Tech News

Skype Dials for Business Dollars

Posted on March 10, 2006 10:21 AM by Rob Williams

Skype has launched a new offensive to go after small business dollars. The company is unveiling Skype for Business, aimed at small companies with fewer than 10 employees, on Mar. 9. Skype for Business will include a new Web site, Skype.biz, as well as a host of features and hardware.

This could easily be beneficial for smaller companies, especially if it’s as reliable as they say it is. For a lot more info, go to Buisness Week. Source: Slashdot.

Next DVD Format War Still Wide Open

Posted on March 10, 2006 10:18 AM by Rob Williams

Despite the wishes of partisan players like Sony and Toshiba, many consumer electronics manufacturers are opting to support both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs in upcoming media players.

When DVD’s came out, it was the only option. Sometimes choice can be a good thing, but this one is rediculous. Read more about it at Routers. Source: Slashdot.

Micro Machines v4 Announced

Posted on March 10, 2006 10:16 AM by Rob Williams

A smash-hit series through the 1990s, Codemasters, has once again secured the rights to the miniature vehicles for an all-new video game that promises a real return to the MICRO MACHINES game’s much loved, all-out fun, racing gameplay. The property is under license from the Hasbro Properties Group, the intellectual property development arm of Hasbro, Inc.

I absolutely loved those games and can’t wait to see the new version. Here’s to hoping that they don’t screw it up! Read more at Blues News.

Geil shows off art deco memory

Posted on March 10, 2006 9:54 AM by Rob Williams

Getting right down to it, the Prototype A does not have LEDs, twirling pinwheels, or dancing bears. What it has is a massive copper grill in the middle of a chunky aluminum heatspreader, and a heatpipe running through it. When you see this one in person, you will understand why it turns heads, to me at least, it is beautiful.

Wow.. that’s all I can say. GeIL have really outdone themselves this time. The modules don’t only look cool, it really offers great passive cooling. Check out the pictures at The Inq.

Rev F Opterons shown off in pictures

Posted on March 10, 2006 9:52 AM by Rob Williams

You will notice that the F part has no pins, just flat LGA pads like the LGA775 P4s. In addition, the pads are much more closely spaced than the pins on the 940. Overall size and shape is about the same, but the newer chip has two indents on the top and bottom of the PCB. That PCB is also and organic substrate rather than the ceramic of the older Opterons.

This is a new look for an AMD CPU… even the heatspreader is different. Check it out at The Inquirer.

Counter-Strike clan member was a sex pest

Posted on March 10, 2006 9:50 AM by Rob Williams

A COUNTER-STRIKE clan member has been arrested following claims that he was trying to get fellow members to send him to get naked pictures of themselves. George “Spike” Finley, of London, in Canada, was recruiting boys aged between 10 and 13 into his clan called the Green Berets.

This guy deserves a good bashing. Read more at The Inquirer.

Linux gets Second Life

Posted on March 10, 2006 9:49 AM by Rob Williams

Linden Lab, creator of Second Life, recently has released a free public test of the Linux client. It has the same features and interface as the Windows and Mac OS X versions. Second life is different from most online worlds in that it is not a game as such. Players can enter the world, interact with others and build any three dimensional object and decide what it will do.

Hah, not that this game interests me at all, but it’s great to see more and more games being ported to Linux. Read more at The Inquirer.

Is Google prepping an office suite?

Posted on March 10, 2006 9:36 AM by Rob Williams

Google announced Thursday that it is acquiring Upstartle, maker of Web-based word processor Writely. The move immediately fueled speculation that the search engine company may be working on its own version of an online office suite, which could compete with Microsoft’s cash cow.

Read more at News.com.

Hardware Roundup for Mar. 10

Posted on March 10, 2006 9:36 AM by Rob Williams

Don’t expect the Intel and NVIDIA related news to go anywhere for a while, because there’s a slew of new articles today. If the new NVIDIA cards don’t do anything for you, [are you crazy] then check out the review of the X1900XT and XTX at Hardware Zoom. Also on the video card front, Hexus has posted a quick article about the upcoming ASUS 7800GT card that’s passively cooled. The heatsink is huge, so you won’t be using this in your SFF, but if you care that much about noise then it could be for you. If you are psyched about Intel’s Conroe chips, then check out a few performance benchmarks at HotHardware.

    Peripherals & Power Supplies
  • Creative GigaWorks T20 ‘Hi-Fi’ Speakers – BIOS Magazine
  • PowerMate USB Multimedia Controller – Virtual-Hideout
  • Spire Rocketeer SP- 500w PSU – XS Reviews
  • Sytrin Nextherm PSU460 Power Supply – OCIA
  • Ultra X2 Titanium UV 550W PSU – Viper Lair
    Video Cards & Monitor
  • ASUS GeForce 7800 GT 256MB (Passively cooled!) – Hexus
  • ATI X1800GTO – Bjorn3D
  • Battle of the kings: Nvidia 7900GTX vs ATI X1900XTX – Overclockers New Zealand
  • NVIDIA Brings SLI Graphics To Notebook PCs – Legit Reviews
  • NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX & 7900 GT Tech Report – Rojak Pot
  • NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT Tech Report – Rojak Pot
  • Sapphire Radeon X1900XT & X1900XTX – Hardware Zoom
    Etcetera & Contests
  • A look at Microsoft Origami – Hexus
  • Cooler Master Real Power 550 PSU Giveaway – 3D Gameman
  • Gamepyre Monthly Giveaway Sponsored By XFX – GamePyre
  • Interview with Robin Miller, Author of “Point and Click OpenOffice.org” – XYZ Computing
  • Linux Audio Comparison – Phoronix
  • Xbox 360 Cooler – Hexus

Left Out? Not Anymore: Logitech Introduces Mouse for the Other Hand

Posted on March 9, 2006 10:17 AM by Rob Williams

HANNOVER, Germany — CeBIT — March 8, 2006 — Logitech (SWX: LOGN) (NASDAQ:LOGI), the world’s leading manufacturer of computer mice, today announcedthe end of discrimination against the left hand. Some of the smartest andmost creative people in the world favor their left hand, but they havealways had to adapt to a world dominated by the right hand. While many haveadapted well and become great achievers in spite of this hardship –Leonardo Da Vinci, Aristotle, Mahatmah Gandhi, Albert Einstein, WinstonChurchill and Mozart, for example – left-handers finally have a choice whenit comes to a computer mouse. Sculpted to fit the left hand, the Logitech®MX™610 Left-Hand Laser Cordless Mouse provides the same advantages affordedto the right hand, with Logitech’s precision laser tracking system,advanced cordless technology, navigation controls, and e-mail and instantmessage notifications.

Finally! Check out the full release here.

Novell’s Next-Generation Linux Desktop Redefines Desktop Market

Posted on March 9, 2006 10:13 AM by Rob Williams

HANNOVER, Germany (CeBIT 2006) – March 9, 2006 – At CeBIT 2006 in Hannover, Germany, Novell today unveiled its next-generation enterprise Linux* desktop, delivering technology and design improvements that establish the Linux desktop as a benchmark for basic office productivity and usability.

You can read the full press release here.

NGOHQ Birthday Contest – 2 Weeks Left

Posted on March 9, 2006 10:12 AM by Rob Williams

We just want to remind everybody that our birthday contest will end in two weeks. The prizes in the contest consist of the following:

  • Three AMD64 CPUs
  • HDA Digital X-Mystique 7.1 Gold Sound Card
  • Antec TruePower II 480W Power Supply
  • Arctic Cooling Accelero X2 (for Radeon X1800/1900 series)
  • Sapphire Radeon X800GTO2

Check out the full details and enter right here.

NVIDIA 7600 and 7900 Roundup

Posted on March 9, 2006 9:58 AM by Rob Williams

There are many reviews up for the new cards this morning, so here’s a quick roundup.

The GeForce 7600 GT, in particular, looks to be a great performer for the price and the new king of the sweet spot in PC graphics, much like the GeForce 6600 GT was before it.Tech Report

If however money does play a part in your decision making then we think you’ll find the GeForce 7900 GT a very impressive gaming solution for the price. The 7900 GT worked great in our box and provided a better gaming experience than the aging GeForce 7800 GT and the competition’s comparable GPU.HardOCP

At an MSRP of about $350, XFX’s 7900 GT XXX is an excellent choice for anyone wanting a kickass card with considerably more future-proofing than the midrange cards provide. If you can afford it, you won’t regret it.Bjorn3D

So this really is a very strong performer for an absolutely magnificent price. Again we see fun stuff when we enable SLI mode, it’s not 100% doubled performance but it most certainly helps. As an example, Quake 4 at 1920×1200 with 4xAA and 8xAF with a single card showed 65 FPS and in SLI mode it’s managing to poop out 101 FPS.Guru 3D

More reviews can be found at Phoronix, Technic3D, Hexus, HotHardware, Legit Reviews, Motherboards.org, PC Stats, Beyond3D, Neoseeker, nV News and PC Perspective.

NVIDIA Extends Performance Leadership with Immediate Availability of Three New Geforce® 7 Series GPUs

Posted on March 9, 2006 9:54 AM by Rob Williams

CeBIT 2006—HANNOVER, GERMANY—MARCH 9, 2006— NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA), the worldwide leader in programmable graphics processor technologies, today announced three new additions to the NVIDIA® GeForce 7 Series of graphics processing units (GPUs) set to make extreme high-definition (HD) gaming a reality

You can read the full press release here.

Hardware Roundup for Mar. 9

Posted on March 9, 2006 9:48 AM by Rob Williams

To say there’s a lot going on today is a huge understatement. This is one of the busiest news days in a while! Hexus has been bringing incredible coverage from both the Intel Developer Forum and CeBit. You can see their content laced through today’s news below, so definitely check them out. If you aren’t ready to move to the 2GB world yet, Pro-Clockers has some extreme Patriot memory on hand which is clocked at a speedy 300MHz! 3D Gameman has a new video review up for grabs. This time, they are taking a look at the new Tribe water cooling kit from Thermaltake. Not too many water coolers are that great looking, but this one ads black mesh and blue LED to help with that.

    Cases & Enclosures
  • Cooler Master Centurion 534 – TechNeek
  • Shuttle SD31P SFF – HardOCP
  • Vantec LapCool 4 Notebook Cooler – PC Apex
  • Vizo Luxon 3.5″ HDD Enclosure – A1 Electronics
    Cooling
  • Jetart VC2000 All In One VGA Cooler – XS Reviews
  • Swiftech Apogee, MCW-30 and MCW-60 Cooler – Motherboards.org
  • Thermaltake AquaBay M4 HDD Cooling – Technic3D
  • Thermaltake Tribe (External CPU Liquid Cooling) – 3D Gameman
  • Zalman Fatal1ty FS-V7 VGA Cooler – OCIA
    Memory & Storage
  • GSKILL 2GB F1-4000USU2-2GBHZ PC4000 – HardwareXL
  • Patriot PDC1G4800+XBLK 1024MB DDR-600 PC4800 Dual Channel – Pro-Clockers
    Motherboards & CPU’s
  • CeBit: ASUS brings it on with latest AMD Socket AM2 and Intel Core-Duo based mobo’s – Hexus
  • CeBit: ASUS brings it some more with AM2 Mainboards – Hexus
  • CeBit: BenQ ships laptops with world’s lowest response time – Hexus
  • IDF: Apple’s Conroe Plans – Hexus
  • IDF: A socket for Dempsey – Intel’s LGA 771 pictures – Hexus
  • IDF: Intel finally set to smash AMD in performance stakes – Hexus
  • IDF: Intel in-house Watercooling – Hexus
  • IDF: Intel’s next generation Core architecture – Hexus
    Peripherals & Power Supplies
  • Akasa PowerPlus 650W Power Supply – Extreme Overclocking
  • CeBit: In-game voice comms… with your speakers on 11? – Hexus
    Etcetera & Contests
  • rockdirect Xtreme SL Laptop – Hexus
  • Shouldn’t You Be Banking Online? – Design Technica

NCsoft Reveals Auto Assault Limited Edition Retail Package

Posted on March 8, 2006 12:57 PM by Rob Williams

NCsoft Reveals Auto Assault Limited Edition Retail Package DVD game pack, which includes head set for game’s voice chat system, proves to be excellent value at only$10 more than standard edition AUSTIN, Texas, March 7, 2006—NCsoft® North America today revealed the contents for the Auto Assault® Limited Edition retail game pack that…..

NCsoft Announces Publishing Deal with Spacetime Studios

Posted on March 8, 2006 12:53 PM by Rob Williams

AUSTIN, Texas, March 8, 2006—NCsoft® Corporation (KSE:036570.KS), the world’s leading developer and publisher of online computer games, announced today its latest partnership with a new company in Austin. Spacetime Studios™, composed of a core team with previous leadership roles on successful franchises such as Privateer, Wing Commander and Star Wars Galaxies, will publish its next game under the NCsoft brand.

You can read the full press release here.

Crucial launches lightning-fast Gizmo! overdrive

Posted on March 8, 2006 12:50 PM by Rob Williams

Meridian, Idaho, March 8, 2006 – Crucial customers can now transfer
their digital files at write speeds up to 13 megabytes per second
(MB/s) and read speeds up to 25 MB/s. Crucial Technology, one of the
world’s leading online memory upgrade providers, today introduces two
Hi-Speed additions to the popular Gizmo!(TM) USB flash drive line: the
Gizmo!(TM) overdrive and Gizmo!(TM) overdrive with security software.
The new Gizmo! overdrives are housed in the same slim Gizmo! drive
casing, but sport new colors and optional security software.

You can read the full press release here.

Masterless Crossfire

Posted on March 8, 2006 12:48 PM by Rob Williams

There seems to be a strategy to extend the value to those people that have shelled out for X1800 parts, by allowing Crossfire to work without master hardware, but only on Radeon Xpress 3200 -based mainboards.

At least there is an option now to run the setup with a Master card. Very nice. Check it out at Hexus.

Interview with ATI’s Terry Makedon

Posted on March 8, 2006 12:47 PM by Rob Williams

ThinkComputers.org’s Alex Billington had the chance to ask ATI’s Terry Makedon some questions about ATI and their newest video card, the x1900XTX, as well as some plans and prospects for the future both in their drivers and their hardware.

Head on over to Think Computers for the full interview!

Intel lets slip more Core microarchitecture info

Posted on March 8, 2006 12:42 PM by Rob Williams

Today Intel CTO Justin Rattner announced further details of Intel’s upcoming common processor microarchitecture for server, desktops, and mobile applications. He confirmed that the official name of this architecture will be Core, reflecting the design’s heritage in the current Core mobile processors like Core Duo. Core-based products remain on track for delivery later this year, manufactured with Intel’s 65nm process tech.

Check out the full article at Tech Report.

Intel Conroe Details From IDF

Posted on March 8, 2006 12:10 PM by Rob Williams

Marco “BigWop” Chiappetta checked in with us this afternoon, with a healthy helping of information from Intel’s Keynote presentation at IDF. Conroe is shaping up and sounding more impressive it seems.

Check out the full look at HotHardware!

Hardware Roundup for Mar. 8

Posted on March 8, 2006 12:09 PM by Rob Williams
    Cases & Enclosures
  • Enlight Extreme Gamers PC Case – Bit-Tech
  • Raidmax X1 Case – Technic3D
  • Sansun Bat Case – PC Apex
    Cooling
  • Arctic Cooling Alpine 64 & Accelero X1 – Guru 3D
  • Arctic Cooling Accelero X1 Graphics Card Cooler – Rojak Pot
  • ASUS Star Ice Heatsink – Frosty Tech
  • Thermalright HR-01 – Techniz
    Motherboards & CPU’s
  • Intel Conroe vs AMD Athlon FX 60 Benchmarks – Hexus
    Etcetera & Contests
  • 1 Week Left In OCZ Gold GX XTC 2GB Dual Channel DDR Kit Contest – OCIA
  • Alienware Sentia m3400 Notebook Computer – XYZ Computing
  • Backing Up Ubuntu – HDD Saver
  • Do It Yourself Computer System Build Guides – Legit Reviews
  • Epson Perfection V700 Photo Scanner – BIOS
  • Motorola PEBL Mobile Phone – Design Technica
  • Sierra Wireless Voq Professional Smartphone – A True Review

AMD Shows off Three new Sockets at Spring IDF 2006

Posted on March 7, 2006 10:56 AM by Rob Williams

If you’re expecting something earth shattering from AMD or finally some specifications for their 2007 CPU lineup, you’ll have to wait longer. AMD tells us that after Socket-AM2 and its mobile/server variants are launched then they will begin talking about their new architectures. We’ve tried to get more, sooner, but haven’t been successful yet. Now on to what we were able to see.

The first socket they look at is the S1, which the mobile Turion 64 X2 will be using. Basically, it’s a mobile version of the AM2, and includes DDR2 support. Socket-F is on the server side of things, which again is similar to AM2 and supports DDR2. It rolls in at a whopping 1207 pins! Read a lot more at AnandTech.

Microsoft Confirms Its 5,000th Patent

Posted on March 7, 2006 10:53 AM by Rob Williams

Microsoft has today announced that it has registered its 5,000th patent with the US Patent and Trademark Office. Patent number 6,999,083 describes technologies to allow for TV broadcast-like spectator modes in Xbox Live, and is the brain-child of two employees at Microsoft Research, Steven Drucker and Curtis Wong.

That’s a lotta patents! More at TVG.

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