EXIF data indicates Motorola is developing a quot;Droid RAZR HD quot;

While it remains uncertain whether Motorola Mobility will stay attached to Google or possibly sold off to Huawei as recent reports have cited, this hasnt stopped the phone manufacturer from continuing to tick away in producing new products for market.

It has been discovered via the EXIF data from a series of images uploaded by a supposed Motorola employee that the company is developing a new DROID series smartphone dubbed the "DROID RAZR HD".

The name of the uploader of the photos on Picasa, Vic Yu indicates via both his Google+ profile and LinkedIn page as being an engineer and program manager at Motorola Mobility.

Aside from the model name revealed in the EXIF data, a camera is also mentioned with a f/2.4 aperture and a focal length of 5mm. Further to that is mention of the software version running; Ice Cream Sandwich (build 4.0.3) and a possible product codename of Vanquish.

These pieces of info should of course be taken with a few grains of salt at this point, especially given how easy it is to fake EXIF data. Well be sure to supply more substance on the model if and when it comes to light.

Source: The Verge

Firefox 16 removed due to security risks

Only a day after release, Mozilla has pulled the newest version of their popular browser Firefox from their installer page after it was discovered that a significant security flaw compromised the browser. The flaw would allow malicious software to track the internet usage of the browser and determine which pages the user had accessed and provide the URL to those sites.

The Firefox logo

Mozillas director of security assurance has stated on the companys blog that "At this time we have no indication that this vulnerability is currently being exploited in the wild." Nevertheless, Mozilla is urging users who upgraded to downgrade to version 15.0.1 for the time being, while a fix is being developed. The previous vbersion of the browser is supposedly unaffected by the security flaw. The fix is expected to ship tomorrow, patching the vulnerability, and to those users who decide not to upgrade, the fix will be applied to their browsers automatically when released.

The new version of Firefox will contain more support for HTML 5, as it seems the development team has decided the emerging technology is stable enough not to cause problems for the browser. In addition, web developers will receive a new command line tool and the Android version of the browser will get a new "reader mode" enabling easier reading of articles on your phone by reformatting the page.

EVGA releases dual-GPU Geforce GTX 275 CO-OP PhysX

Remember themysterious "new" dual-GPUfrom EVGA/Nvidia? It is here, and there are no surprises. It is a combination of GTX 275 as the "GPU" and a GTS 250 as the PhysX Processor, "PPU".
The GTX 275 CO-OP is based around the single PCB GTX 295 design. However, unlike the GTX 295, it isn't really a true dual-GPU product, as only the single GTX 275 GPU renders graphics.
Priced at $349, it is roughly the same as a GTX 285 and just below a HD 5870, provided you can find them. Of course, on graphics performance, it will come in behind the GTX 285, and far behind the HD 5870.
It is clear that the GTX 275 CO-OP is designed for a niche audience - fans of PhysX. While there are very few such games - if you are a big fan of Batman: Arkham Asylum, this might be the card you were waiting for. For just about everyone else, a HD 5870 makes far more sense.
The strangest thing about this release is the timing - it comes after ATI's next generation being released, Nvidia's next generation being announced, and most importantly, Nvidia's GTX 200 cards (which the GTX 275 CO-OP is a part of) reaching EOL. Of course, EVGA feel there's some potential in what would seemingly appear a rather limited market.
Reference: EVGA

Dragon Quest X Online now has 40,000 players in Japan

Dragon Quest X: Rise of the Five Tribes Online, has been reported to have reached a number of more than 40,000 players in Japan as of November 6, 2012, within a time period of about three months after its initial release. For comparison, Final Fantasy XI, which is also developed and presented by Square Enix over 10 years ago last 2002, gathered only around 10,000 players within the same three-month period. This shows that the reception of the game is exceedingly a lot more than what was expected. The game is also noted to have been sold in over 70,000 copies in Japan.

Dragon Quest X is currently the first online Dragon Quest game. It presents the same fundamental gameplay system of older titles, while having many more features that are usually available to standard MMORPGs. It currently has two game modes. The first one is the standard pay-to-play version, and the other is the time restricted "kids time" free-to-play version. The upcoming Wii U version of the game is supposed to be filled with lots of other extra features that would make your adventure experience in the game more fun and exciting.

The very first Dragon Quest game was released for the FamiCom (NES) console more than two decades ago, in 1986. It was one of the very first pioneers of the Japanese RPG genre known today, and have since then grown to be played on numerous other titles on other consoles through the years. With the largely positive reception of the game in Japan, could we expect an international release soon?

Source: 4Gamer, Square Enix (JP)

ECS PF88 Board For AMD amp; Intel CPUs

Hexus has an interesting CeBIT report on the ECS PF88, the firstmainboard to support both Pentium 4 and AMD Athlon 64 processors. The mainboarditself features an SiS965 Southbridge and SiS656 Northbridge for full Intel P41066 FSB support on the Intel LGA775 platform. Also you can use a converter cardfeaturing a SiS756 northbridge onboard, 2 slots of DDR400, own MOSFETs, FSB2000Tto support the AMD 939 Athlon 64 chip while the Southbridge is shared with themainboard. There are jumpers to disable to Intel support and enable the AMDcard.

Firing Squad Invitational Tournament at Computex

For the first time ever the computer industry will take aim at each other ona new front, competing for glory in the world of cyber-gaming. Thisindustry-only tournament will bring the top names in the computer industrytogether for one day of hard fought battles to see who can reign supreme overtheir competitors. The top names in the gaming hardware industry will beparticipating in this event, including ABIT, AOpen, ASUS, Epox, Gainward,Gigabyte, MSI, PowerColor, Shuttle and XGi.

Companies to Compete in Gaming, Tweaking, Modification

As if that was not enough, this BYOC event will show the world what the topPC manufacturers consider to be their version of the “Ultimate Gaming Rig!” Eachcompany will submit 2 PCs that have been overclocked, modified and tweaked bythe finest PC engineers on the planet. Look for Firing Squad’s special coverageafter the event to see who won awards! Award categories include: The UltimateGaming Rig, Best Video Performance, Best CPU/Motherboard Performance, BestVisual Design, Best Portable Design, Best Low Noise Design and HighestOverclock!

The tournament is scheduled to take place between 10AM and 3PM at the WorldTrade Center Club, 33rd Floor, the World Trade Center, Taipei. Refreshments willbe provided so come on by, take a break and check out the action. The finalawards ceremonies will take place between 3:30PM and 5PM. Guest speakers willinclude Mr. C.S. Ho, Honorary Chairman of the Taipei Computer Association andMr. Jack Lin, General Manager of Electronic Arts Taiwan.

Eagle GeForce 8600 Series

Espco Technology Holdings Ltd of Hong Kong has launched the latest products in their Nvidia GeForce 8 series of graphics cards, the 8600GT and 8600GTS. Espco markets value-for-money graphics card solutions targeted at the budget-conscious segment of the market under the brand name Eagle. This time round though, Espco has used a custom cooling solution for these cards and pre-overclocked them, presumably in a bid to differentiate itself from other manufacturers in the budget zone and perhaps even draw some attention away from the big names.

VR-Zone has received a sample of the 8600GT and will be taking a closer look at the card soon.

Meanwhile, these products have already been released to market and are currently available for sale in Singapore. Retail prices are around SGD200 for the 8600GT and SGD290 for the 8600GTS.

19/4 Update: The factory-overclocked speeds for the Eagle 8600GT can be found in the table below. Reference 8600GT and 8600GTS speeds have been added for comparison. The 8600GT is shown above.

Reference 8600GTSReference 8600GTEagle 8600GTCore Clock675540650Memory Clock1000 (2000 DDR)700 (1400 DDR)850 (1700 DDR)

Figures in MHz.