- 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
Social & RSS Feeds
Latest Videos
Latest News
Tech News
Super Talent Announces 4 GigaByte DDR2-800 Gaming Kit
San Jose, California – March 26, 2007 — Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of DRAM memory modules and flash products, today announced a new 4 GigaByte 800MHz DDR2 memory kit that is ideal for gamers and enthusiasts.
Source: Super Talent Press Release
Less Than a Week Left On Contest 2 and 3
There is now less than a week for both contest 2 and 3, for the Thermaltake Armor case and Razer peripherals. It’s easy to win, as long as you have the required goods! If you have an ugly case, check out the Tt contest. If you have hilarious gaming screenshots, check out the Razer one. Both end Saturday night!
Our fourth contest is in the works and should be posted later today or tomorrow, so stay tuned.
Source: Contest Page
Music Publishers Sue XM
XM Radio now has another headache. In addition to getting skeptical federal regulators to sign off on their merger with Sirius, the satellite radio operator was sued yesterday by a group of music publishers. The National Music Publishers’ Association announced the lawsuit yesterday, accusing XM Radio of not compensating songwriters and publishers for music recorded by its subscribers.
There isn’t a day that passes without a new story about the RIAA and music publishers. The ironic thing is that these stories never have any good news inside of them. Music sales are going down… coincidence? As if the FCC wasn’t enough of a problem for XM… things are just not getting any better.
Source: Ars Technica
Jack Thompson’s Latest Suit Ridiculous By Even His Standards
You sort of have to admire Jack Thompson, the “blame the video game” lawyer: just when you think he can’t get any more ridiculous, he goes and outdoes himself by accusing a number of video-game web sites of racketeering.
How is it that this guy continues to do what he does? Anyone else would be thrown into an institute… how does Jack evade?
Source: Tech Dirt
Apple TV Installable On Any Mac
It appears that Apples recently launched Apple TV has already had it’s software ripped out and compressed into a CD image. You can download the software to install on your own Mac, if it floats your boat. It’s impressive that the Apple TV was only released a week ago and already there are numerous hacks floating around, and now the entire software package!
Source: Crampton Platt
RIAA Going After a 10-Year-Old Girl
The latest target of the RIAA’s ire is a 10-year-old girl in Oregon, who was 7 when the alleged infringement occurred, and whose disabled mother lives on Social Security. In Atlantic v. Andersen, an Oregon case that was widely reported in 2005 when the defendant counterclaimed against the RIAA under Oregon’s RICO statute and other laws, the defendant’s mother sought to limit the RIAA’s deposition of the child to telephone or video-conference. The RIAA has refused, insisting on being able to grill the little girl in person.
It’s hard to believe that we are getting the whole story, but either way, the RIAA is not intent on improving it’s PR. I suppose the recent 20% drop in music sales didn’t bother them too much so they are still trucking along with the lawsuits.
Source: Slashdot
Google Not Developing Mobile Phone
It looks like we won’t be phoning home with a Google mobile anytime real soon. A top Google executive has denied outright that the company is developing a mobile phone.
Those who were hoping for a Google phone should look elsewhere… it’s not happening. Knowing Google, it’s probably still in the pipeline somewhere.
Source: Tech Blorge
Dell Refunds Vista
Although many people have asked for pre-installed Linux, and Dell seems to have listened, some still think that buying a naked PC won’t be easy. But what about stripping it naked after you buy it? I managed to get Windows Vista (and a bit more) refunded from Dell Germany last week. The process was surprisingly simple.
This happened overseas so I’m not sure how possible it would be over here. It wouldn’t hurt to give it a try if you don’t plan on using your Vista install on a new notebook though. I wouldn’t blame you.
Source: Slashdot
Make Your Coffee With a Laser
Do you have a 2Kw laser hanging around, but have absolutely no idea what to use it for? Well, here is a perfect example. Take one part instant coffee, cup of water and one 2Kw laser. Enough said.
Source: Hack a Day
Washington Pushing RFID License Plates
The state’s upcoming alternative “enhanced” driver’s license — which Washington residents will be able to use for crossing the Canadian border in lieu of a passport — is necessary to boost security while preserving the cross-border flow of trade and tourism, Gov. Chris Gregoire said Friday.
This might sound like a good idea, but I can’t help be a little annoyed by it. The article primarily mentions the ease of crossing the border with this system, but it also opens the door to being tracked wherever you drive. This is already popular overseas, so with Washtington leading the way over here, it may spread quickly.
Source: Seattle Pi
Playstation 3 or beer?
While we might’ve put down a few of Microsoft’s last night Europe exploits as a tad immature, we aren’t going to deny the genius here: Microsoft’s message to gamers is that the PS3 = the Xbox 360 + £146 in beer money. Of course, such a mental exercise is nothing without a bit of illustration, so Microsoft carted in just that much beer to the offices of the UK’s CVG magazine (above) and Auckland, NZ’s GamePlanet store (pictured after the break).
I wish Microsoft would send me 144 cans of beer!
Source: Engadget
Vonage Loses Patent Infringment Case to Verizon
The final decision made by a federal judge stated that Vonage Holdings Corp. must pay out $58 million in damages to Verizon along with 5.5% future revenues royalty for any continuing infringements, according to a press release. The decision came from the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Virginia, filing the infringements of three of the five patents under consideration.
This is a huge hit to Vonage but is hardly the only one. Their subscriber numbers are dropping drastically as well, with a ~40% drop since last year. This comes as a surprise to me, because I cannot turn on a TV without seeing one of their commercials. They are a few of the most annoying out there, so that can’t help.
Source: Daily Tech
CBC Recommends Linux
In all the “switcher” TV ads that the folks in Apple’s marketing department have come up with, the choice is always the same. Go with the clunky and complicated Microsoft Windows machine, or pick up the hip and sleek designer Apple computer running the Mac OS (hip and sleek short form for “operating system”). They’re good ads — heck, I’ve even gone to Apple’s website just to watch them.
I am completely shocked that the author chose to feature Ubuntu in his article. It’s a true rarity. That aside, Linux is awesome and you should use it. Yes, it’s a slow news weekend. Painfully slow.
Source: CBC
Many Americans See Little Point To Web
A little under one-third of U.S. households have no Internet access and do not plan to get it, with most of the holdouts seeing little use for it in their lives, according to a survey released Friday. Park Associates, a Dallas-based technology market research firm, said 29 percent of U.S. households, or 31 million homes, do not have Internet access and do not intend to subscribe to an Internet service over the next 12 months.
Like millions of people, I’d find it hard to go a day without being on the internet. I couldn’t imagine -never- using it!
Source: Information Week
Apple TV Already Being Hacked
Only a couple of days after being shipped, the Apple TV is already being modified in a variety of ways. A thread at Something Awful discusses installing VLC, and a dedicated site, AppleTVHacks.net, has appeared and is cataloging hacks including a hard-drive upgrade tutorial. Did Apple intend for the Apple TV to be so easy to upgrade and hack?
This is one piece of hardware I’m intrigued by, and it’s cool to see that it’s quite "hackable".
Source: Slashdot
MMO Game Addiction Overstated, Still Harmful
A number of researchers are conducting studies as to whether or not the addiction to Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) can be harmful to gamers. A recent report from Dr. John Charlton, psychology research fellow at the University of Bolton, found that “incidences of addiction could be 10% lower than some currently accepted classification schemes suggest.”
10% lower or not, I personally know of a few people who have been so addicted to an MMO that it would undoubtedly be considered harmful. Moderation is hard to stick with sometimes.
Source: Daily Tech
Who needs Tin Foil, we’ve got Paint
If you’re bothered about the security (or lack there of) of your Wi Fi connection you’ll soon be able to paint a solution thanks to EM-SEC Technologies Wi Fi blocking paint.
The paints is said to block various electromagnetic transmissions so along with Wi Fi it could also be used to block mobile phones. As well as the obvious security and social benefits (no more annoying crazy frog ring tones in the middle of a movie), it could also be great for pranks, imagine a mate trying to troubleshoot his Wi-Fi connection after you helped him decorate.
Source: Cool Gadgets
Must-have Firefox extensions
If ever a software application was built to be more than itself, it’s Mozilla Firefox. Over the past 2 years we’ve tried, loved and posted dozens of feature-adding extensions for our favorite web browser. But today we have the master, grand daddy list of 10 must-haves.
Alright, these top ten lists are done far too often. But, it’s the weekend and news is slow. Luckily, it’s a good list.
Source: Life Hacker
Apple TV Has Landed
n looks, it sits at the top of the heap. Apple TV is a gorgeous, one-inch-tall, round-cornered square slab, 7.7 inches on a side. It slips silently and almost invisibly into your entertainment setup. (You can’t say that for the Xbox, which in comparison is huge and too noisy for a bedroom.) The heartbreaker for millions, however, is that Apple TV requires a widescreen TV — preferably an HDTV.
Apple has finally released a product to really intrigue me. For one thing, the Apple TV is compatible with PC’s in addition to Macs. The on screen scheme is the best I’ve seen. Kudos to anyone who can make a black menu and it not be that hard on the eyes. Overall, it looks like a very solid product.
Source: New York Times
Playstation 3 Offers Incredible Folding @ Home Results
To my astonishment, I discovered that a small legion of 13,000 PS3s running the Folding at Home app account for most of the computing power in the project, amounting to about 56 percent (PS3s = 316 measured TFLOPS) of the total.
This is impressive, but once again not much of a surprise given that these consoles have 8-Cores to deal with. Whether or not that would be as fast as a top-end Intel Quad-Core, I’m not sure. Either way, this solidifies the fact of what setup is the best for giving you amazing Folding results.
Source: Gizmodo
Helping Your Book Reach Amazons Top Charts
This all adds up to numbers that are ubiquitous, closely watched — and of dubious value. The targeted marketing campaigns contribute volatility to sales-ranking numbers that are inherently unstable. Outside the top 1% or so of books, few sell multiple copies a day, so little separates books with rankings tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, apart. Morris Rosenthal, an author and publisher based in Springfield, Mass., who has studied the Amazon charts, says a day without a sale can send a book ranked 10,000 to as low as 50,000.
It sounds just like any other ranking system. If you have a few dollars to spare, you can rise to the top easily.
Source: Wall Street Journal
GentleMouse Ergonomic Software
Today we investigate GentleMouse, which approaches ergonomics from a different angle: It lets you use any mouse without the need to click it. No, we’re not talking about mind-control, and it does sound a bit awkward at first, even a little gimmicky. But in practice, GentleMouse lets you perform everyday mouse commands simply by making small movements of the cursor over well-placed menu commands.
This is interesting, but I cannot see me being able to get used to it. Sometimes I have the habit of clicking the mouse even when I am not hovering over something. Worth a try for those who want to relax your hand a bit though.
Source: Extreme Tech
Novell Launches Pro-Linux Get a Mac Spoofs
Apple just might create the most parody-inducing advertisements in the world. Both the dancing iPod-listeners and “Get a Mac” have kept YouTube busy over the last year, but very few of the parodies have reflected the efforts of a competing company to actually attack Apple.
I’ve seen many of these "spoof" Apple ads, but most of them are cheap. These Novell ones actually made me laugh out loud. Good stuff.
Source: Wired
Razer and Thermaltake Contests Still Underway
Our second and third birthday contests are still underway for all those who want a chance at winning a great prize! Razers contest simply requires you to fish out your hilarious gaming screenshots and submit them in our forum. The winner of this contest will walk away with a Tarantula keyboard, Barracuda HP1 headset and new DeathAdder mouse.
If you have an ugly case, you need to enter the Thermaltake contest, where the prize up for grabs is a new silver Armor. Our forth contest is currently in discussion and will be posted in the coming days… so stay tuned.
Source: Contest Page
Are CeBits Days Numbered?
From the daily FUD files, The Inq claims that many companies, such as Gigabyte and ASUS, are disgruntled about this years show and are contemplating pulling out of next years.
Notable no-shows this year included Shuttle, Acer and HTC, whilst Intel and Nvidia also scaled back their presences. There was a complete lack of official news at the show, with no new graphics or processor announcements, a sorry state of affairs given the previous monopoly CeBit had on product launches in the Q1 timeframe.
It seems unlikely that ASUS and Gigabyte would actually skip next years show, but the declining numbers aren’t exactly reassuring.
Source: The Inquirer