INTEL TO SHOW CEDAR TRAIL-BASED ATOM PLATFORM AT IDC BEIJING

If you have read the announcement of the new Intel’s Oak Trail-based Atom processor platform earlier today, you might have been wondering whether Intel is changing Atom’s target market from netbooks to tablets and other embedded devices. Well, the answer is no. In fact, Intel is going to show off the next generation Atom processors platform - codenamed “Cedar Trail” - for netbooks, entry-level desktops and all-in-one designs this very week atIntel Developer Forum in Beijing, China.
No clock speed has been mentioned yet but the new platform which is based on Intel’s 32nm process technology will be equipped with quite a number of new features such as Intel Wireless Music, Intel Wireless Display, PC Synch and Fast Boot. The new Cedar Trail-based platform will also be supporting Blu-Ray 2.0, HDMI and DisplayPort together with dedicated media engine capable of full 1080p playback.
In addition to all the goodies above, Intel has also stated that the low-powered nature of the platform will enable manufacturers to come out with fanless design products and longer battery lifespan. Products based on the new Cedar Trail-based Intel Atom processor platform are expected to be available in the second half of this year.

INTEL ATOM’S OAK TRAIL IS OFFICIAL, COMING TO TABLETS NEAR YOU

Made its first appearance on Intel’s roadmap sometime last year, the chip giant has finally announced the official availability of their new Atom platform previously known as “Oak Trail”. While Intel Atom has always been associated with netbook form factor, this new platform is specifically designed for embedded devices such as tablets which make it a rather unique from other Intel Atom offerings.

Leading the release of the new Oak Trail-based platform would be the single-core dual-threaded 1.5GHz Intel Atom Z670 processor which features an integrated Intel Graphic Media Accelerator 600 as its graphics core together with a built-in memory controller that supports up to 2GB of single channel DDR2 memory. The low-powered processor - with a TDP of only 3 watts - also comes with supports for 1080p video playback and Adobe Flash-based contents as well as the ability to run on variety of operating system including Google Android, MeeGo and Windows. In addition to the Z670 processor, Intel is also offering the slightly slower single-core dual-threading 1.2GHz Intel Atom Z650 processor.

Meanwhile, the new platform also comes with a new chipset in the form of Intel SM35 Express. It provides the platform with SATA 3Gb/s capability as well as Hi-Speed USB 2.0 with up to 4 USB ports; integrated Intel High Definition Audio and HDMI 1.3a.

First wave of Oak Trail-based Intel Atom products are expected to be available in the market starting from next month onwards from manufacturers such as Fujitsu, Razer (yes, the gaming equipment outfit), Lenovo and many more. For further information about the new Intel Atom processor platform, lead your browser towww.intel.com.

SPECULATION: GOOGLE READYING CHROME OS FOR TABLETS?

Until today, we're still not sure what to think about Google Chrome OS, and if it has any place in the mobile computing ecosystem. Considering the only device using this in the wild is the CR-48, which only a handful of people around the world could get their hands on. While still in it's infancy, the Chrome OS could be great, but only as great as the connectivity around and the users embracing the cloud.

It looks like Google may be preparing Chrome OS for the tablet form factor. Hold up, you are probably thinking, what about the Android 3.0 Honeycomb which has been making waves in the tablet world? Well nothing's confirmed yet, but according to CNET, it has uncovered several changes to the Chrome and Chrome OS source code which nods towards a touch version of the OS as well as new touch-optimized features.

This may be an interesting direction that Google is taking with tablets, maybe integrating Chrome OS and Android somehow, or perhaps they are looking for Chrome to take over the tablet powering duties altogether. Alternatively, this could be a bored Google employees experiment and a potential "labs" implementation. Only time will tell. What do you think? Chrome OS replacing Android 3.0? Let us know in the comments!

(Source: Mashable & CNET)

FIBRE-OPTIC CABLE THEFT BY A 75-YEARS OLD CAUSES INTERNET DISRUPTIONS

Here in Malaysia, we would hear of electrical cable theft from time to time but I personally never heard such thing happened to fibre-optic cables. Well, that is exactly what happened in Georgia and check this out: the accused is a 75-years old woman.

According to a Georgian interior ministry spokesman, the woman was looking for scrap metals when she found and hacked the cable open which resulted in almost 12 hours of Internet downtime for majority of Internet users in Georgia and its neighboring country, Armenia. The woman has now been charged with damaging property and is now facing up to three years of jail time if convicted, even though she has been released from custody for the time being due to her age.

Meanwhile, now that our Internet infrastructures are slowly being replaced with fibre-optics, do you think such case will happen in Malaysia? I hope not because Internet downtime is seriously a pain in the...well, you know what I mean.

[Source: Yahoo via CNET. Image: Kenny Holston, used under Creative Commons license.]

HP ANNOUNCES NEW COST EFFECTIVE INK ADVANTAGE PRINTING SOLUTIONS

Everybody knows that inkjet printers are relatively cheap to own but expensive to maintain in a long run mainly due to the cost of replacement ink cartridges. Not for these new products from HP though. Designed to help home and small office users reduce their printing costs, the new HP Ink Advantage printing solutions line-up feature high-performing ink cartridges and all-in-one printers that are rather friendly to the wallet.

At only RM 27 per unit, the high-capacity HP 703 Black Deskjet Ink Cartridges is able to print up to 600 black pages which translate to only 4.5 sen per page. Its color counterpart - the 703 Tri-Color Deskjet Ink Cartridges - performs rather well too; at up to 250 color pages for the same RM 27 price tag. These cartridges are used in the new HP Deskjet Ink Advantage K209a All-in-One Printer that is capable of printing 29 pages per minute (ppm) in black and 23 ppm in color while keeping its price tag rather affordable at RM 319.

”Today’s announcement furthers HP’s leadership and commitment in offering our customers greater choice and quality and reliable printing at affordable prices. Home and small office customers can significantly reduce their printing costs when they choose HP Ink Advantage solutions,” - Bernard Chiang, Country General Manager, Imaging and Printing Group, HP Malaysia.

The new HP Ink Advantage printing solutions also features the new HP 704 Black and Tri-Color Deskjet Ink Cartridges that carry the same price tag as HP 703 cartridges but with a lower page yield. That being said, their performances are still not that far behind with a page yield of up to 480 black pages and 200 color pages respectively. These two cartridges are made for the new HP Deskjet Ink Advantage 2060 All-in-One Printer that is priced at RM 249.

The new HP Ink Advantage printers and ink cartridges are available in our market starting from this month onwards. To find out more about them, head on to www.hp.com.

Microsoft to issue a record 64 fixes

Of the 17 patches, nine are rated critical, and cover flaws in Windows, Office, IE and Visual Studio amongst others.

The update will also address a MHTML flaw uncovered in January.

"This is a huge update and system administrators should plan for deployment as all Windows systems including Server 2008 and Windows 7 are affected by critical bulletins," advised Amol Sarwate, manager of the vulnerability research lab for security firm Qualys. "Frequently used office applications like Excel 2003 through 2010 and PowerPoint 2002 through 2010 are also affected."

Paul Voss, senior response communications manager with Microsoft, said the software giant would also shut down several security alerts, including a critical one in Server Message Block Browser.

Story Source: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/security/366640/record-64-flaws-to-be-fixed-on-patch-tuesday

HP ADVANCES SCALABLE CLOUD COMPUTING WITH 3PAR UTILITY STORAGE

A couple of months ago, HP spent a whopping USD$2.4billion to purchase 3PAR. Since then, the company has already released several systems that uses 3PAR technology and now, the company has just announced the integration of 3PAR Utility Storage across the HP Converged Infrastructure portfolio to simplify scalable cloud computing as well as new storage solutions for virtualization and data duplication.

Managing an exploding amount of data within an enterprise is never an easy (or cheap) task especially if the data is structured and cannot share the same storage as other structured and unstructured data. With the integration, clients will be able to consolidate storage hardware to respond to explosive data growth to address with these challenges with converged block-and-file storage on a single storage array. They will also be able to enjoy automated storage tiering to improve performance and thin storage offerings to eliminate over-provisioning.

“Our clients tell us their journey to the cloud will be one of the most critical transitions for them this decade. HP 3PAR Utility Storage meets their demand for a new storage architecture specifically designed for IT as a Service. The integration of 3PAR with Converged Infrastructure is ahead of schedule and HP is poised to take clients to levels of agility and efficiency they’ve never experienced before.” – Mike Prieto, Vice President and General Manager, StorageWorks, HP Asia Pacific and Japan.

But SMEs and SMBs will not be able to afford such an expensive technology. True, but apart from having a portfolio of products that can reach out to large enterprises and governments, HP also have products catered for SMBs too. Additionally, as long as the cloud provider these small and medium businesses are equipped with HP 3PAR Utility Storage, they will get to enjoy the benefits too.

Hit the jump for more information.

Delivering utility-based storage resources for the cloud

Growing adoption of both public and private clouds has forced IT organizations and service providers to rethink their infrastructure design. Achieving the agility and performance demanded by cloud services requires the seamless integration of computing, storage and networking, as well as centralized management.

To automate and simplify the provisioning of multitenant storage for the cloud, HP 3PAR Utility Storage can now be fully managed as part of HP CloudSystem, the most complete, integrated system to build and deliver services across private, public and hybrid cloud environments. The combination of 3PAR with HP CloudSystem enables clients to reduce cloud application deployment time from days to minutes,(1) improve operational efficiency of storage management tenfold and cut storage costs by up to 50 percent.(2)

To provide clients a secure, multitenant block-and-file storage solution for both structured and unstructured data in the cloud, HP has qualified the HP X9300 Network Storage Gateway, built on IBRIX technology, for use with HP 3PAR Storage Systems. Combining the thin-storage capabilities of 3PAR Utility Storage with the tiering and data-migration capabilities of the X9300 Network Storage System can reduce capacity requirements by 50 percent.(3)

Converging storage, servers and networking for HP BladeSystem

To maximize companies’ return on investment in virtual servers and desktop PCs, HP has introduced the HP P4800 G2 SAN. Built inside an HP BladeSystem c7000 enclosure, the P4800 eliminates the need for external storage networking, which reduces networking costs by up to 65 percent.(4) The use of common management across server, storage and networking results in a 40 percent increase in productivity.(5) The new HP P4800 G2 SAN runs SAN/IQ 9.0 software with enhanced support for VMware vStorage API for Array Integration (VAAI). This accelerates VMware functions such as cloning by up to 95 percent while cutting the load on VMware ESX servers by 94 percent, allowing clients to increase the density of virtual machines per storage unit by six times.(6)

“The HP P4800 SAN delivers the operational efficiencies, scalability and performance demanded by Insights’ virtualization project,” said Gareth Exell, head of IT Strategy at Insight Investment, an asset management company. “The integration of BladeSystem, VMware and HP storage provided a production-ready foundation with the reliability and disaster recovery features we required.”

Improving the efficiency of data protection

The rapid growth of digital data is driving the need for businesses to more efficiently manage information. Featuring StoreOnce deduplication technology developed in HP Labs, the company’s central research facility, the HP D2D4324 Backup System enables clients to back up as much as 1.4 petabytes of data with only 96 terabytes of raw disk capacity – reducing to the cost of storage for disk-based backup by 95 percent.(7)

Converging infrastructure and applications to speed deployment

Massive message volume, larger attachments and multimedia files impact an IT organization’s ability to provide messaging services to end-users. HP announced the immediate availability of the HP E5000 Messaging System for Microsoft® Exchange Server 2010, which integrates servers, storage, operating system software and Exchange 2010 configuration wizards into a single, converged solution. This enables IT to speed deployment by 75 percent and support users with larger mailboxes at a lower cost per user.(8)

Pricing and availability(9)

The HP P4800 G2 SAN starts at $148,000 and is available immediately. The HP D2D4324 Backup System starts at $149,999 and is available immediately. The new E5000 series is available immediately. The E5300 with 500 mailboxes starts at $39,550. The E5500 with 1,000 mailboxes starts at $45,600 and the E5700 with 3,000 mailboxes starts at $73,850.

NZXT ANNOUNCES H2 CLASSIC SILENT PC CHASSIS

Even though current generation of computer hardware are relatively quieter - judging from a number of our recent hardware reviews – some users just can’t stand any noises coming from their computer. Well, if you are one of them, the California-based NZXT might have something for you.

Designed to prevent users from being disturbed by the noises coming from their rig, the new NZXT H2 Classic Silent Midtower Chassis is layered with premium noise dampening foam which is said to be able to stop hardware noise from being heard outside of the chassis. Not enough with that, the chassis also comes with a magnetic cover over its top 140mm fan which can be removed for better air flow.

“Noise is a distracting by-product of a powerful gaming rig that can confuse and endanger the avid gamer in the heat of battle. H2 delivers peace of mind through absolute silence effectively enhancing concentration and accuracy to set the stage for complete gaming domination,” -Johnny Hou, Founder and Chief Designer, NZXT.

NZXT has also equipped the steel chassis with a removable 3-phase fan controller that allow users to adjust the chassis fan speeds at 40%, 70% and 100%; together with a number of other features such as hot swap able SATA HDD dock, USB 3.0 port and 25mm empty space behind motherboard for easier cable management.

Available in black and white, the new NZXT H2 Classic Silent Chassis is expected to arrive in our market very soon with a price tag of around RM 303 (USD 99.99). To find out more about the new chassis, head on to NZXT’s official website at www.nzxt.com but before that, don’t forget to check out the chassis technical specification and product shots right after the jump.

MICROSOFT UNVEILS NEW LINE-UP OF AFFORDABLE BLUETRACK MICE

Introduced into the market in 2008, Microsoft’s BlueTrack Technology was designed to work on variety of terrains - minus clear glasses and mirrored surfaces - and has since been equipped into many of the company’s high-grade mice such as Sidewinder X8 Gaming Mouse and the Arc Touch Mouse. Come this April, this technology will be more accessible than ever as Microsoft is launching a series of affordable BlueTrack mice.

The first of this new line-up of inexpensive Microsoft’s Blue Track-equipped mice will be the unique and colourfulExpress Mouse. According to Microsoft, it is designed for comfort and style with its off-centre cable and also, vibrant colours. For starters, two colours – Flint Grey and Hibiscus Red - will be released in April while four more colours will be available later in July. In addition to that, two more wired BlueTrack mice – Comfort Mouse 3000and Comfort Mouse 6000 – will be accompanying the Express Mouse’s release in April.

The new Microsoft Express Mouse is priced at RM 49 while the Comfort Mouse 3000 and 6000 are priced at RM 59 and RM 99 respectively. For further information, checkout Microsoft Hardware’s official website at www.microsoft.com/hardware/.

AMD QUIETLY BRINGS OUT THE NEW RADEON HD 6790

It is not often that a new graphic card entered the market without any buzz whatsoever. So, this release of the latest AMD Radeon 6000 series GPU - the Radeon HD 6790 - kind of caught us by surprise.

The Radeon HD 6790 offers the same amount of capabilities as the older Radeon HD 5770 such as 800 stream processors and 40 texture units but with a wider 256-bit memory bus and slower processor’s clock speed at 840MHz; together with 4,200MHz memory clock for its 1GB GDDR5 memory. It also comes with a price tag that begins at around RM 455 (USD 150) which puts it as an attractive solution for users that are looking for low-end to mid-end graphic cards.

A number of AMD partners such Power Color, Sapphire and XFX already shipping this new card to stores everywhere, so check them out with your favourite retailer or visit www.amd.com for further info.

[Source: Electronista, HEXUS and AMD]

Windows Task Manager: A Troubleshooting Tool

PC World - Hold on. Don't just reboot your Windows 7 PC. I realize that rebooting is the goto solution when a program won't shut down, or the system starts dragging or acting wonky, but there is another way. The Task Manager is a powerful tool for troubleshooting and resolving issues in Windows 7.

Task Manager lets you view the programs, processes, and services currently running on the PC. You can use Task Manager to monitor your computer's performance, and to close a program that is not responding, view network status, and see which users are connected to the PC.

You can have many applications open at once in Windows 7--limited only by the available memory and processor capacity of the PC. But what you see is a little like watching a duck on a pond. On the surface it seems to calmly glide along, while under the water its feet are furiously paddling away. Generally, Windows does an awesome job of prioritizing and managing all of the underlying processes and services, but every so often something goes awry. That is when you need to dive into Task Manager.

Starting Task Manager

To begin with, you have to open up Task Manager. You have a few different ways to do this.

• Press Ctrl-Shift-Esc.
• Press Ctrl-Alt-Del, and then select Start Task Manager.
• Click Start, type "task manager" in search bar and press Enter.
• Right-click anywhere on the task bar and select Start Task Manager.

Use any of the above techniques, and you will open up the Task Manager console.

Vital Information at a Glance

At the bottom of the Task Manager window--no matter which tab you happen to be viewing--is a sort of dashboard view that displays the current number of running processes, the percentage of the processor capacity being used, and the percentage of physical memory.

The information displayed here can instantly let you know if a process or application is consuming all of the CPU or memory resources, which is your first clue for troubleshooting a problem.

Task Manager Tabs

Across the top of the main window in the Task Manager console are a number of different tabs: Applications, Processes, Services, Performance, Networking, and Users (Figure 3). We will dive into detail on the use of Applications, Processes, and Services, but the other three won't be covered comprehensively in this article because they are not as directly related to troubleshooting and resolving issues. Here is a brief summary of the last three tabs:

Performance. The Performance tab displays a real-time graph depicting processor usage (split to show the separate cores available for dual- or quad-core processors), and a real-time graph of the memory in use along with various details such as the amount of time the PC has been up and running, and the amount of virtual memory available to Windows. You can already see the overall processor and memory usage on the dashboard bar at the bottom of the Task Manager; however, by reviewing the usage graphs on this tab you can identify whether there is an issue with a specific core or cores within the processor. For example, if there is significant activity on one processor core, while the other is flatlined, you may have a defective CPU.

     

Scanner Cleaning Tips

Digital scanner is a very popular input device. Its main purpose to translate images and text printed on the paper into electronic form that can be processed and stored by the computer.

To clean the scanner first unplugs your system power from the electrical outlet.

Always clean the glass of your scanner with any optical surface cleaning fluid.

This process should be done after every three months if you want to save your scanner life.

Motherboard Cleaning Tips

Motherboard is the main part of your computer that contains all hardware components. Your computer motherboard could fry, if you do not keep it clean on periodically basis. Dust is the main cause to heat up your system and heat link to hardware failure. You can save your computer maintenance cost if you clean your computer on the regular basis. This will improve the cooling and performance of the motherboard components.

To clean your motherboard first unplugs your system power from the electrical outlet.

Using the screwdriver remove the side covers of your computer case and put them to one side.

Check all data and power cables connections. Inspect all motherboard PCI and AGP slots.

Remove all add-on card of your motherboard for example RAM, modem, VGA, sound card and LAN card.

Now blow the air around all the motherboard sides and keeping away your blower nozzle 4 to 5 inches away from main board components. You can use vacuum cleaner also for this purpose but compressed air is the better solution to clean a system.

At the end assemble back all cards, cables and side covers of your system.

I recommend you doing this after every three months if you want to save your system life.

CD-ROM Cleaning Tips

If your CD drive creating problem to read CD disc, taking time to read and showing message there is no disc in the drive. These are the symptoms of dirty or weak CD-drive lens, because dirty lens can create errors in reading or writing and soon will not work at all.

Follow the given steps to care and clean a CD-Drive.

First make sure your discs are clean, unscratched and you’re loaded it properly.

Always use laser lens cleaner to clean drive lens.

Insert the laser lens cleaner disc and play it for 2 to 3 min.

Using CD drive cleaner properly clean the CD-ROM laser from dust. If your drive still creating problem then open it and clean the lens with a cotton swab.

Computer Cleaning Tools

Today there are many computer cleaning products and tools are available in the market. Many computer manufacturer guide the user about their products on how to safe and clean it. Some cleaning tools are available in market for internal computer components and for peripherals. Usually some household items are also helpful to clean the computers components.

Cloth – For computer cleaning use the lightly dampened cloth on the computer case and use paper towel to dry it. But avoid to cleaning inside computer components or other circuit board with damp or wet cloth.

Cleaning fluids – spray any cleaning fluids on the computer case and use paper towel to dry it.

Compressed air – use the compressed air and start clean from back to front of your computer case, specially casing and power supply fan.

Lens cleaning kit – Always use lens cleaning kit to clean drive lens that specially designed to clean the reading/writing devices.

 

GENERAL PC CLEANING TIPS

You can save your computer maintenance cost if you clean your computer on the regular basis. This will improve the cooling and performance of the computer components. Your computer components could damage, if you do not keep it clean on periodically basis, because dust is the main cause to heat up your system and heat link to hardware failure.

• Never place your computer on the ground, always use computer table or shelf for this purpose.
• To clean computer case first unplugs your system power from the electrical outlet. Remove all cables and connectors from the back side of your computer.
• Now blow the air around all the hardware components and keeping away your blower nozzle 4 to 5 inches away from main board components. You can use vacuum cleaner also for this purpose but compressed air is the better solution to clean a system.
• At the end using lightly dampened cloth or spray any cleaning fluids on the computer case and use paper towel to dry it.
• Never clean inside computer components or other circuit board with damp or wet cloth.

Always be careful to eat or drink around the computer.

Graphic Card Troubleshooting

Graphic Card

The graphic card is one of the most important pieces of hardware in your PC. Without it, your super monitor with all the bells and whistles is just a junk box.

Make Directional Input

Most video cards come with simple frame capture programs, but you’ll have to do some programming if you plan to integrate video capture with other operations on your computer, such as adding text data as an overlay or changing video-in channels on the fly. In this case you’ll need good programming libraries in a language with which you are familiar for the video card. Some companies include libraries with their cards, but most charge extra. Most often libraries, when available, are for C or BASIC, and sometimes Pascal.

Choose Between 24 bit and 32 bit

For True Color mode, some graphic cards offer 24 bit while some offer 32 bit. Which is the best? When True Colour mode was first suggested, it utilizes 32 bit which was very pleasing to the eye, they realize that 24 (with less coolers) won’t look much different since the human eye can only take about a certain amount of colors. On the other hand, 24 bit will run faster compared to 32 bit because it uses less colors. So if your card utilizes 24 bit, don’t worry, it isn’t bad.

Always Use The Latest Drivers

Yes, it is important to make sure you always have the latest drivers. The latest drivers will offer you better performance, more utilities and more compatibility (usually for DirectX or Direct3D). Take the effort to check you card manufacturer’s site to look for the latest driver updates.

TRADE-IN YOUR OLD PC WITH A NEW ACER WHILE HELPING THE COMMUNITY

Do you have any old computers that you would like to dispose? Your timing is just right then. Acer has just kicked off a trade-in program that not only benefits you but also a number of charity organizations across the country. Held in conjunction with the recently launched joint education and community program with Microsoft called I’m Inspired, customers are entitled to purchase selected desktop PC, laptop and all-in-one PCs for a discounted price with each trade-in.

While the RM 200 rebate might not sound much, what made this program special is that all the computers that Acer received through this event will be refurbished by them and Microsoft before they are donated to the said charity organizations. However, don’t think of this program as a place to dump your poor old PCs though since Acer are only accepting those with their main components such as motherboard, hard drives, processor, RAM, battery pack and power adapter still intact even though they can be either in working or non-working condition.

The Acer trade-in program is happening right now until 13 April 2011 at selected Acer dealers nationwide. For further information, check out the program’s website http://www.acer-iconize.com.my/info_tradeinpromo.html

 

Making Your PC Shutdown More Quickly

Step 1 : Open Registry Editor by typing “regedit” command in the run window

Step 2: In the Registry editor, Expand “HKEY_CURRENT_USER”>>”Control Panel”>>”Desktop”

Step 3 : Open “waittokillapptimeout” string from the highlighted desktop folder and change the value to 1000 and click on OK

Step 4: Open “Hungapptimeout ” string from the same window and change the value to 1000 and click on OK

Step 5 : Now Expand ” HKEY_USERS” >>”default”>>”Control Panel”>>”Desktop”

Step 6 : Repeat step # 3 & 4

Step 7 : Now Expand “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE”>>”System”>>”Current Control Set”>>”Control panel”>>”Desktop”

Step 8 : Repeat Step # 3 & 4 again

Close the Registry Editor and restart the computer