NVIDIA Supporting PhysX-on-Radeon Effort

NVIDIA's PhysX technology has been getting a lot of attention lately, and in case you happened to miss our coverage from two weeks ago, be sure not to skip it as we take a hard look at the performance factor, and also see where the technology stands today. But where does ATI fall into the PhysX scheme of things? Well if Eran Badit has his way, ATI cards will soon join NVIDIA's own and utilize the technology to its full potential.

Around the same time we posted our article, Eran leaked a screenshot that showed PhysX running on an HD 3850, and I immediately assumed NVIDIA was going to jump in and ask for him to remove it. It wouldn't be the first time the company has asked him to remove certain NVIDIA-related material off of his site, after all, so what's so surprising now is that the company is actually supporting his endeavour. Impressive.

What's not impressive is the blatant lack of support from ATI, who likely wishes this would just go away. After all, they recently signed into a cooperation with Intel using their Havok technology, essentially the leading competitor to PhysX, although currently more successful. A software package to support PhysX on ATI is inevitable though, and I'm glad to see it. PhysX can be accelerated using hardware, whereas Havok currently has no such functionality. That in itself puts PhysX in a good place, and adding support to ATI cards is only going to improve the technology and help it grow.

The tone at Nvidia has changed quite a bit over the past week. It appears that Nvidia does not mind running PhysX on ATI Radeon (or just about any other GPU) cards. In fact, Nvidia has opened access to Developer Relations and is providing assistance to Badit, including access to documentation, SDKs and more importantly, hardware and actual engineers.

Source: TG Daily

Mega Man 9 to Resemble Old-School NES Title

If you consider yourself to be a true gamer, then chances are that you fully believe that gameplay should always come before graphics. There is no shortage of great-looking games on the market today, but many of them fall far short in the gameplay department. I won't name examples, but the sad fact is that it's difficult to get a game that excels in both. Half-Life 2 is one recent example of where this was accomplished, but I'm sure each one of us would agree on a different game that really blew us away.

So what am I getting at? As it turns out, popular developer Capcom is revisiting its roots with Mega Man 9, a brand-new game designed to mimic one for the original NES. That means the graphics, sound and gameplay should closely resemble what we saw with Mega Man 2 - 6, which is no doubt going to please many diehard MM fans. The best part might be the price of $10 upon release. The downside? It will only become available on the Wii's download store. At least for now.

The release is likely nowhere soon, but you could probably expect it sometime Q4. For now, you can check out a few other "simpler" games I recommend, such as Within a Deep Forest, Everyday Shooter and Gumboy Crazy Adventures.

Source: Famitsu, Via: Kotaku

iPhone Reviews Start to Trickle Out

The first batch of iPhone reviews started to come out late last night from the big three Apple reviewers: Walt Mossberg, David Pogue and Edward Baig. The verdict? It's what we all expected. The hardware and software have been long revealed to us all, which leaves little surprise when the on-hand experiences hit.

Walt takes jabs at the new phone's battery life and AT&T's spotty 3G service. Pogue takes aim at the iPhone's GPS antenna being "too small" (wait, what?) and the fact that there is no turn-by-turn navigation, and the lack of "voice dialing, video recording, copy-and-paste, memory-card slot, Bluetooth stereo audio [and] phone-to-phone photo sending (MMS)." Finally, Baig wishes for Flash, Windows Media and Java support.

Overall, the three reviews complement the iPhone for having faster speeds, improved audio quality and GPS. The fact remains though, if you want one, you probably know whether or not it's going to be in your pocket in a few week's time.

Source: All Things Digital , Source: The New York Times , Source: USA Today

Rogers Actually Listens to Customers; Hell Freezes Over

In a way, I'm speechless. Maybe, just maybe those thousands of unhappy Canadian voices finally got through to the folks at Rogers. Or, I'm seriously hallucinating. I'll take it as the former until someone pinches me.

According to a press release from Rogers, the company will offer a promotional deal that will include 6GB of data for $30 a month that can be tacked on to any voice plan. This promotion is only going to last until August 31, so this is definitely a bid to try to pursuade people already on the fence about buying an iPhone.

Granted, it isn't the best deal around, but it's way better than the company's previous offering. 6GB of data should be enough for anyone, especially since there is no tethering option (unless you plan to watch tons of videos over the air on the device, but even that's a stretch). Hopefully the demand will encourage Rogers to keep the deal around for the long haul, but time will tell.

Effective July 11, and as a limited time promotional offer for customers who activate by August 31 on a three year contract, a data-only offering of 6GB of data for $30 per month is being made available that can be added to any in-market voice plan. For example, with 6GB of data, iPhone 3G users can visit 35,952 web pages, or send and receive 157,286 emails, or watch 6,292 minutes of YouTube videos each and every month.

Source: Rogers Press Release

Upcoming Budget Intel E5200 Dual-Core Overclocks to 4.0GHz

Popular overclocker coolaler has gone and acquired himself an Intel E5200 processor, due out sometime this quarter, and pushed the humble chip to its breaking point. The processor itself comes in at 2.5GHz with an 800MHz bus and scales back to 2MB of L2 cache. It uses a 12.5x multiplier and sticks to the 65W thermal envelope. Though pricing and release information has not yet been announced, the chip is rumored to cost around $84 per 1,000 units.

Now, I thought the 4.0GHz+ I hit in our E8400 Core 2 Duo review was impressive, but coolaler took his E5200 all the way up to 4.0GHz on what seems to be air cooling, given the relatively warm temperatures. That is impressive, and might just make this chip a serious option for those who don't need the extra cache.

What I find most interesting though, is the fact that the CPUID information in the CPU-Z shot labels the chip as a "Pentium(R) Dual-Core CPU", so that's likely exactly what it will appear as on the store shelves. In addition to the lower FSB and lesser cache, it appears the chip also lacks the SSE4 instruction set. This won't matter to people who don't render multimedia with applications that use it, but it's a notable loss regardless. Still, 4.0GHz for >$100? Try complaining about that!

Source: coolaler Forums

Running Linux Applications Under Windows

There wouldn't be too many Linux users out there who haven't thought about running a Windows application on the OS. Chances are many of them have done it as well, and why not? Wine is so sophisticated nowadays, that many Windows applications run without much of an issue. I personally use it for Steam, to play the odd simple game from time to time.

How about the other way around? A new entry in Wired's How-To Wiki has a few great ideas on how to accomplish just that, and quite easily. The most interesting to me is a solution called 'andLinux', an Ubuntu-based distribution that runs in Windows. 'In' is bold because it literally does run in Windows, alongside Windows' own kernel.

I haven't tested it out myself, but I plan to as it's a very interesting concept. It shows the ability to run many Linux applications from an icon in the systray, and they appear using Windows' own theme. Other ideas on the wiki include Ubuntu's Wubi and Cygwin. Well worth a look if you are just dying to have a kick-ass Linux application (like Amarok, featured below) in Windows.

AndLinux isn't quite the same thing as WINE, since andLinux actually loads the full Linux kernel, but andLinux does make Linux apps look like they're running natively on Windows. In other words, they behave somewhat like Windows apps running in the "Coherence Mode" of Parallels or "Unity mode" of VMWare on the Mac.

Source: Wired How-To Wiki

ASUS Eee Box Specs & Pricing Unveiled

It's now been over a month since ASUS first unveiled their Eee Box mini-PC, and now the specs are starting to slowly trickle out. According to Stuff.tv, the unit will retail for £199 ($392 USD) and include Windows XP Home, two USB ports, a card reader, DVI video output, Ethernet and an 80GB hard drive. All in all, a modest rig, but given its overall size, we didn't expect much more.

Any way you look at it, though, this PC looks to be a relative steal. It comes in an ultra-portable size, like the Eee PC, and though I haven't seen the two side-by-side, I would assume the Nintendo Wii is actually bulkier. In addition to its elegance, the Eee box even includes a keyboard and mouse. Now that seems like a good deal.

Although I don't recall the exact specs sheet that I saw at Computex last month, I do know that the Eee Box is fully capable of churning out 720p content, which is helped by the latest Intel Atom processor. So, despite it's small frame, this is one capable little machine. Add a wireless keyboard and mouse to the package and you have one heck of a stylish system that might actually be the focal point of your room for all the right reasons.

Source: Stuff.tv

Backing Up Windows Drivers with DriverMax

Formatting your PC and starting from scratch can give you a great feeling. Months or even years worth of junk buildup is gone, and you can start your computing journeys anew. One of the least fun aspects of the task is re-installing everything, including your system drivers. If you have ever found yourself becoming frustrated with this chore, then DriverMax might be worth a look.

The name implies that it works with your drivers, and that's exactly what it does. You will still need to re-install all of your applications, but at least this helps out a bit, right? After installation, you will be able to scan your PC for currently installed drivers, then have the ability to export them into a folder of your choosing. Once you are on the new machine, you can simply import them and be on your merry way.

The program is free, but you'll need to fill out your e-mail address in order to get a registration code. Why? Who knows, but hopefully it will result in absolutely no spam. Worth a look, though, especially if you happen to reformat quite often.

After installing DriverMax, go into Driver Operations and click on Export drivers. A list of all your installed drivers will be displayed and you can pick and choose which ones to export, or simply export the whole lot in one go. Once you've reinstalled Windows, go back into Driver Operations, click on Import drivers, and point to the folder containing your saved drivers.

Source: Download Squad

July 9th Tech Roundup

Displays & Video Cards
• OrigenAE T12 Touch Screen - techPowerUp
• ASUS ENGTX260 TOP 896MB - Overclock3D
• GeForce 9600 GT Triplet - Digit-Life
• EVGA GTX 260 FTW Edition - Overclockers Club
• NVIDIA GTX 280 - t-break

Memory & Storage
• Silicon Power 64GB SSD - Benchmark Reviews
• Sharkoon SATA Quickport - Velocity Reviews
• Enhance Technology IS210 HHD Enclosure - Tech-Reviews

Peripherals & Gadgets
• Hiyatek CF-6160-1 Laptop Cooling Pad - Bigbruin

Chassis & Power Supplies
• Thermaltake Armor+ MX - Legit Reviews
• Antec Three Hundred - Virtual-Hideout

Competitions, Complete Systems & Et cetera
• Palit Giveaway - Motherboards
• MSI Wind U100 - InsideHW
• OCZ DIY Gaming Notebook - ComputerShopper