| Asus Transformer Pad Infinity Packs More Pixels Per Inch Than The Macbook Pro's Retina Display Posted: 25 Jun 2012 11:16 AM PDT  Apple ain't the only one who can make pixelicious gadgets. Asus has been at the forefront of the Android tablet scene, and its forthcoming Transformer Pad Infinity TF700 -- basically, a souped-up version of the top-rated Transformer Prime tablet -- packs a 1,920-by-1,200 resolution into a 10.1-inch Super IPS+ display that's rated for 600 nits of brightness. That 224ppi isn't quite up to the iPad's 264ppi, but it's a hair better than the new Macbook Pro screen that's been drawing rave reviews.
The Transformer Pad Infinity TF700 also sports a slight boost to the clock speed of its Nvidia Tegra 3 processor and slightly faster RAM than the Transformer Prime, The Verge reports. It also introduces a plastic strip to the formerly 100 percent aluminum body, presumably to help alleviate the GPS woes that plagued the Transformer Prime after it launched. An LTE-enabled model sporting Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 rather than a Tegra 3 is slated to appear, but the only pricing and release dates Asus have owned up to so far have been for the Wi-Fi variants, which will hit stores shelves the week of July 16th in 32GB and 64GB for $500 and $600, respectively. The highly-regarded keyboard dock will set you back another $150 smackers. |
| Falcon Northwest's "Tiki" PC Mixes Big Performance With A Small Frame, Tosses In A Polished Granite Base For Good Measure Posted: 25 Jun 2012 10:24 AM PDT  Falcon Northwest maintains a strong reputation among PC enthusiasts. Part of the way the company keeps its focus is by offering a limited number of products; when it comes to Falcon Northwest desktops, you've the Talon, the FragBox, and the Mach V, but that's it -- or, at least it was until today. The new Tiki desktop is a slim and slender compact PC that's 40 percent smaller than the already diminutive FragBox, but it can still pack a wallop component-wise. Plus, it comes with a solid 6 lb. granite base to keep the tower sitting firm and pretty.
Despite only having a 4-inch wide and 13-inches tall frame, the liquid-cooled Tiki nevertheless crams a lot of hardware into its interior. Falcon Northwest's baby can include Core i7 Ivy Bridge chips, up to 16GB of RAM, the latest Nvidia GTX 600-series graphics cards and up to 4TB of storage using a mix of two SSDs and a standard HDD. "Tiki is a showcase of how far the PC industry has come in just the past year," Kelt Reeves, president of Falcon Northwest, said in the company's press releases. "CPUs and graphics cards have taken massive leaps in performance and power efficiency. Tiny solid-state storage has become affordable, and the miniaturization of motherboards all mean that your average tower PC is now much bigger than it really needs to be. With Tiki, we solved the heat and noise challenges involved in getting rid of all that excess space." Stuffing that kind of power into that small of a machine doesn't come cheap, however; the base configuration -- which packs a 3.1GHz Core i5-3450, a GTX 560 Ti, 8GB of RAM and a 2TB Western Digital Caviar Green HDD -- costs just shy of $1,900 with top-of-the-line setups going for a hair under $5,000. You can configure a Tiki over at the Falcon Northwest website right now, but finished units aren't expected to ship until early July. |
| Internet Campaign Raises $650,000 for Bullied Bus Monitor Posted: 25 Jun 2012 07:08 AM PDT  Remember Karen H. Klein, the upstate New York school bus monitor driven to tears from a barrage of mean spirited insults and taunts from a group of middle school kids? The Internet community at large hasn't forgotten, and continues to donate to what was originally intended to be a $5,000 fund to send Ms. Klein on a "vacation of a lifetime," but quickly ballooned into what will likely end up a tax free retirement fund worth at least $650,000.
The online fundraising effort has raised over $646,000 to date, far surpassing the original goal with 26 days still remaining. Additional donations are now trickling in at a far slower pace, but it doesn't matter, Ms. Klein has more than enough to retire as a bus monitor, where she was making $15,000 and change annually. Wondering what she'll do with the money? According to People.com, Ms. Klein plans to invest some of the money and donate a portion to charity, as well as to family members, some of which have kids with autism and Down syndrome. She'll have plenty to do both if the money ends up being exempt from taxes.' "As a general rule, there are no income tax implications to the recipient/donee of a cash gift," tax lawyer Joanne Clark, Esq., told Mashable in an email. "If she invests that cash, she would be responsible for income taxes on any income derived from it." At least three of the children who taunted Ms. Klein in the video have written letters of apology to the school bus monitor, as have some of the parents. |
| Here's What Google's Upcoming Nexus 7 Tablet Looks Like Posted: 25 Jun 2012 06:33 AM PDT  The Internet is the ultimate tattletale, blabber mouth, and gossip queen. If there's a secret to be heard, the Internet usually knows about it, and then turns around the tells the world. Or in this case, shows the world. The latest bit of gossp revolves around Google's upcoming Nexus 7 tablet to be revealed at the company's I/O Conference this week, at least officially. Unofficially, the Web is waving around a leaked training document detailing the Nexus 7, including what it will look like.
Google's document somehow landed in the hands of Gizmodo Australia, which is hosting images of the front, side, and back of the Nexus 7. It's a rather simple looking device with a textured finish and "Nexus" logo on the back. As previously rumored, the document supposedly confirms Asus had a hand in building in the device. it will have a 1.3GHz quad-core Tegra 3 processor, 1GB of RAM, and come with 8GB or 16GB of internal storage. Other features include an IPS panel with a 178-degree viewing angle and 1280x800 resolution, 1.2MP front-facing camera, NFC support, and up to 9 hours of run time. The Nexus 7 will also be the first device to run Jelly Bean, which Google is labeling as Android 4.1, not 5.0. The Nexus 7 will cost $199 for the 8GB version (same as Amazon's Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble's 8GB Nook Tablet) and $249 for the 16GB version (same as B&N's 16GB Nook Tablet). Image Credit: Google via Gizmodo Australia Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Sony, Panasonic Working Together to Push OLED TV Panels into Living Rooms Posted: 25 Jun 2012 06:10 AM PDT  The next high definition television you buy might feature an OLED (organic light-emitting diode) panel. Sure, OLED displays are comparatively pricey and in short order compared to LCD (liquid crystal display) TVs, but rivals Sony and Panasonic have put aside their competitive differences to jointly develop the next wave of OLED panels and modules for HDTVs and other large-size displays.
By leveraging and integrating each company's core and printing technologies, Sony and Panasonic aim to mass produce low-cost, high-resolution OLED panels and deliver them to the market place starting in 2013. In a joint press release, both companies are quick to point out their experience with OLED panels up to this point. Sony, for example, lays claim to having launched the world's first OLED TV in 2007 (shown in thumbnail image), and has been actively promoting and researching the development of next-gen OLED technologies ever since. Panasonic, meanwhile, owns production equipment capable of various OLED printing methods and has been researching flexible OLED panels. As excited as Sony and Panasonic are with their new BFF status, they have their work cut for them in pushing OLED displays to the mainstream. Large size OLED panels don't come cheap, nor without competition. LG recently announced plans to ship a 55-inch OLED TV in the U.S., South Korea, and select European countries in July for a cool $10,000. Image Credit: Sony Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Lian Li's PC-V750 Chassis Supports Big Size Motherboards, Leaves a Small Footprint Posted: 25 Jun 2012 05:45 AM PDT  "Short" and "Full Tower" aren't a pair of descriptors that typically go together, but then again, Lian Li claims its new PC-V750 computer case isn't your typical enclosure. The PC-V750 is a "short full tower," as Lian Li describes it, and if you build a system inside it, the power supply goes in front, a design decision that allows it to "hold the hardware that enthusiasts desire while keeping a smaller footprint."
The PC-V750 measures 9.05 inches (W) by 17.32 inches (H) by 23.07 inches (D) and is constructed of brushed aluminum. Despite its short stature, Lian Li says you can cram an E-ATX size motherboard in the PC-750 and proceed to load it up with hardware, including up to six 3.5-inch drives with hotswap capabilities and a single 2.5-inch drive, or up to two more 2.5-inch drives if only four 3.5-inch drives are in the cage. There's a place for the power supply beneath the storage bay with ventilation slits and a removable filter. Cable cutouts run along the bottom of the motherboard tray to route wires up and behind. There are two 120mm fans up front, another two on top, and one more in the rear. Rounding out the feature-set are two USB 3.0 ports, a single USB 2.0 port, eSATA, and HD audio ports on the front of the case. Lian Li didn't say how much the PC-V750 costs or when it will ship. Image Credit: Lian Li Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Rumor: Game Streaming Service Gaikai on the Block Posted: 25 Jun 2012 04:39 AM PDT  The recent leak of an internal Microsoft document related to the Xbox 360's successor has brought to light the software giant's wariness of cloud gaming services like OnLive, which it identified as a "potential acquisition target" in the 2010 document. Of course, no such acquisition has taken place so far. But if Microsoft is still considering buying a cloud gaming company, another less expensive company may be up for sale.
According to Fortune's Dan Primack, OnLive's lesser-known rival Gaikai is on the block and the asking price is north of $500 million. His sources have told him that the company has already hired bankers to help sell itself. While this is still a rumor, the alleged asking price is considerably less than the billion-dollar figures usually tossed around when the subject of OnLive's possible worth comes up for discussion. Despite having been in OnLive's shadow all these years, Gaikai has started to come into its own lately with a number of important partnerships, including deals with both Samsung and LG for delivering cloud-powered games to their smart TVs. |
