Content and news by Rob Williams

A 44-year-old German businessman whose digital camera was stolen at a restaurant was relieved when he managed to buy exactly the same model on the eBay Internet auction site to match his accessories. But he became suspicious when it emerged the seller came from his home town. It proved to be the same camera.

This is not the first time something like this has happened, and it won’t be the last. The seller apparently ‘bought’ it at a flea market, yet sells many different cameras online. Read about it at Reuters UK. Via Digg.

Sony BMG has struck a deal with the plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit over copy-restriction software it used in music CDs, according to a settlement document filed at a New York court Wednesday.

If you have been affected by the rootkit, you are eligable to receive three free albums via download. I guess it’s better than nothing, but doesn’t exactly make up for what the kits done to your PC. Check out the news posting at News.com.

2006 WILL BE quite the interesting year on the desktop CPU front, with the year starting out firmly in AMD’s grasp, and ending in Intel’s. If both sides execute on their CPU roadmaps, and that is a huge if we believe it will be a fight to the end with Intel having the lead by at least a hair when all is said and done.

That’s quite a prediction but will be interesting to see. I know I will be picking up an AM2 socket CPU when they are released because I want to see DDR2 on that platform. Regardless, AMD is now extremely serious competition to Intel, so time will tell. Check out the posting at The Inquirer.

If you’ve been crying your eyes out for an iKitty iPod case for your new nano, it’s time to bust out a smile. Speck Products is now offering this rubberized kitty-shaped case especially for the nano, available in both black and white. Made of silicone, it fits both 2- and 4-gig iPod nanos and gives you full access to all buttons and controls. Only $34.95.

Hah, some products just keep getting wierder and wierder. I could not imagine someone walking down the street with this thing wrapped around their nano.

If you are looking for a great S939 motherboard, then Xbit Labs has a massive review devoted to the ASUS A8N32-SLi Deluxe. It’s feature rich and there are no serious issues with any of them. The BIOS jumper could be easier to access, but I guess we can’t have it all. Pro-Clockers is taking a look at the OCZ Platinum PC3200 1GB kit, and it’s a great one! They managed to bump up an overclock to a nice 308MHz at only 2.85v with decent timings… very nice.

Cases & Enclosures
• MGE XG Dragon Gaming Case – Big Bruin
• NMediaPC HTPC 200B Case- Mod The Box

Cooling
• Thermalright V-1 Ultra VGA Cooler – Legion Hardware

Memory & Storage
• Kingston 15-In-1 Hi-Speed Reader – Rojak Pot
• OCZ EL DDR PC-3200 Dual Channel Platinum Rev 2 – Pro-Clockers

Motherboards & CPU’s
• ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe – Xbit Labs

Peripherals & Power Supplies
• Enermax Liberty ELT620AWT 620W – Bjorn 3D
• Icemat Siberia Multi Headset – PC Mech
• Logitech diNovo Media Desktop Laser – Overclockers Online
• Logitech G7 Cordless Laser Mouse – TweakPC
• SteelSound 5H USB Headset – Game Club Central

Video Cards & Monitor
• Mobile GPU Comparison Guide Rev. 4.4 – Rojak Pot

Etcetera & Contests
• Complete Regional Weather Station with MSN Direct Weather Data Service – Design Technica
• Kakurenbo: Hide & Seek Anime DVD – Think Computers
• MediainLinux v4.0 RC5 – Phoronix
• What To Look For About Web Hosting – ASE Labs

Here at Microsoft Watch, it was a tough choice. Should it be “Ten Reasons Microsoft Is Still a Monopoly”? Or the Top 10 Hires Microsoft Made in 2005″? (Too hard.) The “Ten Most Important Microsoft Defectors”? (Easier.) “Ten Justifications for Throwing Caution to the Wind and by Continuing to Use Internet Explorer”? Or maybe “Ten Odes to .Net Developers”?

This is a great list if you love keeping up on the latest MS happenings. Check out the full list at Microsoft-Watch.

OCZ Technology Group, a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory, today announced the release of the first DDR2 modules designed to make use of the recently introduced OCZ XTC heatspreader design. The Gold series modules will come in PC2-4200 and PC2-5400 configurations ranging from 512MB modules to 2GB dual channel optimized kits.

Check out the full press release right here.

There’s a fair amount going on today, so you have a lot of reading to do. Both Pro-Clockers and Big Bruin are taking a look at the cool looking Blue Orb II from Thermaltake. It’s pretty beefy, but if you insist on air, it’s a good choice. 3D Gameman is taking a look at the PC4000 2GB Plat kit from Corsair, which was my personal favorite memory over the past year. It gives you plenty of breathing room in both bandwidth and overclockability.

Cooling
• Innovatek Water Cooling – MVKTech
• Sharkoon Red Shock AMD Athlon & Intel Pentium Heatsink – A1 Electronics
• Thermaltake Blue Orb II Heatsink – Pro-Clockers
• Thermaltake Blue Orb II CPU Cooler – Big Bruin

Memory & Storage
• Corsair XMS-4000PT DDR500 2GB Memory Kit – 3D Gameman
• OCZ 1024-3200 Gold Edition XTC – Overclockers Online

Motherboards & CPU’s
• EVGA 133-K8-NF41-AX nForce 4 SLI – Gamer God
• Foxconn 6150K8MA-8EKRS – AMD Zone

Peripherals & Power Supplies
• A4Tech X-718 Gaming Mouse – VR-Zone
• Logitech G7 Laser Cordless Mouse – Think Computers
• Microsoft Laser Mouse 6000 – TweakPC
• Razer Copperhead and Logitech G5 – A True Review
• Thrustmaster Rechargeable Wireless Dual Trigger 2-in-1 – TweakPC
• Zalman Theatre 6M Headset – Moditory

Video Cards & Monitor
• Chaintech GeForce 6800GS – Techniz
• Sapphire Theatrix 550 Pro TV Tuner – AMD Review

Etcetera & Contests
• Digital Trends Podcast: Happy Holidays! – Design Technica
• Nero 7 Ultra Edition – Think Computers

Have you ever wished that you could use your consoles controller on your PC? Usually, they are designed much better than anything PC makers can release so it seems to only make sense. Finally, Microsoft has stepped up to the plate and made their Xbox 360 controller available for Windows.

Now that Xmas is over, we can resume our regular news posting! It will be a quicky today as I have to run out the door in a few, so read all of em to keep yourself busy! Without a doubt, read the reviews at Hexus, Legit and Viper today because they are taking a look at the brand new Intel 955. Sure it’s pricy and sure it’s fast.. but is it worth it? I look forward to seeing some AMD comparison benches in the near future though!

For the gamer who wants great memory at a good price, then you may want to check out the Rojak Pot for the review of the updated PC4000 2GB XTC kit from OCZ. Not really that overclockable, but if you want to get in and game and that’s it, then check it out. If you make use of the awesome ATI Tool, then be sure to grab the latest version over at techPowerUp!

Memory & Storage
• OCZ Rally Flash Drive – Case Mod God
• OCZ PC-4000 Gold Gamer eXtreme XTC Dual-Channel DDR Memory Kit – Rojak Pot

Motherboards & CPU’s
• ABIT AN8 SLI Motherboard – MvKTech
• ECS KN1 SLI Extreme 30-day Test Drive – techFEAR
• Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 955 & Intel 975X Express Chipset – Viper Lair
• Intel Pentium Processor Extreme Edition 955 – Legit Reviews
• Intel Extreme Edition 955 Processor – Hexus

Peripherals & Power Supplies
• Silverstone Strider ST60F 600W PSU – Technic3D
• Sunbeamtech NUUO 550 Watt modular Power Supply Unit with Fan Controller – OC Inside

Video Cards & Monitor
• ATI AYiR 2005 – Phoronix
• Sapphire X1800 XT – Technic 3D

Etcetera & Contests
• ATITool 0.25 Beta 11 available! – techPowerUp!
• Compression Comparison Guide Rev. 2.0 Part 1 – Rojak Pot
• Denon S-301 Mini-System Review – Design Technica
• Details of the ARP-Intel Survey Contest Released – Rojak Pot
• “Linux’s Difficulty with Names” – XYZ Computing
• Talk Back: “Played Out” – Design Technica
• USB Security Key UK-01 – Think Computers
• Video ModmyMachine Now! – Mod My Machine
• XgiEdit v1.0 Released… – MvKTech

Zalman has stamped their name in our community a long time ago. Developing unique products that make alot of us want. A couple these things that come to mind are the Reserator water-cooling kit and the TNN line of cases. Our review sample today is one of those unique products, the CNPS9500 LED Heatsink. So, let’s see if the 9500 can continue Zalman’s legacy have as being a great cooling company.

Check out the full review at Pro-Clockers.

The “Ditty” will be made using PC’s or the hardware and software for them; however you would like to do it just as long as it’s funny. The funnier the better. The rules of the contest have been updated and it is now easier to enter. We have around $1,500USD in prizes to give away. Stop by our forums and register for the contest.

Check out the full contest details over at Extensive Mods.

Finally, a 64-Bit version of Half-Life 2! Is there any reason to get excited about this, or is it something you just want to bypass? We take both versions through a few quick tests to see if the 64-Bit has what it takes to be the preferred version.

ACCORDING TO cdrinfo.com, a mod chip for the Xbox 360 is likely to show up “within weeks.”

They go on to say that a “member of a hacker group” implied that they will be done making the first mod chip in a couple of weeks.

Wow, this didn’t take long… if it proves true. I wonder what Microsoft thinks about this right now? Check it out at The Inquirer.

The year 2005 was an excellent year, depending of course on your point of view. For the tech industry, BitTorrent soared to new heights while Steve Jobs enjoyed record breaking iPod sales. Yet not everyone shared this success. The RIAA continued its fight against P2P networking with little effect, as Sony-BMG disgraced itself and the DRM concept.

If you’ve been asleep all year, then this is a pretty good roundup of everything that’s happened. Read about it at Slyck.

The NGO ATI Optimized Driver is a tweaked version of the ATI Catalyst driver. The main purpose is to satisfy the users with better performance and image quality. The Driver has support for all Radeon cards.

I can vouch that NGO puts out some great drivers, don’t don’t hesitate to pick them up.

With the pictures we take this holiday season, for anyone it
would be a tragedy to lose the photographs they had backed up to a CD or
DVD. Often data on these discs are simply lost due to carelessness when
one simply sets down the CD/DVD and it turns out to be scratched. For
this holiday exclusive, we have a few photos and a write-up on how a new
company is attempting to make scratched discs a thing of the past.

Now THIS would be nice. Check out the article at Phoronix.

I am happy to announce that we have just posted 4 new BIOS options for both the full BIOS Optimization Guide and also the FREE BIOS Optimization Guide! This will bring the FREE BIOS Optimization Guide Rev. 8.6.3 to more than 310 BIOS features!

Check out the updated guide over at Rojak Pot.

We had an opportunity to talk with Drew Henry, General Manager of the MCP Product Group at NVIDIA about the ULi acquisition. As is typical of most interviews, we send a list of questions to NVIDIA and see what comes back. This time we got more marketing talk and less specifics than we wanted, but there were still a handful of interesting points.

This is a good interview. Some answers given are completely different than what the interviewer planned, I’m sure. Check it out though at Firing Squad.

Over 18,000 WoW accounts were permanently closed over the past three months, which means about one account on each server worldwide was terminated each day.

The majority of cheaters were found to be using 3rd party software to farm gold and items. They described the account closings as being part of their “aggressive stance against cheating in World of Warcraft.”

It’s good to see that they closed that many, but with 5 Million players worldwide, I’m sure that’s a small fraction. Check out the posting at The Inquirer.