Thread: Anandtech News

Today on the Building Windows 8 blog, Katie Frigon explains how user settings, Metro apps purchased through the Windows app store, and other data can be synced across Windows 8 devices using a Windows Live ID.
When setting up a new or reloaded Windows 8 device, you're given an opportunity to sign in with a (or create a new) Windows Live ID. Windows will then create a user profile with that username, and can sync various settings including your lock screen picture, desktop background bookmarks and browser history, and various other settings to the cloud and between devices.
A new Control Panel gives users control over exactly what is synced, and IT administrators will also be able to determine whether users can link their domain accounts with Windows Live IDs (and the kinds of data the users can sync). Data synced to Microsoft's servers is encrypted using SSL/TLS, and that new devices associated with your Windows Live ID must be confirmed before they can access your sync data. The post also notes that local accounts and domain accounts can continue to function just as they always have, if desired.
These changes are mostly consumer-oriented, and mirror moves by Apple and Google (among others) to sync data between different devices using a central account. For more information (and, as always, there's plenty more), check out the post on the Building Windows 8 blog.
Source: Building Windows 8 Blog


More...

When I first met the Galaxy Tab 8.9 in Florida earlier this year I felt like it may be the perfect tablet form factor: small enough to be really portable, while large enough to really be a tablet. Our own Jason Inofuentes is live at Samsung's press event where the company just announced immediate availability of the 8.9-inch Galaxy Tab.
The specs of the Galaxy Tab 8.9 are virtually identical to its bigger brother. You still get a 1280 x 800 PLS display, just in a smaller form factor. Samsung hasn't officially announced the SoC inside but given all Honeycomb tablets currently ship with NVIDIA's Tegra 2, we'd assume no different for the 8.9.
The weight also drops a bit to 447g. Jason should be getting our review sample in the next hour, expect a quick preview in the next day followed by our usual in-depth treatment next week!

Samsung 2011 Tablet Comparison
	Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9	Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1
SoC	NVIDIA Tegra 2 (Dual ARM Cortex A9 @ 1GHz)	NVIDIA Tegra 2 (Dual ARM Cortex A9 @ 1GHz)
GPU	NVIDIA GeForce	NVIDIA GeForce
RAM	1GB	1GB
Display	1280 x 800 PLS	1280 x 800 PLS
NAND	16GB	16GB
Dimensions	230.9 x 157.8 x 8.6mm	256.6 x 172.9 x 8.6mm
Weight	447g	565g
Price	$469	$499

More...

Alongside availability of the Galaxy Tab 8.9, Samsung also announced the availability of the Galaxy Player 4.0 and 5.0: Samsung's iPod Touch competitors. Both will be for sale starting October 16 for $229 and $269. Samsung hasn't announced SoC details but what we do know is in the table below. Both modem-less players run Android 2.3.5 and primarily differ in displays and dimensions, otherwise they seem pretty similar at a high level. More info later tonight!

Samsung 2011 Tablet Comparison
	Samsung Galaxy Player 4.0	Samsung Galaxy Player 5.0
Network	802.11 b/g/n	802.11 b/g/n
OS	Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread)	Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread)
Display	4-inch S-LCD WVGA (800 x 480)	5-inch LCD WVGA (800 x 480)
Connectivity	Bluetooth 3.0, Mini USB	Bluetooth 3.0, Mini USB
NAND	8GB, microSD slot (up to 32GB)	8GB, microSD slot (up to 32GB)
Battery	1200 mAh	2500 mAh
Dimensions	2.53 x 4.87 x 0.39"	3.07 x 5.56 x 0.46"
Weight	4.27	6.42 oz
Price	$229	$269

More...

For years now Dell has been one of the few companies that consistently offers a range of displays using IPS panels for desktop displays instead of only the more affordable TN panels. Now with the availability of e-IPS panels, Dell has been able to offer even more models and lower the price all the way down to $319 for a 23” 1080p display.

Considering most IPS displays use S-IPS or similar panels and cost north of $500 for 23", E-IPS promises improved viewing angles compared to TN and can hopefully avoid any other negatives. How does Dell's U2311H stack up to other displays, and is it a worthwhile compromise between TN and S-IPS? Read on to find out.


More...

First revealed at CTIA, alongside its big brother the Tab 10.1, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 has been a long time coming. At today’s launch event Samsung gave the device little fanfare, preferring to give media attendees as much hands-on time as possible. We picked up our review sample at the event so expect our full review shortly. For now, we have a hands-on of Samsung’s littler tablet, along with the Galaxy Player 4.0 and 5.0. Read on to find out how the latest additions to the Galaxy fare.


More...

We have covered the powerline networking battle between HomePlug and HomeGrid in a lot of earlier pieces. With demonstration of working silicon at CES 2011, G.hn finally emerged from vaporware territory. Today, Marvell is announcing their first G.hn transceiver chipset, the 88LX3142. Read on for our analysis.


More...

In our last SandForce SSD roundup I talked about how undesirable the consumer SSD market is, at least for those companies who don't produce their own controllers and/or NAND. There's a downward trend in NAND and SSD pricing, which unfortunately squeezes drive manufacturers as they compete for marketshare. The shrinking margins in the consumer SSD space will ultimately drive companies out of the business, consolidating power in those companies who are fine operating with slim margins. There are other effects, such as insufficient validation testing that result from this price crunch.
Public companies are under an even greater pressure to maintain high profit margins. Investors don't care about good product, they care about good returns. What is a public SSD manufacturer like OCZ to do? Go after the enterprise market of course.
OCZ has quietly addressed the enterprise SSD space for a while now. Today you can custom order an OCZ Deneva 2 SSD which is an enterprise focused SF-2000 based solution. OCZ's enterprise drives are fully customizable down to the controller, firmware and NAND type on-board. If you want an SF-2000 drive with SAS support and SLC NAND, OCZ will build it for you.
In the enterprise segment where 1U and 2U servers are common, PCI Express SSDs are very attractive. You may not always have a ton of 2.5" drive bays but there's usually at least one high-bandwidth PCIe slot unused. The RevoDrive family of PCIe SSDs were targeted at the high-end desktop or workstation market, but for an enterprise-specific solution OCZ has its Z-Drive line.

Read on for our review of OCZ's Z-Drive R4.

More...

Has it already been six weeks since Firefox 6.0 was released? Apparently so, since Firefox 7.0 has just been made available for Windows, OS X, and Linux users to download.
Firefox 7.0 is the first stable release to benefit from Mozilla's "MemShrink" initiative, which aims to improve the browser's speed and resource usage by reducing memory requirements and addressing memory leaks that can bog down the browser over long sessions, or for users with many tabs open simultaneously.
Other new additions include a new version of "Canvas," a Direct2D acceleration feature for HTML5 games and animations; support for the W3C navigation timing API, which can help developers measure page load time under a variety of different circumstances; and Telemetry, which can send anonymous information about your browsing sessions to Mozilla to aid in the identification of performance issues. Upon installing Firefox 7.0, you'll be given the opportunity to opt-in or opt-out of Telemetry.
The full Firefox 7.0 release notes can be found here, for those interested in technical details. The update should be available to current FIrefox users now, and you can always get the latest version manually at getfirefox.com.
Source: Mozilla



More...

Back in April, we reported the specifications of Intel's upcoming Cedar Trail platform. On Sunday, Intel quietly updated their CPU price list with two new SKUs: Atom D2500 and D2700. These are Intel's first Cedar Trail codenamed CPUs, as well as the first 32nm Atoms. The specifications are the same as what we reported earlier but lets list them anyway:

Intel Atom "Cedar Trail" Lineup
Model	D2500	D2700
Core/Thread Count	2/2	2/4
Frequency	1.86GHz	2.13GHz
L2 Cache	1MB	1MB
Max Memory	4GB	4GB
Supported Memory	DDR3-800/1066	DDR3-800/1066
Graphics frequency	400MHz	640MHz
TDP	10W	10W
Price	$42	$52

There aren't any major compared to what we have already published. The only new bits of info are GPU frequencies, but unfortunately we still have no idea of the architecture, and hence performance remains as a big question. It's not even sure whether DirectX 10.1 is supported, even though we initially reported that it will be. There were rumors of Intel having problems with DirectX, thus it's possible that Intel will be releasing only DirectX 9 capable driver at the release to avoid further delays.
Intel has not released a press release of Cedar Trail announcement yet, so the official release with more details should be coming in the near future.
Sources: Intel, Intel


More...

With today's launch of the Battlefield 3 early beta, AMD has released a preview build of their Catalyst 11.10 drivers specifically for Battlefield 3. The Catalyst 11.10 Preview driver improves BF3 performance on the Radeon HD 5000 and 6000 series for both single-GPU and CrossFire configurations, and adds support for 5x1 Eyefinity. The full release notes are below:

• Improves performance in Battlefield 3 Open Beta release for both non-Anti-Aliasing, and application enabled Anti-Aliasing cases on the AMD Radeon™ HD 6000 and AMD Radeon™ HD 5000 Series for single GPU configurations
• Improves performance in Battlefield 3 Open Beta release for both non-Anti-Aliasing, and application enabled Anti-Aliasing cases on CrossFire configurations using the AMD Radeon™ HD 6000 and AMD Radeon™ HD 5000 Series
• Enables support for Eyefinity 5x1 display (portrait and landscape) configurations using the AMD Radeon™ HD 6000 and AMD Radeon™ HD 5000 Series
• Vision Engine Control Center: User Interface enhancements have been implemented for the CrossfireX, GPU Overdrive, and Information Center pages.

Source: AMD


More...