Windows Phone 8 switches to RTM, and phones expected in early November

Multiple sources have confirmed that Microsoft has finished putting in the final touches for Windows Phone 8, and a RTM build is now officially available for OEMs.

Nokia, Samsung, and HTC are some of the major OEMs that will be launching a WP8 phone later this November and on. Nokia has been treading swampy waters, and many analysts are suggesting that the Finnish phone maker will have to do something amazing with WP8 or else it will be hard for the once phone-making-giant to survive.

The Lumia 920 is Nokia’s next flagship, and although it boasts relatively good hardware, it’s hard to tell how consumers will respond. Android smartphone buzz took up much of the news in the first half of 2012, but in the second half, it has been the iPhone 5 and Windows Phone 8.

Apple has almost assured itself a big payday in the latter half of 2012, but don’t count out WP8. The IDC expects Windows Phone devices to have continued growth through 2016, meanwhile, Android smartphone shares are expected to decrease.

Microsoft intends to make WP8 in an integral part of the Windows 8 ecosystem, thus, many adopters of the Windows 8 desktop/tablet platform may also become attracted to WP8.

The Windows 8 RT Surface tablet will launch alongside Windows 8 (October 26), with WP8 devices expected to hit retail shelves later in November.

VIA Nano-ITX Boards In H2

VIA plans to launch its Nano-ITX motherboard form factor, sized 50% smaller than its current Mini-ITX models, in the second half of this year. The new embedded motherboards will target digital home entertainment solutions that feature system-on-chip (SoC) architecture, Chen noted. Nano-ITX motherboards will have dimensions of 12×12cm.

More Details On ASUS Blitz Extreme amp; Blitz Formula

One of the highlights at ASUS booth is certainly Blitz Extreme and BlitzFormula boards, part of their successful R.O.G line-up. The Blitz Extreme boardfeatures a Fusion Block System that allows a combination of watercooling withheatpipes to cool down the VRM, NB and SB. There is an interesting CrosslinxTechnology that allows x8/x8 equal PCIe lanes on P35 chipset to remove x16/x4bottlenecks for better graphics performance. We heard that it is prettychallenging to implement this technology as circuitry needs to be re-routed andadditional components have to be added to ensure signal integrity. ASUS has alsostep up to 2-phase power for memory which suppose to enhance memoryoverclockability. The boards come with free STALKER and 3DMark2006 AdvancedEdition too.

NVIDIA Next Gen. PCIe 2.0 GPU amp; MCP In Nov

NVIDIA is also going to launch their next generation PCI Express 2.0 SLIchipsets for both Intel and AMD processors together with the next generationenthusiast GPUs known as G92 in November. There are C73 and C72 chipsets forIntel supporting 45nm Yorkfield and Wolfdale processors and MCP72 for AMDsupporting AM2+ Phenom processors. The main difference between C73 and C72 isthe support of higher FSB and memory type where C73 supports 1600FSB andDDR3-1600 and C72 supports 1333FSB and DDR2-1066/800.

There are 2 variants to each series of SLI chipset; XE and P where XEsupports 3 x16 SLI priced at US$ 150+ and P supports 2 x8 SLI priced atUS$ 100-120. Only MCP72 series can support Hybrid SLI. C72 early samples will beavailable to customers by end of July where mass production slated for October.MCP72 early samples will be available by August with MP targeted for November.C73 will arrive later where early samples targeted for November and massproduction in December. So we can expect MCP72 and C72 to be on target forlaunch together with G92 in November.

New search engine Blekko to take on Google, Yahoo and Bing

Blekko is the latest search enginethatclaims to be the better way to search the web. It makes use of "slash search" wherebya user justneeds to sign up with Blekko, make slashtags and add them totheir search. You can also find your friend's slashtag and use the info to your search too. Although this probably gives a more "social" feel to searching, it is still too early to tell if users will find it more efficient and easier to use than thepopular ones of Google, Yahoo! and Bing. Not to mention, it is currently still in Beta, so expect improvementsas it progresses.

So how do you actually do a slash search?

How to 'slash the web'

make 'em: proceed to login sign up with blekko Make a slashtag that includes just your favorite sites. make it as narrow (/scuba) or as broad (/favorites) as you like. Add that slashtag to any search and you're only searching those sites.

use 'em: find a friend's slashtag and get in their head for your searches. For example, try searching Rich's home brewing slashtag for quality info on brewing your own beer (ex. wheat beer /homebrew).

make 'em better: We've already created hundreds of topic slashtags that you can search now. everything from /conservative, to /humor to /vc is there. Drop us a tweet (@blekko) and tell us if you think any are missing sites or if you have ideas for other topics.

Source: Blekko