Mallorca-based Incubator Raises €1.2m, Announces First Investments

Mola.com (meaning "cool" in Spanish), a Palma de Mallorca based startup accelerator/incubator has raised €1.2M three months after announcing it's official launch. The funding comes from Bernardo Hernández, angel investor and currently Global Head of Marketing for Emerging Products at Google; Javier Gómez Navarro, ex Minister of Tourism in Spain; and Luis Chicharro, ex Executive VP Ibersuizas. Mola.com, founded by Enrique Dubois and Paco Gimena, dubs itself as a startup investment fund, an idea incubator, created by and for entrepreneurs. To date, they have participation in over 30 companies, including their own home-grown projects as well as adopted investments. The company claims a net worth of € 3 million and a total of € 11 million invested in collaboration with other investors.]]>

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World's First Glass Free 3D mobile by LG Optimus 3D Max

Once again The Korean smartphone maker LG comes with its first 3D handset, Optimus 3D Max glass free, LG claims the Optimus 3D Max -- which will also be called the Optimus 3D Cube in some regions -- will stand out from the pack thanks to its unique 3D experience and advanced NFC capabilities

The LG Optimus 3D Max appears to be the same device, The smartphone is slimmer than its predecessor at 9.6 mm thin and has a 1.2GHz dual-core processor the phone is called the Optimus 3D Max, the short specification that were listed in that leak were not exactly spot on, as it now becomes evident. What displays the glasses-free 3D goodness is a 4.3” WVGA display IPS LCD screen with 480 by 800 pixels of resolution, even though we were hoping to see a bigger display with a higher pixel count. Still, the display on the Optimus 3D Max should have wider viewing angles and is reinforced by Corning Gorilla Glass 2. Besides, at 520 nits in 2D mode or 250 nits in 3D mode, it should also be slightly brighter than what we have on the Optimus 3D, 8GB of internal storage, 1GB of memory.

LG Optimus 3D max comes with Corning Gorilla Glass 2,O a 5MP dual-lens camera for shooting video and photos in 3D, a 1,520 mAh battery, HSPA+ 21 Mbps, an HDMI connection 2D/3D TV/monitor up to 1080p via a Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL), DNLA support (3D video also supported), NFC Full Support, and LG Tag+.

The Optimus 3D Max will first launch in Korea in March and will gradually roll out in other markets starting in Europe. The device will receive an upgrade to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich from Android 2.3 Gingerbread shortly after the launch.

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Brightcove Shares Pop Over 30 Percent On First Trade; Valued At Nearly $400M

Online video service Brightcove has just made its public debut on the NASDAQ under the symbol 'BCOV', with an opening trade of $14.50. This is up over 30 percent from the company's original pricing of $11 per share, after setting the range of $10-$12 per share. At $14.50 per share, Brightcove is valued at $382 million.Brightcove sells online video publishing and distribution services, including Brightcove Video Cloud, an enterprise-friendly online video hosting and management platform, and Brightcove App Cloud, a software application development and management platform designed to help customers publish and distribute video through software apps across multiple Internet-connected devices.]]>

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Huawei Ascend P1 S Coming to China early first quarter of 2012

The Chinese giant’s iPhone-killer made quite a stir at CES with its super-skinny 6.48mm (0.255 inch) frame. The device will also feature Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and is  powered by the dual-core TI OMAP4460 CPU powering the phones, clocked at 1.5GHz and complemented by 1GB RAM. alongide an SGX 540 graphics engine.

The Ascend P1 S and P1 are near identical mobile twins, A 4.3-inch, Super AMOLED 960 x 540 displays qHD display is protected by hardened Gorilla Glass and there is a broad range of UMTS/GSM 3G and HSPA+ 4G connectivity capabilities, according to the firm.

Complete Specification and feature of Ascend P1


Design Type: Candy bar
Display Type: Super AMOLED Capacitive Touch Screen
Display Screen Size: 4.30 inches
Display Resolution 540 x 960 pixels
Display colors 16 million
Multi Touch input support
Sensors Light sensor
Proximity sensor
Scratch Resistant Glass
Operating System: Google Android (4.0)
Processor Type: Dual core
Processor Power: 1500 MHz
System Memory: 1024 MB RAM
Internal Memory: 4000 MB
Expandable Memory: Supports up to 32 GB
MicroSD, microSDHC Card Slot
Graphics Acceleration
Camera Size: 8 megapixels
Camera Support: LED Flash
Camera Features: Auto focus
Video Recording: 1920x1080 (1080p HD)
Secondary Camera Size: 1.3 megapixels
Video Calling
Audio Format Support: MP3, AAC, AAC+
YouTube Player
Video Format Support: MPEG4, H.263, H.264
FM Radio
Internet Browser: HTML, Flash
YouTube (upload), Picasa integrated
Calendar, Alarms
Phonebook: unlimited entries
Messaging: SMS, MMS, Threaded view, Predictive text input
Document Viewer
E-mail: IMAP, POP3, SMTP, Push e-mail
Internet connectivity: 3G HSPA, Wi-Fi 802.11 b, g, n and GPRS/EDGE
Data Transfer connectivity: microUSB 2.0, Bluetooth 3.0 and Tethering
GPS included
3.5 mm Audio connector Jack
Sensors Accelerometer
HDMI Support
MicroUSB Charging Connector
Dimensions: 6.68mm thick
Colors Choice: Black, Pink
Battery Model: 1800 mAh

In India It will be available in second Quarter of 2012 and price is yet to be announced .


Its 1670 mAh battery is said to provide up to 30 per cent more battery life over its rivals and the handset even comes in cherry blossom pink.

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Clevo Refreshes X7200 With X79-Based P270WM, AVADirect First in Line

Clevo's venerable X7200 notebook has gotten more than a little long in the tooth. The desktop hardware-based behemoth has been sporting the X58 chipset and support for LGA1366 processors pretty much since launch, despite the availability of Sandy Bridge processors and 6 series chipsets. Since mainstream hardware just isn't punchy enough for Clevo, they've now released a refresh to the X7200 in the form of the P270WM.

While we don't have any good photos of the new kit yet, we do know AVADirect will be among the first if not the first to have the new notebook available. They'll be shipping the P270WM with NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 580M standard; not a bad choice, as our testing showed the 580M inching out AMD's Radeon HD 6990M as the fastest single mobile GPU on the market. Users craving as much power as humanly possible will be able to spec the P270WM with a pair of 580Ms in SLI along with up to a Sandy Bridge-E Intel Core i7-3960X.

Where things get really interesting is that, judging from the photos AVADirect sent us, Clevo has finally given the X7200 a much-needed sprucing up. The P270WM includes not just a backlit keyboard, but in a bid to finally satisfy our Jarred Walton, the keyboard itself has been completely redesigned and now includes a layout that's actually functional.

Gallery: Clevo P270WM

Everything else about the P270WM should seem pretty familiar for users who already know the X7200: 17.3" screen at 1080p, punishing 12.13 pound body weight, three 2.5" drive bays, and four SO-DIMM slots to populate Sandy Bridge-E's quad channel memory controller.

Just like every other aspect of the P270WM, though, the pricetag isn't for the faint of heart: pre-orders start at a whopping $3,122 and are expected to ship around early March. Hopefully we'll have one in hand for review in time for launch.

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Harvard Gets Its First VC Firm: The Experiment Fund

As just about everyone should know by now, the seeds of what grew into Facebook were planted at Harvard. Might there be a bunch of mini-Zucks lurking in the dorms of Cambridge? If so, a new venture capital firm — the first housed right on the Harvard campus — wants to find them.]]>

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The First Thunderbolt Speed Bump: Likely in 2014

 

One of the most interesting use cases for Thunderbolt is as a connection to an external GPU for thin and light notebook users, especially Ultrabook/MacBook Air users that are left with nothing more than integrated graphics. We've had concerns about the latency and bandwidth offered by Thunderbolt for use with an external GPU (1.25GB/s in each direction). Despite the concerns, MSI demonstrated a functional external GPU solution at CES this week (the GUS II). The GUS II is limited to PCIe cards that don't require additional power beyond what's delivered by the slot itself, which ensures that you won't run into the bandwidth limitations that you'd see with higher end GPUs. While the idea of paring a notebook with a mainstream external GPU is interesting, what's really exciting is the potential to use a high end GPU (think $300+). To enable higher end external GPU support that makes sense we'll need more bandwidth from Thunderbolt. Intel's focus on Thunderbolt is to drive adoption and it doesn't want to quickly rev the spec before the initial release has a chance to gain popularity. As a result, Intel told me that we won't see any increase in Thunderbolt speeds for the next two years. If the technology ramps well (adoption is still very slow as the number of systems with Thunderbolt support are limited and TB devices are expensive) then the market will be ripe for an updated version in 2014. Expect to hear about a faster version of Thunderbolt in late 2013 and going into 2014.

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Intel Announces its First Medfield Smartphone Partner at CES 2012 - Lenovo K800

We're at the Intel keynote here at CES 2012 where Intel has announced one of its first Medfield design wins. Lenovo will be launching a phone based around Medfield in China named the Lenovo K800. The K800 will arive on China Unicom on their 21.1 Mbps HSPA+ network in 2Q2012. 

The K800 includes a capacitive multitouch 720p display. 

Gallery: Intel CES 2012 Keynote

Intel is showing off its reference platform now which includes an 8 MP camera and 720p display, and appears to be running Android 2.3.x. Intel's reference phone looks pretty beefy, including full "buzzword compliance" with NFC and all the specs a high end smartphone should have.

The Intel reference design was also shown off with the 10-frame burst capture mode we've seen before at IDF, and mentioned that it believes its optimizations and compatibility enhancements result in some of the best Android performance. Android libraries whose performance either isn't great on x86 or are incompatible have been tweaked, and the result is that all of the Android marketplace will work out of the box on Intel's smartphone platform. 

There's also an Intel reference design tablet which was briefly shown off running Windows 8. 

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Lenovo At CES: Android TV and First Krait Tablet

In 2011, Lenovo made a cursory effort to grab some of the consumer Android tablet space with the 7" K1, and a slightly more concerted effort to grab the enterprise tablet space with the ThinkPad Tablet. This year they seem to be reaching further. In a release ahead of CES Lenovo has revealed two rather interesting products, the K91 Android TV and the S2 Tablet featuring the Qualcomm MSM8960 SoC, the first Krait-powered device announced.

The K91 is a 55" 1080p LED-backlit IPS 3D TV and runs Android 4.0 across that big beautiful screen. This isn't a Google TV device, this set is running a modified Ice Cream Sandwich build complete with Android Market access, voice controls, a 5MP camera for video calls and the ability to interface with Lenovo phones and tablets as either remote controls or secondary displays. The software stack Lenovo is running is heavily modified to unite live TV and Android apps in a carousel style UI. Based on the renders there seems to be little left of the Holo theme, a matter which might contradict that Market access claim. The whole thing is powered by a Qualcomm APQ8060 S3 Snapdragon SoC, and though the release claims that the device is available immediately in China, no price or US availability is mentioned.

Possibly more intriguing than this Android-driven Smart TV is the IdeaTab S2 10 tablet, a 10.1" Android tablet featuring the much awaited MSM8960 S4 Snapdragon SoC. Krait has been a long time coming, and though no release date is provided, this is still a significant milestone on the road to a commercially available device. The chassis is an impressive 0.34" thick and weighs just 1.1 lbs, and comes with a textured back and 1280 x 800 IPS display. Android 4.0 is on order, though Lenovo's Mondrian UI obfuscates the vanilla goodness. We will make a bee line for this thing the moment we have a chance and will get you a hands-on impression as soon as we do. 

Gallery: Lenovo K91 Smart TV and IdeaTab S2 10 Press Images

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XFX’s Radeon HD 7970 Black Edition Double Dissipation: The First Semi-Custom 7970

Traditionally the launch of a next-generation high-end video card has been a staggered process. In the name of getting cards out as soon as possible the first cards are almost always reference cards coming preassembled straight from AMD or NVIDIA, which are then touched up in the livery of their partners before being boxed and sold. Only later on – particularly when there’s a solid supply of GPUs – can partners acquire individual parts and put together their custom designs.

But as it’s turning out the Radeon HD 7970 isn’t going to be a traditional launch. In a rare move AMD has loosened the leash on their partners just a bit, and as a result we’re seeing semi-custom cards planned for launch earlier than usual. XFX looks to be the first partner to take advantage of this more liberal policy, as alongside the reference cards being launched today they’re launching their first semi-custom 7970s

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First Nvidia Tegra 3 Benchmarks Score The Quad-Core Chip Just Slightly Faster Than Apple’s A5

Forget that specs do not matter for a minute. The first bit of competitive benchmarks of the Nvidia Tegra 3 are just now hitting thanks to the Asus Transformer Prime. Nvidia's quad-core mobile platform will likely be the de facto chipset to power Ice Cream Sandwich tablets; it will be everywhere next year. Nvidia has long touted the Tegra 3's processing power, stating that the platform will absolutely trounce all competitors including the aging dual-core Apple A5. That doesn't seem to be the case though. Early benchmarks are stating the A5 keeps up just fine.]]>

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Ultrabook Prices May Fall 5-10% In The First Part Of 2012, Says Report

The first ultrabooks are just now hitting the market but despite Intel's stated wishes, prices are generally north of $1000. But that might change early next year, per Digitimes who cites several supply chain makers. Reportedly, Acer, Asustek and Toshiba are looking to lower prices in 1Q12 to below $1000. Plus, a $100 marketing subsidy from Intel cause a overal dip of 5-10% next year. But even without the potential price drop, it's best to wait for the next round of ultrabooks anyway.]]>

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‘Olive’ Aims To Be The First Feature-Length Smartphone-Shot Film In Theaters

What's former Facebook CTO Chris Kelly doing post-Democratic Attorney General run? Why backing a feature length film shot on a smartphone of course! The film, called Olive, went up on Kickstarter today and was shot entirely using a Nokia N8 phone and a specially crafted 35mm lense.Director Hooman Khalili tells me that what differentiates Olive from other films that have tried the whole "movie shot on a smartphone" gimmick -- like The Wrong Ferrari -- is that he actually intends to show the film in theatres. Khalili even wants to submit it for Oscar consideration -- which would be a first for a smartphone-shot film  .

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ASUS' Zenbook Lineup: The First Ultrabooks Arrive October 12, Starting at $999

ASUS just announced its first line of Ultrabook PCs under the new Zenbook brand at a press event in NYC. There are a total of five models in the Zenbook lineup ranging in price from $999 to $1499 and available in both 11.6-inch and 13.3-inch display configurations. Based on specs alone, the Zenbook lineup is very similar to Apple's 2011 MacBook Air. Dimensions are almost identical, although ASUS' 11 is a little heavier than Apple's while its 13 is a little lighter. The entire Zenbook lineup ships with 4GB of DDR3 memory and all of the systems use the same ULV Sandy Bridge parts that Apple uses in the MacBook Air. Battery capacities are identical to the Air models at 35Whr and 50Whr depending on the chassis size. ASUS does claim lower standby numbers than Apple (up to 10 days vs. up to 30 for the MBA), but that's likely an OS limitation. The Zenbooks typically give you a larger SSD than Apple (and 6Gbps on top of that) as well as a single USB 3.0 port to complement its USB 2.0 port. ASUS claims a 2 second resume time for all of the Zenbook models, presumably from a suspend-to-RAM state.

ASUS Zenbook Lineup UX21E-DH52UX21E-DH71UX31E-DH52UX31E-DH53UX31E-DH72CPUi5-2467Mi7-2677Mi5-2557Mi5-2557Mi7-2677MOSWindows 7 Home Premium 64-bitDisplay11.6-inch 1366 x 76813.3-inch 1600 x 900Memory4GB DDR3Storage128GB 6Gbps SSD256GB 6Gbps SSDWireless Connectivity802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0Battery35Whr (5+ Hours)
up to 7 day standby50Whr (7+ Hours)
up to 10 day standbyCamera0.3MPAudioBang and Olufsen ICEpower & ASUS SonicMaster TechI/O1 x USB 2, 1 x USB 3, 1x audio/mic, 1x microHDMI, 1x miniVGA1 x USB 2, 1 x USB 3, 1 x audio/mic, 1 x microHDMI, 1 x miniVGA, 1 x SD Card readerDimensions11.7 x 7.7 x 0.11-0.67"12.8 x 8.8 x 0.11-0.71"Weight2.43 lbs2.86 lbsUSA MSRP$999$1199$1099$1349$1499Gallery: ASUS 2011 UX Series

The first Zenbooks will be available for order in the US starting October 12th. I've included some head to head comparisons between the various Zenbook models and their MacBook Air counterparts below. For the most part the specs aren't all that different. I don't expect that there are a ton of users who cross-shop similarly priced Macs and PCs, the Zenbook simply looks like a good option for those users who want a MacBook Air but prefer Windows 7.

ASUS' 13-inch offerings do have a higher resolution display than their Apple counterparts (1600 x 900 vs 1440 x 900). We're still waiting to hear back on the panel technology used in the Zenbooks, but I would be surprised if it was anything more than plain-old-TN like the Macs. Compared to the upgraded MBAs however, ASUS' Zenbooks do offer higher clocked CPUs at the same price point.

ASUS Zenbook U31E vs. Apple 13-inch MacBook Air UX31E-DH52UX31E-DH53Base 13-inch MBACPUi5-2557M 1.7GHz/2C/3MBi5-2557M 1.7GHz/2C/3MBi5-2557M 1.7GHz/2C/3MBDisplay13.3-inch 1600 x 90013.3-inch 1600 x 90013.3-inch 1440 x 900Memory4GB DDR34GB DDR34GB DDR3Storage128GB 6Gbps SSD256GB 6Gbps SSD128GB 3Gbps SSDWireless Connectivity802.11 b/g/n802.11 b/g/n802.11 a/b/g/nBattery50 Whr50 Whr50 WhrCamera0.3MP0.3MP0.3MPI/O1 x USB 2, 1 x USB 3, 1 x audio/mic, 1 x microHDMI, 1 x miniVGA, 1 x SD Card reader1 x USB 2, 1 x USB 3, 1 x audio/mic, 1 x microHDMI, 1 x miniVGA, 1 x SD Card reader2 x USB 2, 1 x audio/mic, 1 x Thunderbolt, 1 x SD Card readerDimensions12.8 x 8.8 x 0.11-0.71"12.8 x 8.8 x 0.11-0.71"12.8 x 8.94 x 0.11-0.68"Weight2.86 lbs2.86 lbs2.96 lbsMSRP$1099$1349$1299

 

ASUS Zenbook U31E vs. Apple 13-inch MacBook Air UX31E-DH72Upgraded 13-inch MBACPUi7-2667M 1.8GHz/2C/4MBi5-2557M 1.7GHz/2C/3MBDisplay13.3-inch 1600 x 90013.3-inch 1440 x 900Memory4GB DDR34GB DDR3Storage256GB 6Gbps SSD256GB 3Gbps SSDWireless Connectivity802.11 b/g/n802.11 a/b/g/nBattery50 Whr50 WhrCamera0.3MP0.3MPI/O1 x USB 2, 1 x USB 3, 1 x audio/mic, 1 x microHDMI, 1 x miniVGA, 1 x SD Card reader2 x USB 2, 1 x audio/mic, 1 x Thunderbolt, 1 x SD Card readerDimensions12.8 x 8.8 x 0.11-0.71"12.8 x 8.94 x 0.11-0.68"Weight2.86 lbs2.96 lbsMSRP$1499$1599

 

ASUS Zenbook U21E vs. Apple 11-inch MacBook Air UX21E-DH52Base 11-inch MBACPUi5-2467M 1.6GHz/2C/3MBi5-2467M 1.6GHz/2C/3MBDisplay11.6-inch 1366 x 76811.6-inch 1366 x 768Memory4GB DDR32GB DDR3Storage128GB 6Gbps SSD64GB 3Gbps SSDWireless Connectivity802.11 b/g/n802.11 a/b/g/nBattery35 Whr35WhrCamera0.3MP0.3MPI/O1 x USB 2, 1 x USB 3, 1 x audio/mic, 1 x microHDMI, 1 x miniVGA2 x USB 2, 1 x audio/mic, 1 x ThunderboltDimensions11.7 x 7.7 x 0.11-0.67"11.8 x 7.56 x 0.11-0.68"Weight2.43 lbs2.38 lbsMSRP$999$999

 

ASUS Zenbook U21E vs. Apple 11-inch MacBook Air EX21E-DH71Upgraded 11-inch MBACPUi7-2667M 1.8GHz/2C/4MBi5-2467M 1.6GHz/2C/3MBDisplay11.6-inch 1366 x 76811.6-inch 1366 x 768Memory4GB DDR34GB DDR3Storage128GB 6Gbps SSD128GB 3Gbps SSDWireless Connectivity802.11 b/g/n802.11 a/b/g/nBattery35 Whr35WhrCamera0.3MP0.3MPI/O1 x USB 2, 1 x USB 3, 1 x audio/mic, 1 x microHDMI, 1 x miniVGA2 x USB 2, 1 x audio/mic, 1 x ThunderboltDimensions11.7 x 7.7 x 0.11-0.67"11.8 x 7.56 x 0.11-0.68"Weight2.43 lbs2.38 lbsMSRP$1199$1199

 

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Stephen Elop: Nokia's First Windows Phones Coming in a few Weeks

While we are all excited about today's iPhone event, Nokia has shed some light to their Windows Phone schedule as well. Nokia's CEO, Stephen Elop, held a speech yesterday at ECT Forum in Helsinki, Finland, where he revealed that Nokia's first Windows Phone 7-based devices will be revealed within a few weeks. This isn't a surprise since Nokia will be holding the annual Nokia World Trade show on October 26th in London. However, this hints that Nokia has not experienced any further delays, although it's not clear when Nokia will actually be shipping these phones. 

How many and what kind of phones Nokia will announce, is the question. Some reports have suggested three models at the beginning, but there are no concrete proofs to support that. What is certain is that these phones will pretty much dictate Nokia's future in the smartphone market. 

Source: Reuters

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Sans European Office, Foursquare Hires Its First European Employee

While it doesn't have any sort of valid office in Europe, Foursquare does have its first European employee. Yes, Foursquare has hired the London-based Omid Ashtari as Director of Business Development. Woo hoo!Before the Foursquare opportunity knocked, Ashtari attended the University of Working At Google, where he spent seven years plugging away at sales and business development roles -- migrating between Dublin, San Francisco and London.]]>

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Broadcom Announces its first NFC Solution - BCM2079x

Near Field Communication (NFC) is quickly shaping up to be a must-have feature in this next generation of smartphones. We talked about it briefly in the context of the Nexus S, where it promised to enable contactless payments, tag reading, easier pairing, and simple peer-to-peer transfer. Though there is only one practicable NFC contactless payment implementation to date in the Nexus S 4G on Sprint, more are coming as carriers and payment processors work out the details. To date, the implementations we've seen in the Nexus S have used NXP's PN544, and there are other NFC controllers on the market from Inside Secure and STMicroelectronics. 

Today, Broadcom is joining that fray with their own discrete NFC controller, the BCM2079x family, which it claims will offer lower power consumption and package size than the competition thanks to its 40nm design. This is a part specifically targeted at smartphones and other mobile NFC applications. Broadcom claims its design is 40 percent smaller and uses 40 percent fewer components compared to others. 

Of course the real long term question is how long it will be until Broadcom can integrate its NFC controller into its mobile combo chip lineup. These are parts like BCM4329 and BCM4330 which combine WiFi, Bluetooth, and FM radio into one package, and are hugely popular in the smartphone space. Broadcom isn't ready to talk about that roadmap, but no doubt adding NFC to that list and keeping it all under one roof in the same die is on everyone's minds. For now, the BCM2079x family pairs with BCM4330 and others to enable NFC-enabled Bluetooth pairing and other scenarios.

Source: Broadcom

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Tom’s Hardware Takes a First Look at AMD Llano for the Desktop

Tom's Hardware recently took a look at the nuts and bolts of AMD’s new Llano platform and came upon some interesting analysis. First off, they gave a shout out to GIGABYTE, noting that our GA-A75M-UD2H features Dual-link DVI and is the only board they had that provided DisplayPort connectivity as well.

Also, GIGABYTE’s board was singled out for its overclock ability:

I spent a couple of late nights chatting back and forth with the fine folks at ASRock and Gigabyte, who helped in near real-time with BIOS builds. Eventually, I was able to get Gigabyte’s A75M-UD2H dialed in at nearly 3.4 GHz (it’d run in excess of that, but crashed under load) using a 23.5x multiplier and 145 MHz reference clock reflected as 143.5 MHz. The APU only needed a .05 V bump to achieve those numbers, too…

Other boards simply wouldn’t overclock well at all, failing long before we were forced to fight a bus speed idiosyncrasy.

They also noted that memory really matters with this platform:

Despite marginal gains in application performance, the bottom line here is simple: if you want to get the best horsepower out of a Llano-based APU, that graphics engine needs to breathe. Memory able to support a high data rate at low latencies is absolutely imperative for the best possible frame rates in games.

Don’t sweat DDR3-1866 if it means CAS 8 or 9 timings. Aggressively-tuned DDR3-1600 looks to be the sweet spot.

Stay tuned to our blog for the next couple of weeks, as we will be doing some testing to show how memory and even overclocking on this entry platform can lead to some great performance and more than just playable DX11 gaming.

To read the full Llano overview on Tom’s, please visit HERE.

Chinese Version of this blog here

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Google’s first Ice Cream Sandwich phone to be manufactured by Samsung, ‘Nexus Prime’

We exclusively reported details of Google’s first Ice Cream Sandwich smartphone — either a Nexus device, or a “pure Google” flagship handset from one of Google’s key partners — and we now have more information surrounding the world’s most anticipated Android phone. We reported that the handset would nix physical menu keys going forward, and would feature a monster 720p -resolution display, and we have now confirmed with our source that the screen itself is branded as a “Super AMOLED HD” display. The branding confirms our suspicions that Samsung will indeed be the manufacturer. We have also confirmed that the processor in the upcoming device will be an OMAP4460, just as we originally reported. Hit the jump for more.

This upcoming superphone will not have any carrier preloads or OEM customizations, which goes without saying for a Nexus phone or a reference/flagship Android offering. The current codename is “Prime”, and our source believes it’s possible that the phone could launch as the “Google Nexus Prime.” We also have information that Google’s onslaught of high-end Android devices isn’t going to stop anytime soon. With the Motorola DROID and Motorola XOOM, Google launched its flagship Android devices with one carrier and one OEM, but we’re hearing things might be switched up this time around. Our source indicated that Google could be working with multiple carriers and multiple OEMs on their own “exclusive” Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) halo devices, and that they may all launch around the same time.

Imagine flagship releases from Motorola, HTC, and LG with Ice Cream Sandwich available on AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, and Sprint all at practically the same time… in addition to a Google Nexus handset from Samsung. The summer’s going to be hot, but it looks like the fall might get even hotter.

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Medal of Honor 2010 Beta Multiplayer First Impression Mini-Review

I came home to find an e-mail saying that I was accepted into the Beta of Medal of Honor. I must say, it was a pleasant surprise. So after many many hours of non-stop playing, I have come to a few conclusions, so I decided a mini "First Impression" review was in order.

Medal of Honor 2010 is made by the same people who make the incredible Battlefield Bad Company 2, DICE. So I must admit I had high expectations for this game. I am pleased to say, it really did not disappoint.

MoH is not Bad Company 2, it was not intended to be, and I am glad they did not try and make it like BC2. MoH is a lot more like Modern Warfare 2, only 100X better, especially since MW2 sucks so bad. In a nut shell, everything Modern Warfare got wrong, Medal of Honor got right. This game blows Mw2 out of the water in just about every respect.

Medal of Honor is a pretty fast paced game on maps that are the perfect size and it easily fulfills the needs of any hardcore FPS gamer. The gameplay feels very smooth and the game has a low learning curve if your already an FPS player.

How does it run?

On my system, this game runs like a dream, averaging 100+ FPS stable at all times, easy. On all high/max settings, 1600x900. 100% frame lag free from what I could tell.

Hit registration seems OK, for a beta. There are times when you get killed "around a corner", but that's a pretty common problem in many FPS games, even BC2. So I really can't hold that against it. You also have to take into account other players latency issues and such. I have dumped multiple rounds into someones face, blood flying, only to have them make it through unharmed and knife me.

The Toys!

The weapons are quite powerful and accurate once you get them mastered. You can unlock different weapons, sights, barrels, and ammunition types for your 3 classes. Assault, Spec Ops, and Sniper. In the beta you seem to be very limited on how much you can unlock.

You get kill streak bonus's you can call upon such as a Mortar Strike, UAV, or Air Strike. Similar to MW2 in availability only, they are not even close to MW2 in how they work, you can't spam the map with them and they do not wipe everyone out. It's 100X more balanced than MW2 could ever dream. Like I said, it's like they learned a lot from MW2's failures.

The one thing I have noticed in the beta is explosive weapons seem to be pretty weak. Had Grenades, the noob tube, RPG's, Rockets, all of them. I am not sure if this is how they are supposed to be or its a bug, to me, it feels like a bug. In order to score a kill with these weapons, you pretty much have to either hit your enemy directly, right at their feet, or hope they have low HP.

The Sniper Rifles in the beta are beastly. You can pretty much run and gun like as assault class as they are configured at the moment. Very easy to use for any nub with any sort of FPS experience. They feel very overpowered, but they are still quite fun, I am sure they will change by the time the game goes retail.

On the flip side of the coin, your assault rifles can easily be used to snipe as well, it almost feels like there is no bullet drop or randomization at all. Then again, most of the battles are in semi-close quarters. It makes the battle feel quite, even, no matter what weapons you use.

The shotguns are a blast as well. Devastating up close and still pretty mean at moderate range. I am able to clear out an entire building of 3 or 4 enemies with relative ease in most cases if I rush in with a shotty and they don't all see me at once. haha

How does it look?

From a graphic standpoint, the game looks great, again it's better than MW2. The environments are not as reactive like in Bad Company 2, but they are more reactive than in MW2. It's easy to see what can and cant be destroyed.

The Vehicles and mounted weapons!

There are gun emplacements in some locations as well as small Bradly style vehicles on some maps, though not many. Such as objective based maps, where you have to capture a set of bases and push the enemy team back. There are no vehicles on the team deathmatch maps.

The Maps and Modes






In the beta, there seem to be 2 maps, each with a different mode, available to play. Both seem very well designed and are quite fun. 24 players per server.

The first map is Helmand Valley and the game mode is "Combat Mission". The idea here is to either take a set of objectives or defend them, depending on what side your on. If your the attackers, you have to try and push the enemy back at take each objective, until you have driven them back to the final one and taken it. If your a defender, it's pretty simple, stop them and tick away the attackers lives to win.

The second, and my favorite so far, is Kabul City Ruins and the mode is Team Assault (aka Team Deathmatch). Pretty much the same as any other Team Deathmatch, kill more of them, score more points than they do, and win. I like the spawn setup in this mode, its not set so one team can just camp one side of the map, your spawn location changes depending on what section of the map your team is in control of at that moment in time. It does well in keeping the action flowing.

The Negative. =(

Hacks already!?!? My god these sad loosers sure don't waste any time. Sadly I ran into a two already. One player by the name of "phooka" was blatantly using a "wall hack" (sometimes known as "chams") to see where everyone was and a wonderful little no-spread hack as well. I had to go look it up to make sure these hacks even existed when I seen them the first time. You can imagine my dismay when I found a few sites looking for people to test their hacks in beta. Makes you want to smack the crap out of them idiots does it not? Oh well, haha.

You really cant hold this against the game, its only in beta, and hacks are a fact of online life. Not to mention, I have only see 2 people outright using hacks in the 15+ hours I played so far. That's not bad at all.

Player lag or server? That is the question the preoccupies my mind. Normally, I would place the blame on kids and people who play a game thinking they have a good enough internet connection or PC to play it, even though they don't. In this case, I am not so sure, it is a beta after all. It could just be that. Though expect people to tank entire clips and to drop dead out of the blue every so often. Nothing new to online FPS. Not to mention I have ran across "SA" players in the beta, playing on the North American servers. That's never a good sign and even worse for "lag". heh

Before you happen to guess what kinda of connection I am on, its 30Mbps down and 15Mbps up, with an average latency from 40-60 from New York, to Dallas, to Los Angeles. 30's to Chicago and St.Louis. So yeah, its not me. lol

Conclusions.

What I like about the game is the fact it fills a niche that MW2 was not able to do. I love my Bad Company 2 and I still prefer that style of game over that of Medal of Honor, but I have to say, MoH easily fulfills my fast paced, non-battlefield style, gaming desires I get from time to time. Enough so that I will be picking this game up that's for sure.

The beta is wonderful, and I am having a lot of fun in it. One major plus, in-game chat is disabled in beta! If only it could stay disabled. lol

Anyway, I easily rate this game a 8 out of 10. The only reason it don't get a higher score is the fact it is still in it's beta stage at the moment. A lot can change from now until the game goes retail. Also, I still like Battlefield style games better.

On a side note, I am going to brag a little. Now, I am pretty damn good at just about any FPS I play, enough to hold my own against anyone and finish on top in many cases. I have discovered my main reason for playing MoH Beta at the moment. I will drop anyone, anywhere, anytime, with the shotguns. >:)

They are all I have been using for the past 3 days, in a nut shell, I dominate. I even dominate others using the shotguns. So if you happen across my path, watch out, no matter how good you think you are...chances are...I will still dominate you. haha

OK, done bragging and having fun now. To some video! :P

Here is a small video of me running around a team deathmatch map, exploring. This was the first time I played on this map and mode. What is now my favorite. It will give you an idea of what the gameplay is like. There is nothing special about the video, its not edited in any way, just raw footage. Rendered in 720P.

This video is the same map, different class and weapons. Having fun with those shotguns. Still raw gameplay but I cut out all the running around and focused on the action more. Still all filmed in one single match. I also rendered it in 1080P this time around.

Both videos recorded with Fraps. Half Size. At 60FPS.

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