Garmin-Asus Partners with Telecommunications T-Mobile USA
First Android-powered Navigation Smartphone from Garmin-Asus
Coming to T-Mobile Later This Spring
Garmin-Asus, a co-branded alliance between Garmin® Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN) and ASUSTeK Computer Inc. (TAIEX: 2357), announced that it will partner with U.S. telecoms T-Mobile this spring to launch the Garmin-Asus A50, the first Android-powered smart phone that delivers a fully-integrated Garmin navigation experience. With Garmin, ASUS and T-Mobile’s leadership in navigation, device innovation, and wireless telecommunications respectively, the A50 is poised to provide users with the best location based service (LBS) experience possible.
“As the global leader in smart phone navigation technology and location based services, Garmin-Asus actively seeks to partner the world’s leading telecommunications service providers to offer users the most advanced, convenient and fun navigation experience,” said Benson Lin, Vice-President and General Manager of ASUS’ Personal Mobile Devices. “Our partnership with T-Mobile reflects the growing recognition within the global telecommunications industry that there is a burgeoning consumer demand for navigation-based smart phones and services, and that Garmin-Asus is the only smart phone maker capable of fulfilling these needs with our ‘best of both’ solutions.”
“The Garmin-Asus A50 brings together two increasingly popular devices in one state-of-the-art package, delivering a rich, unique experience that no other smart phone or standalone navigation device can offer,” said George Harrison, vice president, marketing product innovation, T-Mobile USA. “T-Mobile customers are increasingly seeking smart phones, and the deep integration of Garmin navigation into the smart phone features of this device helps them do more with one device to more simply navigate their busy lives.”
With the Android-based A50, Garmin-Asus now not only offers a more complete product line, it has also showcased its ability to perfectly integrate navigation and LBS functionality across platforms.
“Regardless of whether users prefer the Android or Windows Mobile operating system, they are assured the best and most comprehensive navigation and LBS experience with a Garmin-Asus smart phone,” said Lin. “We have plans to release more devices in the U.S., Europe, APAC and China markets in 2010, so users seeking the convenience that navigation smart phones affords will have no shortage of options.”
If you have longed to try out the iPhone OS 4.0 beta 2, you better stay away from it before it breaks your apps. In fact, since upgrading to OS 4.0 beta 1, applications like RunKeeper can no longer RUN. Although it claims to add multitasking to the iPhone, it seems that it only works with default applications from Apple.
With beta 2 out, it tried to fix some of these issues. It did seem that the battery life is much better even with push mail enabled. It usually lasts last than a day, it is now able to last 1.5 days before a full recharge.
On the other hand, beta 1 introduced digital zoom in the camera. It works but images turn out to be black & white. Beta 2 didn’t solve it but the problem aggrevated. The whole camera application can hang after taking a picture.
Apple added some nice touches to beta 2 though. Whenever you switch in and out of the applications, there is a nice transition. See the video below to have a better idea on how the transition looks like :
The GA-X58A-UD9 is the top notch Intel LGA 1366 mainboard from Gigabyte. It uses a new VRM design with 24+2+2 phase power. It featurs 7 PCIe slots with 4 running at PCIe 2.0 x 16 and 3 PCIe 2.0 x 8, this board is definitely the board for those who require more than just Quad SLI or Quad CrossFire. (4 way SLI is supported through 2 NF200 bridge chip.)
In additon, it supports trichanel DDR3-1333/1600/1800 and OC 2200+. It also has Dual LAN, 8 ch HD audio with DOLBY. The board also support USB 3.0, SATA 6Gbps, 3X USB power boost. Additional features include UD3, DES2, Smart 6, SATA RAID 0,1,5,10, 1394a, x 3, 2 x PCIe x1 + 2 PCI
Form factor : XL-ATX (345×263.5mm).
Gigabyte top notch 7 PCIe slots mainboard GA-X58A-UD9 will start retailing from May 2010.
ASRock 890GX Extreme3 mainboard has the UCC function which can unlocked the 2 hidden cores within the Phenom II X4 960T, turning it into a 6 cores processor.
Some users were wondering if there are any stability issues. We ran Hyper PI 32M stability tests on 4 core turned 6 core Phenom II 960T processor and the 32M tests completed without any issues.
SkyFire has been the preferred browser on the Windows Mobile devices. This is largely due to it’s support of flash video. As more websites rely on Flash, flash support is ubiquitious.
In the video below, we managed to get hold of a beta version of this software. Installation is simple, just open the APK file with ASTRO file manager. Follow through the instructions and it is done.
SkyFire supports multiple pages. We browse a few sites and noticed that the beta doesn’t seem to work very well. It took a long time to open a page. A subsequent REFRESH loads it immediately.
To zoom, you can use the + or – key or tap the screen. Multitouch pinch and zoom feature is also not available in this browser. Embedded flash videos cannot be played. Youtube videos shows a PLAY button, when pressed leads you to an external youtube player to stream the video.
Perhaps we can wait a while for the official SkyFire on Android to see the bugs are fixed in the final code.
MSI has posted a list of mainboards that supports the upcoming Phenom II X6 processors. Below is the list and BIOS version required to support the new processor expected to be launched on 26th, 27th this month (date varies depending if you are US or ASIA).
It seems that the beta 2 release has leaked on the net again. If you are interested to install and try them, you can download them from http://dev.apple.com, login using your developer account. Alternatively you can check this link for more.
A 2nd beta version of the iPhone OS 4.0 is made available for software developers right after Apple announced the 1st beta weeks ago.
The new beta of the upcoming 4.0 reference release includes “significant API additions” as well as a new tool that makes it easy to provision a device for development, developers familiar with the new software report.
The new APIs largely flesh out the new multitasking and background processing features related to audio, VoIP telephony, location services, and Task Completion. Apps can now request a ten minute period to complete a task, up from an initial five minutes.
The new build also includes a new animation effect in the multitasking user interface, which swipes the current app out of view to reveal the app the user chooses (below, from the Italian iPhoneHacks.it).
Improvements to GameKit (publicly branded as Game Center) and expanded support for Internet mail features are also rolled into the new release, as well as support for LLVM-GCC and Clang LLVM as new compiler options for iPhone development
AMD Phenom II X6 1055T 6 core retails at NTD6890 (USD218)
IF you are a person who goes for the latest technology, you would be tempted to try the 32nm Intel Westmere Core i7-980X extreme. Unfortunately the high priceof USD 999 turns people off.
On 26 Apr, AMD will join Intel as they deliver 3 new 6 core processors. These 3 models are 45nm Socket Am3 processors based on Thuban core. It clocks at 2.6, 2.8 and 3.2 GHz. The models are Phenom II X6 1035T, 1055T and 1090T BE(Black edition) respectively.
The processors comes in Boxed and tray versions. The Phenom II X6 1055T and 1090T BE, code HDT55TFBGRBOX and HDT90ZFBGRBOX. The tray version is the Phenom II X6 1035T and 1055T model code HDT35TWFK6DGR and HDT55TWFK6DGR. The difference is the boxed version has 3 yrs warranty (with fan) while the tray versions only have 1 yr of warranty.
As for the pricing, the 2.8Ghz Phenom II X6 1055T boxed edition has a SRP of 6890 NTD while the 3.2Ghz Phenom II X6 1090T BE has a suggested retail price of 10170 NTD. The good thing about these processors are that they are backward compatible with most of the older AM2+ boards as it can be used on DDR2 boards due to it’s dual memory controller.
ASRock is soon to launch another series of mainboard based on the AMD 880G chipset. The first of this series if the ASRock 880G Extreme3 mainboard based on the AMD 880G+SB850 chipsets.
As it is also a Extreme3 board, it comes equipped with USB3, SATA3 and eSATA3. On top of that, this board also features the UCC unlocking chip. It is able to unlock the hidden cores on your Phenom II 550BE or Phenom II X3 710 processor and turn it into a quad core.
If UCC on the ASRock 890GX Extreme3 can unlock the upcoming quad core processor to a 6 core, I am sure the 880G Extreme3 should have that capability too.
Below are some pictures of the packaging and mainboard. Watch out for our review of this board on OCWorkbench.
Do join in our twitter feed at http://www.twitter.com/ocworkbench and Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/OCWorkbench/172425480487?ref=ts
There is SkyFire on the Windows Mobile for users to browse Flash enabled sites. Now, you also have an equivalent known as Cloud Browse which runs on your Apple iPhone 3GS.
So how is it being done? Basically, it is running a Firefox browser remotely. Cloud Browse runs the browsers on a separate machine and not on your iPhone, so no need to worry about websites grabbing your private information.
Below is a video demonstration showing the flash videos. Notice that the solution is not perfect but you get to see the sites powered with flash rendered correctly. Youtube plays with but with some noticeable lag.
Microsoft Singapore is excited to share that Office 2010, SharePoint 2010, Visio 2010 and Project 2010 were released to manufacturing (RTM) on 17 April, Saturday. RTM is the final engineering milestone before launch and a major achievement for all of the internal teams who worked hard to bring the 2010 set of products to customers around the world.
Since the public beta in November, more than 7 million people worldwide have downloaded products from the 2010 suite. Their feedback, and the feedback of more than 5,000 corporate customers and partners, has helped to make it the premier productivity suite across the PC, mobile phone, and Web browser.
Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft Corporation, will be in Singapore on 26 May for the business launch of the 2010 set of products including Office 2010, SharePoint 2010, Visio 2010, and Project 2010. We will send details as we get closer to the event.
As announced on 5 March, Microsoft and its qualified retailers have been offering the Office 2010 Technology Guarantee which ends on September 30, 2010. The Office 2010 Technology Guarantee allows eligible consumers who purchase and activate Office 2007 or a new PC with Office 2007 between the eligibility dates, to download Office 2010 when it is available – at no additional charge.
ASRock Inc., the global leading motherboard manufacturer today proudly announced its brand new AMD 890GX Extreme3 motherboard supporting ASRock UCC function that allows CPU cores upgrade from X4 to X6 of AMD’s upcoming PhenomII X4 960T processor. This will be a value-added news to ASRock motherboard functionability and practicability and we believe that computer enthusiasts will be definitely attracted by our cutting-edge AMD motherboards.
How many cores do you desire? The answer must be “as many as possible”. It seems a daydream for most users; however, ASRock brings magic to our fan again and makes your dreams come true! ASRock has exclusive equipped with an ASRock UCC chip and specially tuned UCC (Unlock CPU Core) function in the BIOS of their 890GX Extreme3 motherboard to unlock the mind-blowing performance of AMD’s upcoming PhenomII X4 960T CPU. Just a simple switch of the BIOS option ‘UCC’, users can unlock the extra CPU core to enjoy an instant performance boost! Enabling the UCC function in BIOS, AMD PhenomII X4 960T CPU might be upgraded to X6, users are able to take advantage of ASRock superior 890GX Extreme3 Motherboard. (*The success rate of this enhancement depends on the individual CPU.)
On the 26th this month, AMD will soon be releasing it’s six core Phenom II X6 CPUs, codenamed “Thuban”. The Phenom II X6 will feature 6MB of L3 cache and six cores, together with a new feature that is similar to Intel’s Turbo Boost technology which boosts a 400MHz (unconfirmed) to its base frequency during high cpu load.
According to various sources, the new Phenom II X4 “T” processors are basically are based on the same cores as the Phenom II X6. So, if you’re lucky, you would be able to unlocked the 2 remaining cores, turning your X4 into a X6. It should also feature the same 6MB of L3 cache and Turbo Boost like technology. The Phenom II X4 960T is said to spec at 3.3GHz and the 940T running at around 3GHz.
In fact, at post time, we have confirmation from a tester that he is able to recover the 2 hidden cores, turning the Phenom II X4 960T into a hex core Phenom II X6 at the same clock speed. The board used is a AMD 890GX+SB850 mainboard.
Looks like the first board being able to achieve this is the ASRock 890GX Extreme3 – read about it here.
In case you are not aware, Motorola Milestone comes with a Navigation software “MotoNAV”. It is available for a 60 days trial after which you can purchase the license online.
In this video, we take a quick look on how it looks like. If you haven’t read our review of the Motorola Milestone, here is the link of our Review.
Yes, you read the title correct the first working jailbreak tool Redsn0w 0.9.5 to jailbreak iPhone OS 4.0 Beta 1 has been released by iPhone Dev team. However Redsn0w 0.9.5 is targeted at developers of jailbroken apps. It uses the same pwnage2 DFU-mode exploit that we’ve been using since the 2.x days.
After iPhone OS 4.0 announcement and number of iPhone hackers iPhone Dev Team, Geohotz, Comex, ih8sn0w etc has come up with proof video of successfully jailbreaking iPhone OS 4.0 but none of them provided ETA. There were number of guess that this jailbreak tool won’t come out until iPhone OS 4.0 is released.
But it looks iPhone Dev team has something different in their mind. We feel that, they might have one more exploit which can be used if Apple fixes this pwnage2 DFU-mode exploit in final iPhone OS 4.0 release. Till that time here is your chance to jailbreak iPhone 3G
4.0 with Redsn0w 0.9.5.
By no means users should attempt to install iPhone OS 4.0 considering Redsn0w 0.9.5 jailbreak tool is out. Since you’ll need a properly-registered developer UDID with Apple to get past the activation screen. For similar reasons, there is no Windows version of this beta redsn0w.
Redsn0w 0.9.5 is supports
1. iPhone 3G only (for now)
Taipei, Taiwan – 13th April, 2010 – G.Skill International Co. Ltd., manufacturer of extreme performance memory and high performance solid-state storage, today announced it has created the ultimate extreme performance dual channel DDR3 2GB x2 memory kit, rated at 2,500MHz CL9-11-9-28 at only 1.65V, which is specifically designed for Intel Core-i7 860 & 870 processors and in co-operation with ASUS, the leading manufacturer of high performance motherboard. This DDR3 2,500MHZ kit has passed numerous strict tests on ASUS P7P55D-E Deluxe and P7P55D-E EVO motherboards and will join our high performance Trident family.
Following on from its launch of groundbreaking DDR3 2,400MHz memory kit in January 2010, G.Skill has been continually working to develop the ultimate high performance memory in order to satisfy the demands of top overclockers and PC enthusiasts’ worldwide. DDR3 2,500 MHz pushes the hardware limit even further than ever and to guarantee its operation, G.Skill has partnered with ASUS, the leading performance motherboard manufacturer, to break all the technology bottlenecks while maintaining the perfect stability, which is critical to ASUS and G.Skill engineering.
“G.Skill is dedicated to continuously developing the best performance memory modules on the market, to satisfy the demands of extreme overclockers and gamers. We are proud of the continual milestones we are still setting in the memory industry, and we believe the collaboration with ASUS brings the best technology synergy for future product development.” commented Tony Chou, senior R&D manager at G.Skill.
“As the global motherboard leaders, we’ve developed quite a few innovations that are now industry standards. We did this on the best designed, best performing motherboards around, with the highest compatibility, guaranteed. Working with G.Skill to achieve this new extreme-frequency, Dual-Channel DDR3-2500, is part of this tradition, and we’re very happy to be involved”, said Che-Wei Lin, General Manager of the ASUS Motherboard Business Unit.
In another week or so, AMD will launch yet another chipset for the AM3 processors. The pair is known as AMD 880G north bridge and can be paired with south bridge SB810 or SB850.
Actually the 880G north bridge is quite similar to the 785G and 890GX. The 880G comes integrated with Radeon HD 4250 Graphics which supports DirectX 10.1, UVD2 and other specifications with a core frequency of 560MHz. It somewhat falls between the higher end 890GX and the to be replaced 785G. Most implementations will pair up the 880G with SB850 as SB850 supports RAID 5 in addition to 0,1,0+1.
Unified Shader architecture still remained 40 stream processors, 8 Texture Address Unit, 4 Texture Filiting Unit, 4 ROP. The motherboard also supports PCI 16X mode PCI-E 2.0 graphics card and support 8X +8 X Crossfire technology
785G
880G
890GX
Transistor Count
>205million
>205million
>205million
Core codename
Radeon HD 4200
Radeon HD 4250
Radeon HD 4290
Manufacturing Process
55nm
55nm
55nm
SP Number
40
40
40
DirectX
DirectX 10.1
DirectX 10.1
DirectX 10.1
Shader Model
SM 4.1
SM 4.1
SM 4.1
Core clock
500MHz
560MHz
700MHz
Memory mode
UMA/UMA+SidePort
UMA/UMA+SidePort
UMA/UMA+SidePort
Onboard Memory Type
GDDR2/GDDR3
GDDR2/GDDR3
GDDR3
Onboard Memory Bus Width
16bit
16bit
16bit
Technical name
UVD 2
UVD 2
UVD 2
H.264 decoding
Yes
Yes
Yes
VC-1 decoding
Yes
Yes
Yes
HDMI
1.3
1.3
1.3
DisplayPort
Yes
Yes
Yes
The AMD 880G still supports HDMI 1.3 specification. It has built-in HDCP key support HD-DVD and Blu-Ray high-definition video playback. It also has embedded HD Audio codec, support 7.1-channel HDMI audio output , support ing Dolby Digital Plus and True HD audio technology.
Some manufacturers will also add on USB 3.0 support with NEC USB 3.0 chipset. Just like the AMD 890GX, AMD has disabled the loop hole that enables users with dual or tri core processor to enable the 4th core.
So far, ASRock, ASUS has AMD 890GX chipset based solutions which can unlock the hidden cores. I am sure the 880G would have similar implementations and it is all left to the manufacturers to think of ways to make their product stand out among the various brands and models.
Ever thought of streaming youtube videos in your web browser on iPhone ? Looks like this application on the App Store might be able to help.
Cloud Browse
By AlwaysOnGames
View More By This Developer
Open iTunes to buy and download apps.
Description
Can’t see Flash videos or use Java applications in MobileSafari? You can do so through Cloud Browse.
Go beyond the limitations of a mobile browser, and control a full Firefox desktop browser.
Worried about privacy or security? Cloud Browse runs the browser on a separate machine and not on your iPhone, so no need to worry about websites grabbing your private information or hacking into your phone.
…MoreAlwaysOnGames Web Site Cloud Browse Support
What’s New in Version 1.1.3
- Fixed keyboard not inputting any characters
- Fixed crash when there are a lot of data in paste buffer
- Fixed crashes when server returns invalid response
