By Nate Ralph
August 1, 2010

Nvidia and AMD’s GPU arms race continues unabated, and the “world’s fastest” moniker hangs in the balance. The latest salvo comes in the form of Nvidia’s latest flagship graphics card, the GeForce GTX 580. Priced at $500 (as of 11/9/2010), the card sits right at the upper echelons of the graphics card market, aimed squarely at the enthusiasts who will suffer nothing but the best. And they’ll find speed in spades here: the GTX 580 is the fastest single-GPU graphics card on the market today, sailing through our battery of tests with aplomb.

A Tale of Two Cards

Over a year ago Nvidia released their flagship graphics card, the GeForce GTX 480. Built on Nvidia’s fledgling Fermi architecture, it was their first DirectX 11 graphics card. And it was quite a beast: a confluence of blistering performance and temperatures that generally topped the performance charts, but ultimately stumbled in light of AMD’s well-established DirectX 11 competition. With the GeForce GTX 580, Nvidia quite literally went back to the drawing board. The GPU inside the GTX 480 was re-tooled from the transistor level, as Nvidia worked to mitigate some of the power and temperature issues that plagued the card. As a result, the GTX 580 is quieter, cooler, and relatively more power efficient than its predecessor. Putting Fermi to the Test We pitted the GeForce GTX 580 against its predecessor, the GTX 480, and AMD’s Radeon HD 5870 and HD 5970. A note about the Radeon HD 5970: while it is a single graphics card, it’s actually a pair of GPUs, sandwiched together. Synthetic benchmarks aren’t necessarily a barometer of real-world performance, but they’re handy for getting a solid idea of how cards stack up. This is particularly true for the Unigine Heaven benchmark. This strenuous DirectX 11 test is laden with geometry-heavy scenes and tessellation — the Fermi architecture’s bread and butter. The GTX 580 takes a decisive lead, ousting even the HD 5970’s ample muscle. While the Radeon HD 5970 clambers back into the lead on the 3DMark Vantage benchmark, it isn’t ahead by very much — 7%, on the Extreme setting. That’s not a bad showing from the GTX 580’s single-GPU. Our gaming tests saw a bit more of the same. The dual-GPU Radeon HD 5970 maintains a near constant lead, with the GTX 580 nipping at its heels. The Dirt 2 Demo’s results were the outlier here, with Nvidia’s GTX 580 pulling ahead by as much as 80% over the Radeon HD 5870. It maintained a steady lead over the Radeon HD 5970 by up to 40%.

With Great Power, Comes Great Efficiency

The GTX 480s chief faults lay in its unwieldy power demands, and Nvidia has gone a long way to rectifying that issue. AMD’s Radeon HD 5870 is (unsurprisingly) the least demanding of the cards we looked at, but the GTX 580 managed to shave 20W off of its predecessor’s idle and full load power ratings. The improvement shows once we take performance per watt into account. The Radeon HD 5970 takes the lead as the most efficient card, but the GTX 580 makes dramatic strides over its predecessor, overtaking even the venerable Radeon HD 5870. Fermi, Done Right Nvidia was late to the DirectX 11 game, and the GTX 480 ultimately failed to make much of a splash. But an extra six months in the proverbial tool shed has resulted in quite a showpiece. The GeForce GTX 580 is everything the GTX 480 should’ve been, but it’s still saddled with some of the same problems. There’s still no answer for AMD’s Eyefinity technology — if you want to run three (or more) monitors, you’ll still need to pick up a second GTX 580. The GTX 580 also lacks a DisplayPort connector, offering up a pair of DVI connectors and a mini-HDMI port instead — AMD’s cards offer the full gamut.

DisplayPort concerns aside, Nvidia has managed an impressive feat. An unwieldy titan was reforged, delivering a component that outpaces the competition, and earns the vaunted “world’s fastest” moniker.

By Mikee dela Cruz
June 1, 2010

Jennifer Imus (jenniferimus. com), based in Orange County, California, juggles professional photography with motherhood, not necessarily an easy task since, “as a mom, I am typically carrying 40 other things with me to events at school or the soccer game on Saturday,” she was quoted as saying.

Thus, while she brings out her pro-gear often, Imus is first to say that she has gotten many “frame-worthy shots” with her “little camera”: the point-and-shoot (P&S) Canon PowerShot SD790. Usually keeping the setting at auto ISO since “I am usually shooting on the fly,” the best thing about going P&S is that “I never miss the shot since it’s always with me.

” While many of her friends still get surprised when she brings out her P&S, Imus was actually only one of the professional photographers surveyed by Grover Sanschagrin, a founder of PhotoShelter and SportsShooter. com, to ascertain if the pros really use pointand shoot cameras. Through an “unscientific research” using Facebook and Twitter, as Sanschagrin dubbed his approach, over 50 pros stated their P&S camera of choice. And these pros are heavyweights, including, among others, Pulitzer Prize-winning photographers David Hume Kennerly and Brian Smith, “Strobist” David Hobby, adventure photographer Corey Rich, and advertising photographer Tom Hussey.

That it is not the deemed “high techie-ness” of a camera, but how it is used, is the underlying lesson that can be had here. This, too, is why P&S cameras continue to be popular. At the end of 2010, the Consumer Electronics Association noted that similar to the answering machine, the desktop calculator and the Rolodex, P&S cameras have lost the favors of many, no thanks to the growing use of multipurpose smartphones. However, in the US alone, 82% still own P&S cameras. Mainly, while smartphones allow for the instant emailing (thus sharing) of photographs, P&S cameras still have such advantages as the image stabilization feature, and larger lenses and sensors. Also, particularly with newer models, higher resolutions enable even the cheaper P&S units to be as good as the more expensive higher-end models. The NPD Group Inc. noted that as of March 2010, up to 92% of all digital cameras sold (including digital P&S and DSLRs) had 10 megapixels or more.

Even if minimal, growth in sales continue to be noted for P&S cameras – by 2% in March 2010 compared to the year before then (when sales were actually 20% lower compared to 2008 figures), according to NPD Group Inc. Research firm GfK, meanwhile, pegged the growth at the end of 2010 twice that figure (at 4%), still respectable considering that as noted by Flickr.com, citing the most commonly used cameras when uploading in its Web site, this is a market that is “polarizing towards smartphones and higher-end DSLRs.” After the iPhone, the most commonly used cameras on Flickr are a selection of Canon and Nikon branded DSLRs.

Out to buy a P&S camera yet? Not so fast!

According to SquareTrade Inc., worth knowing is that on average, 10.7% of digital cameras fail within two years, and 15.6% are projected to fail within three years (See Figure 1). Of these failures, 6.6% come from malfunctions, and 4.1% experience damage due to accidents.

Not surprisingly, according to SquareTrade Inc., more expensive cameras (in the US, those over $300) proved to be more reliable than the cheaper units (See Figure 2).

Speaking of brands, SquareTrade Inc. put Panasonic on top, leading the P&S cameras under $300 studied, with a failure rate just above 5% (5.3%) in a two-year period. Its more expensive units ($300 to $500) fared even better (only 2% failure rate).

Fujifilm, Olympus, Sony and Canon also did well, with failure rates pegged at around 6% (See Figure 3).

At the bottom are Polaroid and Casio, with malfunction rates at 11.9% and 13.0%, respectively.

All the same, armed with the right knowledge, a P&S camera may prove to be a good investment.

Pulitzer Prize winner Brian Smith, participating in the PhotoShelter and SportsShooter.com’s Sanschagrin informal survey, said that while his Sony NEX-5 is not “really a P&S,” but that it mimics one, able to hide an APS sensor in a P&S size package, makes it appealing. “I love being able to just toss it in my bag or slip it in a pocket and shoot without attracting attention,” he was quoted as saying.

And with shooting high-resolution photographs on the go now a norm – with smartphones not just there yet in offering what digital cameras can do – P&S cameras will remain a must-have.

By Mikee dela Cruz
April 1, 2010

The first thing that came to mind after unpacking Acer Aspire One (Happy) – a purple unit sent over for review – was HTC Wildfire: it has much of HTC Desire’s fea­tures, but some had to be taken off (most prominent is the lower resolution of the screen) to make it affordable to those who can’t afford HTC Desire. The first impression with this one is that it is almost like the older Aspire models, but not quite – start with (back to the analogy) a resolution that looked less than the usual (which, at 1,024 x 600 pixels is actually at par with many in the Aspire range).

This, in actuality, may actually just be because of the overall feel that Happy inspires, i.e. playful and fun (read: not serious), ap­propriate to the market it aimsto respond to (e.g. studes on the move).

There are four loud colors in the line – pink, blue, green and purple. While the color definite­ly demands attention (note: but so did the neon-colored cycling shorts of the 1980s), it somehow looks cheap (especially when compared to the other smarter-looking Aspire products).
Forget the too optimistic coat­ing (though that may exactly be the intent of the unit) to focus on Happy’s features, and it actually isn’t bad. Check the isolated key­board design that, aesthetically, makes the keys seem to float above the surface of the netbook, even as they are so responsive typing’s never a problem.
Then there’s the rectangular trackpad that provides plenty enough of room (for a note­book) even for bigger hands. There’s the single rocker-style button that responds with a positive click when it’s tapped. To connect, check out the high-speed version of Bluetooth, as well as 802.11n Wi-Fi. Then there’s the weight – boasting a 10.1-inch screen (as many netbooks do), this one is just 1.3kg, which, in feel, is more akin to a 10-inch tablet than to a netbook.

What should be appealing, but is surprisingly not so, is Happy’s dual operating systems: Windows 7 Starter and Android 2.1. As it is, the former isn’t the perfect version of the OS – in Starter, you can’t even change the wallpaper. The latter, while loading faster than Windows, isn’t necessarily better as an add-on in a netbook – Android’s great for touchscreen units, which Happy isn’t; plus on this unit, access to Android Market isn’t as straightforward (begs the question on why have it if you can’t actively access what makes it good, in the first place).

If in the mood to be chirpy, grab Acer Aspire One (Happy). You’ll be happy doing so. If look­ing for more than that, Acer itself (like other manufacturers) has stronger alternatives in the same price range.

By Mikee dela Cruz
April 1, 2010

NOKIA USED TO BE BIG.
It is still big, yes; but how big, I don’t know.

At least not I am sure of, particularly in this world now dominated by Apple and HTC and LG – companies that, for a while in the past, played catch up with Nokia; and which now Nokia is (truth be told) chasing.

If Nokia N8 is to be the basis of how Nokia is now doing, the company is still doing some chasing.
Let’s deal with the limita­tions of the phone. The overall design – aluminium casing with tapered edges – brings LG Optimus to mind: some­what futuristic, and thus cool. But that it brings LG’s prime product to mind takes away from Nokia’s effort. Then there’s the camera at the back of the unit, this time bringing to mind the earlier designs of Sony Ericsson, which – to protect the lens – provided

the cameras with a sliding cover. Try putting the unit in the pocket of your pants, then take it out, then put it in again before taking it out yet again (how we normal people keep our phones when on the go) to know how annoying having a unit that has extra bumps as essential parts can be. Then there’s (as soon as you turn the unit on) the homescreen, which can only hold six widgets that now serve more just as buttons to remind of their existence than as actual widgets (e.g. the calendar can hardly be contained it is unable to show your next scheduled appointments). And then there’s Symbian^3 – already getting kicked by Android (after getting kicked by Apple) – OS that remains customer-un­friendly (e.g. “market” for apps, anyone?).

This is not to say the phone is all bad. On top of the good is the camera (if you can get over the annoying sliding cover): 12-megapixel with Carl Zeiss optics, matched with a bright Xenon flash. I tell you this: sooner or later, we’d have no need for digicams – not when phones like N8 could already do their functions. Then there’s the showstopper mini-HDMI port for connecting the N8 directly into a monitor or flat panel TV. Projectors be warned, I say. Then there’s the music player (check the CoverFlow-inspired design, among others, that Apple gave a headstart). Slick easily comes to mind. And then there’s the HD video, which, even if only shooting at 25 fps, records more than good videos (that can also be edited using the unit itself). This bests the ear­lier models of Flip, for sure .

If in the lookout for an okay phone with a pretty good camera, this unit’s worth considering. If it’s a really smart smartphone you want, though, this isn’t it.

By Mikee dela Cruz
April 1, 2010

Belkin’s Play Max is designed to make wireless networking easier (not too dis¬similar from Belkin’s other Surf/Share/ Play routers, and to some extent Cisco’s Valet). Mainly, the consumer-friendli¬ness is to be achieved through a DIY easy installation process – think of this as the company’s response after realizing that no one wants to spend too much time on any gadget that should (or at least could just be) plug in and go.

The easy installation measures include: shipping the router with a wireless password and SSID to allow wireless networking with no customization (meaning, no more calling customer ser¬vice for instructions; or even accessing to company’s Website just to be able to setup), and removal of the LEDs (those lights that you don’t know flicker for you don’t know what) sans one to tell users if the router is on or off.

The simplification isn’t the only pro of this, though, with the addition of apps (those now ubiquitous applications) topping the list of what’s really great about this unit. No, this isn’t exactly pioneering (this inclu¬sion of apps); Belkin simply simplified it (e.g. Do you know what DLNA stands for? Worry not; now, even sans that knowledge, you can still order and play music through your Xbox 360!).
Simplification comes for a price, however.

No, you can’t mount it (or even lay it on its side) – the excuse provided is for the router’s antennas to provide “3D whole home coverage.” And no, the indicators are no longer there (as earlier stated, LEDs were removed) – this means you won’t know the link, speed and activity on any of the Ethernet ports connected to the router (and you know what they said about knowledge – it is power; particularly helpful for trou¬bleshooting).

Back on the apps, this unit’s biggest draw, the must haves include: Torrent Genie (for continued downloading even if the computer is shut down or asleep), Bit Boost (for easy prioritization of data streams), Print Genie (for wireless printing), Memory Safe (for automatic backing up of files to an an external hard drive attached to the router), and Self-Healing (akin to an antivirus that detects to resolve problems).

Interesting apps include: Music Mover (to wirelessly connect your music library to your home stereo), Daily DJ (said to “analyze the musical DNA” of the items in your music library before organizing these into: High-Energy, Steady Groove and Kick Back grooves before giving them a new take), and Music Labeler (not too different from Apple iTunes).
To really ap¬preciate Play Max is to look at it as a router that does its tasks as well (or better as) other routers, with the apps as bonus to up the ante. Noth¬ing super in this, to be honest – but this one will, most definitely, get you what you paid for (plus more).

By Mikee dela Cruz
March 1, 2010

What happens when Epson tinkers (for lack of a better word) with its Epson Stylus Photo TX700W? A new product is born, with the Stylus Photo TX720WD printer. So what we have is a replica of the predecessor, only better. Consider the upgraded features, e.g. capability to take 40 ppm (both B&W and color, text only), with a 4 x 6 inch photo taking only 10 seconds to get printed; maximum resolution of 5760×1440 dots per inch; individual ink cartridges (to prevent wastage, usually happening during replacement); and – missing from the predecessor – a duplex printing module (to save paper) and a flat touch pad (as is the trend nowadays). We are supposed to be heading to a paperless world (greener this way, with no trees needed to be cut). But until that time actually happens, printing will still be needed. Many of Epson’s offerings offer the compromise to printing yet still attempting to save the environment. So this one – Stylus Photo TX720WD printer – is a go for me.

By Mikee dela Cruz
March 1, 2010

What happens when Epson tinkers (for lack of a better word) with its Epson Stylus Photo TX700W? A new product is born, with the Stylus Photo TX720WD printer. So what we have is a replica of the predecessor, only better. Consider the upgraded features, e.g. capability to take 40 ppm (both B&W and color, text only), with a 4 x 6 inch photo taking only 10 seconds to get printed; maximum resolution of 5760×1440 dots per inch; individual ink cartridges (to prevent wastage, usually happening during replacement); and – missing from the predecessor – a duplex printing module (to save paper) and a flat touch pad (as is the trend nowadays). We are supposed to be heading to a paperless world (greener this way, with no trees needed to be cut). But until that time actually happens, printing will still be needed. Many of Epson’s offerings offer the compromise to printing yet still attempting to save the environment. So this one – Stylus Photo TX720WD printer – is a go for me.

By Mikee dela Cruz
March 1, 2010

When Epson launched the Epson B310N and B510DN, its latest business inkjet printers, the intentions were basic: better the productivity while cutting printing costs. The former is achieved with the help of the company’s proprietary Micro Piezo print head (durable, thereby lessens need to replace constantly), which – using the company’s description of the technology – “utilizes electric pulses in emitting ink droplets, thus resulting in high-quality, high-definition prints, and lesser energy consumption that prolongs printer life.” In ppm (page per minute) talk (what we output-focus people are), this means the units can print 37 pages ppm for both B&W and color prints on draft mode, or 19 ppm for B&W and 18 ppm for color on laser quality mode. Used with high-capacity ink cartridges (yes, for extra costs), the units can yield up to 4,000 pages for pure black, or 7,000 pages for color prints before the cartridges need to be refilled. Other companies may already offer products on a par with this, so Epson added more features, e.g. both the Epson B310N and B510DN comes with network connectivity and duplex printing capability to allow multiple users to share a single printer via local area networks (LAN); and the units are Energy Star compliant, meaning, yes, these are “green” as they use – again, borrowing from the company’s PR mats – up to 89% less energy as compared to other color laser printers. In a gist, should this be grabbed? If you’re an SMB, yes, this may work for you just fine; and you’re making tech work for the environment, too.

By Carlo C. Gutierrez
February 1, 2010

With the recent influx of USB 3.0 external storage drives, Western Digital (WD) has been busy making updated versions of their USB 2.0 storage devices.

A few months back, we received a request to review WD’s My Passport Essential and now they’ve sent us an improved USB 3.0 version of the same series.

So far as aesthetics goes, the new WD My Passport Essential USB 3.0 external drive looks exactly the same as its predecessor except for the changed USB 3.0 port. While the device is backward compatible with USB 2.0 ports, you can only use USB 3.0 cables with it so you can’t use the standard mini-USB cables used for USB 2.0 external drives should you unfortunately lose the included cable.

Like most of units in the My Passport Essential line, the external drive has a glossy finish making it look stylish and sleek but prone to fingerprints. It has the same exact dimensions of the USB 2.0 variant measuring in at 83x110x15mm. At the side is a single LED which flashes white during file transfer.

Like any other WD external storage, the device came bundled with WD Smart-Ware which helps with back up management and encryption.

We used HD Tune, HD Tach and AIDA64 to measure the device’s data transfer speeds. We ran the same tests using a USB 3.0 compatible motherboard and another with just USB 2.0.

As shown on the table, the performance of the device doubles when used with a USB 3.0 compatible board. Compared to its predecessor which got 32.5MB/s average read, 17.6ms access time, and 33.3MB/s burst rate in HD Tune and 34.5MB/s, 17.4ms, 37.7MB/s in HD Tach, the WD My Passport Essential USB 3.0 is a sure winner.

Even if you don’t have a USB 3.0 compatible board now, WD My Passport Essential USB 3.0 isn’t that much more expensive compared to the USB 2.0 version and is still a good investment.

Expected to hit the local market this December or January of next year, the WD My Passport Essential USB 3.0 is a worthy successor of the product series.

By Carlo C. Gutierrez
February 1, 2010

It’s a Western Digital (WD) party in the office this November as we received another storage device from WD. Following the USB 3.0 refresh of most of their external hard drives, the company sent in a WD My Book Essential USB 3.0.

Aside from the change from USB 2.0 to USB 3.0, the WD My Book Essential USB 3.0 has increased its capacity size to up to 3TB from the past 1TB and 2TB variants. Like most USB 3.0 external drives, it requires the new data cable that is different from the standard mini-USB but it is backwards compatible with USB 2.0 ports.

As seen on the photo, the WD My Book Essential USB 3.0 follows the same design as previous WD My Book Essentials but with a different data port. It still has the same glossy material finish which we all love to leave our fingerprints on.

As is the standard with most WD external hard drives, WD SmartWare comes bundled with the hardware and can be downloaded from the company’s site in case of data loss or accidental formats without backups.

We used HD Tune, HD Tach and AIDA64 to measure the device’s data transfer speeds. We ran the same tests using a USB 3.0 compatible motherboard and another with just USB 2.0.

As can be seen on the table, the WD My Book Essential 3.0 performs faster on a USB 3.0 interface as expected. However, we noticed that it did better across the board on our tests compared to the WD My Passport Essential USB 3.0.

With up to 3TB models, WD’s My Book Essential USB 3.0 is an excellent portable storage option for media sharers on the go.