By now, we were hoping to able to get our hands on AMD’s new Bulldozer archtecture processors, but there’s still no sign of them, so instead we back with the familiar Phenom II theme. Give it up for the new AMD Phenom II X4 970 Black Edition.

Based on the 45nm Deneb core that’s being doing duty in quad-core Phenom II chips for nearly two years, the AMD Phenom II X4 970 Black Edition sports a heady stock clockspeed of 3.5GHz. Yup, that’s precisely 100MHz or three per cent faster than the Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition, previously the fastest X4 model.

This kind of incremental upgrade is symptomatic of an ageing processor architecture on it last legs. But while Bulldozer can’t come soon enough, there’s no reason why the 970 shouldn’t be an attractive CPU. It all comes down to pricing and positioning. At £140, the 970 squares up directly against Intel’s Core i5 760. Game on.

With so many CPU models on offer from AMD and Intel, it’s not always obvious where any given chip lines up. In the case of the AMD Phenom II X4 970 Black Edition, however, its main task is very clear. It must beat Intel’s Core i5-760.

More accurately, it probably only needs to match the 760. The two chips both sell for around £140. However, thanks to typically lower motherboard prices, the overall platform cost is lower if you go with AMD. In that more precise context, how does the 970 stack up?

Initial impressions in multi-threaded benchmarks are good. The Phenom II X4 970′s healthy 3.5GHz clockspeed and quad-core layout motors through the x264 HD video encoding test in 19.4fps, just a whisker slower than the Core i5 760′s 19.7fps result.

It’s a similar story in Cinebench R10. One minute and one second for the Phenom II plays 59 seconds for the Core i5. Shift the focus to gaming, however, and the 970 begins to struggle. World in Conflict is a particularly demanding game for CPUs and it duly exposes Phenom’s weakness. The Core i5 is nearly 20 per cent quicker, despite a large clockspeed disadvantage.

Speaking of clockspeeds, the 970′s impressive stock frequency of 3.5GHz is actually its undoing when it comes to overclocking. The Phenom II architecture generally hits the wall at 4GHz, regardless of model and the 970 is no different. The same applies to Intel’s Core i5 and Core i7 chips. However, clocked at 2.8GHz, the Core i5-760 has much more headroom to play with.

We liked

AMD often has to balance value and upgradeability against raw performance when competing with Intel processors. The Phenom II X4 970 Black Edition takes those traditional AMD advantages and adds an impressive stock clockspeed of 3.5GHz. The result is competitive multi-threaded performance and no excuses.

We disliked

While high clocks and four cores will inevitably deliver plenty of parallelised punch, the Phenom II X4 970′s ageing architecture is exposed by applications that rely on strong single-core performance. What’s more, the 3.5GHz stock clockspeed doesn’t leave much room for overclocking.

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Looks like you can get an Android Tablet for the low price of $139.99 at Toys “R” Us on Black Friday! The 2 day sale starts at 10PM Thursday and runs til Friday night. The sale price is $60 off the regular price of $199.99 for the Sylvania Android Tablet we covered here.

The tablet isn’t bad if you aren’t concerned with not having the ability to use your mobile carrier’s network, or possibly access the default Android Marketplace. Otherwise, it’s a good little Android tablet none the less.

Android Tablet $139.99 at Toys R US Black Friday Sale!

View full post on Android News, Rumours, and Updates

The busiest shopping day of the year, aka Black Friday, is only two weeks away. Best Buy is always a major shopping destination on that day, and they have a few great Android deals to be had. A couple of them require a new 2-year agreement, but if you’re in the market for one of those the price for a couple of these is out of the world. Check out the deals below:

• Samsung Transform – $69.99 with 2 year contract
• Samsung Galaxy Tab – $549.99
• LG Optimus S (Charcoal and Purple) – $1 with 2 year contract
• HTC Droid Incredible – $1 with 2 year contract
• Samsung Fascinate – $1 with 2 year contract
• Samsung Galaxy Tab -$549.99

Any of those one dollar deals are pretty sweet, but again you need to get that pesky new contract. We’d love to hear from you! Are you planning on heading to Best Buy in two weeks and grabbing one (or more) of these Android devices? Leave us a comment below and let your voice be heard!

Best Buy offering up some good Android deals on Black Friday

View full post on Android News, Rumours, and Updates

This year, if you wait until Black Friday — traditionally one of the most frenzied shopping days of the year — to score some spectacular savings on holiday electronics and tech buys, you may have waited too long.

View full post on Macworld

The day shoppers love to hate is quickly approaching, and smartphones, tablets, and Android goodies are poised to be a big hit when Santa comes storming down those chimneys. Best Buy is gearing up for their Black Friday sale with several Android deals that are sure to move some phones off the shelves.

For only a dollar, the HTC Droid Incredible, LG Optimus S, and Samsung Fascinate will be available on two-year contracts from their respective carriers. The Galaxy Tab will be on sale for $549.99, and the Samsung Transform is going for $69.99 on a Sprint contract. More deals are sure to be revealed in the coming weeks.

[via AndroidGuys]

View full post on Android Phone Fans

Greetings, Professor Falken - War Games

CNET’s Marguerite Reardon, a well-regarded journalist, is helping HughesNet drum up some enthusiasm by noting they’ll someday offer speeds between 5-20 Mbps, says Karl Bode at Broadband Reports. Hughes completed a $115 million loan agreement for Jupiter-1 last month and plans faster speeds for some 2 million subscribers.

In the first half of 2012, Hughes Network Systems, hopes to launch their Jupiter satellite (below), designed by Space Systems Loral. It will offer more than 100 gigabits per second of capacity — more than 10 times the capacity the company currently offers on its existing satellite, Spaceway3, launched in 2008.

But Broadband Reports gets it wrong [UPDATE: now fixed], saying “HughesNet has long promised that their high capacity ViaSat-1 satellite would help improve things”…

Actually, HughesNet is the chief North American competitor for ViaSat/WildBlue. Hughes operates Hughes Spaceway 3. ViaSat operates competitor WildBlue.

The new high capacity (Ka-band) satellites from the respective companies are ViaSat-1 (above), scheduled for launch in the first half of 2011, and the Hughes Jupiter-1, scheduled for launch in the first half of 2012.

ViaSat operates WildBlue, which serves over 400,000 subscribers within the 48 contiguous United States. WildBlue began offering residential broadband satellite access in June 2005. WildBlue was acquired by ViaSat on October 1, 2009 for $568 million. They currently holds a 44 percent of the U.S. satellite ISP market.

ViaSat’s new Ka-band ViaSat-1, is aimed at enhancing fixed broadband in the United States. The chart (below) shows the capacity of ViaSat-1. ViaSat-1 was designed by SS Loral. ViaSat-1 involves a collaborative effort between ViaSat, Loral, Telesat and Eutelsat.

The similar (but different) Hughes Jupiter was also designed by SS Loral.

Hughes Network Systems, which owns Spaceway3, was sold to SkyTerra Communications (now Lightsquared) in January 2003.

SkyTerra (now Lightsquared) is planning to launch huge satphone birds with a terrestrial LTE component. These are not for fixed broadband satellite service.

SkyTerra 1 & 2 satellites are L band (1.6GHz) spot beam birds for mobile phones. They are based on the Boeing 702 Geo-Mobile bus. SkyTerra 1 arrived in Baikonur last month in preparation for launch, planned next week, around November 13 by ILS. It features a 22-meter antenna — the largest commercial antenna reflector to be put into service. Hundreds of spotbeams will connect directly to mobile phones. By contrast, ViaSat-1 and Hughes Jupiter (both using the Ka band), will deliver 100 gigabit capacity for fixed satellite access.

The big unanswered question is how North America can support two competing fixed broadband satellites (ViaSat-1 and Jupiter-1), as well as two huge satphone platforms LightSquared’s Skyterra-1 (using 1.6 GHz), and TerraStar-1 (using 2 GHz). Plus their four in-orbit spares. Not to mention ICO and a new generation of Iridium and GlobalStar LEOs.

The balls are kept in the air by the miracle of high frequency trading.

But TerreStar, has more than $1 billion in debt, and is preparing a possible filing for bankruptcy protection, says the Wall Street Journal. TerreStar launched its first satellite in July 2009 and is building a second, dubbed TerreStar-2. To fund the second satellite, the telecommunications company tapped a $100 million credit line from hedge fund Harbinger Capital and EchoStar Communications. TerreStar-1, a 2 GHz spot beam satellite, is currently operational.

TerreStar’s Satphone service can be augmented with their GENUS dual-mode cellular/satellite smartphone. They planned to use AT&T’s cellular service, handing off to the satellite when out of cell range.

The technology is in place. But the service is still not available.

Now Lightsquared is banking on its new toy, Skyterra-1 (using 1.6 GHz) and a terrestrial LTE repeater network built by Nokia Siemens Networks.

The Mobile Satellite Services band (MSS) in the 2 GHz band is something of a US-only use of the frequency. On the other hand, the FCC’s Proposed Rulemaking should enable secondary leasing for terrestrial use on all the satellite phone bands.

Too bad ICO and TerreStar can’t sell their 2 GHz platforms to India for e-books and multi-media. Connect it to Samsung’s Galaxy Tablet for a triple play.

Dish TV is India’s number one direct-to-home provider and a member of the largest media conglomerate — Zee group. Dish TV subscribers have access to 268 channels & services with a registered 8.9 million subscribers and growing. It uses an NSS-6 Satellite at 95 degrees East.

The FCC’s rulemaking permits Mobile Satellite Service (MSS) licensees in the 2 GHz (1990-2025 MHz and 2165-2200 MHz), the L-band (1525-1544 MHz/1545-1559 MHz and 1626.5-1645.5 MHz/1646.5-1660.5 MHz), and the “Big LEO” (1610-1626.5 MHz and 2483.5-2500 MHz) bands to integrate ancillary terrestrial components (ATCs) into their MSS networks.

Harbinger hoped to make a killing with terrestrial “4G” using their satellite spectrum. Although it’s just speculation, perhaps AT&T is having second thoughts on sharing their cellular network with Terrestar’s dual-mode cellular/satellite smartphone. AT&T has their own 700 MHz LTE network planned, after all. Why encourage competition?

AT&T can wait.

Related DailyWireless Space and Satellite News includes; TerreStar: Bust?, LightSquared Talks Up Emergency Response, Satellite Internet Mobilizes, Lightsquared: Big Bump, Sat Broadband Gets $100M Stimulus, Huge Internet Satellites Near Launch, Broadband Satellites: Looking Up, WiMAX and/or Satellite, HughesNet’s Spaceway 3 Now Available, Hughes Launches Switchboard in the Sky, HughesNet & Broadband Corporation, Spot Beam Sats Multiply, Clearwire & SatTV Do a Deal, Sprint Beams Up with MSV, TerreStar: I-HSPA for Satphones, Satphones: Merger Ahead?, Inmarsat + SkyTerra = Spectrum Sharing, Mobile Satellite on the Move, TerreStar Gets a Slot, Satellite Repeaters – Grounded In Reality?, WildBlue Partners with DirecTV & Echostar, John Malone in Space, TerreStar Gets a Slot, BSkyB + Google, SkyNet Satellite Hacked?, Lockheed CEO: Space is Broken, MSS: AWS Alternative?, WildBlue: AT&T’s DeathStar?

View full post on dailywireless.org

The pricing for the BlackBerry Bold 9780 on Vodafone UK has been known for a while but, as a reminder for those who may have missed it. Vodafone UK will be giving away the BlackBerry Bold 9780 on tariffs starting at £35/pm (24 months) but if you want no contract pricing, you’ll be looking at £400. One thing though that was only rumored, was that Vodafone may or may not be offering more than one color. We now know for sure that the device will come in white and black when it launches and that it will launch with OS 6.0.0.294 as that was the OS officially approved by Vodafone UK. Who has their pre order trigger finger ready?

CrackBerry.com‘s feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. Vodafone UK bringing BlackBerry Bold 9780 in black and white with OS 6.0.0.294 preloaded

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AMD has been prolific lately and the next in its line to fall under our spotlight is the dual-core Phenom II X2 560 Black Edition.

As a result of its labours, AMD certainly has a lot of flavours of processor on the market these days, but as a gamer on a budget do you really need anything with more than two cores yet? There’s still a dearth of multithreaded titles out there really taking advantage of the hex-core marvels AMD has recently launched, so you could be forgiven for sacrificing cores for cash.

The lads and lasses at AMD obviously understand that too, since the company’s bolstering its dual-core lineup with another Black Edition CPU, now hitting the 3.3GHz mark. We’ve already seen the Phenom II X2 550 and 555 chips, which managed 3.1GHz and 3.2GHz respectively.

Quite why we need another CPU with such a small incremental increase is rather beyond us. Sure it’s a Black Edition, with all the unlocked multiplier joy that entails, but then so was the 3.1GHz 550. Why push it further?

There’s practically zero difference in performance terms between the two low-end Black Edition Phenom IIs. That’s not surprising, since there’s also little difference between the two architectures. The extra megahertz don’t really give you anything but a small increase in the video encoding score – a score that’s easily bettered by the quad-core Athlon II X4 620.

Video encoding performance
X264 v3 – FPS: higher is better
Phenom II 560BE – 10.9
Phenom II 550BE – 10.4

CPU rendering performance
Cinebench R11.5 – Index: bigger is better
Phenom II 560BE – 1.89
Phenom II 550BE – 1.89

DX10 gaming performance
Just Cause 2 – FPS: higher is better
Phenom II 560BE – 45
Phenom II 550BE – 45

The budget end of the AMD processor spectrum is a tricky one to negotiate – there are a host of CPUs on offer for incredibly low prices.

The Athlon II X4 620 is one of the cheapest quad-core processors you’ll ever see and it’s definitely no slouch at 2.9GHz. For some decent multithreaded application performance, or video tweakery, then the quad is always going to prove a boon over the more remedial dualies.

That said, the lack of decent cache levels means it’s not going to give you any joy in games, which is where the dual-core Phenom IIs really take over. They also give you rather stellar overclocking performance too.

Then there’s the looming spectre of AMD’s core unlocking feature, although that increasingly is looking redundant in the latest chip samples we’ve had a play with. One of our 550s went all the way and unlocked two extra cores giving us a bargainous quad-core, but the other stubbornly refused to. The same happened here with our 560 sample – it just wouldn’t boot with any extra cores unlocked.

So what do you really get for your extra cash if you pick up the 560 over the Phenom II X2 550? Honestly, very little. Despite the new stepping, there’s no change in the power rating of 80W and we could garner no extra overclocking performance out of it either. Both CPUs would happily hit 4GHz on air, but try as we might we couldn’t get a stable clock any higher than that.

At £65, then, the 550 Black Edition looks like a far better bet for those after a budget gaming setup, and that’s easily achievable when twinned with a bargain AMD motherboard. You can also drop more on the motherboard with a view to upgrading your CPU if and when you can afford it thanks to AMD’s single-socket platform.

Which leaves the Phenom II X2 560 a rather unnecessary addition to AMD’s CPU lineup, lacking the multithreaded performance of chips with more cores or any extra overclocking headroom.

We liked
The Phenom II X2 560 is still able to hit 4GHz on air-cooling alone, as long as you’ve got a decent cooler, and the gaming performance isn’t bad for a cheap chip either.

We disliked
The fact that there’s little tangible difference between this newer chip revision and the cheaper dual-core 550 Black Edition makes this processor practically irrelevant.

Verdict
An unnecessary addition to the low-end Phenom II range.

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Modern Combat 2: Black Pegasus delivers impressive combat controls, well-detailed environments, and exciting single player and multiplayer levels.

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Don’t try to change the channel: Steve Jobs controls the horizontal and the vertical. Also, Apple hits a new financial milestone, but that hasn’t stopped it from holding onto its values.

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When it comes to mice, there have always been two things to bear in mind. Firstly, buy a Microsoft one. Failing that, buy a Logitech one. Recently that’s been shaken up with the infinitesimally adjustable Cyborg R.A.T. 7 mouse, which works surprisingly well.

If there’s a problem with these mice, though, it’s that they generally cost upwards of £50, which is far too much for something that you’ll only use for scrolling down pages of porn trying to find the one who looks like your neighbour. Sorry, I mean something you’ll only use for gaming.

Enter the Sharkoon Fireglider Black, which will set you back just 25 notes. Unsurprisingly, it looks and feels exactly like a £25 mouse, with a plasticky finish and rubber ‘gills’ at the side, which I doubt mean that it can breathe underwater. Although that would be cool.

Sadly the Fireglider really isn’t that cool I’m afraid. It’s also got one of those weight systems modern mouse designers are so fond of, but even at maximum weight it feels like even a light breeze would send it straight to Oz. As in where Dorothy went, not the fictional, Nazi-filled prison from the TV show where everyone bums or gets bummed all the time.

It loses points for its look and feeling, but as a gaming mouse it’s actually pretty competent. Sharkoon has covered it in buttons, which can be filled with macros to execute your favourite executions. It’s also got a six-stage adjustable DPI system, which goes from 600 to 3600 DPI, complete with customisable LED colours.

It worked well with Dead Rising 2. Admittedly, chopping a zombie to bits doesn’t require huge amounts of precision, but I did find myself switching through the DPI settings as I ran around the mall.

Problem is, on my desk I also have Logitech’s G500, which is available for just a fiver more than Sharkoon’s effort. The G500 just feels so much more solid and weighty, it has an iron-proof cable and it packs a similar number of those lovely buttons. And the venerable G5 is only £35 now. So, you should still buy Logitech.

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Welcome back AMD, we’ve missed you. With the launch of the Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition a few months ago, AMD signalled a revival of its CPU business. The 1090T is based on Thuban, a new six-core chip and easily the best processor design from AMD in years.

Admittedly, it’s not an all-new CPU. It’s mostly a six-core rehash of AMD’s existing 45nm quad-core architecture, known as Deneb. Of course, Deneb was essentially a 45nm respin of AMD’s 65nm Barcelona chip. Rinse and repeat right back to the original Hammer core from 2003.

Still, you only have to look at the Phenom II X6 1090T BE’s power rating to appreciate what AMD has achieved. This six-core, 45nm, 3.2GHz chip is rated at 125 Watts. The quad-core, 45nm, 3.4GHz Phenom II X4 965 Black Editionweighs in at 140 Watts. Clearly, AMD has at last got to grips with the 45nm production node.

With six cores humming a 3.2GHz tune, you’d expect the Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition to sport decent multi-threading chops. You’d be right. If there’s a cheaper chip that offers better performance in video encoding and other highly parallelised applications, we haven’t seen it.

Less impressive, of course, is the 1090T’s per-core performance. That explains why it’s not so competitive in games and file decompression. OK, by those metrics it’s no slouch. But even Intel’s lowliest Core i5 quad-core model, the 750, has it well beaten.

One area where we had expected the 1090T to stumble is overclocking. It’ only fairly recently that AMD has been able to hit decent clocks with its quad-core processors. Odds are a six-core chip based on the same production process isn’t going to be a screamer.

Well, never mind the odds, because this chip will crack 4GHz with air cooling. What’s more, it will do it at sane voltage settings. It’s extremely impressive and lifts the 1090T from being a very useful tool for video encoding buffs to an all-round winner.

That’s especially true when you consider how much cheaper the overall platform cost is when you go with AMD. This high end six-core chip drops into the same AM3 socket as any current AMD processor. Compatible motherboards are therefore cheap and plentiful.

The only slight snag is the existence of the Phenom II X6 1055T. It’s quite a bit cheaper but only slightly slower. But either way, with six-core AMD you are well on the way to arguably the most cost effective computing solution currently available.

We liked:

Compared to Intel’s silly-money six-core processors, the Phenom II X6 1090T BE looks preposterously cheap. But the chip itself is only part of the reason why AMD-based PCs are such great value. Thanks to AMD’s single-socket strategy on the desktop, you can drop the 1090T into a £50 board and do some serious coding on the cheap.

We disliked:

As fantastic as the 1090T Black edition is, there’s one chip that’s even better value: the Phenom II X6 1055T. It’s essentially the same chip running slightly slower for a lot less money. What both models share is a slight weediness in games.

Verdict:

At last, an AMD Black Edition chip worthy of the name. But slightly overpriced.

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Feeling lucky today, punk? We reckon that’s the question you need to ask yourself before taking a punt on the AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition.

Based on AMD’s flagship Deneb processor die, the 720 has the full 6MB compliment of L3 cache. It also runs at a reasonable 2.8GHz frequency. As a Black Edition chip, it even has an unlocked CPU multiplier for easy overclocking. Not bad for a chip priced well under £100.

There is, however, something missing. AMD has disabled one of Deneb’s four cores. The Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition is a tripler, as indicated by the ‘X3′ moniker. It’s here that your luck will be tested because it’s possible to unlock the hidden core in the BIOS of most AM3-socket motherboards.

When it comes to core unlocking, there are no guarantees. But with just one hidden core, your odds are at least better than the AMD Phenom II X3 550 BE, which has two hidden cores and double the chance of one being broken.

We were hoping to make this review a tale of two halves. The first was to be a story of the Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition in standard triple-core trim, the second was to include revelations of a fourth core freed from its digital shackles.

But like the other two AMD chips with hidden cores (that’s the Athlon II X3 435 and Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition), the triple-core 720 disappointed. The fourth and final core in our review sample is a dud. At least it proves AMD doesn’t try to influence the press by handing out carefully vetted samples.

Anyway, the result is thatthePhenom II X3 720 BE must make a case for itself purely as a triple-core chip. Unfortunately, that’s a tough ask. As an all-rounder, the 720 is reasonable. It’s notably faster than the dual-core Phenom II X2 550 BE in multi-threaded software such as video encoding. Similarly, it has the edge over AMD’s bargain-priced quad, the Athlon II X4 620, in games.

The 720 also overclocks fairly well, hitting 3.8GHz on air cooling and a tweak of the CPU voltage settings. Problem is, while the 720 isn’t awful at anything, it also falls well short of excellence across the board. In a word, it’s mediocre. If you are a hardcore gamer, the high-clocking Phenom II X2 550 BE is probably a better bet. For everyone else, the quad-core Athlon II X4 620 makes more sense and costs less.

We liked:

With Intel sticking to even core counts, it was almost inevitable that AMD would step in with some triple-core chips. The Phenom II X3 720 BE certainly makes for an interesting triple-core option and is worth a look if you’re looking for a true all rounder with a very low price tag.

We disliked:

If you know what you want from your PC, odds are you won’t like the triple-core 720. Adequate at all things, it’s not great at anything. Whether it’s gaming or encoding, there are better chips for the money. And remember, there are no guarantees when it comes to unlocking that hidden fourth core.

Verdict:

AMD’s triples look good on paper, but somehow don’t add up to the sum of their parts.

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You can now buy PC processors with as many as six cores and support for up to 12 software threads in parallel. With that in mind, why would anyone want the dual-core AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition?

Actually, the theory behind this chip makes reasonable sense. Certain types of software benefit more from high clockspeeds and a big dollop of cache memory than lots of processor cores. Games are one good example. The 550 runs at a healthy 3.1GHz lick and packs 6MB of L3 cache memory. It’s also a Black Edition processor and that usually means easy access to even higher clocks. Why pay more for multi-core?

At under £80 the AMD Phenom II X4 550 is certainly affordable. All it needs to do is deliver the goods according to its narrow remit compared to the likes of AMD’s Athlon II X4 620, Athlon II X3 435 and perhaps the Phenom II X3 720.

First the good news. The AMD Phenom II X2 550 beats the opposition where it matters most. In our World of Conflict game benchmark it keeps its eyes on the prize and edges the Athlon II X4 620, Athlon II X3 435 and the Phenom II X3 720.

In fact, it’s usefully faster than the two Athlon chips clocking up 33 frames per second compared to 35 and 37 frames per second, respectively. The triple-core Phenom II X3 720 gets a little closer at 42 frame per second. But part one of the Phenom II X2 550 BE’s job is done. Its advantage in gaming gets even bigger when you take overclocking into account. 4GHz on air cooling is clearly quicker than its closest competition and allows the 550 pulls further ahead.

That said, if you’re willing to spend a more on an Intel chip, you’ll get way more gaming performance. The Intel Core i5 750, for instance, delivers 59 frames per second despite its modest 2.66GHz clockspeed. Make no mistake, running at its maximum 4.2GHz overclock, the Intel chip absolutely annihilates the Phenom II X2 550 BE in games.

As for all round system performance, the dual-core 550 is inevitably rather weak. It simply cannot keep up with processors with double the number of cores, such as the Athlon II X4 620. We’re also disappointed to find that our 550 sample fails to function when you enable the two hidden cores. So much for the idea of getting a quad-core chip on the cheap.

We liked:

If building a gaming rig on a very tight budget is your bag, the dual-core AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition just about adds up. It’s definitely a more effective gaming chip than other low-cost AMD processors. It also overclocks pretty well.

We disliked:

The 550 might be faster than other cheapo chips. But it’s still a lot slower in games than a decent Intel processor. Likewise, it struggles with any software that thrives on multi-core processor architectures. It would also be unwise to assume that the 550′s two hidden cores are likely to work when unlocked.

Verdict:

Just about makes sense for gamers on a tight budget. Not a great all rounder.

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A couple of weeks ago, I featured Belicious in the weekly Theme Roundup, and Alex from Ahaz tipped me off to another of his themes, Black Out. Both themes are clean and great-looking, chock full of custom work. If you want to read a little more on Belicious, catch my original write up here. Where Belicious is geared toward the female audience, Black Out is one for the boys, featuring a fully skinned "blacked-out" look that’s easy on the eyes. I particularly love the message lists, which are fully black with a light focus. The theme includes a full set of custom white icons, which show extremely well against the dark background.Simple and straightforward, the main addition to the homescreen’s function is a hideable weather slot that is controlled via hotkeys.Both are available in the CB store for $2.99 each for multiple devices including the Storm, Bold and Curve series.

Contest: We have 30 copies of these themes to give away, the winner gets their pick of which one they want! Just leave a comment on this post to enter. Contest ends this Sunday at Midnight PST. Please only leave one comment, multiple entries wont count. 

• More information and purchase of Black Out>>
• More information and purchase of Belicious>>

CrackBerry.com‘s feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. Give your BlackBerry a sense of style with Black Out or Belicious from Ahaz Designs – 30 free themes up for grabs!

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Some big news came out today in the ever-expanding world of tablet machines. Apparently HTC, Verizon, and Google are teaming up to release a Chrome OS tablet on Black Friday. For those of you who have been living under a rock, Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving and it’s the biggest shopping day of the year. This year it will be on November 26th. With all the buzz Android has been getting lately it’s been easy to forget about Google’s other OS. Though if this proves to be true that won’t be the case for long.

HTC and Google famously hooked up to bring us the Google Nexus One, an incredibly capable phone that didn’t achieve the sales results many thought it deserved. Since then Google CEO Eric Schmidt has said that they won’t be releasing a second Google phone, but apparently they still do want to get Google branded hardware out there.  As of right now details are few but here’s what we think we know:

Read More…

Chrome OS Tablet to be released on Black Friday

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The HTC Hero, one of Sprint’s all time best selling phones, has come back, this time with some attitude. To quote Brian Johnson, she’s “back in black”.

Cellular South is now offering out HTC’s handset, with all the standard specs. It comes with Android 2.1 installed, and it priced at $129.99 on a two-year contract, along with a $50 reward card, bringing the total price to $79.99. To sweeten the deal, you can snag a second one for free… after another $50 mail-in reward card.

If you would like to check it out for yourself or order, hit up the source link below.

For more information on Android and the current Android mobile phones, check out our Android Guides

HTC Hero, back in black

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Conventional wisdom says solid state drives (SSDs) beat traditional hard drives silly in any performance metric you care to mention. How can the likes of Western Digital’s latest magnetic spinner, the Caviar Black 1TB WD1002FAEX, therefore hope to compete?

In a word, capacity. The cost per gigabyte of SSDs, even modestly sized drives such as the new Patriot Inferno 100GB, remains several multiples more than a magnetic hard disk.

In fact, the bigger you go, the more massive the price gap. 1TB SSDs are now available. But where the Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB is yours for just £75, the likes of OCZ’s Colussus LT 1TB SSD retails at £2,500.

That’s beyond a joke.

Clearly, old school hard drives are still the only realistic option for mass storage of data-hungry files such as video, audio and high-resolution images.

But if you want the best possible performance from your big data bucket, the new Caviar Black 1TB sports a number of speed-friendly features including 64MB of cache memory, Native Command Queuing, dual processors and SATA 6Gbps support.

With WD pitching the Caviar Black 1TB as a slightly superior hard disk in terms of performance, it’s intriguing to know how it compares, both to an ultra high performance hard disk, that’ll be WD’s new 600GB VelociRaptor, and one of the latest and greatest solid state drives in the form of Patriot’s Inferno 100GB.

For the most part, the Caviar Black is well off the pace. But then it’s not only much bigger, it’s massively cheaper, too.

Synthetic drive performance

Burst speed

Random access times

File decompression speed

With SSDs grabbing all the headlines, it’s easy to forget about the incredible innovations and technological advances in the latest magnetic hard drives.

One trick the Caviar Black has for increasing capacity, for instance, is perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR). This aligns the data bits vertically instead of horizontally, allowing them to be packed closer together.

PMR is a feature widely used by most hard drive makers today.

A more recent innovation from Western Digital is Dual Actuator Technology. WD has added a second, smaller actuator arm to their drives’ existing actuator arm.

In simple terms, this gives both more rapid and accurate control of the read head and in turn faster performance and larger capacity. It’s a feature that was previously only available in WD’s larger 2TB drives but is being trickled down into smaller and cheaper drives.

The Caviar Black 1TB’s other significant extra is support for the latest 6Gbps SATA interface.

That’s twice as fast as the SATA 3Gbps maximum data transfer. However much performance this drive cranks out, you can be sure it won’t be the SATA interface slowing it down.

Despite all that, however, the Caviar Black 1TB can’t compete with a decent SSD for performance, both synthetic and real world.

It’s nearly three times slower than Patriot’s Inferno 100GB in our file decompression test. Western Digital’s own Velociraptor 600GB, one of the fastest magnetic hard disks on the planet, also leaves it standing.

Moreover, given the relatively sedate sequential read and write performance of 150MB/s and 136MB/s, it’s clear that the Caviar Black’s SATA II 6Gbps capability is redundant.

We liked:

WD’s new Caviar Black isn’t the cheapest 1TB drive on the market, but it is competitively priced and delivers usefully more performance than cheaper 5,400rpm drives.

With 64MB of cache, dual processors and actuators, perpendicular recording and more, it’s seriously feature packed.

If you need maximum storage and can’t afford an array of SSDs, the Caviar Black delivers reasonable performance.

We disliked:

Despite all the technology, the Caviar Black 1TB can’t keep up with an SSD or even WD’s own VelociRaptor hard disk.

Ultimately, it’s better suited for mass storage than running operating systems and applications.

Final word:

For ultimate performance, SSDs rule. But WD’s Caviar Black combines huge capacity with reasonable performance at a very attractive price point.

Specifications:

Manufacturer: Western Digital

Type: 3.5-inch hard drive

Capacity: 1 terabyte

Interface: SATA 6Gbps

Cache: 64MB

Spindle speed: 7,200 RPM

Related Links

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Sony Ericsson Satio (Idou) – black (unlocked)
The Sony Ericsson Satio packs in a lot of multimedia power, particularly in the camera department, but it also has a number of annoyances. You can get a better overall experience with other handsets and for a lot less.

Read more on CNET

KenMood has released a new ROM for the T-Mobile G1 / T-Mobile MT3G called E-Xtreme.  E-Xtreme is an Android 2.1 ROM based on BenBuchacher’s SuperE ROM.

CHANGELOG

—- 1.3.1 (future, hopeful plans)
* Optimize images by compression for greater performance
* Change orange colors to black theme to blue (including battery)
* Include custom bootscreen for splash1 (not splash2, i.e. cyanogen nexus1 bootscreen)
* Include extra wallpaper by default
* Other goodies are already in store for 1.3.1 to make the next release even more blazing fast!
—- 1.3
* Added latest SuperE kernel
* Fixed renice script to help reduce call lag
* Increased CPU from 528mhz to 576mhz
* Added ADW Launcher 0.7.5 (do not upgrade in market or your google search widget will change from black to white in the black theme)
* ADW Launcher 0.7.5 modified for black/white versions
* Wifi issue fixed
* Added Cyanogen’s extra audio ringtones and notifications
—- 1.2.2
* Changed ADW Launcher from rc3 to rc2 for stability
* Readded live wallpaper upon user request
* Changed blue battery to orange to blend with existing theme for black theme (flash 1.2.1 for blue or 1.2 for green)
* Using SuperE’s kernel with BenBuchacher’s permission — thanks Ben
* Added color icons to Settings
* Custom Hosts file to block ads from browser/apps
* Had wifi issues
—- 1.2.1
* Updated ADW Launcher from rc1 to rc3
* Removed live wallpaper
* Changed black theme’s green battery to blue
* Added full white theme, including widgets and app highlight, for white theme
* Default wallpaper updated in Wallpaper Gallery
* Custom hosts file to block ads for apps and browser
* Added enhanced, modified Music.apk from cacheinjection
—- 1.2
* Based from stable 5.0.7 cm release
* ADW Launcher from AnderWeb
* Black and White modifications of AWD Launcher from Cloverdale
* Black Theme from Cloverdale
* Compcache increased from 24mb to 32mb
* Firerat’s fixes for LWP DC2X FIXP and FB 1.2.x sync on G1 included
* Youtube Ripper included from rolle3k
* CacheCleaner included from L. Sartory
* Linda File Manager included from nylinda.com
* 3D Gallery reenabled that was removed on 5.0.7
* Common: Resync with Google as of 05/20/2010
* Common: New ARM optimizations in Bionic from Jim Huang @ 0xlab
* Common: Superuser 2.1 from ChainsDD
* Common: DeskClock style tweaks from Nathan Zachary
* Common: Email signature support from Jarrett Vance
* Common: Pin-lock and alternate lockscreen framework from _avatar
* Common: Updated Japanese locales from Takuo Kitame
* Common: Added Compcache and rzscontrol to the build
* Common: APN list updated by Paul Weiss, blunden, and PsychoI3oy.
* Common: Downloader allows any file to download – thanks Eddie Ringle
* Common: Kernel updated to 2.6.33.4
* Common: Fix bug with where wrong organization is shown in-call (Boyd Bischke)
* Common: Several kernel patches from Christopher Lais (Zinx) to improve stability and support MT3G Fender/1.2
* Common: Low memory killer was pimped out by San Mehat @ Google. Big interactivity boost especially on D/S
* Common: Updated Phone patches from Cytown (v29)
* Common: Dim the deskclock screensaver colors
* Common: Fixed race conditions and notification bugs in MMS
* Common: Added quick uninstall “Delete Zone” to Launcher and Launcher2 (Ander Webbs)
* Common: Allow widgets in the Launcher default workspace (ported from Launcher2 by Lox)
* Common: Fix race conditions and bugs in MMS app
* Common: Compact drawer can be toggled for Launcher as well as Launcher2 now
* Common: Added squisher script for release builds
* Common: Another lowmemorykiller tweak from Zinx to take cache into account
* Common: Turned off battery percentage display by default
* Common: Added “omni-tether” from Wertarbyte for BT tether
* Common: System built using Zinx’s resource-sorter patch for aapt- may provide perf boost
* Common: Patch from Zinx to have background processes holding wakelocks set to a higher OOM kill adjustment (push notify, mms are good examples)
* Common: Number of recent apps is configurable – Bcrook, Pershoot & Wysie
* Common: Ability to disable icons and paths on the lockscreen – Wysie
* Common: Add pand and hidd to the build
* Common: Fix OpenVPN- manifest was using the wrong mtpd
* Common: DeskClock: Add alarm timeout setting (Michael Webster)
* Common: OpenVPN: Select between TAP and TUN interface (Takuo Kitame)
* Common: Various UI element colors are selectable via Spare Parts (Wysie)
* Common: NEON-optimized libjpeg (CodeAurora/Qualcomm)
* Droid: Fix for 50% signal loss reporting bug on Motorola Droid (Boyd Bischke)
* Droid: Disable V8. It was breaking Epocrates and other applications
* Droid: Tweak the haptic feedback to better match stock (Adrynalyne)
* Droid: Enable Dialpad for OTA Activation (nuclear305)
* D/S: Full support for Dream and Sapphire devices (eclair-ds branch)
* D/S: Updated wallpapers and Launcher for MDPI
* D/S: Build various OMX components from source (via CodeAurora)
* D/S: libcamera originally reverse engineered by NCommander
* D/S: Various driver issues causing battery drain were fixed by Zinx
* D/S: disable menu in lockscreen, fix incall mute, speed up the boot
* D/S: raise min cpufreq to 245MHz (Wes Garner)
* D/S: add Prash’s bootanimation
* D/S: Using HTC “Turbo Mode” clock settings
* D/S: Fix issues with notification LED on D/S
* D/S: Don’t use msmsdcc_sdioirq, this leaves IRQs on all the time which can cause battery drain
* D/S: Fix RIL settings to improve performance
* D/S: Kill logspam from OMX
* D/S: Fixed 3MP camera preview and memory leaks
* D/S: Fixed slidelock layout
* D/S: Fixed issue with picking contact for map directions
* D/S: Change oom-killer behavior to be more “swap friendly” if you want to go against everyones advice and use swap anyway
* D/S: CPU clock tweaks from Pershoot
* N1: CPU clock and memory tweaks from Pershoot (http://github.com/pershoot)
* N1: Trackball notification color blending option (from Ehud Shabtai http://github.com/eshabtai)

A FEW KNOWN ISSUES:
* Facebook from market breaks sync for Market users (see forum for Facebook Sync) – only on Dream, Sapphire is OK. Blame Facebook.
* End-Button-behavior in Spare Parts only works on ‘Sleep’ mode
* Camera apps may leak memory
* Default text color in black theme is black. Go to SpareParts and change text, date, clock to white and reboot for resolution.
* Getting a FC? Do a full wipe + reflash w/o gapps and load the phone, then reboot and flash gapps for resolution.

Head over to KenMood’s AndroidSPIN Developer Homepage for more info and downloads

View full post on AndroidSPIN