Content and news by Rob Williams

Hypersonic’s known for building performance PCs, so where did this sub-notebook come from? Don’t worry, it packs a punch, with its 2.5GHz Intel CPU, 4GB of RAM and 200GB 7200RPM hard drive. After taking pricing and feature set into consideration, we have good reason to be impressed.

Dell’s XPS machines have long been statures in their product line-up, but according to the Wall Street Journal, it might not remain that way for much longer. In an attempt to either have a slimmer line-up or push more people towards their recent acquisition, Alienware will become the sole builder of gaming machines for the company.

The problem might be that Dell’s own XPS line-up didn’t suck, because the report notes that they “ate into” Alienware’s sales. Of course it’s obvious now that Dell would much rather see Alienware succeed in that particular market, rather than see their own systems sell. What an odd situation to be in.

It’s an interesting turn regardless, and even though I never owned an XPS, they’ve gotten so good in the past couple of years. It’s too bad to see them go.

This will effectively leave Alienware as the sole high-end PC game offering from Dell which acquired the Miami-based game system maker in 2006. Dell’s XPS game PC line “ate into” Alienware sales, according to the report.

Source: Nanotech: The Circuits Blog

MD5 hashes are popular in today’s computing, but many still don’t understand what purpose they serve, or how to generate one. Well, in simple terms, an MD5 hash can serve multiple purposes, such as the storing of passwords or checking the integrity of a newly downloaded file. This is very popular in the Linux world, but Windows and Mac OS X users alike can take full advantage of this extremely simple, but useful tool.

For those interested in finding out the few steps it takes to check the integrity of a file based on an MD5 Hash, you should check out a forum post I made last night, which puts everything into pretty simple terms. In this quick how-to, you can learn how to properly implement an MD5 checker in your Windows, and then proceed to generate a hash or compare one from a DIGEST file.

So if you think comparing an MD5 is difficult, check out the thread. It’s argued that GUI MD5 checkers are easier to use than the command-line application, but really, if you can type, it doesn’t get much easier than “md5sum filename“.

Source: How-To: Check an MD5 Hash

Is it possible to go a day without seeing some piece of iPhone-related news? No, not at all. The most enforced news lately has been with the potential 3G model, although ‘potential’ is probably not a good word to use. Given all of the evidence that’s been floating around, including screenshots and new signed deals, it’s unlikely at this point if we didn’t see a 3G model by the end of the month, or June at the latest.

Apple Insider reports that Apple’s market for the iPhone will soon be growing, upwards of 3x of what’s possible now. Recent deals with Vodafone, Rogers Wireless, Telecom Italia and America Movil will give a huge boost to sales. Well, at least to those who don’t feel like importing an unlocked version. As it stands with their current market, Apple has 150 million potential customers, but these new deals will bring that number to around 470 million.

For those who like things dark, there seems to also be evidence that there will be an “iPhone Black” model, although there is not too much information to go on. AT&T have listed it on their site, but it could also be some joker having some fun. It does seem reasonable enough to happen, however.

The change reflects expectations that Apple will ship approximately 11 million iPhones in 2008, or about one million more than the company stated that it hoped to sell over the course of the year. For 2009, the analyst is now expecting the Cupertino-based firm to ship 17 million units, up from his previous estimate of 10 million.

Source: Apple Insider

Our huge survey contest ended way back in March, but until now I haven’t updated you guys much in way of what will come from our new found globs of information. Well, the reason behind that is that it took a while to convert all the results into something we could read and comprehend, but that’s now done. So, we will be spending a lot of time analyzing the data and deciding what to do with it… starting now!

One popular recommendation was for something we should have added a long time ago: a search. Well, one is now in place, courtesy of the big Goo’, and it should fulfill all your searching needs. This can be accessed in our left menu or to the right-side of the site at all times. Due to a technical implementation, we are unable to deliver results that automatically omit results from our forums. If that’s your desire, you can filter those by adding ” -forums.techgage.com “, without quotes, to the end of your query.

Also added are more social network bookmarking links at both the top and bottom of each article page. These include Digg, Facebook, Mixx, del.icio.us and StumbleUpon. Don’t be afraid to use ’em!

These features are only the first two of what should be many updates to come. My initial look at the results from the survey surprised me quite a bit, especially with regards to requests, so it will be our goal to implement all the features requested that are either feasible or appropriate for the site at this point in time. Stay tuned as there will be lots more to come.

Last week, I posted somewhat of a small large rant to do with BioWare and EA’s adding of some asinine copy protection to Mass Effect and Spore, respectively. Well, I was clearly not the only person annoyed, as not one, but both companies came forth on Friday to announce that they’ve decided against a routine 10-day re-activation scheme.

The new scheme is far from perfect, but it’s better. Instead of required re-activation every ten days, the game will require it on initial install and also during game updates, eg: regular game patches. But while this is a far better scheme, but far from perfect. For those who have an Internet connection, it’s fine, but those without still have to deal with the hassle of bringing their computer to another house or coming up with another solution.

And while it’s easy to dismiss the fact that “few” people still have no Internet, many are in a situation where they can’t get fast Internet, due to location. So with that, I still think this scheme could use some work, because in reality, those who have Internet wouldn’t be that bothered by the 10-day reactivation scheme to begin with.

The publisher further noted that the protection will still only allow users to authenticate each game on up to three computers. Approval of further authorizations will be handled by EA customer support on a case-by-case basis. Neither game will require players to have the disc in their computer in order to play or validate them.

Source: Shacknews

I have no doubts that every single person reading this has at some point lost data that should have been kept. Curses the Recycle Bin for making it so easy, I say. Happily though, the data is often recoverable with relatively inexpensive programs (such as R-Studio which I’ve found to be fantastic in the past), but that’s only possible if it’s a software issue. Once it’s a hardware issue, it’s much, much more difficult to recover.

We’ve all heard impressive stories about recovery, but nothing can match this. When the disastrous Columbia shuttle exploded close to landing in 2003, debris scattered all over. By some estimates, debris pieces could have totaled 20,000, and most appeared in more than one US state. So what’s the chance of a hard drive dropping 60KM from the sky after such an ordeal and still survive?

Well in some sort of miracle, such a drive did manage to survive, and 99% of the data was recovered by Ontrack. This is made even more impressive because some parts of the drive were dented, but all of the data was recorded in the good areas. Even more impressive is the fact that the drive ran DOS, but that’s the reason so much data was recoverable. Unlike NTFS, which scatters data all over the place, FAT stores it sequentially, which is the prime reason for the 99% figure.

Edwards had reason for pessimism. Not only were the drive’s metal and plastic elements scorched, but the seal on the side that keeps out dirt and dust also had melted. That made the drive vulnerable to particles that can scratch the tiny materials embedded inside, destroying their ability to retain data in endless 0s or 1s, depending on their magnetic charge.

Source: Yahoo! News

The popular racing series that thrives on realism has hit the 50 million units sold mark. This number includes figures for worldwide sales, and includes all titles ever released under the GT name. This even includes Japan’s exclusives, such as GT Concept 2001 and GT4 Prologue.

Of the 50 million, GT5 Prologue is responsible for 4% of that, or 2 million. It’s unknown whether the downloaded versions of the game, through the Playstation Store, are included, but I think it’s safe to say that they were.

50 million is unquestionably an impressive feat, and the number is bound to only go up, especially once Gran Turismo 5 hits next spring.

The franchise debuted in 1997 on the original PlayStation, and made the shift to PlayStation 2 with Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec in 2001. The series’ first PlayStation 3 retail release recently arrived in the form of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, which is meant as a sample of the eventual Gran Turismo 5.

Source: Shacknews

According to recent findings, once a Windows XP machine is upgraded to service pack 3, it’s impossible to uninstall Internet Explorer 7, if it happens to be installed. It’s a truly odd bug, though, because if you install SP3 with IE6 installed, you can install IE7 after the fact and then proceed to uninstall it if you want.

The reason is because SP3 conveniently overwrites the IE6 backup directory, which is created during the IE7 installation. Once SP3 is installed, it voids the folder, making it impossible to revert. It may be possible to perform a System Restore, but that’s usually a last resort. The moral of the story? Don’t install IE7 if you don’t want it, and just make sure that it’s de-selected under Windows Update so you don’t accidentally find yourself with it.

Of course, if you don’t use Internet Explorer as your primary browser, then it really doesn’t matter how you do things.

If that’s all a bit confusing, here’s what you should take away: If you don’t plan to use IE7, don’t install it. Period. If you do plan to install it, but want to be able to uninstall it, then you should load Windows XP SP3 before upgrading from IE6 to IE7. If you upgraded Internet Explorer before installing XP SP3, the only way to uninstall it would be to uninstall the entire service pack, which is really far more trouble than its worth.

Source: Download Squad

I think it’s safe to say that there is no such thing as true security anymore, because the news of poor security measures used in important agencies (government, banks) is never-ending. Take this latest case, where the FBI found 3,500 pieces of counterfeit Cisco equipment in secure US networks, including networks used by the US military.

There’s no telling how the counterfeit equipment got in, but it’s strange that it’s even possible to begin with. The US military of all places should be cautious about where they buy equipment from, but with counterfeit equipment on this scale, they were certainly not dealing with a reputable dealer. The issue isn’t so much of whether the equipment works or not, because it does, apparently, but it’s the fact that some of this hardware could have been modified prior to sale.

According to a Cisco, who checked out the counterfeit equipment, they did not find any evidence of any re-engineering. Rather, the equipment likely just used reliable non-Cisco-provided parts and had a very believable Cisco badge slapped on. It’s still amazing how this can happen, though, given how much money the US government tosses around every day. Purchasing legit Cisco products seems to make all the sense in the world.

The threat of gaining access to secure systems via backdoors and exploits in hardware is real. Researchers at the University of Illinois were able to modify a Sun Microsystems SPARC processor by altering a data file on the chip. The chip altered was used in automated manufacturing systems and the modifications allowed the researchers to steal passwords from the system the processor was used in.

Source: DailyTech

NVIDIA’s CEO, Jen-Hsun Huang, is a vocal man. If something rubs him the wrong way, he’ll let the world know about it. You have to respect that, especially when he’s not afraid to tell the industry at large that Intel’s wrong. We first learned of his intense angst towards Intel just last month, where during an analyst meeting, he was quoted as saying that NVIDIA was planning to “open a can of whoop ass“.

C|Net’s Brooke Crothers sat down with Huang to pick at his brain for a while, and we can still see that he has no fear of the big blue. Rather, he believes Intel has a reason to be wary of them. He also claims that Larrabee is nothing more than a pipe dream right now, and looks good on paper only. When questioned about his recent outpouring of distaste for Intel, Huang said, “The fact of the matter is that they’re out spouting things that are just not true. And I was just correcting that“.

Huang believes that other companies keep quiet based on the fact that Intel is just too large to battle against, and are somewhat of a monopoly on the market. He also goes on to mention that Intel pushes products that no one needs (Quad-Cores, namely), and furthered that statement with, “We would love it if people would buy more GPUs, but the fact of the matter is, we don’t have Intel’s budget to tell you to buy something you don’t need“.

“Selecting the right GPU for the right CPU–and having these two processors collaborate. We call it the optimized PC design,” he continued. “Notice, we didn’t call it ‘increase your GPU’ design. Notice we didn’t go ‘buy more quad cores.’ It’s not a market benefit message. The optimized PC asks what your work flow is. Take the work flow, and benchmark it on the machine. And decide for yourself.”

Source: Nanotech: The Circuits Blog

Last fall, I wrote an open letter to Neversoft, begging for a two year stretch between Proving Ground and the next title. The reasons would have been obvious to any other Tony Hawk fan… the games are just getting worse. For the most part, it’s more of the same. Then skate. comes along… and steals a bunch of fans and creates new ones, but for the opposing title.

Well, at an earnings call, Activision announced that they would skip over a new Tony Hawk title this year, making if the first time since 1999 that the game didn’t see an annual release. While it will suck for fans to go a year without a new title, it needs to be done. Neversoft needs to figure out a new solution to revitalize the series. I’m just hoping they can do it without creating a skate. clone, because that’s not what Tony Hawk has ever been.

The one-year delay in a new title also allows me to go back and clean off the titles where I haven’t hit the 100 % mark. Some of Proving Ground’s goals are unbelievable!

Though we can understand if some of you are bummed without your yearly Hawk infusion, we couldn’t be happier. After getting its clock cleaned 2 to 1 by Skate, it seems like the perfect time for Activision to regroup, lick its wounds and, you know, put some effort into the series.

Source: Joystiq

I have to admit something. I have never completed the original Far Cry, due to being a wimp. I haven’t completed Crysis due to my everlasting desire to give you guys content. But I still can’t help but drool at a brand-new trailer/commentary that Ubisoft Montreal pushed out just the other day.

Game development commentaries all share a similar goal, to tell you exactly how much effort is going into the game, to help amp you up. Racing game developers for one, will brag about how they went to a Porsche manufacturer to study the designs of the cars, to make sure that the game represented the model beautifully. But how many of those developers would be willing to camp out in Africa in order to deliver the ultimate realism?

Ubisoft Montreal might be one of the few. To mimic an amazing world, they traveled there to study both the land itself and the animals, to get an idea of how they get on with their everyday lives. The result, judging from the gameplay video, is quite impressive. The devs also mention that the game will feature a total of 50KM sq. and will be fully explorable. There’s no linear gameplay here, they claim. You are free to choose your own route, which is why the game consists of only one definite mission.

Is it possible to not get excited for this one?

The developer clips in this trailer are actually quite entertaining, with Far Cry 2’s art director, Alex Amancio, explaining how the team almost got eaten by lions while camping in Africa (silly Quebecers, should have hired someone with lion-mastering experience). Far Cry 2 is expected later this year and will allegedly be the same game on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.

Source: Joystiq

When I took a look at Intel’s latest budget chip, the Core 2 Duo E7200, back in April, we weren’t sure of when it would be launched, since Intel kept quiet on the actual release date. Well sometime between then and now, it was pushed out to retailers, and is priced quite well.

For those unaware, the E7200 is a 2.53GHz chip based on the 45nm architecture. That means better overall efficiency and cooler temps. Being a more value-oriented processor, the E7200 includes 3MB of L2 Cache, as opposed to the 6MB of its bigger brothers, like the E8400. In our review though, we were unable to find real-world situations where that would hold someone back, so it shouldn’t be something to worry about unless you have a very specific need.

Add to the pile that the chip could hit 3.0GHz without issue sweetened the deal only further. As I said in the review, I love this chip. It screams value and comes recommended by me whole heartily. The best part is the price, of $135 US and CAN on average. So far, only NCIX, Tiger Direct and NewEgg have them in stock, but all price them similarly.

For those still unsure if this is the right chip for your needs, be sure to check out our review, as it aims to answer all of those lingering questions.

At 2.53GHz and $133 USD, the E7200 promises to become the new Dual-Core budget superstar. After taking a hard look at the upcoming offering, we would have to readily agree. Overclocking only sweetens the deal further, with 3.0GHz on stock voltages being more than possible. We have a winner!

Source: Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 Review

Linux gamers have it somewhat rough. There are countless free and open-source games available, but the platform severely lacks commercial support. There are a few exceptions, but the key word here is ‘few’. One of the biggest requests from Linux users is to have Valve’s Source support, along with their content-distribution client, Steam. According to our friends at Phoronix, that might soon be happening.

While no hard evidence is given, the site claims that it is indeed on its way, and once it hits, I think it will please many people. The fact is, emulation of both the client and the engine, through Wine and other products, is so good at this point, that it must not be much more difficult to just port it over. The client itself would be the easy part, but the games would be another task altogether.

Today, it’s not too difficult to get Half-Life 2 to work through Wine, so it feels like we are so close as it is. If Valve does indeed begin porting games and Steam to Linux, it could very well blow open the doors for other developers as well. If Linux gets more games, then Linux might also get better support from the application guys as well. In the end, it could mean a lot more Linux users could result. Seems like a pipe dream, but weirder things have happened.

While not as black-and-white as our privileged information, it was confirmed this week that Postal III — a third-person shooter being developed by Running With Scissors Inc — would be supported on Linux (as well as on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, and Mac) and it uses Valve’s Source Engine. Postal I and Postal II were both ported to Linux by Ryan Gordon. This portion hasn’t been corroborated, but it’s also possible that the major Unreal Tournament 3 delay is attributed to this move by Valve Software.

Source: Phoronix

Anti-videogame renegades share one common trait. They love to point the blame at the retailer for putting M-rated games in the hands of children, and for the most part, I agree that kids shouldn’t be playing some of the games on the market today. However, what’s striking is the fact that many kids have far better luck getting a hold of an R-rated movie, or an explicit CD.

In some regards, I believe movies would be far more impressionable than a video game. You might have control of a game, but movies are real. When I was a kid, I used to jump around the house as a ninja… because of movies. I don’t remember climbing up a tree after playing Donkey Kong Country or ripping a friends heart out because of Mortal Kombat.

Regardless of all that, the good news is that M-rated game sales to minors is on a steady decline, so it’s now difficult for the likes of Jack Thompson to make an argument about it. According to the FTC’s undercover work, only 20% of sales occurred to minors with M-rated games. Compare that to the 35% who were able to get into an R-rated movie, 51% who could purchase an unrated DVD and 54% who had no issue picking up an explicit CD.

The fact is, these other markets could take a lesson from videogame sale practises, not vice versa. Surprisingly, GameStop proved to be highest-ranked store for not selling to minors, with only 6% making it out the door. By comparison, Best Buy, Target and Barnes & Noble all sold M-rated games to minors 60%+ of the time.

The survey found that results of the undercover shopping varied by retailer and product. Three movie chains – National Entertainment, Regal Entertainment Group, and American Multi-Cinema – turned away 80% or more of the underage teens who tried to buy a ticket to an R-rated movie. Wal-Mart did the best of the major retailers shopped for movie DVDs, denying sales of R-rated and Unrated DVDs to 75% of the child shoppers.

Source: Federal Trade Commission Report, Via: GamePolitics

In only what could be called an attention-getter, the MPAA lawsuit against TorrentSpy was successful, with the courts ordering the now defunct torrent-tracking site to pay $111 million, or $30,000 for each of the 3,699 infringements documented. This penalty is undoubtedly asinine, as it’s very unlikely the MPAA suffered $30,000 worth of damages for each infringement.

The success of this case does send a clear message to current and upcoming torrent site owners. Screwing around with the MPAA (or the RIAA for that matter) is like skating on thin ice. Things might be fine for a while, but the big companies are not going to remain quiet forever.

It’s of course unlikely that the previous owners of TorrentSpy will actually pay a dime, as it’s TorrentSpy as a company that’s charged, not the owners themselves. It does mean TorrentSpy will never re-open or be profitable again, however, but that was a given.

The case, producing what is among the largest fines in copyright history, was bolstered after the MPAA allegedly paid a hacker $15,000 for internal TorrentSpy e-mails and correspondence. “This substantial money judgment sends a strong message about the illegality of these sites,” MPAA Chairman Dan Glickman said in a statement.

Source: Wired

Popular UK-based notebook manufacturer Rock has gone into administration and appointed Deloitte & Touche LLP to help sell the company. In a notice on their website, Rock points out that part of the reason for failure is due to “the cash flow difficulties faced as a result of stock misappropriation by a former employee“.

This was a shock announcement, as the company seemed to have been operating fine. With it now on the selling block, fans of the company can only hope that someone will bite. According to the notice, they are currently in talks with interested parties and like most business transactions, it might be a few weeks before something happens.

For recent sales, there is no guarantee that it will be received by the buyer. If this is the case, you need to check with your credit card provider and see about getting a refund. If a sale of the company does end up going through, the new owners will likely resume activity as normal, but we can hope that they’d check with buyers prior to building systems to make sure they are still wanted.

The failure of Rock is partly attributed to the cash flow difficulties faced as a result of stock misappropriation by a former employee. This led to suppliers reducing credit limits, further adversely impacting upon cash flows. As a result of the recent difficulties faced by Rock in obtaining regular supplies of key components, Rock had effectively ceased to trade prior to the Administrators appointment.

Source: Rock

Just two days ago we were wishing Wolfenstein 3D a happy 16th birthday, so it seems appropriate that another old-school 3D-shooter has a new title announced. id Software has just announced Doom 4, a follow-up to Doom 3, which was a follow-up to Doom 2. From what I understand, Doom 2 was a follow-up to Doom 1, but I can’t be entirely sure as the naming scheme is somewhat confusing, similar to NVIDIA’s.

Very little information is available right now, as id have announced that development has only just begun. So it’s too bad that it’s going to be a ways off, but at least it’s en route. To help usher in the new game, the company is readily looking over applications for new developers. Of the careers, multiple designers are being sought, as are programmers and animators. If you qualify and you feel you can contribute to what we can hope will be a masterpiece, check out their careers page.

No other details were given, but we’re guessing it’ll run off of id Tech 5 (or perhaps something greater). Given the ending of the Doom 3 expansion Resurrection was pretty conclusive, we don’t know where the team will take the Doom story next. Our guess? Probably send a space marine to Hell to fight demons. Perhaps this time he (or she) will pack a better flashlight.

Source: Joystiq

X48 is new, but there are many boards already begging for your dollars. We are taking a look at the most robust of them all, the P5E3 Premium, which includes built-in WiFi, a great board design and fantastic overclocking abilities. It would almost be a perfect board if it weren’t for the $375 price tag.