KitGuru

Grab your new motherboard now, before the price hikes hit

Stephen Dougherty — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 03:45:41 +0000

Slightly deeper pockets will soon be required if a new motherboard is on the shopping list. It’s been said that motherboard vendors will be looking to increase prices on their boards by as much as 10% in the very near future, potentially as early as the end of this quarter.

The reason for the hike is said to be a result of increasing costs on certain raw materials (primarily copper) and also rising labor costs in China. We’ve already seen motherboard prices rise by 5 to 10% at the beginning of 2011 for similar reasons, then again another 3 to 8% rise in April as a result of increased costs on certain components after the Earthquake disaster in Japan a month prior.

Apparently ASUS has confirmed plans to increase its motherboard prices by about 10% and one would assume that other vendors will be following suit either at the same time or soon after. Although with that said, GIGABYTE has responded to VR-Zone on the subject with denial of any price increasing to be taking place on their boards anytime soon.

Nonetheless, ASUS is expecting its motherboard shipments to increase by 10% within this first quarter and GIGABYTE have even higher expectations of 20%.

Source: Digitimes

KitGuru says: No wonder expectations on Q1 shipments are expected to rise if word of this spreads far and wide enough.

Industry mourns tragic loss of Micron CEO

Harrison — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:44:12 +0000

Trading in the shares of memory giant Micron, was suspended this afternoon following the shocking news that a small plane being piloted by Steve Appleton, Micron CEO, had crashed in Boise Idaho.

Appleton’s early career got a kick-start when he won a tennis sponsorship to Boise State University.

Alongside a fast moving career in the tech sector, Appleton was addicted to high speed sports and he had a lucky escape when flying an aerobatic plane back in 2004.

He walked out of hospital after only one day on that occasion.

When his Lancair experimental plane took off at 8:46am today, Appleton believed something was wrong. He landed almost immediately and returned to the hanger. But after just 8 minutes on the ground he was taking off again and, this time, ran into serious trouble shortly after take off. His plane appeared to stop, bank severely and then plummet to the ground.

Against a very tough economic background, Micron had recently banked revenues of nearly $9 Billion under Appleton’s expert guidance.

The tragedy is likely to have many impacts, not least of which will be the sales performance of Ryan Isaac, who has just joined Lancair to run regional sales.

The late Steve Appleton and one of the Lancair planes he loved so much

KitGuru says: At just 51, this energetic industry leader leaves behind a wife and children. Our thoughts are with them.

Comment below or in the KitGuru forums.

Fake Facebook shares not to be taken at face value

Harrison — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:12:20 +0000

Wherever there is money, there is crime. If Darwin were a modern day economist, he could have written amazing book that correlates the development of humans and society with the length, depth and sophistication of its crimes. Over in Wisconsin, a woman seems to have perpetrated a high profile crime on her own door step. If this villain were a creature – it would be the Dodo.

As Mark Zuckerberg prepares to join the ranks of the amazingly rich and take his well deserved annual salary of $1, while his personal accountant worries about which bank is least likely to fail once its coffers have been injected with $75 Billion… a woman called Marianne Oleson is preparing for the possibility that her pay cheques will be measure in cents and coming from the local prison kitchen – for a long, long time.

While internet scams to make a few dollars here and there are common place – and most likely ignored, defrauding people for tens of thousands of dollars is always going to cause an issue.

If they are nameless/faceless people on the web – across the world – then that is one scale of problem. But if you do it to the burly housing contractor who has just upgraded your home – then you are asking for trouble.

From what police can gather, Marianne Oleson is accused of telling people her daughter had an inside track to stock at Facebook – and that the Olesons had acquired around $1m worth. The woman also seems to have conned a partially blind 46 year old chap for around $43,000, telling him “The share certificates are in the post”.

As far as we are concerned, anyone buying stock outside the IPO should get their head examined.

If it looks too good to be true, then it probably isn't

KitGuru says: While fraud is a bad thing, bad fraud is incredibly sad. Without knowing this woman personally, it’s hard to know how she thought stiffing her builder (and not in a nice way) would ever pay off. It would be nice if, for once, the allegations were all unfounded and the woman was pronounced innocent – but the evidence presented so far seems damning.

Comments below or in the KitGuru forums.

Kingston HyperX 2400mhz Review (8GB KHX2400C11D3K4/8GX)

Zardon — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 09:22:01 +0000

Intel’s X79 platform has transformed the high end enthusiast market, with performance levels outside anything that AMD can currently challenge. We have reviewed several memory kits in recent months but today we are looking at the latest HyperX 2400mhz memory 8GB kit from Kingston.

We have already looked at the excellent Corsair GTX8 and G.Skill RipJawsZ memory and were very pleased with the performance from both. We would expect Kingston to put in a good challenge.

Specifications:

System	Desktop
System Type	DDR3
M/B Chipset	Intel X79
CAS Latency	11-13-11-30-2N
Capacity	8GB (2GB x4)
Speed	DDR3-2400 (PC3 19200)
Test Voltage	1.65 Volts
Height	40 mm / 1.58 inch
Registered/Unbuffered	Unbuffered
Error Checking	Non-ECC
Type	240-pin DIMM
Warranty	Lifetime
Features	Intel XMP (Extreme Memory Profile) Ready

Apple iTV to hit later this year – will it be OLED based?

Yong Lei — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:37:49 +0000

It looks as if Apple iTV is going to hit retail later this year. We can expect huge demand for the new Apple product, with huge queues already expected outside the retail stores. Steve Jobs said in his biography, telling author Walter Issacson “I’d like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use. It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and … will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it.” This could very well be Steve Jobs final product design, just before his death.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said that his research has detailed that Apple have been in discussions with TV component suppliers. He said it is likely to land ‘later this year’.

The new iTV range could be a big player for Apple in the coming years, especially if it is as good as many analysts expect. Faster Trader Jon Najarian said that it will be ‘the piece de resistance – the gadget that integrates all others.’

Munster confirmed “It’s a new area that I think investors are going to be excited about. This could be something that really moves the needle for Apple.”

Although not confirmed, latest reports would highlight that there will be two versions – a 32 inch and a 37 inch screen size. A completely different concept to the current, console shaped Apple TV product, which hasn’t been that widely received by the general public.

I have heard directly from some sources in Taipei who work in the industry that Apple want the designs to be based around OLED panel technology. An OLED display works without a backlight. Thus, it can display deep black levels and can be thinner and lighter than a liquid crystal display (LCD). In low ambient light conditions such as a dark room an OLED screen can achieve a higher contrast ratio than an LCD, whether the LCD uses cold cathode fluorescent lamps or the more recently developed LED backlight. Due to its low thermal conductivity, an OLED typically emits less light per area than an inorganic LED.

Kitguru says: Interested in a new TV? does this get you excited? We think for many enthusiast users that a maximum size of 37 inches might be a little small.

Can AMD play in the Windows 8 Tablet sector?

Carl — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:21:22 +0000

Windows 8 is just around the corner and many companies are preparing their strategy to get market share in the tablet sector. AMD have a tough fight ahead, having to release very power efficient chip designs, especially with ARM so strong in this sector.

Windows 8 is causing much debate online in enthusiast circles. Comments on the interface are one of the hot topics and many people don’t like the style, especially for a desktop environment. Microsoft are keen to focus on the tablet market, especially as Apple have been dominating the sector for the last year. ARM chip manufacturers such as Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and Nvidia have strong plans, so AMD will face a bloody fight to attract potential customers.

John Taylor, director of client product marketing and software at AMD held an interview with CNET and they got to ask him some questions on the upcoming plans. He said “or tablets, it will decidedly be the Hondo chip. We’re acknowledging that we still have a couple of watts to shave off to really be a more ideal tablet platform (to achieve optimal power efficiency). But we think that Temash gets us much, much closer to that in 2013.”

When asked about Windows 8 convertibles he said that a 17 watt power consumption design was the best they will offer, called ‘Trinity’. It will offer discrete graphics performance and dedicated video processing capabilities with strong battery life.

Kitguru says: AMD may not seem to be bothered about the smartphone market, but they look to be planning ahead to take on ARM designs in the ultraportable market.

Mark Zuckerberg almost as rich as Larry Ellison

Slyvia — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:00:24 +0000

It look as if Mark Zuckerberg is set to get even richer than he is now. His stake in Facebook is said to be worth $28.4 billion, making him richer than Google’s co-founders and almost at the same level as Larry Ellison, who started Oracle almost 35 years ago.

The 27 year old Zuckerberg who founded Facebook, is the CEO of the company and the top shareholder as they prepare to go public. He has 533.8 million shares, which translates to 28.4 percent of the company. Digital Sky Technologies and Accel Partners own a combined 16.4 percent.

Mark Zuckerberg. (Photo by Kim White/Getty Images)

Facebook could raise as much as $5 billion in an IPO. They are said to be valued between $75 billion and $100 billion, according to experts in the industry. Zuckerberg will own stock said to be worth $28.4 billion. He also controls 56.9 percent of the voting power when it comes to decisions.

The Google co founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are worth more than $15 billion each. Ellison, is worth $31 billion thanks to his stock ownership in Oracle.

Rebecca Lieb, an analyst at Altimeter Group in New York said “It looks from this as if Zuckerberg is maintaining a lot of control. He’s shown a great deal of wisdom and maturity in bringing the company to this level of stability and profitability before going public.”

Kitguru: What to do with all that money? Bill Gates gives a lot of his away to charities.

VeriSign breach ‘should not be a surprise to anyone’

KGNewsBot — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 07:52:44 +0000

The VeriSign breach, which has only just been revealed after 18 months, is what Gartner has recently warned about in a recent report, citing that that certificate management is a real problem, that most firms just don’t realize they have.

How did the VeriSign hack occur, how could it have been prevented, what can companies do to make sure they have a strategy in place to move quickly when a Certificate authority they rely on gets hacked? If you would like to speak to the world’s leading authority on certificate key management and best practice then Jeff Hudson, CEO of Venafi is available for comment.

Jeff Hudson, CEO of Venafi said “The news revealing that VeriSign was compromised should not be a surprise to anyone. Hackers have been targeting and breaching high-value targets like RSA, Comodo, DigiNotar, and now add to the list, VeriSign. These targets are all trusted third-party providers of certificates, services, or secure tokens—technologies that are extensively used to authenticate and create trusted relationships on the internet and within organizations worldwide. The inescapable conclusion is that these providers will continue to be compromised. The breaches cannot be stopped.

Let’s face it, these organizations know that they are high-value targets and take extraordinary measures to protect themselves, and yet they are still successfully attacked and breached despite these best efforts.

What does this mean to organizations? 1) A sober recognition of the fact that these kinds of breaches will continue; 2) Organizations must not put all their eggs in one basket. They need to leverage multiple third-party providers. If one is compromised, then they can switch to another that isn’t compromised; 3) Organizations must have recovery plans in place to replace any certificate or service that has been compromised and get it done within hours, not days or weeks. Ultimately, being prepared with a rapid response is the best response. The foundational question is not if these third parties will be breached because there is significant evidence that the breaches will continue. The question becomes: how fast can one switch to another service or certificate when the next breach occurs.

Source: Press release

Google takes Android malware head on with ‘Bouncer’

Stephen Dougherty — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 04:23:18 +0000

With roughly 47% of smartphone owners in the U.S. alone having Android based phones, it’s not at all surprising that there’d be a fast growing amount of vulnerabilities in the form of Android malware flooding the Market place. But thankfully, the team at Google have managed to come up with a cloud-based service that takes care of hunting down malicious smartphone apps and ridding its Marketplace of them.

Dubbed Bouncer, this new scanning service has already been successful in diminishing the pools of spammers and phishers out there. The way it works is by automatically checking each and every title entering the Market and comparing its signatures with those of known types of malware. An Android simulating device is then used to run the application in which Bouncer then watches out closely for any abusive forms of behavior. If it’s red flagged, it’s instantly removed and the offending developer blacklisted.

The service is automatically ran when developers initially upload an app to the Market, as well as periodic checks taking place on it thereafter. It’s actually been in operation for about six months, as mentioned by Google’s exec, Hiroshi Lockheimer in his latest blog posting. And what a great job it’s done so far with Google seeing a 40 percent decrease in the amount of potentially malicious downloads throughout the second half of last year compared to the first half.

KitGuru says: Here’s to a cleaner, safer Market. Brilliant strategy, Google!

Lite-On expecting a 6 to 700% increase in 2012 SSD revenue

Stephen Dougherty — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 04:20:19 +0000

If the question was asked about what type of hardware Lite-On is renowned for bringing to market, I’m sure the majority of you would have been quick to say optical drives. A statement was briefly made by the company this week that it expects to see massive growth in one area of its sales for this year. And no, it’s not from optical drives – rather, SSDs.

“SSDs?!?” you say. In fact, Lite-On commenced production of its own SSDs going back three years and has generated revenues of over NT$1 Billion ($33.9 Million USD) in 2011. It is clear however that the company is not at all a major player in this field with the likes of OCZ, Corsair and Crucial storming things up.

Nonetheless, Lite-On remains firm on its expectations to bring in revenues of NT$6-7 Billion from its SSD product line for this year on the basis of rapidly growing demand for SSD-equipped tablets and ultrabooks, tied in with an apparent sighting of a paper by Chinese-based Commercial Times that Lite-On has signed deals with four out of the 10 largest PC vendors for SSD orders throughout the remainder of the year.

KitGuru says: A 6 to 700% increase in revenue for 2012? Seems more like wishful thinking than expectation, but we’ve been proven wrong before.

AMD shares its 2012-2013 roadmap

Stephen Dougherty — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 04:11:41 +0000

Today we get a clearer picture of AMD’s hardware plans heading well into 2013 thanks to the company presenting an updated client roadmap at its annual Financial Analyst Day yesterday.

As we’ve learned through several previous roadmaps, their APU days have only just begun with preparations for the arrival of Trinity, Brazos 2.0 and Hondo APUs to come out this year, along with the Vishera (2nd-gen FX series) CPU.

AMD is expecting Trinity to do really good things for the company, aiming it square on as their main x86 contender when it debuts in Q2 of this year. Otherwise known as the 2nd gen of A Series processors, Trinity is based on a 32nm process featuring DX11 graphics, two or four Piledriver cores (of which are said to be at least 25% better in the performance stakes compared to the Stars cores used in its Llano APUs) and with a TDP that can drop to just 17 W with certain mobile parts.

The Brazos 2.0 (C and E Series) APUs are 40nm based, as is Hondo (Z Series) oriented more toward tablets. These low-power, low-cost mobile/desktop offerings feature either one or two Bobcat cores with DX11 graphics and a super low TDP between 4.5 W to 18 W.

Once Vishera surfaces later this year, it looks to be AMD’s sole weapon for desktops right through 2013 as well. This 32nm based part will refresh AMD’s FX series with the use of 4, 6 or 8 Piledriver cores. Apart from the possibility of higher-clocked models heading well into 2013, it doesn’t look like there’ll be much else happening in this segment for some time.

If we turn our attention to next year, AMD has a lot of 28 nm chips lined up which comprise new APUs in the form of Kaveri (replacing Trinity), Kabini and Temash and also its Sea Islands GPUs which will apparently bring with them a new type of architecture and HSA (Heterogeneous Systems Architecture) features.

Kaveri will be squarely aimed at the mainsteam mobile and desktop segments, featuring integrated GCN based DX11.1-supporting graphics in conjunction with either two or four Steamroller x86 cores and HSA application support. Meanwhile, Kabini and Temash will take care of the lower cost, low power segment, also carrying GCN graphics and using Jaguar x86 cores (up to four of them for Kabini and two for Tamesh).

KitGuru says: A sign of AMD saying goodbye to the CPU altogether by 2015?

Aria list preorders for C2 Intel Core i7 processors

Simon — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:38:30 +0000

Aria are certainly on the ball for all you Intel lovers this week. Today they listed the new C2 stepping version 2011 processors. They are available now for pre-order.

ARIA informed us that they will be getting in stock soon, hopefully within the next couple of weeks. Kitguru rate ARIA as one of the best UK stores, especially when it comes to customer support.

The 3960X-C2 stepping CPU, turned up in Japan first. Not a shock really, but heading to UK stores very shortly.

ARIA forums are staffed all day and have technical support people at hand to even help you build the system. I have been a member there for years and they really know how to help their customers, thats why ive stuck around so long.

They are listing the 3960X, 3930K at various price points, from £443.99 inc vat.

You can place your pre-order over here now. First come, first served. The OC on these chips is said to be better and Intel has now fixed the VT-d errata present in the C1 stepping, which is good news for workstation clients.

Synology announce new MD in UK – Mike Chen

Carl — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:05:58 +0000

Synology are announcing a new Managing Director in the United Kingdom – Mike Chen.

Mike joins the UK office from Taiwan where he has been working for Synology since 2007 as European Sales Manager. The UK team manage the UK, Ireland and Scandinavian business. Chen joins the team following the move of the current UK MD, Alex Wang, who is relocating to manage the Synology office in Germany.

Mike Chen. UK MD for Synology

Chen says “I have multiple goals, to explore new, value-added customers in the UK, Ireland and Scandinavian countries, to drive the sales of existing customers while keeping the market clean and most importantly, to keep everyone excited about Synology and our future. I have a lot of respect for the UK, for its culture and the market. I am ready to drive with my team to reach greater goals and I am confident to say that the coming years will show steady growth. I am really looking forward to experiencing the adventure in the UK office.”

Kitguru says: We wish him good luck in the new position.

Sony lose $1.2 billion in quarterly report

Benjamin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:33:25 +0000

Sony have reported severe losses of $1.2 billion between October and December 2011. This figure is worse than expected, and is being blamed on a strong yen, a dull economy and Thai floodings.

The company have also reported a full year operating loss. Sony have named Kazuo Hirai as the new chief executive. Hirai has a long standing, successful history with the Playstation Gaming Business, even though his team faced criticism for reacting slow with customers after network hacking last year.

Kazuo Hirai - new CEO, with plans to rescue the business

Fujio Ando, Senior Managing Director at Chibagin Asset Management, Toyko said “”Companies developing gaming software are making profits, but people are not buying game hardware anymore. In an age when everyone can play games on smartphones and iPads, there is no way to boost profits without producing software.

“The results are very bad. If there is just one reason to buy, it’s the fact that they switched to a younger CEO.

“Older CEOs are not looking for change. The fact that production will recover after the Thai floods and the Japanese disaster is a given. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like they are going to produce something new to boost earnings.”

Kitguru say: Is Hirai the new leader to revive their fortunes?

ADATA competition winners announced!

Zardon — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 09:39:49 +0000

We had a lot of entries for the ADATA competition and sorry in advance for the people who won’t be winning today. We just don’t have enough prizes to give something to everyone!

The winners are:

Ben Howe

Beth Davidson

Ian Stevenson

Brian Jeffrey

Darran Brookes

Check your email for the winning notification chaps ! Thanks for entering. For those who didn’t win, remember we are giving away an iPad 2 with ARIA!

Sharkoon T9 Green Value Edition Case Review

Simon Telford — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:55:08 +0000

Sharkoon have been in existence for nearly 10 years and have recently expanded their market significantly. Their product range is rather extensive but they do focus quite heavily on the production and design of PC cases. They currently have around 25 cases on the market and while this product – the Sharkoon T9 Value Edition (in Green) may be a value oriented chassis design we don’t expect it to be compromising in terms of features.

Sharkoon certainly have a reputation for quality at a very respectable price and we have high hopes that this budget case today will deliver the goods. The specifications below certainly look impressive for a case that only costs £50.

The T9 Value Edition is available primarily in colours of bright red, poisonous green and modern white although a black edition is also available. Today we are looking at the poisonous green edition and it is certainly a colour to rival that of the Akasa Venom Toxic Case which we previously reviewed here.

Specifications overview:

ATX case
Acrylic side panel
9x 5.25″ drive bays
Front I/O with 1x USB3.0 (external plug A), 3x USB2.0, 1x headphone and 1x microphone connector
7 slots for add-on cards
Mesh front panel with power and reset button
Quick fasteners for optical drives, mainboard mounting panel with installation opening for coolers
2 openings for water cooling
Cable management system
Front fans: 2x 120 mm fan with LED as well as 3-pin and 4-pin connector (pre-installed)
Rear fan:1x 120 mm fan with LED as well as 3-pin and 4-pin connector (pre-installed)
Dimensions: 475x200x440 mm (LxWxH)
Weight: 6.6 kg

Zuckerberg to copy Jobs with $1 salary but he could be worth $28 billion

Carl — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:50:53 +0000

Mark Zuckerberg has copied Steve Jobs, by reducing his salary from $500,000 in 2011, to just $1. Zuckerberg has in the past taken advise from Steve Jobs and considered his success an inspirational goal to achieve. Electronista reported “Like Jobs, most of Zuckerberg’s value will come from his stake in the company. At 28.4 percent ownership, the executive is estimated to be worth about $25 billion.”

Facebook is going from strength to strength, generating 85 percent of their $3.7 billion in 2011 revenue through ads and other 12 percent via games such as FarmVille.

Facebook filed papers yesterday to raise $5 billion in a public stock sale, that could hit in May. This could be even bigger than Google’s in 2004. Experts say that the company could be valued between $75 billion and $100 billion.

The LA Times added “The regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission also unveiled the collective wealth that could be bestowed on the founder and many of his employees. The IPO could be a bonanza for Mark Zuckerberg, the 27-year-old founder, who owns 28.2% of the company and is its single largest shareholder. His stake could be worth as much as $28 billion, earning him the ninth spot on Forbes’ list of richest Americans and putting him in the same league as Microsoft Corp.’s Bill Gates and Oracle Corp.’s Larry Ellison.”

Facebook attracts 845 million people, who share intimate details on their private lives with others. It shows no signs of slowing down either. Joe Magyer and advisor and senior analyst said “Facebook is a tremendous business with a lot of growth ahead of it. But it’s going to have to do amazing things for a long time to justify the kind of price it is going public at. It’s going to be very difficult for Facebook to live up to the hype.”

Kitguru says: $28 billion. How to spend it all?

Sweden’s Supreme Court find three people guilty of piracy

Carl — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:40:39 +0000

The Swedish Supreme Court has announced that it won’t grant leave to an appeal against Pirate Bay staff members. Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm and Carl Lundström will all face jail sentences and fines.

In November 2010, the Swedish Court Of Appeal found three people behind the Pirates Bay guilty of criminal copyright infringement offenses. Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde and Carl Lundström had their prison sentences reduced from levels ordered at the 2009 trial, however they were told to pay back millions of dollars to the entertainment company plaintiffs.

The three filed for a hearing of their case at the Supreme Court. The request was denied yesterday meaning that the sentences are now final.

Fredrik Neij faces 10 months in prison – he was known as TiAMO. Peter Sunde, faces 8 months in prison – he was known as Brokep. Carl Lundström faces jail time of 4 months. They have to pay back 46 million kronor, the equivalent of £4.2 million pounds.

Gottfrid Svartholm didn’t turn up at the appeal hearing due to medical reasons. He was the co-founder of Pirates Bay. Carl Lundström’s lawyer Per E Samuelsson said “The verdict is absurd, I am disappointed that the court is so uninterested in dissecting and analyzing the legal twists and turns of one of the world’s most high-profile legal cases of all time.”

One of the defendants spoke to TorrentFreak and said they are going to appeal at the European Court Of Justice.

Torrentfreak add “Today’s news doesn’t necessarily means that the defendants will have to go to prison. It is common in the Swedish justice system to deduct 12 months from any prison sentence on cases over 5 years old. Since the case in question meets that criteria the Pirate Bay defendants would qualify, but the decision lies with the court.

Even if denied, the Pirate Bay founders still have a few months of freedom before they are required to serve their prison sentences. Also, both Peter Sunde and Fredrik Neij no longer live in Sweden, which may complicate things.”

Kitguru says: Many sites hosting links to similar materials are now closing due to fears of being prosecuted.

Sex is more likely for Android users

Slyvia — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:26:05 +0000

Match.com have published the findings of their latest survey. It may be enough for geeks to ditch their iPhone or Blackberry device. They claim that 62 percent of singles who use Android devices have had sex on the first date, compared with 57 percent of iPhone users. Blackberry users get a score of 48 percent.

iPhone users seem to enjoy romance with work colleagues, almost a quarter of them report that they have had a fling with a colleague in the last five years.

Just preparing her picture for the online dating profile

The study shows that 72 percent of Android users use online dating sites, and 58 percent of iPhone users do the same. Blackberry users seem to be the least needy, with only 50 percent of them using a dating service. Scary to think that if you see two people with a Blackberry, that one of them could very well be posting online about their dating requirements.

75 percent of single people say that email and texting services has ‘significantly improved their dating life’.

Kitguru says: Fascinating or nonsense? you decide.

Samsung’s Galaxy S III launching on March 13th?

Stephen Dougherty — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 02:27:44 +0000

Contrary to our report a few days ago on Samsung’s Galaxy S III being delayed across the globe until later this year due to concerns about the time gap between its announcement and availability, it turns out there’s still a glimmer of hope we’ll get it sooner rather than later and with a possible showing at MWC (Mobile World Congress in Barcelona) later this month after all.

A posting by website MobileCowboys has claimed that it has seen a list of upcoming Samsung products and that the Galaxy S III is on track to launch first up in Turkey on March 13th. Assuming this is the case, it will most probably be released throughout Europe around the same time.

With MWC taking place less than a fortnight prior to this supposed launch date, it’s hard to imagine Samsung ignoring the opportunity to give the phone an MWC launch. MobileCowboys also briefly mentioned two other Galaxy phones that are on the way; those being the Galaxy S II Plus and Galaxy Note S which are apparently set to arrive late this year. We know little else about the phones at this stage.

KitGuru says: With MWC spinning up on Feb 27th, if we don’t hear or see anything of the GS III between then and the end of the event on 1st March, chances are it’ll be launched a few months later, give or take.

Kinect for Windows arrives with new hardware

Stephen Dougherty — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 02:23:00 +0000

As promised at CES by CEO Steve Ballmer earlier in the month, Microsoft’s commercial Kinect for Windows (v1.0) SDK along with its accompanying, slightly customized hardware has just officially been launched and for a suggested MSRP of $249.99 you might be quick to scream out “Madness!” in line of the Kinect sensor for Xbox 360 being just $99 these days and the ability to freely download the Kinect for Windows SDK 1.0 software.

The thing is, the Kinect hardware used in this bundle, as mentioned earlier, has had some customizations made to it to better suit a typical PC environment. There is a feature implemented that Microsoft calls “Near Mode” which allows the camera to see objects as close as 40 centimeters away while not losing accuracy and precision. Its USB cable is also said to be significantly shorter, making it more suitable for PC connectivity.

As far as the Kinect for Windows SDK version 1 software goes, it carries support for Windows applications that are built upon C++, C#, or Visual Basic (via Microsoft’s Visual Studio 2010) and features improved skeletal tracking, enhanced speech recognition, a modified API and support for up to four Kinect for Windows sensors running off the same computer.

Source: Blogs.MSDN

KitGuru says: Now we’re just waiting on the apps and games. Let’s see what developers can come up with in the coming months.

Microsoft confirms Metro-style IE 10 will not support plug-ins

Stephen Dougherty — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 02:18:47 +0000

Microsoft provided a brief overview on Tuesday of its Internet Explorer 10 web browser that will be a part of Windows 8. The details shared confirm that there will be two versions of it; a normal Windows application not unlike existing versions of IE, and a second “Metro-style” touch-friendly browser that fits in perfectly with the whole Metro world.

What’s particularly interesting to note about this is that the Metro-style browser will not support any plugins whatsoever. We heard whispers of Microsoft’s intent to do away with IE plugins in Metro as far back as October last year and now Microsoft’s lead program manager for the Internet Explorer team, John Hrvatin confirms it.

“The desktop browsing experience and most plug-ins were not designed for smaller screens, battery constraints, and no mouse. Providing an easy way to the Windows desktop is the last resort when no comparable plug-in free fallback content exists. Any site that uses plug-ins needs to understand what their customers experience when browsing plug-in free. Lots of Web browsing today happens on devices that simply don’t support plug-ins. Even browsers that do support plug-ins offer many ways to run plug-in free”.

Should a site require any add-ons, an alert will pop up like the one shown in the image above which will provide a means to re-launch the site in the desktop version of the browser; although Microsoft wants to stress the point to web developers that they should be actively working on ways to eliminate plug-in requirements from their sites altogether.

Thankfully the company did eventually take to open standards including HTML5 and CSS3 while getting rid of Silverlight, but this gives another visible indication that Adobe’s Flash days are certainly numbered.

KitGuru says: I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Google jump in with a Metro-based Chrome browser that will support plugins.

Aria taking pre-orders for Intel i5-2550k

Carl — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:50:50 +0000

We reported a short while ago that Intel were planning to release a new range of Core i5 processors with the graphics circuitry stripped from the die. Makes sense really as many enthusiast users have never touched, or have no interest in using that part of the design, opting for discrete graphics instead.

From what we have heard the upcoming 2550k is going to be an overclocking powerhouse, but we obviously can’t confirm until we get our hands on one. ARIA have preempted the demand for the new design by taking pre-orders.

The OEM package is available for £169.99 and the RETAIL package is available for £179.99

Launch date hasn’t been set in stone yet, but latest indicators would suggest within the next two weeks.

Win a 32GB iPad 2 with Kitguru & Aria

Zardon — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Our last iPad 2 competition was such a success that we are working with ARIA to give away another tasty 32GB iPad 2 to a lucky ARIA/KITGURU reader.

Today we are launching a new competition to win a brand new 32GB Wi-Fi iPad 2 worth £479!

(You can even pick the colour, white or black.)

To stand a chance of winning this fantastic product, follow the simple guidelines below.

1. Like the KITGURU FACEBOOK page!

2. Like the ARIA FACEBOOK page!

3. Then just email us the answer to a really simple question.

‘What is the name of the Apple music player software’, is it:

a: iMusic

b: iSongs

c: iTunes

When you have the question sorted, email Kitguru (competitions (at) kitguru.net) with the subject line ‘I really need a new Apple iPad’, along with your answer (a, b or c), full address and telephone number in the main email text.

This competition is open to residents worldwide.

The competition will close 31st March 2012 and the winner will be announced by the 10th of April 2012. The prize will ship within the following two weeks (the winner can pick the colour – black or white). Please note that KitGuru will use your email address for future mailing lists. You can unsubscribe from these emails at any time. We do not give your email address to any third parties, we value your privacy. Please note that multiple entries with the same shipping address will be blacklisted.

Comments are closed. This is an email entry only competition.

Asus Xonar Essence One Review (w/ Raysonic CD228 & Audeze LCD2)

Zardon — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:56:54 +0000

Today we are looking at the latest ‘audiophile’ grade Asus Xonar Essence One external soundcard and digital to analogue converter. The Essence series of products have targeted the enthusiast and audiophile user now for some time, using high grade components such as BurrBrown DAC chips. Today we analyse the latest Xonar Essence One from ASUS in a very challenging environment, paired up with a flagship, limited edition Valve/Tube CD player and award winning Audeze LCD2 headphones.

I will be honest, when I read audio reviews on many tech oriented publications I get slightly frustrated when the reviewer tests the equipment with only compressed MP3 files, or with a Lady GAGA CD crammed inside a £15 external DVD burner. Any weaknesses in the chain, including poor cabling will lead to audio degradation, which really has nothing to do with the product on test.

With this in mind, I will be testing the Essence One with my custom modified Little Dot Mk VI+ tube amplifier, Raysonic CD 228 player (with power amplifier) and Audeze LCD2 Planar headphones. I have been tube rolling now for many years and have amassed a huge collection costing more than I would probably like to admit.

Why?

I really haven’t warmed to digital audio …it can be harsh and cold. My system has been configured from the ground up for analogue style warmth, while maintaining as much detail as possible. Can the Asus Xonar Essence One really slot into an audiophile grade headphone based system? Today I aim to find out.

Specifications

Audio Performance	Output Signal-to-Noise Ratio (A-Weighted) (Front-out) : 120 dB Output THD+N at 1kHz (Front-out) : 0.000316 %(-110 dB) Frequency Response (-3dB, 24bit/192KHz input) : 10 Hz to 48 KHz Output/Input Full-Scale Voltage : Balanced Output : 4 Vrms ( Vp-p) Unbalanced Output : 2 Vrms ( Vp-p) Headphone : 7 Vrms ( Vp-p)
Bus Compatibility	USB
Chipset	Audio Processor :C-Media CM6631 High-Definition Sound Processor
Sample Rate and Resolution	Analog Playback Sample Rate and Resolution : 44.1K/48K/88.2K/96K/176.4K/192KHz @ 16bit/24bit S/PDIF Digital Input : 44.1K/48K/96K/192KHz @ 16bit/24bit ASIO 2.2 Driver Support : Hz @ with very low latency Upsampling capability :
I/O Ports	Analog Output Jack : 2 x 3.5mm RCA jack 1 x 6.3mm RCA jack 2 x Balanced Output (XLR) 2 x Digital S/PDIF Input : 1 x Coaxial, 1 x Toslink 1 x USB Input
Accessories	Driver CD x 1 6.3mm to 3.5mm stereo adapter x 1 Audio Precision (AP) test report x 1 User manual x 1 USB cable x 1 Power cord x 1
Dimensions	261.33 x 230 x 60.65 mm ( L x W x H )

Neil Young speaks out about digital music – ‘die’.

Carl — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 08:51:05 +0000

Neil Young is one of music’s veterans, a man who has released more albums than I can remember. He isn’t a big fan of the digital era. He said MP3′s should die. I can’t disagree.

I remember when music was important, and the release of a new album really meant something. In the digital era, music is disposable and the sound quality? Vinyl is still popular, and there is a reason why.

Neil Young said that digitally compressed music, both the CD and MP3, should be destroyed. After reading the Steve Jobs biography, he clearly felt the same way, which is ironic because Apple make so much money selling compressed music files online. Some experts claim that AAC, the format that Apple use has better resolving capabilities, especially in the low frequency areas.

Young said “Piracy is the new radio, That’s how music gets around.”

He was speaking to MTV news, and he told the reporter “If you’re an artist and you created something and you knew the master was 100 percent great, but the consumer got 5 percent, would you be feeling good? “I like to point that out to artists. That’s why people listen to music differently today. It’s all about the bottom and the beat driving everything, and that’s because in the resolution of the music, there’s nothing else you can really hear. The warmth and the depth at the high end is gone.”

AllthingsD reported that he said “It’s not that digital is bad or inferior, it’s that the way it’s being used isn’t doing justice to the art, The MP3 only has 5 percent of the data present in the original recording. … The convenience of the digital age has forced people to choose between quality and convenience, but they shouldn’t have to make that choice.”

We all know that MP3 data is compressed. This compression strips out some of the sound quality, regardless of the compression level used when encoding. The nature of the algorithm is to strip out data that the creators believed the person couldn’t hear.

Young added “Steve Jobs as a pioneer of digital music, and his legacy is tremendous. But when he went home, he listened to vinyl. And you’ve got to believe that if he’d lived long enough, he would have done what I’m trying to do.”

Other artists have said similar things about compressed music, such as Brian May, Queen guitarist and Jon Bon Jovi, lead singer in Bon Jovi.

Kitguru says: Is compressed music really that bad? Do you long for the days of vinyl?

be quiet! is brand of the year for power supplies in 2011

KGNewsBot — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 08:29:03 +0000

be quiet! scored first place in reader’s survey for best power supply brand at German Hardwareluxx. It is one of the biggest online publications for computer hardware with their own quarterly print magazine. Even more, their readers are known for being a very enthusiastic and well informed community.

One of the biggest online communities in Germany

For the first time, Hardwareluxx started a survey to find out the people’s most favorite brands in 2011. They have one of the strongest online communities throughout the German media landscape with over 150,000 members. In twelve categories, Hardwareluxx offered multiple choice answers to crown the most popular manufacturers in Germany during the last year. There was nothing to win for the participants, so these are especially honest answers from a special group of people who really do care about good products and mostly know a lot about IT. “For our readers, be quiet! has been one of the most appreciated brands for power supplies for several years. The survey finally puts this into black and white. Congratulations!” is how Dennis Bode, Editor-in-Chief commented on be quiet!’s success.

Doubly special because it comes from the readers

It is a special pleasure for be quiet! to have won the first place in this category. Many people voted for the German company with its high standards on performance and silence. “be quiet! has won hundreds of awards over the years in Germany, our home market. Each one is important but this award from Hardwareluxx is doubly special because it comes from their readers. The enthusiasts who really know these products believe in and rely on be quiet! to give them the highest quality with market-leading quietness. We thank them all for their support!”, said Scott Richards, Global Brand Director at be quiet!

* Source: Gfk Panelmarket Germany, sales units internal computer power supplies, July 2011

Source: Press Release

Ultrabooks expected to gain momentum later in the year

Slyvia — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 08:21:29 +0000

The Apple train keeps ‘a rolling with no sign of slowing down. The latest reports from analysts Canalys show that Apple shipped 20 million personal computing devices in Q4, claiming 17 percent of the total market. This is split between 5 million Macs and 15 million iPads.

Hewlett Packard are now resigned to second place, with a market share of only 12.7 percent. The other three in the top five companies were Lenovo with 11.2 percent, Dell with 9.9 percent and Acer with 9.3 percent.

The research from Canalys highlights just how popular the tablet market is, with the Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble’s Nook taking a decent percentage of the market. Without tablets involved in the figures, the market dropped 0.4%.

Canalys analyst Tim Coulling said “You have to look at the market holistically and consider that people are using tablets in much the same way as one might use a PC–for e-mailing, Web browsing, and other tasks.”

He added “Currently, HP is pursuing a Windows strategy for its pad portfolio, producing enterprise-focused products such as the recently launched Slate 2, until the launch of Windows 8.

However, questions remain over Microsoft’s entry into the consumer pad space. While early demonstrations of the Windows 8 operating system seem promising, Microsoft must focus its efforts on creating an intuitive user experience that is far less resource intensive.”

Intel executive vice president Sean Maloney with the new Medfield mobile processor in a prototype tablet. Photograph: Wally Santana/AP

What about Intel’s Ultrabook? The company are putting a lot of weight behind the new range of computers.

Coulling said “We expect Ultrabook volumes to see limited adoption through the first half of 2012, before finally gaining momentum later in the year as price points decline and Intel launches a new line of processors and embarks on an aggressive marketing campaign.”

Kitguru says: By then the iPad 3 should be in full flight, so people may just opt for the new super high resolution tablet computer instead.

RIM’s BlackBerry 10 ‘London’ Superphone pictured

Stephen Dougherty — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 02:14:41 +0000

Reportedly the image of the smartphone seen below is that of the previously rumored BlackBerry London prototype; the first real image of the phone spotted on the net thanks to the folks over at CrackBerry.

In efforts to stand up tall amongst the vastly growing smartphone world, RIM doesn’t refer to it as a smartphone at all; rather, a ‘Superphone’. So what’s so Super about it? Well, it’s quite hard to say from what we can tell so far. It apparently uses the new BlackBerry 10 OS which RIM is hoping will get it right back into the game again, but the device looks more or less the same as BlackBerry’s underwhelming PlayBook, albeit slimmed and shrunken down.

On the subject of hardware, there is a whisper of both Texas Instruments’ OMAP5 and Qualcomm 1.5GHz dual-core chips being tested in the device at the moment. If that’s the case then it should certainly turn out to be snappy enough. It’s probable we’ll be seeing the launch of a couple other models first; those being code named Laguna and Lisbon which will arrive in the U.S. while the London will be heading to the UK later in the year.

KitGuru says: Will this be the phone that brings RIM right back into swing of things? They’ll have to do quite a bit more than just slap a polished new OS on it.

AMD’s remaining HD 7000 Series roadmap revealed

Stephen Dougherty — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 02:12:35 +0000

Thanks to a conspicuous document making it’s way onto the internet, we can learn more about AMD’s plans for the HD 7000 series of cards beyond the now launched HD 7970 and HD 7950 models. We knew the line-up would (eventually) be as busy as prior generations were, if not more so. But what’s interesting to note is that there will be four more HD 7000 Series models released before the end of this first quarter alone.

The four cards comprise two HD 7700 models, followed by two HD 7800 models, all of which seem to be scheduled for launch before CeBIT in Hannover.

It seems that some of these cards could be with us in time for St Valentine to show them the love.

AMD’s existing 7970 and 7950 have already done a good job of establishing themselves at the top of the GPU tree, so it’s only a matter of time before the rest of the family makes its way onto the dance floor. The numbering system – and probable price points – are unlikely to change much, so we can expect the 7800s and 7700s to be followed by 7600 and 75/7400 products in the near future.

The leaked documents also make mention of the big bad boy most of us want to know about – the top dog HD 7990. This card (codenamed New Zealand)) boasting dual Tahiti GPUs with a 2 x 384-bit memory interface and likely 6GB of GDDR5 RAM, is said to be arriving sometime during Q2 2012 at a rumoured price of $849. Let’s honest, if you’re in the market for a monster like the 7990 or an nVidia GTX690, then price will be the furthest thing from you mind.

KitGuru says: AMD looks to be happily bathing in the limelight while NVIDIA gets its own 28nm Kepler based line-up organized for an early Q2 appearance.

Comment below or in the KitGuru forums.