Nightly Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 03:39 AM CET - Mar,15 2003
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- Sony shifts PS2 production to China - Sony is to
shift the production of its PlayStation 2 console to Chinese production
facilities next year in a bid to reduce costs, the company announced this
week, prompting speculation that the company will pass on the cost savings to
consumers in the near future. Spokesman Koichiro Katsurayama said the
company would move production to Chinese plants run by Hon Hai Precision
Industry Co. and Asustek Computer Inc, and cease production in Japan, where
half of its current PS2 output is based.
- Sony reportedly looking for PS3 component suppliers -
According to Digitimes, Sony will come to Taiwan next month to hold talks
on product and component purchases of up to US$4 billion, said an official at
Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA). The talks reportedly are for
PlayStation 3 game console-related orders.
- VIA graphics team unwraps DX9 DeltaChrome - VIA's graphics
division, S3, yesterday announced
its first chip to support DirectX 9, DeltaChrome. Versions of the
0.13 micron part will be tailored for a range of market segments, VIA said.
The S8 and S4 will be aimed at the mainstream and value sectors, respectively,
while the F1 will target top-end systems. The F1 supports up to 256MB of
video memory; the others support up to 128MB. It has an eight-pixel pipeline,
as does the S8, capable of a 2.4 billion pixels per second fill rate.
- SanDisk announces new capacities, formats - SanDisk has released
not only newer, larger flash cards for existing formats, but a new flash card
format as well.
Compact Flash now reaches 4 GB, SD reaches 1 GB, and miniSD hits the
market. In a market already saturated with different flash card form factors,
SanDisk has released a new format dubbed miniSD. Developed by the SD
Association of which SanDisk is a member, miniSD is essentially just a
shrunken Secure Digital card measuring a tiny 21.5 mm long, 20 mm wide and 1.4
mm thick.
- iPAQ H1915 arrives in Europe - Despite persistent rumours and a
previous confirmation from Hewlett-Packard itself, the newly announced iPAQ
H1915 model for the European market does not offer integrated Bluetooth.
In
fact, it does not offer any new features over the iPAQ H1910 which was
only made available in the UK, except for what according to HP is a slightly
improved display provided by a different manufacturer than the one responsible
for the display in the iPAQ H1910. The iPAQ H1915 should now be available in
most European countries for 399 EUR.
- Music companies fear new 100-hour discs - The music industry
this week condemned the launch of two recording systems that will let people
copy between
30 and 100 hours of music onto a single disc. The launches, from
electronics giants Sony and Philips, are being seen as a potential pirates'
charter. Philips's system uses a computer DVD recorder to save at least
100 hours of MP3 music on a blank DVD, which will play on a new portable DVD
player.
- AMD's enchanted April - After years of hype, the
AMD Opteron 64-bit processor will debut in April. The advantages of AMD's
new design are many. The most talked-about feature is the CPU's support for
64-bit applications. Unlike previous 64-bit processors, Opteron implements the
full x86-32 instruction set. Software that runs on a Pentium III or AMD Athlon
now will run unmodified on Opteron. Opteron-based servers will likely spend
the majority of their time running the 32-bit Windows and Linux programs that
businesses use today.
- CeBIT 2003: Day 1 - There's one trend that's clear: move away from
killer performance, and towards products with a more promising profit margin.
Tom's Hardware makes
its rounds at the CeBIT, visiting partners and manufacturers. You can also
find Plextor & CloneCD coverage @
CDFreaks.
- CeBIT 2003: Day 2 - Tom's Hardware has posted
their second round with AMD, MSI, Gigabyte, Soyo and Twinmos, and they
gathered lots of news. You can also find Lite-On IT & Nero
Burning Rom Coverage @
CDFreaks.
- CeBIT 2003 : Xabre II -
The Xabre II will offer through the Frictionless Memory Control III
technology bandwith usage optimizations : Hidden Surface Removal (HSR), color
compression, Z Culling and other compression algorythms.
- SiS655 With Dual DDR333 - The Taiwanese manufacturer SIS
follows Intel's footsteps with a Pentium 4 chipset that supports two DDR
channels. The SiS655 has been developed from the Sis648, and it now has APG
8X. Unlike the Intel E7205, it not only supports DDR 266 but DDR 333 as well,
finally. This gives the newcomer an edge, at least on paper.
Can it live up to expectations?
- Centrino notebooks Round-up - Japanese notebook vendors Sony, NEC
Electronics and Toshiba launched their versions of
Centrino-based notebooks on Wednesday.
- MSI 52X CD-RW Drive Review - HotHardware has posted a
MSI 52X CD-RW Drive review.
- Samsung SW-252B 52/24/52 CD-RW Review - EnvyNews has posted
a Samsung
SW-252B 52/24/52 CD-RW review.
- Windows Server 2003 RTM Delayed--Again - The latest target date to
start duping disks
is now March 28, sources close to Microsoft said. A company insider also
confirmed that this is the latest proposed release-to-manufacturing date.
Previously, the RTM had been scheduled for March 19, which followed an earlier
target date of March 12.
- Virtual PC 6 Review - Connectix recently released
version 6 of Virtual PC, the standard for emulating Windows on a Mac. With
version 5, the main feature was Mac OS X compatibility. With version 6, the
focus is on better performance and Mac integration.
- SoftModding a Radeon 9500 Pro - Not too long ago there was a
flurry of 9500 Mod articles and guides, most of which showed exactly which
items to solder and move. However, as drool-worthy as they were, they did not
take into account that a significant portion of the end-user crowd would faint
at the mere mention of these procedures on their expensive cards. Thankfully,
there are other options, and this is where this small article comes-in. For
those of you who want
an extra 20%
performance without opening-up your case, read on!
- Myth II Updated - Today,
MythDev and
Project Magma are releasing their
first update to Myth II: Soulblighter, created by Bungie Software. This update
brings the game to
version 1.3.2, and patches noticeable bugs in Windows XP/2000, as well
adding native support for Mac OS X. Coinciding with this release, the group is
also announcing Myth II 1.4, to be released May 15th, which is a major update
to Myth II that contains over 100 enhancements, including: graphical and
interface improvements, OpenGL support for Windows and Mac OS X, gameplay bug
fixes and improved AI, and the addition of vTFL, allowing virtual play of
Myth: The Fallen Lords in Myth II. (thanks
Slashdot.org)
- Microsoft IPv6 1.205 Technology Preview -
IPv6 is a new suite of standard protocols for the network layer of the
Internet. It is the future of networking. It is designed to solve many of the
problems of the current version of IP (known as IPv4) with regard to address
depletion, security, autoconfiguration, extensibility, and more. Its use will
also expand the capabilities of the Internet to enable a variety of valuable
and exciting scenarios, including peer-to-peer and mobile applications.
- Active WMA Studio v.1.2 -
Active WMA Studio is the
audio conversion utility with Explorer-like interface, It allows you to encode
WAV, MP3 and OGG files to WMA (Windows Media Audio) format with a lot of
format options(from 8000 to 48000Hz, up to 192kbps), convert WMA and MP3 files
to WAV PCM format, convert WMA files to MP3 format with LAME 3.92 encoder
library, convert WMA to OGG Vorbis format, resample WMA files, grab audio CDs
into WMA.
- PowerDVD 4.0 Add-On Pack Patches -
The first patch will update PowerDVD SE for Windows XP to build 2417,
the second patch will update PowerDVD MP3 PowerEncoder for Windows XP to
build 2417.
- Getright 5.0 Final -
GetRight is a Download
Manager program to help you download files from the Internet. It allows
you to easily download files and recover (resume downloading) if errors
occur--and has many other advanced features.
- Zoom Player 3.00 beta 6 -
Zoom Player (download
~ changelist) is a
robust media and DVD front-end player. It was designed to be simple at first
glance while being remarkably dynamic and flexible when used to its full
potential. It works in two modes: a Media mode which can play any file
supported by DirectShow (any file which plays in MediaPlayer) and a DVD mode
which uses pre-installed DirectShow DVD filters to play DVD content.
- Savage4 Server Drivers - S3 Graphics has released new server
(Windows XP and .NET Serv)
drivers for the Savage4.
- SofR9800 for ATi Catalyst 3.2 - Mod your Radeon 9500 into a Radeon
9500 Pro or your 9700 into a 9800 with this
patch (direct link)
(~ or Guru3D).
To execute the script you'll need the latest RivaTuner 2.0 You must start
it at least once, then simple extract and open attached file with Windows
explorer, RivaTuner will do the rest. This script works with Catalyst 3.2.
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Updated:12:40 AM CEST Jun,21
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