First Haswell gaming laptop revealed: MSI GT70 Dragon Edition 2 with GTX780M graphics

With Computex just around the corner, MSI has taken the wraps of what can truly be described as a next-gen gaming laptop. According to CNET, the 17.3-inch GT70 Dragon Edition 2 will pack a yet-to-be-announced Haswell chip alongside an equally mysterious NVIDIA GTX780M GPU that is claimed to deliver a 3DMark Vantage score of 36,000 — in other words, roughly equivalent to the benchmark stat you’d get from a desktop rig containing an Ivy Bridge Core-i5 and a full-size GTX670, if the boast happens to be true. A SteelSeries-branded keyboard is in attendance, alongside multiple SSDs in Raid 0 config and three video outputs, all contained within a 21.8mm-thick package that weighs 2.9kg (6.4 pounds). Lesser variations will bring the weight down to 2kg (4.4 pounds) by reducing screen size to 14 inches and switching to a less frenetic GTX760M. Expect pricing and availability details once the big Taiwanese expo gets underway.

Filed under: Gaming, Laptops, Intel

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Source: CNET

First Haswell gaming laptop revealed: MSI GT70 Dragon Edition 2 with GTX780M graphics

With Computex just around the corner, MSI has taken the wraps of what can truly be described as a next-gen gaming laptop. According to CNET, the 17.3-inch GT70 Dragon Edition 2 will pack a yet-to-be-announced Haswell chip alongside an equally mysterious NVIDIA GTX780M GPU that is claimed to deliver a 3DMark Vantage score of 36,000 — in other words, roughly equivalent to the benchmark stat you’d get from a desktop rig containing an Ivy Bridge Core-i5 and a full-size GTX670, if the boast happens to be true. A SteelSeries-branded keyboard is in attendance, alongside multiple SSDs in Raid 0 config and three video outputs, all contained within a 21.8mm-thick package that weighs 2.9kg (6.4 pounds). Lesser variations will bring the weight down to 2kg (4.4 pounds) by reducing screen size to 14 inches and switching to a less frenetic GTX760M. Expect pricing and availability details once the big Taiwanese expo gets underway.

Filed under: Gaming, Laptops, Intel

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Source: CNET

NVIDIA enables full virtualization for graphics: up to four remote users per GRID GPU

You probably won’t have noticed the following problem, unless you happen to be the IT manager in an architecture firm or other specialist environment, but it’s been an issue nonetheless. For all our ability to virtualize compute and graphical workloads, it hasn’t so far been possible to share a single GPU core across multiple users. For example, if you’d wanted 32 people on virtual machines to access 3D plumbing and electrical drawings via AutoCAD, you’d have needed to dedicate eight expensive quad-core K1 graphics cards in your GRID server stack. Now, though, NVIDIA has managed to make virtualization work right the way through to each GPU core for users of Citrix XenDesktop 7, such that you’d only need one K1 to serve that workforce, assuming their tasks were sufficiently lightweight. Does this mean NVIDIA’s K1 sales will suddenly drop by seven eighths? We couldn’t tell ya — but probably not.

Filed under: Networking, Software, NVIDIA

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The Engadget Interview: Mike Hickey, CEO of Wolfson Microelectronics

Look at the prevalence of Wolfson’s audio chips today, in everything from audiophile DACs to smartphones like the Exynos-powered Galaxy S III and Galaxy S 4, and it’s hard not to be impressed. Factor in the company’s humble beginnings in 1984 as a university offshoot in Edinburgh, Scotland, and the growth story becomes even more dramatic. The company shipped its billionth chip in 2008, its 2 billionth in 2012 and now expects to sell a billion per year by 2015.

It’s ironic, then, that at the start of its journey into mobile devices Wolfson actually failed to grow quickly enough, resulting in the loss of its biggest and most high-profile customer. With Apple using its chips in a number of iPods, the Scottish company just couldn’t scale up to meet a sudden rush of demand. It missed some deadlines and Cuptertino left it out of the iPod Classic as it shifted its loyalty to Cirrus Logic, where it has stayed ever since. How did it recover? Where is it headed next? And how will it break Qualcomm’s continuing grip on smartphone audio in the US? Read on for answers from CEO Mike Hickey.

Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio/Video, Tablets, Mobile

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Samsung buys 10 percent stake in rival phone maker Pantech

Hang around these pages long enough and you’re bound to come across Pantech, the South Korean purveyor of everything from giant 1080p handsets down to… giant 720p handsets. Samsung has noticed this rising star too and, so says Yonhap News, has now made a $50 million investment in the smaller company in return for a 10 percent stake. Implicit in that is that the Korean government has allowed Samsung’s ever-expanding influence to infiltrate a potential rival, since Pantech is now the No. 3 phone maker in that country and only Qualcomm and a state-run bank possess larger stakes than Samsung’s. As a result, the acquisition could have an anti-competitive aura to it — but then, Pantech has actually been struggling of late, not least with large debts, and it has relied on big backers to bail it out.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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Via: The Next Web

Source: Yonhap News

Xbox One runs three operating systems, including cut-down Windows for apps

The latest update out the currently unfolding announcement in Redmond: the next-generation Xbox will run three operating systems simultaneously. Complementing Windows 8 and RT on PCs and tablets, there’ll be a third distinct version of Microsoft’s operating system that has been pared down specifically for the new console. This will be the main system OS will be used to run apps such as Skype and other non-game titles downloaded from the Xbox storefront. At the same time, virtualization technology similar to Microsoft’s Hyper-V will be used to allocate the bulk of system resources to a second, dedicated “Xbox OS” when the user loads up a game. This game OS will remain a fixed entity throughout the life of the console, so that game developers will can be confident their games will run regardless of how much the Windows side of the machine gets updated. Finally, a third OS will work as a middle-man between the two, allowing the two sides of the console to talk to each other.

Developing…

Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, Microsoft

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Xbox One hardware and specs: Blu-ray, 8GB RAM, 500GB hard drive and more

Slot-loading Blu-ray drive? Check. HDMI in and out? Absolutely. There’s 8GB of RAM to go up against the Sony PlayStation 4, USB 3.0 ports, 500GB of hard drive storage, WiFi Direct for communicating with the new controller and other devices, and a humungous amount of silicon to drive it all: no fewer than five billion transistors, which compares to 1.4 billion in your average Intel or AMD chip. And there more specs pouring out of Microsoft’s Xbox One launch event as we speak, so this post will be updated before you know it.

Developing…

Filed under: Gaming, Microsoft

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Yahoo confirms acquisition of Tumblr, but will run it as a ‘separate business’

Hot on the heels of yesterday’s rumors, Yahoo and Tumblr have jointly announced a “definitive agreement” for the former to acquire the latter for $1.1 billion. The agreement makes it clear that Tumblr will be “independently operated as a separate business” with its own branding and line of development. A frankly worded press release says that this arms-length arrangement will help Yahoo “not to screw it up” and promises that the 300 million monthly visitors to the blogging site will continue to experience Tumblr’s “irreverence, wit, and commitment to empower creators.” If all this is to be believed, those who have allegedly fled to WordPress, for fear of Tumblr being shut down or re-versioned, may have slightly jumped the gun.

Filed under: Internet, Mobile

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Source: yahoo.tumblr.com

Samsung to exhibit 13.3-inch notebook display with 3,200 x 1,800 resolution

On top of yesterday’s 4K announcement, Samsung has also given us a quick heads-up on one of the prototype displays it’s planning to show off at this year’s Display Week event. It’s a highly gawp-worthy 3,200 x 1,800 (“WQXGA+”) panel destined for 13-inch laptops that insist on taking things further than the Retina MacBook Pro (2,560 x 1,600) or Samsung’s Series 9 prototype (2,560 x 1,440, shown above). As an added advantage, the panel is promised to deliver “30 percent greater power-savings” compared to existing LCDs thanks to a reduction in the number of driver circuits as well as more efficient backlight units. Display Week starts today, so we should soon have a first-person account of this unheard-of pixel density straight from Samsung’s stall.

Filed under: Displays, Laptops, Samsung

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The first Jolla phone: 4.5-inch display, Android app compliant, 399 euros

Jolla’s heavily teased launch day in Finland has already spilled some major news: pricing and specs for the first Sailfish OS handset. The phone seems to be called “The Other Half” — or at least that’s the working title for now — and judging from Jolla’s Facebook page it consists of a colorful plastic case, available in various shades including orange or green, which hooks onto the main chassis containing a 4.5-inch display (of unknown resolution), dual-core processor, microSD expansion with 16GB onboard, a “4G” modem, user replaceable battery and an 8MP rear camera. The chassis recognizes which case is attached and adapts the visual theme of the OS to match, creating “your other half, exactly as you want it to be.”

Perhaps more usefully, the Sailfish operating system will also be Android app compliant out of the box, and we’re currently on the ground in Helsinki trying to discover exactly how developers and users will be able to put that feature to work (while also chasing down the rest of the specs). Meanwhile, there’s an emphatic video message from Jolla co-founder Marc Dillon after the break, seeking the world’s assistance in taking the heritage of MeeGo into a new era.

Update: We now hear that the phone will simply be called the “Jolla.”

Update #2: Jolla has just clarified that 4G means LTE.

[Thanks, Toni]

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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Source: Jolla