July 31th Tech Roundup

• Gigabyte X48-DS5 - Legit Reviews

• HIS HD4870 512MB - Bjorn3D
• Palit GTX 280 - Overclockers Club

• OCZ Core Series 64GB SSD - ComputerShopper
• Eye-Fi Wireless SD Card - TheTechLounge

• Silverstone CMD01 Commander ESA Edition - techPowerUp

• SunbeamTech Core Contact Freezer CPU Cooler - Virtual-Hideout

• NZXT Tempest - DragonSteelMods
• Cooler Master CSX - ThinkComputers
• OCZ EliteXStream 800W - Bigbruin

• Win with the NIA - OCZ
• YoYoTech Intel Spartan 300 System - Overclock3D
• Dell XPS M1730 Notebook - HotHardware

Microsoft Unveils the Mojave Experiment

Microsoft finally released information about the company's new advertising campaign, called the "Mojave Experiment." The main idea of the ads, primarily designed to compete with Apple's Get a Mac ads, is to conduct blind tests with people who are told they are seeing features from a new operating system from Microsoft called Mojave. The ruse, which is finally uncovered by the end of the ad, is that this new operating system is in fact Windows Vista in disguise.

The campaign seems to take an effective approach at marketing the operating system without attacking the company's competition. it's hard to deny that there is a lot of misinformation and pure speculation from potential customers who haven't even tried the operating system, but hold their negative opinions solely based on what they've heard from others. It will be interesting to see whether or not the ads have a prominent effect on Apple's sharp increase in market share.

However, the advertising blitz doesn't end there. Not long ago, Microsoft said they were planning on $300 million to combat Apple's ads. Mojave, which is excluded from that estimate, will be the first sign of Microsoft fighting back.

What do people think of Windows Vista when they don't know it's Windows Vista? We disguised Windows Vista as codename "Mojave," the "next Microsoft OS," so regular people who've never used Windows Vista could see what it can do - and decide for themselves.

Source: The Mojave Experiment, Via: Digg

KDE 4.1 is Significantly Better than 4.0

From what I gather, the excitement level was rather low when KDE 4 first launched. Although it was a rather significant upgrade over 3.5, bugs seemed prevalent and not too many people were completely sold on the new design, like myself. I have never installed it personally to use on a day-to-day basis, but have used Live CD's, and even then I didn't understand why I should upgrade.

According to Ryan over at Ars Technica, KDE 4.1 more than fixes what was wrong with the initial version, and he even goes on to say that his skepticism experienced with the earlier version is completely gone. That's quite a statement, and one that is actually tempting me to finally give in and install it.

I still can't help but shrug off the new design, though. It's glossy, like a toy. I'm all for eye-candy, but here, it's almost like they tried too hard. Some of the features offered are fantastic though, so it might very-well be worth an upgrade for those alone. I just wish it was possible to keep most of that functionality while mimicking the 3.5 environment as closely as possible.

The most notable improvement is the addition of the folder view plasmoid which displays icons representing the contents of a specified folder. It provides all of the same functionality as the conventional desktop icon display from the 3.5.x series, but it allows users to place several of these folders on the desktop at once, thus providing immediate access to more locations in the filesystem.

Source: Ars Technica

Apple to Skip Intel Chipsets in Upcoming MacBook Lineup?

When Apple first jumped onto the Intel bandwagon, fans cheered. Making the move to an x86 processor meant great compatibility, and given Intel's most-recent track-record, it also meant getting a much faster product. Well if recent reports are to be believed, then Apple might be considering a shift away from Intel, where chipsets are concerned, and ultimately, who knows.

The report mentions that the upcoming MacBook lineup will skip over using an Intel-based chipset, instead relying on another, although no one knows at this point which. Both VIA and NVIDIA offer mobile chipsets that can support Intel processors, so in all likeliness, it would be one of those. If it does indeed happen at all.

Some might be led to believe that the recent acquisition of P.A. Semi has something to do with this, but given that their products were designed for the low-end and mobile segments, it's virtually impossible that they will be part of this shift. That could very-well change in the future, however. Whether or not this is to happen or not, it likely has Intel a bit frustrated, especially since they've bent over backwards for Apple on numerous occasions in the past.

It appears that a couple factors may be driving Apple's possible departure from Intel chipsets. One is power consumption. Intel's integrated graphics and chipset offerings are overly power hungry according to some analysts. Another factor is unique capability -- Apple may be looking for unique features that Intel cannot provide it.

Source: DailyTech

Nintendo Says "Game Over" to DS Piracy

If you own a Nintendo DS, chances are good that you've at one point heard mention of the R4 Revolution, a special cartridge for the handheld that introduces new functionality. In addition to allowing MP3 playback, Internet browsing and the ability to play homebrewed games, it also opens up the ability to play pirated games. So no surprise, Nintendo (and 54 other companies) are none-to-pleased.

According to a Japanese press release, all 55 companies have paired up to issue a lawsuit towards companies that import the special device. As I feel like I'm the only one who has never purchased one of these cartridges, I have a feeling this lawsuit is way, way too late.

Nintendo and the others request that all marketing, distribution and importation of the device halts, as it's causing "severe damage to our company and software markers". It's impressive to me that piracy on consoles used to actually be difficult. Now, it takes literally no time before a unique piece of hardware is available just for that purpose. Nintendo is going to have a hard time keeping this one under control, that much is certain.

The R4 allows gamers to load and play Nintendo DS ROM files downloaded from the Internet. The ROM cartridge fools the Nintendo DS into believing a real cartridge has been plugged in to the DS and are only limited by memory capacity in terms of how many games can be loaded. The R4 has a small slot that a Micro SD card goes into.

Source: DailyTech

Dell Announces Cheap 13" Notebook, Hybrid PC

I have to admit, it's been a while since Dell has released something to truly impress me, but today, they launched two different products that take care of just that. First is the 13" Inspiron notebook, which will retail for under $800 and without even seeing the specs, I already want one. The style is similar to the Studio line-up launched not long ago, so the color scheme is vibrant and the overall style is superb.

I've become a huge fan of small notebooks over the past few months, and if the specs at all match up to the great style of this one, then I'll have to seriously consider a purchase. It will not have locked specs, so upgrading certain components will be a sure thing. All I hope to see is an extended battery, and with a $1,000~ price tag, it should prove to be one killer option in the notebook scheme of things.

Also announced was a brand-new PC called the Studio Hybrid. Similar in size to ASUS' Eee Box, this PC is small... so small, that it would fit beside your modest-sized monitor and actually look good. Although the bubbly-design doesn't quite sell me, the color schemes are absolutely sweet, especially the bamboo, which will -actually- become available (you hear that, ASUS?) once fully launched. I highly recommend taking a look at these new products on Dell's Flickr site.

I also recommend checking out the press release as linked below, because there is a lot more information I couldn't stuff into three short paragraphs.

As with Dell's recently announced Studio laptops, the Studio Hybrid was designed to enhance personal expression and creative living. Dell's smallest desktop PC, about the size of a collegiate dictionary, can fit just about anywhere. Depending on the location or decor, the Studio Hybrid can be set up in a vertical or horizontal orientation, and be personalized with a choice of seven optional, interchangeable external finishes or color sleeves: Bamboo, Emerald, Quartz, Ruby, Sapphire, Slate, and Topaz.

Source: Dell Press Release

SplashTop Hacked, Functions on Non-ASUS Motherboards

When Splashtop was first released with a few ASUS motherboards last fall, I for some reason became interested immediately. Part of the reason might be attributed to the fact that I'm a Linux user to begin with, the other reason might be thanks to its uniqueness. Whatever it was though, might have been for good reason, as the technology has progressed quite a bit since then.

Well it seems like I wasn't the only one who enjoys the technology, as some hackers on the Phoronix forums have found a way to milk the OS off of an ASUS motherboard and run it on others. It of course won't be run off a flash chip embedded onto the motherboard, like the real technology, but it can be installed or accessed via a virtual machine, if it suits your fancy.

What's the point of it all? Who knows, as more robust distros already offer ways to be run off of thumb drives. That's not what's important, though. There's a good chance that the folks at DeviceVM are not jumping for joy all over this one, but cheers to the folks who made this happen.

Credit: Phoronix

One of the developers that has been working on compromising SplashTop has been Kano, a Debian developer and the leader of the Kanotix distribution. Kano has written scripts (available from the forums) that will then extract the SplashTop files, properly format a USB flash device for booting, and then install the needed files to the flash media.

Source: Phoronix

Cuil Off to Rough Start, Considered Laym by Most

Alright, so I'm not the biggest fan of Google to begin with, but what's up with the immediate "Watch out Google!" statements whenever a new search engine rolls around? I think it's obvious that Google would have to have really serious competition before they would even spend a moment to remotely care. Where Cuil is concerned, I think the only emotion Google would express at this point is joy.

Cuil (pronounced 'cool', hence the foolish news title) came out just the other day, touting itself as the 'world's biggest search engine'. That I might believe, but in order for something like that to matter, a search engine also needs to deliver relevant results, one area where Cuil fails. Some queries to deliver reasonable results, but 'Techgage' shows our Cedega 6.0 article first... before the actual home page. That article performed well when first published, but still ranks under our top 300... so the fact that it shows up first is a little odd.

Searching for 'Cuil' delivers even more humorous results, as it nowhere lists its own site. It does appear, though, that the more popular a website, the better the chance that it will be listed first. Test out 'Yahoo!', 'Google', 'Intel' or 'UEFA', for example. Overall though, I do like the goals and design of the site, but it certainly seems to have a ways to go before it's taken seriously.

The Internet has grown exponentially in the last fifteen years but search engines have not kept up-until now. Cuil searches more pages on the Web than anyone else-three times as many as Google and ten times as many as Microsoft. Rather than rely on superficial popularity metrics, Cuil searches for and ranks pages based on their content and relevance.

Source: Cuil

July 30th Tech Roundup

• Intel 2 Extreme QX9650 - Hardwareoverclock Austria

• Samsung SyncMaster 2053BW LCD Display - InsideHW
• Acer AL2002W LCD Display -
• Gigabyte 9600GT - Neoseeker
• Zotac GeForce 9800 GT AMP! Edition - Technic3D
• Palit GTX 280 - Overclockers Club
• NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT - PC Perspective

• Kingston HyperX PC2-6400 4GB - Virtual-Hideout
• QNAP TS-409 PRO NAS - Tweaknews

• AirLive AirTV-1000U TV Tuner - techPowerUp

• Raidmax Iceberg - Modders-Inc
• Antec TruePower Quattro 1000W - Tech Lobby
• Tuniq Ensemble 1200W - Bigbruin

• Lubix Stereo Bluetooth Headset - Overclockers Club