It’s the very first DualView model to offer Wi-Fi. The camera’s built-in Wi-Fi connectivity enables users to e mail their pictures or upload them to social media internet sites including Facebook, Picasa, Flickr and YouTube. In addition, pictures saved onto the camera’s microSD memory card, can be saved to a residence Computer without wires, by employing the Auto Computer Backup function.

Earlier WiFi cameras (with out DualView) contain Samsung’s CL80 even though EyeFi X-two chips ($ 49 for 4 GB), enable numerous SD-card cameras to use WiFi as nicely. Their Direct Mode uploads pictures and videos directly from your camera to an iPhone, iPad or Android device in a snap.

Of course Smartphones like the iPhone 4S equipped with Photo & Video apps or Android phones like the Sony Xperia equipped with Android Photo apps are becoming strong competition for point and shoots, featuring super rapidly 1.4 GHz processors, 3D and 2D sweep panorama apps, 8 MP sensors, and large screens.

dailywireless.org

The Samsung Galaxy S will not get a &ldquoValue Pack&rdquo update with added capabilities, a spokesperson speaking to The Subsequent Internet&nbsphas confirmed. The software program upgrade was initially discussed as an alternative to Android 4., adding some of the operating system&rsquos new capabilities within the framework of Android 2.three. Samsung stated last month that the hardware of the Galaxy S can not assistance the new Ice Cream Sandwich develop of Android along with their TouchWiz user interface. Hardware is once more becoming pointed to as the reason why a so-known as &ldquoValue Pack&rdquo will not be delivered.&nbspThe news will certainly frustrate owners of the very well-known smartphone further, but at this point it looks like Samsung can or will do little to remedy the concern.

[via The Next Net]

Android Phone Fans

The move removes postpaid (contract) plans. It also removes device leasing, activation fees, early termination fees and restocking fees.

Clearwire previously supplied postpaid service at $ 45 per month with a service contract. Now it delivers a flat $ 50/month unlimited service program.

Clearwire will also discontinue sales of dual-mode WiMAX/CDMA devices. Clearwire previously provided devices that could roam onto Sprint Nextel’s 3G CDMA EV-DO network, but now it will only offer you access to its own WiMAX network.

This August, Clearwire announced its intent to add “LTE Advanced-prepared” technology to its 4G network. But the LTE-Advanced service will reportedly use the very same 30 MHz spectrum budget of the current WiMAX network.

Reportedly, rather of utilizing three distinct ten MHz frequency bands in every of 3 tower sectors, Clearwire’s new upgrade will reapportion the very same spectrum. They will devote only 10 MHz to WiMAX with the remaining 20 MHz dedicated to TD-LTE. Each and every sector will reuse the very same frequency (10 MHz for WiMAX, 20 MHz for LTE).

Frequency reuse on each sector is also utilised by CDMA networks. Nevertheless networks like WiMAX and LTE use a various approach, dividing up the Time Division packets to decrease interference with Synchronous OFDMA.

Why would Clearwire eradicate very prized contract subscribers? Perhaps Clearwire doesn’t want to anger subscribers who may soon discover their WiMAX service has deteriorated with the advent of Advanced LTE sharing the tower and spectrum.

Clearwire might provide WiMAX subs a good package deal, enticing them into switching from WiMAX to LTE. Roaming LTE service could be enhanced by Sprint’s FD-LTE service on 1.9 GHz. But it won’t take place subsequent week. Chips, handsets, client gear and towers won’t be usually obtainable until subsequent summer at the earliest.

dailywireless.org

Overview

We have a adore-hate relationship with all-in-1 PCs. They ought to be something we enjoy. A slick single-unit design can be as glorious as the Apple iMac 21.five-inch model, but then numerous seem to be vastly pricey. That high price is one thing pioneered by the Apple iMac 27-inch unit and undoubtedly matched by the Sony VAIO L Series, which we again had mixed feelings about.

A low cost did not put us off the bargain Advent Discovery MT1804, so we’re keen to see if the well-priced MSI Wind Best AE2210 can manage to balance a £700 price tag with very good performance.

Contemplating its 21.5-inch size, this all-in-one pc with touchscreen capabilities can definitely fulfil the remit of becoming a stealth Computer hidden in the corner of any room, happily doubling up as a Tv, media jukebox or completely-fledged Windows 7 Computer.

It comes with a mini wireless media remote, mouse and keyboard, all styled in the identical shiny black plastic as the all-in-1 body. Portion of the styling of the MSI Wind Top AE2210 is its &quotinvisible&quot clear plastic surround, which provides the display a floating look.

Wire-free of charge is one thing the MSI Wind Best AE2210 practically achieves – the only lead you in fact want connected is the main power supply. MSI has opted for an external energy provide unit, which is something to shed and an extra factor to have to lug around. We’d argue that this could help with cooling, but the unit has an apparent cooling fan. Whilst it mostly ticks over at a low level, it’s a small disappointing that it is audible at all.

Controls on the body of the MSI Wind Top AE2210 are kept to a minimum, with energy and brightness controls tucked behind the outside rim. It’s the exact same for the optical DVD rewriter, too, with the remaining expansion ports – which includes an HDMI port – hidden about the back.

Specifications

We believe it is sensible that MSI has opted for the base Intel Sandy Bridge Core i3 2100 processor for the Wind Leading AE2210. This is the second generation of Core i3 processors, and comes with the enhanced integrated HD Graphics 2000. And when we say &quotenhanced&quot, we mean not utterly useless. This offers what is a reasonably reasonably priced all-in-one laptop or computer a solid dose of CPU grunt and a base level of 3D performance, despite the fact that it is only DirectX 10.1 capable.

In numerous techniques, the specification for the MSI Wind Leading AE2210-031UK model that we reviewed feels far above the cost tag, because it provides 1TB (1,000GB) of challenging drive storage and 4GB of DDR3 memory.

As we’d hoped, Windows 7 Property Premium is the 64-bit version, so you can take full benefit of the installed 4GB of memory.

MSI hasn’t skimped on the connections, offering two USB 3. ports on the side. So you can simply get high-speed external storage with a further 4 USB two. ports at the back. Not offered to your average user, there are two mini-PCIe slots inside. One’s utilized for the digital Television tuners, but the other is potentially accessible for anybody wielding a screwdriver.

MSI has been diligent in equipping the program for entertainment. A digital Television tuner is included for Tv reception, there is the integrated Media Center remote, a 1.3MP webcam with microphone and integrated speakers, which are Lucasfilm THX certified.

We also have to mention the 21.five-inch screen with an impressive 1920 x 1080 Full HD resolution. As this is a smaller sized screen, this results in a high pixel density for impressive detail.

It is also a full touchscreen. If you are planning to use it as a media jukebox, this enables straightforward control in practically each way possible. It also seems to have an oleophobic coating that assists to preserve it fingerprint totally free, but this tends to drag on your fingertip in the course of use.

Connectivity on the MSI Wind Best AE2210 is also great, with the basics covered by the wireless N capabilities and wired Gigabit LAN. A side-mounted six-in-1 memory card reader is provided alongside the normal DVD rewriter.

Efficiency

You know as soon as anyone hears that the MSI Wind Top AE2210 is a touchscreen laptop or computer, they’ll have their mucky pups all more than your when clear, shiny all-in-1 screen. That is going to leave embarrassment if the touch functionality isn’t up to significantly, but we’re glad to say that MSI appears to have learnt from the folly of the Asus Eee Leading and even the fairly useless touchscreen functions of the Acer Z5763.

MSI does not specify the sort of touch system it utilizes in the Wind Top AE2210. It detects activity just prior to you really touch the surface, so we suspect it is an infrared bar rather than resistive or capacitive.

Normally we found it to be accurate and responsive. The supplied Wind Top software lacks design refinement, and there is no suggestion to run through the calibration procedure, but you are supplied with the regular Microsoft touch demos and a child-friendly touch paint package. We also happily employed Media Center and other programs with just our fingertips.

The display itself does exhibit a modest amount of light leakage at the leading and bottom. Oddly, we felt it could have been a touch brighter, but far more importantly accurate colours and excellent viewing angles with that high resolution assist to give an enjoyable display.

That is also backed up by the performance of the THX speakers, with genuine range from deep base via the mid range with high tones all becoming produced, even though with no much volume.

The 3D efficiency on the MSI Wind Leading AE2210 is its most obvious weakness – don’t expect to play games produced in the last couple of years. The recent Lost Planet two benchmark even at a 720p resolution returned an unplayable 7fps average. The ageing 3DMark 2006 returned a score of 2654, showing it capable of playing games around the age of Half-Life two.

We’re fans of the latest Sandy Bridge Core i3 processors – for what is an entry-level processor you get a huge amount of processing energy that contains Intel HyperThreading and a 3.1GHz CPU speed. This delivers high speed media encoding and effortless HD playback.

Verdict

A extremely effectively balanced all-in-1 program, the MSI Wind Top AE2210 does a superb job of juggling very good aesthetics, a sensible cost point with the latest Intel technologies all wrapped up in a technique that will not break the bank too heavily.

We liked

We like touching, and the MSI Wind Best AE2210 undoubtedly enables us to do that. Accurate, precise and multi-touch functionality pushes all the proper buttons. The display itself is a plus point, too. We have niggles about it, but the popping colour and that glorious 1920 x 1080 resolution will not be beaten for a very good number of years at this size.

Thinking about the target market place, we also think MSI has nailed the styling. We envision most individuals won’t want a Pc-seeking all-in-1 Pc, and the MSI Wind Best AE2210 surely manages that. The wireless mini-keyboard and mouse can be effortlessly hidden away too, leaving just the Media Center remote for enjoying Television, music and films.

We disliked

It is straightforward to criticise in the Pc globe – there’s often one thing better already out or about to come out. The major weakness inside the MSI Wind Best AE2210 is the 3D graphics, but that’s irrelevant for this model due to the fact if you’re thinking of playing a lot of games, you shouldn’t be looking at an all-in-one pc.

We’re slightly much more concerned by the minor light leakage at the leading and bottom of the screen, which is visible in dark scenes. Yet another minor annoyance is the internal fan – it’s really quiet but surely MSI could have managed a silent answer, particularly because the PSU is external? While we appreciate the range of the THX speakers, ensuring that crisp response has lowered the total volume output.

It’s also a real shame that Windows 7 cannot actually preserve up with the touchscreen functions, because it is basically not designed as a touch interface, but that’s not a weakness of the MSI Wind Leading AE2210.

Final verdict

You can pay less than this for other machines, but you’ll definitely be acquiring a far much less capable system. To get considerably a lot more, you’d have to pay nearly double. Naturally gamers ought to look elsewhere, but for everybody else there’s a lot to like about the MSI Wind Top AE2210.

The touchscreen is like a devilishly red cherry perched on a delicious cake begging you to touch it. Go on, you know you want to.

TechRadar: All most recent Pc & mac evaluations feeds

Click here to view the embedded video.

The new Samsung Galaxy S II and the HTC Amaze 4G are here – the excellent gifts just in time for the Holidays. Take a tour of T-Mobile’s magical 4G smartphone factory exactly where our team of elves are busy creating our fastest 4G smartphones but. It’s T-Mobile’s 4G Wonderland!

T-Mobile’s 4G Wonderland [VIDEO] originally appeared on AndroidGuys.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

AndroidGuys

Macworld

Pigs in Trees was released earlier this month in the Android Market and considering that I had so significantly enjoyable with it, I wanted to make sure it got your guys’ attention. The game features a bit of a role reversal from Angry Birds, this time putting you in command of pigs in planes that you should guide along the playing field to shoot down the horde of birds attempting to take over your HQ.

Very first thing you will notice are the visuals. Graphics are crisp and bright featuring cartoony hand-drawn sprites that compliment the game nicely. The developers PAN Vision AB genuinely did a great job at adding personality and generating Pigs in Trees attractive for all ages (or just huge youngsters like me).

Gameplay entails you drawing a path with your finger although your plane follows along. Combos are the name of the game, so lining up the ideal shot will take equal parts precision and skill. When swarms of birds fill the screen you will have to take full benefit of the loads of power-ups to collect in order to take them all down.

Pigs in Trees features four campaigns with a total of 75 jam packed levels to battle on and you can locate the game for free of charge appropriate now in the Android Market. The game has been a little glitchy on some devices despite the fact that it’s been much more than stable on my Evo 3D. Ahead of you leave the developer a negative evaluation make positive to email them first. Bear in mind — the game is free soon after-all. Have fun!

[Market place Link]

Android Phone Fans

AMD FX-8150 – Overview

We’ve waited a long time for AMD to release a brand new processor architecture, but finally the AMD FX-8150 has arrived.

This first chip is the vanguard of the somewhat tardy Bulldozer technology and is this top-of-the-line AMD FX chip, code-named Zambezi. This is the full-fat, eight-core AMD super-chip running at a not inconsiderable 3.6GHz straight out the box.

The FX moniker isn’t a new one for AMD chips.

The last time we saw it used for its high-end parts was in the 90nm Athlon 64 FX-74 in late 2006. It’s been reborn this year to cover the first in what AMD hopes will be a long line of Bulldozer-based CPUs.

The AMD FX CPUs represent the chip maker’s first real new architecture since the exciting times of the first Athlon back in 2003.

And it is very much a new architecture; AMD has started from scratch with the design of the Bulldozer modules, taking a very different approach to what makes up a CPU core than anyone else.

We’ll explore the depths of that architectural change later, but the real key is the use of that word ‘module’.

Each of these modules holds the essential makeup of a standard dual-core processor, sharing certain non-timing sensitive parts.

The AMD FX-8150 has four of these Bulldozer modules and AMD claims that makes it the world’s first eight-core desktop chip. It’s tough to ignore the sickly sweet scent of fudge here, though this hardware-based solution ought be a lot more effective than Intel’s mostly software-oriented HyperThreading.

The Bulldozer module represents the future of AMD processors going forward.

Speaking with Bernard Seite, an AMD Technical Advisor, last month he told us that the Bulldozer modules are likely to last as the basis for its CPU range for the next 5-7 years.

At the moment we’ve only seen the roadmap for the next couple of years, with the Piledriver update coming next year, Steamroller coming in 2013 and Excavator in 2014.

Yes, we know it sounds like a joke, but AMD’s latest roadmap really does read like the Urban Dictionary Karma Sutra.

But hopes are still high for these new AMD FX processors, especially after it managed to snag the Guiness World Record for highest CPU clockspeed in September.

We saw this top CPU here running at well over 8GHz.

That is impressive, but realistically it’s just numbers. The world record didn’t demand the machine to actually run any applications, it just needed to boot into Windows and report it’s clockspeed. It also didn’t need to be running all its cores. The world record was actually only broken by a single Bulldozer module in operation and under serious liquid helium cooling too.

The precedent is there though and means the AMD FX-8150 ought to be one hell of an overclocker’s chip. What that will mean in real-world applications though we’ll soon see.

So how does the new AMD FX CPU stack up then? Can it give Intel’s Sandy Bridge a run for its money and can it make AMD a performance chip manufacturer once more?

AMD FX-8150 – Architecture

The AMD FX-8150′s new Bulldozer technology is a fairly radical departure from the standard model of processor design.

The big news is the modular design housing the constituent components of a dual-core CPU in one.

It’s also AMD’s first 32nm desktop CPU. Sadly that does make the chip seem a little behind the times with Intel set to release it’s first 22nm processor in Spring next year.

But like Intel’s shift in process size the change to this modular design allows the AMD engineers to squeeze more performance into a smaller space, and therefore also cut the costs of manufacturing.

Essentially the idea is to share parts of the module with lower utilisation, such as the Level 2 cache, Fetch and Decode components, while high utilisation parts, such as the Integer pipelines and Level 1 data cache, are separated out per core.

According to AMD that should give each Bulldozer module around 80% of the performance of a standard dual-core CPU.

It’s this squeezing of two cores into each module that means AMD can produce an eight-core CPU for less than the price of Intel’s top Sandy Bridge quad-core.

And seeing as competition on price rather than performance is more of AMD’s concern than Intel’s that’s something it had to do with the AMD FX CPUs.

Still, like the AMD FX-8150 the Core i7 2600K – that top Sandy Bridge chip – can run eight processes in parallel.

Intel doesn’t call it an eight-core chip, instead uses its HyperThreading technology to split the four cores in its die into eight processes. There is a certain amount of hardware in the Sandy Bridge die to make the HyperThreading magic happen, but mostly it’s a software-oriented model.

Intel’s way of spreading out four cores into eight processing threads operates mainly by effectively managing instructions going into one core and separating that out into two parallel threads for the operating system.

Turbo

Again like the Intel chips, the AMD FX CPUs use a form of on-the-fly overclocking to boost performance when there’s spare capacity available.

The AMD Turbo Core technology has been used in the Phenom II CPUs before, but has been specifically enhanced for the Bulldozer architecture. Now it can use the Turbo Core to offer increased performance when all cores are active should the TDP headroom exist for it to do so.

The AMD FX-8150 has a standard clockspeed of 3.6GHz, with a possible Turbo Core available to it to allow it push up to around 3.9GHz.

When only a single core is needed though then Max Turbo comes into play.

This essentially takes the available TDP headroom for the entire chip and focuses it onto a single core giving it the ability to push even further in terms of clockspeed.

On the AMD FX-8150 that means it’s theoretically possible for the chip to hit 4.2GHz as standard when only one thread is needed.

But what about the platform?

Despite the delay to the actual CPUs themselves the motherboard platform was actually launched a fair while back. The AMD 9-series motherboards have been doing a roaring trade out there even without the chip to back them up.

There’s precious little difference between the 8-series and 9-series motherboards save for one vital ingredient; the AM3+ socket that supports the new AMD FX CPUs. That also means they aren’t the priciest boards in existence.

Still, to get the best out of your Bully CPU, at least in overclocking terms, then dropping some cash on a decent board should be well worth the money.

To this end AMD is shipping out the Asus RoG Crosshair V Formula with each review kit.

That’s a brief overview of the technologies behind AMD’s latest chip architecture, and mighty impressive it looks on paper. But how does it perform in the real-world? Overclocking records aside, what will happen when you drop this chip into your motherboard at home?

Let’s take a look.

AMD FX-8150 – Benchmarks

The first benchmark below is possibly one of the most telling.

Taking the eight-cores of multi-threading out of the picture you can see how the individual cores actually stack up. Running in single-threaded mode shows the FX-8150 cores actually running slower than the hexcore Phenom II it’s replacing.

With the multi-threaded benchmarks though the FX-8150 starts to look more interesting. However the gaming benchmarks tell a worrying story.

When it’s just relying on the GPU the story is much the same across the four CPUs we tested. DiRT 3 is shown here, but in Just Cause 2 and World in Conflict all four processors spat out roughly the same performance figures at the top resolutions.

Take the GPU out of the equation and the Sandy Bridge chips stretch out ahead.

Things aren’t too pretty in terms of multi-GPU performance either.

In overclocking terms though the FX-8150 is a success. Stably running at over 4.7GHz is impressive and really pushes it ahead of the Core i5 2500K.

If the chip had been released at the 4GHz it can easily manage we might’ve been looking at a higher score…

Single-threaded performance

Multi-threaded performance

CPU gaming performance

High-end gaming performance

Multi-GPU performance

Overclocking performance

Platform power draw

AMD FX-8150 – Performance

All the clever architectural tricks in the world count for nought if the performance isn’t there, so how does the top-end AMD FX chip stack up against it’s rivals?

The short answer is not as well as we might have hoped.

AMD really needed this chip to be at least a rival for the current generation of Sandy Bridge CPUs, especially with a new production process and accompanying chips arriving in the first half of next year for Intel.

With the high clockspeed and nominal eight cores, we had hoped to see the AMD FX-8150 taking the resolutely quad-core Intel Core i5 2500K to task.

Indeed with that chip artificially hobbled by the switching off of HyperThreading you’d think it wouldn’t be much of a contest.

In fact it’s a lot closer than Intel could have dared hope, and certainly a lot closer than AMD would have wanted. Especially in the multi-threaded benchmarks, and that’s quite a surprise.

In the heavily multi-threaded Cinebench R11 test the AMD FX-8150 comes away with a decent 5.98 index score, but with only four threads of processing grunt against the FX chip’s eight the i5 2500K manages to get awfully close at 5.90.

That test is also interesting when you compare the previous top AMD chip, the Phenom II X6 1100T.

That’s a full six-core CPU, but is running on the older 45nm hardware and at a slower clockspeed too. Yet that older brother still manages to put up a score of 5.88.

The eight-threaded Core i7 2600K however is streets ahead of all three.

Still, those extra threads come into account with the X264 video encoding benchmark. Even at stock speeds the FX-8150 actually starts clawing back some ground on the i7 2600K, beating the quad-core i5 2500K easily as it does.

Unfortunately the actual cores in the Bulldozer modules look like the weak link in the multi-threaded chain.

A quick check on the single-threaded performance of the FX-8150 highlights that weakness.

Using the single-threaded Cinebench R10 benchmark you can immediately see the problems the FX-8150 faces. Even the ageing Phenom II cores run faster than this brand new Bulldozer core.

And the two Sandy Bridge chips demonstrate just what an advantage their cores have over the AMD processors.

Gaming

The gaming benchmarks are similarly telling.

On the whole at the high end of the graphics spectrum, at the high resolutions, it’s all about the graphics hardware. As long as the chip’s not getting in the way then the GPU can operate with impunity.

Take the GPU out of the equation however and things get more interesting.

World in Conflict is a great CPU benchmark in gaming terms as different CPU hardware genuinely can show a difference. We ran the benchmark at the lowest resolution and lowest graphical fidelity, while retaining CPU-heavy operations such as physics, just to make sure the CPU was taking the load.

The two AMD CPUs behaved much the same, while the Sandy Bridge chips were well over a third faster.

We were hoping to run the Shogun 2 CPU benchmark too in order to see how things stood on a more modern engine. Sadly the game refused to load for the Bulldozer chip…

The AMD FX-8150 though is meant to be a rather capable gaming chip, and with a high-end GPU it delivers performance every bit as good as the Intel chips.

So there’s nothing holding it back in gaming terms.

What about multi-GPU though? The FX-8150 ought to be a better bet for dual-graphics setups thanks to the two native x16 PCIe lanes within the platform.

And if you just took DiRT 3 as the only gaming benchmark worth a damn then all would indeed be rosy.

Using the AMD-sponsored title it garners an extra 3FPS over the competing Core i5 2500K. Not an impressive lead, but a lead nonetheless.

In the DX10 World in Conflict and Just Cause 2 benchmarks though the FX chip lags behind, in the case of WiC by over 25FPS.

There’s no problems with the GPUs, or how they’re talking to each other, as the GPU-centric Heaven 2.5 test ignores all the other hardware and just gives a score based on what the GPU is capable of. In both AMD and Intel setups the Heaven score was identical.

AMD will argue that legacy software is not where you’ll see the benefits of the new hardware.

It may have a case, but still the vast majority of games released today are not DX11 games, they’re DX10 and in some cases DX9.

The OC

But there is at least some good news for AMD though, and that is all down to the fact it has finally created an overclocking-friendly processor.

We’ve been used to 1GHz+ overclocks from Intel chips for a while now, and with the AMD FX-8150 we’ve managed to get the same scale of improvements.

With a Corsair H100 water-cooling block we were able to push the FX-8150 to an impressive 4.73GHz. With the same cooler we could only get 4.6GHz out of the two Sandy Bridge chips.

When you’re pumping out that sort of performance then the benchmarks start to look a lot more impressive.

Now with the CPUs at their maximum overclock the Cinebench R11 test shows the FX CPU easily outstripping both the Phenom II X6 1100T and the Core i5 2500K.

The i7 still remains way out in front, though in the X264 test only by a single frame per second on average.

AMD FX-8150 – Verdict

Inevitably the performance of these chips is where they are going to be judged in real terms.

And somewhat inevitably it’s something of a disappointment.

It’s somewhat inevitable as AMD simply doesn’t have the vast research budget of its Silicon Valley rival, Intel. We don’t want to start making excuses for AMD though, and the FX-8150 is by no means a bad chip.

It is definitely the fastest CPU AMD has on the market right now.

Take Intel out of the equation and we’d be lauding the Bulldozer architecture as a truly remarkable thing.

The problem is Intel is most definitely in this equation and we’ve had this sort of performance, for around this sort of price, since we first clapped benchmarks on Sandy Bridge.

But Bulldozer remains the future for AMD.

And there is genuine hope on the horizon. The Trinity APU for example will be running the enhanced Piledriver architecture alongside discrete-class graphics in the same die.

For now though the top-end, eight-core AMD FX CPU struggles to keep pace with Intel’s middling, ageing, cheaper and resolutely quad-core, Sandy Bridge i5 2500K.

And that’s the big problem.

The FX CPUs are almost competitive with their Sandy Bridge rivals, but still can’t beat them.

The 2500K is a cheaper chip and represents a better bet for gamers. If you want multi-threaded prowess too then for only another £50, at worst, over the FX-8150 you can pick up the awesome i7 2600K.

This is though only one of the Bulldozer-based chips AMD has launched, and the lower-end CPUs may actually be far more worthy.

The 3.1GHz FX-8120, for example, is available for around £165 – less than the 2500K – and should still have the overclocking chops thanks to the unlocked nature of the entire FX range.

Topping 4GHz with that CPU could turn it into a really very good gamer’s chip with added multi-threaded extras to boot.

Still there is more to come from Intel, with another LGA 1155 Sandy Bridge reportedly on its way and the brand new, ultra high-end Sandy Bridge E is soon to touch down too.

We liked

The modular architecture is impressive and ought to pay off for AMD further down the line.

As it is the FX-8150 is an impressive overclocker’s chip. Hitting 4.7GHz gives the chip one hell of a boost in performance terms.

We disliked

Unfortunately the chip’s just not competitive enough against its rivals.

At stock speeds it struggles against the non-HyperThreaded i5, even in some multi-threaded applications. And while it keeps pace with the competition in gaming terms it loses it when you come to adding in extra GPUs.

Even AMD ones.

Final word

We can’t help but feel disappointed with the lack of performance progress the FX-8150 represents. It’s not a bad chip, but we wanted more.

TechRadar: All latest Pc & mac reviews feeds

Yesterday, PhoneGuard launched a new application suite in the Android Market that offers “Personal Security” and “Text Responsibly” platforms for mobile phones. The PhoneGuard app suite supplies totally free and paid apps that are designed to not only preserve teens secure whilst driving, but can be utilized by corporations alike. By disabling all keyboard functions when traveling over 10mph, PhoneGuard will make positive drivers focus on the road instead of their cellphone.

With their new slogan, “It’s your life. Drive it”, the Business’s item tactic will evolve around three separate and distinct product offerings targeted at teens, parents, and enterprise buyers. “The team is excited to bring the PhoneGuard application suite to marketplace and provide personal security and responsible texting possibilities to multiple audiences,” said Keith St. Clair, PhoneGuard Chairman of the Board and CEO. “The capabilities are robust and appealing to families, teens and corporations, all of whom are focused on staying secure on the road.”

Features, details, press release, and download links right after the break.

Read A lot more…

PhoneGuard launches app suite aimed at stopping texting whilst driving

Android News, Rumours, and Updates

Macworld

Whilst we had been spending some time at the Samsung Mobile booth, Rob and I ran into &ldquothe Unity guy&rdquo who gave us a speedy demo on the power of Unity 3D engine. Joe Robbins showed us how easy it is to construct a cross platform game making use of the Unity engine and painlessly output that game into a working Android, iOS, Xbox or PS3 game.

The game demo (Angry Bots) was getting edited in true-time on a personal computer where those modifications had been then immediately playable on the game demo running on the Samsung Galaxy Tab. All it took was 1-click to then output the game onto other platforms. It was fairly cool to see everything in action and even though I know subsequent to absolutely nothing on game development, the Unity platform made it all seem so simple. It&rsquos no wonder some of Android and iOS&rsquos upcoming blockbusters like Shadowgun and Bladeslinger are all becoming built with the Unity engine.

Android Telephone Fans

Download My Vehicle Salon Android App

Overview

A dedicated sound card in the existing PC hardware landscape wants to be capable of all kinds of stunts to justify its existence.

Does Creative’s Sound Blaster Recon3D, its new £90 external sound card, have a deep sufficient bag of tricks to succeed?


It’s the world’s initial quad-core sound processor, which gives it the power to pull off impressive feats such as separate mic audio and in-game sound steams, and apply separate effects – such as compression, surround and noise cancelling – to every single stream.

It is best buddies with THX TruStudio, works with PC, Mac, PlayStation three and Xbox 360, and sports a ‘Scout Mode’ button, which amplifies sound cues in-game to highlight nearby enemies.


There was a time when Creative and other PC audio peripheral specialists produced most of their dough from internal sound card sales, but advances in onboard sound chips quickly pushed aside internal PCI cards such as Creative’s classic Audigy two ZS (a veritable metropolis of capacitors) to the realms of fringe peripherals.


Built-in motherboard HD audio chips such as those from By way of and Realtek, plus Creative’s X-Fi range, have swallowed the gap in audio fidelity and processing performance that employed to exist in between PCI sound cards and onboard sound to the point that couple of would consider shelling out added cash on sound hardware over other efficiency-enhancing components.


As the Southbridge chips on both Intel and AMD chipsets and CPUs themselves become far more effective, we get significantly less of a efficiency hit, because the silicon is crunching the numbers faster and more efficiently to decode digital audio to analogue so that your speakers can made sense of it.

This decoding employed to eat up frames per second, but contemporary CPUs and Southbridge chips aren’t troubled by integrated X-Fi 7.1 audio.

So the gap between integrated audio and kit such as Creative’s Recon3D needs to be noticeable, beneficial and sizeable for the latter to appeal. Let’s see how it performs.

The actual breakthrough tech here is SoundCore 3D, the world’s 1st quad-core devoted sound processor.

You can expect to see this chip feature on high-end motherboards as an integrated sound resolution as well as powering the Recon3D.

4 cores are advantageous due to the fact they can manage simultaneous digital signals and crunch away at them with HD audio codecs much much more quickly and efficiently than a single processor – just like AMD and Intel’s multi-core, multi-threaded CPUs with video encoding.


Long story brief, you do not need to have to fret about losing frames per second to voice and sound processing. The Recon3D’s got that covered. It possibly has that covered with out breaking a sweat in fact, which is why Creative has thrown a generous heap of functionality at it.


As we mentioned, the Recon3D is full to the slick black brim with Dolby THX TruStudio Pro features. The most beneficial for gamers will be Pro Surround and Pro Dialog Plus.

The former creates a 360-degree soundscape, with sounds panning horizontally and vertically about you. Rather than cram its headsets full of drivers, Creative has opted for the digital approach, interpolating sounds as they travel from one point to yet another. In practice, this is 1 of the Recon3D’s most successful and enjoyable characteristics.

It genuinely tricks your ears into hearing sounds way behind or above you and from some distance away. The intensity of this effect can be tweaked in the software program layer.


Pro Dialog Plus is all about clearing up noisy voice communication and compressing incoming voice comm streams, so that you do not jump out of your skin when a French teenager starts babbling at you in Team Fortress two.

Equally, the Recon3D lets you clean up your own outgoing mic signal by compressing it, applying noise cancellation or even making use of the effects software to make you sound like a little girl. Absolutely nothing creepy about that, right?


Then there’s Scout Mode. Hit this button and the Recon3D creates a bubble of amplified sound around you in-game, the theory getting you’re less likely to get backstabbed if your enemies’ sound cues are deafening. We had mixed results with this, with some games faring far better than other people.


Console owners can save profiles they’ve produced on PC and apply them to their small gaming boxes too, and the optical cable setup means it’s a pressure-free encounter hooking it up to any device.

Verdict

The Recon3D gives fantastic gaming sound and voice comm tweaking on PC and consoles, with some nice THX effects to play with. It is high-priced for what it provides, though.

We liked

It is a function-filled, high quality item, and versatile too. Nonetheless, the best factor about it is that Creative is bundling the Recon3D with its wireless Tactic3D Omega headset. That is a quality set of cans, with wonderful sound reproduction and beefy but not overcooked bass levels. The headset’s worth £180 on its own, but paired with the Recon3D, the price tag’s £209.

That is nonetheless properly in the realms of enthusiast ware, but a a lot a lot more enticing prospect than acquiring the Recon3D alone. If you are going to acquire a headset that costs more than the console you’ll be using it with, an additional £20 for a powerful sound card with some nice gaming functions ain’t too shabby.

The excellent surround effect also makes the Recon3D (with the headset, of course) a excellent selection for movies.

We disliked

Our greatest concern is that as a standalone £90 obtain, we’re not sure gamers will be that enamoured with it. It is 1 for enthusiasts definitely (though not audiophiles), and however carefully you tweak your settings in the software program suite, there is still one important variable: your speakers. It is your headset or desktop speakers that have the final say over sound top quality.

On these grounds, we discover it tough to recommend the Recon3D alone, due to the fact it does not magically turn bad speakers good, and if you have a basic set of speakers or low cost headset, this isn’t the gear for you.

Also, regardless of the Recon3D’s versatility and functionality, don’t believe this is your 1-quit audio solution. Positive, it is wonderful across different platforms, but geared very considerably toward gaming.

Verdict

If you obsess over sound high quality and ‘variable bit rate’ is a profanity to your eyes, appear elsewhere. There’s too considerably bass in the headset and little consideration for music in the Recon3D and software suite.

TechRadar: All newest Pc & mac critiques feeds

We all love BlackBerry about these parts. Not enough to marry it, but sufficient to own and use it on a every day basis, for sure. So why not check out the newest BlackBerry reviews, news and rumors in the blogs, and then head on over to the CrackBerry forums and see what’s up with your fellow CrackBerry addicts? Below is a sample of some intriguing threads you won’t want to miss.

• General Discussion: Please quit Crackberry Kevin!!!
• BlackBerry Torch 9810: 4g &amp h+
• News &amp Rumors: Has RIM lost control of the medias?
• BlackBerry Torch 9860/9850: Adore this Telephone, Bring on the Apps!
• New: BBM Music: Will you subscribe?

Discovered an interesting post you want to share with CrackBerry Nation? Have a burning question about that function you just cannot figure out? There is Often far more happening just a click away in the forums. You can constantly head more than and join in the conversation, search for answers, or
lend your expertise to other members of our community. If you aren’t already, take a moment to get registered in the CrackBerry forums today!

CrackBerry.com‘s feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. From the Forums: Bring on the apps, will you subscribe, and please stop creating me invest dollars!

CrackBerry.com blogs

Sony Ericsson is properly aware of the Android modding community and as opposed to other OEM&rsquos who try and squash it, they&rsquore performing their part to support support it. No matter whether it&rsquos developing a custom ROM or modifying the kernel, the Sony Ericsson Developer program is aimed at helping these devs cook up good and stable custom ROMs and they&rsquore beginning with a group of devs named &ldquoFreeXperia.&rdquo These are the guys responsible for creating custom ROMs based on CyanognenMod and porting/modifying them to various Xperia devices lke the Play and Arc.

Sony Ericsson was one of &mdash if not the first Android OEM to announce they would present the selection to unlock the bootloaders in their 2011 Xperia lineup. Karl-Johan Dahlstr&oumlm, Head of Developer Relations for Sony Ericsson and all about nice guy (whom I had the pleasure of meeting at E3 this year), has been performing a great job at keeping Sony Ericsson devices open thanks to his close perform with developers. According to Mr. Dahlstr&oumlm,

&ldquoWe firmly believe in the openness of Android and we are actually impressed by the massive activity shown in our items. By getting supportive and open, we hope to both learn from the open community, and also share expertise when that is feasible.

When it came to Sony Ericsson&rsquos involvement with the FreeXperia developers,

We were impressed by the passion shown and decided to assist out with some bits and pieces. A couple of proprietary solutions needed to be explained and we helped them with that. We also supported the group with approximately 20 devices, to make their work simpler.

Sony Ericsson would also like to remind you that unlocking the bootloader and loading a custom ROM on their devices will more than most likely void your warranty. A risk we&rsquove been willing to take given that rooting our G1&primes back in the day. For your standard, typical Joe Schmoe consumer, keeping your device is 100% stock is usually the wisest choice. Either way, it&rsquos refreshing to see the actions Sony Ericsson has taken to support the Android modding community and something other Android OEM&rsquos can definitely learn a thing or two from.

[By way of SonyEricssonBlog]

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It seems like every person is trying to make a name for themselves whether it’s on Facebook or YouTube. Properly now you can try and make a name for yourself as a news reporter of sorts with Meporter, the app that turns your telephone into your own personal news station. With this app you’ll be able to capture anything that’s of interest, like a nearby vehicle accident or poor weather, and write it up as news for the world to see. This will be completed via your present location and inside the app and you’ll be able to develop a headline for your news as well as upload a video or photos and kind up the story for the event. There is also an choice to feed this news to your Facebook or Twitter accounts as well. You can also earn “street credit” by gaining rewards for your posts. This could be a cool app that could take off and I’ll say that the software itself is extremely nicely accomplished. It’s snappy, pleasing to the eye, and so far works as it should. The good results of this application will all depend on how numerous folks join up and use it, so jump on and attempt it out. It looks like it could be enjoyable to give it a chance and see exactly where it goes. Meporter is totally free and can be grabbed from the marketplace appropriate here or from the QR below. Check out the intro video to get an thought of how this all works. Let us know what your experiences are with this app as well.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Be A News Reporter With Meporter

Android News, Rumours, and Updates

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Paper Camera
Ultimate collection of cartoon/sketch/comic book/half tone/noir/neon and numerous other effects painted directly in your camera.

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Camera Zoom FX
Over 90 exclusive FX – combine these in a non-destructive way to create infinite processing alternatives.

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Photo editor you can use to quickly generate photo montages, contact icons, animated photo caricatures, e-cards and telephone wallpapers.

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Take old-school pics with five cameras, five sets of vintage vignetting, film scratch, black and white &amp cross processing effects for that off-the-hip analog appear.

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Take five to 10 photos per second with this high-speed camera application. Fast Burst Camera is capable of taking five to 10 pictures per second.

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Not so Useful but Funny Photography Android Apps

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What would you look like with a “few” added pounds? And what about your friends? Locate out with FatBooth for Android, a enjoyable way to instantly supersize faces on your Android device.

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Develop FaceMe eCards directly from your Android device.

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Funny Camera
Make funny Photos with funny cams.

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Zotac A75-ITX WiFi – Overview

Zotac is genuinely producing a mark for itself as a motherboard manufacturer, specifically in the small form factor arena, and this Zotac A75-ITX WiFi certainly looks to continue that trend.

We checked out the Z68-ITX WiFi a small while back and its mixture of packed PCB and impressive efficiency produced it an incredibly interesting prospect for a wee Intel Sandy Bridge machine.

A lot more suited to the smaller PC although is AMD’s Llano APU. In a form factor where space is at a premium getting decent graphics energy on-chip makes for a properly-rounded machine in a quite tight space.

Intel’s Sandy Bridge may possibly also have integrated graphics but that hardly gives you a lot power beyond a small light media play and normal net-crawling.

The Llano APUs although have discrete-class graphics prowess, maybe not of the high-finish calibre, but definitely far much better than something we’ve seen ahead of.

So what compromises have been made to the A75 platform to squeeze it down into this tiny form factor?

Zotac A75-ITX WiFi – Benchmarks

You can see from the outcomes below the CPU component of the Llano APU is getting hobbled by the motherboard itself. In each the Asus ATX and MSI mATX boards the chips perform far far better at straight, conventional CPU tasks.

On the gaming side though there is no such compromise in performance great news for the mini PC gamer.

CPU rendering performance

CPU gaming performance

DX11 gaming performance

Zotac A75-ITX WiFi – Verdict

Inevitably there is much less space on the motherboard itself to enable a lot more than two DIMM slots and a single x16 PCIe connector, but in such a tiny form factor neither represent a massive compromise.

Indeed given the restraints having a discrete GPU in the PCIe slot locations on the CPU component of the Llano APUs you could argue that perhaps you don’t require one at all.

That stated dropping in a little discrete card, like a half-height AMD Radeon HD 6670, provides you a hell of a boost in graphical performance with Llano’s Dual Graphics functionality.

We notched up over 25fps in DiRT three at 1920×1080 on the Ultra settings, and for a tiny PC sat beneath your HD tele that wouldn’t be poor at all.

You’d need a rather chunkier GPU to be able to do that on an Intel platform.

But nonetheless performance does suffer. The straight line CPU scores are a way down compared with the sort of numbers we’ve been obtaining out of either ATX or micro-ATX desktop Llano boards. Searching at either Cinebench or the CPU score from Shogun 2 and the efficiency of the Zotac A75-ITX is noticeably off the pace.

Thankfully that’s only on the CPU side – if you appear at the gaming efficiency of the Llano APU in the little Zotac board it stands toe-to-toe with the larger boards out there.

And as you are unlikely to be doing any seriously processor intensive tasks on such a tiny box, at least you shouldn’t be expecting to, that’s not a main difficulty either.

As such you wouldn’t be expecting it to be much of an overclocking board either, in spite of the massive quantity of processor head-room the A-series, desktop Llano chips have in them. This appears to be exactly where 1 of the major places of compromise lies there is no way to enhance the performance of the APU.

In the BIOS there is an alternative which looks like it ought to up the multiplier, but as the A-series multipliers are locked down, a la Sandy Bridge, there’s absolutely nothing happening in the performance stakes. It’s a bit of a shame given what we’ve managed to squeeze out of the A-series chips prior to, but for an inexpensive little board critical CPU performance is not a needed requirement.

But becoming an inexpensive small board is. Regrettably you’re paying really a premium for the size of the Zotac A75-ITX WiFi, even our favourite A75, the Asus F1A75-V Pro is well more than a tenner less expensive and that does have the efficiency chops.

We liked:

The fact there is so significantly squeezed into the Zotac A75-ITX WiFi is impressive. With such critical connectivity options too that’s no mean feat there’s dual Gigabit ethernet ports on the back with twin WiFi antennae sticking out too.

The lack of compromise on the gaming efficiency too is a really welcome surprise, specifically given how hobbled the CPU component seems in this board.

We disliked:

Sadly that CPU performance is a shame. It is not a large problem in tiny form factor boards, but knowing you are missing out on efficiency you have in fact paid for is disappointing.

As is the lack of any overclocking possibilities that we could see with the long legs of the AMD A-series APUs.

There is also the reality it is rather much more pricey than greater performing, though bigger motherboards. Even the mATX boards keep the CPU parts ticking over nicely.

Final word:

So if form factor is an problem for you, then you’re going to have to pay for it.

But still, Zotac has crammed a massive amount onto this tiny slab of PCB and as the basis for a fully-functional Fusion mini PC it is tough to beat.

TechRadar: All most recent Pc & mac reviews feeds