Asustek Computer has released Asustek BC-1205PT Blu-ray drive, its next generation high-speed DVD rewriter. The drive is capable of writing data at 12X DVD+/- write, 4X DVD+/-R (dual layer) and 5X DVD-RAM speeds.

Asustek BC-1205PT utilizes a SATA interface and offers users with five times faster data transmission rates compared to DMA33 standards.

Users can access Blu-ray media at data transmission speeds of up to 4.5MB/s, which is roughly triple the speed of standard DVD transmission. Asustek BC-1205PT Blu-ray drive has some unique features like DDSS2 (Double Dynamic Suspension System 2) that reduces vibration caused by the spindle motor and resonance between components, Liquid Crystal Tilt that enhance the pick up head accuracy during recording and playback of discs and Smart Laser Driver for stable recording quality. There are no announcements about pricing and availability.

Great news for laptop users with the launch of the new high-end Intel Core 2 Extreme X7800 processor. It’s the first laptop CPU in the Extreme Edition brand to bring a lot of goods in one small and expensive chip. It runs at 2.6GHz with a 4MB L2 cache and an 800MHz front-side bus.

I know many will think of it as the perfect tunning processor and I say the same, because Intel just took the over-speed protection off. This is just like an invitation to overclock the X7800, but keep in mind that you’re the only one responsible if anything bad happens. Apart the 28% speed boost above the Core Duo T2600, Intel Core 2 Extreme X7800 has two new appreciated features: Enhanced Deep Sleep, consuming less power when the system is idle, and Advanced Media Boost so that you can edit your videos, images or music faster and better. The price is really steep, $851.

Prepare your dollars, because in about two weeks we get to see Core 2 Extreme X7800 processors live. I suspect it won’t be better than a Core 2 Duo ($300 cheaper) and I wonder if it’s going to be a MacBook Pros we’ll see it in!

Source

Hitachi has released a new line of personal USB storage products. The two products can be viewed in the picture below.

The first one is the Portable USB Storage, which is a small and sleek USB hard drive. The second one is the External USB Storage hard drive suitable for high capacities. This one features a back-up button for music, movies and for your precious data. It can store up to 1TB(terabyte). You could choose lower versions of 750GB or 500GB.

Portable USB Storage is a poket-like HDD, but with huge capacity: 250GB, 200GB and 160GB. It doesn’t feature a separate power adapter, as it uses the USB cable for power.

To give you an idea what to do with such a big hard drive, here is a table from Hitachi:

[via EveryThingUSB]

What the hell is that?! Easy my friend, I will present you the future successor of HDTV. A Japanese company, called NHK, has demonstrate at the Science and Technical Research Laboratories, in Tokyo, that the Super Hi-Vision television is the future of today’s HDTV systems.

NHK’s engineers have presented a prototype image sensor that can offer a Super Hi-Vision resolution of 7680 by 4320. This progress on Super Hi-Vision will produce the replacement of today’s HDTV devices. Also, NHK has presented a Super Hi-Vision camera that can capture a live monochrome video image at 7680×4320 resolution. A prototype Super Hi-Vision encoder can encode a 24-gbps video signal to a 128-mbps MPEG4 AVC stream in real time using 16 encoders in parallel.

All in all, I would say the progress is outstanding. We’ve just entered the HDTV era and NHK has developed the next generation television. But, hey, the science don’t stop!

[Credits: PC World]

Many of us expected to get news on AMD’s new R600 graphics since we know the king so far is GeForce 8800 GTX. But surprise, the guys at Bit-Tech already had their hands on a GeForce 8800 Ultra and did some tests that always got the highest results. That could be fair for an $800 graphic card which they proved to be the “fastest graphics card on the planet” even if it’s just an overclocked version of the Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX.

Because it’s been two generations with no Ultra versions, this new model will make people want it even more because the release date for the public is May 15th. So if you will read the review now you can just dream of it until it will be available.

Nvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra review

The 8800 Ultra is obviously built on the GeForce 8800 GTX model but with a faster clock speed and some manufacturing tweaks. It has 128 1D scalar stream processors just like the GTX, but the shader ALU is clocked at 1500MHz now instead of 1350MHz for the GTX, which is an 11-percent increased core frequency.

Eight clusters of 16 shader processors share four texture address units and eight texture filtering units. The texture units run at 612MHz on the new Nvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra, and on 575MHz on GTX which is a 6.4-percent increase. Just like the texture units the ROPs (render backend) and the set up engine run at 612MHz, too.

There are a lot to talk about and you can get to read the full in-depth review on Bit-Tech. - ALEX ION

Prepare yourself to get your computer a makeover with the stylish new products Philips just unveiled. A wireless keyboard and four new mice featuring gorgeous designs are now ready for your computers.

Offering a four-way scroll wheel is included in all the 4 new mice: 1 wireless notebook mouse, 2 wired desktop mice and a wireless desktop mouse. Additionally, the SPT5701 desktop set offers a wireless keyboard with a wireless mouse featuring a 7 month battery life due to the included power management.

As an extra feature the wireless keyboard is also equipped with drainage holes to avoid damage due to accidental spills of liquids. According to Philips, the new products will be available starting May 2007 in Asia Pacific and US. - Marius TRUSCULESCU -

The Razer design team has manage to outdone itself and release another stylish cool device. This time is the Pro|Type keyboard that is more than a good looking accessory to any computer.

The $129.99 keyboard includes the usual volume controls, programmable keys but audio I/O connectors are also present together with 2 USB ports (one of them being gold-plated). However that is not all as the Razer Pro|Type also can serve as an an iPod dock, and two dock adapters are also provided.

- Marius TRUSCULESCU -

Asus today announced it will release its new EN8600 GTS graphics card bundled with the “S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadows of Chernobyl” game. One of the most anticipated FPS (first person shooter) games in history, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has been postponed several times in the past years, but gamers now have the option of enjoying the details with the newly announced graphics card.

Based on the GeForce 8600GTS graphical engine, the Asus card incorporates 256 MB of high speed DDR3 128 bit memory. The GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) processor is running at 675 MHz, while the memory is clocked at 2 GHz, but overclocking is also possible for experience gamers who want to squeeze more power out of the card. Customers also have the option of connecting two of this graphics cards in SLI mode to achieve better results.

With such a graphics card HD content is also supported trough the HDTV-out, while Dual DVI supporting two 3840 x 2400 @ 30Hz resolution displays being also available together with the common VGA and TV-out connections.- Marius TRUSCULESCU

[More details at Asus]