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Displaying items by tag: Asus

MS Surface

When Microsoft announced their Windows RT and Windows 8 based Surface tablets the world was shocked; Microsoft making a tablet for the consumer market? The media went nuts talking about the slim design, the new materials and well everything. We saw multiple “reviews” of the Surface all of which were based on the same Press Demo model and all of which did not really cover what the product could do (how much can you tell in 10 minutes?). Underneath the excitement by the press there was a less enthusiastic response by the people that have actually made Microsoft what they are; the OEM partners. We contacted quite a few right after the launch and while most would not comment publicly on the launch the tone was obvious.

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MS-Myth

Microsoft just cannot get out of their own way in making some very bad decisions over the past few months. First they have pushed an OS on the public and OEMs that does not make all that much sense based on real consumer feedback. Next they dove headlong into the market with their own unsustainable product in the form of the Surface tablet. Finally they stabbed their partners in the back by offering an update to Windows 8 Professional for $40 including installs of XP, Vista, Windows 7 and even the Release Preview of Windows 8. Microsoft has been pushing the claim that Windows 8 will be compatible with existing hardware as well in an attempt to bring even more people to the new OS. All of this is going to seriously impact partner sales and has caused more than one company to rethink their Windows 8 plans.

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armchip displayv2

Microsoft’s Windows 8 (both Windows RT and Windows 8 for x86-64) is due to hit the market around November of this year and it has already caused a ton of controversy. But there is one that did not get a ton of press when it was announced that highlights a few issues with Windows that many are not anticipating. Around the first of July it was announced that HP would not be making an ARM based tablet for the next OS and we also know that Acer will probably not as well.

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Thursday, 05 July 2012 18:57

Asus ROG Rampage IV Gene Performance Review

board08

As we round out our coverage of the Asus Republic of Gamers Rampage IV Gene we are taking a look at both the synthetic and real-world performance of this board. As we have mentioned before the Gene is the gateway into the ROG Line and shows an excellent blending of performance, features and ease of use for those that are new to playing with higher end Motherboards. Of course the Gene also serves a purpose with the enthusiasts as well it offers a very competent motherboard in a small package for gaming, small and quiet systems and even for someone looking for a solid board to build a home server on. Since we have already shown you what the Rampage IV Gene looks like on paper, let’s take the tiem to show you how it looks in the real world.

nexus7-intThere is an interesting item that has popped up on the internet. It seems that Nokia is concerned about Asus and Google’s new tablet, the Nexus 7. What makes this very interesting is the timing for Nokia coming forward and bringing this to light. According to a statement made by Nokia (and originally reported by The Inquirer) Nokia is not going so far as to file a law suit, but they do encourage both Asus and Google to get in touch… soon.

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nexus7-intThere has been a lot of talk about how Google is not making any money on the Nexus 7 and in truth they are probably not making much on hardware sales. This is not an uncommon trend to get products to the market at a cost that puts them in the consumers hands only to follow up with services that do generate income (in fact that is the business model of the cloud). The question is; if there is no margin for Google how much is there for Asus and why would they want to make these without making money per unit.

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nexus7-intAlthough it was rumored (and possibly shown off at CES 2012) the long awaited Nexus 7 (I wonder is the Tyrell corporation was involved) 7-inch tablet from Google is coming today to be officially launched during the Google I/O conference. The new tablet will feature 1GB of RAM and a quad (quint?) core Tegra 3 under the screen. For capacity you will get either 8 or 16GB and all of the usual trimmings (no 3G though). The pricing and size would indicate it is intended to rival both the iPad and the Kindle Fire.

*** Update It is live, real and you can buy this new tablet from Google and Asus!***

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untitledWe wondered when this would start happening, but Microsoft’s decision to compete against their own partners has had its first casualty. It seems that after the Surface was announced last night LG has decided to stop working on new tablets for the foreseeable future. Is this decision in response to having to compete with Microsoft or a decision that is based on LG’s poor sales in the market?

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PLXWhen Lynnfield launched with its built in PCIe controller the motherboard makers of the world collectively groaned. They began to wonder how in the world they were going to run everything they want to put onto their motherboards with the limited number of PCIe lanes that were provided. The answer to this solution was simple, use a bridge chip… the problem was that there were not many that were up to the job. One of these companies that quickly became synonymous with high-performance motherboards was PLX. We first saw these on Asus motherboards (the P55 motherboards) and the system simply worked. Since then many more motherboard makers have adopted them and come to reply on PLX to keep things moving.

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zshdesktop016At CES 2010 we watched as the “PC” world began to gear up for its onslaught into the tablet market. Many at the time were still claiming that Apple was going to hold the market simply because they had a very big foot hold (and still do). However as we watched press briefings from Asus, Lenovo, nVidia, AMD, and Intel we saw something very interesting; the move to tablets that make sense for everyone. We are not talking about the choice of OS here either.

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