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 Gameguru Mania News - May,28 2009 - tech 
TechNews - Is a Terminator Scenario Possible? - tech
(hx) 03:32 AM CEST - May,28 2009 - Post a comment
  • Intel Core 2 with Various FSB/Memory Clock Rates - Although Core i7 processors with the integrated memory controller are already announced and available in stores, their market presence will always be insignificant (Intel's forecast). There is still some time left before the i5 is launched, so system integrators will still use processors based on the previous microarchitecture. And finding an optimal configuration will still be important for Core 2-based systems. This article analyzes several memory configurations in order to understand how fast it should be and how much of it is required to reveal full potential of the fastest processors without paying too much for it.
  • Intel and IBM Demonstrate 128-Thread Nehalem-EX Server - Intel Corporation has previewed a new Intel Xeon processor codenamed "Nehalem-EX." The processor will be at the heart of the next generation of intelligent and expandable high-end Intel server platforms, which will deliver a number of new technical advancements and boost enterprise computing performance. 
  • Core i5 will launch in early September - Intel has decided to postpone the debut of its new mainstream desktop PC platform, Lynnfield processors (tentatively Core i5) and 5-series chipsets, from July as originally scheduled, to early September 2009. 
  • Intel Micro-ATX Roundup May 2009 - The roundup includes Asus Rampage 2 Gene, DFI LANParty Jr X58-T3H6 and Asus Maximus 2 Gene. These mobos are micro-ATX based and still manage to fit in features like support for 6 memory sticks and SLI/CrossFire, etc. 
  • Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 Vapor-X 1GB Video Card Tested -  Where the Vapor-X's custom cooler really gets to strut its stuff however is when it comes to overclocking - Quite simply, the Radeon HD 4890 Vapor-X is a beast in this department, leaving other boards that we've tested standing when it comes to breaking out Catalyst Control Center's OverDrive functionality and cranking up those clock speeds. If you're willing to tweak and overclock the board yourself, judging by our particular sample you can expect a performance boost of 10% or so from the Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 Vapor-X, compared to next to nothing from boards using AMD's reference solution. Now that's a performance increase we can give the thumbs up to and get behind. 
  • Western Digital 2TB Green Drive Tested - The drive performs very well, even though it is not coined as a 'performance drive.' Where this drive will really shine is in the datacenter storage market. This drive uses only a fraction of the amount of power that other drives do, which will save a significant amount of money in electrical costs. When you consider that some datacenters can easily house more than a 100 drives, the electrical savings can add up fairly quickly. 
  • Lenovo and NVIDIA Announce Ion-Based IdeaPad S12 Netbook - Lenovo's IdeaPad S12 promises to be the first netbook that can seriously handle high-def tasks, with a 12.1" display and the ability to play back 1080p content (via the HDMI output, of course) in "silky smooth" fashion. As if that weren't enough, Lenovo also made sure to bless this machine with a 100% full size keyboard, something that's extraordinarily rare on netbooks. In fact, we'd say the tight, often misshaped keyboards are the worst attributes on netbooks. With this machine, it's just like typing on any standard 15.4" notebook. Nice touch, Lenovo. 
  • OQO has shut down operations - RIP OQO -  OQO has shut down operations, switched off its phones and is now no longer accepting repairs. OQQ was one of the original Mobile Internet Devices a predecessor to the netbooks of today. It is sad that they couldn't get the price to below $1000. The company was planning to release the OQO 2+ which is an updated version of the MID this year.
  • Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7 revealed - A post over at the Windows Team blog has just revealed the Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7. This pack brings a range of touch-friendly applications.
  • Windows 7 Beta Expire Reminder - Microsoft sending out reminder emails that Windows 7 Beta will expire in August.
  • Microsoft patents holographic meetings -  The patent is rather vague on the actual hardware and software that would create these holographic meetings, although it does include 21 pictures and diagrams of how these meetings would take place. Patrice Simard, chief scientist and manager of the recently gutted Microsoft Live Labs, is listed as one of the inventors. (Live Labs is responsible for developing Photosynth, and a few other nifty Web apps.) Simard is the inventor for a whole lotta Microsoft patents including some for machine learning, activity detection, digital ink and a whiteboard imaging system. Given the connection, sheer speculation would lead us to conclude that holographic meetings could one day be an online service for Windows Live users that one-ups the kind of shared PowerPoint and voice apps that passes for a virtual meeting these days. 
  • Facebook sells stake in business  - Facebook has sold a 1.96% stake for $200m  to a Russian internet firm, a move that values the social networking website at $10bn.
  • Twitter Founders Interviewed - The six and a half minute video mainly talks about the company's business model, or lack thereof. 
  • Microsoft confirms Zune HD coming this fall - Company insiders noted that it will be available in 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB. I feel your pain when I found out that the Zune HD will not have a 120GB version, hopefully Microsoft will listen to its users. Expect this device to start shipping no later than September 5, 2009.
  • Samsung i7500 - Video Preview - The HD video shows off the i7500 and its sexy touchscreen AMOLED screen. FCC has approved this baby and is all set to hit the T-Mobile network. 
  • Texting May Be Taking a Toll -  What is it that the New York Times claims is causing teens anxiety, falling grades, repetitive stress injury and sleep deprivation? They claim teens are doing it at school, late at night, at restaurants and while crossing the street. 
  • First Official Trailer for Last Ride - From Australia comes the first trailer for Glendyn Ivin's Last Ride, an indie drama starring Hugo Weaving and Tom Russell. In the film, Weaving plays a father who takes his son on the run after committing a crime and ends up trekking through the desert.
  • A Perfect Getaway Trailer - Two pairs of newlywed couples on a vacation to Hawaii discover that psychopaths are stalking and murdering tourists on the islands. Paradise becomes hell on earth as a brutal battle for survival begins.
  • First Trailer for Star Wars Geek Drama '77' -  77 (Originally called 5-25-77 - which, for those who don't know, is the exact day that A New Hope first came out) is a movie about a geek in the late 70s who is obsessed with films and makes them in his back yard. He is a social outcast and gets picked on for his fandom. It only gets more rabid in the summer of '77 when the geek is introduced to Star Wars. 
  • Transforminators: Terminator meets Transformers - The voice over actually sounds a lot like Bale, I'm impressed. I wonder how it was done?
  • Is a Terminator Scenario Possible? - With Terminator: Salvation hitting theaters this week, it's inevitable that all things Skynet will be on a techie's mind. H+ magazine asked the question: "Is a Terminator Scenario Possible?" of several roboticists, AI experts, and sci-fi writers and their responses were as varied as they were interesting. 
  • 100 of the Best Movie Lines in 200 Seconds - I bet you didn't think it was possible to fit the 100 greatest movie lines into 200 hundred seconds
  • Amazing Gymnast (video) Wow! - This is Damien Walters doing alot of amazing freerunning and gymnastics.
  • Katy Perry Complex Magazine Pictures - Katy Perry shows grea cleavage posing in latex for Compleg magazine.
  • Moon Bloodgood Hot Photoshoot in Loaded Magazine - Moon Bloodgood is definitely going to get a lot of attention from the new Terminator: Salvation.
 Gameguru Mania News - May,27 2009 - tech
Full HD 3D Monitor Panel from LG - tech
(hx) 08:05 PM CEST - May,27 2009 - Post a comment
LG just announced their latest Full HD 23inch 3D LCD with enhanced brightness (twice as the brightness of conventional 3D LCD), giving LG the possibility to acclaim a world first.
The 3D panel employs LG Display's proprietary technology to realize Full HD images with twice the brightness of conventional 3D LCD panels. The product boasts the world's highest brightness among 3D displays.

3D LCDs apply time-sequential technologies so that the right and left eyes see different images. This makes the images look three-dimensional for human eye. In conventional 3D LCDs, the technologies were generally installed outside the panel or into the viewing glasses.

However LG Display embedded most of the 3D technologies directly in the panel, which enabled this product to make 3D viewing brighter and overcome the previous technical limitations. Specifically, 3D viewing is possible with low-priced polarized glasses translating into economical benefits for the consumers, while conventional 3D LCD panels usually require special viewing glasses, which are costlier.
 Gameguru Mania News - May,26 2009 - tech
Microsoft Releases Vista SP2 - tech
(hx) 11:42 PM CEST - May,26 2009 - Post a comment / read (2)
Microsoft released their next Service Pack for Vista. It comes in two flavors and requires that SP1 is installed before installing SP2. The update requires that SP1 is installed before installing SP2 and is available in two flavors: an x86 installer for 32-bit versions of Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, and an x64 installer for x64 releases of those operating systems. The former is a 348MB download, while the latter weighs in at 577MB.  Aside from support for new standards and miscellaneous new features, the service pack also includes all patches and hot fixes released since SP1. Microsoft points out that SP1 is a "prerequisite" for installing SP2. Microsoft is expected to post the bits to Windows Update in the coming weeks but if you are eager to install SP2 today then use the download links.
 Gameguru Mania News - May,23 2009 - tech
TechNews - 12 Terabyte DVD Technology - tech
(hx) 11:35 AM CEST - May,23 2009 - Post a comment
  • Inno3D GeForce GTX 275 OC Graphics Card Tested - If you want a GTX 275 that comes with a nice bundle while offering some good performance and don't mind the extra DBs that come out of the stock cooler, the Inno3D version of the card we have here is extremely impressive.
  • AMD Moving to 45nm Process in 3Q/09 - DigiTimes, citing anonymous sources, says AMD is planning to move production of its desktop processors to its 45nm node process by the third quarter of this year.
  • Android Cupcake on Mini 10v Netbook (video) - Dell released a video of the Dell Mini 10v Netbook running the Cupcake update of Android. Yes, an Android-powered Dell netbook.
  • Microsoft readies new maximum specs for Windows 7 netbooks - Mary-Jo Foley posted the maximum specs for Windows 7 netbooks.
  • Army Migrating Computers to Vista - With the launch of Windows 7 right around the corner, the U.S. Army if finally making the jump to Vista. The mass migration is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
  • Google Chrome Now 30% Faster - JavaScript-heavy web pages will now run about 30% faster!
  • 12 Terabyte DVD Technology Demonstrated - Australian researchers think they have found a way to store 1.1 terabytes per cubic centimeter! 
  • Q-SOUND solar-powered Bluetooth headphones - The Q-SOUND headphones would not only allow you to listen to music via any Bluetooth-enabled digital audio player, but also would let you take calls on any Bluetooth-enabled cell phone. If your player doesn't support Bluetooth there is also a 3.5mm jack to allow for a wired connection. The headband is constructed of flexible plastic incorporating amorphous silicon solar cells, while each rubber-based earpiece can be adjusted to fit differently shaped and sized heads. 
  • Play Samurai Shodown on T-Mobile G1 with GP2X Emulator - At this point, the GP2X emulator is only in the 'pre-alpha' phase of development, but it's good to see that it's trucking along for some Android-fueled gaming on the go. 
  • Lawyer: RIAA must pay back all $100M it has collected - Harvard Law professor Charles Nesson has now gotten involved in two more file-sharing lawsuits, including the Jammie Thomas retrial in Minnesota. But it's in the other, lesser-known case, that Nesson and a former student demand the RIAA pay back all $100 million it has collected in settlement money over the years.
  • New Cloaking Technology Simple To Make - Researchers at Purdue University have come up with an invisibility cloak that is 'simple to manufacture.' Whereas previous cloaking designs have used exotic "metamaterials," which require complex nanofabrication, the new design is a far simpler device based on a "tapered optical waveguide," said Vladimir Shalaev, Purdue University's Robert and Anne Burnett Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. 
  • Conservative radio hosts gets waterboarded, and lasts six seconds before saying its torture - Chicago's conservative radio host Erich "Mancow" Muller decided he'd get himself waterboarded to prove the technique wasn't torture. Turns out, he was wrong.
  • Full 9 Trailer Online - The Tim Burton film based on the Shane Acker short film of the same name. The trailer adds voice, and a lot more action, but you can see it is an accurate in the visuals, and this is a good fit for Burton.
  • First Full Trailer for Bruce Willis' Surrogates - Disney has debuted the first official trailer for the new Bruce Willis sci-fi thriller Surrogates. Directed by former Terminator 3 director Jonathan Mostow, the movie is about a future where humans interact using surrogate robots while staying in the comfort of their homes. 
  • Lucy Pinder Use ...to Promote Racing :P - She is helping to promote racing it seems, and their advertising campaign will probably succeed :P 
  • Bar Refaeli bikini pictures - I will never not post Bar Refaeli bikini pictures, so if that's the type of thing that might annoy you, I'm afraid you're just going to have to live with it :-)
 Gameguru Mania News - May,20 2009 - tech
TechNews - Windows 7 Much More Expensive... - tech
(hx) 12:11 PM CEST - May,20 2009 - Post a comment / read (1)
  • AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Tested - Is Faster than Q9550? - As you can guess by the name, this CPU clearly has Intel's Core 2 Quad Q9550 in its sights as a targe
  • Single-PCB GTX 295 comes in late May - VR-Zone reports that the single-PCB Geforce GTX 295 is officially launching in late May. Nvidia's control freak machine could not keep these cards under wraps until the launch date, but there is little to be excited about this card. The performance is the same, the clocks are the same but TDP should be a tad different. GTX 295 single-PCB should hold the performance crown until GT300 launches later this year, as we don't expect any high end updates from Nvidia before Q4 2009. It also looks like ATI's performance DirectX 11 card won't be launching before Q4 2009 either, so Nvidia should not have much to worry about. 
  • Mainstream AM3 - AMD 790GX Motherboard Showdown - Hardwarezone covers three of the top Socket AM3 790GX boards available now from ASUS, BIOSTAR and MS
  • ASUS Rampage II GENE Sneak Peek (video) - check it out!
  • ASUS W90 18.4inch Notebook - A True Desktop Replacement - This baby offers incredible gaming ability (with an X2 ATI card), a Quad-Core processor, a massive display (18.4") and a whole lot more.
  • HP HDX 18t Premium Series 18inch Notebook Tested (video) - HP's HDX 18t Premium Series Notebook is a mammoth 18inch desktop replacement machine with a wealth of multimedia-targeted features and capabilities on board. With a stylish, glossy exterior, large keyboard area with touch-sensitive illuminated buttons, a TV tuner and remote control, this machine screams Media Center PC. It has a fair bit of gaming under the hood as well, with NVIDIA's GeForce 9600M GT powering its graphics subsystem. It's a well-rounded machine at a fair price ($1599 as tested), that will serve a multitude of usage scenarios for the family or power user with perhaps the exception of hardcore gaming solely focused on frame rate. All told we think the HP HDX 18t is a solid value for the money, is well built and specified and with stylish good looks, will dress up the coffee table quite nicely.
  • Dell Reveals Windows 7 Much More Expensive Than Vista - Looks like new details about Windows 7 pricing have emerged from Dell, via CNET's Brooke Crothers, indicating that Windows 7 license prices will be much higher than with Vista. 
  • Thurrott: Final version of Windows 7 coming October 15 - Windows guru Paul Thurrott claims that Windows 7 will be released to the public on Thursday, October 15. But as he says, this is "according to the current schedule."  
    In other news, he posted screenshots of Windows 7 Build 7127.
  • Using Your PC In Bed - It would seem that a large number of people use their PCs in bed, some as much as 6 hours a week :-o 
  • Microsoft Offers My Phone Beta To The Public -  Microsoft has opened the beta of its My Phone cloud-based synchronization service to the public, giving the masses a chance to test drive Microsoft's counterpart to Apple's MobileMe service. The free My Phone service lets users back up their smartphone data to up to 200 megabytes of storage space on a Microsoft-hosted Web site, and makes this information accessible through a Web browser. The idea is to give smartphone users an easy way to restore data to a lost or stolen device, or to quickly migrate data from an old device to a new one. 
  • New iPhone to launch July 17, full specs leaked? - Wired is reporting that a source closely connected to the Apple hardware team is giving out details about the suspected upcoming revision of the iPhone. Among the most important details are a launch date of July 17 (a Friday) and that it will come in two flavors of 16GB at $199.99 and 32GB at $299.99 
  • Google Street View Trike (video) - The Google Maps photography project is not only available through cam-equipped cars. 
  • ABC's creepy 'V' remake (video) - ABC entertainment president Steve McPherson says his network's remake of the 1980s miniseries "V" could consist of four seasons, planned in advance, each with 13-22 episodes each. The show is planned for midseason. 
  • Sherlock Holmes Trailer Online - A Trailer has hit the net for Guy Ritchie's take on Sherlock Holmes. Downey is charming. The action looks good. And Rachel McAdams looks hot in lingerie. If there is a good plot, even better.
  • First Three Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen TV Spots - MichaelBay.com has posted three new TV spots for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen in glorious high definiton! 
  • Don't Be Fat (pic) - Heh, underweight people can also be embarrassed by that ;-)
  • Damn, I'm a little bit over the speed limit (pic) - Photoshopped? Probably yes...In related news, here's Top 40 Photoshopped Images
  • Start Wandows Ngrmadly (pic) - Bad wandows. bad bad bad wandows :-D
  • Angelina Christina Photos -  Yay!
  • Flexible Girls Photos - Imagine if your girlfriend could....do this :-)
 Gameguru Mania News - May,19 2009 - tech
ATI Catalyst 9.5 Display Driver - tech
(hx) 09:30 PM CEST - May,19 2009 - Post a comment / read (5)
All you Radeon owners should head on over to the AMD/ATi website and grab the new Catalyst 9.5 drivers. The link to the patch notes still points to v9.4 PDF release notes, so for now there's no word on what's changed. Grab them if you need them!

Update: The drivers bring full support for Windows 7. Otherwise, the 9.5 Catalysts are supposed to improve performance in Company of Heroes and BattleForge by up to 10%. AMD also claims it has resolved "a number of issues" with the ATI Video Converter.
 Gameguru Mania News - May,17 2009 - tech
Sunday Reading - EU proposal could 'stifle' games - tech
(hx) 09:52 PM CEST - May,17 2009 - Post a comment / read (2)
  • Phenom II Processors and DDR3 Memory - What concerns performance comparison with DDR2 and DDR3 memory, DDR3-1333 brings only an advantage in memory bandwidth, while random seek latencies are higher than in DDR2-1066. DDR3-1600 is better than DDR2-1066 in all parameters already. And vice versa: it's clearly a bad idea to use DDR3-1066, as its bandwidth is similar to that of DDR2 at the same frequency, and its latencies are higher. By the way, it unexpectedly turned out that Apacer modules (DDR3-1333) worked well at 1600 MHz, their voltage raised only to 1.6 V.
  • 4-Way SSD Round-Up Redux, OCZ, Corsair, Kingston, SuperTalent - The Corsair P256 is the most expensive overall, its cost per gigabyte is the best, and it has the largest capacity. The Super Talent UltraDrive ME is the least expensive overall and comes in second in the price per gigabyte category. OCZ's Vertex Series SSD is the second most expensive drive both in overall price and cost per gigabyte, and at almost four bucks per gigabyte the Intel-based Kingston drive is clearly the most expensive according to that metric.
  • Proposed EU rule could offer 2-year software guarantee - If this EU proposal becomes law though, European consumers stuck in either situation would be able to return the game in question without issue. According to the proposal, consumers would be guaranteed that their games would work for up to 2 years.
  • Windows Feedback Program participants can get Windows 7 gift (US) -  Are you looking to get a copy of Windows 7 when it's released sometime later this year? Well it looks like Microsoft is giving out a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate to participants of the Windows Feedback Program who meet certain criteria. 
  • Sony Pictures CEO Hates the Internet - Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO, Michael Lynton, had the following to say about the Internet at a breakfast co-hosted by The New Yorker and the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. "I'm a guy who doesn't see anything good having come from the Internet...(The Internet) created this notion that anyone can have whatever they want at any given time. It's as if the stores on Madison Avenue were open 24 hours a day. They feel entitled. They say, 'Give it to me now,' and if you don't give it to them for free, they'll steal it. "
  • Hackers 'destroy' flight sim site - The site, which launched in 1996, covered all aspects of flight simulation, although its main focus was on Microsoft's Flight Simulator. The attack took down the site's two servers and the owners had not established an external backup system. The site's founder, Tom Allensworth, said that the site would be down for the foreseeable future and was unsure if would ever go back up.
  • Bobby Lashley vs Mike Cook Full High Quality (video) - MFC 21 Maximum Fighting Championships - Bobby Lashley vs Mike Cook full fight video recorded from stream.
 Gameguru Mania News - May,16 2009 - tech
TechNews - Windows 7 build 7127 leaked - tech
(hx) 03:35 PM CEST - May,16 2009 - Post a comment
  • Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 3.16GHz 1333MHz FSB Processor Tested - The Intel Core 2 Duo E8500, with its 3.16GHz clock speed, 1333MHz FSB speed and 6MB of L2 cache, remains a force to be reckoned with. In real-world office applications the E8500 was generally a little faster than the Phenom II X4 955 and a little slower than the Core i7 920. All processors are absolutely fast enough for average desktop applications likely to be encountered in the office or at home. The same holds true during gaming, where the majority of titles are more suited to high-frequency dual-core processors rather than parallel quad-core processors.
  • Intel Fined Record $1.45 Billion in Antitrust Case (+ updates) - The European Commission on Wednesday fined Intel a record of about $1.45 billion (1.06 billion euros) for abusing its dominance in the market for computer chips to exclude Advanced Micro Devices, which is Intel's only serious rival, The New York Times's James Kanter reported
  • Creative Labs Charges 'Maintenance Fee' For Rebate - The Consumerist reports on a discovery made by someone attempting to collect on a $10.00 rebate from Creative Labs that came in the form of a debit card. The card was denied when it was used, because Creative charged a $3.00 maintenance fee to the card every month until its balance reached zero. They point out that this really does make this Creative rebate a "creative rebate," and wisely suggest that if you have such a rebate card you should make use of it before suffering a similar fate. 
  • ATI RADEON HD 4890 1024MB Tested - This graphics card is somewhere between RADEON HD 4870 1GB and HD 4870 X2 in terms of performance and price, but closer to the former, of course. The new product is positioned against GeForce GTX 275, which corresponds to the recommended price of $260. 
  • Inno3D iChill GTX275 Tested  - The card comes with 896MB of GDDR3 clocked at 2350MHz, the core running at 670MHz, and shaders at 1474MHz, all on a 55nm fabrication process with 240 stream processors. Overall, the card matches specifications of a GTX 280/285 and half of a GTX 295 on stream processors, and matches a GTX 260 and GTX 295 with 896MB of memory. Power usage and efficiency, along with overall clock speed and overclocking ability, should be improved over the older GTX 280, while the smaller memory bus (448-bit) and 128MB less memory may take a little away from the card compared to the 512-bit 1GB memory on the GTX 280/285s. 
  • ASUS ENGTX260 Matrix GeForce GTX 260 Tested - The build quality of the product is well above average, especially the assembly of the PCB with its hundreds of components, all precisely positioned and soldered. You do see some variability in this from different suppliers; it's not a given. In addition all the components and materials are first rate
  • Is it worth upgrading your notebook to an SSD drive? - In every test they performed, the SSD came out in front and not by just a small margin, but a massive one. From the raw results under HD Tune Pro where the hugely fast throughput of the Intel X25-M showed its face, through to the much faster boot times with SSD installed and finally to the power consumption results where the SSD also showed its strength in managing to save power. 
  • TRENDNet TV-IP422W Wireless IP Camera Server with 2-way Audio - The TV-IP422W is very impressive. The functionality TRENDNet put into this makes it a great device for home security. It is very easy to setup, simple to maintain and with its advanced notification and automated event recording it is almost hassle free. I was a little disappointed with the focusing method; I felt an infinite focus or something a little easier to control would have been a better option. As it stands, when you focus your hands end up blocking the view, so getting things exact for the distance you want to see detail for can be complicated. 
  • Windows 7 build 7127 leaked - This time around it's the second RTM branch build to leak, 7127. Approximately a month after 7106 leaked. The build string is 7127.0.090507-1820 meaning it was compiled just over a week ago so it's still fresh off the blocks. Microsoft is progressing steadily with the RTM branch and company insiders have indicated the software giant is well on target to finalise the RTM build over the summer.  Microsoft is expected to announce general availability of Windows 7 for before the Christmas period, cashing in on holiday PC purchasers.
  • Windows 7 Boosts Hyper-Threading Support - Windows 7's improved hyper-threading support could be good news for users of processor-intensive applications, such as 3-D games and graphics programs. The catch is that the applications themselves must be written in such a way as to take advantage of hyper-threading. To date, only a small percentage of apps include that capability. 
  • Pirated Windows 7 Builds Botnet with Trojan - Got yourself a copy of Windows 7 using BitTorrent instead of the official release candidate?
  • Microsoft: Office 2010 Info - Microsoft's Reed Shaffner posted some info on the upcoming MS Office 2010 
  • Swedish government tries to collect fine from The Pirate Bay - The Swedish government's official enforcement bureau told The Pirate Bay defendants that it wants nearly half of their total fine paid right away, and it will be freezing bank accounts until it gets the money. 
  • Hackintosh Netbooks Experience 33% Battery Life Boost - This isn't at all confirmed or verified, but it seems that loading up an otherwise Windows-equipped netbook with Mac OS X can boost the battery life on the little computer by up to 33%. 
  • Apple responds to Microsoft's Laptop Hunters... with a Megan - Not exactly true but still funny and it shows that Apple is worried about Microsoft's ads by responding so quickly.
  • China has invented 'a secure computer OS' - The Inquirer reports that China has invented 'a secure computer OS' which they claim cannot be hacked.
  • Inside Microsoft's home of the future (video) - We have seen pictures of Microsoft's home of the future concept previously but this time the BBC has recorded a tour of the unit based at Microsoft's HQ in Redmond. The video demonstrates speech and object recognition software that Microsoft is currently working on in its research divisions.
  • OLED lighting concept video from GE - GE has released a video showing all sorts of design concepts using thin, flexible OLED lighting panels. There is OLEDs that can be worn for emergency safety gear, illuminated stairs, walls and signs in stores and also a nice looking wall peel OLED lamp. GE is working towards roll-to-roll printing of OLEDs and is also planning to bring out OLED lighting products by the year 2010
  • Mission Seedbomb to stop deforestation and desertification - The seedbomb is not a military bomb as the name suggests but it is for protecting the Earth!
  • Video Featurette for Clive Barker's Dread  - Quiet Earth have dug up the first promo reel for Dread, the newest Clive Barker adaptation from Anthony DiBlasi. The film stars Jackson Rathbone and Shaun Evans and is about the idea of dread in life. 
  • Tremendous Trailer for Lee Daniels' Precious - Precious stars Mo'Nique, Lenny Kravitz, Mariah Carey, and one of the most amazing first-time lead actresses you'll ever see, Gabby Sidibe. Lionsgate will release Precious in limited theaters starting on November 6th later this year.
  • John Hillcoat's The Road Finally Gets a Trailer! - After nearly endless delays, The Weinstein Company has finally debuted the trailer for The Road, the highly anticipated adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic novel. The film tells the story of a man (Viggo Mortensen) and his young son (Kodi Smit McPhee.) traveling through a desperate, post-apocalyptic world.
  • White House Briefing Interrupted By Cell Phones (video) - White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs Takes Ringing Phone From Reporter [John Gizzi] During Briefing. Nice :-) This video just proves, that even in the White House, a group of people can reduce themselves to a classroom of kids. 
  • Talking About Windows: Russinovich Favorite (video) - Meet Trevor and Sam. Like any I.T. Professional, they're passionate about technology. They're smart. They're hard-working. They just happen to be 10 years old. As administrators of the Garfield Elementary School Computer Lab, they encounter the usual and not-so-usual: angry end users, security breaches, spinning donuts, and patch day. Watch as the two whiz kids navigate the road to a modern operating system...as only kids can do.
  • Cheryl Tweedy Does Hello Magazine - Cheryl Ann Cole (aka Tweedy, born June 30, 1983) is a British singer and member of the band Girls Aloud. 
  • Joanna Krupa at Maxim Hot 100 Celebration - Joanna Krupa attended the Maxim Hot 100 Celebration, and even though the model wasn't in the top 10, I think she's definitely a looker!
 Gameguru Mania News - May,12 2009 - tech
TechNews - Firefox to add Multi-process support - tech
(hx) 03:54 PM CEST - May,12 2009 - Post a comment / read (1)
  • New 45nm Athlons, Phenoms coming out soon - Likely to arrive next month (maybe at Computex), the e-series DDR3-supporting quad- and triple-core CPUs bear both the Phenom and Athlon brands and feature TDPs of 45W and 65W (depending on model). As detailed in the chart, the 65W AM3 line-up includes two Phenom II X4s (905e and 900e) and two X3s (705e and 700e), while the 45W pack features the L3 cache-less Athlon II X4 605e, 600e, X3 405e and 400e. The processors' prices have yet to be revealed.
  • New Corsair SSD stores 256GB, costs $669 - Corsair has introduced the P256, a 2.5-inch SSD with a 256GB capacity, nice performance ratings, and a sub-$700 price tag. Transfer speeds should top out at 220MB/s for reads and 200MB/s for writes!
  • nForce 15.37 Drivers For Windows 7 - If you are a nForce based motherboard owner that is running the new Windows 7 release candidate, head on over to NVIDIA's driver download page and get your download on.
  • Windows 7 RC Installation with DVD and USB (video) - check it out
  • Trying out Windows 7's XP Mode - Getting those to work is relatively simple: just open up your virtual XP desktop and install an application of your choosing. You're free to run the app within the virtual desktop, but a shortcut for it will also appear in the Windows 7 Start menu, under "Virtual Windows XP Applications." Click on that with the VM closed, and Virtual PC will let you load the VM silently and open the app inside an XP-themed window within your Windows 7 desktop. Neat.
  • ESET Smart Security 4 reviewed - ESET Smart Security 4 is an effective security solution. As an added bonus, is easy to install and use, and doesn't slow down your computer. And unlike some other suites, all of the tools within ESET Smart Security 4 look and feel part of the same program. For getting your anti-virus, firewall and spam protection tools in one box, ESET Smart Security 4 is a solid choice. But its overall malware protection isn't as strong as Webroot's Internet Security Essentials (WISE) and it has no parental controls or backup utilities.
  • Mozilla Firefox to add Multi-process support - Mozilla has announced a new project that allows the web browser to run several processes at a time - one running the main user interface and several to run the web content in each tab. The benefit of this is that if one tab happens to crash, it will not take down the entire web browser. 
  • Apple Rejects Bittorrent Control App - Apple seems to have decided that any app that has anything to do with BitTorrent (even if the app does not download/upload anything!) is treated as doing something that 'is often used for the purpose of infringing third party rights,' and will therefore likely be rejected. 
  • Cablevision 101Mbps to have $300 'activation fee' - Late last month Cablevision took the wraps off of a new 101Mbps downstream and 15Mbps upstream DOCSIS 3.0 tier called Ultra. Users in our Cablevision forum are running the new tier through its paces. While the $99.95 per month price tag is tasty, some users have been surprised to note that there's a $300 "activation fee" for the new tier in addition to an installation fee of up to $34.95.
  • Samsung Alias 2 'Magic Keypad' in Action (video) - Easily the most notable feature on the Samsung Alias 2 is the 'Magic Keypad.' IT makes use of electronic ink technology to change the button labels on the fly, operating in a similar way as the screen on the Amazon Kindle. As a dual flip phone, you can open the Alias 2 one way and reveal a numeric keypad. Open it the other way and you gain access to a full slate of QWERTY. Further still, you could be given app-specific buttons, like the calculator shown here. Presumably, the web browser will provide buttons for back, forward, refresh, and so on. 
  • Indian students design an air-powered motorcycle -  A group of Indian engineering students has invented a unique pollution free bike which runs on air pressure and does not emit carbon into the atmosphere.It takes air as fuel and emit air as exhaust. Equipped with two compressed air cylinders, the 100cc bike currently runs at a speed of 18km per hour, but the students hope to make it faster.
  • Hover Car - Prototype (video) - Preview of the futuristic 'X-Hawk' hover car, designed for vertical landing and takeoff in cities
  • I-Movix SprintCam v3 NAB 2009 showreel (video) -  Here is the first SprintCam v3 showreel, made for NAB 2009 exhibition. Mostly 1000FPS shots, made during a recent rugby competition in the Stade de France, Paris.
  • First Prince Of Persia Movie Footage - In the film, Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal), a young prince in sixth century Persia, must join forces with Tamina (Gemma Arterton), a feisty and exotic princess, to prevent a villainous nobleman from possessing the Sands of Time, a gift from the gods that can reverse time and allow its possessor to rule the world. Disney has pushed the release date back all the way to May 28th, 2010 next summer.
  • Gamer Trailer - The new Gamer trailer is now online. The new film from our friends Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (Crank, Crank 2). Set in a future-world where humans can control other humans in mass-scale, multi-player online gaming environments, a star player named Kable (Gerard Butler) from a game called "Slayers" looks to regain his freedom and escape the prison while taking down the game's twisted mastermind (Michael C. Hall). Gamer is tentatively set for release via Lionsgate on September 4th this year. 
  • Second Full Trailer for Will Ferrell's Land of the Lost - Universal has debuted the second full length trailer for Land of the Lost, the summer comedy starring Will Ferrell, Danny McBride, Anna Friel, and Jorma Taccone. Universal's Land of the Lost hits theaters everywhere this summer on June 5th.
  • Starship Enterprise Destroyed by the Death Star (video) - Military force was authorized yesterday minutes after the E.T.'s 48 hour deadline had passed. The E.T.'s, were given an ultimatum to cease all whale poaching and quit Earth. 
  • 'Noob' could be the millionth English word - The millionth word in the English language could end up being noob? Now that is pretty damn funny! 
  • Physics Win (pic) - How many times do you think he busted his ass to get that right? ;-)
  • Adriana Lima as Cleopatra (pics) - Here's Adriana Lima looking like a modern day Cleopatra at the launch of Victoria's Secret 'Noir Fragrance and Body Care Collection'.
  • Hayden Panettiere is 'InStyle' UK: May 2009 Issue - The Heroes hottie Hayden Panettiere shows off her stunning photoshoot for the UK edition of InStyle magazine.
Windows 7 Release Confirmed for Dec 2009 - tech
(hx) 01:17 AM CEST - May,12 2009 - Post a comment / read (1)
Microsoft has today finally updated the release plan for its upcoming operating system. In a press release the Redmond company mentioned that Windows 7 "will be available to customers in time for the holiday shopping season," with Windows Server 2008 R2 set to come about around the same time. "With early RC testing and extensive partner feedback we've received, Windows 7 is tracking well for holiday availability," said Bill Veghte, senior vice president of the Windows Business at Microsoft.
 Gameguru Mania News - May,09 2009 - tech
NVIDIA ForceWare WHQL Drivers v185.85 - tech
(hx) 12:41 AM CEST - May,09 2009 - Post a comment
There are brand new GeForce 185.85 reference drivers out today for Windows XP, Windows XP x64, Windows Vista 32-bit, and Windows Vista 64-bit. According to the release highlights, these new drivers support GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9, 100, and 200-series desktop GPUs and the ION platform. With their ForceWare 185 series driver, NVIDIA has incorporated a host of new improvements, including performance optimizations and support for ambient occlusion. Up to this point though, all ForceWare 185 driver releases have been betas; some users just aren't comfortable running beta graphics drivers. That's all changed now though. NVIDIA's latest ForceWare 185 release, version 185.85 is WHQL-certified and ready for Windows XP, Vista, and even Windows 7. If you downloaded 185.81, nothing has changed, but those of you still running ForceWare 182 or early ForceWare 185 drivers will probably want to upgrade. Grab them if you need them!
 Gameguru Mania News - May,07 2009 - tech
TechNews - The iSnort Demo - tech
(hx) 03:53 AM CEST - May,07 2009 - Post a comment / read (1)
  • Intel DX58SO X58 Express Chipset Motherboard Tested -  It was a little unusual for the DDR3 slots to be placed at the top of the board, but it was not an issue. I did not care for the placement of the 8-pin 12v connector on this board, but once again, that was just a preference and did not get in the way on our test bench. I could see it being an issue for those using cases that are large though, as your connector may not be able to reach. Setup was also very easy. It just worked, which is always a nice surprise! 
  • GMABooster - Improving Intel GMA IGP netbook performance - The GMABooster application is easy to use, costs nothing and works. The only bad things I can say are that you have to download a new version each week and the server used for the downloads is a bit annoying with its wait period for free downloads. 
  • Dell Studio XPS 13 Ultraportable Notebook Evaluation -  The trackpad could use a little work, and we wouldn't cry over seeing a few more USB 2.0 sockets, but overall we think Dell has a victory on its hands here. It should also be noted that we never managed to crash the machine or see any signs of instability -- a few hiccups here and there, but nothing more. The only real hesitation we have is with the price: starting at $1099, this is definitely no budget machine. As it stands, we can only recommend this for true performance-minded folks who are willing to pay a premium for potency in a highly portable package. If that's you, however, you're in for a real treat. 
  • Laptop Memory Expansion Options - Hardware Secrets posted an article on Laptop Memory Expansion Options
  • Windows XP Mode and Windows Virtual PC Beta - SuperSite for Windows takes a look at the updated version of Windows XP Mode, which is available for MSDN/TechNet subscribers.
  • Personalization Gets Boost in Windows 7 RC - The Windows 7 Engineering blog has a post about the new personalization features available in the RC.
  • Microsoft release 2 updates for IE8 on Windows 7 RC - Microsoft has released two new updates for Internet Explorer 8 on Windows 7 RC, via Windows Update
  • Microsoft seeking feedback for Internet Explorer 9 - Was there something in IE8 that wasn't fixed or a new bug you've found? Well the IE8 team is seeking your feedback (If you had access to the Microsoft Connect website during the beta). So if you have a bug, suggestion, or a feature you'd like to see added to Internet Explorer 9, now is the time to let the folks up in Redmond know. 
  • An open letter to Microsoft on Windows 8 - So guys, what's your opinion? 
  • Tool Allows for Hijacking of Facebook Accounts - FBController analyzes the communications that Facebook has with computers when they interact with the site and uses that information, along with the cookie data, to allow for accounts to be hijacked, said 26-year-old Azim Poonawala, who wrote the tool and provides details on his blog.
  • The PC is 'Rapidly Becoming World's Largest Gaming Platform' - The PC is rapidly becoming the largest gaming platform in the world? I thought everyone said that gaming on the PC was dead and dying? 
  • Apple to replace water-damaged iPhones for $199 - According to ifoAppleStore, the new policy pertains to out-of-warranty incidents that would normally require the purchase of a new phone, but does so at the expense of triggering an extention of the owner's two-year AT&T wireless service contract. Customers who trade-in their water damaged phones will be given a factory refurbished model -- not a new iPhone -- and can then transfer the SIM card from their damaged handset into the refurbished device. Apple began including liquid submersion indicators, or LSIs, in its portable products around the time it introduced its first iPhone. They irreversibly change color once they come in contact with a liquid, thereby offering the company's retail store staff and authorized repair specialists an easy way to determine if a customer caused damage to their product with liquids -- incidents that aren't covered under Apple's standard warranties. 
  • The iSnort Demo (video) - This is a demonstration of a simulated Apple iPhone / iTouch Application invented by Directed and Produced by Irish (Belfast-based) Filmmaker / Action Artist Peter 'Magic' Johnston. Animation and a Co-Directing credit goes to Steven Henry.
  • Store 250 DVDs on a Sapphire crystal - Sapphire crystals may be the next material to transform the electronics industry, thanks to nanotechnology researchers who have announced a new way of storing data that would fit the contents of 250 DVDs on a coin-sized surface.
  • Trent Reznor Compares Apple to Wal-Mart - Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor is none too happy with Apple after the band's iPhone app update was rejected because it contains objectionable content.
  • IFPI Goes After Torrent Site Hosting Providers - Instead of targeting the tracker owners, IFPI is going directly to the hosting providers with a request to take the sites offline. One of the providers that has received a letter from IFPI is DCP Networks, who rent servers to TorrentBytes - one of the larger BitTorrent trackers.
  • ShiftBrite Coffee Table (video) - IKEA Granas side table (over 2x2 feet, big enough for coffee table) with 9x9 array of 81 ShiftBrite RGB LED modules. 
  • Video of Virgin Galactic's Test Flight - Wired.com got its mitts on the first official cockpit video and other footage from the recent test of Virgin Mothership Eve at the Scaled Composites skunkworks operation in sunny SoCal. Scaled Composites and Virgin tend to keep the test results hush-hush but say 'several recent published articles have been sufficiently inaccurate and negative' to make them 'set the record straight.'
  • Opening Scene from Francis Ford Coppola's Tetro - Tetro is both written and directed by profound Academy Award winning filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, of everything from Dementia 13 to all three The Godfather films to Apocalypse Now to Rumble Fish to Bram Stoker's Dracula to John Grisham's The Rainmaker to Youth Without Youth most recently. The film was shot in Argentina last year and is being released independently by Coppola's own American Zoetrope. Tetro is tentatively set to debut in limited theaters in the US starting on June 11th this upcoming summer.
  • Trailer for Indonesian Martial Arts Film Merantau - Merantau is both written and directed by Welsh born filmmaker Gareth Evans, of only a thriller called Footsteps from 2006 previously. The film is presented by Pt. Merantau Films and opens in theaters in Jakarta, Indonesia in August later this year, but it doesn't have an official US distributor yet, as far as we know.
  • Awesome TV Spots for Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell! - Even nice people can go to hell! If you've been on the edge about Drag Me to Hell since first seeing the trailer, then do yourself a favor and watch these TV spots.
  • Weirdest car accident ever caught on camera (video) - You really want to count how many guys got out of the vehicle!
  • Good Morning, Megan Fox (video) - Megan Fox + Beer + Grill = Every Man's Dream :-)
  • Heidi Montag in a Bikini - Heidi Montag took time out of her honeymoon in Mexico to model a bikini for the camera.
 Gameguru Mania News - May,05 2009 - tech
Windows 7 RC download goes live - tech
(hx) 11:53 AM CEST - May,05 2009 - Post a comment / read (2)
The wait is over! Microsoft has published the download page for the Windows 7 RC. Coming straight from the download page, here are Microsoft's notes for the release candidate:
* You don't need to rush to get the RC. The RC will be available at least through July 2009 and we're not limiting the number of product keys, so you have plenty of time.

* Watch the calendar. The RC will expire on June 1, 2010. Starting on March 1, 2010, your PC will begin shutting down every two hours. Windows will notify you two weeks before the bi-hourly shutdowns start. To avoid interruption, you'll need to install a non-expired version of Windows before March 1, 2010. You'll also need to install the programs and data that you want to use. (Learn more about installing Windows.)

* Protect your PC and data. Be sure to back up your data and please don't test the RC on your primary home or business PC.

* Tech details/updates: Before installing the RC, please read the Release Notes and Things to Know for important information about the release.

* Keep up with the news. You can keep up with general technical information and news by following the team blog. And, you can get non-technical news, tips, and offers by subscribing to the monthly Exploring Windows newsletter.

* Keep your PC updated: Be sure to turn on automatic updates in Windows Update in case we publish updates for the RC.

* Installation: You can install the Windows 7 RC on a PC running Windows Vista without backing up the PC—but we encourage you to make a backup for safe keeping. If you're running Windows XP or the Windows 7 Beta, you'll need to backup your data, then do a clean installation of the RC, then reinstall your applications and restore your data. If you need to do a backup, please see How to back up your PC for more details and a suggestion for how to backup a PC running Windows 7 Beta or Windows Vista.
On a side note, it appears as if you will be issued a new product key for the RC. It is most likely going to give you the extended time for using the RC if you have downloaded from another source. Installation instructions can be found here.
 Gameguru Mania News - May,01 2009 - tech
TechNews - Radeon HD 4770 is one of the best buys - tech
(hx) 02:14 PM CEST - May,01 2009 - Post a comment / read (3)
  • ATI Radeon HD 4770 Tested - Great Gaming Performance for Under $100? - The Radeon HD 4770 is one of the best buys at its expected price point currently. Performance is strong in light of competing offerings, the price is right, and the card is cheaper to operate over time than anything else in its class. Anyone in the market for a new graphics card priced around a hundred bucks should definitely consider the new AMD ATI Radeon HD 4770.
  • Crossfire vs SLI Performance Comparison - With just raw cost as a factor the GTX 295 quad GPU setup will set you back just over $1100, while the HD 4870x2 combo will only (insert sarcasm here) set you back $800-$1000 depending on the cards you buy. The Sapphire cards will only set you back 400 bucks each, instead of the more popular pricing of 500 bucks. In the single GPU card class, the GTX 285 combo will cost you almost $700 - at a cozy $680 - while the HD 4890 combo only goes for $530, with prices scaling downward based on the video card's capabilities. That being said, the best value per frame per second delivered is the GTX 260 SLI combination at $3.44 per FPS at 1920x1200, and $4.59 per frame at 2560x1600. In most of the games tested, the GTX 260 SLI combo did not deliver the best performance, but it was able to hold its own. Raw performance goes to the Quad SLI GTX 295 combo
  • GE Succesfully Demonstrates 500GB Holographic Disc - General Electric announced that it has made a breakthrough in holographic disc technology that could lead to affordable 500GB optical discs that measure the size of traditional DVDs. 
  • Windows 7 Release Candidate RC Review - TechReviewSource: Overall, we can comfortably say that Windows 7 is the best version of the Windows operating system to date. As we said in our beta 1 review, Windows 7 has the stability of Windows XP and the look and feel of Windows Vista. The operating system responds quickly and without hesitation and generally feels like it works nicely. 
  • Windows XP Mode Internals - Overview - Windows XP Mode will be installable on three Windows 7 SKUs: Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate. More specifically, the license policy VirtualXP-licensing-Enabled is only installed and present in these SKUs, of which XPM checks upon use. 
  • AutoRun changes in Windows 7 - AutoPlay will no longer support the AutoRun functionality for non-optical removable media. In other words, AutoPlay will still work for CD/DVDs but it will no longer work for USB drives. For example, if an infected USB drive is inserted on a machine then the AutoRun task will not be displayed. This will block the increasing social engineer threat highlighted in the SIR. The dialogs below highlight the difference that users will see after this change. Before the change, the malware is leveraging AutoRun (box in red) to confuse the user. After the change, AutoRun will no longer work, so the AutoPlay options are safe
  • More Windows 7 Release Candidate details - Paul Thurrott has posted a few more interesting details about the upcoming Windows 7 Release Candidate.
  • Windows 7 RC1 to be usable until June 2010 - Wanna switch to Windows 7 before the full version comes out, but don't want to pay for the upgrade? No problem - just stick with the release candidate for a while. PC World reports that licenses for Windows 7 RC1 won't expire until June 2010.
  • Windows 7 RC1 vs. Vista: First Benchmarks - The results are a bit of a mixed bag: Windows 7 RC1 consistently beat Vista in raw benchmarks by a small margin, and lagged slightly behind Vista in some very real world measures. What's really interesting is that in regular usage, Windows 7 still feels faster and more responsive than Vista, even though the objective numbers say otherwise. It's more than just a simple "hey it's not Vista" placebo effect: It points to a slicker, refined user experience that makes you feel like the OS responds more hastily or smoothly to your whims.
  • Ubuntu 9.04 as slick as Windows 7, Mac OS X -CNET favorably compares the 'Jaunty Jackalope' desktop to Microsoft's and Apple's latest.
  • Microsoft Offers Secure Windows - But Only to the Government -  It's the most secure distribution version of Windows XP ever produced by Microsoft: More than 600 settings are locked down tight, and critical security patches can be installed in an average of 72 hours instead of 57 days.  The only problem is, you have to join the Air Force to get it :P
  • Adobe PDF Vulnerability alert - Adobe has warned that its Reader and Acrobat PDF software is vulnerable to an unpatched vulnerability. A pair of flaws in the JavaScript functions of the PDF reading application are behind the problem, prompting Adobe to advise surfers to disable JavaScript as a workaround, pending the availability of a patch
  • Mobile Google Product Search Helps You Shop for Deals (video) - To give you a better sense of what to expect from the mobile version of Google Product Search, check out the demo video that shows you how to buy lava lamps on the go.
  • Experts Warn Internet Is Running Out of Bandwidth - Experts predict that consumer demand, already growing at 60 percent a year, will start to exceed supply as early as 2010 because of more people working online and the soaring popularity of bandwidth-hungry Web sites such as YouTube and services such as the BBC's iPlayer.
  • Own Your Own Internet Connection (video) - You guys should watch this video of Google's policy analyst talking about actually owning the internet connection that runs to your house
  • Track The Swine Flu Online - Thanks to modern technology and the internet, you can finally track deadly outbreaks online via HealthMap. Gone are the days of waiting for your friends to return from a trip overseas to tell your there is an avian flu epidemic, now you can see it all online firsthand! (thanks bluepig)
  • Speakers made from paper (video) - Industrial Technology Research Institute from Taiwan has made paper-thin speakers called Flexspeakers. They will be currently sold in the dimensions of 8.5 x 11 inches sheets costing $20. They will be available in much larger sheets or even rolls. The speakers are made by layering thin electrodes and a prepolarized diaphragm between two thin sheets of paper. Their first application is to use Flexspeakers in cars and next as movie theater posters.
  • A chemical gel that can walk like worms and caterpillars (video) - A Japanese robotics lab has demonstrated a chemical gel that can walk like an inchworm or a looper caterpillar. Shingo Maeda and colleagues made the colour-changing, motile gel by combining polymers that change in size depending on their chemical environment. It is based on an oscillating chemical reaction known as Belousov–Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction.
  • Augmented Reality Magic Trick (video) - Here is the preview version of my augmented reality card trick. Have fun watching and let me know what you think!
  • You Fade To Light (video) - This is a pretty interesting art project that uses hundreds of small OLED screens that mimic the movement of the person in front of the screen.
  • New Terminator Salvation TV Spots - Terminator Salvation arrives in theaters on May 21st this summer.
  • Official Trailer for Max Mayer's Adam - Fox Searchlight has just debuted the official trailer for Max Mayer's Sundance hit Adam. 
  • Case 39 - Creepy Trailer - This trailer starts out looking like your standard thriller about angry, demonic parents who abuse their child, but it suddenly turns into a creepy paranormal horror feature about halfway through. And maybe that's why it hasn't been released yet.
  • G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra - International Trailer - G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra is directed by big action filmmaker Stephen Sommers, of The Jungle Book, Deep Rising, The Mummy, The Mummy Returns, and Van Helsing previously. Paramount will premiere G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra in theaters everywhere on August 7th this year.
  • District 9 Teaser Trailer - Sony has finally debuted the first teaser trailer for District 9, the upcoming alien feature from first-time filmmaker Neill Blomkamp.
  • Brand New Transformers 2 Trailer - I don't care what anyone says… this trailer looks damn amazing :-)
  • Do you have swine flu? - I have a dust mask, 5 gallons of orange juice, 100 teabags of green tea and vitamins for my immune system. Am I safe? :-))
  • Best Video I've Seen Today Will Make You Smile - Wow. Great Idea and definitely well executed. I would have to agree that it's one of the best covers that I've heard. 
  • Video of Air Force Airplane 'Photo-Op' That Caused Panic in New - The Defense Department conducted the photo opportunity, which involved two F-16s escorting the plane, a Boeing 747, over Battery Park City and up the Hudson River.
  • Kellie Crawford in Ralph Magazine - Kellie Crawford an Australian singer, actress and children's performer finally comes on Australian men's magazine Ralph in May 2009 issue
  • Isla Fisher - Allure Magazine - Feb 2009 - The gorgeous Isla Fisher made her way onto another magazine cover. She shines on the cover of February's Allure Magazine.
 Gameguru Mania News - Apr,25 2009 - tech
Windows 7 To Include Windows XP Virtual PC - tech
(hx) 05:29 PM CEST - Apr,25 2009 - Post a comment
Paul Thurrott reports that the final version of Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate will ship with a virtualized installation of Windows XP SP3:
XP Mode consists of the Virtual PC-based virtual environment and a fully licensed copy of Windows XP with Service Pack 3 (SP3). It will be made available, for free, to users of Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions via a download from the Microsoft web site. (That is, it will not be included in the box with Windows 7, but is considered an out-of-band update, like Windows Live Essentials.) XPM works much like today's Virtual PC products, but with one important exception: As with the enterprise-based MED-V (Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization) product, XPM does not require you to run the virtual environment as a separate Windows desktop. Instead, as you install applications inside the virtual XP environment, they are published to the host (Windows 7) OS as well. (With shortcuts placed in the Start Menu.) That way, users can run Windows XP-based applications (like IE 6) alongside Windows 7 applications under a single desktop.

Obviously, XPM has huge ramifications for Windows going forward. By removing the onus of legacy application compatibility from the OS, Microsoft can strip away deadwood technology from future versions of Windows at a speedier clip, because customers who need to run older applications can simply do so with XPM. For Windows 7 specifically, XPM is a huge convenience, especially for Microsoft's corporate customers, who can of course control XPM behavior via standard Microsoft administration and management technologies like Active Directory (AD) and Group Policy (GP). And it significantly recasts the Windows 7 compatibility picture. Before, Microsoft could claim that Windows 7 would be at least as compatible as Windows Vista. Now, they can claim almost complete Windows XP compatibility, or almost 100 percent compatibility with all currently running Windows applications...
 Gameguru Mania News - Apr,24 2009 - tech
TechNews - Ubuntu Linux 9.04 Released - tech
(hx) 11:37 AM CEST - Apr,24 2009 - Post a comment / read (3)
  • Intel cuts some Core 2 prices, intros Core 2 Quad Q8400  - Intel has now tweaked its processor offer by making a few price adjustments and introducing a two more LGA775 quad-cores. The Core 2 Quad Q8400 and Q8400S are both made on 45nm technology, feature a frequency of 2.66 GHz, a 1333 MHz FSB and 4MB of L2 cache. The 95W TDP Q8400 and 65W Q8400S cost $183 and $245 respectively. As for the price cuts, the desktop-prone Q9300, Q9550S, Q9400S and Q8200S went down to $213, $320, $277 and $213 respectively, while three mobile and three server processors, all listed below, faced slashes between 2% and 18%. 
  • AMD overclocks new Phenom II X4 to 7 GHz  - A 7GHz chip is a very healthy prize for AMD. I wouldn't expect them to advertise the power usage on such a thing, but hey, its engineerings, you can't have everything at once. I like AMD a lot, and I just hope they succeed. I know that Nehalem from Intel is a strong series of parts, and AMD has a lot of work to do, but the capital costs are so high in chipmaking that it is doubtful we would see another competitor to Intel emerge in a generation if AMD goes out.
  • Opterons to have 12 cores in early 2010, 16 cores in 2011 - To coincide with the original Opteron processor's sixth anniversary, AMD showed the latest version of its server roadmap to the press. Among other revelations, the company said its 12-core Magny-Cours processors will launch in the first quarter of 2010. A 16-core, 32nm successor based on the next-gen Bulldozer architecture will follow in 2011, as well. 
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 1024MB Tested  - It's essentially the good old GeForce 9800 GTX+, and the tests prove it. When the GTS 250 1024MB performs faster than the 9800 GTX+, in the lion's share of cases these performance gains appear due to the frequency difference (Zotac card operates at higher frequencies). Such products absolutely don't need two GB of memory installed. You can see the difference only at 2560x1600, which is beyond playable. 
  • EVGA releases X58 SLI Hydro Copper waterblock - The X58 Hydro Copper Waterblock (200-CU-HC58-B1) features a sleek-modern look and is fully compatible with all three part numbers of the X58 SLI motherboard. EVGA is calling the engineering work behind this block an 'E-Flow' design, which it claims capable of dropping CPU operating temperature down by as much as half. In testing, the block was able to keep the IOH around 26C
  • Intel SSD Price Cut On April 26th - Intel plans to cut the prices of their SSDs ranging from $50 to $100 this coming Monday on the 26th of April. This is their second price cut on SSDs just two months after they conducted their first price cut in early February. Intel 80GB X18-M and X25-M will see their prices dropped from $385 to $335 while 160GB versions will be lowered from $760 to $660. However, the prices of the SLC models remain unchanged at $410 for 32GB and $790 for the 64GB. 
  • AMD 'Istanbul' Performance Demo - AMD has posted a video comparing the performance between a quad-core AMD Opteron and the upcoming six-core AMD Opteron.
  • Ubuntu Linux 9.04 Released - Ubuntu 9.04 brings a pretty broad cross-section of improvements, from lower boot times to better out-of-the-box support for AMD graphics processors. Ubuntu 9.04 includes the latest GNOME desktop environment, version 2.26, together with a new integrated disc burning application, Brasero, and a new configuration tool for multi-monitor setups and more.
  • Microsoft Discusses Windows 7 Security - Paul Cooke, the director of Windows Client Enterprise Security, took some time out of his busy schedule at the RSA Conference to blog about Windows 7 security enhancements
  • Windows 8? Microsoft already hiring - Is there anyone here at GGMania who fits the bill? ;-)
  • Pentagon computers hacked, several terabytes of data stolen - Computer spies have broken into the Pentagon's $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter project -- the Defense Department's costliest weapons program ever -- according to current and former government officials familiar with the attacks. 
  • Full Disk Encryption for notebooks launches in beta - Security company Check Point Software has begun accepting testers for its ZoneAlarm Full Disk Encryption for Laptops beta program, a program designed to make sensitive data saved on notebooks more difficult to extract if the computer is stolen. While Full Disk Encryption is turned on, the user must enter an additional password before Windows starts up. Once in Windows, the software encrypts unused files, including even deleted and temporary ones, and decrypts only the files currently in use.
  • Is this the state of the Android netbook? (video) - German site Netbooknews.de posted a video displaying a quick demo of the I-Buddie ultra-portable running Android. While it does show a mostly working Android environment on what claims to be an Atom N270-based 10.2" netbook, the errors are frequent and functionality is low. In under a minute, there are three force-close messages, and there's really no show of any applications running -- arguably the most important facet of platform adoption.
  • PCs Need $600 Extra to Perform As Well As a Mac! - Of course, PHOTOSHOP IS NOT FREE FOR MAC, but you can have Express or Gimp for free in both. It is clear that CNBC put this kind of story because they are trying to manipulate the market. I am sure they are shorting Apple, which is probably the right thing to do because less people buy expensive computers in a bad economy. I personally think OS X is better than Windows, but you pay more. 
  • iNap@Work an iPhone app that helps you to take naps while working - Here's a novel concept. The so called iNap@Work helps (I guess) iPhone-ownin' workers in cubicles catch up on some much-needed sleep by creating random common office sounds. As a result, people in other cubicles will think you're working as hard as you can, while in reality you're actually sleeping. :)
  • Portable E-bomb being developed - Researchers at Texas Tech University with US Army funding have built a self powered device measuring 15 cms in diameter and only 1.5 cms in length, making it small enough to be portable. The device is being tested at an arsenal in Huntsville; Alabama should be able to produce a peak power of 35 MW with a pulse length of 100 to 150 nanoseconds, emitting a microwave beam in the 2-6 GHz range. Lab testing on the portable HPM has begun, but the technology is not expected to reach any fields any time soon. 
  • Two men send 217,000 text messages, $26,000 bill - The two were hoping to set a guiness record for the most texts in a month but it has yet to be confirmed by Guiness World Records.
  • It's Official - Robert Rodriguez Really is Rebooting Predator - IESB has just heard via Rodriguez himself at a press conference in Austin, Texas that a Predator reboot is indeed on his slate, not only for him to produce, but also to eventually direct. The original pitch was as follows: "In the reboot a team of commandoes face down a mysterious race of vicious monsters." IMHO, it sounds more like a sequel. It is called Predators and not Predator, so that means that there's going to be multiple Predators in this new one and not just One like in the original. So I wouldn't consider this an actual reboot.
  • Retro Commercial - Radio Shack Cell Phones - 1990 - Introducing a revolutionary new concept... a cell phone you can CARRY WITH YOU. Sure, you have to wind it up and add plutonium, but it's worth it. Ah, the early 90's ;)
  • Oceans Trailer - Disney has launched the trailer for their newest nature movie Oceans, due out in theaters exactly one year from today, on Earth Day 2010.
  • Peter Berg's Dune Reboot Plans - The project is in development at Paramount, but when it was announced, a script hadn't even been written. So where is it now? "We're working on the script right now. We're going to turn it in shortly. The script is coming in, we're hoping to get a green light shortly. " And as for one final important question - are they still going to have the blue spice-eyes? "Yes, of course. Spice is part of the book." 
  • Miss USA California Responds To Gay Marriage Question - Perez Hilton asks Miss California what she thinks about legalizing gay marriage and she definitely does not give the politically correct answer.
  • Paris Hilton Makes Guess Ads (2004) - What Exactly Are We Supposed To Be Buying? ;)
  • Ivanka Trump in Maxim Germany - Damn, Ivanka Trump is hot in this photoshoot from Maxim Germany!
 Gameguru Mania News - Apr,19 2009 - tech
TechNews - Nvidia Geforce Roundup April 2009 - tech
(hx) 02:52 PM CEST - Apr,19 2009 - Post a comment
  • Core i5 CPU specs, prices reported - Manufactured using the mature 45nm process, Intel's first Socket 1156 processors are said to be the 2.66, 2.8 and 2.93 GHz-clocked Core i5 models. These processors will all feature four cores and an integrated dual-channel DDR3 memory controller (providing DDR3-1066/1333 support), 8MB of L3 cache and a TDP of 95W. 
  • Nvidia Geforce Roundup April 2009 - For anyone considering the purchase of a GeForce product in the next few months this article is essential reading. The tested cards including Gigabyte GTS 250 1GB OC, Palit GTX 260 Sonic 896Mb, BFG GTX 275 896Mb OC, Palit GTX 275 896Mb, PNY GTX 285 1GB XLR8 and Gainward GTX 285 2 GB. 
  • DisplayLink USB Graphics Adapter Tested - These little devices are small little boxes that plug into a USB port, and then connect to any DVI or VGA monitor. The software uses your existing video card's capabilities, so even full-motion video and 3D accelleration is still possible on your other monitors. 
  • Windows 7 RC leaked details - Microsoft has updated their Microsoft Partner Program website and they suggest you will be able to publicly download Microsoft Windows 7 Release Candidate as early as the 5th of May..
  • A Windows guru spends two weeks with a Mac - Will he ever go back to a PC? 
  • 10 Youtube URL Tricks You Should Know About -  Youtube - You know that site with videos and all. Yeah! It turns out that its quite popular and you happen to visit and use it quite often. Instead of just searching and playing here are some top Youtube URL tricks that you should know about.
  • Google To Use New Captcha Method - Google has come up with a new Captcha method that involves rotating images instead of entering text.
  • Swedes Demonstrate Against Pirate Bay Verdict - More than thousand people have gathered in the streets of the Swedish capital Stockholm today, to protest against yesterday's Pirate Bay verdict.
  • Why Google Is The New Pirate Bay - If the Swedish site shuts down, search engines could become the new starting points for digital pirates.
  • Best Buy Planning Movie Download Service? - Best Buy could be launching a movie download service later this year in an effort to offset lost revenue from slumping DVD sales. 
  • iCube - Amazing 3D Immersion Technology (video) - IDEO Labs posted a video on Wednesday of WATG's Wimberly Labs' EON Reality's immersive 3D room. They call it an "iCube" (of course), but don't let that slow you down.
  • The worlds first solar powered home theater system (video) - The executive director of Home Theater Specialists of America (HTSA) has unveiled the Guiltless Green Home Theater for guilt-free experience. This solar-powered home theater renders about 19 hours of grid-free HT viewing. Four solar panels powered up a Sharp projector, a 100" Stewart Filmscreen, six SpeakerCraft in-wall speakers, an Integra AV receiver, Monster Cable wiring, Lutron lighting and Universal Remote Control. The furniture is from Salamander.  According to the video, it only takes 4 years to recoup the cost of the solar panel system, everything after that is a savings. 
  • Armored Trailer - Sony has debuted the first trailer for a new heist thriller called Armored starring Columbus Short, Matt Dillon, Jean Reno, Laurence Fishburne, Milo Ventimiglia, and Skeet Ulrich.
  • Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - Final Trailer  - Warner Brothers has debuted the final trailer for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which will finally hit theaters in just three more months (it also got moved up two days to July 15th). 
  • Transformers 2 Presentation Footage! - Paramount is unleashing Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen in both IMAX and regular theaters on June 24th this summer. We'll be there!
  • What Mankind Can Achieve in 40 years (pic) - check it out
  • Taylor Swift Photoshoot - Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American country-pop singer-songwriter. 
  • Esmee Denters is young, sexy, talented ...- Esmee Denters is a Dutch singer and amateur performer who became an Internet sensation by posting videos of herself singing popular songs on YouTube. In May 2007 she was signed as the first artist on Justin Timberlake's newly founded Tennman Records. 
 Gameguru Mania News - Apr,16 2009 - tech
TechNews - Intel Core i7 920 and 940 CPU Tested - tech
(hx) 12:02 PM CEST - Apr,16 2009 - Post a comment / read (1)
  • Intel Core i7 920 and 940 CPU Tested - While gaming in GPU limited scenarios is never going to be particularly helped by CPU upgrades, and some other disciplines don't particularly benefit from Nehalem's architecture, many other common tasks from extracting archives through to video encoding see vast gains from Core i7 and the general impression when you look at the whole is that Core i7 is simply a pretty major step up in performance terms no matter how you look at it. Yes, its performance comes at a premium, and the Core i7 940 isn't worth considering, but Intel's Core i7 920 is undoubtedly up there as a fantastically tempting proposition for any enthusiast right now. 
  • ASUS ENGTS250 DK Geforce GTS 250 video-card tested - Enter the Asus ENGTS250 DK (for Dark Knight) HTDI/512MD3/AR/A PCI Express 2.0 x16 videocard. ASUS's ENGTS250 DK videocard should draw less power and produce less heat than the Geforece 9800GTX+, and in this case makes use of a very nice and pretty quiet heatsink. It will be interesting to find out whether the Geforce GTS250 or Radeon HD 4850 offer the best value for the gaming enthusiast on a moderate budget. And just because we like you (thank you for reading our reviews!), we've nabbed a second Geforce GTS 250 from Asus so you can see how two of these bad-boys will perform in SLI mode.
  • Intel upgrades to fix SSD performance flaw -  INTEL has released a firmware upgrade for an SSD performance problem which it initially said did not exist.
  • Affordable, ultra-thin Dell laptop may ship in August - According to DigiTimes, Taiwanese contract manufacturer Compal Electronics has received orders from Dell for CULV-based laptops. The systems are "expected to start shipping in August," so we may see them hit Dell's online store before this summer.
  • How to get Windows 7 legally at a discount or free (Students Only) - Check out some hints on how to  legally get Windows 7 at a discount or even for free when the final version is ready later this year.
  • Windows 7: 83% Of Businesses Won't Deploy Next Year - Economic concerns and worries about compatibility -- the bugbear that doomed Vista in the corporate market -- will keep Windows 7 on the shelf for all but a handful of enterprises until at least 12 months after the OS becomes available later this year or early next, depending on Microsoft's release schedule. 
  • Confirmed: Office 2010 will come in 32-bit, 64-bit flavors - Microsoft spokesperson confirmed that Office 2010 will be available in both flavors.
  • Internet Explorer 8 to hit Automatic Update this month -  Those of you who run Internet Explorer 6 or 7 on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and more recent Windows releases will get the same treatment 'on or about the third week of April.' The browser will show up as a 'high priority' update for Windows XP systems and as 'important' for Vista and Windows Server 2008 systems. 
  • 588% Faster Processing Speed For High Definition Video Encoding - Tokyo based Pegasys, Inc. has just announced the upcoming availability of the TMPGEnc SpursEngine Movie Plug-in for TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress. The plug-in enables high-speed, hardware encoding on devices embedded with the Toshiba SpursEngine Media Streaming Processor. The company claims that using the TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress plug-in yields up to 588% faster processing speed for high definition video encoding. Based on the same Cell processor architecture used in Sony's PS3, SpursEngine devices actually hit the market in October of last year.
  • Ten Technologies About to Go Extinct - Check out this list of ten technologies about to go extinct and then jump into the comments section and let us know what you think should have made the list.
  • Unboxing the M&M Ear Bud Headphones (video) - These earphones are fully branded as the candy, complete with the earpieces looking like two little pieces of M&M candy, but the earphones are actually produced by the good people at Maxell. Yes, that makes them a cheaper pair of headphones, but that's what you should expect for ten bucks. According to Chan, the noise cancellation on the candy-themed earphones is just as good as the JVC Air Cushion or Skullcandy Smoking Buds.
  • Google Zurich office - Video tour - Google sure knows how to keep its employees happy. There will be zero complaints to the HR if you provide three gourmet meals, pool tables, gym with personal trainers, massage parlors and of course theme meeting rooms to show presentations.
  • Mininova Passes 8 Billion Torrent Downloads Mark - TorrentFreak reports that popular torrent site Mininova just passed the 8 billion download mark
  • Cool games on a big screen multi-touch table (video) - Illusion Labs a game developer showcased two of its popular games on a large multi-touch table. Touchtech a Swedish company has manufactured the touch table. The games run on any multi-touch hardware, including mobile devices, multi-touch laptops and large window displays. 
  • The Hurt Locker Trailer -  This is not an Iraq war movie. This is an action movie! ummit has finally debuted the trailer for Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker.
  • Official Trailer for Lars von Trier's Antichrist - Zentropa has released a trailer for Lars von Trier's Antichrist. As far as I know, the film doesn't have a US distributor just yet. It is expected to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival this summer before hitting theaters in Europe throughout May and June.
  • New Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Trailer Online - A new International trailer for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is online, and this one focuses more on the connection of Horace Slughorn, a former teacher of Tom Riddle, the man who would become Voldemort.
  • Valhalla Rising - Intense Promo Trailer - It stars Mads Mikkelsen as a one-eyed Viking warrior who escapes his tribal captor and flees to a strange new land. It kind of reminds me of The 13th Warrior and/or Pathfinder.
  • Another New Star Trek TV Spot -  Another new TV spot for J.J. Abrams' Star Trek has aired. I wouldn't have normally posted this if it weren't for the hilariously awesome tagline in this one - 'This is not your father's Star Trek.'
  • HD Camera Trick Challenge (video) - This camera trick challenge on YouTube is pretty slick. This was shot in one take, has not been edited and does not use special effects of any kind.
  • Home made wall of death (video) - Wow thats a cool project / stunt! 
  • Fast Food Reality (pic) - Have you ever seen a McDonald's or Wendy's advertisement and really appreciated how delicious a sandwich or burger looked. You were so impressed that you went to said fast food restaurant and ordered yourself one.
  • We Didn't Start the Flame War (video) - Collegehumor wins at the Internet :-D 
  • Holy sh*t, we're small! (pic) - Obligatory Douglas Adams: "Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space." 
  • Veronika Zemanova Photos - Another check babe - check it out!
 Gameguru Mania News - Apr,14 2009 - tech
Windows XP Mainstream Support Ends Today - tech
(hx) 07:42 PM CEST - Apr,14 2009 - Post a comment
Microsoft today retired Mainstream Support for Windows XP and Office 2003. However, for both products, Microsoft is not planning to retire Extended Support until April 8, 2014. If Redmond ends up releasing a fourth service pack for XP, it will retire support for SP3 (released April 2008) two years after SP4 is released, or in April 2014, whichever comes first. The same applies for Office 2003, which is also at SP3 (released in September 2007). In other words, most users don't have to worry for almost five more years. The main difference between the two support packages is that Mainstream Support includes complimentary and paid support as well as bug fixes for all those who purchase a retail copy. Both support packages include free security updates, so all users will still receive security patches as Microsoft issues them, and the company will offer per-incident support via phone and Web for everyone. Customers who purchased a machine with XP on it will need to look to their OEM for support. Non-security hotfixes will be available to businesses that are enrolled in the Extended Hotfix Support program.
 Gameguru Mania News - Apr,11 2009 - tech
TechNews - Conficker wakes up - tech
(hx) 11:34 PM CEST - Apr,11 2009 - Post a comment
  • The Big X58 Triple Channel DDR3 Memory Roundup -  Mad Shrimps posted a X58 Triple Channel DDR3 Memory roundup.
  • Patriot Xporter Magnum 64GB USB Flash Drive Tested - It's a really awesome memory stick, it might be a tad slower than the others with small files but it gets faster the bigger the transfers get. It proved to be as fast as the Corsair Voyager Flash which has always been a top of the line flash drive. It looks quite cool and is very slim also so you will be able to have it in your pocket without being bothered it's there. 64Gb will also work as a backup drive in my eyes, and I believe that the flash drives and SSD harddrives are slowly taking over the market and maybe finally we can leave at least the IDE standard behind us.
    The only con with this drive is the price, 64Gb is the biggest on the market almost which ofcourse cost a bit more also but in due time we will see them at lower prices.
  • HP Will Fix Your O And P Keys For $298 -  Randy tried to get new O and P keys for his HP laptop. The outsourced, English-is-not-his-first-language, customer service rep won't sell or send him the keys and instead insists that Randy sit in for a $298 repair. Blithely indifferent to Randy's increasing incredulity and rage, the customer service rep suggests that for that amount of money, Randy should just buy a new laptop for $400. That's right, a new laptop because two of the keys are bad. The ridiculous chat transcript can be found here.
  • Bluetooth 3.0 to Launch on April 21st - The next standard for Bluetooth, version 3.0, is scheduled to be released on 4/21. PCWorld gives us a rundown on what they already know about 3.0 and what other sources are saying. The Bluetooth 3.0 standard is expected to deliver even faster short-range wireless speeds (up to 480 Mbit/s), improvements to reduce chances of device disconnections when syncing, and the addition of Generic Alternate MAC/PHY (AMP) technology that will reportedly allow Bluetooth 3.0 devices to transfer data at speed on par with Wi-Fi. Another advancement will allow the Bluetooth wireless frequency to piggyback on the Wi-Fi 802.11 protocol - in affect allowing Bluetooth over Wi-Fi
  • Conficker wakes up, updates, drops payload - The Conficker worm is finally active, updating via peer-to-peer between infected computers and dropping a mystery payload on infected computers, Trend Micro said on Wednesday. The software appeared to be a .sys component hiding behind a rootkit, which is software that is designed to hide the fact that a computer has been compromised, according to Trend Micro. The software is heavily encrypted, which makes code analysis difficult, the researchers said. 
  • Microsoft to patch Excel hole, seven others - Microsoft announced the next Patch Tuesday update is going to have eight patches in it, five of them listed as critical. So, if you don't have automatic updates turned on, mark you calendar and make time to patch your PC. 
  • 20 Functions of Vista to Improve Your Life - After all the hype between Vista versus Mac, some Vista users may feel they missed the best technological innovations of our decade. This is just not so. Mac just has better marketing people. Vista skimped on the marketing budget to make good software. So before you trade in your computer for a Mac, read these tips to learn how Vista can simplify your life, leaving you more free time for its fun and exciting features.
  • Japanese firm intros GPU-accelerated consumer video editor - This $69 video editor has a novel, user-friendly interface for HD video editing, and it features extensive GPU acceleration - both for the editing and encoding processes. 
  • BumpTop - 3D Desktop Zen (video) - Using 3D desktops haven't always been very fun but what about a 3D desktop on a touchscreen PC? That might be kinda cool.
  • Control Your TV with Your Hand (video) - GestureTek CEO Bill Leckonby demonstrates how a TV can be controlled remotely by using a hand instead of a physical controller.
  • Adobe Offers Flex Builder 3 Free to Unemployed Developers - Are you a developer that’s out of work right now? Adobe Systems is offering free Flex Builder 3 licenses to unemployed developers. Adobe officials said the company is providing free trial Adobe Flex Builder 3 licenses as part of a "getting started" package that will allow unemployed developers to expand their skills and learn how to build Web applications in Flex. The package also includes access to training and information about developer events, and connects developers to resources within the community to help people find jobs.
  • Zune HD - Is this the real thing? - Images of the Zune HD or the fourth generation Zune have leaked to Engadget. It has been confirmed that what you see here is not some Fanboys imagination but design concepts actually produced for Microsoft. Sources close to the Zune's development team confirm that the Zune HD is for real and it is a bit smaller than the iPod touch with competitive capabilities.
  • 10 Easter Eggs in Action - ComputerWorld has a fun article showing 10 easter eggs in various programs complete with video demonstrations
  • Laptop Hunters $1500 – Lisa and Jackson get a Sony VAIO - Microsoft has released its third laptop hunter advertisement, this time featuring a mother and son team.
  • MS Gun April 2009 Grand Finale (video) - Microsoft has a frickin' gun club?!?
  • Galaga Remix for iPhone (video) - The Apple iPhone is a terrific platform for enjoying some of these simpler games and one of the more recent releases is Galaga Remix, a slightly reworked version of the classic space shooting arcade game. The title includes both the classic Galaga arcade game and an updated version with fresh graphics. The gameplay remains the same across both versions.
  • ARf, an Augmented Reality Virtual Pet on the iPhone  - Over at TouchArcade, game researcher Blair MacIntyre demonstrated an example of an Augmented Reality application that was in testing on the iPhone. Augmented Reality is described as a combination of real-world and computer-generated data, where computer graphics objects are blended into video footage in real time. 
  • Acura ZDX is Another 'Sports Activity Coupe' (video) - The Acura MDX is the largest of the bunch, competing against mid- to full-size SUVs. The Acura RDX is its nimbler cousin, offering a slightly upscale alternative to a Honda CR-V or Toyota RAV4. And the all-new 2010 Acura ZDX tackles the 'sports activity coupe' market currently occupied by the BMW X6.
  • Watch a Google Street View Car Hit a Bridge -  Apparently Google's drivers sometimes forget they're driving around with pole-mounted cameras on their car roofs. 
  • If Your IM Buddy List Was Honest - Your IM buddy chat window is filled with pseudonyms for all of your friends, but when you read it, you know who you're really talking to.
  • Public Enemies Trailer #2 - The film has an all star cast made up of Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Channing Tatum, Giovanni Ribisi, David Wenham, Leelee Sobieski, Marion Cotillard, and Billy Crudup as J. Edgar Hoover. Universal is bringing Public Enemies to theaters everywhere on July 1st this summer.
  • Duncan Jones' Moon Trailer - Check it out! - Sony Picture Classics has debuted the first trailer for Duncan Jones' Moon, the brilliant indie sci-fi film starring Sam Rockwell that first premiered at Sundance earlier this year. 
  • First Crazy Trailer for Johnnie To's Vengeance - From Hong Kong filmmaker Johnnie To comes Vengeance, a brutal tale about a French assassin-turned-chef who travels to Hong Kong in order to avenge the murder of his daughter.
  • Eminem - We Made You (official video) - This is the first official single from Em's new album Relapse due out May 15th.
  • Adriana Lima - El Pais Magazine (March 2009) - Adriana Lima leggy and cleavagy (busty!) in El Pais Semanal.
  • Miranda Kerr is a Dream Angel - What do you think of Miranda Kerr?
 Gameguru Mania News - Apr,08 2009 - tech
ATI Catalyst 9.4 Display Driver - tech
(hx) 10:37 PM CEST - Apr,08 2009 - Post a comment / read (1)
All you Radeon owners should head on over to the AMD/ATi website and grab the new Catalyst 9.4 drivers. The new drivers include a new ATI Overdrive auto-tune application 'to estimate the over-clocked engine and memory values for ATI Overdrive supported ATI Radeon accelerators,' clear up a flickering issue in World of Warcraft (Vista), fix an artifact problem on Age of Conan DX10 (Vista), Google Sketchup no longer displays blank screen (Vista) and more. Grab them if you need them!

TechNews - GeForce GTX 285 Round-Up - tech
(hx) 01:45 AM CEST - Apr,08 2009 - Post a comment
  • Intel Core i7 Overclocking - Intel's Core i7 processor offers a significant performance increase over previous generation Core 2 processors.  In addition, like the legacy Core 2 architecture, the new Core i7 also has a bunch more headroom for wringing upside performance out of the chip, maximizing value, power and return on your investment with overclocking.
  • GeForce GTX 285 Round-Up, Asus, BFG and Zotac - Thanks to its overall fastest clock profile, the BFG GTX 285 OCX performed the best by a small margin in most tests. The Zotac GTX 285 AMP!, with the second fastest clocks overall, offered the second best performance. That leaves the ASUS ENGTX285 TOP, which took a close third place but not by a significant spread. In a few cases, all three cards even performed quite favorably when compared to dual-GPU single card configurations like the Radeon HD 4870 X2 and GeForce GTX 295. 
  • Super Talent develops 2TB PCIe RAID SSD with 1.3 GB/sec throughput - RAIDDrives support up to 2 TB of MLC or SLC Nand Flash memories, have a turbocharged DRAM Cache, and the RAIDDrive ES is fully battery backed to protect data in the event of power loss. The RAIDDrives connect through a PCIe Gen. 2.0 x8 interface and are capable of delivering sequential Read speeds of up to 1.2GB/s, sequential Write speeds of up to 1.3GB/s. More performance details will be unveiled in June. As an optional feature users will be able to configure the drives with an internal RAID5 capability to deliver an extra level of data protection for mission critical applications. 
  • Windows 7: 64 bit vs 32 bit? - Well, it depends on what you use your system for. If you have a 64 bit capable CPU but use older hardware, it would be safe to stay with a 32 bit version for the time being to ensure that you don't need extra upgrades. If you've got the latest hardware and drivers are available, then it may be worth while taking the step up to a 64 bit OS. If you regularly work with resource hungry applications that are 64 bit optimised (such as video editing, CAD and image packages) then it would be especially beneficial to be able to work with over 4GB of RAM amongst the other improvements. 
  • Windows 7 Will Allow Downgrades Too - Even though people are raving about Windows 7, there are still going to be some of you that want to stick with their old OS once Windows 7 hits the market.
  • Vulnerability in Microsoft Office PowerPoint - There is no fix just yet but Microsoft is aware of the flaw and the company is working on a solution. 
  • ESET NOD32 Antivirus v4.0 reviewed - ESET's NOD32 is probably the best anti-virus software on the market. Once again the company has delivered an excellent product that is highly effective and easy to use - the interface can even be tweaked by the advanced user. Well, it sounds like a PR review, however, I can confirm that ESET NOD32 is really good. In related news, PC Review posted a review of Kaspersky Internet Security 2009, an all in one security suite which performs admirably.
  • Laptop Hunters $1500 - Giampaolo gets an HP HDX (video) - Here's the latest MS 'Laptop Hunters' ad that is sending Apple fans into a collective apoplexy. First Lauren, now Giampaolo. Thoughts?
  • FBI raids Texas data center in pursuit of Wolverine leak - 20th Century Fox got a nasty April Fools Day surprise when an unfinished version of the upcoming X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie was leaked onto BitTorrent. 20th Century Fox quickly issued a statement that was the equivalent of a war cry, and the FBI raided a Texas data center, allegedly to obtain records related to Wolverine's spread. 
  • Inside the Google data center (video) - operations at the Google Data Center Efficiency Summit held Wednesday in Mountain View, Calif. The presentations included a video tour of a Google data center, which showcased the companys use of shipping containers to store servers and storage. Each of these 40-foot data center containers can house up to 1,160 servers, and Google has been using them since it began building its own facilities in 2005
  • Unplug the Internet: No President should have this power - The Cybersecurity Act of 2009 introduced in the Senate would allow the president to shut down private Internet networks. The legislation also calls for the government to have the authority to demand security data from private networks without regard to any provision of law, regulation, rule or policy restricting such access. 
  • The No-Look Touchscreen Dial from Google (video)-  In essence, the user does not need to hit pre-defined virtual buttons on the screen to dial. Instead, wherever the user touches first becomes the "5" on a standard numeric keypad. From here, the user can swipe in the appropriate direction to get the other numbers. Swipe up to get 2, down-right to get 9, left to 4, and so on. Differentiating between 8 and 0 is done by the length of the stroke (short down for 8, long down for 0), though that could result in a couple of errors.
  • Next gen iPhone and iPod to feature low powered 802.11n chip - Looks like the next iPhone and iPod will have a new low powered 802.11n chip, which will also support Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
  • LG GD900 video reveals it all - The transparent keypad is definitely the highlight of the phone. It slides in and out pretty smoothly; this explains the stability of the slider. However, the transparent keypad is crystal clear and has some good response time with screen controls. The screen seems good enough eye candy, with the interactive menu system and stylish UI.
  • Virus-built Battery Could Power Cars, Electronic Devices - The 'virus batteries' have the energy capacity and power performance similar to the rechargeable batteries. The prototype battery is a coin battery, but conceivably cell and larger batteries for powering cars could be made from this process. Right now, it can go at least 100 charges before performance tapers off, but that number will increase. 
  • The AA-12 is the worlds most effective combat shotgun (video) - Pulling in the best features that a combat shotgun of today can gather, the AA-12 makes a grand entry into the world of ammunition. It can fire five 12-gauge shells per second!
  • Segway Vehicle On Video - . Seriously, the only way I could see something like this ever becoming a reality is in a place where cars are banned.
  • Man-sized Fish (video) - check it out
  • GameInformer Outsells Time, Playboy & Sports Illustrated - Did you know that Game Informer Magazine is actually outselling TV Guide, Playboy and Maxim?
  • Bruno Trailer - Here' the first teaser trailer for Bruno. Universal will debut Bruno in theaters everywhere on July 10th this year.
  • Sandy Collora's Hunter Prey Trailer - io9 has debuted the first teaser trailer for Sandy Collora's Hunter Prey today, and it definitely falls into the category of short 'n sweet. Hunter Prey is an indie sci-fi flick about a group of soldiers who crash land on a planet and lose their prisoner (sounds a lot like Pitch Black). The film does not have a US distributor yet, but you can expect to hear more in the next few months.
  • New Terminator Salvation Viral Video - Videos like this are very cool to see and should lead up to something, but I just can't figure it out. As a recap, be sure to check out both SkynetResearch.com and ResistorBeTerminated.com. There haven't been any other major Skynet updates or even Resistance updates for a week or so now.
  • 20 Hot Celebrities We Want To See Naked in Movies - Some actresses are OK with going naked in front of the camera and others are not :-)
  • Kylie Minogue is Still Hot - Kylie Minogue is on the cover of Elle magazine in the UK, and it's safe to say that she is still very hot!
 Gameguru Mania News - Apr,03 2009 - tech
AMD HD 4890 & NVIDIA GTX 275 cards compared - tech
(hx) 07:03 PM CEST - Apr,03 2009 - Post a comment / read (11)
NVIDIA and AMD announced new GTX 275 and HD 4890 accelerators. There are articles comparing the two new products on Legit Reviews, PC Games Hardware, TechAge:
Well before I received either of these two cards, I had expected the match-up to be quite even, similar to the match-up we saw this past winter. As our test results have shown, though, that's not the case. NVIDIA's card came out on top in almost every-single one of the tests throughout the six games in our suite. Some of these do carry NVIDIA's badge on the box, but not all. ATI's name isn't on any, as it's become increasingly difficult to find a game with one. NVIDIA has been far more proactive in their marketing this way, and given that so many games seem to favor their cards lately, they're no doubt offering more than just their logo for some box art. From almost all perspectives, NVIDIA's card is the clear winner. It proved faster in the vast majority of our tests, and also managed to deliver a more impressive top overclock. Normally, I'd blame ATI's Overdrive utility for not allowing us to reach sky-high clocks, but that's not the case here. While that utility allowed us to hit 1000MHz, our max stable Core clock proved to be 975MHz. If only both manufacturers offered voltage tweaking... then we may see some entirely different results.
NVIDIA ForceWare WHQL Drivers v182.50 - tech
(hx) 02:18 AM CEST - Apr,03 2009 - Post a comment / read (4)
There are brand new GeForce 182.50 reference drivers out today for Windows XP, Windows XP x64, Windows Vista 32-bit, and Windows Vista 64-bit..This driver version adds support for NVIDIA PhysX acceleration on all GeForce 8‐series, 9‐series and 200‐series GPUs with a minimum of 256MB dedicated graphics memory (this driver package installs NVIDIA PhysX System Software v9.09.0203).
Fixed Issues–Windows XP 32-bit:

Single-GPU Resolved Issues and Changes
- GeForce 7 series AGP, GeForce 6 Series AGP: NVIDIA graphics driver  cannot be installed.

Multi-GPU Resolved Issues and Changes
-[SLI]: Football Manager 09–the game fails to run properly with SLI mode  enabled. [490661]
-[SLI], GeForce 9500 GT: With SLI mode enabled, Resident Evil Extinction Blu‐ray disc playback stutters using Cyberlink 4102 with noise reduction and image enhancement set to 100%.
 Gameguru Mania News - Apr,02 2009 - tech
TechNews - April Foolin' 2009 - tech
(hx) 01:48 AM CEST - Apr,02 2009 - Post a comment
  • Intel Xeon X5570 and E5520 Gainestown Processors Tested - It should be noted that on the Intel Xeon X5570 the processor operates at 2.93GHz with DDR3 memory speeds up to 1333MHz
  • 3GB, 6GB or 12GB Investigated -  Look like the 6GB kit gives the perfect happy medium. The gains 12GB had over the 6GB kit were minimal overall and this time there was minimal difference in Vista's performance as opposed to the 3GB kit. The 6GB kit did not appear to put anywhere near as much stress on the CPU, given that we achieved 200 MHz more. Once the 6GB threshold is exceeded, performance differences seemed to diminish. There were simply not enough differences between the 2 kits to warrant the extra cash injection needed. Sure, a full rack of memory looks the part and certainly grants those extra E-Peen points people yearn for but the sensible money goes on the 6GB kit, at least until Microsoft decide to munch through more of our memory with a new Operating system. 
  • Asus Eee PC1004DN-First Eee PC to feature optical disc drive - The Asus Eee PC1004DN is the first in the Eee PC range to feature a Super-Multi optical disc drive, enabling users to read and write optical discs for convenient data back-ups. 
  • Western Digital acquires solid-state drive firm - Western Digital has acquired solid-state drive maker SiliconSystems. The $65 million transaction is already complete, and SiliconSystems has become WD's Solid-State Storage business unit. The purchase will provide the current market leader in 2.5-inch drives with a way into the growing SSD market. Based in Aliso Viejo, Calif., SiliconSystems was established in 2002, and makes SSD products for communications, industrial, embedded systems, medical, military, and aerospace applications. SiliconSystems' product lineup includes SSDs with a variety of interfaces, including SATA, EIDE, PC Card, USB, and CF, in 2.5-inch, 1.8-inch, and CF.
  • Conficker worm reaches go time, to no effect - And the award for 'Best April Fool's Day joke' for the year 2009 has to go to this whole Conficker worm scare. It seems that everyone was panicking for nothing, no doomsday, no end of the world…yet ;-)
  • Skype For iPhone: It's Official - In terms of navigation, Skype's VoIP app for iPhone looks more like your traditional iPhone app than it does Skype 4.0 for Windows. For many who already prefer Apple's sleek interface archetype, that's a triumph, but those who enjoy Skype's branding may feel disappointed. 
  • Hoax site promising tan from computer screen gets 1 mil hits - A website ironically claiming to offer users an all-year tan through their computer screens has received more than one million hits in two months....It's awesome how they have the "O1, O2, O3" chart they say they combine to make "UVC rays." O2 is oxygen, O3 is ozone, and O1 doesn't even exist as a molecular formula.
  • Urilift public urinal costs $100,000 (video) - The Urilift public urinal lurks underground all day like some strange nocturnal beast, and then rises majestically at 10pm every evening just in time to satisfy the urgent need of drunkards looking for somewhere to relieve themselves.
  • How to Use Chopsticks - Become an Expert in 90 Seconds (video) - Tim Ferriss shows us how to use chop sticks properly
  • Deleted 'Twilight' Sex Scene (video) - Vampires and mortals are forbidden from making love. Unless she's into the kinky stuff. 
  • The Taking of Pelham 123 Trailer - Sony has debuted a second new full length trailer for the remake of The Taking of Pelham 123.
  • April Foolin' 2009 - WB Acquires The Pirate Bay - check it out
  • Padma Lakshmi - Ocean Drive Magazine - Feb 2009 - For any Padma Lakshmi fans out there, the Top Chef hostess graced the February 2009 cover of Miami based Ocean Drive magazine. The photos and poses aren't particularly ground breaking...I would have loved to see a outdoor setting like Kareena's Harper's Bazaar cover, but Padma looks pretty and the clothes are nice and spring-y!
  • Jarah Mariano - UHQ Photoshoot Model Pictures - Jarah-Evelyn Makalapua Mariano is an American fashion model of Hawaiian, Korean, and Chinese descent.
 Gameguru Mania News - Mar,28 2009 - tech
TechNews-Windows 7 blocks 3rd-party video codecs - tech
(hx) 09:54 PM CET - Mar,28 2009 - Post a comment / read (1)
  • GeForce GTX 260 Roundup - The Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 was significantly faster than the Q8200, so if you are building or updating an existing system the extra cache and clock frequency seem well worth the extra price. The Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 is a great performing mainstream quad-core part that has decent thermals and great overclocking potential. The x8 multiplier allows for great overclocking as a single BIOS setting change (increasing your FSB to 400MHz) will take the Q9400 up to 3.2GHz with no problems at all.
  • GTX 275 Listed in EU - GPU Cafe has spotted NVIDIA's upcoming GTX 275 at a European retailer. The price is listed at 249 euros ($331 in USD) and will be in stock on April 6th. The Geforce GTX 275 is supposed to combat ATI's RV790 based refresh the Radeon HD 4890 but the difference lies in the strategy to the market. The GTX 275 design is left up to the AIB partners to implement with Nvidia just outlining the basic spec.
  • GeForce GTX 295: New on Old  - Look what a high-end GeForce GTX 295 card can do for an AsRock DDR Athlon X2 system that has a single 16x PCIe 1.0a slot
  • Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 Processor Tested -  The Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 has four processing cores running at 2.66GHz, 6MB of shared L2 cache, and a 1333MHz Front Side Bus (FSB). If you are thinking of building an Intel LGA775 platform this processor should be at the top of your list! 
  • Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB Hard Drive Tested - It runs cool, quiet, and used far less electricity than other drives tested. Using a Caviar Green drive would be a good idea for many applications, but especially in a NAS device or HTPC where noise, heat, and power consumption might be of particular interest. 
  • 16GB USB Drive Comparison - 17 Drives Compared - If I'm looking for a USB drive, the first thing I look at is the Copy To or Write speeds, this is what is most important to me, the next thing would be the Copy From speeds, as for me what I do most is put data on it, then take it off, reading from the drive is not that important to me really. So it all depends on what your priorities are concerning USB drives, the results are here, you can judge for yourself which is best for you. 
  • MIT Graphene Multiplier May Push CPUs to 1,000 GHz - According to this story, researchers from MIT have built an experimental graphene chip, known as a frequency multiplier, that they say could lead to practical systems in the 500 - 1,000GHz range. 
  • Windows 7: Build 7057 blocks third-party video codecs - The latest beta of Windows 7 blocks the usage of third party video decoders from Windows Media Player and MCE.
  • Touching Windows 7 (video) - The Windows Touch gestures are the basic actions you use to interact with Windows or an application using touch. As we noted above, because the gestures are built into the core of Windows, they are designed to work with all applications, even ones that were never designed with touch in mind.
  • Firefox v3.0.8 Released - FireFox users, If haven't updated to 3.0.8, please do so now. Firefox version 3.0.8 fixes two critical security issues that were found to exist in Firefox version 3.0.7
  • No joke in April Fool's Day computer worm - The Conficker C computer worm is expected to activate on April Fool's Day. The malicious program already is thought to have infected between 5 million and 10 million computers.
  • Pwn2Own Hacker shares thoughts on Mac and PC security - You've probably seen the headlines: "Pwn2Own 2008: MacBook Air hacked in 2 minutes" or "Pwn2Own 2009: Safari/MacBook falls in seconds." But there's a story behind every headline and who better to get the story from than Charlie Miller, the man behind the headlines? Tom's Hardware had the opportunity to chat with Charlie after his back-to-back successes in demonstrating zero-day exploits affecting the Mac. 
  • Apple uses a jailbroken iPhone in patent application - The images from the iPhone biometric security patent application show a jailbroken phone, complete with Installer.app, SMBPrefs, and the iWood Realize theme from the iSpazio repository
  • The Pirate Bay to roll out secure 5 euro per month VPN service - The Pirate Bay is planning to launch a paid VPN service for users looking to cover their tracks when torrenting. The new service will be called IPREDator.
  • Where The Wild Things Are Trailer - The first trailer for Spike Jonze's film Where The Wild Things Are debuted online this morning on the Ellen show and has since popped up online. The trailer looks good. I'm curious to see how they can create a full-length movie out of that book though. We'll see I guess, it does look promising.
  • Where the Wild Things Are Teaser Trailer! - Here's the first teaser trailer for Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are. There isn't much dialogue, just a little bit at the beginning, but the rest of this trailer is still amazing!
  • The Duck Song - An animated video to go along with Bryant Oden's original song. Enjoy ;)
  • New Microsoft Ad: Hi Mac, I'm a PC and I'm Cheaper Than You! - The first commercial features a woman named Lauren who was given $1,000. She wanted to get a 17-inch screen and a comfortable keyboard. She went to the Apple store only to leave disappointed as their cheapest computer (the $999 MacBook) only had a 13-inch screen and featured a narrow keyboard. She ends up at Best Buy instead, where she finds a HP Pavilion notebook with a 17-inch screen that's $699.99 before tax. She's able to get the computer and a printer for $900, pocketing the extra $100. At the end of the commercial, she states, "I'm a PC, and I got just what I wanted."
  • Cool Honda Commercial  - Good thing those cars are hybrid considering the fact that they wasted a lot of energy in the making of this commercial :-)
  • South Park Explains the US Treasury System (video) - I hadn't realized that the system was quite that bloody impressive. Brilliant! ;-)
  • Audrina Patridge in ultra-tight jeans photos - Celebrity Audrina Patridge is back!
 Gameguru Mania News - Mar,25 2009 - tech
TechNews - Windows 7 Gaming Performance - tech
(hx) 11:08 AM CET - Mar,25 2009 - Post a comment / read (2)
  • Asus Rampage II GENE microATX motherboard Tested - The Intel Core i7 is still the most powerful desktop processor money can buy and it should come as no surprise that it's also the most expensive. Yet it's possible to get together the guts of a basic Core i7 system for $600 if you choose the still very speedy Core i7 920. This got me thinking about building a microATX gaming system around the Core i7 platform as it seemed like a feasible thing to do, except for the lack of X58 motherboards using this form factor.
  • Nvidia To Unveil MCP89E Chipset For Centrino 2 - Nvidia is bringing out a new MCP89E chipset that will support DDR3 memories natively. It share some similarities with the MCP79 chipset supporting Intel mobile processors for Centrino 2 platform. While MCP79 supports 2Gb DDR2/3 devices, MPC89E is able to support 4 Gb DDR3 device. However, MCP89E supports only 8 PCIe lanes instead of 20 on MCP79. 
  • Samsung NC310 Netbook Pushes Limits with 11 Hour Battery Life - The Asus Eee PC 1000HE does 9.5 hours on a charge and now the Samsung NC310 goes even further with its eleven hours! 
  • Forceware 182.46 Beta Drivers - New Forceware beta drivers (XP 32-bit / Vista 32-bit) are available. Use them at your own risk. Optimized single GPU and SLI support for upcoming PC games. Numerous bug fixes.
  • Windows 7 series: NVIDIA and AMD Graphics and Gaming Performance - PC Perspective takes a look at the graphics and gaming performance of Windows 7. The results are actually LESS exciting than I'd hoped they would be; but I think in the end that is a good thing.  Performance for all seven graphics cards they tested was at least CLOSE when comparing Windows 7 and Windows Vista results.  In a few cases, especially with Far Cry 2, the NVIDIA driver you can download today is simply not up to the quality one would expected from the GeForce-giant.  Even in other games, where the average frame rate would only drop 5% or less, the difference was notable at least to us in graphs if not in real-world experiences.
  • Next Office version to ship in 32-bit and 64-bit versions -  ZDNET blogger Ed Bott found an interesting bit of information while digging around in Windows 7 beta releases. If the code he dug up is accurate, Microsoft Office's next release will have dedicated 32 & 64 bit versions. 
  • Firefox May Already Be Dead -  Is Google's new Chrome so good that Firefox may already be dead?
  • Intel Chip Flaw: No Threat Yet? - So, is this new Intel chip flaw a big deal or not? 
  • A worm virus is capable of bringing down US power grid - The idea of hackers bring down the entire power grid might seem something out of a sci-fic movie just like DieHard 4 but security analysts say that the threat is for real. 
  • World's top 10 IT locations - PC Authority, the Australian Computer Magazine team has compiled a list of top 10 IT locations which it has found to be more IT friendly than the rest of the areas in the world. 
  • Octopus like robots to explore deep sea life (video) - Sea lovers will be happy to note the development of a tiny robot octopus explorer with the ability to maneuver under water with the agility of a jelly fish.
  • Warner Brothers Adds 5000 Titles to its DVD Catalogue Online - Those wacky Brothers Warner are always looking to make a buck, but this time I think they offer a wonderful opportunity to fans while breaking out a new on demand service that will offer 'longtail' releases that were never scheduled for DVD to now be available. I think this is pure brilliance by Brothers Warner and I do hope that other studios follow suit. 
  • Cinemassacre's Top 10 Car Chases (video) -  check it out
  • Kill Bill In One Minute (video) -  That's pretty much how it happened :-) 
  • Full Trailer for Kazuaki Kiriya's Goemon - Goemon is both written and directed by Japanese filmmaker Kazuaki Kiriya, of only Casshern previously. The screenplay was co-written by Kiriya and Tetsurô Takita. The film hits theaters in Japan this upcoming May, but no word on when we'll see it in the US just yet.
  • Crank: High Voltage TV Spot - The last good action movie to arrive before the summer movie season is Crank: High Voltage, in theaters on April 17th. This TV spot isn't supposed to be seen here in the US, but I really think there's no better way this movie can be represented than with footage like this
  • Monsters vs Aliens vs Cloverfield Viral Video - Pretty funny! Paramount will debut Monsters vs Aliens in both IMAX 3D and regular theaters on March 27th. 
  • Second Astro Boy Teaser Trailer - Summit Entertainment has debuted the second teaser trailer for Imagi's Astro Boy animated movie on Hulu. Astro Boy will arrive in theaters everywhere on October 23rd this year.
  • New Action Packed Star Trek TV Spot Online - A new TV Spot for J.J. Abrams reboot/sequel of Star Trek hit the net today that focuses more on the action in the movie. Check it out!
  • Playboy Posts Unedited Back Issues Online, for Free -  Playboy Enterprises has put 53 back issues of Playboy on the Web, viewable through Microsoft's Silverlight viewer.
  • Elisha Cuthbert All White in Maxim - These pictures are pretty sexy, and they're at least on par with her Complex shoot!
 Gameguru Mania News - Mar,21 2009 - tech
TechNews - How to turn your 9800GTX+ into GTS250 - tech
(hx) 02:02 PM CET - Mar,21 2009 - Post a comment
  • Intel Core i7: Dual-Channel vs. Triple-Channel Memory Mode - After all these tests you need to ask yourself: What the heck is that triple channel mode useful for anyway, when it is obvious that is doesn't provide performance boost that is expected? Maybe in the future and with some new versions of memory controllers, triple channel mode will provide better performances so transition to this platform will make more sense.
  • How to turn your Geforce 9800GTX+ into a GTS250 - Using Nvflash and a generic GTS 250 BIOS, Guru3D describes you how to flash your Geforce 9800GTX+ into a Geforce GTS 250. What's more, with this technique, you can get yourself another GTS 250 and run both cards in SLI mode!
  • SSD versus Enterprise SAS and SATA disks - Testing shows that choosing the "cheaper but more SATA spindles" strategy only makes sense for applications that perform mostly sequential accesses. Once random access comes into play, you need two to three times more SATA drives - and there are limits to how far you can improve performance by adding spindles. Finally, to get the best performance out of your transactional applications, RAID 10 is still king, especially with the Intel X25-E. 
  • Patriot Warp V3 256GB 2.5-inch SSD Tested - Patriot had a great run with the first two Warp drives and we had high hopes for the V3. Performance wise, the V3 is not that much of an improvement over the V2, but it does bring a capacity that was unobtainable with the previous series. Since the V3 is only available in 256GB capacity, we can live with that; but think of this version as the Warp 2.5 when it comes to performance.
  • Side by side: UI changes from Windows 7 beta to build 7057 - There is almost three months difference between the two builds: the beta was compiled on December 12, 2008, at 2:00pm and the leaked build 7057 was compiled on March 5, 2009, at 8:00pm, so there's a lot of work to cover. This post is about tracking every noticeable visual change; although I do mention some fixes here and there, I'm mainly focusing on tweaks that are "tangible" as opposed to the thousands of bugs that have been fixed. As before, the screenshots are lined up like this: build 7000 on the left and build 7057 on the right, or build 7000 above and build 7057 below. Also, remember that the "Send Feedback" link has been removed in build 7057, so that's an easy way to remember if there is a window title bar visible." 
  • Gmail Lets You 'Undo' Sent Messages  - Another day, another new feature in Gmail Labs. This one could be more useful than most, as it's something you probably have a reason to use with some frequency
  • Exploit code targeting major Intel chip flaw - This is the scariest, stealthiest, and most dangerous exploit I've seen come around since the legendary Blue Pill! No, I'm not just trying to sensationalize this or spread fear, uncertainty and doubt. This is serious and represents a massive new security threat for us all.
  • Google Designer Quits and Tells All - A designer at Google used his blog to explain why he quit his job as a designer for the search giant.
  • Ballmer dishes on Apple -  Steve Ballmer, never at a loss for words, had a few choice things to say about Apple during his speech at Media Summit 2009 in New York.
  • Banned hyperlinks could cost you $11,000 a day - The Australian communications regulator says it will fine people who hyperlink to sites on its blacklist, which has been further expanded to include several pages on the anonymous whistleblower site Wikileaks. Wikileaks was added to the blacklist for publishing a leaked document containing Denmark's list of banned websites. The move by the Australian Communications and Media Authority comes after it threatened the host of online broadband discussion forum Whirlpool last week with a $11,000-a-day fine over a link published in its forum to another page blacklisted by ACMA - an anti-abortion website.  In other news, the secretive Internet filter blacklist held by the communications watchdog ACMA has been leaked, revealing the government has understated the amount of banned Web pages by more than 1000. 
  • Apple Announces iPhone 3.0 Software  - Apple has unveiled a pile of new features aimed more at consumers, including copy and paste, and stereo Bluetooth! Double-tapping a block of text in an email brings up a text selection tool. Drag a cute blue text selection tool over the text you want to copy, then hit either the copy, cut or paste button that magically appears above the text you selected. This will work within email, Safari, SMS and between all three, as well as within any 3rd party applications that want to use it. 
  • Phone Sized Projector Demo (video) - Check out this prototype pico projector that is the size of a cell phone.
  • NTT DoCoMo's vision of the future puts Minority Report to shame (video) - NTT DoCoMo Vison of 2010 enables richer communication between people!
  • The worlds most advanced door features a LCD and runs on Linux - Korea based company Elivision has developed a high-tech wooden door which comes with a 17 inch display and speaker. It has a Linux based DD board for playing various media files which can be loaded via a USB port.
  • Extreme Sheep LED Art (video) -  A bunch of sheeps running around with remote controlled LED lights. 
  • Even More Terminator Salvation Eye Candy - International distributor Columbia Pictures has released a batch of new promotional photos for Terminator Salvation
  • Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Trailer Online - Sony Pictures Animation has released the movie trailer for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Inspired by the beloved children's book, the film tells the story of a scientist named Flint Lockwood, who while trying to solve world hunger who encounters a problem of global proportions, as food begins to fall from the sky like rain.
  • Reykjavik Whale Watching Massacre Trailer - The trailer for Reykjavik Whale Watching Massacre has arrived, and it's about as odd and creepy as you can get for a horror/thriller set on the open sea. This will hit theaters in Iceland courtesy of Sam Film in September of 2009, though it doesn't have a US distributor just yet.
  • Sorority Row Horror Trailer - Summit Entertainment has debuted the trailer for their Halloween slasher film Sorority Row, a remake of the 1983 film The House on Sorority Row. Summit Entertainment is bringing this newest Sorority Row to theaters everywhere on October 2nd this year.
  • X-Men Origins: Wolverine TV Spot - The TV spot names all the main characters: Wolverine, Sabretooth, Emma Frost, Agent Zero, Cyclops, Silver Fox, Blob, and Gambit. Fox will debut X-Men Origins: Wolverine in theaters everywhere on May 1st.
  • Crazy What's in the Box? Short Film! - The info on the YouTube page has a link to this website - whatsinthebox.nl. There is not much there besides a glowing, pulsating box with a question mark. Definitely, worth looking video!
  • Hayden Panettiere in InStyle - Hayden Panettiere looking awesome for the InStyle UK 2009 Photoshoot.
 Gameguru Mania News - Mar,19 2009 - tech
Internet Explorer 8.0 released - tech
(hx) 11:16 PM CET - Mar,19 2009 - Post a comment
The Internet Explorer 8 product page now offers downloads of Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 .A number of new features have been added since IE 7, along with a multitude of optimisation to the way the browser handles functions such as page rendering, JavaScript and privacy. Visually it's similar to its predecessor, and significantly faster at rendering Web pages and JavaScript. Although scoring 5,995.6ms in the SunSpider suite of JavaScript benchmarks during our tests, means Safari 4, Google Chrome, Firefox 3 and Opera 9.6 still handle JavaScript more efficiently. The first review can be found on Paul Thurrott 's Supersite.
In any event, if you're used to IE 7, IE 8 is more of the same from a user interface perspective, and will be quite familiar territory. If you prefer the bare-bones browser chrome found in browsers like Firefox and Chrome, IE 8 may seem a bit busy, especially if you dutifully installed the entire Windows Live Essentials suite (see my review) and its bundled browser toolbar. Before you dismiss IE 8 entirely on the basis of UI clutter, I'd offer up two thoughts. First, give it a chance: You may discover that the padded upper portion of the IE 8 application window can actually be used in quite productive ways. Second, even if you don't find that to be the case, know that the IE 8 interface is pretty malleable. You can remove virtually all of the top-end UI and come away with a very Spartan looking browser. In fact, stripped bare in this fashion, it reminds me of Microsoft Word 2007 when you hide the ribbon. In other words, IE 8 can pretty much be whatever you need it to be.
 Gameguru Mania News - Mar,18 2009 - tech
ATI Catalyst 9.3 Display Driver - tech
(hx) 10:07 PM CET - Mar,18 2009 - Post a comment
All you Radeon owners should head on over to the AMD/ATi website and grab the new Catalyst 9.3 drivers. The new 9.3 Cats are available for 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP. Grab them if you need them.. In related news, nd there's a review on ExtremeTech about the performance in Windows 7 vs. Vista:
That said, it's clear that ATI is well ahead of Nvidia at this moment in time. It's rare that ATI's current cards run a game slower in Windows 7, and when they do the difference is slight. More importantly, there are lots of situations where Windows 7 is actually 5–10% faster than Vista.

With maybe six months or more before Win7's release, that's a great place to be. ATI's old Win7 drivers had a few compatibility issues with a handful of games, which seem to be addressed in this new Catalyst 9.3 release.

Nvidia is in good shape for this point in time, but still has some work to do. While quite a few games run the same under Vista and Win7, it's rare that any of them are faster, and there are some cases where a game will run considerably slower. Rumor has it that Nvidia plans another big Windows 7 driver update "soon" that brings their cards up to performance and feature parity with their Vista drivers.

If Windows 7 were due for release in a month or two, we'd be a little worried by some of what we see here. Given the time frame, and the fact that ATI is "beating" them in the Win7 performance race, we'd be surprised if Nvidia wasn't as fast or faster in the new OS well before its release.

The real question is: how much better will it get? This build 7000 beta of Windows 7 is not as fast as the newer beta builds, and Microsoft continues to improve. There's no doubt some debug code embedded in the OS, which affects performance.
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