Alcatel announces affordable One Touch Tab and Evo 7 family of tablets

Alcatel announces affordable One Touch Tab and Evo 7 family of tablets, prices them as aggressively as possible

Alcatel has decided to step into the affordable Android tablets market with two lineup of slates – the One Touch Tab and Evo 7.

The Evo 7 lineup consists of two 7-inch tablets which feature the rather unique add-on modules, one of which allows you to add support for mobile data connection.

Alcatel One Touch Evo 7

Evo 7 HD

First off, the Evo 7 HD, which as its name suggests sports a 7-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels. Under the hood it’s got a 1.6GHz dual-core CPU bundled with 1GB of RAM and is running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

There’s 4GB of built-in storage, but fret not, as it’s expandable via the microSD card slot. At the back, there’s 3 MP camera, which you probably won’t be using as much as the front-facing VGA snapper for video calls.

Expect the Evo 7 HD to hit stores worldwide in May carrying the sweet price tag of $179. The add-on mobile data module we mentioned is going to cost the quite pricey $249 for the 3G variant and $349 for the the 4G one.

Evo 7

The Evo 7 HD will also be joined by the more affordable Evo 7, which also features a 7-inch display, but with a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels. Underneath the screen, there’s a 1GHz single-core CPU and 1GB of RAM. Unlike its more premium brethren, the Evo 7 tablet will be running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, instead of Jelly Bean.

With no camera at the back and just a VGA camera at the front, the Evo 7 sports 4GB of on-board storage, expandable via the microSD card slot. Connectivity is covered by Bluetooth 2.1, Wi-Fi and an optional HSPA+ 21 module.

Pricing and availability are yet to be announced, but you can bet it’s going to be a lot more affordable than the Evo 7 HD.

Alcatel One Touch Tab

Alcatel also announced another line-up of super-affordable tablets – the One Touch Tab family.

One Touch Tab 7 HD & One Touch 8 HD

Both tablets are pretty similar in specs and are running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean powered by the same 1.6GHz dual-core CPU and 1GB as the Evo 7 HD.

Where the Tab 7 HD and Tab 8 HD, as you might’ve guessed is the screen. The Tab 7 HD features a 7-inch IPS display of WXGA resolution (1280 x 800 pixels), while the Tab 8 HD is built around an 8-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1024×768.

In addition to the 8GB of built-in storage expandable via the microSD card slot, both tablets pack a 2-megapixel rear camera and VGA front-facing one.

The One Touch Tab 7 HD will hit stores carrying a price tag of $149, while the Tab 8 HD will be slightly more expensive at $179. However, it’s still unknown when that’ll happen.

One Touch Tab 7

Finally, there’s the least expensive out of the Alcatel family of tablets. The One Touch Tab 7 features a 7-inch TFT display with a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels, 1GB of RAM and a 1GHz single-core CPU.

There’s no main camera to keep the price as low as possible, but there’s a VGA front-facing one for video chatting. There’s also 4GB of storage coupled with microSD card slot, which considering the $129 price of the slate is wonderful news.

Unfortunately, the One Touch Tab line-up lacks mobile data connection options or modules, like the Evo family, and only pack Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. Availability info hasn’t been disclosed just yet.

Via (1), Via (2)

BioWare announces Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut - free DLC adding extended endings

BioWare announces Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut - free DLC adding extended endings

After the unprecedented feedback that Mass Effect 3 received, BioWare promised to listen and respond. Well, today is a lucky day for gamers as the popular title receives the conclusion it deserves.

BioWare has just announced the next Mass Effect 3 DLC called Extended Cut. It does exactly what the name suggest – extend the current finale with additional scenes and so anyone interested can get answers to their questions and proper closure.

This means the endings stay the same as of today – no changes there. What you will get with the new DLC is probably a few more minutes of cinematics answering some of the questions that the very end of the game introduced, rather than those posed earlier.

The DLC will be released this summer for Mass Effect 3 on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.

I am one of those people who wanted an extended ending, so I am happy with this news. I am OK with the current one but an epic trilogy deserves more clarity in its conclusion than the original game offered. In case your position is different, though, you can always opt not to install this DLC. After all it will bring a few more answers, but will not change the story and the ending itself. No matter how you look at this – it is a win-win situation.

Update: Here is the official announcement and a short FAQ on the Extended Cut.

Source

Colorful to release an insane Kudan iGame GeForce GTX 680

Colorful to release an insane Kudan iGame GeForce GTX 680

Following the launch of the most powerful single-core GPU on the market to date, the GeForce GTX 680, the Chinese graphics card manufacturer Colorful is taking Nvidia’s PCB design to a whole new level of awesome.

What you are seeing is the Kudan iGame GeForce 680 GTX. It is powered by the GK104 core and contains the mind-boggling 1536 Cuda cores bundled with 2GB of GDDR5 memory. But what makes it even more special is its overclocking abilities.

But you guessed that from the image above, didn’t you? And why wouldn’t you, when the iGame Kudan GTX 680′s enormous cooler takes three regular slots and features an aluminum fin block the size of the PCB itself.

However, you haven’t seen this video card’s party piece – its VRM Phase design. Usually, most of the video cards out there come with two 6-pin connectors to let the juice from the power supply flow to the GPU. The iGame Kudan’s GTX 680 comes with two 8-pin connectors bundled with an additional VRM board adding 6 more Phases.

This could only mean one thing – monstrous overclocking capabilities. I can only imagine what performance this abomination of a video card would achieve.

Unfortunately, pricing and availability are yet to be announced, but I am sure you’ll be able to afford a decent second-hand car for the price of this video card. What do you think of it?

Via