E3 2011 just wrapped up at the end of the week, and there was a lot that happened, so much that even if you were there, it would have been hard to see it all. Not to worry, we have the details on all the important stuff, just in case you missed any.
Those of you who are regular readers of our blog probably remember our last alaTest Trends article from back in March. Back then, the most popular products on alaTest were the Nokia C7, Sony Ericsson Xperia X8, LG LE5300 Series LED TVs, Canon EOS Rebel T2i, and Sony KDL-HX800 Series 3D TVs. But as expected in the technology world, trends are constantly shifting, and we have a new set of top items based on our data from May 2011.
Whether you’re into high-end 3D gaming, or just want the best HD viewing experience, it’s important to have the right graphics card. They range from inexpensive integrated cards build right into your computer’s motherboard to dedicated cards for extreme gaming enthusiasts.
If you are thinking about upping your computer’s graphics performance, here’s a list of some of the best dedicated video cards for popular price points.
All of the current generation gaming consoles have been out since about 2005 (or 2006 in the case of the PS3). Both the Xbox 360 and PS3 focused heavily on performance, each outpacing their predecessors (the original Xbox and PS2) significantly, achieving roughly 300 million polygons per second in performance. Nintendo, on the other hand, chose to focus on revolutionizing the console interface, making the Wii only slightly faster than the GameCube, obtaining about 100 million polygons per second. The Wii wasn’t anywhere near the league of performance found in the Xbox 360 and PS3, but Nintendo still had an advantage. Neither Sony nor Microsoft intends to replace their current consoles until well into 2015. Nintendo has something prepared for 2012: “Project Café.”
It’s almost that time again: E3 2011 is just around the corner, and excitement is in the air. The who’s who of electronic entertainment will be there, including Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, EA, and Ubisoft to name a few. Every year, E3 manages to surprise us with something big, but just what is expected this year? Let’s take a look.
We recently reached a new milestone in computer science when Watson, IBM’s latest super computer, competed against Jeopardy’s world champions and won. Watson was made up of 90 networked servers, each with a 3.5GHz Eight-core CPU, each core capable of processing 4 threads at once. Compared to a conventional computer, that’s like 2,880 CPUs! Watson also had 15TB (15,000GB) of RAM.
You may think that the human contestants stood no chance against even a normal computer, but the trick is getting a machine to understand human language. That’s why Watson has so much power; it all goes towards translating the question and deciphering the answer from a few Terabytes of data (Watson was not allowed to access the internet).
Back on May 12th, 1941, German engineer Konrad Zuse introduced the Z3, the very first programmable computer. In honor of the 70th birthday of the world’s first computer, we posed the question: could it be possible to build Watson back in 1941?
It seems we can’t even go a week without hearing about a new Android phone coming to the market. Just the other day, the Nexus S 4G was released on Sprint. Shortly before that, the Droid Charge hit Verizon Wireless.T-Mobile got in on the action with the G2x prior to that, and AT&T had the Atrix 4G and Inspire 4G to compete with Verizon’s Thunderbolt released right around the same time. The Droid Incredible 2 came out somewhere between all of that too. Well, as you’d expect, more Android phones are due to hit the market soon, and we have a list of some of the most anticipated.
Read more on new Android smartphones
With so many wireless capable devices these days (Wi-Fi TVs, Smartphones, Laptops, Printers), nearly everyone has begun setting up their houses with Wi-Fi. It’s easy to do; all you really need is a wireless router, but finding the perfect router isn’t quite as easy. With terms like Wireless-N, 54G, Dual-Band, WEP, and WPA just to name a few, it’s easy to get overwhelmed when buying a new router. We’re here to clear up all that confusion. Read more on Wireless Routers
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