Technical Specifications:

• Intel® Core™ i7
• 10.1″ 1280×800 display
• Full-screen user interface supporting multi-touch
• 3-axis gyroscope, magnetometer, accelerometer
• Dolby® 7.1 surround sound
• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n
• Bluetooth® 3.0

The details are a bit sketchy as it is not a final product. Some changes can be expected in the final product when (and if) it is released. There might be at least an entire year before this device comes into the market. Battery Life might be a very big issue. Any high end GPU and CPU use a lot of power. If this tablet can run for at least 3 hours, only then will it be remotely portable. Weight will also be an issue. Anyway it should be interesting to see what Razer has to offer.

Project Fiona

If the Fiona does indeed come out under $1000 it would be good viable, mobile gaming platform. It probably won’t be able to displace the ultra high end PC market, but will make for a great mobile gaming platform.

Preview

Full Build and Test

Apart from amazing 3d graphics as compared to wii the main advantage is no hassles about the controller. Thanks to a sophisticated depth-sensing camera (actually a single color camera for image recognition, and two monochrome cameras placed a few inches apart to determine where you are in a three-dimensional space), Kinect can track your movements without a physical controller. All of the heavy lifting is handled by the Kinect sensor and the console, and you can navigate menus and play games without laying a finger on a piece of plastic. A microphone array adds voice recognition to the mix, letting users control the system using voice commands or hand-waves. Kinect touts full body control of up to two people at one time. Tracking is accurate and seemingly lag-free. A second player can jump into the game at any time without the need for calibration or having to pause the game and dig through menus. When another person walked into Kinect’s field of vision, “Reflex Ridge” automatically detected the new challenger and split the screen. The Bowling game mode showed that Kinect can detect speed variations, as slow arm motions produced slow rolling balls, while quick arm motions produced balls that blazed down the lane. This attention to detail made the game feel much more like a true game of bowling than Wii Sports, and I could easily see those that excel in the real life sport finding greater success in the game than those who don’t. Kinect Sports contained two other addictive games which are excellent recreations of the actual sports: Table Tennis and Volleyball. As I served, leapt, delivered backhands, and spiked balls, I marveled at Kinetic’s ability to encourage everyone to get up and play, and work without the physical controllers that non-gamers can find daunting. Kinect would occasionally miss a motion input, but it was surprisingly rare. This experience is genuinely new. If motion games until now were like boxing, Kinect is like kickboxing.

Finally kinect is an amazing console which provides a fun filled rich and entertaining experience. Priced at around 9000 bucks it is a solid buy if you already have a X-Box. At present scenario there are not many games for hardcore gamers. But many games will be released towards the end of the year. While the Kinect’s depth sensing and motion tracking prowess has been developed to make the next generation of games more interactive, its true potential lies beyond just gaming. In the time since the Kinect’s release, even before the release of free SDK for the Kinect, people have been hacking together innovative projects that show the true potential of this technology. It makes the Kinect seem like a worthy invention even if you don’t like the concept of playing computer games using your body as a controller.

1.Ensure that the card has sufficient cool air flow around it. You can remove your cabinet panels or add an after market heat sink onto the RAM and/or VRM so that it doesn’t get too hot or run very loudly.

2.Get “MSI Afterburner. It can be found here :-

http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm

It provides great control for overclocking and includes adjustments for Core Voltage, Core Clock, Shader Clock, Memory Clock.

3.Download a stress and stability test like “Ozone 3d Benchmark” or AMD Overdrive(for AMD cards only).

4. If you’re running on stock cooler, better leave the core voltage untouched. Increase the core clock in steps of 5 MHz. Keep an ear out for unreasonably loud noises from the card fan. Continuously monitor the GPU temperatures in Afterburner.

5.After each increase, run Ozone 3d stress test for approximately 15 minutes. If the card temperature stays below 90C you’re fine. Fan speed is better left in Auto mode, as manual tweaking can make it run faster, hence louder than required.

6. Repeat previous steps until you get a stable setting with temps < 90C. If you see any artifacts like dots, bezels or random lines while stress testing, lower your clock speed or increase your core voltage in units of 0.01 Volts (only if you’re sure it has abundant scope for cooling).

7. Always adjust one parameter at a time and stress test. The preferable order is Core Clock -> Core Voltage ->Memory Clock. Shader Clocks are only for Nvidia cards and best left untouched if you do only gaming. However tweaking it has complex effects for GPU parallel apps and is better  done after consulting the vendor FAQ.

Thus one easily get 10-15 % extra performance from one’s graphics card without paying extra. Optimum for persons trying to squeeze in a few extra frames per sec in the favorite game. You can also check how to overclock your computer .

An Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) is a processing system that includes additional processing capability designed to accelerate one or more types of computations outside of a CPU. This may include a graphics processing unit (GPU), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), or similar specialized processing system. Eg:- Intel HD Graphics, AMD Fusion, Nvidia’s Project Denver.

The Llano series which shipped 6 April, hits India today which AMD’s current flagship APU’s which will be followed by the Bulldozer and Bobcat platforms. The following is brief utility overview of the said upcoming architectures.

The awesome features of the Llano(Fusion) are :-

• Leverages the AMD Radeon™ design DNA for discrete-level graphics in a single-chip PC.
• Extends real-world battery life without compromising the visual experience.
• Systems in the form factors and designs that consumers want, from ultra thin and mainstream notebooks to all-in-one desktop.
• Delivers lower-cost systems that still meet growing demand for high-definition computing capabilities.

AMD’s Llano line of APUs will feature an embedded GPU with the AMD Radeon SKU of HD 6550 which can work in tandem with HD 6570 & HD 6670 in laptops through Hybrid CrossfireX delivering better graphics than even the 2 GB Nvidia Graphic cards shipping with Dell XPS laptops at 60 % the price and 30 % the heat generated and power consumption.

AMD is all set to shove Intel from its dominance in the laptop processor segment with a series of laptops by DELL, Acer, MSI (who have shown great interest) already launched and others set to follow soon. So now would be a good time to wait until July 15 when HP, Toshiba, Lenovo also bring out the Llano powered notebooks. Current models are :-

• Dell Inspiron M102z
• MSI CR 650 & GX 680

The following video shows how the quad core AB – 3510MX Llano APU outstrips the Sandy Bridge based Intel i7 – 2630 QM in image & video processing  and other multi-tasking scenarios which is much costlier than the APU and it does not even have a bundled DX11 discrete GPU.

Featuring a quad-core processor, a six-axis motion sensors, dual analog, front and rear facing cameras, an OLED touchscreen, and a touchpad on the back too. I won’t boast about what its capable of.

See it yourself:

Its capable of running PS3 games [albeit at a lower resolution and quality, but its still quite an achievement]. It gives a whole new meaning to Social Gaming too. Its coming at quite a bargain, $249 for the Wi-Fi only version and $299 for the Wi-Fi & 3G version [Exclusive to AT&T in the USA]. Find out more about its abilities here.

1. Need For Speed: The Run

2. Gotham City Imposters

3. Overstrike

4. Fable the journey

5. Ryse

6. DarkSiders II

7. Pro Evolution Soccer

8. Ninja Gaiden 3

9.Resident Evil : Operation Raccoon City

10. Final Fantasy XIII – 2

1. Assasins Creed Revelations

2. Mass Effect 3 : Fall of Earth

3. Bioshock Infinite

4.Halo 4

5.  Brothers in Arms : Furious 4

6.Prototype 2

7. Spiderman Edge of Time

8. Battlefield 3

9. Call Of Duty : Modern Warfare 3

10. God of War Origins

One of such iPhone games is Three Trees that teaches your child to understand how powers of world influence the growth of trees. Addicting process of trees growing will give much fun to kids and let them learn about the importance of sun, air and water. The balanced work of these forces brings to success while your score is growing. The task of the player is to keep this balance and protect trees from extra exposure of water, sun or air that can make the conditions not appropriate for vegetation. In this case the game will be over.

Let’s Go Chipper is another iPhone game application for nature-lovers. Information about nature and animals are perceived easily by the kids thanks to cool graphics and interesting adventures of Chipper, an inquisitive squirrel. The children do not even notice that they are taught, getting valuable knowledge in a playful form.

If you like the previous app, then we have good news for you. This is just one episode from the series of games developed with this character. The developer decided not to stop on the first release because it was so successful. In the gaming application Sally the Salmon, Chipper studies the underwater world. He travels from salt to fresh water via streams stressing the importance of clean water for the surrounding.

Exciting content for eco education can be found as well in the app Chipper in the Parks, in which the main character visits a famous national park in San Francisco – Crissy Field.

Bruce the Slug will teach your kids how leaf litter makes the trees grow when it is decomposed. Children will learn much in effortless way as they follow animated adventures of slug hiding from birds hunting for him.

You should not worry about the academic standards of information shared through these gaming applications. Giving deep understanding of eco knowledge to your children, you contribute to overall efforts aimed at protection of Mother Nature. Bring your children with awareness of ecological problems and this will have an impact on the environment in the future.