TechConnect Magazine

ArcSoft adds ATI Stream support to SimHD plug-in

Available with CUDA support since April, the SimHD plug-in for TotalMedia Theatre can now also play nice with AMD's GPGPU technology, ATI Stream. With the extended functionality, users that have Stream-enabled graphics cards will 'see' their GPU being used by the TotalMedia Theatre media player for upscaling standard-definition video to near high-definition quality.

"The complicated calculation conducted during real time upscaling has always been challenging," said George Tang, ArcSoft Vice President and General Manager of Video and Home Entertainment Group. "With ATI Stream, SimHD is able to take advantage of GPGPU, performs much faster during playback while presenting the ultimate video quality to users."

The CUDA and Stream-supporting SimHD is available this page priced at $19.95. A trial version can be downloaded for free.

New Sony VAIO P ultra-portable coming in Q4

The VAIO P is not your usual portable PC, with its high-resolution 8-inch screen, compact size and not so wallet-friendly price tag, but that apparently didn't stop it from finding a place in the market and adding to Sony's revenue. Maybe Sony won't call it a success yet the VAIO P is going to live on as the Japanese company is currently working on new models which will make their debut in Q4, either in October or November.

Apart from providing much lower boot times, the VAIO P 2(?) is a blur, and we'll probably have to wait a little while to find its specs. It would be interesting to see it make use of Intel's upcoming Pine Trail-M platform though.

Asus M4A785TD-M EVO board packs 785G chipset, more copper

Still upcoming and still not officially announced, the AMD 785G chipset is the silicon powering the microATX motherboard seen below, the M4A785TD-M EVO. The new board features a 2oz copper PCB (like quite a few Gigabyte products), the Express Gate instant-on OS, and has support for AM3 processors, four DDR3-1800 memory slots, plus one PCI-Express x16 slot.

The M4A785TD-M EVO also boasts Radeon HD 4200 integrated graphics (Hybrid CrossFireX support included) backed by 128MB of SidePort memory, one eSATA and five SATA 3.0 Gbps ports, Gigabit Ethernet, 7.1 channel audio, D-Sub, DVI and HDMI outputs, an EPU (Energy Processing Unit) for higher energy efficiency, and features like Q-Fan, CrashFree BIOS 3, AI NET2, MyLogo 2 and EZ Flash 2.

If all goes well then the M4A785TD-M EVO should become available later this quarter so keep an eye out for it.

OCZ halts shipments of Elpida Hyper-based memory modules too

Following Corsair's lead, the OCZ Technology Group or OCZ for short, has also decided to stop delivering DDR3 modules that are equipped with Elpida's Hyper DRAMs. OCZ claims that it didn't see any spike in failure rates with the Hyper-based RAM but "as a proactive measure based on the latest information from media reviewers like AnandTech" it decided to stop using the DRAMs, at least for now.

Those having problems with their memory are advised to contact OCZ which promises to take care of all customers either with a refund or an exchange for another product of equal value. Now when will Kingston fess up?

Prolimatech delivers the PK-1 thermal compound

Taiwanese newcomer Prolimatech has officially introduced its first thermal paste, the PK-1 Nano Aluminum. Coming in a 5-gram syringe, the 'high-grade' compound has a thermal conductivity of 10.2 W/m ° C, an adhesiveness of 31000 Cps, and is bundled with a card to help spread it properly after applying it on the CPU (or GPU).

The Prolimatech PK-1 Nano Aluminum is now available at $10.99 / 9.90 Euro.

Ericsson and Sprint ink multi-billion network services agreement

Telecom equipment and service provider Ericsson and telecommunications company Sprint Nextel have just signed a seven-year deal that will see the former manage Sprint's network and get between $4.5 billion and $5 billion for its 'trouble'. Through the agreement, which has been named 'Network Advantage', some 6,000 Sprint employees will start to operate as Ericsson staff from later this quarter.

Sprint hopes that this move will improve the effectiveness of its network, and enable it to focus on delivering a superior customer experience, innovative services and popular new devices.

"No other U.S.-based carrier has followed through on the business-enhancing vision inherent in Network Advantage," said Sprint's Steve Elfman, President of Network Operations and Wholesale. "Our best-ever network performance will become even better by leveraging Ericsson's world-class leadership in network services, their proprietary tools, and the knowledge of more than 30,000 dedicated and highly-specialized service professionals to power Sprint's Now Network."

According to the deal Ericsson is going to assume responsibility for the day-to-day services, provisioning and maintenance for the Sprint-owned CDMA, iDEN and wireline networks. Sprint will still have full ownership and control of its network assets, will solely decide on network strategy and investments and will retains technology and vendor selections.

Google provides by-license image search

While it's not exactly something that most people think about, copyrighted material is everywhere on the internet. Basically, even an innocent image search could see you take a picture, use it for whatever, and be in violation of somebody's copyright. To help avoid potential legal problems, Google has now added an option to Image Search that will enable people to only find material tagged with licenses like Creative Commons or GNU, which can be can legally shared, used and even modified.

If you want to use this new feature simply go to the advanced image search page and see the Usage Rights tab which provides five options - to not filter searches by license, or only return images that are labeled for reuse, labeled for commercial reuse, labeled for reuse with modifications, and labeled for commercial reuse with modifications. Fair game, now about that Chrome OS...

Fresh Opera 10 snapshot up for grabs

The long road to the Opera 10 browser continues this week with yet another snapshot awaiting testing. According to the Desktop Team, this update comes with lots of skin, stability and Opera Unite fixes, updated icons, new designs for the info panel, error pages, internal pages, and fraud warning page, plus a few more tweaks.

The full changelog of the new Opera 10 build is available on this page where you can also find the install packages for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

Getac introduces the 9213 business-rugged notebook

Rough and tough device manufacturer Getac is getting into the CULV game with its newest release, the 9213 13.3-inch laptop. Claimed to be the company's smallest and lightest business-rugged notebook, the 9213 measures 321 x 228 x 20~29 mm, weights 1.7kg, and features a full magnesium alloy chassis and case and shock mounted HDD and LCD, which enable it to pass the 45 cm operating drop test, and the 120 kg stress test.

Also boasting a spill-resistant keyboard, the portable PC has a 13.3-inch screen with a native resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels, a 1.4 GHz Core 2 Duo ULV CPU, up to 3GB of RAM, a hard drive with a maximum capacity of 250GB, GMA integrated graphics, a multi-card reader, WiFi, Gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth 2.1 and optional 3.75G HSUPA. Moreover, the new release includes a 1.3 megapixel camera, built-in TPM security module and fingerprint scanner, a Kensington lock, plus a battery providing up to 8 hours of operation.

The Getac 9213 has a starting price tag of $1,799.

HP's Mini 110 netbook, now with 1366x768 display option

The foot soldier of HP's netbook line-up, the Mini 110 XP Edition can now brag with being 720p-ready thanks to the addition of a new screen option. Adding $30 to the base configuration, the updated 10.1-inch display has a native resolution of 1366 x 768, is still LED-backlit and has the anti-glare coating.

With the new screen, the HP Mini 110 will set you back $360 so it's still quite affordable. For more netbook configurating fun see HP's website.