Computex Taipei 2013 - ADATA's SX series branding has always been associated with LSI SandForce controllers. Even before SX, the S Series products like S510 and S511 were LSI SandForce. It's been quite some time since we've seen ADATA using a Marvell controller. The last time I can think of is at Computex three years ago when ADATA closed a section of their booth so we could test a then new SATA III product based on the same controller used in the Crucial C300, the world's first SATA III controller.

Looking to increase diversity to the brand, the SATA SX920 uses a Marvell controller and appears to be ready for entry into the channel. We suspect this is the same controller used in the SanDisk Extreme II and Plextor M5 Pro Xtreme. Talking to the product manager at the show, we learned that SX920 uses Type C Toggle NAND, the good stuff that everyone wants but few are getting access to.

With 20nm yields down and next-gen LSI SandForce stuck somewhere in 3Q or 4Q, ADATA needed a product to compete with M500 and Extreme II. Personally I would have liked to have seen ADATA not follow the SX product naming scheme and release this under a different name since SX920 is quite a bit different than SX900 and SX910. The five-year warranty from the SX910 didn't carry over either.

Microsoft has commissioned a study that shows that Internet Explorer 10 is the most efficient browser on Windows 8. The study's data suggests that if every user of Windows 8 switched to Internet Explorer 10, we would save enough energy to power 10,000 US hoseholds.

Microsoft will likely use this new "fact" as part of its marketing push to regain some of the browser market share. However, just how important is power consumption? Quite frankly, I'm not going to make the switch to Internet Explorer just because it uses slightly less power. On a notebook, though, the argument starts to gain some validity.

After all, most people surf the web for the majority of their computer use, so saving up to 18 percent of your battery life could result in a big boost. But with Haswell's jump in battery life, this argument starts to lose some of its impact.

Computex Taipei 2013 - With our meetings at Hyatt finished, Cameron and I finally had a chance to get to the show floor for a few minutes today. There we saw the future of SSDs at just about every booth we stopped by: NGFF or Next Generation Form Factor, commercially known as m.2. Over the next few days, we'll have a lot of NGFF product images and slide in some details about the interface that most are not familiar with yet. We should be able to take a few products back to the test lab as well.

The largest crowd at Plextor's booth was around the two NGFF products seen above. This form factor has several versions, roughly 14 or 15 the last I looked into it. That number will come down to just a few common sizes once system builders roll out motherboards, notebooks and Ultrabooks with the new form factor.

Electrically, NGFF can connect to a SATA bus or PCIe. The PCIe connection moves us past the limits of SATA III, making SSDs exciting once again from a performance standpoint. Companies will once again race to maximize the performance of products and more distinction in the market place will occur.

Right out of the gate, NGFF will bring sequential read performance close to 800MB/s. Sequential write performance will increase as well. Plextor's offering shows up to 780MB/s read and 550MB/s write at this point in time in the marketing documents.

Computex Taipei 2013 - Off to the side at the Plextor booth and getting little attention was an early look at what may become the M6 Series. We were told it's a working product name but considering the M1 through M5 product naming scheme M6 seems appropriate since it's next in line.

The specifications shown are very close to those found on the existing M5 Pro model that's selling today.

That means the baseline M6, or M6S depending on your market, should have nearly identical performance to the existing M5 Pro product but at a lower cost. With that said, where are the M6 Pro specs? That's the model we want to see since the Pro versions in the Plextor product series are the bleeding edge performance drives. We'll get out the shovel tomorrow and look for treasure.

Computex Taipei 2013 - We learned today that Plextor has dropped any immediate plans to release the 2.5" TLC model shown at CES 2013 and CeBIT 2013. Citing endurance concerns, a Plextor rep stated to TweakTown that the TLC model shown at previous shows has been shelved. "With Toshiba's new 1y NAND flash we can meet the same or better price point and not [have] issues with endurance."

The product in question used a Marvell 88SS9189 controller with Toshiba TLC NAND, lithography unknown. In 512GB capacity size, the rated performance was 540MB/s sequential read and 465MB/s sequential write speeds. The quoted IOPS performance was 80K read and 72K write, 4K aligned. These numbers are significantly higher than Samsung's 840, especially the write performance. Allowing TLC NAND to write at those speeds would have been an issue since TLC has lower PE cycles than MLC NAND.

The buzz around the show is that 1y will change the SSD market from a price perspective. Also, new controllers are emerging that can scale beyond 512GB and new interfaces that work over PCIe will mean moving beyond the limits of SATA III. These new products should start hitting e-tail stores in 3Q.

Struggling smartphone maker BlackBerry is reportedly already testing a new device. The A10 is reportedly undergoing testing and is slated for a November launch on Sprint. The various reports claim that the A10 will be an even better flagship device for BlackBerry.

The A10 is said to be more curvy than the Z10, BlackBerry's current flagship device. Some say it looks quite a bit more like the Samsung Galaxy S4, but no pictures have leaked out as of yet. It reportedly uses 2GB of RAM and runs BlackBerry OS 10.2, though these are just rumored for right now.

You can probably expect to see a quad-core processor and full HD screen, though these have not been supported by any reports as of yet. As soon as we get more details, we'll pass them along.

Apple has reportedly filed to trademark the term iWatch in Russia. The report comes courtesy of Izvestia, a Russian newspaper, and states that Apple has filed an application for two International Classification of Goods and Services trademarks. The first is a 9th grade of Nice Classification, which covers computers and peripherals. The second is under the 14th classification, which relates to "hours."

The newspaper report says that the first trademark application for iWatch was filed in Jamaica on December 3, 2012. Around that time, the Apple rumor mill started pumping out rumors of an impending iWatch device. Of course, a trademark doesn't mean they are currently making an iWatch; the actual product could still be years off in the future.

Samsung has made the often leaked and rumored Galaxy S4 Active official. The device was widely expected to be coming at Samsung's June 20 event in London. The S4 Active is designed to be water and dust resistant, making it perfect for those who lead a rather excessive lifestyle.

The Active will debut in Sweden and the United States first, but should eventually head worldwide. When it debuts, it will rock Android 4.2.2, a 1.9GHz quad-core processor, a 2,600Mah battery, and a 5.0-inch full HD TFT LCD. The rear-facing camera is 8MP and features an "aqua mode" that can be used when snapping pictures underwater.

Samsung says the device can be submerged at three feet for up to 30 minutes without issue. It also features a protected headphone jack, allowing you to listen to music in the pool. The device will be available in urban grey, dive blue, and orange flare.

This morning, Yahoo announced that it has redesigned its search page and claims this new look "put[s] your results front and center." Search results are now placed higher on the page and Yahoo is even touting improved performance thanks to several undisclosed improvements to its search algorithm.

Yahoo has also integrated its Google-like top navigation bar to the search page in an attempt to improve the user experience. While these changes are small, they are part of Yahoo's larger plan to revamp their image and combine utility with beauty. The company says that today's changes are just the first step in achieving that goal.

Mozilla, the developers behind Firefox, are planning a major design overhaul for the popular web browser. The changes will appear in Firefox 25 which is slated to arrive in October. Those who wish to preview the changes are in luck as Mozilla has set up a special Nightly UX channel for Firefox 25. (Source #2)

For those of you who just want to know the differences, keep reading. The new look is awfully similar to the current user interface for Google's Chrome browser. The tabs have been rounded over, and Firefox is ditched the top left settings drop-down in favor of a more Chrome-like menu icon at the right hand side of the URL bar which is affectionately known as the "hot dog icon."

Other features include:

• Curved tabs.
• Remove tab affordance from background tabs.
• Separate Bookmark Star from location bar and merge with Bookmarks Menu item.
• Updated Panel Based Application Menu and Customization Mode.
• Windows (All): Draw entire window frame including Caption Buttons.
• Windows XP: Custom window frame style for all default themes.

Additional changes to the browser include updating in-content user interface styles, refining all aspects of the existing UI, as well as several bug fixes. Firefox warned developers that they should plan for a minimalistic toolbar UI and that the API to add toolbar buttons will be very different.

Computex Taipei 2013 - Going hand in hand with all the memory that is being shown off this year we've got a ton of motherboards that support the latest chipset from Intel. We headed over to the MSI booth this afternoon to have a look at what is exactly on offer.

One board that really took our eye is the upcoming Z87 XPOWER which is due in the coming weeks. Sporting the PLX chip for faster 4-Way GPU support the upcoming board which isn't quite ready yet looks good. Along with the PLX chip we've got the Sound Blaster X-Fi3 HD audio chip.

Microsoft has just released its first teaser trailer for the upcoming E3 Expo. The teaser hints at new games such as Forza 5, Gears of War, Halo, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Splinter Cell, Battlefield 4, Fifa 14 along with revealing images of the new Xbox Live, Xbox One, as well as some updating content for the Xbox 360.

With Microsoft promising "A new generation of games" is no question that the Xbox One will be the star of the show. The only thing that could still under would be the hardware unveiling of Sony's upcoming PlayStation 4.

Tweak him will have full coverage of the E3 Expo with our own Trace Hagan on the ground putting in the footwork to bring you the latest and greatest from the gaming world. Stay tuned to TweakTown for all of your E3 and Computex coverage.

Computex Taipei 2013 - Still one of my absolute favorite series from video cards come from our friends at MSI and while they didn't have a new Lightning based GTX 780 to show us, they did have the slightly cheaper GTX 770 on display which has also already arrived in our Taiwan labs.

Again while not on display; the first question that did come to mind was when will we see a GTX 780. While not ready just quiet yet MSI are indeed working on it and it looks like we should see it sometime in July. We're excited about both models as the Lightning series continue to be one of the strongest series of video cards available.

Outside of the new Lightning cards due, MSI are expanding the new Gaming series with the release of the GTX 770 and GTX 780 under it. We're quickly becoming a fan of the new Gaming series of cards and while we haven't got the GTX 780 variant yet, it's coming soon. So make sure you keep an eye out in the coming weeks for reviews on all the latest MSI Video Card offerings.

Computex Taipei 2013 - Inno3D today showed off the ever expanding iChiLL series of video cards with the GTX 780 Accelero Hybrid, a model that carries with it an All in One water cooling system. Considering the warmer nature of the new GTX 700 series from NVIDIA; we're really looking forward to seeing how the model goes once water has been thrown into the mix.

Alongside the new Water Cooled model which will of course carry with it quite a hefty price tag, Inno3D are showing off a chunky air cooled solution on both the GTX 770 and higher-end GTX 780. Looking below you can see the new GTX 770 HerculeZ 2000 sorts with it a pretty mean looking dual fan solution

The higher-end GTX 780 on the other hand sports a massive triple fan cooling solution which looks fantastic. If previous triple fan solutions from Inno3D are anything to go by, the upcoming i-Chill GTX 780 HerculeZ X3 Ultra should perform extremely well. We'll be keeping an eye out in the coming weeks for a sample to find out just what the new cards are capable off.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the HTC One is most likely the nicest Android handset on the market at the moment, and I have long thought that if HTC released a smaller version that packed the same features, it could easily become the dominant handset in the Android arena.

This morning, images surfaced on the Internet of what appears to be the HTC One Mini, which just might be the greatest Android phone ever made. The device packs a 4.3-inch 720p display alongside a dual-core processor, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of internal storage.

A 4-megapixel UltraPixel rear facing camera will handle all of your photographic needs and we are assuming the front facing camera is the same 2.1-megapixel that is the on its larger twin. At the moment unnamed sources say the phone will launch in August in the European market at a price tag of €400 but no word yet on a US release date.

Computex Taipei 2013 - Following the trend of most memory companies; GeIL had some new Haswell ready memory kits that are due to hit soon. While information on the modules was a little scarce; we know that the new EVO POTENZA memory modules will offer speeds of up to 3000MHz DDR; a number that we're seeing a lot of companies offer.

Outside of 3000MHz DDR we'll see the company offer the modules in a number of other speeds but as we mentioned the exact numbers weren't on display at the moment. Looking above, though, you can see some of the color combinations the new kit.

As soon as the kits are available we'll be sure to get some samples and let you know how GeIL is going with Haswell memory in the coming weeks

Computex Taipei 2013 - Memory is pretty big this year at Computex thanks to the new Haswell platform which is offering us some truly insane speeds out of the box. G.Skill was showing off its new 3000MHz DDR with a 12-14-14-35 setup. What's really impressive, though, is not just the out of the box speed but also the fact that we're dealing with a 16GB kit instead of an 8GB one.

Showing that the memory was more than capable on multiple boards we saw the new kit running on both the GIGABYTE Z87X-OC and ASUS Maximus VI Extreme with both boards of course running the new Haswell-based Core i7 4770K processor.

Computex Taipei 2013 - This year at Computex we've really seen companies expand into some new areas. When you hear the name G.Skill you think fast high-end performance memory; over the coming months they're hoping that name also becomes known with high quality audio as the company shows of two headsets due in Q4 of this year.

Consisting of two models the upcoming Ripjaws R71 Gaming Headet carries with it 7.1-channel surround sound audio via USB. In a really stylish blue which really looks great. Build quality on the unit feels good and playing a bit of Counter-Strike on the headset found for a good quality audio experience that came off very comfortable.

This morning, Pandora announced a new way of accessing the service through television when it unveiled its new website TV.Pandora.com which is built using HTML5. Pandora says that the new HTML5 app offers easier navigation and controls than previous designs.

According to Pandora, you can access the new site today from TV web browsers such as those featured on smart TVs and consoles like the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The company says it plans to expand into the next-generation consoles as well as future smart TVs.

"We imagine a future where web-based standards can be the answer to that question," Tom Conrad, Pandora's CTO said in an interview. "We're pointing the industry in that direction with this announcement." This new offering comes as Pandora operates without a CEO and as revenues plummet as services like Spotify and Google Play Music All Access rise in popularity.

Computex Taipei 2013 - We got a chance to visit some folks at Intel at the Grand Hyatt earlier today where we were of course given a media tour of some of Intel's new Haswell solutions and upcoming Baytrail systems, that is the chip that is likely to become the next-generation Atom.

Towards the end of the media tour, Intel's engineer Francois Piednoel pulled out a prototype Intel Baytrail Android reference / mock-up tablet showing that Intel mean business when it comes to graphics for the next-gen chips. Intel is often mocked for its graphics performance on its processors, and they know that, but it seems like they are working hard to change that trend.

Francois's baby was shown running SkyCastle 2 fairly smooth at I'd estimate an FPS of around 30 - 40 FPS - he actually had the FPS ticker blocked with an Intel sticker, so we couldn't check for sure. Take FPS out of the equation for a moment and get this fact - the game was running fairly well at a screen resolution of 2560 x 1440.

Yeah, we can mock Intel for its graphics against GeForce and Radeon, but when we look at the mobile space, that's no laughing matter.