According to both IDC and Gartner Q3 2014 PC shipments show improvement over previous quarters-- the numbers are still on the decline, but by -1.7% Y-o-Y according to IDC and -0.5% Y-o-Y according to Gartner, better than previously expected.

Interestingly IDC reports Apple has overtaken Asus to the 5th place in the global Q3 2014 PC vendor rankings, a first for the company since the historic days of the Apple II. For the curious, Apple PC shipments total nearly 5 million on the quarter, leading to 6.3% market share.

Overall Q3 2014 PC shipments according to the analyst reach 78.5m units with a -1.7% Y-o-Y decline, a "sizable" improvement over previous IDC forecasts of a -4.1% Y-o-Y decline.

Asus launches the VivoMini-- a range of Intel MUC-style mini PCs in a barebones form factor handling a variety of operating system, such as Windows or Linux.

VivoMini PCs feature either Intel Celeron 2957U CPU, Core i30-4030U or i5-4210U CPUs, as well as Intel HD graphics, full or half PCIe card slots and an m.SATA connector. Ports include 4 USB 3.0, HDMI, DisplayPort and ethernet.

The Video Electronics Standards Association joins the USB 3.0 Promoter Group to add DisplayPort Alternate Mode (aka "Alt Mode") to the upcoming USB Type-C standard.

Essentially, Alt Mode adds DisplayPort capabilities to USB Type-C connectors and cables, allowing them the carrying of video signals (up to 4K), SuperSpeed USB (USB 3.1) data and up to 100W of power. It will also feature adapters to support existing DisplayPort, HDMI, DVI and VGA displays.

For the technically curious, VESA says Alt Mode "repurposes some or all of the four existing SuperSpeed USB lanes to deliver full DisplayPort performance, and uses other signaling available in the USB Type-C connector for DisplayPort’s AUX channel and HPD (Hot Plug Detection) function. This enables computers, tablets, smartphones, displays, and docking stations to implement the new USB Type-C connector at both ends while using the DisplayPort Standard over USB Type-C to transmit high-resolution A/V along with USB data and power."

Intel reveals further details of its 8-core desktop processor, the Core i7-5960X Extreme Edition (aka Haswell-E), the first CPU from the company with support for 16 computing threads and DDR4 memory.

"We're thrilled to unveil the next phase in our 'reinvention of the desktop' we outlined earlier this year," the company says. "This product family is aimed squarely at those enthusiasts who push their systems further than anyone, and we're offering the speed, cores, overclocking and platform capabilities they have asked us for."

Shown off at Penny Arcade Expo (PAX), the CPU features an enhanced X99 chipset built using a 22nm process squeezing 2.6 billion tri-gate transistors on a single die.

Feature-wise it carries a 20MB Smart Cache shared between all cores, Hyper-Threading, Turbo Boost 2.0, 6 USB 3.0 ports, 10 SATA 3.0 ports, Thunderbolt 2 and optional Intel Rapid Storage Technology support.