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Nvidia reports "record" results for Q3 2012, with revenues reaching $1.2 billion with 12.9% Y-o-Y (or 15.3% Q-o-Q) growth and $209.1 million profits.

The company attributes such growth to its "new growth strategies"-- namely non-PC offerings such as the Tegra 3 processor. Currently over 30% of Nvidia revenues come from non-PC chips as revenues for the Consumer Products division (includes the Tegra family) grow by 27.6%.

The Tegra 3 powers a number of smartphones and tablets, such as the Microsoft Surface and the Google Nexus 7. It is also ideal for non-mobile devices, such as game consoles and STBs.

The consumer GPU unit also sees revenue growth (10% Q-o-Q), thanks to lower Kepler-based product prices and growing notebook revenues.

In other words, Nvidia's gamble on mobile devices is proving to be a success and any company producing PC components should stand up and notice. Will PCs go the way of the dodo? Probably not, but mobile will only grow even further in importance.

Go Nvidia Q3 2012 Results

Bloomberg reports Apple might drop the use of Intel processors inside Mac PCs, replacing them with more powerful versions of the ARM-based iPhone and iPad chips.

Apple has been using Intel chips for Macs since 2005, when it abandoned the PowerPC chips from Motorola and IBM. Sources say it is still "committed" to Intel for the next few years-- or until Apple designs grow further in power and "features of mobile devices and PCs become more similar."

Apparently, according to "three people familiar with the [Apple-Intel] relationship" Apple is also unhappy with Intel's take on low-power processors. The lack of satisfaction crept in at around late 2011, when Apple was working on MacBooks featuring power-hungry high-resolution Retina displays.

Currently Apple offers two varieties of Retina-equipped MacBook Pro (13- and 15-inch), while even the latest iMac desktop has a design just 5mm thick at the edges.

Edifier goes for punctuation with the e10 Exclaim PC speakers-- a 2.0 channel system with an interesting design similar to the exclamation mark.

Each Exclaim speaker carries an internal amplifier with (combined) 36W RMS of power driving 6 internal active speakers, while 2 passive radiators in the midrange/tweeter housings raise efficiency and dynamic range.

A further 2 supplementary passive radiators augment deep bass and woofer performance.

The speakers also include full integral DSP and DRC providing what Edifier says is "superb tonal balance" with minimum distortion. Connection to any device comes through included 3.5mm aux cable.

Go Edifier e10 Exclaim Speakers

The American election might have come and gone, but not before an interesting piece of news came to our attention-- a Microsoft Surface tablet found use as a voting machine in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Part of a test by electronic balloting company Democracy Live, the tablet runs "LiveBallot," a cloud-based browser application built the Microsoft Windows Azure platform.

LiveBallot allows voters to access, mark and print a ballot, before printing out results for counting by a separate machine.

The Surface makes something of a change in the world of voting machines, many of which are older machines running on 486x processors. The tablet even has built-in screen reading capability, while USB support allows sip-and-puff input devices for disabled voters.

Due to security concerns, the Surface was not used as an actual voting machine-- but the test might be something of a glimpse of the future, at least when it comes to the democratic process.

Go Microsoft Surface Tested as Balloting Device (GeekWire)