The crew at SlashGear got their hands on a few spy pics of the upcoming ASUS CrossHair IV Extreme. The board features an AMD 890FX chipset with dual BIOS, Phenom II X6 support, a Lucid Hydra 200 chip and support for ASUS’ RoG Connect with remote Bluetooth control.

What really makes this board stand out, isn’t the compatibility with all Socket AM3 Phenom and Athlon CPUs, it’s the inclusion of Lucidlogix’s  Hydra solution, which allows users to mix-and-match GPUs (makes and models are no matter here) in order to create the most from whatever graphics cards you have sitting around.

Stay tuned for more details.

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• Demonstrating PayWizard, the powerful payment system that also captures valuable marketing information to help broadcasters and content owners provide a better service
• Launch of the eWallet top-up service to allow consumers to easily purchase digital media from various sources and across multiple platforms
• Example of PayWizard in action – Racing UK
• Partner announcement – KIT digital, Tangerine

NAB 2010, Las Vegas – 12 April 2010 – At NAB 2010 MGt, the leading provider of billing and customer management software, will be demonstrating its enhanced payment and billings service, newly branded as PayWizard, which helps digital media content owners to monetise content and build closer relationships with consumers by simplifying the payment process. At the heart is an eWallet that provides a simple and efficient payment gateway service, allowing consumers to purchase digital media from a variety of sources using a single ‘top-up’ account.

In today’s multiplatform world digital content owners have a wide variety of outlets where they can sell their products, whether online newspapers, music videos or online games, but managing the process while maintaining a good service can be problematic. PayWizard – which currently manages more than 10 million customer transactions and bills more than $400 million annually and is fully PCI compliant – not only deals with payment transactions but also provides the tools to enable content owners to collect valuable marketing data about consumers, provide critical reporting capabilities, and offer a range of customer support services.

Jamie Mackinlay, Commercial Director, MGt, said, “It might seem like the last and most obvious piece of the content monetization puzzle, but the payment system is really important in order to create a simple easy-to-use service and to build a close relationship with the customer. Unlike other payment and billing tools, PayWizard allows the content owner to keep, analyse and use vital marketing data – where the customer has been, what they have bought, what their purchasing habits are – in order to improve their service, personalise the customer viewing experience and provide additional opportunities to sell more content.”

PayWizard’s value-added service allows merchants to quickly set up their online offering by providing technical integration services in order to connect with multiple platforms, and the necessary operational infrastructure and services such as reporting and content tracking, which would require heavy investment in time and money to set up independently.

PayWizard also provides a top-up payment device for digital media consumption. Instead of having to register personal and bank account details on individual sites, the consumer would register with PayWizard for a single ‘eWallet’, nominate payment details and choose how much to top up and how often, and would then be able to use their account quickly and easily on any site that is signed up to the PayWizard service.

“PayWizard is an attractive offer for all sizes digital media companies, allowing them to offer an easy and secure billing service, with the additional benefits of PayWizard, for a relatively small outlay,” Mackinlay said. “We see PayWizard becoming the common currency for digital media transactions.”

In addition to PayWizard, MGt will also be demonstrating its Profile Software Suite, which provides robust support for specific end-to-end applications such as subscriber TV and IPTV. MGt can be found on Booth SU9506R in the Broadband Lifestyles Pavilion.

ABOUT MGt

MGt is a specialist provider of payment and billing services, media consumer software and outsourced solutions for global Telecommunications, Media, Technology, Entertainment and Retail markets.

For over ten years MGt has developed an innovative and unique Tier 1 managed service platform that, along with our staff of over 1,000, annually manages more than 10 million customer contacts, bills more than $400 million and fulfils more than 4 million items.

MGt today provides a unique services package that includes: hosted billing and payment solutions, subscriber management software for digital media platforms, end to end IPTV solutions and a full outsourced customer management capability.

Our client list includes BT Retail, Sony Entertainment, BT Vision, Digital UK, Discovery Networks, Freeview, Move Networks, Orange, Top Up TV and Five.

For more information visit www.mgtplc.com

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NAB 2010, Las Vegas – 12 April 2010 – Cintel International will be showcasing brand new products for film scanning and image restoration at NAB 2010 on Booth SL2816.

Cintel Sales Director Simon Carter said, “At NAB 2010 we are very excited to be presenting new workflows for film scanning and image restoration.  diTTo evolution is the first film scanner to be instantly switchable from pin registration to non-pin registration and also the first film scanner to include film grain management and image stabilisation tools.  It is the ideal film scanner for all applications & stocks types; from OCN ingest for digital intermediates, to dense print for restoration projects.”

diTTo evolution offers a modular and upgradeable solution to film scanning.  Building on the successful elements of the renowned diTTo scanner, including unequalled image performance, easy to use interface and the famous D/SCO – Dust/Scratch Concealment option, diTTo evolution additionally provides a fast shuttle capability, a non-pin registration mode for archive scanning, imageMill2 processing tools and a 3.2D density range.

Simon Clark, Cintel’s Business Development Manager, commented, “diTTo evolution offers solutions to all film scanning needs.  It can evolve from a simple-to-use, calibrated pin registration scanner for Digital Intermediate use with superb image quality to a multi-format, non-pin registration machine for shrunken and damaged film incorporating a full set of image restoration tools.”

imageMill2 is a new image processing platform adding network capabilities and data file management to the existing imageMill capabilities.  GRACE the noise and film grain management tool and STEADY, the real time image stabilisation application will be on show at NAB and a new Dust/Scratch Concealment option called ORIGIN is due later in 2010.

Simon Carter remarked, “imageMill2 will address the industry’s need for a fast yet simple-to-use Noise and Grain management tool for both data-centric Digital Intermediate applications and Restoration projects within one product.  With speeds in excess of 25fps for 2K and HD files, the performance of imageMIll2 is unequalled.  We are currently processing 4K files at 10fps and can also deal with SD files at twice real time.  With imageMIll2 you can truly ‘eliminate the wait’.

Cintel will also be demonstrating a new Millennium dataMill workflow utilising the Yoyo system from Yoyotta.  Film will be scanned to HD data in real time with the Yoyo system controlling both the film scanner and an imageMill processing engine.  This workflow offers a very simple yet powerful film scanning workflow with additional data management tools provided by the Yoyo system.

About Cintel

Cintel International has been providing film scanning products and post production solutions to the world for over 80 years and has constantly evolved and adapted to the requirements of the broadcast, post production and archive market places. www.cintel.co.uk

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NAB 2010, Las Vegas – 12 April 2010 - Autoscript, the world’s leading teleprompting company and a Vitec Group brand, will present a range of high performance prompting solutions on Booth C6025 at NAB 2010. Demonstrations will include high brightness LED TFT flat screens, and the first fully-featured demonstrations in the US of the Xbox Ultra and X-Lite portable prompting systems.

Autoscript’s LED TFT flat screens utilise recent advances in LED technology to provide superior brightness, higher contrast levels, improved reliability and energy efficiency.

Based on the successful XBOX USB external box solution, the Xbox Ultra connects via USB port to a laptop or PC and provides enhanced features and capabilities which make it particularly useful for portable prompting. Now featuring four outputs, it can power twice as many on-camera units, and also features a smooth on-screen scroll on the computer screen, eliminating the need for an external preview monitor. The video output is standard composite PAL or NTSC and is compatible with all Autoscript on-camera units.

The X-Lite, which replaces the WinPlus VGA unit, is an entry level prompting tool which incorporates one output, and is suitable for simple pieces to camera and for educational purposes.

“Autoscript’s constant innovation continues to provide real-world solutions for every type of broadcast, from LED TFTs used on live entertainment shows to executive systems for announcements by world leaders,” said Brian Larter, Managing Director, Autoscript. “We are delighted to bring the latest and greatest in our range to NAB 2010.”

About Autoscript

Established in the U.K. in 1984, with headquarters in the U.S. and the U.K., Autoscript is the world leader in the prompting industry. Autoscript provides a complete range of PC-based teleprompters, the best designed and built hardware, PC cards and software, and – with its expanding line of intuitive accessories – is the new definition in prompting. Autoscript is a member of the Vitec Group.

For more information visit www.autoscript.tv

A Snapshot of The Vitec Group
Vitec is an international Group principally serving customers in the broadcast, photographic and military, aerospace and government (MAG) markets. Listed on the London Stock Exchange with 2009 revenue of £315 million, Vitec is based on strong, well known, premium brands on which its customers worldwide rely.  Vitec is organised in three divisions:  Imaging & Staging, Videocom and Services.

Imaging & Staging designs, manufactures and distributes equipment and accessories for photography, video and events.

Videocom designs and distributes systems and products used in broadcasting and live entertainment, film and video production and MAG.

Services provides equipment rental, workflow design and technical support for camera, video, audio, fibre optic and wireless technology used by TV production teams and film crews.

More information can be found at www.vitecgroup.com

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• Integration with partners Video Technics and Comprompter provides flexible IT broadcast workflows
• Korean playout center CUDO installs OASYS workflow

NAB 2010, Las Vegas  – 12 April 2010 – OASYS, Video  Technics and Comprompter will join forces at NAB 2010 to demonstrate  rock-solid IT-based broadcast workflow solutions, based on over 50 years   of experience in the field.

Building on the joint marketing and  development  agreements announced at IBC 2009, the co-operation between the companies   now provides a product portfolio consisting of ingest, asset management,   editing, shared storage, archive, newsroom automation, master control  and automated playout. These can be configured in a variety of ways  to create a complete broadcast workflow of automation tools, or further  integrated with a huge range of other broadcast equipment and software,  providing the ultimate in customer flexibility.

Mark Errington, CEO, OASYS, said, “OASYS,   Video Technics and Comprompter are the true pioneers in the field of  automated live and pre-recorded playout solutions. Despite many a claim  from legacy system manufacturers to be at the forefront of a new  revolution  of IT-based broadcast workflow, our companies have only ever developed  IT-based solutions, and have a long history of delivering integrated  workflows – unlike organisations that have historically produced legacy  playout automation solutions and have only latterly changed focus. Our  experience, together with proven price performance, quality and unique  features, puts us squarely at the vanguard of this growing market, and  we invite visitors to NAB to come and talk to us about their specific  automation requirements.”

As well as showing the individual  software  components, the companies will be demonstrating suggested workflows  tailored to different broadcast scenarios, including a newsroom workflow   and a master control solution.

Mark Rivers, President and CEO, Video  Technics, said, “Video Technics is committed to offering simple and  affordable solutions to allow any facility to upgrade to a fully  digital,  file-based, and collaborative production environment.”

Ralph King, President of Comprompter  says, “Together we prepare, produce, and present a station’s newscasts  and other special programming day in and day out.”

About OASYS

OASYS is a leading international supplier of channel in a box computer-based automated playout solutions for all types of television channels. With over a decade’s experience in the development of playout systems, it has an unrivalled knowledge and understanding of a channel’s needs.  Based in London and with a worldwide distribution network, OASYS provides proven, cost-effective channel in a box solutions for broadcasters around the world – including the BBC (UK), The Concentra Group and RTV (Belgium), Levira (Estonia), INX (India), TBN (South Africa and Spain), Telesud (France), TVN (Poland), YLE (Finland), ImaginasianTV (USA),A-Pressen (Norway), Stimme der Hoffnung (Germany), Anadolu University (Turkey) and Ajman TV (UAE). For more information, please visit www.oasys.com

About Video Technics, Inc.

Video Technics, Inc., a pioneer in revolutionary systems development, supplies the global broadcast industry with innovative, feature-rich workflow solutions built around the company’s IT-based media servers. Video Technics’ Apella™ and NewsFlow™ products streamline the entire production process, and feature inherent proxy editing, embedded ingest/playout tools, and digital asset management. For more information visit: www.videotechnics.com.

About Comprompter News and Automation

Comprompter is a La Crosse, Wisconsin based company specializing in news and automation software for the broadcast and cable industry and services clients throughout the broadcast industry with newsroom and automation systems along with auxiliary newsroom software for elections, school closings, Internet newscast publishing, and voice activated close captioning. For more information, please visit www.comprompter.com

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A newly leaked specs for HP Slate have been surfaced at Engadget where they compare it to a newly released iPad.  The specs show that the HP Slate will have a 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530 processor and five-plus hours of battery life.

The other details also show that it will carry a $549 price tag for the base 32GB flash memory storage, while a 64GB version will be available for $599. The Slate’s going to have a 8.9-inch 1024×600 capacitive multitouch display, 1GB RAM, Intel UMA graphics with 1080p playback, an SD card slot, SIM card tray for optional WWAN, USB 2.0 port, and an inward-facing VGA webcam/outward-facing 3MP camera.

It’s interesting that despite all those extra goodies, the Slate’s still going to come in at equal weight to the Wi-Fi iPad and a little lighter than the 3G version.

For those of you wondering exactly how the tablet battlefield’s shaping up, checkout the Engadget

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Just  a little while ago Apple issued a news release that they have filed a suit against HTC, alleging that the company is infringing on 20 patents, like iPhone’s user interface, underlying architecture, and hardware.  We just have to sit back, and wait for more details to unfold!

CUPERTINO, California—March 2, 2010—Apple® today filed a lawsuit against HTC for infringing on 20 Apple patents related to the iPhone’s user interface, underlying architecture and hardware. The lawsuit was filed concurrently with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and in U.S. District Court in Delaware.

“We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”

Apple reinvented the mobile phone in 2007 with its revolutionary iPhone®, and did it again in 2008 with its pioneering App Store, which now offers more than 150,000 mobile applications in over 90 countries. Over 40 million iPhones have been sold worldwide.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.

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Google is planning to unveil an all new social product Today at 10AM that will integrate with at least two existing Google products.  Some details emerged earlier today on the Wall Street Journal (“a new feature that makes it easier and faster for users of Gmail to view media and status updates”).  From the rumors that we have heard, this product will go far beyond a Gmail integration.  Sounds very exciting.

Will this be a Facebook rival?  We will have to wait and see for the complete announcement!

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Finally a long awaited Apple iPad has been unveiled, but is it all it cracked out to be?  Well lets first take a quick look at what it has, and then we can look at what it lacks.  Then you cam make your own decision weather this device is for you or not.

• The device is half-inch thick and weighs at 1.5 pounds
• 9.7-inch capacitive touchscreen IPS LCD display
• Custom 1GHz Apple “A4″ chip
• 10-hour battery life and a month of standby
• Will come in flavors of 16, 32, and 64GB
• 30-pin Dock connector
• speaker
• microphone
• Bluetooth
• 802.11n WiFi
• 3G (optional) Service through ATT Wireless
• accelerometer and a compass

Just like iPhone and iTouch, the iPad is managed by iTunes.  As promissed, it can run (most) iPhone apps ether in pixel-for-pixel or or pixel-doubled fullscreen mode.  As mentioned above, 3G version of iPad will run on AT&T network, and can be had with one of the new data plans, 250MB for $14.99 or an unlimited plan for $29.99 a month (contract-free), so you can activate and cancel whenever you want.  There are no details on the international service just yet.

The iPad will come at different pricing, $499 for 16GB, 32GB for $599, and $699 64GB.  A 3G option will set you back another $130,  so the most expensive model (64GB / 3G) will cost you $829.  The WiFi-only model will ship in 60 days, and the 3G models will come in 90.

Now for things that everyone would have liked to see but are missing:

• There’s no multitasking.  this a a huge disappointment!
• No built in camera. Which means No video conferencing.
• iPhone OS 3.2 (why?)
• No Flash support! What aret hey thinking about???
• No memory slot for any kind of external expansion.

Well we gave you the details on what it has and what it lacks (some major lacking there), but at the end of the day it is up to you to decide whether this device is for you.  Let us know what you think.

Source:  GDGT, Engadget

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