• QCast PS2 Kit Announced  - BroadQ introduced their QCast Tuner software for PS2 today, a "digital media" solution, enabling Sony's console to run music and video files: Some features: MP3, MPEG 1/2, MPEG 4/DivX support, Sony PlayStation 2 Ethernet support, Integrated play list capabilities for music and video,  PS2 Game Pad or PS2 compatible IR-Based DVD remote control, compatibility with future players, modules, media and codec support and more.
• Pay up, or you're blocked: Indian ISPs tell US megasites - America's biggest content providers could face a toll to enter India cyberspace, if plans mooted by the Indian ISP trade association bear fruit. Although the Internet Service Providers Association of India is split on the issue, several of the larger ISPs want to block access to eBay, MSN or Yahoo! unless the prociders pay a toll.
• CEO: Net News will cost in two years - Consumers will be coughing up for all online media content by 2004 according to Factiva CEO Clare Hart--as online advertising isn't paying the bills.
• Symantec guards against blended security threats - Symantec Corp is stepping up its attempts to tackle "blended" security threats, such as Code Red, with a new combined security product. Due for release next month, Symantec Client Security combines anti-virus, firewall and intrusion-detection technologies to prevent against hybrid security attacks.
• Pioneer preps notebook recordable DVD drive - The electronics maker expects to launch a recordable DVD drive for notebook PCs in the fourth quarter, according to Andy Parsons, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Pioneer. The drive will read and re-write DVD discs at 2X, record CDs at 16X and rewrite CDs at 10X.
• HP Introduces New Line of Photo Printers - Computer and printer maker Hewlett-Packard Co. on Monday announced new photo printers that it said produce better looking prints than a traditional photo lab.
• Broadband modem prices to fall 30% in 2H - Cable and ADSL modem prices are forecast to fall by 30% in the second half, modem makers said, raising concerns that Taiwan's network equipment companies may have to lower their full-year financial targets
• Camera makers unveil new media format - The new xD-Picture Card will be less than an inch square and will be capable of storage capacities of up to 8GB. The new format is seen as a replacement for SmartMedia, a storage format that Olympus and Fuji, along with memory makers Toshiba and Samsung, have championed.
• Toshiba selects S3 Graphics' SuperSavage/IXc-166T - S3 Graphics, Inc. today announced that Toshiba Corporation has chosen the SuperSavage/IXc - 166T mobile graphics processor for its top-of-the-line Tecra 9000 series notebook computers utilizing the mobile Intel Pentium 4 processor.
• SiS Xabre GPU Roadmap - VR-Zone has posted the latest SiS Xabre GPU roadmap of VINIX dated 25th July showing that Xabre 600 will be scheduled for end of this year and comes with 128MB of DDR SDRAM while Xabre II will arrive in Q1 next year based on 0.13 micron and supports DirectX 9.0. There is also a higher clocked Xabre 400 at 270/270Mhz Core/Memory clock coming in August.
• Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 FINAL - Download Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 FINAL / English / Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 FINAL German.
• DirectX 8.1b (Update 26 Jul 2002) - MS silently updated their DirectX 8.1b end-user redistributable. No word on what's new.
• ATI Multimedia Center v7.6 - ATi have released a new version of their ATI Multimedia Center 7.6 which now supports ATI-TV WONDER/TV WONDER VE cards.
• Official VIA 4-in-1 v4.41 BETA - VIA Tech has released an updated set of VIA 4-in-1 set of chipset drivers.
• ATi RADEON 9000/9000Pro Series Drivers v7.73 - Sapphire Tech have released a new ATI RADEON 9000/9000Pro Series driver version 7.73 and also a new HYDRAVISION Driver for the following cards: 8500 / 8500LE / 7500 / 7500LE / 7200 / 7000.

• Boeing tries to defy gravity - Researchers at the world's largest aircraft maker, Boeing, are using the work of a controversial Russian scientist to try to create a device that will defy gravity. The company is examining an experiment by Yevgeny Podkletnov, who claims to have developed a device which can shield objects from the Earth's pull.
• R2-D2 Interactive Astromech Droid - Do you like toys? :) The R2-D2 Interactive Astromech Droid is a 15-inch-plus version of R2-D2 and is packed with all the spunk and charm that made the droid famous. This responsive droid answers to your call and obeys your commands. Equipped with innovative speech recognition technology, infrared scanning technology and working sonar navigation, this R2-D2 recognizes 40 spoken phrases, plays six exciting games, and sings three tunes. It even has a retractable arm that lets it hold a 12-ounce beverage.
• 200GB HDD Ships - Drive maker Western Digital begins shipping a new drives with up to 200GB of capacity--a whopping 80GB more than found in most high-end consumer PCs.
• Qualcomm to add Wi-Fi to phone chips - Qualcomm, which licenses cell phone designs to manufacturers and makes chipsets, is the latest company to begin merging cell phones with the Wi-Fi wireless networks, which create a powerful wireless zone of about 300 feet.
• Settec introduces a new, updated audio copy protection - A Korean company using the name Settec has released a press release on its website about a new and improved audio copy-protection using the name "Alpha Audio M3 Type".
• Windows PE revealed - One of the coolest and most unknown products Microsoft has released is called the Windows XP Preinstallation Environment, or Windows PE. In short, it's Windows XP-on-a-CD. You boot directly to a Windows XP GUI, which allows you to set up your computer to install Windows. This is a wonderful utility for those of you who regularly use DOS boot disks or Windows Setup to set up your computer for installation.
• NVIDIA NV30 Sneak Preview - This sneak preview of the NVIDIA NV30 focuses on the architecture behind the chipset and some, but not all of the new features that it will bring. Because we signed an NDA to get this information we wont be giving away performance figures, as mind boggling as we know them to be. Instead we shall focus on "CineFX", NVIDIA's new cinema engine that promises to render animation such as Toy Story; in real time. Since we can't share benchmark figures we will leave you with some thought. NVIDIA says Cinematic quality requires five key points: 1) Advanced Programmability, 2) High Precision Color, 3) High Level Shading Language (CG), 4) Highly Efficient Architecture, 5) High Bandwidth to System Memory and CPU (AGP 8X). The only other point we can share is that NV30 will use a 256 Bit memory bus and DDR2 memory. I recommend you to read another article at SharkyExtreme too. 
• Epic Workshop @ Intel P4 CPL - CliffyB and Allen from Epic show off their latest work, UT2003, in this amatuer video from a recent press event
• Office XP Web Services Toolkit 2.0 - Download the Office XP Web Services Toolkit 2.0 which Brings the power of XML
• CPUCooL 7.1.2 - CPUCooL version 7.1.2 has been released. What is CPUCool? CPUCooL is a program that monitors temperature, fan speed, and voltages for many motherboards. It provides Cpu cooling under Win9x/2000/XP/NT, allows FrontSideBus changing, optimizes your memory and CPU.
• BSPlayer v0.85 Build 490 - BSplayer is windows player for playing back avi/asf/wmv/mpeg video files or any other file for which you have a codec. The previous version wasn't much stable for me, I hope they fixed it :)
• VIA Beta AGP driver v4.30 (8x AGP) - VIA have released a new Beta AGP driver version 4.30 with support for 8X AGP cards in VIA's 400 range of chipsets and beyond.
• Asus A7V333 BIOS - Asus have released a new BIOS version 1011.001 for the Asus A7V333.
• Asus Detonators 30.00 Drivers Available Again  - Asus have their Detonators 30.00 drivers (Win9x/ME ~ Win2k/XP) back online.
• Abit Siluro Geforce4 TI BIOS - Abit have released a new Siluro Geforce4 TI bios updates for TI4200/TI4400/TI4600 and the Geforce4 MX PRO. Download: Geforce4 TI4200 BIOS ver 4.25.00.34.00 / Geforce4 TI4400 BIOS ver 4.25.00.34.00 / Geforce4 TI4600 BIOS ver 4.25.00.34.00 / Geforce4 MX PRO BIOS ver 4.17.00.52.00.

• Independent robot is all GRACE and charm - A group of scientists who set out to build a robot with human social skills may have actually improved on humanity: Their creation courteously steps aside for people, smiles during conversation and politely asks directions. The 6-foot robot, named GRACE, for Graduate Robot Attending Conference, will wander a symposium on artificial intelligence that begins this weekend, where it will demonstrate its good manners. It will try to sign in at the registration desk, find a conference room, give a speech and answer questions.
• Criminal investigation into Korean human cloning - South Korea is launching a criminal investigation into a claim that a Korean woman is pregnant with a cloned embryo, it was announced on Friday. The claim was made by the Korean office of a human cloning company called Clonaid. The company was set up by a US-based religious cult, the Raelian Movement, which believes that humans were created by extraterrestrials using cloning.
• Sony loses Australian copyright case - A federal judge in Australia ruled Friday that mod chips sold for the original PlayStation do not infringe on Sony copyright protections under Australian laws, which are similar to the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The decision comes a week after a Canadian man was sentenced to probation and fined $17,000 for selling mod chips and pirated games for Sony's PlayStation 2.
• Fighter plane's laser may blind civilians  - American defence contractors are developing a laser weapon for fighter aircraft that may be powerful enough to blind people on the ground, even if they are relatively far from the target, New Scientist can reveal. The 100-kilowatt infrared laser, which is being developed for the F35 Joint Strike Fighter by defence companies Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, is far more powerful than any laser ever used in war. But because it is designed to attack targets such as other fighter aircraft, ground vehicles and anti-aircraft batteries, it is exempt from the Geneva Convention's ban on blinding weapons.
• AMD cuts prices on Athlon, Duron - Price cuts on the desktop Athlon XP chip ranged from a 20 percent cut on the Athlon XP 2100+ chip, which went from $224 to $180, to a 5 percent cut on the Athlon XP 2200+, which dropped from $241 to $230.   Meanwhile, AMD lowered the price on its Athlon XP 2000+ by 16 percent, from $193 to $163. The Athlon XP 1900+ chip fell 13 percent, from $172 to $150; the Athlon XP 1800+ dropped 11 percent, from $160 to $142; and the price of the Athlon XP 1700+ was shaved 7 percent, from $140 to $130. AMD's Athlon XP 1600+ desktop chip stayed at $130.
• Western Digital Announced 200 GB HDD - Western Digital today introduced its WD Caviar 200 GB 7,200 RPM product. This milestone marks the fourth consecutive first-to-market 7,200 RPM hard drive delivered by Western Digital - which was first to deliver 7,200 RPM hard drives in 80, 100 and 120 GB capacities.  WD Caviar 60 GB-per-platter 7,200 RPM hard drives will be offered in capacities ranging from 120 to 200 GB and will be available this July. To ensure quiet operation in noise-sensitive desktop/work station environments, Western Digital offers hard drives equipped with optional fluid dynamic bearing (FDB) motors.
• VIA flogs P4 mobo, 533MHz FSB support - VIA today announced a whizzy new Pentium 4 mobo, the first to incorporate its new P4X266E chipset.  The VIA P4PB 266E supports the new 533MHz FSB Intel P4 CPUs, six channel audio through the onboard VIA VT1616 audio codec, AGP4X, DDR266, and ATA/133. There's a smart card connector too. But as per, there are no pricing details. You'll have to call your local distie to get the gen on that.
• DDR400 with i845E: Myth or Reality? - Albatron Technologies today announced the launch of the Intel 845E based mainboard PX845E Series, the first Intel 845E mainboard to support DDR400 memory for Intel P4 and Celeron Processor.
• WinDVD Tweaker 3.5 - A new version of  WinDVD Tweaker is out - added support for extra features in version 4.0.11.83.
• PCI Chipset Modifier - This program will allow for the modification of a doubleword at any arbitrary device #, bus #, function # and offset in the PCI configuration space. It could be used to setup hidden BIOS settings or change PCI latency timers on any device.
• Winamp 3 RC4  Build 483 Out - A new Winamp 3 build is out!
• Asus Detonators 30.00 Drivers - Asus have released their own version of Nvidia's 30.00 Detonators drivers for Win2k/XP and Win9x/ME.
• WinFast Nforce autosetup Driver v1.07 - Leadtek have released a new Nforce WinFast K7N420DA autosetup Driver version 1.07 (Win2k/XP ~ Win9x/ME) which includes the Chipset Driver. Audio Driver. Lan Driver. VGA Driver.

• Pentium 4s to hit 3GHz - Intel is advancing its release schedule of new 2.8GHz and 3GHz Pentium 4 chips in an effort to speed ahead of rival AMD.
• Intel, Microsoft join efforts to establish 3D Web standard - Intel today said it has joined the Web3D Consortium and set up a CAD 3D Working Group to define, develop and deploy a common format to represent 3D images on the Web.
• The Little Spacecraft that Could . and Did - A Deep Space Network antenna in Madrid picks up a feeble and unexpected radio signal--a cry from a lost spacecraft. It is April 2001. Pioneer 10, missing, feared dead for eight months, was phoning home to let scientists know that it was still alive and kicking. Intrepid Pioneer 10 went on to celebrate a milestone 30th birthday in 2002, and today 10 belongs to an elite group of spacecraft that just refuse to die.
• Scottish firm busted over illegal software - Scottish engineering company Norson Services has been fined £12,000 for using unlicensed software following an anonymous tip-off. The company is the latest in a string of high-profile names, including House of Fraser and WHSmith Online, to be busted by software piracy policing body the Business Software Alliance (BSA).
• NVIDIA Open Sources Cg Compiler Technology -NVIDIA today announced that it is open sourcing the NVIDIA Cg Compiler technology under a nonrestrictive, free license.  Available in August for download from the developer.nvidia.com and www.cgshaders.org Web sites, this code will contain the parser that reads the language and creates intermediate code for compilation, as well as a generic back-end. 
• Borland speeds Kylix C++ for Linux development - Scotts Valley, California-based Borland will announce version 3.0 of its Kylix RAD environment for C++. Previous versions of Kylix targeted Delphi programmers on Windows and Linux.  Kylix 3.0 brings RAD to an estimated three million C++ developers on Linux. Borland is playing in a highly fragmented Linux market, which provides programmers with an array of open source command-line tools that largely lack integrated features.
• Road To The Highest 3DMark Score II - VR-Zone has an article up on how to get the highest 3DMark2001SE score out of your current system and set the world record 17230 3dmarks! An ASUS P4T533-C i850E motherboard and MSI GeForce4 Ti4600 graphics card were used and modified to increase the voltages for better overclockability. Instead of conventional cooling, LN2 cooling was employed to the CPU and GPU to push their frequencies much higher than default.
• HW Round-up - AMD Athlon XP 2200+ CPU / i845E Motherboard Roundup / ATI Radeon 9000 & 9700 Preview / NVIDIA GeForce 4 Ti4200 Reference Card / Globalwin Aluminium Case GAT001 / Thermaltake GeForce 4 Highest Performance Cooler / eVGA MX-440 1U/5v Cooler Mod Guide.
• Windows PE RTM - WinPE lets you create (diskpart.exe) and format (format.com) disk partitions, and gives you access to both NTFS file system partitions (with some constraints) and your internal network. The environment supports all mass storage devices that use Windows 2000 or Windows XP drivers, and you can incorporate additional drivers as new devices become available.
• Windows XP SP 1079 Official Build - According to Neowin, Windows XP SP 1079 Official Build has been released at Beta Place.
• Windows XP Tweaking Guide - Welcome to WinHQ.Net's Windows XP Tweaking Guide. In this article we have 18 tweaks for your tweaking pleasure. This article will be constantly updated.
• Mandrake Linux 9.0 Beta 1 -  MandrakeSoft has released the first beta of the next version of its distribution. It features XFree86 4.2, KDE 3.0, GNOME 2.0, and is compiled with gcc-3.1, which (alas) makes it incompatible with a fair amount of commercial software.
• News Interceptor version 0.94a beta - Download new beta right now!
• TMPGEnc 2.57  - TMPEGenc converts *.AVI file to MPEG1, the format which is used in VideoCD. Using variety of option in TMPEGenc, you can compress your video file in high quality. It enables you to adjust bitrate, qantize matrix, GOP structure, Interlace and many other parameter so that you can create most appropreate movie file depends on your purpose.
• WinAmp 3DGL v2.0 beta - Winamp 3DGL is a visualization-plugin for WinAmp v2.0 and above that uses OpenGL to display the animations.
• PowerStrip v3.20 beta build 305 - PowerStrip 3.20 provides advanced, multi-monitor, programmable hardware support to a wide range of graphics cards - from the venerable Matrox Millennium I to the latest Radeon 8500DV and GeForce4 Ti4600.
• jv16 PowerTools 1.1.0.139 Beta - jv16 PowerTools is the next generation of RegCleaner. A full set of tools to keep your computer and your LAN up and running. jv16 PowerTools is basicly the Tool to control your computer.
• Mozilla 1.1 Beta - check it out / what's new.
• VIA 4-in-1 v4.41(a)t "Soltek" Beta -  This is not the final version. This file was released by Soltek and is still in beta status.
• Creative NOMAD Jukebox 3 v1.01.02 WinALL - download.
• Terratec DMX 6Fire 24/96 Drivers - There is only a bugfix for microWAVE Extension. Download.

• PCs part of national cyberspace protection plan - Richard Clarke, the president's computer security adviser, said Wednesday that an upcoming national plan to protect cyberspace will include expectations for home users, as well as large companies and the government.   "Every American relies upon cyberspace and every American has to do something to secure their part of cyberspace," Clarke said of the plan, which will be released September 19 in Silicon Valley.
• Star phone hacker arrested - A 34 year-old Hertfordshire man has been arrested over allegations that he hacked into the phone line of television presenter Angus Deayton. The man is thought to be a BT engineer. A number of recording devices were found in a junction box near the north London home which Deayton shares with Lise Meyer and their 18 month-old son. The recorders were hooked up to Deayton's phone line and were thought to have been in place since the News of the World published its 'TV Deayton's drugs romp with vice girl' story.
• Symantec bought SecurityFocus - Antivirus firm Symantec rocked the security world yesterday with the announcement that it is to acquire independent security company SecurityFocus. The $75m cash transaction is expected to be complete by mid-August.
• The Volvo Safety Car running Win98 - It's billed as a $10 million James Bond-mobile. The Volvo Safety Concept Car is loaded with beepers, video cameras, video screens and computers. But as is often the case with new, brash technology demos, the car's digital gadgetry is mostly gimmickry. Bond wouldn't be impressed. But your insurance agent might be. Despite all the lights, beeps and computer chips, the car's most impressive features come from old-fashioned engineering enhancements.
• Forgent Networks owns JPG - Forgent Networks Inc. today clarified its licensing program regarding Forgent's JPEG data compression technology, owned by its subsidiary Compression Labs Inc., embodied in U.S. Patent No. 4,698,672. Forgent has the sole and exclusive right to use and license all the claims under the '672 patent that implement JPEG in all "fields of use" except in the satellite broadcast business.
• UK police sick of Tetra handsets - UK police are claiming that the new Tetra digital handsets are making them ill. Nearly 200 officers involved in a pilot scheme in Lancashire and North Yorkshire have taken time off sick. The coppers claim that the new Airwave radios induce migraines, sleeplessness and concentration problems. The digital sets are due to be introduced nationwide by 2005 under a £2.9bn programme. Some scientists are concerned that the handsets pulse at 17.6Hz, which is close to the 16Hz at which brain signals operate.
• Hitachi creates splash with water cooled P4 notebook - Hitachi has begun selling a wondrous-sounding water-cooled notebook computer in Japan, according to a report by IDG Tokyo correspondent Kuriko Miyake. The machine runs a 1.8GHz mobile Pentium 4, and has a flexible tube which carries water over the chips in order to dissipate heat.
• Creative 3D Blaster 5 RX9000 PRO Ships This Week - Creative 3D Blaster 5 RX9000 Pro drives hours of intensive 3D gaming by coupling ATI's new RADEON? 9000 Pro Graphics Processing Unit - featuring 4 parallel rendering pipelines running at 275MHz core clock - with 64MB of ultra-fast 3.3ns DDR memory.  Creative Technology Ltd. today introduced the Creative 3D Blaster 5 RX9000 Pro, which ships this week at an estimated street price of US$129.
• Radeon 9700 Gaming Experience - HardOCP has posted a subjective look at their Radeon 9700 gaming experience:  1) Quake 3 – 1600x1200x32; 4XAA; 16XAF – Running demo 001 in v1.17 the Radeon 9700 easily topped the minimum allowed deathmatch frame rate of 60fps. Compared to the Ti4600 on the same system, the Radeon 9700 easily capped its frame rates by a blistering 35% with no AF enabled on the GF4 card. 2) Jedi Knight 2 - 1600x1200x32; 4XAA; 16XAF - The "jk2ffa" demo had no issues racing past the century mark and outran the Ti4600 by a 20% margin, again with no AF enabled on the Ti4600; 3) MoH: Allied Assault - 1600x1200x32; 4XAA; 16XAF - We ran into some immediate problems here when going into the Basic Training facility to take a look around. We were met with two issues that were causing extremely noticeable visual artifacts. 4) UT2003 - 1600x1200x32; 4XAA; 16XAF - The Radeon 9700 doused the Ti4600 by about 25%. Now get a load of this, that is with the GF4 running without AA or AF. With 4XAA turned on the Ti4600 was crushed by nearly 300%.
• GeForce4 TI4200 Shootout - Overclockers New Zealand has posted a GeForce 4 Ti4200 VGA Round Up with cards from Chaintech, Gainward, Leadtek, and Prolink(PixelView).
• Radeon 9700 Impressions & High Res Shots - War2Search has posted the first impressions on ATI's newly announced special VPU the Radeon 9700. This is just a technology overview to deliver at a glance what the new graphics card is all about. Special Feature: 4 high-res renderings performed on Radeon 9700 (according to ATI in real-time).
• Microsoft Virtual Machine - The Microsoft virtual machine (Microsoft VM) enables you to see and interact with Java applets. It creates a special place for the applets to run where they won't interfere with the rest of your system. This updates the Microsoft VM to 3805.
• Sonique2 Alpha 2.1.7.18 - An updated build of the second alpha of Sonique2 has been released.
• SiS Xabre WHQL driver version v3.03  -XabreGamers have released a new WHQL driver v3.03 for the SiS Xabre 80/200/400.
• Matrox Parhelia Win2K/XP Drivers -  Matrox has released the second driver set v1.00.03.230 (5.67MB) for their Parhelia 512 card.

GameSpy: Is compatibility with DirectX 9 completely hardware dependent or can it be achieved with drivers updates?
David/Eric: It’s all hardware dependent. In the same sense that a DirectX game will run on a GeForce4 MX card, you’ll only get the features that were already available in DirectX 7. The same is true for the high-end GeForce cards. While DirectX 9 games will run on them, only the features implemented in DirectX 8.1 will be present. Features written for DirectX 9 will simply be disabled. This is because each version of DirectX has to be backwards compatible, but as new features are added [like floating point calculations], new hardware must be created to take advantage of it.

• Hard Drive Companies Focus on Everything But GB - IBM is focusing it's developments on increasing drive speed from the average max of 10000 RPM's to 15000 RPM's. This will allow for faster data access and faster transfer speeds. If coupled with the new Serial connections (as compared to Parallel), they could boost access times to less then half a millisecond, and data access speeds to 800 MB/sec or more!  Seagate has focused it's attention on the heads of the hard drive, and data corruption...
• AMD AthlonXP 2100+/2000+ Thoroughbred Review  - PC Stats has posted a new review of AMD AthlonXP 2100+/2000+ Thoroughbred.
• Abit NV7m nForce mATX Motherboard Review - When using both slots, the CPU and GPU can access both controllers simultaneously. And since they're interleaved, CPU memory requests can be started ahead of time, thus providing nearly perfect bandwidth usage. Since each controller can provide 2.1Gb/s of throughput, theoretically the two combined can offer a whopping 4.2Gb/s of bandwidth.
• ATI Radeon 9700 spec revealed -According to The Inquirer, The Radeon 9700 will be clocked at 315MHz for the high-end, retail version of the GPU and we expect to see OEM versions that will have a lower clock speed, depending on customers' demands. Other specs: 8 Pipelines, 107 million transistors, .15u technology, External power (a-la 3dfx), Four Vertex Shader units, Pixel/Vertex Shader 2.0 Support, VideoShader (accelerate MPEG video), 16X Anisotropic Filtering, ~15,000 3DMarks, 400 million poly/sec. throughput. ATI to scheduled to launch their RV250 and R300 graphics chipsets on July 17.
• Samsung SpinPoint P40 SP8004H 80GB - In a day where it's not uncommon to see desktops equipped with 100GB drives many are left to wonder, what can they possible enhance next? Well after looking at the SpinPoint P40 SP8004H 80GB Hard Drive from Samsung we have a few clues.
• DirectX 8.1 Programs May Stop Working on Computers with AMD  - On computers with an AMD processor, programs that use Microsoft DirectX 8.1 may quit without displaying an error message. The same programs work correctly on computers with Intel processors.
• Apple launches QuickTime 6 - The final version (download) of Apple's digital media software sees the light of day, a sign that a spat over MPEG-4 fees are over. Now there's only Microsoft's Windows Media 9 to worry about.
• AMD Athlon XP processor 1800+ - AMD today introduced the high-performance mobile AMD Athlon XP processor 1800+ with QuantiSpeed architecture. The new mobile AMD Athlon XP processor 1800+ is priced at $335, in 1,000-unit quantities.

• Driver Comparison -  Tweaker's Asylum has posted a new Detonators driver comparsion beween versions 30.30 (latest), 29.60 and 29.80.
• Athlon XP 2500+ Already in Shops!? - New AMD Athlon XP processor, made with 0.13 micron 2500+ Thoroughbred core (real clock rate – 2GHz) was noticed in one of Swiss online-shop, trading with computer parts. Also, the price-list of this shop includes non-announced Athlon XP 2200+ 1.8GHz ($327), 2300+ 1.867GHz ($360) and 2400+ 1.933GHz ($383) and XP 2500+ 2GHz ($412)  processors. It should be noted that the page with the description of the product says "ask us", which means that they are only accepting orders for these processors. Nonetheless, we have contacted the shop and they said the processors would appear only after June 16. (thanks Sancheuz for info). Note: I checked this shop right now, seems they temporary(?) removed these CPUs...:(
• Mac case clone for PC's (Shots only) - Wow! A Mac case clone for the PC? Until now you thought it only happened to sheep and Star Wars movies!
• RV 250 performance on Athlons, Pentium 4s - An old lady tested this card on Athlon and P4 platform and you will clearly see how the Athlon's performance lagged big time compared to the Pentium 4. Intel is, of course, a very good friend of ATI on the face of it.
• Nforce 2 to beat Via's DDR 400 by 20% -The NFORCE2 chipset to be announced in the middle of next week has a claimed advantage over Via's DDR 400 chipsets of around 20 per cent, according to information from a Taiwanese mobo manufacturer who wishes to remain nameless.
• TV chip comparsion - Thinking about buying a new graphics card? Then you might also think about which TV chip should be used on it. In the FAQ you can read that the CX25871 is recommended. But is it really the 1st choice? Which pros and cons do the different TV chips have? Are there special bugs with certain TV encoders? This article tries to throw a bit light on these questions.
• 2U4U DMR-300 WMA Player Review - MP3 is beginning to show its age. We look at a new portable player that uses both Microsoft's WMA, as well as MP3, opening up the possibility of using the higher quality Microsoft codec. But, there's also Dolby's AAC to consider; which may be the best of the bunch. The age of portable audio isn't going to go away no matter how much the RIAA tries to kill it.
• Windows XP Pre-SP1 Hotfixes - This document is a cumulative list of the articles that have been written to discuss hotfixes that have been released since the release of Windows XP.
• WinAce v2.2 - WinAce has its own powerful compression format (ACE) and built-in support for other popular compression types like ZIP, RAR, CAB, and more.
• Movie DB v1.16 (build 39) - Movie DB is a freeware DB program for divx, dvd and vhs. Some features:  IMdB support: get all the movie info / actor filmography with one click, MicroDVD INI file generator, Covers gallery (using cdcovers.cc file name standard), Movies gallery, Actors gallery.
• ATV2000 RC2 - Freeware ATV2000 is new generation of TV viewing and capture application based on old ATV, but with reworked core. All is build around new control panel, witch provides tuning video and audio controls.
• Intel Application Accelerator 2.3.2143 Beta - Intel Application Accelerator is a performance software package for Intel 800 series desktop PCs. It reduces the storage sub-system bottleneck, enabling the processor and other system level hardware to be more productive and efficient. Intel Application Accelerator delivers faster overall system boot times by significantly accelerating the load time of the OS - enabling you to build Intel Pentium 4 processor-based systems with a better overall end-user experience.
• InCD 3.31 - Nero Software has updated InCD to version 3.31.
• MSI K7N420 screwed up with Bios 2.5 - The BIOS is the latest 2.5. They have changed the RAM timings! Some can not load hp defaults, but it has also killed some so they don't boot at all.
• Matrox Gxx BIOS v2.56.002 - Matrox have released a new BIOS for G550, G450, G400 and G200 series of cards and it's version 2.56.002.

First, we have the Force RS Racing System. It comes with a steering wheel, some decent pedals, instructions, accessories and cables, and a copy of Rally Championship (the box says Need For Speed III). This package alone contains everything you need to get racing on your computer.
Take a look at that beauty! The material wrap around the wheel is not leather, but it sure has the look and feel of it. There are eleven buttons on the steering wheel overall; 7 on the wheel, 3 on the platform, and one middle horn button. There are also two F1-style paddle shifters.

GD: We've been told by Matrox representatives that we shouldn't expect to see record-setting frame rates with the current batch of benchmarks (i.e. Quake 3, 3DMark 2001SE, etc). Is there any reason why Matrox didn't try to be the fastest?
Kamran/Matrox: "Sure, we think that the argument that a graphics card’s sole worth should be judged on how high a frame rate it can achieve at 1600x1200 resolution is wrong. We have a different vision. Our vision is that people play games to have fun. Maximum fun is achieved when you are totally immersed in the game and the graphics contribute to that by making the experience as close to reality as possible. This means that the perfect graphics solution would be one that delivers smooth frame rates combined with the absolute highest rendering quality. Frame rates alone are a diminishing return. The difference between 20fps and 30fps is very noticeable. The difference between 60fps and 80fps is less noticeable. The difference between 100fps and 100,000fps is virtually unnoticeable (unless you read the frame rate counter). Think about it this way, if all people truly cared about is achieving the absolute highest frame rate, why not run everything at 320x200? Of course, the reason no one runs at 320x200 is that the image quality is far too low to be acceptable. And while it’s true that running at 1600x1200 provides far better image quality, it is actually a very inefficient way to achieve that increase in image quality. Parhelia offers a better solution. It contains unique new technology that delivers the best image quality at great frame rates. Our Fragment Anti-aliasing is the best example of this, and I’ll talk about that more later. Getting unnecessarily high frame rates on today’s titles is also considered important if it is interpreted as an indication of expected performance on future titles that may be more demanding than existing titles. While there is truth to this argument, keep in mind that many of these future titles will make different demands on graphics hardware than the titles of today. For these, the Parhelia integrates a large amount of technology that is sitting idle in many of today's applications: Quad Texturing, Quad DirectX9.0 Vertex Shaders, 5 pixel shader units per pixel pipe, Hardware Displacement Mapping, etc. Not every future application will benefit from all of these features, but many certainly will.

But going back to the most important thing - which is the overall fun factor you experience today – I must mention our Surround Gaming feature which - simply put - makes games more fun than any other graphics feature that has been introduced in a long time. You have to experience it to really feel its full impact, but the concept is pretty straightforward. Humans see wider than they see tall. Surround Gaming saturates your entire field of view and dramatically increases your feeling of immersion.

• Popular Online Game Site Spread Nimda Virus - Some video game players got a nasty surprise this week when they downloaded software from a popular online gaming site -- the Nimda computer virus. The installer for GameSpy Arcade 1.09, the main file exchange and gaming software of GameSpy.com, available from sites like CNET Networks Inc.'s Download.com service, was infected with the Nimda virus twice this week, GameSpy Chief Executive Mark Surfas told Reuters.
• New Apache worm starts to spread - A program that exploits a 2-week-old flaw to infect open-source Web servers has been detected by security experts on the Internet
• Hunting for James Bond? - The fictional British spy used technology to his advantage when tracking down criminal masterminds. But in the real-world fight against terrorism, the situation shouldn't be different, Gilman Louie, chief executive of In-Q-Tel, said during a keynote speech at the TechXNY trade show here.
• Magnetic wood - the new mobile phone squelcher - There's a huge market in Asia for mobile phone squelchers - in Hong Kong for example, people don't think twice about making and receiving calls in the cinema and theatre. But now, a Japanese team of boffins, based at the University of Morioka have come up with an new spill-free way of squelching mobile signals - magnetic wood.
• Boeing's BWB -- a Super-Efficient Bat Jet - Boeing Co engineers have designed a super-efficient aircraft that would look like a giant bat and slash the cost of air transport. The "Blended Wing Body" concept, outlined more than 10 years ago but now said to be almost perfected, would have no fuselage or tail. Rather, it would basically be a wing with a belly that would accommodate the passengers and freight. The secret to its design, described by project head Robert Liebeck this week, is that the whole structure of the aircraft would work to generate lift.
• Intel plans to boost demand with more Socket 478 Celerons and later DDR333 chipsets - Industry sources revealed that seeing the weak sales in the OEM market, Intel started to consider postponing the launch of its DDR333-supporting 845PE and 845GE chipsets and increasing its shipments of Socket 478-based Celeron processors to the clone markets. With the later launch schedule, Intel would hope to prolong the product life cycle of its 845G and 845E chipsets, sources said. At present, the inventory level of the two products at many OEM companies remains rather high.
• HW Round-up - AOpen Aeolus GeForce4 Ti 4200 / Gainward GeForce4 PowerPack! Ultra/650 XP Golden Sample / XFX 64MB GF4 TI4200 / GeForce4 Ti 4200 vs ATI Radeon 8500 Deluxe / Matrox Parhelia   / ATI All In Wonder 8500 / E-D Wired 3D Glasses / Thermaltake GeForce4 cooler / Abit KX7-333R / AMD Athlon XP 2200+ Thoroughbred / EPoX 4G4A+ / MSI 845GMax-L.
• DirectX 9 to Arrive in Early October - Industry sources have confirmed that Microsoft's DirectX 9 is likely to arrive in October, quite a while later than ATI's R300 Nvidia-buster.
• Sigma MPEG-4 Video Codec - Sigma Designs, a leader in IP video streaming solutions, demonstrated today for the first time a MPEG-4 video CODEC that works as a plug-in under Windows to encode digitized video content into fully compatible ISO MPEG-4 video files. The new CODEC is available now for download, free of charge, through Sigma's website to support users wishing to build ISO MPEG-4 compatible content.
• Opera 6.04 Final - The final release (java-ver / non-java-ver) of the cool web browser Opera v6.04 has been released.
• CuteFTP 5.0 XP - GlobalSCAPE is pleased to announce the latest release of CuteFTP, Designed for Windows Xr. The Designed for XP logo confirms that CuteFTP meets Windows XP compatibility, performance and stability criteria. CuteFTP 5.0 XP runs on Windows 9x, NT, ME, 2000 and XP. 
• DAEMON Tools 3.16 - DAEMON Tools is an application for multiprotection emulation. It is further development of Generic Safedisc emulator and incorporates all its features. This program allows running backup copies of SafeDisc, Securom or Laserlock protected games. Also included is a Virtual DVDROM drive enabling you to use your CD images as if they were already burned to CD. DAEMON Tools works with all types of CD/DVDROM drives and supports nearly any CD protection.
• PROMISE SuperTrakSX6000 Drivers & Firmware - PROMISE has released new SuperTrakSX6000 firmware and drivers for Windows.
• VIA Twister Drivers  - A new Twister drivers for Windows 2000/XP are available.
• Abit KR7A BIOS (9n)- Abit has released a new BIOS for the popular KR7A - series which includes the following motherboards: KR7A / KR7A-RAID / KR7A-133 / KR7A-133R.

• Feds Fear Possible Al Qaeda Cyber-Attacks - U.S. government experts, wary of al Qaeda's skills on the Internet, are concerned that Osama bin Laden's guerrilla network may be planning cyber-attacks targeting nuclear power plants, dams or other critical structures, The Washington Post reported on Thursday.
• Searches by police, FBI target bandits of bandwidth - Authorities investigating the theft of high-speed Internet cable service yesterday seized modems and other computer equipment from homes in Toledo and surrounding suburbs. Members of the Toledo police computer crimes task force and FBI agents served search warrants at 13 residences, including an apartment, a condominium, and single-family houses. Investigators believe cable modems that connect Buckeye Express customers to the Internet were altered, allowing computer users unauthorized access to excessive amounts of bandwidth.
• Lesbian sperm bank site proves popular - Thousands of men have signed up to a Web site to help lesbians start a family. Mannotincluded.com went live on Monday. Since then 5,000 sperm donors have registered with the site along with 3,000 lesbian couples who want children.
• SEX & LUCIA trailer - From fast rising Spanish director Julio Medem comes 'Sex and Lucia' - a young woman's erotic journey from Moscow to Minsk...wait, never mind that last part! But seriously, feel free to share the trailer (2) with your friends.
• Star Trek:Nemesis trailer online - In the film, the crew of the Enterprise is diverted to the planet Romulus when the longtime Federation foes signal they are willing to begin peace negotiations. Once Picard and the gang arrive, they uncover a threat to Earth. New trailer (Quicktime) is available from here.
• X-MEN 2 teaser up - The teaser trailer for "X2" (the X-Men sequel) is now on-line at MyMovies.Net.
• Start-up creates futuristic 3D display - The ideal computer display of today may be flat, but start-up Actuality Systems has gazed into the future--and what it has seen looks more like a crystal ball. Actuality's Perspecta display platform currently costs $40,000 (£28,000) and up, but the company says costs could drop until the device is affordable for ordinary users and gamers. "Component costs will decrease," said Actuality chief technology officer and co-founder Gregg Favalora. "There could be a desktop unit in the future."
• Optical mouse saves space - Dutch researchers at the Philips Center for Industrial Technology have developed a compact, optical interface for portable electronic equipment. The team says that its new input gadget can be easily integrated in cellphones, laptops and PDAs, providing an space-efficient alternative to a mechanical trackball or touch-pad for example.
• Office 11 Unveiled at TechXNY - This week at the TechXNY conference in New York, Microsoft gave attendees a sneak peek at its upcoming next-generation office suite, currently named Office 11. Microsoft group vice president Jeff Raikes discussed the new Office in his keynote speech, touting increased XML support that will better link data between programs. The first beta of Office 11 will ship late this summer with a final release slated for mid-2003. Microsoft is aiming to get Office 11 on store shelves by next May.
• Microsoft paves over media player flaws - The company is urging people to "immediately" download a new patch designed to fix "critical" security holes as well as previous problems in several versions of its media player.
• Fraps 1.8a - Fraps is a tool that lets you monitor current framerates in a corner of the screen for programs utilising DirectX or OpenGL technology. It also allows you to easily take screenshots of games, and manually determine the average framerate between two points.
• Customizer XP 1.8.3 Beta 2 - Customizer XP is a comprehensive and easy-to-use Windows NT, 2000 and XP utility that lets you fine-tune Windows and Internet Explorer.
• RASPPPOE 0.98 - This is a PPP over Ethernet (PPPoE) implementation for Windows 95, 98, 98SE, ME, NT 4.0, 2000, XP, .NET. PPPoE as a method for establishing PPP connections through Ethernet adapters is described in RFC 2516 and is used by many broadband service providers to allow authentication and maintain the familiar "dial-up experience" when connecting to the Internet through a broadband modem.
• CloneCD v4.0.1.9 - A new version of CloneCD has been released. No info what is new.
• PowerStrip 3.19 Beta Build 292  - PowerStrip 3.18 provides advanced, multi-monitor, programmable hardware support to a wide range of graphics cards - from the venerable Matrox Millennium I to the latest Radeon 8500DV and GeForce4 Ti4600
• Hercules ATI Radeon Driver 7.72 (Prophet 8500/7500) - Hercules have released new ATI Radeon Driver 7.72 (WinALL) for 3D Prophet 8500 128MB / 3D Prophet 8500 LE 128MB / 3D Prophet 8500 LE 64MB / 3D Prophet 7500 DDR 64MB.