AMD is ready to unleash Radeon HD 7990 GPU

If you were lucky enough to pile into San Francisco's Metreon Theater during GDC 2013 last month, you saw the world's first demo of Battlefield 4, projected loud and proud on the big screen.

A much less publicized debut was also taking place, albeit behind the scenes: AMD's new Radeon HD 7990 graphics card, a.k.a. Malta, powered Battlefield, marking the GPU's own public premiere.

Now, AMD is ready to take the rope off this graphics card bad boy and today announced specs, availability and pricing for what it claims is the world's fastest GPU.

Priced at $999 (no word on international pricing), the HD 7990 is an item meant for the enthusiast crowd. Filled with 8.6 billion transistors, 4096 stream processor and 8.2 TFLOPS of computer power, this dual-card package is a lean, mean, processing machine.

Give me G-P-U

A thousand big ones is a lot to fork over for anything, but AMD flushed the 7990 with as much power as possible.

In addition to the aforementioned specs, the GPU comes with 6GB of GDDR5 memory and AMD claimed it can run five simultaneous monitors in one go.

Naturally, the 7990 needs fans to cool it down while it's cooking, so AMD has topped it off with three fans specially designed to be whisper quiet (37 dBa) while also including a large heat sink.

All the hardware amounts to some impressive game play, according to AMD's estimates.

The company asserts the 7990 is the only card that can run Crysis 3 at 3840 x 2160 with max settings cranked up. Tomb Raider can also play at 3840 x 2160 on max mode plus Tress FX.

AMD's own test show 4K dominance

What's more, the company's tests found the 7990 bested Nvidia's GTX 690 in a 4K resolution fight.

There is an extra incentive to purchase it…well, make that eight incentives.

The card comes bundled with eight free games: BioShock Infinite, Tomb Raider, Crysis 3, Far Cry 3, Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon, Sleeping Dogs andDeus Ex Human Revolution.

The titles will be available within the 7990's product box in any region the bundle is available, AMD noted. Online retailers will start selling the GPU two weeks from today.

It may not be a Battlefield demo, but this should give you a good idea of the kind of card AMD is working with.

Sony announces super light 30x zoom camera

The Sony HX50 is the world's smallest and lightest digital camera to feature a 30x optical zoom. It's also equipped with image stabilisation, which Sony says is twice as effective as the Cyber-Shot HX200V, the camera's predecessor.

A 20.4 million pixel Exmor R CMOS sensor is joined by a Bionz processor, which claims to deliver high quality images, even in low light shooting conditions. The Sony Cyber-Shot HX50's sensor is a 1/2.3-inch sized device.

A high speed autofocusing system is said to be capable of capturing quick moments even at full zoom. Speed is claimed to be twice as quick as on the Sony HX200V.

The 30x optical zoom lens gives an equivalent focal length of 24-720mm in 35mm terms. At the widest point of the lens it boasts a maximum aperture of f/3.5, rising up to f/6.3 at the telephoto end.

Aimed at more advanced photographers as well as those attracted by the high zoom ratio, a dedicated dial is included for adjusting exposure compensation, along with a mode dial for manual shooting settings such as P/A/S/M modes.

Add ons

Optional accessories, such as an electronic viewfinder (EVF), flash or microphone can be attached via a Multi Interface Shoe. Full HD video recording at 50p is available. At the back of the camera is a 3-inch, 921,6000 dot Xtra Fine TFT LCD screen.

Sony claims that the X-type lithium-ion battery onboard the HX50 is capable of delivering up to 400 shots from a single charge, despite being physically smaller than any of its predecessors.

Nine different picture effects are included to experiment with, while three are available in Intelligent Sweep Panorama mode. Four different movie effects are available.

Inbuilt Wi-Fi and GPS are included, which is likely to be an added attraction to the travelling photographer.

The Sony HX50 price has yet to be determined, but it will be available to buy from May.

Apple announces Q1 2013 results, revenue rises, but profits fall

Apple has just announced its Q1 2013 results. Technically, these are its Q2 results as the US financial year does not coincide with the calendar year. But no matter how you call the quarter, it's still interesting to see how Apple has been doing business-wise in the first three months of this year. Especially, after the not-so-positive projections.

The good news is that the company is still going strong, a year and a half since Steve Jobs passed away. The company has scored some $43.6 billion in revenue, which was even better than the projected $41-43 billion. Compared to the same quarter last year, the company is experiencing its slowest growth in the US and China, while the Asia Pacific has been most receptive of Apple's products.

Unfortunately, the global net profit is down to $9.5 billion, down from $11.6 billion from the year-ago quarter. This has resulted in $10.09 earnings per dilluted share, as opposed to $12.30 a year ago.

The reason for the lowered profits is the plummeting of the gross margin to 37.5 percent, down from 47.4 percent in the same quarter last year.

If it's any consolation, most of this was already projected last quarter, so there are no nasty surprises here.

Apple sold 37.4 million iPhones in the quarter, which is more than a year ago (35.1 million iPhones). Apple also sold 19.5 million iPads (up from 11.8 million in the year-ago quarter).

However, the Mac sales are down to just under 4 million compared to 4 million back in the year-ago quarter. The iPods are continuing their steady decline - Apple sold 5.6 million (down from 7.6 million in the year-ago quarter).

Apple also shared their projections for the next quarter - the one ending in June. The company expects revenue of around $33.5-35.5 billion and a gross margin of 36-37 percent.

Mozilla 'thrilled' at demand facing first Firefox OS phones

Phones running Mozilla's Firefox OS are today making it into the wild.

Spain-based Geeksphone opened orders for two dev preview handsets this morning and within hours Keon and Peak had sold out. The startup OEM's online shop is currently displaying a two-line message that it's temporarily shut down for maintenance, an indicator it's reached maximum order capacity.

Mozilla, for its part, is well aware of the situation at Geeksphone.

"Mozilla is thrilled to see such high demand for the Firefox OS developer preview devices, made available today by Geeksphone," Stormy Peters, director of websites and developer engagement at Mozilla, said in a statement sent to TechRadar.

"The support for these devices has been overwhelming, and we are pleased to see the development community excited to create content for the open web on mobile. We believe developers working with Firefox OS will help to bring the next two billion users online, through the power of the open mobile web."

The first wave is about to hit

On fire

While Mozilla stayed high-level as to why developers are flocking to the phones, one very terrestrial factor may be playing into demand.

Geeksphone priced the Keon at $119 (around UK£77, AU$115 ) and the higher-end Peak at $194 (around UK£127, AU$189). Devs will get to play around with the Linux-based, open-source OS before retail units start shipping in June.

Mozilla plans to offer Firefox OS devices in five countries then, with more added by the end of the year.

Neither device is a barnburner, but that's not really what Mozilla is after.

The burnt orange Keon is home to a single-core 1GHz processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of storage, a 3.5-inch HVGA display, 3MP camera and a 1,580mAh battery.

The Peak struts in white with a 4.3-inch qHD IPS display, 1.2GHz dual-core chip, 2MP front camera 8MP rear snapper complete with flash, 1,800mAh juicer and the same RAM and internal storage as its little brother.

Geeksphone is reportedly looking to get orders out at a rate of about 5,000 per day, though it's unclear when the first units will start shipping.

The hope is to have the handsets back on sale before the week is up, so if you're holding on for a dev unit, sit tight. Neither Mozilla nor Geeksphone seem eager to disappoint.

Surface Pro is shipping off to UK, Germany, 17 others next month

Microsoft announced today that the Surface Pro tablet will be released in 19 additional countries in May, plus five more by the end of June.

Notably, the Surface pro will arrive in the U.K. in May, Microsoft revealed on its Surface blog.

Add to that Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland in May as well, and the Surface Pro will finally be a global product.

But it won't stop there - the following month, in June, the Surface Pro will launch in Korea, Malaysia, Russia, Singapore, and Thailand.

Surface going global

Unlike the Surface RT, which runs a dumbed-down version of Windows known as Windows RT, the Surface Pro runs a fully functional version ofWindows 8.

The Pro version of the Surface tablet is currently availably only in the U.S., Canada and China, but that will change rapidly starting next month as Microsoft's flagship tablet begins rolling out to 24 additional countries.

The Surface RT, meanwhile, already available in 25 markets, will extend its reach soon as well: the inferior Surface tablet will launch in Malaysia on April 25th, in Mexico by the end of May and in Korea and Thailand in June, Microsoft revealed.

Learning from past mistakes

Microsoft claimed that demand for Surface tablets has been high, and that it's had difficulty keeping the 128GB Surface Pro in stock. That may account for the delay in the tablet's global launch - at least that's what Microsoft seems to be saying.

The company also said that would-be Surface users around the world have requested more updates, prompting Microsoft to add:

"To those of you who have pressed for information - please understand that before making these announcements we make sure that we have the volume of devices in place and alignment with our retail partners to do each launch well."

To be fair, any release delays are understandable considering what happened when the Surface Pro launched in the U.S. No doubt Microsoft is eager not to repeat those mistakes.

Does Google Glass spell the end of the public urinal?

Young boys learn from a tender age that there are two types of blokes in this world: the ones who use the urinal and the ones who steal away to a stall for a bit of privacy. But with Google Glass soon to be photographing you with a wink, will all boys queue for the stalls to keep their pictures off the internet?

If you think people would have the decency to remove their camera-attached goggles while sharing a bathroom with strangers, you'd be wrong. There are only a limited number of the devices in use at this time, and already we have a public confession of Glass in the water closet.

Blogger, author and former Microsoft tech evangelistRobert Scoble composed said tweet this week, saying "Yes, I do wear Google Glass into public restrooms. So far no trouble." Some might say that wearing Glass in the toilet is the trouble.

A debate about privacy will naturally develop out of this and similar Glass concerns. Some public places, notably strip clubs, have already started to inform customers that Google Glass will not be welcome when it is commercially released later in the year, and this, we feel, is just the beginning.

But, should this be something that individual business owners need to decide and enforce themselves, or should we expect legislation that help define what is Glass-appropriate and what is not, just bad manners, but illegal.

Google chairman Eric Schmidt is currently lobbying to have restrictions put on how drone-style remote controlled helicopters can be used, as many of these now have cameras, and he sees this as a privacy concern. Surely, if he is concerned about helicopters flying over his back fence and filming him sunbathing he is also concerned about the man standing beside him in the bathroom with futuristic spectacles.

And then, maybe this is the dawning of a new age in our thinking about privacy. It may seem strange that we should have cameras on our heads documenting our lives, but maybe it is for us to still be sharing our ablutions with strangers. Why is it that we'd be unhappy to have this moment published online, but we are happy to share it with whoever happens to be feeling the same urge at the same time?

On second thought, scrap that last suggestion. Wearing a camera in the bathroom is just creepy, regardless of whether Google makes it or you buy it from a "spy supply" shop online. There will no doubt be some common sense rules about when to wear Glass, and when to take it off, but expect governments around the world to step in quickly too.

More supply woes for HTC One as Nokia wins ban on mic

Nokia has won an injunction in the Netherlands that will ban HTC from using the current microphone components found in its HTC One phones around the world.

The injunction is effective immediately and will last until March 2014. It prevents supplier STMicro from selling its microphones to HTC, meaning HTC must now scramble to find a new source for the tech.

Nokia's engineers found that the audio capture components inside the HTC One were those allegedly invented by Nokia, made exclusively for the Finnish company's phones, and featured in the Lumia 720.

"HTC is disappointed in the decision," it told TechRadar in a statement. "We are consulting with STM and will decide whether it is necessary to explore alternative solutions in due course."

Deep impact?

However, HTC told us that it did not expect the ruling to have any "immediate" impact on sales.

On whether it will lead to a delay in the release of the black model of the HTC One however, the company refused to comment.

The HTC One was originally meant to go on sale in March but faced a series of setbacks due to camera shortages, leading to a delay in a number of countries. This, of course, led to a big hit on HTC's financial results.