Leaked: AMD Notebook Roadmap for 2012, Gen2 Fusion APUs in the Works

DonanimHaber has once again got their hands on a leaked slide which shows AMDs roadmap for notebook APUs coming out in 2012. The current LIanos APUs will make way for Trinity, the second generation APU that will feature the new Bulldozer cores and a better graphics sub-system based on the VLIW-4 architecture that’s currently used in the HD 6900 series desktop graphics cards. This is still a long way ahead though as the Llanos ‘A’ series notebooks are still hard to find in the market.

Looks promising

The new APUs will fall into different market segments just like the existing ones in the market. AMD will be adding a new flagship APU mostly for high end gaming notebooks which is a 60W chip with four cores. This will most likely compete with Intel’s flagship mobile CPU, the Core i7 2920XM or whatever Intel launches next year. The Trinity APU will also come in two other SKUs with lower TDP values of 45W and 35W and will replace the A8 series APUs. The A6 APUs will make way for Weatherford which will be a quad core APU with two SKUs. As we head further down to the mainstream segment, we find Richland dual core APUs that will make their way in your ‘all-rounder’ notebooks in the 35K-50K price brackets. 

Heading further down to the netbooks segment, Zacate and Ontario APUs will be replaced by Wichita and Krishna APUs. Wichita will be used in the 20K-30K range of the netbooks and low-end notebooks while Krishna APU will be reserved for the 10-inch netbooks which will typically fall in the sub-20K price bracket. With the new CPU and GPU architecture and lower TDP, we should expect a solid boost in performance and better battery life. All this is still way into the future though and we’ll know for sure once prototypes start hitting the web towards the end of 2011.

VisionMobile Report: Android Not a Very 'Open' Platform

One of the reasons for Android’s success is the belief that it’s an open operating system and people generally like that. A study done by VisionMobile, an analysis and research company states that Android isn’t the most open platform out there. VisionMobile has deviced a way to gauge the ‘openness’ of a software or platform and it turns out Android has an openness rating of just 23 percent. Eclipse, a software development toolset scores the best score of 84 percent followed by Linux at 71 per cent. Webkit, the rendering engine for Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome browser closely follow at 68 and 65 per cent respectively.

Android trails behind the rest

VisionMobile believes that openness of a software or code is not only to do with the license that it adheres to, but also to do with Governance. Governance is what decides the roadmap for the project, the transparency of the decision making process, whether the discussion on the development of the project is open to everyone and if anyone can choose to make variants of the project. VisionMobile believes that the most open of projects are likely to do well in the long run. The only odd one out is Android, which although popular, isn’t as open as some of the other platforms. VisionMobile says it wouldn’t have been as successful, if vendors hadn’t pumped in the money that made it a strong competitor to Apple’s iOS-based devices.

The Best Games of 2011 So Far...

We take a look at some of the most kickass games 2011 offered us so far.

September onward, gamers will be buried under an avalanche of high profile titles all the way to 2012. But before you prepare yourself (and your wallet) for this barrage, we suggest you finish off your backlog as 2011 had quite a few titles worth checking out. Today we list out ten of the best.    Crysis 2 (PC, Xbox 360, PS3) Tech2 Review: 8.5/10 Saving New York Crysis 2 may not have been the game to bring your uber powerful PC to its knees, but it sure was pretty. In fact, Crytek made the game highly scalable so even year-old PCs could enjoy Crytek’s version of post-apocalyptic New York in all its visual glory. The action, like its predecessor, was fast and satisfying, offering players a healthy blend of stealth and all out action. Sure, the painfully dumb AI did hamper gameplay a bit, but at the end of it all, lofty production values and solid gameplay across both single and multiplayer prevailed, making Crysis 2 a must-buy this year. Dead Space 2 (PC, Xbox 360, PS3) Tech2 Review: 10/10 No one can hear you scream in space Taking a gamble with new IPs in this day and age is a risky proposition, one that paid off real well for developer Visceral Games. Dead Space was a game that combined action and horror to near perfection, offering players a chilling ride, playing as an engineer forced to face his fears aboard a derelict ship. With the sequel, Visceral expanded upon what we loved about the first game, introducing some truly impressive set pieces along with a multiplayer mode reminiscent to the one from Left 4 Dead 2. Dirt 3 (PC, Xbox 360, PS3) Tech2 Review: 9/10 Getting DiRTy The Dirt series was Codemasters’ attempt to move from pure rally (the Colin McRae Rally series) to all-round off-road racing, which they did well in Dirt 2. But the fans still wanted rally, so in Dirt 3, it made a return and comprised 60% of the game, alongside the other event types from previous games. The responsive car handling, the well-designed tracks, the slick menus and the stunning EGO engine-powered visuals – all hallmarks of Codies games – were in evidence as well. The game also add split-screen racing and several fun online modes, making this one of the best off-road racing games ever. Fight Night Champion (Xbox 360, PS3) Tech2 Review: 8/10 Lights out The Fight Night series was struggling, and EA had to take drastic measures to keep it alive. Fight Night Champion gave the boxing franchise a new direction, and it couldn’t have done a better job of it. While the roster of pro boxers from earlier games remained, the main focus of the game was its new cinematic story mode that included slick cutscenes, great characters, an engaging story, and some very intense gameplay scenarios that constantly kept you on your toes. Throw in a little bit of bare-knuckled, no-hold-barred brawling, and this game had everything a fighting game fan could want. Infamous 2 (PS3) Tech2 Review: 9.5/10 The Last Guardian It’s hard to put a finger on what exactly makes Infamous 2 a great game, because many of its core elements are carried forward from the first game. There aren’t too many sweeping changes this time around, but it’s the little things that Sucker Punch has done that together combine to make this one of the most fun games of the year and one of the best open-world games in a long time. The new city of New Marais has a ton of character, the missions (and side missions) are well designed, and the morality system, however superficial, works brilliantly. Infamous 2 doesn’t exactly break new ground for the franchise, but when it’s this much fun, who cares!

Killzone 3 (PS3) Tech2 Review: 8/10 Go to Hell-ghan Killzone is one of the most popular first-party PS3 franchises; right up there with the likes of the God of War and Uncharted. After the success of Killzone 2, expectations for the next game were sky high, and Guerrilla Games didn’t disappoint. The explosive single-player campaign was packed with cinematic set pieces, massive bosses, large, varied environments, and lots and lots of intense FPS action. Of course, multiplayer is a massive draw in Killzone games too, and the developers rebuilt the multiplayer from the ground up, addressing the issues from Killzone 2 and adding more features and brand new maps, while keeping the signature Killzone experience intact. L.A. Noire (Xbox 360, PS3) Tech2 Review: 8.5/10 It's a hard knock life In what can be described as a radical departure for Rockstar Games, L.A. Noire was a story-driven whodunit, where players spent their time solving cases as opposed to embarking upon killing sprees across urban America. The star of the show, without a doubt, was the game’s wicked facial animation system that tied into gameplay, allowing players to catch lying suspects based on their facial reactions during interrogations. The game was initially released on consoles, but PC gamers will also be able to have a go at it when Rockstar brings L.A. Noire to PCs later this year. LittleBigPlanet 2 (PS3) Tech2 Review: 10/10 Awwwwwwww What started out as a cutsey little platfromer, became a whole different beast with LittleBigPlanet 2. While the first game gave players powerful tools to create and share their own levels, this time around, you can create whole new games of any genre within LBP2 itself, complete with cinematics, characters and narratives. These creation tools were also put to brilliant use by the developers themselves for Sackboy’s new story mode adventure, which as before, can be played solo or by up to four players in co-op. LBP2 is great for all ages, but don’t let the cute art style fool you; it’s a game that’ll challenge even the most seasoned gamers. Portal 2 (PC, Xbox 360, PS3) Tech2 Review: 9.5/10 Two to portal Portal 2 was a tiny little game bundled with The Orange Box that garnered cult status thanks to its sharp writing, sarcastic humor and innovative gameplay. For the sequel, Valve turned it up to 11, with a fully fleshed out single player campaign as well as a separate and equally awesome co-operative campaign, in addition to some of the best voice acting we’ve come across all year. Portal 2 was also used to launch Valve’s online service, Steam, on the PS3, allowing cross-play between Portal 2 owners on PS3 and PC. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings (PC) Tech2 Review: 8.5/10 Don't mess with Geralt You probably wouldn’t expect a stellar RPG from a relatively unknown Polish developer, but you’d be wrong. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings greatly improved upon all aspects of gameplay laid down by its predecessor. You had gorgeous visuals, improved combat, and a riveting story that sucked you in till the very end. Be warned though; the game is not very noob-friendly and can appear pretty intimidating (even on normal difficulty) with its erratic difficulty and steep learning curve. But if you’re the patient type, there’s a vibrant, dangerous and exciting world ripe for exploration.

Exploring App Stores – Media Players for Android

One of the main reasons people buy Android phones is the wealth of customization options available in the form of apps. Apple’s App Store may still be the largest one today, but the Android Marketplace is expanding rapidly, and you’ll find most of the popular apps available on both platforms. When it comes to multimedia, the stock music and video player in Android offers very basic functionality and supports just a handful of formats. Unless you have something like Samsung’s TouchWiz UI, which supports MKV and FLAC out of the box, you have to rely on apps. Here are some of the best video and audio players available in the Marketplace, which I think are worth checking out.

RockPlayer Lite
We start off with RockPlayer Lite, a free video player that’s been around for sometime now and is still one of the best players. The player supports most popular video formats including MKV. The interface is not very fancy and directly gives you access to the folders and files in your phone. It also supports subtitles for movies.

A very capable barebones video player

Currently the only free version is available, which puts a little ‘R’ in the upper right corner of the screen and since the paid version has been taken down, there's no way around this.

Moboplayer
This is my personal favourite media player, as it offers all the features of RockPlayer in an easy-to-use interface. It supports multiple audio streams from a single video, multi-subtitles, hardware and software decoding, video streaming though HTTP protocols and thumbnail display of videos. The OSD controls are very intuitive as well, for example swiping your finger on the right side of the screen lets you control the volume, while the left controls the brightness.

Will play just about any video format

You can also lock the OSD by tapping the ‘Options’ soft key on your phone. The best part, besides it being free, is that when you start it the first time, it checks if you have the necessary codecs installed. If you don’t, it will redirect you to the Marketplace for the right codec pack for your phone. 

TuneWiki  
Let’s face it, the stock Android music player is a disappointment. This is where TuneWiki comes in. It’s a novice friendly music player app with a social networking twist. You sign in using your Facebook or Twitter account and invite your friends on TuneWiki. Then, through the SongBox feature, you can see what your friends are listening to, which is a great way to discover new music.

Discover new music through your friends with Facebook and Twitter integration

It even has an ‘F Like’ option for Facebook. Song ID is a feature similar to Shazaam and Sound Hound. The app also automatically pulls lyrics for the currently playing song and shows up at the bottom of the ‘Now Playing’ screen. Other features include managing and editing playlists, Song Maps that let you discover what songs are trending, videos of the songs in your playlist and streaming radio from SHOUTcast.   

Cubed This app is currently still in Beta, but it works just fine and I haven’t come across any major bugs, yet. Albums are displayed in the form of a 3D cube, which can be flipped vertically to scroll through the albums or horizontally to find any album alphabetically. The animations are really slick and smooth, but you’ll probably need a fast processor for the best experience.  Cool animations make it fun to use A five band graphic equalizer is present as well with a nice graphical representation. You also get different desktop widgets, so you can access your music without opening the app.  PowerAMP This is possibly the best and most powerful music player app in the Marketplace. The free version lets you try the app with all its features for 15 days. The paid version is not cheap, but worth it if you’re a music buff. The audio support list is quite extensive, which includes FLAC and APE formats, as well. The 10 band equalizer can be adjusted for a single song or a list of songs, perfect for the audio geek. Excellent tweaking options for your music Other features include crossfade, gapless playback, folder view, CUE file support, download missing album art, visual themes and many more. Hit the title to try the free version.  mVideo Player Finally, if you’re somewhat of a neat freak, then you’ll love mVideo Player. It’s not as powerful as Moboplayer or RockPlayer, as it will only play videos that your phone can natively play. However, it does one hell of a job organizing all your videos into categories, perfect if you have many TV shows on your phone. Great app for organising your video collection It also has IMDB and OpenSubtitles integrated to give you quick info about the movie you’re watching or find subtitles for the current video. Poster search lets you find movie posters making it easier to recognize the movie in your library.   That’s it from my end. Feel free to share your favourite media players in the comments below.

Apple's Upcoming MacBook Air to Have More Storage

People considering to buy the new MacBook Air will be in for a treat. Not only will the new model be coming out with the new Lion OS, but there’s bound to be a bunch of improvements and additions. Reports have suggested that the new MacBook Air will be upgraded from 2GB RAM to 4GB RAM, an upgrade which previously cost users $100.

New MacBook Air

Ming - Chi Kuo, an analyst from Concord Securities noted that the memory upgrades along with the new Lion OS should yield good performance. Kuo also stated that Apple will be upgrading the SSD of the 11.6-inch model from 64GB to a 128GB one. Reports from CNET also state that Apple will sell 128GB and 256GB SSD versions of the notebook. The new MacBook Air will be coming out later this week.

This second generation model will be more refined and will be completely redesigned. It’ll include a high-density screen, an additional USB port and SD card slot. The new Macbook Air will also have upgraded new-generation processors, graphics cards and a Flash-based storage. About the battery life, Apple have stated that it would give users up to 7 hours of usage time and up to 30 hours of standby time. Along with these features, Apple will also include a back-lit keyboard.

Apart from the new MacBook Air, other Macs will also be recipients of the new Mac OS update. Reports note that Apple will be launching Lion, sometime this month, Although so far, no additional information has been given on the official date of release. We did however make a trip to our local Apple retailers and were informed not expect the new MacBook Air with Lion before August.

India Comes Together for Mumbai Via Twitter and Google Docs

After three bombs ripped through Mumbai last evening, the people of the city (and some parts of the rest of the country) came together to help each other out almost impeccably. Twitter and Facebook updates were filled with users posting not only information for helplines but also offering help. Hashtags for #needhelp and #Here2Help were created. Users that were at home offered shelter to other users that were still commuting.

The man behind the spreadsheet

Beyond Twitter, a Google spreadsheet was created by a Twitter user in Delhi, Nitin Sagar. Thespreadsheet contains information of Mumbai and non-Mumbai residents offering help as well as asking for help with their contact information and the nature of help that can be offered or is needed. There are currently 250 entries, most of which are users offering help. A map of live tweets can also be found on Google Maps. This doesn't seem to be updated in real time, however, it can be used to find users in the areas of the blasts.

It really is impressive to see citizens coming together to help each other out. Even though, sometimes, this method of coming together can really only help those who even have access to technology at the time (and the government blocked off cell phones for an hour after the blasts), there are concrete examples of citizens who have been helped just by responding to offers on Twitter and the Google doc.