PCWorld.fr week update

Galaxy, OMAP, HD 7950, water cooling, Compression, mouse, Windows, shortage... Some of the keywords of the week for a news reviewed and corrected.

Let, I remove my mittens, it's easier to use a keyboard... It was still loaded, but less warm than the previous week as the cold wave that hit we had cooled the enthusiasm of computer and high-tech news. It reassures, we do we are however not bothered. The Radeon HD 7950 was officially launched and immediately was tested in our columns, while talking already of the suite and therefore Radeon HD 7800 and 7700 in AMD, while the HD 7950 overclockées invade the rays. We also tested the excellent mouse SteelSeries Sensei version Fnatic, and ended the week by offering a test for archiving solutions that are WinRAR, WinZip and our champion, the most popular 7Zip.

         

From MegaUpload, the retention of data that flow of ink, the host being more paid service providers, they have been to delete all of the data stored on the servers in the site. Finally, they were granted, and the MegaRetrieval initiative invites lawful users of the service to claim their data. Finally, wind was the amounts that MegaUpload has contributed to his hosts that are is losing a very large client. It also spoke of Free Mobile, the other big subject of recent weeks, the exchanges between Xavier Niel and the Minister Eric Besson on Twitter and portability delays which penalize the new operator, which finally opened the sale of phones and fine-tunes its customer area by now proposing a monitoring conso. During this time, Orange responded to accusations of SFR. Small Word also on the online music market, between Spotify that displays a beautiful health, which confirms the legal streaming and subscriptions that are growing in France. In any case, when a legal offer is adapted and proposed at a competitive price, found that the formula can be profitable.

Another subject, Windows 8, which continues to talk about him then that will be available in a few weeks the Consumer Preview that will allow us all to try a near final version of the new OS. Microsoft insists therefore on its efforts, as at the level of the File Explorer, while one also learns that the Metro interface is not as customizable as expected. During this time, another giant, Facebook, announced its entry in the stock market. If we do not yet have all the details, it is known that the social network is a release of $ 5 billion, which could be valued at $ 75-100 billion. Holders of stock options are delighted, as Mark Zuckerberg who will see his personal fortune explode. However, a case could disturb this introduction on the stock exchange according to some American lawyers...

In our hardware manufacturers preferred, it should be noted that as Western Digital, Seagate delivers less drives following the floods in Thailand but managed however to win more money than before with average prices strongly higher. That shortage is not a bad for everyone. For its part, AMD launches two new FX-Series processors and a declination of its FX-8150 comes with a water cooling kit. During this time, Intel recycles its Sandy Bridge which the graphic part is not functional and launches with Core i5 processor without PGI, not frankly interesting tariff point of view. Finally, it was reported that Samsung would not present its Galaxy S III at MWC in Barcelona, where you see may on the other hand the new Galaxy Tab. Samsung, it returned very quickly, for the red card.

Read elsewhere...

-The guide to overclocking the Radeon HD 7950 by Guru3D
-The test of the Droid Razr Maxx by Engadget
-The test of the Venom Power of Akasa by Cowcotland alimenation

Red card: change of chip for the Galaxy S II

This week, it is Samsung who receives our red card. Indeed, it was discovered that since the beginning of the year two versions of its smartphone features, the Galaxy S II, are delivered. One - that known previously - equipped with one SoC Samsung Exynos 4210, the other with a Texas Instruments OMAP 4430 SoC. In his commercial brochures and on its Internet site, Samsung does nowhere this change which is simply noted on the reference of phones, than the version with TI OMAP ending with a G. Therefore, it is extremely difficult for the consumer to know what version it is buying, especially that rare are the shops to indicate the accurate and complete product reference.

For Samsung, there is not what shout to the scandal, because these two chips are timed at 1.2 GHz and "provide similar performance" according to the constructor. However, if this is more or less the case on the CPU side, it is not on the graphic part of the SoC Samsung Exynos (Mali 400 PM) being much faster than the PowerVR SGX540 of the Texas Instruments OMAP. So in the games, this can make a difference. And under Ice Cream Sandwich also, Android 4 (whose arrival on Galaxy S II has been validated by Samsung this week) using hardware acceleration on many levels. And even if early returns suggest autonomy a little better for the Galaxy S II under OMAP, it can be concluded that they are ill-informed customers who are adversely affected. Because Samsung should have play cards on the table and clear the change of chip in some versions of his phone. The manufacturer is more customary because, since there has already been slabs changes made in any discretion on some of its televisions. Regrettable and really préjuciable.