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The great privacy debate — and how companies like Apple could benefit - Geared Up!
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Handhelds, PC / Laptop,
How should gadget fans think about privacy? Geared Up cohost Andru Edwards, for one, says growing concerns about data privacy will be a boon for Apple and other companies that don’t base their businesses on advertising revenue.
But doesn’t that mean you’re locked in to Apple’s ecosystem? “Yes – locked into greatness,” he says.
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Sony will unleash the PlayStation 4 on February 20
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Corporate News, PlayStation 4, Sony,
Sony is set to reveal the PlayStation 4 in less than three weeks, on February 20th. According to The Wall Street Journal, not only will we get a look at the PS4 and a rundown of all the new features, which include "more social gaming aspects" and "changes in how users interact with the machine," but gamers can expect to be able to pick up the new PlayStation later this year.
As for the console itself, not much is known--what we do know is that it will likely be powered by an AMD CPU and GPU, which could prove difficult for PS3 backwards compatibility, since the PS3 is powered by Sony's Cell processor. Additionally, although Sony considered shipping the PlayStation 4 without an optical drive, the Blu-ray drive will still be present, because the company believes that games are too big, and broadband not yet fast enough, to rely on hard drive storage and digital downloads.
We'll have all the info for you on the 20th!
Read More 
| WSJ
OS X 10.8.3 beta reveals support for ATI 7000 Graphics, new Mac Pro imminent?
Posted by Jason Diaz Categories: Apple, PC / Laptop, Rumors,
It is being reported that OS X 10.8.3 beta has ATI Tahiti 7000 drivers support and can be found in the system profiler. This could very well mean that Mountain Lion is ready for an imminent Mac Pro refresh. In addition, the new iMacs are said to have Nvidia graphics, so this support isn't mean for those--no current Macs has these graphic chips, so it's good news for those hardcore users that need extra muscle and have been holding out.
Read More | Netkas
AMD Radeon HD 7970 review
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Accessories, PC / Laptop, Product Reviews, Video Games,
The perpetual war for supremacy between AMD and Nvidia constantly leaves enthusiasts dodging shrapnel: When you want the best video card you can afford, why buy one now instead of waiting for the better one the competing chipset designer will undoubtedly release in a few months? This leaves reviewers in a tough spot, too, as we're constantly proclaiming that nearly every new card is the fastest ever. But because you can only live in the world you live in, we're obliged to go there. So, here goes once again: The just-released AMD Radeon HD 7970 ($549 list) is the latest fastest and most feature-rich single-GPU card ever, surpassing our previous Editors' Choice winner, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 580.
Though we have little doubt that Nvidia will yank back that title with its next generation of cards, the 7970 is an impressive achievement for the moment. (It's rumored to become widely available by early January of 2012.) The inaugural member of the Southern Islands family, it utilizes a fresh architecture AMD refers to as "Graphics Core Next." Based on a new 28nm process technology and utilizing more than 4.3 billion transistors, Graphics Core Next uses a revised instruction set architecture, gives each compute unit the ability to simultaneously execute instructions from multiple kernels, and delivers an increased number of instructions per clock cycle per square millimeter of GPU space. The result, so AMD claims, is "designed for high utilization, high throughput, and multitasking."
Click to continue reading AMD Radeon HD 7970 review
Top 10 Tech Deals of the Day
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Accessories, Displays, HDTV, Hot Deals, PC / Laptop, Portable Audio / Video, Video Games,
We've got your latest list of items that fall under the best tech Deals of the Day for you, separated out into laptops, desktops, monitors, gaming, and home entertainment. The laptop deals are right here, but be sure to click through to get a look at all the rest of what we determined to be today's top 10 deals in tech, including that Logitech V220 mouse up there!
Laptops
- 17.3" Lenovo Essential G770 (10372GU) Core i5-2410M 2.3GHz "Sandy Bridge" Laptop w/8GB RAM, 750GB HDD for $699 with free shipping (normally $849 - use coupon code WEEKLYDEALG770)
- 15.6" HP Pavilion dv6t Quad Edition Core i7-2630QM 2GHz Quad-core Laptop w/6GB RAM, 750GB HDD, Blu-ray & 1GB Radeon HD 6490M for $775 with free shipping (normally 900 - use coupon code NBQD1694)
- 15.6" Lenovo ThinkPad E520 (1143-3FU) Core i5-2410M 2.3GHz Dual-core Laptop w/4GB RAM, 500GB HDD, Windows 7 Professional & Optical Mouse for $540 with free shipping (normally $649 - use coupon code LOGICBUY15)
Don’t forget, if you’re looking for other deals, be sure to check out our Newegg Promo Code thread. Oh, and if you're on Twitter, be sure to follow @TechPromos for the latest deals, or you can Like TechPromos on Facebook.
Click to continue reading Top 10 Tech Deals of the Day
AMD looking to enter tablet game with their Densa chip
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Corporate News, Handhelds,
Is Advanced Micro Devices finally making a major push into the tablet market? That's the signal sent by leaked product roadmap slides showing plans for an AMD tablet chip codenamed Desna that surfaced on NGOHQ.com last week.
The slides don't offer any specs for AMD's Z-Series accelerated processing unit, or APU, nor do they name a release date other than the heading "2011 AMD HD Tablet Platform Overview."
Here's what we do know. AMD thinks Desna is well-suited for both consumer media tablets and devices built for business use. The chip maker is playing up its graphics prowess with promises of "smooth streaming HD video," AdobeFlash 10.2 acceleration, Microsoft Office 10 visual enhancements, and support for DirectX 11 and Windows 7 Effects.
Desna also runs accelerated HTML 5 and Internet Explorer 9, while "leveraging the Microsoft Windows application base," which sounds a bit like AMD saying, "we don't actually have an app store for this chip."
The Z-Series platform's commercial play seems to be summed up with promises of "full integration and support in IT environments," "unparalleled versatility and security," and "enhanced productivity."
Click to continue reading AMD looking to enter tablet game with their Densa chip
Nintendo confirms Wii successor to be shown at E3 in June
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: E3, Hardware, Nintendo, Rumors,
Time to start your wrist exercises: IGN has gotten its hands on new details about Nintendo's upcoming Wii 2 console, codenamed "Project Café," and the system's specs look pretty beefy on paper. But we should preface this all by saying that Wii 2 is just a nickname for Nintendo's Wii successor. According to IGN, Nintendo is floating around alternate names for the platform, including "Stream." This morning Nintendo confirmed that they'd be showing the console at E3 this June:
Nintendo Co., Ltd. has decided to launch in 2012 a system to succeed Wii, which the company has sold 86.01 million units on a consolidated shipment basis between its launch in 2006 and the end of March 2011.We will show a playable model of the new system and announce more specifications at the E3 Expo, which will be held June 7-9, 2011, in Los Angeles.Sales of this new system have not been included in the financial forecasts announced today for the fiscal term ending March 2012.
That name is itself interesting, as the Wii successor will finally have the power to be able to output high-definition video–1080p content–but it's still not expected to have a physical way to read HD content like Blu-ray discs.
The 1080p compatibility will be partially thanks to the custom-built tri-core IBM PowerPC chipset that'll serve as the Wii 2's brains. It's going to be the same kind of setup that you'll find on Microsoft's Xbox 360 console. Only, Nintendo will allegedly up the clock speeds to beat out the three 64-bit, 3.2-Ghz cores of Microsoft's competing device, among other enhancements.
Click to continue reading Nintendo confirms Wii successor to be shown at E3 in June
AMD releases $150 Radeon HD 6790 video card
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: PC / Laptop,
AMD announced today that it has released the new Radeon HD 6790 video card, priced at $149 and thus in direct competition with Nvidia's recently released (and same-priced) GeForce GTX 550 Ti.
The Radeon HD 6790 is positioned between the upper-end-mainstream Radeon HD 6770 and the lower-end-enthusiast Radeon HD 6850, intended for users running at midrange resolutions (such as 1,680-by-1,050) and detail settings. The card offers 1.34 teraflops of compute power; has a core clock speed of 840 MHz, 800 stream processors, 40 texture units, and 16 ROPs; and is loaded with 1GB of GDDR5 frame buffer, operating at 4.2 Gbps on a 256-bit memory path.
AMD's press materials for the 6790 identify the 6790's TDP as about 150 watts—more than the 6850, and approximately in the same league as the card above that one, the Radeon HD 6870 (151 watts). AMD's reference spec for the card suggests it will require two six-pin connectors from a power supply, though the company says that some models will be available using only one.
Click to continue reading AMD releases $150 Radeon HD 6790 video card
$699 Radeon HD 6990 graphics card announced by AMD
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: PC / Laptop,
For gamers and enthusiasts who aren't willing to settle for just an ordinary video card—you know, the kind with only one GPU—the Radeon HD 6990, which AMD is releasing today, could be the next must-have product.
As the 6000-series replacement for 2009's ATI Radeon HD 5970, the 6990 boasts a pair of powerful graphics processing units (GPUs), and some of the speediest specs on the market: compute power of 5.1 teraflops, a core clock speed of 830 MHz, 3,072 stream processors, 192 texture units, 64 ROPs, and 4GB of GDDR5 frame buffer running a long a 5-Gbps, 256-bit memory path. For adventurous users who want even faster frame rates, a switch on the card itself can automatically overclock the card to still-higher levels of performance.
Click to continue reading $699 Radeon HD 6990 graphics card announced by AMD
Deal of the Day: Discounts on all new HP Elite desktop computers
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Hot Deals, PC / Laptop,
Today’s Deal of the Day focuses on a bunch of the newly-released HP Pavilion Elite desktop computers. Basically, these are all new from HP, and you can get up to 29% off with the promo codes at the links below:
Save 22% on HP Pavilion Elite HPE-490t
Save 26% on HP Pavilion Elite HPE-480t
Save 23% on HP Pavilion Elite HPE-450t
Save 22% on HP Pavilion Elite HPE-410t
Save 29% on HP Pavilion Elite HPE-460z
In addition to the savings, you can add upgrades like Blu-ray drives to these as well, and they are beasts as it pertains to performance.
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