Content and news by Rob Williams

“Creative, worldwide market LEADER in the field of digital entertainmentproducts for the pc and the Internet, announced today two important openings in audio technology to: Xtreme Fidelity, the new audio standard, and the Creative X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity audio processor. The combination of Xtreme Fidelity with the Creative X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity audio processor ensures a remarkable improvement of the prerecording and reproduction of Mp3-music, accelerates and improves pc performance. Also giving pc-games an unique sound experience offers when viewing movies and improves the possibilities, performances and quality of audio creation.”

Check out an in-depth view at this new technology at Hardware XL.

“Quote: I haven’t reviewed a PSU finished in the standard grey for some time and I suppose I could say it made me against it a little bit. Its bad really as a PSU is judged on performance rather than looks and this PSU reminded me of that, not only did it hold the voltages, it held them well even during my overclock.”

Solid looking PSU by a company we may not hear of often. Check it out at Xtreme Computing.

“Upcoming PC shooter Prey will be available via online distribution in a partnership with Game xStream – a move that echoes Half-Life 2’s recent distribution through Valve’s Steam technology. This high-performance delivery system effectively cuts the traditional retail environment out of the route to market.” To me, this is good news. I…..

“Following closely on the heels of new Napster and Rhapsody music service offerings, Yahoo! has unveiled Yahoo! Music Unlimited, an online music store with an all-you-can-download music rental plan (including loading songs onto select portable players). The public beta still has some rough edges (namely, slow navigation between screens and some minor visual glitches), but from what we’ve seen so far, YMU has done things right.”

It seems that each week, a new online music store opens. This week it’s Yahoo, and they seem to be good so far. If you subscribe for a year initially, it works out to $5 a month. Much better than the rest. Read more at ABC News.

“The market research firm said in a report that hard drive makers Seagate Technology LLC, Western Digital Corp., and Maxtor Corp. all raised their average selling prices. Seagate raised its ASP $3 to $79, Western Digital went up $1 to $60, and Maxtor went up $4 to $75, the report noted.”

This is odd, because I would’ve sworn that they went down. Good thing it’s only a few dollars, at least. Read about it at InformationWeek.

“Transparency is always a good thing for providers, like Google (GOOG: news, chart, profile) , that sit between millions of consumers and the marketers that want to send out targeted advertisements to reach them on the Web.

The latest service out of Google is a personalized home-page feature, available at Google Labs in test form. The service lets users customize their search page with other Google services, such as e-mail, news, weather, stocks, maps, movies and other features, like “Quote of the Day.”

I don’t know about you.. but I’m intriqued. Sure, it’s been done before, but I want to see if Google does it better! Read all about it at Market Watch.

“America Online’s new Netscape 8 went from 0 to 3 bugs in less than 12 hours Thursday as it posted an update, tagged as 8.0.1, late the same day that saw it debut the hybrid browser.”

This is crazy. They pimp it up as a high security browser, and hours after the release, over 40 bugs are patched. Read about it at Information Week.

“Every day a number of different Linux distributions premiere or are simply updated. With many of these releases being relatively similar to each other and not offering any major advancements, a portion of them go un-heard. MEPIS has recently released SimplyMEPIS 3.3.1 which is the focus of these screenshots today. Updates include Adobe Acrobat Reader 7.0, improved USB support, and a Debian pool package update.”

Head over to Phoronix for the full review!

“Digital cameras are great devices that have made photography simple and enjoyable to countless people. They make taking and sharing photos easier and more economical than film could ever do, but a digital camera may not be optimized as-is straight from the retail packaging. It needs to be accessorized, and this Tech Tip will take a look at five accessories worth considering for use with any digital camera.”

Great article, especially if you want to get the most out of your digital camera. Check it out at Big Bruin.

“This memory is aptly named Redline because it’s extremely fast, highly overclockable, stable and reliable. With a timing of 2-2-2-6 at 500MHz DDR it’s wicked fast, but this memory can be pushed even further. This product will easily outperform most other memory. It’s a must have for the performance enthusiast. Redline all the way! Watch the Video to find out more…”

This looks like awesome ram. Red heat spreaders too! Check out the video at 3D Gameman.

“A modular power supply? I had first saw one of these when someone actually modded a normal power supply into one. I thought to myself these will be out soon! Well now they are! Today we will be looking at Ultra’s XConnect 500W Power Supply! This power supply is not only modular, it is very stylish and takes power supplies to a whole new level of “cool”. So let’s take a look!”

Head over to the review at Think Computers.

“Equipped with quiet or fanless cooling solutions which are friendly to the ear, mainstream is going silent…. just like the PowerColor Bravo X700 videocard. This card uses the Radeon X700 core with 256MB of GDDR2 DRAM memory modules. Like all X700-based cards, the Powercolor Bravo X700 is PCI Express x16 compatible. What makes the Bravo X700 special is it’s fanless heat-pipe cooling solution as well as the fact that it’s one of the few dual-DVI mainstream videocards on the market. Since it can operate in a low noise situation, the Bravo X700 is great for HTPCs with its HDTV support too.”

Check out the full review at PC Stats!

“The I-Trigue 5600 is a cracking speaker set, with sound quality right up there alongside anything else in the same price range. If that range seems a little too rich for you, know that until you’ve enjoyed the pleasures of surround sound, it’s impossible to appreciate how much it enhances the enjoyment of DVD movies and gaming. That experience is worth paying for if the quality is right. And, with these Creative speakers, it is right. A further big plus (or a major negative, depending on your viewpoint) is that the design of these speakers isn’t discrete. Heck, it’s not intended to be. But whether it’s too in-your-face to have around the place, only you can say.”

Check out the full review at Hexus.

“With the PC quickly becoming a part of many people’s entertainment center, the universal remote is suddenly not so universal. Enter Belkin’s MediaPilot, a wireless keyboard with a built in mouse that also incorporates a universal remote control for controling the TV, DVD player, and the rest of your electronics. To add more luster, unlike other mini keyboards there is a docking station that adds a 10-key and serves as a way to recharge the keyboard’s batteries over USB. But as a totally new product, how well does it hold up?”

Check out the full review at Everything USB.

“ALTHOUGH PCI EXPRESS is undoubtedly the future of PC graphics, AGP isn’t nearly dead yet. In fact, since PCI Express platforms have only been available for about a year—or around five months if you favor the Athlon 64—AGP still has a massive installed base among mainstream consumers, gamers, and even PC enthusiasts. At least some of those users are going to want graphics card upgrade options that don’t involve a motherboard swap, so it’s no surprise that ATI recently spiced up its AGP Radeon family.”

Check it out at Tech Report.

“A while ago, personal surround sound was only achievable with stereo
headphones paired with special “virtual surround” software. Then came the
Zalman Theatre 6 headphones. Theatre 6 was a monumental achievement in
personal surround sound because it was a pair of headphones that featured
three strategically placed speakers in each earpod. This meant that the
surround sound was coming from 6 actual speakers and not just some software
trick. Since the release of Zalman’s Theatre 6 headphones, a few other
“real” surround sound headphones have appeared on the market. One of them
is the OKGear OK800 5.1 Channel Surround Sound Headphones. Just what does
the OK800 bring to the table and how does it compare to the Theatre 6?”

Check out the full review at A True Review.

“While VIA K8T890 chipset may be a little lacking in the performance department, die-hard VIA fans will be glad to know that the AX8 is a great implementation of the chipset. It’s budget oriented and overclocks pretty nicely.”

Head over to InsaneTek for the full review.

“While having a massive hard drive doesn’t eliminate the need for backups, it does give people more headroom for storage (along with making many of us lazy about backups, but that’s a subject for another day). Apps and games are getting more bloated so the drive you have now may be fine for your purposes, but you may hit a roadblock before you know it.”

Check out the full review at Viper Lair.

“Companies that deliver telephone service over the Internet must provide their customers with 911 emergency service, the Federal Communications Commission ruled today, in the agency’s first major regulation of the emerging technology.”

Thanks FCC! It’s a serious matter when people don’t have access to 911, glad it’s now being taken care of. Read about it at the NY Times.

“LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Netscape on Thursday launched version 8.0 of its Web browser, promising better security and the ability to switch between rival browsers Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Netscape was once the dominant browser but is a shadow of its former self, in terms of market share. It is owned by America Online, a division of Time Warner Inc.

This is the major anti-phishing version, so read about it here.