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HardwareSoftware

Microsoft wants to get into this PC lark

It has heard it is a money spinner

Software giant Microsoft is not the best at picking where the industry is going, it missed the Internet and failed to get into mobile so the news that it is thinking of getting into the PC hardware business just as it is dying is not surprising.

Redmond has been trying to make hardware a bit more of a priority lately and been making some good calls with its Surface Pro line of tablets and Surface Book laptop. However word on the street is that these are just the tip of Redmond’s PC iceburg and it is going push its own desktops.

To be fair, it is not an ordinary desktop, it is one of those new-fangled all-in-ones which analysts thick could be the next big thing. Dubbed the Surface AIO it will be part of Microsoft’s Surface range.

This is not the first time we have heard rumours. Digitimes mentioned that Microsoft would introduce a Surface desktop PC “in the third quarter of 2016 at the earliest” and we didn’t bother reporting it because we thought it unlikely [sorry Digitimes].

The three-in-one will be based around Chipzilla’s Kaby Lake 14-nanometer processors so much depends on when Intel can get them to Microsoft.

Still putting such an item on the market when the PC industry is still in its free fall of doom is very brave of Microsoft. And the outfit could actually do its bit to save the industry if it does that one thing that the likes of Apple have failed to do – give the punters something new.

If Surface AIO is an updated, consumer-level version of the PixelSense, the company’s attempt at a touch-centric tabletop computing device it would be just that. In fact anything but a grey box and Microsoft could be onto a winner.

Autore: Fudzilla.com – Home

Categorie
HardwareSoftware

Ecco Skype Meetings, per le piccole imprese

Microsoft ha lanciato quest’oggi Skype Meetings, applicazione pensata per le piccole e medie imprese.
Si tratta di un client per la messaggistica istantanea oltre che un software per effettuare chiamate vocali e videochiamate, appositamente studiato per la collaborazione fra colleghi.

Skype Meetings è una versione ridotta della nota soluzione Skype for Business.
Quest’ultima, infatti, permette di coinvolgere fino a 250 persone e si lega a doppio filo con Outlook, Word e PowerPoint.
Skype Meetings, invece, offre il supporto per il solo PowerPoint oltre alla condivisione dello schermo. Per i primi due mesi possono collegarsi fino a 10 utenti; successivamente il limite viene portato a 3 collaboratori.

Ecco Skype Meetings, per le piccole imprese

Per Skype Meetings viene utilizzata la stessa tecnologia alla base del funzionamento di Skype for Business: gli utenti possono collegarsi da qualunque dispositivo sfruttando un URL personalizzato.

Durante le videoconferenze, è possibile fare in modo che la testa del relatore sia sempre in primo piano (funzionalità head tracking).

Per provare Skype Meetings è possibile fare riferimento a questa pagina.

Autore: IlSoftware.it

Categorie
HardwareSoftware

Western Digital Expands My Passport External USB 3.0 Drives To 4 TB

Western Digital last week introduced several new members to its My Passport family of external hard drives. The new portable external HDDs can store up to 4 TB of data, an improvement over previous-gen portable storage solutions from the company. The new drives are based on the WD’s new 2.5”/13.5 mm HDD platform which uses high-capacity platters.

Like the other Western Digital’s My Passport HDDs, the new models feature a USB 3.0 interface and come with automatic WD Backup software. The drives also have hardware AES-256 encryption. As for visual aesthetics, the design of the new 4 TB My Passport drives remained the same as that of the latest generation.

While the update looks fairly regular, it is important what is inside these new 4 TB drives. Western Digital traditionally does not disclose a lot of technical specifications of its external HDDs, such as spindle speeds or cache sizes. However, what the company did confirm is that the new My Passport 4 TB HDDs are based on 2.5”/13.5 mm hard drives featuring four 1 TB platters. We believe these should be based on either PMR or SMR technology. 2.5” SMR platters of such capacities are not something brand new in general because Seagate has been using them for several months but it would be noteworthy if Western Digital has started to use them for commercial products. Besides, the company has a platform that can house four of such platters, thus enabling 4 TB 2.5”/13.5 mm HDDs.

List of WD’s My Passport Drives with 4 TB Capacity
Brand   Model Interface Compatibility Color
My Passport Ultra WDBBKD0040BBK USB
3.0/2.0
Windows/Mac Black
WDBBKD0040BBL Blue
WDBBKD0040BWT White
WDBBKD0040BBY Purple
My Passport Ultra Metal WDBEZW0040BSL Silver
WDBEZW0040BBA Blue
My Passport for Mac WDBCGL0040BSL Silver/Black

Western Digital stresses that it has not announced any internal 4 TB 2.5”/13.5 mm hard drives for consumer or other devices, which is perhaps not surprising given that mainstream notebooks use 7 mm and 9.5 mm drives. Nonetheless, formally Western Digital has the highest-capacity commercial 2.5”/13.5 mm HDD on the planet. Last year Seagate released its Samsung Spinpoint M10P HDD 4 TB HDD in 2.5″/15 mm form-factor, which has been exclusively used inside the Samsung M3 and P3 portable external hard drives.

Western Digital’s new My Passport Ultra 4 TB external HDD is already available from the company’s online store and from select retailers and distributors for $ 159.99. Next quarter the company plans to start selling its more expensive My Passport Ultra Metal and My Passport for Mac external HDDs with 4 TB capacity.

Categorie
HardwareSoftware

G.Skill releases software update for KM780/KM780R keyboards

Brings new features and more color options

G.Skill has released a major software update for its Ripjaws KM780 and KM780R RGB series mechanical gaming keyboards which bring plenty of new features including more color customization options.

The new software update brings extended color palette which now includes the full range of 16.8 million RGB colors as well as an option to exporting, sharing or importing the keyboard profile. Another update is that the responsive lighting effects, like Ripple and Reactive, can now be used to enable a second layer of per-key lighting.

The rest of the changes include the expansion of individual RGB customizations for the top row of special function and media keys, an increase of key brightness from four to five levels and various other optimizations for lighting effects which will now have smoother color transitions.

As always, the new software versions can be found over at G.Skill’s website.

gskill KM780softwareupdate 1

Autore: Fudzilla.com – Home

Categorie
HardwareSoftware

RX 480: AMD risolverà a breve i problemi di consumi

Alla fine della scorsa settimana AMD ha confermato l’esistenza di un problema di consumi sulla sua nuova scheda video RX 480.
I test hanno evidenziato che la RX 480 assorbe, per tramite della scheda madre, più energia di quanto non sia raccomandato.

Con un aggiornamento software che arriverà tra giovedì e venerdì, la RX 480 non consumerà più di 75 W dallo slot PCIe della scheda madre mentre assorbirà ulteriore energia, quando necessario, direttamente dall’alimentatore.

RX 480: AMD risolverà a breve i problemi di consumi

Secondo i tecnici di AMD, l’aggiornamento 16.7.1 del software Radeon permetterà anche un miglioramento delle performance quantificabile nell’ordine del 3%.

Autore: IlSoftware.it