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Here's a prickly subject if ever there was one: while with keyboards you could reasonably argue for the superiority of using mechanical switches over traditional rubber-dome membrane keys, mice are much, much more a matter of preference. A mouse could have all the features you're looking for, but if the grip isn't right or the texture makes you hand clammy the whole enterprise can be a bust. Understanding how delicate the balancing act of a good mouse can be, Corsair has come up with matching mice for their new gaming keyboards.

The new Vengeance M60 is geared for FPS players with an innovative "Sniper" button while the M90 targets MMO players who'll use as many configurable buttons as they can find. Do they work out in practice, though? Read on for our thoughts on these two new mice.

Intel 313 Series SSDs (also known as "Hawley Creek") were originally scheduled for Q4'11 release but obviously they were delayed. VR-Zone is now claiming that the release will take place alongside the Ivy Bridge processors and the 7-series chipsets. That could mean an April release, though there are also rumors of a delayed IVB launch. Either way, here's a quick rundown of the upcoming 313 SSDs.

The 313 Series is the successor of the 311 Series (or Larson Creek if you prefer codenames), which is a 20GB SLC NAND SSD meant for caching with Intel's Z68 chipset with Smart Response Technology (SRT). SRT will be even more useful with the Ivy Bridge platform because there will be widespread support among the 7-series chipsets: two of the three consumer desktop chipsets (Z77 and H77) will feature SRT, along with one of the business chipsets (Q77). We will also finally see mobile chipsets with support for SRT.

The major change with the 313 Series is that it will switch to 25nm SLC NAND and offer a 24GB model, but otherwise we are looking at a product very similar to 311 Series. The controller is Intel's own, but that's all we know for certain. Most likely the controller is the same as in 310, 311, and 320 Series, i.e. Intel PC29AS21BA0, because Intel's roadmap shows no plans for any other SATA 3Gb/s SSDs. It wouldn't make much sense to make a new SATA 3Gb/s controller just for one product, or to create a new SATA 3Gb/s controller in general at this point. Unfortunately we don't have any performance figures but given that the controller should be the same, the performance should be on par with 311 Series—the 24GB model should have slightly higher write speeds as it uses six NAND channels while the 20GB model uses only five.

As for pricing, VR-Zone is claiming a suggested retail price of $99 (20GB) and $119 (24GB). For comparison 20GB 311 Series had an MRSP of $110 and retails for ~$120 now, so a ~$10 price drop sounds plausible. A few German retailers have already listed the 24GB model and it's selling for around €104 without tax, which translates to ~$138, but Euro prices tend to run higher than USD. Moreover, one of the sellers is listing availability as 2-3 weeks so 313 Series may hit the retail channel sooner than April. However, some of the retailers are listing the SSDs as OEM models, which explains the early availability and possibly high pricing as well.

We don't get a lot of projectors for review, but ASUS sent us their P1 Portable LED Projector and so we wanted to do a short write up of the device. It's a small projector primarily intended for portability and business use--something that you could easily carry with you as you travel to meetings so that you know you'll have a viable projector for your presentation. Tipping the scales at less than a pound, there are many projectors where the lens alone is larger than the P1.

So how does the ASUS P1 fare in our short look? While we don't have the necessary equipment to test many aspects of the projector, for the intended purpose it delivers what ASUS has promised. Read on for our thoughts on the device.

NVIDIA has just posted GeForce graphics driver 295.73, its latest WHQL-certified driver package for desktops and laptops running 32-bit and 64-bit flavors of Windows Vista and Windows 7. The drivers, NVIDIA's first non-beta driver package since last October, improve performance in a number of high-profile games, add a few new features, and fix a number of bugs.

NVIDIA's benchmarks for the new drivers showcase measureable improvements in performance for Skyrim for users of GTX 500-series cards (though some of these improvements may well trickle down to owners of older GPUs), as well as the addition of Ambient Occlusion support for that game, the Diablo III beta, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. NVIDIA also highlighted performance improvements for SLI users running the Mass Effect 3 demo.

The new driver also adds SLI and 3D Vision profiles for a number of games, updates the PhysX driver to 9.12.0209, fixes some graphical bugs in Battlefield 3, and enables WHQL support for NVIDIA Surround on Intel X79 motherboards certified for SLI. The drivers support all GeForce 6000-series and newer cards on desktops, and most GeForce 8000-series and newer chips and DirectX 10 and 11-capable Quadro chips on laptops. Links to the driver downloads and to the NVIDIA release notes have been posted below.

32-bit desktop

32-bit laptop

64-bit desktop

64-bit laptop

Source: NVIDIA

BlackBerry PlayBook OS version 2.0 has been released to the public, according to a Research In Motion press release that was posted today.  The new OS version introduces features meant to close the feature gap between it and competing tablets, and to address some of the criticisms voiced in reviews of the device (including ours).

First and foremost, PlayBook OS 2.0 introduces an email client to the platform, addressing a key issue with the platform as it was at release - the client supports a unified inbox, as well as integration with Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn messages. The calendar and contacts apps can also make use of information pulled from these social networks. The BlackBerry Bridge app has also been updated, and alongside generic promises that it makes things “quicker and easier,” it adds a feature that allows the keyboard on a BlackBerry phone to be used to control the PlayBook.

Other, smaller features include a Print To Go app, an updated touch keyboard with auto correct and predictive typing, an improved browser, and a new BlackBerry Video Store for US users. RIM also announced the availability of a program called BlackBerry Mobile Fusion, which will allow for management of BlackBerry phones and tablets in an enterprise environment. The version released today is a preview, with availability of the final version scheduled for late March.

The BlackBerry PlayBook had a starting price of $499.99 when it launched, but that has fallen by about half at many retailers. If you’re interested in trying some of these new features, getting into a PlayBook is considerably less expensive than it was even a few months ago.

Source: RIM

If you've been following our SoC and smartphone related coverage over the past couple of years, you'll probably remember how Qualcomm let us take home an MDP8660 from MWC 2011 and thoroughly benchmark it. Qualcomm has done essentially the same thing this year, this time sending their latest and greatest MSM8960 SoC inside the aptly named MSM8960 Mobile Development Platform (MDP) just before MWC 2012. 

The timing is impeccable as we're fully expecting to start seeing MSM8960 based phones next week at MWC, and we've been telling you to hold off on any smartphone purchases until the 8960's arrival. Today we're finally able to give you an indication of just how fast Qualcomm's next-generation Snapdragon S4 will be. Read on!

The majority of the enclosures from Lian Li that we've tested so far have been designed for mini-ITX and micro-ATX builds, but today we have on offer one of their premium full ATX cases, and it's a promising one indeed. Lian Li's PC-90, which they dub "The Hammer," is designed to support HPTX and XL-ATX motherboards while being smaller and lighter than most other enthusiast cases in its class. And while we'd hesitate to call it diminutive, it's definitely smaller than you'd expect.

Lian Li aims to offer a lighter, more austere shell for high performance systems in the PC-90, and we can tell you they've been very successful. The PC-90 is also better than our prior experiences with Lian Li in that it performs right about where you'd expect. Read on for the full details.

Microsoft has talked a bit about SkyDrive before in its plans for Windows 8, but Microsoft's Mike Torres and Omar Shahine have authored a Building Windows 8 blog post that have made the company's plans for it a bit clearer, and outline the degree to which SkyDrive support will be built in to the new operating system.

The Metro app, pictured above, has been built from scratch for Windows 8 and Windows on ARM and will eventually become the preferred method of working with SkyDrive data (though the service's web interface will still be available). Any Metro application in Windows 8 that can save or open files will be able to do so to and from SkyDrive manually and automatically without any extra coding on the part of third-party developers.

The SkyDrive desktop app is less tightly integrated with the OS - when downloaded and installed, it works more like Dropbox, keeping your SkyDrive files in one folder (which is stored locally for offline access) and synchronizing changes to the server as files are created, deleted, and updated - the interface (as pictured above) is very Dropbox-like, right down to the green checkmarks next to synced items. The SkyDrive client will be able to upload files as large as 2GB to your storage space, and the client will also be available to Windows Vista and Windows 7 clients when it' s launched - sorry, Windows XP users, but the writing has been on the wall for awhile, and Microsoft would very much like it if you would upgrade your operating system.

Microsoft's description of its cloud services - "a single drive that’s available across all of their devices, tailored to the experiences they’re using, providing instant, secure, and private access to their files" - mirrors to a large degree Apple's efforts with iCloud (though iCloud's storage is all used directly by applications via APIs, rather than actually allowing users to access a filesystem. iDisk offers more traditional online storage functionality for Macs, but its discontinuation is imminent) - think one part iCloud, one part Dropbox. Expect Microsoft's strategy for SkyDrive to become clearer as the Windows 8 launch date gets closer.

Early versions of the SkyDrive Metro and desktop apps will be made available with the Windows 8 Consumer Preview later this month. See the link below for additional details.

Source: Building Windows 8 Blog

We got off pretty easily with our 7750 launch recap earlier today - with only three cards, it was pretty simple to compare and contrast them and be done with it. The 7770 represents the higher end of the mainstream, though, and as such AMD's partners appear to be pushing it into the channel a bit more aggressively. We've got ten cards to look at this evening, details about which you can find in the tables below.

Our 7750 and 7770 series review noted that these cards provided excellent performance per watt, each of which competes with (7750) and outperforms (7770) the old 5700 series while using significantly less power (remember, the 6700 series was just a rebrand of the 5700 cards). The downside comes in gaming performance for the price - the 7770 is generally outdone in performance by the 6850, which can currently either match it or beat it in price after rebates. That said, if you want decent performance and GCN features without shelling out for a pricier 7900-series card, the 7770 may be the card for you.

As I noted in the 7750 roundup, manufacturers haven't standardized on a unit of measurement for their cards - some measure in inches and some in metric. I've done the necessary conversions and presented all measurements in both inches and millimeters, but manufacturers play a bit loose with these measurements and the actual physical dimensions may not exactly match the dimensions given on the spec sheet.

Common to all of these cards is 1GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus, Eyefinity support, and all of the features inherent to GCN (including DirectX 11.1 and OpenGL 4.2 support and a host of others). All cards also require a single 6-pin power plug, making their power supply requirements just a bit more demanding than the 7750.

ASUS (Product page)

This ASUS card is the first of several on our list to come in at $159.99, the cheapest price point in our recap and the one to beat if you want a 7770 for the least amount possible. This card has a very slight 20 MHz core overclock and 25 MHz memory overclock - barely worthy of the name - but acquits itself better with a solid 3-year warranty and a modest bundle of accessories (it is one of only two cards in this recap to include a CrossFire bridge).

Gigabyte (Product page)

This card's oddly-shaped cooler is the most distinctive thing about it, but it's certainly not a bad deal despite its stock clocks. It costs $159.99 and comes with a 3-year warranty, and according to the manufacturer-supplied measurements it's one of the shorter cards on the list as well.

*: Gigabyte also lists an OC edition of this card (GV-R777OC-1GD) on its web site, but it isn't avalable through Newegg as of this writing. The only difference appears to be its core clock, which is 1100 MHz instead of the 1000 MHz default.

**: This card may come with additional accessories, but none are specified on the card's product page or shown in any available product pictures.

MSI (Product page)

The MSI card, another $159.99 offering, runs stock memory clocks and offers just a 20 MHz core overclock, but its cooler is more impressive than the single-fan offerings - it uses a slightly larger version of the dual-fan cooler included on its 7750 offering - the fans on the 7770 are larger and the cooler is extended to cover the longer PCB, but the styling is otherwise identical. The large fan may make for a better overclock, if that sort of thing appeals to you. The 3-year parts/2-year labor warranty isn't as good as some on the list, but is a bit better than the two-year warranty on many of the other cards.

*: MSI's product pages for all 7000-series cards use the same accessories list, and note that "accessories will probably be different according to the different selling areas of product models." The accessories list includes a DVI to VGA adapter, a CrossFire bridge, a Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort adapter, and a 4-pin to 6-pin power adapter. The card may actually include fewer accessories - no available product images show the card's bundled accessories.

PowerColor (Product page)

PowerColor's contribution to the list is also unremarkable - $159.99 gets you a card with stock clocks, a 2-year warranty (tied for the shortest on the list), and a rather basic-looking single-fan cooler. It does include a Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort adapter if you need it, but otherwise this one doesn't stand out from the crowd.

Sapphire GHz Edition (Product page)

Sapphire's got three cards on our recap list, and they all use the same single-fan cooler and offer the same 2-year warranty. This one is the cheapest of their offerings at $159.99 and just runs at stock clocks, but it offers a slightly more robust set of accessories. If you're an overclocker, the fact that Sapphire uses the same fan in both this card and its substantially overclocked OC Edition means that you stand a pretty decent chance of getting a good overclock without running into cooler-imposed limitations, but (as with all overclocking) your mileage may vary.

Sapphire OC Edition (Product page)

First, some strangeness - Sapphire's web page is only listing two SKUs for the 7770, one the stock-clocked GHz Edition card we just looked at, and one the overclocked OC Edition that we see here. However, Newegg is listing two separate part numbers for this card, one of which sells for $169.99 and $179.99. The difference appears to be in accessories - the more expensive SKU is packaged with an HDMI cable and a CrossFire bridge along with the other accessories. Because the cards are otherwise identical, I'll lump them together here, but if you need either of those two accessories you should consider the more expensive card.

Strange SKU issues aside, both of these cards offer the best overclock in our list, with a 15% (150 MHz) core overclock and 10% (125MHz) memory overclock - compared to most of the other stock overclocks in this list, this one should actually give you a measureable increase in framerates. 

XFX Core Edition (Product page)

As was also the case with the 7950 launch, XFX is actually offering four cards using two different coolers, and each cooler ships on one card with stock clocks and one card with an overclock. Newegg is only selling three of these SKUs at present, though, so those are the ones we'll focus on.

Like so many cards on our list, this guy comes in at $159.99 and features only a 2-year warranty (compared to the lifetime warranty on the other XFX SKUs). However, I have to ding XFX for including only one Mini DisplayPort on all three of its cards - every other card in our lineup includes two, and this limits the XFX cards a bit when it comes to EyeFinity setups - every other card in the lineup can drive six displays, but the XFX cards can only handle four. Beware, if that's why you're looking at these cards.

XFX Double D Edition (Product page)

This Double Dissipation Edition card could be described as a mix of the Core edition card above and the Black Edition card below - it runs at stock clocks, but includes the larger heatsink and fan (meaning that overclockers stand a decent chance of getting Black Edition clocks for $10 less). It's tied for second-most expensive at $169.99, but features a lifetime warranty that the Sapphire card can't match - if you don't need two Mini DisplayPorts or a lot of accessories, this card's warranty makes it appealing.

XFX Double D Black Edition (Product page)

This is the same card as the Double D edition above, right down to the lifetime warranty and included accessories, but it sports roughly 9.5% overclocks on both the core (1095 MHz) and memory (1245 MHz) along with a $10 increase in price - at $179.99, it's tied with the higher-clocked Sapphire OC Edition card as the most expensive in this recap. As with the Double D Edition, warranty good, one Mini DisplayPort bad.

In May of last year NVIDIA was on a roll. Hot off the release of the first Tegra 2 based phones, NVIDIA announced the intent to acquire baseband manufacturer Icera for $367M. Four months later, NVIDIA announced that it would have a new addition to the Tegra family, codenamed Grey, in 2013 with an integrated Icera modem. The timing makes sense (albeit a bit aggressive) as it does take time to integrate new technology into an SoC, followed by all of the testing and validation that goes along with the integration. Between now and 2013 however there was always the chance that NVIDIA would deliver a discrete Icera based solution to a customer. Today we have the first customer that has done just that.

The ZTE Mimosa X is a Tegra 2 based Android phone running Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0.x). It features a 4.3-inch qHD (960 x 540) display, 5MP rear camera and 0.3MP front facing camera and 4GB of NAND (expandable up to 32GB). The big news with the Mimosa X is that it integrates an NVIDIA Icera 450 modem (ICE8065 baseband + ICE9225 transceiver). The 450 gives ZTE's Mimosa X support for up to 21Mbps HSPA+ (category 14). 

This is a huge milestone for NVIDIA as it marks the first apps processor + baseband design win for the company. A single datapoint isn't enough to declare NVIDIA's Icera acquisition a success but it's a start. Icera's software baseband is supposed to offer greater flexibility to device manufacturers, especially in bringing products to market with varying network requirements. Icera also promises smaller die sizes as a result of its software based architecture, which should translate into lower cost offerings (or more profit for NVIDIA). The Tegra 2 SoC guarantees that the Mimosa X will be focused squarely on the value/mainstream smartphone market. The Mimosa X will be shipping in Q2 of this year.