HP today announced the HP SlateBook x2 and the HP Split x2, two detachable PCs that offer the full functionality of a notebook with a removable screen that also is a sleek tablet. Powered by the Android and Microsoft Windows 8 operating systems (OS), respectively, these versatile two-in-one devices combine power and portability, giving customers the flexibility to create, consume and share content in more places.

HP's unmatched portfolio of next-generation PCs is designed to enable users to connect with their information on devices that easily adapt to their needs. By releasing the magnetic hinge, users can move elegantly between the two form factors -- tablet and notebook PC -- all in one device.

EVGA released an Android version of the EVGA Social app. Its iOS version was launched a couple of weeks ago. The app is a one-stop solution to engage in the enthusiast PC hardware maker's community activity, be it the forums, or social media pages, promos, or its game server browser. It is designed more for smartphones than tablets. Find it on Google Play here.

Lenovo today announced the ThinkPad X131e Chromebook -- a fast booting, highly customizable ThinkPad built with rugged features for the daily rigors of K-12 education. The ThinkPad X131e Chromebook simplifies software and security management for school administrators and provides students and teachers with quick access to thousands of apps, education resources and storage.

Throughout the course of a typical school day, students' laptops are often subject to extreme wear and tear. To help school-proof them, the ThinkPad X131e has rugged features including a rubber bumper around the top cover and stronger corners to protect the system in the case of an accidental drop. The hinges and hinge brackets are also strengthened to last more than 50,000 open and close cycles.

ASUSTOR Inc., a leading innovator and provider of network storage solutions, today announced the release of three new NAS Apps for its well-received AS 6 Series NAS devices. These new Apps consist of Symantec Backup Exec's RALUS, an acclaimed backup solution, Dropbox, a popular cloud storage and sync service and DVBLink TV Server, a digital television App. Additionally, two of ASUSTOR's existing Apps are being upgraded with advanced features and enhancements. Download Center now features the new and convenient Smart Download Folder function. Its mobile App, AiDownload, has added a push notification function and is now available for both iOS and Android. Not to be outdone, the Surveillance Center App now boasts added Daylight Saving Time adjustments along with full compatibility with Panasonic's BB and BL camera lines. Interested users may begin enjoying these new Apps and upgrades by downloading them through ASUSTOR's App Central.

Acer America today announced that its new Acer C7 Chromebook is available now through additional online retail partners: TigerDirect, NewEgg and Staples.com, in addition to the existing Google Play, BestBuy.com and Best Buy stores.

The Acer C7 Chromebook mobile computer debuted earlier this month and has quickly gained popularity for providing customers an easy-to-use, speedy and secure computing experience at an affordable price of only $199 MSRP.

Thanks to successful product lines, ASUS posts record Q3 2012 profits of $230 million, a 43 percent jump from last year's $160 million. The Q3 results posted by the company are its best in the last four years. The company owes its quarterly success to association with Google in making the Nexus 7 tablet, its own Transformer Prime TF01 convertible tablet-netbook, and a vast portfolio of notebooks covering all market segments, including Ultrabook. The company looks forward to and equally good Q4.Source: Wall Street Journal

Google Inc. today announced financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2012.

"We had a strong quarter. Revenue was up 45 percent year-on-year, and, at just fourteen years old, we cleared our first $14 billion revenue quarter," said Larry Page, CEO of Google. "I am also really excited about the progress we're making creating a beautifully simple, intuitive Google experience across all devices."

Q3 Financial Summary

Google Inc. reported consolidated revenues of $14.10 billion for the quarter ended September 30, 2012, an increase of 45% compared to the third quarter of 2011. Google Inc. reports its revenues, consistent with GAAP, on a gross basis without deducting traffic acquisition costs (TAC). In the third quarter of 2012, TAC totaled $2.77 billion, or 26% of advertising revenues.

Google announced its newest Chromebook, made by Samsung. The 11.6-incher is completely fan-less, and just 0.8" thin, weighing 1.13 kg. It is designed to give you over 6.5 hours of usage on full charge, and smooth 1080p video playback. Under its hood is a Samsung Exynos 5 dual-core ARM processor, 2 GB of RAM, and 16 GB of local flash storage, in addition to which, you get 100 GB of space on Google Drive for 2 years. The latest version of Chrome OS comes with Google Now integration (real-time sync with data on the cloud). Connectivity includes HDMI, 802.11 b/g/n, and Bluetooth. A web-cam decks the top of the screen. The new Chromebook will be available through Play Store and Best Buy for US $249.99.


A video presentation follows.

ARCHOS, an award-winning innovator in consumer electronics, is proud to announce their first gaming tablet. This new type of tablet, the GamePad, combines gaming controls with Android for a full tablet and gaming experience in one. Gamers will not only have access to all their favorite games, they will also have access to email, Internet, apps and more through one device.

The GamePad features a 7-inch, capacitive screen, physical control buttons and analog sticks. This Google certified tablet has full access to Google Play for the tens of thousands of games available, runs a dual-core processor @ 1.5 GHz combined with a Mali 400mp quad-core GPU. In addition, the GamePad includes automatic game recognition and mapping tools – patented technology to ensure control compatibility with every advanced Android game.

Buffalo Japan unveiled the MiniStation Air 500 GB wireless portable hard drive (model: HDW-P500U3). The drive combines 802.11 b/g/n (up to 150 Mbps) wireless data connectivity with USB 3.0 SuperSpeed (5 GT/s) wired data+power connectivity. When in wireless mode, the drive powers itself using an in-built 2,860 mAh lithium-ion battery, which can keep it ticking for up to 4.5 hours before needing a recharge.

The drive comes with applications by Buffalo on App Store for iOS devices, and Google Play for Android devices, which lets you access its contents securely, and configure the device to treat the drive as a storage device. Photos taken by your smartphone, for example, can be instantly transferred to the drive; you have 500 GB of space to go around with, when video-recording with your phone. The drive supports the latest Wi-Fi security standards, including WPA2/PSK, with AES encryption for data transmitted wirelessly.

QNAP Systems, Inc. announced today a partnership with TappIn, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of GlobalSCAPE, a leading innovator of secure information exchange solutions for businesses and consumers. TappIn by GlobalSCAPE's secure content mobility solution will be available to QNAP's customers using the storage vendor's popular NAS devices. Tapp In provides a secure, integrated service for customers to receive on-the-go access to digital contents stored on a QNAP Turbo NAS device from any web-browser, tablet, or smartphone, including Apple iOS, Google Android, Windows Phone 7, and Kindle Fire. QNAP customers simply register for TappIn and begin accessing their contents on any Turbo NAS device via a TappIn web application or mobile apps.

According to new research from International Data Corporation (IDC), the volume of digital information may balloon from 2.7 zettabytes this year -- the equivalent of filling 2.7 billion of Apple Inc.'s priciest desktop iMacs to capacity -- to 8 zettabytes by 2015. The explosion of digital content is paralleled by the proliferation of devices on which people can access it. As this market's demand continues to increase, QNAP's integration of TappIn by GlobalSCAPE into its NAS devices will provide a solution for its customers that allows comprehensive local storage, and enables simple and secure content mobility, helping QNAP to continue its trend as one of the top providers of NAS and unified storage devices in the industry.

VIA listed the US $49 Android mini-PC (APC) system board for pre-order. The product sold out in a few hours following staggering demand. VIA announced that all pre-orders will be shipped starting early-July, and the company is working hard to make the product available through local distributors around the world, to eliminate shipping costs to the end-users. Announced the APC back in May, the APC is a neo-ITX system board that can fit into most ITX and ATX chassis, and can be powered both by external 2-pin DC input, and internal 4-pin ATX input. The board seats an ARM-based SoC, which drives Google's Android 2.3 operating system, modified for conventional PC interfaces.

Samsung Electronics America, Inc., a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd, today announced two new products featuring the Google Chrome OS operating system: the Samsung Series 5 Chromebook laptop and the Samsung Series 3 Chromebox desktop.

"The new Samsung Series 5 Chromebook and Series 3 Chromebox provide the rapid, convenient and ever-improving computing experience that was so well-received in our first Chromebook," said Todd Bouman, vice president of marketing at Samsung Enterprise Business Division. "As the world's first Chromebox, the Series 3 provides users with the Chromebook's ease-of-use in a compact desktop product, which easily integrates with their existing accessories. The second generation Chromebook features powerful components housed in a slim, lightweight body, thanks to Samsung’s advanced hardware engineering."Image courtesy of The Verge.

As a world-renowned market leader, Gainward officially introduces Gainward GeForce GT 600 series graphics accelerators for the mainstream discrete VGA market -- Gainward GeForce GT 630, GeForce GT 620 & GeForce GT 610. The new GeForce GT 600 series offer better productivity and efficiency, provides smooth graphics in your games and multimedia contents while staying cool and power efficient. It is with the full support of latest DirectX 11 multimedia gaming standard and is supplied with Gainward components for greatest stability. Gainward GeForce GT 600 series are the ideal solution for price-performance conscience users with high demands.

Kingston Digital, Inc., the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced an update enabling browser support for Wi-Drive. The update allows multiplatform wireless streaming of data to any Wi-Fi enabled mobile device via a Web browser. The feature will be included in future shipments and all current owners of Wi-Drive can update their own device.

This expansion of device support allows a mixture of users’ preferred mobile devices to simultaneously access and share content on the Wi-Drive. With integrated Wi-Fi and four hours of battery life, Kingston Wi-Drive offers great pocket-sized portable storage (up to 64GB) and easy file sharing for any Wi-Fi device including Apple iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Android devices, Kindle Fire and more.

Apple’s next big move will be to provide wireless service directly to its iPad and iPhone customers, according to veteran wireless industry strategist Whitey Bluestein.

Bluestein told an international gathering of wireless operators, resellers and suppliers that Apple has all of the critical elements – the world’s leading brand, distribution through 363 Apple Stores, digital content (music, video and apps)—which will allow it to exploit its 250 million iTunes accounts with credit cards on file.

He also noted that Apple has a patent-pending network architecture to enter the wireless industry as a service provider. Apple filed a patent application in October 2006, shortly before the first iPhone announcement, with a diagram on how it would offer wireless service directly to customers using networks of several mobile operators. The patent application was extended in fall 2011. Bluestein said that the patent confirms that Apple has thought through how it would offer service directly to customers.

Trimble today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire SketchUp, one of the most popular 3D modeling tools in the world, from Google. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2012, subject to customary closing conditions and expiration of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act. While financial terms are not being disclosed the transaction is not expected to be material to 2012 earnings per share.

SketchUp is currently used by millions of users annually - ranging from architects to engineering and construction firms to building and design professionals—for designing, modeling and visualizing projects. The SketchUp product and its vision of "3D modeling for everyone" has allowed modelers worldwide, across a wide range of industries, to express design concepts easily, accurately and efficiently. Additionally, SketchUp users benefit from its extensive third-party developer community that provides industry-specific solutions for a variety of customers.

The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, today announced that Linux Creator and Linux Foundation Fellow Linus Torvalds is a Millennium Technology Prize laureate. This prize, determined by the Technology Academy of Finland, is one of the world's largest such prizes with candidates sought from across the world and from all fields of technology.

The Millennium Technology Prize is awarded every two years for innovations improving the quality of human life and encouraging sustainable development. Universities, research institutions, scientific and engineering academies, and high-tech companies from around the globe make nominations. The International Selection Committee, nominated by TAF Board, reviews the nominations and determines the year's laureates. The Board makes the final decision on who will be the recipients of the prize, which is together established by Finnish industry and state.

With a new line of Atom processors optimized for low-power devices, and Microsoft's touch-optimized Windows 8 operating system, the Wintel (Windows+Intel) alliance aims to reduce the stranglehold that Apple iPad has over the tablet market, all the way down to 50 percent. The duo also aim for this to happen as relatively early as by mid-2013. What makes this an ambitious claim by Wintel alliance, is that while iPad currently holds over 70 percent of the tablet market, it's not that Wintel tablets hold the remaining 30 percent. A bulk of iPad alternatives are tablets running Google's Android operating system, and ARM processors. It would be interesting to see the outcome of this Mexican-standoff in the making (between Windows+Intel, Android+ARM, and Apple iPad), at the end of 2013.

Source: DigiTimes

AMD and Google are locked in a race to buy out MIPS, an application processor architecture designer competitive to ARM. AMD comes from a decades old presence in the microprocessor industry, while Google is a satrap with smartphones, tablets, and other mobile computing devices thanks to its Android operating system. With Microsoft opening up to ARM architecture with Windows 8 RT, it is in Google's interests to hedge its bets on an alternative machine architecture to both x86 and ARM. The easiest way to that is buying out MIPS and funding development of powerful processors based on it. For AMD, it's a bid to stay competitive in the low-power processor market as Intel began making inroads to smartphone processor market.Source: Bright Side of News, Image Courtesy: X-bit Labs

Google Inc. today announced financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2012.

"Google had another great quarter with revenues up 24% year on year," said Larry Page, CEO of Google. "We also saw tremendous momentum from the big bets we've made in products like Android, Chrome and YouTube. We are still at the very early stages of what technology can do to improve people's lives and we have enormous opportunities ahead. It is a very exciting time to be at Google."

comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its monthly comScore qSearch analysis of the U.S. search marketplace. Google Sites led the explicit core search market in March with 66.4 percent of search queries conducted.

U.S. Explicit Core Search

Google Sites led the U.S. explicit core search market in March with 66.4 percent market share, followed by Microsoft Sites with 15.3 percent and Yahoo! Sites with 13.7 percent. Ask Network accounted for 3.0 percent of explicit core searches, followed by AOL, Inc. with 1.6 percent.

Wall Street punters predict Apple could become the first trillion dollar company in an year or two. The company's share prices rose last week, to $633.38, edging past those of Google. Analyst Brian White, of Topeka Capital Markets claimed that the share price could enter four-figures in under an year, making the company worth US $1T. In his report, White stated "Apple fever is spreading like a wildfire around the world." By that, he meant that the craze for Apple products and services, is spreading.Source: Reuters

Things on the Chromebook front have been pretty quiet this year but it seems they will change soon as the US FCC (Federal Communications Commission) has received and tested a new machine running Google's Chrome OS. Seen below is the VAIO VCC111 Series, Sony's very first Chromebook, which features a 11.6-inch LCD screen (made by Samsung), 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G, an SSD, an SD card reader, two USB 2.0 ports, a HDMI output, a webcam, and a 4100 mAh battery.

Google's Chrome narrowly became the world's top internet browser for the first time on Sunday 18 March 2012, according to StatCounter, the independent website analytics company. The firm's research arm StatCounter Global Stats reports that Chrome topped the polls in India, Russia and Brazil, all of which contributed to it becoming the number one browser for that day on a global basis.

"While it is only one day, this is a milestone," commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter. He added that Chrome still faces a battle to unseat its main rivals including IE and Firefox in many regions. Chrome remains in 2nd or 3rd place in China, United States and Germany, for example.