It was another tough quarter for PC shipments, but there was good news for HP, which edged Lenovo to regain the title of world top's PC maker, according to IDC.Worldwide PC shipments totaled 60.3 million units in the first quarter of 2017, growing by just 0.6 percent compared to the same quarter the previous year.IDC previously forecast a decline of 1.8 percent in PC shipments, so the positive growth was a sign the PC market is recovering. Quarterly PC shipments reported positive growth for the first time since the first quarter of 2012. Lenovo previously beat HP for the title of the world's top maker in 2013 and has mostly held the position since then. HP regained the top spot this quarter boosted by strong laptop shipments worldwide. Now the question remains if HP can hold the spot.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Raspberry Pi may be the most well-known board computer, but rival Orange Pi is rolling out a much larger range of boards at a furious pace and at cheaper prices.The number of board computer users is growing, with Raspberry Pi's shipments passing 10 million units last year. Orange Pi hasn't shipped as many devices but is trying to customize its boards to meet a wider set of computing needs. The latest board computer is the US$30 Orange Pi Prime, which is almost identical to Raspberry Pi 3 in terms of features. The Orange Pi Prime has better graphics by using a Mali-450 GPU, which can process 2K video.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Dumping Moore's Law is perhaps the best thing that could happen to computers, as it'll hasten the move away from an aging computer architecture holding back hardware innovation.That's the view of prominent scientist R. Stanley Williams, a senior fellow in the Hewlett Packard Labs. Williams played a key role in the creation of the memristor by HP in 2008.Moore's Law is an observation made by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in 1965 that has helped make devices smaller and faster. It predicts that the density of transistors would double every 18 to 24 months, while the cost of making chips goes down.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
You will very soon be able to use Microsoft's Cortana voice assistant with the Raspberry Pi 3 and make cool devices that can accept voice commands.But for that, you'll need to upgrade the popular developer board, which can run Windows 10 IoT Core, to the Creators Update of the OS.You'll be able to use Cortana on Raspberry Pi similar to the way it works on PCs. You'll be able to ask for weather, time, traffic, or stock prices.Users will also able to build smart devices using Raspberry Pi 3 that will be able to accept Cortana's commands. But the devices will need to be based on Windows 10 IoT Core, not Linux-based OSes.Customized commands can be programmed for devices and could be related to reminders, look-ups, mapping, events, news, dictionary, and other "skills." To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Intel's large-capacity Optane is like the Ferrari of storage: It's super fast, it's cool and it's expensive.Also, it isn't for everyone yet. That was reiterated by Intel when it introduced its first large capacity SSD, the Optane SSD DC P4800X, last month.The 375GB DC P4800X is aimed at high-end applications. Optane is also available as low-capacity cache storage on motherboards, allowing Windows 10 and other applications to load faster.Before release, Intel gave Optane SSDs to a select few customers who had a chance to get their hands dirty with the new technology for longer than a year. The testers included Facebook, IBM, Lenovo, and database company Aerospike, which believes Optane could unite DRAM and SSDs. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
After 40 critical vulnerabilities on Samsung's Tizen -- used in smart TVs and smartwatches -- were exposed this week by Israeli researcher Amihai Neiderman, the company is scrambling to patch them.But Samsung still doesn't know many of the bugs that need to be patched. It's also unclear when Tizen devices will get security patches, or if older Tizen devices will even get OS updates to squash the bugs.Beyond Samsung's smart TVs, Tizen is also used in wearables like Gear S3 and handsets like Samsung's Z-series phones, which have sold well in India. Samsung wants to put Tizen in a range of appliances and IoT devices. Tizen also has been forked to be used in Raspberry Pi.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
After 40 critical vulnerabilities on Samsung's Tizen -- used in smart TVs and smartwatches -- were exposed this week by Israeli researcher Amihai Neiderman, the company is scrambling to patch them.But Samsung still doesn't know many of the bugs that need to be patched. It's also unclear when Tizen devices will get security patches, or if older Tizen devices will even get OS updates to squash the bugs.Beyond Samsung's smart TVs, Tizen is also used in wearables like Gear S3 and handsets like Samsung's Z-series phones, which have sold well in India. Samsung wants to put Tizen in a range of appliances and IoT devices. Tizen also has been forked to be used in Raspberry Pi.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
If you plan to buy a new PC or mobile device this year, you'll likely be shelling out more cash than in previous years. Prices are going up, and expensive devices are in demand.On average, the price of PCs and phones will go up by 2 percent this year, Gartner said in a research report released on Thursday. The calculations are based on U.S. dollars and average market sizes.Breaking those numbers down, PC prices are expected to go up 1.4 percent this year, while mobile phone prices will go up 4.3 percent.The prices will go up largely due to the rising prices of components. Also, more users are upgrading to more expensive and feature-rich mobile handsets.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Getting 8K displays to work with Windows 10 PCs can be difficult, as Dell is finding out.But playing with 8K on PCs is a discovery process for Dell, which shipped the first-ever 8K display -- the Dell 32 UltraSharp 8K Monitor -- last week. The small initial stock of the US$5,000 display sold out in a few days.The display won't work on all PCs and needs specific hardware and display ports. But Dell is finding out that more hardware than it originally thought can handle 8K graphics, including AMD's Radeon Pro WX 7100 workstation GPU.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Apple has one big reason to move to a homegrown GPU: It wants full control over the hardware and software in its devices.The device maker is apparently developing its own GPU from scratch after dumping Imagination Technologies' PowerVR architecture, which is being used in the iPhone 7. The smartphone runs on the PowerVR A10 Fusion chip.It's not certain when Apple's homegrown GPU will appear in devices, and the company didn't respond to request for comment.Apple has made graphics improvement a priority in its iPhone and iPad models, so users should get better gaming experiences.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Fujitsu is helping to keep SPARC from extinction as it continues to design and develop the architecture. The company has introduced two Unix servers -- the M12-2S and the M12-2 -- using SPARC chips based on a new CPU architecture.The M12 servers are about 2.5 times faster than their predecessor, the M10, which used the older SPARC X chips.Oracle and partner Fujitsu are the only companies using the SPARC architecture, and share a healthy partnership. Devotees of SPARC feared the architecture was on its way out after Oracle restructured its Solaris OS and chip roadmap and Fujitsu adopted ARM architecture to build Japan's flagship supercomputer, Post-K, which is due for release by 2020.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Fujitsu is helping to keep SPARC from extinction as it continues to design and develop the architecture. The company has introduced two Unix servers -- the M12-2S and the M12-2 -- using SPARC chips based on a new CPU architecture.The M12 servers are about 2.5 times faster than their predecessor, the M10, which used the older SPARC X chips.Oracle and partner Fujitsu are the only companies using the SPARC architecture, and share a healthy partnership. Devotees of SPARC feared the architecture was on its way out after Oracle restructured its Solaris OS and chip roadmap and Fujitsu adopted ARM architecture to build Japan's flagship supercomputer, Post-K, which is due for release by 2020.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Intel's finally washing its hands of McAfee after seven up and down years, which included a lawsuit last year from John McAfee, after whom the company is named.The chip maker has divested its majority holdings in McAfee to investment firm TPG for US$3.1 billion.McAfee will now again become a standalone security company, but Intel will retain a minority 49 percent stake. The chip maker will focus internal operations on hardware-level security.For Intel, dumping majority ownership in McAfee amounts to a loss. It spent $7.68 billion to acquire McAfee in 2010, which was a head-scratcher at the time. Intel's McAfee acquisition will stand as one of the company's worst acquisitions.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Intel's finally washing its hands of McAfee after seven up and down years, which included a lawsuit last year from John McAfee, after whom the company is named.The chip maker has divested its majority holdings in McAfee to investment firm TPG for US$3.1 billion.McAfee will now again become a standalone security company, but Intel will retain a minority 49 percent stake. The chip maker will focus internal operations on hardware-level security.For Intel, dumping majority ownership in McAfee amounts to a loss. It spent $7.68 billion to acquire McAfee in 2010, which was a head-scratcher at the time. Intel's McAfee acquisition will stand as one of the company's worst acquisitions.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
More DDR memory is on the way, despite many predictions that its time would soon be up.Development of specifications for the new DDR5 DRAM has started, and it will be finalized next year, JEDEC, a memory standards-setting organization, said on Thursday.DDR5 will succeed the current DDR4 memory, which is used in PCs and servers. DDR5 will be two times faster than DDR4 and also more power efficient.DDR5 will also have double the density of DDR4. Typical DDR5 DIMMs will have twice the gigabyte capacity of DDR4 DIMMs.Analysts didn't expect DDR5 to be developed; instead, they thought the line for DDR DRAM would end at DDR4. But PC and server designs haven't changed much in recent years, and there could be an appetite for DDR5.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Samsung has a portfolio of devices and appliances that would make Apple envious. But unlike Apple, Samsung devices don't work well together.With the Galaxy S8 smartphones and other new products, Samsung hopes that will change. The company is setting in motion a grand plan to build smart homes where its devices operate seamlessly and provide a consistent user experience.Samsung's S8 smartphones will be able to activate appliances through Connect, an app based on the company's SmartThings platform. With just a flick of the finger, the app will allow users to start a robot vacuum cleaner, dim lights, or even ask a Family Hub refrigerator to analyze contents and send a supermarket shopping list.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Could artificial intelligence make devices easier to use? According to Samsung, it sure can, and that's what it the company out to prove with its Bixby AI service.Bixby is being loaded on the Galaxy S8 and S8+ smartphones, which were announced on Tuesday. Bixby is an agent that can help the smartphones talk, recommend, and remind, said Mok Oh, vice president of service strategy at Samsung.The AI service is being positioned as a more intuitive way to use and interact with smartphones. For example, Bixby can help smartphones execute tasks with a voice command. It also brings cool features like image recognition and language translation on board the S8 smartphones.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Microsoft has been cautious about making its Surface product line available worldwide. It tests devices in specific markets, sees how they do, and if the response is good, ships them to those areas.The company appears to have have received a strong response, in particular, to its Surface Studio, Surface Book devices and Surface Dial, which will soon be available in many Asian and European countries.The expanded availability of these devices was announced on the same day Microsoft said it would release Windows 10 Creators Update on April 11.The Surface Book with Performance Base, one of the devices that will be more broadly available, is a high-performance laptop that can also be a tablet. The screen pops out from the keyboard base to be a tablet. In a review, PC World concluded the device was powerful and easy to use, but had some design issues and was heavy.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Samsung's new Galaxy S8 and S8+ smartphones look beautiful, and are loaded with new features that could make an upgrade worthwhile.The handsets are superfast and 4K capable, and also herald the arrival of new technologies like Bluetooth 5 and LTE gigabit modems.We take a look inside the handsets and see how they have improved from the Samsung Galaxy S7.Screen size is biggerThe Galaxy S8 has a 5.8-inch screen, while the S8+ has a 6.2-inch screen, which are larger than the 5.5-inch S7 and the 5.7-inch Note 7. The screen resolution is 2960 x 1440 pixels, a slight uptick from S7's 2560 x 1440-pixel screen. Samsung was able to increase the S8 screen size by cutting the home button, and also adding to the height. The screen area now constitutes 83 percent of the S8 front surfaces.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Intel's spanking new high-capacity Optane SSD is cool, but drives from other storage vendors based on the 3D Xpoint technology could be coming later this year.Micron will start shipping its 3D Xpoint memory technology -- branded QuantX -- later this year, which will go into SSDs offered by storage makers. The company made that announcement during an earnings call on Friday.Intel and Micron co-developed 3D Xpoint. Intel says Optane is significantly faster and could replace conventional SSDs and DRAM in the coming years.But unlike Intel, Micron is not interested in making its own Optane-like storage. The company is licensing its 3D Xpoint technology to other storage makers. Micron's QuantX will also be available the form of DDR-style memory, the company has said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Agam Shah