Investors appear to be cautiously optimistic about the announcements made today regarding Facebook and their new Android smartphone-based software experience. Stocks have jumped over 3% after the Facebook “New Home on Android” event, this allowing the stock to hit $27 and above for the first time in half a month. What we must assume is that the negativity in talk of a Facebook Phone (that is, a complete replacement of the operating system) was doused by the appearance of Facebook Home – a home screen replacement app for Android.
With the reveal of Facebook Home, we’re seeing an experience existing within Android, on top of it – not taking it over entirely. Even when you put your hands on the HTC first, the very first Facebook Home device right out of the box, you’ll be able to turn Facebook Home off if you like. But what of advertisements? And what of the idea that Facebook Home commands the entire user interface you’re working with on your phone?
Such things seem to not have struck investors as concerns as the stock hasn’t dropped since before the event began. Now we’ll see if this first smartphone to run the device does well – at $99 USD from AT&T with a 2-year contract, it just might. And we’ll see if Facebook Home is a software experience that people will want to try – or maybe even use regularly.
Have a peek at the timeline below to see the many angles at which Facebook Home has been covered by SlashGear today, and don’t forget to stick to the Android Hub for more on the insides. Also let us know if you’re all about the Facebook Home smartphone experience, if you’ll wait for the tablet edition, or if you’ll be skipping it altogether!
The Facebook Phone will be coming to the UK with EE exclusively, this being the first time that EE has had an exclusive of such magnitude with the HTC first. This HTC first device will be available this summer on EE’s own 4GEE service but no pricing or release dates have yet been released. In the United States, the HTC first will be coming to AT&T on the 12th of April, 2013 – so we must assume this release won’t be long after!
The HTC first is the first Facebook Phone right out of the box, it working with the new Facebook Home Android app experience. This software creates a full Facebook experience for anyone using it as their homescreen launcher, decidedly separate from Android’s core. With this app you’ll be getting Facebook Home updates on the 12th of every month (according to Facebook) and you’ll have full access to your Facebook content.
You’ll be seeing the following unique bits and pieces coming from this EE release of the HTC first as well:
• EE Film – the only service in the UK which combines 2 for 1 cinema ticketing, listings, trailers and digital film downloads in one place • A discount of £5 per month on EE superfast Fibre Broadband – so they can get blistering speeds at home and on the move • Fast track customer service by dialing ‘33’ from their handset • Clone Phone Lite – giving people free storage to back up the content that matters most
Have a peek at the timeline below for more information on the HTC first as well as our Android Hub for more Android excellence through the future! In our brand new Facebook Home tag portal you’ll find all you need to know about this new experience and about the future of Facebook on your smartphone!
This week the folks at Facebook have teamed up with HTC to show off the first of what may be many Facebook Phones in what’s called the HTC first. This smartphone brings the full Facebook software experience to you in an Android-based user interface called “Facebook Home”. This smartphone is a mid-range unit when it comes to hardware specifications and will be offered in a variety of color casings.
With the HTC first you’ll be rolling out with a 4.3-inch LCD display with no less than 720p resolution for your everyday sharp Facebook interactions. This device will be rolling out with a lovely Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 dual-core processor, this being the same SoC that you’ll find on the Samsung Galaxy S III and the DROID RAZR HD. On the back of the HTC first you’ll find a 5-megapixel camera while the front works with a 1.6-megapixel camera for Facebook video chat and messages.
UPDATE: This device is NOT using the Snapdragon S4 as previously noted – instead it is one of the first devices on the market to be using the Qualcomm Snapdragon 400. This smartphone will also be coming with 3G/4G “multimode” LTE and will be available on the 12th of April for $99 USD attached to a 2-year contract.
You’ll be knocking out the apps with 1GB of RAM and a brand new user interface that’s based loosely on HTC’s own Sense 4.5. You’ll of course have wi-fi, 4G LTE from AT&T (at first, additional carriers on the way we must expect), and Android 4.1.2 right out of the box. We’ll be presenting some fabulous hands-on action with this device soon – there we’ll have additional insight in to how this device functions and if it’ll be the smartphone you’ve just got to have in 2013.
Have a peek at our Android Hub as well for more information on the Android universe at large! We’ll be bringing you more Android and Facebook Phone (and regular old Facebook) action all day – stick around and check the timeline below for updates, too!
The Falcon Northwest Tiki is a custom-built pre-constructed gaming PC that emphasizes both a radically small form factor and high performance processing power. We had the opportunity to take a peek at this system thanks to NVIDIA – inside this tiny tower is the newest most fantastic consumer-aimed graphics card on the market: the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN, the consumer product riding the wave of the impact the TITAN supercomputer. We’ll be continuing to explore the ins and outs of the TITAN over the coming year as products such as Project SHIELD become available – for now, this review of the Tiki should serve as a primer for those of you considering a TITAN of your own – and/or a full Falcon Northwest build, of course.
Hardware
The Tiki case is one that those unfamiliar with the intricacies of custom-made computers will easily overlook. It’s certainly not the flashy rainbow LED light show that some gaming PCs opt for – it’s almost as if the Tiki dares those that look at it to ask what the big deal is. Up close and personal, you’ll find that the Tiki boasts a fabulously simple set of aesthetics, a subtly lit Falcon Northwest logo up front, and a granite base.
The granite base we’ve got here is what the company calls “Absolute Black”. While you’ve got more than one color choice if you’d like to explore several shades, we’d certainly recommend the black if you’re working with the straight-up black case – together they’re quite classy. The whole unit is light enough that you’ll be able to transport it to and from LAN parties with ease (if that’s your sort of thing) and is perfectly well balanced due in a large part to the granite – it does its job well.
Getting inside the Tiki is just about as simple as it gets without working with magnets – here you’ll be undoing two thumbscrews and pushing one side off – you’ll want to be careful doing so only because the 120MM Asetek liquid cooler (550LC) is attached to it, tubes running from the casing to the main hunk of the unit. This setup works awesome for getting down into the guts of the machine as quick as possible – the fewer screws we’ve got to deal with for customization, the better.
Inside this setup you’ll find an ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe mini ITX motherboard shining out in all its bluey glory amid the massive monsters that are the high-end components that this amalgamation is made of. We’re working with a 256GB SSD SATA3 (Crucial M4 with M500 available soon from Falcon Northwest – check on that when you’re picking up your own) as well as a 3TB WD “Caviar Green” SATA3 hard drive for all the data storage you could ask for.
Getting inside to remove / replace / give big kisses to your favorite components is only a few screw turns away. While there are wires here or there glued down for the trip between Falcon Northwest’s test shop and your home, they’re easily popped off and apart when you decide you want to move forward with any new components.
The two big monsters inside this build are the 3rd Generation Intel Core i7 processor (overclocked to 3.5GHz), and the 6GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN graphics card. When you’re picking up the TITAN, you’re not looking for a budget setup. You’ve got a beast right out of the box. Again, this isn’t the last time we’ll be working with NVIDIA’s TITAN GPU for video game reviews and cloud gaming action – stick around our NVIDIA tag portal as well as our NVIDIA Tegra hub for the full fireworks through the future.
Once you’re done rummaging around the insides, you’ll find more inputs and outputs than you’ll ever have a need for. The build we’ve got here works with a Sony Optiarc slot load DVD+-RW on top near a a headphone jack, microphone jack, and set of two USB 3.0 ports. You’ll also see a symmetrical set of vents that, when you peek through, you’ll be able to see the side of the TITAN: “GEFORCE GTX” in bright NVIDIA green lights just below the surface – only visible up close.
The back of this machine has its IO panel labels set in upside-down for easy reading whilst looking down over the top – as you’re prone to do with such a desktop. That massive set of connections includes two eSATA ports, four USB 3.0 ports, and four USB 2.0 ports. You’ll also find GigE, ASUS Wifi connections (you’ll get two external antenna in your package from Falcon Northwest), and standard optical and analog audio jacks. Ethernet and processor-powered display outputs DVI, HDMI, and Display Port are also down there if you want to make use of them.
Nearer the top you’ve got two DL-DVI ports as well as HDMI and DisplayPort outputs bringing the heat via your GeForce TITAN GPU. Your power supply (Silverstone ST-45B 450W) sits nearest the bottom on the back. On either side of the case you’ll more airflow action allowing this Tiki setup to remain impressively cool no matter what we throw at it. With that you’ll still be hearing next no noise – you’ll certainly not be having to dismiss a “hum” while you’re enjoying the greatness of the highest powered games on the market – those being the games you’re essentially obligated to test out and work with when you’re rolling with Tiki.
Software and Performance
Under the hood out of the box we’re working with 64bit Windows 8 Professional, and though it’s still a little odd working with this operating system without a touchscreen interface, it’s certainly starting to feel more natural than it did when Microsoft first pushed the system to consumers. That said, the real power here comes from the software we’re using outside the standard Microsoft experience: games, games, and more games. And with a system this size, big-time possibilities!
Steam Big Picture Mode
The size of this system suggests some rather unique use-cases, even before we consider the fact that NVIDIA has some big plans for GeForce and cloud computing in the home this year. The Tiki case isn’t much larger than the average major-label gaming console today, and even compared to what’s coming out later this year (more than likely), you can be confident you’ll have a size-to-power ratio that blows any gaming console out of the water. And unless the Xbox 720 or PlayStation 4 pull some real magic out of their sleeves with regards to digital game distribution soon, Valve’s Steam will continue to be the premiere destination for the universe’s greatest downloadable games.
NVIDIA GeForce Experience
NVIDIA has made some rather interesting strides recently in making sure the average citizen is able to have a top-notch gaming experience. Just this year the GeForce Experience was released – an NVIDIA-powered app interface where a collection of the world’s most fabulous games can have their settings optimized for your unique gaming hardware setup instantly and automatically. NVIDIA has released a new GeForce driver software update for esentially every major game delivered in the first quarter of 2013, each of them able to be accessed via this GeForce Experience with a single button click, a unique game settings interface appearing for you then if you’ve got said game on your computer.
System – System manufacturer System Product Name
Manufacturer
Falcon Northwest
Product Type
Desktop
Operating System
Microsoft Windows 8 Pro (64-bit)
Motherboard
ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. P8Z77-I DELUXE
Processor
Intel Core i7-3770K
Processor ID
GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 58 Stepping 9
Processor Frequency
3.50 GHz
Processors
1
Threads
8
Cores
4
L1 Instruction Cache
32.0 KB
L1 Data Cache
32.0 KB
L2 Cache
256 KB
L3 Cache
8.00 MB
Memory
8.00 GB DDR3 SDRAM 934MHz
FSB
100.0 MHz
BIOS
American Megatrends Inc. 0607
With the automatic settings optimization feature, your games will become as excellent as they possibly can be – both aesthetically and performance-wise. With the Tiki rolling with a GeForce GTX TITAN under the hood and NVIDIA optimizing settings game-to-game, we’ve had nothing but the best gaming experiences we’ve ever seen on a gaming computer.
Benchmark Score – System manufacturer System Product Name
Section
Description
Score
Total Score
Windows x86 (64-bit) – Microsoft Windows 8 Pro (64-bit)
Integer
Processor integer performance
16175
18728
Floating Point
Processor floating point performance
28310
Memory
Memory performance
10590
Stream
Memory bandwidth performance
10411
Right this minute we’ve done just our standard fare as far as benchmarks go, Geekbench showing this build to be amongst the most powerful gaming PCs we’ve reviewed. Also be sure to check out similar results on much larger machines, too: AVADirect Quiet Gaming PC and NEEDLETAIL SX – and have a peek at a couple relatively small machines so you know what the Tiki is up against physical size-wise: MainGear Potenza and iBuyPower Revolt.
Whilst playing Batman: Arkham City, we’ve experienced a been a bit of a re-birth of interest with the much higher-definition display than we used when originally reviewing the game, not to mention a system that’s on a whole different level than the Alienware notebook (pre 3rd-gen Intel Core processors and so-forth). While it’s not that working with a beast like the MX-17 from a couple years ago is a bad thing (it’s actually still quite amazing), there’s just no comparing to the smoothness and detail we’re getting here.
In Hawken the only thing that stops one from having the miraculous non-stop smoothness we’re seeing in Arkham City is the fact that part of our experience is based online. If we’d be working with the connections our friends in Japan have with wires so thick you could drive a truck through them, we’d be golden – here we’ll have to settle for just “destroys all gaming experiences we’ve had before this year.” Have a peek at our first look at Hawken while you’re at it.
Even Star Wars: The Old Republic looks great. As it’s included in NVIDIA’s GeForce Experience list of games that can be optimized for greatness automatically, we certainly had to give it a go. As it turns out, the difference between what you get in this game on a basic level and what NVIDIA can give you is immense. While the gameplay remains the same – you’re still firing blasters at your opponents and rolling in the Force like mad – you can take part in the deepest visual details the developers intended you to see. Just look at that water ripple!
We’ll be continuing to benchmark the build we’ve got here through the future, so be sure to ask if you’ve got any tests you’d like us to run. We’ll be putting this setup through the punches in any and all ways you desire!
Wrap-Up
The Falcon Northwest Tiki is not a machine made for penny-pinchers. If you’re planning on working with any gaming PC packing an NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN GPU, you’re going to be paying quite a chunk of change – this isn’t the sort of situation where you’re paying just a little bit of cash for a just-good-enough helping of performance. Instead you’re going to want to save up for a couple months – the build we’ve gotten from Falcon Northwest here will cost you more than $3k.
You can make your Tiki cost quite a bit less if you don’t want to pack it full of the top-of-the-line components we’ve got here – and you’ll still have an amazing build – but that’s not what NVIDIA’s TITAN brand is about. With the Falcon Northwest Tiki packing NVIDIA’s TITAN, you’ve got a gaming masterpiece, plain and simple.
Less than a day after the least expensive iteration of the miniature stripped-down computer known as Raspberry Pi was formally introduced to the US market, it’s been sold out. This machine is only being offered (or was only being offered, rather) in the USA by the retailer known as Allied Electronics, and they’ve let it be known that they’ve currently sold out of the unit – but there’s a catch. According to TechCrunch, the retailer may have only had about 70 units to sell in the first place!
At the moment you’ll find that though there are no Raspberry Pi units left for sale in the $25 category, the slightly higher-powered $35 USD edition can still be picked up for its normal price. According to the Allied Electronics sales page for the $25 edition:
“Due to limited supply of the Raspberry Pi Model A, we are not offering preorders or backorders on the product at this time. The Raspberry Pi Model A will only be available for purchase when we have inventory on hand to fill the order. We regret this inconvenience and sincerely thank you for your patience.” – Allied Electronics
If you’ve been looking for this device over the past few weeks, you’ll know all to well that it’s been for sale in both Europe and Asia for some time, the most recent release happening here in the USA with about as much fervor surrounding it as any far more expensive PC. When you’ve got the ability to compute on a device that’s the size of a credit card that also costs less than a night on the town, units are bound to move!
You’ll be interested to know that the $35 Raspberry Pi remains available at many retailers throughout the USA. Stake your claim right this minute!
Have a peek at the timeline below to see more information on the Raspberry Pi miniature computer (and its many offshoots) and be sure to head to the Raspberry Pi tag portal for more sweet berry action through the future. Would you purchase one of these little firecrackers if you had the chance?
If you’re the sort of geek who likes to tinker with all sorts of electronics products and projects, you may be familiar with the Raspberry Pi developer board. This little mini-computer/developer board sells for $35 and has basic hardware allowing you to create a huge number of different projects. The board features a 700 MHz processor, integrated GPU, and can boot from a SD card.
The model A the device features 256 MB of RAM while the newer model B features 512 MB. The little developer board also has a single USB 2.0 port and more. The problem some geeks who want to integrate the Pi into their projects run into is a lack of features to do the job they want.
The Raspberry Pi can be fitted with a wide array of new features via the RasPiComm extension board. The extension board adds additional ports, a real-time clock, and a five-way joystick input device. The new ports include a RS-485 port allowing for control of stepper motors and other objects. The extension board also has an RS-232 port as well as a real-time clock with a battery backup.
Other features of the board include a direct I2C connector allowing the user to directly connect a display or sensors. The five-way joystick input makes it easier to control the Raspberry Pi. All of those features are packed into a very small piggyback board requiring no additional cables. The extension board also has full API support including drivers for an OLED display, advanced stepper motor control, and a daemon mode allowing you to control the extension board via Ethernet or Wi-Fi. The extension board is available now for €43.69.
Texas Instruments is a major technology company that develops chips and internal components for a variety of gadgets and electronic devices on the market today. The company has announced a new lithium-ion battery charger and integrated circuit that promises significantly faster charging compared to other solutions on the market today. The new Texas Instruments product is the bq2419x family of 4.5-amp output, 20-V input-rated switch-mode chargers.
The new integrated circuit has an I2C interface and supports USB OTG. Texas Instruments promises that its new integrated circuit not only delivers faster charging, but delivers cooler charging to a wide range of products including power banks and packs, 4G LTE routers, Wi-Fi speakers, portable medical devices, smartphones, tablets, and more. TI says that its new integrated circuit will reduce charge time by 50% for smartphones and tablets compared to other charging solutions.
The new integrated circuit has a 4.5-amp output and a 20-volt input. The integrated circuit has a unique battery pack with impedance compensation that enables significantly reduced charging time. The solution also achieves 92% efficiency at 2 A and up to 90% efficiency at four amps output current.
The new integrated circuit also has a programmable thermal regulation temperature allowing designers to improve their system-level design. The circuit also promises the industry’s lowest on-resistance of 12 milliohms to extend the battery runtime. The circuit is also designed to prevent overcharging and it’s very small with TI saying it is the smallest and most integrated battery charging solution available with its feature set measuring 4 mm x 4 mm. There’s no indication of when products using this new integrated circuit will come to market.
Asus has been busy rolling out and announcing new devices, such as the Eagle Eye GX1000 gaming mouse launched a couple days ago and the branded GeForce GTX Titan graphics card last month. Now, according to a post made on its Google+ account, the company has another product that is about to be launched, but it wants us to guess what it is.
The company posted the image you see above on its G+ and said, “Hum… What is that? Get creative! No tips this time. We’ll reveal tomorrow what this new +ASUS device is. So will you or your friends find the answer by then? GO! ;-)” Not surprisingly, a lot of the responses are about some type of laptop or netbook, but I wouldn’t hold your breath.
A quick glance tells you the square’s dimensions are wrong for a laptop of any type, and there are what appear to be two small black rubber feet on the bottom of the device. Of course, there are a million other guesses as well ranging from set-top box to robotic vacuum to the tongue-in-cheek, “It’s a metal box.”
What we do know is that it is metallic, and it sits upright on small feet. It has a centered logo, and could be any size because the image doesn’t give us any sort of reference to judge how big it is. As the folks over at Engadget point out, it certainly looks similar to the VariDrive, which you can check out here.
This week as we roll through NVIDIA’s GPU Technology Conference and hear of the latest innovations in graphics processing prowess, we’ve heard a thunder strike – the Digital Storm Hailstorm II, a massive monster of a gaming PC. This beast has four distinct levels of excellence, ranging from a single GeForce GTX 680 all the way up to three – count them – three NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN GPUs for face-blasting graphics processing excellence. This set of builds is bordering on absolutely insane as the home gaming universe ramps up to a place where you’d have to be no less than tattooed with dedication to having the most powerful set of specifications – here you’ll go wild!
With the Hailstorm II you’ll have space for four radiators, four GPU units, and two CPUs. That’s one massive amount of space on its own – then you consider how it’ll all be blasting forth with the components Digital Storm is quoting here as out-of-box builds, you’ll find your fingers sweating. With the Hailstorm II, you’ve got the first appearance of the Corsair Obsidian Series 900D, a monstrous black tower with a big window on the side so you can view this futuristic wallet-crushing collection for yourself.
Inside you’ve got a liquid cooling system with three front intake fans and a lovely large rear exhaust fan to keep the air running through. If you’d like, this build allows you to ad an absurd 15 fans in total – so much freaking airflow you’ll have to wear a jacket.
Up front you’ll find a lovely brushed aluminum front panel that’ll open up to show you a vast number of expansion slots – ten expansion slots in all, with room for up to nine hard drives or SSD with three hot-swappable mounts, four 5.25-inch optical drive bays, and more! You’ll have two USB 3.0 ports for super quick transfer, four USB 2.0 ports for all your peripherals, and, just incase you’re an over-the-top expander, the ability to work with two power supplies on the back.
If that weren’t enough, you’ll find that each unit has gone through a 72-hour stress-test by Digital Storm, this including industry standard testing of the hardware and software as well as a proprietary testing process in place to detect any and all components that show the potential to fail in the future – you’ll be set!
The system builds you’ll be working with are as you see above, each of the prices reflective of the beastly innards they contain. You’ll find that each of these systems uses fabulous Intel CPU power with the Core i7 across the board as well as NVIDIA GPUs. As noted, this is one of the first systems to work with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN GPU, and you’ll be able to knock it up to 3x SLI NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN at 6GB – intense!
Android has become an enormous success in part by appealing to a lot of people who don’t prioritize aesthetics. It’s no wonder it’s been ugly for half a decade. But finally, it’s spawned a truly gorgeous object for everyone: the HTC One. More »
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Texas Instruments is a major technology company that develops chips and internal components for a variety of gadgets and electronic devices on the market today. The company has announced a new lithium-ion battery charger and integrated circuit that promises significantly faster charging compared to other solutions on the market today. The new Texas Instruments product is the bq2419x family of 4.5-amp output, 20-V input-rated switch-mode chargers.
