NEW YORK (Trefis) — There are rumors that Dell(DELL) could look to acquire Brocade Communications Systems(BRCD), one of the leading suppliers of data center networking products, in an attempt to expand presence in servers, storage and networking space and better compete with other industry giants like EMC(EMC), Hewlett-Packard(HPQ) and IBM(IBM). This move would be in line with Dell’s strategy of diversifying its product and services portfolio and moving further from its core PC business where the firm has been bleeding market share for the past couple of years.

The rumor has been fueled by Dell’s recent filing for shelf offering of $3.5 billion as the acquisition would require that Dell shell out as much as $4 billion or even more for Brocade, which is currently valued at $3.7 billion. Read more…

• 0 Comments

Although it was announced a few weeks ago, HP’s crazy new Wi-Fi mouse hasn’t been available to order until today. While wireless mouse are nothing new, nor are Bluetooth mice, a Wi-Fi powered is something else entirely. According to HP, there’s no dongle to worry about, no complicated pairing process to go through.

Instead, as long as your computer has Wi-Fi wireless networking, just install HP’s driver and you’re good to go. Unlike a lot of Bluetooth mice, you won’t have to worry about your computer inconveniently forgetting the pairing if the batteries die or one of the two gets turned off for an extended period of time. 

What it also means is that this mouse can work, dongle-free, with essentially every laptop still in use today. A

Read more…

• 0 Comments

Appearing on CNBC on Monday, Nader explained that he wants to see Cisco pay a one-time dividend of $1 a share, as well as increase its annual dividend from 24 cents to as much as 50 cents a share. Cisco and its CEO John Chambers have been slammed by Ralph Nader.

“Cisco is sitting on $43.5 billion in cash, they are not about to make more acquisitions — they have said that they are going to go back to their core business,” he explained.

Nader, who is himself a Cisco shareholder, even drew an analogy with conservative attitudes towards government tax dollars. Read more…

• 0 Comments

We first heard of Fusion years ago when AMD and ATI still had separate names. It was announced as a technology that would revolutionize the PC and notebook market as there would be a marriage between the CPU and GPU in a single die. Knowing the power behind ATI cards and the affordability of the AMD processors, this was something that was much anticipated by the PC world. It wasn’t until the 2011 CES that we were able to get a taste of this technology and see it in action. Then, in March, we were able to get our hands on the first Fusion products. They didn’t disappoint.

Those first products were the “Brazos” boards.

Read more…

• 0 Comments

Apple finally updated their Time Capsule backup appliance to take advantage of the new 3TB drives that have been available for several months. Despite the jump in capacity by 50%, the prices have remained the same – a common Apple tactic which they introduce new devices.

The new Apple Time Capsule is relatively compact, measuring 7.7-inches on a side and just 1.4-inches tall. It weighs three and a half pounds.

Read more…

• 0 Comments

There was a time when the art of overclocking was limited to the bold and frowned upon by manufacturers, but as time went on, the attitudes have changed and so are the expectations when it comes to enthusiast hardware. In order to run components beyond their factory specifications, replacing the stock cooling solution is first in order since extra performance equates to extra heat generated while tweaking the individual hardware settings can now be done from the comfort of the desktop via software. In order to guarantee a good overclocking result, manufacturers use handpicked and high quality components, from the GPU chip itself to the VRM and the cooling solution.

Not all manufacturers are equal however; some are content to using the reference design while increasing the core clock.

Read more…

• 0 Comments