FujiFilm X100 Black Edition Now Shipping, Limited to 10,000 Units

Fujifilm has just announced that the company’s Black Edition X100 rangefinder-like camera has become available for purchase.

Compared to the regular version, this new X100 arrives in a package containing a genuine leather ever-ready case (black of course), a lens hood, an adapter ring and a protective filter.

All these are also accompanied by a card that basically says you have one of the only 10,000 Black Edition X100s available worldwide.

In case you aren't that familiar with the Fujifilm X100, you should know that the camera has a 12.3-megapixel sized CMOS image sensor, a Fujifilm EXR processor, a 23mm F2 Fujinon lens, a hybrid viewfinder and a 2.8-inch LCD display.

Pricing for the regular version is set at $1,200 (866 EUR), but since this model is a limited edition product Fujifilm saw it fit to price it at an impressive $1,700 (roughly 1,288 EUR).

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AMD Prices FX-4170 and FX-6200 Bulldozer CPUs

Two weeks after it introduced the FX-4170 and FX-6200 processors into its Bulldozer CPU lineup, AMD added the MSRPs of these two chips to its official price list, thus confirming the rumors that suggested these were considerably more expensive than their predecessors.

Both the FX-4170 and FX-6200 are a great deal faster than the FX-4100 and the FX-6100 they replace, so when it priced these two chips AMD decided that they should cost $20 more than their predecessors.

As a result, the FX-4170 has an MSRP of $135 (about 102 EUR), while the FX-6200 has a recommended price of $165 (roughly 125 EUR).

The FX-4170 is a quad-core processor with a base speed of 4.2GHz and a 4.3GHz maximum Turbo, which is quite a departure from AMD’s original FX-4100 that works at 3.6/3.8GHz.

Since the chip comprises just two Bulldozer modules, its L2 cache is limited at 4MB, but the good news is that AMD kept the Level 3 cache intact, so the FX-4170 packs 8MB of last level memory.

The FX-6200 also comes equipped with 8MB of L3 cache, but its Level 2 cache size was increased at 6MB since this is a six-core processor.

The base operating frequency of the FX-6200 is set at 3.8GHz, but this can go as high as 4.1GHz when not all its cores are in use, thanks to the inclusion of AMD’s Turbo Core dynamic overclocking technology. 

Both the FX-4170 and the FX-6200 have a TDP of 125 Watts and have arrived in stock at several retailers across the US, including Amazon, Provantage, and Newegg, according to CPU-World.

The FX-4100 and FX-6100 will continue to co-exist with these new AMD chips for a while, but nobody knows for sure how long this will continue to happen.

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iOS 5.1 Jailbreakers Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Everyone is talking about the new features delivered in the latest software updates from Apple, and with the new iPad on the scene, it’s hardly a surprise that the security side of these updates has been somewhat overlooked.

Fear not. We’re eager to discuss the latest patches included in iOS 5.1, iTunes 10.6, and the new Apple TV 5.0 software, now that everyone has calmed down a bit.

iOS 5.1 brings, by far, the most plugs for the latest vulnerabilities discovered in Apple’s mobile operating system powering iPhones, iPads, and iPod touch players everywhere.

Around 12 different holes are specifically mentioned in Apple’s support document detailing the security content of iOS 5.1. However, as the advisory shows, there are over 80 security issues addressed in total - most of which affected WebKit, Apple’s layout engine designed to allow web browsers to render web pages.

Affecting iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod touch (3rd generation) and later, the original iPad, as well as the iPad 2, multiple memory corruption issues that existed in WebKit could lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution by visiting a maliciously crafted website.

With the help of numerous security researchers, as well as its own techies, Apple plugged these holes once and for all. But don’t fret. That doesn’t mean there won’t be any new ones in the future.

Now that you know all this, perhaps you’ll consider updating sooner rather than later. Of course, if you’re an avid jailbreak fan, you’ll find yourself between a rock and a hard place.

As you’ll recall, the iPhone Dev Team has warned jailbreakers to stay away from the stock iOS 5.1 firmware, should they wish to keep their ability to jailbreak and / or unlock their devices in the future.

Moving on to the security content of iTunes 10.6, Apple lists roughly the same WebKit vulnerabilities. WebKit is actually at the heart of iTunes - it’s used to display every app icon and album artwork you see in the iTunes Store.

However, the impact of those memory corruption issues is slightly different on Mac and Windows computers. Per Apple’s advisory…:

“A man-in-the-middle attack while browsing the iTunes Store via iTunes may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution.”

Finally, Apple TV Software 5.0 patches a single vulnerability tracked down by Ilja van Sprundel of IOActive.

According to Apple’s security note, Sprundel discovered that “an integer overflow existed in the handling of DNS resource records, which may lead to heap memory corruption.”

Should the user keep the Apple TV software below 5.0, this end scenario could potentially arise: “Applications that use the libresolv library may be vulnerable to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution.”

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Intel Medfield-Based Handset Beats Galaxy Nexus in Benchmark Test

Intel’s Medfield application processor can deliver great performance capabilities inside smartphones, at least this is what recently performed benchmarking tests show. 

The Medfield-powered Orange Smartphone was recently subjected to two such tests, Rightware, which spun off from Futuremark only recently, and Vellamo, and showed appealing capabilities. 

In Rightware, which measures browser’s performance in JavaScript and HTML rendering, the handset scored 89180, higher than the Apple iPhone 4S with its 87801 score, but lower than the 98272 score that Samsung Galaxy Nexus marked. 

In the second test, Vellamo by Qualcomm (a suite of 11 separate benchmarks that test HTML, JavaScript, pixel blending, screen scrolling, sun-spider, V8 and more), the Orange handset managed to score higher than the Galaxy Nexus, though lower than ASUS Transformer. 

You can learn more on the testing on Caschys Blog.

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CeBIT 2012: LG Showcases Xnote Z330 Ultrabook, Thinner Than a MacBook Air

Introduced in Korea at the end of last year, LG’s thinner than a MacBook Air Xnote Z330 Ultrabook made its appearance at this year’s CeBIT fair, suggesting that the company plans to make its ultra-thin available in other parts of the world.

Borrowing more than a few design hints from its Apple-built rival, the Z330 was designed around a 13.3-inch display with a native resolution of 1366x768 pixels.

Thanks to the company’s proprietary Shuriken technology, the display is surrounded by a bezel measuring a mere 8mm, which enables the Z330 to sport a bigger screen, while keeping the size of its creation similar to that of a 12-inch notebook model.

Taking a look at the insides of LG’s new Xnote, we get to see the same Intel Core i5-2467M or Core i7-2637M processors that are standard for most Ultrabooks out there, paired with 4GB of RAM memory.

For storage, users can choose between two SSD drives, one featuring 120GB of storage space and a SATA 6Gbps controller, while the other increases the available capacity to 256GB, but drops speeds to SATA 3Gbps.

Graphics come courtesy of the built-in Intel HD 3000 graphics core found inside the company’s Sandy Bridge processors.

In the connectivity department LG went with a full features list including WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0+HS, Intel WIDI, USB 3.0 and a microSD card reader, according to Netbook News.

Just like most other Ultrabooks, the Xnote Z330 was also tweaked to provide fast boot and resume times, LG saying that its creation requires only 7s to be ready to go (resume time), while for shutting down it needs 9.9s.

While no details regarding the European or the US price of the Xnote Z330 have been made available by the company, in Korea this starts at 1.7m Won, which is the equivalent of $1,509 US or 1,140 EUR.

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Intel Readies 3.1GHz Dual-Core Pentium G870 CPU for Q2 Launch

By the end of the second quarter of this year, Intel is expected to launch a new Pentium processor based on the company’s Sandy Bridge architecture, which will improve upon the specs of its predecessor.

The new Intel CPU, called the Pentium G870, was uncovered by Fudzilla, which also provided us with an almost full list of its key specifications.

Starting with the release of its first Sandy Bridge Pentium processors, every Pentium CPU introduced by Intel since then has come as a 100MHz higher clocked part when compared to its predecessor.

The dual-core Pentium G870 is no exception to this rule and, as CPU-World reports, other than this small speed bump it will most probably be identical with the current G860.

What this means is that the 3.1GHz CPU should come equipped with 3MB of Level 3 cache memory, built-in Intel HD graphics, SSE4 support, as well as with an integrated dual-channel memory controller.

Other more advanced features like Hyper-Threading or AVX support are sadly missing from the features pack, as is the case with most other Sandy Bridge-based Pentium CPUs out there (the only exception is the Pentium 350 for micro-servers). 

The TDP of the Pentium G870 should be set at 65 Watts, while its MSRP should remain identical with that of the 860 ($86 US).

Intel introduced its first Pentium processors based on the Sandy Bridge architecture in May last year. Since then, this product family has been refreshed only once, in September 2011.

It looks like the G870 will be the chip maker’s last Pentium CPU to utilize the Sandy Bridge design, as in the third quarter of this year this line will be updated to include some new chips derived from the company’s 22nm Ivy Bridge architecture.

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Samsung Trademarks Galaxy Thunder, Express, and Accelerate

South Korean mobile phone maker Samsung Electronics is gearing up for the release of new Android-based devices in the United States, new trademark filing shows.

The handset vendor has filed trademark request for the Galaxy Thunder, Galaxy Express, and Galaxy Accelerate names, which might be used for new smartphones in the near future. 

Rumor has it that these names could be soon attached to the company’s US flavors of Galaxy S III, supposedly the successor of last year’s highly popular Galaxy S II smartphone. 

Recently, the company has trademarked some other names that will supposedly be paired with new handsets, but nothing has been officially confirmed on the matter so far. 

Additionally, the company trademarked the name of Samsung Wallet, and Pocketnow notes that this could be the name for some sort of a Google Wallet competitor, though it sounds rather far-fetched.

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CM9 ROM Emerges for Sprint’s Epic 4G Touch

The owners of a Samsung Epic 4G Touch smartphone on Sprint’s airwaves can now install a new unofficial ROM on their devices, this time based on CyanogenMod 9 software. 

This means that the ROM will bring along the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system on the mobile phone, so that users could get a taste of the latest advancements Google packed its OS with. 

The new ROM comes from XDA-Developers Forum and is currently in an alpha stage of development, which means that users will experience issues with it. 

To install it, they will have to get the EL29 version of ClockworkMod Recovery on their devices, and then flash CM9. The installation will fail with other builds, it appears. 

Those interested in putting this ROM on their devices should head over to the XDA-Developers to learn more on it. A second CM9 ROM for this mobile phone is detailed here.

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Gigabyte GA-6PXSV1 LGA 2011 Server Motherboard Makes Appearance

Motherboard maker Gigabyte has recently added a new LGA 2011 server solution to its product portfolio, dubbed the GA-6PXSV1, which was designed in order to be used together with Intel’s latest Xeon E5-1600 series processors.

The board is based on the Intel C604 chipset and it sports a single LGA 2011 socket.

The first thing that one notices when taking a look at the GA-6PXSV1 is the fact that the board comes equipped with no less than eight DIMM memory sockets.

According to Gigabyte, these are compatible with both RDIMM and ECC memory modules and enable the board to support as much as 256GB of 1600MHz memory.

Right to the left of the DIMM sockets, Gigabyte has placed the board's expansion slots, which include a pair of PCI Express x16 Gen 3.0 slots, one PCIe x8 slot, one PCI Express x4 slot, as well as a legacy 32-bit PCI slot. 

Storage is provided by no less than six SATA ports, two of these working at 6Gbps speeds, and are accompanied by four SAS 6Gbps ports placed right near the board's left margin. All of these are driven by the C604 chipset. 

Other features include USB 3.0 connectivity, support for the enterprise version of Intel's Rapid Storage Technology (IRST), and a six-phase CPU PWM with DrMOS MOSFET transistors.

On the back of the GA-6PXSV1, outside of the regular connectors, users will also find a pair of KVM network ports.

Sadly, Gigabyte hasn’t provided any information regarding the release date or the price of this server motherboard.

The picture accompanying this article is that of a pre-production sample which was showcased during IDF 2011, as Gigabyte hasn’t made any new images of the GA-6PXSV1 board available.

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Raspberry Pi Will Only Ship at the End of March from RS

Not long after the Raspberry Pi foundation revealed its unfortunate manufacturing hiccup, we get a clear idea of when the small PCs will start shipping.

We didn't expect to learn about this so soon after the problems revealed by the developers of the Raspberry Pi, but here we are.

RS Components, one of the two retailers that have signed on to distribute the credit-card-sized PC, now know when it will start shipping them.

Apparently, it hasn't even received the first batch of boards. That will only happen at the end of the month (March, 2012).

That means that people who placed pre-orders still have to wait for a few weeks, especially since the deliveries will be carried out on a first-come, first-served basis.

“We have never experienced this level of interest in a product and it has been challenging to address the unexpectedly high levels of demand. However, rather than simply rush Raspberry Pi to market, our priority is to ensure that customers receive a product of outstanding quality and reliability,” said Glenn Jarrett, head of electronics marketing at RS Components.

“I know it’s frustrating for those waiting to receive a board but I’m certain they will be delighted when they get it. We’d like customers to know that RS is working on a number of initiatives to help them get the most from these innovative, educational computer boards and we’ll be announcing these over the coming weeks.”

Basically, if you are one of the people who got lucky and ordered one early on, you'll get it soon, while everyone else will have to keep waiting.

“We’ve every confidence that our chosen distributors are doing everything possible to satisfy the amazing demand for our first product,” Liz Upton said on behalf of the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

“The level of demand has really taken us by surprise but we know that RS has committed all available resources to ramp up production and deliver Raspberry Pi boards to eager customers as soon as possible.”

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