Windows 8 Pro Discount Officially Ended

Well, it's official, you can no longer purchase an upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for the discounted price of $39.99. As of February 1, Microsoft has quintupled the price to $199.99. Just upgrading to the standard Windows 8, which doesn't include corporate features like BitLocker encryption and the ability to remotely connect to a company's network, will cost $119.99, though that edition was never discounted.

Upgrading to Windows 8 from an existing Windows operating system, like XP, Vista or 7, comes with varying degrees of success. It should come as no surprise that upgrading from Windows 7 causes the least amount of hassle with bringing along existing files, settings and applications whereas upgrading from XP is a little more difficult.

In addition to the end of the discount, several other deals also ended, including $69.99 prices for Windows 8 Pro on a DVD and something Microsoft was calling Windows 8 Pro Pack, which upgrades Windows 8 to Windows 8 Pro. The first upgrade will jump to $199.99 with the latter costing $99.99. Windows 8 Media Center pack, which is an add-on that makes it possible to play CDs and DVDs on a Windows PC, now costs $9.99.

Only one time has Microsoft discussed Windows 8 Pro upgrade numbers. This occurred back in October when CEO Steve Ballmer said his company had sold 4 million copies in its first three days. Since then, Microsoft has declined to give any specific sales numbers, even though the firm's CFO recently cited upgrades as one of several reasons why the Windows division's revenue increased 11% in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Purchasers of the Windows 8 upgrade do not have to install it right away. Instead, they can create a bootable flash drive or installation DVD, then set aside the physical media for a later date. The final offer that recently expired was the eight-month deal that offered a $14.99 upgrade for customers who purchased a Windows 7-powered PC between June 2, 2012 and January 31, 2013. Those customers have until February 28 to claim the promotional code for the $14.99 price.

Windows 8 has received quite a bit of flak from users who believe that the heavy focus on touch-screen features do not translate well to desktops and laptops without touchscreens. Having used Windows 8 personally, I can honestly say that the new home screen and layout definitely take some getting used to, especially for long-time Windows users, though some of the features that are available are pretty cool and the operating system itself isn't all that bad (though that was at the time of the $39.99 download). I don't know if the operating system (or any, for that matter) is worth $200.

Source: CNET

Samsung may squeeze an 8-core processor into the Galaxy S4

Samsung is rumored to unveil its next-generation handset, presumably the Galaxy S4, at 2013’s Mobile World Congress in February. However, even more interesting than when the smartphone may launch is the significant spec bump it could see.

The Galaxy S3 successor may feature eight processor cores, according to EE Times. This is double the amount of processors featured in high-end smartphone such as the Samsung’s Galaxy Note 2 and S3 handsets, which are based on quad-core chipsets.

The Korean news source recently reported that Samsung is crafting a new processor that could expand on the companion core build found in Nvidia’s Tegra 3 chipset. Rather than packing a quad-core processor and a fifth core unit for background processing, Samsung could be planning to sandwich two quad-core chips into one offering, allowing for double the power.

The processor would also be the first chipset to use ARM’s big.LITTLE technology, which combines high performance with power efficiency to extend battery life.

Specifically, Samsung is believed to pair four Cortex -A15 cores with four Cortex-A7 cores. These higher-powered A15 chips are expected to perform the more demanding and daunting operations of a smartphone. The lower-powered Cortex A7s, however, would deal with daily tasks that do not require much battery power, the report says.

Back in August, it was reported that ARM already had two eight-core chips in the works: the T628 and T678. But what does this mean for mobile device users? These processors are said to be 50 percent more powerful than their predecessors without draining any additional power. These eight-core processor chipsets could even feature the potential to boast “console class gaming” for smartphones and support video workloads of up to 4K and 8K.

In addition to speculation about the processing power, Samsung may pack into its Galaxy S3 successor, rumors have also indicated that it could come with a 13-megapixel camera. Back in September, the Korea Times reported that Samsung will be unveiling a 5-inch Galaxy S4 at the Mobile World Congress in February, but Samsung later denied these rumors via Twitter.

“Please note that some media reported speculation that the Galaxy S’s subsequent models will be released,” read the tweet, which called the report “a simple rumor [that] is not true.”

Despite whether or not Samsung decides to release any new smartphones this spring, the development of eight-core processors is likely a sign of what’s to come for mobile tech.  

Intel's 2nd Generation corei7 processors simply awesome

Nvidia's Latest Graphic Card Accredited to be the World's Fastest

At last Nvidia has made its wayup again with the release of this booming performance graphic card GTX 580. It has even left the recently famous ATI RADEON HD 6000 series out of the competition which had been famous among most demanding gamers before the release of this card.

This card has a way lot of features than any other graphic card in the market. It supports three way SLI with HDMI 1.4 accompanied by a clock speed of 772MHz, isnt it exciting.But apart from this there have been some heating problem which have been reported by some users but Nvidia claims to fix them with a bios upgrade. I would recomend you to buy this graphic card and take a nap for two years NO HEAD ACHE :)

Find out which is better for you Intel's new 2nd Generation or the older 1st Generation Core Processors

As Intel relased its latest Corei7 processors earlier this year, people are still confused that which one is better and whats the difference. The latest Intel's Second Generation Core processors are based on the  Intel's Sandy Bridge mobile and processor technology instead of the Lynnfield Processor technology used in the  1st generation Core processors,  which makes them even 33% more faster, which means more computing power. So which one is better for you? If you want to are a serious gamer then Intel 1st generation processors will be better as the newer ones will not make a considerable difference, but if you want some serious multi-tasking and Hi-Def video editing then the new Intel's new 2nd Generation Processors are built for you which will give you performance beyond imagination.  And for those brothers and sisters who are interested in surfing and youtubing then they should better stick to their older ones.....just kidding....I mean the 1st Generation Processors.