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Gameguru Mania News - Jan,27 2007 - tech

TechNews - DRAM Price Drops Soon? - tech
(hx) 05:55 PM CET - Jan,27 2007 - Post a comment

AMD Barcelona to outperform Intel Clovertown by 40%? - Randy Allen, AMD's corporate vice president for server and workstation products said: "We expect across a wide variety of workloads for Barcelona to outperform Clovertown by 40 percent," In other news, Bit-Tech takes a further look at the Intel 45nm technology.
Intel, IBM Reveal Transistor Overhaul - Intel and IBM said they have discovered a way to replace that material with various metals in parts called the gate, which turns the transistor on and off, and the gate dielectric, an insulating layer, which helps improve transistor performance and retain more energy. Intel said new materials help provide a 20 percent boost in transistor performance. IBM did not release specifics of its project.
DRAM Price Drops Soon? - While some memory makers are predicting price drops of 20%, others are saying the number will be more along the lines of 10%.
MSI P965 Platinum Motherboard - Great OC without huge price - P965 has native DDR-2 800 memory support, its FSB overclocking potential is usually higher and it supports more peripherals on the ICH8 Southbridge. With Crossfire reorganisation from ATI, it has all the features of the 975X and more.
Cheaper Radeon X1950 is on the way - The cards will be based on a modified version of the 80nm RV570 core used in the existing Radeon X1950 Pro, and they'll run at 500MHz core with a memory speed of 600MHz.
500GB hard drive for $139.99 - Newegg is running a $30 instant rebate on Maxtor's 500GB MaXLine Pro, bringing the drive's price down from $169.99 to a tantalizing $139.99.
Bella DV 3.0 Video Keyboard - The Bella DV 3.0 Video Keyboard looks a bit more elegant than the Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard.
Microsoft extends Windows XP support - Microsoft is now offering buyers of Windows XP Home Edition and Windows XP Media Center Edition an added 5yr customer support for both operating systems.
Microsoft to promote integration of Xbox 360 and Vista - check it out
Microsoft Word Zero-Day Attack Discovered - In the attack scenario discovered by Symantec, a rigged Word document arrives by e-mail with a lure to trick the target into opening the file. "When the infected Word document is opened, it uses an exploit to drop some files onto the computer. These files are back door Trojans that enable an attacker to gain remote access to your computer," the company warned.
News Corp. Goes After YouTube Uploader - Twentieth Century Fox has subpoenaed YouTube to discover who uploaded four episodes of the popular TV show 24 before they aired on television. In other news, Hollywood is saying that Canada is responsible for 50% of pirated movies. Oh yeah, blame Canada! :-D
Google defuses Googlebombs - Google has taken action against Googlebombing, the act of hundreds of Internet users linking up specific words with certain web sites in order to produce a desired (and usually comical) search result. To remedy the problem Google altered the algorithm by improving the way they analyze link structures on web sites. Google's Matt Cutts says that the algorithm scales well and even helps prevent Googlebombs in other languages.
Top 10 Flickr Hacks - Thomas Hawk reviews the top 10 Flickr Hacks. Some you've never heard of, but they all look useful.
AACS Responds to Cracked HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc Protections - The AACS LA, those behind the advanced access content system protecting HD DVD and Blu-ray Discs, today responded to the recent defeat of its technology. "AACS LA has confirmed that AACS Title Keys have appeared on public web sites without authorization," read a statement from the AACS Web site. " Such unauthorized disclosures indicate an attack on one or more players sold by AACS licensees." The AACS is taking the stance that the exploit found is a wake-up call to all licensees to ensure that the technology is implemented securely. PC software players, such as WinDVD, are particularly vulnerable to hackers.
Exposing The Mysterious PS3 Hardware Scaler - Beyond3D is tackling the mysterious PS3 hardware scaler issue today. Until recently, the PS3 left many older HDTV owners more than a bit upset which, as you can imagine, sparked a lot of heated debate across the internet. Very good reading.
Hacker Releases Tool to Add Third Party HDD to Xbox 360 - A hacker who goes by the handle 'TheSpecialist,' has released a tool that allows any Western Digital BEVS SATA hard drive to be used on the Xbox 360. A quick price search for WD hard drives find that twice the drive can be had for half the price - the lowest-end 40GB WD Scorpio drive for $50 - a cost effective, but adventurous alternative
Nokia N800 internet tablet - Reliability is a serious problem for the N800, and would certainly test the patience of most users. The device crashed on a daily basis, especially if disconnected from a Wi-Fi connection while downloading data, something more likely with a device of this kind.
Motorola Leaks 3G Updates To Investors - The presentation revealed a 3G KRZR, the K3, as well as a redesigned 3G RIZR called the Z8.
US military unveils heat-ray gun - Called the Active Denial System, it projects an invisible high energy beam that produces a sudden burning feeling. Military officials, who say the gun is harmless, believe it could be used as a non-lethal way of making enemies surrender their weapons.
Bizarre Windows promo video (1987) unleashed - According to the actors, W-W-W-Windows/386's main selling point is that it looks "just like OS/2", and it can even allow multitasking. It's easy to see how far we have come in twenty years of hardware upgrades: Vista's main selling point, after all, is that it looks just like OS/X and can it take advantage of multicore processors to allow multitasking :-) FYI, the first independent version of Microsoft Windows, version 1.0, released in November 1985, lacked a degree of functionality and achieved little popularity, and was to compete with Apple's own operating system. Windows 1.0 did not provide a complete operating system; rather, it extended MS-DOS. Microsoft Windows version 2.0 was released in November, 1987 and was slightly more popular than its predecessor. Windows 2.03 (release date January 1988) had changed the OS from tiled Windows to overlapping Windows. The result of this change led to Apple Computer filing a suit against Microsoft alleging infringement on Apple's copyrights.
Air traffic pattern visualizations as seen by the FAA - The Flight Patterns visualizations are the result of experiments leading to the project Celestial Mechanics by Scott Hessels and Gabriel Dunne. FAA data was parsed and plotted using the Processing programming environment. The frames were composited with Adobe After Effects and/or Maya.
Ford hit by record $12.7bn loss - Ford has reported a loss of $12.7bn for 2006 - the biggest annual loss in the embattled US carmaker's 103-year history
Leo Laporte announces his tech radio show is to be syndicated nationwide - Congratulations Leo!
Daddy's Little Girls Clip - ComingSoon.net has your exclusive first look at a new clip from Tyler Perry's Daddy's Little Girls featuring Lou Gossett, Jr. A romantic drama about family, community and love against the odds, the film stars Gabrielle Union and Idris Elba in Perry's follow-up to his number one box office hits Diary of a Mad Black Woman and Madea's Family Reunion.
Rush Hour 3 Trailer - Check it out! Rush Hour 3 has a target release date of August 10, 2007.
DVDs worth buying - 24 - Season 6 Premiere (First 4 Episodes) || Saw III (Unrated Widescreen Edition) || Invincible Iron Man (2007) || Celtic Woman - A New Journey: Live at Slane Castle, Ireland (2007) || Flyboys (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)

Gameguru Mania News - Jan,24 2007 - tech

TechNews - Vista SP1 Coming Later This Year? - tech
(hx) 01:41 AM CET - Jan,24 2007 - Post a comment / read (4)

Real-World Gaming CPU Comparison with 8800 GTX SLI - The Intel Core 2 Duo X6800 to provide real tangible improvements over the AMD Athlon 64 FX-62 when running GeForce 8800 GTX SLI. The BFGTech GeForce 8800 GTX SLI platform is one seriously fast gaming platform, and the Intel Core 2 Duo X6800 powers it better.
Pentium 4 631 Overclocked to 8 GHz! - There are always those who are willing to take things one step further than others. A group of guys known as OC Team Italy is one of them. They recently pushed an Intel Pentium 4 631 to over 8000MHz using an ASUS P5B with modified voltage regulation and liquid nitrogen.
Foxconn FV-N88SMBD2-ONOC (GeForce 8800 GTS OC) - Naturally, overclocking to this level doesn't come for free, and in the case of this particular part you're looking at around a #40 price premium over a standard GeForce 8800 GTS. So, is it worth it? That depends entirely on your own budget and needs in all honesty. On the one hand, a reference GeForce 8800 GTS offers fantastic performance, and all but guarantees the ability to game in all currently available titles at 1600x1200 with 4x anti-aliasing.
HIS X1650 IceQ Turbo - While the name suggests it is nothing more than a slightly faster X1650 Pro, the truth is that it is much more than that.
Intel career page confirms discrete GPU plans - The text suggests that Intel not only plans to go up against Nvidia and ATI in the discrete GPU segment, but that the chipmaker is also cooking up an answer to AMD's upcoming "Fusion" architecture.
ASUS Releases Radeon X2300 Info - In the release, Asus claims that the X2300 is Windows Vista certified and supports the new Aero user interface, one of the main highlights of the operating system (OS). Asus states that the X2300 utilizes ATI's Hypermemory technology to reduce power consumption in notebooks, and that products based on the GPU deliver performance with current and future 3D-intensive applications and games.
Vista Service Pack 1 Coming Later This Year? - If Vista SP1 scrapes in by December 2007 it will have been 11 months since the OS itself debuted -- the same length of time it took for Windows XP to get its first service pack. However, Microsoft is almost certainly aiming for a much earlier arrival, perhaps to overcome the reluctance among consumers and businesses alike to plunge headfirst into Vista.
22% of Windows Installs Pirated, 2.6Million of that Genuine? - Microsoft's anti-piracy tool, aka Windows Genuine Advantage, launched in 30 months ago in 2005. Since then, 512 million have tried to validate their copy of Windows and 114 million users, or 22.3%, were labeled by Microsoft as pirates. Up to 2.6 million users may have been, however, mistakenly labelled as software thieves.
Apple to charge Mac OS X Tiger users for final Boot Camp release? - Though the source wasn't sure about the final pricing, the report said there is strong possibility that Apple's boot manager software, allowing to use Windows and Mac OS X in dual boot mode will be sold for $29 to Tiger users.
Apple plugs zero-day QuickTime flaw - Patch for serious vulnerability in media player software comes 23 days after details of the flaw and attack code were publicly released.
Steve Jobs on the iPhone: It May Change the Whole Phone Industry - For anyone who may have missed it, Planet iPhone has a recap of Steve Jobs' CNBC interview on the iPhone.
Universal HD-DVD/Blu-ray Hybrid Player Available - The device also costs ($1,199.99) more than the price of a standalone HD DVD player and a PS3 combined but any of those shortcomings shouldn't deny the fact that this is the first universal HD player.
EU Banning Violent Video Games? - Germany is pushing for a violent game ban across the European union.
Google to Enter In-Game Ads Market? - According to a Wall Street Journal report published this weekend, Google may be looking to move into the world of in-game advertising by purchasing in-game ads firm Adscape Media. Having already claimed a reported 70% of the online search-based advertising market, Google is likely looking to expand to other ad-related fields
Microsoft Releases ASP.NET AJAX - ASP.NET AJAX is a free framework for quickly creating a new generation of more efficient, more interactive and highly-personalized Web experiences that work across all the most popular browsers. Many of the most popular ASP.NET component and solution vendors have also released new versions of their products with ASP.NET AJAX support.
53 CSS-Techniques You Couldn't Live Without - check it out
Philips Demonstrates LED Fabric Technology - Electrical connection to the panels is made via a waterproof connector leading to a compact control unit, measuring around 11.5 x 6.5 x 2 cm and weighing approximately 150 grams, that contains the control electronics and battery pack. Additional display driver/multiplexing circuitry built into the panel itself reduces the number of connections between the control unit and the panel to just five conductors, greatly simplifying the size and weight of the wiring harness.
480p vs 720p - check it out
Breakthrough In Batteries? - The company boldly claims that its system, a kind of battery-ultracapacitor hybrid based on barium-titanate powders, will dramatically outperform the best lithium-ion batteries on the market in terms of energy density, price, charge time, and safety. Pound for pound, it will also pack 10 times the punch of lead-acid batteries at half the cost and without the need for toxic materials or chemicals, according to the company.
Toyota plans 'ultra-inexpensive car' - The Logan starts at about $6,200 and Toyota's will be less!
Ford Unveils Fuel Cell Hybrid Electric Car With Plug-in Capabilities - In its current form, the Ford Edge with HySeries Drive uses a 350-bar hydrogen fuel cell (4.5 kg of useable hydrogen) in addition to electric motors which are fed by a 336-volt lithium-ion battery pack. The Ford Edge with HySeries Drive is always powered by its battery pack, but the pack itself can be recharged in one of two ways.
Woman's face visible from space! - Natural terrain in Canada looks like a woman's face in profile. Seriously, no joke.
More Time With The PC Than Your Spouse? - Engadget has posted an interesting article that says the majority of Americans spend more time with their PC than they do with their spouse. Considering how many of us have a PC at work and home, this doesn't surprise me.
The Oscar Nominations Announced! - Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2006 will be presented on Sunday, February 25, 2007, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center. The Oscars will be televised live by the ABC Television Network at 5 p.m. PST (8 p.m. EST), beginning with a half-hour red carpet arrivals segment, "The Road to the Oscars." Click here for the complete list of nominees! What do you think of the list. Any obvious films missing according to you? Anything that didn't deserve to get nominated? What are your picks?

Gameguru Mania News - Jan,23 2007 - tech

Creative Releases ALchemy For Vista Users - tech
(hx) 12:00 AM CET - Jan,23 2007 - Post a comment / read (5)
Creative has released a beta version of the Creative ALchemy software is now available. WTF is ALchemy? Microsoft's new Vista OS removes the hardware audio abstraction layer, resulting in issues with some EAX and DirectSound3D games (usually resulting in stereo output without any effects). ALchemy takes DS3D and EAX calls and translates them into OpenAL calls. The ALchemy requires a SB X-Fi series of soundcard with native OpenAL 1.1 Support. In Windows Vista, Microsoft has decided to remove the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) for DirectSound and DirectSound3D. The HAL is the software layer that on previous Windows Operating Systems enabled an audio accelerator such as the SB X-Fi, to provide DirectSound3D applications with hardware accelerated audio. This enabled soundcards to perform tasks such as sample-rate conversion, mixing, 3D spatialization using HRTFs, filtering, and effects processing. Without the HAL, DirectSound on Windows Vista will be rendered in software with no advanced functionality such as EAX.

The audio changes in Windows Vista do not affect OpenAL however. For audio cards that feature 'native' OpenAL support, SB X-Fi series of cards, there is no need to worry! Games that enable support for OpenAL will continue to run just as they do on Windows XP - with hardware accelerated audio and effects.

Although OpenAL has arguably replaced DirectSound3D, particularly in many modern PC Games (e.g Battlefield 2142, Doom3, Quake 4, Prey, etc ...), there are hundreds of older PC games that support DirectSound3D and EAX technology --- all of these games will sound empty and lifeless on Vista. As most DS3D games only enable 3D Audio (and EAX) if a hardware accelerator is present, most of these games will be reduced to a stereo output.

The good news is that the Creative ALchemy Project allows you to run your favorite DirectSound3D games on Windows Vista as the developers intended - with full hardware accelerated 3D Audio and EAX support! This is done by translating DirectSound calls into OpenAL. In order for this to happen, a couple of files need to be installed into each game directory. This is handled automatically by the ALchemy installer - but can also be performed manually by advanced users.

Gameguru Mania News - Jan,22 2007 - tech

AMD cuts Athlon 64, X2 prices - tech
(hx) 11:23 PM CET - Jan,22 2007 - Post a comment / read (2)

AMD has announced price cuts for its mid- and low-end Athlon 64 X2 processors amid earlier reports that Intel plans to slash prices for its older Pentium D CPUs. According to AMD's website, pricing for high-end Athlons, including the FX series, X2 5600+ and 5400+ remains unchanged, while the X2 5200+ saw a hefty cut from $403 to $295. The Sempron 3200+ and 3000+ experience price reductions of 23.9 per cent and 26.8 per cent, respectively, falling to $51 and $41.

Well, it's still not an ideal situation for AMD, as clockspeeds haven't increased enough to entice AM2 owners to upgrade. I'm a S939 user, and given the choice between AM2 and Core 2 Duo, I'm going Intel. If AMD kept the S939 path alive, I would have bought a cheap dual-core proc to tide me over until 1333 MHz Conroe. Oh well, their loss...Intel is expected to cut the prices of its mid-range CPUs later this month...

Gameguru Mania News - Jan,19 2007 - tech

TechNews - Download Windows Vista - tech
(hx) 11:20 AM CET - Jan,19 2007 - Post a comment / read (4)

Athlon 64 5000+ 65nm Tested - Does AMD's move to more advanced process technology change the landscape in the processor marketplace, or will Intel's Core 2 processors continue to rule the roost?
Gigabyte 965P-DS3P rev 2.0 motherboard - Overall the 965P-DS3P looks to be one of the best Intel P965 motherboards on the market, particularly considering its price point. With a huge array of features that include SATAII RAID, Dual BIOS, Dual PCI Express x16, 8-Channel Audio, Gigabit LAN, Solid Capacitor design, Firewire, USB 2.0 and more
NVIDIA Preps 320MB GeForce 8800 GTS - GeForce 8800 GTS, also known as G80-100, already exists as a 640MB product. All aspects of the 640MB card will remain the same for the 320MB derivative: 500MHz core frequency, 800MHz memory frequency and 96 stream processors. The PCB layout and cooling will remain the same
Rumors leak about R600 lineup, memory specs - The top-of-the-line part will have an XTX suffix, a 12-inch-long board, 1GB of GDDR4 memory, and a 512-bit memory bus. A slower model with an XT suffix will reduce the card length to 9" and will be available with either 1GB or 512MB of GDDR4 RAM.
Seagate ships 'world's fastest' hard drive - Seagate has introduced what it claims is the world's fastest hard drive: a 15,000rpm, 2.5in 3Gbps Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) job designed for servers and enterprise-oriented storage systems.
Need 12,000GB of storage? HighPoint's RocketRAID 2340 Tested! - As far as performance goes, it's very good. While it's not as fast as the Intel ICH8R Southbridge, that is for good reason.
Alienware launches Radeon X1900-powered notebook - Alienware's offering has been christened the Area-51 m5790 Special Edition ($4299), and its top configuration packs a wide-screen 17" 1920x1200 display, a Core 2 Duo processor overclocked to 2.66GHz, 2GB of DDR2-667 RAM, dual 200GB hard drives in RAID 0, and a Blu-ray drive.
E.U. Pushes to Charge Intel with Illegal Business Practices - The E.U. Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes, was asked to formally charge Intel on grounds of illegal business tactics.
Nvidia places 'urgent orders' for more G80 chips - Nvidia has placed urgent orders with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) for GeForce 8000 GTX and GTS series chips as demand for graphics cards supporting DirectX 10 is picking up.
Download Windows Vista - Microsoft will make its new Vista operating system available for download via the Internet when it debuts at the end of this month. In addition, Microsoft will allow people to upgrade to any version of Vista when they wish at the Vista Anytime Upgrade web site. Oh, no thanks ;) Besides, the same cost? Bad idea....
Gameplay Stinks with RTM Vista and Current Drivers - In its current state Vista is too unstable at least from a graphics perspective and cumbersome in a number of ways to be attractive to gamers and even professional consumers
AutoPatcher XP January 2007 - AutoPatcher XP is an installation package designed to get your Windows XP system up to date quick and easily. This update package features a slick looking GUI and and can be customized to install as much or as little as you please.
Azureus 2.5.0.2 - Azureus (changelog / download) offers multiple torrent downloads, queuing/priority systems (on torrents and files), start/stop seeding options and instant access to numerous pieces of information about your torrents.
Norton Removal Tool for Windows 2000/XP/Vista 2007.2.01.9 - Norton Removal Tool will remove a failed installation or a damaged Norton product
Free PDF Creator - PrimoPDF - Not trialware, free to the masses!
Nero Burning Rom 7.7.5.1 - Nero 7 Premium (release notes - download) now offers both the PC and TV media management experience for a complete solution.
Skype 3.0.0.205 - Skype (release notes / download) is the next phenomenon from the people who brought you KaZaA. Just like KaZaA, Skype uses P2P (peer-to-peer) technology to connect you to other users – not to share files this time, but to talk for free with your friends.
Windows Media Player for Windows XP 11.0.5721.5146 - download
Critical Windows Bug Exploit Code Goes Public - Code that exploits a critical Windows vulnerability disclosed and patched last week has been posted to a public mailing list, raising the risk of an attack, security vendors said Wednesday.
Sun patches GIF vulnerability in Java - A critical flaw in Sun's Java Runtime Environment has been patched by Sun. The vulnerability, which we heard about a few weeks ago, related to the JRE's handling of GIF images and could lead to system compromise.
Rootkit Detector Round-Up - Ironically enough, it was one of the independent tools - Rootkit Unhooker - that turned out to be the best.
isoHunt.com Taken Down, Relocates to Canada - The site was unreachable for hours until its site staff posted an explanation for the downtime.
Sealand Wont be Sold to Pirate - His Royal Highness Prince Michael of Sealand said in an interview with 'CBC The Hour' that buying Sealand is probably a good way to circumvent international copyright law, but that he wont sell sealand to the Pirate Bay.
Wired looks at why Yahoo failed to beat Google - According to Wired, Yahoo could own Google today if it hadn't botched a buyout bid five years ago
MySpace Sued Over Online Predators - News Corp., the parent company of MySpace, has been hit with a lawsuit from four families that have had minor children abused by adults they met on MySpace.
Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD - Learn about the main technical differences between the two main candidates for the DVD succession: Blu-Ray and HD-DVD.
Adult Content Confirmed to Appear on Blu-ray, HD DVD - check it out
iPhone could be the next gold mine for Apple - Apple may be building on yet another cash machine, if the company is able to translate the hype around the iPhone into real world sales. Analysts from iSuppli estimate a 50% margin for the device when it goes on sale - resulting in profits of at least $2.5 billion, if the company reaches its shipment goal.
RedOwl robotic head detects snipers and costs $150k - Controlled by a laptop-wielding soldier it has an array of sensors, spotlights and a laser rangefinder which have enough power to read a nametag from across a football field and identify the make and model of a rifle fired a mile away simply by analyzing the sound of the distant blast.
Your PCs forecast climate future - A climate prediction project run on home PCs, in conjunction with the BBC and scientists, reveals its forecasts.
New Hannibal Rising Trailer - This is just an amazing trailer. Take a look.

Gameguru Mania News - Jan,16 2007 - tech

TechNews - IE 7 Hits 100 Million Installs - tech
(hx) 10:50 AM CET - Jan,16 2007 - Post a comment / read (4)

Asus' M2R32-MVP motherboard - The board has more than just overclocking potential going for it, too. Power consumption is much lower than that of boards based on Nvidia's nForce 590 SLI chipset, but you still get support for dual-16-lane multi-GPU configurations.
ASUS Striker Extreme - nForce 680i to the Max - Compared to the very impressive DFI RD600 motherboard, the ASUS Striker Extreme is around 30% more expensive and it is indeed a very expensive product. The Striker motherboard is designed purely for gamers and overclockers and it does a very good job at that with FSB speeds attainable over 500MHz.
XFX Geforce 7600GT Fatal1ty - Cooler and Faster than others - The XFX Fatal1ty edition uses 80nm process and has no issue running at 650Mhz GPU which is quite impressive, seeing as the average overclock of the reference 90nm 7600GT was below 650Mhz!
No high-end mobile G80 coming for 6-8 months? - Apparently, 90nm G80 proves too much for a notebook to handle. Therefore only mainstream G84 and value G86 will be available for notebooks, targeted for release in early Q2.
Creative is prepping a PCIe X-Fi XtremeAudio - For one, the card uses a PCIe x1 interface, so it should easily slip into most recent motherboards. Creative has also outfitted the card with S/PDIF optical in and out ports, reducing the need for a bulky break-out box or 5.25" drive bay interface
Linksys WVC200 Wireless IP Camera tested - TrustedReviews have looked at the Linksys WVC200 Wireless IP Camera.
PCI Express 2.0 Complete - EETimes is reporting that the PCI-SIG have completed work on the base spec for PCI Express 2.0. The new 2.0 spec effectively doubles serial signaling rates on the interconnect to 5GHz.
Internet Explorer 7 Hits 100 Million Installs - Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 has hit the 100 million installs mark already! How many of those downloaders are dissatisfied, though?...
YouTube Friend Or Foe Of Hollywood? - After all, YouTube distributes unauthorized clips of the movies that the studios spend an average of $96 million to make. But it can also help them build tremendous buzz, and that is driving Hollywood to try to work with it instead of against it.
Netflix to deliver movies to the PC - Netflix is introducing a service to deliver movies and television shows directly to PCs, not as downloads but as streaming video. So here's the basic idea. Let's say you have the popular Netflix 3 DVDs out at a time plan. Well... for NO EXTRA COST, you now get 18 hours (about 9 movies) of FREE online movie streaming per month. Yes, you read that right. Not only do you still get your 3 DVDs our at a time, but on top of that you get to watch streaming movies from Netflix (up to 18 hours worth on the 3 dvd plan). So what do you think of this new service?
First pirated HD DVD movie hits BitTorrent - The movie, Serenity, was made available as a .EVO file and is playable on most DVD playback software packages such as PowerDVD. The file was encoded in MPEG-4 VC-1 and the resulting file size was a hefty 19.6 GB.
Toshiba Touts 51GB HD DVD - Toshiba has submitted a triple-layer, 51GB HD DVD-ROM disc to the standard's overseer in the hope the technology will be adopted as a standard by the end of the year. If approved, it allow the format to exceed the 50GB storage capacity of rival medium Blu-ray Disc. The HD DVD standard currently defines single- and dual-layer discs capable of holding 15GB and 30GB of data, respectively.
Ice Storm Fighters Technology Demo - In case you missed this one, owners of multi-core Intel systems should head on over to the Intel Capabilities Forum and download the Ice Storm Fighters tech demo and give it a try. It is worth noting that this demo works with only Intel processors.
New Creative Labs Vista Drivers - These drivers as stated are unsupported and since I haven't used them I can't testify to their worthiness.
Start Firefox with a splash - Adds a splash screen to most Mozilla and Mozilla Based products.
S-XGen ultramobile personal computer - It has Intel PXA270 Xscale 520MHz processor running Windows CE 5.0 operating system, Microsoft Office Mobile, 256MB of RAM, a 20GB hard drive, Wi-Fi (802.11b), Bluetooth and tri-band GSM/EDGE/CDMA EV-DO network access, Ethernet and USB ports, a 4-inch TFT LCD touch screen, a 280 pixel Web video camera, and a fold-out QWERTY keyboard.
Google Earth Used By Terrorist? - Some of that collateral damage is now landing on the heads of British soldiers (and, one would presume, their American and "coalition" counterparts in Iraq) as insurgents are reportedly using images gleaned from Google Earth to pinpoint mortar and rocket attacks against the most vulnerable targets inside military bases. Google has long operated under a philosophy that.
A Look at The Invisible - Comic book fans know him as the writer behind Batman Begins and the "Blade" trilogy and now David Goyer is on to another project, but one that doesn't have anything to do with the comic book genre. The film centers on a writer who finds himself trapped between the world of the living and the dead-completely invisible to the living. Nick (Justin Chatwin) has a bright future until he is brutally attacked and left for dead. Now in limbo, his only chance to live again is to figure out the mystery of what happened to him and why, before his time runs out.
Johnny Depp racing to make spy film - Johnny Depp is racing against three other studios to make a spy film based on the life and death of the former Russian sercurity agent who was recently poisoned in London, England Alexander Litvinenko.
The Girl With a Boy's Brain - Kiriana Cowansage can run complex neuroscience experiments and sketch beautiful portraits. She melts at the sight of an animal, but she balks at the concept of love. Such paradoxes define women with Asperger's syndrome.
Your Doctor's Bad Handwriting Kills 7,000 People a Year - Doctors' sloppy handwriting kills more than 7,000 people annually. It's a shocking statistic, and, according to a July, 2006 report from the National Academies of Science's Institute of Medicine (IOM), preventable medication mistakes also injure more than 1.5 million Americans annually.
Chewing Gum to lose Pounds - An appetite-suppressing chewing gum or injection could be used to tackle the obesity epidemic. Scientists are developing a way to emulate the body's natural signals for feeling full using a drug based on a natural gut hormone produced after every me
$1 Bill worth more than a PS3 - A guy sold his PS3 for $1 on eBay and now he's auctioning off the $1 bill that is selling for a lot more than what he sold the PS3 for.

Gameguru Mania News - Jan,15 2007 - tech

Details on the GeForce 8600 series revealed - tech
(hx) 01:57 PM CET - Jan,15 2007 - Post a comment / read (5)

Th e GeForce 8600GT and GeForce 8600 Ultra have been revealed with respective price points of $150 and $180 USD. When launched these will be the cheapest DirectX 10 compliant cards on the market. The prices are VERY competitive and will most likely drive the price of DX9 cards way down. So if you have a DX9 cards sell them while you can :-D

- 8600 Ultra: 64 SP, core 500 MHz, memory 1400 MHz, 512 MB, 256-bit, $179

- 8600 GT: 48 SP, core 350 MHz, memory 1200 MHz, 256 MB, 128-bit, $149

- 8300 GT: 32 SP, core 500 MHz, memory 1200 MHz, 256 MB, 128-bit, $99

- 8300 GS: 24 SP, core 500 MHz, memory 1000 MHz, 256 MB, 128-bit, $79

Well I think I found the card for my spring Conroe Build, the 8600 Ultra :-)

Gameguru Mania News - Jan,12 2007 - tech

TechNews - Cheaper GeForce 8800 Cards In Feb - tech
(hx) 12:09 AM CET - Jan,12 2007 - Post a comment / read (2)

Cheaper GeForce 8800 Cards In Mid Feb - The new cards will based on the same 8800GTS GPU (96 unified, 24 texture processors and 20 ROPs). It has the same core and memory clock speeds but half the memory size of the current 8800GTS cards. The performance is close to the current 8800GTS 640M but it is US$100 cheaper. Does a price tag of US$299 sounds good to you? :-D
'Bearlake' chipsets to lack Netburst support? - According to a purported Intel document seen by HKEPC, future "Bearlake" chipsets will lack support for Netburst-based chips including the Pentium D, Pentium 4, and Celeron D 300 series. The chipsets will only support Core-based Core 2, Pentium E2000, and Celeron 400 processors....Who cares, it is basically Intel saying "Netburst is dead"
Foxconn FV-N88SMBD2-ONOC (GeForce 8800 GTS) video card - Performance wise, the FV-N88SMBD2-ONOC not surprisingly outperformed the BFGTech GeForce 8800 GTS, thanks to its higher out of the box clock frequencies. However, there were occasions at 1920x1200 where the image quality benefits were small or non-existent. Having said that though, the performance differences between this and BFGTech's cards are likely to increase as and when newer games are released.
Gigabyte GV-RX195P256D-RH ATi Radeon X1950Pro - Judging from the results, ATi R1950Pro made quite a come back in the mainstream market, offering plenty of bang for your buck; plus, the RV570 VPU totally eliminated the resolution limitation and the need for Master/slave cards under CrossFire mode. If you are living in a warm place, you surely will appreciate the use of 80nm process, which notably reduces the heat output.
NVIDIA G80: Image Quality Analysis - With largely orthogonal filtering and ROP hardware that doesn't care what its sampling from or filtering, in order to commit final pixels, we can't take issue with what it's capable of in that respect. On top of that, the driver doesn't seem to be playing tricks when it comes to setting up the hardware to do requested work, such that filtering issues prevalent in prior NVIDIA hardware appear to have disappeared.
Auzentech X-Meridian 7.1 sound card - If you're planning on using the X-Meridian for gaming, then the news isn't good according to RightMark 3D Sound, which shows a much higher CPU utilisation than all of the other boards used in our comparison.
The First BitTorrent Optimized Microprocessor - The BitTorrent-optimized STR9810/20 microprocessors will be available in Q1, 2007. Two versions of the chip are available with various hardware-based acceleration levels. Both chips feature an ARM922-based core, network interface and dual USB 2.0 high-speed ports, allowing fast integration with existing embedded consumer products such as wireless routers, NAS, smart HDD enclosures, DVD players, set-top boxes and DLNA digital media appliances. The chips will be available to systems designers starting at $8.75 in quantities of 1,000.
Dell Launches Overclocked XPS 710 H2C Gaming PC, Displays
OQO boasts smaller, Vista-capable UMPC - Despite its small size, OQO's so-called "model 02" has enough horsepower to run Windows Vista. The device packs an ultra-low-voltage VIA C7-M processor running at up to 1.5GHz, a VIA VX700 chipset with integrated graphics, up to 1GB of DDR2 RAM, and a 1.8" hard drive with up to 60GB of storage. The model 02 also has 802.11g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0, USB, a built-in microphone, and both VGA and HDMI outputs. Display-wise, the model 02 has a lilliputian 5" LCD with a resolution of 800x480.
Catalyst 7.1 Comparison - Faster then Catalyst 6.12? See you in the following Catalyst Roundup up to Catalyst 6.6.
Google Earth 4 - The Google Earth page has some pretty nice pictures for those of you that want to see the new look without having to download the whole program.
MPAA Caught Uploading Fake Torrents - The admin of btjunkie.com has released patterns & IPs that incriminate certain groups based out of Las Vegas
Experience 1080p HD content now - Truly Kick Ass Quality Awaits! - You'll need a system running Windows XP or higher, a 3.0GHz processor or equivalent (all Intel Core 2 Duo processors regardless of clock speed will work perfectly fine), 1GB of RAM but 2GB is going to be better, at least a 128MB graphics card and display which is capable of a resolution of 1920 x 1200 or higher - a big and expensive widescreen LCD monitor is recommend, Dell's 24" UltraSharp 2407WFP does the trick quite nicely.
Hi-Def Video Formats: Post CES 2007 Snapshot - Yet another CES passes and we're left with more questions and uncertainty. Will BR's content advantage and the PS3 put an end to this war? Will HD DVD be able to persuade any of the Blu-ray exclusive studios to go neutral? Will combo players and discs rule the future? What effect will the anime and adult entertainment industry have on this war? The BR camp is already claiming victory and the HD DVD forces seem quiet, yet confident, in their resolve. A carbon copy of last year, in respect to mentalities. An quick recap of the major announcements for both high definition formats can be found on HWUpgrade
No Porn On Sony HD-DVD Blu-ray?- Has Sony gone mad? Prominent adult movie producer Digital Playground (site) says it is forced to use HD DVD instead of Blu-ray, because Sony does not allow XXX-rated movies to be released on Blu-ray.
LG's hybrid player has flawed HD DVD support - LG reportedly omitted to support the HD DVD format's HDi specification, which is used to implement interactive content in HD DVD movies. Without support for the technology, the LG player can play HD DVD video content, but users are unable to use menus or access interactive features. I'm sorry $1200 for an HD DVD player? Heh....WTF...
View Phil Schiller's Close-up Demo of Apple's iPhone - Apple, Inc's Phil Schiller shows John Blackstone of CBS the many features of the iPhone.
Nokia N93i officially announced - This phone focuses mainly on high quality video capturing capabilities. It captures video qualities that are equivalent to DVD quality. The MPEG-4 VGA adapter captures at rates of 30f.p.m. along with stereo audio. An amazing 3.2 megapixel camera captures pictures of resolutions up to 2048 x 1536 pixels and has a 3x optical zoom.
Cisco On Apple Phone Lawsuit - If you want to hear first hand from Cisco why the company filed the lawsuit against Apple you need to read this.
Wal-Mart Places Ads On Torrent Sites? - Variety is reporting that ads for Wal-Mart DVDs are being displayed on Pirate Bay, meaning Wal-Mart is indirectly giving money to sites that promote piracy.
Windows Vista and AMD to Send a Person to Space -Microsoft confirmed online speculation there are nearly a half million dollars in prizes, and that the eventual winner will secure a ride into sub-orbital space, courtesy of Rocketplane Limited Inc.
Do you agree with President Bush's plan to add 21,500 troops now? - Live vote on MSNBC YES or NO?
Abrams and Shatner on Star Trek XI - Both J.J. Abrams and William Shatner have been talking about Star Trek XI, targeted for a 2008 release. Abrams ("Lost," Mission: Impossible III) confirmed to Entertainment Weekly that the script is done, and it will be trimmed sometime soon. Abrams said it's a story that even non-Trekkers can enjoy. "On the one hand, for people who love Star Trek, the fix that they will get will be really satisfying," he said. "For people who've never seen it or know it vaguely, I think they will enjoy it equally, because the movie does not require you to know anything about Star Trek. I would actually prefer [that] people don't know the series, because I feel like they will come to it with an open mind."

Gameguru Mania News - Jan,11 2007 - tech

NVIDIA GeForce 8800 ForceWare Drivers 97.92 - tech
(hx) 11:45 PM CET - Jan,11 2007 - Post a comment
NVIDIA has released the second public ForceWare drivers for their GeForce 8800 GTS and GTX series of graphics chips. The 43.2MB drivers (which apparently are separate from the normal ForceWare drivers) can be downloaded at the NVIDIA web site. The 97.92 version also has some fixes (PDF) for various games including Splinter Cell Double Agent, Halo and Oblivion.

Gameguru Mania News - Jan,10 2007 - tech

ATi Catalyst 7.1 Drivers - tech
(hx) 10:54 PM CET - Jan,10 2007 - Post a comment
AMD.ATI has released a new ATI Catalyst drivers bringing them up to version 7.1. The package contains Radeon display driver 8.33, Multimedia Center 9.16, HydraVision, HydraVision Basic Edition, Remote Wonder 3.04, WDM Driver Install Bundle, Southbridge/IXP Driver and Catalyst Control Center Version 7.1. The Windows XP full download (CCC, drivers, WDM) weighs in at just under 35MB, the package with just the display drivers alone is 12MB. There are versions for Windows XP x64 and Linux out today as well. Of course, no graphics card driver update would be complete without some bug fixes. ATI has delivered a round of those for Desperados 2, Rome: Total War, Sniper Elite, Splinter Cell Double Agent, and X-29. Other bugs in the Catalyst Control Center and other applications have also been fixed. The new drivers also offer Crossfire performance enhancements with an Alternate Frame Rendering (AFR) Crossfire rendering mode.

TechNews - Apple Announces iPhone and Apple TV - tech
(hx) 02:08 AM CET - Jan,10 2007 - Post a comment

Philips Demonstrates 3D Displays

Intel Demos V8 - Intel is giving private demos of an eight core system called the 'V8' at CES
Sapphire Unveils X1950 Pro Dual GPU Video Card - Hexus has the goods on a dual-GPU Radeon X1950 Pro being shown off in Sapphire's suite, and the card's a monster. Rather than mashing a couple of X1950 Pro reference designs together, Sapphire engineered its dual-chip card from the ground up, and they've equipped it with a gig of memory for good measure. Sapphire's apparently serious about bringing the behemoth to market in February, too, although it may not be cheap. Hexus reports that the card will cost around L250, which is roughly the same price as a GeForce 8800 GTS.
ASUS Unveils External Graphics Card - The XG Station is an external graphics card that allows laptop users to enjoy high end graphics performance while plugged in.
TV Wonder lets Vista PCs tune digital cable - The TV Wonder unit itself is not a traditional PC expansion card. Instead of being a PCI or PCIe card, the TV Wonder is largely its own device. The external version has its own case and power supply, and connects to the PC via only a USB 2.0 cable. The internal version fits into a PCI or PCIe slot, but only for retention purposes; it draws power from a floppy-drive-style power lead and connects to the PC via USB, like the external version.
Antec releases 'most powerful' case - The existing P180 is a bare case targeted largely at silent PC enthusiasts, but the new P190 includes dual power supplies and is touted by Antec as being the company's "most powerful [case] yet." Indeed, the P190's two power supplies have 650W and 550W ratings for a combined power output of 1.2kW. The case's cooling is handled by five fans, including two top-mounted 140mm models, one rear-mounted 120mm model, and a side-mounted 200mm behemoth Antec aptly calls the Big Boy.
Dell Launches New XPS 710 H2C Gaming System - This new system comes with a new custom oooling system that will allow Dell to overclock the Intel Core Extreme QX6700 quad-core processor to 3.2 GHz. The XPS 710 H2C Edition starts at $5,499 and is available worldwide.
Misc CES 2007 coverage - Everything from electronics to booth babes is covered, here is a preliminary list of sites with coverage: OCIA, Overclockers Club, ThinkComputers, Tweaknews + Booth Babe Gallery @ ThinkComputers.org :P
Gates Unveils Vision For Connected World - Gates is not only taking about a connected home but a expanding that 'connectedness' outside the home as well.
Data Backup Guide - Online and Hardware Solutions Examined - There are plenty of online backup sites which will store your data for you on their servers - some free and some are paid services. There are also more expensive hardware backup solutions, such as the Freedom9 freeStor 4020, which we will be taking a closer look in this guide. These types of devices are designed more for SOHO and business users but if your data is important to you, it is money well spent no matter who you are.
NSA Helped MS With Vista Security? - That is cool and scary all at the same time!
My Next Live Messenger Will Be from Yahoo - If Yahoo can develop a Windows Vista version of its instant messaging application, why can't Microsoft?...
Pirate Bay founder: The MPAA are 'rabid, obsessed lunatics' - check it out
Visa to launch global cellphone payment system - Visa is launching a global payment system that would let people pay for goods through their cellphones.
HD DVD Gets Downloads - The HD-DVD press conference was full of announcements like video 'clip sharing', a download center, standard combo discs and the feasibility of a 51GB triple layered disc.
Apple Launches iPhone
Apple Announces iPhone and Apple TV - Apple head man Steve Jobs has officially revealed the iPhone, a thin mobile phone with a screen, 2 megapixel camera and support for audios and videos via iTunes. Jobs also revealed more info on Apple TV (previously known as iTV) that can store up to 50 hours of video and then stream it to a PC or Mac. As news filters down to CES of the iPhone, Nokia's head of Nseries Computers gives his views, saying that it's good competition, confirms what Nokia's been preaching etc etc. And then slyly points out that the iPhone is 2G, not 3G.
Nokia Unveils New Mobile Devices - All three phones have QVGA displays and a number of advanced features. They are all due out this quarter. Nokia also announced the second generation of its internet tablet, the N800, which will be available immediately.
Zune To Have Games By 2008 - Peter Moore confirmed the plan yesterday, saying the Zune's large screen will offer a better way to play handheld games. He didn't specify what games would be offered.
id To Make Nintendo DS Games? Wired's Game|Life blog is reporting that id Software is thinking about creating Nintendo DS titles, starting with a port of Orcs and Elves, their mobile phone title designed by id John Carmack. There is no word on when this DS port will be released.
Mysterious Number 6174 - The number 6174 is a really mysterious number!
Don Frye VS Takayama Amazing Pride Fight - Check it out! /thanks iceb/
Japanese Potty Training - WTF :-) /thanks hoe/
Need a Good Painter? (This Guy Should Qualify) - Simply amazing, isn't it?
Scooby-Doo Creator Dies - Iwao Takamoto, the animator who designed the cartoon canine Scooby-Doo as well as characters on such shows as The Flintstones and The Jetsons, died Jan. 8 after suffering a massive coronary, a spokesman told the Reuters news service. He was 81.
The Invincible Iron Man Clip - ComingSoon.net's Superhero Hype! has a first look at a new clip from the The Invincible Iron Man, hitting DVD on January 23. The DVD includes an alternate opening sequence, "The Origin of Iron Man" featurette, "The Hall of Iron Man Armor" featurette, a look at the upcoming Marvel Animated Feature, Dr. Strange and more.

Microsoft Security Bulletin Summary for January 2007 - tech
(hx) 02:06 AM CET - Jan,10 2007 - Post a comment
Microsoft has released four security bulletins as part of its monthly patch cycle. Three of the bulletins are deemed "critical," the company's most serious rating; the fourth is tagged "important," a notch lower. All bulletins, however, address flaws that could allow an attacker to commandeer a PC.

CRITICAL:
- Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Excel Could Allow Remote Code Execution (927198)
- Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Outlook Could Allow Remote Code Execution (925938)
- Vulnerability in Vector Markup Language Could Allow Remote Code Execution (929969)

IMPORTANT
- Vulnerability in Microsoft Office 2003 Brazilian Portuguese Grammar Checker Could Allow Remote Code Execution (921585)

Gameguru Mania News - Jan,09 2007 - tech

ASUS Unveils External Graphics Card - tech
(hx) 12:15 AM CET - Jan,09 2007 - Post a comment / read (1)

ASUS today announced the XG Station, a dedicated external graphics card for laptops. The XG Station is an external graphics card that allows laptop users to enjoy high end graphics performance while plugged in. As the XG Station is an external graphics it can be unplugged when portability is needed. The XG Station connects to any notebook's ExpressCard slot and provides a PCI Express x16 slot for graphics cards. Since ASUS has opted to equip the XG Station with a standard PCI Express x16 slot, the station can be equipped with any PCI Express based graphics card: AMD, NVIDIA or even Matrox. ASUS launched the default XG Station with an NVIDIA 7900GS powered graphics card. The XG Station is powered externally. A separate power brick plugs directly into the adaptor. An integrated LCD display and control also grace the XG Station. The display is customizable and can display information such as frame rate, fan speed, GPU temperature and more while the control knob can change various settings of the XG Station such as the core and memory clocks. The XG Station is currently scheduled to be released at the beginning of Q2 2007. Pricing of the XG Station is unknown at the moment.

So, if you wanted a GeForce 8800 board for a laptop, this is the only way to go (for now). Portability will hurt a bit, but it is by far lighter than lugging a full blown desktop rig. Nice for playing at a hotel or at out of town locations :-D

Gameguru Mania News - Jan,08 2007 - tech

Nvidia releases Vista RTM drivers - tech
(hx) 05:09 PM CET - Jan,08 2007 - Post a comment / read (3)
In preparation for the retail launch of Windows Vista, which is scheduled for January 30, Nvidia has released a new set of WHQL-certified ForceWare drivers in both 32-bit flavor as well as the 64-bit variety. Nvidia says the drivers bring better application compatibility and performance than previous ForceWare releases for Vista, as well as a round of bug fixes. That said, the company stresses in its release notes (PDF) that some functionality, such as SLI multi-GPU support and DirectX antialiasing settings in the Nvidia control panel, isn't yet fully implemented. Grab them if you need them. NVIDIA has released the following WHQL certified drivers for use with Windows Vista RTM that will enable you to test the basic features and capabilities of the new operating system. These drivers are only compatible with Windows Vista RTM build 6000 and higher, and should not be used with other versions of Windows Vista.
In other Nvidia-related news, the company has completed its acquisition of PortalPlayer. Like a number of Apple's previous iPods, the purported device will feature silicon designed by PortalPlayer, according to rumors.

Gameguru Mania News - Jan,06 2007 - tech

TechNews - 1 TeraByte HDDs announced - tech
(hx) 03:43 AM CET - Jan,06 2007 - Post a comment

New Intel Processors To Launch Monday - As expected, the desktop chip is called the Core 2 Quad 6600 and will join the Core 2 Extreme QX6700 model Intel already ships. The new processor will run at 2.4GHz, and the front-side bus that links the chip to the rest of the system will run at 1066MHz.
11 kit DDR2 memory overclocking roundup - It is highly probably that the overclocking success of the modules that exceeded DDR2-800 can be accredited to the Micron D9 chips which both the Team Group DDR2-667 and Geil DDR2-667 kits used.
ASUS P5B-E Plus Motherboard - ASUS has done a very good job to try and chase down the P965 giant that is the Gigabyte QD6 however it still falls short.
BFG GeForce 8800 GTX Water-cooled Edition - Generally speaking about single card performance, any 8800 GTX obviously will eat anything you throw at it and then shout dude is that all? Framerates are flying which means you can enable heaps of eye candy.
XFX GeForce 7600 GT 580M AGP Tested - Performance is often close with the GeForce 7800 GS AGP in many benchmarks, although overall the edge definitely goes to the 7800 GS AGP
ATI's R600 delayed until March? - While previous rumors pointed to a February release, this new report says the latest revision of ATI's R600 prototype suffers from problems "serious enough" to warrant a re-spin. This re-spin will supposedly delay the card's release by a couple of weeks, leading to a launch in early March-likely a week before the CeBIT show, which is taking place in Hanover, Germany from March 9 to March 15.
Terabyte Drives Being Released This Year - Seagate and Hitachi are getting ready to release hard drives with a one terabyte capacity (that's a lot of porn, music, games, etc).
Seagate Plans 300TB HDD Within Matter of Years - Wired visited Seagate's R&D labs and learned we can expect 3.5-inch 300-terabit hard drives within a matter of years.
Bluegears b-Enspirer sound card - EliteBastards take a look at just one such device, in the form of Bluegears' CMI8788-powered b-Enspirer sound card - on paper, the CMI8788's abilities are very impressive indeed, moving from the 24-bit, 96KHz playback and recording capabilities of the CMI8770 to offer full 24-bit, 192KHz playback using both analogue and digital output.
Antec Nine Hundred Hardcore Gaming Case - Madshrimps posted a review on the Antec Nine Hundred Hardcore Gaming Case.
Samsung SyncMaster 225BW 22" Widescreen LCD - TheTechLounge.com take a look at the Samsung SyncMaster 225BW 22" Widescreen LCD display. Its 22" size is an upgrade from the 20" widescreens that have dominated the market for the past two years.
Microsoft Habu Laser Gaming Mouse - XYZ Computing has a new article out on the Microsoft Habu Laser Gaming Mouse.
Toshiba Announces Desktop HD DVD Drive - Toshiba says it will launch a desktop PC version of its HD DVD writer next month that will support HD-DVD, CD and DVD reading / writing. No price has been announced.
Linksys WIP320 Wireless-G phone for Skype - At first glace the WIP320, priced at $199.99, looks like a regular candy-bar style cell phone with its 1.8 TFT color LCD screen and number dialing/function keys. Instead of accessing a cellular signal however, this Linksys iPhone makes use of 802.11 b/g wireless technology, commonly found in wireless hotspots at places such as Starbucks and airports, to make phone calls using the Skype VoIP communication service.
USB AA batteries finally make it to the U.S. - Well, the folks at ThinkGeek have received stock of USBCell batteries, and U.S. customers can now order them for $19.95 a pair. While that price is high, the batteries cost £12.99 ($25.25) a pair to order from the USBCell website, so it's actually a relative bargain.
Hybrid Blu-ray/HD DVD players, discs coming to CES - Forbes says the device will play both Blu-ray and HD DVD formats, but other details like pricing and availability won't become available until the show.
Sonic Announces Legitimate Download-to-Own System for DVD Movies - The system is broken up into two forms: one for professionals called Qflix Pro, and a standard version for consumers. Right now, Sonic has a host of supporters that include both movie studios as well as hardware OEMs. Plextor, Mitsubishi and Verbatim are just some of the leading manufacturers that have voted "yes" for Qflix.
AnyDVD 6.1.0.1 - AnyDVD (download / changelog) works in the background to automatically remove the copy protection of a DVD movie as soon as it`s inserted into the drive, allowing you then to backup the movie using a DVD backup tool such as CloneDVD and CloneDVD mobile.
Realtek HD Audio Drivers 1.54 for Win2K/XP (ALC880 Series) - download
Microsoft pulls four planned patches - Microsoft has pulled four bulletins from its announced list of Patch Tuesday fixes, but did not specify why it was backpedaling on the security releases. It now plans to issue four security bulletins on Tuesday, rather than the eight originally announced, the software giant said Friday in an updated notice on its Web site. Three bulletins will contain fixes for Office, at least one of which will be rated "critical," Microsoft said. Critical vulnerabilities typically can allow a worm to spread or allow a Windows system to be fully compromised with minor or no interaction from the person using it. The fourth bulletin, for Windows, is also tagged critical.
Security bug found in PDF reader - Security researchers said malicious hackers exploiting the flaw could view victim's hard drives or use it to make phishing scams look more plausible. So far there is no evidence that the bug is being exploited in the wild. The flaw is found in the web browser plug-in of the Adobe Reader software. Ordinarily this allows PDF documents to be viewed in a browser window.
Top 10 Tech Towns - Wired has made a list of the Top 10 Tech Towns and Seattle tops the list. Other cities that made the list are Orlando, Los Angeles and Austin.
Net Tax Ban Soon? - InfoWorld has the lowdown on a new bill that seeks to permanently extend a ban on taxes on items bought on the internet.
Ten Thousand Chinese Domains Lost - The earthquake that rocked Taiwan earlier this week not only knocked people off the web for the day, it might have websites off the web. People that tried renewing domains at the last minute were unable to and might lose their domain due to non-registration
The Worst Hockey Play You Will Ever See - January 4th, 2007. The Stars lead the Oilers 5-4 with about 10 seconds left in third period. The Oilers have their goalie pulled and Dallas forward Patrick Stefan gets a clearcut breakaway (longer version) from the blueline on an empty net. The rest is now hockey history :-D I think this sums it up best....DO'H!
Aliens Vs. Predator 2 Footage - The ReelzChannel has aired a new behind-the-scenes look at 20th Century Fox's Alien vs. Predator 2, in theaters on December 21.

Gameguru Mania News - Jan,03 2007 - tech

Building a Core 2 Duo gaming system for under $1000 - tech
(hx) 04:16 PM CET - Jan,03 2007 - Post a comment / read (1)

TechSpot published an article about building a Core 2 Duo gaming system for under $1000: The question arises then on what parts present themselves as the best value solutions? At the time of writing the article "Building an affordable AM2 Gaming System" on November, the GeForce 7900GS was the best videocard option in the sub $200 price bracket. Now the Radeon X1950 Pro takes the spot, even with it does cost a little extra, we have found it to be more than worth the small premium. The Athlon64 3800+ is an amazing value at $135, but if you can afford to spend $180 on the Core 2 Duo E6300 we feel this is an even better value option.

Where we went wrong was with the motherboard, having originally selected the ASUS P5VD2-MX sporting the VIA P4M890 chipset. Having quickly replaced this motherboard with the Gigabyte 965P-DS3, we were much happier with the performance, feature set and overclocking abilities of our system. Although we are recommending that you do not purchase the P5VD2-MX for a gaming machine and suggest that you go with a motherboard such as the 965P-DS3, we left the P5VD2-MX results to show you the kind of gains dual channel can offer Core 2 Duo users.

Looking back at the Prey performance, you cannot deny the performance of the Athlon64 3800+ processor. This is such an old processor and at $135 it is incredibly cheap, yet it was able to hang with the new E6300 for the majority of the real-world testing. The AMD Athlon range has always been a gamers' best friend and it wasn't until recent times that Intel was able to stole some of AMD's thunder. While we do recommend the Core 2 Duo E6300 over an AMD Athlon64 processor, we still recognize the power and performance of these affordable AMD processors.

On a final note, while we tested these systems at 1600x1200 with a monitor other than the recommended Acer AL1917ABMD 19" 8ms LCD, running at native 1280x1024, the Radeon X1950 Pro paired with the Core 2 Duo E6300 delivered well over 100fps in Quake 4, UT2004 and Prey, along with an impressive 77fps in X3: Reunion. This means that at 1280x1024 users can expect to enjoy crisp image quality with heavy use of FSAA and Aniso settings without affecting performance. Overall, for roughly $1000 this Core 2 Duo system should keep any gamer grinning for some time to come.

TechNews - Sound Blaster X-Fi Issues Explored - tech
(hx) 01:11 AM CET - Jan,03 2007 - Post a comment / read (3)

MSI's P965 Platinum and 975X Platinum mobos - Both boards support CrossFire and Intel's latest Core 2 processors, but the 975X Platinum costs about $20 more.
GeForce 8800 cards not working with some mobos? - The Inquirer thinks the cards don't work because they aren't fully PCI Express compliant.
Israeli GPU Company Receives Funding from Intel - EE Times reports Israeli graphics company Lucid Information Technology Ltd has raised 12 million dollars for research and development. They are working on a traffic hub chip designed to route data between graphics processors. The chip can spread loads between as many as four GPUs, and Lucid is also developing an associated driver to make multi-GPU setups transparent to software. Lucid plans to have silicon samples out by the end of this year and to eventually kick off volume sales to a major board manfuacturer like Asus, Leadtek, or Gigabyte.
Gigabyte H663 Home Entertainment System - Your next HTPC? - The motherboard has an onboard Intel GMA950 graphics adaptor, but there is also a PCI-E Gigabyte GC-ADD2EF-RH graphics card with DVI and S-Video - this card isn't an independent graphics card in its own right, it simply expands the capabilities of the GMA950 adaptor.
ASUS WL-500W SuperSpeed N Wireless Router - This router can be combined with an external hard drive to set up a file server, or a printer to set up a print server.
Sound Blaster X-Fi Issues Explored - Two motherboards out of five caused the X-Fi to produce crackling and popping noises.
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi series Vista Driver 2.13.0001 Beta - This download is a driver providing Microsoft Windows Vista 64-bit and Windows Vista 32-bit support for Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi series of audio devices. This download supports the following audio devices only: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic, Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer, Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum, Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty and Creative Sound Blaster Elite Pro.
Miranda IM 0.6 - Miranda IM (download) is designed to be resource efficient and easy to use while still providing many features including support for AIM, Jabber, ICQ, IRC, MSN, Yahoo, and more. The Miranda IM 0.6 release introduces UPnP support to improve file transfer and direct connect reliability through routers. Other changes include improved support for UTF-8 strings, improved tabbed options support, and numerous bug fixes. If you are using Miranda IM 0.5.1 or earlier, this is a highly recommended upgrade.
AIMFix 1.6.12.747 - Remove all known AIM viruses (download) with one consolidated removal tool.
How to crash a Windows mobile using MMS - It is still unknown which phones are vulnerable to this exploit. Collin's research has confirmed a vulnerability in the IPAQ 6315 and i-mate PDA2k, but it is quite likely that all Pocket PC 2003 and Windows Smartphone 2003 devices are also vulnerable.
Serious Gmail Vulnerability Fixed - The problem is only partially fixed. The vulnerability exposed through video.google.com has been patched up, but there are other subdomains where the problem still exists.
10 registry hacks for hardening Windows XP security - Windows XP out of the box is not as secure as it could be. See how to make WinXP computers more secure by tweaking a few registry settings. In other news, this registry file enables you to modify that setting if you determine that your hardware can safely support S3 mode
The Definitive BIOS Optimization Guide v9.5 - Tech ARP has updated their BIOS Optimization Guide with an ACPI 2.0 Support section
Bluetooth Hijacking Demonstrated - If you own a Bluetooth enabled phone, you really need to watch this video :-D
AllofMP3.com Responds to RIAA Lawsuit - AllofMP3 has now responded to the lawsuit with a statement, and the company apparently plans to continue business as usual.
YouTube fails to meet copyright system deadline - The missed deadline could have to do with the Google buyout that followed, although Google itself stated in October that it would take a 'tough stance' on copyright infringement once it completed the acquisition.
Merger Approval Means Cingular Will Be Renamed AT&T - The biggest telecommunications merger in U.S. history just received federal approval.
BenQ Mobile faces liquidation - 'Unsustainable losses' have plagued Taiwanese hardware maker since it acquired handset division from Siemens.
$100 laptop project launches 2007 - Millions of computers built for the One Laptop Per Child project could reach users by July this year.
Walletex developing credit-card sized MP3 player - The Wallet MP3 player is billed as the world's slimmest MP3 player and builds on the innovations introduced with the Wallet Flash device. It will apparently come with a built in USB 2.0 connector that will be used not only for loading up those tunes, but also for charging and as the audio jack ("normal" headphones need not apply, at least without an adapter).
Science's 10 Most Beautiful Physics Experiments - Robert P. Crease, a member of the philosophy department at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and the historian at Brookhaven National Laboratory, recently asked physicists to nominate the most beautiful experiment of all time.
Aspirin - can it cure cancer? - Aspirin stops headaches, reduces fever and prevents blood from clogging. Now a new research shows that the familiar drug can also stop the expansion of cancer tumours.

Gameguru Mania News - Dec,31 2006 - tech

ATI R600 gets leaked on the web - tech
(hx) 08:09 PM CET - Dec,31 2006 - Post a comment / read (5)
Level 505 has leaked benchmarks (thanks DailyTech) and specifications of AMD's upcoming ATI R600 graphics processor. In summary, the pre-release R600 is around 5% above the current 8800GTX in most tests, except the games, where it shoots up to 20% above the NV offering. So, prepare for a very interesting battle when it finally comes out: not only will ATI further optimise the drivers, so will Nvidia, on top of faster overclockers' editions of G80. The upcoming graphics processor is expected to launch in January 2007 with an expected revision arriving in March 2007: 64 4-Way SIMD Unified Shaders, 128 Shader Operations/Cycle
32 TMUs, 16 ROPs
512 bit Memory Controller, full 32 bit per chip connection
GDDR3 at 900 MHz clock speed (January)
GDDR4 at 1.1 GHz clock speed (March, revised edition)
Total bandwidth 115 GB/s on GDDR3
Total bandwidth 140 GB/s on GDDR4
Consumer memory support 1024 MB
DX10 full compatibility with draft DX10.1 vendor-specific cap removal (unified programming)
32FP internal processing
Hardware support for GPU clustering (any 2^n number, not limited to Dual or Quad-GPU)
Hardware DVI-HDCP support (High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection)
Hardware Quad-DVI output support (Limited to workstation editions)
230W consumption
Multi-GPU cluster solutions will be available for the workstation market only until March, 2007.

Processing Power:
105,000,000,000 SOps (Shader Operations Per Second)
2,000,000,000 TCps (Triangle Calculations Per Second)
28 GTps (Gigatexels Per Second)

Gameguru Mania News - Dec,30 2006 - tech

TechNews - 6 GHz PC CPU To Be Revealed in Feb - tech
(hx) 12:33 PM CET - Dec,30 2006 - Post a comment / read (1)

5 And 6 GHz PC CPUs To Be Revealed In February - The first-generation Cell Broadband Engine chip, co-developed by IBM, Sony, and Toshiba, has just appeared in Sony's PlayStation 3 game console and can run at 4GHz. The second-generation chip will run at 6GHz, according to the ISSCC program. In addition, the new chip will have a dual power supply that increases memory performance--a major bottleneck in computer designs today.
AMD 3000+ Sempron For $10 - I spotted this deal today for a socket 939 Sempron 3000+ that is only $9.97 after rebate. I don’t know about you but that is a pretty damn nice deal. You better hurry though, the deal ends on the 31st.
Notebook Trio: ASUS A8JS and G2P and ABS Mayhem Z5 - The ABS Mayhem Z5 is almost the exact opposite of the G2P: it is a true gaming notebook, with one of the most powerful mobile graphics chips currently available stuffed into its chassis. There are a few games that are beginning to tax the GeForce Go 7900 GTX these days, particularly if you want to run games at the native 1920x1200 LCD resolution.
Fuel Cell powered laptops run for a month - According to Engadget, the new docking station, which works with Samsung's Q35 ultraportable laptop contains a 1200-watt-hour fuel cell. The dock can power a laptop eight hours a day, five days a week for a month. Apparently the boffins are working on a miniature version which can power a laptop for more than 15 hours "on a coffee cup's worth of fuel". Although it is not clear how much fuel there is in a cup of coffee.
1080p and 1080i High Definition Resolution explained - 720p and 1080i were initially set out as the two key standards for High Definition content, with Sky HD, HD DVD and the Xbox 360 supporting these formats. Any TV that supports 720p and 1080i is classed as HD Ready.
LabelFlash vs LightScribe - According to a news published at Digitimes, Pioneer is relaunching the LabelFlash technology to counteract Lightscribe's disc labeling system with its DVR-A12J, a 18x DVD Dual burner recently released in Japan.
Firefox Creator No Longer Trusts Google? - Blake Ross, one of the guys behind Firefox, says that he no longer trusts Google after the company announced that it will promote its own products over everyone else.
iHolic MP3 player with T-DMB support - It features 2.4-inch TFT-LCD, T-DMB receiver, audio/video playback, image viewer, SD card slot and voice recorder.
Magnetic satellite launch system - The current LaunchPoint Technologies design has a large ring of superconducting magnets that would fling the object into space, or into orbit around the world. A high-speed accelerator would whip an object weighing up to 220 pounds around a circular vacuum tunnel that has a 1.5-mile-radius
PS3 Grill In Action - What about a real PS3 grill, cooking a steak?
Honda says fuel-cell cars can be mass-produced by 2018 - Japanese carmaker Honda believes it can mass-produce environmentally friendly fuel-cell cars by 2018.
OFF-TOPIC: Saddam Hussein hanged - Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi dictator who spent his last years in captivity after his ruthless regime was toppled by the U.S.-led coalition in 2003, was hanged before dawn Saturday for crimes committed in a brutal crackdown during his reign.
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Exhibition: 42 games - A collection of Flash games produced as part of the London Science Museum's Hitchhiker's exhibition. They include some arcade games where you get to control Marvin and some trivia challenges
Family Survival Kit - Hah, check it out!
Best 50 hacks for your Life - Invest your time - read them.
Silent Hill 2 movie "well underway" - Gans confirmed in an interview with French magazine DVDrama, "There will indeed be a Silent Hill 2 and it is officially ordered and is already well underway. Once he has finished his adaptation of Driver, Roger Avary will be [working on the script], helped by his friend Neil Gaiman." Gans added that he may not have time to take on the project himself, due to his commitments on the adaptation of another video game project, Onimusha.
Britney Spears' #1 Fansite Closes Because Owner Says Britney's "Done" - Ruben Garay, who has hosted WorldOfBritney.com since October 2000, yesterday announced the site will no longer exist after January 31 because the singer is "losing her identity and credibility with fans and industry people."
Is Your Name... Hannibal Lecter? - Amazon in the U.K. has posted the new international trailer for MGM and The Weinstein Company's Hannibal Rising, coming to theaters in North America on February 9.
Indiana Jones 4 Coming May 2008 - George Lucas said Friday that filming of the long-awaited Indiana Jones 4 will begin next year with Harrison Ford set to star again. Lucas said he and Steven Spielberg recently finalized the script for the film.

Gameguru Mania News - Dec,28 2006 - tech

TechNews - HD-DVD Protection already hacked? - tech
(hx) 01:31 PM CET - Dec,28 2006 - Post a comment

G.SKILL F2-6400CL6D-4GBMQ 4 GB Kit tested - techPowerUp posted a review on the G.SKILL F2-6400CL6D-4GBMQ 4 GB Kit. Is this $500 memory kit the solution to a smooth Windows Vista experience?
nForce 590 SLI motherboards compared - TechReport has rounded up a fistful of nForce 590 SLI motherboards from Abit, Asus, DFI, ECS, and MSI.
BFG Tech GeForce 8800 GTS - The BFG GeForce 8800 GTS card is an outstanding graphics card that promises to deliver outstanding performance for any game you can throw at it. In other news, I4U News reviews the XFX NVIDIA 8800 GTX XXX Graphics Card
Mid-Range Graphics Card Warfare - AMD vs. nVidia (Q4/2006) - Don't want to overclock? The X1950PRO is the best option for the high-end mid-range segment - it is faster in almost everything out of the box.
Hard Drive Cooling: Is it Worth it? - Do it. Get the fans!
nForce 680i BIOS Updates - The final BIOS updates are available for both eVGA's and BFG's 680i SLI mobos.
HD-DVD Content Protection already hacked? - This is a java based command line utility that decrypt video files (.evo) from a HD DVD disk that you own, to your hard drive and you can play them back with a HD DVD player software.
Windows Vista Activation Cracked Yet Again - The exploit allows users to permanently activate Windows Vista using crack files and some registry trickery
RivaTuner 2.0 Final Release & Contest - This new version adds ForceWare 97.28 and 97.44 drivers support, databases for ForceWare 93.28 and 97.44 drivers, ForceWare 97.44 compatible gamma corrected antialiasing control, Catalyst 6.12 drivers detection and more.
Create Your Own DVDs in Windows Vista - Columnist Galan Bridgman explores much-anticipated capability of Windows Vista - writing and burning DVDs.
IBM Slows Light! - IBM has announced that its researchers have built a device capable of delaying the flow of light on a silicon chip
The mathematics of cloaking - The theorists who first created the mathematics that describe the behavior of the recently announced "invisibility cloak" have revealed a new analysis that may extend the current cloak's powers, enabling it to hide even actively radiating objects like a flashlight or cell phone.
Verizon Will Allow Advertising On Its Deck - Early next year the carrier will begin selling ad space on their news, sports, and other Get It Now pages.
Samsung Slims Down HSDPA - The Z720 is the first 3G Ultra edition to go on sale in the West. It is a tri-band (900/1800/1900) GSM/EDGE phone with WCDMA 2100. The Z720 is a 13.8mm thick slider and has many of the same features as its 2G predecessor including a 3 Megapixel autofocus camera, stereo Bluetooth, Micro SD slot and QVGA screen.
Nokia N95 - First commercial - The first commercial for the hugely anticipated Nokia N95 is here.
PS3 freezes - Apparently if you play a game on a PS3 in a store and it freezes or switches off, it does not mean that the machine is broken, or bad. According to www.destructoid.com, the move is all part of a cunning marketing plan by the maker of exploding batteries, Sony. Hah! :-)
Someone donated $286,800 to Wikipedia - Within the past few minutes the confirmed donations total went from $402,000 to $689,000. One contribution was by An anonymous friend on 2006-12-27 at 22:17:00 for the amount of $286,800. Wow!
Casino refuses to pay off their $209,000 jackpot win - "software glitch" - Two men from Manitoba have hired a lawyer and are threatening legal action after a Winnipeg casino refused to pay out more than $209,000 in slot-machine winnings. The men were playing a computerized version of Keno last week when they matched all five numbers on the screen. The machine said the win was worth a jackpot of $209,716.40. The casino said it was a software error.
New Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer trailer - check it out

Gameguru Mania News - Dec,26 2006 - tech

Rainbow Six: Vegas: A Performance Analysis - tech
(hx) 12:32 AM CET - Dec,26 2006 - Post a comment

The chaps over at AnandTech take a look performance in Rainbow Six: Vegas with mainstream/mid-range and low-end graphics cards from ATI and NVIDIA. The NVIDIA cards they tested Vegas with are the 7300 GT, 7600 GS, 7600 GT, 7900 GS, 7950 GT, 7900 GTX, and the 8800 GTS and GTX. From ATI, they have the X1300 XT, X1650 Pro, X1650 XT, X1900 XT 256, and X1950 XTX. Here's a taster: Our performance tests show that in order to play this game smoothly with the resolution and quality settings at their highest, you will need at least an NVIDIA 8800 GTS (or possibly an overclocked X1950 XTX). The X1950 XTX and 7900 GTX at reference speeds can run the game at these settings without too much trouble, but they still see some choppiness when in a large firefight with a lot of stuff going on. Fortunately, the game still looks and plays well with the resolution and quality settings turned down, so don't despair if you aren't an owner of an 8800 yet and want to get a hold of this game. We still don't recommend playing Rainbow Six: Vegas on a low end card like the 7300 GT, because even at the lowest resolution and settings you will still probably run into choppy gameplay at certain points in the game, and the action can be fast-paced enough that this is a real problem. At this point in time, to really enjoy this game at a decent resolution you will probably want to go with at least a 7600 GT from NVIDIA or better yet an X1650 XT from ATI if you can get your hands on one. GeForce 7900 GS and Radeon X1900 GT are also good options.

Hopefully we will see some improvements in performance for Vegas on NVIDIA's hardware soon, because as it stands, the game clearly favors ATI parts, with the obvious exception of the 8800. That is a trend we've seen more of over time, however: G70 series hardware does very well at DX8 graphics, but when more DX9 effects are enabled the pixel shaders on many NVIDIA chips don't seem to do as well as ATI's hardware. We might have liked to see the kind of control over graphics quality in Vegas that we've seen in games like The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, especially considering that maximum detail settings result in performance that is often lower than what we saw with Oblivion. Still, kudos to Ubisoft on this nice addition to the Rainbow Six series, and we look forward to further enjoying this game, as well as seeing what else comes along using the Unreal Engine 3 in the near future.

Gameguru Mania News - Dec,22 2006 - tech

TechNews - Intel to break the 4GHz barrier in 2008 - tech
(hx) 02:17 PM CET - Dec,22 2006 - Post a comment / read (1)

Intel to break the 4GHz barrier in 2008 -The report says Bloomfield, one of Intel's upcoming 45nm quad-core processors based on the Nehalem architecture, will be clocked at sp eeds exceeding 4GHz when it comes out in 2008
AMD Socket-F Opteron vs. Intel Woodcrest - It would appear the major difference between the Opteron 285 and 2218 is power consumption.
Intel integrated G35 supports DirectX 10 - It is called G35 and this is a brand name not the code name, it seems. It supports Intel Clear Video marchitecture and DirectX 10
AMD Says DX10 Will Not Take Off Until 2H 2007 - AMD is speculating that demand for DirectX 10 compliant video cards will not take off until the second half of 2007.
Windows Vista Memory Test Round-Up - With Windows Vista, it’s a must to have good fast memory installed in your PC. In other news, TweakTown tested the Crucial's High-Performance RAM - Ballistix PC2-8000 EPP.
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 750GB - Perpendicular recording at its best - The drive is not cheap coming in at around $400 USD (about $560 AUD in Australia) but indeed you get what you pay for.
Creative Live! Cam Optia - It captures video at up to 640x480 pixels, and photos at up to 1.3-Megapixel resolution (interpolated). With Certified Hi-Speed USB 2.0 connectivity, raw data is transferred from the Web camera to a PC without compression, providing video quality at up to 30fps (frames per second).
Why 99% of Power Supply Reviews Are Wrong - Learn why the vast majority of power supply reviews published on the web are wrong.
AutoPatcher XP Update December 2006 - AutoPatcher could be described as an offline Windows Update. AutoPatcher provides an interface to a large collection of updates, common applications and registry tweaks, that can be easily and quickly applied to your computer system.
CloneCD 5.3.0.0 - CloneCD (download) is a powerful CD-Copy program. It writes in Raw mode, which allows it to have total control on the data written. Therefore, it will produce real 1:1 copies of your CDs. This new version added full support for Windows Vista, including 64-bit versions.
Firefox 2.0.0.1 Update - The following list of security issues have been fixed ~ download
Thunderbird 1.5.0.9 - Mozilla Thunderbird (download / release notes) is a redesign of the Mozilla mail component.
FileASSASSIN 1.01 - FileASSASSIN can delete locked malware files on your system. It uses advanced techniques to unload modules, close remote handles, and terminate processes to allow the removal of the file.
Google Talk 1.0.0.103 - Google Talk (download) enables you to call or send instant messages to your friends for free–anytime, anywhere in the world.
Skype 3.0.0.198 - Skype uses P2P (release notes / download) technology to connect you to other users. Not to share files, but to talk with them for free.
Logitech SetPoint 3.15 - Logitech MouseWare is the software used to install and control Logitech mice. Incredible! 40 meg for a mouse driver... !
'Windows XP Hack' E-Book (FREE) - An E-Book of Windows XP Hacks (download link) available for free to the masses.
VMware Virtualization for Mac Beta Program - The new VMware desktop product for the Mac, codenamed Fusion, allows Intel-based Macs to run x86 operating systems, such as Windows, Linux, NetWare and Solaris, in virtual machines at the same time as Mac OS X.
Multiple Processors + WinXPSP2 - May Experience Decreased Performance - Have an Intel dual core or multi processor system? Might want to get this patch (download)
Microsoft Starts Handing Out SUSE Linux Subscriptions - Redmond has handed out some 16,000 subscription certificates for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.
Integrate software into your WinXP install CD - The whole procedure takes from 5 to 20 minutes (burning of the CD included).
Setting up HDMI on your HDTV - nVidia vs. AMD - When you connect a computer to your TV using a digital signal like HDMI, the process isn't as seamless as connecting a dedicated piece of AV hardware, like a TV tuner or DVD player. This is because AV equipment makes automatic allowances for overscan whereas graphics cards don't. To fix this, there’s a certain amount of manual tweaking required in the driver.
AllofMP3.com Sued by Record Labels - The labels claim in the lawsuit that Russia-based Mediaservices, parent company of AllofMP3.com, profits off copyrighted music without paying any royalties to the holders.
BBC moves to file-sharing sites - Hundreds of episodes of BBC programmes will be made available on a file-sharing network for the first time. The move follows a deal between the commercial arm of the organisation, BBC Worldwide, and technology firm Azureus.
Skype founders' TV-killer examined - Only problem with this one will be bandwith/traffic Not many people will be able to use it :-(
Sony BMG Music compensates its users - Sony has finally decided to compensate customers in California who were affected by the DRM software found on some Sony BMG music CD's.
Samsung SGH-Z560 'super 3G' phone - It's the first HSDPA model launched in Europe. HSDPA is a 3.5G technology that can transmit data at speeds up to six times faster than the 3G network, and its current top download speed of 1.8Mbps promises a meaningful mobile-based multimedia experience
Hypersonic Cruise Missile: America's New Global Strike Weapon - The Pentagon is now developing a critical new weapon for hitting elusive targets and the result is the X-51 hypersonic cruise missile which could travel 600 miles in 10 minutes thereby giving strike capability anywhere in the world in less than an hour. The X-51 destroys its targets by simply crashing into them at hypersonic speeds.
Microsoft Has Success With Xbox 360 Movie-TV Downloads - This Variety story reports that while exact figures have not been revealed, Hollywood studios are saying that video and TV downloads are doing as well or better on Xbox 360 consoles than similar services like CinemaNow, Movielink and Amazon's Unbox service, which are available on more widely available PC platforms. Analysts suggest that the Xbox 360's ease of use, its connection to TVs, and its support of HD downloads are part of the reason for its success.
Nintendo Wii review - EliteBastards has posted an extensive review of the Wii.
Xbox 360 Warranties Extended - Microsoft is retroactively extending the warranty period for Xbox 360s purchased in the United States and Canada from 90 days to one year, as it is most everywhere else. This will include refunds for those who have already paid for repairs that would have been covered under this warranty.
Seventh Harry Potter Book Named - JK Rowling has today given fans of the Harry Potter books the name of Book 7 of the very popular series via a Christmas present on her site, to get to the name you need to follow a complicated procedure but thankfully the name of the book has been revealed as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Star Wars done in Black & White Silent Film Format - check it out
Stargate SG-1 Films Given Shooting Dates - Before the last episode of the final season of Stargate SG-1 airs on the sci-fi Channel, the famous cast of the history-making television series will have already begun the production shoot for the highly anticipated new films in the franchise. (WARNING: Possible spoilers at the end of the article!)
Tarantino & Rodriguez's Grindhouse Teaser! - Yahoo! Movies has posted the new teaser trailer for Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's Grindhouse, which Dimensions Films will release on April 6. Grindhouse is one full-length feature comprised of two individual films helmed separately by each director. Tarantino's film, "Death Proof," is a rip-roaring slasher flick where the killer pursues his victims with a car rather than a knife, while Rodriguez's film explores an alien world eerily familiar to ours in "Planet Terror."
Miss USA rocked by sexy new scandal - Miss Nevada Katie Rees - NSFW, but damned hot!

Gameguru Mania News - Dec,19 2006 - tech

TechNews - Core 2 prices to go down in Q2/2007 - tech
(hx) 01:24 PM CET - Dec,19 2006 - Post a comment

Core 2 prices to go down in Q2 2007 - The cuts will be quite significant, the site says, reaching around 40% in some cases!
AMD's Brisbane: 'Most energy efficient AMD CPU to date' - The reviewed chip is AMD's 65nm Athlon 64 X2 5000+ and from the outside, it looks just like a normal X2. The only way to tell that this is a 65nm chip is by looking at the OPN.
5W Core 2 Solos coming next year - The two chips will be low-voltage models dubbed Core 2 Solo U2100 and U2200. The U2100 model will run at 1.06GHz, while the faster U2200 chip will be clocked at 1.2GHz.
Bloomfield To Hit 4GHz & Has 8MB Cache - VR-Zone posted a news story on Intel's upcoming Bloomfield architecture.
Passive Radeon X1950 cards are on their way - PowerColor is cooking up versions of both the Radeon X1950 Pro and the faster Radeon X1950 XT with a new, completely passive cooler designed by Arctic Cooling. VR-Zone says the passive Radeon X1950 Pro will hit stores in the first quarter of next year with a $10 price premium over the regular model.
Nvidia releases GeForce 8800 demos - All three demos require a GeForce 8800 GTS or GeForce 8800 GTX graphics card with Nvidia's latest ForceWare drivers.
Ray tracing in games explored - PC Perspective has posted an interesting article on the use of ray tracing as a rendering method in games. The article was written by Daniel Pohl, a German programmer who wrote real-time ray tracing 3D engines for both Quake 3 and Quake 4.
Opera 9.1 released - If you are looking for an alternative to Mozilla or Microsoft to browse the web, you might want to give Opera a try. This new version adds some form of "phishing" protection - it displays a warning when visitors go to a site that may trick them into revealing passwords and other sensitive information.
Two NEC Desktops Reportedly Catch Fire in Japan - According to NEC, it has received two reports of Valuestar power supplies catching fire in Japan. The cause of the fires has been linked to a faulty coil within the power supplies. No injuries were reported in either case. 14,600 of the Valuestar desktop were shipped between November of 2003 and June of 2004.
iPhone Officially Announced - The iPhone has arrived, but not from Apple. Linksys, a division of Cisco Systems, introduced two VOIP handsets adding to five others the company already offers.
Skype to launch Web TV service - The founders of Skype are close to launching a global broadband television service promising viewers, content owners and advertisers "the best of the internet with the best of TV".
LCD TV Prices To Drop In 2007 - According to DigiTimes, LCD TV makers say prices are expected to plunge by the end of 2007.
Sony's PSP to Get Movie Download Service - Sony's movie download service, which is scheduled to launch in the first quarter of 2007, will allow for movies to be downloaded to a PC and then transferred to a PSP. The movies would on one of Sony’s MemorySticks. According to Sony, as many as 10 full-length movies could be squeezed onto a 4GB MemoryStick.
Microsoft Updates Zune Firmware to 1.2 - There is no new functionality added with the update, but users do note that performance has been improved across the board with the player. Users note that everything from scrolling through albums to viewing pictures has been sped up.
Rotating Solar-Powered Skyscraper - Wired is pointing out a recent Gear Factor blog entry that highlights a new skyscraper in the works which will be solar-powered, and what's more will rotate with the sun
F-35 fighter wraps up first test flight - The F-35B is the STOVL variant which will replace the AV-8 Harrier currently in service with the US Marine Corps. The F-35C will be used by the US Navy where it will replace the F-18A/B/C/D.
Cartoon creator Joe Barbera dies - Joe Barbera, half of the Hanna-Barbera animation team that produced such beloved cartoon characters as Tom and Jerry, Yogi Bear and the Flintstones, died Monday, a Warner Bros. spokesman said. He was 95.
Rocky Balboa Reenters the Ring - ComingSoon.net talked to the man who created one of the greatest underdog stories, Sly Stallone. He was applauded by the journalists as he coolly strolled in the room and was all too eager to talk about his last time playing Rocky.
Top 10 Worst Movie Trailers of 2006 - IFILM posts their top 10 worst movie trailers of 2006.
Shrek The Third Trailer - After seeing some footage a month ago and now this Shrek The Thrid trailer, I can honestly say I'm looking forward to taking this one in some Saturday afternoon

Y.A.S.U (Yet Another SecuROM Utility) v1.05 - tech
(hx) 12:20 AM CET - Dec,19 2006 - Post a comment
CureROM Team has released Y.A.S.U v1.05 (download), a new SecuROM utility. This new version fixes the SecuROM Blacklist(s).Games Tested - SecuROM 7.x: Rainbow Six: Vegas v1.01, Rayman: Raving Rabbids (v1.0), Dark Messiah of Might and Magic v1.01, Splinter Cell Double Agent 1.01, Heroes Of Might And Magic V 1.4, SafeDisc 4.x: NFS:Carbon, Call Of Duty 2, Gun, Sims 2: Pets. Well I don't think that SecuRom loves this sweel tool, but who cares :-)

Gameguru Mania News - Dec,18 2006 - tech

UE3 Performance With Rainbow Six: Vegas - tech
(hx) 02:29 PM CET - Dec,18 2006 - Post a comment / read (1)

The 7600 GS takes the end but the 7950GX2 isn't too far away due to it being crippled by no SLI.

Rainbow Six: Vegas is one of the first PC games to use the brand new Unreal 3 engine. HDR, per-pixel lighting, and a highly improved facial animation system are a few of the changes UE3 has brought with it. Wondering how your PC will handle this game? The chaps over at AMD Zone have posted some benchmarks with video cards ranging from the NVIDIA 7600 to a new 8800 GTX. The test rig was equipped with a AMD Athlon FX 62, DFI LP UT NF590 SLI and Corsair XMS 2GB. Here's an excerpt: The more one digs into Vegas, the more clear it becomes that the game has not been built to take fully advantage of the PC platform but is more of an Xbox 360 port. There are very few options to choose from overall and while there is a .cfg file in the directory, in fact possibly too many, without the proper commands it was near impossible to enable or disable features. The most glaring of which is the fact that there is no anti-aliasing in the video menu at all. That's right, you can't even tweak that and what you can is very limited. It is quite disappointing so as such we went with high on all settings and disabled hardware mapping because we chose to test a wide variety of cards. Something else we quickly learned is that SLI and Crossfire support are not enabled in the game. Perhaps this and other features will be addressed in a later patch but it is disheartening to see that Ubisoft is paying less attention to the PC platform with both this and the recent Double Agent game and there are also reports of numerous bugs and crashes within the game, conflicts with the 8800 cards, and much more.

Again we ran FRAPS and took an average of three scores. Not only did we do that, but we completely restarted our demo sequence if something wasn't nearly matched up with our benchmark run. As we were soon to learn, even some minor changes influenced the fps greatly. In fact we are going to go the extra mile here and post a FRAPS recorded video of us running through our sequence so you can try and re-create it. Feel free to get the 50MB file over at MegaUpload. Again, all settings are set to maximum of the few that are there except hardware mapping which is turned off for our more powerful CPU.

Gameguru Mania News - Dec,16 2006 - tech

TechNews - Worm Hits PC via Norton Antivirus - tech
(hx) 06:25 PM CET - Dec,16 2006 - Post a comment

65nm Athlon 64 X2 tested, overclocked - Nedjo tried to overclock the Athlon 64 X2 5000+ with a stock speed of 2.6GHz, and he reached a cool 3.1GHz with the voltage at 1.384V.
ASUS P5B Motherboard Tested - ASUS P5B is a good choice for the mainstream user building a Core 2 Duo-based system willing to achieve the best performance at the lowest price point possible. In other words, this motherboard is targeted to users that want a high-end performance but don't want to spend a lot of money on a high-end motherboard.
Mid-Range GeForce 7 Series Round-up - There's a lot to like about the EN7950GT - it's small, fast, and quiet.
HP Announces Free Vista Upgrades - To be eligible for free upgrades, customers must purchase (or have purchased) between October 26, 2006, and March 15, 2007, a new HP Pavilion, Compaq Presario, or HP Digital Entertainment Center PC.
IE7's phishing filter gets speed boost - Microsoft has released a patch for Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) that will boost the brand-new browser's performance on some Web sites.
Yahoo Messenger Update - Yahoo has released a highly critical update for Yahoo Messenger 5.0 - 8.0. The update will keep someone from launching malicious code or taking control of your PC altogether. The flaws affect versions of Yahoo Messenger 5.0 through 8.0, according to a security advisory released Friday by Secunia. Windows users who are running versions of Yahoo Messenger released before November 2 are advised to update to Yahoo Messenger 8.1.
Microsoft's Vista isn't compatible with SQL Server - Vista, its long-awaited update to the Windows operating system, can't run the current version of SQL Server 2005 Express.
Photoshop CS3 Beta Cracked - Looks like someone on demonoid found a crack for the latest beta of Photoshop CS3 - it involves editing the hex value of a file after it has been installed. Go to offset 0x30AE5EA and change 81ECDC00 by E9E20200 :-D
Worm Hits PC Via Antivirus Program - EEye Digital Security, based in Aliso Viejo says a new worm dubbed 'Big Yellow' is spreading through a security hole in the corporate version of Symantec's antivirus software. A patch was released months ago but, unfortunately, it is up to customers to install it.
ePassports 'at risk' from cloning - The hi-tech ePassport could make forgery and identity theft easier, BBC Click discovers.
Gates Says DRM Too Complicated - Bill Gates says that Digital Rights Management is just too complicated for the end user.
How Skype Gets Around Firewalls - If you've ever wondered how Skype can connect two PC users across the country, both behind firewalls, this article explains it.
Microsoft tries to stop Vista piracy monster - Microsoft has issued an update to Windows Vista that's intended to stop a piracy monster.
Google Patent Search - Google has launched a beta version of a service designed to help inventors search existing patents. The site is currently indexing the seven million patents granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and will add other patent sources in the coming months.
HTC Athena UMPC-ish Smartphone - Featuring a removable QWERTY keyboard, the Athena has a 3.5-inch touchscreen QVGA display (they should have went VGA for a screen this size), 256MB ROM, 64MB RAM, 400MHz Samsung processor, Bluetooth, 802.11b/g, 2-megapixel camera, USB 1.1 and a SD expansion slot
Researchers Find Way to Manufacture Flexible Electronics - The researchers also showed that the transistor arrays printed on plastic continue to work well even after significant bending, a key finding for anything that will be used in flexible electronics.
Wii Tricks and Secrets - There are secrets hidden within the Wii. Do you know about them?
Early look: Volvo XC60 Concept revealed - The vehicle will be on display at the Detroit auto show in January.
Nanobandages about to hit the big time - The scientists estimate that the bandages would be in wide release by 2008.
Fully submersible watercraft mimics a dolphin (videos) - Shaped like everyone's favorite aquatic mammal, this tiny submarine (seemingly with room for only one passenger) is naturally buoyant and takes advantage of the same mechanics that allow dolphins to have an "unparallelled level of freestyle performance."
Perfect Stranger trailer - Perfect Stranger is a brand new film from SONY starring Bruce Willis that quite frankly is one of the best kept secrets going.
The Live Free or Die Hard Teaser Trailer - 20th Century Fox has revealed the new teaser trailer for Live Free or Die Hard. The fourth film of the action franchise will feature John McClane (Bruce Willis) attempting to stop a techno-terrorist from shutting down the nation's computer systems on the Fourth of July. The story takes place around Washington, D.C. Co-starring Justin Long, Maggie Q, Timothy Olyphant and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, the Len Wiseman-directed film opens on June 29.
Soda Constructor - Very Addictive Java Applet - Soda Constructor is a Java applet that allows you to build your own wire frame models, and test them in many different environments. Great for Physics students, and anyone who needs to waste a lot of time :-D
How good are your eyes? - Can you find the C? (Good exercise for the eyes!) OMG :-))
How to train a cat to operate a light switch- check it out!
Anti-Bush T-Shirts Not Allowed on Airplanes - An Australian man was denied permission to board a connecting flight unless he removed the T-shirt titled "World's #1 Terrorist" with a picture of U.S. President George W. Bush.
DVDs worth buying - The Simpsons - The Complete Ninth Season || Step Up (Widescreen Edition) || Walt Disney Treasures - More Silly Symphonies (1929-1938) || The Descent (Unrated Full Screen Edition) || FLCL - Ultimate Edition DVD Collection (2006)

Gameguru Mania News - Dec,14 2006 - tech

Tech Reading - Acrobat 8.x gets GPU acceleration - tech
(hx) 01:52 AM CET - Dec,14 2006 - Post a comment / read (2)

The NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX and GTS in SLI - For consumers who have a budget with quite a large amount of headroom, two GeForce 8800 GTX video cards combined using SLI technology makes the fastest gaming solution on the market.
XFX passively cools 7600 GT Fatal1ty board - XFX only says that the card will end up fourteen percent faster than Nvidia's reference speed but the XFX hides the real clock speed like the snake hides its legs.
Corsair 16GB Flash Voyager - The company has just announced the addition of a new 16GB Flash Voyager to its lineup. If you were impressed with your 8GB Corsair flash drive, this new 16GB one should be twice as good.
Crystal printing promises flexible electronics - The new "block printing" technique can grow individual crystals on top of a surface previously patterned with metal electrodes. This provides a cheaper and simpler way to create circuitry on a surface, the technique's creators say.
Adobe Acrobat 8.x gets GPU acceleration - The application can now be accelerated by ATI and Nvidia graphics processors with Shader Model 3.0 support and at least 128MB of video memory. FYI, you can also uset Foxit Reader 2.0, it's small fast and free.
Realtek AC'97 Drivers 3.96 - This driver supports all ALC series audio chipsets from ALC101 up to ALC861. It is used as onboard sound on many motherboards. Chips covered include ALC101/201/202/203/250/650/653/655/658/861.
VIA Vinyl HD Audio Codecs Certified Vista Ready - VIA Technologies today announced that all VIA Vinyl HD audio codecs have passed the Microsoft® Windows Vista 32bit/64bit Premium logo tests, ensuring users can feel the warmth of sound in the Vista environment.
Skype launches unlimited SkypeOut service - Skype has now launched a version of its SkypeOut service that offers unlimited calls for a yearly fee of $29.95. The service is restricted to users in the U.S. and Canada.
No plans to release public Vista app-compat checklist -If you were wondering when Microsoft plans to publish an official list of applications that don't work well with Windows Vista, the answer is never :-D
Default Password List (Updated 12-13-06) - If you have a device you need to login to and forgot the password, this list just might have the default password listed.
Microsoft pulls Mac security update - A security update issued Tuesday for the Mac version of Microsoft Office was posted in error, the software maker said. The company encouraged consumers to uninstall the patch, which is still being tested.
YouTube is almost entirely written in Python - Guido van Rossum, the creator and BDFL of Python programming language says that YouTube is almost entirely written in Python.
Piratebay takes on Allofmp3-blocking ISP - A world famous Swedish file sharing links site has begun a campaign against a major Swedish internet service provider (ISP) after it blocked access to controversial Russian site Allofmp3.com. In what has become a war of attrition, Piratebay has blocked subscribers to ISP Perspektiv because Perspektiv blocked users' access to Allofmp3.com. The intention is likely to be to encourage Perspektiv users to leave the company by blocking access to the enormously popular Piratebay.
U.S. Indicts 21 Internet Fraudsters - U.S. officials have put the smack down on an internet fraud ring that took eBay bidders for over $5 million dollars.
The Eight Ways The Tech Industry Tries To Screw Us - And How To Avoid Them - Check it out.
A brief summary of 99% of the people you will ever meet in college - The kind of people you may meet in college. Which one are you? :P
Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond? - How the most effective advertising campaign in history emerged to fabricate the preciousness of diamonds out of thin air.
Freak accident restores eyesight to WWII vet who lost it in 1942 - A horse can do what medical science has never been able to do!
Insane Detailed Back To The Future Timeline - Very detailed wikipedia entry that shows the timeline of the movie series. Note: If you want a genuinely insane movie about time travel and some dizzying time lines, check out this wikipedia entry for the movie "Primer" (+timeline)
The Father From "Everybody Loves Raymond" Had Died - Peter Boyle, the father in TV's "Everybody Loves Raymond" passed away in New York on Wednesday. RIP Mr. Boyle.
George Miller Talks Mad Max 4 and Babe 3 - Moviehole talked to Happy Feet director George Miller and shared the following quotes about a fourth "Mad Max" film (sans Mel Gibson) and a third "Babe":

Gameguru Mania News - Dec,13 2006 - tech

ATi Catalyst 6.12 Drivers - tech
(hx) 11:23 PM CET - Dec,13 2006 - Post a comment / read (2)
AMD.ATI has released a new ATI Catalyst drivers bringing them up to version 6.12. The package contains Radeon display driver 8.321, Multimedia Center 9.16, HydraVision, HydraVision Basic Edition, Remote Wonder 3.04, WDM Driver Install Bundle, Southbridge/IXP Driver and Catalyst Control Center Version 6.12. Issues Resolved in Catalyst Software Suite 6.12:

- Black&White 2: Slow frame rate is no longer noticed when playing the game under Windows XP when setting the graphics to the lowest possible settings. Further details can be found in topic number 737-23714
- Neverwinter Nights: Enabling super AA and CrossFire within the Catalyst Control Center no longer results in display corruption being noticed within the game's main menu. Further details can be found in topic number 737-23718
- Catalyst Control Center->CrossFire: Attempting to resume from a standby state no longer results in the Windows XP operating system failing to respond when using a Radeon X19x0 CrossFire Edition series of product. Further details can be found in topic number 737-23713
This release of the ATI Catalyst software suite introduces DirectX video acceleration for CrossFire enabled configurations. If you are using the GPU Folding@Home client you should not upgrade to Catalyst 6.12. Apparently there is an issue the new drivers and Stanford's GPU folding client that will be resolved in the next Catalyst release. AMD promises next month's installment will resolve the issue.

MS Security Bulletin Summary for December 2006 - tech
(hx) 10:36 PM CET - Dec,13 2006 - Post a comment
Microsoft has released six security bulletins as part of its monthly patch cycle. Of the seven flaws that were fixed, three of were considered critical: CRITICAL:
- Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (925454)
- Vulnerability in Visual Studio 2005 Could Allow Remote Code Execution (925674)
- Vulnerability in Windows Media Format Could Allow Remote Code Execution (923689)

IMPORTANT
- Vulnerability in SNMP Could Allow Remote Code Execution (926247)
- Vulnerability in Windows Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (926255)
- Cumulative Security Update for Outlook Express (923694)
- Vulnerability in Remote Installation Service Could Allow Remote Code Execution (926121)
Microsoft has also released the first update for IE7 (not for Windows Vista). This update resolves a performance issue with the Phishing Filter. When visiting certain web pages, the Phishing Filter may increase CPU usage while evaluating the page contents and the system may become slow to respond. This problem occurs on pages that contain multiple frames or when multiple frame navigations occur quickly. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.

Gameguru Mania News - Dec,12 2006 - tech

TechNews - AMD quietly adds faster Athlons - tech
(hx) 05:20 PM CET - Dec,12 2006 - Post a comment / read (1)

AMD quietly adds faster Athlons, renames chipsets - The new CPUs come in 5400+ and 5600+ variants, but the clock speed for both is the same: 2.8GHz. The difference is the amount of L2 cache per core.
Mid-Range VGA Mayhem - ATI and NVIDIA compared - Go for high performance with HIS or keep it cheap with Sparkle, or choose for both and stay with the PowerColor.
Auzentech X-Meridian 7.1 Sound Card - If you are an audiophile yourself or you are looking for that perfect gift for an audiophile then look no further. The Auzentech X-Meridian 7.1 has all of the features you could ever want in a 7.1 card and with a MSRP of $199.99 it won't break the bank either
MSI's mPC 51PV small form factor barebones system - The mPC 51PV is compatible with AMD's Socket AM2 processors and features an Nvidia GeForce 6150/nForce 430 core logic combo that's still the best integrated graphics chipset on the market.
Mousescore 2007 - Comprehensive 17-way mouse benchmarking - The performance benchmarks show that todays batch of laser mice can't keep up with the finely tuned optical ones. They do have slightly higher resolution, but not enough to make up for their poor performance at speed.
New phase-change memory 500x faster than flash - IBM, Matronix, and Qimonda have developed a material that made phase-change memory 500 to 1,000 times faster that traditional flash memory and requires half the power to record data.
Sun puts 16 cores on its 'Rock' chip - Rock-based servers, due to arrive in servers in 2008, will likely come as competitors' chips have at most eight cores, analysts say.
Vista volume license activation cracked already - The hack might be a little too complex to let just anyone pirate Vista, but it could allow businesses and power users to get around paying for the software.
Microsoft Starts New VoIP Server Test - Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, due for release in the April-June quarter of 2007, will push the software giant into the business telephone market at a time when many large companies shift to cheaper telecommunications powered by Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology.
Mozilla ships developer release of Firefox 3.0 - Gran Paradiso features better support for a number of graphics standards, such as the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) language and the Canvas specification.
LCD price-fixing investigation grows - Japan, the United States and South Korea are probing price-fixing claims against LG.Philips LCD, Samsung Electronics and Sharp.
V-Moda Vibe Modaphones - Noise Cancelling earbuds - Naturally, they're feather-light (12 grams), so you'll barely notice that they are there.
Nintendo Sued for Wiimote Trigger - Interlink Electronics is suing Nintendo over the Wii Remote's trigger button, which Interlink claims to be its own original patented design (patent no. 6,850,221). Interlink states in its filing. Nintendo has made, used, offered for sale and sold in the United States, and continues to make, use, offer for sale and sell in the United States one or more controllers which activities infringe, induce others to infringe, and/or contributorily infringe the '221 patent.
A cell phone with dual displays, and not the way you think - Korean individual inventor revealed a prototype cell phone that places twin color screens beside one another.
Netherlands pulls plug on analog TV - Dutch government will save around $14 million annually from the switch, the cost it used to pay to broadcast the free antenna service that was used by only 74,000 households. In US, whose digital target is 2009, about 21 million people use antenna service, & another 20 million would need digital converters.
SAX-40 radically shaped plane is completely silent - The SAX-40, which has been developed by the Cambridge-MIT Institute, is a radically different shape of aircraft. The design is the result of three years' work and includes both new and existing technologies.
USB Airsoft Turrent - The gun shoots plastic BB with a velocity of 250 feet per second which is powerful enough to leave healthy welts on unsuspecting targets
Third Simpsons Movie Teaser Trailer - The beginning of the third teaser is identical to the second teaser, with new footage following after.
Skydiver Nearly Gets Hit By A Plane - Guy jumps out, opens his parachute and almost gets hit by a passing plane.
Henry Rollins - America Is Under Attack - He's slightly crazy most of time, but he knows what he's talking about! :-) Check it out!

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