Thursday Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 05:53 PM CEST - Apr,29 2004
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- Windows XP Service Pack 2 release delayed - Microsoft has
delayed the planned release date of its next update to Windows XP by about a
month, ZDNet UK sister site CNET News.com has learned. The software maker
had originally said that Windows XP Service Pack 2 would be released in its
final form in the first half of this year, but a representative told CNET
News.com on Wednesday that the release is now likely to come later in the
summer.
- Music industry sues 477 more computer users -
The recording industry sued 477 more computer users Wednesday, including
dozens of college students at schools in 11 states, accusing them of illegally
sharing music across the Internet.
- Visa trials RF credit cards -
Consumers in Malaysia will soon be able to pay for their shopping with
contactless, EMV standard smart cards, as Visa does away with the need for
a signature with the launch of its new system, Visa Wave. The company is
running a four-month trial with 2000 Visa customers and over 150 merchants.
The idea behind it (apart from selling lots of card readers) is to speed up
the payment process. This, Visa hopes, will encourage people to use their
cards more often in place of cash. Cardholders just need to wave their card
near (within 4cm) the reader and the transaction goes through.
- Phoenix extends Bios to enhance network security - Phoenix
Technologies, the company behind the Phoenix Bios firmware that is installed
in about 80 percent of all PCs, launched a utility at the InfoSecurity show in
London on Wednesday that
can allow users' hardware to be used in conjunction with a traditional login
system to ensure that only authorised users with a "trusted device" can
gain access to the corporate network.
- SecuROM launches Electronic CD-Key and SecuRelease at E3 -
Offering high-level security against piracy and illegal copying, Sony DADC's
copy control solution SecuROM is now available with new applications.
Protecting 80% of top PC games worldwide, SecuROM is now focussing on adding
more security, convenience and expanded sales opportunities for games
publishers. Innovative applications, such as
Electronic
CD-Key and SecuRelease, will be presented at the E3 in Los Angeles, from
May 12 to 14, Kentia Hall, booth 6215. Electronic CD-Key is a new SecuROM
function based on n-CD technology. The application replaces serialisation
codes on stickers applied on retail games boxes, saving games publishers
material and handling costs, and users inconvenient manual input. Each disc is
assigned a unique invisible identification number. The code is read by the
computer drive and initiates an automatic access to online gaming. As the
technology is backwards compatible, virtually any computer drive can read the
data. Ensuring that codes are safe, Electronic CD-Key lets the widespread
method of unauthorised access to codes in stores come to an end, as they can't
be seen anymore. JoWooD Productions Software AG will be the first games
publisher to apply this convenient technology to the global games release
"Soldiers" which will hit stores in May.
- Critical Update for Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 -
This critical update for Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004
enhances the stability and performance of Media Center Edition 2004 and
resolves
the following issues.
- Off-topic: Why most U.S. titles don’t fare well in Japan (and vice
versa) - The relative success of "Grand Theft Auto III" in Japan may be a
sign of changing tastes,
but violent
games are still far less popular in Japan than in the United States.
- Off-topic: US develops motorised robobollard - The lizard people
are certainly rubbing their scaly claws together with glee today at the news
that the US is developing motorised, computer-controlled robobollards.
The three-wheeled cybercones are intended for use on roads where they can
move quickly to close off carriageways without human operatives risking their
necks. This is a sound idea in principle - any hairy-arsed motorway
maintenence man attempting to create a 46-mile contraflow on the M1 by
offloading plastic cones from the back of a lorry faces the continual threat
of being physically assaulted by enraged motorists indulging in the UK
national sport of "abuse the cone bloke".
- Off-topic: Scientists Develop Self-chilling Beer Can -
Scientists have developed a self-chilling beer can that can drop the
temperature of the drink down to a chilling 37.4° F (16.7 degrees Celsia) in
about three minutes. After the drink has been chilled, it will stay cold for
up to an hour. The new can has been developed by Tempra Technology and they
call it the
"I*C*CAN". The technology is completely safe to use as it contains no
toxins, gases nor is the drink highly pressurized. The contents within the can
is surrounded by a gel that drains off when the bottom of the can is twisted.
There is also a insulated heat absorbing product a the bottom of the can. Once
activated the temperature of the liquid drops to near freezing temperatures.
The principle behind this, is similar to what it's like we you step out of a
hot shower and feel very cool.
- Off-topic: Soldering iron added to nano-toolkit - An
atomic-scale conveyor belt may also be
the smallest soldering iron ever created. The new device, which ferries
molten metal, is made from carbon nanotubes just 20 millionths of a millimetre
in diameter. The discovery could pave the way for nano-machines that are
pieced together from smaller components, rather than emerging from chemical
reactions.
- Dual-core Opterons coming next year - According to
this interview with AMD CEO Hector Ruiz, one of the most powerful things
next year is going to be their our dual-core product. "To me, that's
going to really shock the hell out of everyone, because it's going to be
hardware-compatible, infrastructure-compatible, pin-compatible. I mean, people
that have a 2-P system can slap in a dual-core product and end up with a 4-P
system for the price of a 2-P. That's been the biggest drawback, everyone
tells me. What keeps them from going from a 2-P to a 4-P system? It's price."
- Dabs.com stocking the first ever dual layer drive in the UK - Lite-ON
SOHW-832S -
JustCDR is reporting that dabs.com will be stocking the new Lite-ON
SOHW-832S 8x Dual Layer DVD writer, in less than a weeks time :) for a nice
price also L90. (thanks Mark)
- Plextor announces first Serial ATA 12x DVD-writer -
The PX-712SA is Plextor's first product with a Serial ATA (SATA)
interface, which offers PC makers new possibilities: SATA increases the
bandwidth to 150 MB per second and replaces the traditional Parallel ATA
(E-IDE) interface.
- Intel's 915 and 925 chipsets not to support Win98/ME -
Intel’s forthcoming 915 (the Grantsdale) and 925 (the Alderwood) series of
chipsets, expected to hit the market in June, will not bundle drivers for
either Microsoft Windows 98 or Windows ME operating systems (OS), according to
sources at Taiwanese motherboard makers.
- Siemens SX1 smart phone review -
Like the 6600, the Siemens handset looks like a mobile that's put on
weight, but while the Nokia is clearly the one that ate all the pies, the SX1
hides its spare tyre rather well. Both handsets are 10.9cm tall, but at 5.5cm
wide and 1.9cm thick, the SX1 is less bulky than the 5.8 x 2.4cm 6600. You can
certainly feel the difference in size and weight (110g to the 6600's 125g),
and I found the SX1 much more comfortable to hold.
- iRiver iGP-100 Player Gets Smaller, Faster and Sexier -
iRiver's iGP-100 digital music player with a micro hard drive shows just
how the MP3 player market has come. For less than $200, iRiver's latest player
offers a fresh design and hours and hours of music play.
- VIA's KT880 chipset Socket A's not dead yet - When compared with
the KT600, the KT880's only new feature is its DualStream64 dual-channel
memory controller. DualStream64 is more than just an extra 64-bit memory
channel, though. The memory controller also features improved branch
prediction, an enhanced data prefetch protocol, and other tweaks to improve
performance. The KT880 is designed to work with DDR400 and DDR333 memory, and
like all dual-channel designs, two DIMMs must be used to achieve optimal
performance. Interestingly enough, the KT880's new memory controller can
address up to 8GB of memory. The KT880 north bridge also features an AGP 8X
graphics interface and supports a 400MHz front-side bus.
- DVD writers round-up - TrustedReviews have posted
a
comparison of six 8-speed DVD writers over here comparing the latestes
models from AOpen, LG, MSI, Sony Teac and TDK.
- ATI Radeon 9800 XT 256MB review - DesignTechnica has posted
a
review of the ATI Radeon 9800 XT 256MB video card.
- PowerStrip 3.50 Beta -
A PowerStrip 3.50 beta
(download) has been
released, with support for over 100 graphics controllers under 64-bit Editions
of Windows.
- QuickTime 6.5.1 - According to Apple,
the update (download)
includes the Apple Lossless Encoder, a new lossless audio codec that retains
the full quality of uncompressed CD audio while requiring only about half the
storage space, significant improvements to AAC encoding, resulting in
high-quality sound over a full range of audio frequencies and enhanced support
for iTunes and other QuickTime-based applications.
- iTunes v4.5 - With
iTunes, you can create your own personal digital music library to manage
and listen to your music collection, all with drag-and-drop simplicity. iTunes
encodes high-quality MP3s as well as pristine AAC, all in a free application.
- VideoToolBox 0.9.1.42 -
VideoToolBox is a Freeware which aim is to detect codec required by AVI,
MKV, QT, etc etc files.
- Adobe Reader Speed-Up 1.21 -
Adobe Reader Speed-Up significantly decreases the amount of time required
for Adobe Reader 6.0 to start by disabling most of the least used plugins.
Plugins can be freely enabled and disabled, if required.
- RightMark Memory Analyzer 3.1 - The RightMark Team is pleased to
announce the release of our new test suite,
the RightMark Memory
Analyzer (download).
It aims the detailed, stable and accurate measurements of the most important
low-level characteristics of the CPU/Chipset/RAM subsystem of your PC.
- HWiNFO32 v1.42 -
HWiNFO32 v1.42 has been released. This new version fixes report of RIMM
module size, report of Hyperthreading support in the summary screen,
recognition of AMD Paris and more.
- McAfee AVERT Stinger 2.2.2 -
Stinger
is a stand-alone utility used to detect and remove specific viruses.
- Gene6 FTP Server v3.0.0.34 -
Gene6 FTP Server (download)
is a professional Windows FTP Server featuring speed, reliability and
customization. Its main assets are remote administration, encrypted (SSL)
connection and ease of use.
- File-synchronization tool for Unix and Windows -
Unison is
a file-synchronization tool (download)
for Unix and Windows. (It also works on OSX to some extent, but it does not
yet deal with 'resource forks' correctly; more information on OSX usage can be
found on the unison-users mailing list archives.) It allows two replicas of a
collection of files and directories to be stored on different hosts (or
different disks on the same host), modified separately, and then brought up to
date by propagating the changes in each replica to the other. (thanks
Yog-Sothoth)
- NEC 2500 Hack Beta 9a - A new firmware version hack (win32
~ DOS) is out
for the NEC2500, beta 9. This firmware update will write at 8x instead of 6x
onto Bulkpaq printables and printable G04s.
- VIA Audio Drivers v5.20b - VIA Tech has released
a
new drivers for the internal AC97 sound in their chipsets i.e. south
bridges T82C686x , VT8231 , VT8233x , VT8235 and VT8237.
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Updated:03:04 PM CEST Jun,20
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