| Dell to upgrade unshipped Alienware orders to Ivy Bridge CPUs for free May 4th 2012, 11:29  Are you among the Alienware buyers who plunked down cold, hard cash for a new M14X, M17X, or M18X preceding the launch of Ivy Bridge, but can't stomach the thought of being stuck with Intel's second gen CPUs? Good news, gaming friends, because if your laptop was ordered, but hasn't yet shipped, Dell's doing you a solid by upgrading the chip automatically for you. Best part is, the company will swap in "comparably-priced" new silicon for free, which leaves you to spend your money elsewhere to prep for your forthcoming Diablo III launch party. Dell to upgrade unshipped Alienware orders to Ivy Bridge CPUs for free originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 May 2012 07:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink |  Direct2Dell | Email this | Comments | | CyberPower jumps on the GeForce GTX 690 bandwagon, promises to melt your eyes for $1,700 May 4th 2012, 11:18  Dying for NVIDIA's latest, but not so much that you'd bother to learn to build your own PC? No worries, CyberPower's got your back, answering its competitor's GPU offerings with a resounding echo: Get your GeForce GTX 690 here. The customizable PC builder is now letting customers drop NVIDIA's dual GPU Kepler card into its Fang III, Zeus, Gamer Xtreme and Ultra series PCs. CyberPower says they can build a tricked out rig for just under $1,700. Looking for more oomph? More powerful configurations can breach $4,000, if your pockets are deep enough. Read on for the official press release. Continue reading CyberPower jumps on the GeForce GTX 690 bandwagon, promises to melt your eyes for $1,700 CyberPower jumps on the GeForce GTX 690 bandwagon, promises to melt your eyes for $1,700 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 May 2012 07:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | Nikon confirms woes with D4 and D800, joins Canon in high-end doghouse May 4th 2012, 10:59  Okay Nikon owners, stop laughing at your 5D Mark III cronies for their leaky problem. That might be a drip in the pail next to your own worries -- namely, possible "lock-up", focus and viewfinder hitches on your D800 or D4. Nikon verified that a "small number" of units of both DSLRs can lock up and become unresponsive, but until there's a permanent patch you can prevent this by disabling both highlight and RGB histogram displays. The company also verified that a "run" of D800s is suffering from a viewfinder bug, although it has yet to confirm another emerging problem with autofocus in some units, which apparently requires a factory fix. So, if you've noticed any of this with your pricey new D800, or really pricey D4, your best bet might be to reach out to your Nikon repair center post-haste. And don't let the Canon guys see you. [Thanks, Thinh] Nikon confirms woes with D4 and D800, joins Canon in high-end doghouse originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 May 2012 06:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink  Nikon Rumors | PDN, FStoppers, DP Review | Email this | Comments | | Samsung's SGH-i667 "Mandel" Windows Phone surfaces, still shrouded in mystery May 4th 2012, 09:57  Sure, today's gadget news is saturated with Samsung's new Galaxy S III, but lest we forget that it's been a hot minute since its released a Windows Phone device. The last we saw were the Focus S and Flash, and that was right around when the Nokia Lumia 800 and Galaxy Nexus were still fresh in our minds. Well, this can only be classified as a potential leak, but two purported photos of another Samsung WP7.5 device, codenamed "Mandel," was recently posted at the WPXAP forums. While there's not much in the way of hard details, according to WPCentral, this is the white SGH-i667 that passed through the FCC during March with AT&T bands, but then apparently nixed before it could hit stores. Along with the photo, a screenshot from the Zune software shows it having only 8GB of capacity, which likely means it wasn't slated to be a premium offering. That's about all the info that's surfaced for now on the Mandel, but feel free to hit up the links below for more details and analysis. Here's hoping that Samsung will announce more love for Windows Phone soon. Samsung's SGH-i667 "Mandel" Windows Phone surfaces, still shrouded in mystery originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 May 2012 05:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink WPCentral | WPXAP | Email this | Comments | | Buying an iPad 2? Here's the rarer, more efficient specimen you need to (somehow) track down May 4th 2012, 09:27  Not all iPads are made equal, even if they're all packaged and branded identically. There's a major new mutation within the 2nd generation tablet and it brings significantly better battery life. Specifically, the fourth and latest production model of the iPad 2 (known as iPad2,4) has not only a lower price tag ($399) but also a new 32nm processor, which is significantly smaller and more efficient than those in previous iPad 2s (which had 45nm chips and an older transistor design). According to AnandTech, this results in an overall 16 percent increase in battery life during web browsing and as much as a 30 percent boost when playing games. Obviously that's worth having, but how can you tell if a boxed-up iPad 2 has the new processor before taking it to the checkout? Here's the downer: you can't. Until retailers' inventories naturally flood with the updated type, the only way to tell is by switching the slate on and running a utility like GeekBench -- and perhaps there'll be circumstances where you can give that a go on the shop floor. Alternatively, if third-party sellers discover that their stock is the iPad2,4, they could pull off a Darwinian win-win by marketing that fact to buyers. Buying an iPad 2? Here's the rarer, more efficient specimen you need to (somehow) track down originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 May 2012 05:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | AnandTech | Email this | Comments | |
