OCZ Technology PC3-16000

OCZ Technology PC3-16000 - The world of high-performance RAM takes no prisoners, and Super Talent Technology’s previously top-of-the-line memory has now been eclipsed by OCZ Technology. The company has announced their own 4GB DDR3 kit, the PC3-16000, which features two 2GB sticks running at 2,000MHz (compared to STT’s 1,800MHz). OCZ are positioning their RAM as ideal for overclockers and intensive gamers.

OCZ Technology  PC3-16000 - The RAM can be either passively or water cooled, though OCZ recommend the latter if it’s going to be overclocked. Aluminium fins take care of the passive cooling. All of the necessary water-cooling clips, barbs and hoses are included in the package.

“It is no myth that higher memory densities make it harder to push higher clock frequencies. OCZ Technology pulled off this seemingly impossible task with the release of the world’s fastest high-density memory solution. The new OCZ DDR3 PC3-16000 Platinum Edition kits combine two 2GB modules for 4GB system density running at 9-9-9 latencies and a record-breaking 2GHz data rate. All of this is achieved at only 1.9V which falls well within the voltage tolerances of any DDR3 memory controller currently on the market” Dr. Michael Schuette, VP of Technology Development, OCZ Technology

Read rest of entry

HTC to invest $40 million into OnLive

HTC to invest $40 million into OnLive - For a company that pulled in NT$14.59 billion (about $500 million in US currency) in net profit last fiscal quarter, $40 million isn't exactly a huge chunk of change. But the recipient of HTC's money this go around is mighty interesting: cloud gaming experts OnLive. Said company spokesperson Maggie Cheng via Wall Street Journal, this will "strengthen its gaming capabilities and help HTC tap into increasing demand for games on smartphones" -- yep, smartphones. HTC also announced it has acquired London-based Saffron Digital for about $48.6 million, although it said the buyout shouldn't affect deals with its current content partners including Nokia, Sony Ericsson, LG, and Samsung. We don't think the OnLive investment will stop the cloud gaming company from pushing its way onto as many platforms as (in)humanly possible, but we'd be lying if we said we didn't expect HTC's versions to be even grander in scale and performance.

Read rest of entry

Acer’s Liquid E Ferrari Special Edition

Acer’s Liquid E Ferrari Special Edition - Acer has officially announced the special edition of its Liquid E Android smartphone in celebration of Ferrari's 800th Formula 1 race. The Liquid E Ferrari is not the first project that the two companies collaborated on, the Taiwanese company having also given Ferrari makeovers to some of its notebooks. 

The Acer Liquid E Ferrari Special Edition will feature the traditional color of the Italian supercar manufacturer, with Acer and Ferrari logos fitted on its glossy, chrome, trimmed back cover.

The device will come with an official Ferrari wallpaper, an interesting microphone designed to look like a Formula 1 air-intake inlet and, of course, ringtones that resemble the sound of a Ferrari engine. Apart from the carbon-fiber, black, prancing-horse logo on the back, the device also comes with a noise-cancellation Bluetooth headset bearing the Ferrari emblem and a Ferrari case designed to protect the device from dust and shocks.

“A Ferrari is not just about speed. It is an expression of beauty, power, excitement, pleasure and natural excellence,” Gianpiero Morbello, Acer vice president, Marketing and Brand, comments. “From the original concept to the finished product the new smartphone was conceived down to the finest details with the idea of giving a stronger sense of belonging to all Ferrari fans.”

Apart from its red color, logos and wallpapers, the smartphone has the same specifications as the standard Acer Liquid E. The device sports a 3.5-inch capacitive touchscreen display, GPS support, Wi-Fi connectivity, a 5-megapixel autofocus camera and a Snapdragon 1GHz processor, powered by Android 2.1.

Compared with the Ferrari supercar itself, the device will not be out of reach for most people, but, since Acer has not announced its price or availability, we can expect this special edition to have a price tag higher than that of the standard Liquid E version.

Read rest of entry

Best Apps for Snow Junkies Review

Best Apps for Snow Junkies Review - Carrying a phone

on the slopes isn't just a good way to make sure you don't freeze to death after careening off an unseen ledge. With the right apps, it can be helpful in non-emergency-related ways, too!

Ignoring occasional glitchiness—particularly with remembering favorite resorts through updates—it's hard to fault North Face's Snow Report app. Its feature list reads like the results of a brainstorm session titled, "Why the hell would anyone want to bring a smartphone skiing with them?" which is actually, probably, pretty much this app's origin story. This means: quick weather updates for virtually any resort, trail maps for quite a few; on-the-ground details, like ski lift running times and snow totals; and a basic route tracking function. Free, iPhone.

An all-in-one personal GPS app that you should probably have anyway, MotionX GPS excels at one broad function: tracking where you've been. Which is pretty important for a skier, I think! By keeping this app running all day, or at least during runs, you'll end up with a full readout of distance skied, elevation gained and lost, top and average speeds, etcetera. It's just as fun to pull out at the top of a run, too, to get a birds-eye topological view of what you're about to tumble down, complete with altitude data. 3, iPhone.

Snow Report does a decent job of providing relevant weather stats, but if you need deeper data—and any skier planning a long-needed, all-too-rare trip really does—then you'll need to go with a dedicated app. I find Weatherbug to have the most complete and accessible data among the free apps. It's certainly powerful enough to give you a sense of how your next day, or ten days, on the slope are going to feel—not just how deep the snow will be. Free, iPhone

Read rest of entry

Explosive Dell Venue

Explosive Dell Venue - It's the Dell Venue, and no, you still can't buy one outside Hong Kong or South Korea just yet. All we can speculate is that this Android phone is facing the same manufacturing issues as its WP7 cousin, but hopefully we're wrong. Anyhow, what matters is that we've finally gotten our hands on a retail unit of the Snapdragon-packing Venue. So is it worth the wait for Androiders distanced from the Far East? And will this handset be the answer for our love-hate relationship with the Streak? Head on right past the break to find out.

Hardware

It's hard to deny that Dell's come a long way with the styling of its mobile devices, evolving from the cheap-looking Axim Windows Mobile PDAs (although the X50 series received much love from the community) to the now eye-catching Venue duo. Like the Streak, we've had people inquiring us about or at least eyeing at our Venue -- we're guessing it's mostly to do with the rounded chrome sides contrasting the black body, and the vibrant 4.1-inch AMOLED screen certainly helps as well despite its low visibility under strong daylight. Upon closer inspection, you'll also notice the subtly curved "Shear Design" Gorilla Glass -- which is also featured on the Venue Pro -- that covers practically the entire face of the phone, thus contributing towards the Venue's premium look no matter what angle you look at it from. Funnily enough, Dell didn't place much emphasis on the Shear Design's ergonomic benefits, but some of us feel that the curvature makes our thumb-swiping gesture slightly more comfortable. Maybe it's just us.

On a related note, the Venue's rounded sides and curved back also provide better grip, although there have been a few occasions when our naughty fingertips slipped around the back far enough to interfere with our touch input, especially when we're lying in bed. Looking back at our other phones for a sanity check, we realised that their sharper edges along the screen are actually pretty effective at stopping our fingertips from accidentally touching the screen; whereas the Venue lacks such "feature" to warn our fingers. Ah well, guess we have to sacrifice a little for the looks.

Going back to the glass: despite our careful handling and short ownership so far, our Venue's screen has somehow managed to accumulate a couple of light scratches. It sure was a surprise given the Gorilla Glass' impressive performance in our previous torture test -- perhaps our travel through the different climates of Hong Kong, Las Vegas and London made the material more vulnerable. We've written to Corning to see whether this is a possibility, so watch this space for an update.

Read rest of entry

Nikkei: PSP2 3G cellular data, OLED touchscreen

Nikkei: PSP2 3G cellular data, OLED touchscreen - We're only four days away from a supposed January 27th unveiling, but apparently there are still more juicy PSP2 rumors left to dole out -- Japan's often-reliable Nikkei newspaper reports that the handheld machine will sport a crisp OLED touchscreen and 3G data from NTT DoCoMo when it arrives later this year, with the latter enabling multiplayer action and even full video and game downloads over the Japanese cellular network. What's more, the paper confirms that the screen will be physically larger and powered by some potent new silicon. So, how will Sony differentiate this PSP2 from the PlayStation Phone and tempt you to buy both? The game system won't make calls.

Note: In case you're not familiar, the image above is a relatively ancient reader mockup, and likely not representative of the final product. It is pretty sexy, though.

Read rest of entry

Best 3DTVs

The Best 3DTVs - Something you might not know: 3DTVs tend to be the best performing HDTVs period, 'cause the set has to scream to deliver awesome images to each eyeball separately. Well, these are the best 3DTVs around,

Read rest of entry

Gadget That Should Have Never Been Invented

The Gadget That Should Have Never Been Invented. Some technologies have a definitive impact in the progress of civilization that will leave a mark in Humanity forever. This is not one of them. And yes, this woman is just way too happy.

Read rest of entry

MacBook Air 11-inch GelaSkin

 MacBook Air 11-inch GelaSkin - The design I decided upon for the MacBook Air 11″ was a photo of the army-issue backpack in which I carry all of my accessories and books to and fro. In this way it would not only be protected from scratches, but from nefarious intentioned characters as well. Why? Because if it were printed well enough, it would be totally camouflaged!

So we were contacted by no less than GelaSkins themselves to see if we’d like to take a look at their brand new MacBook Air protective skins.

Since I just happen to have had a brand new MacBook Air 11″ right here to go with my ancient iPod Touch 2nd gen, I decided to grab a skin for both. For the iPod Touch 2nd gen I decided to go with a massively complex London illustration by my favorite group of pixel illustrators in the world: eboy! Then for the MacBook Air 11-inch, I decided to take the DIY route and have them print my own design.

Read rest of entry

TiVo Premiere App for iPad

TiVo Premiere App for iPad review - We're not sure what it is about the home theater, but one screen just isn't enough. So we've tried for years to find another screen suitable to join our HDTV to enhance our viewing pleasure, but everything comes up short. The latest in the long line of touch screen remotes, tablet PCs, PDAs and smart phones is the iPad. Of course this device isn't exactly designed to be a home theater device, so a little software is necessary to make it suitable. The latest attempt at said software is from TiVo which is designed to be a companion app for the TiVo Premier. It doesn't let you stream video from your TiVo to your iPad, but it does have a few tricks we think you might find more useful, so go ahead and click on through to find out what those are.

Read rest of entry

Home Carpeting Robots Eye the Office Conquered

Home Carpeting Robots Eye the Office Conquered - The Roomba has conquered the home. No more vacuuming! Now robots must tackle mail delivery and coffee-making tasks in the office. Enter the coldly-named humanoid bot HRP-4. It doesn't surf the net. It doesn't gossip. It simply serves.

Starting January 28, the HRP-4 will begin to serve man by doing just that: Delivering mail, pouring coffee and even recognizing employee faces. Buy in cost? "Just" $350,000!

Initial customers will be research institutions and universities, both of which will probably be able to write off HRP-8's incredible cost as some kind of science experiment.

Read rest of entry

Kinect is Not Collecting Dust

Kinect is Not Collecting Dust - A few days ago a fellow SlashGear columnist Don Reisinger elaborated on how his Kinect was collecting dust. If I put myself in Don’s shoes I can relate to his article and his questioning of whether or not the Kinect can meet the needs of hard core gamers and a hard core gaming experience. I, however, in coming at it from a different angle, have a completely different experience with my Kinect.

Before I go much further, you need to know that for all intents and purposes I am a hard core gamer. I have grown up spending not an insignificant amount of time being entertained by video games. My father, being a long time analyst in the industry, worked on an early project with Nintendo and their first console. He brought one home during the project and I was hooked.

I’ve owned every major fixed and mobile gaming console since, and I can say video games are my guilty pleasure. That being said, after getting married my video game addiction became harder to maintain. To quote Brodie from Mallrats “Hell hath no fury like a woman’s scorn for SEGA.” How true this quote is, as video games – or more specifically me playing video games – instantly changes her generally cheery disposition.

Read rest of entry

Skype's acquisition of Qik is now complete

Skype's acquisition of Qik is now complete that was fast,  Barely one week has passed since Skype announced plans to acquire rival Qik, and now the buyout is complete. Skype celebrated with a blog post announcing the deal and reaffirms that its teams will be "working together... to make our mobile video products even better." Not to worry, Qik faithful, we doubt you're world will change much -- not yet, at least.

Read rest of entry

The future of the iPad 2, iPhone 5, and Apple TV

The future of the iPad 2, iPhone 5, and Apple TV, and why Apple is shifting its mobile line to Qualcomm chipsets - We've been hearing a ton of rumors about what direction Apple's next set of products will take and when they'll be available -- but now we've got some concrete information from reliable sources which should make the path a little clearer. And that includes info on the next iPad, the iPhone 5, the second iteration of the new Apple TV, and a big change coming for all of the company's mobile products. Want to know the scoop? Read along after the break to get the goods. 

Right now, everyone is obviously buzzing about the Verizon iPhone 4. What people aren't talking about (yet) is the fact the device will be using a Qualcomm chipset for its CDMA radio (with no GSM capabilities) as opposed to the Infineon versions seen in the GSM iPhone 4. This isn't much of a surprise by itself, but it paves the way for a major shift from Apple. But first, a little bit of a timeline.

Just before the Verizon iPhone 4 launch, we'd heard from multiple sources -- sources like the ones which gave us all that extremely accurate Apple TV info last time around -- that the iPad 2 isn't nearly as close to launch as some have speculated. Apparently, those case and hardware mockups we've seen are rather early versions, which means we're still months out from a proper introduction. It seems likely that the device will land around April (perfectly timed with the 12-month product cycle Apple enjoys). And what about that device? From what we've been told, the thinner, sleeker tablet will sport a new screen technology that is akin to (though not the same as) the iPhone 4's Retina Display and will be "super high resolution" (unlike reports to the contrary). The device will remain at 10 inches but will now feature both front and rear cameras (not a huge surprise), and... there's an SD slot. That's right -- our sources say with near certainty that the device will have a dedicated SD slot built in (with no traditional USB slot). In fact, see that weird notch in the photo below? That's where the SD part will be located. What's most interesting, however, is what's happening under the hood.

Read rest of entry

OCZ quits DRAM on super-speedy SSDs

OCZ quits DRAM business to focus on super-speedy SSDs - OCZ, a company that started life a decade ago by churning out DRAM modules for enthusiasts to throw into their towering rigs, has now announced it's abandoning that market entirely. As PC Perspectivepoints out, it's grown increasingly difficult for companies to differentiate their products when it comes to memory -- most of it just works and most of it is pretty fast -- and continually declining prices have apparently forced OCZ's hand. The San Jose-based company's new primary breadwinner will be solid state drives, which already account for a substantial proportion of revenues and look set to grow exponentially as their own prices dip a little further into the range of the affordable. It's a shame we'll no longer have that bold Z to look at when picking out memory sticks for our next self-built machine, but maybe it's all for the best. Check out an interview with an OCZ VP at the source link below. 

Read rest of entry

Beginning January 16th Verizon Axes New Every Two Upgrades

Beginning January 16th Verizon Axes New Every Two Upgrades - Verizon’s had their New Every Two upgrade program instilled for a long time now, but the wireless carrier has apparently decided to kick it to the curb. Verizon has confirmed with The Wall Street Journal that, effective January 16th, their New Every Two upgrade feature will end. That means that customers will no longer be able to take advantage of a credit towards a new device, which range between $30 and $100, on new equipment every two years.

Read rest of entry

Study shows love for music relates to brain chemical, not to My Chemical Romance

Study shows love for music relates to brain chemical, not to My Chemical Romance - It would make sense that people listen to music for the sheer pleasure of it, right? That's what we thought, but apparently there's a scientific reason for this. Scientists have discovered that when Earthlings listen to pleasurable music, one particular chemical is loosed in the gord. The study, conducted by Robert Zatorre and Valorie Salimpoor of McGill University in Montreal, concluded that when the participants tuned into instrumental pieces they were familiar with, their brains released dopamine into the striatum -- an area of the noggin linked with anticipation and predictions. According to PET scans, the members of the study unleashed the chemical 15 seconds before a climaxical moment in a song, signaling the possibility that humans may actually release it in anticipation and not as a reaction to a wailing solo. Bonus point? Chopped and screwed tracks unleashed forty times more dopamine. Just kidding, but it's probably true.

Read rest of entry

Verizon iPhone Wireless

Verizon iPhone Wireless - The Verizon iPhone 4 supports personal hotspot services, allowing up to five devices to share the phone's 3G data connection. Configuration options for the hotspot functionality are cleanly located within the iPhone's standard Settings application rather than in a separate application.

Verizon has not announced pricing for the iPhone 4 data plans, although the carrier has been rumored to be utilizing its standard data packages for on-phone usage, which include an option for unlimited data at $29.99 per month. Hotspot data pricing, however, remains unknown, as the carrier currently charges users of many of its smartphones an additional $20 per month for a separate 2 GB data allotment for personal hotspot use, although some devices such as those from Palm include a 5 GB hotspot allotment with no extra monthly charges.

Read rest of entry

Intel's Sandy Bridge hits the desktop realm:CyberPower and Digital Storm

Intel's Sandy Bridge hits the desktop realm:CyberPower and Digital Storm - Intel's Sandy Bridge introduction at CES made a giant impact in the outlook of future laptops, but not as much was said over in the desktop world. Quietly, a slew of custom PC makers have slid out revised towers with the second generation Core lineup, with Dell's XPS 8300, Digital Storm's entire family, Cyber Power's Gamer Xtreme 1000 / 2000 and iBuyPower's Chimera XLC seeing the new Core i5 and Core i7 chips. Care to dig in deeper? Hit the source links below, and be sure to bust out your credit card -- Intel's fastest doesn't come cheap, you know.

Read rest of entry