Is reaching into your pocket to snag your smartphone just too much work? Did you ever want to see the world through the eyes of a video game character? Am I asking too many questions? If you answered “Yes” to any of those, you’ll be jazzed by the following sentence. Apparently, the long-rumored “Google Glasses” — Google-built shades with a HUD and all kinds of cool connectivity features — could be on track to launch later this year, and for less cash than you might have expected. Game on!

According to the New York Times’ Nick Bilton and 9 to 5 Google’s Seth Weintraub, the shades reportedly run on some flavor of the Android operating system and should include 3G or 4G integration as well as motion control and GPS sensors, amongst others. The HUD will only be on one lens, and Google Glasses will allegedly sport a low-res front-facing camera, last-gen smartphone-esque hardware specs, and full voice input and output.

Google Glasses should cost somewhere between $250 and $600 and be available for you and me to buy sometime before 2013 rolls around — if the rumors prove to be correct. Initial productions runs are said to be small so that Google can get a grasp on whether or not there’s a market for the technology.

Is there a market for the technology? It’s all talk for now, but would you drop a few hundred bucks for a pair of Google Glasses?

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Asus fans expecting a whole lot of awesome when they unboxed their spiffy new Tegra 3-sporting Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime were, for the most part, satisfied when they got their hands on the cutting-edge tablet — with one exception. Yep, Asus shipped the Prime with a locked bootloader. Bleh! Early adopters took to the Interwebz to voice their rage, and all the e-complaining paid off: today, Asus released a tool that’ll crack Transformer Primes wide open.

Sanctioned unlocking always comes with a couple of caveats, however, and the Transformer Prime is no exception. First and foremost, you’ll be voiding your warranty if you use the unlocking tool, but we’re guessing you knew that already. Also, if you’re running an out-of-the-box Prime, you won’t be able to run the unlocking tool at all. You’ll need to upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich first. Fortunately, the Asus support page that contains the bootloader unlocking utility also offers the ICS firmware, so check it out for all your one-stop Transformer Prime shopping needs. Now get to modding!

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If your AMD-based build keeps getting all hot and bothered, your rampant “incognito mode” Chrome browsing isn’t to blame — you’ve probably got a problem with thermals. Pouring a bucket of ice cold water over your PC isn’t recommended, but that’s not to say that a little aqua can’t help cool things down. PowerColor just announced what it claims is the first Radeon HD 7970 with a liquid cooling waterblock built right onto the card.

PowerColor joined forces with EK WaterBlocks to produce the PowerColor LCS HD7970, which has an acetal waterblock with a nickel-plated copper base covering all of its most critical — and heat generating — components. Additionally, the LCS HD7970 includes “high-flow 3/8″ and 1/2″ fittings (barbs) to maximize water flow with captured o-rings to prevent leakage.” PowerColor claims the setup can keep GPU temps under 50 degrees Celsius even when the card is firing on all cylinders.

The actual GPU got a bit of a boost over reference 7970s, too, with overclocked core and memory speeds of 1050MHz and 1425MHz, respectively.

No word on official pricing or availability, but one thing’s for certain: it won’t be cheap. PowerColor’s standard 7970 runs about $560 at Newegg, and British e-tailer Overclockers.co.uk has the LCS HD7970 up for preorder with a £599.99 price tag. According to Google, that’s about $785 in U.S. money.

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Hitachi on Wednesday announced the shipment of more than 25 million Travelstar Z-series, 7mm hard drives for notebooks, ultra-thins, Ultrabooks, and other portable form factors that support slim 2.5-inch storage devices. It’s the sort of thing companies like to brag about, but rather than gloat over record shipment numbers, Hitachi spent the bulk of its press release talking about the 7mm form factor and its new 500GB Travelstar Z7K500 drive, supposedly the industry’s fastest and highest capacity single-disk 7200RPM hard drive.

The Travelstar Z7K500 features a 6Gbps SATA interface and 32MB of cache. Hitachi says it offers up to 33 percent better performance in PCMark Vantage than other 2.5-inch hard drives on the market, and it does it while sipping on just 1.8 watts of read/write power (0.8W when idle). In addition to the 500GB model, the Z7K500 is also available in 320GB and 250GB capacities.

Hitachi envisions its 7mm drives being combined with a small amount of SSD cache in tomorrow’s Ultrabook models, a combination that could provide ample storage space and high performance without breaking the bank.

“We expect cache SSD shipments to soar over the next couple of years due to the rise in Ultrabook demand,” said Ryan Chien, research associate for memory & storage at IHS. “Shipments of cache SSD units in 2012 are projected to reach 25.7 million units – a 2,817 percent increase compared to 2011 – and will reach approximately 121 million units by 2015. This growth is extremely significant for HDD manufacturers, as combining slim magnetic storage with caching SSDs gives customers high-speed access to massive amounts of storage at an affordable price.”

Volume shipments of Hitachi’s new Travelstar Z7K500 will begin in March.

Image Credit: Hitachi

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Hitachi on Wednesday announced the shipment of more than 25 million Travelstar Z-series, 7mm hard drives for notebooks, ultra-thins, Ultrabooks, and other portable form factors that support slim 2.5-inch storage devices. It’s the sort of thing companies like to brag about, but rather than gloat over record shipment numbers, Hitachi spent the bulk of its press release talking about the 7mm form factor and its new 500GB Travelstar Z7K500 drive, supposedly the industry’s fastest and highest capacity single-disk 7200RPM hard drive.

The Travelstar Z7K500 features a 6Gbps SATA interface and 32MB of cache. Hitachi says it offers up to 33 percent better performance in PCMark Vantage than other 2.5-inch hard drives on the market, and it does it while sipping on just 1.8 watts of read/write power (0.8W when idle). In addition to the 500GB model, the Z7K500 is also available in 320GB and 250GB capacities.

Hitachi envisions its 7mm drives being combined with a small amount of SSD cache in tomorrow’s Ultrabook models, a combination that could provide ample storage space and high performance without breaking the bank.

“We expect cache SSD shipments to soar over the next couple of years due to the rise in Ultrabook demand,” said Ryan Chien, research associate for memory & storage at IHS. “Shipments of cache SSD units in 2012 are projected to reach 25.7 million units – a 2,817 percent increase compared to 2011 – and will reach approximately 121 million units by 2015. This growth is extremely significant for HDD manufacturers, as combining slim magnetic storage with caching SSDs gives customers high-speed access to massive amounts of storage at an affordable price.”

Volume shipments of Hitachi’s new Travelstar Z7K500 will begin in March.

Image Credit: Hitachi

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Record enterprise solutions and services revenue of $18.6 billion for fiscal year 2011 ($4.9 billion the fourth quarter) played a big role in Dell reporting its “most successful financial year ever.” Revenue for the full year topped $62 billion, representing a 1 percent year-over-year increase, with $16 billion pouring in during the final quarter, a 2 percent increase over the previous year. But it was Dell’s outlook for the coming quarter that didn’t sit well with investors, who collectively sent the company’s shares down more than 4 percent.

Dell said it expects revenue to drop 7 percent next quarter, adding that its figure aligns with normal seasonality. Investors saw things differently, perhaps as a reflection of a weak PC market that has yet to rebound. Either way, Dell plans to keep doing what it’s been doing.

“The expanding mix of revenue and earnings from enterprise solutions and services is critical to our future,” said Brian Gladden, Dell chief financial officer. “Our full-year results are a strong reflection of the significant progress we made this year on our strategic priorities.”

Despite Wall Street’s reaction, Dell’s numbers were mostly positive. Dell Services revenue grew 12 percent to $2.2 billion in 2011, its storage business grew 33 percent to $463 million, it’s server and networking revenue increased by 6 percent, and the list goes on.

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If you’ve built or upgraded a rig recently, you probably struggled with whether to spend your money on oodles of storage (mechanical hard drive) or raw speed (solid state drive). You’re not alone. Ultrabook makers find themselves in the same boat, and rather than choose one over the other, hybrid hard drives may provide the compromise between cheap(er) storage and fast performance they’re looking for.

Sources in the supply chain apparently tipped DigiTimes that many next-generation Ultrabook models built around Intel’s Ivy Bridge platform will sport hybrid HDDs. It’s a cost cutting measure that “most vendors are expected to adopt” as they look at ways to make Ultrabooks more affordable.

The savings can be significant. According to DigiTimes, hybrid HDDs are more than 50 percent less expensive than 128GB and 256GB SSDs. That’s a big deal when you consider that storage accounts for 10-15 percent of an Ultrabook’s total production cost.

In addition to cheaper storage, Intel is expected to give Ultrabook makers a break on Ivy Bridge processor pricing, which will be reduced by $60 to $70, DigiTimes reports. Intel’s unconfirmed price break combined with the savings that will accompany a move to hybrid storage device could lead to a fair number of Ultrabook models selling for between $600 and $700 later this year.

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The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) this week rolled out version 2.4 of its open source Apache HTTP Server software. It’s the first major overhaul in six years, and it also happens to coincide with the software’s 17th anniversary. During its nearly two-decade run, Apache HTTP Server has come to power almost 400 million websites around the globe, making it the most popular Web server around.

“It is with great pleasure that we announce the availability of Apache HTTP Server 2.4,” said Eric Covener, Vice President of the Apache HTTP Server Project. “This release delivers a host of evolutionary enhancements throughout the server that our users, administrators, and developers will welcome. We’ve added many new modules in this release, as well as broadened the capability and flexibility of existing features.”

Apache Server began as a fork of a Web server created by Rob McCool for the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). When McCool left NCSA, an assembly of online programmers formed the Apache Group and continued to improve the software by collaborating through email. It took less than a year for Apache HTTP Server to become the No. 1 server on the Internet.

It’s a different landscape today, and with that in mind, ASF said there are a number of enhancements in version 2.4 that will benefit Cloud environments. The team also focused on performance, which they say is now on par with, or better than, pure event-driven Web servers.

You can read the release notes here, and iff you really want to flex your geek muscle, you can check out detailed API changes in version 2.4 here.

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We’ve looked at various network cameras in the past. As with most technologies, prices can vary drastically, but the gulf in quality between budget cameras and high-end ones is particularly wide.

Low cost devices like the Jabbakam can be bought for well under £100, but lack features like night vision and weather-proofing. Low resolutions and a slow frame rate can also reduce these cameras’ usefulness.

The Y-Cam Bullet HD network camera suffers from none of these problems, but this versatility comes at a price – £395 to be precise.

There’s no denying that this is an expensive device, but on testing we found it to be such a fully-featured, high quality camera that its price tag is mostly justified. With night vision, weather-proofing and a choice of wireless or Ethernet connections, this camera – unlike its cheaper rivals – can be used indoors or out.

The name refers to the projectile-like shape of the chassis, but once mounted on its stand (which can be easily attached to a wall or ceiling via screws) and with a drip-proof shield installed, the Y-Cam Bullet HD begins to look more like a CCTV camera. This means that you’d probably rather have it outdoors, unless you’re going for a high street car park look in your living room.

Looks aside – perhaps so far aside that they’re out of sight – this is a very accomplished network camera with extensive features to help you keep an eye on your property when you’re away.

A handy and easy to navigate web interface lets you access the video stream from the camera remotely. There’s also a smartphone-friendly version, and email alerts and motion detection work well together to keep you in the loop should anything happen.

The ‘HD’ of the product name refers to the 1,280 x 720 resolution. Running at 30 frames per second it’s clear and detailed, though not the smoothest stream.

Still, detail in camera footage is essential when reporting a crime, and the Y-Cam Bullet HD offers that as well as some excellent features.

http://techradar.com

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As smartphones grow more and more powerful, they’ve come to resemble miniature computers more than the rotary phones of our past. In fact, smartphones and tablets are becoming so powerful that some analysts have posited that we’re moving into a post-PC world. Maximum PC’s response? Post PC my ass — but that’s a lot harder to say in the wake of the new Ubuntu distro for Android devices. When you’re squawking, it’s a normal Android phone, but the second you connect the phone to a monitor and keyboard — BAM! — you’re greeted by a full Ubuntu desktop experience.

This ain’t no namby-pamby slap-dash conversion, either; Android and Ubuntu run side-by-side and share the same address book, calendar, settings, photos and social media passwords to make the whole thing seamless. You’ll be able to make calls and texts while using the Ubuntu desktop, too. The magic happens because Android and Ubuntu for Android use the same kernel.

It’s a really intriguing concept, but be forewarned: you’ll need a pretty beefy phone to pull it off, plus the aforementioned monitor and keyboard. Here are the phone requirements:

• Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) or higher
• Dual-core 1GHz CPU or higher (multi-cores required)
• Video acceleration: shared kernel driver with associated X driver; Open GL, ES/EGL
• 2GB storage for the OS disk image
• 512 MB RAM
• HDMI video out with secondary frame buffer device
• USB host mode

Canonical plans on showing off Ubuntu for Android at Mobile World Conference next week; hopefully, we’ll get more details then. In the meantime, here’s the list of specs and features. The OS is only available to OEMs at the moment, alas.

Does Ubuntu for Android get you jazzed, or do you consider it another unwanted attempt to blur the line between PC and smartphone? No matter what, it’s a nifty out-of-the-box idea.

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