Logitech release new gaming mouse: the Logitech G500

When Logitech released the G9 mouse, a big fuss kicked up in regards to the design and appearance of the mouse, with a lot of people disliking the square, hard shape of it. Now, Logitech have introduced their latest mouse, which aims to get loyal customers that stuck with their much loved Logitech G5s when the Logitech G9 was released, to consider an upgrade.

The Logitech Gaming Mouse G500 is, in Logitech's words, "the successor to the classic Logitech G5 Laser Mouse," and has a new look, higher maximum dpi (dots per inch), as well as onboard memory. As is the norm with Logitech gaming mice
, the dpi can be bumped up and down on the fly, but unlike the G5, the G500 can go all the way up to 5700 dpi.

There's the usual weight cartridge which slides into the bottom of the mouse, allowing for the mouse to be fine tuned depending on how heavy the user likes their mouse to be. Interestingly, the new appearance looks very much like a cross between the G5 and the G9, and that applies to the features too: the scroll wheel looks very similar to the G9 one, except that the scroll wheel on the Logitech G500 has a button just below it that allows the scroll wheel to switch from click-to-click scrolling to free scrolling, something the G5 didn't offer.

Ruben Mookerjee, director of product marketing for gaming at Logitech, said "as more and more people make gaming with family and friends the new night out, Logitech continues to push the envelope with the Logitech G-series."

"If you're getting serious about gaming – or have already seen the light – then the best way to dive ever deeper into the game is by putting the G500 mouse in your good hand."

However, whether or not the new look and features on the mouse will be enough to persuade gamers to upgrade remains to be seen.



You can check out the full range of features, and some more pictures, at the product page.

Intel halts 34nm SSD shipments due to firmware defects

Tom's Hardware reports that online retailers including Newegg have pulled Intel's latest SSD (Solid State Disk) from their websites just days after being made publicly available. This was due to a defect in the disk's firmware that was discovered in the first batch which shipped last week, according to a blog post written by OEM system builder Puget Systems.

Consumers who have already purchased the new 34nm "Postville" SSDs may face several issues, including data corruption when adding, deleting, or modifying the drive's password in the BIOS. "Initially we were told this might require a complete reworking of the drives, and that those we had gotten in were effectively unusable, but Intel was able to work out a firmware fix for the problem," said Puget's William George. "That won't be available immediately, but should be showing up in about two weeks."

Intel has since halted shipments of the "Postville" SSDs until the problem has been resolved. For those consumers who have already purchased the drive and have no plans to use a BIOS password on the drive, there should be no problems; however Intel is advising that consumers do not alter, delete, or create BIOS passwords until the drive has been flashed with updated firmware to correct the issue.

"It made sense to pause shipments and implement the changes ourselves and via customers versus asking consumers to do so," Intel told Tom's in an email earlier today. "Keep in mind the fix has been identified and validation is undergoing completion this week."

The updated firmware will be available on Intel's website when it is ready.

Western Digital announces 1TB 2.5" Hard-drive

Earlier today, Western Digital announced two additions to their hard-drive range, including a 1 terabyte (1024 Gigabytes) 2.5" Laptop Hard-disk drive and a 750 GB 2.5" Laptop Hard-disk drive.

Western digital was able to expand mobile hard disk space to 1 TB and 750 GB by "A slight increase in overall drive height has driven storage capacity for 2.5-inch form factor drives upwards to a realm once thought to be impossible. "

The hard disks are also claimed to be "whisper silent", and to run very quietly, even during heavy operations.

The product page also states that the laptop hard drive may not fit into all notebook computers as it is "12.5mm high", and to check your notebooks manual before purchasing a drive.

The Western Digital Scorpio Blue 1 TB and 750 GB SATA Hard Drives are available now from Western Digital's online store.

Sky News exposes dodgy laptop repair shops [UK]

Sky News in the UK have exposed several laptop repair shops including some big names like Micro Anvika and PC World.

During the investigation, researchers unplugged a RAM stick from a laptop to see if the shops would simply diagnose the fault or charge extra for work and components. Only one shop was genuinely honest, Pix 4 in Shepherds Bush. The rest, including Micro Anvika and PC World, charged huge amounts for work that was not required, including replacing the laptop motherboard.

Sky News found that the most serious offender was Revival Computers in Hammersmith, West London. Revival Computers snooped around the researches documents including pictures of the researcher in a bikini. The cowboys didn't stop there though, they copied the data onto a portable USB drive and opened a text file with fake Hotmail, Facebook and NatWest banking login details. One technician at the store attempted to get access to the NatWest site but failed simply because the details were fake.

The sting was setup using surveillance software on the laptop that recorded the technicians every move and filmed them using the laptops on board camera. An investigator from Trading Standards said he was "shocked" by the findings. Richard Webb, an e-commerce investigator for Trading Standards said: "I'm really quite shocked, both in the range of potential problems this has revealed - people overcharging, mis-describing the faults - but also people attempting to steal personal details."

Revival Computers in Hammersmith refused to comment on film to Sky but later denied all knowledge of the alleged abuses. Questions will surely be asked following this report on the rights and wrongs of IT technicians checking personal data. Gary Glitter was famously jailed over child porn when he took his laptop in for repair at a PC World branch in Bristol. Morally or even legally, should the technician have been looking at his data? Thankfully he did on this occasion. What would the technician have done if he found embarrassing photos instead of disgusting child porn though? Perhaps IT technicians should be regulated in the same way that lawyers, teachers and other professionals are to avoid privacy and data protection issues.

Kingston launch world's first 256GB thumb drive

Is that a whopping 256GB USB flash drive in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? The huge flash drive is in Kingston Technology's pocket as they are set to launch the highest capacity USB thumb drive available on the market this week, with their DataTraveler 300 device. Whether the demand for such a device exists remains to be seen.

The flash drive includes password protection functionality - through their Password Traveler software - which can protect of up to 90% of its capacity, and it is apparently enhanced for use with Windows Vista's ReadyBoost feature. Kingston state that the 256GB of storage space is equivalent to that of 10 Blu-ray discs, 54 DVDs, or 365 CDs - "that's one album for every day of the year, and it demonstrates how far flash technology has developed," says Kirsty Miller, consumer product marketing manager for Kingston Technology Europe.

If you want to fill it up and transfer 152,384 of your 5 megapixel photos to the device then the transfer speeds of it offer you 10 MB/second write speeds or 20 MB/second read speeds through USB 2.0, although USB 3.0 would seem to make more sense when handling data of this size. It is currently only available in Europe, the Far East, the Middle East and Africa and will cost about £565.67 (excluding VAT) for those in the UK, according to TechRadar, although Kingston say that the device is built to order only. The price includes a five year warranty and 24/7 support.

"The Kingston DataTraveler 300 is ideal for netbook users who want to extend the limited capacity of their machines," Kingston claim, presuming that people will spend a lot more on a store device than they did on their actual netbook. "It can also be used by business consumers who work with large databases, or even designers who need to transfer large graphic files from one place to another."

Dell unlikely to be purchasing Acer in their buying spree

Dell's been on a bit of a buying spree recently; according to the head honcho, Michael Dell, they have a 'portfolio of acquisitions' that they're looking at to help boost earnings, but according to Bloomberg, this is unlikely to include the company Acer.

As you may be aware, Acer is the third largest maker of personal computers, so it would certainly be a valuable purchase, but Brian Gladden (Chief Financial Officer for Dell) says that, "It would be very low on our list of opportunities." It's expected that Acer may surpass Dell in shipments, but Gladden brushed it off by stating, "That doesn't bother me at all. Selling netbooks that have zero margin, I'm not excited about. We'd rather make more money than be the largest unit seller."

According to Bloomberg, "Dell will consider buying companies that help expand its PC, server, storage and services businesses, as well as technology providers that push it into new markets." So far, the most expensive purchase the company has made to date was for EqualLogic Inc., setting them back $1.4 billion. The company was a storage manufacturer, and now it accounts for about 60% of revenue. Apparently, however, Dell is currently looking at purchases that range from $200 million dollars up to $8 billion, and Gladden said they're after a "broad set of assets that wouldn't surprise anybody." It's also believed that they could be after software companies such as McAfee, Citrix Systems and Salesforce.com.

Regardless of what happens, don't expect to see headlines saying that Dell has purchased Acer any time soon.

Apple tablet rumor re-surfaces, on sale in October

When a rumor never seems to fade into the past and is frequently brought up over and over again generally there is some truth to the matter. Reports are surfacing again that Apple will be releasing a tablet PC in October for around $800.00.

That's a direct statement which means that the source in hand must be fairly confident that the information received is accurate. More interestingly is that the new information matches up with previous rumors.

"Taiwan's high-tech supply chain companies said Apple will debut its first netbook in October; Apple will pose itself to tackle the Christmas shopping season. Three corporations – Foxconn, Wintek, Dynapack have received direct orders from Apple"

What is interesting about the quoted source is that it says netbook unlike previous rumors that mentioned a tablet. Further the source says that Apple will debut "touch screen technology on its netbooks, Apple will not target low-end consumers, avoiding direct competition with Acer, Asus, as well as their less-than-500-dollars netbooks. Apple's netbook (or a "tablet" as many call it,) will probably be sold at around $800 USD each."

If the sources are correct then it means Apple will be selling a small light netbook with a touch screen; something that isn't prevalent today. A product of this nature will certainly attract attention but it's clear that at around $800.00 it's not truly targeting the netbook market with its pricing.

Apple generally holds a press conference in the fall to release its new iPod line and could bundle this announcement in with its other products. It is also no secret that Apple is flush with cash right now and may be more willing to invest into niche markets but only time will tell.

Hardware makers support Google OS

Google has announced which hardware firms have pledged to build machines that will run its Chrome OS.

The search giant said it was working with many firms on Chrome OS hardware including Acer, Asus, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, and Toshiba.

The software is designed to work with the web and Google said it was most likely to appear on smaller portable computers known as netbooks.

The browser-based operating system will be released to the public in 2010.

Web futures

In a blog post announcing the hardware partners, Google said that the code for the Chrome OS would be open sourced in late 2009. Google said that the software will be free to download and use.

The first netbooks that can run the software will be ready in late 2010. Since Asus launched the first netbook the cut-down computers have proved hugely popular.

Analyst firm Gartner predicts that 80% more netbooks will be sold in 2009 than sold in 2008. However, so far, the small computers only make up 8% of the total PC market.

The Chrome OS will be designed to work with Intel chips that appear in the vast majority of desktop PCs, laptops and netbooks as well as the Arm chips that power most of the world's mobile phones. Texas Instruments and Qualcomm, who both build devices based around Arm chips, were also unveiled as partners on the Chrome OS project.

In a blog post announcing some of the hardware partners, Google also said it was working with Adobe on the operating system. This could turn out to be significant because of the wide use of Adobe's Flash software.

Flash is used to power many multimedia websites but Adobe has been working hard to extend its capabilities via the Air technology and make it more web-centric too. Microsoft is developing its Silverlight technology to do a similar job.

Thanko’s Spy Video Camera for Secret Shooting

Espionage is not everyone’s cup of tea. But if there are any James Bond wannabe, there are various devices in the market for spying purposes. Smart as a button is pretty apt for Thanko’s Spy Button video camera. The five nondescript buttons look like they belong on your shirt but can secretly capture video in VGA @ 15 fps or stills in 1280×1024. It has a 4GB internal memory for uninterrupted footage. The camera can be plugged to a PC via USB to download the photos or video after shooting.

The camera is easily operated via magnetic on/off switches camouflaged as a gold ring on your finger. For the spy in you, Thanko’s Spy Button is an apt acquisition.

June 19 was AT&T's "iLaunch Day 2009", best ever sales

When the iPhone 3GS was announced, analysts expected pretty good sales - nothing too extreme or mind blowing, but not poor either. Apparently they were wrong. The website Mac Daily News has been tipped off with an internal AT&T company memo, explaining that the 3GS launch was the best sales day the company had ever seen, and dubbed it "iLaunch Day 2009." We've included the memo below.

1. Fact of the Week: On June 25, the day Michael Jackson died, text messages sent on our network spiked at 65,000 messages per second — the largest volume ever recorded — surpassing events like American Idol voting and New Year's Eve, when millions of our customers wish their friends and family a happy new year via text."

2. iLaunch day 2009 was one for the record books, as AT&T customers scrambled to get their hands on the fastest, most powerful iPhone yet.

Here's a look at some of the milestones we achieved:

• Best-ever sales day in our retail stores
• Second-largest traffic day in our retail stores
• Most transactions processed via our IT systems in a single day
• Most upgrade eligibility checks in a single day
• Largest order day in att.com history
• Largest features sales day in att.com history

On this year's launch day, iPhone sales exceeded sales recorded on 2008's iPhone launch day, Black Friday 2008 and Dec. 26, 2008 — all heavy-volume sales days. In fact, this year we surpassed 2008's launch day sales at about noon Central time, and sustained our previous peak hour record, also set in 2008, for 11 straight hours.

The memo doesn't exactly say how many sales were made, but after being contacted by Apple Insider, a spokesperson said, "We have no further comment beyond that," after repeating the fact that they had hundreds of thousands of pre-orders. Apple itself was a bit more revealing in terms of numbers, and it have revealed that there was over one million iPhones sold in three days. No doubt next year we'll see even higher figures, although only time will tell.

Enjoy!

Serious SMS vulnerability discovered for the iPhone

Apple is hard at work to patch a serious vulnerability that could allow a hacker to perform malicious acts unknowingly on the iPhone platform.

The attack, which hasn't been described in detail, works when the attacker sends the victim an SMS that could cause the phone to run malicious code or programs without the phone operator's permission.

"The SMS vulnerability allows an attacker to run software code on the phone that is sent by SMS over a mobile operator's network. The malicious code could include commands to monitor the location of the phone using GPS, turn on the phone's microphone to eavesdrop on conversations, or make the phone join a distributed denial of service attack or a botnet"

The good news is that the person who discovered the vulnerability, Charlie Miller, has been working with Apple and he will not discuss in detail the vulnerability until Apple has patched the exploit. This is a good step because if this exploit reached those with malicious intent, millions of iPhone users' phones could be compromised very quickly because of how fast text messages spread.

Shaz3e recently reported that Apple has delivered the next beta of the iPhone OS to developers which may include a patch for this exploit. Apple is currently working to amend the problem so there is no need to worry if you're an iPhone user but as Apple's market share grows more and more people will start looking to attack the iPhone.

Apple potentially dropping NVIDIA chips after disagreements

Last week, a website named Semi Accurate reported that heated words were exchanged between the computer maker Apple and graphics chip producer NVIDIA, regarding their current agreement. It seems that NVIDIA was being "arrogant", according to Stuff.tv, and they may have been sent packing for the next three or four years.

Only last year, Steve Jobs proudly unveiled the new MacBook Pro line that boasted NVIDIA 8600M GT graphics processors, but as mentioned, they may already have had their turn. AppleInsider have said that, "[the chips being dropped] would start with iMacs and MacBooks based on Intel's Nehalem processor architecture, the tipsters say, but would get progressively wider as time goes on." It hasn't been officially confirmed that this will happen or any other details about it but if this is true, expect some more information shortly.

It is speculated that this may have been due to the problems that Apple laptops have had with the aforementioned chip sets; they are known to have an anomaly which renders them useless over time, due to heat trouble -- Apple has had to replace all faulty devices with the issue, and cover them with an extra three years warranty, leading to massive costs. We wouldn't be surprised if this is all true, however; a while back, Apple dropped all usage of ATI (AMD) chips in their Power Mac G4 model when the company released their MacWorld plans a day early. Regardless, we'll see what happens soon.

Enjoy!

iPhone 3.1 firmware beta build 7C97D seeded to developers

Apple has released a beta build 7C97d of iPhone OS 3.1 to its developers today.

Although there is no official change log yet (as this is a first beta) we have installed the update on a 3G and 3GS here in the Neowin office and it's noticeably faster moving around the OS. We are still tinkering around trying to find further changes but rumour has it this update is getting pumped out to address some battery issues that users have been complaining about over at the Apple iPhone discussion forums. Early indications show that the tethering hack we detailed earlier this month does work correctly. We will update the list below with our findings.

What's new?

• Faster boot up
• Tethering hack still working
• When you hold your finger on an App to move its position, the phone physically vibrates prior to wiggling the icons.

Asus Crosshair III Formula motherboard review

Roughly a year ago we reviewed the Asus Crosshair II Formula, based on the Nvidia nForce 780a SLI chipset. This board provided those who were brave enough to pick up a Phenom processor with a stable platform that sported a number of impressive features such as Triple-SLI. At the time we said the Crosshair II Formula was a well designed motherboard that was let down by a power hungry chipset and sub-par processors.

But AMD managed to turn things around when they released the Phenom II X4 with models clocked at 2.8GHz and 3.0GHz. And now with the Phenom II X4 955 in their arsenal, AMD is finally starting to look like they mean business.

Now after much anticipation AMD has a processor that really deserves a quality high-end motherboard. The new Crosshair III Formula dumps the Nvidia chipset for the popular AMD 790FX and as a result drops SLI support for CrossFireX. This latest Asus motherboard comes stocked with just about everything in traditional ROG (Republic Of Gamers) fashion.

View: Asus Crosshair III Formula motherboard review

These reviews are brought to Neowin visitors through a partnership with TechSpot.

Acer to surpass Dell as the second biggest PC company

Dell has long been a massive player in the computer retailing industry, second only to Hewlett-Packard (or HP to you youngsters), but it appears that they're about to be surpassed by someone quite unexpected. That's right; according to the NY Times (registration required), Acer is set up to become the second biggest PC vendor on the planet.

This is surprising for a number of reasons. Firstly, Acer is based in Taiwan; they'll be the first non-US manufacturer to reach that high in US sales, as Dell and HP are both firmly American. PC industry analyst and president of a consultancy named Endpoint Technologies Associates, Roger Kay, stated, "That is a big achievement, and they have beaten the odds. Acer is a real comer." As the NY Times points out, Acer has often worked with retailers, as opposed to competing against them; it certainly shows in their profits. Over the past two quarters, Dell's revenue from PC sales has fallen by about 30%... a pretty huge fall. HP have seen losses, at around 19%, but Acer has only been hit for around about 8% lost.

Acer has the benefits of being able to choose from whichever manufacturer they like, in order to get the lowest prices possible. As you can hopefully figure out for yourself, this is certainly a wondrous thing to have in the excuse for an economy we have today. In fact, the economy was actually apparently benefitting to Acer's rise to glory; during this recession, they have focused on building low cost netbooks. Dell has stuck to trying to sell regular computers, which is why they've sunk down a bit... people aren't looking to spend thousands on their next machine when they can get something cheaper that is usually just as good.

As it stands, Dell was sitting on 13.6% market share in the first quarter, and Acer had 11.6%; the former falling from 15% since last year, and the latter rising from 10.9%, of course. We'll see how this plays out by the end of the year.

HTC announces another Android handset, the HTC Hero

If you are in the market for an Android based handset, but felt that the HTC Dream and Magic didn't have the features you desired, the new Hero announced by HTC might just be the one for you.

Earlier Android devices lacked some pretty important features, and HTC is looking to make up for it by incorporating them into the Hero. Some of the highlights of this device are:

• First Android handset with Adobe Flash out of the box:
  The Hero is, according to HTC, "the first Android phone to ship with support for Adobe® Flash® Platform technology". What this means is that you can finally view most flash based content, such as streaming media, without the need for third-party applications.
  
  According to David Wadhwani, vice president and general manager, Platform Business Unit at Adobe, "the new HTC Hero represents a key milestone for Android and the Flash Platform. With close to 80 percent of all videos online delivered with Adobe Flash technology, consumers want to access rich Web content on-the-go."
  
  Head here, for a demo of Flash on the HTC Hero.

• New user interface, the Sense UI:
  HTC is known for employing their fantastic TouchFLO interface on Windows Mobile smartphones, such as the HTC Touch and Touch Pro, to make Windows Mobile much more intuitive. Useful applications and rich animations are also thrown in to make the interface more appealing to the user.
  
  Although the Android OS is pretty intuitive on its own, HTC decided to try its hand at recreating the TouchFLO interface on it. They call this new interface the 'Sense UI' and features many of the popular widgets, applications and rich animations found on the TouchFLO interface.
  
  For those currently using the Dream or Magic, HTC says that they will make the Sense UI available to them soon.

• Capacitive touch screen that supports multi-touch:
  This is something that users have been clamouring for on the HTC Dream and Magic. Android can handle multi-touch, but the feature is disabled due to the risk of infringing Apple's patents. Since the Android OS used in the Hero is heavily modified by HTC, and due to the nature of these modifications, the device does not come with a "with Google" tag found on the HTC Dream and Magic.

• Teflon coating and oleophobic screen:
  The HTC Hero features a Teflon coating on its white coloured model and a oleophobic screen. These coatings help combat one of the more serious problems handset users (both touch and non-touch devices) face, finger print smudges. The oleophobic coating on the screen used on the Hero is more or less similar the one being used on the recently announced iPhone 3G S. In fact, Gizmodo thinks that the quality of the materials used on the Hero might have surpassed those used on the iPhone.

• 3.5 mm audio jack and a 5 megapixel camera with auto-focus:
  The 3.5 mm audio jack is one of those features which many feel should have been included in earlier handsets, but weren't. But it is better late than never as HTC finally incorporates the standard headset jack on the Hero, allowing you to utilise your own pair of headphones without using an adapter or a proprietary pair of headphones. The camera specs have also been bumped, with the new Hero rocking a 5 MP camera.

Here are the Hero's other specs:

• HSPDA with up to 2 Mbps up-link and 7.2 Mbps down-link speeds
• Quad band
• Wi-fi
• Bluetooth
• 3.2 inch, 320X480 resolution screen
• External USB port
• GPS with digital compass
• G-Sensor
• SD Card slot

The Hero runs on a Qualcomm® MSM7200A™ 528 MHz processor with 288 MB of RAM.





As for pricing, interested parties can get the device for for free with a contract from T-Mobile UK. However, there is no word as to which mobile operator will carry the device in the United States.

The HTC Hero will face some competition from Samsung's I7500 Android handset.

Update: According to rumors, HTC Dream and Magic users may not be able to get into the Sense UI action after all, due to some licensing issues.

Super Talent Releases New MasterDrive SX SSDs Aimed For Ultimate Performance And Reliability

The global leading maker of Flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, Super Talent has released a new family of MasterDrive SX 2.5-inch SATA-II SSDs that feature 8-channel architecture combined with 128MB of DRAM cache, supporting up to 220 MB/sec of sequential read speeds and up to 200 MB/sec of sequential write speeds, based on MLC NAND Flash chips, aiming to deliver ultimate performance and reliability.

According to Super Talent, the MasterDrive SX sips a 0.5 watt of power in read mode, and 0.15 watts while idle, thanks to its low power efficiency.

“We developed the MasterDrive SX series to offer extreme reliability at an aggressive price point that makes sense for mobile professionals and enthusiasts,” said Joe James, Director of Marketing, Super Talent. “Moreover, these drives boast power efficiency and write speeds that few SSDs can match.”

The Super Talent’s MasterDrive SX SSDs which measures 100.2 x 69.9 x 9.5 mm are now available in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB memory capacities.

Intel explains new Core i3, i5 and i7 CPU branding

On Wednesday, Intel posted a statement on their website explaining how their branding will look in the future; as CNET reports, the hardware company will be splitting their Core CPU range into three categories: i3, i5 and i7, each different tiers of performance.

As you can imagine, the new Core i3 range will be the lower performance, the i5 will be mid-range, and the i7 will be reserved for maximum speed. Intel spokesman Bill Calder did say, however, that, "it is important to note that these are not brands but modifiers to the Intel Core brand that signal different features and benefits." The upcoming desktop chip, code-named Lynnfield, will fit into either the i5 or i7 category, according to CNET, and the Clarksfield mobile chip will be an i7 CPU.

In the same announcement, Intel revealed that the Centrino brand will be phased out; it will now be used for Wi-Fi and WiMAX. It's worth noting that computers will still be available with Centrino brand processors next year, but they aren't far off from being discontinued. So, this aside, when should this new branding be ready for use? The vice president and director of corporate marketing at Intel, Deborah Conrad, said, "In the back half of this year you'll begin to see Core i5 and more Core i7s coming to market. Then by the first part of next year you'll begin to see Core i3, and i5, i7. Then the old names will get retired as those products get phased out."

To finish their announcement, Intel mentioned other branding too, saying, "We will still have Celeron for entry-level computing at affordable price points, Pentium for basic computing, and of course the Intel Atom processor for all these new devices ranging from netbooks to smartphones. or PC purchasing, think in terms of good-better-best with Celeron being good, Pentium better, and the Intel Core family representing the best we have to offer. We are focusing our strategy around a primary 'hero' client brand which is Intel Core. Today the Intel Core brand has a mind boggling array of derivatives (such as Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad, etc). Over time those will go away and in its place will be a simplified family of Core processors."

Be prepared to see a lot of branding of Intel products shift around over the next year or two, with older products still available at the same time as new ones.

Intel explains new Core i3, i5 and i7 CPU branding

On Wednesday, Intel posted a statement on their website explaining how their branding will look in the future; as CNET reports, the hardware company will be splitting their Core CPU range into three categories: i3, i5 and i7, each different tiers of performance.

As you can imagine, the new Core i3 range will be the lower performance, the i5 will be mid-range, and the i7 will be reserved for maximum speed. Intel spokesman Bill Calder did say, however, that, "[it is] important to note that these are not brands but modifiers to the Intel Core brand that signal different features and benefits." The upcoming desktop chip, code-named Lynnfield, will fit into either the i5 or i7 category, according to CNET, and the Clarksfield mobile chip will be an i7 CPU.

In the same announcement, Intel revealed that the Centrino brand will be phased out; it will now be used for Wi-Fi and WiMAX. It's worth noting that computers will still be available with Centrino brand processors next year, but they aren't far off from being discontinued. So, this aside, when should this new branding be ready for use? The vice president and director of corporate marketing at Intel, Deborah Conrad, said, ""In the back half of this year you'll begin to see Core i5 and more Core i7s coming to market. Then by the first part of next year you'll begin to see Core i3, and i5, i7. Then the old names will get retired as those products get phased out."

To finish their announcement, Intel mentioned other branding too, saying, "We will still have Celeron for entry-level computing at affordable price points, Pentium for basic computing, and of course the Intel Atom processor for all these new devices ranging from netbooks to smartphones. or PC purchasing, think in terms of good-better-best with Celeron being good, Pentium better, and the Intel Core family representing the best we have to offer. We are focusing our strategy around a primary 'hero' client brand which is Intel Core. Today the Intel Core brand has a mind boggling array of derivatives (such as Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad, etc). Over time those will go away and in its place will be a simplified family of Core processors."

Be prepared to see a lot of branding of Intel products shift around over the next year or two, with older products still available at the same time as new ones.

Samsung unveils the first 32GB DDR3 RAM module

Technology just keeps on increasing at a fairly speedy rate, and the glorious folks at Samsung are here to help us along with the next improvement; according to I4U, they have just revealed their latest RAM module, this one packing a modest 32GB.

The memory is DDR3, as mentioned, and is actually designed for servers; it's constructed using Samsung 50nm 4Gb DDR3 chips, and operates at 1.35 volts, whilst supporting the trend of keeping data center power usage to a minimum. I4U states that these modules manage to reduce power consumption by 20%, when up against 1.5V DDR3 modules, which can save a vast amount of money when you consider the size of data centers. It is mentioned that these modules are made up of a hefty 72 4Gb DDR3 chips that we mentioned before, which get lined up in sets of nine quad-die packaged 16Gb DDR3 chips, placed on each side of the module.

Unfortunately, pricing has not been released for these modules, nor has any information about a desktop or laptop variety, but according to Engadget, they're in the works as we speak (in an 8GB DIMM form, they say).