Hi-Tech Daily News: June 2013

June 29, 2013

Nokia sets up Trade-up program for your used phone in the US

Nokia, in partnership with Clover Wireless, has launched a trade in program for the US. The initiative allows you to give your old smartphone and receive a VISA prepaid card that you can use for purchasing a brand new Nokia Lumia smartphone.

EVGA launched its flagship socket LGA2011 motherboard, the X79 Dark (model: 150-SE-E789-KR). It made its debut at this year's International CES event. Designed for open-air benches, this motherboard requires a case that can seat E-ATX motherboards. It measures 304.8 x 263.5 mm (LxW).

ZOTAC Announces H87-ITX WiFi

ZOTAC International, a global innovator and manufacturer of graphics cards, mainboards, mini-PCs and accessories, today announces a new mini-ITX platform for 4th Generation Intel Core processors for small form factor users that demand a compact PC without sacrificing performance or features. The new ZOTAC H87-ITX WiFi delivers a compact computing experience that rivals and can exceed traditional full-tower PC systems.

HTC, a global leader in mobile innovation and design, today announces that the award-winning HTC One will be available in a distinctive, new colour. Available exclusively to customers of Phones 4u from mid-July, the new HTC One in Glamour Red packs the blistering performance and premium features that have garnered global acclaim since its launch earlier this year, into a body that makes a striking yet sophisticated statement.

GIGABYTE created UEFI-equipped revisions of most of its socket AM3+ motherboards with the advent of FX "Vishera" processors last year, but held back with its flagship motherboard for the platform, the 990FXA-UD7. The company released an updated revision of the motherboard, dubbed 990FXA-UD7 Rev 3.0, completely skipping "Rev 2.0." While the new board is essentially laid out similar to its predecessor, a lot has changed.

Known for its signature clean yet modern designs, premier PC hardware designer BitFenix is proud to reveal its latest ATX chassis creation - Ronin. Featuring enhanced cooling capabilities, DIY-friendly features, unique styling, and legendary BitFenix quality, Ronin represents a next-level chassis design that shows your opponents no mercy.

Alongside the CyberShot RX1R, Sony has unveiled a second addition to the RX-series: the RX100 II, which is a more powerful version of the RX100. Sony hails this camera as offering photographers DSRL-quality images from a compact camera setup, managing to pull this off in part due to the device’s 1.0-type Exmor R backlit CMOS sensor, which offers 20.2-megapixels. We’ve got a gallery available after the jump.

Tt eSPORTS, the top gaming gear brand appreciated with the "2012 Taiwan Excellence Award", proudly introduce its latest gaming peripherals - the fierce "VOLOS Gaming Mouse" and high efficiency "CRONOS Gaming Headset" to worldwide players! Tt eSPORTS brings the most personalized and the highest quality weapons for the most competitive cyber battles, provide you unprecedented digital entertainment experience! The market launch of the new Tt eSPORTS VOLOS Gaming Mouse and CRONOS Gaming Headset start in mid-July 2013.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash application products, today launched the DashDrive HV620, an external hard drive that sports sleek lines and a SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface.

Sony has announced one of its latest additions to the RX-series of CyberShot cameras: the RX1R. This compact point-and-shoot features, among other things, a full-frame 35mm 24.3-megapixel sensor, the same that was offered in the previously-released RX1 camera. Rather than replacing the RX1, this latest iteration complements the series with additional features and image quality that Sony says offers the “sharpest detail ever.”

The T-Mobile Prism II, manufactured by Huawei, was announced yesterday. And here we are today and it’s already available to buy from the magenta carrier. Now that’s a nice window between unveiling and release!

If you had been waiting for the Google Edition smartphones to come available — today is your day. The stock Android running Samsung GALAXY S 4 and HTC One have recently landed in the Play Store and according to the details included in the listings they are both are set to ship soon. Or more specifically, both handsets are showing a ‘ships by’ date of July 9th.

Sharp announces first THX-certified 4K TV, the $8,000 Aquos Ultra

Sharp has just revealed the Aquos Ultra at CE Week, a 70-inch Ultra HDTV the company says is the only THX-certified 4K model on the market. Calling it the company's "best designed TV ever," Sharp said that it put the model through "four hundred rigorous performance tests" to gain the THX nod, which is meant to assure that programming is reproduced as closely as possible.

The last time Pioneer introduced a speaker bar was 1998, but 15 years later the company's giving it another go. The just-announced speaker bar system, the SP-SB23W, will retail for $399 this fall -- reps said the device was designed to pump out high-quality audio without sacrificing a small, attractive design.

After the official product shot leaked in late May, we knew it wouldn't be long before Huawei's Ascend W2 makes an official appearance. Well, today's the day, but as the company's second-ever Windows Phone device, the W2's appearance at Mobile Asia Expo was surprisingly low key.

BIWIN, a world-leading expert in the development and manufacture of flash and advanced NAND flash memory, has launched a new business-grade SSD that is perfect for the digital signage market, the half slim H6201. There are many different industrial applications for digital signage and the field is growing. To operate in public and outdoor environments, it is critical that the components are reliable, scalable, efficient and of low maintenance cost.

Philips’ Fidelio HTL9100 soundbar, the speaker system which can offer both virtual and true 5.1 surround sound thanks to detachable speakers, has finally made it to store shelves. Landing in the UK at £699 ($1,077), the HLT9100 looks at first glance like a regular soundbar, and indeed operates normally in either stereo or virtual-surround modes; however, the end sections can also be detached and positioned behind your sofa or chair, with the Fidelio system automatically kicking into true surround mode.

For those with children in their lives, tablet use presents a dichotomy of sorts: on one hand, they’re excellent for practicing writing, and many educational apps are available. One the other side, however, is the reality that tablets are expensive and children have a habit of breaking expensive things. As such, LeapFrog’s latest tablet, the LeapPad Ultra, is a 7-inch slate designed to be “kid-tough” while offering a built-in browser offering up youngster-friendly content.

NVIDIA has officially kicked off its GeForce GTX 760 GPU, which is being offered at the budget-friendly price of $249 and harboring Kepler architecture. In gaming benchmarks, the GTX 760 beats out the previous GTX 660 across the board, in some cases quite substantially. NVIDIA hails it as offering power “dramatically” beyond the gaming consoles slated to hit shelves in the coming months.

Less than a day after we saw it get unboxed, Samsung took the wraps off the Galaxy S4 LTE-A. Dubbed SHV-E330S, the newcomer is available for SK Telecom in Korea. It is the first device, capable of reaching network speeds of up to 150Mbps on the carrier's brand new LTE-A network.

Genius introduces a new 2.1ch subwoofer system, the SW-A2.1 700 for desktop/laptop users. Its wooden subwoofer has a 4inch unit driver with a wide reflex cabinet for excellent deep bass performance. The elegant satellite speakers have a 50x90mm textile-covered driver for clear and detailed mid and high range frequencies for realistic sound.

Samsung announced only two color versions for its (relatively new) Galaxy Mega 6.3 and Mega 5.8: white and black. But a third one is seemingly coming soon.

Antec Announces VP F Series Power Supplies

Antec, the global leader in high-performance computer components and accessories for the gaming, PC upgrade and Do-It-Yourself markets, today released a new power supply for the European market. The new VP550F is Antec's all-round entry level model; for end users and system integrators looking for an affordable solution; which is built upon a durable and efficient platform.

Japanese cooling expert Scythe, known for its excellent cooling solutions and PC accessories, is hereby introducing the successor of the very popular Mugen 3 CPU cooler. Mugen 4 brings a brand new tower-style fin structure design, an optimized heatsink as well as a greatly improved and simplified mounting mechanism.

Sony has unveiled its latest Android timepiece, the Sony SmartWatch 2 SW2, a 1.6-inch touchscreen accessory to your smartphone or tablet. Pulling caller ID, messages, Facebook and Twitter notifications, music information and control, and more to your wrist, the SmartWatch 2 pairs via Bluetooth with NFC thrown in to make that straightforward.

Today, Japanese mobile phone maker Sony Mobile made the long rumored Xperia Z Ultra smartphone official with a 6.4-inch touchscreen display capable of delivering a full HD resolution.

Japanese PC cooling expert Scythe unveiled its brand new high-performance PC fan series, the Grand Flex. The company started off with its 28 mm-thick 120 mm variants, among which are four fixed-speed variants, including the Grand Flex 800 RPM (SM1225GF12SL), 1,200 RPM (SM1225GF12L), 1,600 RPM (SM1225GF12M), and 2,000 RPM (SM1225GF12H). All four of these feature 3-pin connectors. Scythe also unveiled the Grand Flex PWM (SM1225GF12SH-P), which spins at 600 to 2,500 RPM, and features 4-pin PWM fan control.

Reeven launched the RC-1401 large tower-type CPU cooler. Its design involves a conventional aluminum fin stack, to which heat is conducted by a combination of two 8 mm-thick, and three 6 mm-thick copper heat pipes. The 8 mm-thich ones spread out to the stack's periphery, while the 6 mm-thick ones to the central regions. The topmost fin is shrouded. These heat pipes draw heat from a nickel-plated copper base indirectly, which features a mirror finish.

Genius is pleased to announce the release of the Speed Wheel 6 MT. Compatible with PC and PS3, the Speed Wheel 6 MT with 11" gaming wheel, manual transmission and foot pedals brings a realistic driving experience to simulated racing. Powerful force feedback brings a new dimension to racing games. Feel the traction of the tires on the road, the vibration of the engine, the shifting of gears. The feeling of connection to the car lets gamers experience racing games to their fullest - as well as improves lap times.

LSI Corporation today announced it has expanded the LSI Nytro product portfolio of PCIe flash adapters with a new, high-capacity 3.2TB Nytro WarpDrive accelerator card, and expanded capacity, connectivity and software capabilities across the Nytro MegaRAID product family. The new offerings extend the industry's broadest portfolio of PCIe flash adapter products, allowing customers to choose the optimal solution to uniquely address their challenges across a wide range of enterprise applications and datacenter workloads.

The little Android console that could hits store shelves in the US, UK and Canada

It's been a long time coming, with a lot of changes along the way, but OUYA has finally hit widespread retail ability and will officially go on sale starting today. Several different online and traditional retailers -- such as Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop, Target and GAME -- will be carrying the Android-powered console, and OUYA says it will be available in "hundreds of stores" across the U.S., U.K. and Canada.

Creative Technology Ltd today introduced the Creative T3150 Wireless 2.1 computer speaker system with Bluetooth wireless technology, now available at Best Buy. This new addition to Creative's comprehensive line up of high performance wireless speakers continues to uphold Creative's long held reputation of merging superior audio performance with great value. Engineered to pump out smooth audio wirelessly, this compact speaker system is designed to deliver outstanding sound quality for PC gamers, music lovers and movie fans alike. It stands out amongst other wireless speakers in the same class, while remaining very competitively priced at US$59.99.

Sony to announce Xperia C: 1.2GHz quad-core, 5-inch qHD display, dual-SIM

There have been numerous reports for months that Sony Mobile is planning to launch a 5-inch handset with quad-core MediaTek chipset, most likely the MT6589 SoC. Well now we have some solid information from a trusted source of this handset, which is due to be announced at the Mobile Asia Expo in Shanghai tomorrow.

Not to be forgotten amid other new Samsung products, the company has announced that its complete Galaxy Tab 3 line-up will arrive in the US next month. The tablet family launches in the US on July 7, with all three screensizes (7-, 8- and 10.1 inches) will be available from Best Buy, Amazon, Wal-Mart, Office Depot, other bricks-and-mortar retailers and Samsung's own online store. As a refresher, the entry-level Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 is priced up at $199 and sports a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, 8GB of storage (plus microSD expansion), and a 7-inch 1,024 x 600 TFT display. There's Android Jelly Bean (4.1) from the outset, as well as the Samsung's apps and built-in hubs.

Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia is set to make official some new devices later this year, and it appears that it has already started teasing forthcoming announcements.

Giada Technology, a world famous manufacturer of compact desktop PCs, has announced the launch of a compact "Do-it-yourself" barebones-system: The D310. The D310 family is based on the 3rd generation of Intel Core processors.

At its HP World Tour event in Beijing, the company announced the HP Slate 21 all-in-one (AIO) Android tablet. Sporting a 21.5-inch touchscreen display, this device is meant for desktop use, and can be propped up with a kickstand on the back.

Lamptron has just launched the new FC5V3 fan controller, which is not only a revision of the FC5V2 but it is a real step forward in the evolution of this kind of products. This fan controller is positioned to become the new datum point in the cooling domain. In fact, the Lamptron FC5V3 has 6 channels and can handle up to 30 W per channel. The new wide LCD display shows all the information (RPM, temperature and voltage) for every channel.

South Korean mobile phone maker Samsung Electronics has been rumored recently to plan the launch of a Brown flavor of the Galaxy Note 8.0 tablet PC, and it seems that the device has already been made available for purchase.

Starting this week, Nokia Asha 501, the latest handset in Nokia’s popular lineup and the first of them to pack the new Asha platform, will be rolling out to stores around the world.

Vertu has announced a new special edition of the already special Vertu Ti handset. Called the Vertu Ti Color (surely they could have afforded to come up with a more creative name), the limited edition handset will be available in two colors, Sunset Red and Midnight Blue. Only 1000 units of this handset will be made.

Japanese storage company Green House launched a new 128-gigabyte Class-10 SDXC memory card, the GH-SDXCUB128G.

Eurocom is currently shipping the fastest Haswell based 4th gen Intel Core i7 powered notebook with dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M graphics. The EUROCOM Scorpius 2.0 is a ultra high performance, VGA upgradeable laptop computer designed to offer the utmost in performance and capability. The Scorpius 2.0 is a fully customizable and upgradeable 17.3" Laptop with the newest and best available components to offer our customers the absolute best in no compromise performance.

Ahead of its launch, a press-shot of ASUS' GeForce GTX 760 DirectCU II graphics card (model: GTX760-DC2OC-2GD5) was leaked to the web. This is the same exact card that showed up on the radar of European price aggregator Geizhals.at, last week.

Fujifilm X-M1 camera leaks: WiFi, new lenses, and more

Fujifilm’s new X-M1 entry-level interchangeable lens camera has leaked ahead of its expected launch next week, with the compact shooter ditching the viewfinder of the X-E1 but throwing in WiFi. The X-M1 images, shared by Digital Camera Info, show Fuji sticking to the retro aesthetic the company is known for, pairing the camera with not one but two new lenses.

Could this be the new, dual-flash toting iPhone 5S set to hit shelves later in the year? That’s certainly the suggestion, with leaked images showing what’s tipped to be Apple’s refreshed flagship smartphone ahead of its official unveil. MacRumors ran through the details to be gleaned, summarizing that – while no Apple leak can ever be considered entirely safe – there are some strong signs that this is Cupertino’s new toy.

Amidst Lenovo‘s unveiling of five IdeaPad touch-enabled laptops earlier this evening was a hybrid PC that looks very similar to the Microsoft Surface RT. The Lenovo Miix is a Windows 8 tablet running, surprisingly enough, an Intel Atom processor. Making it what Lenovo calls a “multi-mode” PC is a cover featuring an AccuType keyboard.

Lenovo has announced a slew of touch-enabled devices, among them being five new IdeaPad notebooks: the S400 Touch, S500 Touch, S210 Touch, U330 Touch and U430 Touch. All the PCs run Windows 8 and feature touchscreen displays, allowing users to take advantage of the OS’s touch-centric design. We’ve got a run down of all the devices, as well as a gallery, after the jump.

Samsung definitely brought out all the big guns at its latest launch event. Rather than introducing everything at Computex 2013, in Taipei, Taiwan (June 4-8), it decided to hold off until now.

The Ativ Q is bound to draw the attention of many people, even if it doesn't end up selling to as many customers down the line.

After weeks, or months really, of waiting, we can finally lay our eyes on the photo and video capture device that will replace the Samsung Galaxy Camera: Samsung Galaxy NX.

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