- Qualcomm Launches Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 Mobile Platform
- AMD Launches Ryzen PRO 7000 Series Mobile & Desktop Platform
- Intel Launches Sleek Single-Slot Arc Pro A60 Workstation Graphics Card
- NVIDIA Announces Latest Ada Lovelace Additions: GeForce RTX 4060 Ti & RTX 4060
- Maxon Redshift With AMD Radeon GPU Rendering Support Now Available
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Intel System-On-A-Chip Media Processor Powers…
INTEL DEVELOPER FORUM, Beijing, April 17, 2007 – Intel Corporation today unveiled a highly integrated media processor for the consumer electronics (CE) market segment that will power a new generation of devices, such as digital set top boxes and networked media players, and bring consumers advanced in-home information and entertainment services.
Source: Intel Press Release
Intel Provides Details On New Products…
INTEL DEVELOPER FORUM, Beijing, April 17, 2007 — Intel Corporation executives today detailed more than 20 new products, technology innovations and industry initiatives — many of them industry firsts — aimed at making the World Wide Web, computers and consumer electronics devices much more responsive, friendlier and secure.
Source: Intel Press Release
Vonage Says There Is No Workaround To Verizon’s VoIP Patents
Seeing the stay denied would be a dream scenario for Verizon, since the patents in question are so broad that it’s conceivable it could be impossible to run a landline-replacement VoIP service in the US without infringing upon them — meaning it could shut down the entire US VoIP industry and the stiff competition it provides the company’s traditional phone services.
Things have just gotten a lot worse for Vonage and all other VoIP services out there. If VoIP is killed off, I wonder if it will hurt Verizons own business due to disgruntled customers leaving?
Source: Tech Dirt
Game Industry Going Downhill?
Were the games actually better? Well, no, of course not. I may be nostalgic, but I’m not stupid. Today’s technologically superior, multi-million dollar monstrosities are, in almost every way, superior to anything that even the most creative guy could do in his basement on an old TI. But, without the full spectrum of gaming to be measured against, the games of the day really did more to inspire and amaze on a more regular basis than today’s demographic targeted, designed by committee with corporate oversight games.
This is something I ponder over quite often. Even before the turn of the century, games seemed to have a much higher level of quality. Now, games are being churned out at the fastest rate possible. You might disagree with the author, but he makes a few good points.
Source: Gamers With Jobs
NVIDIA 8600 GT and GTS Released
NVIDIA today has announced the launch of three new graphic cards, the 8500GT, 8600GT, and 8600GTS, which range from $89 – $229, respectively. There are countless reviews around the web today.
NVIDIA’s new GeForce 8600 GTS and GT cards put up decent performance numbers throughout our suite of benchmarks, but they were outpaced in a number of situations by the Radeon X1950 Pro and GeForce 7950 GT. In 3DMark06 and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. the 8600s performed on-par or better than the last-gen cards we tested. However, in virtually all of the other tests the new GeForce 8600 GTS and GT cards fell short of the mark set by its older mainstream counterparts. – Hot Hardware
The GeForce 8600 GTS has a 128-bit memory bus. But you know what? It did not hamper performance; in fact, our gameplay was faster than the 256-bit memory ATI Radeon X1950 Pro. The X1950 Pro’s memory runs at 1.38 GHz giving us 44 GB/sec of memory bandwidth. The GeForce 8600 GTS runs at 2 GHz giving us 32 GB/sec. That is 10 GB/sec less of memory bandwidth, yet, we have higher gaming performance! It is all in the architecture and the memory controller. We were able to run Flight Sim X at 4X AA and 16X AA at 1600×1200 which is very memory intensive, the GeForce 8600 GTS could do it with 10 GB/sec less of memory bandwidth available. – Hard|OCP
Perhaps I am too pampered by the high-end but it seems to me that other than DirectX 10 capability, the lower power requirements, new pure video feature, and heat output are the few redeeming qualities of the 8600 GTS cards. Sure, the 3DMark scores look great but when it comes down to performing well in games I just don’t feel that it’s a good deal when you look at current pricing of the 8800 GTS 320MB. They can be found for as little as $219 after mail-in-rebate and offers another world of performance over the 8600 GTS! – Legit Reviews
Other reviews can be found at techPowerUp!, TweakTown, Hexus, i4u, AnandTech, Legion Hardware, XS Reviews and Elite Bastards.
Is Google Guilty of Anti-Trust with Purchase of DoubleClick?
In the wake of its announced acquisition of DoubleClick, a number of the company’s rivals, including Microsoft, Yahoo and AT&T, are urging the government to closely examine the deal from an antitrust perspective.
It’s hard to speculate about what will happen here. There is still plenty of competition out there, so this purchase might not mean much to anyone. Except Google and their pockets of course.
Source: Tech Dirt
Adobe Unveils Flash Video Control
Adobe has unveiled a version of its Flash media software to let copyright holders embed ads and control usage. The new software should also allow video to be played offline, whether on computers or portable devices.
Code me clueless, but how was it not possible to integrate ads in the past? Or have flash files play while offline? Regardless of the knowledge I lack, this can only mean one thing. More ads!
Source: BBC
Close to 25% of Use Rate in Europe for Firefox
Firefox cannot be stopped: close to 25% of the European use rate. The use rate in Europe still remains lower than Oceania’s since November 2006.
“People who know… Firefox.” I’d love to call this a surprise, but it’s bound to happen. For those interested, since the beginning of the year, Firefox has claimed 48.19% of the browser share on our website, followed by Internet Explorer with 43.37%. IE is just too f33t!
Source: XiTi Monitor
Canadian DMCA To Be Introduced This Spring
The Hill Times reports this week (issue still not online) that the Conservative government will introduce copyright reform legislation this spring provided that there is no election. The paper points to two main changes from the Liberals Bill C-60 – tougher anti-circumvention legislation (ie. DMCA-style laws that ban devices that can be used to circumvent as well as provisions that block all circumvention subject to the odd exception) and an educational exception that will provide for free access to web-based materials.
Great. Just great! Canada did not need to become more like the US (does anyone disagree?) but it is becoming so… slowly. This is not 100% certain as of yet, but it’s unlikely to change at this point. So needless…
Source: Michael Geist
Virginia Tech Tragedy
Crime is nothing new, but yesterday there was a tragedy truly difficult to fathom. Someone who had no respect for anyone took the lives of over thirty people, and injured many more. Our deepest thoughts go out to friends, family and anyone else affected by this tragedy.
Source: CNN
Return of the Vinyl Album
NPR ran a story this morning about the comeback of vinyl. It seems that sales of new vinyl records are up about 10%; sales will approach a million this year (as against half a billion for CDs). NPR mentioned the popularity of a turntable with a USB interface and speculated on other possible reasons for the resurgence. They mentioned sound quality and lack of DRM as possible causes. Sound quality can and will be debated, but DRM rates a resounding ‘Duh.’
Long live Vinyl! I own a few records, but I don’t have a record player. Why? They are cool… and classy. Something you want to hang on the wall. Hard to do that with a CD.
Source: Slashdot
Colorful Barcodes?
Microsoft finds monochromatic stripes dull, and has put its weight behind a colored bar code format. The color bar code is being targeted especially for use on commercial media such as movies, video games and other recordings. Microsoft said the High Capacity Color Bar Code could start showing up on DVDs by the end of this year, thanks to a deal it has signed with an organization that helps coordinate product labelling for audiovisual works.
I am trying to figure out just why we need a colorful barcode. The old school stripes work just fine. Microsoft could have been a little more creative… not just slap down an assortment of triangles.
Source: Neowin
The 20 Most Annoying Tech Products
Unlike PC World’s 25 Worst Products of All Time, irksome products aren’t necessarily bad, buggy, or dangerous. But they all have one or two traits that make you want to wrap them in 200 pounds of steel cable and toss them off the side of a boat. From stupid features and rude behavior to brain-dead design and poor corporate policies, these 20 products have truly annoyed us over the years, and some continue to do so.
Top lists do not get old! This one has inclusions that many will agree with. Such as? AOL free trial discs, Windows ME, Bonzi Buddy and MySpace. I’m off to get sick now.
Microsoft’s Advisories Give Clues To Hackers
The latest zero-day flaw in the Windows DNS Server RPC interface implementation is a perfect example of the tug-o-war within the MSRC (Microsoft Security Response Center) about how much information should be included in the pre-patch advisory. Using clues in the workarounds section of the advisory, Errata Security researcher David Maynor said he was able to pinpoint the source of the vulnerability without much trouble.
That will teach them for releasing too much information! Leave it to “hackers” to waste no time.
Source: ZD Net
Intel Unveils Quad-Core Storage Server
STORAGE NETWORKING WORLD, San Diego, April 16, 2007 – Intel Corporation today announced the industry’s first 2U, 12 drive, integrated quad-core storage server: the Intel Storage Server SSR212MC2. This hardware platform enables a new price/performance class for the small- and medium-sized business (SMB) market. Powered by the quad-core Intel(R) Xeon(R) processor 5300 series, this new rack mount server can be configured as a broad range of enterprise and small business storage solutions, including Network-Attached Storage (NAS), Storage Area Network (SAN) and application servers.
Source: Intel Press Release
STALKER Not Stealing Textures
Thanks to reader Rob S. for pointing out that the water textures used by both Valve and GSC GameWorld, the makers of STALKER, come from a texture pack sold by Marlin Studios. The chaps at Marlin make all kinds of exciting textures, including ‘Home & Office Furniture – High Detail, Low Price!’ and ‘Traffic – Low Poly Pretextured Vehicles, SUVs and trucks you can even animate!’
This is the first thing I thought when I first seen these rumor reports. It makes sense though. You’d have to be really naive to think that you could steal textures out of a popular game and not get caught. It all makes sense now.
Source: The Inquirer
ASUS Contest Ends TODAY
For those who are being lazy, stop with the excuses and enter our ASUS contest which ends today. All you need to do is review a product you own and despise. Simple enough, right? Right!
The winner of the contest will have the choice between an ASUS Commando or Crosshair motherboard, depending on your preferred CPU manufacturer. The contest ends tonight at 12:00AM EST, so get in there!
Source: Contest Page
Guide To Inkjet For Photographers
If you find yourself in the market for a new printer, you’ve got significantly more options today than were available just a year ago. In this guide we’ll go beyond the marketing hype and look at the features and performance issues you need to consider when navigating through this suddenly competitive field.
This is a great primer for those who want top-quality prints of their photographs. I am considering the Canon IPF9000. I just need $15,000 first.
Source: Ars Technica
Donkey Kong Recreated Using 6,400 Post-it Notes
Students at UCSC have recreated the first level of Donkey Kong using 6,400 Post-it notes stuck to the windows of the E2 building. It took a team of about 10 people five hours to complete the work, which will remain in place until May 1. There’s a time-lapse video of the construction process.
This is the kind of support that a classic like this deserves. I am not sure if it’s purely a case of people with too much time on their hands, but the result is amazing.
Source: Slashdot
Wi-Fi Bug Found in Linux
A bug has been found in a major Linux Wi-Fi driver that can allow an attacker to take control of a laptop — even when it is not on a Wi-Fi network. There have not been many Linux Wi-Fi device drivers, and this is apparently the first remotely executable Wi-Fi bug. It affects the widely used MadWi-Fi Linux kernel device driver for Atheros-based Wi-Fi chipsets, according to Laurent Butti, a researcher from France Telecom Orange, who found the flaw and released the information in a presentation at last month’s Black Hat conference in Amsterdam.
This is quite a serious flaw, so those who use MadWi-Fi should patch right away. Given the high-risk profile, distro specific repositories will not likely waste time updating to include the patched driver.
Source: PC World
How To Manage Windows Vista Application Compatibility
As of the end of March, 2007, 129 applications were certified or designed for Windows Vista, and 922 applications worked or were compatible with Windows Vista. Think that’s a lot? Well, it does add up to over 1,000 applications you can run on Windows Vista with few, if any, issues. But, given that there are tens of thousands of applications designed for Windows, this first thousand is just a drop in the bucket.
Many of the solutions listed here are not for those who want to take time out of their day to tinker. That’s the sad fact though. Vista is brand new, so there will certainly be some incompatibilities. At least there are some ways around it.
Source: Information Week
New Sony DVDs Not Working In Some Players
It seems that the most recent DVDs released by Sony — specifically Stranger Than Fiction, Casino Royale, and The Pursuit of Happyness — have some kind of ‘feature’ that makes them unplayable on many DVD players. This doesn’t appear to be covered by the major media yet, but this link to a discussion over at Amazon gives a flavor of the problems people are experiencing.
This is what happens when companies decide to go all fancy with their releases. Be aware of these troubles if you are planning on making a purchase of these titles.
Source: Slashdot
Norway Wants Legal File Sharing
The Liberal Party (Venstre) Congress states that today’s legal frameworks for copyrights are not adapted to a modern society. New technology gives artists and consumers vast opportunities, but also creates challenges. The balance between consumer demands, a society’s need for openness and access to culture, and the artists’ right to revenue and attribution, must improve.
What’s proposed? Legal file sharing/sampling and a ban on DRM. Amazing.
Source: Unge Venstre
Scanner Spots Deadly Blood Clots
What better way is there to begin the new week than with a health news story?
The device, called an “infrascanner”, can spot blood clots on the surface of the brain known as haematomas, which can lead to death or disability if left untreated. It is being tested in India, but if successful it could have benefits for patients anywhere.
There seem to be multiple pluses to this tool. It’s handheld, inexpensive, and incredibly accurate. Sounds like a winner.
Source: BBC
Industry Hails Adobe Creative Suite 3
SAN JOSE, Calif. — April 16, 2007 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq: ADBE) today announced the availability of Adobe(R) Creative Suite(R) 3 Design and Web Editions (see separate press release), with major industry players praising Adobe’s expanded and revolutionary creative software line-up. Apple, HP, Intel, Nokia, and Xerox join AIGA, the professional association for design, in welcoming Adobe Creative Suite 3.
Source: Adobe Press Release