Apple Plans Music Subscription; Around US$10 Monthly

Rumor has it thatApple is in talks withmusic labelsto provide music streaming service for the music lovers. If thatgoes well,userscan simply pay for a monthly subscription to have music streamed to their iPhone, iPod devices and even Macs or PCs. There's no concrete news as to how much music can a user access in a month. The pricing could also range between US$10 to US$15 (or more).

At the same time, Spotify, another music streaming service provider that is well-known in Europe, is trying to get into the US market. And Apple has argued it could hurt download sales. We can only wait and see when Apple's music streaming service will be made available. But it is likely it will only be available in US at the point in time.

Source: Ars Technica

ASUS's AMD AM3+ Motherboards to get Intel Thunderbolt support

Over at the ASUS Computex booth at Nangang, we noticed a top to bottom refresh of all of the motherboard giants Sockets AM3+ offerings for the AMD Bulldozer FX/Phenom II processors. We badgered a product manager for details and he answered with a cryptic "meet Windows 8 WHQL requirements" without elaborating on the changes.

First we looked at the upcoming ROG Crosshair V Formula-Z (revised C5F), sneakily displayed at the bottom of a glass case. From what we know, the memory overclock capabilities of the board have been fine-tuned and storage options buffed up (internal SATA gains two ports and eSATA another additional port). The onboard sound solution was also bumped to Supreme FX III.

And then we saw something in the corner... Thunderbolt expansion header (TB_HEADER) for their new ThunderboltEX add-in card (more on that futher down).

The mainstream M5A99FX PRO R2.0 and M5A99X EVO R2.0...

... also with the miracle header at the edge of the respective boards.

And on the Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 too...

The function of the TB_HEADER pinout is for power and to send/receive signalling information (for hot plug and pray events) between the ThunderboltEX expansion card and the motherboard BIOS, the former being announced this week for adding Thunderbolt functionality to select ASUS Z77 motherboards. The card itself requires a PCIe x4 slot and probably uses a Cactus Ridge 2C host router (only has one Thunderbolt port as opposed to the 4C variant which has two). Another full-sized DisplayPort interconnect cable is provided to encapsulate DP signals from the graphics card with the Thunderbolt data streams.

What makes this discovery controversialis the fact that AMD is not part of the Thunderbolt group and has criticized the proprietary standard in the past, demonstrating their alternative “Lightning Bolt” at CES this year. Intel is also the only one supplying the Thunderbolt chips and has kept a tight leash over who or what gets the development kit and certification. Not to mention the tedious BIOS and nightmareO/S driver integration for the current handful devices to work on Windows.

It remains to been seen whether Intel will allow ASUS to bridge this divide…

References:Chinese VR-Zone

Antec Launches EarthWatts Platinum PSU Series

“The 80 PLUS® PLATINUM certified power supplies have so far only been available in higher wattage classes and not for the everyday gamer,” said Mafalda Cogliani, Global Marketing Director at Antec. “Our EarthWatts Platinum power supplies enable more mainstream users and system builders to truly make a difference in their total energy consumption, benefiting both monthly electric bills as well as the environment.”

The Antec EarthWatts Platinum power supply series is available at the following MSRPs:EA-450 Platinum USD 109.95EA-550 Platinum USD 119.95EA-650 Platinum USD 129.95Source : Antec Press Release

ATi CATALYST Control Center

ATI today announced the introduction of a remarkable new innovation in driverusability, CATALYST™ Control Center. Built on the Microsoft .NET Framework,CATALYST Control Center is a modular suite of applications designed to simplifydriver configuration and customization, while maximizing 3D performance. Theintroduction of CATALYST Control Center signals an evolution in PC graphicstechnology, with mainstream consumers now having the ability to substantiallyimprove their user experience through a simple “point and click” interface.

The CATALYST Control Center experience begins with the desktop manager, aninnovative tool that guides users through the process of easily configuringtheir displays. The real-time 3D rendering preview panel enables users tovisually see the impact of adjusting performance on their system.Personalization is taken to a new level through assignable hot keys andcustomizable profiles for applications, video and gaming. Previously, thesekinds of capabilities were unavailable or extremely difficult for the averageuser to expose. Design innovation has also been enhanced through theavailability of multiple skins. In addition users can design their own skinswith customized look, feel and content for use in their computing environment.

Highly extensible, the CATALYST Control Center will also offer a SoftwareDevelopment Kit (SDK) to enable users to develop custom skins and plug-ins fortheir favorite applications. The SDK will be in beta form at launch, with afinal version expected later this year. To encourage the participation of theuser community, ATI will be sponsoring an online contest with prizes for the topplug-ins and skins for CATALYST Control Center. This promotion is expected tokick-off in October 2004. CATALYST Control Center is compatible with a range ofATI RADEON® desktop graphics processors. Future releases will expand support toinclude mobile, integrated, and workstation product portfolios.

Download | ReleaseNotes