Thread: Anandtech News

The Windows 8 details continue: Today on the Building Windows 8 blog, Alex Simons takes us through some changes to the Windows Explorer, chief among them the fact that Explorer will now be using Microsoft's Ribbon interface.
Love it or hate it, more and more Microsoft applications have been picking up the Ribbon interface since it was introduced in Office 2007 - proponents say it organizes features intuitively and exposes previously buried functionality, while detractors say it contradicts years of learning on the part of its users and takes up too much space on screen. If you don't like the Ribbon, I've got more bad news for you: Simons notes, among other things, that users will not be able to switch back to any sort of classic interface.
For a complete list of changes as well as the thinking behind this change, the blog post is very long and very informative as always - just know that it's probably not going to change your mind about the Ribbon if you've already made it up.
Source: Building Windows 8 Blog


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We're taking our second excursion into enterprise-class desktop territory with the kind of machine that should be of interest both to IT management and enthusiasts alike: HP's Z210 SFF (small form factor) workstation. Desktop computers are capable of getting smaller and smaller these days, and with the Z210 SFF, HP is hoping to make serious number crunching power available in even the tightest of spaces. It's always interesting to see just how much performance can be crammed into a tiny computer, but did HP have to make any sacrifices to hit this target?

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If the dearth of world-famous puzzlers was keeping you from picking up a Nintendo 3DS, it’s about time you started saving up: the Hudson Soft-developed Tetris: Axis will be released for Nintendo’s newest handheld on October 2^nd.
Tetris: Axis will feature the classic Marathon mode, as well as a plethora of Tetris variants including multiplayer modes for up to eight players. It will also leverage the handheld’s front-facing camera and 3D display to create augmented reality versions (see above screenshot) of the Marathon and Tower Climber modes. Clearing rows on my computer monitor is stressful enough, clearing rows off my kitchen counter could prove unbearable.
Nintendo’s already dropped the price of the 3DS in an effort to move units, and a new Tetris could help sell a few more (the original version on Game Boy did sell over 35 million copies). The appeal of 3D and extra modes will have be to strong, however, as just today Electronic Arts released a free version of classic Tetris in the Android marketplace. For comparison’s sake, Tetris: Axis is currently listed on Amazon for $29.99.
Source: Nintendo


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Most USB 3.0 controller cards available on the market today utilize the PCIe x1 interface. With a maximum theoretical bandwidth of 5Gbps, it is possible that these controllers could bottleneck performance when transferring data between, say, multiple SSDs, HDD arrays, and high-performance USB 3.0 flash drives. We take a look at HighPoint's RocketU 1144 PCIe x4 USB 3.0 controller card. Its utilization of PCIe x4 promises 20Gbps of bandwidth. Is this enough to satiate even the most demanding transfers?

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If you're enjoying your $99 TouchPad, there continue to be new updates on the software side that keep the now-dead platform in the news. When the TouchPad launched it had the ability to open Word and Excel files via QuickOffice. Document creation and editing both weren't supported at the time. The QuickOffice developers indicated that a future version of the software would enable creation/editing support, but that was prior to HP's announcement to discontinue webOS hardware. Yesterday, via the HP App Catalog, QuickOffice saw an update that brought forward new features and performance improvements, including the ability to create and edit Word/Excel documents on the TouchPad. To get the new version simply update your existing copy of QuickOffice on the TouchPad.
That's not the only good news. Today HP told Brooke Crothers at cnet that TouchPad users should expect another OTA update that will "enhance the platform and add functionality". Although the 3.0.2 update fixed some of the issues we saw in our review, the TouchPad is far from bug-free and still needs some serious work on the performance side. In my eyes the 3.0.2 update was fairly minor. Both the scope of this update and the timing of release are unknown.
Now the reality check. Both the QuickOffice and TouchPad OS updates were likely mostly complete when HP made the announcement to kill off the webOS hardware devision. While it's great to see updates to this platform, I'm not sure how long we'll continue to see this sort of support. The webOS software division is still active, but I'm guessing HP isn't going to be pouring tons of resources into it. Our best hope continues to be an outright acquisition of webOS by an eager partner or the continued development efforts of the webOS community.


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In a recent entry on his blog, Markus “notch” Persson explained why Minecraft has yet to appear on Valve’s Steam platform, citing an “ inherent incompatibility” between his company Mojang’s goals and Valve’s.
“Being on Steam limits a lot of what we’re allowed to do with the game, and how we’re allowed to talk to our users,” Persson said. “We (probably?) wouldn’t be able to, say, sell capes or have a map market place on minecraft.net that works with Steam customers in a way that keeps Valve happy.”
Minecraft’s thrived in part due to the direct access players have to Persson’s development whims, such as the creation of the creepy-looking Endermen (seen above) scheduled for the next update. Putting a barrier like Steam, no matter how “awesome” Persson thinks it is, disrupts that process and could potentially split the userbase.
Persson isn’t ruling Steam out entirely, however. “We are talking to Valve about this,” he said. The sheer enormity of Steam makes this optimism practical business sense. It’s the same reason EA won’t swear off Steam entirely, even after all of the fighting over Battlefield 3. When people enter a store every time they launch a game, it behooves you to have your product in that store.
Source: Notch


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Today's Building Windows 8 blog post is from Rajeev Nagar, and describes how Windows 8 can natively mount and work with files stored in ISO and VHD files.
For those of you who don't know, ISO files are images of CDs or DVDs that can be stored on your hard drive and burned to a disc - many install disks, including Windows and most Linux distros, come in ISO format when they're downloaded. Windows 7 introduced the ability to burn ISO files natively, but you still have to download a third-party program to actually mount them without burning them to a CD. ISO mounting in Windows 8 replaces those third-party programs with similar functionality - Windows will assign a drive letter to a virtual optical drive, at which point you can browse the ISO and do what you need to with the files, and the unmount it when you're done.
Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) files are similar to ISOs, except that they store the contents of an entire hard drive. Virtual machines created using programs like Virtual PC, VMWare, and VirtualBox use (or can use) VHD files to store an entire bootable OS without the need of a physical disk. Working with VHD files in Windows 8 is a lot like working with ISOs - they're assigned a drive letter and then treated as a physical hard drive by the OS, allowing for viewing, adding, or modifying of files.
None of this is ground-breaking technology, but I like to keep my OSes as clean as possible, and I always appreciate it when new Windows features obviate the need for third-party plugins.
Source: Building Windows 8 Blog


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The HP Touchpad's saga continues: after being introduced, discontinued, and liquidated, HP now says that it will be manufacturing a "limited quantity" of the tablets before the end of October to meet demand. This is likely being done mostly to get rid of excess Touchpad components, rather than to revive the tablet in the wake of its post-mortem success.
Discontinued or not, plenty of people are finding reasons to snap up the ill-fated tablet at the clearance price - HP is issuing a few updates and a handful of free apps to users of the device, while devs from more adventurous corners of the Internet are trying to get a build of Android running on it.
If you're still in the market for a cheap tablet, you've still got a chance - keep an eye on the Twitter accounts mentioned in HP's announcement for the most up-to-date information on Touchpad inventory.
Source: HP, DigiTimes


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It's not a surprise, but nevertheless: AMD's next GPUs will be branded the AMD Radeon HD 7000 series, as indicated by a GlobalFoundries slide shown in a presentation today.
The slide specifically references the upcoming Trinity APUs, 32nm parts that are slated to replace current Llano A-series APUs when they're released in 2012. AMD says that Trinity APUs should outperform Llano APUs by about 50 percent (at least, when measured in teraflops).
Like the existing Radeon HD 6000 series, the 7000 series will eventually include both on-board APU graphics and more traditional dedicated graphics cards - these dedicated GPUs are currently codenamed Southern Islands, and are expected to be manufactured on a 28nm process.
Source: Fudzilla


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Right on schedule, Samsung Mobile announced variants of the already-popular Samsung Galaxy S II destined for T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T. As rumored, there was no word of a Verizon-bound variant at this point, but we now have official details on the devices headed to the other major carriers.

Left to right: AT&T SGS2, T-Mobile SGS2, Sprint SGS2 Epic 4G Touch (not to scale)

We've put together a small table based on what information Samsung has made available at this point, and our own Jason Inofuentes is on the ground in New York at the launch event getting a hands-on look. There's information out about Sprint and AT&T versions, but T-Mobile is being relatively light on detail about their SGS2 variant. It goes without saying, but all three versions are running Android 2.3.

USA Samsung Galaxy S II Variants
Carrier	T-Mobile	Sprint	AT&T
Name	Samsung Galaxy S II on T-Mobile	Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch	Samsung Galaxy S II
SoC	Dual-Core Snapdragon 1.2 GHz	Exynos 4210 1.2 GHz	Exynos 4210 1.2 GHz
Network Support	DC-HSPA+ (MDM8220?)	WiMAX + CDMA2000 1x/EVDO	HSPA+ GSM (850/900/1800/1900MHz) UMTS Tri-band (850/1900/2100MHz)
Display Size	4.52" SAMOLED+ WVGA	4.52" SAMOLED+ WVGA	4.3" SAMOLED+ WVGA
Size	?	2.7" x 5.1" x 0.38"	? x ? x 8.89 mm
Storage	16 GB Internal, up to 32 GB microSD
Cameras	8 MP Rear Facing w/LED,AF, 2 MP Front Facing. 1080p30 H.264 High Profile
WiFi/BT	?	802.11a/b/g/n, BT 3.0	802.11a/b/g/n, BT 3.0
Battery	?	1800 mAh	1650 mAh

All three of the variants get names which differ from the previously leaked codenames, though surprisingly enough T-Mobile and AT&T have gone with fairly sane ones this time. Sprint is the odd man out, continuing its Epic 4G branding which it with the original SGS variant.
The T-Mobile SGS2 remains something of an enigma, and the carrier has released close to nothing about the device beyond simple specifications and the name, and notably no word of it carrying an Exynos SoC. It remains very likely the device uses a dual-core snapdragon SoC and MDM8220 DC-HSPA+ (dual-carrier) baseband, which would make it T-Mobile's first HSDPA Cat. 24 (42 Mbps) smartphone.


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