HTC takes a beating on the stock exchange
Just 3 years ago, HTC was the industry’s darling. It had moved from clunky old designs to a a sleek new range of phones and was adding in ‘smart’ by the bucket-full. It’s just announced a 70% drop in first quarter profits. So what went wrong?
Before 2007, you could buy an HTC phone – but not with an HTC logo. All of the early Windows-based smartphone from O2 and T-Mobile were actually made by HTC, but no one knew who the company was. The transition from making phones for others, to making phones under its own brand, went really smoothly and HTC’s sale revenue rocketed as a result.
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Android’s explosion into the phone market was just that, explosive. HTC took the lead with designs like ‘Desire’ and the reviewers across the world swooned.
Unfortunately for HTC, the major brands are now flexing their muscle in the smartphone market and they are taking no prisoners when it comes to marketing, styling, design and functionality. Apple’s iPhone has put the flag firmly atop the hill and Samsung’s Galaxy legion is preparing onslaught after onslaught on the number one spot over the next 2 years.
In comparison, HTC’s design and marketing teams are struggling to keep up.
Revenues for Q1 2012 are down around 35% and profits are down 70%. The immediate problem is that investors get nervous and want to run away. Already, the stock market valuation for HTC shares is down almost 7% and it will take some miracle for that number to climb back.
The experts agree with KitGuru. The gorgeous Jasmine Lu from Morgan Stanley commented “We view HTC as a product cycle company but think that structural changes in the smartphone market might leave it not well positioned to regain share quickly, simply based on one decent device”. In a nutshell, Morgan Stanley thinks that they’re screwed.
HTC has big hopes for the ‘One’ products, powered by the latest in Qualcomm chip technology – but there seem to be issues in getting production up to the required levels. Any reduction in capacity will impact HTC negatively.
Ultra scary for HTC? Unit shipments are predicted to grow from 7.5m to around 12m as we move from Q1 to Q2. Telling the world that unit shipments may almost double, while Morgan Stanley starts to sound your death knell is a poor place to be.
KitGuru says: Worst case scenario, HTC can always go back to making product for other people – but we’d like to think that it has more fight left in the locker.
Comment below or in the KitGuru forums.
Apple 4G advertising: UK Watchdog investigate
Monday, April 09, 2012 4:05 PM
We have reported before on the 4G problems that affect people in the UK and Europe. It looks as if the British Advertising Watchdog are going to investigate Apple however because of the misleading marketing campaign.
Apple will be investigated over claims that the new iPad offers 4G connectivity, which is possible if you live only in specific parts of the world. UK users cannot use the 4G capabilities of the tablet, due to the frequencies that Apple have embedded into the hardware. Apple did not make it clear when they marketed the new iPad 3 that 4G was not possible in the UK and parts of Europe.
The Advertising Agency in the United Kingdom have received complaints about the claims on the Apple website about support for 4G on the iPad 3. The ASA have opened up an investigation to look into the issue.
Apple have also faced similar problems in Australia. Apple haven’t been very supportive with this problem even though Australia’s Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said that “Apple’s recent promotion of the new ‘iPad with WiFi and 4G’ is misleading because it represents to Australian consumers that the product can, with a SIM card, connect to a 4G mobile data network in Australia, when this is not the case”. It is now going further and seeking an injunction to prevent Apple selling any more product until the packaging/messaging etc have all been changed.
Apple were forced to offer refunds to all affected buyers in Australia. If the matter gets high profile attention in the UK, the same may happen.
This is the latest in a long line of iPad problems which the company are facing in the last month.
Kitguru reader orlbusa said “How about the fact that photos won’t sync to iPad 3 with Windows 7? Check out the pages and pages of complaints on Apple’s support forums. Apple has yet to address it or even acknowledge it. Time to return the iPad3.”
Kitguru says: Seems Apple are facing a raft of issues with the latest iPad 3, even though sales are breaking all records.
Samsung’s flexible AMOLED displays to be known as ‘Youm’
Monday, April 09, 2012 4:02 PM
Samsung’s upcoming “thinner, flexible and unbreakable” AMOLED displays will from now on be known as ‘Youm’. The quietly named display technology hopefully means an imminent launch from the Korean company. Estimates from Samsung in the recent past indicate a launch sometime in 2012.
Samsung has passed an application over to the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) which includes the new name and the above image showing the differences between Youm and other current technologies. The displays become flexible as Samsung makes the thin film transistor (TFT) and encapsulation out of film, rather than glass.
Reportedly, Samsung will enter mass production of Youm displays during spring and should hopefully be in a shipping product before the end of the year.
Youm will likely end up being used in watches, e-readers, tablets and smartphones such as the somewhat confirmed Samsung Skin.
Kitguru says: We can’t wait to see folding laptops and other interesting concepts come out of this particular display technology.
Folding@Home set to pass 6 PetaFLOPS
Monday, April 09, 2012 3:54 PM
Back in January 2008, Intel posed a question to scientists, “What would you do with a million quad core processors?” While no one is offering to deliver and install a million chips to a single destination, the idea of a huge, distributed computing system has appeal. Folding@Home project is set to pass a significant milestone, which has led KitGuru to ponder the usefulness of the Stanford University project.
Computers can add whole numbers together in their sleep. Maths only gets ‘real’ when a computer deals with floating point arithmetic, so one of the normal measurements of computing power is “How many FLOating Point operationS can a computer do in a second?”
Before we start with the big numbers, let’s just have a quick look at ‘How fast is fast’?
Well, for a human with a calculator, if the machine gives us an answer around 0.1 seconds after we pres ‘=’, then we perceive that as ‘instantaneous’. So 10 FLOPs is fast for humans.
As with all metric systems, kilo, mega, giga etc all have the same meaning. In 1988, the Cray Y-MP supercomputer managed to sustain more than 1 GigaFLOP for the first time in human history. Naturally, that kind of computing power would set you back around $2 million (including the nice room to house it with proper air conditioning etc).
You CAN still buy a processor with the same GigaFLOPS performance as the Cray, but the 1.73GHz Intel Core T1250 CPU is far too weak for a modern secretarial system and you might struggle to find 533MHz memory for it.
OK. We get it. Things move forward very quickly in terms of computing power. So let’s get back to the headline and the Folding@Home project, which harnesses computing time when your system is idling – in order to fold proteins etc and help find mathematical solutions to medical problems.
People use a number of excuses to buy new hardware. IDC says that 2010/11 have been disappointing, but that the end of 2012 through to 2014 should see a big increase in sales. Why? Simply put, the biggest excuses for an upgrade will centre on Windows 8 and Ivy Bridge – along with a new round of Radeon and GeForce cards.
While the jump from one Intel processor generation to the next might only give you a ~20% boost, people often don’t jump one generation. If you bought a Windows 7 machine with a Radeon HD 5770 or GeForce GTX 460, then you will almost certainly ignore the 6000/500 series altogether and go straight for a decent 7000 Radeon or brand new Kepler card. Your usefulness to Folding@Home will jump through the roof at that point.
The same goes for any XBox 720 or PlayStation 4 consoles that get released in the next year or so.
Folding@Home cracked the 1 PetaFLOP mark back in September 2007 and it’s been growing ever since. We’re not expecting it to become self-aware and begin learning at an exponential rate any time soon, but it would be nice to think that idle computing cycles could save lives in the future.
With the move past 5 PetaFLOPS and on to 6 PetaFLOPS, the combined power of the Folding@Home project is nearing the mythical ‘Million Quad Cores’ that Intel was discussing 4 years ago.
You might be asking, at this stage, how much folding does KitGuru do? At the time of writing, KitGuru’s folding team had JUST cracked the world’s top 200 and is growing nicely, then you very much. Bear in mind that there are more than 200,000 teams worldwide, working 24×7 on their stats. Being around the Top 200 is not bad going!
It’s hard to catch the major teams that have been doing this for up to a decade, but we’ll keep pushing to see what’s possible. Right now, these are the kind of teams that are ahead of KitGuru:-
65: Asus ROG
93 : Intel
121: Futuremark
128: Hexus
166: Cisco
If you want to be part of the KitGuru Folding@Home success story, then you should click here.
KitGuru says: We will be following this story closely and reporting back when we hear the good news that 6 PetaFLOPS has been reached.
Comment below or in the KitGuru forums.
Anonymous target UK government websites. More to come.
Monday, April 09, 2012 3:50 PM
Famous hacking group Anonymous have targeted the UK government, after giving them forewarning that it was going to happen. It selected Easter for the protest.
The Telegraph reports “The British branch of Anonymous – a loose global collective of computer hackers who often target law-enforcement websites – first advertised “#OpTrialAtHome” last Monday. A poster featured the photos of three British citizens who have been sent to the US to face trial – Gary McKinnon, Richard O’Dwyer and Christopher Tappin – together with the slogan “Fight extradition”. It included the address of the Home Office website and the direction to “charge ya lazers” on Saturday at 9pm GMT.”
The DDOS attacks disrupted the websites for a short period of time. Anonymous tweeted that this ‘digital protest’ was not a hacking attempt, but they have threatened more actions every Saturday against the UK Government websites.
Graham Culey, senior technology consultant for security firm Sophos added on his blog “You have to admit that this is an audacious move by Anonymous and its supporters. Other hacktivists who have launched DDoS attacks against websites belonging to British authorities have been arrested in recent history, and are currently facing trial. Don’t forget, denial-of-service attacks are illegal. If you participate in such an attack you could find yourself receiving a lengthy jail sentences.”
Kitguru says: Do you agree with Anonymous actions?
Tegra 4 leak indicates quadcore A15 in 2013
Monday, April 09, 2012 3:44 PM
Information on Nvidia’s next generation Tegra 4 chipset has been leaked on VR-Zone. The new chipset will apparently run between 1.2ghz and 2.0ghz and it will use the same 4-PLUS-1 configuration as Tegra 3, but with less ARM A15 cores.
There is going to be three A15 versions, according to the specifications sheet. The T40 is going to target 10 inch tablets and run at 1.8ghz and the T43 is clocked a little higher, at 2.0ghz. The AP40 will cost less and run between 1.2ghz and 1.8ghz.
The Sp3X uses the older A9 cores but will pair the 1.2ghz to 2.0ghz chipset with an LTE and HSPA+ modem. It will be released later with the T40 expected to hit in Q1 2013. The other three versions are said to launch in Q3.
This move to four A15 cores could mean that Nvidia have optimised the heat output, which was one of the problems they faced with the Tegra 3 platform from using A15 cores.
Kitguru says: We would imagine that Tegra 4 will really be well suited when paired up with a higher demand Windows 8 based tablet which are due for released later this year.
Intel engineer who moved to AMD admits stealing documents
Monday, April 09, 2012 3:36 PM
An Intel engineer has been accused of stealing documents from the company which are said to be worth between $200 and $400 million. The former employee has admitted his guilt in stealing the documents and is now awaiting a sentence. He has pled guilty to five counts of fraud.
The case is now being heard in the US District Court by Judge F. Dennis Saylor. Biswamohan Pani, the engineer found guilty, worked at one of the Intel plants located in Hudson, Massachusetts in 2008. He handed in his resignation to Intel on May 29th 2008 and he asked for his last day of work to be June 11th 2008. By this stage he was apparently already an employee at AMD and still had access to the Intel computer systems while he was working for them.
According to the claims, he began downloading confidential Intel documents from Intel which were related to the design and manufacturing of processors. Intel reported the theft immediately and AMD cooperated with the investigation.
Kitguru says: The report adds that no one at AMD asked him to steal the documents and they were not used by AMD. Pani could face up to 20 years in prison on each of the five counts of fraud.
Six new phones is not enough, LG D1L expected in May
Monday, April 09, 2012 3:27 PM
It appears as if announcing six phones in the lead up to Mobile World Congress just wasn’t enough for LG, among them was the LG Optimus 3D Max. LG is reportedly preparing a new flagship Android that will be up against the HTC One X and Samsung’s currently unannounced but highly anticipated Galaxy S III.
The phone powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 MSM8960 chipset is currently known within LG as the D1L. It will also pack in a 4.7 inch 720p (1280 x 720) LCD display and LTE support. The D1L will also be the first LG smartphone to ship out with the latest Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update.
LG hopes to make the D1L Android flagship available by late May, although it is not yet clear what markets it will be heading to.
Kitguru says: The battle of the flagship Androids is soon to be heading our way, but based on current popularity it is unlikey LG will take the crown.
Cougar Evolution Chassis Review
Monday, April 09, 2012 3:26 PM
While Cougar is a well-known manufacturer of Power Supplies, you may have not yet seen many Cougar Chassis’ on the market. Currently they have five models to purchase; the Cougar Solution, Volant, 6XR9, Evolution and the Evolution Galaxy. The Cougar Evolution Chassis was released at the end of last year and is trying to cram in many features into a fairly small case. While it classes itself as a ‘Full Tower ATX case’ it is more in the league of a mid tower and in fact is no bigger than the CM 690 II chassis.
While it may look very similar to several other cases on the market Cougar have crammed many features into this case. For instance, the dual- fan controller has the ability to control up to 6 fans via two separate channels, one for intake and one for exhaust. This is something you rarely see included with a case, although it is a very useful feature.
On top of this, Cougar have fitted 2xUSB 3.0 ports via a motherboard header while including space for seven fans, two of which can be 140mm.
Specifications:
Case Type
Full Tower
Motherboard Type
Micro ATX / ATX
Dimensions
223(W) x 514(H) x 523(D)
Available Color
Black
External 5.25″ Drive Bays
6
External 3.5″ Drive Bays
1（Converted from 5.25” bay)
Internal 3.5″ HDD Trays
4
Internal 2.5″ HDD/SDD Trays
4（Installed from 3.5” HDD tray)
External 5.25”&3.5” Hotswap Device
1
Expansion Slots
8
I/O Panel
USB 3.0 x 2, USB 2.0 x 2
MIC x 1, Audio x 1
5.25″ Screw-less Mechanism
6
Fan Speed Control System
Dual-way (Total control:6pcs fans)
Cooling
System
Max installed : 7pcs fans
Front
120mm Fan x 2
Top
120mm Fan x 2
Rear
120mm Fan x 1
Bottom
120/140mm Fan x 1
Left side
140mm Fan x 1
Bottom Fan Filter
1
Rear Water Cooling Hole
2
Maximum VGA Length
305mm
Asus readies GPS solution for the Transformer Prime
Sunday, April 08, 2012 6:02 AM
Ever since Asus’ Transformer Prime was released to the masses late last year, owners have been complaining about GPS and to an extent Wi-Fi performance. A later breakdown revealed that the a design issue was the cause. The Prime has a aluminum body, with no plastic RF window, behind which the GPS and Wi-Fi antennas should be located.
Long story short, aluminum doesn’t mix well with high frequency radio waves. The Wi-Fi and GPS antennas are hidden behind the plastic Apple logo on the iPad, preventing any problems occurring in the first place.
Asus have now made plans, four months after the first issues arose, for a possibly free GPS dongle to solve any and hopefully all GPS problems. According to some users that report to already have the dongle it plugs directly into the Prime’s proprietary connector and is “minimalist” in design, sitting flush with the tablet’s body. Chances are this will mean you will have to choose between the keyboard dock or the GPS dongle, however. Reports say Asus will reveal full details come April 16th.
Kitguru says: Good on you Asus for offering a solution without the need for a lawsuit.
OCUK Titan 8500i Vortex System Review (Z77)
Sunday, April 08, 2012 4:31 AM
Today we are looking at the latest system from UK etailer, Overclockers UK. The Titan 8500i Vortex is a special configuration for the Gadget Show Live in Birmingham and features a Core i5 2500k processor with liquid cooler, Gigabyte Z77 motherboard, SSD drive and Sapphire 7 series graphics.
Overclockers UK have been creating prebuilt systems now for many years and this is the first time we have had the opportunity to look at one, up close and personal. The Titan 8500i Vortex is a competitively priced system designed for all round use and casual gaming.
OCUK Titan 8500i Vortex System
Motherboard
Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155)
Optical Drive
OcUK 22x DVDRW SATA Rewriter (Black)
SSD Drive
OCZ Agility 3 60GB 2.5″ SATA 3
System Fan
Sharkoon Silent Eagle 2000 120mm fan
Processor
Intel Core i5 2500k 3.3ghz – overclocked to 4.6ghz
Power Supply
OCZ ZS Series 650W ’80 Plus Bronze’
Memory
Corsair Vengeance Low profile 8GB DDR3 1600mhz
HDD Drive
Hitachi Deskstar 1TB Sata 6GB 7K1000.D
Chassis
BitFenix Shinobi USB 3.0 Gaming Case
Cooler
OcUK H Flo Extreme Liquid Dual Fan Cooler
Graphics
Sapphire HD7770 1024MB GDDR5
Operating System
Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64 bit
Warranty
12 months standard warranty
Price
£884.99 inc vat
Asus Sabertooth Z77 Motherboard Review (with OC GTX680)
Sunday, April 08, 2012 4:31 AM
Intel have a busy month in April, launching their 3rd generation processors within a couple of weeks time. Today however they release their much awaited Z77 platform, with a raft of motherboards hitting the market from all their partners. Under NDA we have to wait until a later date to publish next generation Core i5/i7 results, so today we will take a look at one of the many boards we have in our labs when paired up with a Core i7 2600k.
The Asus Sabretooth Z77 looks to be another quality product from ASUS and we will overclock it to the limit and pair it up with an overclocked Asus GTX680.
This hasn’t been the smoothest product launch for Intel as their Z77 NDA has been breached by some publications clamoring for hits and even some retailers. This means that performance results, detailed photographs and descriptions are already in the wild and have been for many weeks. On Friday for instance many of the UK retail stores such as Scan, Aria and Overclockers decided to launch Z77 sales.
The Asus Sabertooth Z77 motherboard supports Quad SLI and Quad Crossfire and uses an interesting ‘Thermal Armor’ cover to enhance cooling and improve reliability under stressful conditions. The Sabertooth Z77 also features ASUS exclusive pioneering Dual Intelligent Processors 3 with SMART DIGI+ Power Control where 2 dedicated chips, the TPU and EPU provide an auto overclock and save energy through optimized power management, significantly boosting performance.
Overview:
Asus Exclusive Innovations:
* SMART DIGI+ Power Control
* Fan Xpert+
* Network iControl
* USB BIOS Flashback
* USB 3.0 Boost
* AI Suite II
Innovations:
* Quad GPU AMD CrossfireX – a flawless architecture accommodating the power of up to four graphics cards
* LudicLogix Virtu MVP – boots responsiveness, improves gaming frame rates by 30-70% and sharpens visual quality
SteelSeries Fnatic 7H Headphones Review (Limited Edition)
Saturday, April 07, 2012 4:33 PM
Today we are lucky enough to get our hands on a set of the new SteelSeries Fnatic 7H headphones. Team Fnatic are considered one of the top ranked professional gaming teams on the planet. The fact that members of team Fnatic are involved in the design of this headset should raise the anticipation level of any gamer that may be considering a new headphone purchase.
Even though some of you know something about Fnatic we thought it would be good to provide a bit of their gaming history:
“Ever since the birth of what we know as playing computer games professionally, there has been Fnatic. Having lodged the quickest Painkiller, Unreal Tournament and Quake Live players, the most clever WarCraft III, StarCraft II and World of Warcraft players, the most avid Dota, League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth players, and last but not least the most experienced Call of Duty and Counter Strike teams. Fnatic is known for scooping up talent before you even knew it existed. Fnatic houses players from across the globe, have won multiple world championships across game genres, and are one of the most accomplished gaming teams in the world.”
Key Features:
* closed type headset that provides ambient noise reduction.
* retractable built in microphone.
* detachable non-tangle braided cord.
* inline volume and microphone controls.
* ear cushions with SNDBlock material for sound isolation.
Specifications:
Headphones
* Frequency response: 18 – 28.000 Hz.
* Impedance: 32 Ohm.
* SPL@ 1kHz, 1 Vrms: 112 dB.
* Cable length: 1 + 2 = 3 m (9,8 ft.).
* Jacks: 3,5 mm.
Microphone
* Frequency response: 50 – 16.000 Hz.
* Pick up pattern: Uni-directional.
* Sensitivity: -38 dB.
Will the next Einstein be a computer?
Saturday, April 07, 2012 2:15 PM
Around 10 years ago, a bunch of threads kicked off on science forums around the world, with boffins (pro and amateur) discussing the idea of a computer-based Einstein in the future. A decade ago, most of the contributors thought that the answer was in some kind of amazing new layout for a robot brain. KitGuru poses the question “Where will the next huge insight come from and will it be silicon based?”
For as long as there have been SciFi dreamers, there have been dreams of a future where robots (of some description) out think humans – either as partners or adversaries. But the gap between how we envision the future and how that future comes about, in practical terms, can be huge. Sure, it is possible for a completely new class of product to be launched (think iPad), but the reality is that humans are much happier ‘increasing the amount of computational power inside the objects etc we already have in our lives’.
So while the idea that a future Einstein will be an i-Robot style android is appealing to the imagination, the reality of what we’re looking it is much more likely to be much more mundane.
The ‘Einstein leap’ was to have a moment of clarity, in which some of the most complex ideas that a human has ever held in a brain – can suddenly be brought down to a single sentence or equation that any muppet can print on a t-shirt and wear to college. This new idea fills a significant black hole in our understanding.
Right now, the biggest black hole is probably the one that sits between the ideas proposed by Newton, Einstein and the Quantum Mechanics lobby. Essentially, “How can it be possible for a theory or equation to give a near perfect description of what we experience in the universe – say 99% of the time, but then fall apart when we start to play with the parameters?”
Newton’s old Force equals Mass times Acceleration works a treat, until you start to push an atom near to the speed of light. Similarly, the very small is described in a near perfect way by Quantum Mechanics – but you don’t want to be in an extreme gravity environment.
So why the headline? Well, simply put, computers are great at pattern matching. Taking vast data sets and then running comparisons to see if known patterns occur. We discussed this with Intel and they told us that this kind of ‘mega data comparison’ was crucial for industries like oil, where a huge array of multi-chip, multi-core, multi-thread blade systems will work 24×7 to look for certain geological patterns that may well indicate the presence of oil deposits.
In the future, instead of extrapolating the likely location of oil, what if an ‘Einstein machine’ took a sea of data from the various fields of mathematics and began looking for equations to describe what we see? Could such a machine see a pattern?
This kind of trick is in Intel’s genes. Moore’s ‘Law’ is not a true law as much as a human being’s observation of existing data and then a prediction about how that pattern may continue in the future.
The ‘Insight Device’ we’re talking about would take solid data and try to create solid equations that (a) describe what is being seen with 100% accuracy and then (b) propose equations for that data which can be used going forward.
While we all know what governments are likely to want to use these super computers for, surely the pursuit of knowledge is a far more laudable goal?
KitGuru says: It’s a daunting task, but one thing we know for sure is that – in the future – we will have ever increasing amounts of compute power to draw upon. Data sets which, today, seem incredibly unmanageable – will someday seem simple. We moved smoothly from ‘a computer will never beat a human at chess’ to ‘computer draws with grand master’ to ‘man will never again beat the best chess computer in the world’. We believe this area of maths might well be the same.
Comments below or in the KitGuru forums.
Channel reports spike in Corsair memory problems
Saturday, April 07, 2012 2:11 PM
For the most part, memory is one of the most mundane components in a modern PC. Word is reaching KitGuru of a spike in issues with Corsair. How are the problems manifesting themselves and what will be the effect? KitGuru scans the forums for answers.
Go back far enough, to the year before its success, and Corsair was just another wannabe memory company. At CeBIT, they had a small booth space on the American stand and 3 guys standing around answering questions (most of which were along the lines of “So what is Corsair?”).
Roll the clock forward around 24 months and the Corsair stand was massive and well manned.
What happened in between was a huge increase in popularity for dual channel memory access, the idea that a system could hit 2 memory modules at the same time.
In response, Corsair launched/branded/marketed the hell out of the concept of TwinX – paired memory sticks that would give you great performance with ultra-low-latency.
It was a winning formula and Corsair has hardly looked back since. Until last week.
For some reason, there appeared to be a huge spike in problems reported with systems using Corsair memory. In the two years and 4,300 articles since KitGuru launched, we don’t recall any stories surfacing which called Corsair’s quality/stability in to question – so this latest rumble is significant.
You can have a read through yourself by checking Google. Our sources are slightly different though. Speaking with channel suppliers, you get a good handle on the rate of return or number of RMA requests. We know at least one local system builder that has stopped shipping any system with Corsair memory in the specification until it receives a response to the question, “So why is this happening?”
If you had to bet, then the fact that high-end memory maker Elpida has experienced problems and now we’re hearing about memory issues in the market, could be worth a punt.
KitGuru says: Ahead of the launch of Intel’s latest technology, it’s a bad time for Corsair to encounter such a problem with its reputation. Let’s hope the engineers that be can work a solution and communicate it effectively to the market. We’ll report back anything we hear from Corsair.
Comment below or in the KitGuru forums.
Chinese money to buy Elpida from Japan?
Saturday, April 07, 2012 12:24 PM
Once upon a time (maybe 50 years ago), China was a technologically and financially backward nation – while Japan was surging ahead as one of the world’s engineering centres of excellence.
KitGuru takes a look at Japan’s Elpida memory company and the likelihood that it will be owned by Chinese money before the end of April.
As reported by KitGuru, Japanese memory giant Elipda is in big trouble.
While we all know that Hynix and Micron will want to bid for Japan’s jewel-in-the-crown memory company, Elpida, the Japanese government are not likely to want to see the corporation and its amazing production facilities passed over to bitter rival, South Korea.
On that basis, how likely is it that Elpida will soon be a joint China-USA venture?
Hony Capital of China was started with a cash injection from Legend – the company behind Lenovo. Right now, it has almost $7 billion in financial muscle. To buy Elpida, it will partner up with TPG Capital from Texas (who have almost $50 billion in holdings).
The move for Elpida, would instantly give China a Top 3 memory production facility – with advanced technologies in the pipeline – and with back-end partners like Lenovo on hand to place major orders.
Bidding for the still-breathing corpse of Elipda will end on 27th April and this is likely to be a hard-fought battle for control with so much at stake.
KitGuru says: No matter how solid a bid is received, the whole situation must be embarrassing to Japan. Over the last 50 years, the Japanese have peaked and now begun to fall in world rankings – while China shows no signs of a slow down any time soon.
Comment below or in the KitGuru forums.
Samsung set to report $5Bn a quarter profit
Saturday, April 07, 2012 11:24 AM
Most companies on the planet do not turn over $5 billion a year. To be honest, most companies won’t turn over $5 billion over the entire course of their existence. Right now, things are bubbling up nicely for Samsung and its starting to bang in some serious numbers. KitGuru gives the Korean giant’s skirt a little lift to see what goes on underneath.
There are many ways of knowing how well a company is doing. Recruiting new personnel is a good sign. Another is being chosen as the chip producer for the fastest growing tech market in the world. Posting big revenues is one of the bog ones, but the underlying profit is more telling.
Right now, Samsung’s starting to glow brightly in the most important market of all – mobile computing and communications – and it seems to be banging in all the right numbers in all the right places.
Analysts like Choi Yeon LIG Securities and Investments believes that the $5 billion in profitable change that Samsung seems to have banked from 1st January to 31st March 2012, is down to one area in particular.
“While revenue was in line, there was a big surprise in profit. That suggests stronger-than-expected profit from the handset division”, he said.
“That’s thanks to robust sales of high-end models like the Galaxy S and Note,” he explained. “”Handset margins are now estimated to have topped 20%”.
KitGuru takes a global view of such numbers and there’s another non-product factor that needs to be remembered. Samsung is a massive producer of memory and a combination of overall increased requirement from the market (think about how many PCs are now advertised with 8GB or 16GB as standard) and the wobble that KitGuru recently reported over at Elpida, may well have combined to create an upsurge in memory prices.
Any upsurge, in a market with so much volume, would have a significant impact on the big numbers. We’re not saying that Choi is wrong, but he may well have been seduced by the glamour of the galaxy family.
KitGuru says: While a lot is being made of the upcoming battle or the super smartphones ahead of the London Olympics, you need to remember that Apple has huge market share and everything to lose with iPhone 5, while Samsung has been a bit-part player in the phone market – so any success for its new models will look like a win.
Comments below or in the KitGuru forums.
Samsung has “no immediate plan” for a 3D smartphone
Friday, April 06, 2012 6:02 PM
All of the 3D smartphones released into the world so far such as the Android powered LG Optimus 3D and the HTC Evo 3D have never enjoyed any degree of major success in the retail market. This is perhaps one of the reasons Samsung, who currently has 3D technology incorporated in everything from PCs to TVs, has “no immediate plan to include displays featuring 3D technology” in any of their upcoming smartphones.
Instead the Korean giant has told Engadget that they are “constantly exploring new technologies for our mobile devices.” Although what these technologies may be is anyone’s guess. Flexible displays which also incorporate the best of LCD and E-Ink technologies, more formally known as electrowetting display technology could be a fairly safe bet.
This confirms that the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S III won’t have a 3D display, instead likely to feature a Super AMOLED Plus HD display. Something that is bound to not draw complaints from 99% of the population.
Kitguru says: We at Kitguru don’t have too many complaints. 3D technology in a smartphone is more of a gimmick than it is anywhere else.
Google tablet delayed in order to cut retail price
Friday, April 06, 2012 4:02 PM
Google’s direct attempt at a tablet in collaboration with Asus is now unlikely to launch until at least July. The earlier leaked design was reportedly ready for a May launch but in an effort to tweak the tablet further, Google has pushed the date back.
It turns out that previous reports of a $199 launch price were incorrect, according to The Verge’s sources the previous design was destined for a $249 price sticker. The Google and Asus tablet has been delayed slightly so they can make some design changes and in hopes to lower the price from $249 to below $200.
The tablet is currently destined to be powered by a Nvidia Tegra 3 chipset pumping content to a 7 inch display. It will be limited to Wi-Fi connectivity and run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.
It is widely presumed this Google-Asus tablet will be up against Amazon’s Kindle Fire and a rumoured 7.85 inch iPad mini.
Kitguru says: Everything is not great though, these cheap tablets could force others such as Acer and Toshiba out of the Android tablet market.
Thermaltake creates separate Tt DesignWorks consultancy
Friday, April 06, 2012 1:29 PM
In mainstream life, we’re constantly assaulted and assailed by new and innovative designs. Some driven by need (like the replacement of Big Mac polystyrene cartons with recycled card) and some are purely aesthetic (renaming Marathon bars to Snickers). In the computing world, so many things are derivative, that genuine inspiration is harder to find. One Taiwanese company believes it has a solution. KitGuru packs a hidden camera and heads off to investigate.
When the covers rolled back on the Thermaltake Level 10 chassis, even the most hardened journalist was forced into raising their eyebrows and sucking in a little more of that air stuff. It was clearly unlike anything else you’d ever seen. It took a separate engineering design team from BMW to create that kind of audience reaction.
Design like that needs genuine ‘out of the box thinking’. If you’re 100% tied into one company and one product line, it’s almost impossible to make the big breakthrough.
In consultancy terms, it’s called ‘going native’.
When you first come into contact with a market, person or product – you have a genuine opportunity to innovate. The longer you spend ‘inside’ that environment, the harder it is the create something new. Everything becomes homogenised and derivative. Not sure what we mean? Try lining up 50 mainboards and looking for genuine differences (i.e. not just heatsink colour).
With the launch of its new Tt DesignWorks web site, Thermaltake is pushing the innovation team slightly outside the company – which should make genuine creativity easier.
Will Tt DesignWorks actually create ideas for other companies – thereby liberating the designers completely? At this stage, it’s uncertain.
KitGuru says: Any move to increase innovation in this market must be applauded. When you look at how straightforward the iPad is as a design, and the fact that all of the technology encased in each unit was already available (one way or another) in the market, you can see how important design is. Good luck to the chaps and chapesses at Tt DesignWorks – we hope they get the chance to work with companies other than Thermaltake.
Comments below or in the KitGuru forums.
Thermaltake Commander MS-I Snow Edition
Friday, April 06, 2012 1:29 PM
Today we will be looking at Thermaltake’s new entry level chassis, the Commander MS- I Snow Edition. While this is an budget oriented case it still offers plenty of functionality for a fraction of the cost of a top end chassis. The Snow Edition monicker will probably give you a good indication that this is going to be a predominately white chassis …. which it is.
Key features:
* eSPORTS extreme design now in white
* Bottom-placed PSU design for easy installation
* Supports high-end graphic cards up to 12.5”/32cm
* Rear 120mm silent fan with blue LED
* Built-in latest USB3.0 SuperSpeed internal header
Specifications:
P/N
VN40006W2N
Case Type
Middle Tower
Side Panel
Transparent Window
Net Weight
4.5 kg / 9.9 lb
Dimension (H x W x D)
426.0 x 202.0 x 484.0 mm (16.8 x 8.0 x 19.1 ) inch
Cooling System
Front (Intake) : 120 x 120 x 25 mm (optional)
Rear (Exhaust) : 120 x 120 x 25 mm Blue LED fan, 1000rpm, 16dBA
Top (Exhaust) : 120 x 120 x 25 mm (optional)
Bottom (Intake) : 120 x 120 x 25 mm (optional)
Drive Bays
- Accessible: 3 x 5.25’’, 1 x 3.5’’
- Hidden: 5 x 3.5’’, 1 x 2.5”
Material
SECC
Color
Exterior : White
Interior: Black
Expansion Slots
7
Motherboards
Micro ATX , Standard ATX
I/O Ports
USB2.0 x 1, USB3.0 x 1, MIC & Speaker (support AC’97 & HD Audio)
PSU
Standard PS2 PSU (optional)
Other
CPU cooler height limitation: 170mm
VGA length limitation: 320mm
Mass Effect 3 will get ‘extended’ endings. But is it enough?
Friday, April 06, 2012 1:04 PM
Mass Effect 3 was one of the most awaited games in recent years, but when many of the gamers finally beat the third outing, they raised arms against the producer, to complain.
Normally a company would ignore the complaints and move merrily onto the next title for development but so many people complained that they had no option but to take action. The pressure was added by a handful of petitions to campaign against the game ending.
The outcome is a new content pack for the game, called ‘Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut’ which will expand on the events of Mass Effect 3 and add clarity to the holes in the conclusion.
Bioware published a small article to explain what exactly the people will get when the content is available. The new downloadable content will deliver “additional cinematics and epilogue scenes to the existing ending sequences. The goal of these new scenes is to provide additional clarity and closure to Mass Effect 3.” The DLC won’t bring new endings which so many have asked for.
“BioWare strongly believes in the team’s artistic vision for the end of this arc of the Mass Effect franchise. The extended cut DLC will expand on the existing endings, but no further ending DLC is planned.
Though we remain committed and are proud of the artistic choices we made in the main game, we are aware that there are some fans who would like more closure to Mass Effect 3. The goal of the DLC is not to provide a new ending to the game, rather to offer fans additional context and answers to the end of Commander Shepard’s story.”
They are strongly defending the game they made however, adding “So there you have it. Are we proud of the game we made and the team that made it? Hell yes. Are we going to change the ending of the game? No. Do we appreciate the passion and listen to the feedback delivered to us by our fans? Very much so and we are responding.”
Some gamers aren’t taking this as a positive move, because they were so unhappy with the ending of the game that they wanted a complete rewrite. One of the gamers who posts a blog on attackofthefanboy said “In other words, BioWare would like to take this opportunity to say, “F**k you, the game is our creative vision and if you don’t like it, piss off. We already have your money.”
Is it safe to say that the “Indoctrination Theory” can now be put to rest? If Shepard indeed did not become indoctrinated on his run to the conduit, and the final 20 minutes of gameplay actually did play out in real-time and are actually not some sort of dream sequence, why and how does Shepard survive as revealed in the possible post-credits scene? Damn it BioWare,we want answers!”
Kitguru says: Not the outcome many people wanted, but is it better than nothing?
Full range of Z77 boards on sale – so what is an NDA?
Friday, April 06, 2012 12:57 PM
Its hard to say if the Ivy Bridge launch is the worst in Intel’s history, but it’s certainly been one of the most confusing. The staggered nature of the ‘event’ and complex nature of what can be released to who and by when, has caused a mish-mash of data and product to hit the market. KitGuru notices that some product is very definitely on sale and provides links.
NDA means non-disclosure agreement. Every industry uses them as a way to control when a new product or service will be released. The idea is simple enough. A manufacturer invents something new and decides to launch it. They make the product available, under NDA, to a select number of publications nice and early. That allows the testing and reviews to be completed and made ready for the launch.
When the launch data/time arrives, the NDA lifts and all of the big technology sites go live with the new information at the same time.
Simples.
The less people you tell a secret to, the more chance you have of it remaining a secret. The lest companies you sample with new product, the lower your chances of a leak. Sending out ‘final product’ to a load of channel partners nice and early, provides the ingredients for disaster. If you then stagger the release dates for the various parts of your launch (i.e. mainboards first, then the processors, then systems and finally you are allowed to talk about all of it), then you have the ‘perfect storm’ recipe.
Right now, all of the information you could need for a Z77 article/review etc is all over the web. Sure, some sites like KitGuru have agreed to hold back until Intel actually releases its NDA – but many won’t have.
Ironically, the publications with the WEAKEST relationships with Intel will have benefited the most. Not having signed an NDA – and with no reasonable expectation of samples – these smaller sites feel perfectly justified in running every story they can, nice and early.
If you have a great relationship with Intel, then you respect the NDA and sit by while all of the smaller sites run their articles.
Alanis Morissette would be proud.
So a quick check on the UK’s bigger reseller sites reveals that one man plus dog can buy Z77 chipset mainboards from Aria, Scan and Overclockers – among others. No sign of the CPUs themselves yet, but it can’t be long until they are also being sold.
* Aria shows off its full range of Z77 options
* Check out the listings at Scan
* Overclockers.co.uk seem to have everything you could need as well
KitGuru says: We like the idea of an NDA, but to be effective, the gap between the initial rumour of a product being made available – and the actual on sale date – needs to be as small as possible. As a chip manufacturer, you can’t sample system builders across the globe for a month before the NDA lifts and expect there to be an NDA left. That’s just our 10 cents worth.
Comment below or in the KitGuru forums.
iPad 3 Wifi problems rage on
Friday, April 06, 2012 12:49 PM
We have reported before that some people have been complaining that their new iPad 3 has been experiencing Wi-Fi problems. While the Kitguru staff have yet to experience the issue, there are several discussions online which are continuing to grow.
One thread on the official Apple forum for instance has now received over 860 messages at time of publication. The problem seems to be more widespread now that more people have bought the new tablet computer. The majority of complaints have been issued by the Wi-Fi model owners, although some 4G enabled tablets appear to be experiencing the same problem.
Some users are complaining that their iPad has a problem even connecting to their wireless network while others claim that their iPad 3 is losing the connection after a short time. Reading the thread would highlight that many of the networks are giving a strong signal, so the problem isn’t that simple.
One user Sully2003 says “Same here! Will not hold WIFI for more than a few minutes. Two MacBooks and iPhone working fine from same router. Ready to return iPad!!!!!”
Another, called lt_Caveman added “I had an ipad1 and no problems, ipad2 and no problems, ipad3 wifi is WEAK. Settings are the same as the ipad2. I am running a iPhone 4s and an i7 MacBook air on the same routers. I have two year old Apllt Airport Extreme, one at work one at home and there are setup the same. Only the iPad three give me wifi issues. All routers and devices have all updates installed. I even tried a dual band netgear router and all my stuff has great connectivity and range expect the iPad. If this is the trade off for the better display, it just not worth it and then new pad will be returned for refund. I’ll give it a few more days to see if Apple release any updates that might help but for the first time the hype of the new device just hasn’t stacked up”.
Kitguru says: The problems seem to be growing for Apple, as more people buy the new tablet. No official comment yet, or service for people to return them to base for a check.
Apple OS attacked by Trojan Malware
Friday, April 06, 2012 11:48 AM
One of the man reasons Apple users feel superior when they boot the Mac, is the supposed lack of viruses. There’s no doubt that locking hardware to software with the Unix operating system has security advantages, but is it invulnerable? New reports suggest not. KitGuru dresses like Colombo to investigate.
The idea of a BotNet is that a computer can be used to visit various web sites – without the knowledge or permission of the owner. In other words, you think your computer is sitting there waiting for you to click a mouse or launch an Angry Bird, but – in fact – it is busy hitting hundreds of web sites.
At the low end, it might be used to boost traffic to a particular site. At the other end of the scale, it can be used as part of a Denial of Service (DoS) attack – designed to bring down the systems at a major corporation or government.
One of Apple’s problems with its operating system, is that not 100% of the components required to run a computer are made by Apple. For instance, it needs to be able to run Java – presently owned by Oracle. A security vulnerability in Java was detected earlier in the year and a patch was released for non-Apple systems on Valentine’s Day by Oracle. Unfortunately, those security plugs were not applied to the Apple bathtub until 8 weeks later.
Experts say that the level of infection is probably around 600,000 Apple Macs – with half of the infected population living in the US of A.
Security firms with a ‘zero sized chunk of the fastest growing OS market’, like Kaspersky and F-Secure, were quick to jump on the band wagon with ‘See, see, we told you we were needed – please spend money with us’ messages of support. At least F-Secure wasn’t just throwing stones at the glass house, but also manage to post instructions that allow Apple victims to know whether their Mac needs hospitalisation.
KitGuru says: While this is a great story for the security community, the safety of Apple systems is hardly in doubt – and they are still significantly more solid than Windows-based PCs. Sure, you have to live without some features that PC users take for granted, but the idea that a ‘wild hoard’ can come crashing through your OS is unlikely.
Comments below or in the KitGuru forums.
Win an OCZ Vertex 4 SSD with OCUK and Kitguru!
Thursday, April 05, 2012 10:13 PM
Today we are working with OCUK to give away a stonking, brand new Vertex 4 128GB Solid State Drive!
We reviewed the 512GB version of this drive earlier this week and it scored 9.5 points out of 10!
Zardon said “OCZ’s Vertex 4 512GB is a game changer and one of the most capable, well balanced Solid State drives on the market. I can’t remember the last time I genuinely felt excited reviewing a Solid State drive, so it was a refreshing change putting the Vertex 4 through the paces today.”
To stand a chance of winning this fantastic product, follow the simple guidelines below.
1. Like the KITGURU FACEBOOK page!
2. Like the OVERCLOCKERS FACEBOOK page!
3. Then just email us the answer to a really simple question.
‘What is the write speed of the 256GB drive?‘
a: 14 MB/s
b: 380 MB/s
c: 420 MB/s
Need help with the answer? visit this page.
When you have the question sorted, email Kitguru (competitions (at) kitguru.net) with the subject line ‘speed me up with a Vertex 4!’, 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 30th April 2012 and the winner will be announced by the 10th of May 2012. The prize will ship within the following two weeks. 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.
Angry Birds replaced at No1 by ‘Draw Something’
Thursday, April 05, 2012 9:49 PM
The new mobile game ‘ Draw Something’ has become the fastest growing mobile game in history. Within the space of 50 days the game, originally designed by OMGPOP has reached over 50 million downloads. Zynga bought the company and have been able to claim the success as their own, yet again.
Angry Birds has been knocked has been knocked into second place by Draw Something in the Apple App Store.
Draw Something has gained popularity due to the ease of use, and the interactive way that everyone can enjoy the experience. Players can also invite friends to play and create a social experience on top of the single player mode.
Zynga paid $180 million for the startup company who created the game, a lot of money to invest. Clearly they did their research as this game has generated a lot attention worldwide already.
Statistics revealed say that people who have played the game have created 6 billion drawings already, since the game launched. It is growing at 3,000 drawings per second. Incredible!
Kitguru says: Have you played it yet? Do you like it?
eReader users read more books than hardback lovers
Thursday, April 05, 2012 7:02 PM
A recent study from Pew Internet has discovered interesting statistics on American’s habits where book reading is concerned. The study reveals that the average e-reader user has read 24 books in the last year, compared to just 15 books read by those preferring traditional paper books.
In a country where 99% of people can read and write, only 78% of people have read a book at all in the last year. While 21% of American adults have read an e-book in the last year. This is up from 17% in just a few short months. This has been caused by the advent of cheap and easily available tablets such as the Amazon Kindle Fire.
The study also looked into when and where people prefer e-books over the printed font. As a general rule e-books are preferred when they want access to a book quickly, when travelling and when the user is looking for a wider selection. After all an e-book is the size of a small book, while also being able to store hundreds of books.
Unsurprisingly, books are strongly preferred when reading with a child and when books are shared with other people. You still can’t beat a class picture book for young children. While the verdict is still split between the electronic and print editions of books whilst reading in bed.
Kitguru says: Read it in the dark, read it wherever you please, it is no surprise e-readers are becoming more popular.
DDR3-3000+ speeds reached in Quad Channel config
Thursday, April 05, 2012 6:55 PM
The always challenging memory overclocking segment has just witnessed another push to heights not reached previously; this time in terms of quad channel setups.
Just last month we saw G.Skill and GIGABYTE reach for the stars, and by George did they ever, achieving a staggering 3736MHz on AMD’s dual channel Llano platform.
Taking another good crack at jumping into the limelight once again with a Core i7-3770K “Ivy Bridge” processor and GIGABYTE Z77X-UD5H motherboard, renowned Chinese overclocker Coolaler suited the platform up with four 4GB G.Skill DDR3-2600 MHz modules and went to town while remaining confined to air cooling measures.
Amazingly, the 3000MHz barrier was smashed and Coolaler continued to climb, settling for 3077MHz in the end with latencies of 11-14-14-35 2T. A remarkable feat indeed! – You can watch the event unfold in the 8 minute video below :-
KitGuru says: A pretty staggering result considering it was all done with nothing more than traditional air cooling. Makes you wonder just how far he could have gone if using more extreme cooling measures.
Asus GTX680 Graphics Card Review
Thursday, April 05, 2012 3:08 PM
AMD have had it all their own way in 2012 as Nvidia have taken longer than expected to launch their latest ‘Kepler’ hardware. The guys in green want to reclaim the high end performance throne with the ‘fastest, most efficient GPU ever built’ and today we are looking at the latest high end GTX680 graphics card, courtesy of ASUS.
This review has been long overdue due to some hardware problems with previous GTX680 samples we received. When we finally received a fully working sample we had been forced to move onto other hardware in our ever expanding review queue. The life of a tech site is fast moving, schedules shift on a daily basis. But better late than never, we say.
By now most of you will have read multiple reviews on the high end hardware and we already know it is good. Nvidia always have one goal in mind and that is to win the battle, I do admire them for that.
Sometimes I can question the mental maturity of their PR and marketing division but on a hardware level they rarely disappoint. My only interest is the hardware they release anyway and that is why we are here today.
The GTX680 implements a new system of adjusting the clock speed and voltages dynamically. The goal is to ensure the ultimate performance level while optimising the power consumption. The interesting comparisons will be against AMD’s HD7970 and MSI’s overclocked R7970 Lightning and seeing how the new card slots into the overall market.
Product
Nvidia GTX580
Nvidia GTX590
Nvidia GTX680
AMD HD7970
Transistors
3000m
3000m x2
3540m
4310m
Core Clock
772mhz
607mhz
1006mhz+
925mhz
Memory clock
1002mhz
855mhz
1502mhz
1375mhz
Shaders
512
512×2
1536
2048
ROPs
48
48×2
32
32
Memory amount
3GB
3GBx2
2GB
3GB
Memory bus width
384bit
384 bit x 2
256 bit
384 bit
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