Cloud Engine, Inc. has today announced some major revisions to its instant cloud solution known as Pogoplug.

Pogoplug allows users to access data stored on external hard drives from anywhere on the ‘net by connecting them to the Pogoplug device and registering with Cloud Engine’s website.  The Pogoplug UI makes it easy to share your content with friends via social networking sites like Twitter, and Facebook, and there is even an iPhone application for accessing content on the go.

The new Pogoplug

The device’s UI includes intuitive players for all of your content; photos, music and videos all work seamlessly in your browser of choice. I currently have access to my entire home photo and music library, as well as some select applications, all without uploading a thing.

Today’s announcement of the second-generation Pogoplug increases the supported number of connected drives from one to four, adds slideshows and playlists to the UI, and adds automatic synchronization of stored media.

The company’s press release lies in waiting behind the jump.

(more…)

Hynix Semiconductor announced today that it has received validation for products based on the company’s new 256MB DDR3 chips built on their new 40nm process.

Validated products include a 4GB SODIMM and a 2GB DIMM, both of which run at 1333MHz on a 1.5V V_DIMM. The firm says that the chips are capable of speeds up to DDR3-1866.

Hynix says that the company’s 40nm process enables reductions in power consumption of up to 40% over 50nm ICs, and improves foundry throughput by 60%.

“The current mainstream density has been rapidly transferring from 1Gb to 2Gb for the higher performance servers market. We expect to secure the industry’s best features of both 1Gb and 2Gb DDR3 products”, said Hynix CMO J.B. Kim.

Mass production of the new ICs has already begun, with volume shipments expected in 1Q10.

Memory IC maker Elpida announced yesterday that it has transitioned its Munich DRAM R&D facility to full-scale operation.

Originally serving as a GDDR (graphics DDR) lab, the firm’s August acquisition of Qimonda’s GDDR3 and GDDR5 assets has allowed Elpida to shift the lab into high gear. Operating at full clip, the firm intends to perform R&D for post-GDDR5 technologies as well as development and evaluation for existing memory technologies.

Having assumed Qimonda’s position in the GDDR market, Elpida intends to become a major competitor to market rivals Hynix and Samsung.

As a first order of business, the company has recently finished development of a 128 megabyte GDDR5 IC capable of speeds up to 2GHz. The firm will follow that launch with volume production of GDDR3 in 1H10 and a 256 megabyte GDDR5 chip in 2H10, the latter of which could enable consumer-level GPUs with standard configurations of 2GB.

Google has announced that it has developed a new feature which allows YouTube to automatically generate closed captions for submitted videos.

The service’s new Auto-caps feature harnesses automatic speech recognition (ASR) to computer-generate closed captions from a video’s audio stream. Users who submit a video when the service goes live will automatically be given the option to see their video with and without CC. The results aren’t perfect, but it’s a step in the right direction.

The Auto-caps feature will be going live in English by the end of the week, and developers plan to add other languages over time.

Today at an event at held at their Mountain View, CA headquarters, Google finally dished out the details on their upcoming operating system.

Dubbed Chrome OS, the open source OS is specifically meant to be a lightweight system for those who spend most of their time online. Google has stripped away what it considers to be unnecessary features to focus on getting users booted and online quickly.

Chrome OS is unique in that it’s an entirely web-based operating system: All of the applications are web-based, and all actions are taken inside of a browser. Google’s new OS does not support conventional desktop applications or programs, nor are there any pre-loaded programs that users will have to install or manage.

And because users cannot download or install binaries or process tasks in the local desktop environment, the operating system’s risk profile is quite small  (to say nothing of its Linux heart). Chrome OS is also designed to automatically check the integrity of its codebase on reboot, and to repair any hash discrepancies detected during the boot sequence.

Chrome OS won’t be ready for an entire year, but Google wanted to open up the project and code so as to connect with the open source community and developers. For more information, Google has provided a brief informational video which we’ve plugged in below.

Warranty vendor SquareTrade has released a study (PDF) of 30,000 laptops over three years which reveals that Asus, Toshiba and Sony products outstrip Apple notebooks over both two and three-year reliability cycles.

The company’s report illustrates that Apple notebooks failed at a rate of 17.4% over three years, while Asus led the way with a 15.6% failure rate, followed by Toshiba and Sony at 15.7% and 16.8%, respectively.

Failure rates in the study were defined as mechanical or physical malfunction not caused by user error, a metric which was tracked separately. On the whole, the study paints a dire picture of laptop reliability, with nearly one third of all notebooks (31.7%) failing by the third year.

Even so, SquareTrade gave Asus and Toshiba the nod for this holiday season saying, “ASUS and Toshiba laptops failed just over half as frequently as HP, which makes them a solid bet in terms of reliability.”

Tough break for Apple and its famed claims to reliability; tougher break for HP who sits the dubious throne as the west’s most unreliable manufacturer.

Microsoft revealed today during their 2009 Professional Developers Conference that the firm has begun work on Internet Explorer 9.

The preview, written by Internet Explorer GM Dean Hachamovitch, outlined a focus on improved font rendering, better standards support, and JavaScript performance.

JavaScript

Microsoft has committed itself to competing with Safari, Firefox and Chrome, the three browsers which have made a war out of improving JavaScript performance.

JavaScript performance (lower is better)

However, the firm was quick to temper its comments with a diagram illustrating that JavaScript often plays a very small role in the broader continuum of mechanisms that determine a browser’s impression of speed.

(more…)

Matrox announced last week the introduction of the M9188 graphics card, capable of supporting eight displays via Mini DisplayPort connectors.

The Matrox M9188 PCIe x16 multi-display Octal graphics card addresses the need to visualize large amounts of data at once in order to effectively make decisions. The latest offering from the M-Series family is the world’s first single-slot PCIe x16 octal card, featuring the ability to support both DisplayPort and DVI Single-Link outputs to ensure wide compatibility with today’s monitors.

There was some misinformation tossed around about this card, so we went to the source and asked Matrox Marketing Communications Specialist Stephen Choi to clarify.

(more…)

NVIDIA announced today the impending release of the ASUS G51J 3D laptop, which features a 120Hz LG display to enable NVIDIA 3D Vision support.

Introduced earlier this year for desktop PCs, NVIDIA® 3D Vision™ technology instantly became the preferred 3D solution for playing computer games, watching movies, or viewing photographs in full resolution stereoscopic 3D. NVIDIA today, along with the world’s leading PC manufacturers, notebook panel manufacturers, and content developers, is pleased to announce the expansion of the NVIDIA 3D Vision ecosystem to include high-definition notebook platforms that integrate advanced 120Hz 3D Vision-capable displays directly into the chassis for on-the-go 3D.

We previously evaluated NVIDIA’s 3D Vision technology at CES in January, and we still maintain that the technology is easily the best implementation of stereoscopy we’ve ever seen. Using a 120Hz display, each lens of the 3D Vision glasses refreshes at 60Hz, meaning both of your eyes are treated to the same refresh rate used by a normal monitor.

None of Icrontic’s staff experienced any headaches, eye fatigue or motion sickness, and we were very impressed with the depth provided by the technology. Our only concern is pricing, as users must not only buy into the $188 3D Vision kit, but a 120Hz display as well.

The ASUS G51J 3D will go on sale beginning in December, with other OEMs following suit shortly thereafter.

Not one to let the official unveiling of the Radeon HD 5970 slip by uncontested, NVIDIA recently updated their Facebook page with a shot of a GF100 actually doing something.

Coming soon to a paper launch near you.

Let’s see what we can tell about the part by looking at the picture:

• The ATX spec specifies a motherboard width of 9.6″, therefore GF100 adapters appear to be 10 inches.
• The card uses 1×8-pin and 1×6-pin PCIe power connectors. If the GF100 uses a similar consumption profile to the 294W Tesla C2000 series, then next-gen GeForces will have about 100W to spare for overclocking.
• Note also that 294W is identical to the dual-GPU Radeon HD 5970, whereas Tesla C2000 and GF100 use one GPU. Big die is big.

For those of you who are confused by NVIDIA’s codename soup, allow us to clear the air: Fermi is the name of the architecture, NV100 is the name of the physical chip, GF100 is the name of the GeForce implementation, and GT300 is the name of the Tesla implementation.

There.

Jap caps mean vroom vroom! Seriously.

After speculation and leaked confirmation, AMD has officially unveiled today the Radeon HD 5970.

The Radeon HD 5970 uses two GPUs sourced from the Radeon HD 5870 and stuffs them into a single dual-slot adapter. The official retail model clocks in at 725MHz core, down from 850MHz on the 5870, and 1000MHz VRAM, down from 1200MHz. The clockspeed changes were made to allow the HD 5970 to push a power envelope of 294W load, and a minuscule 49W idle.

Rounding out the list of specs, the 5970 has dual DVI ports, HDMI, an mDP port, triple monitor support, an 8-channel audio codec, and “unlocked” clocks. AMD promises that the OverDrive limitations in the Catalyst drivers don’t apply to the 5970, and that the 5970 is minted with best-of-breed parts that are ready and waiting for your overclocking talents.

The monstrously big 12″ GPU (keep that in mind when looking to buy) has an official MSRP of $599, making it the decisive victor in the price/performance war with CrossFireX Radeon HD 5870 ($798 MSRP).

We cannot yet find any US retailers carrying the adapter, but Google Shopping suggests that ZipZoomFly once had them listed. For our neighbors to the north, NCIX reports the card as being back ordered, while the UK edition of Pricegrabber reveals nothing for the sunny side of the pond.

Hit the jump for a comparison between the specs of the leading Radeons, a snip of the PR, and some shots of the card.

(more…)

The rising prices of computer memory may be temporary according to several Taiwanese DRAM module manufacturers.

The manufacturers claim that seasonal demand will begin to reverse the Windows 7-driven surge in spot pricing for 1Gb DDR3 chips which has risen 158% between July and November. They also speculate that Korean memory makers will follow suit in order to remain competitive.

Korean suppliers have indicated that since the Taiwanese government is (in their opinion) likely to fail in its efforts to establish Taiwan Innovation Memory Company (TIMC), they no longer need to intervene in DRAM prices and are comfortable simply going with the flow. According to market data for November 17, prices for DDR2 and DDR3 are finally flat or have begun to recede.

Expect to see DDR2 and DDR3 prices normalize over the next several months if events unfold as the tea leaves suggest.