Tech News

ASUS Announces Striker Extreme

Posted on November 9, 2006 11:48 AM by Rob Williams

ASUS today announced its new Striker Extreme motherboard for extreme enthusiasts. The new Striker Extreme is part of ASUS’ new Republic of Gamer series engineered for enthusiasts with a touch of style. The new Striker Extreme features NVIDIA’s recently announced nForce 680i SLI core-logic and rated to run processors up to a 1,333 MHz front-side bus. Intel quad-core processors and NVIDIA Quad-SLI technologies are also supported on the Striker Extreme.

This is a wicked looking board! It’s built specifically with enthusiasts in mind, so we can expect some insane tweaking ability here. This board also features the brand new 680i SLI chipset, and fully supports Quad-Core Kentsfields. If there is a downside to this board, it would have to be the price… $400!

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‘New E3’ Officially Goes Public

Posted on November 9, 2006 11:45 AM by Rob Williams

International Data Group (IDG), which is also responsible for the MacWorld Expo and many other events, will be holding the show on October 18-20, 2007, confirming previous reports. Unlike E3, the event will be open to the public.

Since this is a public event, I hate to think of how packed this place will be. E3 was filled to the brim as it was! It’s also difficult to tell at this point how exactly this will compare to E3 overall. At least someone took the initiative to replace E3… that’s all that matters ;-)

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Final Fantasy XII ships 1.5 million

Posted on November 9, 2006 11:45 AM by Rob Williams

Like a particularly devastating “summon” spell, Square Enix bombarded North American retailers last week with 1.5 million copies of Final Fantasy XII. The publisher announced today that the mass shipment represents the largest day-one North American availability of any game in the publisher’s history.

Kudos to Square Enix on this one! Despite the fact that it’s on an “old” console, it sure seems to be selling like hot cakes, especially in Japan.

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Corsair Unleashes the TWIN2X2048-9136C5D DOMINATOR 2GB Kits

Posted on November 9, 2006 11:43 AM by Rob Williams

Fremont, CA (November 8, 2006) –Corsair, a worldwide leader in high performance enthusiast computer products, today launched the world’s fastest DDR2 memory, the TWIN2X2048-9136C5D DOMINATOR. Designed for the new NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI media and communications (MCP)-based motherboards, the new DOMINATOR extends Corsair’s leadership in ultra high performance memory.

You can read the full release here.

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OCZ Technology Announces the Exclusive OCZ NVIDIA SLI-Ready Series

Posted on November 9, 2006 11:42 AM by Rob Williams

Sunnyvale, CA—November 8, 2006—OCZ Technology Group, a worldwide leader in innovative ultra high performance and high reliability memory, today unveiled the new and improved OCZ NVIDIA SLI-Ready branded memory product family. The new PC2-7200 SLI-Ready and PC2-8500 SLI-Ready modules now feature the first ever exclusively designed heatspreader for NVIDIA.

You can read the full release here.

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Novell Outlines Details of Agreement with Microsoft

Posted on November 9, 2006 11:41 AM by Rob Williams

WALTHAM, Mass. – Nov. 7, 2006 – Novell today published additional details on the agreements announced with Microsoft on Nov. 2, outlining the substantial commitment made by both companies to address customers’ growing requirement for Windows and Linux interoperability. The details were made available by Novell in a filing with the SEC. The financial terms of the agreements include payments for pre-paid SUSE Linux Enterprise subscriptions, sales, marketing and development commitments, and payments under the patent cooperation agreement. The company also provided answers to a series of questions raised by the open source community in an FAQ posted on its website. Novell reinforced its commitment to working with the open source community and to fully meet the requirements of the GNU General Public License (“GPL”) which governs the distribution of Linux and other free software.

You can read the full release here.

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Intel Announces Industry’s First Volume Shipments of 65nm NOR Flash Multi-Level Cell Products

Posted on November 9, 2006 11:40 AM by Rob Williams

INTEL DEVELOPER FORUM, Seoul, Korea, Nov. 8, 2006 – Intel Corporation announced today the industry’s first volume shipments of 65-nanometer (nm) NOR flash Multi-Level Cell (MLC) products, including the industry’s first 65nm 1Gigabit (Gb) monolithic part for cell phones. These new products are based on Intel’s StrataFlash® Cellular Memory (M18) architecture and are drop-in compatible with Intel’s high-volume, 90nm-based flash chips, ensuring an easy migration path for cellular Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs.)

You can read the full release here.

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Review Roundup for November 9

Posted on November 9, 2006 11:37 AM by Rob Williams

    Motherboards & Processors
  • ASUS P5N32-SLI Premium – TweakTown
  • Nvidia nForce 680i SLI Chipset – Tech Report

    Peripherals & Power Supplies
  • Apevia Iceberg 680w Power Supply – OCIA
  • Freedom V Wireless Guitar Controller (Playstation 2) – Bjorn3D
  • Polycom Communicator C100S USB Skype Phone – Buzz Me Baby!
  • SteelSound 5Hv2 – TweakNews
  • Ultra Fan Commander – Modders-Inc
  • Zippy (EMACS) GSM-6600P and PSL-6720P Power Supplies – Big Bruin

    Displays & Video Cards
  • BFG 8800 GTX & XFX 8800 GTS – Technic3D
  • Say Hello To DirectX 10 – Digit-Life
  • XFX GeForce 8800 GTX and eVGA 8800 GTS – Legit Reviews

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GeForce 8800GTX and 8800GTX Released!

Posted on November 8, 2006 2:00 PM by Rob Williams

The day many have been waiting for is finally here, the launch of G80. For those unaware, these are much more powerful cards than last gen, and are the first to support DirectX 10 and Shader Model 4.0. Of course, there are many reviews around the web:

DirectX 10 isn’t here yet, DirectX 10 games aren’t here yet. Do you really need this video card now? We can’t answer that for you, but we can say by looking at our evaluation data that we’ve seen real benefits in the here and now with today’s games. We were able to run at higher in-game settings, higher resolutions, higher antialiasing settings, faster performance and better image quality all around. – Hard|OCP

Amazing! That is the long and short of what we have covered today. To keep with tradition, Nvidia has these new cards available right now. There are e-tailers willing to sell them to you if you wish to spend the suggested price of $599 for GeForce 880GTX and $449 for GeForce 8800GTS. After seeing the results and what will be in store for the future, let us leave you with one more thought: the games are just around the bend, and not only will DX10 hardware play them when they arrive, but more importantly, they can play your games better NOW. – Toms Hardware

The 8800 GTX will consume about 125W of power, and NVIDIA recommends at least a 450W power supply and about double if you’re going to setup SLI. That said, the latest 8th generation GPUs from NVIDIA is about efficiency as well. Despite going up from 82W (7900GTX) to 125W, their performance per Watt has jumped nearly 100% in synthetic testing. We’re still in the process of benchmarking, but we can tell you that performance has increased dramatically. – Viper Lair

Each year we reviewers write how impressed we are with a new generation graphics cards. This year it’s a little more than that. Not only did the performance increase. Nope, we have a new version of DirectX, Shader model, architecture and yes higher raw computing graphics card. – Guru3D

NVIDIA’s new GeForce 8800 GTS and GTX cards are mighty strong performers. Throughout our entire battery of benchmarks, both cards put up framerates at, or near the top of the charts. The GeForce 8800 GTS outperformed a GeForce 7900 GTX in every test we ran. It did, however, missed the mark set by a Radeon X1950 XTX in a couple of high-resolution tests, and trailed a GeForce 7950 GX2 on a few occasions, but the features and enhanced image quality offered by the 8800 GTS offset any of these results in our opinion. – HotHardware

Here is a quick list of other reviews:

And related articles:

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80GB Xbox 360 really on the horizon?

Posted on November 8, 2006 9:05 AM by Rob Williams

At a recent Microsoft event to promote upcoming games and the new Video-On-Demand service, a retail Xbox 360 unit was shown with an 80GB hard drive installed. While it’s 20GB short of the previously rumoured 100GB hard drive, it still offers a fourfold increase in storage capacity for users to download their new content onto.

This time, it’s not a hoax. The fact that they so easily allowed the “70GB Free” to be seen should be a good indicator that one is on the way. Finally, I may be able to download a new demo without clearning the last one off first!

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Canon Rebel XTi vs. Nikon D80 vs. Sony Alpha A100

Posted on November 8, 2006 9:01 AM by Rob Williams

There are choices for the photographer who wants a combination of manual and automatic options in a 10-megapixel sub-$1000 DSLR. In this comparison review, we’re looking at the three most prominent cameras – the Sony Alpha A100, the Canon Rebel XTi and the Nikon D80.

I don’t agree entirely with the authors conclusions, but after reading through the article you may have a good idea of what you are looking for. I personally love the D80 due to it’s great build and image quality, and also the huge collection of compatible lenses. The Canon is also great this this regard. All three cameras are priced right for the most part, but you will want to dig deep and ask around before you jump on such a decision.

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Every Vista PC to get a domain name

Posted on November 8, 2006 8:58 AM by Rob Williams

Microsoft has a solution: the “Windows Internet Computer Name” — a unique domain name for your computer. There is one small catch though: you have to be using the next-generation networking protocol IPv6 which, although thoroughly integrated into Windows Vista, isn’t supported by most home routers yet.

IPv6 has been around for a while, but has not been picked up quick. Will Vista be the final push to get the technology to become commonplace? I guess it would depend on how useful the feature for Vista is. Of course, if you are more tech saavy, you could setup your own domain to access your computer remotely while avoiding IPv6.

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Voting machines already showing problems

Posted on November 8, 2006 8:56 AM by Rob Williams

Programming errors and inexperience dealing with electronic voting machines frustrated poll workers in hundreds of precincts early Tuesday, delaying voters in Indiana, Ohio and Florida and leaving some with little choice but to use paper ballots instead. In Cleveland, voters rolled their eyes as election workers fumbled with new touchscreen machines that they couldn’t get to start properly until about 10 minutes after polls opened.

Even more proof that some things just shouldn’t be left entirely to technology. Of course, nothing will be done about this, and who can be sure the overall results will be accurate at all?

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Novell Answers Questions from the Community

Posted on November 8, 2006 8:54 AM by Rob Williams

Since the announcement of the Novell-Microsoft agreement on November 2, we have been flooded with questions from the open source community about what this deal means to the Linux, the open source community, and even what this deal means for Novell. We will use this page to answer as many of those questions as possible.

While these answers make sense for the mostpart, they do nothing to instill faith that this is going to work out. Could Novell have opened a door that leads to their demise? Probably not, but with the hardcore reaction from the community, it’s not going to be a smooth ride. On a side note, Microsoft has just passed Novell a nice, big sum of cash.

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Intel Announces Collaboration to Launch Web 2.0 Business Internet Suite

Posted on November 8, 2006 8:53 AM by Rob Williams

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 7, 2006 – Intel Corporation today announced at the Web 2.0 Conference today that it is collaborating with several software companies on the launch of SuiteTwo, a business Internet suite. The integrated suite, a family of interconnected services combined to improve productivity and enable high-engagement marketing, is comprised of business Web 2.0 capabilities from leading software companies, including Six Apart, Socialtext, NewsGator, SimpleFeed and SpikeSource.

You can read the full release here.

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BioWare to Integrate AGEIA PhysX Technology into Next-Generation Eclipse Engine

Posted on November 8, 2006 8:51 AM by Rob Williams

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – November 7, 2006 – AGEIA Technologies, Inc., the pioneer in hardware-accelerated physics for games, today announced that BioWare Corp. is integrating AGEIA PhysX technology into its next-generation BioWare Eclipse Engine for PCs and next-generation consoles. BioWare chose AGEIA PhysX for its unmatched physics capabilities and its straightforward implementation across multiple platforms.

You can read the full release here.

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Review Roundup for November 8

Posted on November 8, 2006 8:47 AM by Rob Williams

    Motherboards & Processors
  • Core 2 Extreme QX6700 – ByteSector

    Displays & Video Cards
  • Multi-Monitor Tips & Tricks Guide – TechARP
  • MSI GeForce 8800GTS – TweakTown
  • NVIDIA GeForce 8800GTX / 8800GTS Linux Preview – Phoronix

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Movies and TV Shows Coming to Xbox 360

Posted on November 7, 2006 10:10 AM by Rob Williams

Starting November 22, Microsoft will be expanding its Xbox Live service to include high-definition movie downloads as well as standard and high-definition television content. The Redmond-based company has announced deals with CBS, MTV Networks, Paramount Pictures, TBS, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment to blanket Xbox Live with over 1,000 hours of TV programming and movies.

Microsoft has been on a roll over the past year with the 360. I am not a fan of consoles becoming entertainment centers, but for those who enjoy this kind of things, it seems like they know what they are doing. One issue I see though, is the fact that these movies and shows must take up some good deal of space. But we only have a 20GB hard drive to deal with. That doesn’t seem to leave much breathing room.

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Adware Company Fined $3 Million

Posted on November 7, 2006 10:07 AM by Rob Williams

Zango, Inc has been fined $3 million by the Federal Trade Commission for unfair and deceptive adware downloads. According to the settlement, Zango is barred from installing its adware without the consumer’s consent. Consumers that already have Zango adware installed will be glad to know Zango is required provide a uninstall utility for its adware as part of the terms, in addition to the $3 million fine.

News like this is what makes me want to wake up in the morning! However, in reality $3 Million dollars is absolutely nothing to this company I’m sure. Perhaps a $300 Million fine would be more effective. It’s hard to imagine a “small” fine like this would discourage other Adware companies from stopping what they are doing.

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Hacking Democracy documentary online

Posted on November 7, 2006 10:05 AM by Rob Williams

Last week I posted news about an HBO special called “Hacking Democracy” that focused on the potential threats and inaccuracies that voting machines can cause. The developers of the machines wanted the show pulled, but were unsuccessful. Now, the video has found it’s way to Google video. If you don’t have HBO and wanted to catch it, here’s your chance.

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Zune problems for MSN customers

Posted on November 7, 2006 10:03 AM by Rob Williams

People who have bought music from Microsoft’s MSN Music store could face problems if they decide to buy the firm’s new Zune portable player. Microsoft has said it will stop selling music from MSN music from 14 November, when Zune goes on sale in the US. But in a move that could alienate some customers, MSN-bought tracks will not be compatible with the new gadget.

Is it just me, or does this really make no sense? They wouldn’t release a version of Office that doesn’t work with Windows. You’d just think they’d better support their own products with services they run, at least.

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Intel and Micron Announce Advancements in NAND Flash Memory Joint Venture

Posted on November 7, 2006 10:01 AM by Rob Williams

SANTA CLARA, Calif., and BOISE, Idaho, Nov. 6, 2006 – Intel Corporation and Micron Technology Inc., today announced they are ahead of schedule on their development of the NAND flash memory joint venture, IM Flash Technologies. Since the formation of IM Flash in January, the companies have brought online a state-of-the-art 300 millimeter (mm) NAND fabrication facility in Manassas, Virginia, and a Lehi, Utah, 300mm facility is on track to be in production early next year. The venture also currently produces NAND memory through existing capacity at Micron’s Boise, Idaho, fabrication facilities.

You can read the full press release here.

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Review Roundup for November 7

Posted on November 7, 2006 9:59 AM by Rob Williams

    Memory & Storage
  • Buffalo FireStix PC2-9200 1GB – Virtual-Hideout
  • Crucial Tenth Anniversary DDR2 PC2-5300 – techFEAR

    Displays & Video Cards
  • Forceware 93.71 Driver Comparison – Hardware OC
  • HIS X1300 XT IceQ Turbo – XYZ Computing
  • InFocus Play Big IN76 DLP Projector – The Tech Lounge
  • Inno3D GeForce 7950 GT 512MB Zalman Edition – Guru3D
  • Sapphire Radeon X1950 XTX – TweakPC
  • XFX GeForce 7950 GT XXX Edition – Hexus

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Valve goes multicore

Posted on November 6, 2006 11:05 AM by Rob Williams

We were treated to an unveiling of the company’s new programming strategy, which has been completely realigned around supporting multiple CPU cores. Valve is planning on more than just supporting them. It wants to make the absolute maximum use of the extra power to deliver more than just extra frames per second, but also a more immersive gaming experience.

If you want to see what Valve has in store for the future, be sure to check out this article. With technology like this, AGEIA is going to have a far rougher time trying to market their PhysX cards.

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Office 2007 Sees Gold

Posted on November 6, 2006 10:58 AM by Rob Williams

Microsoft announced today that its Office 2007 productivity suite has gone gold. The announcement further solidifies the company’s efforts to make Office 2007, Windows Vista and Exchange Server 2007 available to businesses on November 30 of this year.

At this point, all versions range between $300 for the Standard and $500 for the Professional. The Student version retails for $150. I am unsure if any of the included applications, like Excel can be purchased separately though. It’s not looking like it…

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