SECURITY...

• Microsoft improves response to hackers - Microsoft Corp. is getting better at plugging security holes in its software, forcing hackers to rethink the way they launch attacks, a new study finds. More than 600 new security threats to personal computers have cropped up since the first of the year, according to the study conducted by SANS Institute.
• Hackers finding new ways to compromise PCs - The online criminals turned their attention to flaws in antivirus software and media players like Apple Computer's iTunes according to the Sans Institute. The new vulnerabilities are being exploited because more Windows users are receiving security upgrades automatically. This has forced hackers to take advantage of other software programs that might not be patched as frequently.
• Sober.P Virus Targets World Cup Fans. Now 77% Of Viruses - A new beast of a virus is on the loose, with anti virus firm Sophos claiming that the Sober.P worm has "broken records in terms of the number of infected messages sent out and speed of propagation throughout Western European segments of the Internet.
• GlobalScape Secure FTP Server Arbitrary Command Overflow (Exploit) - GlobalScape Secure FTP Server's FTP command handling is vulnerable to buffer overflow, exploiting this vulnerability allows malicious attacked to gain full control over the system.
• Windows XP Pro x64 VLK Leaked - It looks like the VLK version of Windows XP Pro x64 leaked a few days ago on Bittorrent sites and Usenet.

OFFTOPIC...

• Rebecca Romijn on X-Men 3 - IESB.net caught up with Rebecca Romijn, who has played Mystique in the first two X-Men movies: "I took a few minutes to ask Rebecca about the X-Men franchise and her thoughts on Bryans departure from X-Men 3. She was quick to say that she will miss Singer as the director and that she has now been given an August 1 start date." When asked about the script she mentioned that last she heard it was not done yet and that there has been plenty of changes from the first drafts. The early reports that the storyline would revolve around the Dark Phoenix may no longer be accurate. Part of the problem that Fox is having is that they currently don't know what character the third movie will focus and revolve around.
• Constantine DVD Announced - Warner Home Video has announced the details for the Constantine DVD, coming July 19th. The movie will be available in both a two-disc Deluxe Edition and single-disc Widescreen and Full Screen versions. The Deluxe Edition includes audio commentaries, 18 minutes of deleted scenes (including an alternate ending) with optional commentary by director Francis Lawrence, "The Production From Hell," "Imagining the Underworld" (includes a 'Demon Face' Easter Egg), "Foresight: The Power of Pre-Visualization" and "Conjuring Constantine" featurettes, A Perfect Circle's "Passive" music video, theatrical trailers, DVD-ROM content and a collectible Hellblazer comic. The single-disc editions will include the 18 minutes of deleted scenes with alternate ending, theatrical trailer and DVD-ROM content.
• New Movie Trailers @ Coming Soon - Batman Begins (final trailer) | Brothers (drama starring Connie Nielsen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Ulrik Thomsen) | Flightplan | Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (early look at the film) | House of Wax (horror) | Kicking & Screaming (five clips from the Will Ferrell comedy) | Pure (drama) | Saving Face (romantic comedy) | Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith ("A Hero Falls" music video featuring new footage) | The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 3-D (Robert Rodriguez action adventure) | The Legend of Zorro | The Devil's Rejects  | Three...Extremes (three clips from the horror comedy) | The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (third TV spot) | The Man (Samuel L. Jackson and Eugene Levy action-comedy) | Unleashed (music video from Massive Attack)

TECHNOLOGY...

• Xbox 360 Will Not Make Microsoft Dominant - Analyst - The analyst suggests that once Microsoft Xbox 360 is launched, people will continue to get software for the PlayStation 2 anticipating the PlayStation 3 release. He believes few PlayStation 2 owners will get the new Xbox save for hardcore gamers who own numerous consoles. Mr. Pachter thinks only about 30% or a bit more of consumer gamers will get the Xbox 360 in foreseeable future even with Microsoft’s advantage in terms of time-to-market over Sony and Nintendo.
• Showtime to give Xbox games to new subscribers - Showtime Networks, a unit of Viacom Inc. said on Tuesday it will give away games for Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox video game console throughout the summer to its new subscribers. People who sign up during the promotional period will get either two free Xbox games or one game and a starter kit with 12-month subscription to the Xbox Live online gaming service.
• Google eyes better news searches - Google is planning to improve online news searches. A patent filed in the US will allow stories to be ranked according to their quality, rather than just by relevance. The patent would create a system to compare the track record and credibility of different news sources, New Scientist magazine has reported. The database would weigh up a series of variables, including story length, number of staff employed and amount of traffic to its website.
• Bluetooth Looks To UWB For Turbocharging - The 3,400-member Bluetooth special interest group, whose members include Nokia, Motorola and Intel has said it has begun working with two industry bodies developing versions of Ultra-Wideband, or UWB.
• NanoCoolers puts liquid metal in your PC - The liquid metal has significant advantages (homepage) over other single phase liquid solutions. The thermal and physical properties of the material give it the ability to cool extremely high heat fluxes. With its very low vapor pressure, the boiling point of the material is in excess of 2000°C. This provides the capability to cool extremely high power densities without the liquid-metal changing phase, removing power density as the limiting factor in cooling performance. The liquid metal is non-flammable, non-toxic and environmentally friendly.
• OLED: the Next Thing in Monitors - The future for OLEDs looks bright! For conventional displays, OLED will offer a better, clearer picture and lower power consumption. OLED technology will spread far; it will make new displays into previously undeveloped markets. We will see the emergence of transparent and flexible displays.

HARDWARE... 

• Sony Unveils DRU-800A, DRX-800UL - Sony s latest addition to its DVD burner line-up is a pair of new drives that support 4X DVD-R Dual Layer recording. The internal DRU-800A and external DRX-800UL models can burn up to four hours of high-quality video or up to 8.5 GB of data, music or images onto a single DVD-R DL disc.  The internal DRU-800A drive comes with an ATAPI interface and includes a black replacement bezel for black-colored PC cases. The external DRX-800UL drive features a space-efficient vertical design and offers connectivity with both i.LINK (IEEE 1394) and hi-speed USB (USB 2.0) digital interfaces for set-up and maximum flexibility. The 800 series features 4X DVD+R DL, 16X DVD+/-R, 8X DVD+RW, 6X DVD-RW, 48X CD-R and 24X CD-RW recording.
• Athlon 64 Venice 3800+ - As is seen in the benchmarks, the Athlon 64 3800+ is very fast and is fairly dominant in gaming, but it does have some weaknesses on the rendering and encoding side of things. There should be no instances where a 3.0 Ghz P4 should beat the 3800+, but we see that in both XviD encoding as well as MPEG2 encoding. For those who like to dabble in media editing / encoding, the results here suggest that an Intel solution would be a better choice.
• OCZ PC2-6400 Platinum Bandwidth Enhanced DDR2 Memory Overview - OCZ Technology has just announced the release of the OCZ PC2-6400 Platinum Bandwidth Enhanced series - an extremely high performance line of DDR2 memory. The OCZ PC2-6400 Platinum Bandwidth Enhanced memory boasts 4-3-3 timings at 800MHz! Those are ultra low latencies for DDR2-800 memory! Let's take a look at it!
• Corsair Twin2X1024-4300C3Pro DDR2-538 Memory Module - The TWIN2X1024-4300C3 is a pair of 512MByte, two-rank DDR2 SDRAM DIMMs designed for extreme speed. This part delivers outstanding performance in the latest generation of DDR2-based motherboards. It has been tested extensively as pairs in multiple DDR2 motherboards to ensure compatibility and performance at its rated speed. This memory has been verified to operate at 538MHz at the low latencies of 3-3-3-8.
• Corsair XMS Xpert TWINXP1024-3200XL - The XL memory IC's are actually rated at 500MHz, though at this frequency the timings are not quite as aggressive being 3-4-4-7: 2T. The great thing about the memory modules is a feature Corsair calls Plug-and-Frag. No surprises that this is much like Plug-and-Play, in the sense that it will make installation easy for novice users as the SPD is programmed with the 2-2-2-5: 1T settings. This means by simply selecting the BySPD option in the BIOS, the memory modules will operate at their eXtreme Latencies. Another review can be found on Ninjalane.
• ABIT AG8 Motherboard - The ABIT AG8 is Abit's answer for performance gamers on a budget. With SATA RAID, Dual Channel DDR 400, PCI-Express X16, IEEE1394, Gigabit LAN, and ABIT Engineered µGuru, what more could you ask for? Let's take an indepth look at the AG8.
• ABIT Fatal1ty AA8XE i925XE Motherboard - Remember back to the ABIT IC7-MAX3 - a premier Canterwood-based S478 motherboard that ran with a decent array of features, both in terms of peripherals and cooling. Well, ABIT is kind of at it again. This time, its Intel-based LGA775 AA8XE has been given the makeover from ordinary, decent i925XE Alderwood to Fatal1ty status. Fatal1ty, I hear you say? Read on to see why this could be the must-have LGA775 mainboard if you like pushing your CPU and memory to the absolute limit.
• [!] ATI's Radeon X800 XL 512MB graphics card - The Radeon X800 XL 512MB's extra 256MB of memory certainly improves performance, but only in Half-Life 2, and then most dramatically with 6X antialiasing and 16X anisotropic filtering. Otherwise, our test results don't show much performance benefit from the extra memory apart from the elimination of stuttering in DOOM 3's Ultra Quality mode. Those benefits are far from universal, especially since DOOM 3's Ultra Quality mode doesn't look all that much better than its High quality setting. Another reviews can be found on Beyond3D, Guru3D, PC Perspective, DriverHeaven, ExtremeTech
• Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 SATA NCQ Hard Drive - Because of their capacity, low noise level and performance, I look forward to using these drives when I rebuild my main rig. Having 400GB (it's really 372GB) of storage is a great luxury, and as you know, luxury doesn't come cheap. The 400GB 7200.8 costs around $290-300 if you shop at the right places. The unit cost of 73-75 cents per gigabyte is very reasonable though, so the only reason this drive seems "expensive" is that it packs a huge capacity. It might not be the cheapest 400GB drive available, but I think getting the industry-leading 5-year warranty is worth the extra cost.
• Seagate 400GB Pushbutton Backup External Hard Drive - With hard drive capacities increasing at an exponential rate backing up your PC has become an increasingly difficult task. As far as capacities go, Hitachi is in the lead at the moment with its recently announced 500GB drive. The Seagate 400GB Pushbutton Backup external hard drive might not be able to back up the Hitachi monster drive, but it should be ample for most of us.
• Plextor PX-716A DVD Writer - Looking at the basic specs the PX-716A doesn't look anything special ­ 16x DVD+/-R, 4x DVD+R DL, 8x DVD+RW, 4x DVD-RW, 48x CD-R and 24x CD-RW. However, a quick firmware flash boosted DVD+R DL speed up to 6x and DVD-RW up to 6x, while also enabling DVD-R DL support. Of course there's still no DVD+R 8x, DVD-R 6x or DVD-R DL media, so despite having the  ability, the drive couldn't prove itself in these areas. That said, like all the drives I've looked at recently, the PX-716A did manage to over- burn to 2.4x DVD+R DL media, turning in some blistering times.
• Trust BT210 Bluetooth Headset - Techconnect take a look at Trust's BT210 - a wireless earpiece/microphone combo that relies on Bluetooth technology to provide magic wire-free voice recording and playback.
• Canon PowerShot A510 Digital Camera - The A510 has nearly all of the features I like to see on a camera, including aperture priority, shutter priority and full manual exposure modes, manual focusing, spot metering, AA batteries and it even comes with a digital zoom set to off as a default. Of course, it also has a full auto mode and a wide selection of scene modes and program modes. It also has a useful 4x optical zoom, equivalent to a 35-140mm zoom on a 35mm film camera.

GUIDES... 

• nVidia Chips Comparison Table - Hardware Secrets published a nVidia Chips Comparison Table
• How to improve HDD speed - One of the improvements you can make on your storage is to align the disks. Microsoft provides a tool, Diskpar, which allows to align the disk tracks with sector tracks. For partitions created by Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003, the default starting sector for disks that have more than 63 sectors per track is the 64th sector, causing one out of every eight blocks of data written to your disk to span two disk tracks. Diskpar can increase disk performance as much as 20 percent, but you should always consult your hardware vendor before using this tool. Some disk configurations will have no benefit from the tool.
• What's a Longhorn? - Microsoft has recently released a great deal of information about their upcoming Longhorn operating system. Here is a compilation of both recent features and information, along with what's been known for a while. The guide explains all the features, so you understand what's coming with Longhorn.
• Changes to Functionality in Windows XP Professional x64 -  Microsoft have today, released a document at their Download Center, that describes the changes in functionality for Windows XP Professional x64 Edition over Windows XP Professional SP2.
• Benchmarking Games using Windows XP 64-bit - This article is not an overview or in-depth look into WinXP Pro x64 Edition. The chaps over at HardOCP decided to find out the hard way if upgrading to Windows XP Professional x64 Edition would offer an ehanced gaming experience.

SOFTWARE...

• UNOFFICIAL W98 SE SP1 v2.0 Final -  It contains all Windows98 SE updates from Windows Update site and more. It is a self-extracting and self-installing pack like Microsoft's update files. Thus, you cannot choice files individually. However, the pack installs only required fixes for your system.
  Uninstallation is possible from Add-Remove Programs.
• Apple Mac OS X v10.3.9 - 2005-005 Mega Security Update - This massive update patches tons of issues with: Apache, AppKit, AppleScript, Bluetooth, Directory Services, Finder, Foundation, Help Viewer, LDAP, libXpm, lukemftpd, NetInfo, Server Admin, sudo, Terminal and VPN
• McAfee AVERT Stinger 2.5.4 - McAfee AVERT Stinger is a stand-alone utility used to detect and remove specific viruses. It is not a substitute for full anti-virus protection, but rather a tool to assist administrators and users when dealing with an infected system.
• SPAMfighter Standard 3.5.3 -  A tool to remove spam from your Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express
• [!] Total Commander 6.52 - Total Commander is a file manager replacement that offers multiple language support, search, file comparison, directory synchronization, quick view panel with bitmap display, ZIP, ARJ, LZH, RAR, UC2, TAR, GZ, CAB, ACE archive handling plus plugins, built-in FTP client with FXP, HTTP proxy support, and more. This is a minor update, which fixes some problems found since the release of Total Commander 6.5, and adds IPv6 support to the FTP client.
• Azureus 2.3.0.0 - Azureus (download / changelog) offers multiple torrent downloads, queuing/priority systems (on torrents and files), start/stop seeding options and instant access to numerous pieces of information about your torrents.
• BWMeter 2.3.1 - BWMeter (download) is a powerful bandwidth meter and monitor, which measures and displays all traffic on your network. Unlike other products, it can analyze the data packets (where they come from, where they go, which port and protocol they use).
• ChrisTV 4.50  - ChrisTV is a PVR (Personal Video Recorder) Software (download) designed to control analog TV Cards, Graphic Cards with Video Input (VIVO), Combo Cards (Graphic Card and TV Card), Webcams, DVcam Capture that have WDM Drivers(Windows Driver Model) compatible with DirectShow specifications.
• FreeEnc 0.43 - FreeEnc is a free MPEG-2 encoder which uses avcodec library to encode.
• AnyDVD 5.1.2.1 (shw) - AnyDVD allows you to decrypt CSS encrypted DVDs on the fly. Insert your CSS- (Content Scrambling System) and RPC (Region Code Protected) - protected DVD into your DVD drive.
• CloneCD 5.2.2.1 (shw) - CloneCD is a powerful CD-Copy program. It writes in Raw mode, which allows it to have total control on the data written. Therefore, it will produce real 1:1 copies of your CDs. Because of its special operation, it requires a CD-Writer which is capable of writing in this mode.
• Nullsoft WinAmp 5.09 - Winamp (download) is an audio player that can handle audio CDs, MP3 audio files, and streaming audio broadcasts. It combines extensive functionality with an intuitive interface.
• FileZilla 2.2.13c - FileZilla (download) is a fast and reliable FTP client and server with lots of useful features and an intuitive interface. They fixed these bugs: PROT command was not sent if using implicit SSL; Move TYPE command before PORT/PASV command; If showing Site Manager on startup, main window did not always appear.
• Forceware 76.45 Win2000/XP WHQL *BETA*-  Station Drivers stumbled into new ForceWare drivers dated at the 22th or April!. The download is a 15 meg sized file and does include an easy to install setup.exe in the extracted folder. The good news is that it is a WHQL approved driver (Microsoft tested and verified). The bad news is that it's only for GeForce series 6. This driver has an included modified.inf file (courtesy of laptopvideo2go) for non-GeForce series 6 users.
• WDM driver - GeForce2 to GeForce FX GPUs  - This WDM driver kit must be used with the latest ForceWare Graphics driver for GeForce GPUs. Please install that driver first before installing this WDM driver. This driver only supports GeForce2 through GeForce FX products with a TV Tuner or video capture input.
• WDM driver - GeForce 6 series GPUs  - This driver only supports GeForce 6 series products with a TV Tuner or video capture input.
• NGO nVidia Optimized Driver v1.7189 - The NGO nVidia Optimized Driver is a tweaked version of the nVidia Forceware driver. The main purpose is to satisfy the users with a better performance and better image quality. The Driver has support for all Geforce cards.
• Audigy 4 Pro Drivers 2.05.0000 Beta - This beta driver (mirror) adds full support of the OpenAL interface for Sound Blaster Audigy 4 Pro audio devices. The driver provides full OpenAL / EAX ADVANCED HD support when used with the DOOM 3 3 1.3 patch, Includes EAX 4.0 support for the new DOOM 3: Resurrection of Evil expansion pack and Improves performance of all OpenAL game titles, including Battlefield 2.
• Realtek ALC AC97 Audio Driver 3.72 WHQL - This driver (mirror) supports all ALC series audio chipsets from ALC100 up to ALC861. It is used as onboard sound on many motherboards.