Evening Tech Mania - tech
(hx) 12:35 AM CEST - Sep,03 2003
- Post a comment
- Asteroid danger in 2014 downplayed - They say that there is a
one
in 909,000 chance of asteroid 2003 QQ47 impacting our planet. The chances
of a catastrophe are likely to become even slimmer once more measurements of
the asteroid's orbit have been made. The current odds are based on 51
observations made since the giant rock was spotted by a US programme in New
Mexico on 24 August.
- PS3 will play PS2, PSone games - Sony Computer Entertainment boss
Ken Kutaragi has confirmed that the PlayStation 3 will feature backwards
compatibility with the PS2 and PSone, ensuring continued support for older
software formats in the new hardware.
- Games suffer from 'geek stereotype' - The blunt message was
delivered by Laura Fryer, director of the Xbox Advanced Technology Group, to a
meeting of game developers in London. She told her audience that games had the
potential to change people's lives, offering them the chance to experience a
wide range of emotions in a safe environment. Despite growing sales of video
games,
there was still a problem of perception, said Ms Fryer, with games still
seen as something for "geeks and guys".
- Hitachi adds antenna to RFID 'mu-chip' -
An
RF identification "mu-chip," which Hitachi Ltd. claims is small enough to
embed in currency suffers from one drawback: It requires an external antenna
so that its 128-bit identification number can be read. Hitachi said Tuesday
(Sept. 2) it has developed a version of its RFID mu-chip that uses bumping
technology to embed an antenna on the die. The chip captures some of the
energy of the incoming wireless signal and uses to transmit its ID number to a
reader. The mu-chip can be embedded in bank notes, gift certificates and
documents, Hitachi said.
- Will CDs and DVDs Disappear? -
A new report entitled "From Discs to Downloads" states that 20 percent of
Americans participate in some form of music downloading activity, and half of
those admit to buying fewer CDs. The report says that in five years' time, a
third of all music sales will come from downloads, and video file sharing will
increase as well. Forrester expects that almost 15 percent of the movie rental
business will come from on-demand movie services; as it stands now, 20 percent
of "young file sharers" has already downloaded a feature film from online
services.
- Sony DVR Packs Plenty of Storage - A new Sony hard-drive based
video recorder will go on sale in November, capable of recording for two weeks
nonstop, the company said Tuesday.
The Cocoon CSV-EX11 uses a pair of 250GB hard drives to record up to 342
hours (over two weeks) of video in the lowest of three quality modes. Standard
mode cuts this to 171 hours, while high quality mode reduces this further to a
still-respectable 114 hours--or just under five days.
- ATI's R360 to be called the Radeon 9800XT -
The Radeon
9800XT will end up at 425MHz+ for the chip and 700MHz for memory and there
are likely to be DDR I and DDR II cards, it appears. 425MHz and more for a
0.15u (micron) chip seems like a real engineering challenge. Increasing the
speed from 325MHz for R300 to 425MHz for R360 is also quite a challenge.
- Major suppliers to show off their high-end graphics processors at
Computex - Nvidia plans to introduce two graphics processors - the NV38
for the high-end market and NV36 for the mid-range and high-end markets -
at Computex 2003, according to sources. It is unclear whether ATI
Technologies will display its new R360 chips during the show, but many
industry observers say the company should not miss the opportunity in the
competition between the world's two largest graphics solution providers. XGI
expects to introduce the updated version of its current Xabre GPUs, but may
not adopt the Xabre name for the new product, while VIA plans to display its
high-end Delta Chrome GPUs, which support the latest DirectX9 standard,
sources said.
- Olympus Readies Camera for Shutterbugs - Looking for a digital
camera that both photo enthusiasts and novices can share?
The new Olympus C-5000 Zoom, scheduled to ship in October, offers
something for everyone. Olympus has set a $600 list price for the 5-megapixel
camera, and expects it to sell for about $500. Accessories, however, could
drive up the cost of ownership.
- AOpen Aeolus GeForce FX 5600S 256MB Video Card Review - Well, this
is
an average card based on the FX 5600. I already mentioned before that such
cards do not need extra 128 MB at all.
- Panasonic CW-8122-B Slimline Combo Drive - For those serious about
cramming as much performance into their small form factor system, the
Panasonic CW-8122-B Slimline Combo Drive is a near must have.
- ASUS CRW-5224A-U Review - ASUS CRW-5224A-U external drive
is definitely a good buy if you want to have an external drive. It fully
complies with its claimed specifications. It is speedy at reading any types of
media and extracting audio tracks, and quite good at reading damaged disks.
The LEDs and buttons on the front panel make it easy to use it. It also comes
with all necessary accessories - you don't need to purchase a cable or find a
driver, just plug it in and enjoy.
- Philips 180MT 18" LCD Monitor/TV -
The
Philips 180MT is a wonderfully stylish monitor and TV, and would be a
great addition to any home office or dorm room. While the ghosting was too
intense for gaming and high speed action, this multifunctional device fits the
bill for an all purpose, casual use system.
- Mushkin PC3200 Level II Dual Pack DDR RAM - Mushkin has been around
since 1994 and generally provides good memory for enthusiasts and average
end-users. All of their memory is backed by a lifetime warranty and is tested
in motherboards for compatibility. Another good quality about Mushkin is that
they fine tune their memory for operation at tight timings by using their own
custom PCB and memory chips.
Let us move on and find out how well the PC3200 dual kit fairs.
- Microsoft MN-500 switchWAP and MN-510 USB WiFi adapter review -
If you want to setup a small network at home or at the office, you should
seriously consider the Microsoft WAP/switch and whatever else fits your needs,
(Microsoft has USB WiFi adapters for desktops, PCMCIA WiFi cards for
notebooks, and PCI Ethernet adapters).
- Swiftech MCW5000 CPU Water-Block -
Installation was a breeze. For the AMD setup, simply put the water-block
on the socket, and attach the clips. You then turn the screws until it's
finger tight, and you're done. Putting together the Pentium 4 setup is even
easier. No tools are required, and the water-block install just needs a couple
of clips to snap into place and you're done.
- Corsair HydroCool 200 review - Let's see how the
Corsair HydroCool 200 stacked up to the competition! For reference, the
ambient temperature ranged between 22.4C - 23.8C throughout approximately 36
hours of testing.
- Ergo Diver Keyboard - This is not just any keyboard,
this is a
keyboard designed by gamers, for gamers. They boast that this keyboard is
supposed to make playing games easier because it is designed around the W, A,
S, D playing position.
- GFX Demo Page -
This page offers a
cool collection of demos. Check it out! (thanks
Warp2Search)
- HB++ for PalmOS available - Peter Holmes Consulting has launched a
new programming language for PalmOS called
Handheld Basic or Hb++.
It's a Visual basic like programming language/IDE with database and hotsync
capabalities that produce true 68000 prc. You can also check
some
benchmarks.
- DivX Operational Player 1.2 -
This is a player
of the new generation which allows you quickly and conveniently use
advantages of digital technologies. This player supports formats: AVI, MPEG,
MP3, WAV, WMV, AU, ASX, ASF.
- Bandwidth Monitor Pro 1.26 -
Bandwidth
Monitor Pro (download)
is a utility that displays and logs your network adapters bandwidth usage. It
supports logging of all your network adapters at once and has a detailed
transfer history.
- Revolution 7.1 Drivers - M-Audio has posted
a new Windows XP Driver (direct
link) for the Revolution 7.1, bringing it up to version 5.10.00.0041.
|
Updated:10:31 PM CEST Jun,20
(new)
