Security is a hot topic on many levels these days. We want eyes and ears everywhere. So whether you need your building secured, your office monitored for theft or need some camera protecting at home with in the far end of the scope ... monitor your baby remotely to see if the person taking care of him/her is doing the job adequately, there are solutions out there. One of the company's jumping onto that trend is Compro, in the past their focus was TV/Media capture products yet as the market shifted, so did their product offering. They are trying to get a foothold in the security camera industry, however for a part target consumers. Recently they release a the IP70, it's a security camera that really looks like a big webcam. The difference is that this is a Megapixel camera that offers much better quality then what you are use to. It's also an IP camera, meaning that you simply hook it into your network, lookup the IP of the camera access it and voilla, you'll have a fully functional camera in your browser.

Over at this weeks IDF AMD was closeby to the Intel event with a mini press event, one of the more interesting demonstrations is a comparison between an unreleased FX-Series processor and some Intel Core CPUs.

AMD hasn't disclosed the specs of the Bulldozer processor that is used for this comparison, but two different scenarios have been shown to demonstrate the power of its chips.

The first one of these pits an eight-core AMD FX processor against an unspecified Intel Core i5 Sandy Bridge CPU, both systems running Handbrake to convert a 5-minute H.264 video in SD resolution.

According to our Dutch colleagues from Hardware Info, the Bulldozer FX processor performs this task with an average of 223 frames per second, where the Core i5 machine gets 188 fps.

Unfortunately the infotrmation regarding both brand processors is too vague to make any real sense. But core i5 is a quad core processor wheras the FX processor used had eight cores.

Both systems will be comparable in price according to AMD, but yeah Bulldozer requires twice the numbers of cores in this massively threaded application tosurpass an Intel Core i5 by just 20% in a multi-threaded benchmark like Handbrake.

The second scenario has the same FX-Series processor fighting against a Core i7 980X in Dirt 3 at a 2560x1600 resolution, both systems featuring two Radeon HD 6790 cards setup in CrossFire.

The Intel machine finishes this benchmark with an average frame rate of 80.9 fps, while the much cheaper AMD desktop averaged 82.8 fps. Here again a comment I want to make, they choose a very GPU limited resolution.

AMD hasn't made any official statements over the launch date of the first FX-Series processors other than saying these will arrive in Q4 of 2011. Well you may expecty a release in half October.

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more news from Corsair as they are releasing new Vengeance Gaming Headsets.

Corsair, a worldwide designer and supplier of high-performance components to the PC gaming hardware market, today announced their new line of Vengeance PC gaming peripherals, including three new gaming headsets.

"The award-winning Corsair Gaming Series audio products have built a reputation for providing accurate, detailed audio that makes everything from games to music and movies a joy to listen to, as well as creating the situational awareness gamers need for a competitive advantage," said Andy Paul, Corsair's President and CEO. "Our new Vengeance gaming headsets continue that tradition. Everything from the sleek design and the careful choice of materials, to the obsessive focus on audio tuning is dedicated to the goal of providing a compelling experience for PC gamers who are as passionate about sound as they are about winning."

"We're gamers, too. Our Vengeance gaming headsets reflect our desire to build the products we want to use and can't find anywhere else," said Ruben Mookerjee, VP and General Manager of the Components Business Unit at Corsair. "No matter what style of game you play, from FPS to MMO or RTS, you need clear, reliable voice communication, a comfortable design you can wear for hours, and fantastic audio quality. We believe the new Vengeance gaming headsets deliver on every one of these."

Vengeance 1500 and Vengeance 1300 Gaming Headsets: Pure audio reproduction for pure gaming excitement
The Vengeance 1500 and Vengeance 1300 gaming headsets employ circumaural, closed-back earpad designs for immersive audio and long-term comfort. Both feature custom-engineered 50mm drivers and careful acoustic tuning for audiophile-grade sound and accurate 3D positional audio. The high-sensitivity, noise-cancelling cardioid microphone helps ensure effective team play. The Vengeance 1500 connects via USB and delivers 7.1 and 5.1 Dolby® Headphone

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Corsair announced their new line of Vengeance

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Intels Sandy-Bridge-E release is getting closer and more and more manufacturers show of their X79 based motherboard, known as the X79R-AX.

The motherboard features the characteristic ECS look and it sport four DIMM slots that are placed around the LGA 2011 socket.

These work in a quad-channel mode and support DDR3 speeds of up to 2400MHz, depending on the number of DIMM sockets populated (2400MHz is only supported in dual-channel mode).
 
To the left of the memory sockets, ECS has placed four PCI Express x16 slots, which are driven by the 40 lane PCIe controller integrated inside Sandy Bridge-E processors.

Judging from the color coding of the PCI Express x16 slots, only two of these appear to work in x16 mode, while the other have only 8 PCIe lanes routed to them. The motherboard is, however, compatible with both SLI and CrossFireX 4-way GPU setups (The PCIe slots drop to x8 when all are populated).

Other expansion options include a pair of PCI-E x1 slots, eight SATA 6Gbps and four SATA 3Gbps ports and an on-board USB 3.0 pin header for routing two such ports to the chassis' front panel.
 
More USB 3.0 ports are available on the rear I/O panel, where ECS has also installed a Bluetooth radio transmitter, the board's 7.1 channel audio connectors and a Clear CMOS switch.

Two additional Power and reset switches are placed on the board's PCB near a BIOS debug display.

CPU power is delivered by what seems to be a 14-phase PWM, which is cooled by a low-profile heatsink..

Intel's Sandy Bridge-E processors are expected to debut in mid-November 2011 and the initial CPU lineup will include three chips, two featuring a six-core design and a quad-core model. The ECS X79R-AX is also expected to debut in Q4 2011 (via softpedia).

  

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HTC announced the HTC Sensation XE, the first smartphone to benefit from the company

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Today in the Guru3D Audio Lab we have a new set of AXIOM M2 v3 bookshelf speakers to run through our lab. With the new flagship cards such as the Essence series, CL Titanium HD and the Auzentech offerings, putting out great sound, you also need great playback equipment for excellent sound.

Your speakers are just as important as your sound source and as the saying goes; your chain is only as strong as your weakest link. Read the full review right here.

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NetworkWorld reports Windows 8 features a new Blue Screen of Death (BSOD).

After expressing emoticon-style sadness, the new screen reads: Your PC ran into a problem that it couldn't handle, and now it needs to restart.

You can search for the error online: HAL_INITIALIZATION_FAILED One could argue that it is the Microsoft operating system that failed, not your PC, but let's not quibble.

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Microsoft announced that the Metro version of the Internet Explorer 10 browser in Windows 8 will be plug-in free. The desktop version will still support plug-ins but the news is likely another nail in the coffin of Flash as most web developers will want to make sure that their sites run on all platforms. More details at Building Windows 8.

Running Metro style IE plug-in free improves battery life as well as security, reliability, and privacy for consumers. Plug-ins were important early on in the web

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MSi is apparantly working on MSI's Voice Genie, a PCIe x1 card that enables you to control your PC with your voice. BSN reports that for instance, to turn the computer on, user needs to say "MSI Big Bang Power On", and to shut it down the user only needs to say "Power Off MSI Big Bang" (in case of MSI's Big Bang motherboard).

You can also "Open Control Panel", "Open Browser" and customize the commands. For instance, you can start the computer with a customized theme such as "Open thyself Sesame" or "Warp One Engage", but bear in mind that shutting the computer down will require a reverse order of words (hence the MSI Big Bang Power On - Power Off MSI Big bang).

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Intel was running a real-time ray-tracing demo of Wolfenstein at the IDF in San Francisco. According to xbitlabs to achieve this feat, the company used a 2-way Xeon server with eight Knights Ferry graphics cards. 

At the Intel Developer Forum 2011, Intel Corp. showcased a system running a new version of its real-time

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Kalypso has released a teaser for the upcoming naval merchant game, Port Royale 3. Port Royale 3, will challenge players to build a trading empire, and will be coming to PC and next-generation consoles in Q2 2012.

In Port Royale 3, players will embark upon an epic adventure through the Caribbean during the turbulent 17th century where the naval powers of Spain, England, France and the Netherlands all fight for supremacy in the colonies. Players take on the role of a young captain trying to build his fortune and reputation in the new world colonies. The campaign consists of two different paths for the young protagonist to follow: adventurer and trader.

Following the path of the adventurer will lead the player on a naval conquest where they must gain notoriety through raids, piracy, bounty hunting, plundering and conquering cities as they strive to build their new Caribbean empire.

The route of the trader sees the player using their economic know-how to become the most powerful trading tycoon in the New World by setting up trade routes, building production facilities and developing cites.

In free-play mode, the player crafts a combination of the two paths, creating a unique and challenging scenario on the path to increase wealth and power.

In addition to the single-player campaign, there are robust multiplayer modes where players can go head-to-head using commercial, economic and conquest simulations to allow for fast-paced gameplay.

Features of Port Royale 3:

• Three paths to glory and fame
  

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Check the The BioShock Infinite gameplay trailer -- its in Japanese though ! :-D


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