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Intel Improving PC Audio for Better Efficiency?
I tend to be a wannabe audiophile, in that I love audio, but can’t even begin to understand half of the terms thrown around during a real conversation. Intermodulation distortion? Seriously? Well, I’m confident that one thing even audiophiles don’t likely ponder over often is the actual power draw required for certain technologies, such as Dolby True HD, and even things as minor as microphone noise reduction.
Apparently Intel does care, and apparently they let people know it in an IDF talk that most others (including us) completely overlooked. According to an article at the Inquirer, such technologies can draw loads of power… with Dolby True HD drawing upwards of 20% of a mobile Penryn CPU… that’s considerable when any extra watt drawn can potentially result in 15 minutes less battery-life.
The solution? Offloading of the workload to a DSP, bypassing the OS in order to rid the interrupt load. Instead of a chip with another million transistors, the data transfers would be consolidated into a few DMA bursts, which apparently increases performance and also decreases power draw. Most of the attention right now is being targeted towards notebooks, naturally, but we can be sure to see such improvements made in our desktop counterparts at some point as well.
Finally, Realtek’s upcoming ALC 269 ‘Vienna’, the Audio DSP fitting into the 64-pin layout of the existing software-assisted mobo audio chips, was also discussed. This might be the entry point for hardware audio next year. The benefits? Tremendous – less power usage, higher overall system performance, more powerful media players.
Google to Release Their Own Web Browser?
Search engine domination? Check. Web statistics software domination? Check. Free e-mail service domination? Check. Ok ok, without going any further, you are probably already aware that I’m talking about Google. But given that Google does publish a wide variety of applications and hosts even more web services, does it make sense for them to ever stop? Not likely, and the next project that’s apparently well along in development is the long-rumored web browser.
One might immediately ask, “Why?”, and that’s a great question. Google seems to be trying something new though, instead of just reinventing the wheel. Judging by the ‘screenshots’, they want to take the simplistic approach, by making the browser lightweight but powerful at the same time. One interesting alteration to how we do things today is with the tabs, which are located above the address bar, rather than under. I’m not sure how useful that is, but they are at least trying something different.
Other neat features include a privacy mode (no personal history is saved), auto-updating of a database with malicious websites, a speedial a la Opera and even an updated JavaScript VM called V8. Why Google doesn’t just continue along with creating plugins for other browsers is likely a moot point, since that development will likely never end. Google ‘Chrome’ seems to be just another offering in the fray, and with as much R&D and technical know-how that Google has, it might just become some real competition down the road.
But Philipp Lenssen at Google Blogoscoped has posted a comic book which he says comes straight from Google which seems to indicate that the search engine giant will indeed release a browser soon. Reportedly called Google Chrome, the browser will be based on the open source Webkit rendering engine. So what would Google Chrome have that you can’t find in other web browsers?
20 Linux Apps You (Supposedly) Can’t Live Without
Top lists are a dime a dozen, there’s no secret in that. But it’s a rare occasion when I take a look at one and actually find something new I didn’t know about before. The latest top 20 from Tech Radar is one such article though, as they choose a variety of different Linux applications that we supposedly can’t live without. Top lists are of course subjective, but hey, if you can learn about a new app you didn’t know about before, then there’s no reason to complain.
The first application listed in the list actually surprised me, because it looked like Adobe Lightroom. I’ve been looking for such an application for a while, so to see there’s actually a Linux alternative surprised me. Called LightZone, the goals are the same as Lightroom is for Windows and Aperture is for OS X, to give you full control over your RAW photography. It accepted my Nikon .NEF without issue, and so far, it seems like a solid offering.
Like LightZone though, not all applications listed here are completely free, although they do seem to cost far less than the Windows competitors. Having been a full-time Linux user for quite some time, I’m surprised to see that half of the list are applications I’ve never even heard of. How about Stellarium, a Google Earth replacement? Tux Guitar, a tab creator for guitar players? The only application in the list I actually use everyday is Bluefish, an open-source editor… the same one I used to write this news post. See, Linux doesn’t lack in software at all, and lists like these prove it.
Freshly minted as a version 1.0 product, Bluefish is a powerful text editor for programmers. Billed as “extremely lightweight”, the program uses about half the memory of more well-known editors, such as Quanta, so it could run just fine in a lightweight distro – for example, Fluxubuntu – or alongside programming environments such as Eclipse. It also loads files quickly: in a test, we opened ten HTML files in almost the blink of an eye, even though they were fairly complex.
Lenovo Requests Signed NDA for Windows License Reimbursement
If you happen to own multiple copies of Windows Vista, or prefer Linux, then purchasing a new laptop can be a pain in the side. The fact is, part of the laptop’s price is the Windows’ license, and on a good day, it’s valued at around $130, but that may vary depending on the notebook vendor. Luckily, we’ve known for a while that getting that money back, if you choose not to run the preinstalled version, was possible, but Lenovo decided to complicate the process.
When one Czech user decided to inquire Lenovo on getting his cash back, they agreed to write a $130 check, but only if he signed a non-disclosure agreement, barring him from being able to tell others of the deal, or that it’s even possible. Of course, their foolishness only leads to the story blowing up, and now more people than ever are more aware of the possibility. Nice move there.
If you purchase a Lenovo and want your money back from the Windows license, you might as well just sign the NDA now, because it’s public knowledge already, and won’t accomplish much of anything. I’m curious to see if they will retain the NDA now that this Czech users story has made headlines. I’m leaning towards ‘yes’, but I could be wrong.
A clause in the Windows end user license agreement (EULA) says that consumers who do not accept all the terms of the license can return the software for a full refund. When Paral brought this aspect of the license to the attention of Lenovo, the company agreed to pay him roughly $130 for terminating the license.
Intel’s Budget Q8200 Quad-Core Popping Up
Early last month, I posted about upcoming Intel processors that would soon be launched, and that apparently wasn’t going to take too long. Some of the new offerings are now becoming available through various e-tailers, although at a very slow pace. The budget Celeron 450 is also an exception, because I was unable to find it anywhere. I’d expect to see that in stock sometime this month.
The new Quad-Core Q8200 is now finding itself priced at around $229.99, which is $40 more than the Q6600, so the decision-making process is not going to be made easy. The Q6600 is of course Intel’s most-popular 65nm offering, and at 2.4GHz, it delivered the speed and multi-tasking capability that people were after. The Q8200 on the other hand, settles in at 2.33GHz and includes 2x2MB L2 Cache, half of the Q6600.
The decision will fall upon what you actually need. If you are heavily into multimedia work, the extra cache of the Q6600 may prove beneficial, but the Q8200 offers better power efficiency and equally good overclocking ability (I assume, if Intel’s other budget processors are anything to go by). The largest benefit in my opinion would be the added SSE4.1 instruction sets, that will make multimedia decoding/encoding a far quicker process, as long as the encoder can take advantage of it.
Right now, not too many e-tailers are selling the chip, but the three I did find is NewEgg, NCIX and Mwave, all priced around the $230USD mark. NCIX doesn’t seem to be carrying any stock right now, but they are taking orders and will deliver once they become available (est. 5-10 days).
Cuil Taking Down Some Websites?
As far as search engines go, Cuil is one that just can’t catch a break. It launched in late July to harsh criticism, but all for good reason. Any search query shot at the site would be sure to invoke a ‘WTH?’ expression quick. I do have to admit that the queries have improved, though, at least with the ones I’m running. So things may be improving.
Any new found goodness in the search engine is likely to be overshadowed by some though, since Cuil is apparently killing off websites, one by one, due to an ineffective, but overzealous, site crawler. The way a crawler works, normally, is that it searches through the sites for all real URLs and makes sure they are spidered (as in, searchable from the engine). The way Cuil’s seems to work, though, is that it makes up its own URLs on the site to see if they exist, just in case.
Needless to say, though that method might be a good idea if we all had monster servers and no bandwidth bills to worry about, it’d be fine, but it’s apparently been pummelling a few servers so hard, that it’s taking them offline. A quote from one site admin noted that the crawler hit their site upwards of 70,000 times! Ouch. Cuil is not so cool right now, and they desperately need to fix things before people write it off entirely (if they haven’t already).
Website owners are also saying that the way Cuil indexes sites isn’t scientific in any way and is actually quite “amateurish.” According to those who experienced the Twiceler onslaught, the bot seems to “randomly hit a site and continue to guess and generate pseudo-random URLs in an attempt to find pages that aren’t accessible by links. And by doing this, they completely bring a site down to where it’s not functional.”
Five Tools to Make a Windows Reinstallation a Snap
I have to admit something. I used to be a chronic formatter. Even months after installing a fresh Windows XP machine, I’d go ahead and feel the urge to reformat in order to get the system working ‘like new’. It’s true though, it used to be difficult to keep care of your machine and actually avoid reformatting. It’s made a lot easier now with the slew of system optimizers on the market (even the ones included with the OS), and if you take care, then you should rarely ever have to format.
After a while, I realized that formatting was no longer fun, and I stuck with an installation on a one-per-year basis, which has since been improved even further (it helps that I use Linux more than Windows now, though). So what am I getting at? Reinstalling Windows is not fun for everyone, like it used to be for me, so the folks at Download Squad list their top five applications for easing the pain with a Windows reinstall.
One tool mentioned, DriverMax, is one we’ve reported on before. It’s designed to be run before the format, as it will back up all of your system drivers, making it a breeze to reinstall them after you get Windows back up and running. Another application they recommend is the file backup tool straight from Microsoft, Migwiz, which they insist is actually ideal. You just need to know how to use it!
After going through the install process, the first thing I shoot for is a complete set of functional drivers. Running DriverMax before the format lets you back up all the drivers on a system. It’s a great app, and it even loads drivers for non-present devices – meaning my customers don’t have to fight with a printer or webcam install CD when they get their computer home.
New Internet Explorer Beta Gets Rave Reviews
Initially, it didn’t take me long to dismiss Internet Explorer 8 when the first beta version was released, but after seeing other users’ experiences with it, it’s safe to safe Redmond finally has my attention. Unlike the earlier beta, which was meant only for testing, the new release should be stable and polished enough to be used full time.
New features in IE8 include:
- Suggested sites, an option that is turned off by default, which provides links to other websites based on other users’ surfing habits.
- Accelerators, context-sensitive commands that will complete certain tasks faster, such as mapping directions, translating text, or sending email.
- Colored tab organization
- A new address bar akin to Firefox’s “Awesome Bar,” which will search history and saved RSS feeds.
- The InPrivate mode, which will prevent information like history and cookies from being recorded in browser sessions.
- Additional standards compliance, with the option to default back to IE7’s rendering mode in different ways.
With the progress made thus far, at least we can see that Microsoft is finally getting serious about their browser. If the new version can shape up in time, it’s not a stretch to say that it will provide some competition with other browsers.
As promised back in June, Internet Explorer 8 beta 2 has been released. Beta 1 showed promise, but true to its billing as a developer-only release, had a lot of rough edges and was painful to use for any prolonged period. This new beta is meant for everyone, and should be usable day-to-day. As well as a host of security,stability, and privacy features, the new IE has a raft of new features and user interface improvements that should make using the browser much more enjoyable.
TiVo Continues to Lose Subscribers
Today, TiVo reported that they lost thousands of subscribers, bringing their total customer base down to 3.6 million, compared to the 4.2 million customers they had just last year. However, amidst the dwindling subscriber base, the company did manage to achieve a 4% revenue gain, and an 88% increase in hardware sales, making their report a mixed bag.
TiVo remains certain that they can continue to stay profitable with changing business model, shifting the focus off hardware, and onto both licensing their own software, and getting other partners, such as YouTube and Entertainment Weekly into the fray. It has seemed as if TiVo was on its last legs for quite some time now, and the move to licensing the TiVo operating system was the one thing many spectators championed when they were dropped from Direct TV.
I can personally attribute the decline in customers to a few key issues. Naturally, the pressure from increased competition with cable providers has impeded the company’s ability to retain their customers, and the advent of affordable, multi-room DVRs already integrated with customers’ cable service hasn’t exactly helped their efforts. But, above all, I believe loyal customers are annoyed with the creeping introduction of ads, the buggy and non-existent timely software updates, and the lack of software support (especially for OS X) has left many with a bad taste in their mouth.
Lots of people are leaving TiVo. We’ll find out roughly how many when the company reports second-quarter results this afternoon. By a couple estimates, TiVo lost anywhere from 100,000 to 142,000 subscribers last quarter alone, which leaves the company with a subscriber base of around 3.[6] million.
Nikon D90 is World’s First Video Recording DSLR
Nikon’s famous D90 digital SLR has been speculated on and outed again and again for weeks now, but Nikon sent out an official announcement today. Though the camera still has the usual fanfare of specifications, namely the 12.3 megapixel lens, Live View LCD, and ISO speeds from ISO 200 to ISO 6400, it also offers something DSLRs have lacked: the ability to record video.
The recording function does seem to be a bit limited at best. For example, 720p video is limited to five minutes because of the FAT32 2GB filesystem limitation, the camera lacks auto-focus while shooting video, audio is only captured in mono sound, and the motion JPEG compression the D90 utilizes results in a much larger file size when compared to more efficient codecs such as Divx or H.264.
But even with the D90’s somewhat noticeable gimmick-factor, the impressive lens and ISO capabilities will give many camcorders a run for their money. I can see many photography enthusiasts willing to pick this camera up to shoot gorgeous photos with the recording option as icing on the cake.
Incase you were curious to see what the video’s shot with the DSLR look like, Nikon has uploaded a video gallery to their website.
Now is the time for new creativity, and to rethink what a digital SLR camera can achieve. It’s time for the D90, a camera with everything you would expect from Nikon’s next-generation D-SLRs, and some unexpected surprises, as well. The stunning image quality is inherited from the D300, Nikon’s DX-format flagship. The D90 also has Nikon’s unmatched ergonomics and high performance, and now takes high-quality movies with beautifully cinematic results. The world of photography has changed, and with the D90 in your hands, it’s time to make your own rules.
Misleading iPhone UK Ad Pulled
The Advertising Standards Authority has pulled an iPhone advertisement in the UK, but it’s not one of the questionable ads about the phone being “twice as fast” or “half the price” that aired in the U.S. Instead, this particular ad stated that “all parts of the internet are on the iPhone,” without noting the lack of proper Flash or Java support, which many web surfers would consider part of the internet.
Apple responded with the claim that the context of the ad was specific. The company “aimed at highlighting Internet site availability, not to every aspect of functionality available on every website.” Unfortunately, even with this excuse, the interpretation was far too lose for many viewers who complained about the ad, and there are many Flash-only websites, which would counter their argument.
The ASA has banned the commercial from future broadcast, but as you might expect, the video can still be viewed on YouTube and other online video websites.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said it received complaints from two local viewers who took issue with a claim in the 30-second spot which stated that “all the parts of the internet are on the iPhone.”
More Evidence Mounting for Xbox 360 Price Cut
It wasn’t so long ago that we last heard rumors of an Xbox 360 price cut, but unfortunately, we only received a glorified clearance sale to make way for the new 60GB Premium model. Now, we’re hearing grumblings of a further discount, for $399, $299, and $199, which will bring the cheapest model below the price of a Wii.
Not that there’s a good reason why Microsoft shouldn’t drop the price, the new model was released pretty recently, and you have to feel for the buyers who would lose money in the process. Still, life moves on, and the console continues to look that much more appealing for the rest of us.
While it seems to be all but a sure thing that all three Xbox 360 SKUs will be getting a price cut on September 7th, if you need a bit more reassurance, you can now take comfort in this apparently authentic Best Buy ad provided by a helpful tipster, which should be making an appearance in paper form just in time for the big day. Just like Radio Shack’s, this one lists the Arcade, Pro and Elite for $199, $299, and $399, respectively, and, unsurprisingly, there’s no mention of a motion controller with any of ’em.
NVISION Going Well, Not Much to Report On
In case you don’t look at the top of the page too often, be sure not to miss our day one coverage of NVISION, which has been going quite well since opening yesterday. Admittedly, I expected the event to be a lot larger, but it’s still been a worthwhile event so far, especially if you are not there to report, since there’s a ton of stuff to see and do on the side.
There are a few external events during the show, like DiggNation, HD Theatre, Video Games Live and much more to keep people busy, but truly, there is not much to report on, and I’m kind of surprised. No new announcements make it difficult to report, and the people who would benefit most from what’s been seen here would have to be here.
I hear rumors that NVISION is to be a lot bigger next year, though, as many companies this year deliberately held back in order to see how things went. Since things seem to be going rather well, I’d expect a far better turnout next year, both with attendees and exhibitors. The main part of the event is the LAN party, though, and that seems to be going great (probably partly thanks to the table full of Bawls that’s conveniently located in the middle).
The focal point of the day was Jen-Hsun Huang’s opening (two-hour!) keynote. All throughout, the general idea he was trying to pass off was that visual computing is here, it has been here, and it will always be here. The results of visual computing is all around us, from the cars we drive to the scans at the doctor to the movies we watch to everything else.
Source: NVISION 08 Coverage
Wired iPhone 3G Survey Reveals Varying Network Performance
Many vocal iPhone 3G adopters have been unsatisfied with the device’s performance in 3G coverage areas, sighting the phone’s technical limitations as the achilles’ heal of the famous cellphone, with some even saying that the connectivity issues were unfixable due to the phone’s immature 3G chip.
However, Wired.com’s tests indicate that cellular performance varied from area to area, a fact that was somewhat expected, but difficult to determine. By country, Australian users reported the slowest speeds which averaged to 759 kbps, while Germany and the Netherlands tied for the fastest speeds with an average of 2000 kbps. In more congested areas that were 3G-rich, users reported slower speeds and more dropped connections, which is a common issue with the infrastructure.
The iPhone’s connectivity issues have prompted much debate over the exact cause. In fact, Swedish researchers conducted a test and came to the conclusion that the iPhone reception is “normal,” and comparable to other phones. Despite this, Apple released a new firmware upgrade 2.0.2, to help solve some of the related issues, while being served with a class action lawsuit from unhappy customers.
Recently Wired.com asked iPhone 3G users all around the world to participate in a study, which involved testing their 3G speeds and entering their data on an interactive map. The purpose? To gain a general idea of how 3G was performing — where it’s best and where it’s worst — in light of widespread complaints about the handset’s network performance. More than 2,600 people participated (wow!) and we’ve diligently cleaned up the data to present it to you here.
NBC and Yahoo Benefit from Online Olympics Coverage
NBC’s online Olympic video service, NBCOlympics.com, reached a modest amount of success as the company streamed a whopping 2,200 hours of video of Olympic events over the last two weeks. As a result, NBC was able to reel in 4.3 million viewers and $5.75 million in ad revenue from the “$1 billion research lab.”
However, the real winner was Yahoo!, which topped NBC in overall traffic with 4.7 million unique visitors a day. Although Yahoo wasn’t able to compete with the live streaming, they did offer articles, photos, and a blog, which evidently linked to a BBC video of Usain Bolt’s record-breaking 200-meter-race before NBC aired it on its network or put the video online.
Viewers and researchers seem to agree that many viewers were dissuaded from using the service because of the mandatory Silverlight install and DRM issues that plagued the site. Users were also restricted from watching the streams if they selected a cable or satellite provider that wasn’t partnered with NBC. Some viewers complained about the lack of information and updates, which could have potentially contributed to the overall returning viewership.
The ratings for NBC’s television coverage of the Games were record-breaking this month. But the extent to which the Internet served as a supplement to television was unprecedented, and there were two clear winners: NBC’s own Web site and Yahoo’s Olympics section.
NVISION 08 on Now! Check Back for Coverage
As a reminder to everyone, we’ll be at the NVISION 08 convention happening in San Jose, so keep checking back to the site for updates of major news to come from the event or for random photos of the going-ons. If case you haven’t yet checked out the NVISION homepage (how is that possible?), you should.
NVIDIA is hoping to make NVISION into -the- visual computing conference of the year, and if this launch event goes well, we can expect it to happen each year, similar to other events around the world. There isn’t too much missing from the show, if anything. There will be things to see and do regardless of whether you are a gamer, developer, modeler or even a business major.
If you live around San Jose, swing on by and register. It’s rather inexpensive if all you are doing is playing in the LAN or just walking around, and should be a great experience. I can’t discuss everything we’ll see there in a small news post, so just check out the site and see what will be happening!
Don’t forget to check out our Day 0 pictorial!
Featuring over 55 hours of jaw-dropping visual wonderment – from today’s hottest games and movies, video, science, mobile and computer technologies – you will get to experience, touch and feel the latest visual technologies that will change your life. And let you see into the future. You’ll also get to meet the inventors and the celebrities who are leading the revolution!
Google Street View Ignores “No Trespassing” Signs
Google has received flack for quite some time now for their Street View cameras snapping pictures of private property without the owners’ approval. In a suit between Google and a Pittsburgh couple in April of this year, Google claimed the right to enter and photograph private roads with their camera-equipped Street View vans, largely due to the availability of satellite images.
The company has a policy of staying off private roads, and using local drives who know the surrounding area whenever possible. However, despite the fact that a Humboldt County resident says she had two “no trespassing” and 1,200 feet of private road separating her home from the nearest public road, Google photographed her property.
Though Google offers a link to submit questionable material to a queue for censoring or deletion, the process is totally up to the company’s inclination and free from any governing body. And even though they have a public policy of avoiding private roads, an unnamed Google van driver confessed that he was told simply to “drive around,” which supports the reason why so many other instances were captured on camera.
Don’t expect privacy in your front yard, even if your house is located one mile down a private, dirt road. In a sweeping legal claim, Google recently stated it has the right to enter private roads and driveways to take photographs of people and their property, and then publish the images online.
Jerry Seinfeld Said to Feature in Vista Vista Ad Campaign
According to the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft’s ad campaign will feature a number of key celebrities that will pitch Vista, including the popular comedian, Jerry Seinfeld, and Bill Gates. Microsoft has yet to compete with the negative ad campaign that Apple has use, with the notorious exception of “The Wow Starts Now” campaign that was launched around the time of Vista’s release.
Other personalities, including Will Ferrell and Chris Rock, have been considered, but nothing has been confirmed officially. However, the advertising agency, Porter + Bogusky, is known for their successful Burger King ads.
As we have mentioned earlier, the campaign is apart of a $300 million budget Microsoft has injected that will hopefully dispel the negative presumptions customers have against Vista. Brad Brooks, Microsoft’s vice President of consumer marketing, mentioned Apple by name as a “noisy competitor” in the market.
“If a book about failures doesn’t sell, is it a success?” Perhaps not, but Microsoft hopes that a new $300 million ad campaign about the flailing Windows Vista will somehow turn it into a success with the help of comedian Jerry Seinfeld. The campaign will be one of the largest in Microsoft’s history, and is expected to begin on September 4.
Judge Rules Fair Use Be Considered Before Takedown Notice
On Wednesday, a federal judge ruled that copyright owners must consider fair use before sending take down notices to online video sites, such as YouTube. Fair use, which is determined by how much of the copyright owner’s work is used in the video, whether the video is used for commercial purposes, and whether the video is a parody.
In Stephanie Lenz v. Universal Music Corp. and Universal Music Publishing Group, Univeral argued that ascertaining whether or not fair use has not been violated would take too much too much time and prevent copyright holders from “respond[ing] rapidly to potential infringements.” They also stated that the question of fair use is too much to consider in a case, and the question of fair use is too unpredictable to conclude.
The judge granted Lenz the opportunity to counter-sue for attorneys’ fees after Universal submitted a motion to dismiss the case. While the judge remains skeptical that Universal acted in “bad faith” when they submitted the takedown request, EFF attorney Corynne McSherry promises to “overcome his doubts.”
In the nation’s first such ruling, a federal judge on Wednesday said copyright owners must consider “fair use” of their works before sending takedown notices to online video-sharing sites.
eBay Downplays Auctions, Opts for Fixed Priced Sales
In an attempt to increase the number of Buy-it-Now auctions on the popular bidding site, eBay has taken new measures to encourage sellers to put their items up for sale at a fixed price, rather than hold auctions. The company has lowered the price to put Buy-it-Now items up for sale, which has left many smaller auctioneers in an unfair position.
The price to post a Buy-it-Now item will decrease to a flat fee of $.35, and sellers can offer quantities of the same item for that same amount, instead of having to pay for each one. Items can now be listed for 30 days, instead of the more modest 7. This will add to the recently changed feedback system that was introduced in February, which prevents sellers from giving negative feedback.
Although eBays says they “love” auctions, but as Ars Technica points out, “eBay has made a name for itself as the place to go for online auctions, and now the site’s focus will be more about giving resellers another online storefront than engaging in bidding wars.” In many respects, we all knew this change was eventually coming based on the company’s purchase of Half.com and the recent changes made, so the changes shouldn’t be too surprising for many longtime eBayers.
eBay is making some changes that will further shift its focus from online auctions to fixed price resellers. The company announced Wednesday that it plans to drop the cost of listing an item under “Buy It Now” by 70 percent, extend allowable listing periods for these items, and lift a number of other restrictions in order to attract even more sellers. Although auctions are about to disappear, the move is an example of eBay’s shifting priorities, and not everyone is happy about it.
More Details on Overclocking Nehalem
At an Intel briefing today, we learned a lot more about what to expect when benchmarking Nehalem, and much of it answered the exact questions that have been lingering in my mind for some time. If you read our overview on Nehalem already, then you know the benefits of the tri-channel memory, but what about overclocking?
First and foremost, while the ‘ideal’ memory configuration for a high-end Yorkfield is 2x1GB DDR3-1600, the ideal solution for Nehalem will be 3x1GB DDR3-1066. Seems weak, but if you read my article last night (and I do recommend it), then you’d know that it’s far from being the weak link here. It effectively removes any potential bottleneck, and in most regards, the I/O becomes the new bottleneck (one that’s not really seen with RAID’ing multiple SSD though!).
How will you overclock memory on Nehalem, or the CPU for that matter? Well, I’ll admit I still don’t totally understand how memory is overclocked, or how the frequency is even calculated, but Intel stresses that the skies the limit. The chipset and CPU shouldn’t be the weak link, rather it would be the modules themselves.
Going beyond DDR3-2000 speeds should be entirely possible. You might run into weird issues which will likely not be visible with regards to strange dividers, but the overall performance really wouldn’t reflect it. That’s something we’ll specifically have to test once the chip hits the lab.
Contrary to what I mentioned in yesterday’s article (oops), the Turbo Mode -does- have something to do with CPU overclocking, but it’s a bit odd to explain. Turbo Mode will not be activated in the traditional state during an overclock, but in the BIOS, there will be a Turbo Mode that allows you to increase the figure to increase the overclock. Increasing the Turbo Mode will supposedly be an unlimited affair, but I’m still unsure what exactly that number is going to be based on, but I can definitely say that it’s nothing to do with the QPI.
QPI is another thing. It can be overclocked, but Intel highly recommends to not adjust the 133MHz figure, and as far as I’m aware, motherboard vendors are asked to make it clear that adjusting it is dangerous. Even Intel themselves are unsure of what could happen with a highly overclocked QPI over time, but the results are apparently not representative of an ideal system.
There are still a lot of questions hovering around overclocking on Nehalem, and they won’t likely be fully answered without real hands-on time with a machine. What I can state with extreme confidence is that Nehalem will be highly overclockable, and enthusiast overclockers will have little to complain about. I’ve seen ES Extreme Edition samples running at 4.0GHz on a modest air cooler, and I feel rather confident that production samples will act similarly.
Sony Announces 160GB PS3 & Wireless Keypad
Sony can never seem to settle on one specific SKU of the PS3. Shortly after releasing a new 80GB model that dropped the PS3’s backwards compatibility, the company has decided to let loose a new 160GB model in the form of an Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune bundle, which will also include a PlayStation network voucher for PAIN and a DualShock 3 wireless controller.
Sony also announced the growing availability of the aforementioned 80GB model in retailers, and a new rechargeable wireless keypad accessory that will attach to Sixaxis and DualShock 3. The pad will work with PlayStation Home and offers a trackpad-like functionality that will provide cursor control with the PS3’s web browser.
I’m not a huge fan of Sony’s practice of dropping features and and increasing the hard drive space to make up for missing features like the lack of backwards compatibility, but if the PS3’s market share is increasing, more power to them. I do think that more people are buying PS3s for its media capabilities and downloadable PSN games, so the extra space isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
In an effort to increase sales, Sony has tried several tactics with its PS3 console from slashing prices to offering limited edition PS3 bundles. In July, Sony announced that it would be pricing the 80GB PS3 bundle at $399 and discontinuing the 40GB PS3 that had previously occupied $399 price point.
Intel Announces TV Processor, Partnership with Yahoo!
At today’s keynote, Eric Kim and others discussed how the television has always been a static part of our lives. People love watching TV, and that hasn’t changed, even with the advent of the Internet. Up to this point, the TV hasn’t become a truly Internet-capable device, or at least has not been executed well. Intel revealed a brand-new processor exclusively for the TV, called CE 3100.
The 150 million transistor processor is designed to be low-power (>10W), while enabling features such as high-definition video support, 3D graphics support, all while offering high-performance. Being that the CPU is based on Intel’s IA, development should be a relative breeze, allowing great TV-specific tools and applications to be written.
Along with this, Yahoo! was there to showcase their exclusive widgets feature, which will improve the Internet/TV experience by a wide margin. I’m normally not one to be impressed by any sort of widget, but the way these are implemented are sure to improve the overall experience. Their demos showcased a bar running along the bottom with various widgets that could be selected and opened to the side. Such examples were checking your favorite stocks, looking for a movie to rent, weather information, and even shopping. The overall idea isn’t that impressive, but the implementation is.
With Intel’s chip now shipping, we should be seeing this functionality in our TV’s Q1 2009, especially from Toshiba and Samsung. I’m not even a TV buff, but I can imagine having a lot of fun with this.
Valve Updates Team Fortress 2 Heavy Class
T
oday, Valve released the Heavy update for the company’s popular Team Fortress 2 first-person shooter. The update includes a new map (and one community created one), a new gametype, called Arena, 35 new achievements for the Heavy, and three new weapons: Natascha, the Killing Gloves of Boxing, and… wait for it.. the Sandvich! As always, the update is free to existing Team Fortress 2 owners on the PC.
A new “Meet The..” video was also published, taking a humerous look at the new Sandvich.
Automatically downloaded upon logging into Steam, the update packs the new Arena mode, the Badwater Basin Payload map, community member Jamie Mason’s CP_Steel along an assortment of achievements for the Heavy class and three unlockable item: Natscha, the Killing Gloves of Boxing and the healing Sandvich.
Intel Touches Up on Nehalem, Features Turbo Mode
During Pat Gelsinger’s keynote this afternoon, he touched on many different areas around computing that Intel is playing a large role in, in the coming years, one of which was Nehalem. Pat touched on some of the workstation aspects of the upcoming processor, but we are more interested in the desktop segment, which we will see products for in the coming months.
I will cover all of the Nehalem findings more in depth later in an article, but what was new here was talk about the chip’s use in the high-end desktop, mainstream client and thin and light notebook. After the launch, Intel will be wasting very-little time before their Clarksfield mobile counterpart, primarily due to the fact that the benefits to be had are clear, including better battery-life, better performance and better design.
One newly-discussed feature is Turbo Mode (sadly, no special button on the chassis will be required), a hands-off transition that the processor will make during states of core inactivity. If one, two or three of the cores are deemed not necessary, they will shut off completely into a near-powerless state. From that point, extra voltage will be routed into the primary core, essentially increasing performance. This won’t apply to just one core, but two or possibly even three. If two cores are inactive, the other two cores could have boosted performance.
Another feature is the 3x memory bandwidth, which Intel is seriously touting, and perhaps for good reason. While we are seeing numbers hovering around 9.776MB/s on our current desktops, the switch to a triple-channel memory controller essentially triples it (more like 3.4x), despite the fact that the exact same memory modules are used. This is a rather incredible feature, but it will all come down to the real-world benefits.
Other features are improved VM, Nehalem vPro, and improved performance. On an overclocked eight-core processor, they scored over 45,000 in Cinebench R10… when our eight-core SKulltrail scored around 25,000, back when we took a look at it back in February. Impressive. We’ll update you later with even more details, especially after we will be able to ask Intel themselves specific questions regarding the architecture.