Hasta La Gadget!

Dwindling supplies of Apple’s 27-inch iMac have kickstarted expectations of an imminent refresh, with the company predicted not only to inject some 3rd-gen Core i7 processors but Retina Display too. Availability at big-name US stores – including Best Buy and J&R – has dried up, leading to chatter that a new model with significantly boosted specifications is waiting in the wings.

Counting availability has generally been a solid way of predicting Apple’s Mac refreshes over the past few years, with supplies of the coveted products generally drying up just ahead of new generations being released. We saw the same in the weeks prior to the freshly-Ivy Bridge updated MacBook Pro line a few weeks back, for instance.

As for what, exactly, the new iMac might deliver, there are a few likely possibilities. The most obvious is a refresh in processor, with Intel’s Ivy Bridge Core i5 and i7 chips likely to take pride of place under the hood. A switch from the current-generation AMD graphics to NVIDIA’s GeForce GPU may also feature, given Apple has done the same in its notebook range.

Whatever the source, those graphics chips are tipped to be driving a seriously pixel-updated display, with Apple said to be putting Retina Display high-res panels in place rather than the current 2560 x 1440 screen. However, conflicting rumors also suggest that we’ll need to wait until 2013 to see that happen.

Apple has opted for a more low-key reveal of its new iMac models in the past, pushing out a press release rather than holding a whiz-bang event such as last month’s WWDC 2012 keynote.

[via AppleInsider]

Where have all the iMacs gone? Refresh incoming! is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

If you where anxiously waiting for Samsung Series 7 All In One Desktop you will be please to know the Samsung Korea officially launch this new “Retro” desktop computer and its 80’s like lines. Anyway the Series 7 desktop comes with a nice 23” Full HD Monitor with LED Backlight, JBL Speaker, an AMD Radeon 6470, an HD TV Tuner, 1TB of HDD, 8GB of RAM, and a Core i5-2390T for just $1,199 (MSRP).

Panasonic has announced an update to its line of Toughbooks to include Intel’s new Ivy Bridge processors. The Toughbook CF-31 will be available in two configurations, Standard and Performance. The Performance model will come with a Core i5 3360M processor clocked at 2.8Ghz as well as AMD’s Radeon HD 7750M discrete GPU. The notebook can switch between the discrete graphics and Intel’s integrated HD 4000 GPU to balance power versus performance.

The Standard model comes with a Core i5 3320M clocked at 2.6Ghz but relies solely on Intel’s integrated GPU. The CF-31 also comes with low-voltage DDR3 RAM for power efficiency, and hard drives have seen a bump to 500GB as standard with 128/256GB SSD options. Battery life is rated for up to 14.5 hours, and you can purchase a secondary battery pack that will give you another 6.5 hours. Three USB 2.0 ports and a single USB 3.0 port can be found on the laptop, plus HDMI output and a serial port. A configuration slot gives you the option to include an additional LAN, FireWire, or modem ports.

The Toughbook CF-53, meanwhile, comes with a Core i5 3320M processor clocked at 2.6Ghz, Intel’s HD 4000 GPU, and the same 500GB hard drive, although this model has an option for a 512GB SSD. Panasonic say the battery life on the CF-53 l is good for up to 11 hours, and there’s an additional 9 cell battery that can be purchased. Better yet, there’s a Touchscreen model available that boasts 1,000 nits of brightness for outdoor productivity.

Panasonic say that the CF-31 models should be available in July, with the Standard model starting at €3,699 (~$4,600) excluding VAT. The CF-53 will also ship next month for a more reasonable €1,544 ($1,919) excluding VAT.

Panasonic updates Toughbooks with Ivy Bridge is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

AMD may be struggling to keep up with Intel in terms of raw performance, but the company continues to push ahead with its APU solutions. The latest come in the form of the Embedded G-Series, designed for low-power and small form factors. AMD say that the TDP of the new chips is 4.5W, but average draw is just 2.3W. That makes it ideal for use in embedded point-of-sale, transportation, and medical markets.

The company hopes that the x86 compatibility paired with support for various display technologies will make the APU an ideal choice for businesses and industries. The G-Series has support for VGA, DVI, HDMI, and DisplayPort, so there’s an easy migration path for engineers. On top of that, there are numerous motherboard designs already available for the platform, ranging in size all the way up to MiniITX.

Crucially, AMD is hoping that price will be the real deciding factor: “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.” Anyone currently using the Geode platform should see a nice bump in power management and performance, with the G-Series consuming 7% less power while featuring three times the performance.

AMD say that the G-Series will support the Windows Embedded Compact 7, Green Hills INTEGRITY and Express Logic ThreadX operating systems. The platform will also be available through to 2017, giving customers some peace of mind.

AMD Embedded G-Series APU targets low-power x86 markets is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Advanced Micro Devices is probably feeling a bit silly right about now. To show off how powerful the Bulldozer chip really is, it drafted in the world’s most elite overclockers, set them up in a room with whatever was required (including a vat of liquid helium) and broke the chip-speed world record. With a verified speed of 8.429GHz, the company collected its Guinness world record and sat back, thinking that no one could ever best it. Less than two months later and Andre Yang (who we can assume does not have his own military complex to run his experiments in) managed to get his Bulldozer running at 8.46GHz, 30MHz faster than the chip’s own parent could manage. We wouldn’t dare suggest that anyone stand outside AMD’s Sunnyvale HQ whilst playing the sad trombone — but if anyone deserves that chance, it’d certainly be Mr. Yang.

Update: AMD got in touch to say that it’s expecting others to beat the record and is excited to see how many records the chips are gonna set. So what are you waiting for?

AMD Bulldozer breaks own world record, overclocked to 8.46GHz originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Oct 2011 11:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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