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- Intel Launches Sleek Single-Slot Arc Pro A60 Workstation Graphics Card
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- Maxon Redshift With AMD Radeon GPU Rendering Support Now Available
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Warner China tries to beat pirates to the punch
The company has elected to release Crazy Stone on DVD just 12 days after its theatrical debut, and with a price of around 10 yuan (or around US$1.25). This mirrors closely the anti-piracy strategy of Warner’s Chinese home video division, which has already been pricing select titles at around 12 yuan (approximately US$1.50).
This is an interesting spin on things! $1.25 seems low for any movie, but the article mentions that the DVD market in China is near nonexistent to begin with. Even at standard DVD prices, we will not likely see this happen on our shores anytime soon. Not as long as their are a billion movie theaters around.
MySpace ad deliveres spyware to users
An online banner advertisement that ran on MySpace.com and other sites over the past week used a Windows security flaw to infect more than a million users with spyware when people merely browsed the sites with unpatched versions of Windows, according to data collected by iDefense, a Verisign company.
Ouch. This only affected anyone who was using Internet Explorer, but it’s estimated that over 1 Million users were infested. If you don’t have the latest Windows updates, now would be a good time to grab them.
Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 Review
If you’re looking for an authentic World War II experience with guns, up to 32 players, and 14 crewable vehicles, this is definitely the place to go. Don’t get me wrong, the game is not without its quirks including its somewhat high learning curve. The flow of the game, capturing objectives, and its mature online playerbase make the game definitely worth a try.
Check out the full review at GamePyre.
The State of ATI Linux
Well well, the day has finally come. It is now day number 50; the final day for this ATI Linux trial. With that said, it’s about time for me to share some concluding remarks regarding ATI’s recent Linux efforts with their monthly fglrx display drivers. On the first day, I didn’t know whether I would be able to survive without going green (no pun intended), but towards the end of this experience, it was almost like achieving nirvana…
It’s hard to believe that 50 days have passed already. The conclusion is worth a read even if you have not tuned in earlier. The future for ATI is looking good, although there are still some current issues worth noting.
Intel quad-core chips arriving sooner than expected
Intel’s quad-core chips, Xeon server processor code-named Clovertown and desktop processor code-named Kentsfield, actually are packages consisting of two dual-core chips, but each package plugs into a single processor socket. AMD, whose quad-core chips are due in mid-2007, uses a more refined design with all the cores on a single slice of silicon.
If anything, it will be interesting to see the results of these benchmarked. In some respects Dual Core is still not being used to it’s full potential in some apps, but how cool would it be to have four cores under that roof?
Hollywood agrees to burning DVD issue
Four major studios struck a deal with online movie service CinemaNow to offer more than 100 mainstream titles that can be burned to a disc and played on almost any DVD player and television set. Prices start at about $US9 ($A12).
This may be a milestone, but it seems as though the initial movies are older titles that you may be able to score for $10 in the local Wal-Mart bin anyway. We’ll see where this goes… but it does seem like a convenient solution if you don’t feel like leaving the house.
The man behind the Google logos
Dennis Hwang may be the most famous unknown artist in the world — his work doesn’t hang in galleries or museums, but it’s been viewed hundreds of millions of times. The 28-year-old webmaster designs the whimsical logos that decorate Google.com’s otherwise Spartan Web site on special occasions.
It’s amazing how simple this job really appears to be, but it’s actually quite a bit of work. One thing I was personally unaware of is during some special occasions, clicking the logo will redirect you to a related website. Now that’s a way to get some traffic!
Review Roundup for July 20
- Enermax Chakra – 3D Gameman
- Vizo Paragon 2.5″ One Touch Backup HDD External Enclosure – Think Computers
Cases & Enclosures
- Zalman ZM-RF1 Reserator Fan Kit – OCIA
Cooling
- Super Talent T1066UX1G5 DDR2 PC8500 – Pro-Clockers
Memory & Storage
- AMD 5000+ Versus Intel E6600 – Legit Reviews
- FOXCONN C51XEM2AA AM2 – Motherboards.org
Motherboards & Processors
- nMedia Mute Power MP-400 – Overclockers Online
- OCZ GameXStreme 600 Watt PSU – 3D Xtreme
- Powerware 5125 1000VA UPS – PC Stats
- SilverStone ELEMENT ST50EF 500w PSU – NGOHQ
Peripherals & Power Supplies
- Sapphire’s liquid-cooled Toxic X1900 XTX graphics card – Tech Report
Displays & Video Cards
- Microsoft Zune, Coffee, and the News of the Day – Digital Trends
- Samsung T609 Mobile – Digital Trends
- Systemax Wildcat SLI Gaming PC – HotHardware
Complete Systems, Competitions & Etcetera
Japan Plans 30-Year Supercomputer Forecasts
According to a ministry representative, “Japan is planning ultra long-range 30-year weather forecasts that will predict typhoons, storms, blizzards, droughts and other inclement weather.” Maybe they should tell their secret to my local weatherman, who usually can’t even get tomorrow’s weather right.
Now this is cool. Even with the supercomputers power, they admit that they cannot give a percentage of just how accurate they will be though.
Is the PhysX failing?
We are not positive if Artificial Studios will require a PPU when the games are released; the Cell Factor demo currently requires it, but does it really need it, technically? With some creative help from the gaming community, we tested the game with and without acceleration by the PhysX processor. As you will see, the results are very interesting.
I think we all know where this article is going. While some of the effects are eye pleasing, there’s just not that much that the card can offer. It’s interesting to watch the videos taken without the PPU card, to see how the entire game lags when you are looking at a highly rendered object. I think we have a long way to go yet.
Core 2 Duo: Effects Of Memory Timings
Over the course of this article, we’re going to cover the bases of memory timings at DDR2-800 using our favoured Core 2 Duo processors: the E6400 and E6600. Both the E6400 and E6600 look to be right in the sweetspot of Intel’s line up at £182 and £252 respectively. They also represent both the 2MB and 4MB L2 cache versions of Core 2 Duo too, so it should give you an idea of what to expect from tweaking memory timings on all of the current Core 2 Duo processors.
This is a pretty in-depth look at timings on the Conroe specifically. The results are nothing amazing, but timings do indeed seem to make some minor differences in some tests. Will it be worth the extra cash to splurge for memory with tighter timings? Maybe not.
Sony releases Blu-Ray recorder
The BWU-100A is a standard 5.25″ PATA disc drive with playback and recording support for Blu-ray discs. Playback of Blu-ray movies will be supported with the BWU-100A, however, an HDCP compliant graphics card and display is required to playback protected AACS content. A high definition display is also required to experience the full 1080 lines of high definition goodness.
It’s hard to believe that even at $750US, this recorder is cheaper than the competition. The requirements for HDCP and a 1080p monitor are not going to make anyone jump at a Blu-Ray recorder anytime soon.
Worst Tech CEOs Earn the Most Money
The one-third highest performing companies paid their chief executives an average of $7.12 million–while the bottom third paid their CEOs $9.29 million. The study compared direct compensation, which includes base salary, bonus and value of stock grants. Why the disconnect? Jack Dolmat-Connell, founder and president of the firm, cites the phenomenon of ‘chasing the median’: Companies benchmark their executive compensation figures on peers instead of looking at factors related to performance.
This can’t be that surprising. I personally know many people who do nothing and get paid for it, and others who work far too hard and earn less. Nice guys finish last? Probably.
Symantec claims Vista more insecure than XP
Researchers at Cupertino, Calif.-based Symantec examined the new networking technology in recent test releases of Vista, Microsoft’s next major operating system release, according to the report. They found several security bugs and determined that Vista’s networking technology will be less stable, at least in the short run, than Windows XP’s, the report said.
This is obviously not a good thing, since Microsoft is promising the most secure version of Windows yet. This will not likely affect the Jan 2006 release date, but it isn’t going to look good on Microsoft to release with this knowledge.
Microsoft buys Winternals
Microsoft on Tuesday said it has bought Winternals Software, a small maker of Windows utility programs, in a deal that the software maker hopes will add key technical talent to its operating system development team. Terms of the deal to acquire the Austin, Texas-based company were not announced. Among the software that Winternals offers is a set of freely downloadable tools known as Sysinternals.
Winternals is a great company with some extremely talented people, so it’s actually a wonder why it took so long for someone to snatch them up. The future is unclear, but this may just be one step forward in helping future versions of Windows become more secure. I think many are all for that.
New Dual-Core Intel Itanium 2 Processor Doubles Performance, Reduces Power Consumption
SANTA CLARA, Calif., July 18, 2006 – Intel Corporation today unveiled five new products in the Dual-Core Intel® Itanium® 2 Processor 9000 series. Previously codenamed “Montecito,” the new processors are designed for the most sophisticated high-end computing platforms in the world. They double the performance and lower energy requirements, improving performance per watt by 2.5 times compared to existing, single-core versions. All server-maker members of the Itanium Solutions Alliance (ISA) will launch new Dual-Core Intel Itanium 2 Processor 9000 series-based products.
You can read the full press release right here.
Review Roundup for July 19
- Coolermaster Xcraft HDD Enclosure – Red & Blackness
- NZXT Apollo – Technic3D (German)
- Shuttle SD37P2 – SFF Tech
- Tuniq 2 – Big Bruin
- Tuniq 2 – Hi-Tech Reviews
Cases & Enclosures
- Asetek VapoChill LS – Guru3D
- NMediaPC ICECONE CPU Cooler – ModTheBox
- Tt Mini Typhoon Cooler – Overclocker Cafe
Cooling
- abit AW8-D Max 975x – Xtreme Computing
- AM2: Single Channel or Dual Channel? Does dual channel makes any good? – MadBox PC (Spanish)
- Corsair 2GB PC2-6400 C3 – Legit Reviews
Memory & Storage
- ECS KA3 MVP Extreme – HardOCP
- ECS KA3-MVP AM2 – Virtual-Hideout
- Foxconn C51XEM2AA – Hardware Logic
- Intel Core 2 Extreme / Core Duo Processor – Motherboards.org
- Intel Core Duo E6700 Overclocking Performance – Legion Hardware
- Tyan Tempest i5000XL – Phoronix
Motherboards & Processors
- Corepad Eyepads, Corepad XXXL Deskpad – BurnoutPC
- iRiver PMC-120 20GB Portable Multimedia Player – Think Computers
- LG USB 512MB MP3 Player – BytePress
- Thermaltake Toughpower 750W – Bjorn3D
- WolfClaw Devour Game Board – XS Review
Peripherals & Power Supplies
- ATI Radeon X1900 XTX 4-vendor Roundup – Hexus
- BFG GeForce 7950 GX2 – Digit-Life
- Sapphire Technology Radeon X1600 Pro HDMI – Hexus
Displays & Video Cards
- Dell Dimension 3100C – BIOS Magazine
- Has Rod Savlon exposed Matrox spurning soft-core? – Hexus
Complete Systems, Competitions & Etcetera
Intel slips in new sub-9W Yonah
The dual-core 65nm Yonah-based U2400 features a 1.06GHz clock frequency, a 533MHz front-side bus and 2MB of shared L2 cache. Intel has not released TDP specifics of the new processor, but the TDP of the 1.2GHz Core Duo U2500 was a mere 9 Watts. During normal operation the U2500 uses less than a Watt.
It’s incredible that the chip operates at only one watt during normal use. It’s not going to deliver world records in terms of speed but it should offer better battery life for whatever notebook they happen to be thrown in.
Intel desktop price cuts
DailyTech reports that a few Intel CPU’s will be receiving price cuts, most notably the 805, 820, 915 and 945.
Single-core Intel Pentium 4 6xx and 5xx series will receive drastic price cuts on July 23rd, 2006. Pentium 4 models 661, 651, 641 and 631 will drop to $163. Previous pricing on the Pentium 4 661, 651, 641 and 631 were $401, $273, $218 and $178 respectively. Pentium 4 541and 531 will drop to $84 and $74 from the previous $218 and $178 prices. At the bottom of the Pentium 4 chain is the Pentium 4 524 clocked at 3.06 GHz with a 533 MHz front-side bus. The Pentium 4 524 price will drop to a mere $69 which is bordering Celeron D territory.
While these are great prices, it’s hard to not justify the wait for Conroe. Although, if you have an ‘old’ 775 box lying around that needs some new life, this will be the perfect opportunity to upgrade it.
OCZ jumps on the Wal-Mart bandwagon
OCZ has announced a distribution agreement with the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart, which operates over 1,100 Wal-Mart stores, over 2,000 Supercenters and nearly 600 Sam’s Clubs, marks OCZ’s second large-scale agreement with a US retailer in less than a month — in late June, OCZ signed a two-year agreement with Buy.com.
OCZ are mostly known by PC enthusiasts, so this should prove a great way to get their name out there. If you think it would be odd to see Wal-Mart selling performance modules, remember that this is e-tailer only and that OCZ offers performance thumb drives also which are more apt to be picked up by the regular consumer.
YouTube sued over copyrighted material
Los Angeles News Service and its owner and operator, Robert Tur, assert in the lawsuit that in one week’s time, one version of the Denny beating uploaded by a YouTube user was viewed and downloaded 1,000 times via the site.
Another day, another greedy company sues a company over something foolish. Ok yes, it -is- copyrighted material that has been viewed a staggering 1,000 times, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out their gameplan. This will no doubt not be the last lawsuit for YouTube to be sure though.
Purchase an iBook, get breakfast free
Everyone knows that Apple’s Intel powered portable lineup gets hot, but this is insane! An enterprising fellow figured out that it would be possible to actually fry an egg on the bottom of his black MacBook. Granted, it probably took something like 3 times as long than if he had used a stove, but thats obviously not the point. For bonus points, keep your coffee warm by placing it on top of your MacBook power adapter.
If you were wondering why nobody calls notebooks ‘laptops’ anymore, here’s your answer. This is not necessarily Apples fault though, as it’s Intels CPU. Either Apples cooling solution is poor, or other Intel mobile notebooks will display the same problem. Just as long as they don’t explode, we’ll be fine.
100 notable moments in Linux history
Linux and BSD users unite for “Windows Refund Day”. They visit Microsoft, hoping to return the unused Windows licenses that they were forced to acquire when they purchased a computer system bundled with the OS.
As the title suggests, this is not a quick read, but it’s a goodie. It’s hard to believe that it’s been 15 years since Linux 0.01 was first released. So much has happened in that time, but Linux in general still has a ways to go..
DS Lites Are Cracking Up Like Mad
Worrying about dead pixels in portables is so 2005. This year, all the kids fret about cracked hinges. Multiple forum members at game site MaxConsole are stepping forward, saying that their DS Lites have been breaking. Hinge cracks have been reported in Lites from the US, Japan and Europe.
I haven’t used my DS Lite to a great extent, but have not noticed signs of this happening. Some refute that the problem is a big deal, but it could easily lead to larger problems if it persists. It’s actually quite rare to see a Nintendo product with such problems, so that’s strange in itself.
Malibal Unveils New Lightweight Intel Core Duo Notebooks
Las Vegas, Nev., July 18, 2006 – MALIBAL, LLC, a world leader in innovative laptop design and development, today unveiled two new powerful, lightweight notebooks featuring Intel’s Core Duo processors. “In today’s fast paced world, on-the-go professionals are looking for a notebook that can handle their work loads whether at home or on the road. The new Lotus and Bodhi Series notebooks are designed to meet these needs with a powerful CPU, great battery life, durable casing and fully integrated wireless connectivity,” said Matthew Plott, founder, MALIBAL.
You can read the full press release here.