water splash and the ocean”, while the “Scarlet Red”system with its vivid metallic red color suggests "the glaringsun and the flame". The DUALSHOCK 3 wireless controllerincluded in the bundle will also come in the same specialcolors.


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Intel, McAfee unveil DeepSafehardware-assisted securitytechnologySource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/intel-mcafee-unveil-deepsafe-

hardware-assisted-security-technology/13561.html


At the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) held this week, chip makerIntel finally gave the world its first glimpse of the fruit of its US$7.68 billion acquisition of security vendor McAfee, which wascompleted in February this year. Demonstrated during IntelPresident and CEO Paul Otellini's keynote, the technologydubbed DeepSafe is a revolutionary blend of software andhardware designed to deliver a level of security protection thatis simply not possible with a software-only approach.

The idea revolves around building a "deeper" securityfootprint with the development of hardware-assisted security,fundamentally changing the cat and mouse nature ofsignature-based security software by operating beyond theconfines of the operating system.

McAfee says the DeepSafe has a much greater ability todetect and stop advanced persistent threats (APTs) andincreasingly sophisticated malware. It is no secret thatcurrent antimalware technology is reeling under increasinglysophisticated attacks, with more than two million uniquerootkits currently in existence and 1,200 new rootkits detecteddaily. On its part, DeepSafe affords a trusted view of systemevent immune from even the most advanced rootkit. A rootkitis malware that employs stealth techniques of corrupting theOS to evade existing security solutions.

Renée James, senior vice president and general manager ofthe Software and Services Group at Intel and the Chairman ofMcAfee summed up the synergy between Intel and McAfee:"By combining the features of existing Intel hardware andinnovations in security software, Intel and McAfee are drivinginnovation in the security industry by providing a new way toprotect computing devices."

Intel says it has no plans to embed McAfee software directlyinto its processors, but will focus instead on creating softwareproducts and services that take advantage of the embeddedsecurity capabilities. As the requisite hardware componentsare available for use by any developers, James told the WallStreet Journal in an interview that Intel expects competitorsto introduce similar technology for Intel processors.

Technical information and product details were sparse at thispoint, though Intel says products utilizing DeepSafe will beavailable for sale later in the year. Don't expect to see it in yourhome PC anytime soon however, as the technology will firstroll out in enterprise products.

IDF Day 1: Many bridgesabound... Sandy, Ivy, and moreSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/idf-day-1-many-bridges-abound...-

sandy-ivy-and-more/13560.html


Not only did Intel show the new varieties of Sandy Bridge, butalso briefed the audience about Ivy Bridge in more detail thanbefore.

Today's Intel CEO keynote at IDF referred many times to thenew Socket 2011 Xeons and their desktop brethren, for casessuch as reconstructing the St Peter Rome Church interior infull 3-D from millions of photographs - where Intel claimsthe new Xeons do the job 50% faster than the old Westmere-based 6-core ones, to Dreamworks' Jeff Katzenberg testimonyabout the new generation processors for their 3-D animationrenderings.

There were both single and dual socket 2011 platforms onthe show floor, the single-processors ones open for everyoneto see. And, both Intel and MSI had desktop boards withwhopping 8 (eight) memory sockets on X79 chipsets for 64 GBRAM desktops! Now, the question is why would most usersneed such high capacity, but then, there are users who don'tneed too many CPU cores, just need a lot of memory. This is theanswer to them. Otherwise, the usual X79 Socket 2011 boardswith 4 DIMMs, means one per channel, can fine tune theirtracing easier for slightly better memory performance.

Let's cut to the chase: the Ivy Bridge technical presentation wasthe most interesting one. Have a look at the key points here, insummary, after the discussions post presentation.


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1 - Process advantage: the tri-gate 22 nm CMOS process willgive Ivy Bridge both power and performance advantage, whereit would either nearly match current Sandy Bridge clock speedbut at half power, or gain more than 20% extra speed at thesame power.

2 - Much faster (at least 2x) integrated GPU with full DX11support and enhancements including DirectCompute, andmatching speedups in the video multimedia department, andtriple display support

3 - Speedups in the core and the caches, as well as betteroverclocking for cores and memory

4 - New instructions

5 - Digital Random number generator

6 - Improved protection from some hacking attacks

You can see the content of key slides here on the photos, butthe key point overall is that the thing is ready, seems to benefitboth desktop and mobile market right at start, and should beexpected by March 2012 as of now... Have a look at the slides!


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Norton launches InternetSecurity and AntiVirus 2012Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/norton-launches-internet-security-and-

antivirus-2012/13559.html


With the rising number of devices and applications for users toenjoy, there is a huge need for digital protection from viruses,malware and cybercrimes. Today, Symantec, the companybehind the popular Norton security products, has launchedtheir latest Norton Internet Security 2012 and AntiVirus 2012.

Norton by Symantec today unleashed the new Norton InternetSecurity (NIS) and Norton AntiVirus (NAV) 2012 with newfeatures designed to enhance the overall user experience whileproviding the protection and performance the user requires.The company is also delivering on their initiative with mobileand cloud-based technology, which include new beta productsand services which will be launched in the coming months withplans to support mobile and tablet devices for both Androidand iOS platforms.


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The Norton 2012 incorporates new features to address thelatest threats and provides powerful protection against users'online personal information. The key security technologiesand usability improvements include: Norton Identity Safe inthe Cloud which protects personal and financial informationfrom cybercriminals and keeps users safe from fraudulentwebsites; new streamlined interface with simplified loginexperience, and ability to store passwords in the cloud andaccessible from any computer with NIS2012 installed; andimproved SONAR technology monitors running applicationsfor suspicious behavior to quickly detect and disablepreviously unknown threats.

The Norton Internet Security 2012 and Norton AntiVirus2012 are now available for purchase in Singaporethrough various retailers and the Norton online store atwww.nortonstore.com.sg. The MSRP for Norton InternetSecurity 2012 is S$89, which provides one year of protectionfor up to three PCs, and the MSRP for Norton AntiVirus 2012is S$39, which provides one year of protection for one PC.

The Norton 2012 products support Microsoft Windows XP(32-bit) Home/Professional/Tablet PC/Media Center withService Pack 2 or later, Microsoft Windows Vista (32-bit and64-bit) and Microsoft Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit) bothfor Starter/Home Basic/Home Premium/Business/Ultimateeditions. Norton Internet Security and Norton AntiVirus 2007or later users with a valid product subscription are eligible toreceive the latest product updates via the subscription servicemodel. For more information, visit the Norton Update centerat http://updatecenter.norton.com.

Jabra HALO2 brings virtualsurround sound and powerfulbass for users on the moveSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/jabra-halo2-brings-virtual-surround-

sound-and-powerful-bass-for-users-on-the-move/13557.html


With the Jabra HALO2 Bluetooth stereo headset, you canenjoy good quality audio as well as make and receive phonecalls wirelessly. It features AM3D Virtual Surround Sound andPower Bass, and is available in Challenger stores and Applepremium resellers this Friday.

Launching from the Jabra music series, the Jabra HALO2is the new Bluetooth stereo headset which claims to be theultimate smart phone companion. The sleek metallic finishHALO2 includes new features like AM3D Virtual SurroundSound and Power Bass for an enhanced listening experience.It supports Bluetooth 3.0 + EDR technology and users canmake and answer phone calls wirelessly as well as playthe favorite songs from their smartphones. The HALO2also incorporates AM3D Virtual Surround Sound and PowerBass for enhanced audio experience.

Jabra HALO2 boasts advanced Multipoint technology whichlets users connect up to two Bluetooth-enabled devices atany one time (out of maximum pairing with right devices).It has a touch sensor on the side of the headset that letsyou adjust the overall volume with just a swipe of a finger,while the wireless stereo sound AVRCP technology lets youcontrol music all by touch - skip tracks, play, and pause songs.Weighing 80g, the HALO2 gives a talk-time of up to eighthours (and separate music time, up to 8 hours). It featuresNoise Blackout technology with dual microphones, so thatyour voice transmission comes through crystal-clear. Whenthere's an incoming call, the music playing will automaticallyfade so that you can decide whether to talk to the caller.

The Jabra HALO2 Bluetooth stereo headset will be availablefrom this Friday, 16 September 2011, and retailing for S$148(RRP) from Challenger stores and Apple premium resellers:Epicentre, Nubox, Digi Lifestyle, Apple Shops at Best Denkiand other authorized Jabra resellers.

Key specifications of Jabra Halo2:

- Bluetooth 3.0 EDR+eSCO wireless technology, up to 10m- A2DP for music streaming

- AM3D Virtual Surround Sound 2.0 and PowerBass

- AVRCP for remote controls (skip track, pause, etc.)

- Noise Blackout technology with dual microphones

- Foldable headband and carrying pouch


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- Talk time – 8 hours

- Wireless Music time – 8 hours

- Standby time – 13 days

- Micro USB charger

- Dimensions: 45mm (D) x 165-190mm (H) x 136mm (W)

- Weight – 80 g

Creative ZiiLabs unveils 3rd-Gen reference designs forAndroid tabletsSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/creative-ziilabs-unveils-3rd-gen-

reference-designs-for-android-tablets/13558.html


Media processor and platforms company ZiiLabs has unveiledthe Jaguar3, its 3rd generation of reference designs forAndroid 3.2 tablets that incorporate over a decade ofdesigning experience in portable mobile devices from CreativeTechnology. Based on a motherboard concept, the designswere first demonstrated at Computex 2011 in May this year,and were made possible for an OEM or ODM to bring Android3.x tablets to market in the shortest possible time.

The Jaguar3 features the ZMS-20 StemCell processor,a system-on-chip (SoC) based on the dual-core 1.5GHzARM Cortex-A9. With the presence of an additional 48StemCell processing cores, the ZMS-20 is effectively a 50-core processor. In addition, OEM customers building Jaguar3tablets will have the option of upgrading to the 4th generationZMS-40 SoC chip, which will feature a quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 and 96 StemCell processing cores for a 100-core processorwhen available in the next quarter.

According to ZiiLabs, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CreativeTechnology, the Jaguar3 design features massive integrationof I/O devices and processors within a "granddaughter-board"in order bring its dimensions down to a mere 2.44" (62 mm)x 4.64" (118 mm). Designed with 10-inch tablets in mind,the Jaguar3 consumes just 1W of power, making it possible toachieve extremely slim designs of 7.4mm or weighing just 480grams.

Sim Wong Hoo, chairman and CEO of CreativeTechnology said in a prepared statement: "The explosive tabletmarket is pure ruthless in every sense. Even a slight delayin a fast-track 6-month design cycle can be lethal. This is awhole new ballgame where only the fastest can survive". Simobserved how Jaguar3 will help OEM to effectively enter thetablet market instantly and economically, while at the sametime reducing their risks significantly.

A high-end Jaguar3 configuration will support advancedcapabilities such as:

• Dual camera system of up to 12 megapixel for rear facingimage capture and high definition (HD) front facing

• Easy-to-use 40 Megapixel panoramic photography

• Advanced video playback with trick modes such asrewind play, frame-by-frame advance and reverse

• Dual microphone array for noise-free recording andvideo conferencing

• Creative Sound Blaster's famed X-Fi audio effects

ZiiLabs said that the Jaguar3 breaks new ground by offeringdifferent "flavors" to snag various crowns such as the mostpowerful, the lightest, the slimmest, the most complete and thelowest cost Android 3.2 tablet reference designs currently onthe market. The Jaguar3 reference design kits are expected tosample to select customers in October 2011.

Lenovo ThinkPad X121e offersadvanced video conferencingtools and robust performanceSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/lenovo-thinkpad-x121e-offers-

advanced-video-conferencing-tools-and-robust-performance/13556.html


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The Lenovo ThinkPad X121e was announced in July, andtoday, the company has announced that the stylish full-featureultraportable for mobile professionals will be available inSingapore on 27 September. The ThinkPad X121e featureseasy-to-use voice and video tools, spill-resistant keyboard andoptional fingerprint reader for secure log in.

Lenovo Singapore has announced the ThinkPad X121eultraportable laptop designed for mobile professionals.It claims to offers business-class performance with choicesof the latest Intel and AMD processors, easy-to-use,sophisticated voice and video tools, and looks stylish with softmatte finish in heatwave red or midnight black as well as anti-glare displays.

Measuring less than an inch thin and weighing 1.36 kg,the 11.1-inch ThinkPad X121e has spill-resistant, island-stylekeyboard for long hours of comfortable typing. It also comeswith various security features such as self-encrypting USB andsolid state drives, hardware password manager, rescue andrecovery, and optional fingerprint reader for more secure log-in.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X121e offers a wide range ofconnectivity options including USB, mobile broadband, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Gigabit Ethernet. You can view your highdefinition content on the big screen via the HDMI output.In terms of battery life, the ultraportable notebook PC alsoboasts over nine hours on a single charge. It is also equippedwith advanced tools including a low-light sensitive webcamera, noise suppressing keyboard, microphone mute keyand the ThinkVantage Communications Utility 2.0; users canmake seamless conference calls even under low light.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X121e laptops will be available throughbusiness partners from 27 September 2011. Pricing details notavailable at press time.

AMD demonstrates 28nm GPUSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/amd-demonstrates-28nm-

gpu/13555.html


Proving IDF is not all about Intel, AMD has demonstratedthe first working 28nm GPUs to the public. The developmentplatform was notebook based, thus the working product was a"28nm next gen notebook discrete GPU".

Proving IDF is not all about Intel, AMD has demonstratedthe first working 28nm GPUs to the public. The developmentplatform was notebook based, thus the working product was a"28nm next gen notebook discrete GPU".

The next-gen GPU ran Dirt 3, and was demonstrated by AMD'sDirector of Technology Management for GPU Division, DavidCummings. Not much else is known about the 28nm GPUitself, but unsurprisingly, we know it is up and running. Nowit is up to TSMC to ramp up 28nm production.


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MSI introduces stylish WindBox DC100 with dual-coreperformanceSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/msi-introduces-stylish-wind-box-

dc100-with-dual-core-performance/13554.html


MSI has unveiled the updated Wind Box DC100, whichmade its first appearance in CeBit 2009. The small formfactor PC is now equipped with the latest AMD Brazosplatform E-450 dual-core processor and A50M chipset forsuperior performance, compared to the Intel Atom processorincorporated two years ago.

The MSI Wind Box series is designed with superb performanceand energy saving capabilities in a small footprint. The newlylaunched Wind Box DC100 is equipped with the latest AMDBrazos platform E-450 dual-core processor and A50M chipsetto offer great computing performance. The average powerconsumption is only 40W, compared to 60W for previousgeneration products, providing power savings for users.

The small form factor PC features AMD Radeon HD 6320discrete class graphics that support output resolutions ofup to 1080p, and supports DirectX 11 image processingtechnology for high-definition video playback. The WindBox DC100 features VGA and HDMI output IncorporatingMSI's proprietary software, Smart Media Link and SmartSync, you can synchronize your files with an easy-to-useuser interface, as well as play multimedia files you haveselected simultaneously on different devices such as tablets,smartphones and HDTV in the same LAN or Wi-Fi network.The Wind Box DC100 is also a quiet performer with under22dB noise when in standby mode.

MSI Wind Box DC100 Specifications

Operating Systems Windows 7 Home Premium64 bit

Processor AMD Brazos Dual Core E-450(1.65GHz)

Chipset AMD A50M (Hudson M1)System Memory DDR3 2GB , 1333 MHz (2GB

x1) ; DDR3 SO-DIMM x 1 slotMax to 4GB

Graphics AMD Radeon HD 6320Discrete

Wireless Networking 802.11 b/g/nHard Drive 320G 2.5-inch SATA II 5400

rpmAudio 5.1-channel Audio(SPDI/F

adapter)Audio Chipset Realtek ALC662I/O HDMI out x1; VGA outx 1;

USB x6 (front x4, rear x2); Front mic-in/Headphone out

x1 /1; Line-out x1; SPDIF-outx1; LAN x1

Card Reader 6-in-1 (XD, SD ,miniSD ,Micro SD, MMC, MS)

Adapter HD (30fps@720p)Power 40WDimension 191.8 X 150.93 X 34.94mmWeight 830g

Sony announces NW-Z1000Android Walkman media playerSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/sony-announces-nw-z1000-android-

walkman-media-player/13553.html


Sony Singapore had recently announced their NWZ-A860Walkman. And at the recent IFA 2011 trade fair for consumerelectronics and household appliances in Berlin, Germany, thecompany showcased the new NW-Z1000 Android Walkmanwhich claims to run Google Android 2.3 Gingerbreadoperating system.


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At the IFA 2011 trade show in Berlin, Sony has unveiledtheir new Walkman portable media player (PMP), the NW-Z1000. It claims to be the company's first PMP to incorporateGoogle's popular Android mobile operating system that isusually found on smartphones and tablet devices. The NW-Z1000 runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread and is equipped withNvidia dual-core Tegra 2 processor and 512MB RAM. It sportsa 4.3-inch display (480x800 pixel resolution) and features adigital amplifier “S-Master MX” to provide improved audioquality. Sony claims that the NW-Z1000 has a battery life of20 hours for non-stop music enjoyment, or five hours of videoplaying. Other features include Wi-Fi connectivity, Bluetoothwith A2DP, HDMI output, DLNA compatibility and built-inGPS.

What Intel won't tell you aboutSandy Bridge-E at IDFSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/what-intel-won-t-tell-you-about-sandy-

bridge-e-at-idf/13552.html


Intel isn't having a good year when it comes to its integratedcontrollers this year, first with the SATA 3Gbps issue in the6-series chipset and now news has reached us that in the endwe won't be seeing any additional SAS/SATA ports in the X79chipset. Apparently this is because of a “quality issue” in theSCU which would've been home to the four additional SAS/SATA ports.

Intel isn't having a good year when it comes to its integratedcontrollers this year, first with the SATA 3Gbps issue in the6-series chipset and now news has reached us that in the endwe won't be seeing any additional SAS/SATA ports in the X79chipset. Apparently this is because of a “quality issue” in theSCU which would've been home to the four additional SAS/SATA ports.

We're not sure what the exact problem is, but combine thiswith rumours of a delay of Intel's Sandy Bridge-EP server partsand it seems like the SCU issue might be affecting the serverand workstation parts as well. That said, we've also spokento motherboard manufacturers that told us that they haven'tbeen able to replicate Intel's errata, so it remains to see whathappens, as we're still about two months away from the officiallaunch.

It has to be said that Intel's X79 chipset has gone from beinga chipset packed with features to the brim, to a chipset thatis starting to look very much like the current P67 chipset,something that surely must be disappointing not only forIntel's partners, but even more so for those who were/areplanning to buying into the new platform. By now we've gonefrom eight, to four to no SAS ports and what we're left with istwo SATA 6Gbps ports and four SATA 3Gbps ports.

We're afraid that the bad news doesn't end there though, asIntel won't even guarantee PCI Express 3.0 compliance for theWaimea Bay platform with the company claiming that the firstgeneration of Sandy Bridge-E processor might not be able tocope with the high speed of the PCI Express 3.0 interface. Inother words, it'll be a bit of a hit and miss as to which PCIExpress 3.0 add-in cards will actually work with the first SandyBridge-E processors.

And if you were hoping for Ivy Bridge-E to sort this out nextyear, well, then we have really bad news, as Ivy Bridge-E isn'tschedule to arrive until 2013 now. On the upside, Intel expectsIvy Bridge-E to be fully compatible with PCI Express 3.0.While on the subject, we've also managed to confirm that thedelay of the quad core Core i7 3820 means that it's unlikely toarrive this year, as it'll only go into production at the very endof 2011. Can it possibly get any worse for Intel?

SanDisk is pushing for new,low power SATA interfaceSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/sandisk-is-pushing-for-new-low-

power-sata-interface/13551.html


According to SanDisk, the SATA standard just isn't powerefficient enough for mobile devices and the company is nowproposing that a new low power SATA standard should bedeveloped. The company wants to cut the power consumptionof mobile SSDs by 10 times, which is no mean feat, but SanDiskexpects this to be perfectly doable.

According to SanDisk, the SATA standard just isn't powerefficient enough for mobile devices and the company is nowproposing that a new low power SATA standard should bedeveloped. The company wants to cut the power consumptionof mobile SSDs by 10 times, which is no mean feat, but SanDiskexpects this to be perfectly doable.

SanDisk claims that today's best-in-class low power SSDsconsume 50mW and apparently part of the reason for this“high” power usage is because the SATA interface doesn't


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allow SSDs to draw less power, even when they're not in use.As such, SanDisk is hoping that its SATA DEVSLP initiativewill allow for lower power usage in the future with a proposedstandard target of a mere 5mW.

What we're not following is the part where SanDisk startstalking about Ultrabooks, as we'd thought there is far moreneed for lower power SSDs in devices like tablets than in thinand light notebooks, although we're of course not going tocomplain if we get lower power SSDs in notebooks as well. Sofar SanDisk has gotten a couple of small industry players –Intel, Samsung and Microsoft – to join them in their effort topush the SATA-IO to further develop the SATA DEVSLP intoa fully-fledged part of the SATA standard. It's of course goingto take some time before this happens, but it's good to see thatthe industry is moving towards more and more power efficienthardware.

AMD scores Guinness Book ofWorld Record for fastest CPUSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/amd-scores-guinness-book-of-world-

record-for-fastest-cpu/13550.html


The World's fastest/smallest/largest capacity and so forth aregetting a little bit boring now, but AMD has managed toscore another World's fastest and an entry into the GuinnessBook of World Records thanks to some crazy liquid Heliumoverclocking of one of its upcoming AMD FX CPU's to a crazy8.429GHz. This seems to be the latest way of scoring consumerattention, although in this case AMD has performed quite afeat as we're talking an 8-core CPU here, well, of sorts at least.

The World's fastest/smallest/largest capacity and so forth aregetting a little bit boring now, but AMD has managed toscore another World's fastest and an entry into the GuinnessBook of World Records thanks to some crazy liquid Heliumoverclocking of one of its upcoming AMD FX CPU's to a crazy8.429GHz. This seems to be the latest way of scoring consumerattention, although in this case AMD has performed quite afeat as we're talking an 8-core CPU here, well, of sorts at least.

We don't want to spoil AMD's moment here, but the pressrelease is talking 8-core CPU and several publications arealready reporting this as a feat performed with an 8-core CPU,when in fact six of the eight cores were disabled during the test.This doesn't make the 8.429GHz record any less impressive,but it should be made clear that only two cores were activewhich most likely helped to improve the overclockability ofthe CPU. We should also mentioned the small fact that theCPU was running at an icy cold -235 degrees C to achievethe record, something that's way beyond what even semi-professional overclockers can cool their CPUs down to.

AMD didn't announce which CPU was used, but at the endof the video (embedded below) there's an AMD FX logo andunderneath it there's an 8-core Black Edition AMD FX-8150Processor logo which suggests that this was mostly likely the

CPU used. The record was actually achieved on the 31st ofAugust, but kept secret until today, possibly as a bit of a spoilerahead of Intel's IDF conference which kicks off today. Forthose interested in a few additional details from the event,Nordic Hardware has a short interview with Sami Mäkinen akamacci who scored the Guinness Book or Record on behalf ofAMD.


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IDF 2011 starts in a fewhours...Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/idf-2011-starts-in-a-few-

hours.../13549.html


A few hours before Intel CEO Paul Ottelini's keynote officiallykickstarts this year's IDF here in San Francisco, there are a lotof signs that Intel's focus this year may be a little different -in fact, it will be wider than before. The high end, unlike somerumours, is not ignored - there should be plenty of sightingsof the new Sandy Bridge-E Core i7 3960X and its dual-socketXeon twin from the E5 series, the latter having all eight coresenabled unline only 6 on the desktop Socket 2011 variant. Andof course, there is the 22 nm Ivy Bridge, the next mainstreamCPU, now almost ready to roll.

However, this year, the scope widens to tablets andsmartphones - Intel's next target area, where ARM rulessolidly right now. We expect to see plenty of Clover Trail-basedsolutions for tablet and smartphone designs using this 32 nmSoC dual core Atom flavour with PowerVR graphics, however,either the CEO talk or the follow-on Steve Smith session postlunch should demo, and likely focus on, the follow on 22 nmBay Trail. The difference? While the Clover Trail may be goodenough even for a Full HD resolution tablet - hopefully NOTa 16:9 panel one, the Bay Trail's better process and powersavings should make it a true smartphone candidate. The issuehere is not the processing power - Clover Trail has more thansufficient capabilities there - but the total idle and real loadpower consumption. Clover Trail is supposed to be close tothe 10 hour target battery life on a tablet, but Bay Trail shouldbring power down sufficiently to have 2 day battery life on anIphone++ class cellphone.

More on all this as the day goes on...

HTC to hold media event on 20SeptemberSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/htc-to-hold-media-event-on-20-

september/13548.html


Taiwanese phone and tablet manufacturer HTC has sent outmedia invite for an event that will take place in New York,USA, on 20 September. Only the tagline "Come celebrate instyle with HTC" is stated, so it is everyone's guess on what thecompany could be announcing.

HTC's autumn product launch has been confirmed, on 20September in New York, and the event could be focusing on thelatest version of HTC Sense UI, products incorporating Beatsby Dr. Dre audio, and female-focused mobile phones. The newHTC Sense UI will be greatly optimized and will be less "harsh"in terms of hardware requirements; the minimum supportedconfiguration is MSM7227 processor, 384MB RAM, whichmeans that even the older devices like HTC Legend can alsosupport.

Last month, HTC used US$300 million to acquire 51% stakein Beats by Dr. Dre. And it is possible that the companywill showcase new products incorporating the Beats audiotechnology. However, it is still not known if the new productswould be compatible with Beats headphones. Most of theirproducts are catered to the male users, though this quarter,the HTC Bliss, which was leaked online, is designed for ladies.The HTC Bliss does not only feature mobile phone themes,wallpapers, ring tones and custom software for the femaleusers, but also in the hardware aspect like notification lights.The company could also be announcing the HTC Vigor, HTCRuby and HTC Holiday. Well, we would only know next week.

Trend Micro Singaporelaunches Titanium CloudEdition Maximum Security2012Source: http://vr-zone.com/articles/trend-micro-singapore-launches-

titanium-cloud-edition-maximum-security-2012/13546.html


Today, Trend Micro Singapore announced the launch of theirlatest Titanium Cloud Edition Maximum Security 2012 whichclaims to protect users online experience, be it online banking,social media, gaming or online shopping. Other featuresinclude the Trend Micro Mobile Security for Android PersonalEdition for security on Android smartphones and tablets,and Trend Micro SafeSync online service for file and foldersynchronization.


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Trend Micro Titanium Cloud Edition Maximum Security 2012is based in the cloud and claims to offer robust protectionagainst malicious threats, regardless of how they are delivered,where they hide, or what connected device is in use. Thesecurity suite features a "set-and-forget" user interface, andprovides real-time protection and proactively stops threats.One new feature in Trend Micro Titanium Cloud EditionMaximum Security 2012 is a tool that can visually identify safeand malicious links on social networking sites like Facebookand Twitter. The software also offers Trend Micro MobileSecurity for Android Personal Edition for mobile securityon smartphones and tablets, as well as Trend Micro SafeSynconline service for file and folder synchronization and backup.

Other security enhancements include a tool that can eliminateprograms posing as antivirus software (Fake AV); proactivebotnet and PE Virus protection; and protection againstmalware packer technology. Trend Micro Titanium CloudEdition Maximum Security 2012 also includes enhancementsto Parental Controls, Behavioral Monitoring, and Rootkitdetection and removal.

The Trend Micro Titanium Cloud Edition Maximum Security2012 is available now for purchase through selected retailpartners at the following prices:

- 1 Year / 1 User: S$39- 1 Year / 3 Users: S$109

The Trend Micro Mobile Security for Android Personal Editionis also available separately for purchase through the AndroidMarketplace. The basic edition is free for download, while thepremium edition is available for purchase through selectedretail partners at the following prices:

- 1 Year: S$35.90- 2 Years: S$59.90

Terrence Tang, head of digital (Asia Pacific region) and headof consumer business (Southeast Asia region) for Trend MicroSingapore, addressed the media and talked about the variousfeature of the company's new Trend Micro Titanium CloudEdition Maximum Security 2012.

"In the last 10 to 15 years, Internet has changed the way usersexchange and consume information. New devices have beencreated to support the new consumer behaviour. And moresocial networking sites have been established for friends toengage and connect with one another to share information. Wehave our consumer solutions vision to protect our consumerdigital lifestyle," Tang said.

Myla Pilao, director of TrendLabs, core technology marketing,was also at the event to talk about current and latest evolvingthreats that users faced today, the technological landscape inAsia which influence the types of threats, and the importanceof security.

Nikon COOLPIX AW100, S4150and S6150 on sale nowSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/nikon-coolpix-aw100-s4150-and-

s6150-on-sale-now/13545.html


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The sales for NIKON COOLPIX AW100, S4150 and S6150officially start now. COOLPIX AW100 is available at allauthorized dealers for S$529 while the COOLPIX S4150 isavaibale at Courts for S$229 and S6150 is available at HarveyNorman for S$299. Price and Sales Date for the remainingmodels (COOLPIX P7100, P1200pj, S6200 and S8200) will beannounced at a later date.

The sales for NIKON COOLPIX AW100, S4150 and S6150officially start now. COOLPIX AW100 is available at allauthorized dealers for S$529 while the COOLPIX S4150 isavaibale at Courts for S$229 and S6150 is available at HarveyNorman for S$299. Price and Sales Date for the remainingmodels (COOLPIX P7100, P1200pj, S6200 and S8200) will beannounced at a later date.

ProductName

ColorsAvailable


RecommendedRetail Price

COOLPIXAW100

• Black

• Blue

• Orange

• Camouflage

• Nikon 1stAW Seriescompactcamera

• Waterproof,shockproof,cold-resistant





• Built-in GPSand electroniccompass

$529

COOLPIXS4150

• Silver

• Black

• Bronze

• Red

• Purple

• 14.0megapixelswith 3" LCD




$229

• Built-inoriginalanimatedcharacters

COOLPIXS6150

• Silver

• Black

• Red

• Pink

• Violet



• TouchShutter,SubjectTracking




$299

Foxconn Quantum Force X79New Version PicturedSource: http://vr-zone.com/articles/foxconn-quantum-force-x79-new-

version-pictured/13543.html


Having first made waves at this year's Computex, it's timefor Foxconn's premium socket LGA2011 motherboard, theQuantum Force X79, to get down to business. The channelbrand of the OEM giant is gearing up for a Q4 2011 launch,and seems to have made some notable changes to the designwe saw in June, on its latest engineering sample. Thesechanges include rearrangement of expansion slots, a finalizeddesign for the heatsink over the X79 chipset, and a slightrearrangement of the front-panel header area. While this isstill an engineering sample, there is some progress - for betteror worse - as the final release revision takes shape.

Having first made waves at this year's Computex, it's timefor Foxconn's premium socket LGA2011 motherboard, theQuantum Force X79, to get down to business. The channelbrand of the OEM giant is gearing up for a Q4 2011 launch,and seems to have made some notable changes to the designwe saw in June, on its latest engineering sample. Thesechanges include rearrangement of expansion slots, a finalizeddesign for the heatsink over the X79 chipset, and a slightrearrangement of the front-panel header area. While this isstill an engineering sample, there is some progress - for betteror worse - as the final release revision takes shape.

vr-zone tech news for the geeks sep 2011 issue

Technology

consideringimplementing

lookinginto usb

device chip

thunderbolt chipsets

simplestorage device

type of device

host end

host chip