Thursday 28 March 2013

Transcend Unveils New 64GB microSDXC UHS-I Memory Card

Transcend Information, Inc. (Transcend), a worldwide leader in storage and multimedia products, today announced the introduction of the 64GB microSDXC Ultra-High Speed Class 1 (UHS-I) memory card. With enough space to carry an entire collection of personal media files, the new 64GB microSDXC card also features high-speed transfer rates of up to 45MB/s (300x); perfect for users aiming to get the best performance results from their mobile device.

Featuring capacities ranging from 8GB to an enormous 64GB, Transcend's Premium Series microSDHC/SDXC UHS-I memory card lineup allows smartphone, tablet, and other portable device users to significantly expand their multimedia storage space. The new 64GB microSDXC card, for instance, can store more than 10,000 high-resolution jpeg images (12 megapixel camera, 6MB file size), a full 16 hours of 1080p High-Definition footage (1920x1080 9Mbps H.264 AVC compression), or over 1,200 media-rich mobile apps (50MB file size).

In addition to large capacity, mobile users consider fast performance to be an equally important factor when choosing the best memory upgrade solution. Equipped with the next-generation UHS-I interface, the 64GB microSDXC UHS-I card offers data transfer speeds of up to 45MB/s (300x) - especially noticeable when running memory-intensive mobile apps and capturing high-quality video. With its impressive combination of high-speed performance and vast storage capacity, the 64GB microSDXC UHS-I memory card will undoubtedly satisfy mobile users for a very long time.

For added value, each Transcend UHS-I memory card includes a free download of Transcend's own RecoveRxTM software - an extraordinarily effective tool for bringing back accidentally deleted or lost files.

Monday 25 March 2013

Kingston Technology Ships HyperX Memory Kits with Black PCB

HyperX Beast and black Product Lines to Feature Black PCB
All-black Look Complements System Builds Where Colour and Design is Key


Sunbury-on-Thames, United Kingdom, 25 March 2013 -- Kingston Technology Europe Ltd, an affiliate of Kingston Technology Company Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, continues to celebrate its 10th HyperX anniversary by announcing all-new black printed circuit boards (PCB) on two of its product lines. Kingston's high-performance HyperX® Beast and entry-level enthusiast ‘black' lines will incorporate black PCB under the signature heatspreader designs.

HyperX Beast, a part of the Predator family, matches large capacity with ultra-fast frequencies. Now featuring black PCB, HyperX Beast is available in various dual- and quad-channel kits in capacities from 8GB to 64GB and speeds up to an ultra-fast 2400MHz. It is perfect for hardcore gamers, PC modders, content creators and overclockers. The 2133MHz, 64GB and 2400MHz, 32GB Beast memory are the fastest and highest capacity certified Intel® XMP-ready kits on the market.

HyperX black is available as single 4GB and 8GB module or as an 8GB or 16GB dual-channel kit in 1333- or 1600MHz frequencies. HyperX black is ideal as a cost-efficient performance upgrade for an overall faster system or for increased in-game frames-per-second rate.

"Our customers and fans have asked us to come out with HyperX memory featuring black PCBs to better match their system designs," said Ann Keefe, Regional Director UK and Ireland, Kingston. "We are able to match good looks with high performance. The black on black combination allows for easy pairing with any colour component on the market."

Kingston is celebrating 25 years in the memory industry. The company was founded on October 17, 1987, and has grown to become the largest third-party memory manufacturer in the world. The 25th anniversary video can be found here, along with more information, including a timeline of Kingston's history.

Friday 22 March 2013

ASUS Launches the HD 7790 DirectCU II Graphics Card

Dual-fan DirectCU II thermal design ensures 20% cooler and greatly quieter performance than reference cards as GPU Tweak makes graphics tuning accessible

London, England (22 March, 2013) - ASUS today announced the HD 7790 DirectCU II graphics card, which uses an overclocked AMD RadeonTM HD 7790 GPU and dual-fan cooling for high performance quiet operation. The HD 7790 DirectCU II offers DirectX® 11.1 gaming and multimedia performance with power-efficient 28nm GPU technology, and supports the newest PC games in mid to high detail settings at full HD.

Exclusive DirectCU II: 20% cooler and significantly quieter

An upper mid-range graphics card, the ASUS HD 7790 DirectCU II delivers good gaming and multimedia performance with its 1075MHz AMD RadeonTM HD 7790 GPU and 1GB GDDR5 video memory. Thanks to its proprietary thermal design, the HD 7790 DirectCU II offers considerable overclocking overhead that can be exploited with the exclusive ASUS GPU Tweak utility. GPU Tweak makes it easy to increase core and memory speeds, change voltages, regulate fan speeds, and create individual profiles for different games.

ASUS goes beyond reference requirements by implementing the innovative DirectCU II thermal design. It consists of dual 80mm fans specially-picked for quiet operation, copper heatpipes that contact the GPU directly, and an aluminum shroud for better heat dissipation. The HD 7790 DirectCU II runs at 20% (7°C) lower operating temperatures than a reference card, and is also significantly quieter than reference while offering better stability and product longevity.

Tuesday 19 March 2013

Wacom’s Cintiq line draws attention once again with its slim, new 13-inch interactive pen display

Boasting high quality HD resolution with advanced control and comfort, the new Cintiq provides an immersive experience consistent with Wacom's family of interactive pen displays

Wacom, the industry leader of pen tablets for professional designers, today boosts its lineup of Cintiq interactive pen displays with the addition of the Cintiq 13HD. Aimed at creative professionals working in areas such as design, art and image editing, it combines a 13" HD screen, slim and compact design, simple setup, an adjustable stand and an improved pen for creating directly on the screen. Easily integrated into any environment, the Cintiq 13HD is the ideal tool to support creativity and enhance productivity, offering a natural and immersive experience.

Key to the Cintiq 13HD is its compact, slim design and easy setup with both Macs and PCs. For complete comfort, the Cintiq 13HD's stand is optimised for use in a choice of four settings - flat, 22°, 35° and 50° and is detachable too.

Superior screen in HD quality

Perfect for professionals such as artists, graphic designers and photographers, the Cintiq 13HD's best-in-class screen displays 16.7m colours to ensure life-like colour quality. In addition, the wide-format HD LED display offers a wide viewing angle of 178° and a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels that is particularly beneficial for handling intricate graphics.

The full Cintiq experience

As with all Wacom interactive pen displays, the Cintiq 13HD enables users to create directly on the screen for an immersive and seamless process that feels natural and saves time.

The new and improved cordless and battery-free Pro Pen offers advanced pen performance, superior comfort, precision and control. With 2,048 levels of pressure and tilt sensitivity, it is perfect for precision work and is ergonomically designed. The Cintiq 13HD comes with a convenient case to securely store the Pro Pen and everything else an artist needs at their fingertips including spare nibs.

To further improve workflow and productivity, frequently used shortcut commands are available at the user's fingertips through four customisable and application-specific ExpressKeys and Rocker Ring. Making use of these shortcuts can save valuable time by minimising keyboard dependency.

With the existing 22HD, 24HD and 24HD touch, there is a Cintiq interactive pen display to suit anyone's workflow requirements and budget.

Guido Möller, product manager creative products, at Wacom Europe says: "We've gained valuable customer feedback in developing our latest Cintiq which will support professionals and help them spur creativity on the 13" high resolution screen. Not only that, it also enhances productivity and saves creator time with new features. As with our entire Cintiq range, the new Cintiq 13HD provides a completely immersive and ergonomic pen-on-screen experience that adapts seamlessly to all working environments and practices."

SAPPHIRE launches graphics accelerator for Mac Pro

Exclusive HD 7950 Mac Edition with AMD GCN architecture

SAPPHIRE Technology, the leading manufacturer and global supplier of graphics solutions based on AMD technology, has just announced an exciting new graphics accelerator compatible with the Apple Mac Pro series of desktop computers.

Exclusive to SAPPHIRE, the HD 7950 Mac Edition is based on AMD's latest Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture. This highly acclaimed architecture delivers a significant graphics performance boost for Mac Pro users in a wide range of applications including gaming, audio or video editing and content creation. For example, gaming frame rates are increased by over 200%, general benchmark performance increased by around 30% and graphics intensive benchmarks increased by as much as 300% compared with the NV 8800GT commonly used in these machines, (see accompanying table).

The SAPPHIRE HD 7950 Mac Edition is equipped with 3GB of the latest GDDR5 memory, and its Dual Asynchronous Compute Engines (ACE) deliver up to 2.87 TFLOPS Single Precision compute power. It provides hardware support for Open GL 4.2 and Open CL 1.2 as well as AMD HD3D technology and APP acceleration.

AMD's GCN architecture supports a number of advanced post-processing and scaling operations. These include de-blocking, de-noising, automatic de-interlacing, Mosquito noise reduction and edge enhancement as well as advanced image quality enhancement technology, such as adaptive anti-aliasing and 16x angle independent anisotropic texture filtering. The SAPPHIRE HD 7950 Mac Edition features AMD PowerPlay technology which provides automatic power management during operation and ensures low power consumption under idle conditions.

Friday 15 March 2013

Corsair Unleashes Vengeance Extreme, the World's Fastest Rated PC Memory Kits

New Corsair Vengeance Extreme Memory Kits, The World's First Rated at 3000MHz

FREMONT, California - March 14, 2013 - Corsair®, a worldwide designer and supplier of high-performance components to the PC hardware market, today announced new Vengeance® Extreme 8GB dual-channel DDR3 memory kits rated at 3000MHz, the world's fastest rated production PC memory kits. Fitted with low profile "racing red" heat spreaders, the new 2x4GB memory kits operate at 3000MHz air-cooled, with latency settings of 12-14-14-36, at 1.65V. A Kingpin Cooling memory cooler is included for overclockers who want to use LN2 (liquid nitrogen) to reach memory speeds well beyond 3000MHz.

The extreme-speed 3000MHz rating of the Vengeance Extreme memory kits is the result of a rigorous internal four-stage hand-screening process performed by Corsair engineers. This process is passed by fewer than one in 50 memory ICs. Performance qualification is performed on select Intel® Z77 based motherboards, including the ASUS P8Z77-I DELUXE and ASRock Z77 OC Formula. To hit their rated speeds, the modules require a 3rd Generation Intel CoreTM unlocked processor with an Integrated Memory Controller capable of running 3000MHz.

"We are focused on helping enthusiasts and overclockers push the boundaries of PC performance," said Thi La, Senior VP and GM of Memory and Enthusiast Component Products at Corsair. "Our engineering team's hard work has led to new performance optimization techniques for memory, which we are pleased to debut in our new Vengeance Extreme memory."

Wednesday 13 March 2013

Seagate celebrates two billionth drive shipped by unveiling 4TB Desktop HDD

Milestone Marked with New Ultimate Capacity Desktop HDD

Announcing the milestone of two billion hard disk drives (HDD) shipped, Seagate Technology plc (NASDAQ:STX) today celebrated by unveilingits highest capacity drive for desktop computing to date, the new 4TB Seagate® Desktop HDD. The ultimate in high-capacity computing, the new 4TB Desktop HDD is ideal for workstations, home office and small business and home storage users.

29 Years to Reach First Billionth Shipped- Just Four Years to Reach Second

"This is truly an impressive landmark to reach two billion drives shipped only four years after we reached our first billion. I am proud to lead this company and share in its accomplishment," said Steve Luczo, president, CEO and chairman of Seagate. "This achievement is a reflection of everyone at our company, and with the release of our new 4TB Desktop HDD it is clear that the personal pride and dedication that it took to reach this milestone continues to be a part of our DNA."

"The first billion drives digitized the office, the second the home- empowering consumers with the ability to bring aggregated content from their PC into the living room, on to their mobile device, where ever," said Scott Horn, Seagate's vice president of marketing. "It's about consumers creating, storing, sharing, and most importantly accessing digital content on their terms-anytime, anywhere- and with two billion drives shipped clearly the revolution is on."

New 4TB Seagate Desktop HDD

The industry's only 4TB/4 disk desktop solution, this new drive supports the highest performance while reducing costs. Nearly 800,000 times larger than the first desktop drive Seagate introduced in 1979, it supports up to 800,000 photos, 300 plus hours of HD video or over 1,000,000 songs.

"By 2015 households which today routinely consume 1TB of data a month are expected to generate 20 times the amount of data than they currently save," said Richard Doherty, research director of the Envisioneering Group, a technology research and consulting company. "Consumer's continued appetites for securely saving and organizing high-definition multimedia requires higher performance and the most trusted and dependable drives. Seagate's new 4TB Desktop HDD provides the ideal solution for consumer's soaring need for storage in the home - now, and in the future."

The drive delivers the highest average data rate on the market today achieving 160 MB/second while saving 35 percent in power consumption over the competition. Seagate's own OptiCacheTM technology has been incorporated boosting overall performance by as much as 45 percent.

The 4TB Desktop is equipped with a SATA 6 Gb/s interface for blazing-fast performance in a maximum-capacity drive. The unit's 1TB/platter technology reduces complexity inside the drive itself greatly improving storage reliability and reducing failure rate.

Sunday 10 March 2013

iiyama launch new High Res 27" display

10 March 2013 - iiyama, one of the leading manufacturers of high quality monitors, announced today the launch of its new product; the ProLite XB2776QS high resolution 27" display. This LCD, with LED-backlit display, features a massive QHD 2560 x 1440 resolution with IPS Technology and ultra wide viewing angles of 178°/178°.

The new ProLite XB2776QS delivers outstanding features including; high visual performance with accurate and consistent colourreproduction, a high contrast ratio, fast response time (5ms) and a 2560 x 1440 resolution. This new 27" display includes a USB Hub, allowing connection to compatible devices, and an array of inputs including; HDMI, Display Port, DVI and VGA connections.

The simple, yet practical design of the ProLite XB2776QS incorporates an ergonomic stand which rotates, tilts and is height adjustable up to 11 cm. One of the monitors' unique features is its ability to pivot between landscape and portrait modes; a function that is further enhanced by the wide viewing angles of IPS Technology, offering outstanding visual performance.

Saturday 9 March 2013

ASUS Launches All-in-One PC with Detachable Tablet — ASUS Transformer AiO

The world's first all-in-one that's both a powerful desktop PC with Windows 8 and a standalone 18.4-inch tablet with Android 4.1

London, England (7 March, 2013) - ASUS today announced ASUS Transformer AiO, the world's first All-in-One PC with a detachable display that can also be used as a standalone tablet around the home. ASUS Transformer AiO consists of a desktop PC Station with a 3rd generation Intel® CoreTM desktop processor for outstanding Windows 8 performance, and a detachable 18.4-inch display with its own NVIDIA® Tegra® 3 quad-core processor for use as a self-contained tablet with Android 4.1. ASUS Transformer AiO gives users the mobile flexibility of a tablet with the performance of a powerful desktop PC, all in one compact and stylish package.

Powerful All-in-One PC performance

ASUS Transformer AiO is a powerful all-in-one PC capable of handling a wide range of demanding Windows 8 productivity and entertainment applications. Designed for desktop use, its PC Station is powered by a 3rd generation Intel® CoreTM desktop processor with NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 730M graphics and features a comprehensive array of ports, including USB 3.0. Its 18.4-inch LED-backlit display has a 1080p Full HD resolution with 10-point multi-touch and features IPS technology for a bright, vibrant image with 178-degree wide viewing angles for easy shared enjoyment.

ASUS Transformer AiO also features dual-band Wi-Fi for high-performance wireless networking with compatible routers. 5GHz Wi-Fi significantly reduces interference from nearby 2.4GHz networks in crowded Wi-Fi areas. ASUS SonicMaster audio technology also ensures outstanding sound quality for music, movies and everything in between.

Tuesday 5 March 2013

QNAP Demonstrates Ultra Home Multimedia Applications for the Turbo NAS, Unveils Powerful NAS Solutions with VMware VAAI, and More at CeBIT 2013

Taipei, Taiwan, March 5, 2013 - At the CeBIT 2013 opening today, QNAP® Systems, Inc. presented the multimedia applications for home users, unveiled its high performance business-class Turbo NAS solutions with VMware® VAAI certification for virtualization applications, and displayed the new VioStor NVR firmware v4.0.0. Visitors could experience the full-spectrum of Turbo NAS series and VioStor NVR series at CeBIT 2013.

Ultra home multimedia applications

QNAP displayed a comprehensive multimedia experience with its Turbo NAS featuring various home applications. The HD Station enables users to obtain Full HD experience with big-screen TV via HDMI and easily enjoy the vast video, music and photo collections stored in the Turbo NAS, surf the web, and even control the entire experience from mobile phones or tablets. The TV Station allows online TV watching, recording, and playback with DVB-T USB TV tuner. Mobile apps including Qfile and Qmanager are available for users to easily upload, share, and manage files remotely with the mobile devices. The new Qfile HD app is particularly designed for iPad users with enhanced user interface. Users can enjoy a smart digital life and entertainment with the feature-rich Turbo NAS.

10GbE ready, 400 TB NAS solution and virtualization-aware storage

QNAP presented a powerful 400 TB NAS Solution for virtualization combining its high-end Turbo NAS TS-x79U series with new additions of REXP-1200U-RP and REXP-1600U-RP. It provides a flexible solution for IT administrators to expand the total capacity of the Turbo NAS up to 400TB. Equipped with many other powerful features including 10GbE ready, SSD cache, VMware VAAI and vSphere Client plug-in, Microsoft SCVMM/ODX, and thin-provisioned volume, the Turbo NAS not only effectively optimizes efficiency and reliability in virtualization applications, but also serves as a high performance NAS for data backup.

"The great storage expansion solution will relieve IT administrators from having to invest big at initial setup," said David Tsao, product manager of QNAP. "The solution can largely reduce inflexibility in IT budget allocation for businesses that do not see rapid growth of storage demand in the near future, but in some point of time afterward."

QNAP has been continuously improving user experience in virtualization. The QNAP virtualization-aware solution offers optimal performance for businesses to deploy a virtualization environment.

GIGABYTE Partners with GosuGamers for the Latest News of IEM World Championships

Get the chance to win BIG now! By betting on matches via "GIGABYTE GosuBet Contest"!

Taipei, Taiwan, 5th March 2013 - GIGABYTE, the world's leading premium gaming hardware manufacturer, is proud to announce a new partnership with the eSports community GosuGamers for the upcoming IEM (Intel Extreme Masters) World Championships, a competitive gaming event that kicks off during CeBIT. The event will be hosted in Hannover, Germany from March 5th to 9th, featuring the most renowned competitive games, namely StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm and League of Legends, all of which will be broadcasted live and in high definition.

"IEM is a heart-stopping and high-stress competition", said Eddie Lin, Marketing Director of GIGABYTE's Graphics Card Marketing Division. "We are glad to form a partnership with GosuGamers, one of the most reputed eSports communities, to bring all the excitement of the upcoming gaming events with top professional gamers from all over the world competing for the championship titles."

"We are extremely excited that we can team up with GIGABYTE and share the experience of breaking our coverage records with Intel Extreme Masters this year. With the support of such a well-known gaming hardware maker like GIGABYTE, we surely will ensure you get the best entertainment and in-depth content of this spectacular eSports showdown," said Mathias Schmedeshagen, Chief Operating Officer of GosuGamers.

To redouble the enjoyment of all the gaming enthusiasms, GIGABYTE is pleased to invite all the GosuGamers readers to participate the "GIGABYTE GosuBet Contest". By betting on IEM World Championship matches, everyone will have a chance to win the best gaming hardware back home! GIGABYTE and GosuGamers will be giving out GIGABYTE Radeon HD7950 WINDFORCE Edition (GV-R795WF3-3GD) graphics cards, Aivia Osmium Mechanical Gaming Keyboards and Aivia Krypton Dual-chassis Gaming Mice to ensure the most realistic gaming experience for the best betting winners. The top three bettors for IEM related bets in both League of Legends and StarCraft II categories will get awarded for their scene insights. Stay tuned!

Monday 4 March 2013

WD® introduces WD Care® Extended and Express Service Plans to give buyers extra peace of mind

WD® introduces new, RMA service plans, enabling its customers to extend standard limited warranty periods for selected hard drives: WD ® GreenTM and WD BlueTM, to 3 years and benefit from express product replacement services.

From today, UK, Ireland and Sweden customers will be able to benefit from the new; WD Care Extended and Express RMA services. Both plans have been tailor made to suit the needs of WD customers, offering an additional one year to the standard two year limited warranty WD provides to its desktop WD GreenTM, WD BlueTM and mobile WD BlueTM buyers. The WD Care Express plan also includes express product replacement services for the duration of the plan for ultimate convenience and peace of mind. The express product replacement services provide customers a two-business day turn around for replacement of their eligible drives and direct contact with an English speaking post-sales support team.

WD Care Service Plans are quickly and easily activated on www.wdcare.com, using an activation code located on the back of a special voucher. Purchase and activation of the service plans must occur during the standard 2-year limited warranty period offered with WD drives. The service plans, of an eligible drive, must be activated within 30 days from the date of voucher purchase

WD Care Service Plans are only available for WD desktop; WD GreenTM, WD BlueTM or mobile; WD BlueTM internal hard drives manufactured after January 1, 2012.

New WD Care service plans can be purchased from authorised distributors, resellers and shops, beginning on March 4th, 2013, either with the purchase of a new eligible hard drive or separately, during the standard, 2-year limited warranty period of a previously purchased eligible hard drive. WD Care will not be available with any WD hard drives purchased from online stores.