Just in case you bought an iPad 2 but really needed a netbook, ClamCase is back with a redesigned version of its case / battery powered Bluetooth QWERTY keyboard combo. This one is a hair thinner and a little lighter than the previous version (reviewed here), with cutouts for the back camera and speaker grille plus integrated magnets to awaken and sleep your tablet when the case is opened or closed. The keyboard has also reportedly been refreshed for an improved feel, but even though the black version is on sale now for $149 (white ships next month) there’s still a 4-5 week wait for shipping to get a hands-on and find out for yourself. Logitech’s Keyboard Case for iPad 2 is another option for $100, but it will only protect your precious slab on one side — something to consider while you’re checking out specs.

SOURCE via ClamCase

It looks like Apple’s getting another fix in before the Lion officially roars into the scene. Mac OS X 10.6.8 is now available for download, and brings with it a number of “general operating system fixes,” including further support for IPv6, improved VPN reliability, and removal of known variants of Mac Defender. It also promises to fix a glitch that has Preview randomly shutting down, and will get the App Store ready to roar for when Lion lands on the scene.

SOURCE via Apple

It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything from the VESA folks, so it was a pleasant surprise when the organization hit our inbox with a bit of PR announcing an update to the DisplayPort 1.2 standard. New active cables being introduced will allow video connections to stretch up 100 feet — five times that of the old-school, passive variety — and use thinner gauge wire for more flexible cords. The one kink is that the cables are directional, though, a new logo (above) should help minimize confusion over which end gets jacked into the source and which feeds your TV. Not that we’re complaining about longer, thinner cables but, it sure would be nice if we could cover those 33 meters without making our apartment look like a data center – how’s that wireless DisplayPort coming along?

There’s talk that Team Fortress 2 will actually go free-to-play (F2P). “Drkirby” over on NeoGAF was digging through the registry and uncovered what looked to be a test version of the supposed F2P game, listed as “Valve TestApp440 – Test 1″ to conceal its real name. Drkirby went on to look up #440 and discovered that it’s attached to Team Fortress 2 – the number is even shown in the game’s product URL.

According to the registry entry, the TestApp440 is check-marked under the “Subscriptions” tab as having no cost, but that could also mean that the current test doesn’t require a fee. There’s also indication that there will be a “low violence” version, slapped with a DE tag meaning Deutsch, aka German (“LowViolenceInRestrictedCountries=1″).

Team Fortress 2 is a team-based multiplayer game for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 first introduced as part of The Orange Box “bundle” back in Q4 2007. The cartoony, team-oriented game was then released as a standalone PC title on Steam in April 2008. As of Q3 2010, Team Fortress 2 sold over seven million units worldwide, and currently sells for $9.99 on Steam. Given its age and established user-base, Team Fortress 2 could easily slip into F2P mode and reel in potential customers previously not willing to part with ten bucks.

At this point, the F2P Team Fortress 2 is mere speculation but a definite possibility. Stay tuned as more will undoubtedly be unearthed soon.

SOURCE via Neo GAF

Looks like ASUS isn’t the only popular netbook maker finally releasing more of its tablets into the wild. We’ve had various encounters with MSI’s 10-inch WindPad 110w this year, but pricing and availability details on the Windows 7 tablet — and its Android slate-mates — had remained secret. That’s now slightly changed courtesy of J&R’s website, where a pre-order listing for the 110w has surfaced displaying a $600 street price and a full specification rundown. Highlights from under the hood include a dual-core AMD Brazo (as expected), a 32GB SSD, and 4GB of DDR3 RAM along with WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity; around the outside are two cameras, a plethora of ports including mini HDMI, USB 2.0 and an SD card slot. Not too shabby, although it appears you’ll have to settle for brown (and loss of all dignity at checkout).

SOURCE via J&R

Sure, Fujitsu has a right to be proud of its K supercomputer — performing over 8 petaflops with just under 70,000 Venus CPUs is nothing to sneeze at. Intel isn’t giving up its status as the supercomputing CPU king, however, as it plans to bring exascale computing to the world by the end of this decade. Such a machine could do one million trillion calculations per second, and Intel plans to make it happen with its Many Integrated Core Architecture (MIC).

The first CPUs designed with MIC, codenamed Knights Corner, are built on a 22nm process that utilizes the company’s 3D Tri-Gate transistors and packs over 50 cores per chip. These CPUs are designed for parallel processing applications, similar to the NVIDIA GPUs that will be used in a DARPA-funded supercomputer we learned about last year.

SOURCE via TG Daily

It started with the traditional “professionally” black and the “striking” red, and now 2 more new colors are joining the happy-go-lucky bandwagon of the 1100D newbie DSLR. The company was clearly in an experimental mood, and got the harebrained idea that consumers just might snap up red and brown DSLRs the way they do its candy-colored point-and-shoots. The outfit is now selling its beginner-friendly EOS Rebel T3 in red, brown, and metallic gray — all in addition to your garden-variety black, of course.

Sure, that’s tame by Pentax’s wacky standards, but for Canon it’s pretty… outlandish. Since the camera went on sale this spring, its price has dropped from $599 to a promotional $549 for the kit, which includes an EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 zoom II lens. As for the body, if you’ll recall, it has a 12.2 megapixel sensor that records 720p video (a rarity for an entry-level model), a nine-point autofocus system, ISO 100 to 6,400, and a 63-zone dual-metering system.

Novices who just want to be different can, as always, hit up the source link for more info.

SOURCE via Canon