GeForce GTX550 Ti: Ecco le soluzioni di Club 3D

In occasione del lancio della nuova GeForce GTX550 Ti, scheda video pensata per la fascia media, Club 3D ha deciso di proporre due alternative. La prima è la GeForce GTX550 Ti “standard”, basata sul modello reference Nvidia e caratterizzata da 192 Cuda Core che operano a 1800 MHz; il Core si attesta invece a 900 MHz mentre la memoria (1 GB GDDR5) opera a 4100 MHz con BUS a 192 bit.

NVIDIA SLI faces AMD CrossFire in a triple-GPU shootout

Place your bets, folks, because this one’s gonna get ugly. On your left: a thunderous triad of AMD Radeon HD 6950 cards running in CrossFire. On your right: the terrorizing threat of triple NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 in SLI. In the middle: a Tom’s Hardware tester just trying to stay alive. The winner? Well, as usual in these benchmark articles that sort of depends on what you’re doing, but in general it’s the AMD solution and its CrossFire barrage that comes out on top in terms of performance, cost, and even efficiency. But, that’s certainly far from the whole story. You’ll want to click on through to read about every agonizing blow.

Google Search app for iPhone introduces new side-swipe toolbar and other UI tweaks (video)

What you once knew as the Google Mobile App has been rechristened the Google Search app, signifying a renewed focus for Google’s primary iOS application. Having formerly served as a multifunctional access point to all of Google’s varied web apps, the new software is now geared to serve search needs first, with its other offerings relegated to a secondary “Apps” menu. There’s also the addition of a new toolbar, accessible by swiping left to right, and improved fast-app switching support. The ever-present bug fixes and a few more user interface tweaks complete the list of changes. To get your download on, you may exploit either the source link below or the QR code above.

ART by Vitaly S. Alexius #Inspiration

Samsung launches 3D VOD service in Korea, tells US and Europe to get ready

Samsung’s promised 3D video streaming service has gotten the official go-ahead in the company’s home nation today, bringing to fruition a content partnership with DreamWorks Animation and breathing new life into many 3DTV sets. The machine-translated press release isn’t entirely lucid on what content will be provided when, but it looks like movie trailers, music videos and children’s education films will start things off, before full-length features and more are added later on. All the new on-demand media will be accessible via the 3D application on Samsung’s Smart TV platform. The United States and Europe are next on Sammy’s roadmap for this VOD rollout, but don’t fret if yo live elsewhere, the service will be available all around the world in due course.

Cobra iRadar detection system coming to Android next month (Video)

iPhone users have been able to avoid radar speed guns using Cobra’s iRadar system since late last year, and it looks like Android users will soon finally be able to get in on the act as well. Cobra used the gdgt Live event at SXSW to announce that iRadar will be available for Android phones sometime in April. That consists of a standard dash-mounted radar detector and, of course, an app, which also takes advantage of your phone’s built-in GPS capabilities to provide warnings of photo enforcement zones and other potential impediments to your inability to drive 55 — you’ll apparently soon even be able to share radar alerts with other iRadar users. Head on past the break for a video of the iPhone version.

Harman rolls out AKG GHS-1 gaming headset

Harman didn’t exactly manage to impress us that much with its most recent pair of wireless headsets, but it’s now already back with something a bit different: a PC gaming headset. Available in your choice of black and orange, white and green, or camouflage and blue color combos, the headset isn’t wireless, but it can be folded up for a bit of added portability, and Harman promises that the headphones will deliver “realistic, dynamic sound” while also filtering out most background noise. Sound like just the headset you’ve been looking for? You can grab this one right now for $80. Full press release is after the break.

Internet Explorer 9 gets WebM support with 'preview' plug-in from Google, internet video gets more friendly

Google has released an early WebM plug-in for Microsoft’s latest and greatest browser, IE9 — stepping in to fill a gap that Microsoft itself refused to fill. You may remember the firm’s decision to not build in support for the new standard natively, but that it was “all in” with HTML5, WebM’s close cousin. Billed as a “technology preview” at this stage of the game, the add-on will enable users to play all WebM video content just like the good Internet overlords intended them to, despite the fact that an additional download is needed. Microsoft said that it would allow for support and it appears to be following up on its word, regardless of other harsher comments made separately. Isn’t it good to see big companies getting along? Now if only these same niceties played out in the mobile landscape, then we’d really be getting somewhere.

Hylas 1 completes testing, Europe's first broadband satellite to start serving customers next week

It hasn’t exactly been all that long since Avanti Communications’ Hylas 1 satellite blasted off at the end of November, but it’s now almost ready to start spreading some wireless broadband across 16 countries in Europe. Avanti just announced today that the satellite’s in-orbit testing phase has been a “complete success,” and that it will go into service sometime next week with an initial test group of customers, before beginning a broader transition on April 4th. All told, over 60 operators have signed up to offer the satellite broadband service to customers, which promises to offer connections of up to 10Mbps to folks in even the most rural areas. It’s also only just the beginning — Avanti plans to launch Hylas 2 sometime in the second quarter of 2012, which will extend its coverage to Africa and the Middle East.

Verizon offers unlimited LTE data plan for HTC Thunderbolt, don't expect it to stick around

Verizon execs have been clear as crystal that unlimited smartphone data will follow the dodo — perhaps as soon as summer of this year — but in the meanwhile you can drink your fill of the best as the HTC Thunderbolt will launch this Thursday with an unlimited LTE data plan. While we’ve no guarantees how long it will last, or whether you can grandfather the $30 monthly option into bigger and better devices down the road, it does open up a whole new avenue of opportunity for the Thunderbolt. Considering that Verizon’s 4G USB modems top out at 10GB of LTE data for $80 a month, the HTC handset just became the most powerful, affordable MiFi you could possibly own. Assuming battery life is decent, of course. Find the full PR below.

Lexar now shipping 128GB and 64GB SDXC cards from the future straight to your door

One of the great many announcements of CES 2011 was Lexar’s new pair of Class 10 SDXC memory cards, one sized at 64GB and the other touting a spectacular 128GB capacity. The two performance — minimum transfer speeds of 20MBps — and storage enhancers for DSLRs and camcorders have now started shipping, asking for a measly $200 and $330, respectively. Those are steep price hills to climb, to be sure, but they’re peanuts compared to the initial $400 and $700 MSRPs that Lexar was touting back in January. And hey, that Professional label adorning the new cards isn’t there accidentally either, Lexar’s offering a limited lifetime warranty with each storage cell. Full press release and locations where you can buy the new SDXC lovelies await after the break.

Verizon waives Xoom and Galaxy Tab activation fees on contracts from March 1st in a limited time offer

In an unforeseen act of generosity, Verizon has decided to scrap the $35 activation fee it charges with purchases of the 3G-equipped Motorola Xoom and Galaxy Tab tablets, leaving customers’ wallets a little heavier and hearts a little lighter. This change will be effective on month-to-month contracts starting from the first of this month or later — meaning a nice little refund for anyone acquiring an Android tablet through Big Red after March 1st — however we’re also hearing it’ll be a limited time offer. The intel has been communicated via email to Mobile Burn, and Droid-Life has also obtained a document saying as much, while we’re in the process of confirming it ourselves. All the same, it looks safe to get the (modest) celebrations going.

 

Roxio debuts $100 Game Capture device to record your console heroics

Looking to record some of your marathon Call of Duty sessions for posterity and (potential) internet fame? Then you likely won’t find a much cheaper or easier solution than Roxio’s new Game Capture device, which will be available later this month for just $99.99. As you might expect, however, that bargain price comes with one fairly big drawback — it will only capture video at 480p, although you can apparently still play at up to 1080p on your TV. PC gamers can also make use of Roxio’s new PC Game Capture software to record their games, and both options include a variety of editing tools that will let you handle transitions, commentary, background music, and other basics. Head on past the break for the complete press release.

HTC Ignite, Prime, and Pyramid renders surface?

Even before the Incredible S was announced as the company’s new top-of-the-line set back in February, the rumored Pyramid was the upcoming HTC phone that was capturing everyone’s imagination thanks in no small part to its promise of a dual-core processor — something the Incredible S notably lacks. We hadn’t seen what this beast might look like, though… until today. Chinese site xda.cn has posted alleged renders of the Pyramid’s front and rear, showing a careful evolution of HTC’s current design language along with claims of a 4.3-inch 960 x 540 display, 8 megapixel primary and 1.3 megapixel front cameras, 768MB of RAM, and Android 3.0 (that last bit doesn’t sound right to us, though — Android 2.x with Sense would be more plausible). Rumors have this one pegged for launch on T-Mobile at some point this year; it’d be nice if that happened at CTIA next week, but considering how tied up they might be with Sprint at the show, it’s hard to say if that’ll happen.
Moving on, we’ve got some visual evidence here that HTC’s pressing on with its Windows Phone line. The first of the two, the Ignite, looks like a midrange slate thanks to an 800MHz Qualcomm processor (clocked slower than the current batch of 1GHz units that are out there), a mere 3.7-inch display, and a 5 megapixel camera around back. The Prime, meanwhile, looks like a little brother to the 7 Pro thanks to a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and similar specs to the Ignite — not blockbusters by any stretch, but HTC (along with other OEMs) might be waiting to pull out the big guns until Mango.

 

Motorola Milestone achieves Android 2.2 milestone at last, Froyo update ready for download

The road to Android 2.1 may have been a long and treacherous one for Milestone users, but the one to Android 2.2 wasn’t even certain of reaching its goal. Thankfully, Moto has managed to conclude its “exhaustive testing process” and is now making a Froyo firmware update available to Milestone users wishing to step their software up a notch. Flash Player 10.1, a faster browser and mobile hotspot capabilities await the intrepid updater, but Motorola warns that any DRM-locked media you have on your SD card will be lost. Weirdly enough, there’s also a caution that “users may experience some adverse effects associated with the upgrade which could include slower operation of some phone functions and applications.” Once you’ve read and understood all the warnings, smash the source link to download the new software.

Kinect + homemade Power Gloves = 3D modeling in free-space (video)

The Kinect hacks keep rollin’, and we just keep on lovin’ every one of ‘em — despite most being decidedly non-practical. This one actually is, created by Sebastian Pirch at 3rD-EYE, a media production company. He’s made a free-space 3D modeling tool using a Kinect camera to track his hands, which he uses to create points in space and draft a model. To provide greater control he then made two Arduino-powered gloves that detect finger touches — basically DIY Peregrines. Using different connections of finger-presses he can move the entire model, move single points, create new points, create new polygons, and basically do everything he needs to do to create a mesh, which can then be imported into 3ds Max for further refinement. He even manages to make it all look fun, thus besting Lockheed Martin’s similar system that’s powered by zombies.