Samsung U28D590D Budget 4K

The Samsung U28D590D 28-inch Ultra brings 4K to the table (or your desk) at an affordable price. As screen technology goes, you do not get an IPS display for this money, but you do get a very colour accurate TN panel with a 60Hz refresh rate (when using the mDP connection). Older generation 4K displays only offered 30Hz which was fine for movie watching, but not that great for business/work use and abysmal for gaming. 

You can pick up the Samsung U28D590D here in the UK, or here in the USA (pre-order in the UK with a 1st May 2014 release date, in stock in the USA).

Apple Wins 'Brand of the Year' Awards in Smartphone, Tablet, and Computer Categories

Marketing research firm Harris Interactive has awarded Apple the title of “Brand of the Year” in the categories of smartphones, tablets, and computers, as first reported byVentureBeat. The distinction comes after a poll asking 38,500+ Americans about the perceptions of their favorite brands, in which Apple was placed above other competitors such as Hewlett-Packard, Amazon, Samsung, and HTC. 

 "Americans continue to give Apple brands strong ratings," says Manny Flores, Senior Vice President at Harris Interactive. "And while their Consumer Connection scores are strong within their respective categories, what really stands out is that in all three of the categories Apple brands are measured - Computer, Tablet and Mobile Phone - its Brand Momentum scores are in the top 30 of all 1,500 brands evaluated in the study, showing that consumers see this as a brand of the future.

These awards come after BBC reported about a survey done by marketing group Added Value (AV), who claimed that Apple’s brand has become “less inspiring” among consumers.

Source: Mac Rumours

Apple Now Shipping Slimmer iMac Models in Just 1-3 Days

Apple’s newest iMac models, which were redesigned late last year, are now shipping in just 1-3 days, according to the company’s own online store. The slimmer all-in-one previously shipped in 2-3 weeks for the 21.5-inch model, and up to a month for configurations of the larger 27-inch iMac. As 9to5Mac notes, Apple has endured a drought of iMac supplies since launch, which Time Cook admitted affected overall Q1 sales.

On the upside, any constraints seem to be behind Apple, so we’ll see how sales pan out over the next few months. If you’re looking to hop into OS X, the 21.5-inch, 2.7GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 model starts at $1,299.

[Source: TechnoBuffalo]

Apple's Lightning Digital AV Adapter is a Full-Fledged Computer

Panic, the developers behind apps like Coda and Transmit, spent some timedisassembling the Lightning Digital AV cable that allows iOS devices like the iPad mini and the iPhone 5 to output HDMI to televisions.

The company discovered that, like its Lightning to 30-pin brethren, the Digital AV adapter is considerably more complicated than it would appear. Among other discoveries, Panic found an ARM chip and 256MB of RAM inside.

There are a lot of questions. What OS does it boot? @jmreid thinks the adapter copies over a “mini iOS” (!) from the device and boots it in a few seconds every time it’s connected, which would explain the fairly lengthy startup time for video out. Why do this crazy thing at all? All we can figure is that the small number of Lightning pins prevented them from doing raw HDMI period, and the elegance of the adapter trumped the need for traditional video out, so someone had to think seriously out of the box. Or maybe they want get as much functionality out of the iPad as possible to reduce cost and complexity.

Panic conjectures that for some reason the Lightning port isn't capable of outputting raw HDMI -- something that should give an extremely high quality image -- and instead uses a form of AirPlay to output video, delivering a lower quality video signal.

[Source: MacRumors]

Apple to Refresh Mac Pro this Spring

Apple will stop selling its Mac Pro in Europe starting on March 1, and while there was a bit of speculation that this meant the company was going to drop the PC altogether—especially as the company’s laptops and iPad continue to dig into the market share—it appears that’s not the case. We already had an idea that Apple was going to update the computer, and now there’s a bit more of a confirmation.

 Mac4Ever recently noticed that an Apple distributor in Europe has confirmed that a new model of the Mac Pro desktop computer will indeed launch at some point this spring. The news comes in the form of a newsletter written in French, and we’re not sure what sort of specs the new computer will have at this point.

In the meantime, we can all rest easy knowing that a new Mac Pro is allegedly on the way.

[Source: TechnoBuffalo]

1 million Raspberry Pi computers have been sold

Raspberry Pi -- the little computer that's bringing back engineering in a big way -- has sold about a million units. The numbers aren't concrete, but estimates peg the total at about the million figure. Which is quite some achievement.

And to celebrate, the folks who make the mini computer have put together the infographic you can see above.

"The folks at 14/Premier Farnell announced today that they alone have now made and sold more than half a million Raspberry Pis," it says on the Raspberry Pi blog. "They're only one of two official distributors; we don't have completely up-to-date figures from RS Components yet, but Farnell's news suggests that we're well on the way to having sold our millionth Raspberry Pi."

To put that in tech terms, the half a million Pis made by 14/Premier Farnell would weigh the same as 169,173 Nokia 3310s (remember those?), or 200,893 iPhone 5s. All of them stacked end to end would be taller than 11 Empire State Buildings, and higher than Felix Baumgartner's world record skydive of 128,000 feet. Laid end to end, they'd be the same length as 5,070 double decker buses. And at a cost of $17.5 million (£10.8 million), customers could've bought 4,375,000 chocolate bars. But then a Raspberry Pi is far better for you.

The Raspberry Pi was one of the best tech stories of last year, and a real triumph of British engineering. Our very own Katie Collins voted it her product of the year, as it helps today's school kids get tinkering with tech. The Pi even has its own app store, so you can easily snaffle games and software. The app store has a 'tip jar' too, so you can donate some funds even if your chosen app is free, which is a great idea.

[Source: CNET]

New 21.5-inch iMac gets an early teardown in Japan

We're currently putting Apple's latest "skinny" iMac through its paces here in New York, but an eager Japanese customer has already popped open the 21.5-inch desktop's case, revealing a serviceable hard drive, removable logic board and even a bit of room to spare in the tapered silver housing. There's not much in the way of details over at Kodawarisan, a scant Japanese-language site, but there are plenty of interior pics to gawk at, tiding us over until the experts at iFixit manage to dissect an iMac of their own. Head on over to the source link below for a dozen or so undressed snaps of Cupertino's latest creation.

[Source: Engadget]

MSI launches the 27-inch Wind Top AE2712 all-in-one brandishing Windows 8, military specs

The Windows 8 all-in-one arena is already pretty crowded, but if MSI's new model had to fight it out with the rest battle-bot style, then it might just come out on top. That's because the Wind Top AE2712 comes with MSI's usual military class components, alongside a brutish 27-inch 1080p display with ten-finger touch, Core i3 or i5 processors and optional NVIDIA GeForce GT630M graphics (on the 'G' model). Also included is the company's Smart Media cloud that lets you share data with DNLA-enabled TVs and mobile devices. The PC's already popped up on Amazon UK with a £830 sticker and November 9th ship date, so if you need an AIO tough enough to withstand, say, an all-out rugrat assault, check out the source link.

[Source: Engadget]

Raspberry Pi Model B gets RAM boost to 512MB, keeps $35 price tag

So you got your Raspberry Pi all set up, you overclocked it and you even made it run Atari 2600 games. But then, it seems, many you wrote to the UK-based outfit to complain about the fixed 256MB of RAM. Indeed, the budget mini PC maker says that requests for a memory upgrade have been among "the most common suggestions" it's received since it launched the device. However, rather than introduce a pricier version, the company has decided to offer 512MB as standard with all future Model Bs (including all current and outstanding orders), while sticking to the original $35 price tag. Good news? Sure, even if your current unit just got relegated to secondary secondary PC status.

[Source: Engadget]