Windows 8 Consumer Preview Available for Download

Adventurous Windows users can now download the Windows 8 Consumer preview from Microsoft's web site using the link provided below. The preview version of the new OS is available for 32-bit and 64-bit PCs, and can be downloaded either in ISO format (for buring to a DVD or converting to a USB stick using the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool) or as a setup file, which Windows Vista and Windows 7 users can use to pull down the OS from the Internet.

If you prefer to explore these things vicariously (there's no shame in it, really), our coverage of new Windows 8 features has been fairly extensive up until now - you can find all of our previous Windows 8 articles by following this link. A more complete, in-depth look at the Consumer Preview is forthcoming, and should be ready at some point next week.

Source: Microsoft

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LaCie 2big Thunderbolt Series Now Available

LaCie showcased their 2big Thunderbolt drive at CES 2012 and it has now started shipping. 

Specifications of LaCie 2big Thunderbolt SeriesCapacities4TB and 6TB (and 8TB)Revolutions per minute (rpm)7200rpmMaximum Read Speed327MB/sMaximum Write Speed320MB/sConnectivity2x ThunderboltDimensions (WxHxD)3.5" x 6.7" x 7.8" (9.1 x 17.2 x 20.0 cm)Price$649 (4TB) and $799 (6TB)

The LaCie 2big Thunderbolt Series is essentially the LaCie Little Big Disk in 3.5" form factor. It has two swappable 3.5" drives whereas the Little Big Disk has two 2.5" drives. 3.5" drives offer larger capacities and better performance, particularly with hard drive. The 2big is rated at transfer speeds up to 327MB/s while the Little Big Disk tops out at 190MB/s (both results are for the non-SSD versions). LaCie has an 8TB model on their site as well but there is no price listed, which suggests that it's not shipping yet.

There are also two Thunderbolt ports for daisy-chaining, so you can daisy-chain several 2bigs or other Thunderbolt devices. The 2big most likely uses the same SATA controller as the Little Big Disk, which means you are limited to two SATA 3Gb/s ports. For the standard configuration this isn't an issue, but people who are interested in swapping the hard drives for SSDs should be aware that the SATA controller will be a potential bottleneck with the fastest SATA 6Gb/s SSDs.

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Seagate GoFlex Thunderbolt Adapter Now Available

A few weeks ago at CES 2012, Seagate showcased their GoFlex Thunderbolt adapters. They come in two flavors: the GoFlex Desk Thunderbolt adapter takes 3.5" drives, requires an external power supply, and has two Thunderbolt ports; the GoFlex Thunderbolt adapter is suitable for 2.5" drives, is bus-powered, and has a single Thunderbolt port (i.e. no daisy-chaining).

The GoFlex Desk adapter won't be available until later this month, but Seagate has now updated their accessory page and started shipping the 2.5" GoFlex adapter. It's available from Seagate's online store for $100 (no cable included, so that's another $50), which is quite a lot more than a $15 USB 3.0 enclosure, but at least this is better pricing than the LaCie and Promise solutions we have seen so far. Unfortunately, you are still limited to using Seagate's GoFlex drives, but fortunately they are reasonably priced. By way of comparison, a solution using the GoFlex TB adapter and 1TB GoFlex external would cost around $230, whereas LaCie charges $400 for a similar setup.

UPDATE: It appears that a GoFlex drive is not needed and any 2.5" SATA drive should work.

MacWorld has already received a review unit and run a few basic tests. As you might have expected, Thunderbolt is noticeably faster than USB 2.0 but not much faster than FireWire 800. In terms of raw numbers, USB 2.0 had a maximum throughput of 33.7MB/s while FireWire and Thunderbolt had 70.3MB/s and 81.3MB/s respectively. Obviously, the 500GB 2.5" 5400rpm drive is the bottleneck here—the gap would be a lot bigger with a 3.5" hard drive, or better yet, an SSD.

To be honest, the GoFlex Thunderbolt adapter isn't really worth it unless you plan on using an SSD, which requires you to open the GoFlex enclosure and change the hard drive to an SSD, which is not supported by Seagate and may void your warranty. In the case of regular 2.5" hard drives, you're better off with the GoFlex FireWire 800 adapter ($50 from Seagate's online store and no $50 cable required), assuming you have a Mac with FireWire 800—otherwise USB 2.0 should be sufficient as well. For those not using Mac hardware, Thunderbolt may have more bandwidth, but right now USB 3.0 is a far more economical solution.

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Crucial 50GB Adrenaline SSD Cache, Available in Q1

 

Earlier this week Crucial announced its first SSD caching solution: the Adrenaline SSD. The drive will be available in a single capacity: 50GB with 64GB of 25nm MLC NAND onboard.   The controller is identical to the Marvell design used in the m4. Crucial tells me that the firmware is identical to what you'd get on a normal m4. Adrenaline will ship with some SSD caching software for Windows 7 but Crucial wouldn't tell us which package will come with the drive. The target market is users who want a simple way to upgrade their slow hard drive based machines without the hassle of migrating data or the price of a high capacity SSD. Expect to see the drive ship before the end of Q1.

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Elgato's Thunderbolt SSD: Bus Powered, 120/240GB, Available in February

Elgato sent over info on its brand new Thunderbolt SSD available in February in 120GB and 240GB capacities. There's no word on the controller inside. If I had to speculate based on the capacities alone it sounds a lot like SandForce but it honestly could be anyone. The external drive is entirely bus powered and will retail for a hefty $429.95 for the 120GB model and $699.95 for the 240GB version. 

I'm still waiting for someone to make a BYOD external Thunderbolt chassis though...

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Acer Aspire S3 Available This Week for $899

Acer hasn't had the best year, falling behind in global PC sales from its former perch at No. 2, just behind HP. Their announcement today that their first Ultrabook, the Aspire S3 would be available this week, and at a positively cut rate $899 is a strong move to build itself back up. You'll recall Ultrabooks are an Intel backed initiative to produce thin, lightweight laptops based around their CULV Sandy Bridge processors. By "Intel backed" this isn't just a name and a concept, Intel has committed $300M to help companies develop and market their variants. The power-sipping, modern processors are just one part of the concept; SSDs feature prominently in all models, as does a target price of $999, and a target battery life of 5 hours. Rapid sleep and wake times are also notable, though the speed of these seems very manufacturer dependent. 

The 13.3" S3 delivers a 1366x768 resolution on its LED backlit display, in an aluminum/magnesium chassis just a tick over half an inch thick at its thinnest point, and weighing just under 3 lbs. These are all characteristics that we'll encounter repeatedly as other Ultrabook models become available. The thin frame finds room for two USB ports along with a full size HDMI port on its back side, while audio jacks and a card reader grace its sides. The full size chiclet keyboard and large multitouch trackpad are par for the course and the system is being offered in a metallic grey with a fingerprint resistant finish. Connectivity comes in the form of 802.11 a/b/g/n wireless along with Bluetooth 4.0+HS, and a 1.3MP webcam rounds out the exterior specs. 

Inside the S3-951, you'll find the Core i5-2467 whose two cores can operate at 1.6GHz, or up to 2.3GHz on a single core, along with 4GB of RAM on the Intel UM67 chipset. Acer's Ultrabook will feature not just an SSD, 20GB in size, but also a 320GB HDD for expanded mobile storage. It's unclear whether the SSD will serve as a boot drive or exclusively to store sleep state. Note that the UM67 chipset does not support the Z68's Smart Response Technology that Anand discussed previously, but all ultrabooks sport enhanced wake from sleep times thanks to their SSD requirement and some chipset optimizations.

In the case of the S3, we're looking at a 2 second wake from sleep time (which really doesn't seem like that big a deal--resume from hibernation is what typically requires 30+ seconds). Another highlight is the 50 day stand by time. This is where the SSD's non-volatile memory really comes in handy. When left in sleep for longer than 8 hours, or a user definable time, the S3 will enter a Deep Sleep state that allows for this absurd stand by time. It can wake from Deep Sleep in just 6 seconds. Stand by times aren't the only area where the S3 should excel, the 3-cell 3280 mAh integrated battery is said to be good for 6 hours continuous usage. We can't wait to get our hands on one to test these battery life figures (though we'll likely pass on testing that stand by number). 

All of this will be available this week for that tempting $899 MSRP, a welcome value when not that long ago thicker, heavier and less potent machines were competing in the same price range for the "thin and light" crown. This is only the start though, with many OEMs expected to announce their products in the coming days and weeks. 

Gallery: Acer Aspire S3 Available This Week for $899

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Portal 2 Free “Peer Review” DLC Now Available

In case you haven’t been solving testing chambers incessantly since April, Valve’s offering a free reason to dust off your copy of Portal 2. A new DLC pack, titled “Peer Review,” is up for download now via Steam, Xbox Live, and PlayStation Network.

“Peer Review” expands Portal 2’s co-op mode with a new test track, once again pitting the adorable P-Body and Atlas against GLaDOS. The DLC also includes single player and co-op Challenge Modes, each with their own leaderboards.

As an added bonus, Valve has lowered the price of Portal 2 on Steam to $14.99 until Thursday. You can also purchase two copies for $27.49. Act quickly and grab a copy of one of the best games released this year.

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T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S 2 Available October 12

This morning, Samsung officially announced the last set of details surrounding the relatively enigmatic T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S 2, which we have been following pretty closely. First up, Samsung has for a second time officially confirmed that the T-Mobile variant includes a 1.5 GHz dual core Qualcomm SoC by making note of it in its press release, with the line:

Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 Processor with 1.5 GHz dual CPUs

In addition, DC-HSPA+ 42 Mbps support is still also officially on the spec list. We can also round out our table with the last of the details of all three USA-destined SGS2 variants. Interestingly enough, the T-Mobile variant also has quad-band WCDMA support, including the 850/1900 bands that would make it work on AT&T in the states. The reason for these bands being included is apparently to add support for Telus, which supposedly uses the same hardware. 

USA Samsung Galaxy S II VariantsCarrierT-MobileSprintAT&TNameSamsung Galaxy S II on T-MobileSamsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G TouchSamsung Galaxy S IISoCDual-Core Snapdragon 1.5 GHzExynos 4210 1.2 GHzExynos 4210 1.2 GHzNetwork Support

DC-HSPA+ (MDM8220)
GSM(850/900/1800/1900)
WCDMA(2100/1900/1700/850)

WiMAX + CDMA2000 1x/EVDO

HSPA+ GSM(850/900/1800/1900)
WCDMA(850/1900/2100)

Display Size4.52" SAMOLED+ WVGA4.52" SAMOLED+ WVGA4.3" SAMOLED+ WVGASize5.1" x 2.7" x .37"2.7" x 5.1" x 0.38"? x ? x 8.89 mmStorage16 GB Internal, up to 32 GB microSDCameras8 MP Rear Facing w/LED,AF, 2 MP Front Facing. 1080p Video RecordingWiFi/BT/NFC802.11 a/b/g/n, BT 3.0, NFC802.11a/b/g/n, BT 3.0802.11a/b/g/n, BT 3.0, NFC(?)Battery1850 mAh1800 mAh1650 mAh

One of the most surprising things is that the T-Mobile variant now officially includes NFC support, and will launch running Android 2.3.5. The device will go on pre-order October 10, then for sale at select stores and dealers October 12. The Galaxy S II is expected to cost $229.99 after a $50 mail-in-rebate card with a two-year service agreement. 

Source: T-Mobile/Samsung (PDF)

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Valve Games Available Through EA's Origin Store

In an ironic development following months of public squabbling over digital distribution practices, Electronic Arts is now offering Valve games through its Origin service.

EA is running a buy-two-get-one-free special this weekend, and three Valve titles are included: Counter-Strike: Source, Left For Dead: Game of the Year Edition, and Left 4 Dead 2. The Valve games (each priced at $19.99) are boxed retail copies, and the free games available are downloadable copies of select EA titles.

The promotion is raising eyebrows after EA announced last month that its flagship shooter Battlefield 3 would not be available on Valve’s Steam platform, citing “a set of restrictive terms of service which limit how developers interact with customers to deliver patches and other downloadable content.” EA issued similar statements after removing Crysis 2 from Steam following Origin’s launch.

Without offering any concrete solutions, both sides have expressed a desire to resolve this dispute. Valve president Gabe Newell recently told Develop, “We want EA’s games on Steam and we have to show them that’s a smart thing to do.” EA’s Jens Uwe Intat told Eurogamer last week that the company isn’t planning on making its games Origin-exclusive. “Competition and choice go hand in hand,” he said. “So the fact we will only distribute our own games on our own platform, I don't see that.”

Neither company has issued a statement regarding the promotion. EA does hold the distribution rights to retail copies of some Valve titles, so this may be less of a sign that the two companies are newly cooperating and more of a message from EA saying they’d like to cooperate.

Source: Origin via Joystiq

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GeForce GTX 570M Available in MSI's GT683DXR and GT780DXR

We've known the GTX 570M was coming for a while now, but MSI is the first to start shipping notebooks with the new GPU. Sitting between the GTX 560M and GTX 580M, the GTX 570M packs 336 CUDA Cores clocked at 1150MHz, with 3GB of  GDDR5 running on a 192-bit bus and clocked at 3GHz (72GB/s of bandwidth). That compares to 192 cores clocked at 1550MHz with 2.5GHz GDDR5 (60GB/s) for the GTX 560M, giving the 570M 20% more bandwidth and 34% more processing power. The big brother GTX 580M on the other hand comes with 384 cores clocked at 1240MHz, with 3GHz GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus (96GB/s), so it has 33% more bandwidth and 23% more processing power.

Like all the 500M GPUs (and the 400M parts before them), the 570M supports NVIDIA's Optimus graphics switching technology, though it's up to the notebook manufacturers to actually use it or not. Unfortunately, it appears MSI has decided to not support Optimus with their G-series updates, so we'll have to wait for a future model to get that feature.

That brings us to MSI's new notebooks. The GT683DXR and GT780DXR update the GT680R and GT780R respectively. We reviewed the GT580R a few months back, and it sits in the middle of a bunch of similarly specced notebooks. The new model upgrades the GPU along with packing in 12GB RAM (2x4GB + 2x2GB), keeps the 2x500GB RAID 0 hard drive setup, and continues to offer a GPU overclocking tool dubbed Turbo Drive Engine (TDE) that boosts GPU clocks 3-5%. Newegg and Amazon already have the GT683DXR in stock, priced at $1600 and $1594 respectively.

The larger GT780DXR sports roughly identical specs, with the chief difference being the larger chassis and 17.3" display. The GT780DXR also includes a third USB 2.0 port and a VGA port, to go along with the two USB 3.0 ports and the HDMI port offered on the GT683DXR. and it has a backlit keyboard with three color zones. We haven't had a chance to look at the GT780 series before, so we can't comment on the display quality, but it can hardly be worse than the panel we tested in the GT680R. Considering it costs an extra $100 for a larger notebook with otherwise identical specs, not to mention the use of a matte LCD, we're hopeful that display quality is substantially better on the GT780DXR. The GT780DRX is also available at Newegg for $1700, or at Amazon for $1700.

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Acer Aspire One 722 Brazos Available In Europe

GIGABYTE Tech Daily now available in Traditional Chinese

We’re proud to announce that from now on a Chinese language version of this blog will be available to those of you who prefer to keep up with the world of GIGABYTE motherboards and read our ramblings, opinions and general musings in Traditional Chinese.  We might well be a global leader in motherboard and design and innovation, but we’re still very much a Taiwanese company at heart,  so it’s great that we now have a mirror site in the local language.

You can check out the new site at this URL: http://gigabytedailycht.blogspot.com/

技嘉科技日報中文版全新上線

我們榮幸地宣布，技嘉科技日報中文版即日起正式上線，以便服務所有喜歡閱讀我們的隨筆、關心技嘉主機板動態以及科技趨勢，但又習慣閱讀繁體中文的讀者們。雖然技嘉科技是主機板設計及創新領導廠商，但我們從來沒忘記，我們仍是一間立足台灣的公司。所以能將我們部落格的內容以本土語言忠實呈現，對我們來說是非常值的高興的事，希望您也跟我們一樣興奮，並喜歡我們的新網站。

您可以點選下列網址瀏覽技嘉科技日報中文版：http://gigabytedailycht.blogspot.com/

Toshiba-Made MacBook Air SSD Hardware Now Available to All

If you were wanting to get your hands on some of the Toshiba-made SSD hardware that found its way into the latest MacBook Airs, you’re in luck. Toshiba has announced that their Blade X-gale SSDs are now available for the masses. Offering up speeds of 220MB/s read and 180MB/s write, the X-gale hardware will certainly add some pep to your computer’s step. Though not the fastest SSD on the market, they are certainly faster than your standard platter-based drives.

The X-gale SSD drives will come in 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB capacities. Pricing is not yet available.

Source: http://gadgetsteria.com/2010/11/08/toshiba-made-macbook-air-ssd-hardware-now-available-to-all/

Crysis 2 PC Demo Available for Download

Well EA Games released the Crysis 2 Multiplayer Demo for PC and users can download the game on internet for free of cost. The new Multiplayer Demo contains various maps, game modes and classes that you can get your hands on. The game developed with new crytek  engine 3 and very well optimized for PC and Console versions like PS3 and Xbox 360. Seriously the gameplay looks very interesting feels like we are really in newyork city and buildings, objects are designed very detailed and most important thing in the game is physics engine, only nvidia gamers can feel the real gaming experience while playing the game in physics engine mode with decent frame rates. 

Therefore the  Final Version of crysis 2 is available on march 22 in 2011 with price tag around 60$ and users can pre-order the game in Amazon site.

In order to Download the Crysis 2 Mulitplayer Demo plz click on these link.

Crysis 2 Gameplay Video 

Samsung 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot is Available Now For Verizon Users

Verizon and Samsung today announced that the Samsung 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot is available for order today in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores and online for $99.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement on a 4G Mobile Broadband plan. The 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot will be available in stores on March 31.

Samsung 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot Key features:

• Share 4G LTE internet connection with up to five Wi-Fi-enabled devices at the same time
• 4G LTE – customers can expect download speeds of 5 to 12 Mbps and upload speeds of 2 to 5 Mbps in 4G Mobile Broadband coverage areas
• Backward compatible with the Verizon Wireless 3G network
• Dimensions: 2.32”(H) x 3.54”(W) x 0.45”(D)

iPhone 4 and iPhone 4G in white is available , Price

Apple has announced today that their highly anticipated and terribly delayed white iPhone 4, will be available to purchase tomorrow in stores, worldwide.  The white iPhone will be arriving in the US on both AT&T and Verizon, for $199 on contract for the 16GB model and $299 for the 32GB.

White models of iPhone 4 will also be available in Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Macau, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand and UK.

Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president explained in the press release:

The white iPhone 4 has finally arrived and it’s beautiful. We appreciate everyone who has waited patiently while we’ve worked to get every detail right.

Lnx2Mac's Realtek Ethernet Driver - Public Beta Now Available

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For the past few weeks, Lnx2Mac has been developing a new Realtek ethernet driver for Mac OS X. His goal was to create a driver that provides support for the latest motherboards that use the Realtek RTL8111E controller. This new driver is called RealtekRTL81xx.kext and supports the following ethernet controllers:

• RTL8168, RTL8168B, RTL8168C
• RTL8111, RTL8111B, RTL8111C, RTL8111CP, RTL8111D(L), RTL8111DP, RTL8111E

It's based on the RealtekR1000SL.kext created by Chuck Fry in late 2009 with additions and fixes from the latest official Realtek Linux source. In addition the driver includes the following changes:

• 32/64 bit support
• Improved stability
• Improved performance
• Numerous bug fixes

Today the beta went public! Check out Lnx2Mac's Blog for further details and the download link.  Please leave all feedback and comments there and in the RTL81xx Beta Testing forum.

For discussions on this and other topics, register today at tonymacx86.com! 

CustomBeast Now Available For X58 Motherboards

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CustomBeast is now available for Gigabyte X58 motherboards!  Supported specs now include any Gigabyte H55, P55, or X58 motherboard with NVIDIA graphics. 

CustomBeast Request Form

-tonymacx86 & MacMan

For discussions on this and other topics, register today at tonymacx86.com!

CustomBeast Now Available for NVIDIA 4xx Graphics Cards + USB 3.0 Support

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CustomBeast is now available for NVIDIA 4xx graphics cards!  Supported specs now include any Gigabyte H55, P55, or X58 motherboard with any NVIDIA graphics card. 

In other news we have made some changes to CustomBeast.  During our testing we have found that the MacPro3,1 smbios.plist provides the best performance.  Because of this, we are removing the option for System Identification.  As an added bonus, we will now be including USB 3.0 drivers for supported motherboards.

CustomBeast Request Form

-tonymacx86 & MacMan

For discussions on this and other topics, register today at tonymacx86.com!

Toshiba-Made MacBook Air SSD Hardware Now Available to All

If you were wanting to get your hands on some of the Toshiba-made SSD hardware that found its way into the latest MacBook Airs, you’re in luck. Toshiba has announced that their Blade X-gale SSDs are now available for the masses. Offering up speeds of 220MB/s read and 180MB/s write, the X-gale hardware will certainly add some pep to your computer’s step. Though not the fastest SSD on the market, they are certainly faster than your standard platter-based drives.

The X-gale SSD drives will come in 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB capacities. Pricing is not yet available.

Source: http://gadgetsteria.com/2010/11/08/toshiba-made-macbook-air-ssd-hardware-now-available-to-all/