Samsung Galaxy S8 Launch: DeX Mobile-to-PC Transition Tool Unveiled

 

Samsung at its Galaxy Unpacked event on Wednesday unveiled the new Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ smartphones in New York. The Samsung Galaxy S8 and Samsung Galaxy S8+ are claimed to bring a new era of smartphone design and new services. The company at the same event announced the new Samsung DeX mobile-to-PC transition tool which works similarly to Microsoft's Continuum feature. For now, no pricing details for the DeX have been revealed. A refreshed Gear 360 VR camera was also revealed.

The Samsung DeX tool will be compatible with the Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8+, and will offer users an Android-based desktop-like experience. To get started, users will have to plug the Samsung smartphone into the DeX Station, which will connect the smartphone to an HDMI compatible monitor as well as connect to any Bluetooth-enabled, USB or RF-type keyboard and mouse.

Asus ZenBook UX330 Ultra-Portable Laptop Launched Starting Rs. 76,990

 

Asus on Tuesday launched ZenBook UX330 laptop in India with a starting price of Rs. 76,990. The new ZenBook laptop, which has been claimed to be one of the slimmest and lightest 13.3-inch clamshell notebooks in the world, has already been made available across all online retailers and channel partners from March 21 and comes in Rose Gold and Quartz Grey colours.

The ZenBook UX330 laptop comes with a full body aluminium design, weighs 1.2kg, and is just 13.5mm thick. The laptop sports a high-resolution 13.3-inch QHD+ (3200x1800 pixels) display with company's proprietary 'Splendid Display Technology'. It is powered by seventh-generation Intel Core (i7-7500/ i5-7200) processors with up to 8GB of high speed 1866MHz RAM. The laptop comes with a backlit keyboard and as per company's claims, offers 12 hours of battery life.

The new ZenBook laptop comes with a 512GB SSD storage. In terms of connectivity options, the laptop offers USB 3.1 Type-C, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, and Bluetooth 4.1.

In the sound department, the ZenBook UX330 laptop comes with Asus SonicMaster Audio System developed for notebooks. "The audio system of the ZenBook UX330 was tuned by experts from ASUS' own 'Golden Ears' audio team as well as renowned audiophile company, Harman/Kardon to ensure the very best experience for the playback of a wide variety of content, be it music, movie, recording, gaming and speech

 

Epson Surecolor P5000 Photo Printer Comes to Indian Market

 Epson launches its new Epson SureColor P5000 17’’ wide-format Inkjet printer in India. With the latest imaging technologies, the SureColor P5000 sets the standard for the photo printing, fine art, graphic design, and proofing markets. The new model will replace the iconic Epson Stylus Pro 4900, which helped Epson build a pronounced reputation within the photography industry.

Apple’s New 9.7-inch iPad with Retina Display Launched

 

Apple today updated its most popular-sized iPad, featuring a brighter 9.7-inch Retina display at a starting price of $329 (US) which roughly translates to Rs 21,400.

iPad features a bright Retina display with 2048×1536 pixels resolution at 264ppi and is enclosed in a thin aluminum unibody enclosure. It is powered by A9 chip with 64-bit architecture along with the Motion M9 co-processor. The 64‑bit architecture delivers fast processing and graphics performance for apps and games while maintaining the same all-day battery life. Touch ID is embedded on the iPad home button.

In terms of camera, the new iPad features an 8MP rear autofocus camera with f/2.4 aperture, 5P lens and is loaded with different modes like Panorama, Hybrid IR Filter, Timer Mode, Auto image stabilization and more. It is capable of recording videos in full-HD (1080×1920 pixles) resolution with 30fps while slow-motion videos can be recorded at 120fps. The Apple 9.7-inch iPad has a 1.2MP FaceTime HD camera with f/2.2 aperture and HD video recording.

On the connectivity front, the new iPad supports Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth v4.2, GPS, Glonass and LTE bands (WiFi+Cellular).

For now, some of the countries that will be getting the new 9.7-inch iPads are Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. Apple is also selling the Polyurethane Smart Covers for iPad at $39 in charcoal gray, white, midnight blue, pink sand and (RED) at apple.com and Apple Stores.

 

Intel '3D Xpoint' Optane SSD DC 4800X Launched; Merges RAM and Storage

 

Highlights

• The 375GB Intel Optane SSD DC P4800X is available in limited quantities

• 750GB and 1.5TB models in PCIe and U.2 form factors will launch this year

• Optane is the brand for Intel's 3D Xpoint products, developed with Micron

In a curiously low-key Sunday announcement, Intel formally launched the first product based on its highly touted '3D Xpoint' memory technology. First announced in mid-2015, 3D Xpoint is a joint effort between Intel and Micron. It was claimed to be a whole new class of solid-state storage, offering blazing fast speeds and far superior reliability to the flash memory used in mainstream SSDs.

The new Optane SSD DC 4800X is a 375GB SSD in a PCIe card form factor. It will be available in limited quantities, priced at $1,520 (approximately Rs. 99,384). Higher capacity models as well as U.2 form factor variants will follow later this year. The Optane SSD DC 4800X is targeted at workloads which benefit from extremely low latency and high responsiveness under load.

Intel says the drive can achieve speeds of 2GBps even at low queue depths, whereas flash-based SSDs only work their best with a queue depth of 32 or more. Moreover, a high volume of random writes and reads simultaneously without compromising each other, with latency remaining low even under extreme load. Endurance is rated at 30 drive-writes per day, or 12.3 total Petabytes written.

Microsoft Surface Book 2 Tipped to Ditch 2-in-1 Design, to Launch in March or April

 

Microsoft launched the Surface Book, its 2-in-1 laptop, in 2015, and decided not to upgrade it last year. Instead, it concentrated on making the laptop available in many regions gradually. However, a fresh report claims that the successor is finally coming and has even entered mass production. The Surface Book 2 is expected to launch as soon as the end of this month or in April.

DigiTimes reports that the Surface Book 2 has entered into mass production, and one of the big change from the predecessor is the ditching of the 2-in-1 design. Apparently, the Surface Book 2 will be a regular laptop with no detachable or 360-degree hinge that can transform the laptop into a tablet, prop it up in tent mode and also be able to use it flat on a table top. Design wise, that's quite disappointing, but the Surface Book 2 will be cheaper starting at $1,000 (roughly Rs. 65,500).

DIGISOL launches 8 Port Gigabit Ethernet Unmanaged PoE Switch

 DIGISOL announced the launch of its 8 Port Gigabit Ethernet PoE unmanaged switch. The DG-GS1008PH-A is designed to enhance network performance in a compact form factor and offers 8 10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet ports of which 4 ports are Power over Ethernet (PoE) compliant to IEEE 802.3af. The PoE ports can be used to power up devices complying with 802.3af using the existing Ethernet cable. The switch uses to store and forward packet switching technology which ensures reliable data transfer. The switch also supports automatic MDI/MDI-X detection which eliminates the need of a cross over cables or dedicated uplink ports. Thus the DG-GS1008PH-A is an ideal solution for small Ethernet workgroups and application requiring PoE.

The DG-GS1008PH-A Switch offers 8×10/100/ 1000 Mbps Gigabit Ethernet ports with 4 Power Over Ethernet ports. These PoE ports are IEEE 802.3af compliant and can supply PoE Power to PoE devices. The existing Ethernet cables can be used to power up IEEE 802.3af compliant network devices. This eliminates the need of an external power source and power cabling for such devices.

The switch provides flexibility to users for connecting a PoE or non PoE device. The PoE devices connected to switch can be easily identified by the separate PoE LED status Indicators.

AMD Ryzen5 CPUs To Be Available for Desktop PCs Starting April 11 

AMD announced Ryzen5 desktop processors will launch worldwide on April 11, 2017. Aimed primarily at gamers and creators, the new Ryzen5 processors feature the powerful and efficient “Zen” architecture in 6-core,12-thread as well as 4-core, 8-thread options, with a price range of $169 to $249 USD.

“Ryzen will ultimately bring innovation and competition to virtually every segment of the PC market, and Ryzen 5 is the next big step on that journey, designed to achieve new levels of compute performance for millions of PC users,” said Jim Anderson, senior vice president and general manager, Computing and Graphics Group, AMD. “AMD reinvigorated the high-performance desktop market with Ryzen 7 earlier this month, and AMD Ryzen 5 now brings the power and efficiency of the “Zen” core to users in the highly popular sub-$300 segment of the market.”

Google, NASA Upgrade To The New D-Wave 2000Q Quantum Annealing Computer

 D-Wave announced that Google, NASA, and the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) have upgraded their 1,000-qubit D-Wave 2X quantum annealing computer to the latest 2,000-qubit D-Wave 2000Q. The new computer is supposed to be up to 1,000 times faster than the last generation for certain optimization problems.

Pioneer India launches new enclosed subwoofers at Rs 7,990

 Pioneer, a in-car entertainment systems company, announced the launch of its new enclosed subwoofers TS-WX306T & TS-WX306B, tube type and box type enclosures

 

GIGABYTE Announces New AM4 Ryzen Compatible Motherboards of AORUS X370, B350 and A320

GIGABYTE announced the AORUS Gaming Series Motherboards on the New AM4 Ryzen Platform from AMD. The AM4 Platform will host the X370, B350 and A320 Chipsets which will support the Ryzen CPUs. GIGABYTE will have all three chipsets available, each fully optimized for CPUs with 8-Cores and 16 Threads, for consumers who are interested in any segment of the platform. With user-centric features exclusive to GIGABYTE, consumers will find RGB Fusion, Smart Fan 5 and Dual Audio Chips that provides a solution like no others.

 

The fully customizable RGB LEDs from RGB Fusion will allow users to customize their system exactly the way they want. Smart Fan 5, an intuitive user interface, works in tandem with hybrid fan headers for optimum cooling performance and system protection. Moreover, RGB Fusion has made its way onto many accessories and peripherals already in the market. RGB Fusion Ready devices allow enthusiasts to control all of their RGB lit products from a single interface.