TCMagazine

Although we were hoping to see it on sale this month, Acer's GD245HQ 23.6-inch 3D LCD monitor has now been confirmed as coming to European retail in February with a price tag of 399 Euro. This new display makes use of a TN panel and has a 120 Hz refresh rate, a native resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, a 2ms response time, a 80,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, and a brightness of 300 cd/m2.

The GD245HQ supports Nvidia's 3D Vision technology, is backed by a two-year warranty, and features D-Sub, DVI and HDMI outputs.

South Korean electronics giant Samsung has proudly announced that is has become the first company to begin mass producing panels for 3D LED/LCD TVs. The panels made by Samsung are for 40-inch, 46-inch and 55-inch full-HD 3D TVs that utilize 3D active glasses. These new products feature 240Hz technology which means they operate at 240 frames per second so as to deliver a lifelike picture for both 2D and 3D viewing.

"Recently, 3D displays have captured the industry spotlight," said Wonkie Chang, president of the LCD Business at Samsung Electronics. "Samsung Electronics aims to lead the global 3D TV panel market in pioneering panel mass production for 3D LED and LCD TVs."

Samsung's 3D TVs also feature support for the stereoscopic RealD Format which multiplexes a left eye and right eye 3D image stream into a single channel and enables the delivery of high definition 3D content to any 3D-enabled display.

Nvidia has now rolled out a new GeForce driver, version 196.34 (beta), to fix the GPU overclocking bug found in the 196.21 release. This latest driver includes the PhysX 9.09.1112 software and supports the GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9, 100 and 200 series cards, the ION GPUs. Other the the fix, there's nothing new in the GeForce 196.34 but it's still a recommended install. Hit the links below for a download.

- GeForce 196.34 beta (Windows XP 32bit)
- GeForce 196.34 beta (Windows XP 64bit)
- GeForce 196.34 beta (Windows 7 32bit)
- GeForce 196.34 beta (Windows 7 64bit)

US company Other World Computing has taken the initiative from OCZ and other companies and introduced the Mercury Extreme line of solid state drives equipped with SandForce controllers. Claimed to be "the fastest, most reliable, and longest endurance" SSDs on the market, the new 2.5-inch drives have a SATA 3.0 Gbps interface, a MTBF (mean time before failure) of over 10 million hours, come in 50, 100 and 200GB capacities, and deliver sustained read and write speeds of up to 285 MB/s and 275 MB/s, respectively.

"With over 21 years of high performance memory and storage product development experience, we weren't going to bring a SSD to market until we had a solution that would be worthy of wearing the OWC name," said Larry O'Connor, CEO, Other World Computing. "Over one million customers around the world have come to expect the highest level of performance, quality, and reliability from us. And our customers expect those products to be real and shipping, not just preannounced, so they can immediately begin enjoying newfound performance. From faster boot times, app loading, and overall system responsiveness, our new SSD drive will make any Mac or PC better than new."

The 50GB, 100GB and 200GB Mercury Extreme SSDs are backed by a five-year warranty and cost $230, $400 and $780, respectively.

Helping out with SATA 6.0 Gbps and USB 3.0 adoption, ASRock is going to offer two PCI-Express x1 adapter cards, each supporting one of the two new standards. The SATA3 cards is equipped with Marvell's 88SE9123 chip and provides two internal SATA connectors and one eSATA ports, while the USB 3.0 card, which makes use of NEC's µPD720200 controller, has two USB ports.

The SATA6 card is also bundled with several ASRock motherboards so check out the company's website for more info.

LED backlighting has managed to grab a good piece of the 10+ inch LCD market recently and according to DisplaySearch, it will continue to advance in the years to come, reaching 74% penetration in 2013. Currently CCFL/EEFL backlights continue to be more popular for LCD panel building but that is expected to change as soon as next year as LED adoption moves forward. LEDs have the advantage of consuming less power than other solutions but they are still held back by manufacturing costs.

"Without a doubt, LED backlights will be the dominant light source in all applications in 2011 - representing a significant business and technology evolution for the entire backlight and panel supply chain," noted Kevin Kwak, DisplaySearch Director of LED Backlight Unit Research.

LED backlighting has already been able to dominate its rivals in the notebook segment, where it is expected to reach a penetration level of 84% this year, and almost 95% in 2011. In the LCD TV market LED backlight penetration is predicted to top 20% this year and 72% in 2015.

Pulled up from its initial Q3 release, AMD's first desktop-oriented six-core processor, codename Thuban, is now reported to be scheduled for a May launch. The upcoming 45nm hexa-core CPUs (aka Phenom II X6) have 6MB of L3 cache, an integrated memory controller, and are supposed to boast 6.4 GT/s HyperTransport, and a TDP of 95W/125W, depending on model. The chips' frequencies are yet unclear.

If the May release confirms then the Thubans will be coming about two months after Intel's own Core i7 980X hexa-core (Gulftown).

In 2011 AMD is planning to introduce its first 'Fusion' chips, processors/APUs (Accelerated Processing units) which integrate 'regular' CPU cores, as well as a graphics core, similar to Intel's new 32nm CPUs. The Fusion debut APU is codenamed Ontario and, according to its maker, it will be used within a new thin form factors.

Speaking at a media event in Singapore, AMD's marketing director for South Asia, Tan See Ghee, stated that Ontario and the platform build around it - Brazos, are planned to be utilized for machines that fall within the ultra-thin notebook segment but require lower power than today's solutions. So, what's ultra-thin, light and is less power hungry than an ultra-thin laptop? Yes, a tablet, although this is just one of the devices that could use an Ontario APU. Expect more info about AMD's Fusion plans in the coming months as AMD aims to start sampling such parts this year.

Beating Apple's objection, Google has this week introduced a web-based app that provides access to its Voice service for both the iPhone and webOS-based smartphones. The app enables people to check their Google Voice account, inbox, send and receive text messages for free, place international calls at low rates, and, thanks to the use of HTML5 advancements, it offers native app-like performance and speed.

The new web app can be accessed at m.google.com/voice but only by Google Voice users in the United States. If you're not yet using G-Voice visit this page to request an invite.

Hoping to brag a bigger piece of the expanding solid state drive market, LSI and Seagate have signed an agreement that will see them making PCI-Express-based SSDs for data center and cloud computing environments. The enterprise-grade storage solutions will bring together LSI's SAS and PCIe technologies and Seagate's SSD expertise (which isn't all that much) and are claimed to provide high performance and solid reliability.

"IT professionals want server and storage solutions that can deliver the performance and efficiency benefits of solid-state technology without impacting system resources or further complicating already complex enterprise storage environments," said David Mosley, executive vice president, Sales, Marketing, and Product Line Management, Seagate. "These new LSI products will accelerate enterprise application processing and help reduce I/O latency by using standards-based interfaces and protocols to minimize the impact to existing end user enterprise infrastructures. The collaboration extends Seagate's enterprise solid-state strategy, which is focused on delivering the best-fit solutions for IT using both traditional hard disk drives and solid-state storage."

The first Seagate/LSI PCIe solid state drives are expected to start sampling in Q2.

Baidu.com, the most popular search engine in China, has won a case in which it was accused of copyright infringement by providing links to pirated tracks. Music labels (in this case Universal Music, Warner Music and Sony BMG) argued that Baidu enabled users to easily find third-party sites from which to illegally download music and that this was against copyright laws.

The Beijing court's ruling rejected the copyright claims and let Baidu off the hook to the disappointment of the labels which believe that search engines have expanded their business by "facilitating mass copyright infringement." Of course, by this logic almost all search engines should be sued but somehow we don't see that happening. At least not now.

MSI's Wind U135 Pine Trail-based netbook, which was announced last month, has now started reaching US stores in four colors - silver, charcoal, ruby and sapphire. Those who buy it will be getting a machine packing a 10-inch (1024x600) LCD, a Chiclet keyboard, a 1.66 GHz Atom N450 CPU, 1GB of RAM, a 160/250GB hard drive, GMA 3150 graphics, and a 3- or 6-cell battery, the latter providing up to 7.5 hours of operation.

The U135 also features a 1.3 megapixel webcam, a 4-in-1 card reader, 10/100 LAN, WiFi, and a D-Sub output. The netbook is backed by a one-year warranty and can be found hovering between $309.99 and $329.99 in terms of price.

CPU & Motherboard

- Phenom II X2 555 BE @ HardwareZone
- Intel Pentium G6950 vs. AMD Phenom II X2 550 @ Legion Hardware
- Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7 LGA1366 Motherboard @ Hardware Canucks
- AMD Athlon II X4 635 2.9GHz Socket AM3 Quad-Core Processor @ PC STATS
- AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition @ Neoseeker
- ASUS Maximus III Gene (Intel P55) Motherboard @ [H]ard OCP

Storage

- Seagate Barracuda XT 6 Gbps Hard Drive @ HCW

Graphics cards

- Sapphire HD 5770 1GB Vapor-X @ Fudzilla
- HIS Radeon HD 5670 IceQ 512MB / ASUS EAH5670 1GB video card @ Elite Bastards
- Overclocking the Sapphire HD 5670 1GB Video Card @ TweakTown
- XFX HD 5670 775M Video Card @ motherboards.org

Enclosures & PSUs

- Cooler Master Cosmos 1000, Corsair Obsidian 800D and Lian Li PC-X2000 cases @ X-bit labs
- Silverstone Fortress FT02 chassis @ MetkuMods
- SilverStone Strider Plus 750 W Power Supply @ Hardware Secrets
- Thermaltake Toughpower XT 750W Power Supply @ Overclockers Club

Displays

- Lilliput 7" Mini USB Monitor @ PC Perspective
- Samsung P2350 23" LCD Monitor @ HotHardware
- LG 42LH3000 42in LCD TV @ TrustedReviews

Cooling and modding

- Cooler Master Hyper TX3 CPU Cooler @ Hi-Tech Legion
- Titan Skalli TTC-NC05TZ/NPW CPU Cooler @ ThinkComputers
- Arctic Cooling Alpine 11 Pro Heatsink @ FrostyTech
- NZXT IU01 USB Expansion Board @ Bona Fide Reviews

Peripherals

- Verbatim Wireless Laser Nano Mouse @ TrustedReviews

PCs & Macs

- HP TouchSmart 600 @ Digital Trends
- Nokia Booklet 3G, HP Envy 13, Acer Aspire 1810TZ-413G25n and Toshiba Satellite L555-10R @ TechRadar

Photo and video cameras

- Samsung HMX-U10 Pocket Camcorder @ Futurelooks

Other

- Patriot Box Office @ PureOC
- Asus O!Play Air HDP-R3 @ OC3D
- Powermat Portable Wireless Charging Mat @ Big Bruin
- Brother HL-5350DN @ TrustedReviews
- Google Nexus One @ TechRadar

Taiwanese manufacturer ASRock is currently finishing up its fifth motherboard based on the Intel H55 chipset, the H55M-LE. Seen below, the upcoming micro ATX board support LGA 1156 processors, has a black PCB and features two DDR3-2600 memory slots, one PCI-Express x16 slot, four SATA 3.0 Gbps ports, plus D-Sub and DVI outputs.

ASRock's motherboard also includes Gigabit Ethernet, 7.1 channel audio, Instant Boot, has support for both LGA 1156 and LGA 775 coolers, and the 'Turbo 50' BIOS function which is supposed to boost the system's performance by up to 50% through automatic overclocking of the CPU, memory and graphics core.

The H55M-LE is expected to debut next month and should cost under 65 Euro.

Not surprisingly, Jon Peddie Research's latest estimates show that Intel continued its hegemony in the PC graphics market in Q4 2009. This past quarter, thanks to good Atom (bundle) sales and strong growth in the desktop segment, Intel's market share reached 55.2%, up from 53.6% in Q3, while both its main rival lost some ground.

AMD's Q4 share was 19.9%, down 0.2% sequentially, while Nvidia's piece was of 24.3%, down from 25.3% in Q3. VIA Technologies slipped too and settled at 0.6%.

In 2009 graphics chips sales topped 425.4 million units (up 14% over the 2008 figure) which is a great result given the difficult economic times. For 2010 Jon Peddie Research predicts a 27.9% increase in shipments and total sales of 544 million units.

Panasonic has today revealed the LUMIX DMC-TS2 a new rugged compact digital camera that can brag with being dustproof, waterproof up to 10 meters, shockproof up to 2 meters and freezeproof to 14° F / -10° C. Coming in silver, blue, orange and yellow, this model features a 14.1-megapixel sensor, the Venus Engine HD II image processor, 4.6x optical zoom, a 2.7-inch (230,000 dots) LCD, Sonic Speed AF (Auto Focus) for a super-fast response time, the POWER O.I.S. (Optical Image Stabilizer), and a face recognition function which can detect up to 15 faces.

"The new LUMIX TS2 gets tougher and we expect it to be a key product in 2010, as its rugged features are becoming even more desirable for active users, especially with this year's new freezeproof capabilities," said David Briganti, Senior Product Manager, Imaging, Panasonic Consumer Electronics Company. "Families will enjoy this digital camera, both for their own outdoor activities, vacations, but also so they can allow children to take photos without the anxiety they might otherwise feel of damage."

Panasonic has not announced the TS2's price tag or release date.

According to the IDC, the last quarter of 2009 has seen worldwide CPU shipments reach a new all-time high thanks to good performance in every segment. The research firm's report shows that in Q4 2009 the market performance of mobile, server and desktop CPUs rose by 11.7%, 14.1% and 4.8% sequentially, while the ASP (average selling price) went up 6.7% compared to Q3.

"Compared to 3Q09, the modest rise in shipments in 4Q09 indicates that the market is returning to normal seasonal patterns," said Shane Rau, director of Semiconductors: Personal Computing research at IDC. "Compared to 4Q08, the huge rise in shipments indicates that the market has put the recession behind it. Both comparisons indicate that the PC industry anticipates improvement in PC end demand in 2010."

Looking over the vendor chart we see that in Q4 Intel held a 80.5% unit market share, down 0.6%, on-quarter while AMD gained 0.7% and reached 19.4%. VIA also posted a small gain. The full year 2009 results have Intel with a comfortable lead at 79.7% market share, followed by AMD with 20.1% and VIA with almost 0.3%.

For 2010 IDC predicts a rise in CPU shipments by 15.1% compared to 2009.

Pentax Imaging has this week presented three new Optio-branded compact digital cameras which it plans to release next month, the I-10, H90 and E90. Going for $300, the I-10 features a 12.1 megapixel CCD sensor, 5x optical zoom, a 2.7 inch widescreen LCD, a Shake Reduction (SR) mechanism, a Face Detection function that detects up to 32 faces, and 702p video recording capabilities. This one will be available in Classic Black and Pearl White.

The Optio H90, which will cost $180, also has a 12.1MP sensor and 5x zoom, can do 70p video recording, and packs an improved Pixel Track Shake Reduction technology and a 2.7-inch LCD. The H90 will be coming in Orange-Silver, Matte Black and Ceramic White.

Last but not least, the Optio E90, has a $100 price tag ($99.95 to be exact), and boasts a 2.7-inch LCD, a 10 megapixel CCD sensor, 3x optical zoom, a maximum ISO sensitivity of 6400, and a Digital SR (Shake Reduction) mode. This model will be available in Black and Wine Red.

optio I-10


optio H90


optio E90

Introduced a couple of months ago, Nokia's X6 smartphone is reported to be getting a little brother in the more or less near future. The upcoming 'baby' X6 will actually be just an X6 with less built-in storage - 16GB as opposed to 32GB, no bundled headset, and a lower price tag (probably around 450 - 480 Euro).

The cheaper X6 is expected to still have a 434 MHz ARM 11 processor, 128MB of RAM, a 3.2-inch (360x640) touchscreen, a 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens, and should run Symbian OS v9.4. There's also the possibility that the 16GB X6 will lack the Comes with Music bundle.


- [Update] - Nokia has officially announced the 16GB X6 which is pretty much what's listed above. The phone is not a Comes with Music model but will come pre-loaded with the latest version of Ovi Maps featuring free turn-by-turn navigation. The 16GB X6 will come with Spore by EA, Asphalt4 and DJ Mix Tour by Gameloft, and is set to debut later this quarter.

Internet provider Comcast has recently decided to dump McAfee and start providing a Symantec-built security solution to its customers. Comcast's new PC security software of choice is the Norton Security Suite, which is based on Norton 360 technology, and offers protection against viruses, spyware, worms, Trojans, malicious bots and identity theft. Symantec's software also includes parental controls, system tuning functions, and is backed by 24/7 one-click customer support (via email, chat or phone).

"The Internet is integral to our daily lives and online threats have become more sophisticated. Comcast continues to seek out the best partners to help protect our customers online. Whether they’re parents, individuals or business owners, each one of our customers has unique needs and concerns. So, as the leading Internet service provider in the country, we're very pleased to provide the leading security suite from Norton to our customers," said Cathy Avgiris, Senior Vice President of Communications and Data Services. "In addition to superior protection, the suite delivers fast performance, so it starts fast, scans fast and uses less memory on both PC and Mac."

Valued at $160 for residential customers and up to $490 for business customers, the Norton Security Suite is available for free to Comcast High-Speed Internet subscribers.