Content and news by Rob Williams

AMD’s Phenom line-up should have been the product to save the company from the slump they’ve been in for the past year, but as we are all well aware, that was not the case at all. In fact, clock-for-clock performance put Phenom below Intel’s offerings, all while having a rather sizable disadvantage in power consumption. As if things needed to get worse, they have, in the form of an errata in all Barcelona processors.

Our friends at the Tech Report have been on the case for the past week and have come along nicely in their investigations. First and foremost, the errata sits with the TLB Logic for the L3 cache which can cause the computer to crash in a rare occasion. To make matters worse, a “fix” for the problem causes a further performance degradation.

Thanks to a fresh BIOS from MSI which enables the TLB patch, Scott was able to test the performance differences between various synthetic and real-world benchmarks. Things do not look that hopeful – some benchmarks show significant differences. However, some do not show a difference at all, such as Sandra’s FP and Int tests.

The fact of the matter is – this is not a small issue. Applying the patch effects performance, which is unacceptable regardless of how it’s analyzed. If you run out to purchase a Phenom CPU, you are purchasing a semi-maimed offering. Applying the patch degrades performance, but on the other hand, you might not ever run into a problem without applying it. It’s up to you to decide whether or not the hassle is all worth it. For those who want Phenom but wish to wait until the product is fixed, that should come early next year with the 9550 and 9650.

The most troubling results here are the applications where we see large performance drops with the TLB erratum workaround active, including the Firefox web browser and the picCOLOR image analysis tool. If one happens to spend a lot of time running an application whose memory access patterns don’t mix well with the TLB patch, the result could prove frustrating. The BIOS-based workaround for the TLB erratum may achieve its intended result—system stability—but it comes at a pretty steep price in terms of performance.

Source: Tech Report

It’s official: The next version of Internet Explorer will be called Internet Explorer 8. To all out there who knew this years ago, pat yourselves on the back. Though, since the browser has followed the same naming scheme for quite a while, it’s best to not gloat too much. At least they are not calling it Internet Live Explorer Ultimate, I suppose.

New features have not been mentioned for obvious reasons, but should include faster browsing, better protection, better functionality and everything else we are usually promised and never delivered.

The confirmation came during his speech at the “Mix and Mash” conference taking place this week in Redmond, Wash. In a posting on the IE blog, Microsoft general manager Dean Hachamovitch jokes about some of the names Microsoft ruled out, such as “IE 7+1” and “IEVIII.”

Source: News.com

Facebook, the home of around five-trillion apps and several dozen users, have issued an official apology for the issues caused by their Beacon shopping feature. The feature is designed to show your friends what you have recently purchased online. However, the feature was enabled on all Facebook accounts, sparking obvious controversy.

All said and done, it took a handful of weeks before the problem was actually fixed. The excuses are not important, but the fact that it took so long is rather ridiculous. I don’t care for others to know what I bought, and I am not sure who would. Just another reason to add to the pile of why I personally dislike using Facebook.

The company last month introduced Beacon. But last week it made it easier to opt out of the system after 65,000 of its members signed a petition imploring Facebook to scale it back. Some members were outraged that Facebook was deploying technology to shadow their online habits in an attempt to pursue advertising revenue.

Source: USA Today

If there is an immediate downside of the OLPC, it’s the fact that it runs Linux and not the most popular desktop operating system on the planet. That will change in the near-future though, as Microsoft is actively working on a special version of Windows XP and Office that all runs off of a simple 2GB SD memory card. OLPC has no problem with this idea, and has added SD slots for the very purpose.

As you would expect, this special Windows/Office combination will not be sold/available in US or Canada. Pricing is not revealed, but it could be that it will be free to those who own an OLPC in a developing country. Microsoft doesn’t need to charge a cent. Their goal right now is to get their OS into as many hands as possible. Since giving out a free OS would plant a seed in these users, that’s all that will likely matter to them, at this point.

It won’t be offered to anyone in the US or Canada, even quasi-philanthropists participating in the Get One, Give One program. But, we’re guessing the anti-copying measures won’t be particularly hardcore, meaning it’ll probably make its way to the internets not long after launch. Bootable Windows on an SD card would be pretty nice on our side of the world too, actually.

Source: Gizmodo

Xbox 360 owners all share the same fear – the dreaded Red Ring of Death. Like many, I picked up my Xbox 360 at launch and played the beast for months on end with nary a complaint. After a while, the RRoD problem rolled onto the scene and many had their systems cease to function. Launch consoles had the highest RRoD rate, but somehow I continued to escape the issue.

Until this past weekend, that is. While out of town, a family member decided to kick some ass in Halo 3 online, only to be welcomed by three red rings. It’s hard to complain though, since I have had the system work fine for just over two years without much of an issue, whereas others have gone through multiple consoles. I was one of the lucky few.

Source: Techgage

To some degree, I might have seen this problem coming. I picked up Need for Speed: Pro Street a few weeks ago, only to have the entire console halt after about ten minutes of gameplay. I turned off the console and decided to use the PS3 instead. It’s now that I realize that the halt could have been the beginning of what was to come. If you find yourself in a similar situation where a game crashes for no apparent reason, be warned of what could happen.

The big question… when will I find myself in the mood to deal with Microsoft support?

“How-To” guides are popular because people like direction. This is especially true when it comes to guides for building a new PC, especially an “ultimate gaming PC”. Techgage’s Senior Editor Greg King gave me a shout earlier, after he saw a segment on G4TechTV for accomplishing just that. Of course, most of you who frequent this site don’t need a guide on which parts to purchase, but that’s besides the point of this news posting.

With Morgan Webb behind the camera, it’s hard to not listen to what she has to say. How often do good looking girls chat about computer hardware? Regardless, throughout the video, she lists various components that are needed to build an ultimate gaming rig. Some parts are great choices, such as the Antec 900 chassis, eVGA 680i (for SLI-support) and Intel’s Quad-Core QX6850 (since 680i doesn’t support 45nm). Other components include Corsair 2GB XMS3 Dominator memory, 2x 8800GT’s, CM air CPU cooler, Raptor 150GB, etc.

Though it sounds like a killer machine, there are a few problems. First, they recommend an eVGA 680i board, and then minutes later suggest $725 DDR3 RAM that will not even work in it. What I also gain from the video is that high-end RAM makes a bigger difference with gaming than GPUs do. While most components are actually “high-end”, for the GPU they chose two mid-range 8800GT cards. These are solid cards, but are far from being ultimate, and would also result in huge bottlenecks with big resolutions.

What should we take from this? Well, its been quite a while since G4 merged with TechTV and things sure don’t seem to be getting better. Oh, and don’t believe everything you see on TV.

Source: G4TV.com

It’s not too often that Linus will keep his opinions to himself, which is a great thing. It makes for interesting interviews and also makes sure that Linux progress never fails to linger. In a new interview with IT News, Linus was questioned on how Linux compares to Windows, with the simple answer: flexibility. That could not be any more true, considering you can find the OS everywhere… even a toaster. Well, almost everywhere.

As for the future, things will continue to grow at the rapid pace it has been for the past few years. I am just hoping it will soon become an actual real competitor to Windows in order to gain usage across most regular users and enthusiasts. I use Linux as my primary OS, but I will even admit that I have a Windows machine beside me for gaming and a few select apps. The good thing is that things are rapidly improving, and each new year will bring on a new set of accomplishments.

One of the things I personally am really interested in is the move over to SSD (solid-state drives) disks. I’m a huge believer in reducing latency, and some of the better SSDs are changing the whole game when it comes to access latency, which in turn has potentially big impacts on the kernel — and while they are currently expensive enough to be a pretty minor player, that is certainly looking to change in 2008 and later.

Source: IT News Australia

These stories never cease to amaze me, but the truth is, they are not going to end. As consumers, it’s good to keep alert and not fall prey to these mega-corporations like this fellow did at the NeoGAF forums. After hitting up his local Gamestop, he picked up a fresh copy of Steambot Chronicles for the PS2. All went well, until he reached a climax in the game and then was told to purchase the full game. Yes, he had a demo disc.

To make matters worse, even though the game looks legit, there are two dead giveaways: Sharpy-doused “Demo Disc – Not for Resale” and a Rating Pending logo. Moral of the story? Don’t leave the store before checking to see if you actually have what you purchased. In other stores that sell plastic-wrapped games, you shouldn’t have to worry. But because Gamestop (and Electronics Boutique) physically open most games as they arrive at the store, there is a far greater chance of this kind of thing happening.

Yeah, thats real nice Gamestop. Is this on purpose? I didn’t see any used copies but maybe jackass grabbed the wrong disc from the shelf (its always annoyed me they open up new wrapped games and remove the disc). Even then, I bought it NEW, why am I getting the fake someone dumped on Gamestop.

Source: NeoGAF Forums Via: Joystiq

A report surfaced last week that caught the internet off guard – WiFi signals can cause autism. Of course skeptics abound, and for good reason. There have never been official (and accurate) reports that have linked a WiFi signal to brain damage, nor has there ever been the same with regards to cell phones. This study specifically discusses the fact that autism is the result of heavy metal toxicity (metal-band System of a Down’s album “Toxicity” not related) which I assume, WiFi signals can encourage.

Ars Technica took a step forward and did some research to get to the bottom of this report. As it turns out, one of the quoted publications in the report doesn’t even exist, and neither of the authors have a profession that has much to do with their studies. Though the potential effects of WiFi are still not known, this report should at least be taken with a grain of salt.

The problems don’t end there, however. The release makes clear that the study is based entirely on the hypothesis that autism is the product of heavy metal toxicity. This hypothesis is an outgrowth of the failed efforts to link autism rises to the use of mercury preservatives in vaccines. To the best of my knowledge, it has no experimental support, but it has led to a lucrative business for those who promise “cures” for autism through treatments that supposedly remove heavy metals from patients’ blood via chelation

Source: Ars Technica

Canada is like the big kid in gym class… always the last one to be picked. This is true… the US gets almost everything before Canada and other places of the world (unless of course a product is actually made elsewhere). Being a canuck myself, I’m also aware that we pay more in the end as well, despite our dollar being worth more at this point in time.

What I didn’t know though, was that Canadians still didn’t even have a simple TiVo. It took them this long to come up to Canada, and when they finally do, it’s an old-school Series2 (standard-def) with no option for the Series3HD versions. I couldn’t find subscription fees anywhere, but it’s likely to be right on par with what’s been seen in the US. If you want a TiVo, you can hit up your Futureshop, London Drugs (?!), Best Buy or The Brick.

Every once in a while we read a mundane press release—in this case, announcing that Canada gets TiVo—and just start laughing. Poor Canada is finally getting TiVo service, “just in time for the holiday season.” But that’s not the funniest part. The only hardware available will be the TiVo Series2, standard def, last gen DVR for 199 CAD. Merry Christmas, Canada. Now I know how Koreans look at American cellphone technology.

Source: Gizmodo, Canadian TiVo Page

Since Windows Vista launched earlier this year, there has been little reason to make the move. Personally, I’ve run into so many problems with the new OS, that I’ve made it a goal to stay away from it as much as possible. However, I do admit that some new DX10-capable games are doing a good job of at least making me want to install it.

HardOCP explores a new game to actually handle DX10 well, online RPG Hellgate: London. Although a few bugs are evident and performance is hit hard, the DX10-rendered game looks far better. Shadows are more refined, motion blur is fantastic, weather looks better and there is no comparison with the smoke. For an MMO game that you are likely to play all the time, DX10 looks to be worth the time (if you already have Vista of course).

The above screenshot comparison shows an area in the Lower Thames region. It shows the same effect as the previous screenshot. On the left, there are ashes blowing around in the air, and on the right, the air is clear. The blowing ash adds tremendous atmosphere and helps you believe that London is actually burning.

Source: Hard|OCP

Choosing the perfect motherboard and processor could be a difficult task if you don’t know what to look for, but we take out the hassle and deliver a list of options you should peruse. Both AMD and Intel are covered, as are all price-ranges.

BioShock’s launch a few months ago was far from being perfect. Despite being a fantastic game (to most, not to me), the game had issues on all platforms. There were scaling “problems” for the Xbox 360, and of course, who could forget the beautiful copy protection that was SecuROM for the PC version? Though to some, SecuROM was the least of their worries. Instead, it was the install limitations, which would only allow you to install the game a certain amount of times on a single PC.

According to GameSpot, 2K Australia was quite pleased with their results. The game took a full thirteen days before being cracked and released to the masses. This doesn’t sound impressive at all, but that was thirteen days the pirates weren’t giving the game away for free. For the legit consumer, advanced protections have no end in sight. Though 2K admits their future efforts may differ from what was included with BioShock, their goal is to make sure that their title keeps away from crackers as long as possible.

At the recent Games Connect Asia Pacific conference held in Melbourne, Australia, 2K Australia senior programmer PC team Martin Slater acknowledged the company received plenty of flak at launch. In a keynote speech which covered 2K Australia’s work on BioShock, Slater said while the company won’t be implementing the same launch install patch strategy for future games, it would do something “similar” as piracy remained one of the biggest problems for PC games.

Source: Gamespot

If there were such thing as a physics-powered pot sitting around, it would be AMD’s Richard Huddy doing the stirring. In two separate interviews, Huddy gives his opinions on hardware-based physics (a la AGEIA). First off are mentions of GPU-based phyics, which Huddy explains is not going to happen anytime soon. In fact, he mentions specifics: DirectX 11. Considering that is far off, AGEIA could not be happier at Huddy’s coming forward.

Here’s where all of this intertwines. In the second interview, Huddy mentions that AMD would consider purchasing AGEIA if the price were right. This is something that I’ve thought about often, and it all seems to make sense. Intel just purchased Havok, so purchasing AGEIA as well would see a little out of place. On the other hand, AMD is not in a position to make another acquisition, as they are struggling to make up for their purchase of ATI last year.

What about AGEIA, though? This is a company who have been pushing their PhysX processor for well over two years, but haven’t made the mark they need to in the gaming industry. An acquisition by a financially stable purchaser would serve the company well, but again, that company is not likely to be AMD right now. Whatever does happen though, needs to happen soon, if AGEIA is to survive the long-haul. Of course, considering that there is virtually no competition for them right now (besides Havok), they should be safe for a while longer.

“Physics is – physics processing has a long ways to go and there are so many companies out there. [There are] quite a few middleware companies out there that are creating technology in this area, and many games, many game developers incorporate their own physics engine. So my sense is that there’s a lot of invention still left to do in this area. I’m not sure why they bought that company, to tell you the truth. It might give them some advantages with respect to Havok, but it obviously creates negative synergies everywhere else,” said Mr. Huang.

Source: X-bit labs, Custom PC

There’s no such thing as a shortage of Gabe Newell interviews, but that’s a good thing. Gabe is not your typical development studio head-honcho who is bound into ultra-strict deadlines by those who require a great financial quarter. Like it should be, he believes games should be well-polished and enjoyable to play. Because of this, we’ve seen delays with Half-Life episodes in the past, and it’s good to know that it’s not all for nothing.

One thing I can respect is that he doesn’t look just to the future, but reflects on PC gaming of the past. He brings up a few notable games, including Quake 1, which he played on the launch day of Team Fortress 2. This once again brings me back to the point that games do not have to be system boggers in order to be fun. I’m stoked to see other classic PC games that might head on to Steam. Descent, Star Wars: Dark Forces and Duke Nukem are a few I wouldn’t mind seeing on there.

Source: Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Now it’s the opposite extreme: we can put something up on Steam, deliver it to people all around the world, make changes. We can take more interesting risks. Retail has a kind of filter function: people hate to send boxes back, and if the boxes go back you’re wasting all this money. If someone doesn’t download something on Steam, we don’t lose any money. If someone sends back a box, you’re throwing money away. In this new world we can do things that weren’t previously possible.

Source: Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Is Toshiba UK joining in on the holiday spirit? I’d like to think that they are instead, just cluing in. For months and months, Toshiba’s HD-DVD players (even the Xbox 360 add-on) qualified for free HD-DVD flicks, but their laptops that included the advance player didn’t qualify. The extent of how much sense this logic lacked is not important. What is important is that if you are a bloke who had intentions of picking up a Tosh notebook, your deal just got sweeter.

So where is the North American love? A deal at Amazon might be the best out there. Purchase the HD-A3 player for $199 and pick up three HD-DVD movies immediately. Bourne Identity and 300 are both included with the player. That makes five, and thanks to Toshiba’s “5 for Free” deal, you get a total of 10 movies for free. Or, you could just consider it as getting the player for free. Who cares? That is one bargain.

So why isn’t this deal available in Canada? Quite the vicious circle I seem to be trapped in.

Source: Toshiba

Toshiba UK is giving away five free high definition (HD) DVDs to anyone who buys one of its new range of laptops that come with built-in HD DVD players. Anyone buying a new Toshiba HD laptop will now be able to kick-off a high definition movie collection with a choice of titles including Children of Men, Full Metal Jacket, Chronicles of Riddick, Hulk and The Prestige.

Source: Toshiba UK

For all those out there who have an AGEIA PhysX card and Unreal Tournament III, you will be pleased to know that two downloadable levels are exclusive to you. I had an opportunity to test out these levels a few months ago at DigitalLife and had a blast, although it’s hard to tell just how much fun these levels will be online. AGEIAs reasons for not allowing these levels to be used without PhysX cards is that the added physics makes the game more difficult (hence, more realistic), so those without the card would have an immediate advantage.

AGEIA also sends a note that Warmonger will be available on November 28 in full form. This is a game that was due out last month, but due to some rather blatant bugs that a few beta testers found, they had to hold off and patch those up before release. Whether or not this was really an attempt to avoid two other huge FPS releases, we are unsure. It’s just good to know that PhysX card owners will soon be able to put their card to some good use. For those without one, there are a few e-tailers (NewEgg included) who are offering them for $99 after MIR. Not too shabby.

Source: AGEIA

To showcase the power of the PhysX UT3 Mod-Kit and the PhysX processor, AGEIA Technologies is rolling out a series of Extreme PhysX Mod Levels for UT3 available as a free download starting today. The first set of PhysX mods includes the “Tornado” and “Lighthouse” levels. The AGEIA Tornado PhysX Mod, which was first revealed at the Leipzig Games Conference earlier this year, features incredible physical realism and revolutionary new environmental impact powered by the PhysX processor.

Source: AGEIA

Who is with me in saying, “It’s about time!”? Up until now, if you wanted to purchase and download a PSOne or PSP game to a PSP, you needed to have a PS3. Highly inefficient, since most PSP owners don’t own a PS3. That’s now changed though, as Sony has unveiled the Playstation Store for the PC, which allows people to download classic games (at a price of course), trailers and other fun things, directly to their PSP.

For games, the process works like this: You purchase the game, download the official PSP installer tool, click “Download” in the shopping cart and Windows will take over and automatically download the full game and install it to your PSP. Being a Linux user, I wanted to see how the process went there, and I can confidently say that it’s a hassle. I am not doubting it can be achieved if you have some time on your hands though. I was at a point where the PSP was detected, but when the time came to connect to the server to download the game, it would time out. Wine error logs tell me that the specific feature needed for that functionality is not yet implemented.

One thing I do like about the service though, is that games you’ve purchased are kept in a download list, including games you purchased with the PS3. So, should you delete the game later on (which can be backed up easily to begin with), you can go ahead and redownload it later on. So far the service is solid, but more PSP-specific (including PSOne) games would be great.

PS one Classic titles will be available from Day 1 on the PlayStation Store for the PC including favorites such as WipEout and Crash Bandicoot, with many more on the way. PLAYSTATION Store for the PC users will also find add-on game content, trailers for forthcoming titles, promotional videos and PSP themes.

Source: Playstation Blog

Last month, I posted about a fresh Nordschleife record that was taken by the Pagani Zonda F… a car that those with the cash could actually acquire. Other records are more impressive, but the cars to accomplish them wouldn’t be deemed street legal and have been modified beyond reason. That’s why the Zonda, to many, had the #1 real record for the ‘Ring.

Well, it hasn’t even been a month and that record was also smashed (by six seconds!). I am also not sure what’s more exciting, the fact that it was done with my favorite car or the fact that the entire video has been posted online for all adrenaline junkies to glue themselves to. For you curious which non-road car actually holds the record, it would be the Radical SR8, with a lap of 6:55. That video is here.

Source: James Lipman

The incredible thing is that the car puts out 532.7 rear-wheel horsepower and weighs 3,139 pounds with thirty liters of fuel. That means it has 70 fewer HP and weighs 400 pounds more than the Pagani Zonda F it dethroned. The car can’t be faster down the straights, so this must be all in the corners. We wouldn’t mind seeing videos of the two laps side-by-side to find out where the BMW leaves its Italian competition behind.

Source: Loaded.se Via: Autoblog

The rumors can finally end, because both the m15x and m17x are now officially official. As we posted earlier today, NVIDIA have just announced their 8800M GTS and GTX cards, which Alienware has already thrown into these notebooks. Pricing is not known, but for those who want to be kept notified, you can hand over your e-mail address to Alienware and they will hook you up with that info once it’s found.

Aside from the killer graphic cards, the new notebooks feature Intel Extreme processors, 667MHz DDR2 (is mobile RAM ever going to speed up?) and support for at least two hard-drives, which can be used separately or in RAID 1 or 2. The m17x supports room for three, which makes sense because that model is also targeted towards content creators, not only gamers. If there is one thing that’s certain… it’s that these machines look amazing.

Source: Alienware

The most advanced notebook Alienware has engineered to date, the Area-51 m17x was designed for the serious computer enthusiast. Content creators render out 3D models, edit digital video and audio and encode music all in a real-time environment. Hardcore gamers can rip through the latest DirectX 10 games in full 1080p quality.

Source: Alienware m15x/m17x Product Page