Content and news by Rob Williams

GD: Why ping? Why did you feel this was an important enough thing to make a company and a product to address?

Bigfoot: Bigfoot Networks is dedicated to fighting Lag in online games, which we define as anything bad that happens in a game that is out of the gamer’s control. This could be their screen freezing, players jumping around on the screen, losing your connection to the game server, slow responses from the server, etc… Ping improvements can help all of these things, but is not the only feature of Killer.

This card seems like an even bigger gimmick than the AGEIA add-in Physics card. Even after reading the interview, I have to scratch my head. Whether or not gamers will actually ‘buy’ this, is yet to be seen. Without a doubt, this is going to prove a hard sell.

The British band Duran Duran is to create a virtual island within the online world of Second Life, on which they will perform actual live concerts. Three-dimensional versions of the band members – called Avatars – have been commissioned and will be revealed in September. The band hopes to perform their first virtual concert in the coming months.

Ok, I admit I am a fan of old school Duran Duran, so I will give them the benefit of the doubt here. In a time when companies are trying to figure out unique ways to spice up an online experience, I think this is one of the craziest ideas yet. I can’t wait to see a video of this one online.

In our lawsuit happy country, nothing is too surprising anymore. This time around, Microsoft and Nintendo have been hit with a lawsuit by Anascape, a small Texas-based company. Anascape claims that Microsoft and Nintendo have infringed on 12 of its patents relating to game controllers. The patents in question were issued between 1999 and 2005.

It certainly doesn’t take much to get sued anymore. The odd thing is how this unknown company managed these patents when the three leading console producers were using such technologies before the mentioned 1999 date. I hope to see Anascape lose this one quick.

“This is not a big deal. In order to remain competitive, we have to make sure that we have [a wide] enough variety of products to meet the market demand,” stated a Dell executive who chose to remain anonymous. “This is a sensitive topic, though we won’t deny the fact that we are working with Dell on desktop and notebook PCs,” said AMD’s general manager of Taiwanese operations.

The comment regarding the importance of a wide variety is laughable at best. If they cared so much about choice, why did it take them -this- long to finally accept AMD? Regardless, I have been waiting for this for a while, so I am happy as pie to see Dell AMD notebooks on the horizon.

The price cuts are so significant in fact that Apple’s 30-inch Cinema Display is now less expensive than Dell’s 30-inch 3007WFP which is selling for $2199. Dell’s 24-inch 2407WFP is still cheaper at $747.15 and is an inch larger. The 2407WFP also has better specifications than Apple’s 23-inch display: 450cd/m2 brightness and 1000:1 contrast ratio. Dell’s comparable 20.1-inch 2007WFP is currently priced at $459.00.

If you drool for a 30″ LCD and don’t like Dell, this could be your chance to finally pick one up.

San Jose, California – August 7, 2006 — Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of memory modules and flash products, today announced one of the world’s fastest 2GB DDR2 kits. The new T1000UX2G4 is tested in a motherboard and guaranteed to operate at DDR2-1000 at astonishing 4-5-4-15 latencies at 2.2 volts.

You can read the entire press release right here.

Cases & Enclosures
• Enermax Chakra – Think Computers
• MSI mPC 915 Barebone SFF – Viper Lair

Memory & Storage
• Mushkin 2GB EM2-6400 DDR2-800 – Virtual-Hideout
• Scythe Kama Connect USB2.0 IDE & SATA External Adapter – Madshrimps
• Western Digital’s 500GB Caviar SE16 and RE2 – Tech Report

Motherboards & Processors
• Biostar TForce 550 – HardOCP
• MSI K9A Platinum – MadBoxPC
• Overclocking the AMD A64 4200+ AM2 Processor – Legit Reviews

Peripherals & Power Supplies
• Cooler Master iGreen 500w PSU – Driver Heaven
• NZXT Precise 650W – Phoronix

Displays & Video Cards
• GeForce 7600GT Round Up – Tech-Hounds

Complete Systems, Competitions & Etcetera
• Apple Mac Pro shows solution to Intel’s memory-cooling problem – Hexus
• HP dv2000t Notebook – Digital Trends
• Matt Fielder’s Predatron Project – Trusted Reviews
• Win a Set of 7900GT’s – Bjorn3D

So, you are looking for a high-density thumb drive, but don’t want to have the slow speed that usually coincides. OCZ recently launched 4GB versions of their extremely popular Rally2 thumb drives, and they prove to be a winner. Faster than most of it’s competition, and cheaper to boot.

When Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. bought MySpace last year for almost $600 million, critics wondered how the company ever planned to recoup its investment on the site. Now we have the answer—it will show lots and lots of ads.

The deal includes more sites than just MySpace, and will result in search features and also text based advertising. Smart move by Google on this one.

“Piracy is hard,” Cloud said, in a response to an audience member’s question about the issue. “It’s really, from my opinion, destroying the PC market.” He said concerns over piracy were the biggest factor in PC gaming’s shrinking presence in many retail stores. However, he maintained that he felt the PC gaming market as a whole was not in any danger. “I don’t think the PC market is shrinking at all,” he said. “I think there’re tons of people playing games on the PC. I think World of Warcraft is a good example.”

Some good points are made here. There’s no doubt that MMO’s by themselves will hurt other PC genres though, in addition to piracy.

Leopard will be a true 64-bit operating system with 32-bit compatibility. Apple claims that 32-bit applications will run alongside 64-bit applications without conversion, emulation or virtualization. Users will be able to run both types of applications side by side in real time.

Other enhancements that come to the table include a file restore similar to what we will be seeing in Vista. There are more features to be announced, but it appears this will be a larger upgrade than compared to previous OS X versions.

Gigabyte will own a 51% stake in the company, with Asustek picking up the other 49%. HKEPC (English) reports the deal is valued at approximately $244M USD, and that the new joint venture will become official January 1, 2007. Neither company would comment on the effect of the joint venture on existing manufacturing, claiming that only the legal proceedings to start the company have been publically announced at this time. The joint venture will also get a new name, but both companies are also tight lipped about that as well.

It’s not looking like this huge mergers are going to stop anytime soon. This will be an interesting one to watch though. Both companies bring a lot to the consumer table.

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Aug. 7, 2006 – Intel Corporation today announced a global effort to prepare university students for a new paradigm of software development as Intel transitions its processors from single-processor engines to ones that will have multiple cores and threads. This evolution will transform software design and require entirely new thinking and innovation in order to leverage this kind of processing power.

You can read the complete press release here.

Sorry for the lack of news over the weekend… I was out of town. Back to the regularly scheduled program…

Cases & Enclosures
• Antec 2U26ATX400XR-2 Rackmount Case – Think Computers
• Cooler Master Mystique 631 – Red & Blackness
• Cooler Master Mystique 632 Black – Hexus
• Sytrin Nextherm ICS 8200 Air-Conditioned Case – Tech Domain
• Ultra Aluminus Case – techPowerUp!
• Thermaltake Armor/Kandalf Side Panel Upgrade with 25cm Fan – Big Bruin

Cooling
• Battle of the Goop – Thermal Paste Comparison – Overclock3D
• JetArt Nano-Silver – DragonSteelMods
• Revoltec Hard Drive Freezer – Think Computers
• SilverStone FM122 120mm Fan – DragonSteelMods
• Spire DiamondCool II CPU Cooler – Think Computers
• Thermaltake AquaBay M5 – Technic 3D
• Vantec NexStar LX NAS Hard Drive Enclosure – ModTheBox
• Xilence HDD Icebox Cooling – Technic3D
• Zalman CNPS-9500AT – Overclockers Online
• Zalman ZM-STG1 Super Thermal Grease – Cooling-Station

Memory & Storage
• Corsair Twin2X2048-8500C5 – 3D Gameman
• Kingston HyperX 2GB PC2-6400 CL4 DDR2 – Virtual-Hideout
• OCZ 2GB PC2-7200 “Special Ops” DDR2 – Virtual-Hideout
• Old Skool Micron Fatbody D9 Reunion – PC Modding Malaysia
• Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 750 GB – Overclock3D
• Super Talent T800UX2GC4 2GB DDR2 – XYZ Computing

Motherboards & Processors
• ABIT KN9 SLI – Motherboards.org
• Cool and cheap screamers from Intel and AMD – Tech Report
• MSI K9A Platinum CrossFire XPress 3200 for AM2 – Hot Hardware
• NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI Intel sneak peak – Guru 3D

Peripherals & Power Supplies
• Corepad Professional Gaming Gear Products Roundup – Virtual-Hideout
• Corepad Victory – Burnout PC
• Enermax Galaxy 1000 Watt Power Supply – Guru 3D
• Enermax Galaxy 1000 Watt Power Supply – Pro-Clockers
• ICYDOCK MB122 Docking Station – Pro-Clockers
• Nmedia Mute Power Series 500 Watt Power Supply – Think Computers
• NZXT Precise 650 Power Supply – XYZ Computing
• Razer Krait – Bjorn3D
• Samsung CLP-650N Network Color Laser Printer – Bona Fide Reviews
• Sysgration ASG-142 VoIP Mouse – UK Gamer
• Vizo Propeller Card Cooler and Mirrorbox Card Reader – Big Bruin
• Wacom’s Graphire4 Studio XL – BIOS Magazine

Displays & Video Cards
• Albatron 6600 PCIE Video Card – 3D Gameman
• Asus PW191 Widescreen LCD Monitor – HotHardware
• MSI NX7900GT-VT256E-HD HDCP-enabled Geforce 7900GT – PC Stats

Complete Systems, Competitions & Etcetera
• Budget PC Buying Guide – Tech Spot
• Episodic Content and Online Distribution – Think Gaming
• Fedora Core 6 Test 2 – Phoronix
• Pioneer Inno – Digital Trends
• Slim Devices First Look – Digital Trends

“Microsoft is investigating solutions for the final release of Windows Vista to help protect against the attacks demonstrated,” a representative for the software maker said. “In addition, we are working with our hardware partners to investigate ways to help prevent the virtualization attack used by the Blue Pill.”

Well, it’s sure good to know that this has been discovered prior to launch. Now to hope they iron it out before then…

The addition of the Sempron line to socket AM2 is good news to those people who are trying to build a budget overclocking system that will still provide good performance. Weighing in at a mere $76 USD at newegg.com, this processor is one worth looking at if dual core multitasking power is not needed for you.

If you think budget CPU’s are boring, think again. How does a $76 chip that does a 50% overclock with stock voltage sound?

The company behind the file sharing program LimeWire was sued by the RIAA in federal court Friday, which is accusing the New York-based Lime Group LLC of facilitating the trade of illegal music files between its users. The labels are seeking damages, including $150,000 per occurrence of an illegally traded file.

Whoa! $150K for each song traded? That’s one gigantic overall fine! Is it just me, or is the RIAA actually getting worse?

The Ziff Davis Game Group, which produces consumer game site 1UP and Electronic Gaming Monthly and Official PlayStation Magazine in North America, has announced that it is shutting down its US print magazine Computer Gaming World and replacing it with an officially Microsoft-branded ‘Games For Windows’ magazine and website.

Though I didn’t read CGW as much as I liked, it was a great magazine. I am surprised that they are switching this aroudn, because I thought the magazine performed well on the newstands. One thing is for sure, this new mag should prove mighty interesting.

Two security researchers from Black Hat this week revealed a method in which a MacBook can be broken into and taken control of. In fact, the intrusion method is at such a low level that even firewalls and anti-virus applications can’t help. Based on flaws in wireless network driver design, Apple’s line of MacBooks — and MacBook Pros — allows an attacker to remotely bypass the security of the laptop and the operating system.

Good, it’s about time something like this happened. Put this in your commercials Apple… just do it.

Following the reports from the OLPC committee that the original quotes for OLPC orders were exaggerated, Wikipedia has just released a newswire claiming that an offline version of Wikipedia will be included on the $100 laptop.

This is great news, really. It would have to be some scaled down to fit on the small storage space though!