ASUS today announced four new desktop PCs with the latest 4th generation Intel Core processors for high-performance productivity and entertainment. The G10 and M51 are stylish, floor-standing PCs; while the ET2311 and ET2702 are slimline All-in-One PCs with 23-inch and 27-inch widescreen displays, respectively. All four models also feature powerful NVIDIA and AMD discrete 3D graphics, with ASUS SonicMaster audio technology for incredible sound quality.

The ASUS G10 and ASUS M51 are designed for fuss-fee operation with flexible support for mobile devices. Both models feature the ASUS Smart Cooling System with automatic fan speed control for optimum cooling and reduced noise, and ASUS Power Pack, a removable UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) that also acts as a portable battery pack for recharging smartphones and tablets. Both models also include the ASUS Universal Storage Module (USM) hot-swap drive bay with an industry-standard interface for optional cartridge-based hard drives.

Both the G10 and M51 are housed in floor-standing tower cases with all-new designs. The G10 has clean, chiseled lines with a brushed metal finish and indicator LEDs that reflect the state of attached external USB storage devices, while the M51 has a matte finish with a textured fascia that resists fingerprints. The M51 also features an ASUS Wireless Charger tray for wireless recharging of smartphones and tablets that support the Qi inductive power standard.

AMD today launched three new additions to its 2013 A-Series and E-Series Mobile Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) lineup -- delivering solutions ideally positioned to address today's evolving PC market with dramatically increased performance and power efficiency, as well as a portfolio of unique user experiences, and superior gaming and graphics:

• The 2013 AMD Elite Mobility APU (formerly codenamed "Temash") -- the world's first 28nm, quad-core x86 system-on-a-chip (SoC) APU designed for touch small form-factor notebooks, tablets, and hybrids 13-inches and below;
• The 2013 AMD Mainstream APU (formerly codenamed "Kabini") -- the first and only quad-core x86 SoC solution for entry-level and small-form factor touch notebooks;
• New, low power versions of the 2013 AMD Elite Performance APU (formerly codenamed "Richland") -- offer the best graphics and compute in a performance APU for premium ultrathin notebooks.

NVIDIA today announced that it is unleashing the full graphics potential of enterprise desktop virtualization with the availability of NVIDIA GRID vGPU integrated into Citrix XenDesktop 7. NVIDIA GRID vGPU technology addresses a challenge that has grown in recent years with the rise of employees using their own notebooks and portable devices for work. These workers have increasingly relied on desktop virtualization technologies for anytime access to computing resources, but until now this was generally used for the more standard enterprise applications. Performance and compatibility constraints had made it difficult for applications such as building information management (BIM), product-lifecycle management (PLM) and video-photo editing.

Two decades ago hardware-based graphics replaced software emulation. Desktop virtualization solutions stood alone as the only modern computing form without dedicated graphics hardware. As a result, an already busy virtualized CPU limited performance and software emulation hampered application compatibility. The situation began to improve a year ago with the introduction of the non-virtualized GPU in Citrix XenServer. But efficiency gains were limited because each user still required a dedicated GPU.

Futuremark rolled out a major update to its 3DMark benchmark suite. Update v1.1.0 introduces Ice Storm extreme preset for the Windows version of the software (it was exclusive to the Android version), and optimizes the software for four-GPU and three-GPU setups. This could improve the scores for setups with GeForce GTX 690 Quad-SLI or Radeon HD 7990 CrossFireX. Months of work was put into getting this part right, according to the developer. Ice Storm extreme preset adds yet another way to test entry-level graphics solutions, using a DirectX 9.0c feature-level scene.DOWNLOAD: 3DMark v1.1.0

Advantech, a global embedded platform manufacturer, today unveiled the new ASMB-822I server-grade motherboard powered by Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 family technology. This new technology comprises 64-bit multi-core processors, PCI Express Gen3 high speed communications, and DDR3 memory with total capacity up to 96GB. ASMB-822I is perfect designed for high performance demands such as NVR, DVR and also target to video wall, video conferencing, surveillance and other mission-critical applications.

"Advantech is committed to providing a full spectrum of embedded systems with advanced and intelligent built-in technology, from fanless and ruggedized to high-performance solutions," said Linda Tsai,Director of Advantech Embedded Systems Group. The ASMB-822I is an ATX server board equipped with LGA 2011 Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 series and Intel C602J series chipset. It supports six DDR3 registered DIMM slots for a 96 GB total capacity and dual GbE LANs using Intel controllers.

Buffalo Technology, a global leader in the design, development and manufacturing of wired and wireless networking and network and direct attached storage solutions, today announced that its DriveStation DDR, a high performance external USB 3.0 hard drive with 1 GB DDR3 RAM cache for accelerated transfer speeds, is available for purchase today at select retail partners. Ideal for a variety of users including tech enthusiasts, digital photographers and videographers and media buffs, DriveStation DDR offers extremely fast file transfers, comparable to SSD, with the high capacity and value of a traditional external HDD device.

The DriveStation DDR utilizes Buffalo's MegaCache Accelerator, a 1 GB DDR3 RAM cache system, to greatly accelerate file transfer rates, notably outperforming other USB 3.0 hard drives. Compared to a standard USB 3.0 hard drive, the 1 GB DRAM cache of the MegaCache system efficiently caches data as it's transferred to automatically boost performance for transfer speeds up to 408 MB/s, 2.3x faster than USB 3.0 hard drives and more than 10x faster than USB 2.0.

DisplayLink, the leading provider of USB Graphics technology, today announced plans to show the latest solutions for Wireless and USB Docking at Interop 2013. Targeting Ultrabook and Tablet expansion and connectivity for business users, DisplayLink will feature wireless WiGig Docking, Enterprise Class USB Docking, and the latest Mac drivers, with demonstrations to be held at the Interop Expo.

Introducing the latest solutions, John Cummins, VP Sales and Marketing for DisplayLink said, "IT Managers are struggling with BYOD. At Interop 2013, DisplayLink will showcase our customer's products, including monitor-docks for tablets with touch screen and integrated Webcams, WiGig Docks for wireless graphics and peripheral expansion, and Enterprise-Class USB Docks with multiple display connections for both Windows and Mac. These products solve problems and enhance productivity."

Microsoft Corp. today announced quarterly revenue of $20.49 billion for the quarter ended March 31, 2013. Operating income, net income, and diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $7.61 billion, $6.06 billion, and $0.72 per share.

These financial results reflect the net recognition of revenue related to the Windows Upgrade Offer, Office Upgrade Offer and Pre-Sales, and the Entertainment and Devices Division Video Game Deferral, partially offset by the European Commission fine. The following table reconciles these financial results reported in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) to non-GAAP financial results. We have provided this non-GAAP financial information to aid investors in better understanding the company's performance.

Worldwide PC shipments totaled 76.3 million units in the first quarter of 2013 (1Q13), down -13.9% compared to the same quarter in 2012 and worse than the forecast decline of -7.7%, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker. The extent of the year-on-year contraction marked the worst quarter since IDC began tracking the PC market quarterly in 1994. The results also marked the fourth consecutive quarter of year-on-year shipment declines.

Despite some mild improvement in the economic environment and some new PC models offering Windows 8, PC shipments were down significantly across all regions compared to a year ago. Fading Mini Notebook shipments have taken a big chunk out of the low-end market while tablets and smartphones continue to divert consumer spending. PC industry efforts to offer touch capabilities and ultraslim systems have been hampered by traditional barriers of price and component supply, as well as a weak reception for Windows 8. The PC industry is struggling to identify innovations that differentiate PCs from other products and inspire consumers to buy, and instead is meeting significant resistance to changes perceived as cumbersome or costly.

A little later this week, Unigine Corp. will be announcing two new GPU benchmark apps, the Valley 1.0, and Heaven 4.0. The two apps are cross-platform, in that they support both Windows and Linux (x86/x64). On Windows, the two can max out feature-sets of the latest DirectX 11.x APIs, while on Linux, the two take advantage of the latest OpenGL 4.x. Valley uses an entirely new test scene that's a beautiful springtime depiction of a valley. Distant snow-capped peaks, a treeline, and dense foliage, the scene's got it all, coupled with lighting, and depth of field effects. Definitely something we'd like our GPUs to trip on.

Moving on, Unigine's second benchmark suite for the season is Heaven 4.0, while builds on the current Heaven 3.0 benchmark. It adds SSDO (scene-space dimensional occlusion), improved lens flare, a rendered starscape at night time, GPU temperature and clock monitoring, improved multi-GPU detection, and various bug fixes. The two should be released some time around Thursday (14/02).

Futuremark released the newest installment to its 3DMark franchise. It's the first 3DMark to lack a version name, making it a "reboot" of sorts. For starters, the new 3DMark is a collection of three independent benchmark suites, each with its own demos, game tests, physics tests, and combined tests, and scoring.

Among the three suits are "Ice Storm," designed for tablets, mobile devices, and entry-level desktops, which needs nothing more than a DirectX 9.0c GPU to get going; "Cloud Gate," for notebook and home desktops, which needs a DirectX 10 feature-level GPU; and "Fire Strike," an over-the-top suite designed for today's gaming desktops, which can make even the fastest graphics cards sweat (for example, our GTX 680 in the screenshots below). The physics tests of each of these can benefit from having multiple cores and advanced instruction sets. TechPowerUp is a premier launch partner, hosting downloads on behalf of Futuremark. Grab yours below.DOWNLOAD: 3DMark (2013)

Futuremark's next big installment of the 3DMark franchise is set for a February 4th release, according to the developer. The Windows PC version of the suite, which includes the Fire Strike DirectX 11 and Cloud Gate DirectX 10 game tests, in addition to various feature-tests, will be released on the 4th. The company did not give out release dates for its Android, iOS, and Windows RT versions. In the run up to its release, Futuremark kept enthusiasts interested by timely release of teaser images and videos of its two game tests, starting with Fire Strike in early December, and Cloud Gate, a couple of weeks later. The new 3DMark faced several delays, given that the first reveal of Fire Strike dates back to June 2012. Yet Futuremark is hopeful the new 3DMark will reach out to many more users thanks to its relaxed system requirements.

Microsoft Corp. today announced quarterly revenue of $21.46 billion for the quarter ended December 31, 2012. Operating income, net income, and diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $7.77 billion, $6.38 billion, and $0.76 per share.

These financial results reflect the net deferral of revenue for the Windows Upgrade Offer, Office Upgrade Offer and Pre-sales, and the Entertainment and Devices Division Video Game Deferral, partially offset by the recognition of previously deferred revenue for Windows 8 Pre-sales. The following table reconciles these financial results reported in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) to non-GAAP financial results. We have provided this non-GAAP financial information to aid investors in better understanding the company's performance.

DTS, Inc. (Nasdaq: DTSI), a leader in high-definition audio solutions, today announced that it has entered into an agreement with ASUSTEK COMPUTER, INC (TSE: 2347), a top global producer of computers and consumer technology, to license its DTS Play-Fi technology for integration within ASUS' line-up of Windows-based products. Already a leader in the development and manufacturing of Windows-based computing solutions, ASUS will now offer integrated whole-home Wi-Fi audio streaming as part of its product portfolio. With DTS Play-Fi technology, ASUS products will enable consumers to stream lossless, high-quality audio from almost any audio source on a PC to their DTS Play-Fi-enabled home audio systems over a standard Wi-Fi network. It also gives users full control of the home speaker network-allowing users to set up, link, and stream audio to one speaker system or multiple speaker systems throughout the home at once.

"Our goal with DTS Play-Fi is to partner with global brands to make whole-home wireless audio streaming a standard feature that consumers everywhere can enjoy, especially now with the proliferation of online and cloud-based music choices available on PCs and tablets," said Brian Towne, executive vice president and chief operating officer, DTS. "ASUS' market position and technology leadership are well established, and we could not be more pleased to have them as a licensee in the Windows PC arena, to extend the music listening experience from its powerful PC platforms into the home with DTS Play-Fi technology."

Acer today announced cross-platform support for AcerCloud, the company's file sharing and media management solution, free to Acer customers. Consumers can now share, retrieve and enjoy their multimedia and data files using a variety of computing devices, regardless of which operating system they are running -- Windows, Android or iOS.

AcerCloud uses the free space on a PC's hard drive as cloud storage space. Users simply designate one of their PCs as their "Cloud PC," enabling them to use the available hard drive space on their own PC, giving them security and full control over their storage needs.1 And unlike other cloud solutions, consumers won't receive constant reminders about exceeding capacity with solicitations to pay for more storage.

This coming Tuesday, on the first day of CES 2013, Microsoft it set to make available a new batch of bug-busting updates. The Redmond-based company will be rolling out seven patches - two rated 'Critical' and five 'Important' - that will address a total of 12 vulnerabilities. These updates target issues found in Windows, Office, .NET Framework, Developer Tools and Server software.

For a bit more info on the upcoming patches see the Advance Notification published here.

It looks like somebody found a security vulnerability in the auto-update feature of AMD Catalyst Control Center (CCC), which notifies you of updates to Catalyst system software and directs you to the download page. AMD announced that it plans to discontinue the feature starting in 2013, and recommends that you get your driver updates the old-fashioned way: by keeping up with the news and getting your drivers from the internet. Due to the severity of the exploit, AMD recommended users to disable auto-updates in their current CCC configuration, or click on "skip" whenever it prompts you to update drivers. AMD stated:

AMD will be removing the auto-update notification functionality from versions of AMD Catalyst Control Center running under Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8, beginning in early 2013. Due to a minor security vulnerability in the auto-update notification, users are recommended to update to the latest AMD Catalyst driver release from the amd.com web site. Alternatively, users should (i) uncheck the "Automatically check for updates" option under AMD Catalyst Control Center > Information > Software Update, and (ii) choose to "Skip" notifications from the AMD Catalyst driver, which notifications recommend updating to the latest driver.

ASUSTOR Inc., a leading innovator and provider of network storage solutions, today announced the release of three new NAS Apps for its well-received AS 6 Series NAS devices. These new Apps consist of Symantec Backup Exec's RALUS, an acclaimed backup solution, Dropbox, a popular cloud storage and sync service and DVBLink TV Server, a digital television App. Additionally, two of ASUSTOR's existing Apps are being upgraded with advanced features and enhancements. Download Center now features the new and convenient Smart Download Folder function. Its mobile App, AiDownload, has added a push notification function and is now available for both iOS and Android. Not to be outdone, the Surveillance Center App now boasts added Daylight Saving Time adjustments along with full compatibility with Panasonic's BB and BL camera lines. Interested users may begin enjoying these new Apps and upgrades by downloading them through ASUSTOR's App Central.

Genius invites all CES attendees to visit their booth during CES to get hands-on experience with the new Windows 8 touch gesture mouse, Touch Mouse 6000, that lets users tap, swipe and zoom right on the mouse giving users full use of the new Windows interface. Beside the Touch Mouse 6000, the other major new products that will be shown are the Innovations 2013 honoree GX Gila Gaming Mouse along with the Ring Mouse 2.

Following last week's reveal of next-generation 3DMark game test "Fire Strike," which is designed to make even the fastest consumer graphics setups sweat, Futuremark revealed screenshots of its second game test, titled "Cloud Gate." Going with Futuremark's "one benchmark for all platforms" strategy, Cloud Gate is designed to test DirectX 10 hardware capabilities. It uses DirectX 11 engine that's limited to feature level10_0. The lighter game test will be able to put notebook GPUs and entry-level DirectX 11 desktop GPUs to test.

Cloud Gate will see Futuremark's artists going back to space-opera mode, something we missed in 3DMark 11. Screenshots reveal what appears to be a giant machine hovering over a moon, with its parent gas-giant in the background. Perhaps it's a terraforming machine? An ion-drive spacecraft scooping up fuel? The test appears to make use of several of D3D10's illumination and bloom effects. In related news, Futuremark told us that the new 3DMark won't make it to the markets this year, and instead it will be launched for Windows PC (x86) platform in January, 2013. The Android, iOS and Windows RT versions will launch after a little more beta testing and approvals from their respective app stores.More screenshots follow.

HighPoint Technologies, Inc., the industry's leading SATA 6Gb/s RAID HBA manufacturer, announces the availability of their second generation SATA 6Gb/s storage controllers - the RocketRAID 600L series. HighPoint's RocketRAID 600L series HBA's represent the industry's most comprehensive, and affordable selection of 6Gb/s SATA PCIe host controllers. Powered by industry-proven RAID technology, SATA port multiplier support, and an intuitive RAID Management Suite, HighPoint RocketRAID 600L HBA's are the ideal SATA 6Gb/s storage solution for any PC and Mac computing platform.

NVIDIA has today made available a new beta-tagged graphics driver, the GeForce 310.61 which is a small update from the GeForce 310.54 offering improved compatibility for PlanetSide 2 and Hitman: Absolution.

The GeForce 310.61 Beta supports GeForce 8, 9, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 and 600 Series cards and is available for Windows 7, 8 and Vista, in both 32-bit and 64-bit flavors.

Synology Inc. today announced selected DiskStation and RackStation are officially certified for Microsoft Windows Server 2012, which delivers important advancements to help businesses increase IT efficiency as well as achieve a new level of availability.

The compelling combination of Synology NAS server and the new Windows Server 2012 operating system entitles businesses to boost performance and flexibility when migrating running virtual machine without downtime. Additionally, the full Windows Server 2012 support ensures business continuity and minimizes disaster recovery time with real-time virtual machine remote replication. The combined virtualized platform also enables enterprises to flexibly leverage the new VHDX format and its ability of supporting up to 64TB storage per virtual hard disk. Moreover, Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) 2.0 provides a highly scalable and flexible shared storage infrastructure with increased performance. CSV 2.0 will be supported with more workloads, including File Server for scale-out application data.

Futuremark has announced that the next version of 3DMark, its popular benchmarking software, will offer cross platform testing capabilities on Windows, Windows RT, Android and iOS devices. With three all new tests Futuremark says 3DMark can be used with the full range of hardware from smartphones and tablets, to notebooks and home PCs, to the latest high-end, multi-GPU gaming desktops. Futuremark expects to launch the new 3DMark before the end of the year.

3DMark is well known in PC circles as the go-to benchmark for testing the latest Windows gaming PCs and video cards. Today Futuremark announced that the next version of 3DMark will also be available on Android, iOS and Windows RT devices. Futuremark says 3DMark scores will be directly comparable across platforms providing valuable insight into the performance differences between competing devices and operating systems.

The wait is over. The groundbreaking Call of Duty: Black Ops II is now available at retail locations across the globe. The highly-anticipated sequel to the best-selling Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 console game in history has been called "the most ambitious Call of Duty ever," pushing the boundaries of the blockbuster franchise to new heights by propelling players into a world full of advanced weaponry, robotics and drone technology in the year 2025. Call of Duty: Black Ops II, which has shattered pre-order records set last year by Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, is on its way to a historic launch, and is poised to usher in a new era for the 30-million Call of Duty fans worldwide with a host of new innovations to deliver the complete gaming experience. Providing great value to the Call of Duty community, starting today Activision's Call of Duty Elite services for Call of Duty: Black Ops II are free, providing fans with deeply integrated features, including Clan Operations, Zombies Leaderboards and more.