Intel hasn’t yet announced Ivy Bridge processors for Ultrabooks, but that isn’t stopping Samsung from revealing updated 15-inch Series 9 Ultrabook featuring next generation 1.7GHz Intel Core i5-3317U processor. Other features of the new Series 9 Ultrabook are 15-inch SuperBright 400 nit display (1600 x 900), 8GB DDR3 RAM, 128GB SSD, Intel HD 4000 graphics, 1.3-megapixel webcam, WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 and multi-card reader. No word on price or shipping date yet, but you can get other information about the laptop on Samsung’s UK website.

Yamaha today unveiled new RX-V series AV receivers - the 7.2-channel RX-V773WA and RX-V673. The new receivers offer features including AirPlay compatibility with Apple iOS devices, direct connectivity to iPads, iPhones and iPods via front panel USB ports, intelligent assignable amplifiers and the company's proprietary YPAO system calibration.

"These network AV receivers represent the culmination of our RX-V series and our belief that consumers seek sophisticated high performance features with simple intuitive source connectivity and operation," said Tom Sumner, senior vice-president, Yamaha Corporation of America. "This belief was the basis for our approach to the entire RX-V series line. The RX-V773WA and RX-V673 go a step further, adding a suite of multi-zone installation and setup features usually found in higher end models at moderate price points."

The models offer 4K video pass-through from yet-to-be-introduced source components that will deliver content with four times the resolution of 1080p. Both models offer a full complement of HD Audio format decoding, including Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio, Dolby Digital Plus and DTS-HD High Resolution Audio.

The main difference between the two receivers is that the flagship RX-V773WA model also features an improved YPAO room calibration system, YPAO R.S.C. (Reflected Sound Control), which offers automatic multi-point room measurement to determine speaker positioning for the highest degree of sound optimization possible. The RX-V673 offers YPAO R.S.C. for automatic single-point room measurement. The RX-V773WA also has an attractive aluminum front panel that eliminates electrical interference from other components.

The RX-V773WA will be available in June for $849.95, and the RX-V673 will be available in May for $649.95. You can get more information about the two systems on Yamaha’s website.

It has been rumored for quite sometime that current BlackBerry users will not be able to upgrade their device when BlackBerry 10 OS comes later this year. And this rumor was confirmed by RIM’s CEO Thorsten Heins, according to The Verge. David Pierce wrote:

RIM CEO Thorsten Heins confirmed once again this morning that the company has no upgrade path for existing BlackBerry 7 devices. In fact, the two seemed destined to co-exist: Heins spoke about the new BlackBerry 9220 (and confirmed the existence of the 9320), using their "successful launch" as an example of how RIM is still "onboarding people from featurephones to smartphones," a process that will take the next two years or so. The company seems to see BlackBerry 7 as the OS for its entry-level devices, while BlackBerry 10 will occupy the higher end of the company's range. RIM has promised to upgrade existing PlayBook hardware.

So in short, if you are planning to buy a BlackBerry handset it’s better to wait till the end of this year and see what BB 10 has to offer, rather than regret buying an out dated handset that can’t be updated with the new OS six months down the line.

Business Insider interviewed Atakan Peker, one of the inventors of the Liquidmetal alloy, which Apple has licensed to use in electronic gadgets and is rumored to be one of the main components in upcoming iPhone 5. However, in the interview Peker says put cold water on all the Liquidmetal iPhone 5 rumors by saying that “Apple will likely spend on the order of $300 million to $500 million – and three to five years – to mature the technology before it can used in large scale.”

Here are some of the main points from Peker’s interview:

• Liquidmetal looks great, yet is incredibly strong and durable.
• Apple has exclusive rights to use Liquidmetal in gadgets.
• It could be a few more years before Apple can make a Liquidmetal MacBook.
• Apple will likely wait to use Liquidmetal in a "breakthrough product."

Atakan completed the interview by saying “I expect Liquidmetal application in two ways: First evolutionary substitution of current materials and secondly, and more importantly, in a breakthrough product made only possible by Liquidmetal technology. Apple’s exclusively licensing a new material technology (specifically for casing and enclosures) is a first in the industry. This is very exciting. Therefore, I expect Apple to use this technology in a breakthrough product. Such product will likely bring an innovative user interface and industrial design together, and will also be very difficult to copy or duplicate with other material technologies.”

Though Amazon started the Cloud Drive service last year, there was no desktop application for easy upload and download of content. This resulted in people using the Cloud Drive for just downloads that were automatically saved to the drive when they purchased digital content like mp3 songs or eBooks on Amazon. Well that’s changing today as Amazon has announced a desktop app for Cloud Drive that will allow easy upload and download of photos, videos, documents and other files. The application is available for Windows and Mac with following features:

• Easily upload your photos, documents, videos and other files
• Drag and drop files and folders to the Cloud Drive icon
• Right-click any file or folder and send to Amazon Cloud Drive
• Easy download of one or more files and folders from Cloud Drive
• Uploads and downloads run in the background
• Continue using your computer as you normally would, the app can handle restarts and lost internet connections without losing your data
• You can pause and resume at any time

You can get more information about Amazon Cloud Drive desktop app for Windows and Mac and download it from Amazon’s website.

Sony announces their first Ultrabook VAIO T Series featuring 11-inch VAIO T11 and 13-inch VAIO T13. The new thin and light Ultrabooks are made using magnesium and aluminum, and are just 17.8mm (0.70-inch) thick. Both the T11 and T13 are based on second generation Ultra Low Voltage Intel Core processors (Sandy Bridge), even though newer third generation Ivy Bridge processor are coming in June for Ultrabooks.

There will be two different type of storage configuration based on model you select, one will come with SSD flash drive and the other will come with ‘Hybrid’ drive offer the best of both worlds, using Intel Smart Response Technology (iSRT) that teams fast SSD cache memory with a high-capacity HDD drive for fast boot times plus greater storage space.

Sony didn’t provide detailed specifications of T11 Ultrabook, but the T13 model will come with 1.4GHz Core i3-2367M processor, 4GB RAM, 320GB hard drive, integrated Intel HD 3000 graphics, 1366 x 768 resolution 13-inch display, WiFi, Bluetooth 4,0, USB 2.0/3.0 ports, HDMI and HD webcam. The T13 will be on the heavier side of 13-inch Ultrabooks as it will weigh 3.52 pounds, but will offer excellent 9 hours battery life.

The VAIO T11 and T13 Ultrabooks will ship this month. No word on price yet.

Samsung today announced the Series 7 Gamer, a laptop designed with feedback from PC gamers and featuring a 17.3-inch full HD LCD display, high quality Dolby Home Theater surround sound, rich NVIDIA GeForce graphics and a 3rd generation Intel Core i7 processor, as well as a unique dial that allows users to easily transition between four modes for maximum performance at all times.

The dial on Series 7 Gamer has four models including Gaming mode, General mode, Quiet mode and Power Saver mode. The 3rd generation Intel Core i7 (Ivy Bridge) based laptop supports up to 16GB RAM and 1.5TB storage along with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675M graphics. According to Samsung, the 17.3-inch next-generation full HD (1920x1080) high-resolution LCD display features Samsung SuperBright technology, for a brilliant 400-nit screen (up to 50% brighter than traditional PCs) and a stunning range of color (up to 16 million), allowing users to experience all of the vibrant colors and visuals intended by the game developers.

The Series 7 Gamer also offers rapid start-up times and better overall performance, including faster application launches and web browsing speeds that are up to twice as fast (using Microsoft Internet Explorer), with ExpressCache technology, developed by Diskeeper, which provides 8GB of flash memory on the motherboard.

"The Series 7 Gamer offers all the elements of a high-powered gaming machine with the convenience of the mode-changing dial, which enables you to switch off components in order to save power and have a quieter experience when you're using it as a more traditional laptop," said Todd Bouman, vice president of marketing at Samsung Enterprise Business Division. "When the product is in gaming mode, it takes the experience to the next level by optimizing the graphics and sound, turning on a pulsating light in the speakers and highlighting the gaming keys in red, which truly allows users to immerse themselves in a game."

The Samsung Series 7 Gamer is available now and will retail for $1,899.99. The Series 7 Gamer Laptop is available on Amazon.

NVIDIA has announced the new GeForce GTX 690 graphics card, powered by dual Kepler architecture-based GeForce GPUs. NVIDIA claims that the GTX 690 is world’s fastest consumer graphics card capable of offering double the performance of GTX 680, which was ranked as one of the best consumer graphics cards available today by various reviewers. NVIDIA is also very proud of array of innovative technologies used in designing the new card, including:

• An exterior frame made from trivalent chromium-plated aluminum, providing excellent strength and durability ?
• A fan housing made from a thixomolded magnesium alloy, which offers excellent heat dissipation and vibration dampening
• High-efficiency power delivery with less resistance, lower power and less heat generated using a 10-phase, heavy-duty power supply with a 10-layer, two-ounce copper printed circuit board
• Efficient cooling using dual vapor chambers, a nickel-plated finstack and center-mounted axial fan with optimized fin pitch and air entry angles ?
• Low-profile components and ducted baseplate channels for unobstructed airflow, minimizing turbulence and improving acoustic quality

The 28nm based GTX 690 has 3,072 NVIDIA CUDA cores and up to 4GB GDDR5 memory. And as you would have guessed you won’t get all this performance for cheap, the GeForce GTX 690 is priced $999 and would be available in limited quantities starting May3, 2012.

NETGEAR today announced the availability of the NETGEAR R6300 WiFi Router; the first 802.11ac dual band gigabit WiFi router enabling 5th generation WiFi (5G WiFi) at gigabit speeds. The router is also backwards compatible with 802.11a/b/g/n, which provides optimum interoperability with legacy WiFi devices. ??

The NETGEAR R6300 WiFi Router, powered by Broadcom’s 5G WiFi IEEE 802.11ac chips, is up to three times faster than today’s 802.11n routers. With an elegant new design that fits perfectly in consumers’ living spaces, the router increases the coverage area for HD streaming in the home. The NETGEAR R6300 WiFi Router has speeds of up to 1300 Mbps on 5GHz and 450 Mbps on 2.4GHz enabling consumers to download web content from any device in the home in a fraction of the time it would take on a similar 802.11n device.

The NETGEAR R6300 WiFi Router will be available in May starting at $199.99. You can get more information about the new router on NETGEAR’s website.

Samsung has started a new campaign in Australia in collaboration with marketing company Tongue for launch of Samsung Galaxy S III. The odd and ill-conceived campaign is more like a staged protest in which black bus branded “WAKE UP.” came in front of Apple Store in Sydney and a group of phony protesters climbed down from the bus shouting and waving “Wake Up” placards. Samsung also has series of billboards around Sydney and a website for “Wake Up” campaign.

A video of the campaign has been posted on YouTube and after seeing the video I just have one question… What is Samsung doing? Not only are they crying outside Apple Store like losers, but they are also making a mockery of genuine protesters who rally for real causes. While giving free publicity for Apple, when they should be focusing on Galaxy S III, which by all accounts/rumors will be a very good handset.

Someone in Samsung’s marketing department has gone bonkers because this kind of marketing actually shows that they are losing the smartphone battle and are very frustrated by that. Samsung should have had this protest in front of their marketing department building and not Apple Store.