TECHNOLOGY...

• Xbox 360 QWERTY Keyboard Revealed? - Leaked slides of what looks like a Spanish presentation of the Xbox 360 have revealed a first-party QWERTY keypad for the Xbox 360 controller.
• Elite Bastards cover ATI CrossFire seminar - It's nothing new information-wise, but may be of interest to any of you who want to see how ATI is promoting this new technology.

HARDWARE... 

• AMD to launch a cheaper Athlon 64 X2 - The Athlon 64 X2 3800+ will be clocked at 2.0GHz and will feature 512KB of L2 cache on each core - totalling to 1MB - while It is based on the same core that is used for the 4200+ and 4600+.
• Sapphire PURE PI-A9RX480 - ATI's Chipset for the AMD Enthusiast - The Sapphire PURE Innovation PI-A9RX480 is the first production Radeon Xpress 200 board that is clearly targeted at the AMD enthusiast, but there are other ATI Radeon Xpress 200 chipset boards on the way from Asus, MSI, DFI, ECS, Abit, TUL, ECS, and others.
• ECS PF88 Extreme Intel/AMD Hybrid Motherboard - Here's what ECS has in mind with the PF88 Extreme motherboard: You would be able to purchase a SiS based Intel motherboard off of retail shelves once it's launched. If you decide to upgrade to an AMD platform at a later date, ECS would retail a daughter-card with socket-939 platform, which would be plugged into an additional slot to get the system up and running. Another preview article can be found on FutureLooks
• AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ and 4800+ CPUs - Since gaming in general doesn't take advantage of Dual CPU's, the X2 Dual Core processors from AMD are perhaps not the best option for the strict gamer - they are far more suited for the PC user who enjoys a whole range of tasks, obviously tasks which have multithread capabilit
• Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X1024-8000UL PC2-8000UL 1GB Dual Channel Memory Kit -  It's currently the fastest DDR2 memory available and the fastest DDR2 memory tested here thus far. The price tag of the 8000UL is leaning a little bit towards the expensive side but that's understandable and still under the $300 price point.
• MSI P4N Diamond & Gigabyte GA-8N-SLI Motherboards - Two of the most popular motherboard manufacturers, MSI and Gigabyte, have come out with NForce 4 SLI Intel edition boards in the noble forms of the MSI P4N Diamond and Gigabyte GA-8N SLI Royal.
• ECS 915P-A motherboard - The board itself is much more interesting, as it provides both DDR and DDRII memory options, as well as PCIe x16 and "AGPExpress" video card connections. As for cards that work in the "AGP" slot, ECS has a list of supported video cards. The fact that only one IDE channel exists is fairly annoying for those who still have a IDE based hard drive and optical drive as well, an add-on IDE controller like that included with the Albatron board would be nice, especially for a board aimed at those just wanting to move to a new socket design.
• ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon X800 XT - The All-in-Wonder Radeon X800 XT is clocked at default levels, and there is no effective difference between the performance specifications when compared to a standard Radeon X800 XT 256-MB board.
• BFG GeForce 7800 GTX OC -  The BFG GeForce 7800GTX OC clearly exhibited that it was the fastest graphics card in literally every gaming scenario we threw at it. Another thing to throw into the mix that should weigh heavily for you if you're looking at cards that claim to be "overclocked" out of the box, is the warranty. Here again BFG stands tall in the crowd offering a lifetime warranty on the card.
• LITE-ON SOHW-1693S Dual Layer DVD±R Writer - Like all LITE-ON DVD writers, the SOHW-1693S supports LITE-ON's key technologies like SMART-BURN, SMART-X and VAS. SMART-BURN is LITE-ON's anti-buffer-underrun technology while SMART-X allows the drive to automatically determine the highest speed at which to read data off the CD or DVD. Finally, VAS reduces the amount of vibration and noise generated by the SOHW-1693S.
• Spire KestrelKing VI AMD Athlon 64 CPU Cooler - As a whole, the KestrelKing VI processor cooler from Spire is a solid alternative to the stock AMD cooler and other performance coolers on the market. The construction is top notch and the design is great.
• XCLIO Aurora+P Lighting Mouse Pad + USB - Meridian's XCLIO Aurora+P mouse pad is, well... a mouse pad, with LEDs. It is functional, and the LEDs are a nice touch for people that want a "different" look.
• Kodak EasyShare C360 5.0-megapixel Digital Camera - Since the C360 is all about easy snapping and easy sharing, sharing the pictures stored in either its 32MB onboard memory or SD card is just a simple process of docking the camera into the optional Kodak EasyShare dock and pushing the "Share" button located on the camera

GUIDES...

• Hardware Leaderboard  - On this page you will find PC Perspective editor's combined opinions on the best systems you can build based on three different budgets.
• Workstation Graphics Card Comparison Guide Rev. 3.2 - Adrian's Rojak Pot has updated his comprehensive guide which includes over 70 workstation graphics cards.
• How To Clean Your Laser Printer - This article will provides all the information you need to bring your laser printer, laser fax machine, or copier back to tip-top condition in 7 easy steps.
• How to get glass to show up on Windows Vista Beta 1 - Working day-to-day at Micrsoft, the answer is always kind of a puzzle, depending on the hardware that is in question, the build of Windows you installed, and what drivers you may have gotten your hands on.

SOFTWARE...

• Futuris Imager 5.3 - Futuris Imager (download) is a compact and simple image viewer. It is capable of opening more then 30 graphical formats, including all popular ones (GIF, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, JPEG2000 and so on).
• DVD Audio Ripper 2.0.53.727 (shw) - DVD Audio Ripper is a software DVD movie soundtrack ripper which can rip DVD audio to mp3 or wav. You can use DVD Audio Ripper to extract DVD audio and rip DVD movie soundtrack to mp3 and convert DVD to wav with complete sound effects.
• WinDVD Platinum 7 Release 3 - WinDVD Platinum is the latest version of WinDVD. It has improved video and audio, and has added several brand new features.
• FFDShow MPEG-4 Video Decoder 27.07.2005 - ffdshow (download) is a set of DirectShow filters and VFW codec for video compression, decompression and processing and audio compression and processing.
• Creative Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit & Audigy: MediaSource Go & Utilities - This package - download 132MB (snagged from a Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit driver CD) shoudl work on the Audigy Series and includes: Mediasource Go version 2.20.06, MediaSource CD-Rom Burner Component 3.10.12, Creative Music Blind Plugin 1.00.12, MediaSource Detector 2.10.08, Creative Device Control 1.20.08, EAX_CONSOLE 2.10.13, Creative Restore Defaults 2.10.04, SFBANK_Manager 3.10.18, SPEAKER_SETTINGS 1.60.12, Surround Mixer 3.60.16, WAVESTUDIO 6.20.11.
• ForceWare 77.77 Win2000/XP 32-bit - The drivers are not WHQL (Microsoft tested and approved) certified though. But that really is not a big issue. Driver leaked by Station-Drivers, not WHQL, but international and setup files are included. And GeForce graphics card to date is supported.