MojoKid writes “When AMD announced the high-end Radeon HD 7970, a lower cost Radeon HD 7950 based on the same GPU was planned to arrive a few weeks later. The GPU, which is based on AMD’s new architecture dubbed Graphics Core Next, is manufactured using TSMC’s 28nm process and features a whopping 4.31 billion transistors. In its full configuration, found on the Radeon HD 7970, the Tahiti GPU sports 2,048 stream processors with 128 texture units and 32 ROPs. On the Radeon HD 7950, however, a few segments of the GPU have been disabled, resulting in a total of 1,792 active stream processors, with 112 texture units and 32 ROPs. The Radeon HD 7950 is also clocked somewhat lower at 800MHz, although AMD has claimed the cards are highly overclockable. Performance-wise, though the card isn’t AMD’s fastest, pricing is more palatable and the new card actually beats NVIDIA’s high-end GeForce GTX 580 by just a hair.”

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AMD's New Radeon HD 7950 Tested

For months we’ve been waiting on Razer’s Blade notebook, a $2800, 17-inch beast that we weren’t sure whether to laud or mock. It’s just that it’s kind of a strange thing to see making a big debut when people are more cautious than usual with their money, and PC gaming (as ever) is being declared dead. But after our hands-on at CES, we were convinced that it was at the very least impressive and well-built, and apparently enough other people thought so that Razer sold out almost immediately.

Now, the actual number sold isn’t mentioned, but Razer isn’t a small company and they were going all-out with this thing at CES. But we’ve seen devices launch to sales of dozens, so a strong response to a launch like this is definitely good news.

The company shared the news on their Facebook page, and urges prospective buyers to sign up for a notification email list. Hopefully that $2800 won’t burn a hole in your pocket in the meantime.

Personally, I’m more excited about their plans to disconnect the touchscreen and LCD keys from the laptop, making a customizable piece of hardware you can use with your existing PC. I’m not really down with the small-screen gaming and I like my keyboards a little meatier, so the Blade isn’t for me — but I do have gear envy when I see all those future toys on the side.

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What Recession? Razer’s $2800 Blade Gaming Laptop Sells Out In 30 Minutes

Apple has released a new update for Mac OS X Lion, version 10.7.3. The update’s release notes indicate that it’s a relatively minor bump, with myriad bug fixes for things like smart card logins, printing Word documents using markup, WiFi connection issues, and more. The operating system update also comes bundled with a small version bump for Safari, which is now at version 5.1.3.

In addition to the aforementioned bugs, the 10.7.3 update addresses an issue when authenticating to an SMB DFS share, a graphics performance issue in iMacs that use ATI graphics, compatibility issues with Windows file sharing, and adds support for a handful of new languages (Catalan, Croatian, Greek, Hebrew, Romanian, Slovak, Thai, and Ukrainian). As is often the case, the company also added RAW image support for a handful of new cameras and there are a number of fixes listed out for Directory Services.

On top of the 10.7.3 update, Apple also released a security update for Snow Leopard users, the contents of which have not yet been posted to Apple’s security site as of this writing.

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Mac OS X 10.7.3 hits Software Update along with Safari 5.1.3

Facebook is hoping investors will “like” the social network just as much as its users already do. Following a series of rumors that have multiplied in recent weeks, Facebook filed for Initial Public Offering (IPO) on Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission at a value of $5 billion.

The impending IPO has been widely expected among investors and tech circles for some time, with the earliest rumors going back for years. Some expected the company to raise upwards of $100 billion (yes, you read that right—one hundred billion US dollars) but according to the company’s S-1 filing with the SEC, Facebook is aiming for a much more reasonable $5 billion to start.

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It’s official: Facebook files for $5 billion IPO

The wizards at Sparkfun, an open source hardware company, show us how to make one of these spiffy furry barbarian leather arm-bracers with a charmingly anachronistic D&D dice-roller built into, built around a Lilypad soft Arduino controller.

I’ve got nothing but respect for the DIY/open source community who take conductive thread, LEDs, and Arduino boxes and make them into marvelous little working crafts. I find it all a bit above my metaphorical pay grade. However, if there was anything that was going to convince me to learn how to rig a circuit, it would be the project that Dia forwarded to us yesterday.
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It’s a fur-lined leather gauntlet that can roll 100, 20, 12, 10, 8, 6, and 4-sided dice with the flip of a switch and the shake of a forearm. It combines my love of tabletop with my desire to live in the future where we all poke our wrists to get things done.

Theoretically, there’s a complete tutorial for this beauty, but it’s 404 at the moment. The link below goes to The Mary Sue’s writeup.

New Life Goal: Make a Leather Bracer that Rolls Dice

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HOWTO make a fur-lined barbarian forearm bracer with a digital D&D dice-roller built in

Part of Seal Team 6’s success is their sheer killing prowess. In, out, shots fired. Smooth and perfect, like a hand dipped into water. But it also helps to look very scary. These newest spec ops helmets will help! More »

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The Newest Special Forces Helmets Are Terrifyingly Cool [Spec Ops]

Apple updates Airport stations and Time Capsule, brings bug fixes and iCloud support originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple updates Airport stations and Time Capsule, brings bug fixes and iCloud support

If your Windows chops extend in any capacity beyond novice, you’ve no doubt encountered the ever-cryptic Windows Registry, DLL files, User Account Control, and other tools with seemingly dark and mysterious powers—but you may not know exactly what they do. In fact, some of our favorite Windows-related tricks and hacks require the use of these tools. Here, we’ll explain some of Windows’ most confusing features, so you know exactly what’s happening when you go to edit them. More »

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De-Mystifying the Dark Corners of Windows: The Registry, DLLs, and More Explained [Explainers]

After augmenting Windows 8 with some mobile-friendly features, it looks like file management is next to go under the knife. Not the sexiest part of an OS, granted, but one you’ll use almost every day — a fact not lost on Redmond. Based on newsgroup feedback, Windows 8 will sport a stack of tweaks hoping to make some of the more mundane tasks, well, less mundane. For example, if you copy duplicate files to a directory, it’ll make decisions based on size, name and modified date to determine if it’s the same file or not. For long copy jobs, error messages will be mercifully left until the end, allowing the rest to complete. Other simple touches include EXIF orientation data, which will be reflected in Explorer’s preview, updates to the slightly contentious Ribbon, plus a bunch more user-driven goodies. We’re reserving judgement until we get hands-on of course, but if you want to know more, there’s a full rundown in the source after the break.

Windows 8 file management: You ask, Microsoft listens originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Windows 8 file management: You ask, Microsoft listens

According to the New York Times, 91 per cent of Americans aged 28 to 35 use their mobile devices on the toilet. So, a big hello to anybody reading this while relieving themselves. But there are more mobile phone toilet facts. And they get better. More »

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If You’re Reading Gizmodo On The Toilet, You’re Not Alone [Wtf]