Latest Computer Tech: 2014

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Mouse Computer Gaming PC NEXTGEAR i640GA1 Price in Pakistan

Mouse Computer has once again expanded its gaming PC line-up by launching the NEXTGEAR i640GA1. As part of the G-Tune series, the system is equipped with a 3.60GHz Intel Core i7-4790 processor, an Intel Z97 Express Chipset, an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 3GB graphics card, a 16GB DDR3 RAM, a 512GB SSD (PLEXTOR M6e Series), a 2TB hard drive, a DVD Super Multi Drive, a multi-card reader, a 700W 80PLUS GOLD power supply and runs on Windows 8.1 64-bit OS. The NEXTGEAR i640GA1 sells for 249,800 Yen (about $2,444).

http://friendsmania.net/prices/mouse-computer-gaming-pc-nextgear-i640ga1-price-in-pakistan/10491

PC gaming suddenly hot at CES 2014

LAS VEGAS -- While the computer category itself was overshadowed at CES 2014 by flexible TVs and high-tech wristbands , there was one unexpected bright spot -- some inventive new ideas about PC gaming.
With the next generation of living-room consoles only a few months old, it would be easy to put PC gaming on the back burner for a while, but companies at CES are instead taking some inventive, forward-thinking approaches to this decades-old category.
PC gaming in the living room
The biggest is probably Valve's lineup of Steam Machine hardware . The concept is for a compact gaming PC that runs the app-specific Steam OS to play games from Steam's huge PC game library on a living-room TV. New for CES 2014 was a list of the first wave of PC hardware partners actually making the Steam Machine hardware, including Alienware , Origin PC , and Falcon Northwest .

Next-gen computer tech (E63)

They’re in front of every office worker 9 hours a day, and miniaturized versions are always in our pockets: Computers and the microelectronics inside them are an inescapable part of modern life. Check out the latest developments on Technology Update this month, starting with some of the world’s speediest supercomputers and novel cooling systems that double energy efficiency. Then, get the inside scoop on a new kind of memory device that could hold the key to unlocking truly intelligent artificial life. And get a glimpse of two new processors that challenge the dominant architectures, and offer nearly unmatched performance.

http://rt.com/shows/technology-update/next-gen-computer-tech-443/

All about 4chan, the 'best and worst' of internet

SAN FRANCISCO: 4chan's roots date back to a pre-Facebook age of the internet, where anonymity ruled and rules were few to come by. Hackers deposited nude celebrity photos on the site over the summer. It's also the birthplace of the hacker collective Anonymous, along with countless funny internet memes and harmless pranks on celebrities. It's been called a home to cyberbullying as well as do-gooder vigilante justice.

And tucked in a dark corner of the site are images not at all like the polished vacation photos on Instagram and adorable baby snapshots on Facebook. Here, you'll find close-ups of genitals, lots and lots of breasts, and a post on why one should never marry a woman who isn't a virgin. There are also images of a dead woman, splayed naked on a bare mattress, mouth agape, with a deep red mark around her neck. Authorities say slaying suspect David Kalac posted the pictures and wrote accompanying posts about strangling the woman and wanting to be fatally shot by police.

"Often dismissed as little more than a gang of anonymous bullies, there is some truth to the notion that the site is simultaneously the best and worst of the internet," journalist Sean Bonner wrote on BoingBoing.net in 2010 in a story about 4chan helping track down a woman who put a living cat in a trash bin.

Some questions and answers about 4chan:

How did 4chan start?
The site was born in 2003, a year before Facebook, as an image and message board in the style of a similar Japanese board called 2chan, or Futaba. The identity of its 15-year-old founder, Christopher Poole, became widely known after he gave an interview to The Wall Street Journal in 2008 in an article titled "Modest Web Site Is Behind a Bevy of Memes."

Poole wanted to create a version on 2chan for American audiences to share his fascination with Japanese comics and television shows, the Journal said.

Soon, the site grew well beyond anime and manga, thanks in large part to the fact that it allows users to be anonymous. It became a place for people to share images and discuss common interests, from TV shows to computer science to pornography. At a time when Facebook, Google and to some extent Twitter are pushing people to share their real identities, 4chan lets users post without giving a name or even an email address, adding to its appeal.

Why does 4chan allow graphic images to stay up?
4chan's rules prohibit people from posting things that violate US or local laws. It's also against the rules to visit the site if you are under 18. Users can report posts that violate 4chan's rules and there are moderators who can remove content. But the site prides itself in not censoring content just because it might offend some people.

"Generally the rules are as light as they can keep them," said Jim Hendler, a computer science professor at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.

On the other hand, people do break 4chan's rules, but in general the site is "very skittish" about taking down content, said Rob D'Ovidio, an associate professor of criminal justice at Drexel University in Philadelphia.

"It is an environment where independence and user-created community is highly valued over strong editorial control," he said.

The posted photos of the woman's nude, lifeless body, while distasteful, don't violate any laws, D'Ovidio said.

"It's not like he stole crime scene photos," he said, referring to Kalac, who's accused of killing his live-in girlfriend. The pictures also don't violate copyright laws since he "technically owns the intellectual property." In essence, 4chan would have to decide to remove the images of its own volition, or be compelled to do so by law enforcement.

And even if 4chan were to remove the photos, chances are they would appear elsewhere on the site, or on the internet.

"Once the cat is out of the bag, it's difficult to rein it back in," D'Ovidio said.

What else is on 4Chan?
The site's "random" board gets the most notoriety, but it's just a "small part of a much larger entity," Hendler said.

"Despite the infamy, it really does some positive things. It creates community," he said, adding that 4chan remains very much user-focused in the most basic sense of the term. The site "wanted to stay most true to the notion that you could be anonymous, you could talk about whatever you wanted, that you could control the conversation."

Paul Levinson, professor of communications and media studies at Fordham University, called 4chan the "merry pranksters of the internet." In 2010, for example, users tried to send Justin Bieber to North Korea by flooding an online poll asking fans where the divisive singer should perform next. It did not work. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/computing/All-about-4chan-the-best-and-worst-of-internet/articleshow/45078752.cms

Here Are The Top 10 Emerging Technologies For 2014

The World Economic Forum, famous for its annual Davos convention in Switzerland, has put out a new report identifying the top technological trends for the coming year.

"Technology has become perhaps the greatest agent of change in the modern world," writes WEF's Noubar Afeyan. "While never without risk, positive technological breakthroughs promise innovative solutions to the most pressing global challenges of our time, from resource scarcity to global environmental change."
"By highlighting the most important technological breakthroughs, the Council aims to raise awareness of their potential and contribute to closing gaps in investment, regulation and public understanding," he writes.
From wearable electronics to brain-computer interfaces, here are the big technologies to look out for this year.

http://www.businessinsider.com/top-10-emerging-technologies-2014-2?op=1

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

HP's see-through screen proposals secure US patent

Hewlett Packard has been granted a US patent for its see-through screen technology.

The firm describes a system to create transparent displays that would allow users to see both the screen's computer graphics and the backdrop of the room or an object behind the device.
Possible uses include navigation data shown on vehicle windscreens and adverts shown on windows.
Samsung is also known to be working on similar technology.
Slat system The patent was filed in 2006 and describes using light-reflective slats to display images produced by a computer on a transparent screen while also allowing light from behind the device to shine through.
HP acknowledges that alternative see-through technology using angled half-silvered mirrors is already used by TV broadcasters in teleprompters to allow newsreaders to see text superimposed over camera lenses.
While such systems coped well with text or images formed by bright lines, HP said, they struggled with greyscale or full-colour graphics.

HP's patent filing suggests how both graphics and background objects could be seen at the same time

The firm said its proposal should overcome this problem and added that those behind the screen could also shown different images in order to overcome privacy concerns.
The patent's authors also suggested the user might opt to place the display directly against an object in order to superimpose information.
This could be a "chart, picture or other image," they wrote, "For example [the] see-through display may be placed upon a map so as to provide an observer with a navigation route."
They added that it might be advantageous to make such screens flexible so that they could be rolled away for storage.
Sci-fi props Although HP has yet to put this technology to use, it released videos last year showing concept designs provided to the makers of the movie Real Steel.
These included the ThruScreen, designed to allows descriptive data to appear over a scanned object held behind the device.
Another showed the HP Flex, a laptop computer whose screen allows a sports trainer to see live data about his team projected over his view of their performance.
The company is not the only one exploring the idea.
Samsung's mobile unit released a video last year showing an imagined transparent, bendable tablet computer that could be held over signs and objects to reveal more information about them.

The HP Flex allowed Hugh Jackman's character to monitor a robot boxer in the film Real Steel

The South Korean firm has also showed off a prototype laptop with a transparent OLED (organic light-emitting diode) screen, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Potential profits One analyst who had been shown HP's work on the technology at its Palo Alto, California research lab said the firm was serious about the technology.
"HP has been working on trying to perfect this technology for about two decades," said Chris Green, principal technology analyst at Davies Murphy Group Europe.
"There's many real world applications, from augmented reality to displaying information on flat surfaces such as web browsers on windows or heads-up displays in cars.
"It may look gimmicky in the movies but there's huge financial potential in this if you can get the technology right and sell it for an acceptable price."

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-18719608

Analyzing the iMac 5K Retina display: How do you get 5K @ 60Hz from a last-gen GPU? (updated)

27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display - display only

Last week, Apple announced a new 27-inch iMac that packs an impressive 5K Retina display. As we’ve already detailed, these new 5K displays are thinner, cheaper, draw less power thanks to a more-efficient LED backlight, and, perhaps most importantly, Apple is selling the whole 27-inch iMac system at a mind-blowing price of $2500. That’s the same price tag on Dell’s 5K monitor.
Updated November 4: Sadly, it’s time for a mea culpa. On October 24 we mistakenly identified the iMac with 5K Retina display as having a 30Hz panel. The 27-inch iMac does indeed output 5K @ 60Hz — and to hit those kinds of frequencies, Apple used its own customized timing controller, rather than DisplayPort 1.2 (which can’t drive 5K @ 60Hz). More on that can be found further down the story.

Original story: A late-2014 display hooked to an early 2012 GPU

The GPU powering the 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display is the R9 M290X, with the R9 M295X offered as an optional upgrade. The R9 M295X hasn’t technically been announced, but rumors from months back suggested this would be a Tonga-class GPU. Regardless, the R9 M290X is the minimum spec — and that chip is a rebranded HD 8970M, which was a rebranded HD 7970M, which is functionally equivalent to a desktop Radeon HD 7870.
In other words, the GPUs inside the new iMac are going to be limited to DisplayPort 1.2. That matters, because it takes roughly 17.2Gbps of bandwidth to drive a 4K @ 60 fps signal in a single stream (Single Stream Transport). To summarize the difference between SST and MST, an MST display creates two half-width tiles on the monitor and interleaves two different DisplayPort streams together to create a contiguous image, while an SST display functions like a standard monitor. MST and SST displays typically look identical in common applications, but some games support MST poorly, resulting in menus or functions crammed into half the monitor, or movies playing back in a squashed, half-width format.

Critically, however, MST is the only way to drive a larger-than-4K panel. DisplayPort 1.2 has just enough bandwidth to support a single 4K @ 60 fps SST stream, but 5K is far too large for the standard. When Apple talks about a 40-gigabit TCON, it may have designed a single TCON to output to two DP 1.2 streams — that’s not technically impossible — but it’s not being done with a single stream within the DP 1.2 spec.
Read: No, TV makers, 4K and UHD are not the same thing
Since Tonga doesn’t support HDMI 2.0 or DP 1.3 (which does support 5K SST), DP 1.2 is the only available standard to piggy-back. If Apple had somehow redesigned the TCON to compress a 5K stream into existing DisplayPort 1.2 bandwidth, it wouldn’t need a 40Gbps TCON in the first place. Anandtech notes that there’s another possibility — Apple may indeed have designed its own TCON, overclocked it, customized it for low overhead timing, and be pulling just enough bandwidth out of DP 1.2 to get it done.
Updated November 4: An iFixit teardown shows that Apple did indeed use a customized TCON — a modified Parade Technologies part using a non-standard 60-pin Embedded DisplayPort (eDP) connector (it’s usually just 40 pins). We’re not sure if Apple is using a variant of eDP 1.3, or some own Frankensteinian solution that combines two eDP 1.2 feeds — but in either case, there’s clearly enough bandwidth to drive a 5K display at 60Hz.

This kind of issue is common with MST — but did Apple overclock DP to hit higher bandwidths and avoid MST?

Either way, Apple would have to overclock the DisplayPort signal by 50-100% to hit the bandwidth it needs for 5K on single stream transport.

Refresh rates, gaming, and scaling

Many layers of the retina 27-inch iMac display

The many clever layers of the iMac with Retina display

Scaling is another potential issue — but Apple has always done this one better than Microsoft and 5120×2880 has exactly four times the pixels of the old 2560×1440 monitors, which should make scaling up relatively simple.
Finally, gaming — and here’s where the reality is going to bite. You aren’t going to be doing any gaming on a 5K display at anything like high detail levels. You may not even pull it off at low detail levels, and for a very simple reason: The R9 M290 is a midrange GPU from 2012 boxing way, way out of its weight class on this one. Despite the term, 5K is not 25% more pixels than 4K — it’s almost two times as many pixels.
Not even dual GTX 980s in SLI could drive 60-fps high-detail gaming on that kind of rig. And that means there’s no chance any AMD mobile GPU — even if the R9 M295 is a Tonga implementation — is going to be able to do it either.

http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/192305-analyzing-the-imac-5k-retina-display-how-do-you-squeeze-5k-out-of-a-last-gen-gpu

2014 new arraival 47 inch PC inside new technology in computer hardware

http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/2014-new-arraival-47-inch-PC_1593084265.html

Windows 10 is great – but it won’t stop the PC from dying and taking Microsoft with it

Windows 10 Technical Preview, turquoise wallpaper and Start menu

I’ve now been using Windows 10 for a month, and though it’s still just an early version with lots of rough edges, I’m convinced that it’s going to be a solid desktop operating system for the world’s billion-odd mouse-and-keyboard users — when they finally decide to upgrade from Windows 7 or XP, anyway. It has been slowly dawning on me, however, that Windows 10 is a lost cause; even in a best-case scenario where Microsoft delivers the finest desktop OS to ever grace humankind, there’s no getting around the found that Windows 10 is an attempt to revivify a slowly dying beast. While there’s always a chance that Windows 10 triggers some kind of renaissance, it’s far more likely that it will be squished into ignominious oblivion by the stumbling, apathetic, and commoditized beast that the desktop PC has become.
If you’re old enough, cast your mind back to 1995 and the imminent release of Windows 95. The excitement that surrounded Windows 95 was a palpable, global phenomenon — driven partly by insane marketing stunts, but also people were earnestly excited by the idea of a new, colorful, plug-and-play desktop OS. The fanfare that surrounded the release of Windows 95 was only ever matched (or perhaps beaten) by one other desktop OS: Windows XP. Windows XP coincided with the PC industry’s (and Microsoft’s) boom years in the mid-2000s, a period of massive growth that ultimately ended with the release of the iPhone and the popularization of cheap smartphones and tablets.

It’s hard to overstate just how excited the world was for Windows 95

Since the mid-to-late 2000s, the PC industry has mostly been treading water or steadily declining, while smartphones and tablets have enjoyed disgusting levels of success that are way, way beyond peak PC. In 2013, global smartphone shipments — not all cellphones, just smartphones — exceeded 1 billion units. PC shipments maxed out at around 350 million per year in 2010, and are now starting to decline quite rapidly.
By the time that Windows 10 comes out in mid-2015, who knows how low new PC sales will be — and of course, after the debacle of Windows 8 and the negative sentiment that it engendered, Windows PC stalwarts might be inclined to buy a Mac instead, or join the smartphone/tablet revolution. (And indeed, it says a lot that, while the PC industry has slumped over the last few years, Apple’s Mac division has enjoyed strong growth over the last few years.)

Google search trends for Windows 7 (blue), Windows 8 (yellow), and Android (red)

In short, the desktop PC is in trouble — and by association, so is Windows 10. Windows 10 might be the best mouse-and-keyboard OS ever made — but we’re not living in the ’90s or early 2000s any more, and the phrase best mouse and keyboard OS ever made just doesn’t generate the same amount of excitement that it once did.
This, I think, will be Windows 10’s undoing. Gone are the days of big, flashy OS releases. The annual releases of Android and iOS haven’t quite conditioned us to be completely oblivious and underwhelmed by operating systems, but they have certainly taught us that OSes are ultimately just tools to help us get stuff done. The regular, low-key releases of the mobile OSes has also taught us that paying for an operating system — or doing something crazy, like queuing around the block at midnight to get a boxed copy — is just not the done thing any more. For Apple and Google, which make their money from hardware and advertising respectively, this downplaying of the OS has worked out just fine — for Microsoft, which based its entire empire on sales of Windows licenses, this is a problem.

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/193469-windows-10-is-great-but-it-wont-stop-the-pc-from-dying-and-taking-microsoft-with-it

15 Hot New Technologies That Will Change Everything

The Next Big thing? The memristor, a microscopic component that can "remember" electrical states even when turned off. It's expected to be far cheaper and faster than flash storage. A theoretical concept since 1971, it has now been built in labs and is already starting to revolutionize everything we know about computing, possibly making flash memory, RAM, and even hard drives obsolete within a decade.
The memristor is just one of the incredible technological advances sending shock waves through the world of computing. Other innovations in the works are more down-to-earth, but they also carry watershed significance. From the technologies that finally make paperless offices a reality to those that deliver wireless power, these advances should make your humble PC a far different beast come the turn of the decade.
In the following sections, we outline the basics of 15 upcoming technologies, with predictions on what may come of them. Some are breathing down our necks; some advances are still just out of reach. And all have to be reckoned with.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/152683/tech.html

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Microsoft Surface Pro 3

The Microsoft Surface Pro 3 is a larger iteration of the Windows 8 tablet the company has been producing for the past two years, and it certainly addresses some of the shortcomings of last year's Surface Pro 2

Bottom Line

With its 12-inch, high-resolution display, full-friction kickstand, and Surface Pen, Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 tablet aims to be the only mobile PC you need. But will you ditch your laptop? We're not so sure.

http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow_viewer/0,3253,l=323846&a=323809&po=1,00.asp

LG's 31-inch "true'' 4K IPS monitor now available for under $1,400

lg, ips monitor, 4k, 4k monitor, lg 4k monitor, 31mu97, digital cinema 4k

LG’s Digital Cinema 4K Monitor, the same one that was showcased at IFA last month, will soon be available for purchase. The 31MU97 features a 31-inch display and true 4K resolution but it also carries a steep price tag meaning it’ll largely target content creation professionals.
To clear up any confusion, consumer-grade 4K displays feature a resolution of 3,840 x 2,160 and are in fact a derivation of the 4K digital cinema standard which boasts a resolution of 4,096 x 2,160. The latter is what LG is offering with this monitor.

The South Korean electronics company claims the panel produces 10-bit color and covers 99.5 percent of the Adobe RGB color space. What’s more, it covers 97 percent of the DCI-P3 color space and comes with Thunderbolt support and Mac compatibility.
It also comes with a feature called Dual Color Space that allows the monitor to display two different color modes at once so users can compare different perspectives of their work simultaneously.

The display isn’t yet listed on LG’s US site so we don’t have access to the complete list of specifications but the photo above reveals the rear panel I/O ports.
The LG 31MU97 will be available starting this week in markets including the United States, South Korea, Germany, Australia and the UK followed by the Netherlands, Spain, Poland and Japan in November. LG didn’t provide a price in its press release although B&H has it listed at $1,399.99

http://www.techspot.com/news/58627-lg-31-inch-true-4k-ips-monitor-now.html

AMD and Nvidia need to step up to the 4K challenge

Resolution, particularly pixel density, is the new frontier when it comes to gaming graphics. There’s little doubt, certainly from my first hand experience, that 4K offers huge advantages in sharpness, even on 24in and 27in monitors – not just on super-large screens.

Some may disagree here, but to me, I’d welcome more pixels than my current 24in 1,920 x 1,200 main monitor offers. As I have two screens, I’ve also considered investing in a super-wide screen too.

LG's 34UC97 is a curved 34in super-wide monitor that sports a resolution of 3,440 x 1,440 - Click to enlarge

There are some fantastic-sounding options here in the ultra high resolution department as well. LG and AOC have 34in 3,440 x 1,440 monitors plus Dell and LG have recently announced their own curved versions (WANT). The prospect here for immersive, high resolution gaming is pretty compelling but the extra screen real-estate is useful for all manner of other tasks too. I’ve played with super-wide monitors before as well, as you can read about here, and despite older 30in models only sporting 1,080 vertical pixels, I didn’t find this too restrictive when editing photos and the like.

AOC's u3477Pqu super-wide 3,440 x 1,440 monitor will retail for around £500 in October - Click to enlarge

However, there’s one major issue stopping me splashing some cash on a new ultra HD monitor. This is the fact that I’d need to invest twice as much again in the graphics department to be able to get playable frame rates in games. I’ve never been one to tone down graphics settings in order to get playable frame rates; this is partly the reason I find myself writing about PC hardware for a living, apart from the fact I caught the upgrade bug two decades ago.

However, even if I was prepared to drop a little in terms of detail settings, this still wouldn’t be enough to allow even a £400 single-GPU graphics card to handle all the latest games, never mind my aging GTX 660 Ti. Even Nvidia’s latest effort – the GTX 980 was a long way from achieving playable frame rates in Crysis 3 in our review; you’d need to opt for a monster such as AMD’s R9 295X2 in order to get some headroom at 4K.

To be able to play all current games at 4K, you need to invest in multiple GPUs or AMD's R9 295X2 - Click to enlarge

Something else that concerns me, though, is that there’s not much effort going on to address the main issue here, which is that higher resolutions are going mainstream. Windows 8.1 achieved a lot in terms of 4K scaling, though there are a few more issues to iron out, not least of all by software companies with their own program scaling.

However, we’re nearly at the point where it makes absolute sense to aim for 4K in a mid to high-end system, rather than a super-high end one as is the case at the moment. This doesn’t mean I think those of us with limited wallet power won’t consider splashing out £300-400 on a 4K-capable graphics card, but the fact is that once 4K monitors fall in price further, mid and high-end enthusiasts will have a bit of a problem on their hands.

Nvidia's GTX 980 can play some games at 4K, but doesn't offer much headroom - Click to enlarge

They can afford a 4K monitor, but not the graphics card/s to power it in games. We haven’t had such a big reason to upgrade our graphics card since Crysis landed but AMD and Nvidia need to do more to make these ultra high resolutions more attainable outside of super-expensive systems. In the past, you've needed to invest heavily if you game on triple screens, for example, and I think this needs to change.

4K is waiting to take off, be it in super-wide or standard aspect ratio monitors. In addition, true 4K gaming is also something the latest consoles lack. So this is also a huge opportunity for PC gaming to take a giant leap forwards and offer something tangible when it comes to a better gaming experience.

In short what we need is a GTX 970-type graphics card that can handle the latest games at 4K – something in the region of £250-350 – not the £700 odd that you’d currently need for something like the R9 295X2. So come on AMD and Nvidia, rise to the challenge and give us more reasonably-priced 4K-capable graphics cards.

http://www.bit-tech.net/blog/2014/09/30/amd-and-nvidia-need-to-step-up-to-the-4k-ch/

Apple Blows the Dust Off iPad, iMac Models

Apple on Thursday held a new product event on its campus in Cupertino, California, where the stars of the show were a thinner version of its iPad tablet and a 27-inch iMac desktop with a display that has 67 percent more pixels than a 4K TV.

The iPad Air 2, pictured above, will have an entry point of US$499 for a 16-GB model. It is only 6.1mm thick -- more than 50 percent thinner than the original iPad -- and tips the scale at just under a pound.
While the display resolution on the new iPad Air is the same as the previous model -- 2048 x 1536 pixels -- Apple improved the Retina screen's reflective properties so it's easier to see in direct sunlight. It made its colors more vivid and dialed up its contrast.
Inside the iPad, there's a souped-up version of the processor in the iPhone 6. The tablet's 64-bit A8x CPU is, according to Apple, 40 percent faster than the one in the previous version of the tablet, and its graphics processor is 2.5 times faster. Even with the increased muscle, battery life for the device remains 10 hours, Apple said.

Touch ID

Apple brought the new iPad in line with its iPhone line by adding Touch ID, a fingerprint scanner, as well as Apple Pay support. Touch ID can be used to unlock an iPad, make purchases from Apple's online stores, and open apps that support the technology, like Evernote, Mint and Day One journal.
Touch ID, combined with Apple Pay, will allow iPad Air 2 users to shop online.
"This isn't for retail, point-of-sale purchasing," Philip W. Schiller, senior vice president of worldwide marketing at Apple, said at the event. "This is for online purchasing within all the apps that are going to support Apple Pay, and there are going to be many of them growing starting on Monday."
Both cameras are upgraded in the latest iPad. The rear-facing iSight camera now has an 8-megapixel sensor, and native resolution of 3264 x 2448 pixels for stills and 1080p for video. It also supports a number of creative features, like panoramic pictures, time-lapse photography and 120 fps slow motion video.
The tablet's front-facing Facetime camera has a 1.2-MP sensor and supports 720p video. It also supports an f/2.2 aperture setting, which improves performance in low lighting conditions.
In addition to the 16-GB model, iPad Air 2 will be offered in 64-GB ($599) and 128-GB ($799) versions.

Mini Prices

Apple introduced a new version of its iPad mini tablet. The iPad mini 3 sports Touch ID, but it runs on the older A7 processor and has a 5-MP iSight camera.

Pricing for the mini 3 starts at $399 for a 16-GB model, then moves to $499 (64 GB) and $599 (128 GB).
Apple will continue to sell older versions of the mini, including the original version for just $249. That could help open up the Apple experience to some market segments previously priced out of it.
"Apple's products today are more easily approachable, not only to people in developed countries but in developing countries, too," said Trip Chowdhry, managing director for equity research at Global Equities Research.
"Apple's addressable market has increased by at least 20 to 30 percent across the world," he told the E-Commerce Times.

Gorgeous Display

While you may not need as much cash to get in the Apple game after today's announcement, the experience may be wanting.
"You're not going to get Touch ID for $249," Patrick Moorhead, founder and principal analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy, told the E-Commerce Times.
"To have the full Apple experience, you still need to have higher degree of disposable income," he said.
Along with the new iPads, Apple introduced a new iMac with a 27-inch, 5120 x 2880 display that's only 5mm thick.

Starting at $2,499, it runs on Intel Core i7 processors up to 4 GHz, has AMD graphics with up to 3.5 teraflops of computing power, and supports Thunderbolt 2 bandwidth up to 20 Gbps.
Another refresh announced by Apple was a new Mac Mini, starting at $499.

Also at the Apple event, the company announced that OS X Yosemite, the latest version of its desktop operating system, was available for download.

On a Roll

While most of what Apple announced on Thursday had been roiling in the rumor blender for weeks, the company did manage to tie together some loose ends.
"It pulled everything together for the holiday selling season. It's created a unified experience across iPad, iPhone and now the Mac with Yosemite," Moorhead said. "These guys are hitting on all cylinders."
Wrapping the event, Apple CEO Tim Cook observed, "This incredible lineup of products and the ecosystem that supports them is something only Apple can create."
That may not be entirely accurate, but it's close.
"Technically, it's not true that only Apple can create that amalgam of hardware, software, services and ecosystem," said former Forrester analyst Charles Golvin, who recently founded Abelian Research.
"However, I think that only Apple is able today to combine these assets into the superior experience that its customers enjoy," he told the E-Commerce Times, "and extend the benefits of that experience to a network of partners, including developers, retailers, and a wealth of other brands. That is why Apple ranks at the top of the list of partners for these companies."

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/81213.html

MSI's GT80 Titan Notebook Becomes World's First To Include Mechanical Keyboard

Have you ever thought to yourself, "I wish my laptop had a mechanical keyboard!", but have been left depressed with the dearth of options? If so, MSI's latest gaming laptop is worthy of your consideration. Called the GT80 Titan, MSI has impressively embedded an entire mechanical keyboard in its base, complete with CHERRY MX brown switches (light bump, non-clicky).
Behold, what I feel to be one of the most interesting laptops ever:

I admit that I've joked with myself (because I'm a little odd like that) about having a notebook with a mechanical keyboard, but I never actually thought it was something that should happen. I am not sure I would have even guessed it would happen, because a mechanical keyboard is very clunky, and could dramatically impact the visual appeal of said notebook. I think that rings true here; I'm honestly not feeling the aesthetics of the GT80 Titan at all.
That said, this is one of those compromises that people would have to make to gain access to a far better keyboard while on-the-go - while being able to avoid the clunky setup that's created when you have to hook up an external. There are some other things to consider: With its mechanical keyboard, the GT80 Titan is far more prone to keycaps literally falling off or going missing than any other notebook. On the flipside, cleaning this keyboard would be far easier than standard notebook keys, since you actually would be able to remove the keycaps.

For what it's worth, this isn't just some ordinary mechanical keyboard; instead, it comes from SteelSeries, a company that knows how to design great peripherals. Because of the GT80 Titan's 18-inch size (you read that right!), a full numpad is included, although it's touch, rather than mechanical. You might notice something else a bit strange here: There's no touchpad at the bottom. Instead, the numpad doubles as the touchpad, which is a pretty cool design.
At this point, MSI is really not giving us too much else to go on; there's no mention of specs, although given its massive size, and its goal as being a gaming notebook offering precision control, I think it goes without saying that it's going to ultimately bundle some high-performing parts.
So - who wants one?

http://hothardware.com/News/MSIs-GT80-Titan-Notebook-Becomes-Worlds-First-To-Include-Mechanical-Keyboard/

Apple is now 5th largest PC maker in the world

IDC says Apple surpassed Asus to crack into the top 5 global PC makers -- though numbers from rival firm Gartner disagree

Apple's Macbooks had a strong back-to-school showing last quarter, as the company hit fifth place in IDC's global PC shipment charts.
Mac sales rose from 4.58 million in the third quarter of last year to 4.98 million this year, IDC estimated, allowing Apple to edge out Asus for the number five slot. (Rival research firm Gartner still has Asus in fifth place, with 5.77 million shipments last quarter. Hey, these are estimates.)

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Overall, last quarter was fruitful for major vendors. Both IDC and Gartner estimated shipment gains for Lenovo, HP, Dell, Acer, and Asus, along with Apple. IDC attributed the gains to solid back-to-school sales, the continued Windows XP to Windows 7 migration for businesses, and a rise in low-cost PCs such as Chromebooks.
Why this matters: Unlike other PC makers, Apple's sales numbers aren't being buoyed by low-cost laptops. While IDC warns that the rise in cheap PCs are a "concern for the long term viability of vendors to adequately remain in the PC space," that concern doesn't apply to Apple, which tends to avoid racing to the bottom in pricing. For other vendors, the current situation contains echoes of the 2009 PC market, which grew fat on netbook sales and eventually crashed.

Win some, lose some

However, Apple has its own concerns as iPad sales are in decline. The company is rumored to be working on a larger version that might capture more of the PC market, but it may not arrive until next year, if at all. Apple is holding an event on Oct. 16, where it's expected to announce minor upgrades to the existing iPad line.
Although PC shipments declined as a whole by 1.7 percent in the third quarter, this was entirely due to smaller vendors in the "other" category, several of whom have been scaling back lately. Since last year, Sony has sold its Vaio PC business to a smaller company focusing on the Japan market, Samsung has shut down its European PC business and Toshiba has said it will cut back on consumer PCs to focus on business users.

This story, "Apple is now 5th largest PC maker in the world" was originally published by PCWorld.

http://www.infoworld.com/article/2824525/computer-hardware/apple-is-now-5th-largest-pc-maker-in-the-world.html

Apple's 'Way Too Long' Invite Lands With a Thud

Apple's pretty much annual October new product media event usually is preceded by a cute invitation sent to journalists. The invitation typically includes a phrase or graphic element that provides a vague clue to the secret agenda of the event.

Presumably, this is to drum up excitement and speculation, in addition to creating an ah-ha moment when the audience understands the connection between the invitation and the actual announcement.
This year, Apple's hint is this: "It's been way too long." That is the worst teaser I've ever heard.

What Haven't You Been Doing Lately?

Consider the phrase: It's been way too long since... what? Since we've seen you last? Since we partied like there was no tomorrow? Nah. In Apple Land, the connotation immediately turns to products and product announcements.
Which then naturally turns to this: Which product hasn't been updated in "way too long?" Which product has been neglected? Which product is in desperate need of a makeover?
I don't consider myself a glass-half-empty kind of guy, but I found myself immediately considering the products that Apple has been futzing around with when I saw the teaser invite. Turns out, there are plenty of Apple products that seem stale.
The MacBook Air, which has sported the same basic form factor since Steve Jobs introduced it in 2008, comes to mind. Apple added the even smaller 11-incher in October of 2010 -- four years ago. Sure, there've been some minor upgrades along the way, but it's been four years -- and not even a color refresh.
What's worse, the MacBook Air hasn't had a Retina display. The MacBook Pro with Retina display came out two years ago in October of 2012. Is that way too long? Maybe. It sure feels like it -- but hey, that's not Apple's fault, right? You just can't power a Retina display with a battery in a super light MacBook Air form factor. Laws of physics and whatnot.
The technical challenges aren't the point here -- nor is the waiting game for Intel's next-generation Broadwell processors, which are well suited to being crammed into a shrinking form factor.
There are rumors that Apple is working on a 12-inch Retina-based MacBook Air variant, which it could even offer in Gold, Silver and Space Gray colors, but the point remains: It's been way too long gives the speculation a negative spin, as if Apple has been neglecting a product rather than working feverishly on it and giving it the attention it deserves.

Which Other Products Have Stagnated?

See how easy it is to consider Apple's invite phrase in a negative light? I just used the word "stagnated," which isn't a word you want associated with your products -- like say, the Mac mini, which has been largely ignored for two years. Or the iMac, which has gotten some touchups here and there, but no Retina displays.
Odds are, Apple will update the iMac with a Retina display sometime soon -- but now? Maybe. Neither product gets enough consumer attention to justify being the subject of Apple's teaser, though.
There is only one product that clearly stands out here, and it's the long-neglected Apple TV. The last hardware update was in March of 2012. There have been lots of minor additions and updates to the software, but the ingenuity and power of the hardware itself? For fans of the living room couch, it's been languishing in obscurity.
Finally. That is the first impression that Apple calls up with "It's been way too long."
That's really sad, because in reality, I'm excited and optimistic that Apple will -- finally -- make a serious push into the living room with a more powerful Apple TV and a much-improved content experience.
The phrase, "It's been way too long," could be applied to the way we watch and consume television. It's been way too long since consumers had a really great new way to watch TV. For anyone who pays attention to their budgets and how they spend on entertainment, it's hard to find any reason to be pleased with the bundles offered by our cable and satellite TV services.
So, even though the teaser could be the harbinger of a brand new world of awesomeness, the initial effort to understand it just results in a negative spin for Apple.

Playing Catch-Up

Instead of excitedly speculating on how Apple might make the living room "more comfortable than ever" with a new Apple TV that is now a hub for HomeKit and a whole new world of home automation products, Apple sparked people to wonder if it's been too long for an important new leap for the iPad.
Is a thinner iPad offered in a Gold color with a Touch ID button particularly cool? It doesn't take a genius to imagine a thinner iPad Air or a new coat of paint.
Instead of being excited about how well the Apple ecosystem will seamlessly let you hand off content, notifications, and messages between Macs and iOS devices, the question turns toward a grouchy "it's about damn time my Mac could talk with my iPhone."
The problem is that "way too long" implies an admission of failure -- and it's a failure on Apple's part, because this is Apple's event, after all. Even if the company is saying it's way too long for some other thing going on in the industry, the phrase boomerangs back to Apple.
So what would be more successful?
Apple could have said, "better than ever," or "like you've never seen before" or slapped on an image that implies a natural transformation into something mature and cool, like the hint of a butterfly's wing in the background of the invitation. Apple never would have to explain a butterfly.
"Way too long" fails to suggest that Apple might have invented something new -- or even created an upgrade leap. It suggests that Apple finally caught up to a widely held expectation. I'm pretty sure that's not what Apple was going for.
So yeah -- Apple's worst teaser ever

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/81171.html

15 Hot New Technologies That Will Change Everything

http://www.pcworld.com/article/152683/tech.html

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Servis notebooků Sony Vaio | Opravy notebooků Sony

Notebooky Sony Vaio společnosti Sony se umísťují na předních pozicích v soutěži prodejnosti značek notebooků. Náš servis notebooků poskytuje společně se servisem ostatních značek také kvalitní pozáruční servis notebooků Sony ..
Provádíme servis notebooků Sony a opravy notebooků Sony všech modelových řad, prodávaných společností Sony na českém trhu. Umíme opravit většinu závad notebooků Sony zakoupených i v jiných státech EU a také velkou část závad na noteboocích Sony dovezených z jiných částí světa.
Opravitelnost jednotlivých modelů notebooků Sony je výrazně závislá na dostupnosti potřebných náhradních dílů - některé náhradní díly na notebooky Sony se již nevyrábějí, nedovážejí nebo jejich získání ze světových skladů není rentabilní.
Náš servis notebooků řeší podobné případy často úspěšně alternativními cestami.

Komplexní pozáruční servisní podporu poskytujeme na tyto řady notebooků Sony

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http://www.servis-acer.com/opravy-noteboooku/sony/

Sony VAIO Tap 21 Multitouch Mobile Desktop Review

The Sony VAIO Tap 21 is a member of a small, but growing, breed of new PCs that straddles a line between traditional all-in-one desktops and tablets. The VAIO Tap 21’s specifications read like many modern desktop systems, and include an Intel Core i7 processor, hybrid storage, a decent amount of memory and full-blown Windows 8. But the machine is also surprisingly svelte, it’s got a full HD, multi-touch screen and it packs an integrated battery that gives users the ability to simply pick up the system and go. Of course, the VAIO Tap 21’s physical dimensions prevent it from being truly portable, but being able to move the system virtually anywhere and operate on battery power opens up a world of interesting possibilities, at home or work.

In addition to its potential mobility, the Sony VAIO Tap 21 can also be used in a couple of different configurations. The system stands upright—as you would expect—but its kickstand can also be folded all the way in, so the Tap 21 will lay flat on any surface. Couple its multi-touch capabilities with the ability to lay flat, and it’s hard to imagine two more people sitting around a Tap 21 collaborating in an app, gaming, or what have you.

We’ve got the full scoop on the Sony VAIO Tap 21 on the pages ahead. Before we dig in though, take a look at our test system’s specifications below to set expectations and then we’ll get on with the juicy stuff...

The Sony VAIO Tap 21 All-In-One Mobile Desktop

Sony VAIO Tap 21

Specifications & Features

Display	21.5 in Full HD, Triluminos Display for Mobile (1920 x 1080), 10-finger multi-touch support
Processor	Intel Core i7-4500U 1.80 GHz with Turbo Boost Technology up to 3.0 GHz
Memory	8GB DDR3L 1600 MHz
Hard drive size	1TB 5400 RPM hybrid drive
Operating system	Windows 8. Update to Windows 8.1 for free through the Windows Store.
PC type	All-in-One
Optical drive	None
Media drive	2-in-1 media card reader (SD/MS)
Audio	Intel High Definition Audio with ClearAudio+
Video	Intel HD Graphics 4400 with shared graphics memory
Ports	2 USB 3.0 (1 with Sleep and Charge), HDMI, Headphone output/Microphone input combo, RJ-45 (10/100/1000)
Battery	Lithium-ion (up to 2 hours, 30 minutes)
Camera	1.0 MP HD webcam
Wireless	802.11b/g/n • Intel Wireless Display (WiDi) capable (separate adapter required)
Bluetooth	Yes
Dimensions	20.62 x 1.40-12.22 x 6.86-12.64 in (523.74 x 35.56-310.38 x 174.24-321.05 mm)
Weight	8.60 lbs (3.90 kg)
Color	Black
Other	Keyboard travel: 2.0 mm stroke and 19.05 mm pitch

Sony VAIO Tap 21: Starting @ $999, As Configured - $1299

We should note that Sony offers the VAIO Tap 21 in a number of different configurations. The model we’ve got on tap for you’re here (no pun intended), is the mid-spec offering. It sports an Intel Core i7-4500U processor with Intel HD 4400 series graphics, but a lower-end Core i5-based model is also available, as is a Core i7-4558U-based model with Intel Iris 5100 series graphics. Multiple storage and memory options are also available. Our system packed in 8GB of memory and a 1TB hybrid drive, memory configurations up to 16GB and SSDs up to 512GB are also available. Sony even offers a number of different color combos for the keyboard and a carry case for the Tap 21, should you intend to travel with it often or want to spice things up a bit.

http://hothardware.com/Reviews/Sony-VAIO-Tap-21-Multitouch-Mobile-Desktop-Review/

Windows 10 Hands-On: What You Need To Know

It has been a few weeks since Microsoft released its Technical Preview of Windows 10 -- which means we've had enough time to walk around the vehicle, kick the tires, and investigate the product in its current form. After the drubbing that Windows 8 took in the tech press and from angry users, Microsoft badly needs this new operating system to be a success, but simply cramming the Start menu back into the OS isn't going to cut it. So what has Microsoft been up to all this time beyond the Start menu's triumphant return? Let's take a look.

The Road To Windows 10

We want to kick off this preview by briefly discussing something that's been percolating in the back of our heads for quite some time. Specifically: We think Microsoft (or at least important people within Microsoft) were caught off-guard by the sustained dislike many consumers had for Windows 8. Long after the familiarity bias should've faded, a number of reviewers and tech aficionados remained opposed to the OS -- and we think that's actually partly the fault of the technical press because certain issues weren't communicated more effectively.

The new Windows 10 desktop with hybrid search bar and the Video app running on the Desktop

I can only speak for myself, but when we wrote our Windows 8 preview coverage, I was impressed and excited by the bold new direction Microsoft was charting. After years of refining the old Desktop paradigm, this was MS trying something altogether different. The reason I was so pleased with this in 2011 and so unhappy with the final product was simple -- I assumed Microsoft was going to fix all the little problems and issues that collectively sank Windows 8 and continue to diminish Windows 8.1. I assumed, for example, that Desktop and Metro apps would be able to communicate effectively, that Windows RT versions of apps would be well tuned to run on RT devices, that basic Metro apps like the Photo Viewer would ship with the same capabilities as the Windows Photo Viewer, but with a specialized touch interface, that file lists would have customizable layouts, that file names could be displayed by default in those layouts, that users would be able to save sets of pinned applications rather than disrupting them with a simple alt-tab. I thought the decision to display information in low-density screen formats would be optional, not hard-coded into the system.

The bottom line is, a great many retrospective warning signs were treated instead as passing issues that Microsoft would undoubtedly resolve. The cost of not resolving many of these factors was Windows 8's mediocre uptake; two years after launch, the OS has just 30.31% of the Steam user market, compared to Windows 7's cumulative 62.32%. Windows 8's total share of the OS market is much smaller, but Steam's hardware survey is much more likely to represent our readership.

Don't mistake us here -- it's still important to evaluate Windows 10 as a work-in-progress -- but we're going to be more critical of the little things this time around. The good news is, there are significantly fewer issues to talk about.

http://hothardware.com/Reviews/Windows-10-HandsOn-Everything-You-Need-To-Know1/

AMD CEO just laid out the company’s two-year roadmap

AMD’s roadmaps are a perpetual source of discussion amongst enthusiasts, analysts, and company fans. Much of the discussion is often stoked by rumor or flatly made-up slides. This week, AMD CEO Rory Read gave a presentation for Deutsche Bank — and in the process, laid out the company’s roadmap over the next several years.

Enthusiasts barking up the wrong tree

Before diving into Read’s remarks, I think it’s important to address the fundamental difference between how a lot of AMD’s historic fans see the company versus the direction AMD is now charting. The enthusiast community has a long tradition of viewing AMD’s performance through Intel and Nvidia-specific lenses. There’s nothing wrong with this, as such, but it misses a critical fact: when Rory Read took over as CEO of AMD, that narrow focus, combined with multiple execution problems, had nearly killed the company.

AMD still cares about its traditional markets, but they aren’t driving the entire structure anymore. Going forward, AMD believes embedded computing, dense servers, high-performance GPUs, and professional graphics are just as important to its profitability. Read’s goal is to move AMD away from a model where the company relied upon lightning in a bottle strategy and only turned a profit two years out of eight.

Products and process

In the past it was assumed that AMD would automatically move to new process nodes as soon as those nodes became available. One thing Read emphasized was that 28nm would remain a major node for AMD for quite some time to come, saying:

I don’t think we’re at the peak of volume for 28-nanometer. We’re going to continue to leverage that and I think there is great opportunity to make money on that… The mix for us has to be where we can get the yields and the business like game consoles, semi-custom, embedded, and even in client, 28-nanometer is going to be just fine for the next several years.

In his very next sentence, Read seems to reverse himself, saying “Now, will we move down to Fins? Yes, absolutely, and our next generation products go there and as we introduce them in [20]16.”
Here’s what this means, in aggregate: AMD is planning to invest in next-generation process nodes at 20nm and 16/14nm FinFET, but only on certain products and only when the company believes it can recoup substantial investments from doing so. AMD’s presentations to date have hinted that when its combined ARM/x86 platform debuts next year, both Jaguar and its Cortex-A57 chips will be built on 20nm, incorporate HSA support, and use a common graphics core. This implies that AMD’s low-power x86 chips could see a nice uptick in performance year on year.

Similarly, Read hinted that K12 and AMD’s upcoming Zen platform will move to 16nm and FinFETs fairly aggressively (if they don’t deploy on those technologies to start with). Big cores like the current Kaveri, FX-series, and upcoming Carrizo, on the other hand, well — those are precisely the volume parts that are going to stay back on older process nodes.
We actually see signs of this strategy already. Trot over to NewEgg, and the 17 APUs on sale there aren’t all Kaveri or even all Richland — AMD still has a healthy number of Trinity-class parts on the market. In the Dirk Meier era, AMD’s strategy was to shift to the entire stack to a new node as quickly as possible in order to maximize cost savings on a new node. What Read has laid out is a different plan, in which AMD only moves to new nodes when it makes sense to do so for each particular class of parts.

http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/190026-amd-ceo-just-laid-out-companys-two-year-roadmap