Tech News

Psystar’s Open Computer Makes Its Way Into Customer’s Arms

It looks like the Psystar “open computer” isn’t a scam after all. One Gizmodo reader received his rig and even took a video and a few pictures of the unboxing. From what it seems, the OS boots up and runs well, but it’s difficult to tell from such a short video. The biggest issue it seems, is that the OS cannot be updated, which is to be expected. If the computer isn’t a true Mac, then the updater won’t know what to update.

It’s easy to say that the computer is worth the time if you are looking for a cheap Mac, but the fact of the matter is, Psystar is using publicly free software to accomplish what they are doing. If you are at all technically savvy, you could purchase your own parts for cheaper and accomplish the same thing.

But that’s besides the point. It’s not so much a scam if the computers are shipping, so this is a good sign. It will be better when we see more examples, though. Of course, I’m more interested in seeing how Apple will handle this, and more importantly, when.

It’s alive. Reader Patrick (Whiskeyfrown) is lucky enough to be using one of the few Psystar Open Computing machines that have made it into the wild, and he was generous enough to make a video showing the machine (including the connections in the back to the monitor to show that it’s legit).

Source: Gizmodo

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Holographic Storage Nearing Availability, At 150GB Per Disc

Burn DVD’s much? Ever curious about how long the data will remain on those discs? That’s a common worry nowadays, and for good reason. If you burn precious family photos, you’d rather them be safe. Essentially, the only way to combat this going forward would be to re-burn our media as time passes, which would likely be to new media formats each time (given that we will likely be using a completely new media type every ten years).

Company InPhase has a solution to this problem though, albeit an expensive one. Their “holographic” storage system allows you to store upwards of 150GB per disc ($180 each) at a rather slow 20MBps. Slow, but InPhase promises that the discs can last upwards of 50 years. That’s a lot, considering the shelf life of a standard DVD is much less. Not to mention that DVD’s hold a lot less.

But if you are like me and refuse to pay the $18,000 for the recorder itself, then it’s best to just take good care of your DVDs. The leading killer of optical media is having them lying around the house, or leaving them in direct sunlight. Storing them in a dark place and sealed off air-tight should prolong the life dramatically.

Questions over long-term backwards compatibility may also blunt Tapestry 300r sales. The company’s literature states that the yet-to-be-released Tapestry 800r and 1600r will be backwards compatible with 300r discs, but does not state that the 300r will be able to read 800r and 1600r media once those discs are available.

Source: Ars Technica

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AMD Launches Business Class Initiative

“Business Class” is a simple term, but it means great things. Better things. Things that regular schmucks can only dream of. Well, for those who are a fan of all that business class offers, AMD has got you covered. They have unveiled an entirely new processor line-up today that caters directly to the business. While the processors themselves are similar to current offerings, it’s the support that’s been improved.

For starters, the lineup consists of “stable processors” (odd wording?) which include a 24-month stability warranty. Though, this seems somewhat needless. When is the last time a CPU just up and died on you? I’ve personally never had that happen once, or know of it happening to anyone else. But that’s aside the point here. These CPUs are to be paired with the 780V chipset, which is guaranteed to be available commercially for the next eighteen months.

Models include the X4 9600B ($230), X3 8600B ($175), X2 5400B ($120), X2 5400B ($110), X2 5000B ($95), X2 4450B ($85) and finally, the lone single-core of the bunch, the 1640B ($50). This is somewhat of a unique program for AMD, but it makes sense. For businesses that use their processors, it’s reassuring to know that they are backed by good support. Now, time to wait and see how well it takes off.

SUNNYVALE, Calif. — April 28, 2008 –AMD (NYSE: AMD) today introduced AMD Business Class, an initiative dedicated to developing AMD processor-based commercial desktop and notebook solutions designed specifically for businesses. AMD Business Class technology is designed to offer the best value and tools on the market for OEMs and system builders to provide a solid, reliable foundation that delivers exceptional performance and power savings, industry-leading longevity and stability, and supports the essential security and manageability business users require.

Source: AMD Press Release

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Stern Pinball Refuses to Let Pinball Die

I doubt too many gamers would disagree that arcades are a dying breed, and most will claim that they already are. It’s true… it’s difficult to find a good arcade now, and even if you happen to stumble on one, most of the games will be circa ’80s or ’90s. So what’s that saying about pinball machines? Remember those?

I have to admit, I’ve always been a fan of pinball, and would own my own machine if I had room (someday, Circus Voltaire, someday), and according to a recent report at the NY Times, half of the people who purchase pinball machines today do purchase them for household use. That’s saying something, given their ~$5,000 price tag.

Stern Pinball Inc. happens to be the last manufacturer of its kind, which is sad in a lot of ways. But if the owner Gary Stern has his way, pinball will not die anytime soon. His factory sounds like quite the place to work, also. Workers are required to play at least 15 minutes of pinball each workday. That doesn’t sound so bad! Check out the article for some great images and other interesting tidbits about the company.

Some workers are required to spend 15 minutes a day in the “game room” playing the latest models or risk the wrath of Mr. Stern. “You work at a pinball company,” he explained, grumpily, “you’re going to play a lot of pinball.” (On a clipboard here, the professionals must jot their critiques, which, on a recent day, included “flipper feels soft” and “stupid display.”)

Source: New York Times

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Want Better Dell Customer Service? Open that Wallet Wider!

One would think that Dell, being the massive company they are, could deliver great customer service. But no. Instead, they’ve become notorious for out-sourcing their support to India. That in itself isn’t the problem, but being unable to properly understand the other person on the line is frustrating. I know, I’ve been there. I think it is even worse when you yourself know what the problem is, because trying to convince the person on the line to forgo the rules in the book is even more frustrating.

But Dell is looking to change that hassle. For a price, of course. Yes, to have better customer service, you will need to pay a premium, although it seems unclear at this point how large that premium will be. But if you have it, you will be able to talk to customer service based in the US that know what they are talking about, rather than those who just read from a book.

I have to wonder what kind of premium this is going to be, because as it stands, even Dell’s $400 3-year warranty doesn’t “warrant” you to ideal customer service. This latest attempt at good customer service is laughable at best. Good customer service shouldn’t cost hundreds of dollars.

This new fee-based offering is designed specifically for those customers who want to engage with the same dedicated team each time they have an issue with any of their in-warranty Dell-branded products. The premium service offer provides household support by an advanced support team in North America for one year. The technicians are empowered to address a comprehensive range of issues across the breadth of Dell’s product line.

Source: Consumerist

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Brazil KDE Usage by End of 2009: 52,000,000 Students

Regardless of whether you are talking about 52 million dollars or 52 million grains of rice, 52 million is a huge number. It’s also the projected number of students to be using KDE by the end of 2009 in Brazil. According to reports, by the end of this year, 29,000 labs will be serving 32 million students, and by the end of next year, that will increase to 53,000 labs and 52 million students using KDE.

This news isn’t only great for the KDE desktop (which it is), but Linux in general. That is huge adoption, right there. The screenshot below is somewhat misleading because it won’t be KDE 4 they’ll be using right off the bat, but rather KDE 3.5 – a good move in my opinion. I’m not against KDE 4, 3.5 is very lightweight and very customizable.

If interested in seeing how this project will play out, be sure to check out this blog entry.

The systems use KDE 3.5 and take full advantage of Debian as well as KDE’s Edu and Games projects, use of KDE4 in future implementation is just starting to be explored. Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of the deployment is how they maximize investment in hardware by putting several heads on each system.

Source: aseigo’s Blog

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CompUSA Back From the Dead with 15 Re-Opened Stores

Last December, we first learned that CompUSA was closing up shop, but that didn’t last too long. Less than a month later, we learned that Systemax, the parent company of Tiger Direct, purchased all assets and planned to re-open a few of the stores. Less than four months after the acquisition, 15 stores have been re-opened.

It seems Systemax wants to start out slow to see how things progress, because the only locations open right now are available in Florida, Texas and a single location in Puerto Rico. From comments at Engadget, it seems the insides are similar to Tiger Direct’s retail outlets. Going to CompUSA.com shows similar traits to TD also though, such as the identical Favicon to Tiger Direct’s own site and also similar fonts in their banners.

I know many people who enjoyed shopping at CompUSA, so hopefully the revised version doesn’t lack what made the old one worthwhile. It’s going to be interesting to see if Systemax can keep these stores on their feet, but things look to be off on a good foot.

We’re not sure why the Sunshine State faces the brunt of CompUSA’s angry zombie wrath — do retirees enjoy being ripped off?* — but Texans and Puerto Ricans can join in the fun with four stores of their very own.

Source: Engadget

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Simple KDE Rsyncing with Komparator

If you at all frequent our news, then you are probably aware that I use Linux most of the time. It’s on my main work machine, while Windows is on the gaming rig and also the primary benchmarking machine that’s responsible for most of our performance-related articles. You might also know about rsync, an application designed for Linux that compares two directories (remote ones also) and can make sure they are exact duplicates, if that’s your goal.

Rsync is a powerful tool and has easily proven to be one of my most relied-upon. I’ve come to enjoy it so much, that I’ve even written an entire article around it. But, it does have some downsides. For some reason lately, whenever I attempt to rsync a local folder to my NAS box for backup, instead of filling in the blanks, it actually overwrites what is there, meaning that it’s essentially copying that 130GB folder on top of itself. For a network connection, that is one slow process.

With that frustration, I stumbled on Komparator, a KDE-based tool that acts as an rsync frontend. In my particular case, it actually worked better than rsync, because it allowed me to proceed with that previously mentioned task, but did so without overwriting files that were already on the target, aka: exactly what rsync should have done.

The program has many options, and even allows you to save presets in case you run the same process regularly. The three main options are to allow you to first find duplicate files, find missing files and also find newer files… and all will be displayed in an easy-to-read manner. For some, that will be far better than dealing with a command-line.

Komparator is somewhat simple in design, but it does what it’s meant to do, and does it quite reliably. I rsync’d three different folders to my NAS box and it did so without issue. So if you are looking for an easy way to rsync and happen to use KDE, definitely check it out.

Source: Komparator at KDE-Apps

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Looking for a Killer Dual-Core? Don’t Miss Our Intel E7200 Review!

For those who might have missed it, we posted a review of Intel’s upcoming “value” Dual-Core processor earlier this week. The E7200 will retail for around $150 and rolls in with a 2.53GHz clock speed and 3MB of L2 Cache. Overall, it’s a solid offering, and given the price, it should be one hot product this summer.

I wasn’t able to push the chip to the heights I would have liked to seen it at, but 3.33GHz on reasonable voltages proved stable, so that says something. There’s no better feeling than pushing a budget CPU to work like a more expensive one. Well, there’s almost no better feeling.

So if you are on the lookout for a new Dual-Core and are on a budget, do yourself a favor and check out our review!

Simply put, the E7200 is an absolutely fantastic processor. It’s fast, inexpensive and is capable of tearing through all of our benchmarks with relative ease. Despite its low-end status, it’s even perfectly suited for gamers, as evidenced by our four games. When the E7200 delivers identical results at 2560×1600 as our QX9770 does… that says something.

Source: Intel E7200 2.53GHz Review

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Becoming an Energy Drink Connoisseur

If there is one fad to catch on quick, it would have to be the energy drink. Like soda, they can be extremely addictive, so it’s no wonder that it’s grown into a $10 billion a year industry. But for those of you who think energy drinks end with the Red Bull’s, Rockstar’s, Monster’s and et cetera, you are sorely mistaken. A new wiki entry at the Wired How-To Wiki tells you how to become an “energy drink connoisseur”.

The author of the entry is Energy Guru… an appropriate name since he’s personally reviewed over 600 energy drinks on his personal blog. Compared to the 10 – 15 energy drinks I must’ve had in my day, that’s pretty incredible. He also gave my personal favorite pretty good ratings, so perhaps I don’t have such bad taste after all.

For those looking to become such a connoisseur, tips are given… the most important being to write down your thoughts immediately after taking a taste. I sometimes do this with beer, and it’s a great way to make sure you don’t buy the same crap twice over. It also recommends drinking the beverage rather swiftly so that you can see how great the “buzz factor” is… but shotgunning is bad. So if you want to become something your mother could be proud of, check out the wiki page.

Small gas stations and liquor stores are to energy drinks what Whole Foods is to Belgian beer. These mom-and-pop shops are far more likely to pick up smaller, less-known brands than the big chain stores. That’s how you find drinks like Hyphy, which is both the Bay Area’s equivalent of crunk and in the energy drink realm, as Energy Guru wrote, “a clear knock off of Pimp Juice.”

Source: Wired How-To Wiki

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With Nothing Better to Do, EMI Sues MP3Tunes.com

Nowadays, you need to have a strong stomach when creating a new online music service, of any type, because you have no idea how the record industries are going to react. When Michael Robertson launched MP3Tunes.com, he thought he had a bullet-proof idea, and from the looks of things, I would have agreed. The service is essentially a robust music syncing application, allowing you to share music between any computer. It’s like a GoToMyPC, but for music exclusively.

The service was made secure by the fact that the user would have to password protect their collection, making it so that only they could access it. Apparently, this isn’t enough for EMI, who’ve decided to sue the small company. Take a moment to realize how ridiculous this case is. It essentially equates to uploading your own music to a personal server so that you can grab it at home… and being sued for it.

EMI must truly have nothing better to do than to pick on a small service supported by legal music buyers, rather than going to take on the bad guys who are actually distributing their music illegally. In a surprising move, MP3Tunes.com has encouraged users to upgrade to their premium packages in order for them to help pay legal fees. It’s hard to predict how this one will end, but hopefully it end in MP3Tunes favor. If EMI wins… it will be bad news for owners of any digital content, not only music.

Robertson went on to run MP3tunes.com, a similar service that allows you to synchronize all of your music tracks up to the MP3tunes.com servers and then re-synch them down to your computer and/or stream them via iTunes, Windows Media Player, WinAMP and a bunch of other software players.

Source: CrunchGear

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Apple Acquires Low-Power Chip Maker P.A. Semi

In a surprise move, Apple has acquired fabless chip maker P.A. Semi, who specialize in low-powered chips. P.A. Semi’s founder, Dan Dobberpuhl, was the lead designer for both the StrongARM and DEC Alpha processors, and the companies current team consists of engineers who worked on AMD’s Opteron, Intel’s Itanium and also Sun’s UltraSPARC.

This move is an interesting one thanks to Apple’s strong relationship with Intel. With Atom now rolling out, speculation was that Apple would begin using the new low-powered chips in future iPhone and iPod revisions, but with this acquisition, it’s certainly not looking that way. According to Forbes, one of the reasons for the purchase could be due to Atom’s popularity, and with Apple’s own chip maker, it would help the company to differentiate their product from the hundreds of clones available.

P.A. Semi’s processors, “PWRficient”, are based on a similar architecture that Apple left behind right before moving in with Intel, that arch being Power. If these chips will indeed be used in future Apple devices, then it may prove difficult for hobbyist developers. It’s much easier to code an application for a variety of devices that share the same CPU architecture, so if the iPhone begins using a Power-based chip, it could prove great for Apple, bad for developers. It’s still much too early to speculate, however.

The decision to center the iPhone design around a chip that Apple could own marks a significant strategic choice by Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs, and is aimed at ensuring Apple can continue to differentiate its flagship phone as a raft of competitors flood the market. According to a source affiliated with the chip company, Jobs and Senior Vice President Tony Fadell led the tiny group of executives who spearheaded the acquisition, which included negotiations that took place in Jobs’ home.

Source: Forbes

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AMD Launch X3 Triple-Core 8xxx Processors

It seems like just seven months ago that AMD was rumored to be releasing three-core processors. Oh wait, it was seven months ago! Of course, we knew for a while that it was much more than a rumor, and AMD proved that today with the unveiling of their X3 8xxx processors.

Our friends at PC Perspective have taken the latest CPU from AMD for a spin and their conclusions overall were mixed. Not surprisingly, the three-cores were put to use in numerous applications, but in others, the scalability was absolutely minimal. But, like a Quad-Core, only certain applications will take advantage of all the available cores, so the X3’s will offer similar experiences.

Other than that, it’s what you’d expect. It’s a Dual-Core… with an extra core thrown into the mix. But with a 2.4GHz chip for just under $200, the 8750 might just be a great choice and a threat to Intel’s E8400. While that processor is 3.0GHz, it has two cores, so if put to good use, the 8750 might just prove more beneficial. Of course, the E8400 can overclock to 3.8GHz and higher on air… which is hard to discredit. Without question, it’s going to be interesting to see how well these sell and what the initial reaction from consumers will be.

As it stands now from the performance outlook, the AMD Phenom X3 series of parts it pretty intriguing. In most of our tests the performance of the X3 8750 CPU was better than dual-core processors including AMD’s own Athlon X2 6000+ and the Intel X6800 2.93 GHz part. There were some mixed results though including in our multimedia tests where only one of the three video encoders put the X3 8750 ahead of the X6800 or E6750 from Intel.

Source: PC Perspective

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Yet Another Downside of DRM: Microsoft to Nuke MSN Music DRM Keys

Is there such thing as a “good” DRM? As far as I’m concerned, there isn’t. As I’ve mentioned in the past (one hundred times, at least), DRM and other forms of copy protection hurt the legal consumer only. Why would someone purchase music legally and then turn around to distribute it? Very few would. Those who do want illegal music… will just go download it. It’s simple.

But I digress. Ars Technica has posted about the upcoming death of MSN Music’s DRM service, meaning all music purchased through the service (when it existed) will no longer be able to be licensed after August 10, 2008. Up until that point, you are able to make regular use of your music, including transferring to another PC. But when the date hits, you will have to listen to the music on whatever PC it’s currently on… or tough luck.

I think it goes without saying that this is a clear reason why DRM should die, right now. Companies who sell DRM music have the ability to turn off their service at any time, and when that happens, you are have the equivalent of a digital paperweight. You will either have to purchase the music again elsewhere or go without. Though on a positive note, more and more online music stores are indeed moving towards offering DRM-free files for the bulk of their collections, so we are on the right track. The progress just can’t happen fast enough.

This doesn’t just apply to the five different computers that PlaysForSure allows users to authorize, it also applies to operating systems on the same machine (users need to reauthorize a machine after they upgrade from Windows XP to Windows Vista, for example). Once September rolls around, users are committed to whatever five machines they may have authorized—along with whatever OS they are running.

Source: Ars Technica

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Super Talent Releases Ultra-Fast DDR3-1800 4GB Kit

When it comes to performance memory, what’s the company to first pop into your mind? OCZ? Corsair? Mushkin? Well today, Super Talent can officially say that they offer the best DDR3 kit currently available. At DDR3-1800, it’s not the fastest kit out there, but what makes this one special is the fact that it’s 4GB… no other 4GB kit available reaches that height.

The kit is made even sweeter with the rather tight latencies of 8-8-8-24 at 1.9v. Given the sheer speed and density of these, those timings are rather impressive and a good sign of what’s to come. DDR3 hasn’t even been commercially available for a year, and the differences between today’s kits and what was available at launch are totally night and day.

So what will it take to own this blazing-fast kit? Why, only $499! Sure, it’s high, but the humorous thing is that $500 just 10 months ago would have scored you a 2GB DDR3 kit with very embarrassing specs. By years-end, the prices could even be half of what they are now, spec for spec. As for purchase, Super Talent is only offering this particular kit at eWiz.com for now, but it’s currently not in stock.

Super Talent’s Project X memory is widely regarded as the world’s most advanced DDR3. “This represents another major first-to-market milestone for Super Talent”, commented Super Talent Marketing Director, Joe James. “While competitors are only able to produce 4GB kits up to DDR3-1600, we’ve engineered a kit that performs at elevated clock speeds while still supporting aggressive latencies.”

Source: Super Talent

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NewEgg Poised to Take on Amazon with NewEgg Mall

Well well, it looks as though popular e-tailer NewEgg is looking to be much more than a simple computer hardware e-tailer, and who can blame them? They have the crowd, so launching a new service split off from their primary business seems like a good idea. That’s where NewEgg Mall comes in, a service that’s poised to compete with Amazon.com, on a small level at first, of course.

The service is up and running, but according to Kris at DailyTech, it’s not to officially launch until late May. So consider this a “beta” phase. Like Amazon, sellers are able to sign up as a merchant and begin selling their wares, and apparently NewEgg’s final sale fee works on a similar scale to Amazon’s. That leads me to wonder what motivation there would be to move on over, but since neither service charges you unless there is a sale (correct me if I’m wrong), then the more the merrier.

Though not officially launched, merchants can sign up now, if interested. This is a new look for NewEgg, and I’m looking forward to seeing where it will go. But for now, I’ll just continue being disgruntled since they don’t ship to Canada, despite demand…

The end result is, well, Amazon. Consumers can buy from the NeweggMall site, and products are drop-shipped from the reseller. Newegg takes a portion of the revenue from the sale, which it justifies by handling the portal and logistics. Depending on category, that portion can range from 6 to 15 percent, nearly identical to the revenue share structure at Amazon.com.

Source: DailyTech

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ASUS to Re-Release Windows XP Eee PC in June with Intel Atom Processor

With ASUS’ brand-new Eee PC 4G now hitting e-tailers and retailers with Windows XP pre-installed, it’s almost hard to resist, right? Well, that might depend on how much you want to give Intel’s latest Atom architecture a go, because if rumors prove true, the same Eee PC that was just released, will be re-released in June using the brand new processor.

With that in consideration, the decision to purchase now is made difficult. Once Atom is inside the Eee PC, pricing shouldn’t change even in the slightest. Compared to the current Eee PC Celeron processor, the Atom CPU will be more efficient overall, resulting in lower power draw and higher frequencies.

If you need an Eee PC now, I don’t think this news should stop you, since it is a month and a half away. But those who can wait, might not regret it. Intel boasts the fact that over 25 low-cost notebooks are soon to be equipped with Atom, so it shouldn’t be too much longer before we see performance benchmarks and can understand just how much better it will be.

Atom is the name of the processor formerly called Diamondville. It was designed for low-cost laptop PCs, ultramobile PCs, Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) and other small devices aimed at connecting to the Internet. The processor is tiny, less than 25 square millimeters, will be priced low, and run at a battery-efficient 0.6 watts to 2.5 watts thermal design power, according to Intel.

Source: PC World

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Microsoft Launches Ad-Supported Works 9, But Good Luck Finding It

Sometimes, Microsoft does something that is worth bragging about, so we hear about it everywhere. Other times, they do something different and don’t want anyone to know about. This is one of those times, with the initial test of offering ad-supported software. The software in question is Works 9, a lightweight Office (it’s rare to see good reviews on the product).

The idea is simple. Offer up the application with small ads displayed within the word processor and spreadsheet editor and get paid that way, rather than straight out of the users pocket. It’s hard to say now, but this could be something small that will turn into something huge at some point. Works is a very small product, and at only $35 retail, Microsoft is not taking too much of a risk here.

The interesting thing is how quiet the company is keeping. Right now, you can only acquire the product with a new PC, but good luck finding out which new PC. According to the Beyond Binary blog, Packard Bell is offering it on a few systems in the UK, while Sony is offering it within the US. It will still require a keen eye to spot, however.

Microsoft remains cagey on the details of where you can find Works SE. The company has been testing Works SE in 5 countries: The United States, France, Canada, Poland and the United Kingdom. It is available only through select computer makers and Microsoft won’t say which computer makers those are.

Source: Beyond Binary

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Microsoft Releases Windows XP RTM, No True Reason for Excitement

With Vista SP1 having been out for just over a month, isn’t it about time that Windows XP gets the love it deserves? If you say yes, then don’t worry, it will happen next Tuesday, according to a TechNet forum post. At that time, it will become available as a direct download off of the Microsoft web site, and also become available through Windows’ built-in updater.

Should you be excited? Not really. Not unless there is a specific feature you know that’s going to be added, because after installation, the noticeable differences are minimal. According to the Defense In Depth blog at News.com, SP3 will prove useful for network administrators far more than home users, but everyone should upgrade on release for the sake of being up to date.

Initial installation reports are good, and when I installed the RC1, I also had no problem, so I only imagine that the RTM is all the better. Worth the download if you can find it now, but for those who don’t mind waiting, look forward to it next Tuesday.

Microsoft says the service pack includes functionality previously released as updates. Perhaps that’s why the download and installation for SP3 was effortless on our test system. XP SP3 took only 30 minutes to download, and 10 minutes to install.

Source: Defense In Depth

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Western Digital Unleashes the Fierce VelociRaptor VR150

It’s been quite some time since Western Digital has issued a follow-up to their Raptor line-up, but that happens now, with the help of their “VelociRaptor” VR150 drive. What’s this mean to you? More space, faster speeds, quieter operation and oddly enough, lower power consumption.

The biggest issue with previous EL150 drives was their density. Granted, 10K RPM is undoubtedly fast, but when you only get a maximum of 150 GB out of the drive, it’s a definite trade off. Most things were done right with the VR150, however. Despite being physically smaller (2.5″ compared to 3.5″), it has faster seek times, higher data rates and as I mentioned, lower power consumption. It seems like the perfect drive.

But even at 300 GB, there are a few issues. The first is the price, at $1 per GB. The second is that the drive utilizes a 16 MB Cache, whereas most other high-end desktop drives use 32 MB. What differences could be seen are unknown, but it would have been a nice number regardless. Our friends at the Tech Report were so impressed with WD’s new offering, it deserved their Editor’s Choice award, so don’t hesitate to take a look at their (exhaustive) review.

Credit: Tech Report

The VelociRaptor offers excellent performance across a wide range of applications, but its most spectacular showing was easily with IOMeter’s multi-user workloads. These workloads don’t simulate typical desktop environments, of course, but they’re the most demanding tests we run. And they make a heck of a case for an enterprise derivative of the VelociRaptor. The 2.5″ form factor is perfect for rack-mount systems where the VelociRaptor’s low power consumption and strong multi-user performance will surely be appreciated.

Source: Tech Report

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Intel Drops Prices on Select 65nm Processors

Intel today has announced price-drops on many models from their 65nm line-up, including the Q6600 and E6850. The Q6700 sees the biggest drop, from $530 to $266, while the Q6600 sits comfortably at $224. For some Dual-Core action, the fast E6850 has dropped 31% in price, and all three Xeon-equivalents to these models have had their price dropped respectively as well.

While these prices drops are nice to see, I wish we saw them sooner. Because Intel’s own 45nm line-up is becoming more readily available, the decision between these price-dropped models or the newer product is made more difficult. This of course excludes the Celeron’s and Pentium’s, since there are no 45nm models for those, yet.

The Q6600 drop is a good one though, since even the lowest 45nm Quad-Core (Q9300) sits at $290 on most e-tailers. The E6850 is well-priced at $183 as well, but if that’s a “to e-tailer” price, then it would still be priced the same as the E8400, which we find to be a much better option. If you happened to read our review of the E8400, then you’d know why.

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Psystar Begins Shipping Apple “Open Computer”

When a company boasts products that emulate Apple’s own offerings but for a fraction of the price, people tend to listen. Such was the case with Psystar over the course of the past two weeks. The company seemed to come out of nowhere, and then offered a product no one would have ever expected.

If you’ve been following the story, then you are likely aware that there is a lot of skepticism surrounding the company, and for good reason. Over the past week, Psystar changed their business address no less than four times, and at one point even had to disable their checkout system. Sketchy, indeed.

The company has now updated their site announcing that all orders up to now are now shipping, and that the initial orders have now shipped. That’s a good sign, but I still remain skeptical and would not recommend going through with a purchase until we see others with actual systems in hand. If this is legit, who can help but be excited to see how Apple handles this?

To all, we challenge you, let’s see if we can max this one out. Regarding shipping, orders placed the week of April 7th are currently being shipped. We will be shipping units out of our new facility starting Monday, April 21st, including those orders placed the week of April 14th.

Source: Psystar – Via: One More Thing Blog

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Could GTA IV Downloadable Content Include Full Cities?

It was discovered the other day that most, if not all of the initial Grand Theft Auto IV reviews are overwhelmingly positive, but if that wasn’t enough to get you excited, then maybe the latest rumor to hit the wire will do the trick. According to Computer and Video Games’ new GTA Collector’s Edition magazine, Rockstar may be planning to include complete cities as downloadable content.

At first glance it’s easy to think, “Yeah, right!”, but the fact of the matter is, it is possible. But as usual, there are so many facts to look at. First and foremost, the revamped Liberty City in GTA IV will be smaller than the map in San Andreas, so adding another city seems unlikely. But on the other hand, Microsoft did pay $50 million for the rights to exclusive content. Could the game itself even cost $50 million to develop?

The fact of the matter is, and also the sad reality, is that the Xbox 360 will be seeing the bulk of the DLC, whether or not it will be an entire city… completely unfortunate for those who plan on purchasing the PS3 version. Like most things, we’ll just have to wait and see how it all plays out.

…but GTA IV is set to completely redefine the idea with expansions that are to GTA IV what Vice City or San Andreas were GTA III. Yes, Rockstar is clearly hinting at new downloadable cities; and the chances of them being London, Vice City or SA again are slim to none. So that’s new as in brand new. GTA IV’s Liberty City is the beginning. Think about that and be excited.

Source: Kotaku

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PayPal to Fight Phishers by Blocking Outdated Browsers

I doubt it will take many people by surprise to learn that PayPal and eBay are two of most popular sites vulnerable to phishing attacks, and even though it might not be evident, both have been taking that fact seriously. Recently, PayPal has put forth a plan to ban certain browsers from accessing the site due to their lack of anti-phishing features. Though most of the browsers are outdated, Apple’s Safari is looking to be a notable current browser to be banned – at least until it includes anti-phishing protection.

The sad reality is, though, that this added protection will only affect those who regularly visit PayPal or eBay, because that’s the only way someone will find out about a browser incompatibility. If a user doesn’t visit either site and receives a phishing e-mail, nothing stops them from clicking it. The ideal scenario is that a user will visit either site, see the warning and then proceed to upgrade to a different browser. Then from that point forward, they’d be less likely to fall for a phishing attack.

This is a fantastic move and one that should have been implemented a bit sooner. However, once in place, it should better prevent poor saps from falling into these attacks. PayPal boasts that over the previous two years, their efforts have resulted in far less phishing e-mails being sent out, so we can only hope this latest step will further push them towards nothingness.

Third-tier browsers are the only browsers that would be blocked from accessing PayPal altogether. Again, PayPal is light on the details, though the company does state that both Internet Explorer 3 and IE 4 fall into this category. The most surprising part of the company’s presentation, in fact, may have been its revelation that some PayPal users are actually still using IE 3 at all.

Source: Ars Technica

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GT5 Prologue Good Title, Despite Lacking Content

By now I’m sure many of you are either well aware of GT5 Prologue’s launch, or you could already be playing it yourself. I purchased yesterday and managed to drag myself away from the PC for a few hours to get some good game time in, and I have to say, it’s a well put together title. It has problems, but does good to help hold people over until GT5.

I don’t believe the game to be worth the $40.00 asking price though. Granted, that’s still $20 less expensive than most new PS3 titles, but this game lacks a lot of content. Six tracks, sixty cars, no customization/upgrades… and a general lack of functionality. Even the tracks themselves are shorter than they should be (when compared to their real-world counterpart). In all fairness, I’m still early in the game, so those might grow.

The graphics are not too mind-blowing, but the presentation is still sharp at 1080p. The car models themselves are what make the game though, and they all simply look gorgeous. Each car offers stock color options, which was nice (M3 Sparkling Graphite, ftw!), but again, each manufacturer only includes a few different models, so it’s a little bland in that regard. At least what’s there, kicks ass (well… minus the Suzuki Cappuccino).

GT5 didn’t “floor” me, but it’s the classiest racer out there and includes a lot of great music on top of having decent online play. I personally have a few odd issues (such as the date being incorrect, even though it’s correct on the console) and found the online play to be incredibly laggy in some online races, but hopefully you’ll avoid both of those issues. If you have $40 to blow and want a solid racer, this game will definitely kill your entire weekend.

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