Technology news. Hot on the heels of a little experiment eBay did a short while ago it appears Amazon may be opening up a high-street store in US city Seattle according to The Huffington Post. Rumours suggest that the store will stock a vast amount of boutique related items, however sources close to us believe if the Amazon high-street store ever did open, it would focus on their Kindle brand primarily and also feature a high quality fit and finish as to entice high-street shoppers.

So far Amazon has failed to comment on this latest news rumour, however we have e-mailed them for a response and expect one soon (ish). All in all, they probably have better things to do though, but if this high-street store were to open it could be a solid foundation for other online retailers to test the high street such as Play.com, Base.com and others.

Via: The Huffington Post

©2012 Technology Blogged, News. All Rights Reserved.

Do you love your white smartphones? Well if you do, The Samsung Galaxy Nexus white edition has been revealed as coming to the UK a whole week before this years MWC (Mobile World Congress), probably as to not take any thunder away or indeed to the Galaxy Nexus against Samsung’s next gen devices.

This technology news follows on from recent rumours regarding an official white Galaxy Nexus release with many speculating it might not even come to the UK.

“After much speculation, we are pleased to announce the availability of the Galaxy Nexus White which follows the great reception the phone has received since it was launched back in November,” said Simon Stanford, Samsung’s UK and Ireland head of the Telecommunications and Networks Division.

Overall this is good news for consumers as the white Galaxy Nexus adds another option available to consumers against Apple’s white iPhone 4S.

Via: T3

©2012 Technology Blogged, News. All Rights Reserved.

Well it has been quite the week for AMD. It started with a bang, the release of its second 28nm based GPU, the Radeon HD 7950. Following that release have been a number of announcements by the company on future plans, upcoming products, products that wont be coming out, and how badly some of those upcoming products will be sticking it to their closest competitor, Intel. So without further ado, lets start with some numbers. More specifically, purported 3Dmark benchmark numbers.

AMD claims it’s next generation Trinity APU (which is aimed at ultra-thin and light notebooks, Ultrabooks in Intel’s case) beat the current generation Intel Ivy Bridge CPU by a score of 2355 in 3Dmak with Ivy Bridge scoring a paltry 1158. AMD used an Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) A6-series Trinity with a Thermal Design power of just 17 watts. They compared it to an Intel Core i5 ULV 2537m. AMD claims  the next generation of Ivy Bridge CPU’s will score just 30% better then the current generation. Furthermore, the future AMD  platform is claimed to provide 7 hours of battery life while playing a DVD with 4 hours for a Blu-ray movie. Last I checked, most ultra-portable notebooks skimped out on having built-in optical media drives, so using a portable- DVD drive would be the only way to watch DVD’s. It would also draw a noticable amount of power – much more then if you were just watching the same content directly off the computers built in storage. AMD hopes to have its own Ultrabook competitors out by the middle of May, at a starting price of around $600.

Engadget was lucky enough to get to take a few pictures of a proof-of-concept by Compal that features the new Trinity APU. Although they did not get any hands on time with the ultraportable, they did get a feel for just how thin AMD wants to take these new machines  especially against Intel as the chip giant is currently leading the pack in ultra-thin computing.

Photo Credit: Engadget

VIA: Fudzilla

©2012 Technology Blogged, News. All Rights Reserved.

Oh you lucky chaps (and chapettes). Yes, the Nokia Lumia 900 is now up for pre-order in the US  at one of Microsoft’s fifteen retail stores to be found across the United States, and to secure yours you need only deposit $25. According to most recent rumours, the Nokia Lumia 900 will be in customers hands by March 18th in the US, whilst UK folk will have to wait for any news regarding a release date as non have been specified at this moment.

The Nokia Lumia 900 adds LTE to its Lumia line up and features a bigger screen than the beautifully crafted Lumia 800, Nokia’s current flagship smartphone. Other specs include a Qualcomm Snapdragon system on chip clocked at 1.4GHz (an APQ8055 + MDM9200), an eight megapixel camera, WVGA screen resolution, 16GB onboard storage and a 1830mAh battery that can power the phone for up to seven hours.

©2012 Technology Blogged, News. All Rights Reserved.

It’s no secret that major U.S. tech companies have a strong presence in the developing world, China in particular. These countries are used to source materials, manufacture products, and provide server hosting capabilities at discount cost. The lower costs, in turn, allow technology companies to build new products quickly and expediently in order to stabilize margins and react to changing market trends. Even in the tech industry, this phenomenon of outsourcing is certainly nothing new.

But most major tech companies have been immune in recent years from criticism related to their outsourcing policies. That changed in the past couple weeks, when the New York Times published a string of articles exposing Apple’s manufacturing practices in China. According to the article, Apple has repeatedly ignored and overlooked signs of dangerous working conditions, worker maltreatment, and harmful chemical use in its Chinese factories. These factories are largely operated by Foxconn, a contract manufacturer that also works heavily with Hewlett-Packard.

The New York Times articles use worker interviews to describe a string of incidents at the Chinese factories. Over the past year, the articles report, there have been two similar explosions at Foxconn factories that killed several workers and injured numerous more. Although both explosions stemmed from unsafe ventilation practices, and although the second one almost identically mirrored the first in cause and circumstance, Apple took no concrete action to change its practices after either one.

The articles go on to discuss the working conditions at the plants, where employees are subjected to extremely long work shifts, cramped and rat-infested living quarters, meager wages, and physical abuse. Apple, it was argued, encouraged these practices by making worker, production, and cost demands that could not otherwise be fulfilled. When Apple needed an immediate shipment of iPhones, workers were forced to use a hazardous chemical so that the phone’s screens could be cleaned in an efficient manner.

The report included anonymous quotes from Apple insiders who questioned the company’s commitment to its workers in the face of widespread cases of mistreatment. Publically, however, Apple has responded angrily to the Times article. In an email, CEO Tim Cook wrote that the company cares about each and every worker, and that allegations to the contrary were “patently false and offensive.”

Reaction to the report in the technology world has fall on both sides of the spectrum. A large number of bloggers, consumers, and analysts have rushed to defend Apple, arguing that the company conducted an audit whenever maltreatment was reported and that it is simply getting singled out from among the numerous American corporations that do business in China. Furthermore, supporters have argued that we should not judge Chinese working conditions based upon Western standards.

On the other side of the debate are those who believe that Apple’s mission statement, corporate identity, and brand name all require that the company be held to a higher standard. As a company known for its perfectionist attitude and desire to always do everything in a flawless manner, they argue, Apple’s oversight of worker deaths and repeated abuses reflects that its executives care more about the bottom line than about the people who make its products. Regardless of whether this criticism carries any validity, it should surely be concerning to Apple. After all, the company relies largely on a dominant brand name and on an energized (and politically liberal) fan base for support. Signs of maltreatment could throw that dominance into question.

Will the tech industry begin receiving the same scrutiny overseas that shoe companies got during the 1990s? Apple’s current case should stand as a revealing benchmark. Stay tuned.

©2012 Technology Blogged, News. All Rights Reserved.

Two things are certain in life; tomorrow the sun will rise as per usual, and sooner or later Microsoft will release their next generation gaming console. To the dismay of millions however, that next generation console will not be released this year.

Fighting off recent rumors of a 2012 release for the Xbox 720 and not adapting to Nintendo’s Wii U coming to the world this year, Cedrick Delmas the marketing director of Microsoft France has brought some bad news to gaming fans, stating that ”We’re in an industry that talks a lot, that likes telling stories. I am not convinced that things will happen this year. The Xbox 360′s cycle is not over at all. The proof is that we haven’t price cut this year.”

Moving on to Nintendo and their Wii U imminent, Delmas said ”We’re not here to counter Nintendo and they’re not here to fight the other manufacturers. Nintendo has put itself in a different cycle, it’s going forward to its own rhythm, with success as we have seen with the Wii, and now it’s their turn to present their innovation.”

©2012 Technology Blogged, News. All Rights Reserved.

Sky has just very recently announced that they are to be bringing out a brand new internet based TV service primarily targeted at providing premium content to customers and people who do not currently have/want a satellite dish based service. The new internet based TV service is a bold move from Sky, and will enable people with laptops, computers, tablets and smartphones to watch content far beyond what the Sky Player offers currently.

The service, which at first will offer Sky Movies content and later move on to sport and entertainment, should be available sometime in the middle of this year according to Sky themselves.

Offering Sky’s most popular content

“This exciting new service will offer some of Sky’s most popular content through a wide range of broadband connected devices,” said Sky chief executive Jeremy Darroch. “Alongside the continued growth of our satellite platform, this will be a new way for us to reach out to consumers who love great content, but may not want the full Sky service”.

Overall, this new Sky service does seem like a pretty nifty move from the current satellite TV leader, however whether they will be able to compete effectively with Lovefilm, Blinkbox and Netflix for movie content is another matter altogether.

We will update this post if there are any further developments / announcements regarding pricing.

©2012 Technology Blogged, News. All Rights Reserved.

AMD is really leading the pack this year with the release of its second 28nm based GPU. The Radeon HD 7950 offers gamers on a budget most of the processing power of its big brother, the Radeon HD 7970 ($550) but at a slightly more affordable price point of $450. The new GPU powerhouse has an 800MHz clock speed, 3GB of GDDR5 RAM, runs on the latest DirectX 11 standard and of course uses the new 28nm manufacturing process. With AMD Eyefinity technology up to six displays can be run off this card. Thanks to AMD App Acceleration, this card can perform faster video encoding, decoding, and transcoding. Of course this card also excels in its ability to playback HD content, whether its from a Blu-ray DVD or an MKV file. Unlike the 7970, this card only draws 200 watts of power as apposed to 250 watts!

The new card is available right now in Maingear’s Shift and F131 line of desktops. If used in conjunction with Maingear’s Epic 180 liquid cooling and Epic Audio Engine, users will get the maximum possible performance out of their high performance gaming computer.

VIA: Maingear

©2012 Technology Blogged, News. All Rights Reserved.