We've always heard that wherever there's a will, there's a way. That's exactly what SanDisk believes, as its newest memory card lineup targets gamers who actually think a specially labeled flash card will work best in their new handheld. Of course, we can't fault the marketing here–we're sure it'll work to some extent, but largely this is just new memory sizes with new labels (and a price tag to compensate).
The new 16GB Memory Stick Micro (M2) is being hailed as the perfect accessory for the flash-only PSP go, while the 32GB Memory Stick PRO Duo and Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo cards are compatible with the original PSP. Finally, the 8GB SDHC card looks to add storage to Nintendo's DSi system. Honestly, each of those respective systems can utilize any flash card so long as it's the right format, but if having a matching label matters much to you, these are the ones to get.
16GB SanDisk Memory Stick Micro (M2) Gaming CardThe 16GB SanDisk Memory Stick Micro M2 gaming card doubles the amount of storage space available to PSP go system users. The card offers a convenient means of storing downloadable games, movies, TV shows and music. In addition, SanDisk offers a gaming compatibility pack (GCP), sold separately, which includes a Memory Stick Micro M2 to Memory Stick PRO Duo adapter and Mobile Memory Stick Micro M2 reader. The GCP allows gamers to use the SanDisk Memory Stick Micro M2 card in other Sony M2 compatible devices or in Memory Stick PRO Duo readers, as well as transfer media between certain Memory Stick Micro M2 mobile enabled devices and a personal computer via a USB slot.
32GB SanDisk Memory Stick PRO Duo and SanDisk Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo Gaming Cards
SanDisk also introduced a 32GB1 SanDisk Memory Stick PRO Duo card for use in the Sony PSP-3000 and PSP-2000 systems. The card is fully compatible with all Sony products with Memory Stick PRO Duo card slots, including Sony Cyber-shot® cameras and Sony Handycam® camcorders. In addition to expanding storage for PSP system users, SanDisk has introduced a 32GB SanDisk Ultra® Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo™ memory card. This high capacity, high performance card enables photography enthusiasts to take their images to another level with 30MB/sec* read and write speeds. The card is well-suited for shooting in full HD video mode, recording up to 240 minutes** of full HD 1920×1080 pixels at 15 Mbps.
8GB SanDisk SDHC Memory Card for the Nintendo DSi System
SanDisk also unveiled the SanDisk® SDHC™ card for the Nintendo® DSi™ system. Offering up to 8GB1 of removable memory, the card gives gamers a convenient means of saving and quickly transferring their photos between the Nintendo DSi system and a computer. The card also allows gamers to take advantage of AAC music playback and voice recording capabilities. Gamers can load the memory card with their favorite songs or musical creations and listen to them on the system.
Pricing and Availability
The SanDisk Memory Stick Micro M2 gaming card for the Sony PSP go system is shipping now in capacities ranging from 2GB to 16GB1 and is available at retailers in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Japan. The SanDisk Memory Stick PRO Duo card is shipping worldwide now in capacities ranging from 2GB to 32GB1. Exact pricing for the Memory Stick Micro M2, SDHC, Memory Stick PRO Duo and Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo cards will be set by retailers. The 32GB SanDisk Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo card will be shipping worldwide in October. Currently available at North American, Latin American and European retailers, the SanDisk SDHC card for Nintendo DSi system comes in 4GB and 8GB1 capacities.
Product Capacity MSRP (Exact pricing to be set by retailers) SanDisk Memory Stick Micro M2 Gaming card and Memory Stick PRO Duo adapter
2GB, 4GB, 8GB, 16GB $27.99, $44.99, $74.99, $142.99 SanDisk Memory Stick PRO Duo card 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, 32GB $27.99, $44.99, $65.99, $119.99, $229.99 SanDisk Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo card 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, 32GB $32.99, $49.99, $76.99, 145.99, $279.99 SanDisk SDHC card for Nintendo DSi system 4GB, 8GB $32.99, $47.99 Gaming Compatibility Pack (GCP)
N/A $17.99
Looks like we've got ourselves quite the conundrum. Today, Pioneer has unleashed the planet's first-ever 12x Blu-ray Disc writer. Problem is, all writable Blu-ray media available on U.S. shelves is still at 6x. In other words, you can now buy a writer that'll toast media twice as fast as the media that's currently available. Like we said, it's a strange problem indeed.
Still, for those with faith in the future (and optical media companies needing to catch up), Pioneer's BDR-205 Blu-ray Disc Computer Writer is an attractive piece. It's easily the industry's fastest BD writer, with all other rivals currently maxing out at 8x.
When utilized with a properly configured PC, the drive’s Low Vibration Mechanism Design improves overall writing accuracy, especially for those preserving copious amounts of critical data. Designed for maximum flexibility, Pioneer’s writer provides significant solutions for multiple user groups, including:
- System builders can confidently recommend the sophisticated BDR-205 to their clients, noting the drive’s unique design, robust build quality and high grade parts
- With 50Gbytes** of storage space on a dual-layer Blu-ray Disc, professional users can utilize the BDR-205 to rapidly test high definition feature films during the authoring process, as well as to back up large volumes of data with ease
- Besides up to 12x write speeds for Blu-ray Disc media, Pioneer’s new computer drive also provides read and write speed performance up to 16x for DVD and 40x for CD media
It'll ship later this month within select PCs (or so it seems), though the retail version (BDR-2205) won't hit shelves until Q1 2010 for $249.
Despite the fact that broadband providers are doing their best to cap monthly Web use and charge us for every kilobyte we consume, we highly doubt streaming is going anywhere. And with a huge push for Net Neutrality currently going on in Washington, you can bet you'll hear of more options similar to mSpot.
For now, however, mSpot looks to be a great option in and of itself. In short, it allows smartphone owners with data plans from Verizon Wireless, Sprint, T-Mobile and AT&T to stream live films to the phones on-demand. Users can start, pause and re-start films whenever, and so long as their phone's browser can access m.mspot.com, they can watch new release (and older titles, too) films right on their phone.
The great thing here is that unlike an app in Apple's App Store or the Android Marketplace, mSpot isn't limited to a single phone or platform. If your smartphone has an unlimited data plan and a web browser, you can join in. That means iPhone, Pre, G1, Touch Pro2 and Omnia users can all indulge, not to mention the litany of other smartphone users with handsets that aren't in the news as much.
By using a credit card, users can rent films for $4.99 each, and at least for now, mSport has agreements with Paramount Studios and Universal Studios Home Entertainment that grant them the rights to allow streaming movies, as well as access to both new releases and past movies. The company is hoping to land more deals soon, but there should be plenty in there for now to get you started. So, who's bringing the popcorn?
802.11n finally became an official, finalized protocol in mid-September, and already the Wi-Fi Alliance is making sure that new wares abide by the new standards. Granted, draft-N gear is still good to go, but the new certification program takes a few other points into account.
The new Wi-Fi CERTIFIED n program takes the place of the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 802.11n draft 2.0 program, which is actually a whopping two-years old already. The updated program adds testing for some popular optional features now more widely available in Wi-Fi equipment, the details of which are below:
The updated Wi-Fi CERTIFIED n program maintains the requirements ofthe draft 2.0 program and adds testing for some new optional features,including:
- Test support for simultaneous transmission of up to three spatial streams
- Packet aggregation (A-MPDU), to make data transfers more efficient
- Space-time Block Coding (STBC), a multiple-antenna encoding technique to improve reliability in some environments
- Channel coexistence measures for “good neighbor” behavior when using 40 MHz operation in the 2.4 GHz band
Also, the Alliance has introduced an updated logo, family of taglines, and product labeling matrix, all of which are reportedly designed to help consumers make informed choices about Wi-Fi products (but probably don't hurt in boosting the Wi-Fi Alliance's image). The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED n logo program has been updated to support a wide range of devices tuned for varying performance criteria. In addition to removing the term “draft” from the logo, devices with particular feature sets may now use taglines in conjunction with the logo. Devices can now be designated “Wi-Fi CERTIFIED dual-stream n” or “Wi-Fi CERTIFIED multi-stream n” to indicate that they have passed tests for specific performance-enhancing features.
So, like we said, your current “802.11n” products will still keep working just fine, but if you spot any new gear with this here logo, you can rest assured that everything will work just perfectly. Er, so they say…
LG hastaken the covers off its latest touchscreen phone, the GD510, which as thecompany describes it, is the “most compact 3-inch full touchscreen phoneever made.” LG claims its consumer research shows that a large group ofusers want a full touchscreen phone without the addedbulk, unnecessary features, and higher prices found in many of today's devices.According to the company's research, many users were also turned off by the complexityof feature-laden phones but still wanted the navigation and large screen of atouchscreen device. LG designed the GD510 to offer the key features these usersdesire without the overhead of features they don't use.
“We gave the LG GD510 an optimized feature set which allowedus to concentrate on making the phone more compact and simpler to use,” saidDr. Skott Ahn, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile CommunicationsCompany. “Our high-end phones like the Black Label Series New LG Chocolate (LGBL40) may be getting all the attention but there’s a gap in the market foraffordable touchscreen phones that we want to fill. The LG GD510 delivers allthe essentials in communication, multimedia and entertainment and comes in acompact form factor as well.”
While the GD510 might not be as feature packed as LG's otherhigh-end touchscreendevices, the LG GD510 is capable of playing music and movies in several popularfile formats. There is 8GB of internal memory for storage. The handset alsooffers a Web browser and a 3 megapixel camera that can capture video.
Other key features of the GD510 include a 3-inch WQVGAtouchscreen with a narrow 4.8 mm bezel. You'll find a single button on the faceof the phone that functions as the menu, end and cancel keys, depending on thephone’s mode. A slim strip of light around the button shines green or red to indicatethe handset's function. The LG GD510 is crafted from brushed aluminum.
The LG GD510 will be available in mid-October in Europe,followed by other markets. Prices will vary from one country to another andwill be announced separately in each individual market.
Watch a video promo of the LG GD510 Pop below:
NVIDIA has begun to disclose some information regarding its next generation GPU architecture, codenamed “Fermi”. Actual product names or specifics were not disclosed just yet, nor was performance in 3D games, but high-level information about the architecture and its strong focus on compute performance and broader compatibility with computational applications were discussed.
The GPU codenamed Fermi will feature over 3-billion transistors and be produced using TSMC's 40nm processes. If you remember, AMD's new RV870 is 2.15 billion transistors and is also manufactured at 40nm, so Fermi will be significantly larger and more expensive to produce. Fermi will be outfitted with more than double the number of cores as the GT200, 512 in total. It will also offer 8x the peak double-precision compute performance. In addition, Fermi is the first GPU architecture to support ECC, so it can compensate for some errors and potentially scale to higher densities, and it will be able to execute C++ code.
NVIDIA's CEO Jen-Hsun Huang showed off the first Fermi-based, Tesla branded add in board at the GPU Technology conference taking place in San Jose over the next few days.
We will have more information regarding Fermi posted as it becomes available. For now, we've got the official release below, along with some images. Be sure to check out NVIDIA's official site as well for more details…
NVIDIA Unveils Next Generation CUDA GPU Architecture – Codenamed “Fermi”
New Ground-Up Design Gives Rise to the World's First Computational GPUs
SANTA CLARA, Calif. -Sep. 30, 2009 - NVIDIA Corp. today introduced its next generation CUDA GPU architecture, codenamed “Fermi”. An entirely new ground-up design, the “Fermi” architecture is the foundation for the world's first computational graphics processing units (GPUs), delivering breakthroughs in both graphics and GPU computing.
“NVIDIA and the Fermi team have taken a giant step towards making GPUs attractive for a broader class of programs,” said Dave Patterson, director Parallel Computing Research Laboratory, U.C. Berkeley and co-author of Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach. “I believe history will record Fermi as a significant milestone.”
Presented at the company's inaugural GPU Technology Conference, in San Jose, California, “Fermi” delivers a feature set that accelerates performance on a wider array of computational applications than ever before. Joining NVIDIA's press conference was Oak Ridge National Laboratory who announced plans for a new supercomputer that will use NVIDIA GPUs based on the “Fermi” architecture. “Fermi” also garnered the support of leading organizations including Bloomberg, Cray, Dell, HP, IBM and Microsoft.
“It is completely clear that GPUs are now general purpose parallel computing processors with amazing graphics, and not just graphics chips anymore,” said Jen-Hsun Huang, co-founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “The Fermi architecture, the integrated tools, libraries and engines are the direct results of the insights we have gained from working with thousands of CUDA developers around the world. We will look back in the coming years and see that Fermi started the new GPU industry.”
As the foundation for NVIDIA's family of next generation GPUs namely GeForce, Quadro and Tesla – “Fermi” features a host of new technologies that are “must-have” features for the computing space, including:
Images, technical whitepapers, presentations, videos and more on “Fermi” can all be found at: www.nvidia.com/fermi.
Hey, ain't been on in a while 
My friend wants a gaming rig built up, with a budget of around £600 to £800
He doesn't need a monitor or mouse.. just everything else lol,
I was thinking of just building him the same rig as me, but there's probably some stuff that could do with changing
I also thinking going Core 2 Quad, maybe a Q9650, but then there's Core i7.. and i5 i suppose
so what do you guys think?
oh also would you recommend ati or nivida
thanks =)
