Friday Tech Madness - tech
(hx) 12:26 AM CET - Jan,10 2004
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- South Korea Targeted for Online Piracy - The U.S. government
elevated South Korea's position on an intellectual property rights watch list
this week. The move was made because of the Asian nation's failure to address
several issues of U.S. concern over online piracy of music and movies, the
Office of the U.S. Trade Representative says
in a statement. South Korea will join 11 other nations on the USTR's
priority watch list as the result of a special review of online piracy in the
nation that was conducted by the USTR in late December.
- Lamo pleads guilty to NY Times hack -
Hacker Adrian Lamo plead guilty Thursday to federal computer crime charges
arising from his 2002 intrusion into the New York Time internal network, and
faces a likely six to twelve months in custody when he's sentenced in April.
- After January 7, 2004, your computer slows down and Microsoft Word and
Excel will not start - Symantec is currently
investigating reported computer slow-downs and instability. This issue
appears to be related to VeriSign receiving an unusual number of requests by
Windows-based clients to download a certificate revocation list (CRL) on
January 7-8, 2004. This increase in traffic resulted in intermittent VeriSign
CRL server availability.
- Windows 98 support shifts to CD - When Microsoft pulls the plug on
Windows 98 support next Friday,
it
will offer a free CD designed to help users "make the most" of the aging
operating system, without any further assistance from the software giant.
Six years after its launch, Windows 98 is still used by about a fourth of Web
surfers. Microsoft announced last year that it would stop supporting Windows
98 on Jan. 15, meaning that millions of users will soon be left exposed when
new exploits and vulnerabilities are discovered.
- Off-topic: Nanotech particles threaten brain - Nanotechnology,
which could revolutionise the healthcare, consumer goods and construction
industries, has been touted by advocates as a potential multibillion dollar
industry. Prophets of doom have painted a nightmare scenario of
self-replicating robots turning the Earth into a "grey goo." But Ken
Donaldson, Professor of Respiratory Toxicology at the University of Edinburgh,
said
the real risk lay in breathing in designer materials so small that they can
slip through membranes inside the body. Research on rats has shown
nanoparticles deposited in the nose can migrate to the brain and move from the
lungs into the bloodstream, he told reporters.
- Off-topic: Bush to announce manned mission to Mars - A bold plan to
construct
a manned base on the Moon as a precursor to astronauts visiting Mars is
expected to be announced by the US President George W Bush next week.
Government officials have confirmed that a new space initiative will be
launched and the media has reported details of the plan contained in official
documents. According to these, the Moon base would be constructed within the
next 15 years, with missions to Mars or nearby asteroids beginning in the
2020s. Another article can be found at
CNN.
- Microsoft at Work on Next Xbox - Microsoft is
hard at work on the next generation of its Xbox video game console, even
as the current version starts to show its full potential as an entertainment
hub, founder and Chairman Bill Gates said on Wednesday. In an interview ahead
of his keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Gates
told Reuters the company would look to extend the functionality of the Xbox,
the only game console to ship with a built-in hard drive and Ethernet
connection.
- EVD receives cold shoulders in Shanghai - With higher prices
and shortage of movie discs, EVD, or enhanced versatile disk has received cold
shoulders in Shanghai since debut after the New Year's Day, the Shanghai
Morning Post reported today. There is not much difference between the
appearance of EVD and DVD players, and only tens of EVD players were sold to
date, far less than the DVD sales, said a seller with the Shanghai Guomei
Electronics Appliances Co Ltd. "Many consumers consult the EVD players,
but the price of 1,980 yuan (US$238) flinched most of them," said the
seller, adding that a popular DVD player is only priced at 500-600 yuan on
average.
- Smartphone market to triple this year - The global
smartphone market will at least triple in size this year, according to HT
Cho, president of High Tech Computer (HTC), the world's first Microsoft
smartphone maker. At the company's annual dinner last night, Cho estimated
that worldwide smartphone sales will climb over 200% this year, better than
the 130% growth estimated by International Data Corporation (IDC). He said the
company will launch twice to three times as many as new smartphone and PDA
models this year compared with last year. A built-in digital camera will be
standard in the new models.
- Cellphone 3-D chips gear up for market - Four chip designers and
one software company rallied around the newly minted OpenGL ES applications
programming interface at the Consumer Electronics Show here, pledging
to deliver cores and games that bring 3-D graphics to cellphones starting
this year.
- Sprint to offer video, 3D games for cell phones - In the next few
months, Sprint will also become one of the first U.S. carriers
to introduce 3D cell phone games, CEO Gary Forsee said. The advance is
possible because of improvements in the Java download technology many carriers
use to sell things like games, ring tones and screensavers.
- New Philips TVs Sport Mirrors, Halos - For those who care about
good video but also want their flat-screen TV to augment their decor, Philips
has introduced its
Ambilight LCD and plasma televisions. This line of TVs features a system
by which light emanates from the back of the TV onto the wall. The effect
around the TV frame is halo-like, which is very striking aesthetically, but
Philips representatives say it's also practical--causing less eyestrain and a
perception of better image resolution.
- Tune Into TV on Your PC - ADS Technologies is showing
a range of new USB-based TV products and a refreshed range of
FireWire-based video-editing hardware products at the Consumer Electronics
Show here. ADS's Instant TV Deluxe is a USB 2.0-based cable-ready TV tuner
that allows Windows users to watch and record TV shows on their computer. The
device can modulate cable TV, digital cable TV, satellite TV, and standard UHF
and VHF signals. Video can be recorded on the computer in MPEG-1 or MPEG-2
format at up to 15MB per second.
- Linksys new DVD player with Wireless-G media link - Linksys
announced
a
new wireless multimedia product called the Linksys DVD Player with
Wireless-G Media Link (WMLD54G) which includes a high-end progressive scan DVD
player and the capability to wirelessly distribute digital video, music, and
pictures stored on a PC to view and play on a TV and/or stereo system.
- Shure Shuts Out Noise - Audio company Shure is unveiling products
geared toward users who listen to music, use a computer, and even talk on
their cell phone in noisy environments.
Shure's new E3C earphones differ from the average earbuds that come with
most MP3 players, says Scott Sullivan, business development director. The $179
set, shipping now, actually fit into the ear canal. This helps block external
noise, while offering exceptionally precise sound.
- WinXP Handheld Due Later This Year - Vendors said the device, which
they are dubbing the ultra-personal computer (UPC), will be available in the
second half of this year. Development of the device is being encouraged by
Transmeta, which has a line of i86-compatible processors that is small enough
and has sufficient heat dissipation to be put into devices without cooling
fans. According to the company,
the device will use a 1GHz Transmeta processor, come standard with a 20 GB
hard drive, have 256MB of RAM and run Windows XP. The device will have a
800x480 display, a thumb keyboard and a thumbwheel.
- NV Demos PCI-eX - NVIDIA today announced
it is
demonstrating its PCI Express architecture at the Consumer Electronics
Show. PCI Express is the next revolution in I/O interconnect standard that
NVIDIA will deploy in future graphics solutions as the next step in delivering
the bandwidth and features required for high-resolution graphics, games, and
other graphically-intensive applications.
- Intel Tejas & Socket 775 Unveiled - Originally Tejas was listed as
the first Intel CPU to have a 1.2GHz FSB, but
now
AnandTech know a bit more about the CPU. Apparently a total of 10 Tejas
samples have been shipped out to various friends of Intel, all running at
2.8GHz. What's also interesting to note is that our sources have informed us
that at 2.8GHz Tejas uses around 150W (!) of power - about 50% more
than Prescott at the same clock speed.
- Roku HD1000 First Look -
The Roku HD1000 isn't just another digital media hub. Sure, it can play
your PC-resident multimedia files on your TV and stereo, but it displays
digital photos and videos in true HD resolution, up to 1,080 video lines.
That's twice what standard-definition media hubs deliver. The HD1000 works
with everything from your current standard TV to enhanced-definition 480p (480
lines, progressive scan) through 720p and 1080i high-definition sets. The unit
is chock-full of features: four memory card slots in front for displaying
photos directly from your camera's memory card, pass-through of component and
S-Video signals, and front-panel keys that duplicate most functions of the
14-button remote.
- Sony X505/SP Notebook review -
The
Sony X505 pushes the envelope when it comes to sub-notebook design and
innovation. Almost everything is unique in one way or another and Sony tops it
off by adding the elegance and detail that we have only seen from companies
such as Apple. The included optical mouse adds a nice touch by offering a
memory stick reader, and the packaging that the X505 comes in is very stylish
and retro.
- HP Ipaq H1940 With Samsung's S3C2410 review - So while HP's new
Ipaq dares to be different,
THG puts the device through its usual battery of performance tests to see
if the H1940 can hold its own.
- AMD Athlon 64 3400+ review - With that said, let's take a look at
their latest version of the Athlon 64, the Athlon 64 3400+ processor. How does
it stack up to Intel's latest consumer friendly processor, the 3.2 Ghz Pentium
4? Let's take a
look.
- ATI Radeon 9800SE Video Card review - The considered two varieties
of boards on the base of
ATI Radeon 9800SE vividly demonstrated that not all SE cards are equally
useful. The Sapphire card based on the ATI Radeon 9800SE chip using the
PCB design of ATI Radeon 9500 Pro at all of the tests shows an essentially
lower performance than in the 256-bit version of ATI Radeon 9800SE by
PowerColor. The purchase of a card based on the PCB of ATI Radeon 9500 Pro can
be recommended only in case the price is substantially lower than that for the
"right" ATI Radeon 9800SE based on the PCB of ATI Radeon 9700 Pro.
- Pioneer DVR-106D review - The drive itself is capable of writing to
DVD-R/RW's, DVD+R/RW's, and CD-R/RW's meaning that all the main formats except
DVD-RAM are covered.
DVD-R's and DVD+R's can be written to at up to 4x speed, while DVD+RW
support is for up to 2.4x, 2x for DVD-RW, 16x for CD-R's and 10x for CD-RW.
While some newer drives are now coming out with support for 4x writing in
DVD+RW and 8x for DVD-R and DVD+R this is still inline with the speed of the
majority of drives on the market. While the higher speed media is also more
expensive and harder to find support for this would be nice, even if just for
in the future as higher speed media becomes readily available.
- Channel Well Technology 480W PSU review -
At an attractive price of only $155, it comes with Dual temperature
controlled fans and 2 years warranty. On the other hand, Tagan and Antec cost
about $25-30 more and come with 3 years warranty.
- Cooling 3D Style - Gigabyte cool the clocks - As always Gigabyte's
packaging is attractive and distinctive, no mistaking this for anyone else's
product. The cooler is shipped encased in plastic with all of its attachments.
This is by far the most versatile cooler available. Inside you get the
cooler, installation manual covering installs for P4, K7 and K8, 3.5” drive
bay power controller, PCI expansion power controller face plate, power
splitter and thermal compound.
- Vantec Spectrum Mouse Pad review - Matt Mantel at Overclockers Club
has completed
a review on the Vantec Spectrum Mouse Pad.
- CloneDVD 2 in development -
In a post on
CDFreak.com's forum, the developer of CloneDVD has announced that CloneDVD
2 will feature a much improved transcoder (the part of the software that is
responsible for compressing a DVD-9 movie to a DVD-5 movie). The transcoder
will have, according to Olli, a much improved picture quality while it will
only be a little slower. The software will also feature an improved
Compress-O-Meter, which will exactly show the impact on video quality by
leaving out audio and subtitle tracks. There's no word yet on release date.
- Kernel 2.6.1 released - Linus Torvalds released
the final 2.6.1
Linux kernel (changelog
~ download). This release
has a lot of changes since 2.6.0, many things have been merged from the -mm
tree.
- PRTG - Paessler Router Traffic Grapher v3.07 -
With PRTG (Paessler
Router Traffic Grapher) (download)
you can easily set up and run a monitoring station that logs the amount of
data flowing out and into any SNMP enabled network component. The most common
usage is monitoring the bandwidth usage of leased lines, routers and
firewalls. But you can also monitor the usage of servers, managed switches,
printers and other network components.
- Icecast 2.0 - The
icecast development team has released
version 2.0.0
of its streaming media server. Icecast2 supports Ogg Vorbis and MP3 streaming
and has many features and functions you would expect from a world class
streaming media server.
- DVD Shrink v3.1 -
DVD
Shrink 3.1 (download)
has an improved GUI, improved preview (including audio and full screen mode),
burning and disc image creation is supported (requires Nero 5+), layer break
removal and automatic audio and subtitle stream selection via preferences has
been added, and it is possible to select the default playback stream in
re-author mode.
- WinRAR 3.30 Beta 5 -
WinRAR is a powerful archive
manager. It can backup your data and reduce size of email attachments,
decompress RAR, ZIP and other files downloaded from Internet and create new
archives in RAR and ZIP file format.
- Logitech MouseWare v9.79.1 - Logitech has released
a new
MouseWare version 9.79.1. For additional details please refer to the
README file included. in this release.
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Updated:03:04 PM CEST Jun,20
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