It seemed that Samsung too loves white gadgets. We’ve previously seen limited and rare white Galaxy Tab 10.1, and now the Series 5 Chromebook is officially shipping to those eagerly awaiting the Google-powered laptop. If you weren’t among the high-end coupon clippers who snatched one up during the surprise sale at Gilt a couple of weeks ago, you can now pick up a Chromebook of your own. At least for now, however, it looks like you’ll have to settle for a white exterior — the “Titan Silver” (also known as black) edition is still in pre-order mode at both Best Buy and Amazon.

Sony’s mainstream E and C series of laptops are getting a bit of an update with some new color options and updated processors in the case of E series. The 14-, 15.5-, and 17.3-inch Vaio E models are finally joining the Sandy Bridge brigade with second-gen Core i3 and i5s, while also adding an AMD Fusion option on the 15.5-inch version for all you Sunnyvale fans out there. The smaller members of the E family will be available in four colors (blue, pink, white, and black) while their big brother is limited to white and black. The C series is staying the same, but adding Neon Red and Thunder Blue to your selection of hues. The updated PCs will be available for pre-order on June 19th but, if you really have your heart set on that red Vaio C, you’ll have to head to select retailers like Fry’s, ABT, B&H, J&R, MicroCenter, or (wait for it…) Nebraska Furniture Mart — while you’re there, pick up a bright red sofa to match your new laptop.

Google Sync has pushed Gmail messages, calendar updates, and contacts to iOS since its launch in 2009, but this half-baked solution previously lacked some key functionality. Beginning today, users can finally perform mail server searches and confirm appointment requests from their iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

This means that you’ll be able to search for messages in your entire mailbox, not just for emails stored on your device — a feature that first appeared with iPhone OS 3, but without Google Sync support. You can also respond to calendar invites from within the Calendar app. Fancy that!

A third update brings support for sending messages from other addresses listed in your Gmail account, though only the first two features worked when we took Sync for a spin this afternoon. (Curiously, Google omitted a “Send Mail as” screenshot on its blog, so this last update may not actually be available yet.)

This latest trio of updates is available for both gratis and Google Apps accounts, so head to the source link for set up instructions and the full feature rundown.

SOURCE via Google

Sony didn’t make a big to do about the arrival of its Music Unlimited service on Android — perhaps it’s the fact that the market for streaming music on mobile devices is getting a bit crowded these days, with recent arrivals from Apple, Google, and Amazon. Or maybe it’s that the mention of Qriocity, the service that powers the offering, is still likely to leave a bad taste in the mouths of lots of folks, after the whole, well, you know. Whatever the case may be, the app is now available as a free download for those with Google’s dessert-based operating system on their handsets, plus either the $4 a month basic or $10 a month premium plan.

SOURCE via Android Market

Last time we heard talk of a Sony tablet, the company was confirming our suspicions about the existence of the S1 and S2, giving the distinctive Android devices a broad global release time frame of this fall.

And now Engadget had been shown a private note sent from Sony’s marketing group, highlighting an August pre-order and an end of September release date for an unnamed tablet from the company, a timeline that’s right in line with our initial report on the S1.

The device, according to the note, will be available through Sony Direct, UK department store John Lewis, and a third still-unconfirmed retailer at launch. Availability will apparently open up after the Christmas holiday.

The note doesn’t offer up much info on the tablet, though it does promise that it stacks up well against the iPad and offers up some “unique design features,” which may well refer to the S2′s clamshell — or, for that matter, the S1′s curved back.

SOURCE via Engadget

There is the persistent rumor that AMD may be licensing ARM architecture to make its way into the smartphone tablet space, but there was no confirmation of such a move at the conference. Instead, ARM and AMD are partnering in the OpenCL space to promote the craetion of GPU-accelerated apps.

At its conference, AMD announced a set of new OpenCL development tools that cater specifically to its Fusion APUs. The most interesting part of this announcement is the fact it was made by Manju Hegde, AMD’s corporate vice president of AMD’s Fusion experience program. Some readers may remember Hegde as the founder and CEO of Ageia, the company that invented the PhysX chip. Ageia was acquired by Nvidia in early 2008 and Hegde is now at AMD pitching OpenCL support, which is in direct competition to Nvidia’s CUDA.

ARM’s Jem Davies delivered a keynote at AMD’s Fusion event and while there are obvious competitive edges between ARM and x86 products, the executive stresses that ARM and x86 are the only remaining “relevant” CPU architectures. Davies also pitched a hybrid processor approach that outlined CPU cores, parallel arrays and circuits that are dedicated to very specific functions, which obviously would favor highly parallel software that is written in, for example, OpenCL. It is a somewhat surreal experience to see ARM speaking at AMD’s (x86) developer event and AMD could have simply invited ARM to annoy Intel. To see the partnership evolve is interesting, but the benefit to developers at the event was very limited.

Think your cable connection’s fast? Think your new Thunderbolt is insanely fast? Arris thinks it could be a lot faster. At today’s NCTA Cable Show in Chicago, the company will demo a new system that can support download speeds of 4.5Gbps, and upload rates of 575Mbps.

To achieve this, Arris devoted more of its DOCSIS 3.0 cable channels to broadband (128 downstream, 24 upstream), sourced through a C4 cable module (pictured on the left). Of course, this would leave less space for conventional TV channels, but we’re guessing the accelerated streaming speeds would more than make up for it.

Unfortunately, the prototype is still in the proof-of-concept phase, so it may be a while before you reap its benefits.

SOURCE via Maximum PC