Zotac also reveals Mini-ITX Z77 motherboard

Zotac also showed off a new Intel Z77 based Mini-ITX motherboard that is aimed at small form factor overclockers. This LGA1155 board draws power from 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS connectors, it comes with 8-phase VRM, with a feature-rich controller, Pulse-made inductors, driverMOSFETs (DrMOS), and High-C capacitors. Ivy Bridge is supported out of the box, and the LGA1155 socket is powder-coated to prevent shrinking when subjected to subzero cooling.

The CPU is wired to two DDR3 DIMM slots supporting dual-channel DDR3 memory. The lone expansion slot is a PCI-Express 3.0 x16. Storage connectivity includes two SATA 6 Gb/s, two SATA 3 Gb/s, and an mSATA slot (likely 3 Gb/s). Display connectivity only includes DVI and HDMI. General connectivity includes 8-channel HD audio, gigabit Ethernet, wireless b/g/n, and USB 3.0. This board will have a feature-rich UEFI BIOS.

Source: TPU

Zotac also reveals Mini-ITX Z77 motherboard - More news at DV Hardware

How To Protect Your Apple iPhone�s Home Button @ TechARP

Two years ago, I made the big leap from Windows Mobile to theApple iOS platform. Migrating from the clunky Dopod 595 to the AppleiPhone 3GS was like upgrading from a Lada to an Audi. There was justno comparison.

The Apple iPhone 3GS was, honestly, the first time I truly used asmartphone as it was meant to be used. I did not just make calls orsend text messages. I spent a lot of time using the iPhone 3GS for aplethora of other tasks - keeping track of my schedule and budget,reading on-the-go, and of course, shooting some green pigs whenever Iget frustrated.

Unfortunately, that�s when I discovered I probably used the iPhone alittle too much... Read more at TechARP.



How To Protect Your Apple iPhone�s Home Button @ TechARP - More news at DV Hardware

CES 2012 roundup with boothbabes

CES 2012- Zotac, iBuyPower, ADATA, NZXT Party @ TechwareLabs

Zotac, iBuyPower, ADATA, NZXT hosted a media party at the Palms Fantasy tower this CES 2012 season. Checkout some of the action from the event!

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BCC Hardware delivers some coverage from day 2:

iBUYPOWER @ CES 2012
Ford
Verbatim

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CyberPowerPC Shows us Their Black Mamba and NZXT Switch 810 at CES 2012

Our friends at CyberPowerPC were showing some seriously decked-out gaming rigs this year at CES 2012. To be honest, we've always had good experiences with their products here in the lab but the systems on display at CES showcased very impressive build quality, immaculate wire-routing along with impeccable pipe-work for their water cooling setups. On display were several systems, including the rather bad-ass Fang III Series Black Mamba; a monster of a system that's of course super-charged with an over-the-top component configuration. The company was also showcasing a system built with NZXT's just-launched Switch 810 Gaming Chassis.

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CES 2012 coverage at OCC

Diamond also had its Powerline Internet AV Kits and Mini Speakers on display. The Powerline Internet AV Kit allows you to connect your Internet-ready devices easily without the hassel of wiring. It connects by simply plugging an adapter into an AC wall outlet and then you can connect it to your router. You can then plug the other adapter into another AC outlet somewhere else in your home to extend the range of your LAN without the hassle of running wires everywhere.

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CES 2012: The Booth Babes @ ThinkComputers.org

Review Link: Image URL (320 x 326): http://www.thinkcomputers.org/articles/ces2012_babes/email.jpgAlt Image URL (200 x 203): http://www.thinkcomputers.org/articles/ces2012_babes/small.jpgQuote: "CES is all about computers and gadgets for the most part. What better way to get people to come over to your booth to check out these products than having pretty girls showing off the product, especially if it is a boring product. One thing we know you, our readers always look forward to during our CES coverage is the booth babes! So we searched through all of the car audio, computer hardware, and other electronics to find you the booth babes! So without further ado I present you our CES 2012 Booth Babe Gallery!"

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CES 2012 Day 2 - CyberpowerPC Gigabyte and Lian Li @ Ninjalane

The second day of any major tradeshow brings out the best in people, under the worse conditions. Typically this is also the busiest day of the show since most of the keynotes have concluded and the attendees get a chance to see everything on display.

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CES 2012: Otherworld Computing @ ThinkComputers.org

Otherworld Computing, known more succinctly as simply OWC, showed one of the coolest things we�ve seen at CES: a smart electrical outlet with USB ports. It�s not the first electrical outlet with USB ports, but it�s by far the best designed. It features spring-loaded covers that kill the power when closed to prevent wasted juice and is the first UL-listed device of its kind, a necessary requirement for insurance-conscious homeowners. OWC also showed us its new lightning fast solid state drives (SSDs) and its expandible storage device primary meant for Mac Mini. ThinkComputers� Colin Dean speaks with OWC�s Grant Dahlke in this video interview.

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CES 2012 Booth Babes Day 3 @ TechwareLabs

We plan to get your day warmed up with our day 3 booth babes gallery direct from the parties and show floor of CES 2012. Sit back and enjoy the hot babes captured just for you.

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CES 2012: iBUYPOWER @ ThinkComputers.org

Our friends at iBUYPOWER alway have some really awesome systems to show off at CES. This year the debuted their Erebus GT system, which is a smaller and improved version of the original Erebus system. If you knew anything about the original Erebus you know it had a really awesome watercooling system and the Erebus GT is also the same. We were also shown the Lan Warrior II, which is not new, but iBUYPOWER was demonstrating how much power you can have in such a small system. Read on to see what all iBUYPOWER had to show this year at CES.

CES 2012 roundup with boothbabes - More news at DV Hardware

Win Steelseries Fnatic Limited Edition and Konnet goodies at Kitguru

KitGuru is giving away more prizes, you can participate over here.

Another year, and some more great prizes to be given away to our lucky readers. Seven lucky people will end up with some tasty hardware next month.Today we are giving away some very nice Steelseries branded Fnatic goodies and 5 Konnet iCrado Plus stands for Apple products!

Win Steelseries Fnatic Limited Edition and Konnet goodies at Kitguru - More news at DV Hardware

NVIDIA Kepler GPU hard launch expected by April

VR Zone heard from its sources that NVIDIA plans to launch its Kepler GPU in late March or April. It will be a hard launch with enough units for the "first wave" of consumers.

The company originally scheduled GeForce Kepler for the launch in the first quarter (i.e. fiscal fourth quarter 2012), Quadro Kepler was scheduled for the second quarter (i.e. fiscal first quarter 2013) and Tesla Kepler was scheduled for the third quarter (second fiscal quarter 2013).

However, the new plan calls for launching the GeForce Kepler when the company is able to insure hard availability and have all of its partners covered.

NVIDIA Kepler GPU hard launch expected by April - More news at DV Hardware

IBM researchers achieve magnetic storage of just 12 atoms wide

IBM researchers at the company's Almaden facility have created a prototype of a magnetic storage solution that uses just 12 atoms per bit, making it 100 times more dense than current systems used in HDDs. It's unlikely to hit the consumer market any time soon though, currently the technology requires a temperature of around half a degree above absolute zero for maximum stability.

Using an unconventional form of magnetism known as 'antiferromagnetism,' the team of researchers have been able to create an experimental magnetic memory device twelve atoms in size; blowing past Moore's Law - the observation of component density doubling roughly every two years originally made by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in a 1965 paper on integrated circuits - and paving the way for exascale storage systems in the future.

Unlike traditional magnetism, where nearby magnets are all polarised in the same direction, antiferromagnets alternate between north-polarisation and south-polarisation; as a result, it's possible to pack them significantly closer together than with traditional ferromagnets.

Offering a density some one hundred times greater than today's magnetic hard-drives or solid-state storage chips, IBM's breakthrough paves the way for future exascale storage systems with discs holding upwards of 200TB each.

Full details at Bit Tech.

IBM researchers achieve magnetic storage of just 12 atoms wide - More news at DV Hardware

Microsoft to hinder Linux booting on ARM hardware?

ComputerWorld reports Microsoft has revealed that Secure Boot will be a requirement for all ARM based devices with Windows 8, thereby making it a lot harder or even impossible to install Linux on ARM hardware systems certified for Windows 8.

This confirms that it is indeed possible to disable Secure Boot - but only on non-ARM systems (i.e. traditional PCs.) In other words, it would appear that Microsoft is still locking out GNU/Linux from installation on ARM-based Windows 8 machines.

So this leaves me confused. The document was published some time after Microsoft's post where it states "Microsoft does not mandate or control the settings on PC firmware that control or enable secured boot from any operating system other than Windows", and yet it seems to contradict it. So what's going here? Was Microsoft's blog statement only about non-ARM systems, as the new documentation suggests? And if so, why the discrimination? And finally, is ARM really happy to see Microsoft apparently locking out GNU/Linux from its systems in this way? Let's hope Microsoft can clarify this situation as it did on the previous occasion.

Microsoft to hinder Linux booting on ARM hardware? - More news at DV Hardware