Tech News

HP to Cut 24,600 Jobs, 8% of Total Workforce

Times are not good in the financial world, with large investment firms closing shop and even one of the world’s largest insurers also scrambling to come up with some $75 billion just to stay afloat. Hewlett-Packard might be feeling the effects of the economy too, but they claim upcoming job cuts are to streamline business and doesn’t seem to be the result of the current state of things.

HP recently acquired Electronic Data Systems, which is where most of the job cuts will be. Almost half of the 24,600 will be workers inside the US. The company also adds that half of the positions will be refilled in the future as different jobs within the company, but that won’t be quick enough for the folks laid-off.

The biggest areas where the hit will be noticeable is with their finance, human resources and legal departments, where USA Today claims a lot of overlap can occur. But 24,600? Sure doesn’t sound like a healthy culling, to say the least.

Djurdjevic said EDS had been cutting jobs before it was acquired by HP, and that some investors were concerned the cutbacks did not address a key problem for EDS in the need to ink more profitable deals, a challenge that now falls to HP. HP had not previously detailed how many employees of the combined company would lose their jobs. Before the acquisition, HP had 178,000 people and EDS had 142,000, a total of 320,000.

Read More Comment (0)

Intel Launches Dunnington-based Xeon Processors

I somehow missed the announcement yesterday regarding the launch of Intel’s latest high-end server CPUs, so I’ll talk a bit about them now. We’ve been waiting to see a launch for Dunnington for some time, but the time was right, and there are now seven different models to choose from. Dunnington is of course Intel’s first 6-core (Sex-Core!) Xeon designed for high-end servers.

Not all of the new Dunnington’s are six-core, but rather only three. The highest-end model of them all is the X7460, clocked at 2.66GHz. It features 16MB of Cache and a 130W TDP. It’s the only model to launch with a TDP of over 90W. The second-highest model is the E7450, clocked at 2.40GHz with 12MB of Cache. The ultra-low power six-core is the L7455, which features a 2.13GHz clock, 12MB of Cache and a 65W TDP.

All of the new processors are rather expensive, so it’s for serious business only. The smallest offering is the Quad-Core L7420, at $1,177. Intel boasts world-records on their new models though, and at this point, they’re the only option for extremely high-end models. The new CPUs boast copious amounts of Cache and low power, which will make it not only useful in servers, but some workstations as well.

Read More Comment (0)

VLC 0.9.2 Adds a Slew of New Features, Improvements

It’s not too often that a new version of VLC gets released, so when one does break through the grasps of the developers, people celebrate. The previous version of this ultra-popular media player was 0.8.6, which to date has had over one-hundred million downloads (staggering), but now the clock has been reset with the launch of 0.9.2.

One major new feature is a new interface module for Linux, Unix and Windows. The Linux player might look a bit different depending on your distro and installed packages, but you can see how mine looked below (the blue window decoration is from KDE, not VLC). Overall, it looks better, cleaner and more intuitive, but that might be a matter of opinion.

This new version also brings in support for more codecs, both for video and audio, and also video filters. To help become a more robust media player, support has been added for popular video services like YouTube (inputting the URL to the video will automatically load it in VLC), in addition to Last.fm submission support and automatic album art downloading. There’s way too much new to mention here though, so definitely check out the “what’s new?” page and then give the latest version a download.

The 0.9 version of VLC media player adds a new interface module for Linux, Unix and Windows, a media library and an improved playlist, many new inputs and codecs support and many new audio and video filters. For video playback, new protocols, new codecs, new demuxers and many bug-fixes have been added to support more formats. For audio playback, cover art and metadata support (and editing) have been vastly enhanced. It can play audio when the playback speed is changed.

Read More Comment (0)

Ten Cool Xbox 360 Tricks

Did you know that there are many cool tricks you can do with your Xbox 360 that Microsoft doesn’t boast about? Sure, I knew of a few, but Tech Radar lists ten different things that can be done, and some of them are quite interesting. Everything from connecting two screens at once to playing music with your original Xbox games is mentioned.

The tip that I really wish I knew before is the one to reset your video settings. Recently, I swapped the display that my Xbox was using, and because the new display only supported 720p and the setting on the Xbox was still 1080p – you can guess what happened. Absolutely nothing. I had to hook the console back up to the other screen again, just so I could see something in order to change the video back down to 720p.

It turns out that by holding down a few buttons during the console boot, it will tell it to reset all video settings… very handy. I’ve done the exact same thing with the PS3 as well though, so I’d imagine a shortcut like that exists there as well. This is one top ten list that should be looked at though. It might just give you some cool ideas of your own.

Remember this one if you’re in the habit of carrying your console to chum’s houses and hooking it up to different displays. It can end up trying to output the wrong signal, so you can’t see anything or get a flickering screen. Fortunately, there’s a fairly simple fix if this happens. Remove any discs from the tray and turn the thing off. Then turn it on using a gamepad. As it boots, hold down the Y button, then hit and hold the right trigger. The video settings will reset to default, and you’ll stop your sobbing.

Read More Comment (0)

Apple Becomes Sixth Largest Worldwide PC Vendor

In case you haven’t noticed, Apple has been enjoying some incredible growth over the past few years. Whether it’s due to OS X’s simplicity or Windows Vista’s major issues, I’m unsure, but Apple has become more than just a serious contender in the PC market, and it’s good to see. It took them quite a while to really cause a major shift in the computer industry, but now it’s rare to see a developer of some sort without a MacBook.

Their success has landed them as the sixth largest PC manufacturer worldwide, though Ars Technica doesn’t share direct numbers to give some insight. As it stands, it’s impossible to even guess a number. Sixth in the world is a big deal, but other manufacturers, like HP, Dell and Acer would each share a huge portion of that 100%, which wouldn’t leave much for the fourth place and higher.

But that’s not what’s important… even 1% of the world market would be incredible, and surely Apple has that now. The growth shows no sign of slowdown, either, but given the recent advent of netbooks and mini-notebooks, their increase might begin to slow down. That is, of course, unless the Cupertino company decides to release one of their own…

“While this is good news for Apple and its shareholders, Gartner echoes other assessments that Apple may have a tough road ahead considering that PC manufacturers have brought the budget battle to ultra-portable, ultra-cheap notebooks. Asus’ Eee PC and its many competitors are ushering in a new era of $400 notebooks and cheap desktops which, as we noted back April, are very appealing to areas like Asia and South America where markets aren’t as saturated.

Read More Comment (0)

Microsoft Fires Xbox 360 RRoD Whistleblower

Last week, I linked to a story that discussed how the Xbox 360 could have been launched to avoid the flurry of Red Ring of Death issues, but wasn’t. Problems detected early on were not taken care of, despite employee’s who brought the issues up to the management. Microsoft took their chances, and even after losing $1B to fixing the problems, they don’t seem to regret their decision.

Well, apparently they did mind about the employee who brought the issue to light, because after the story was posted, he was fired immediately. Robert Delaware was a game test contractor who claims to not regret his decision to bring the issue up, and it’s good, because as a consumer, we should know about these things. Not to mention it would be worse if you actually invested into the company… you should definitely know above anyone about these idiotic decisions.

Sadly, the fact is that now nothing will happen, really. The issue was brought to light, but there’s little doubt that Microsoft would take the exact same chance in the future. The worst victim might be Robert himself. It’s going to be some difficult to find a job in this industry after everyone knows your a whistleblower. Good luck to him regardless and thanks for being the one to speak up.

Delaware is expecting to face civil charges from his former employer VMC (which tests games for Microsoft) and Microsoft as well. Delaware is planning to fight any future lawsuits. “I don’t regret it,” he said in a phone call on Thursday. “I’ll fight it. If they want to come after me, bring it on.” An HR representative for Excell Data was the one who told him that he would likely face legal trouble.

Read More Comment (0)

Spore’s DRM Protection Not Exactly Paying Off

Back in May, I had a minor rant about piracy, and the fact that the worst victims of it are the real consumers. It’s us who pay for the game that have to put up with ridiculous protections, not the pirates. The pirates instead download a game, apply a crack, and be done with it. Sure seems convenient, aye?

The post then talked about Spore’s insane copy protection that requires the game to validate with EA’s servers with each play. Like Microsoft Windows, if you install too many times, you will have to call EA to explain why, and then they can unlock your account if they so choose. I don’t think it takes a brain surgeon to figure out exactly why this is so foolish, and only hurts the paying customer.

Well, EA’s move to include such poor DRM isn’t paying off. Like most games, this one was already cracked and available on torrent sites before the official release, and as it turns out, many people who were planning to purchase the game are instead turning to the pirate version, and seriously, who could blame them? If the option was there to choose between a version that constantly phoned home or one that gave no hassles whatsoever, it’s pretty easy to make a choice.

At the time of this Forbes article, the game was downloaded over 171,000 times through BitTorrent networks, and while I’m sure the vast majority wouldn’t pay for the game anyway, tens of thousands would, and that’s nothing but lost revenue for EA. It’s just too bad they won’t learn, or change. If they did, I’d be surprised.

“By downloading this torrent, you are doing the right thing,” wrote one user going by the name of “deathkitten” on the popular file-sharing site The Pirate Bay. “You are letting [Electronic Arts] know that people won’t stand for their ridiculously draconian ‘DRM’ viruses.”

Read More Comment (0)

Tracking Bandwidth Using a DD-WRT-equipped Router

With all of the news lately out of Comcast about their bandwidth caps, do you feel the urge to begin tracking your own usage so you can keep an eye on things? Well, because I have to voice an opinion on everything, I do have to say that I’m impressed that there is such a fuss over a 250GB cap, because in all seriousness, that’s a lot of freaking data.

I’d be willing to bet if someone breaks through 250GB a month, there is something fishy going on, and it’s probably not something of the legit kind. There are indeed instances when lots of data can be downloaded for reasonable means, but really… 250GB isn’t enough?! The cap on my ISP in Canada (Rogers) is 95GB, so 250GB seems like an absolute dream.

But I digress. If you happen to use a router that’s equipped with the DD-WRT firmware, little do you know, but there is already a bandwidth-tracking feature built-in… you just need to know where to look. You can go do that… I’ll so weep because I don’t have a compatible router.

The method I outline in this very brief tutorial uses the DD-WRT firmware. Instead of capturing your uploads and downloads on each computer, which works very well if you live in a single-computer household, this method monitors your usage at the router level. So there’s no need to install software on each PC/Mac and then walk around with a calculator to add it all up.

Read More Comment (0)

NVIDIA the Target of a Class-Action Suit

How many times in the past two years have we said, “Poor ATI”? It’s amazing how fast things can change in this industry, because now it’s definitely “Poor NVIDIA”. Not only has AMD come out with a killer line-up of new ATI cards, their processor line seems to be heading towards the right direction (although it will be a SLOW process to catch up to Intel). Instead, it’s NVIDIA who has all the issues right now.

As if dealing with a myriad of mobile GPU failures wasn’t enough, the company has now been issued a class-action lawsuit that claims the Santa Clara-based company knew well in advance of the issues at hand, but kept quiet about it. The exact demands from the lawsuit don’t seem to be clear, but it will be brought forth on behalf of all shareholders who bought stock between November 8, 2007 and July 2, 2008.

The full extent of the mobile GPU issue has not yet been seen, but many consumers and analysts alike are concerned that the GPUs will begin dying after warranties run out, which is not going to fare well for anyone – especially NVIDIA. It’s going to be an interesting process to watch, but we can hope that it will work out to the consumer’s favor.

The drop in stock price cut NVIDIA’s market capitalization by more than $3 billion, and the stock has not substantially recovered. In the two months since its announcement, NVIDIA’s stock has hovered mostly between $10 and $11 dollars, with a brief peak at just over $14 in the later weeks of August. As of today, NVDA stock was valued at $10.92 per share.

Read More Comment (0)

Why Isn’t Linux the #1 Operating System?

Ahh the age-old argument… “Why isn’t Linux popular?”. I’ve discussed this exact sentiment a lot in our news before, so I’m sure my thoughts on the matter are clear. Linux should be a lot more popular than it is, but the main reason isn’t so much the fact that it’s “too different”… it’s that developers can’t streamline key features from one distro to the next. Proof? How about the fact that certain application download pages don’t offer a single installer? Skype, for example, provides eight different Linux-based installers. That’s way too complex.

The How-To Geek takes a look at a few different angles, some of which I agree with, some of which I’d argue. The first and foremost complaint is FUD, and that to an extent would be true. People like what they are used to, and given the extreme lack of patience that some people have nowadays (including me at times), having the will to dedicate days’ worth of testing a new OS mind turn some people off. That could be with anything, though. Even a new coffee machine could carry a learning curve.

Other arguments are that the hardware manufacturers are to blame… which could also be true. I blame it more on the fact that hardware drivers are difficult to install. In Windows, you click and install. In Linux, you might have to compile, then install, then inject the module into the kernel… it’s just not straight-forward at all.

I might sound like a Linux hater, but I’m far from it. I’ve used Gentoo as my primary OS for well over two years now and enjoy it, but I’m also the type of person who doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty. Even I’m not naive enough to think that Linux is ready for the masses. There’s probably a good reason that the vast majority of people either stick with Windows or pay out their rear for an Apple.

Microsoft paying off hardware manufacturers for their loyalty, aka the recent Foxconn scandal, and the manufacturers themselves are ignoring the linux platform when creating drivers, to reduce costs. They can afford that Linux because the marketshare is very low. It’s the snowball effect -reversed.

Read More Comment (0)

EliteTorrents’ Admin Sentenced to 18 Months of Jail

There might be times when crime seems to pay, but when it doesn’t, you know it. As the admin of the BitTorrent tracker EliteTorrents found out, crime didn’t pay, and he’ll prove it by spending eighteen months in jail and also be $20,000 poorer (I’m unsure if he heard money off the site though, so this might not hurt as much as it seems).

The FBI and DoJ are certainly trying to prove something, but as sites get shut down, more just pop up, and it’s truly amazing to see. Despite the severe risk of being shut down and taken to court, some brave souls just don’t care, or love the rush.

In the UK, former admin of Oink was charged with “conspiracy to defraud”, whatever that means. A handful of uploaders were also charged on one count of uploading one disk. How much their fines will be, we don’t know. Oddly enough, it’s still legal to file swap in Canada, but I don’t expect that to last too much longer either. Pretty soon, we’ll all feel guilty for listening to the music or watching the movies we legally bought.

EliteTorrents’ rise to fame, and its subsequent demise, can be traced to a copy of “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith”, which the site pre-released approximately six hours prior to its theatrical premier. After attracting the attention of the MPAA, an investigation into the site by the FBI resulted in the site’s closure in May 2005 (“Operation D-Elite”), as well as the arrest of three administrators.

Read More Comment (0)

What Went Wrong With Windows Wista, Err… Vista

Microsoft might not have had the most successful product launch with Windows Vista, and for the most part, they really haven’t admitted to their mistakes in a straight-forward manner. Maximum PC decided to tackle the facts… what caused Vista to become a ‘failure’ at launch and also bring up points about what can be done with Windows 7 to prevent the same fate from happening.

Seven main points are listed as attributing factors to Vista’s harsh launch, with the main one of course being instability. Incompatibility rolls in at a close second, and others, such as performance, activation, UAC and more scatter the rest. It’s probably doubtful that any Vista user out there hasn’t been affected by at least every-single one of those.

The article further points out admission from Microsoft that a few things could have been changed in order to have a successful launch. One is that the UAC was poorly implemented, and other was that DirectX 10 being stuck to Vista was also a bad idea. Here’s another interesting thought: “He conceded that Apple appeals to more and more consumers because the hardware is slick, the price is OK, and Apple doesn’t annoy its customers (or allow third parties to).”

Way back in January 2007, after years of hype and anticipation, Microsoft unveiled Windows Vista to a decidedly lukewarm reception by the PC community, IT pros, and tech journalists alike. Instead of a revolutionary next-generation OS that was chock-full of new features, the Windows community got an underwhelming rehash with very little going for it. Oh, and Vista was plagued with performance and incompatibility problems to boot.

Read More Comment (0)

ASUS Lamborghini VX3 Defines Mobile Luxury

I doubt it’s a secret to a single person reading this that small notebooks are in, and large notebooks are for the workstation crowd, or those who don’t have a desktop. The sheer ease of netbooks or light notebooks make them an ideal choice for those on the go often, and if you can find one with great battery-life, then carrying along a notebook is more of a joy than a chore.

Up to now though, many of these lighter notebooks (not netbooks) that have been worth a look start out at $1,500, which is rather pricey for something so under-powered and small, but again, it’s hard to beat the great form-factor. Instead of getting less-expensive though, how about going in the absolute opposite direction? How does $3,100 for a 12.1″ sound?

We’re of course talking about the ASUS Lamborghini VX3 notebook, one that offers a fast processor, 4GB of RAM, a GeForce GPU (yes, they do apparently exist in such small notebooks), 320GB hard drive and two batteries – one 3-cell and one 9-cell. So is the VX3 worth the cash? If you have to ask, the notebook is not meant for you. That’s what makes it exclusive, just like the cars it’s been modeled after.

Getting past the VX3’s premium nature, the system’s battery life is another issue. The 3-cell battery may mount flush, but with less than an hour of DVD playback time, the VX3 really isn’t all that portable without its portly 9-cell unit. And the 9-cell battery sticks out the back quite a bit, ruining the VX3’s lovely lines and making it impossible for the system to sit in its fancy box. With seemingly so much invested in the VX3’s design, its battery seems like an afterthought.

Read More Comment (0)

How-To: Make the Most of Falling Into a Black Hole

So, you want to know how to survive a fall into a black hole? Well, you’re in for a sad reality, because unless you are somehow able to go faster than the speed of light, it’s impossible to escape. Impossible as in impossible, not impossible as in “It’s impossible to get ten kills in Call of Duty 4 without dying!”… yes, it’s that impossible.

As Universe Today points out, your demise doesn’t have to be entirely quick. If you happen upon a massive black hole, then you could apparently survive for a few hours. It’s the small black holes that will hit you before you even blink… you will be dissolved in a few billionths of a second. Quick and painless has a new meaning…

Hitting a large black hole seems like the ultimate definition of hell, though. Due to extreme gravitational differences as you fall towards singularity, your head and toes will both be suffering a different pull, essentially resulting in you becoming an insane version of Stretch Armstrong. At the end of this ‘spaghettification’ process, you’ll be nothing more than a line of atoms.

I think I’ll stick to the small black holes…

Physicists used to think that black holes were sort of like quicksand in this situation. Once you cross the event horizon, or Schwarzschild radius, your date with the singularity is certain. It will occur at some point in the future, in a finite amount of proper time. The more you try to struggle, the faster your demise will come. It was thought that your best strategy was to do nothing at all and just freefall to your doom.

Read More Comment (0)

Will iTunes 9 Follow Pandora?

With the recent launch of iTunes 8, a lot of pet peeves people had were taken care of, but C|Net looks at how a few things could be further improved in the next version. One cool new feature in 8 is the Genius List, an over-glorified ‘shuffle’ so-to-speak, which is a bit more intelligent when calculating what songs to play. After all, it might be a bit weird if at your dance party, Johnny Cash came out of nowhere.

That feature is further-improved by way of Genius List, which works like similar services out there (Pandora, Last.fm, old-fashioned research) which captures data from their servers that recommends music you might like. What C|Net hopes to see is a subscription model put in place with iTunes 9 to allow limited or unlimited playback of the recommended songs… because let’s face it, 30 seconds is not a lot of time to experience what a song is made of. Sometimes I have to listen to a song three times through before I even realize I enjoy it.

In my opinion, iTunes needs this feature to be improved. I’m a big Last.fm fan and one of the main reasons is simply because it’s been able to recommend me music I didn’t even know I liked. I’d probably accredit that at least thirty CD’s I’ve bought over the past two-years have been due to using that website. So not only would an improved feature like this on iTunes improve the user experience, it would help fill the music industry’s greedy pockets even more!

At the moment, these recommendations are available only with the usual 30-second preview, but it seems like just a short hop to get to a full streaming, subscription-based approach, living in parallel with the pay-per-song approach Apple has successfully used so far. Rumors have been around for ages that Apple will introduce a subscription service, and the Genius Sidebar seems like a simple way to step into that approach.

Read More Comment (0)

Sony’s A900 Packs 24.6 Megapixels Under the Hood

I have to admit… whenever I think about cameras, Sony is one of the last companies to come to mind. It might not be for good reason, though. The first time I ever laid my hands on one of their D-SLRs to take it for a spin, it felt cheap, and really didn’t impress me in terms of design. But, I might have had a bad impression, because after taking a look at some sample images from the new A900, it definitely seems like a worthy contender.

It’s not often that we see a new camera launch for a model over 15 megapixels, unless it’s $8,000 or higher, but Sony’s new A900 offers a staggering 24.6 MP resolution, resulting in images at 6048 x 4032 resolution. Granted, the megapixel race is a little ridiculous, but the samples shown at DP Review showcase that it actually does have what it takes to give nice results at the full resolution.

Other key features include a full-frame SteadyShot INSIDE sensor, dual Bionz processors, penta-prism glass at 0.74x magnification, 9 points of AF with 10 assist points, 5 FPS speeds, HDMI support and oh so much more. For the $3,000 (body only) price tag, it definitely seems like a camera capable of doing battle with Canon and Nikon’s higher-end offerings. But alas, we’ll have to wait for the final reviews first.

The success of the Alpha 900 amongst the Minolta, Konica Minolta and Sony faithful seems assured; at a launch price of just shy of $3000 it offers a lot of ‘bang for your buck’ and there is undoubtedly a significant number of Minolta film SLR users who’ve been waiting years for a full frame digital body on which to use their existing lenses.

Read More Comment (0)

Need Help Choosing the Ultimate Music Codec?

In case you missed it at the top of the page or in your RSS feeds, we’ve just posted the first part to a three-part series of articles we are very excited about. It tackles something I’m personally semi-obsessive over… audio archiving! Matt Serrano will be tackling all there is to know about archiving your music collection, from choosing the right codec to properly ripping your music to archiving it for safety and much more.

The first article takes a look at the first thing you should consider… audio codecs. The fact of the matter is, while 320 kbit/s MP3 might be ideal for one person, someone else might not even notice the difference at anything past 192 kbit/s. It’s at that point that listening tests (ABX Testing) come into play. After all, if you can’t hear the finer details of audio, why waste extra disk space?

Follow-ups to this article will get into the finer details of audio archiving, such as the actual ripping process, which is one where many people are inexperienced, but it’s understandable as to why. CD ripping sounds like a simple task, but it definitely shouldn’t be left up to any old application, because what will result is potentially lost quality or even music that skips. Stay tuned, you won’t want to miss it!

Something this article is not…

While Microsoft previously stated that WMA had comparable quality to MP3 at half the bit-rate, most professionals agree that the statement is largely false. Though a WMA file encoded at 64 to 96 kbit/s, in its standard form, may be able to compete with the traditional Fraunhofer MP3 encoder, the real world benefits are considered negligible when paired against MP3 files at equally high bitrates.

Source: Audio Archiving Guide: Part 1 – Music Formats

Read More Comment (0)

AMD Launches Mainstream HD 4600 Series

By now, I’m sure most everyone is aware that AMD’s latest graphic card launches are stellar… something NVIDIA really wasn’t expecting. Up to now though, all cards launched have been higher-end and pricey (although that’s change a -lot- since launch with the HD 4850), so it’s now time for AMD to dedicate some resources to the vast majority of their customers… the mainstream.

Welcome the HD 4650 and HD 4670 to the fray, models that will retail for $69 and $79, respectively. Each card features 320 stream processors, 256MB and 512MB of GDDR3 (the 4670 is equipped to also handle 1GB). The primary differences between the two cards are raw clock speeds. While the HD 4650 runs at 600 Core / 667 Memory, the HD 4670 gets a healthy boost up to 750 Core / 1000 Memory.

HotHardware has taken the HD 4670 for a spin and are quite impressed overall. In all cases, the card outperformed both the HD 3850 and 9600 GSO and sometimes came close to even the 9600 GT. That’s some amazing performance for the price. The downside? As Marco found out, some 9600 GT’s can be had for $95 after a mail-in-rebate, so it complicates the purchasing decision. Still, there’s no fault with the price as it is… it’s a killer card for the cash, and it’s amazing to see such great performance nowadays for under $100.

In our synthetic 3DMark06 and 3DMark Vantage benchmarks, the Radeon HD 4670 trailed cards like the Radeon HD 3850 and GeForce 9600 GT/GSO, but handily outperformed the ATI Radeon HD 3650 and GeForce 9500 GT. However, in our actual in-game tests, which use anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering, the Radeon HD 4670 was able to outpace the Radeon HD 3850 and GeForce 9600 GSO more often than not and finished close behind the more expensive GeForce 9600 GT.

Read More Comment (0)

HP Promises 24-Hour Battery-Life with New Technologies

Ask any mobile warrior for their biggest complaint about computing on the go, and the answer will be, without fail, “battery-life”. The issue becomes worse as your craving for power increases, and some of today’s popular notebooks (15.4″ and upwards) suffer with less than three-hours of total battery-life… some even as low as two! Clearly, we need a revolutionary battery-type to come along.

Well, HP might just have what we are looking for. They’ve made an announcement that their new batteries last a long time, and by long, they mean twenty-four hours straight, based on tests with their EliteBook 6930p notebook. Aside from the battery, to reach such incredible lengths, one will also need an efficient SSD, Windows XP, an LED display and a special HP BIOS.

24 hours! That’s truly incredible if the claims are true, and given HP’s bragging of the 6930p’s ability to last the entire duration of the longest flight in the world, they’d better have what it takes to back up their claims. The display-change to LED alone added four hours to the lifespan, which is incredible enough. Hopefully these amazing new technologies will find their way into other company’s notebooks soon.

The ultra-capacity battery isn’t all that is needed to get 24 hours of use form the EliteBook. HP says that you also need to be running Windows XP, the latest Intel graphics drivers, and a special HP BIOS on the software side. HP is very specific on the hardware needs as well. The system has to be running HPs Illumi-Lite LED display and the new Intel 80GB SSD.

Read More Comment (0)

AeroRacer Chassis Delivers Maximum Airflow with 400mm Fan

I’m one of the furthest things from being a ‘chassis guy’, but once in a while a news item will hit my inbox that actually makes me stop to look. When I saw the words “400mm side panel fan”… you bet I had to investigate. Such a chassis comes from a company called AeroCool, the model being AeroRacer. The chassis’ main benefit is of course to provide insane airflow, and with a fan like that, who would doubt it?

AeroRacer is undoubtedly one of the most unappealing-looking cases out there, but it’s not meant to be pretty. It’s meant to be functional, and cool the heck out of your components. The 400mm fan is so large, that it takes up almost the entire side panel, so while it should provide great airflow, it’s also sure to be a conversation starter as well.

Given that the fan itself is so large, you’d imagine that it’d be slow, and you’d be right. It runs at a constant 400RPM and is extremely quiet at 12 dBA. Despite the slow speed, it still manages to push air through the chassis at 250 CFM. So if you need the ultimate airflow scheme for your next chassis, look no further. I’m still debating on whether a standard chassis with an ordinary house fan would look better though…

Read More Comment (0)

Microsoft Launches Third-Gen Zunes, Software Receives Major Updates

Sure, Apple’s about to launch a few new iPod’s, but what Microsoft wants you to know is that they’ve launched their third-generation Zune, which sports a brand-new design and form-factor. Alright, I’m lying. They look exactly like the old Zune’s… so what’s the point? More storage, of course, with identical pricing schemes to last-gen. What’s important here is the software.

One of the biggest features of the new software (which will be launched next week) is the FM Radio tagging. Despite not owning a device that can support something similar, I’ve been a big fan since I first learned of it, just because it makes things so simple. Hear a song on the radio you like? Tag it, then purchase later. Couldn’t be easier, really. Also new is wireless access to the Zune marketplace where you can purchase music and games.

With the new launch, Ars Technica took the opportunity to ask Microsoft if Mac support is en route, and the answer was obvious… there is nothing to talk about. The problem is whether or not adding such support would even be worth the effort, and if the sheer amount of iPod sales are anything to go by, I’d assume the answer to be no.

As for games, we’ve been expecting a major games push for some time, one that would make it simple for community-created and Xbox Live Arcade titles to be ported to Zune. Sadly, that ain’t what we’re getting. The broader focus on games is “still happening,” Seitz says, but it’s not happening now. In the meantime, gamers can “wet their whistle” with the two included titles, Hexic and Texas Hold ‘Em.

Read More Comment (0)

Intel’s New Server CPUs Boast Faster Speeds and Lower Power Consumption

Intel might be finished with their Core 2-derived desktop processors, but the server market is still feeling their love, as the company has just launched four new models that boast fast clock speeds and lower power consumption. All of the new processors are LGA771-based and are designed for dual-processor platforms, which means any of them will work fine in the Skulltrail motherboard.

Of the new processors is a new high-end model that surpasses even the X5482 (QX9775) in terms of raw performance, as it’s clocked at 3.4GHz. It features a 1600MHz FSB along with the 12MB of L2 cache we’ve come to expect. Despite being clocked a bit faster than the X5482, the X5492 retains its 150W TDP. Besides that, the new X5470 is another Quad-Core clocked at 3.33GHz (1333MHz, 120W) and the X5270, a new Dual-Core model, is Intel’s current highest-clocked part, at 3.5GHz.

Of the new launches, the most interesting might be the L5430, a 2.66GHz part which features a 50W TDP, 45W lower than the TDP of the equivalent Q9450 on the desktop. The premium is a few hundred dollars, but it’s good to know Intel is able to pump out CPUs like this now. It’s just too bad we’re unlikely to see specs like this on our current generation.

Credit: The Tech Report

Although much of the focus in recent weeks has been on upcoming chips based on the next-generation Nehalem microarchitecture, Intel isn’t yet finished advancing its Penryn-based 45nm processors, as witnessed by today’s introduction of a new revision of its dual-socket Xeon server/workstation-class CPUs. This new E-stepping silicon brings a bit of a clock frequency increase and some minor reductions in power draw to the Harpertown Xeons.

Read More Comment (0)

Duke Nukem Movie in Initial Planning Stages

I’ll admit that I am not a huge movie buff, nor do I care about movies based off of games, but I’m willing to make an exception for this one. According to Kotaku, a Duke Nukem movie is in the works, but we are in the very early stages now, so don’t expect it to hit the big screen anytime soon. As it stands, the story is actively being written and no movie studio is currently involved.

One might say that there isn’t a movie en route then, and to that, I say tu shay. But, I think it suffices to say that we might very-well be seeing some great video game movie-adaptions on the way, starting with Max Payne, which even I can admit looks entirely cool. The fact is that a Duke movie should be even better. We already know full well that 3D Realms are perfectionists…

As with most game movies though, Duke is going to be a rough one to transfer. He has such a unique style, and his mannerisms just aren’t going to work well in a movie with a direct copy/paste. That’s what worries me. Duke is unique, but doesn’t fit well outside of a game. It almost feels like there is no “right way” to handle it. I’m willing to be proven wrong though, and still can’t wait for this one, despite it being years off.

“With the two new games coming out based on Duke Nukem, I’m working at establishing a Duke film scenario that will compel a studio to finance a feature version,” said Faye. “Certainly, there’s a large audience that knows and loves this character.” Faye said he’s still actively developing the story and he will not shop the film in Hollywood until all the people involved in the project feel solid about where we are creatively.

Read More Comment (0)

Real Networks to Release “Legal” DVD Copier

Who ever thought something like this would happen? It appears that Real, creators of one of the most hated pieces of media player our computers have ever seen, has an upcoming product called Real DVD, which actually rips your movie DVDs to your computers hard drive for playback later. If only we had something like this years ago!

Oh wait… we have. There must be some caveat, right? Something that actually makes Real DVD worth a look? Yes, there is a reason, and it surprisingly, it involves the word “legal”. You see, all DVD rippers out there now are not exactly approved by the big movie companies, but Real DVD is, because once it’s ripped, the DVD is DRM-protected. It’s a work-around to make things legal, but it works.

The downside is that each rip can only be played back through the Real DVD software, which is entirely ridiculous. However, the application is not meant for us. Rather, it’s meant for those people who don’t know better, or who want to remain “legal”. It does seem like a simple tool, so it would be perfect for anyone you know who’s not keen on their computer box.

Quality purists should be pleased, as Fox told Ars, that “we don’t modify or change the files in any way. We basically make a ‘carbon copy’ from the disc to disk. We never modify, compress, or change the content.” Unfortunately, this also means that each movie Real DVD copies should gobble up around 4GB on a hard drive. Real isn’t worried about taking up too much space, however, as Fox explained that “drives are expanding, and gigabytes are getting cheaper than ever.”

Read More Comment (0)

Xbox’s Red Ring of Death Could Have Been Avoided

If Microsoft were to go out of business right now for whatever reason, they would undoubtedly be remembered for a thousand different things until the end of time. Given that it’s human nature to automatically find the worst in everything, Windows Vista and the Xbox 360’s Red Ring of Death are probably the two that will be laughed about most often.

While Vista’s troubles could have been avoided, probably, it looks like new findings explore the fact that the RRoD could have been completely avoided as well. According to one researcher, Microsoft knew of potential issues before the console’s launch in November 2005, but decided to go ahead with production. Stupid move? Not necessarily. Despite all the RMA’s, Microsoft is confident this mishap worked out to their favor.

That might be hard to believe, given the fact that prior to the official announcement of the RRoD last summer, Microsoft had taken returns on over 10% of consoles sold up to that point. Ten percent! Regardless of whether or not the red ring did actually work out to their favor is a fact to be debated, but it sure doesn’t make the consumer feel that confident. Who knows, the Xbox’s follow-up might be shoved out the door just like this one was…

On November 22, 2005 the Xbox 360 launched and the consoles began to fail immediately. In July of 2007, Microsoft publicly admitted there was a problem and took a corresponding financial hit of more than $1 billion to fix it. Prior to that acknowledgement, Takahashi reports that Microsoft had taken returns on 1.2 million of the roughly 11.6 million shipped Xbox 360s.

Read More Comment (0)