Apple's iPad 2 to come in white

For those who are following close to months and months of iPad 2 rumours would know that the upcoming tablet from Apple would feature front and rear cameras, thinner design and an improved (but not Retina) display. With just about a few days away from Apples iPad media event, this new (and rather interesting) rumour pops up from nowhere.

Originating from Shenzhen, China, this front bezel in white does include a hole for a front-facing camera. But what really surprised us is the colour. Apple originally announced the white iPhone 4 alongside with the black iPhone 4, but till this date have yet to deliever their flagship phone in white.

But on a personal note, I feel that having the iPad 2 in white just looks a tad weird.

In white or not, well find out soon on this Thursday morning at Apples iPad media event.

Source: 9to5Mac

ASUS launches Eee PC 1025 Flare series, world's fastest netbook with 2 sec resume

The ASUS Eee PC 1025 Flare Series netbook sports a new design with several color options, and incorporates 1.8GHz Intel Atom Cedar Trail dual-core processor, which claims to offer four times the graphical performance to previous generations while consuming less power. It also supports up to 2GB of DDR3 memory, up to 500GB hard drive, and comes with Smart Camera with 4x zoom, built-in USB 3.0, DLNA, and Wi-Fi Direct connectivity. The netbook features the proprietary ASUS Super Hybrid Engine II with Instant On technology that offers two-second system resume from sleep mode, and up to 21 days of standby. It also supports Blu-ray 2.0, and full high definition 1080p video playback via HDMI output. With the built-in data security features, it ensures zero data loss, with user data automatically saved to the hard drive when the battery drops below 5%. Available in eleven different colors, including Addict Pink, Mysterious Blue, and Plucky Purple, the ASUS Eee PC 1025 Flare Series netbook is now available in Singapore at S$499. Users will also receive 3GB of cloud storage space on ASUS WebStorage.

Apple unveils Apple Design Award winners at WWDC

Apple has announced the Apple Design Award winners at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in Moscone West, San Francisco.

Out of over half a million apps across the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, Apple selected just a handful which it believed deserved special mention at its event.Winners in the iPhone Developer Showcase include Jetpack Joyride by Halfbrick Studios, Wheres My Water by Disney, and National Parks by National Geographic, by none other than the National Geographic Society.Jetpack Joyride is a game that lets players fly around platform levels in a variety of jetbacks, collecting coins along the way. Apple said it was one of the winners because “it uses iOS graphics and audio frameworks extensively to enable really fun graphics, its optimized for Retina Display on iPad and iPhone, has a great soundtrack, delivers outstanding responsiveness and performance, and integrates with Game Center, In-App Purchase, Facebook and Twitter.” Basically it shows off the iPhone and iOS at its best.Wheres My Water is another game, but this time a physics-based puzzle where players help navigate water around various levels in order to help Swampy the Alligator have a shower. It won one of the awards due to its personality, consistent narrative, vibrant graphics, intuitive controls, simple game mechanics, and great sountrack. Its optimisation with iOS and integration with various iOS features was another selling point.National Parks by National Geographic is an informational app, providing details about popular parks throughout the United States. It was chosen for its strong design, attention to detail, high production quality, subtle and compelling animations and transitions, beautiful photo galleries, and photo tips. Maps integration was another factor in its win.Winners in the iPad Developer Showcase include Bobo Explores Light by Game Collage LLC, DM1 – The Drum Machine by Fingerlab, and Paper by FiftyThree, by FiftyThree Inc.Bobo Explores Light is an educational app that teaches basic scientific concepts relating to light, such as lasers, reflection, refraction, photosynthesis and bioluminescence, all with the use of experimentation, self-driven discovery and humour. Apple selected it because it is “state-of-the-art” and for making learning fun compared to more traditional digital textbooks.DM1 is, as its extended name suggests, a drum machine app that lets users turn their iPad into a virtual sound engine. It won an award for its “tight integration with iOS audio frameworks,” in addition to its high performance, rich feature set, finely-tuned interface, and beautiful visual design.Paper by FiftyThree is a creativity app that lets users draw sketches, diagrams, and illustrations in a way that makes them look high quality. Apple picked it for its excellent concept and execution, the feeling it gives when people draw with it for the first time, its innovative tools and rendering style, and the fact that it takes full advantage of the Retina Display to create the illusion of drawing on real paper.Winners in the Mac Developer Showcase include Deus Ex: Human Evolution – Ultimate Edition by Feral Interactive Ltd, Limbo by Playdead Aps, and Sketch by Bohemian Coding.The Deux Ex title is a cyberpunk-themed action role-playing game available on OS X. It was selected for its compelling and immersive gameplay, great graphics, and enormous environments. Apple called it “one of the … most impressive AAA games on the Mac App Store.”Limbo is a side-scrolling puzzle adventure for OS X, winning an Apple Design Award for its minimal UI, unique and compelling graphics, strong narrative, fluid movements, simple controls, and strong integration with OS X graphics and audio technology.Sketch is a professional vector graphics app for OS X, chosen for its integration with OS X and powerful design capabilities, including “non-destructive boolean operations on curves and objects.”Apple also selected two winners in its Student Developer Showcase: daWindci by Reality Twist GmbH, Mimimi Productions and Little Star by BiBoBox Studio. The former is a 3D project created by students at Mediadesign Highschool of Applied Sciences in Munich, winning for its clever design, simple gameplay, integration with iOS and 3D visuals.Little Star is a 30-page interactive childrens book designed and developed by students at Dalian Nationalities University in China. Apple selected it for its beautiful illustrations and unique interactivity, learning and gameplay, and touted it as “a great example of the results students can produce on iOS.”

Apple loses 4 patent claims against HTC in the U.K.

U.K’s court has determined that HTC does not infringe four of Apple’s patent, and thereby opening the door further for other smartphone manufacturers to compete in a $219 billion global market.

Apple tried to knock out HTC in the U.K. by claiming that its patents regarding photo management, slide to unlock, changing of the alphabet through scrolling, and software allowing users to touch two spots at the same time were infringed.

The court ruled, however, that HTC did not infringe three of the patents, and one was invalid.

The disappointment continues as Apple is faced with trademark lawsuits in China, and failed attempts at banning HTC’s One X, among others, in the U.S.

Earlier this year, and late last year, Apple won various patent suits against big brands such as Samsung across the globe, but that rush of victories have been slowed in recent months.

“Competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours,” Apple spokesperson said in an email to the press.

While Apple remains adamant about protecting its interest in the court room, competitors worldwide are seeking to compete with Apple through innovations in the marketplace.

Andrea Sommer, spokeswoman for HTC, addressed the press by saying HTC was happy with the U.K’s court ruling, and that HTC (among others) was “disappointed that Apple continues to favor competition in the courtroom over competition in the marketplace.”

AMD's 28nm Brazos successor to be manufactured at TSMC

With theKrishna/Wichita APUs now canceled, ExtremeTech has shed some light into AMDs strategy. The Deccan platform APUs were indeed planned for fabrication at GlobalFoundries, unlike Brazos which is manufactured by TSMC. Anticipating problems with the move to gate-first with GlobalFoundries, AMD canceled the Krishna and Wichita APUs and the entire Deccan platform. The short term solution is Brazos 2.0 - nothing but a minor tweak of Brazos. Long term, AMD is planning to move back to TSMC for its power efficient APUs.

Brazos 2.0 will have to hold fort till a direct 28nm shrink of Brazos is now expected some time in 2012 - well after the release of Intels 32nm Atom and 28nm ARM SoCs. The true successor to Brazos 2.0 - presumably an enhanced version of Krishna and Wichita featuring upto 4 cores, if not Kabini/Samara - is at least 18 months away, according to ExtremeTech.

In the mainstream APU segment, the successor to Trinity - Kaveri - is scheduled for 2013 on GloFos 28nm.

Source: ExtremeTech

Apple believes that the iPad mini will sell well (report)

Quite a bit is already known about a product that doesnt officially exist yet. That product is the rumored upcoming iPad mini, a smaller version of Apples iPad tablet. Sporting a screen of approximately 7.8 inches, the smaller iPad is believed to be a competitor to other small and inexpensive tablets on the market, such as Amazons Kindle Fire.

Today, The Wall Street Journal reported from Taipei that Apple placed an order for ten million panels to use in the manufacturing of this product. This report follows a similar one from the Taiwanese tech website Digitimes, which has a mixed reputation for the validity of its reports.

Purported leaked photo of the iPad mini, by Sonny Dickson

If the news is true, Apple obviously believes that the iPad mini will sell well. That is not a far out conjecture, judging by the success of other comparatively miniature tablets, and the high volume sales which always seem to follow Apple’s iOS products wherever they go.

It is believed that the iPad mini will sell for less than Apple’s iPad, and more than its iPod touch. This will make it a more affordable choice for people who would like an Apple tablet, but can’t quite cough up the $500 it costs for a 16 GB iPad without cellular access, and $629 with cellular access. Currently, that price can easily buy someone a laptop computer.

Since there has been no official word from Apple on the product whatsoever, it is unknown when (if ever) it will release. However, if the past behaviors of the company are to be taken as a template, then an invitation to an event within the next week would be good indication of a product announcement, followed by sales in November.

Source: The Washington Postvia The Wall Street Journal

AMD ATI vs NVIDIA Mobile Graphics Line-Up

We have revealed earlier about Nvidia'supcoming line-up for mobile graphics and now we check out how theircompetitor, AMD/ATI line-up for their mobile graphics. AMD plans to have dualgraphics mobile solutions for their top end line; the Mobility Radeon HD 3870 X2and 3850 X2. It seems Nvidia's top solution is a single GeForce 9800M GTX here.However, notebook maker Dell has offered dual graphics solution before with thedual GeForce 8800M GTX (G92) card equipped with 1GB memories so we wouldn't besurprised if there is a similar solution for the GeForce 9800M series offered bynotebook makers themselves.

Apple stock closes at an all-time high riding iPhone 5 rumors

Apple shares closed at an all-time high today at $648.11, which, undoubtedly, is due to speculations of the iPhone 5’s launch in September and the iPad mini in time for the holidays.

The Cupertino-based consumer electronics giant currently holds $607 billion in the bank, and the $1 trillion mark doesn’t seem out of reach. Apple’s stock increased by 57 percent this year, and if the trend continues, who knows how much money it’ll have stashed up under the bed by the end of next year.

Once Apple’s stock price hits $1,072 per share, the company will become the first company ever to achieve the $1 trillion market cap. The numbers are amazing, and it doesn’t seem like there’s much standing in the way of Apple breaking some Wall Street records.

Apple Wins Samsung Galaxy Nexus Injunction

The Galaxy Nexus smart phone by Samsung and Google has been barred from the US market - the worlds largest just ahead of China – due to the probality that it is engaging in patent infringements against competitor Apple Inc.

Judge Lucy Koh of the US District Court for the Northern District of California found the Galaxy Nexus probably infringes four patents belonging to Apple Inc and agreed to grant an injunction to Apple while the court considers Apples claim that the South Korean company has infringed its patents.

"Apple has clearly shown that it is likely to suffer irreparable harm in the absence of preliminary injunctive relief," Judge Lucy Koh stated.

The four patents that Samsung has likely breached are: Slide-to-lock/unlock, Data tapping, Auto correct and Siris unified search function.

Judge Koh then ordered Apple to post a $96 million bond — the sum being an estimation of the damage suffered by Samsung from the temporary ban on its sales —should the iPhone maker lose to Samsung in later proceedings, scheduled for 2014. The sales ban in the United States will be effective immediately when Apple posts the bond.

With the Galaxy SIII already the subject of preliminary legal proceedings by Apple, there is little doubt that either a settlement or further legal proceedings lie ahead for the Samsung Google partnership.

This case has ramifications for future patent disputes relating to fair and reasonable, non-discriminatory licensing.

Asrock released quot;real AM3+ quot; motherboards

The company makes the 6 following claims regarding their new motherboards:

1.The new "black" AM3b CPU socket make you recognize the new AM3+ motherboard at the first sight!With the 11% bigger pin hole size, it can get rid of the possible mechanical mismatch when installing the CPU, and avoid the CPU pin-bent problem.

2.Thanks for the AM3+ MB 3.4 MHz Serial VID support, it providesfaster link between CPU and power controller. Compare to the old AM3 MB 400 KHz link,the new AM3+ MB can support better power management & Power saving.

3.Not only meet AMDs requirements, the new AM3+ MB designprovides efficient power supply up to 11.8% better CPU power saving.An added bonus will be its environment-friendly feature.

4.As we know, the lower CPU noise, the better system stability. When the system isat the same loading, the new AM3+ MB design improves theVcore variation and reduces the CPU power noise up to 22%!

5.Compare to the old AM3 CPU only needs 110A current,the new AM3+ CPU needs higher 145A current!The New AM3+ MB can satisfy the demand of 32% higher currentand get rid of any power shortage issue.

6.With the new C.C.R. (Combo Cooler Retention Module) design,the ASRock new AM3+ MB can get better cooling effect for CPU, memory and power components.According to our test result, it makes the CPU power choke 5.4 °C cooler!Besides, the C.C.R. is backward compatible with the old AM3 / AM2+ CPU cooler as well.

Source : ASRock

2012-12-21-96

[Rumour] ATI's next generation - Southern Islands

ATI's next generation was revealed to be N. Islands on an officialroadmap back in 2009. It was meant to be a 32nm process, with releasesometime between Q4 2010 and Q1 2011. Unfortunately, thanks to TSMC's40nm botch-up, they lost confidence in the 32nm half-node, and canceledit completely - seeking to put their focus on 28nm.

This meant ATI's N. Islands had to be moved to 28nm, with a delay. TSMCkept slipping 28nm as well, and soon, it was quite apparent 28nm wouldnot be ready in time for the delayed release of NI in Q1 2011.

This led to rumours that N. Islands will be moved to Globalfoundries. However, even they would not be ready for 28nm by Q1 2011. So, it seems AMD will be stuck with the 40nm TSMC bulk process for a while now.

Recent rumours have suggested that N. Islands will be moved to 40nm. However, this would be quite an issue for a GPU originally designed for 32nm.

So, it seems the best solution in this case is a half-generation at 40nm, called Southern Islands. SemiAccurate suggest S. Islands is a hybrid between Evergreen and N. Islands, but, in general, details are lacking. It wouldn't be surprising if S. Islands turns out to be nothing but a refresh of the Evergreen series, before moving to a mature 28nm process either at TSMC or Globalfoundries. AMD's advantage is that they can afford to play it safe for now, considering the competition's weakness.

As for Nvidia - GF100 is no doubt a promising architecture, but it is screaming for a 28nm die shrink. Either that, or a complete revision from scratch. It seems unlikely either would happen before ATI releases S. Islands, which could be by the end of this year.

Reference: SemiAccurate

2012-12-21-339

A Visit To ASUS Headquarters In Taipei

Cecilia Huang, marketing directorof ASUS, gave the media a deeper insight of the company and what it does.

"ASUS is a global technology leader in the digital era and we focus on the mastery of technological innovation and design perfection. And in ASUS, we are in search of the incredible. We have over 11,000 employees worldwide, with over 3,000 are inR&D, 77 support centres and 50 branch offices globally. Last year, we reached US$10.1 billion revenue and we target US$12 billion this year," Huang said.

The notebooks, Eee PC netbooks and desktops (including EeeTop and EeeBox PCs) account for 74.7 percent of ASUS global revenue, while components like motherboards and LCD displays make up 24.2 percent; the remaining 1.1 percent come from other product categories.

Henry Lin, engineerof ASUS Golden Ear Team, was also present to talk about the companys proprietary SonicMaster technology and let the media listen to the difference in audio quality from ASUS laptops speakers compared to conventional ones.

Michelle Hsiao, designer for ASUS, talked about working with the Taiwanese celebrity Jay Chou on the special edition N-series laptop. Hsiao said that Chou began working with the ASUS design team earlier this year for a period of six months. The first production unit came out in April but becauseof colorselections and corrections,the final approved version was out only in June. Heres a look inside the work room which is laid with the various design revisions.