Logitech G710+ gaming keyboard boasts quiet, glowing, speed-typing

Is that old pro-gaming keyboard you have finally breaking down from years of use, its blue backlight fading to teal (or worse) as the days go on? Are you ready to spend over $100 to get back in the game? Then you, ideal consumer, sound like a good match for Logitech’s newest gaming keyboard, the G710+. “Plus what?” you ask? Well, it’s a standard G-series performance keyboard from Logitetch, plus a white LED backlight, anti-ghosting tech, under-key dampening to help with all the clickety-clacketing, and a promised 50-million keystroke life span. A set of “G-keys” along the left side allows for assignable macros and scripts, should you need to suddenly maximize your APM mid-StarCraft 2 match (and let’s be honest, you’ve totally been there) — sadly, the G710+ only works with Windows Vista and up, so you’ll have to maximize those actions exclusively on a PC for now.

The Logitech G710+ arrives at retail in the US this October for $150, and heads to Europe starting in December at an undetermined price — check after the break for full specs and a quick demo video.

AMD G-Series APU G-T16R Launched

AMD has this week announced the launch of their new G-Series APU which has been created for industrial control, point-of-sale, medical and transportation markets. The latest APU provides three times the performance and reduces power consumption by unto seven times when compared to the older AMD Geode LX processor.

The AMD Embedded G-Series APU has been created to provide designers with a seamless upgrade path for legacy applications. Featuring small form factor boards by implementing a two-chip platform with APU and companion controller hub.

Together with a Legacy I/O card support based on full 32-bit PCI interface and an ISA bus solution with DMA support. AMD also announced that it would be extending the planned availability for the entire AMD embedded G-Series into 2017. Arun Iyengar, corporate vice president and general manager, AMD Embedded Solutions explain in todays press release:

“With the AMD G-T16R APU, we were striving for that critical balance of performance, power efficiency and cost for power, and cost-sensitive embedded applications, and we’ve achieved it,”-”This new APU helps to enable small form factor and fan-less designs with power consumption of just 2.3 watts on average.”

Source: Engadget

MSI outs new GT60 / GT70 gaming laptops, we go hands-on (video)

MSI already popped up on the rumor-radar this week, and now it’s confirmed a pair of new gaming laptops at CeBIT. The main difference between the new boys — that we can see so far, at least — is the display, with the GT70 sporting 17 inches against the GT60′s 15. Both rock an eye-tingling rainbow-effect “SteelSeries” keyboard, as well as some gaming focused hardware. If one hard drive simply isn’t enough, then the G-series’ support for two SSDs in a RAID 0 configuration, alongside a regular HD, should definitely keep you going — and support for up to 32 gigs of RAM should help things tick along nicely. We don’t have detailed processor specs to share, unfortunately, and the models that MSI had on-hand at the show were simply mock-ups with older components.

After walking up to the duo, the first thing we noticed is how large they are — especially after spending the day with a handful of Ultrabooks and tablets. The GT60 and GT70 aren’t giants in the gaming world, but compared to other slim form-factor devices on offer, these are absolute monsters. We suspect this isn’t so much of an issue, however, if you are in the market for this type of machine. The large size isn’t wasted, either, with the both housing three USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports (only one for the GT60), an SDHC card slot, and full audio in, out, microphone and headphone ports for audio connectivity, plus an optical drive in each. The final machines will likely have Ivy Bridge processors and are penned in for an April release (provided that Intel’s latest-gen processors hit the market by then). You’ll be able to pick up the GT60 for around €1,999 (about $2,630), with the GT70 coming in at €2,299 (roughly $3,025). Scoot on past the break to catch our hands on with the pair.

Sony's CMT-CX5BiP HiFi system takes a style cue from the S2

Leave it to Sony to deliver odd-ball futuristic designs. The company’s latest CMT-CX5 “HiFi” system sure is a looker, and could easily be mistaken as the lovechild of its S2 tablet and B&W’s Zeppelin. This made for iPhone rig packs 40 watts of RMS power in its modular design with removable speakers, and can also be wall-mounted if you’ve cluttered your bookshelves. To get the jams flowing, you’ll find an iDevice dock, CD player, USB and aux-in ports, as well as FM and DAB / DAB+ radio tuners; Sony’s also added in its Dynamic Sound Generator X-tra processing if you want to give your music a slap of vibrance. You’ll be able to pick up the CX5 in either black or white from the UK beginning in August, although pricing remains to be seen. For now, feel free to skim the PR past the break while you decide.

Pocket Lint

Sony UK

The dual-core Sandy Bridge laptops have arrived! Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Sony start shipping systems

If your eyes have been glued to Engadget this week, you’ve noticed that there have been quite a few new laptops unveiled. Sure, Samsung’s rail-thin Series 9 stole a lot of the glory, but Dell and ASUS also rolled out a few new Intel Sandy Bridge systems. But something else big happened this week in the portable computer world — a good number of the dual-core Sandy Bridge systems finally started shipping to you laptop-loving people. Wait, but didn’t that happen back at CES? Not quite: while Intel announced the availability of Sandy Bridge back in January, it only started to ship its quad-core chips — now all the dual-core Core i3, i5, and i7s are ready and so are the systems that house ‘em. We’ve gathered a list of the rigs that are now up for order or hitting retailers. Hit that read more link for a breakdown, and start deciding if you need some fresh dual-core power in your life.