Add Start Button to Windows 8

As Windows 8 no longer features the iconic “Start” button it fell into the hands of third-party developers to come up with a substitute.

Stardock seems to be the first company to tackle the problem as they released Start8, an application specially designed to bring back the Start orb from Windows Vista and 7. However, its functionality is not the same, as it does not provide the menu you’re accustomed to in previous versions of Windows.

That is not to deny its benefits altogether because Start8 enables quick access to installed programs and search function. Additionally, it can help you turn off the computer in fewer clicks by making the Shutdown option available in the context menu of the button.

The program is free of charge and it is in beta stage of development at the moment, so some quirks may still be present.

Download Start8

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Official: HTC Sensation XE Receiving Android 4.0 Update Now

HTC has just started to deploy the Ice Cream Sandwich update for the Sensation XE devices. So far, it appears that the update is only pushed OTA (over the air) in Nordic countries, and probably in Germany as well.

Those who live in one of the Nordic countries or Germany will receive an update notification soon, but they can also check for it manually. The update is close to 300MB in size and requires a stable Wi-Fi connection.

Keep in mind that this Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich update will also upgrade the smartphone’s HTC Sense UI to version 3.6.

The folks over at XDA Developers have also uploaded the file, so those who have yet to receive the file OTA can download and install it manually. For more details on where to download Android 4.0.3 head over to the original thread.

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The New iPad Will Not Support European LTE Networks

The new iPad recently announced by Apple seems to be mostly targeting the North American market. Although the slate is advertised as a 4G LTE device, the feature is only available in some regions.

Obviously, this is not entirely Apple’s fault, as both international and AT&T variants have been confirmed to support 700MHz and 2100MHz LTE bands, which are fully compatible with the US-based carrier’s network.

According to Slashgear, even though LTE network is almost inexistent in Europe, as soon as the new technology is deployed, it will only support devices that work on 800MHz, 1800MHz and 2600MHz bands.

This basically makes the new iPad useless in Europe when it comes to 4G LTE data speeds. European customers who decide to purchase this model and plan to use it in their region will be limited to DC-HSDPA data speeds.

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CeBIT 2012: ASRock Intros the First AMD Board Supporting Lucid Virtu MVP Technology

ASRock gives us a break from all the Intel Z77 powered motherboard present at this year’s CeBIT 2012 fair with the introduction of the A75 Pro4/MVP, the first AMD Llano board out there to support the Lucid Virtu Universal MVP technology.

The LucidLogix technology embedded in ASRock’s motherboard was specially designed to allow for on-die GPUs to be used together with discrete graphics cards.

Unlike AMD’s Hybrid graphics implementation found in the A-Series chipsets, the Lucid Virtu Universal MVP technology has the benefit of being vendor agnostic. 

This means that it allows users to install discrete graphics cards built by either Nvidia or AMD and use them together with their on-board Radeon GPU in order to improve the overall performance of the system.

According to ASRock’s internal tests, when pairing the Radeon HD 6550D GPU found in the A8-3870 APU with a discrete Nvidia GTX 560 graphics card, this technology provides a 41.12% performance boost in 3DMark 11 (Extreme mode) benchmark.

Besides the inclusion of the Lucid Virtu Universal MVP technology and the new all-black paint scheme, the A75 Pro4/MVP seems to resemble the company’s previous A75 Pro4 motherboard to a great extent.

For those of you in need of a quick reminder, ASRock’s FM1 solution features dual PCI Express x16 slots (the second one is x4 electronically), five SATA 6Gbps ports and 7.1-channel audio with THX TruStudio certification. 

The sixth SATA port available in the AMD A75 FCH is routed to the back of the board as an eSATA connector where is joined by four USB 3.0 ports, as well as by various video outputs including DVI-D and HDMI.

 ASRock hasn’t provided any details regarding the availability of the A75 Pro4/MVP, but we expect the motherboard to arrive in the coming weeks. Pricing hasn't been disclosed either.

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CeBIT 2012: Gigabyte Displays Its First LGA 2011 Workstation Board

Better known in the industry for its consumer products than professional motherboards, at this year’s CeBIT fair Gigabyte has presented the company’s first LGA 2011 solution designed specifically for workstation use, the GA-X79S-UD5.

Despite its model name, the motherboard isn’t actually built around Intel’s consumer X79 PCH, but is rather based on the chip maker’s C606 controller.

While at the silicon level these chipsets are basically identical, the C606 does provide users with some extra features that weren’t enabled in the consumer version of the PCH.

The most important of these is the SAS support, which provides Gigabyte’s motherboard with six SAS 6Gbps connectors to complement the usual two SATA 6Gbps and four SATA 3Gbps ports found in the X79.

Furthermore, the SAS controller embedded in the C606 silicon also adds RAID support and includes a hardware XOR processing engine.

The rest of the motherboard expansion options include five PCI Express x16 slots, two of these working at full x16 speed according to VR-Zone, a single 32-bit legacy PCI port as well as eight DIMM sockets.

Three more eSATA ports are available on the rear I/O bracket, where they are accompanied by four USB 3.0 and four USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire port, a Gigabit Ethernet jack, and 7.1-channel audio with S/PDIF out.

A BIOS chip switch and an OC button are also strangely present, although we don’t know if the latter has any effect when Gigabyte’s motherboard is paired with Xeon E5 CPUs. 

The X79S-UD5 will also ship with Gigabyte's 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 combo card, while an on-board header can provide users with two additional USB 3.0 ports.

Gigabyte hasn’t revealed any information regarding the release date or the pricing of the X79S-UD5, but Intel C606-based boards are expected to carry a significant price premium over their consumer-oriented X79 counterparts.

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Apple Confirms Chip Rumors - A5X Powers the New iPad

A rumor that few granted as much credit as they should have, talk of the A5X chip was confirmed during Apple’s special event yesterday at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, in San Francisco, California.

The silicon is not exactly the minor incremental bump we were led to believe. According to Phil Schiller, the chip has quad-core graphics, which allows it to output some amazing visuals on the 3.1 million pixels boasted by the new iPad’s display.

The tech-specs page for the new iPad describes the chip as follows: “Dual-core Apple A5X custom-designed, high-performance, low-power system-on-a-chip with quad-core graphics.”

The news actually corroborates another rumor as well - that the iPhone 5 is expected to be the first device to pack the next-generation A6 chip which, in all senses, should be quad-core.

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Asus Dual-Socket Z9PE-D8-WS LGA 2011 Motherboard Now Official

Shortly after the introduction of Intel’s LGA 2011 Xeon E5 processor family, Asus has made the company’s Z9PE-D8 WS motherboard for dual-socket Sandy Bridge-EP high-end workstations official .

As some of you may remember, the board was unveiled in January of this year, during the CES 2012 fair, and comes as a direct competitor for the EVGA Classified SR-X introduced just yesterday.

Just like its EVGA-built counterpart, the Z9PE-D8-WS features dual LGA 2011 sockets which, in this case, are paired together with four DIMM slots each, in order to enable the motherboard to hold up to 256GB of RAM.

Seven PCI Express x16 slots are also available, driven by the 80 PCIe lanes available in the Xeon E5-series processors.

Of course, such a high-end setup forced Asus to go with a larger form factor than usual, so the company utilized the SSI CEB standard (30.5x33cm), which is usually reserved for servers.

On the storage side, Asus has placed 10 SATA ports, six of which appear to be 6Gbps capable, while two additional USB 3.0 ports placed in the back of the motherboard round up the Z9PE-D8 WS’ expansion capabilities.

Dual Ethernet ports are also present, but only one of these is actually a Gigabit network jack, as the other is linked to an ASPEED AST2300 2D VGA controller that also brings remote management capabilities to the Asus board.

At CES 2012, Asus’ booth featured the Z9PE-D8 WS running dual Xeon E5 CPUs and four Nvidia graphics cards linked in SLI, a configuration that will definitely capture the interest of many companies wanting to build high-performance rendering workstations on the cheap. 

Asus hasn’t revealed any info regarding the pricing of its motherboard, but NCIX has the Z9PE-D8 WS in stock listed at $592 US (about 450 EUR).

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Intel Xeon E5 CPUs Get Five New LGA 2011 Motherboards from Tyan

Tyan, a company well known for its server platforms, has just unveiled five new LGA 2011 dual-socket motherboard models for the recently announced Xeon E5 processors based on Intel’s Sandy Bridge-EP architecture.

The motherboards were designed to fulfill various roles in the enterprise, ranging from small business computing to mission-critical virtualization or datacenter applications.

All of these boards feature dual LGA 2011 sockets, but the rest of their specifications vary depending on the type of application they are meant for.

This means that motherboards built for virtualization or for being used in rack servers, such as the S7050, support an impressive 16 DDR3 memory slots (8 for each CPU). The S7055, which are optimized for datacenter or HPC applications, pack just 8 DDR3 sockets, but offer up to 4 PCI Express x16 Gen 3 slots.

Users who require even larger memory footprints, have the option of going for the Tyan S7052 motherboard, which includes no less than 24 DDR3 memory slots (12 for each CPU).

All of Tyan’s Intel Xeon E5 motherboards include Gigabit Ethernet connectivity, while the S7055 and S7056 also offer 10G GbE networking. 

“Our goal is to be a reliable partner by offering broad, up-to-date, and flexible solutions that assist customers to build IT infrastructure in an effective, efficient, and easy way,” said Albert Mu, Vice President of MiTAC International Corporation’s Tyan Business Unit. 

“By adopting Intel’s latest technology, Tyan’s customers have a broad range of options that allow them to deploy a flexible and intelligent IT environment. 

“Customers are assured that Tyan’s wide product portfolio offers scalability, flexibility, high performance and outstanding energy efficiency,” concluded the company’s rep.

The Tyan S7050, S7052, S7053, S7055, S7056 motherboards will begin shipping in the first half of 2012, but no info regarding their prices has been provided.

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CeBIT 2012: Nvidia GTX 680 Kepler GPU Packs Dynamic Overclocking, Arrives This Month

By the end of this month, Nvidia plans to update its product portfolio with the company’s first 28nm graphics card based on the Kepler architecture, the GeForce GTX 680, which sources seem to imply will feature a new dynamic overclocking technology.

German website Heise.de learned about this new feature from several Nvidia add-in board partners, who were present at this year’s CeBIT fair.

The technology, which is called “Dynamic Clock Adjustment,” works in a similar manner with Intel’s Turbo Boost tech introduced by the chip makers with the Nehalem processor architecture.

Just like Intel’s CPUs, Nvidia’s GK104 graphics core constantly monitors the power consumption of the card and compares it against its factory TDP limit.

If this technology detects that the graphics card works bellow its maximum TDP in a certain 3D application, it automatically overclocks the GPU clock in order to boost its performance. 

Typically, Dynamic Clock Adjustment can increase the graphics core frequency with between 5 and 7 percent.

According to the same sources, the first GeForce GTX 680 graphics cards will make their appearance in late March.

Initially, graphics card makers expect Nvidia to ship only limited quantities of GK104 chips which means that widespread availability isn’t expected before Q2 2012.

As far as the specs of the GK104 Kepler GPU are concerned, Nvidia’s AIB partners can only confirm that the card will feature a 256-bit memory bus connected to 2GB of GDDR5 video buffer memory, but later versions will also be available with 4GB of VRAM.

Pricing is also unknown, but the card is said to be about 10% faster than the Radeon HD 7970 in Battlefield 3, while in 3DMark 11 it falls behind AMD’s creation.

Roughly one month after the release of the GTX 680, Nvidia plans to introduce the mid-range GK107 graphics core, while during the May 14-17 GPU Technology Conference, the company will unveil a dual-GPU GK104 video card.

The GK110, Nvidia’s most powerful graphics core in the Kepler family, isn’t expected to arrive earlier than Q3 2012, and will first make its debut in the Tesla product line of general purpose GPUs.

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Duqu Framework Coded in Unknown Programming Language

F Sharp, Iron Python, CPLEX LIB, High-Level Assembly, LISP, Erlang are just a few of the names of programming languages in which Duqu’s framework could be written. It’s uncertain yet which one it is, but one thing is clear, the malware’s framework looks different from anything else previously analyzed by Kaspersky experts.

The researchers determined that Duqu’s Payload library (DLL) looks like a common Windows PE DLL compiled in Microsoft’s Visual Studio 2008. 

“The entry point code is absolutely standard, and there is one function exported by ordinal number 1 that also looks like MSVC++,” Kaspersky Lab Expert Igor Soumenkov said. 

“This function is called from the PNF DLL and it is actually the 'main' function that implements all the logics of contacting C&C servers, receiving additional payload modules and executing them.”

However, the way this logic was programmed and the tools that were utilized are mindboggling. The only certain thing is that it's an object-oriented programming language.

Most of the code sections that compose the Payload DLL seem to have been compiled in C++, but the command and control (C&C) interaction code, which represents the largest part, is different.

In the code of the Duqu Framework, as experts call it, everything is wrapped into objects and there is no distinction between code written by the programmer and the utility classes. Also, native Windows APi is used instead of references to run-time library functions.

The objects, each an instance of one of the 60 classes, are constructed using the “constructor” functions and destroyed using “destructor” functions, but the layout of each object depends on its class.

“Some classes appear to have binary compatible function tables but there is no indication that they have any common parent classes (like in other OO languages). Furthermore, the location of the function table is not fixed: some classes have it at offset 0 of the instance, but some does not,” Soumenkov explained.

When compared with the framework of its predecessor, Stuxnet, Duqu is different and Kaspersky even hints that a separate team may be responsible for creating this part of the project.

Those who want to take a better look at the code and maybe even help Kaspersky identify the programming language the Duqu Framework was written in can visit Securelist.

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