Asus intros next-generation Motherboards

I was able to attend the ASUS Technical Seminar in Singapore where leading motherboard-manufacturer showcased their next-generation motherboards that will support the upcoming Intel processors code-named “Sandy Bridge”. It was just a half-day event but I think I already consumed all the geeky stuff my brain can handle in a year.

The 2nd generation Core i3/i5/i7 processors (6-series chipsets) will be released early next year and with it comes a requirement for the new LGA-1155 socket motherboard and this is what ASUS revealed in the seminar.

The upcoming ASUS P67 motherboards will have the latest tools and features that will help you maximize your processor. They come in a variety of designs, from the micro-ATX form-factor (P8H67-I Deluxe) motherboard, the Sabretooth P67 and its military-grade components to their flagship model, the Maximus IV Extreme.

These new motherboards are already equipped with a lot of fancy features: DIGI+ VRM, Dual Intelligent Processors (EPU + TPU), EFI BIOS, USB 3.0 ready (new Intel chipsets don’t have it so it’s up to motherboards to have an off-chip controller for USB 3.0 support) and a set of handy utilities on its AI Suite.

Allow me to briefly discuss some of the new set of features you can find in these motherboards in a not-so-geeky way.

DIGI+ VRM. Ok, I can’t really explain this without getting too technical unless you want to hear about spread spectrum and phase switching. But basically, it’s just a digital controller that will give your system precise adjustment depending on the load for stability and power efficiency.

EPU. This is one half of the dual intelligent processor that will ensure that your system is running on energy saving mode when power is not required. This onboard processor can control the GPUs, CPU, fan, HDD, chipset and memory to lengthen their lifespan. Of course, you can choose to override the controls if you want to.

TPU. This is another on-board processor that allows for fast and easy overclock tuning. Think of it as a controllable Turbo Boost which is an inherent feature on the Intel Core i5 and up. Safe and easy overclocking outside the BIOS.

EFI BIOS. This is just a mouse-driven user BIOS interface that will replace the boring, keyboard-driven 20-year old BIOS program. I’m not sure how helpful this is to the common folk but this will be a boon for the over-clockers out there. You can also take a screenshot with your BIOS setting now instead of using a camera to take a photo.

USB 3.0. USB 3.0 is the next step for faster file transfer yet Intel didn’t include the support on their new processors. Fortunately, ASUS has an onboard controller to support USB 3.0 devices including a front panel box which fits on the floppy disk bay for more USB 3.0 ports.

The new P67 motherboards are fully-loaded with more features. A 3TB HDD Unlocker to maximize the space on 3TB hard drives, 3-Way SLI / CrossfireX, SATA III ports, and iPhone apps that allow you to control your media player or to overclock your system wirelessly.

ASUS really takes pride on their motherboards and this early announcement of the new P67s shows the commitment they have in keeping up to date with the latest technology out there. Even though some of the motherboard features won’t be of use to you, ASUS make sure that there’s one that will fit your needs by offering different versions for different market segments.

 

*via: YugaTech

Globe mulls over LTE for Mobile Broadband

Globe Telecom and NEC have been testing LTE (Long Term Evolution) in the Philippines as early as May this year and based on successful field results, it could be the telecom’s next upgrade path to provide better and faster mobile broadband services.

3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE), is the latest standard in the mobile network technology tree that produced the GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSxPA network technologies.

Their trials achieved a peak rate of around 60Mbps downlink data throughput rate at the 10MHz bandwidth.

Globe began the trial of LTE technology early this year in partnership with NEC Corporation. Following the lab tests in May at the Globe 3G LTE test bed at the Valero Technopark in Makati, Globe and NEC conducted field trials in Quezon City as part of Phase 1 of this project. The Phase 1 field trial verified a variety of LTE functions such as quality of service; latency and hand-over within urban areas were tested as these are required for commercial use of the technology.

Was invited to see the testing but was unable to go. However, they sent me this screenshot of a test file transfer via Filezilla.

The graph with the red spikes above reads a sustained speed of 52Mbps.

The DU Meter above shows an average speed of 46Mbps downstream and just under 1Mbps for upstream. The upstream speed doesn’t look anything impressive though.

<img style=”visibility:hidden;width:0px;height:0px;” border=0 width=0 height=0 src=”http://counters.gigya.com/wildfire/IMP/CXNID=2000002.0NXC/bT*xJmx*PTEyODk4ODEwMzY4ODQmcHQ9MTI4OTg4MjA1MjQwOSZwPTEwMTkxJmQ9c3NfZW1iZWQmZz*yJm89MWIyMWJiY2Y1MDE1/NGMzMDgxYjM5YTI3MWNlNjNlOTAmb2Y9MA==.gif” /><div style=”width:425px” id=”__ss_5764411″><strong style=”display:block;margin:12px 0 4px”><a href=”http://www.slideshare.net/yuga/technology-briefing-11-nov2010mediakit-1″ title=”Technology briefing 11 nov2010_media_kit (1)”>Technology briefing 11 nov2010_media_kit (1)</a></strong><object id=”__sse5764411″ width=”425″ height=”355″><param name=”movie” value=”http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=technologybriefing11nov2010mediakit1-101113011046-phpapp02&stripped_title=technology-briefing-11-nov2010mediakit-1&userName=yuga” /><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”/><param name=”allowScriptAccess” value=”always”/><embed name=”__sse5764411″ src=”http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=technologybriefing11nov2010mediakit1-101113011046-phpapp02&stripped_title=technology-briefing-11-nov2010mediakit-1&userName=yuga” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”355″></embed></object><div style=”padding:5px 0 12px”>View more <a href=”http://www.slideshare.net/”>presentations</a> from <a href=”http://www.slideshare.net/yuga”>yuga</a>.</div></div>

Globe reports that as of end September 2010, their broadband subscriber base grew by 95% to reach 1,006,460, nearly double the 517,355 broadband subscribers reported in the same period last year. As the number of broadband users in the Philippines hit critical mass, we might see more focus on speed soon when capacity has been optimized by the telcos.

 

*via: YugaTech

LG & Nokia Sale: The Aftermath

By this time, both the LG Optimus One and the Nokia C6 sale are both over and we’ve got multiple reports from various locations about how it went down. Estimates put hundreds to thousands of people lined up for both sale.

Our ground correspondents tell us there were a lot of people who were in the malls even before the gates were opened. Here’s a photo of the line in there today.

People were running from floor to floor just to line up for each of the sale. As expected, the events were disorganized and for the lack of a better term, chaotic. At the end of the sale, people were booing and shouting to boycott LG.

Unfortunately, only an estimated 20 to 30 people were able to buy the Optimus One per location in the one-hour window. We’re still getting numbers for the Nokia C6 but I imagine it will be like double that number for the 2-hour period.

Share us your experience below if you were there today.

 

*via: YugaTech

Philippines beat China, India in Net Speeds

There are promised internet speeds by ISPs and there are real internet speeds that consumers actually experience. In a set of data from Akamai, the top 50 countries with the most internet users were ranked based on the average connection speeds.

With an average download speed of 0.9Mbps, the Philippines bested China (0.86Mbps) and India (0.82Mbps).

It was not a surprise that South Korea topped the list at 16.63Mbps followed by Hong Kong (8.57Mbps) and Japan (8.03Mbps). Singapore did not made it to the list since it did not have enough internet users in the global top 50.

Come to think of it, a national average of 0.9Mbps doesn’t seem so bad. Malaysia gets 1.19Mbps, Vietnam has 1.73Mbps, Thailand is 2.90Mbps and Indonesia gets a measly 0.63Mbps.

You can read the full report here.

 

*via: YugaTech

Macbook Air 11.6″ gets unboxed!

So the first batch of the new Macbook Air 11.6″ arrived early this week in all Apple Reseller Stores and we spared no time to get our hands into one of these babies. See un-boxing photos and first impressions after the jump.

I originally wanted to get it in SG since I was supposed to go there for a media coverage yesterday but due to visa issues with my Japan trip in two weeks, I wasn’t able to go (sent Calvin there instead to do the coverage). Dale, our special assignments contributor, also went to HK for some shopping and tells me the entry-level Mac Air sells for around Php46,000 there.

Fortunately, we found a local source that was able to give us a really nice deal at Php45k for straight cash purchase. Pretty good deal considering the SRP is Php52k.

So, on to the unboxing of the new Macbook Air 11.6″.

I’ve been a fan of the 11.6″ and 12.1″ ultraportables since last year with the MSI Wind U2xx series, the Acer Timeline and the Asus UL series. The Sony Vaio X was drool-worthy but being Atom-powered, and a Z-series at that, I felt they were a bit under-powered.

I’ve recently purchased a Core i3 ultraportable, the Asus UL20FT (review coming up this week-end), as an upgrade to the Core 2 Duo SU7300 1.3GHz of the Acer Timeline but the 3 to 4 hours battery life left me wanting. The Timeline really spoiled me with a 5 to 6 hours battery life.

So when the 11.6″ Macbook Air was announced, I thought this could be the closest fit to what I am looking for in an ultraportable. It’s super thin and super light, has pretty decent processing power and a 5-hour battery life I’m satisfied with. From my usage since yesterday, the claimed 5 hours of battery life is true and maybe I can even stretch it by lowering the screen brightness.

The new Air is pretty impressive at first glance — the thin and light form-factor gets very high scores and to think that it has an aluminum unibody adds to that great engineering feat.

The base configuration of a Core 2 Duo SU9400 running at 1.4GHz and a 2GB RAM is pretty decent and, based from experience, is already a good combination of a performance yet power-saving system. Add the embedded SSD into the mix and you get a very snappy system that boots very fast, launches applications in a jiffy and goes from sleep to wake in under a second.

The full keyboard comes with chiclet-style keys, standard for all Macbook, and the large trackpad are all comfy and easy to use. The entire trackpad is also the button so that need some time to get used to. The power button is also at the top right corner so I get confused it with the Delete button oftentimes.

The one big concern with the unit is the limited amount of storage space. Using SSD is great but that also limits capacity due to the expensive parts. The base config only has 64GB in it so if you’re carrying a lot of photos, music and videos, that will eat it up in no time. The 2nd variant comes with 128GB but at Php10k more.

Most logical and affordable solution is to bring an external storage for the large files (fortunately, I still have that 750GB My Passport that WD gave to me lying around).

My only other personal concern is the OS actually. It will take some time to get used to OS X and learn the ropes, find and use alternative softwares (anybody knows of a good SSH client for Mac similar to putty?). I would not really be a full-time switcher since I’ll still be using my old and trusty Window machines.

Over-all, the new Macbook Air is very promising. The combination of a smaller form-factor and above-average battery life makes it a good option for a walk-around laptop. The price-point has also gone down considerably since the first time the Air was introduced. You will no longer be burning holes in your pocket. Just one.

 

*via: YugaTech