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AMD high-end FX series processors will battle Intel Core i7 series in September
Apple iPhone 5 will launch in October, not September
Nokia 500 Symbian Anna smartphone delivers power on a budget
HTC Desire Android Gingerbread update arrives, finally
Diablo III details emerge: real money, online only and no game mods
Best Buy TVs arrive with TiVo interface, but where’s the DVR?
New MacBook Air review: This is what Lion was built for
Sony PlayStation Vita: everything we know so far (and what we’re hoping for)
Asus Eee Pad Slider: 32GB model finally shipping in September
Foxconn robots will build your future iPad

AMD high-end FX series processors will battle Intel Core i7 series in September

Posted: 01 Aug 2011 08:48 AM PDT

The battle among high-end processors begins next month. According to a report from DigiTimes, AMD is set to mass product its FX-series Bulldozer-based processors in August with a launch as soon as September and mass production in October. The Intel Core i5 and i7 series chips now have a new competitor.

AMD's FX series Bulldozer-based processors will come in eight, six and quad-core versions. The line will begin with the eight-core FX-8150 (125W) and FX-8100 (95W); six-core FX-6100 (95W) and quad-core FX-4100 (95W). In early 2012 the eight-core FX-8170 and FX-8120; six-core FX-6120; and quad-core FX-4120 processors will arrive.

The new FX series is set to replace AMD's Phenom II AM3 processors and should represent 20 percent of the manufacturer's total desktop CPU shipments in the first quarter of 2012. With any luck, AMD's FX series chips will force Intel to lower prices.

Coming Soon | AMD | TBD

Apple iPhone 5 will launch in October, not September

Posted: 01 Aug 2011 08:10 AM PDT

According to John Paczkowski of the Wall Street Journal blog AllThingsD, At&t's late September employee vacation blackout has nothing to do with the iPhone 5 launch. In fact, the iPhone 5 is not coming in September, it will arrive in October. A bold prediction, but will the rumor pan out?

Predicting the iPhone 5 launch is becoming a bit like the Verizon iPhone rumors. If you keep throwing out dates, eventually one will stick. AllThingsD joins the list of major publications citing inside sources who claim to know Apple's big day. In this case, the inside source said, "I don't know why AT&T's calling for all hands on deck those weeks, but it's not for an iPhone launch."

October is the month of reckoning. When asked for a specific date, the source decline, but did say it will be later in the month, rather than earlier. So there you have it, the latest iPhone 5 rumors have the smartphone launching in late October 2011.

Will the rumors pan out? Only time will tell, but come October we'll know whether AllThingsD lives or dies by the sword.

via AllThingsD

Nokia 500 Symbian Anna smartphone delivers power on a budget

Posted: 01 Aug 2011 07:30 AM PDT

Impressive spec sheets and affordable pricing rarely coexist. The Nokia 500 Symbian Anna smartphone announced today breaks that tradition. Powered by a blazing-fast 1 GHz processor, Nokia 500 will cost just £132 before taxes and subsidies when it launches in the third quarter this year. Ready to meet the Nokia 500?

Powered by Symbian Anna, the Nokia 500 screams with its 1 GHz processor. Up front you have a 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen running at a resolution of 640 x 360 pixels. On the back is a video-capable 5-megapixel camera and inside there's 2GB of storage. To save all your photos and video a microSD card slot with support for up to 32GB cards is included.

The Nokia 500 is a 3G smartphone, capable of 5.8 Mbps HSUPA speeds. Bluetooth 2.1 and Wi-Fi b/g round out the feature set. As the lightest Symbian^3 smartphone to date, the 500 weighs just 93 grams and measures 111.3 x 53.8 x 14.1 mm. Even more impressive is despite the light and thin form factor, the Nokia 500 still manages 5-7 hours talk time, 35 hours of music playback or over 450 hours of standby.

Nokia hopes you make the 500 your own and will offer the smartphone in both black and white colors. Additionally, there's three different colored back colors in the box. Once launched, Nokia will offer purple, azure blue, pink, coral red, orange and dark silver colored backs. Stay tuned for the Nokia 500, arriving later this year for £132 before taxes and subsidies. Who says you have to sacrifice performance on a budget?

Coming Soon | Nokia | £132 plus taxes and subsidies

HTC Desire Android Gingerbread update arrives, finally

Posted: 01 Aug 2011 07:00 AM PDT

Following severe outcry from HTC Desire owners, the company has come forward with an official Android Gingerbread update. The barebones update loses several HTC apps, the official Facebook app and almost all of the wallpapers. For those daring enough to proceed, HTC has advised the update is for "expert users" only.

Losing the official Facebook app and HTC wallpapers is far from a deal breaker. Simply head to the Android Market and put your downloading skills to use. What could be a deal breaker is this next bit of news. HTC warns that SMS/MMS may not work post-update. Hopefully that means carrier settings are simply missing and must be inputted manually. Let's just say we've got our fingers crossed on this one.

This might be why HTC is recommending the update for "expert users" and emphasized that the update is "for development only and not for general public use." As with any update you'll lose all of your apps and data so remember to backup first. Now for the rub: if you purchased your Desire in Germany, North America, South America, South Korea or Japan, this update will not work "due to concerns raised from our partners."

If you purchased your HTC Desire outside of these regions and consider yourself and "expert user", head on over to developer.htc.com and grab your Gingerbread update today.

Out Now | HTC | Free

Diablo III details emerge: real money, online only and no game mods

Posted: 01 Aug 2011 06:32 AM PDT

Blizzard has revealed several major changes coming to the third installment of Diablo, Diablo III. The franchise which began way back in 1996 will skip the fake currency and instead allow the buying and selling of in-game items for cold hard cash. If you think that's crazy, check out the other changes headed our way.

Money, real money
There's no need to be a professional gamer if you'd like to earn while playing Diablo III. Blizzard will charge a "nominal" listing fee for gamers to list any of the in-game items they acquire while playing. All sales will be cash and the money can either be deposited into your Blizzard account or cashed out via a third party service. Who said you can't make money gaming?

Offline mode? Nope
The days of playing Diablo offline are numbered. Diablo III is an online-only title, preventing offline cheating. This means no separate offline and online characters, but more importantly it eliminates piracy. With real money on the line Blizzard was adamant about protecting its gamers and we're inclined to agree with its decision.

Game mods need not apply here
Starcraft fans will find no third-party modding love in Diablo III. Blizzard has nixed mods primarily because the game lacks an offline mode. Without an offline mode there's no place for gameplay experimentation and Blizzard will not allow potential advantages in the auction house with automated searches.

Coming Soon | Blizzard | TBD

Best Buy TVs arrive with TiVo interface, but where’s the DVR?

Posted: 01 Aug 2011 06:03 AM PDT

TiVo without a DVR, are you serious? Yes my friends, this is exactly what Best Buy created with its Insignia Connected TV line powered by the familiar TiVo interface. The new sets launched today and come in two sizes: 32 and 42-inch. The partnership between Best Buy and TiVo is a software-only affair, designed to add search for Internet-based content to your living room.

The cost of admission to ride the Best Buy TV train will set you back $499 (£303) for the 32-inch and $699 (£426) for the 42-inch. Onboard you'll find apps from Netflix, CinemaNow, YouTube, Pandora and Napster. There's also the social media apps from Twitter, Facebook, and the Chumby content network. Overall, the Best Buy branded Insignia Connected TV line will set you back an extra $100 (£60) compared to a standard 32 or 42-inch Insignia set.

Besides the apps and TiVo interface, both Best Buy TVs are full HD 1080p and run at 120 Hz. They have four HDMI inputs, built in Wi-Fi and are compatible with Best Buy's wireless audio technology, Rocketboost, which works great for sound bar and rear-channel surround sound speaker installations.

The TiVo interface powering the sets is limited to CinemaNow and YouTube listings (for now). To access Netflix content you'll need to go into the app, there's no keyboard option and you can't search TV listings from your service provider. All signs that this is a first generation product. Maybe with the addition of a USB port and IR blaster, the Best Buy Insignia Connected TV line could replace a TV and TiVo, but we'd imagine there'd be a monthly fee involved. Last time we checked TiVo was in the business of monthly subscriptions.

Out Now | Best Buy | $499 (£303), $699 (£426)

New MacBook Air review: This is what Lion was built for

Posted: 01 Aug 2011 04:20 AM PDT

The white plastic MacBook didn’t die. Turns out it was just an ugly duckling, then one day it lost its bum fluff and woke up with a beautiful plumage of unibody aluminium, a better processor, and a waif like profile. In other words, as the new MacBook Air.

As smooth as the very first MacBook Air “envelope opening” was, Apple’s answer to a netbook was for a very long time the butt of jokes. It was overpriced, it was underpowered, Apple has washed its hands of it. Then last year, it hit back with a beautiful new version, packing a respectable Core 2 Duo processor. This time round, it’s back with Sandy Bridge silicon, and it is glorious.

Design and build

The design hasn’t changed much since the 2010 revamp bar the odd port switch: in other words, it’s beautiful. It tapers down from 1.7cm to just 0.3cm, with beautiful curved edges. It’s hard to believe since the smaller model still weighs in at 1.08kg, but it actually feels more portable than the unbelievably thin iPad 2. That’s right: we’d be happier taking this OS X machine out of the house than a tablet.

Our review unit was the 11.6-inch model (which sadly lacks an SD card slot, unlike the larger 13-inch model), which perches delicately balanced on the cusp of portability. At this size, touch typing on the solid chiclet keyboard is no slower than on full size machines, where the boards on 10-inch netbooks are just a bit too cramped. This time though, the keyboard is backlit too. Hooray!

Turning to the sides, things are kept to a bare minimum: on the left is the charging port, a USB slot and a 3.5mm audio jack, while the right hand side houses another USB port (Giving you as many as a MacBook Pro, we might add) and a Thunderbolt socket. The latter, which deals out high speed data transfer, sounds a bit like overkill at first for something so small – as fast as this is this obviously isn’t a replacement for a Mac Pro – but it has its uses. It’s a useful means of connecting your MacBook Air to an external monitor, and it also provides a workaround to the machine’s biggest failing: no Ethernet.

You see, it’s not just the speed difference between Gigabit Ethernet and ropey Wi-Fi (Although this is often huge), it’s the lack of an option on occasion that can leave the MacBook Air looking like a sexy paperweight, and a useless one at that since it’s so damn light.

We took our MacBook Air on a road trip abroad recently and ended up slightly burned as we struggled to find a way to connect in a sparsely equipped press room with no Wi-Fi.

The good news though is that this time around, Thunderbolt will solve this problem. With an adaptor, you can simply plug that Cat5 cable straight into it. Of course, the only slight hitch is that such adaptors aren’t actually on sale yet, but they should be in the next few months, so fingers crossed this problem fixes itself sharpish. It’s the only thing holding back the MacBook Air from greatness – and in the meantime you can always buy a USB to Ethernet adaptor straight from Apple.

Display

The 1366×768 LED backlit screen on the 11.6-inch new MacBook Air is a marvel, and we doubt the higher-rez 1440×900 number on the larger model is any different. It’s bright, crisp and rich in colour. It isn’t an edge-to-edge job as on the MacBook Pro, with a glass overlay, but then that hasn’t always been the best aspect of Apple’s workhorse laptops, bringing as it does plenty of glare. We’ll take that for slightly better visibility in sunlight – this is a work outdoors laptop after all.

Performance

The first MacBook Air wasn’t quite up to the intensive tasks you might require only five percent of the time – which for many was a deal breaker. For everyone but professional video editors, last year’s MacBook Air was. This model does everything without breaking a sweat.

Our test unit packs a second generation 1.8GHz Core i7 processor with 4GB of DDR3 RAM, though the baseline models use a slightly slower Core i5 chip clocked at 1.6GHz. Based on what we found though, it’ll almost certainly deliver blistering performance. We opened as many full screen apps as we could and whizzed through them at speed. We played games with respectable settings and no slowdown. Hell, we even plugged in a DVD drive and encoded a video with Handbrake quicker than we can on our 2009 MacBook Pro. Not bad, considering there’s only Intel’s dedicated graphics inside.

The solid state drive only serves to speed everything up compared to slower (though admittedly higher capacity) mechanical hard drives on other Macs. This machine is absolutely perfect for Photoshop and iMovie use, and dare we say it, even light Final Cut in a pinch.

Our only trip up was with Flash video. Never especially smooth on Macs, it outright doesn’t work on the new MacBook Air – that’s only because OS X is a brand new OS however, and Adobe says it’s already on the case so expect a patch soon.

As for battery life? It’s on a par with your typical MacBook Pro, lasting a solid four hours of use with Wi-Fi on and screen brightness at around eighty percent. Granted, it’s not up there with some of Asus’ Eee PC netbooks for longevity, but that’s to be expected when the processor inside is vastly superior.

And could grumble about the battery not being replaceable, but Apple made its views on this clear a long time ago. If you’re going to make a bed out of a MacBook laptop, you’d best lie in it. It does at least look pretty.

OS X Lion

We wouldn’t normally spend much time on the software in a MacBook review – OS X is OS X right? Except in the case of the new version, Lion, and on a MacBook Air, it really isn’t.

On an 11.6-inch MacBook Air, almost every new feature (Bar the LaunchPad, that’s still pointless) feels perfectly crafted for the form factor. On a chassis with so few ports, Airdrop is a supremely convenient means of file transfer. On a 27-inch iMac, fullscreen apps might seem absurd, but here, they’re utterly essential – and rolling through them all with a four finger swipe is a thing of beauty. Try this, and you won’t settle for Windows or even Snow Leopard navigation ever again.

Viewed in this light, Lion actually feels like a little but of a snub to all the Thunderbolt port-less Mac Pro users with their multiple Photoshop windows and legacy applications. Get portable or die, Cupertino seems to be saying.

Verdict

Over the years we’ve tirelessly sought after the ultimate marriage of portability and power. Apple’s first MacBook Air was just too weedy and too expensive. Asus never quite managed to deliver with its low price, tiny Eee PCs, in truth because Intel’s Atom processors were just a false economy. MSI’s X-Slim range were as flimsy as they were thin. The closest thing we’ve seen so far is Toshiba excellent Portege R700 and R830 series of 13-inch laptops.

But while the silicon is the same, they’re no match for this: the new MacBook Air’s mix of hardware oomph, design aesthetic and wonderful operating system just can’t be beaten. Where the MacBook Air was a niche product before, it’s now suitable for all but niche audiences (video editors, gamers who still haven’t realised that gaming laptops are the most pointless things in the universe).

But not only that, this is the new MacBook, the new lowest price Apple laptop, the Mac for casual use. It just happens to be even faster, look even better, and for possibly the first time with an Apple product, it’s almost value for money as well. That’s enough for us. Best laptop. Evah.

Sony PlayStation Vita: everything we know so far (and what we’re hoping for)

Posted: 01 Aug 2011 03:47 AM PDT

The PlayStation Vita will be out in October in the UK, according to a leak from Blockbuster this morning. Exciting stuff indeed, but what do we know about it so far? And what are we hoping for the extra skills it'll come packing?

Read on for 14 reasons to save up for October 28th.

1 It'll have location-based gaming options

Sony's keeping quiet on its social media functions and broader apps until Gamescom, but rumours suggest they'll be very similar to the Nintendo 3DS. Near is a location-based gifting system which lets you leave surprises at locations – anything from in-game items to challenges. You can specify whether they're free for anyone, or only specific players. LiveArena, meanwhile, is like a news feed, bringing together downloadable content, updates, promotions and notifications from friends.

2 It'll have cross-game voice chat

Party lets you form groups of four and then chat via voice or chat regardless what you're doing. So that means even if you're all playing different games, you can IM or speak to each other right there and then. Take that, noob!

3 The price will compete with the 3DS

A few weeks ago Sony Computer Entertainment's CEO Andrew House dropped some quite large hints at the pricing, and things were sounding quite promising. The Wi-Fi only model is looking to be £229, while the 3G and Wi-Fi version will come in at £279. The Wi-Fi only is the same as the launch price of the Nintendo 3DS, though the price cut that hit Japan is set to reach Europe by next month. But still it’s encouraging, especially considering Sony’s usual high prices.

4 Sony will lose money on every sale

It's the case with most consoles, and the Vita is no different: Sony will lose on every unit sold. SCEE CEO Kaz Hirai confirmed as much in an interview with Reuters recently, but added Sony hopes to start making a profit from the console within three years.

5 The rear touch pad will add a new dimension to games…

It's one of the most intriguing parts of the Vita, a touch pad on the back that gives you added controls, letting you play games without pressing buttons. In some mini games, you drag your finger along it to make a series of mountains erupt, and in Uncharted: Golden Abyss you can use it to plot the trajectory of a grenade. The possibilities are endless: one we'd like to see is using it for windscreen wipers on a racer.

6 …though it was nearly dropped in development

Sony's Shuhei Yoshida revealed in an interview that Sony execs weren't sure players would get enough enjoyment out of the touch pad during testing phases, but after trying it out for themselves, they were sold.

7 PS3 compatibility

We'll admit this is purely a hope from us, and we doubt it's going to happen as it's not powerful enough, but wouldn't it be great to be playing on your PS3, then switch off and carry on playing on your PS Vita when you leave the house? Far more likely is it'll only work with PSN games, but if Sony could find a way to somehow scale them down, for Wii U-style seamless compatibility, that'd have us stumping up our cash come launch day.

8 Beefy insides

Powering the Vita is an ARM Cortex A9 Core CPU, which is the same that's used in Apple's A5 processor that powers the iPhone; though the Vita CPU is quad core, the A5 dual core, so expect quite a disparity in performance.

9 Star of the big screen

That's a massive 5-inch screen on the front, dwarfing most phones and other handheld gaming consoles, with a 16:9 aspect ratio and a resolution of 960 x 544. It’s not HD, admittedly, but we'll have to reserve judgement until we have one in our hands.

10 New software

LiveArea has replaced XrossMediaBar as the UI – it's like a hub page, letting you jump between different parts of the game space (like XMB before it), with message boards and trophy support, for showing off your hard earned rewards.

11 It'll play your old PSP games

The Vita is fully backwards compatible with all PSP games released digitally from the PlayStation Store. So if you've bought it as a download, it'll play on your Vita, which is good news for retro fans and those in favour of saving space alike.

12 Dual cameras expand its possibilities

Front and rear cameras allow face detection, head detection and head tracking, and it'll support augmented reality for laying computer graphics over what's right in front of you in the real world, for some head-twisting shooter action, just like on the Nintendo 3DS. Get ready to start shooting your friends in their photo-realistic faces now.

13 Add in your own memory

It comes with a memory card slot, so you can slide in a memory card to add more space to load on more movies, photos and games.

14 Launch line-up

The launch games include: Unchartered: Golden Abyss; Hustle Kings; Everybody's Golf Next; Killzone; Wipeout 2048; Resistance; LittleBigPLanet; BlazBlue; Continuum Shift II; Ridge Racer; and Call of Duty.

Asus Eee Pad Slider: 32GB model finally shipping in September

Posted: 01 Aug 2011 03:03 AM PDT

The Asus Eee Pad Slider has been among the most anticipated Android tablets for ages. The Android Honeycomb tablet with its slideout QWERTY-keyboard charmed us during our first hands on during CES in January and we gave it a thorough going over in our Asus Eee Pad Slider preview in March but there’s been scant news on it since. An Asus Eee Pad Slider listing popped up on Amazon Germany in June but without a release date.

After such a lot of delays, it’s good to hear from tablet watchers in the Netherlands that the Asus Eee Pad Slider will be with us by September. Tablet Magazine says the original 16GB model has been ditched in favour of a single 32GB model priced at €499 (£437) with the 3G-enabled version following it in early 2012. When the Asus Eee Pad Slider finally ships, it’ll come packing Android Honeycomb 3.1 and you can see it being put through its paces with that version of the OS onboard after the break…

Out September | £TBC | Asus (via Tablet Magazine/Engadget)

Foxconn robots will build your future iPad

Posted: 01 Aug 2011 02:45 AM PDT

While the iPad 3 will be put together by human hands, future iPad models could be assembled entirely by robots if new plans from Foxconn come to pass. The manufacturer which currently puts together most of Apple’s iPhone and iPad production runs, wants to introduce 1 million robots into its factories over the next three years.

Foxconn already has 10,000 robots in service but its founder and chairman, Terry Gou, revealed the plan to vastly increase its automated army and cut costs in a speech to workers. The new robots will take over tasks like spraying, welding and assembly which are currently done by humans. In a particularly cheery touch, Gou apparently made the announcement just before an employee dance party. Presumably no one felt like doing the robot after hearing the news.

Due 2014 | £NA | Foxconn (via Reuters)