ConsumerIT - For Europe's High Volume PC Retailers, Distributors & Builders

Acer stops making PCs carrying Thunderbolt interconnectors, since the company believes USB 3.0 offers similar performance with greater peripheral compatibility and lower costs, an Acer spokesperson tells CNET.

"We're really focusing on USB 3.0-- it's an excellent alternative to Thunderbolt," the company says. "It's less expensive, offers comparable bandwidth, charging for devices such as mobile phones, and has a large installed base of accessories and peripherals."

In 2012 Acer was the first company, together with Apple, to lead the initial push towards making the Intel-created Thunderbolt mainstream with the Aspire S5 ultrabook.

The connector transfers data at up to 10Gb/s in both directions and simultaneously connects displays. Future versions promise data transfer speeds of up to 20Gb/s.

In the future, a bathroom break might involve more than merely relieving yourself-- if the scientists at Bristol Robotics Laboratory have it their way taking a leak will also charge your mobile phone. No, seriously.

A paper titled "Waste to Real Energy: the first MFC powered mobile phone" explains how urine can power "microbial fuel cells" (MFCs), an unusual class of energy converter able turn organic matter into electricity. How? Metabolism, via microorganisms able to literally turn organic matter (such as urine) into electricity.

"We are very excited as this is a world first, no-one has harnessed power from urine to do this so it's an exciting discovery," says Dr Ioannis Ieropoulos, an expert in harnessing unusual power sources via microbial fuel cells. "Using the ultimate waste product as a source of power to produce electricity is about as eco as it gets.”

Gartner and IDC agree on two things regarding the Q2 2013 PC market-- Lenovo is the top WW PC vendor (beating HP) and, as we all know by now, shipments remain on the decline both globally and within EMEA.

According to Gartner EMEA PC shipments drop by -16.8% Y-o-Y during Q2, the 5th consecutive quarter of decline. The analyst attributes the decline to a combination of usage trends shifting from notebooks to tablets and channel inventory reductions in anticipation to future Haswell-based products.

W. European shipment levels are described as "weak," with low PC replacement rates, E. European customers go for Android-based tablets and MEA finds tablets and smartphones the more attractive options.

HP is the top Q2 2013 EMEA vendor according to Gartner, thanks to better results within professional PC space. Following are Lenovo (the only vendor seeing shipment growth), Acer, Dell and Asus.

Amped Wireless launches the RTA15, a high power 700mW dual-band 802.11ac wifi router with HD/4K media streaming and online gaming support from multiple simultaneous users.

It carries three high-gain 5dBi antennas and 10 high-power amplifiers, the largest amount in an Amped Wireless product yet-- two 2.4GHz, four 5.0GHz and four low noise.

Other features include an "advanced" internal processor, five ethernet ports, a USB port for file sharing and Wifi Analytic Tool Apps with options for guest networks, adjustable wifi coverage, parental security and IPv6 internet connections.

Go Amped Wireless RCA15 Router