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Why Don’t the Black Bars Go Away?
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If you are one of those people who curse at their TV’s when you see a black bar atop and beneath your movie, then High-Def Digest is out to help you understand why it’s the case. As it turns out, it’s not a bug, and if you are seeing a movie with black bars, that’s how it’s supposed to be.
At the dawn of the motion picture era, there was no single standardized aspect ratio for silent films. Depending on the camera used, some were a little wider or a little narrower than others, but all were roughly squarish in appearance. Eventually, a standard emerged, known as Academy Ratio. Films of this type measured at an aspect ratio of 1.37:1, which means that the picture was 1.37 times wider than it was tall.
Source: High-Def Digest
ASUS P5K3 Premium Uses Built-In DDR3
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Last month, we learned that ASUS was planning to release a P35-based board that would rid the need to install memory yourself. Instead, 2GB of DDR3-1333 would be pre-installed, with various ‘optimizations’ to improve overall performance. I admit I didn’t expect the board to actually come to retail, but it is, and you can expect that it will be at least $600 at a minimum.
ASUS laid out 2GB of DDR3 memory in a dual-channel configuration for optimal performance. The onboard memory is also set up in what ASUS calls a perfect T-Tree design, where the memory controller has access to each pair of memory chips. ASUS claims the T-Tree design reduces clock cycle timing by 50% compared to traditional fly-by designs, which grants the memory controller access to each module.
Source: DailyTech
Xbox 360 Compatibility List Updated
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Microsoft has updated the compatibility list for the Xbox 360 to play original Xbox games, and it’s not so minor. There are 65 new games, including PGR1 and 2, Burnout, Jet Set Radio Future, Mech Assault 2, Tony Hawk 2x and 3, Sega GT 2002 and others.
Microsoft took some time to update the ever-expanding list of Xbox backwards-compatible games playable on the Xbox 360. Bringing the playable list to over 300, this latest update, presently available over Xbox Live, includes popular titles such as Silent Hill 2, Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil, and Morrowind.
Source: Xbox 360 IGN
Commodore US PC Lineup Revealed
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We reported back in March that the Commodore name was to be revitalized with performance PCs. Well, those PCs are soon to be coming to the US, and so far, they are looking quite sharp. I am thinking about getting the PC with the pink flower theme, myself.
All will come with Intel quad-core processors, Nvidia 8000-series graphics cards, Corsair RAM, and Asus-made NForce motherboards. And while Commodore won’t be overclocking out of the box, it will be providing all of its systems with a proprietary Peltier-cooling heat sink, that it claims will give gamers room to ramp up their parts themselves.
Source: CNet Crave
Site Downtime.. Fixed
We’ve had quite a few site troubles over the past few days, namely with the forums, but all should be fixed now, so we should be smooth sailing. Our smallest server, which also acts as our nameserver, had a heatsink clip break due to the heat, which took things offline earlier today. Last night, Apache decided to disagree with us, so it had to be completely re-installed with a fresh configuration. As I said, we are crossing our fingers that nothing else will go wrong. So far, things are looking good. We apologize for the unexpected downtime!
Kingston Release DDR3-1375 CL5 Modules
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Kingston were one of the first out the door with performance DDR3, but they really have outdone themselves this time. DailyTech reports that they have just announced DDR3-1375 modules with a tight CAS latency of 5. By comparison, the kit we’ve been using in our testing machines has a CL of 7, for the same frequency. The required voltages were not mentioned, but considering the 2GB kit retails for $800, they should be rather low.
Kingston offers the new ULL PC3 1375 MHz HyperX modules in two packages – a single 1GB module or a 2x1GB kit for dual-channel. Manufacturer suggested retail pricing for the ULL PC3 1375 MHz HyperX modules start at $400 for the KHX11000D3UL/1G single 1GB module and $800 for the KHX11000D3ULK2/2G dual-channel kit.
Source: DailyTech
World’s Fastest Home Internet Connection: 40Gb/s
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Next time you brag about your fast internet connection to a peep on dial-up, think about the 75-year-old woman in Karlstad, Sweden, who has an incredibly fast 40Gb/s setup. That’s almost 7,000 times faster than a standard broadband connection, which could chug a full-length high-def DVD in just two seconds. I’m envious.
According to The Local, the secret sauce behind the connection is a new modulation technique that allows data to be transfered directly between two routers up to 2,000 km apart – with no intermediary transponders. This allows information to travel over huge distances without data loss.
Source: The Register
New IE Security Risk… With Help of Firefox
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Here’s a new spin on things. New security risks with IE are not new, but a new exploit actually requires Firefox to be installed on the machine. If Firefox is not installed, then the bug doesn’t exist. Essentially, it requires the user to click a malicious link in IE, which will then pass code to Firefox to execute. Roundabout hack, but I am more curious as to why someone would use IE when Firefox is installed!
“The underlying issue is the number of Web sites that are hosting malicious code,” Ronald O’Brien, a senior security analyst for Sophos, told LinuxInsider. “We know there are tens of thousands of Web sites that have been created that lack basic security aspects to them, and as such are readily hacked for the purpose of inserting malicous code onto them.”
Source: Linux Insider
Apple Unlocks Full-Screen Mode For Free QuickTime Player
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For years, the free version of QuickTime didn’t allow full-screen playback. Instead, that simple feature would have required a $30 upgrade. As asinine as that is, you can finally unclench your fist and download 7.2, which opens up that feature to non-Pro versions of the player. Aside from that, the new version also upgrades the H.264 codec and takes care of other misc. bugs.
The Cupertino-based company said QuickTime 7.2 includes a new version of QuickTime Player that unlocks support for viewing videos in full-screen — a feature which was previously available only through a $30 QuickTime Pro license. QuickTime 7.2 also bundles “updates to the H.264 codec” and numerous bug fixes, Apple said. It’s available as 51.4MB download for Mac users and a 19.3MB download for Windows users.
Source: Apple Insider
Top Five Worst Websites
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Try not to get too excited, but here is yet another top list. This one takes a look at the five worst websites on the internet, as chosen by Time magazine. Luckily, Techgage escaped their grasp once again. Of the five, eHarmoney and MySpace are listed, mostly because of the problems they can cause with real life relationships.
Our main beef with this online dating site is its power to cause utter despair. eHarmony claims its more “scientific” approach to matchmaking differentiates it from competitors — its users complete extensive personality questionnaires, in order to connect them to others based on compatibility.
Source: Time
Lenovo Offers High-End Linux Notebooks
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Dell isn’t the only on to offer Linux-based laptops, as Lenovo has been for well over a year. DesktopLinux reports that they are now offering their high-end T61p with SLED. The $1,814 notebook offers a large screen, Core 2 Duo processor, up to 4GB of ram and a Quadro FX 570M graphics chip.
This portable workstation includes up to 4GB of RAM, a 160GB SATA (Serial ATA) hard drive, three USB 2.0 ports and a CD-RW DVD combo. It also includes a variety of Wi-Fi network connection options including support for draft 802.11n WLAN (wireless LAN), embedded WWAN (wireless WAN) technologies and UWB (ultrawideband).
Addendum: Woops, I made a mistake. The T61p does -not- come pre-loaded with Linux, but rather Lenovo is certified to support it.
Source: DesktopLinux
Slimmer PSP En Route Along Countless New Games
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E3 seems to be going well for Sony so far, as their slimmer PSP handheld is getting a hefty amount of attention. I admit, the updated unit looks great. I’ve always been tempted to pick one up, and now it’s becoming even more difficult. From the looks of things, the new units will include either Daxter or Star Wars: Battlefront, while the price point remains the same. Also promised are over 120 PS3 games, 140 PSP and 160 PS2. It’s good to see that their ‘classic’ console is still getting so much attention.
This holiday and fiscal year more than 400 games are coming to PlayStation fans in North America. There will be over 120 PS3 titles including what we’re showing here at E3: Warhawk, Lair, Heavenly Sword, Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, The Eye of Judgment, PAIN, Echochrome, SOCOM: U.S. Navy Seals Confrontation, SingStar and many more.
Source: Playstation Blog
Xbox Live Hits 7 Million Users
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I have to admit, I’m impressed by this news. Up until now, I thought that World of Warcrack had absolutely owned the entire market as far as online gaming goes, but Xbox Live is trailing not far behind. Also mentioned were predicitions for next year, when they expect to have 10 million total subscribers. As it stands, 7 million is an incredible count. Sony will have to perform a miracle on their Playstation network to steal away any of those subscribers.
During Microsoft’s E3 2007 conference, Corporate Vice President of Global Marketing Jeff Bell announced Xbox Live has eclipsed the seven million user mark. That number is one million more than the company expected to have at this time.
Source: Xbox IGN
Where’s the iPhone For Canucks?
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Being a Canadian, I can admit that the choices for anything don’t seem to have half as good as they are in the US. Personally, my hick town offers three phone companies to choose from, one of them being Rogers and the other two being useless. Rogers is also the only GSM carrier. They hold a good monopoly on the market here, and because of that, there is no iPhone yet.
If Rogers does introduce the iPhone to its customers, it will have to make major changes to its data pricing, Geist told Canada’s National Post on Monday. “I don’t see how you can have an iPhone with the pricing structure that they’re offering,” he said. In an email advisory sent to subscribers earlier this year, Rogers said that it was still sorting out iPhone availability and pricing terms with Apple. However, the carrier confidently claimed that it would be the only Canadian provider to offer the Apple handset.
Source: Apple Insider
Class Action Lawsuit for Microsoft Over Scratched Discs
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It was only a matter of time! Someone is suing Microsoft because the console scratched his games, deeming them unplayable. This inconvenience is worth $5 million to them, which seems completely reasonable. If anything, hopefully we will finally get an admission out of Microsoft that there is indeed a problem.
The lawsuit contends that the plaintiffs in the case “have been damaged in that their game discs were destroyed by the Xbox 360 during reasonable, foreseeable, normal, and intended use.” They blame Microsoft because “The Xbox 360 was negligently designed and manufactured in that the Console’s laser disc reading assembly contacts and scratches the video game discs during normal and intended operation and use.”
Source: Joystiq
GameTap On Intel Macs
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Gametap has sure come a long way since we first took a look almost two years ago, and for good reason it seems. There are a slew of games to get addicted to, including the exclusive Sam & Max series. Up until now, Mac users have been left in the dust, but no longer, as the service now works with Intel-based Macs. Sorry PPC users.
Mac users who are gamers (more than half of us here at The CG) can now indulge themselves in 500 video games thanks to GameTap. Let’s clarify that: Mac users on Intel-based systems can get their “game on.†You’ll find a decent range of games on the service, with titles like Street Fighter Alpha 3 (I think I have 24 versions of that game now) and Metal Slug, in case you feel like playing a game only those SNK weirdos have played before.
Source: CrunchGear
Flock 0.9 Due Out Today
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We posted last Wednesday that a major overhauled version of Flock was coming, and today will be the day. What’s new is “My World”, a feature that will tell you when your attention-grabbing friends have updated photos and videos, easy posting of your favorite links to del.icio.us and ma.gnolia, updated BlogEditor with Blogger and LiveJournal support, photo uploader and more. If you live in Web 2.0, this browser is a sure-win.
Flock, the Mozilla based web browser still under development in private beta, is getting a nice overhaul with its 0.9 release tomorrow. If you’re not familiar with Flock, it was released in 2005 with much anticipation and hype as the social network browser. Flock was created to integrate various social networks into one browser platform so you could conceivably post items to your blog, update your Facebook page, upload to Flickr and all the while stream YouTube videos.
Source: Download Squad
iPhone Nano to Be Released In Q4
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If this comes as a surprise to you, stand up, walk out of the room, stare at a blank wall and re-evaluate your thinking process. According to Reuters, Q4 will see the launch of a new iPhone that will be based on the slim iPod Nano, which may retail around the $300 price-point. Despite the insane fanboism that follows the iPhone, I think I am more interested in waiting for a Rev. 2 of the original than the Nano, but the size and price may be what sells this up and comer.
Sales of the iPhone are expected to be limited to a small percentage of the market due to its high price tag, particularly in the United States where 85 percent of consumers tend to spend $100 or less on cell phones. But analysts predict that a cheaper phone from Apple, which leads the digital music player market, could pose a much bigger threat to long-established phone makers such as Nokia, Motorola, Samsung Electronics and Sony Ericsson, owned by Sony and Ericsson.
Source: MSNBC
Linux Kernel 2.6.22 Released, Offers Better Wireless Support
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It feels like I just updated to the latest 2.6.21 kernel, but here’s another! Alright, so I upgraded two months ago, but it really does feel like yesterday. 2.6.22 brings on an improved SMP-friendly SLUB allocator, better wireless/firewire stacks, Blackfin architecture, IPV6 optimistic duplicate address detection and a whole whack of other stuff that I have no clue about. So what are you fellow *nix users waiting for? Update!
This wireless stack has many features, like a complete software MAC implementation, WEP, WPA, a “link-layer” bridging module, hostapd, QoS support to prioritize things like VoIP, 802.11g support, and full debug capabilities. All of this comes in a single implementation that drivers can use without rewriting those features themselves, which sadly has been done multiple times in the linux WiFi world.
Source: Kernel Newbies
Playstation 3 Price-Drop Imminent
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Sony hasn’t admitted to anything yet, but sources say that the price drop on the PS3 is no joke. The apparent plan is to drop the console to $499, from $599, and then launch an updated console with an 80GB hard drive to fill the $599 spot. I don’t know about you, but I still haven’t touched hardly any of the hard drive space on my PS3, and don’t see 80GB as being a make or break decision. But what if it came with a free copy of Motorstorm?
Oh, and for those of you living in the classic era, Engadget is also reporting that Sony will be launching an updated PS2. Yes, another. The new unit is supposed to weigh only 600g, a rather large drop from the second generations weight of 900g.
Despite denials, Sony has made official the new $499 price point for the PlayStation 3 that we’ve started to see appear in retailers across the US. The 60GB model’s new price point will indeed be $499, with a new 80GB model going on sale for $599 in the US and Canada in August. As a small bonus, the 80GB version will include a “free” copy of MotorStorm.
Source: Engadget
Sierra confirms Battlestar Galactica on XBLA
We’ve known for a while that Sierra Online has been planning to bring a Battlestar Galactica game to Xbox Live Arcade but the company has now finally slapped it with an official announcement. Reported on Team Xbox, the game’s a top-down shooter featuring a single-player campaign and multiplayer human versus Cylon space battles that support up to eight players in Firefight, Skirmish and Domination modes.
A number of the game’s single-player missions are based on action in the TV series, with four ships from both factions – including the Viper II and the Cylon raider – present and pilot-able.
It’s expected to release this autumn.
Source: CVG
Windows Vista SP1 To Be Released In a Week
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Vista’s first service pack wasn’t due out until later this year, but Mary Jo Foley tells us that we should be expecting it in just a weeks time. Most of the fixes will be performance related, including both the slow file copying and slow shutdown, the latter of which Microsoft claimed to have not existed. If anything, I am hoping SP1 will make the Vista experience a little smoother, and less crash-happy.
Microsoft’s Windows client team, under Director of Windows Engineering Steven Sinofsky, has adopted a much more restrictive information-flow policy. Instead of over-promising and under-delivering, Sinofsky wants the client team to do the opposite. To achieve this, the client team is attempting to institute Apple-like secrecy over anything pertaining to future Windows client directions.
Source: ZD Net
Trillian iPhone Client Development Going Smooth
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Been hoping for a reliable IM client for your new iPhone? Don’t worry, Cerulean has got you covered. Well, almost. Trillian Astra will be the name of the official client for the phone, but it’s currently in Alpha testing, which you can join here. There is no note about final launch time, but it looks like it’s coming along nicely, so it shouldn’t be too much longer.
Currently the contact list and message windows are up and running. You can see the status of your contacts they update. You can send and receive messages in real-time, as long as your browser window is open. There is no need to move Windows (what a backward concept! :) ) around on the phone, as everything is compact and fit tight to the screen. This beauty is completed with a smooth and true-to-the-pixel user interface done right.
Source: Cerulean Studios
11-Year-Old Charged With DUI
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It’s Monday, so there is no excuse for not having an off-beat news posting. Try to take this all in at once: 11-Year-Old steals parents Monte Carlo and gets involved in a chase with the cops. The chase lasted 8 miles and the 11-year-old was going a staggering 100MPH. As if that wasn’t crazy enough, she was also caught under the influence of alcohol. Stranger still, there is a state law in AL that limits the amount of allowed liquor that an underage drinker can have…
With his gun drawn, the officer says he approached the car to find an 11-year-old girl behind the wheel. Sorry, an allegedly drunk, slightly injured 11-year-old girl behind the wheel. Orange Beach assistant police chief Greg Duck wouldn’t say what the girl’s blood alcohol level was, but did say it was higher than the legal limit for adults, .08 grams per milliliter, and much higher than what state law allows for anyone under 21, which is .02 gpm.
Source: Autoblog
OCZ Releases PC2-6400 Mobile DDR2
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If you are a computing enthusiast and own a notebook, the DDR2-667 memory crammed in there probably makes you cringe. The memory is in no way slow, but the desktop standard has been DDR2-800 for quite a while. As far as I know, OCZ are the first to come to market with replacement mobile ram at these speeds, which are offered in both 2GB and 4GB kits. Sadly, we still don’t see the tight 4-4-4 timings as we do on our desktop counterparts, so you will just have to put up with 5-5-5.
Sunnyvale, CA—July 5, 2007—OCZ Technology Group, a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory, today released PC2-6400 2GB SODIMM modules, a high-speed addition to their line of premium laptop upgrade memory. These performance memory modules are built to handle the powerful processors and other high-end components of enthusiast and professional notebooks, as well as mainstream consumers looking to add value and performance to their systems.
Source: OCZ Technology Press Release