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Amiga OS5 To Best Mac OS X
I’m not a fan of OS X, but there is no denying that many people are. To make a statement that your upcoming OS is going to best OS X… it’s huge. That’s what president Bill McEwen said in an older interview, but a more recent interview shows that nothing has changed. I have never used Amiga, at least to my knowledge, but when someone makes such a bold statement, I tend to be a little curious. We’ll find out more about Amiga OS5 in the next few months. While I’m doubtful it will blow our socks off like we are promised, it’s going to be an interesting release regardless.
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Amiga Inc. Acting President Bill McEwen has given an update to Amiga OS5 of sorts. In a previous interview Bill had said of OS5: “The product that we are going to ship is going to be much better than OSX from Apple”. “OS 5 is ahead of schedule, and we will be making public announcements concerning the product in the 4th quarter of this year.”
Source: Slashdot
Why No Half-Life 2 On Mac?
Why don’t we see more Mac games? Heck, Linux games? Of course we are talking about commercial games here, such as Half-Life 2. According to reports, Apple once met up with Valve regarding releasing the game for Mac OS X, but Valve demands $1 million up front before they will sit down and get to coding. Who’s to blame them, though? Development costs money, and if the players aren’t there, then it’s an unwise business decision. Of course, what’s stopping Steve Jobs from giving up three-hours worth of his pay to potentially increase the Apple fan base by a large margin? Oh well, at least their’s Boot Camp.
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That said, Apple’s lack of focus on gaming remains a fundamental weak spot in their consumer strategy (let’s not even talk Apple gaming consoles), but we’re hopeful that as companies continue to adopt new technologies like Cider, Mac users will at least be able to enjoy smash hits like Half-Life 2 (if nothing else). Ah well, thank Freeman for Boot Camp.
Source: Joystiq
ASUS P5E3 Deluxe Includes Linux
ASUS has a track record of releasing great products with well-thought-out features, but here’s a completely new one. As Phoronix has found out first-hand, the new ASUS P5E3 Deluxe WiFi-AP motherboard offers a pre-loaded version of Linux, which I assume would run off a separate flash chip somewhere on the board.
Because this is all on-board, it boots in mere seconds. Once in, you can browse the web via WiFi or wired connection, or even talk on Skype. As Michael found out, there are a few ways that it could be improved even further, such as by allowing the mounting of external storage. Even without that, this is one cool feature.
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At first when hearing about this Express Gate feature, we figured it was just some small feature being worked on by a couple ASUS engineers. When powering up the motherboard, we assumed you would just hit a key sequence and enter a quickly thrown together Linux environment that featured a basic web browser. Well, much to our surprise this was actually a finely crafted Linux desktop environment.
Source: Phoronix
Pogue Praises O.L.P.C. XO
When we posted two weeks ago that the OLPC XO would be sold in North America for a two-week period, it was only a matter of time before someone got their hands on one and gave it a review. That person this time around is David Pogue, who seemed to have fallen in love with it.
Of course, this isn’t a PC that a performance user would want to use, but that’s not who it’s developed for, as Pogue points out. He did mention that it had features that even surpassed those of our own laptops, including a solar-panel for recharging the battery, a battery that could be recharged far more times than conventional laptop batteries and also the fact that it’s drop-proof, liquid-proof and dirt-proof. Not bad for a $200 system. Almost makes your laptop green with envy, hmm?
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And sure enough, the bloggers and the ignorant have already begun to spit on the XO laptop. “Dude, for $400, I can buy a real Windows laptop,†they say. Clearly, the XO’s mission has sailed over these people’s heads like a 747. The truth is, the XO laptop, now in final testing, is absolutely amazing, and in my limited tests, a total kid magnet. Both the hardware and the software exhibit breakthrough after breakthrough — some of them not available on any other laptop, for $400 or $4,000.
Source: New York Times
Hitachi Shows-Off 100GB Blu-ray Disc
It might seem silly to think that 50GB for a single Blu-ray disc isn’t enough, but at this point, even high-def movies are doing what they can to fill it up. Hitachi is working to future-proof the high-def format though, with an introduction of their experimental 100GB quad-layer disc. Why anyone should care about this is that due to how it’s designed, it would still be compatible with all current Blu-ray drives on the market. To push the envelope even further, the company also states that they are working on a octa-layer version of the disc as well, which would offer an incredible 200GB of space.
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Although no new hardware may be required to read the additional layers of Hitachi’s Blu-ray Disc, it is still unclear what costs, if any, would be added onto the manufacturing side of the equation. Should expensive equipment be required to manufacture the discs, movie studios may opt to release their titles across two Blu-ray Discs rather than cram movie and special feature data onto a single disc.
Source: DailyTech
Fastest Harpertowns To Be Apple-Exclusive?
When Apple began using Intel’s processors in their machines, who knew that Intel was going to allow them rights to the fastest products available before everyone else? We saw it happen with the Quad-Core 3.0GHz Xeon, which until recently had only been available on the Mac Pro.
According to rumors, when Intel’s Penryn-based processors are released next month, Apple will again have the fastest offering exclusive to them, at 3.2GHz. By comparison, the PC side will have the QX9650 at 3.0GHz available at launch. The good thing in all of this is that the small clock bump doesn’t mean much of anything, since a minor flick of a switch in the BIOS would match the same frequency of the 3.2GHz, without as much as a voltage bump.
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Apple’s modern day equivalent to such a system would be its custom-configuded 8-Core Mac Pro, which employs two 3.0GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Clovertown” processors running on a 1333MHz front-side bus and retailing for $4000. The report suggests that Apple anticipates selling so many of these niche machines, that other PC manufacturers like Dell and HP would barely have enough supply of the 3.2GHz chips to announce availability of rival offerings.
Source: AppleInsider
Bungie Breaks Off Into Separate Entity
It’s been quite the week for Halo, and that’s an understatement. In it’s first week, Halo 3 managed to score over $300 million in revenue, which is an apparent record. Now comes news that Bungie has decided to go their own way, as a separate entity. What’s this mean to you? Not much, ultimately, as they have vowed to continue their relationship with Microsoft on future Halo titles. That… is a good thing for everyone involved.
And speaking of Halo, recall that movie that was being developed? It turns out that’s been put on ice as well. It’s a good thing that Halo 3 is kicking ass, else fans would be real upset.
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We’ll continue to make Xbox 360 games, and we’ll continue to make amazing games for MGS. In that regard, nothing has changed. All that has changed is that now Bungie Studios is once again, the property of the folks of Bungie Studios. Microsoft is and will continue to be, a brilliant, inventive and creatively collaborative publishing partner.
AsylumLAN 30 – November 2 – 4, Evansville, IN
AsylumLAN is held every third month, beginning each February. We’ve attended the past two LAN events, and will be attending the very next one as well, which begins in twenty-six days. As it stands, Greg, Matt Harris and myself will be there, along with one of my local best friends, Chris. If you happen to live around Evansville, IN (Three/Four hour drive from heart of Indianapolis, Southern OH/IL or KY) and are up for a good LAN event, consider signing up on their website. Don’t give me the excuse that it’s too long of a drive… I’m coming down from Canada! Yeah, that’s right you’ll purchase a ticket.
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We are a group of gamers in the Evansville, IN area that get together every few months for some LAN party goodness in a friendly family-oriented atmosphere. Players of all ages and skill levels are welcome. Below is some basic info that you will need to join the party. Any questions? Drop me an emailThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , visit our forums, or drop by our IRC channel #asylumlan on gamesurge.
Source: AsylumLAN
Überclok Pre-Overclocks Their Machines To The Limit
Ever notice how a lot of companies who promise pre-overclocked gaming-PCs never actually push the hardware that’s installed anywhere close to the limit? Chicago-based Überclok are not afraid to push their machines to the (reasonable) limit, and who’s to blame them? Intel has been pushing out some incredible overclocking chips since last summer, so the potential for ultra-high-clocked PCs is there.
At the current time, they have two models available, the Ion and Reaktor, the latter which features the Dual-Core E6850 3.0GHz overclocked to 3.7GHz speeds. Oddly enough, there doesn’t seem to be any mention of GPU overclocking, or the cooling that’s included. On top of that, there is no way to upgrade the CPU that’s included, either. Strange, but at least there is a 30-day full-money-back guarantee. You don’t see that too often.
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Just as a gourmet chef selects the freshest ingredients daily, Ãœberclok’s PCs are always built from the newest technology, chosen to give you the biggest bang for your buck. We remain agile by focusing on system design and industry innovation. Since we don’t mass produce a huge inventory, we can respond very quickly when component manufacturers release better products. You can be sure an Ãœberclok PC is future-proof, upgradeable, and will give you three years of solid gaming!
Source: Uberclok
Vin Diesel, Paul Walker Both Return In Fast & The Furious 4
I admit that I’m not much of a movie buff, but when it’s a movie about cars, it’s a different story. When it’s a movie about cars, women, beer and racing, I’m glued to the seat. Like many, I was a big fan of 2001’s Fast and the Furious, but was disappointed with the two movies that followed. Well, good news, as both Vin Diesel and Paul Walker will be re-uniting as a duo for the fourth installment. Whether or not the 4th movie will make up for the other two will have to be seen, but could it really go that wrong with those two back?
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Although we were able to catch Diesel’s drift in the movie number tré, the absence of the drift-less Walker left this particular moviegoer wanting. Now that we know the two are back together at last, the only question left unanswered is this: how could the fourth film be any Faster or more Furiouser than the first three?
Source: Autoblog
OS X Leopard Due Out This Month? Canadian iPhone En Route As Well?
I’m not a Mac user, but even I am finding the wait for OS X Leopard to be taking forever. Not surprisingly, rumors have been floating around for a while as to a potential release date, but as of now, rumor has it that October 26th could be the day. Apple has a history of releasing their OS updates on the last Friday of a given month, and it’s unlikely that it will be pushed all the way to November, given the status of the latest betas.
Also referred via Gizmodo is another rumor (aren’t they fun?), but this time for the iPhone and it’s Canuck-boundedness. According to rumors, Canadians might see the iPhone available mid-October, which would still be far longer of an overall wait than I think most of us originally anticipated. Now, I’ll admit that I might be able to believe the Leopard rumor, but this one is a little harder to swallow, as the apparent price for the Canuck iPhone would be $799. Yeah, right.
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Attention friends to the Great White North: the Apple iPhone is rumored to be coming your way by middle of this month. The leak is said to come from an insider at Canadian fashion specialty department store Holt Renfrew, and the 8GB GSM iPhone will reportedly sell for $799. If these rumors are true, and we have no reason to believe so, that’ll be double the price of the iPhone in the U.S.!
RIAA Awarded $222,000 in First Jury Trial
Wow, what can be said that isn’t blatantly obvious? The RIAA has won another major case, against Jammie Thomas, a single mother with two kids. RIAA cases have always been ridiculous, but this one is more so because the jury decided that it was fair for a single mother to be liable for $222,000 for owning twenty-four pirated songs. Thomas is no doubt going to file an appeal, but how frustrating it is that the RIAA can get away with this…
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Under the username “Tereastarr,†Thomas was found sharing just over 1,700 files via the Kazaa network on February 21, 2005. Of those 1,700 tracks, 24 were named – including music from popular artists such as AFI, Green Day, and Aerosmith – and for each one she was held liable for $9,250 worth of damages, coming to a grand total of $222,000.
Source: DailyTech
Microsoft Drops WGA Checks for IE7
Firefox is simple, while IE is not (ok, that’s a matter of opinion). You download and install Firefox without much of an issue. At best, it will inconvenience you with regards to importing Internet Explorer bookmarks. IE7 on the other hand, requires you go through the hassle of validating your Windows installation before it can be used. Firefox’s reflection on what simple should be, might just be rubbing off on the folks at Redmond. Nah, it’s all about market-share.
According to Ars Technica, Microsoft is dropping the WGA check from IE7 in an attempt to increase its usage. This should mean, technically, that if you are using an non-legit version of Windows, you should have no problem using their latest browser. Will this move actually help them gain the additional piece of the userbase they are looking for? Hard to say, but I’m sure many are going to be glad to see the WGA check gone, even those with legal copies of the OS. Now if WGA could be dropped entirely… oh, and activation while they are at it.
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More worrying for Microsoft is the fact that IE7’s share appears to be leveling off at between 20 to 27 percent, despite strong growth after it was initially released in 2006. Microsoft does still have the advantage of having IE 7 bundled with every new computer running Windows Vista, so it will certainly become more widely used in the future, but the company has apparently decided that short term market share is more important than piracy checks.
Source: Ars Technica
Rob Malda Reflects On The Past 10 Years
Slashdot. Whether you love it or hate it, there’s no denying the effect it has had on news websites, and the internet in general. It’s hard to believe the monster it has become, and it was all started as a joke… a casual site that wasn’t supposed to go anywhere. Wired gave Rob Malda a phone call to help reflect on the past ten years, and posted the interview today.
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When I registered the domain name it was supposed to be a joke, and I wanted an e-mail address that wasn’t my college’s e-mail. The website was built out of my blog — though they didn’t call them blogs back then — because I wanted to have a web server I could Perl and hack around on. There was no premeditation, and it was three or four months before I realized Slashdot meant anything.
Source: Wired.com
PS3 Unreal Tournament III Delayed Until “Early 2008”
Whew, Sony has got to be crying in a corner somewhere. One of the biggest titles for the PS3 this holiday season, Unreal Tournament III, has been delayed until “early 2008”. This is solely to do with the Unreal Engine 3 not functioning as it should on the PS3 hardware. It affects more than just UT III as well. Stranglehold and BlackSite: Area 51 are two other titles that will feel the lag, due to utilization of the same game engine.
PC fans are not going to be affected by this delay, however. Good thing, as it would then be me who would be in a corner crying.
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“While we regret that these delays will cause us to lose some valuable holiday sales in the near term as well as shift revenue for some of these titles out of 2007 and into 2008, we remain confident that our technology strategy and product plan position us to grow both revenue and market share as we move into the heart of this console cycle,†said David F. Zucker, president and CEO of Midway Games, while also confirming next-gen updates to franchises Blitz and Mortal Kombat.
Source: DailyTech
Geek Squad Helps Put Child-Porn Trafficker Behind Bars
I like Best Buy’s Geek Squad service about as much as being forced to use Windows Vista on a 286 with half of a keyboard and monochrome monitor with an exercise ball as a chair and no beer in the house. But there has to be some good in everything, right? In this case, I do applaud Geek Squad, as they manged to throw a child porn trafficker behind bars for 11 years. Next time you ask yourself, “What kind of idiot uses a service like Geek Squad?”, the answer is, “Those who hand over a computer loaded up with child porn”.
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It’s been a rough week for PC users who get their hard drives serviced at Best Buy. First, the RIAA trained its legal guns on a young woman who had Best Buy swap out the hard drive in her computer, a move they believed was designed to wipe evidence of P2P infringement. Now, a man in Arkansas has just been sentenced to 135 months in jail and a $10,000 fine after a Best Buy tech found child porn on the man’s hard drive.
Source: Ars Technica
Bugatti Veyron vs. BMW M3
Whats this have to do with tech, you ask? Not much of anything, but that sure doesn’t take away from it’s “cool” factor. Autoblog links to a video of a few lucky people who had the opportunity to drag race both the W16 1,001HP Bugatti Veyron and my brand new dream car, the BMW M3 V8, which pushes out a “modest” 414HP. It’s not much of a surprise which car wins, considering the Veyron can go 0-60 in 2.5s, but I’d still be willing to save the $1,420,000 and stick with the Bimmer.
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The Veyron is a true supercar that costs a cool $1.4 million, hits 60 mph in less than three seconds, and has a limited production run of a few hundred copies. Regardless of the obvious disparity between the two cars, someone just had to pit the two against one another in a race and put the video on YouTube.
Source: Autoblog
The State of DirectX 10 – Image Quality & Performance
Windows Vista has been out since January, but I’ve still seen no reason to make the shift to Windows Vista. Granted, I am not a major gamer, and I admit it, but no DX10 titles have seemed to deliver the goods to warrant a Vista installation. Our friends at HotHardware have taken such ponders into consideration and delivered a comprehensive look at the top current DX10 games and compare both image quality and performance to their DX9 counter-parts.
I’ve made no attempt to hide the fact that I dislike Windows Vista, but I do admit that it might be both Crysis and Unreal Tournament III that will coax me into installing the stable, reliable and fast OS. Those games are coming along amazingly…
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In this HotHardware article, we showcase many of the most popular DX10-capable games, like Bioshock, World In Conflict, Call of Juarez, Lost Planet, and Company of Heroes, and feature current image quality comparisons versus DX9 modes with each. The article also details the associated performance levels across many of the more popular graphics cards, from both the mid-range and high-end. After digesting all of the data, you be the judge. Are we there yet?
Source: HotHardware
Valve Begins Pre-Loading For HL2: Episode 2 & Portal
Valve sends along word that both Portal and Half-Life 2: Episode 2 are available for pre-loading. If you’ve pre-purchased the Orange Box or any one of those titles by themselves, you can begin the download now in preparation for next weeks (October 10) launch. Team Fortress 2 also experienced some loving care two days ago, with an entire slew of bugs being ironed out. At this rate, the game should be bug-free for launch. That’s how things work, right?
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The Orange Box will be available via Steam and at retail outlets beginning next Wednesday, October 10th. In preparation for launch, Valve has begun pre-loading both Portal and Half-Life 2: Episode Two to those who have pre-purchased The Orange Box. The pre-purchase campaign, available via Steam and at participating retailers, grants gamers access to the Team Fortress 2 beta and extends a 10% discount off the regular price of $49.95.
OCZ Announces PCP&C Turbo-Cool 1200 Power Supply
Is your monster computer starting to get weak in the knees? Have a huge wad of cash in hand? Then OCZ’s latest PCP&C 1200W power supply could be for you. The Turbo-Cool 1200 features a “single +12V rail” for the ultimate of stability. Being an NVIDIA SLI-certified product, the PSU features three 6-Pin and three 6/8-Pin video-card connectors, making this appropriate for ATI’s highest-end cards as well.
The unit provides efficiency of 83% and features an impressive 90A on the +12V rail. I’m still not sold on the reasons for requiring such a large beast, but if you can see through the doubt, you can pick up one of these for $499. You can read the full press release below.
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Sunnyvale, Calif. – October 3, 2007 – OCZ Technology Group, a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance memory and PC components, today announced the release of the Turbo-Cool 1200 power supply from PC Power & Cooling. Designed to offer the consumer market a professional-grade computer power supply, the 1200W Turbo-Cool is the ultimate power solution for those that require the very best, long-lasting, industrial-grade components for their mission-critical system or leading-edge gaming machine.
Source: OCZ Press Release
Xbox 360 “Arcade Edition” Due On Oct 23?
Nowadays, there are so many rumors floating around, it’s difficult to track them all. Even worse, sometimes rumors can overlap reality and confuse everyone. Well, the Xbox 360 Arcade Edition has been floating around rumorville for a while, but when two different websites list the SKU, it becomes a little more believable. Both are listed at Amazon and Toys’R’Us, with Amazon having the price set to $279.99.
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At this point in time, no one knows exactly what the Arcade Edition is supposed to be used for. Some speculate that it might be a replacement for the Core system, which makes sense to some degree. Being an Arcade edition, it must have a hard-drive though, because the focus would be on downloading the games off of Xbox Live Arcade, naturally. But at that point, what would it lack, when compared to the Premium which retails for $70 more? Hopefully the answers are not going to be too far off.
Source: Amazon.com Via: Engadget
Tabula Rasa Delayed Until November 2
Game developers today seem to have it rough, with constant reason for setbacks and delayed launches. Richard Garriott’s latest offering, Tabula Rasa, has been delayed for an additional two weeks, setting the launch at November 2. Reasons for the delay seem to be caused by higher-end content, and despite this, NCsoft’s game plan is still to allow those who’ve pre-ordered the game a full three days access to the retail content prior to the official launch.
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To this end we are moving our Pre-Order headstart date to 10/30/07 and our commercial service start date to 11/2/07. This short but critical amount of time will give us time to address several issues including stability and balance as well as allowing our players to test the continent of Ligo (L38+) and our major changes to crafting for a few weeks rather than a few days. Our entire development staff feels this extra time is needed as does our beta community. We feel confident that this extra time will make a difference on launch day.
Source: Tabula Rasa Official Website
Three New Zune Models In November
We all knew it was coming, but Microsoft made official the fact that new Zune units will be hitting the shelves next month. Though “Zune 2.0” has been a term being thrown around a lot, Microsoft is not referring to their new products as such. This makes sense, as even the previous-gen Zunes are able to utilize the new 2.x firmware.
Included in the new line-up is a 4GB and 8GB flash-based Zune and also an 80GB HD-based model, which was to be expected. The new models beef up the feature-set and many are quite worthwhile. Microsoft is pushing the “social” aspect with the launch of a revamped community feature. How well that will take off will be yet to be seen, but it’s clear that Microsoft isn’t sitting around twiddling their thumbs. I could sure go for some Linux support, though…
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We’re expanding our family of devices with the addition of three new digital media players: Zune 4GB, Zune 8GB and Zune 80GB. The sleek, black Zune 80GB hard-drive model has a bright 3.2-inch screen and comes with new Zune Premium Headphones; the ultraportable Zune 4GB and Zune 8GB flash models are both available in pink, green, black and glossy red.
Source: Zune.net
Team Fortress 2 Class Roundup
I haven’t yet had the chance to give the Team Fortress 2 beta a go, but I will have to in the next few days, prior to it’s actual release. I admit that I had little interest in the game since it was first announced, but I have yet to hear a truly poor comment about the game or it’s gameplay. Though I still wish we saw Half-Life 2: Episode 2 a while ago instead of TF2 right now, it looks like the trade off is going to be worth it.
That all aside, one of my favorite new websites, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, has posted a huge TF2 class roundup. Split into nine different parts, they take a look at reasons why a class exists, why they are useful and why they are useless. It’s a light read, but comprehensive at the same time.
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Since the Team Fortress Beta went live, the collective bodies of Rock, Paper, Shotgun have been running around with cartoon projectile weapons pretty much non-stop. When that “Pretty much†kicks in, we have a break and write about Team Fortress 2, just to mix things up and keep it fresh. The following are the nine short critical examinations (with gags) of the character classes that Jim, Alec and myself conjured up with special Word Science.
Source: Rock, Paper, Shotgun
Liquid Resize GIMP Plugin Released
Remember that video of the image resizing technology that would properly scale any image to look good with any aspect ratio or size? Well as it turns out, it’s now available as a plugin for the GIMP image manipulation tool (available for Linux and Windows).
I took a few minutes to install it and give a quick test, which saw results nothing like the examples in the video. I loaded a photo that I shot in New York last week and tried to scale it down both height-wise and width-wise. Below you can see the original, followed by the two edits using the Liquid Rescale plugin.
It’s evident that the rescaling process didn’t deliver the effect I was looking for, and the process took far longer than a simple Image Scale process that’s already included in the GIMP. The above photo was the only one I have tested with due to lack of time, but you shouldn’t just take my word for it. If you use the GIMP, download the plugin and see what you can manage.
Source: Lifehacker