Apple getting 'defensive' with 128GB iPad, says analyst

With its new pricey fourth-generation iPad 4, Apple has one eye on Windows 8 hybrids, a Citibank analyst said today."At $799, this latest iPad [model is] priced above the average selling price of a laptop ($703), bringing the two squarely into the same wallet discussion," Glen Yeung of Citibank said in a research note.Yeung continued: "Given what we estimate to be a 3-quarter slide in 10" iPad unit sales, we can't help but detect a defensive...

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Most Anticipated PC Games of 2013

It's an exciting year for gamers -- not just because the industry has whipped up an appetizing menu of fresh releases, but because we're approaching the next console generation, which will inevitably come with interesting new software projects, and many of them are bound to hit PC. Assuming Microsoft and/or Sony ship their updated hardware by the holidays, we could see some major launch titles shown at E3 in June, which might render our collection...

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AMD's upcoming 'Richland' APU clock speeds detailed

With AMD's successor to Trinity already shipping to computer makers we’ve been hearing more and more details about the upcoming parts. Last week, Chinese website Expreview revealed the initial lineup for Richland on the desktop, and now VR-Zone is complementing that with the actual clock speeds for each model.As previously reported, Richland APUs are essentially a tweaked version of Trinity, built using the same 32nm process...

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Office 2013 and Office 365 now available, subscriptions start at $9.99

Microsoft Office 2013 and Office 365 are now available for purchase in retail stores in 162 different countries as well as online at Office.com. Redmond is making a bold decision by moving to a subscription model with Office 365 but with such a heavy focus on cloud computing as of late, Microsoft clearly feels that now is as good a time as any to further explore the emerging market.Those electing to use the subscription model will...

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MSI GX60 Gaming Notebook Review

Some time ago I had the opportunity to look at Maingear’s Titan 17 notebook, a system described as a high performance desktop replacement by the boutique PC builder. The portable certainly lived up to the hype as it decimated every benchmark we threw at it, chewing through games on its way to earning the title of the most powerful notebook we had ever reviewed.The harsh reality, however, is that most people can’t afford to spend a few...

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UPnP flaws place millions of networks in danger

Several security vulnerabilities found within common UPnP implementations have prompted experts at Rapid 7 torecommend the public disable UPnP entirely. Research spanning several months in 2012 revealed that over 2 percent -- or about 50 million -- of all IPv4 accessible networks suffer from one of just three flaws outlined in the paper(there are eight flaws in total). These vulnerabilities enable hackers to remotely access networks or even...

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AMD chief says company will return to profitability later this year

AMD held a conference call following yesterday’s earning results in order to clear up any misunderstandings and field questions from analysts and investors. According to reports, CEO Rory Read outlined AMD’s three-phase restructuring plan with the goal of returning to profitability by the second half of this year.Read said the turnaround is expected to take several quarter and involves a complete restructuring of how the company runs its...

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Nintendo president reveals new Mario, Zelda titles headed to Wii U

Since launching in October 2012, the Nintendo Wii U’s gaming catalog has only seen a handful of new games and even fewer big name titles. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata aimed to change that earlier today as he unveiled a series of new titles in the works featuring some of the company’s biggest franchises.Iwata’s remarks came during one of the company’s regular Nintendo Direct Webcasts. In it, the executive promised two new Mario...

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Samsung overtakes Apple as top semiconductor buyer in 2012

Samsung has vaulted past Apple to become the world’s biggest buyer of semiconductors, according to new data from Gartner. The two were virtually tied for semiconductor purchases in 2011, but last year the scale tipped slightly to the South Korean firm’s side, which bought 8% of the world’s semiconductors to the tune of $23.9 billion, while Apple’s spending on semiconductors rose to $21.4 billion for a 7.2% share.Overall semiconductor market...

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Nokia is building a WP8 handset with a true PureView image sensor

Nokia is reportedly working on what is described as a true PureView Windows Phone 8 handset that would ship with a super-high resolution image sensor similar to the 41-megapixel monster found in the 808 PureView. The device, which goes by the codename EOS, will be a high-end addition to the Lumia family according to The Verge.The publication points out that the phone will be built using lightweight aluminum rather than the usual polycarbonate...

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Intel to exit desktop motherboard business after Haswell

Intel has announced plans to shutter their retail motherboard business after more than 20 years on the job. The chip maker informed a number of tech publications of the decision late yesterday, stating that there will be no more retail boards from Intel after the fourth generation Intel Core processors are released later this year. This includes all standard ATX, mini-ATX and micro-ATX offerings.It’s worth clarifying that the announcement...

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Intel to launch Haswell just days before Computex on June 2

We all know that Haswell is the successor to current generation Ivy Bridge CPUs but up to this point, we haven’t had a date to circle on our calendar for its arrival. That’s all changing now according to a new report from DigiTimes which says we can expect to see Intel’s revamped architecture arrive on June 2 – just two days before Computex kicks off in Taipei, Taiwan.Sources say that the Core i7-4770K, i7-4770, i7-4770S, i7-4770T,...

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Google exec pushes North Korea for open web, smartphones

Google Chairman and former CEO Eric Schmidt completed his controversial but brief sojourn to North Korea, describing it as a private visit "to talk about the free and open Internet" and as a "private humanitarian mission." North Korea is an infamously reclusive and highly secretive nation headed by Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un, son of former leader Kim Jong-il.Schmidt warned North Korean officials that Internet access is imperative...

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Micron and Crucial announce next generation M500 solid state drive

Micron has unveiled the M500 solid state drive that uses Micron’s latest 20-nanometer multilevel cell (MLC) NAND flash technology. Using the SATA 6Gbps interface, the M500 drives can deliver up to 80,000 IOPS with sequential read and write speeds topping out at 500 MB/s and 400 MB/sec, respectively.The M500 uses what’s known as device sleep (DEVSLP) where the SSD draws an average of 150mW during use and just 5mW during sleep, meaning excess...

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Nokia's Lumia did 'better than expected' in Q4, 4.4 million units sold

Nokia has revealed that fourth quarter sales of their Lumia handsets were better than expected, giving the company’s stock a nice boost in the process. A strong holiday season pushed Lumia sales to 4.4 million, a solid increase over the 2.9 million handsets moved in Q3 2012 and the 4 million in the previous quarter.Looking at all smartphones, Nokia sold 15.9 million units in Q4 2012 which includes the 4.4 million Lumia phones, 9.3...

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Why Adobe (and other vendors) should give away older software

No doubt you heard earlier this week that Adobe is giving away Creative Suite 2, an older version of its popular (and pricey) image-editing and design bundle.Then it turned out that, no, the software wasn't free; Adobe's Don Isaacs wrote that the company was merely "terminating the activation servers for CS2," and that the download page was only for those who already owned licenses for the product.Ah, but it was too late: the story...

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Razer Edge becomes reality at CES: Hands-on with the tablet-PC-game console

LAS VEGAS--Gaming hardware usually takes a backseat at CES, but this year seems to be an exception. We've already seen Nvidia's blockbuster Project Shield handheld Android/PC game streaming device. Today Razer announced the Edge PC gaming tablet, and we took a good long look at and played with it along with Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan at this year's CES.Razer teased the tablet at last year's CES under the code name Project Fiona. The...

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