| Nvidia GTX 670: Faster Than The Radeon 7970? Posted: 08 May 2012 11:01 AM PDT According to the old Internet rumor mill, Nvidia's GTX 670 graphics card is set to launch this Friday. Pictures of alleged retail boxes have been popping up for a while, even before the massive dual-GPU GTX 690 hit the streets a week ago. Now, one reviewer claims that a unit fell into his hands courtesy of an unnamed manufacturer, and he's benchmarked the leaked card and slapped the results up on the web for all to see. Usually, these reported leaks turn out to be B.S., but the folks over at TweakTown have a sterling reputation for honesty and have been reviewing graphics cards for a long, long time. The website didn't want to land their source in hot water with Nvidia, so the review doesn't include any pictures of the hardware, but it includes plenty of game-based benchmark test results -- and by TweakTown's numbers, the GTX 670 should be a force to be reckoned with. 
Check out the hardware specs in TweakTown's GPU-Z screenshot above. The reference GTX 670 obviously doesn't quite butt heads with the GTX 680, but TweakTown reports that it bests the Radeon 7970 in most games, and the GTX 670 is neck-and-neck with AMD's flagship card in the contents it doesn't win outright. At 1920x1200 resolution, the card clocked in with 85 fps in Metro 2033 and 113fps in Just Cause 2, compared to a respective 87fps and 105fps showing by a 3GB Diamond HD Radeon 7970. Of course, we'll have to wait for the actual launch of the GTX 670 to see if those numbers are accurate -- and for now, there's no official word on the card whatsoever, much less pricing information or a release date. Fudzilla expects the card to sell for $399.99, though. |
| OEM Adoption Of Ubuntu Linux Is Ramping Up: Record Shipments, Dell XPS13 Variant In The Works Posted: 08 May 2012 10:29 AM PDT  Do you Ubuntu? If the answer's "Yes," then you probably installed the operating system yourself, using an .iso image and a little keyboard finger-grease. Congratulations! You're the One Percent of the computer world; most users, especially everyday users, would never even attempt to load a Linux variant on a PC. If they want to go truly mainstream, Ubuntu and its Linux brethren need to come preinstalled on OEM-built computers -- and that's why the numbers and news tossed around at yesterday's Ubuntu Developers Summit are so heartening.
First up, some actual penetration numbers: Canonical VP Chris Kenyon said that somewhere between 8 and 10 million PCs and laptops worth about $7.5 billion in total shipped with Ubuntu preinstalled in 2011. That's still chump change compared to the units shipped with Windows installed, but Phoronix reports that Canonical expects over 18 million Ubuntu-packin' units to move in 2012, a figure that Kenyon claims would give the OS a 5 percent stake of all global PC sales -- and that doesn't even count manual installations. Of course, if you're going to have more users, you're going to need more developers toiling away at Ubuntu-based applications, and along those lines, Dell and Canonical have announced that they're working together to create a developer-friendly version of Ubuntu made specifically for use with the Dell XPS13 Ultrabook. Project Sputnik, as the project is called, is a bare-bones install of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) that includes full support for the XPS13 hardware and a couple of useful utilities but little else; the two companies are working on including a native github repository that would include preconfigured "developer profiles" that pack in utilities for specific development environments, such as Ruby, JavaScript and Android. The guys at DevOpsAngle talked to Barton George, Dell's lead on the project, who said that the company hopes to ship XPS13 Ultrabooks with the bare-bones Sputnik configuration preinstalled sometime in the future if the project proves successful. For now, however, Ubuntu devs who already own an XPS13 can snag the Sputnik .iso over on the Ubuntu website. |
| AMD's Mobile Trinity APUs to Ship Later This Month, Desktop Chips in August Posted: 08 May 2012 07:39 AM PDT  Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) managed to beat Intel's Ivy Bridge to the launch-day punch on a technicality when the Santa Clara chip maker began shipping Trinity and Brazos 2.0 APUs to OEMs last quarter, but as far as retail availability goes, AMD in April would only say the new parts "will be available globally soon." It appears "soon" really meant "next month," at least for notebook parts, and August for desktop chips.
Citing un-named sources in the notebook industry, DigiTimes claims AMD is getting ready to launch its latest A-series APUs (Trinity) sometime this month, though the first batch of chips will be mobile parts for notebooks, Desktop silicon will arrive three months from now, and AMD's 40nm tablet PC processors -- codenamed Hondo -- will launch in the fourth quarter to coincide with Microsoft's Windows 8 OS. The same sources say that Trinity will undercut Ivy Bridge in price, which is no big surprise to anyone who's been paying attention to AMD's playbook ever since it coughed up the performance crown when Intel moved away from its inefficient Netburst architecture several moons ago. When August rolls around, AMD is expected to launch several Trinity APUs manufactured by Globalfoundries, including the A10-5800K, A10-5700, A8-5600K, A8-5500, and A6 (Weatherford) and A4 (Richland) series processors, DigiTimes says. |
| Yahoo CEO Apologizes for Padding Resume Posted: 08 May 2012 06:57 AM PDT  The good news for Yahoo Chief Executive Scott Thompson is that no one is accusing him of doctoring his birth certificate, so if he wants to make a run at a bigger presidency, that's one less hurdle to jump over. He is, however, accused of padding his resume, which has prompted an internal investigation into his hiring, as well as a lot of time and energy spent reviewing his qualifications, and for that he has taken full responsibility and apologized.
As it's written up in Reuters, all this came to light last week when Daneil Loeb, CEO of hedge fund Third Point, which owns a 5.8 percent stake in Yahoo, wrote a letter accusing Thompson of prettying up his resume a bit too much and demanded that records related to his hiring be turned over. In the fallout that ensued, Thompson issued a memo to employees expressing deep regret over how the issue is affecting the company. "We have all been working very hard to move the company forward and this has had the opposite effect. For that, I take full responsibility, and I want to apologize to you," Thompson stated, according to Reuters. Thompson also said that he hopes for a prompt conclusion and that he would "respect" the board's plans to review the matter. What the board will be looking into is Thompson's education record and related discrepancies pointed out by Third Point. Yahoo hired Thompson in January of this year. Prior to his role with Yahoo, Thompson served as Paypal's president. |
| Gogo Grabs 1MHz Spectrum License from LiveTV to Boost In-Flight Internet Service Posted: 08 May 2012 06:28 AM PDT  Gogo, the guru of in-flight wireless Internet service, announced on Monday that it has hammered out an agreement to acquire the Airfone business unit from LiveTV, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of JetBlue Airways Corporation. The main attraction for Gogo is the 1MHz spectrum license that will change hands as a result of the transaction, as it's currently held by LiveTV. So, what are Gogo's plans for the 1MHz spectrum?
It will be used to supplement Gogo's existing 3MHz license and, if everything goes to plan, will enhance the company's Air-to-Ground network. This should translate into improved connectivity service for both commercial airlines and business aircraft in the U.S. "In many ways, Gogo has continued to expand its Air-to-Ground network and will soon launch ATG-4, which is expected to significantly improve capacity," said Gogo's president and CEO Michael Small. "Acquiring the 1MHz spectrum license from LiveTV will play an integral role in our continued expansion activities and help us deliver a performance boost for end users." The deal also gives Gogo control of Airfone's network infrastructure and back-office operational assets. Image Credit: Gogo |
| Lenovo Launches Pint Sized ThinkCentre M92p Desktop with Intel vPro Technology Posted: 08 May 2012 05:35 AM PDT  Lenovo today rolled out its brand new ThinkCentre M92p desktop PC, a one-liter rig that's no wider than a golf ball (34.5mm), and purportedly the only Intel vPro-enabled system in this size category. The tiny form factor allows the M92p to fit into just about home office nook or work space cranny while still packing the performance punch of up to an Intel 3rd Generation Core vPro processor.
It doesn't have to end up on a desk, either. The M92p can be mounted to a wall or shoved under a desk. It supports up to four monitors in Mosaic Mode or three independent displays without the need for a discrete graphics card. "Lenovo's tiny form factor ThinkCentre M92p desktop PC illustrates the fact that there is still room for innovation on desktop platforms," said Zane Ball, general manager of Intel Desktop Platforms. "Lenovo has taken advantage of the unprecedented performance and power reduction improvements of our upcoming 3rd Generation Intel Core vPro processor family, which will enable the industry to build smaller, thinner PCs that are more secure, powerful and power-efficient." Lenovo also announced a new M72e desktop similar to the M92p, a ThinkCentre M92z all-in-one system (20-inch and 23-inch models available), and a 23-inch ThinkVision LT2323z IPS monitor that is the first to be qualified by Microsoft Lync. Pricing for the M72e, M92p, M92z, and LT2323z start at $499, $799, $799, and $399.99, respectively. Image Credit: Lenovo |
