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Tuesday, February 09, 2010

ATI Radeon HD 5570 fills the last remaining gap in DirectX 11 empire

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/09/ati-radeon-hd-5570-fills-the-last-remaining-gap-in-directx-11-em/

ATI seems to be so enamored with its 40nm DirectX 11 Evergreen chips that at this point it's bringing out new graphics cards just to remind us of how awesome its technology is. Slotting in between the $100 HD 5670 and $50 HD 5450, the new Radeon HD 5570 will predictably retail at around $75 to $80, with up to 1GB of onboard GDDR3, a 650MHz core clock speed, and a thrifty 43W power budget under full load. Reviewers were big fans of its performance relative to the HD 5450 -- nearly doubling it in some cases -- but still struggled to recommend this as a better value for gamers than the only marginally more expensive HD 5670. Then again, the low profile card, single-slot cooler, and minimal power requirements make the 5570 an absolute gem for HTPC or SFF setups, so whether you're in that particular market or just curious, we recommend you check out the full reviews below.

Read - HotHardware
Read - AnandTech
Read - HardOCP
Read - Legit Reviews

ATI Radeon HD 5570 fills the last remaining gap in DirectX 11 empire originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Feb 2010 07:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung's first Bada phone with Super AMOLED to be announced on February 14th? Sure.

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/09/samsungs-first-bada-phone-with-super-amoled-to-be-announced-on/

By now you're undoubtedly aware than Samsung has a new smartphone OS (Bada) and touchscreen technology (Super AMOLED) in the works. In this case, putting 2 and 2 together yields 14, a number that matches Samsung's February 14th press event at Mobile World Congress. How so? Well, first of all, Sammy is promoting the Samsung Unpacked teaser page from its Bada site. The ocean-themed teaser ("bada" means "ocean" in Korean) says, "on 2.14 a new mobile from Samsung is born. See it first in Barcelona." A quick look at the teaser site's source reveals the keywords "Bada," "smartphone," and "AMOLED." In other words, you can bet that Samsung will be unveiling a 3.3-inch, 800 x 480 pixel Super AMOLED (already rumored for a next week reveal) touchscreen Bada phone on February 14th.

P.S. The image above comes courtesy of GSM Arena. While the site won't say what the device is on the left it's clearly running Samsung's Bada UI and is likely AMOLED judging by those deep blacks. The display is also slightly smaller than the iPhone 3G's 3.5-inch display. Gee... what could it be?

Samsung's first Bada phone with Super AMOLED to be announced on February 14th? Sure. originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Feb 2010 06:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NVIDIA Optimus automates graphics switching, promises the best of both worlds

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/09/nvidia-optimus-automates-graphics-switching-promises-the-best-o/

We've always thought switchable graphics made a lot of sense on laptops, and NVIDIA's new Optimus tech looks like it's going to bring it mainstream in a serious way -- there's no more manually toggling between the powerful discrete GPU and the power-saving integrated chip. More than just automatically switching off the discrete GPU when the laptop is unplugged, the idea is that you don't have to think about when you want to use the different graphics options: the software and hardware combo will take care of deciding which graphics processor is best for the application or content. For instance, launch Call of Duty 4 and the discrete GPU will power on, close out and start writing an e-mail and it will switch to the IGP. Sounds pretty simple, but under the hood its much more complicated as NVIDIA has moved to running the drivers for both graphics subsystems concurrently and removed the multiplexers under the hood. For more details on all the technical fixes hit the more coverage link.

Unsurprisingly, Intel hasn't been involved in these innovations, but NVIDIA says Optimus will work with Intel's new Core 2010 processors and the Pineview Atom platform, along with NVIDIA's GeForce 200M series, GeForce 300M series, next-gen GeForce M, and next-gen Ion GPUs. Speaking of Ion, NVIDIA wouldn't officially say what the next version will look like, but they confirmed it will be announced in March and use Optimus technology (we're pretty much assuming that it will combine the Pineview platform with a lower-end discrete GPU, like the previously hinted G310). The first Optimus-enabled laptops will hit at the end of this month courtesy of ASUS, and will include the UL50Vf, N61Jv, N71Jv, N82Jv, and U30Jc. We've been playing around with the $849 UL50Vf, so hit the break for some early impressions and video of the new graphics technology.

Gallery: NVIDIA Optimus / ASUS UL50Vf hands-on

Continue reading NVIDIA Optimus automates graphics switching, promises the best of both worlds

NVIDIA Optimus automates graphics switching, promises the best of both worlds originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Elecom introduces SDXC-compatible card reader, waits for you to afford SDXC cards

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/09/elecom-introduces-sdxc-compatible-card-reader-waits-for-you-to/

Panasonic's duo of SDXC cards should be shipping out this month, which means that you'll be needing a new card reader on the double. Of course, it's not like you're really about to pay upwards of $450 for 32GB of wicked fast Secure Digital storage (or $600 for the 64 gigger), but hey, it's hard to knock Elecom for being proactive. Said outfit has just released what looks to be the first multicard readers to openly support SDXC, with the MR-A001BK handling ten formats and the MR-A002 supporting a grand total of 32 -- some of which haven't been used regularly since Vikings ruled the north. Both are expected to ship in Japan later this month, with pricing set for ¥1,890 ($21) and ¥2,415 ($27) in order of mention.

Elecom introduces SDXC-compatible card reader, waits for you to afford SDXC cards originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TI stuffs WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth and FM radios on a single chip, UWB and LTE are like 'hello?'

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/09/ti-stuffs-wifi-gps-bluetooth-and-fm-radios-on-a-single-chip-u/

Heads-up, kids -- Mobile World Congress is but days away from liftoff, and it looks like Texas Instruments will be there with a purpose. The company has today introduced what it's calling the "industry's first quad-radio single chip," which throws 802.11n, GPS, FM transmit / receive and Bluetooth radios onto a single 65-nanometer WiLink 7.0 solution. Purportedly, this device reduces costs by 30 percent, size by 50 percent and bragging rights by 894 percent. The chip is currently sampling to OEMs with undisclosed names, which could mean that a prototype phone or two will be taking advantage in Barcelona. Fingers crossed.

Continue reading TI stuffs WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth and FM radios on a single chip, UWB and LTE are like 'hello?'

TI stuffs WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth and FM radios on a single chip, UWB and LTE are like 'hello?' originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Monday, February 08, 2010

NVIDIA pursuing external graphics accelerators for laptops?

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/08/nvidia-pursuing-external-graphics-accelerators-for-laptops/

It's not everyday that we can say there's external laptop GPU love in the air, but right on the heels the appearance of the Gigabyte M1405 with its GeForce GT220 dock, NVIDIA is expressing interest in external laptop GPUs as well. Manager of notebook GPUs Rene Haas told X-bit Labs that he thinks external graphics adapters for laptops are a "big opportunity" for NVIDIA, though he noted the drawback of their high price tags. We assume he is referring to AMD's ATI XGP box (or Fujitsu Siemens's Lasso) which is the only one available -- the ASUS XG station (pictured above) that seemed to vanish into thin air after its brief appearance at CES 2008. Either way, Haas very clearly states that the large market appeal of affordable external GPUs is just his opinion, though we're going to assume his opinion holds a bit of water in Santa Clara.

NVIDIA pursuing external graphics accelerators for laptops? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Vitamin D Webcam Monitor Hits 1.0, Still Has a Free Option [Updates]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/goIeU_T5t8E/vitamin-d-webcam-monitor-hits-10-still-has-a-free-option

Vitamin D, the Windows/Mac remote webcam monitoring software that we liked for customizable accuracy, and which one reader used to nab proof of a derelict dog walker, has hit a 1.0 release and announced its pricing. There's still a free version that does most of what the (soon-to-expire) beta does, but is limited to monitoring one camera. A Basic ($49) version supports two cameras, and Pro ($199) license monitors as many camera streams as your computer can handle. [Vitamin D via TechCrunch]

The Complete Guide to Windows System Restore (It's Better than You Remember) [Windows]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/ymnRYien7_E/the-complete-guide-to-windows-system-restore-its-better-than-you-remember

Most of us remember Windows System Restore as a lame-duck feature from Windows XP; when it seemed we might benefit from using it, it never quite worked how we expected. That's no longer the case.

Windows System Restore is an awesome system recovery tool, and it's included with Windows for free. It's the ideal solution for rolling back bad drivers, fixing when buggy software breaks your PC, or simply rolling you back to a previous point in time. If you've still got a bad taste in your mouth from the lackluster XP version of System Restore, it's time to take a look at it again if you've upgraded to Windows 7 or Vista.

System Restore in Windows 7 Is Better than XP

If you've ever tried the XP variety of System Restore, the uselessness of it probably left a bad taste in your mouth. Setting a system restore point was often agonizingly slow, and when it came time to actually attempt a system restore, it rarely did what you wanted it to do. But if you've upgraded to Vista or Windows 7, you should really give System Restore another chance.

Back in the XP days, system restore simply used a file filter and copied files around, but since Vista, it uses the Shadow Copy features built into Windows—essentially, Windows can create a snapshot of your drive as of a certain point in time, which can then be used later to restore your PC should anything go wrong. The Shadow Copy feature is also used by backup software to take snapshots of files even while they are in use, and it powers the Previous Versions feature built into the Professional and Ultimate version of Windows. Using Shadow Copy instead of simple file copying makes System Restore much more effective and comprehensive—while the XP version only could really roll back from certain Windows changes and generally didn't work that well, System Restore in Vista or Windows 7 can actually roll back to a previous version of an installed application.

System Restore snapshots are automatically created on a periodic basis using a Task Scheduler job, triggered at system startup and at midnight each day. Before you start to think it's a contributing factor to your system boot speeds, the Conditions tab specifies that it won't actually start until the PC has been idle for more than 10 minutes—and if you don't like the schedule, you can tweak the Task Scheduler job to run more (or less) often. When you install (or uninstall) a piece of software, a new System Restore point is also triggered, or snapshots can be created manually if you're about to make a change and want to be sure that you can roll back.

Create a Manual System Restore Snapshot

If you're going to be making changes to your system, like upgrading drivers or tweaking settings, you should create a snapshot before you do anything, so if it all goes horribly awry, you can roll it back to normal. If you're using Windows 7, just use the System Protection tab in the System Properties window—or you can search for "create restore point" to get there directly. Once you're there, click the Create button, type in a descriptive name for the restore point, and then let it run—it shouldn't take longer than a few seconds. If you're a fan of the step-by-step walk-through, we've written up a quick guide to manually creating a System Restore point over at How-To Geek.

If the manual method is too many steps for you, you can make a shortcut that creates a system restore snapshot in a single step without having to go through any other steps. Regardless of the method you choose, you should make a point of creating system restore snapshots before you start doing any major tweaking on your PC.

Restoring from a System Restore Snapshot

All these snapshots don't do you much good if you don't know how to restore your PC using them, and it's just as easy as creating a snapshot. While you can restore from a snapshot by simply finding the System Restore screen in Control Panel, you're not going to have a lot of luck actually using the snapshot unless you've restarted your PC into Safe Mode. Normally, you can just restart your PC and hit the F8 key really quickly right when Windows is starting up, which will show you the boot menu and allow you to choose to boot into Safe Mode, but if you have problems triggering this, I've previously written up a guide to force Windows to boot into Safe Mode using the msconfig utility.

Once you're in Safe Mode, head into System Properties –> System Restore or just search through the Control Panel to pull up the wizard, choose the restore point that you'd like to roll back to, and then choose Next to start the restore process. If you're not sure which one to choose, however, you can select a restore point and click the Scan for Affected Programs button, which will analyze the restore point to figure out what applications will be rolled back if you choose that restore point.

You should note that System Restore isn't going to roll back your documents, it's just going to operate on internal operating system files, program files, and system settings. If you had a document on your desktop, it shouldn't be removed, but if you roll back to before you install an application, the shortcut to that application would probably go away.

If your PC won't even boot, you should also note that you can access the System Restore features from the Windows installation disc, which can be very helpful when you've completely broken your PC.

There's No Performance Drain From System Restore

One of the most common performance-tweaking myths that you'll find on all the amateur tweaking sites says that you should disable System Restore for maximum performance, but that's just ridiculous. We've already shown you that System Restore only kicks in once a day, and only runs when the system is idle—so the only drain on your resources is a little bit of extra drive space being used, not to mention that snapshots take virtually no time to create.

If you're really worried about the use of your drive space, you can easily tweak System Restore to use less space in Windows 7—just head into System Properties –> System Protection –> Configure and drag the slider to choose exactly how much space you want to use. For Windows Vista, it's a lot more difficult—you'll need to use a command-line hack to force Windows Vista to use less space.

The much better solution, however, is to simply clear out all restore points but the most frequent one whenever you're in need of some extra drive space using the Disk Cleanup utility. Just run it as administrator by right-clicking on the utility in the start menu and choosing the Run as Administrator option, or you can open it normally and click the "Clean up system files" button—once you've done so, you can choose the More Options tab where you'll find a Clean up button to remove all the old restore points except for the most recent one. This keeps you safe just in case you need to restore, but doesn't keep the older, more unnecessary restore points around.

At this point hopefully you can see the benefit and learn to love how System Restore can fix your PC easily, but if you really insist, you can disable System Restore easily from the System Protection tab.

What about you? Have you used System Restore to fix your PC problems? Share your experiences in the comments.

The How-To Geek deleted his system32\drivers folder for fun, and used System Restore to easily get the PC running again. His geeky articles can be found daily here on Lifehacker, How-To Geek, and Twitter.

Quickly Backup Your Firefox Profile with about:support [Firefox Tip]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/a7_ETlZbnCo/quickly-backup-your-firefox-profile-with-aboutsupport

Navigating to the directory where Firefox stores your profile has always been a bit of a pain, but the recent release of Firefox 3.6 makes finding that folder—and from there backing up your bookmarks, extensions, or entire profile—a breeze.

That's because Firefox 3.6 added a helpful new about page for support and troubleshooting. Just type about:support in your Firefox address bar to give it a look. The new page separates a ton of useful troubleshooting information into sections, including Application Basics (name, version, profile directory, installed plug-ins, and build configuration, followed by all of your installed extensions, and then ending with your profile's modified preferences. Mozilla put this all together as a helpful tool for finding important information for users elbow deep in troubleshooting, but as Nirmal over at Life Rocks 2.0 points out, it also serves as a great shortcut for quickly backing up your Firefox profile.

Just click the Open Containing Folder (or Show in Finder in OS X) button to go straight to the profile folder for that Firefox installation. Once you're looking at it, backing up your profile is as simple as copying that folder. Windows users, you can also give previously mentioned MozBackup a look if you'd like help with the backup-and-restore process for everything from Firefox and Thunderbird to Songbird.

Backup Your Firefox Profile Easily using about:support [Life Rocks 2.0]

Even at 4-inches, The Qisda QCM-330 Dwarfs the iPad's Resolution [Smartphones]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/W4K1GBZE-Tc/even-at-4+inches-the-qisda-qcm+330-dwarfs-the-ipads-resolution

You hear the 9.7-inch iPad has a screen resolution of 1024x768, and you think to yourself, that's not so bad! And it's not. But when you later hear that a new 4-inch smartphone will feature a resolution of 1280x1024, well...

...it's just tough to be floored by anything less.

(Those of you noting the discrepancy between the spec resolution and the general wideness of the screen: you're right to do so.)

The Qisda (you also know them as BenQ) QCM-330, expected to debut at the upcoming CeBIT tradeshow this March before being available through Vodafone, features a 4-inch, 1280x1024 screen that could be sharper than life itself, along with HSDPA and Wi-Fi. When compared to the Droid (480 x 854) and the HD2 (480 X 800), it's pretty amazing. But yes, again, that 1280x1024 is square, and this phone is long, so it's kind of confusing.

We don't know much else, other than that it will most likely run Android given the Home key (which makes the prospect of importing a phone for its hardware alone so much more appealing). But if you're one of those people who doesn't like to use the same phone as other people, the QCM-330 might be a decent handset to watch. [Unwired View via SlashGear]

Gmail Is the New TwitFacePlurk [Gmail]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/u--5BdF8bVQ/gmail-is-the-new-twitfaceplurk

Facebook might be the new Gmail, but now Gmail is the new Facebook, bitches: They're rolling out an update that makes it "easier and faster to share media and status updates with friends," in a new module that shows a stream of status updates. And it'll integrate YouTube and Picasa, somehow. Say it with me now: FacemailGtwitbook. That is the future. [WSJ]

AMD's Plan to Take Back Laptops: The Llano "APU" [Processors]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/3JquRaWuWiA/amds-plan-to-take-back-laptops-the-llano-apu

If you want a laptop with graphics and battery performance that isn't totally embarrassing, you're basically stuck with some combination of Intel and Nvidia gear. Now, finally, AMD's Llano, a CPU/GPU combo, or "APU", could give us a serious alternative.

AMD running with the "Application Processor Unit" name isn't as gimmicky as it sounds, because the Llano is genuinely unique: It's four processing cores and a DX11-capable GPU on a single processor die. In simpler terms, this means that AMD has created a tidy little system on a chip, aimed at a few portable markets. In the simplest terms, they've shrunk laptop graphics and processing into a single chip, which saves power and space.

So! Not much is known about the Llano right now, but we can pick out some broad themes. The chip's power regulation is novel, monitoring specific chip functions to gauge power draw rather than sensors. The graphics capabilities, though still generally a mystery, wouldn't have to be very good at all to trump Intel's lame integrated graphics. In other words, as Ars notes, this could be the first real baby of the still torrid AMD/ATI marriage, and the start of an ATI comeback, at least in laptops.

Or, given that we're not expected to see these processors in products until 2011, when everything could be completely different, it could be none of these things. [Ars Technica]

Our Price of TV Loyalty: 20% Off the Top [Cable]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Pd_ZwieTFHc/our-price-of-tv-loyalty-20-off-the-top

For a 20% savings, more than 50% cable and satellite subscribers are likely to jump ship to save money. But Telco TV (services like AT&T U-verse) have a much, much more loyal following. Anecdotally, would you agree? [Multiplayblog via engadgetHD]

Corsair readying Nova and Reactor 2.5-inch SSDs for release

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/08/corsair-readying-nova-and-reactor-2-5-inch-ssds-for-release/

Corsair has kept quiet on the SSD front here recently, but it looks as if it's about to ruffle a few feathers with two new laptop-centric drives. Fudzilla has dug up pricing information on two heretofore unreleased solid state drives from the company, with the 64GB / 128GB Nova and 60GB / 120GB Reactor both featuring the Indilinx Barefoot controller, MLC NAND and at least 64MB of cache. The Nova series is purportedly capable of hitting read speeds of up to 215MB/sec on both the V128 and V64, while write speeds are locked at 130MB/sec for the V64 and 195MB/sec for the V128. As for the Reactor range? Those feature 128MB of cache and a nice boost in transfer speeds, though the €151 ($206) starting tag doesn't do much for bargain shoppers. Hit the source link for more details, but don't get your hopes too high for a near-term release in the US.

Corsair readying Nova and Reactor 2.5-inch SSDs for release originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Feb 2010 09:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Inbrics' Android-based M1 slated to ship this year

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/08/inbrics-android-based-m1-slated-to-ship-this-year/

We already caught a fair amount of play time with Inbrics' Android-based M1 at CES, but it looks as if the company is fixing to "officially" reveal it next week at Mobile World Congress. We're still debating whether or not this thing is a bona fide smartphone or yet another MID that'll have a tough time gaining acceptance in this cruel, cruel world, but either way, it's apparently on track for release later this year. According to details scooped up by Pocket-lint, the company is hoping that the M1 will double as a media controller for AV junkies, and if all goes well, Europeans could get their hands on it "in 2010 or early 2011." Just as long as it's prior to 2012, we're cool.

Inbrics' Android-based M1 slated to ship this year originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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