Month: January 2013

Dewd! A ONE TB Thumbdrive! DEWD! Can haz??!

Hands-on with Kingston’s 1TB USB Stick

“While CES is known for bringing a storm of new gadgets, just a few products really stand out each year. On Monday, Kingston announced one such device. In Las Vegas this week, the company unveiled the world’s first 1TB USB stick.

Set to launch during the first quarter of this year, the drive carriers both the DataTraveler and HyperX brands. Officially named the DataTraveler HyperX Predator 3.0, we heard it affectionately referred to as ‘the brick’ on more than one occasion this evening. In fact, we had a hard time getting near Kingston’s booth at Pepcom’s Digital Experience tonight. Each time we tried to visit the company, we were put off by a crowd of people all eagerly craning their necks for a better look at the device (among other wares on show at the Kingston table).

We eventually got a hold of a tired Kingston rep who confirmed a Q12013 launch but couldn’t give any specifics on pricing. The DataTraveler HyperX Predator 3.0 offers read/write speeds of up to 240MB/s and 160MB/s, is SuperSpeed USB 3.0 certified and is also backwards compatible with USB 2.0. Kingston also has a 512 GB version in the market, which is priced at $1,750. We’ll keep you posted on a price for the 1TB version.

Feast your eyes on the images below in the mean time. Unsurprisingly, the company didn’t even really bring the device to CES. The ones you see in the photos are mock ups. When we asked if they were the real thing, a Kingston rep told us no, adding, “Do you think we’d have them out on the table if they were?” That, along with the price of the 512GB model, should give you an indication of just how expensive this thing will be.”

The “official” Windows 8 app is out for DropBox. It is a bit “under-whelming” right now, but I am sure it will improve over time. It does provide a screen to access your DropBox files.

Blame it on the hardware. Or, you can blame Microsoft for making it so that you either have to install ClassicShell, or, buy a touch screen to use their new OS. (I got ClassicShell, it’s free!)

Windows 8 slow sales: Yes it’s the hardware

“You may have seen stories online that detail the slow adoption of Microsoft’s latest OS, Windows 8. Blame for the slump is cast far and wide with some claiming that Microsoft’s competing with partners for the first time with its own PC hardware is rocking the Windows 8 boat.

That push by Microsoft with the Surface tablet is indeed making partners nervous and the result is a rash of tablets and hybrid notebooks aimed at exciting mainstream consumers. The problem is the buying public has never demanded radical hardware changes.

ZDNet’s Larry Dignan has a reasoned look at why Windows 8 PCs are not flying off the shelf. He believes that Windows 8 is not polished enough to excite buyers (version 1.0 quality), plus the new PC hardware doesn’t excite buyers.

I believe Larry is right to a certain degree but there is a simpler reason for the lackluster reception to this new Windows 8 hardware. Mainstream consumers, the ones I believe Windows 8 is designed to excite, have never asked for radical changes in PC hardware.

There are quite a few thin hybrid PCs aimed at bridging the gap between the popular tablet form and the laptop. These are intended to excite the buying public while providing full advantage of the touch capabilities of Windows 8. The problem is that is hard to do properly, perhaps even impossible.

I’ve tried a number of these hybrids and they don’t make good tablets. They are too heavy and bulky and don’t properly bridge the intended tablet/laptop gap. There is nothing there to excite consumers even if they had demanded such capability. More importantly, consumers have never demanded the feature, so there is no reason to believe these hybrid PCs will fly off the shelf even if they handled tablet functions well. Which they don’t.

Microsoft is obviously aiming Windows 8 at the mainstream market. That’s the only market segment large enough to justify gambling on a total redesign of Windows 8. The enterprise market and tech-savvy segment were already entrenched in the Windows world so this redesign doesn’t get Microsoft new customers in these groups. They would update to Windows 8 no matter what it looked like.

I agree with Larry that the hardware is playing a big role in the slow adoption of Windows 8, but not because it’s too new and unpolished. I don’t think the consumer on the street wants these innovative hardware designs. I think Microsoft has tried to do too much with Windows 8 in an attempt to reach new customers.

Existing Windows users will continue to buy Windows 8 products. It doesn’t require radical new hardware to accomplish that goal. The attempt to grab new customers due to this new Windows 8 hardware will fail. Nobody has asked for this hardware so it solves no problem. That makes for a sticky situation for Microsoft and its partners with Windows 8 no matter how quickly the OS gets polished.”

This is an article from May of 2012, so it is kinda old news, but it is the first I have seen of it. This looks like it would really be fun and geeky to play with!

VIA launches Neo-ITX with $49 APC Android PC

“VIA today announced the APC 8750 Android PC system, a small footprint low power consumption motherboard with a $49 price point.

Comparisons will inevitably be made with the Raspberry Pi.

However the APC 8750 looks to have a less painful out of the box experience, with Android OS and applications pre-loaded on NAND Flash, a form-factor compatible with PC cases and a wider selection of ports fitted to just one side of the motherboard.

The APC 8750 runs a custom build of Android 2.3 with a selection of pre-installed apps including a browser, all pre-loaded on 2GB of NAND Flash memory. A microSD Slot allows further expansion.

The Neo-ITX Form Factor used by the APC measures 170 x 85mm and is exactly 1/2 the area of the 170 x 170mm Mini-ITX form factor. Neo-ITX boards will fit into any Mini-ITX chassis (perhaps with the addition of a couple of plastic standoffs at the rear for stability).

The APC 8750 is powered by a Wondermedia WM8750 SoC running at 800MHz which supports H264 decoding for 720p video playback. Power consumption is just 4W idle and 13.5W under peak load.

Full Specifications of the APC 8750: Operating System: Android 2.3; Processor: VIA 800MHz Processor (Wondermedia WM8750); Memory: 512MB DDR3 RAM, 2GB NAND Flash; Graphics: Built-in 2D/3D, resolution up to 720p; Ports: HDMI, VGA, 4x USB 2.0, 3.5mm Mic In, 3.5mm Audio Out, microSD slot, 10/100 Ethernet; Power: 15W AC Adapter; Size: 170mm x 85mm (Neo-ITX form factor).”

So, Linux makes another move to take over the world! Gotta love it!

Open-source Ubuntu coming to smartphones

“Add one more competitor in the growing battle to rule the smartphone market.

London-based company Canonical announced it is bringing its open source operating system Ubuntu to smartphones, with the first devices rolling out in 2014.

The devices will feature most of the bells and whistles of traditional smartphones, but will function as a full PC when docked to a monitor, keyboard and mouse, reads a statement from Canonical.

‘We expect Ubuntu to be popular in the enterprise market, enabling customers to provision a single secure device for all PC, thin client and phone functions,’ says Canonical CEO Jane Silber in a statement. ‘We also see an opportunity in basic smartphones that are used for the phone, SMS, web and email, where Ubuntu outperforms thanks to its native core apps and stylish presentation.’

The Ubuntu smartphones use the edges of the device’s touchscreen to access controls and other functions. For example, a short swipe from the left edge reveals apps while swipes from the right return to the last app the owner used, and swiping from the bottom launches app controls.

Canonical says devices will come in two forms: an entry-level smartphone and high-end ‘superphone’ with quad-core processor. The company did not provide additional details on specs such as screen size or camera. Also, no prices were announced. Apps such as Facebook, Spotify, Twitter, Gmail and Skype were featured on the Ubuntu website.

Ubuntu joins a crowded field in the smartphone market, dominated by Google’s Android operating system and Apple’s mobile iOS. Fighting for the third spot are Microsoft and its Windows Mobile platform as well as Research in Motion with its upcoming line of BlackBerry 10 devices.”

Finally! 3D acceleration on Linux! What with Steam now supporting Linux (in Beta) this is a timely addition! Yay! Go, Open Source!

Open Source Linux driver supports 3D acceleration with all GeForce GPUs

“The Nouveau driver in the current Linux 3.8 development branch has recently acquired everything that’s necessary to support the 3D acceleration features of any GeForce graphics hardware. Together with a current version of libdrm and the Nouveau 3D driver in Mesa 3D 9.0, this allows Linux applications to use 3D acceleration even with the most recent GeForce graphics cards.

The Nouveau drivers in stable Linux kernel versions already support the acceleration features of all GeForce chips; however, with some current mid-range and high-end cards, the features could previously only be used after making manual adjustments. This is due to acceleration only being available with the firmware from NVIDIA’s proprietary graphics driver for the GF119 Fermi graphics core (for example used in GeForce GT 520, 520M, 520MX and 610M cards) that is part of the NVC0 family. The same applies for Kepler chips in the NVE0 family (for example used in GeForce GTX 670, 670M, 680, 680M, 690 cards). This firmware can’t simply be obtained from the driver archive or downloaded from the internet; instead, prospective users must install the NVIDIA drivers and then laboriously extract the firmware when initialising the graphics hardware. However, just before New Year’s Eve (and therefore after the completion of the main development phase of Linux 3.8), Linus Torvalds integrated various modifications that were mainly written by Red Hat employee Ben Skeggs and which enable the Nouveau driver itself to supply a firmware for the mentioned graphics chips (1, 2). For other GeForce graphics cores, the driver has offered all the necessary components for some time.

The latest modifications should allow the Nouveau driver to support the acceleration features of any current GeForce chip. The open source Linux drivers from AMD and Intel can also use the 3D capabilities of almost any graphics chip. This means that, ultimately, the open source drivers used in popular Linux distributions now support 3D acceleration with almost all of the graphics chips that are currently available in the PC market. The only current, commercially relevant exception is the graphics cores in AMD’s Southern Islands generation, which are used in the latest mid-range to high-end Radeon HD 7750 to 7970 models; open source drivers for these cores are currently being developed in co-operation with AMD developers. Additionally, only rudimentary open source drivers are available for the PowerVR graphics cores that are used in some of the chipsets of Intel’s Atom products.

The developers of the Nouveau driver don’t receive any support from NVIDIA and use reverse engineering techniques to obtain the information they need to program their driver. Despite their latest milestone, NVIDIA’s proprietary graphics driver will continue to be the preferable choice for many areas of use, as the Nouveau driver only offers rudimentary or no support for various important features. For example, decent fan control support is still in preparation and will initially only cover older GeForce chips; as a consequence, GeForce cards that don’t regulate their fans themselves are rather noisy when operated with the Nouveau driver. Furthermore, the driver can’t switch between the various graphics chip and memory speeds with many current cards and often causes the graphics hardware to run at the slowest operating speed – the 3D performance that is achievable this way is usually sufficient for 3D composited desktops such as Unity or the Gnome shell but stays well behind what NVIDIA’s proprietary driver can tickle out of the same graphics hardware.”