This Thursday marks AMD’s third quarter update of Radeon Pro Software Enterprise, AMD’s enterprise and workstation graphics drivers. While Radeon Pro Software Enterprise 17.Q3 is not as extensive as last quarter’s 17.Q2, this release…
Apple has discontinued its iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle personal media players. The only iPod that remains in Apple’s fleet is the iPod Touch, which is based on the iOS device hardware and software stacks. At present, Apple’s iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle are still available from retailers like BestBuy, but EOL of the outdated iPods once again signals that MP3 players are essentially a dead product category.
Apple launched its first iPod in late 2001 and the player quickly gained popularity among users of Apple’s Mac computers. Initially, Steve Jobs did not want iPod to be compatible with Windows-based PCs as he considered the player to be an important selling point for the Mac platform as back then MP3 players from other makers were not sophisticated or user friendly. Moreover, in the lack of smartphones in Apple’s arsenal, iPod and iTunes (launched in early 2003) were in the center of its personal digital media strategy of the company.
Other executives at Apple persuaded the CEO to make iPod and iTunes compatible with Windows in 2004 and this is when sales of the music player started to grow rapidly. Several years later, the iPod became Apple’s most successful product ever and brought the company billions of dollars. Over time, many third-party accessories were developed for iPods, creating an industry around one product. Besides, Apple’s iPod players were among of the most desired Christmas gifts in the U.S. in the second half of 2000s.
Throughout its more than 15-year history, Apple’s iPod has changed its form-factor multiple times and switched hardware platforms for a dozen of times. For example, Apple’s initial iPods used miniature HDDs (including HGST’s and Seagate’s 1” hard drives in the iPod Mini), but eventually all of them switched to NAND flash memory. With iPod Touch, the players obtained hardware found in iPhones and started to use iOS.
As sales of Apple’s iPhones increased, shipments of the company’s iPods declined because people now use smartphones to watch videos and listen to music. As a result, the company began to phase out the iPod. At first, Apple discontinued the iPad Classic player in 2014. This week, the company EOLed its iPod Nano, iPod Shuffle, as well as iPod Touch with 16 GB and 64 GB of memory. The only iPods left are the iPod Touch models with 32 GB and 128 GB of storage.
The discontinued iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle were released on 2012 and 2010, respectively. Moreover, the existing iPod Touch was launched in mid-2015. Officially, Apple claims that the discontinuance of the outdated iPods is a way to simplify the product family. On the other hand, due to dropping sales of personal media players (the company has not reported sales of players for years), it may simply make no sense for Apple to keep the cheap and unpopular models in the lineup.
“Today, we are simplifying our iPod lineup with two models of iPod Touch, now with double the capacity, starting at just $199, and we are discontinuing the iPod Shuffle and iPod Nano,” a statement by Apple reads.
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Sources: The Verge, Business Insider.
This week Silicon Power has announced a rather unique series of USB flash drives. Dubbed the Mobile C50, the Swiss army knife-type USB flash drive is a 3-in-1 drive that features all three major types of USB connectors, and as a result can be used with virtually all USB host devices from PCs to smartphones. The drives come with up to 128 GB capacity along with additional software to make them further compatible with mobile devices.
The Silicon Power Mobile C50 flash drives feature 32 GB, 64 GB and 128 GB configurations and are equipped with USB Type-A, USB Micro-B, and USB Type-C connectors. Meanwhile the interesting construction of the drives is designed to protect the connectors from damage: the Micro-B connector is sheltered by the Type-A connector, whereas the Type-C connector is protected by a rubber cap (specified to be snapped open over 10,000 times). Along those lines, the drives are also built to protect against dust, water as well as vibration and can operate at temperatures between 0°C and 70°C.
When it comes to performance, Silicon Power only says that the USB Type-A and the USB Type-C connectors enable up to 5 Gbps data transfer rate (USB 3.0), whereas the USB Micro-B connector is a 2.0 style connector, and consequently can transfer data only at up to 480 Mbps. With PC host compatibility a given, mobile compatibility is a bit trickier, and for that reason Silicon Power also ships their SP File Explorer App (for Android mobile devices) with the devices.
| Silicon Power Mobile C50 Flash Drives | |||||
| SP032GBUC3C50V1K | SP064GBUC3C50V1K | SP128GBUC3C50V1K | |||
| Capacity | 32 GB | 64 GB | 128 GB | ||
| Type of NAND | Unknown | ||||
| Maximum Transfer Rate | USB Type-A and the USB Type-C: up to 5 Gbps USB Micro-B: up to 480 Mbps |
||||
| Material | TPU | ||||
| Dimensions | 41.7 x 7.0 x 15.0 mm | ||||
| Weight | 5.2 grams | ||||
| Operating Temperature | 0°C to +70°C | ||||
| Warranty | Five Years | ||||
Silicon Power will start selling the new 3-in-1 SP Mobile C50 USB flash drives in the coming weeks. The storage devices will be covered by a five-year limited warranty.
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Since the release of NVIDIA’s Pascal architecture, specifically the fully enabled Geforce GTX 1080 Ti, many enthusiasts have been eagerly awaiting card partners’ flagship parts built off the big silicon. After a couple of months, we saw the ASUS ROG Poseidon 1080 Ti, AORUS Extreme Edition, and most recently, the MSI Lightning hit store shelves. Missing from that group was EVGA’s K|NGP|IN which was formally introduced earlier this week.
The K|NGP|N (KPE) version is, by all accounts, a video card engineered to be overclocked. The EVGA website boldly proclaims it is, “Designed to be the best Overclocking Geforce GTX 1080 Ti”. In fact, the KPE GPU is guaranteed by EVGA to reach 2025 MHz+ overclock (tested using Unigine Heaven 4.0 Extreme at room temperatures). In their release video, product manager Jacob Freeman said they expect most to overclock even further. While the overclocked clock speeds are within reach to other cards, it certainly isn’t for all. It appears some binning went into choosing the stock for the KPE in order to stand behind that guarantee.
The KPE also has three BIOSes on the card (normal, overclocked, and LN2), which can be toggled via a switch on top of the card. The OC and LN2 BIOSs are said to allow for more flexibility with the power target among other tweaks. Near to where that switch is located, there is another point for connectivity for an upcoming accessory and access to additional features.
EVGA uses two 8-pin PCIe connectors to deliver power to an all-digital, 14 phase VRM. Atypically, these connectors are located on the bottom right edge of the board, along with the EVbot connector and USB connector to attach directly to the motherboard.
In order to keep the card running cool, EVGA includes its iCX Technology on the KPE, which uses an additional 9 thermal sensors – for a total of 11 – in critical locations on the PCB (x5 on the VRMs, x3 for the vRAM, and another sensor on the GPU itself). The additional data these sensors provide allow the independent fans to speed up and cool the video card where it’s needed, while the other fan(s) spin slower.
Even with the copper coated heat sinks and fans, this is a true dual-slot card. It can also be a single slot solution if the heat sink is removed and adding a Hydro Copper waterblock and using the included single slot bracket. The backplate is not only there for aesthetic and structural reasons; it also makes contact with key areas of the PCB, for example behind the VRMs, in order to help with cooling.
The low level specifications on the 1080 Ti K|NGP|N Edition remain the same as other GP102 based cards in reference to ROPs (88), TMUs (224), and CUDA Cores (3584), only the clockspeeds will be different on that front. The 100 Mhz base clock bump over reference leading the pack out of the box, but the card is meant to be overclocked considering its clock speed guarantee.
| EVGA Geforce GTX 1080 Ti K|NGP|N Specifications | |
| GTX 1080 Ti K|NGP|N | |
| Base Clock | 1582 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1695 MHz |
| Memory Clock | 11016 MHz Effective |
| VRAM | 11GB GDDRX5 (352-bit) |
| TDP | 250W |
| Outputs | 1x HDMI 2.0b, 1x DL-DVI, 3x Mini-DisplayPort 1.4 |
| Power Connectors | 2 x 8-Pin |
| Dimensions (L x H) | 11.8″(299.7mm) x 5.61″ (142.6mm) – Dual Slot |
| Cooler Type | Copper-coated Heat sink w/ 3x Fans |
| Price/Availability | TBA |
Price and availability were not available at the time of publication.
EagleTree Capital, the Investment Management Corp. of Ontario (IMCO), and the Honeywell pension fund on Wednesday announced that they had reached an agreement to acquire a majority stake in Corsair. Andy Paul, founder and CEO of Corsair, will continue to serve as the head of the company. Corsair expects to use investments from EagleTree and its partners to fund development of new technologies and products.
Corsair was founded in 1994 and initially focused on high performance memory modules. Since its establishment more than 20 years ago, Corsair has expanded its product lineup considerably to computer cases, NAND flash-based products, coolers, keyboards, mice, PSUs and even actual gaming PCs. All these expansions require a lot of money and back in 2013 Corsair received $75 million in strategic investments from Francisco Partners.
Further growth and increased competition from companies like Razer and other brands require additional investments and Corsair got them from EagleTree, IMCO, and Honewell. The three investors will buy a majority stake in Corsair from Francisco Partners and several minority shareholders for $525 million. Since the deal is conducted between private equities, they are not disclosing how much money will be paid to Francisco Partners and how much will go into Corsair’s coffers for investment into the development of new products.
“We are excited about the opportunity to partner with EagleTree and leverage the team’s consumer products expertise to further accelerate our progress,” said Andy Paul, founder and CEO of Corsair. “EagleTree’s backing will allow us to continue to focus first and foremost on our loyal and passionate customers and accelerate our investment in innovation and new technology and products to enhance the quality experience that enthusiasts and gamers have come to expect from us.”
Under the terms of the agreement with EagleTree and its partners, Andy Paul and other managers of the company will continue to control a significant stake in Corsair. Moreover, they will also continue to serve at the company and therefore Corsairs’ strategy will generally remain the same. In particular, the company considers its PC business a significant growth opportunity and will therefore likely continue to invest in it.
Razer, which is one of the rivals of Corsair, recently disclosed plans to raise around $600 million in Hong Kong IPO in a bid to enable further growth. With money from EagleTree and its partners, Corsair will have similar investment opportunities going forward.
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