Tech News

Dell Inspiron XPS Gen 2 With 6800Ultra @ Hard|OCP

“One of the most popular lines of Desktop Replacement notebooks are Dell’s Inspiron XPS notebooks. We took a look last summer at the Dell Inspiron XPS notebook. We found that Dell did a wonderful job of integrating fast desktop-like components into a mobile space. Basically, the Dell Inspiron XPS utilized a desktop Pentium 4 CPU with an Intel 865PE chipset. The Dell Inspiron XPS had the option of either a 128MB ATI Mobility RADEON 9700 or a 256MB ATI Mobility RADEON 9800.”

Who knew we would see a notebook with a 6800Ultra? You really have to see the benchmarks to believe it, they are unreal. Check out the full review at Hard|OCP.

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GameStop and Electronics Boutique Merge

“GameStop Corp. (NYSE:GME; GME.B) and Electronics Boutique Holdings Corp. (Nasdaq:ELBO) today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement and plan of merger. The combined company, to be named GameStop Corp., will be a leading global video game retailer with annual revenues of approximately $3.8 billion, with over 3,200 stores located in all 50 United States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, as well as nearly 600 international stores located throughout Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden.”

Wow, what a day for news. Read the full PR at Business Wire.

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Adobe to buy Macromedia for $3.4 billion

“Computer document company Adobe Systems said on Monday it agreed to buy multimedia software firm Macromedia for about $3.4 billion in stock, a move designed to extend its lead in the market for creating and distributing digital documents.”

Wow! For some people, that’s like combining the best of both worlds. Adobe makes such popular software such as Photoshop and Acrobat Reader, while Macromedia makes Flash MX and Dreamweaver.

This is quite the announcement. It will be interesting to see how this will affect both companies in the future. Read the press release at Adobe, and read the posting at News.com.

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Wacom Wireless Pen Tablet For Photo Enthusiasts

“Wacom Technology today announced the newest member of its Graphire pen tablet family and the first Wacom pen tablet to incorporate Bluetooth wireless technology. The new model, named Graphire Bluetooth, is expected to be warmly embraced by photo enthusiasts who seek the control and comfort of Wacom’s patented cordless, battery-free pen and the freedom of a wireless device.”

The board has a 6×8 surface area, and the pen is battery free and has 512 sensitivity levels. If you want to buy one, you will need to fork over $250US. Read more about it at PhysOrg.

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NIN Invites Fans To ‘Destroy’ New Single

“Nine Inch Nails mastermind Trent Reznor has posted the group’s new single, “The Hand That Feeds,” on its official Web site as a file that can be manipulated with the Apple hard-disk recording program Garageband. Fans are encouraged to build their own songs out of the NIN track’s constituent parts, or just mess around to their heart’s content.”

Most of us know that Trent tweaks his music to high heaven, so it’s cool that he encourages his fans to do the same. Can’t wait for the new album, it’s going to kick ass! Check it out at Billboard.

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Microsoft kicks off biggest ever Windows promo

“In a bid to keep Windows XP ticking over before the arrival of the delayed Longhorn operating system, Microsoft has fired up the biggest global ad campaign in the company’s history.

The international effort, dubbed ‘Start Something’, is “one of the largest and longest marketing campaigns in the Windows brand history”, according to Microsoft.”

It’s also noted that a total of 51 television ads, 39 print ads and 250 online ads will be featured globally. That’s pretty intense. Check it out at VNUNet.

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Final Cut Pro 5 Unveiled

If you own a Mac, and never heard of Final Cut Pro, you must be living under a rock. The new version touts some great features.

“It features new multicamera editing abilities that support up to 128 cameras and enable editors to simultaneously view and cut from multiple sources in real time..

..The application lets users edit DV and SD material, as well as DVCPRO HD and fully uncompressed 10-bit high-definition video. It also allows work with new formats like native HDV (long-GOP MPEG2) and 50Mbps IMX.”

Read all about it over at MacWorld UK.

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Seasonic S12 330W @ Phoronix

“Power supplies are undoubtedly one of the most important components in a system. Especially for enthusiasts the difference between a cheap generic unit and a high quality unit can determine whether or not your system is stable. Today we have a unit from Seasonic’s latest line, the S12 330W power supply. We have reviewed one other Seasonic power supply in the past (Super Silencer 400) and we were very pleased with the results. Let’s see how this one will do.”

Check out the review at Phoronix!

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Thermaltake Beetle @ XtremeComputing

“These heat pipes connect to 40 or more aluminium fans, which should provided excellent heat dissipation. The surface area of theses fins and heat pipes is excellent for heat removal. The base is well lapped, not to a mirror finish but very flat, and we all know that having a level base is better than a shiny surface.”

Read out it at XtremeComputing.

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1 Week Left In ThinkComputers Case Gallery Contest!

“Well we have some more stuff to give away! This contest is easy! Up for grabs is a Thermaltake Water Level Indicator, and 3 Sunbeam Silent Anodized LED Fan’s! All you have to do is submit your case to the Case Gallery! After 2 weeks we will pick the top 2 cases and they will win the prizes!”

Check it out at Think Computers.

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Seagate USB 2.0 5GB Pocket Hard Drive @ InsaneTek

“Why waste your time on skimpy small USB pen drives when you can have a massive 5GB on the go? Once you have the portable storage space, you won’t want to go anywhere without it.”

Check it out at InsaneTek.

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Scythe Silent Box @ InsaneTek

“If you want a completely silent system, you should definitely take a look this Silent Box. Be warned though, temperatures do rise a bit.”

Check out the full review at InsaneTek.

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Microsoft Windows XP x64 – Device drivers the weak spot @ NGOHQ

“They told us it’s going to provide real support for the new 64-bit processors. They told us that the Microsoft Windows x64 Professional edition is coming very soon. But they didn’t emphasize the ugly fact.”

Check out the full article at NGOHQ.

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Cooler Master Aquagate Mini R120 @ A True Review

“Reward of water-cooling a CPU is apparent; high cooling performance with very low noise. Equally apparent is the risk involved. If something goes wrong during the installation your computer turns into a high voltage aquarium. While most computer enthusiasts feel the reward outweighs the risk, the average computer do it yourself (DIY) person does not. In an effort to push water-cooling into the mainstream by taking out the risk,
Cooler Master introduces Aquagate Mini. How does Aquagate Mini eliminate the risk aspect of water-cooling? Read on and find out.”

Check it out at A True Review.

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A-Top Technology XPlode ATX Case Review @ LAN Addict

“For less than $60, you can get a case that comes with more items included than a lot of $80 cases. The XPlode may not have all the lates features, but what it lacks in features it more than makes up for in value! From the pre-installed LED case fans to the 10” UV cold cathode to the windowed power supply with UV-reactive fluorescent wiring to the mesh windowing, A-Top’s XPlode is an attention getter from the word, “Go”!”

Check out the full review at Lan Addict.

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CTS 2005: 2nd Article Round-Up @ Hexus

There are even more updates from Hexus from the CTS!

Thermaltake show off their shiny bits:
“Thermaltake looked like it brought its entire product catalogue to CTS 2005. There was a mind-boggling array of fans, cases, heatsinks, passive-cooling and water-cooling bits and bobs on display.” — URL.

Zalman’s Reserator 1 Plus:
“If the original Reserator didn’t quite have the features and compatibility you wanted, then the Reserator 1 Plus might be worth a look.” — URL

Saitek, looking cool in bloo:
“The X52, designed to take account of feedback from the gamers using the X45, addresses many of the niggles from the previous stick and adds a few all-new touches.” — URL.

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Gigabyte’s GA-8AENXP-D Mainboard @ Hexus

“If I have to say something bad about the board, it’s that the aesthetic makes me decidedly unwell. Go forth and seek, should high-performance, feature-packed, well-presented Pentium 4 be your Valhalla. Highly recommended.”

Check it out at Hexus.

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ATI Tray Tools 1.0.2.600

“ATI Tray Tools is a small utility that can be found in the windows tray which then allows instant access to options and settings. Quite handy and quite a small download. Just click the executable and you are good to go.

To avoid some confusion, Guru3D.com recently became official English hompage and distro for this utility. You can find all further information and history on it’s updates at this webpage. What does Tray Tools do ? This tweaker for ATI Radeon cards positions itself in the system tray.”

There are a lot of changes to this tool; You should definitely check it out. It’s one of my favorite programs easy. Get it at Guru3D.

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‘Cool it, Linus’ – Bruce Perens

With Andrew Tridgell silent, apparently on legal advice, open source community leader Bruce Perens has stepped up to defend the work Tridgell did reverse engineering the protocols used by Bitkeeper. Bitkeeper is the closed source proprietary source code management tool that until last week, Linus Torvalds used to manage Linux kernel source code.

Torvalds has responded to the controversy by blaming Tridgell, and made two extraordinarily intemperate attacks on him online, the second accusing him of willful destruction.

Quite the heated arguement going on. Check it out at The Register.

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Music moguls trumped by Steve Jobs?

Nearly two years after Apple’s iTunes launch, record executives have become worried that they have inadvertently ceded too much power over their industry to this charismatic computer executive.

Frustrated at what they see as Jobs’ intransigence on song pricing and other issues, some record executives are now turning their hopes toward other partners, particularly mobile phone carriers eager to get into the business of selling music. They see this new focus as a way to broaden the digital music business, and lessen Apple’s dominance over their market in the process.

Read about it at News.com.

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Gigs & Bytes: Faster than fast

“Remember 1,200 bits per second?
How about 2,400 bps, 9.6 kilobits per second, 14.4 kps, 33.3 kps or 56k? Remember protocols and baud rates? Remember modems?
Of course, modems aren’t quite ready for the computer hardware scrap heap.”

Great article! Check it out at Pollstar.

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Auto Assault: Hands-On preview at Jolt

“Nobody could really have predicted the gaming community’s embracing of massively multiplayer online games but, as the recent record-breaking release of World of Warcraft has proven, MMOGs are here to stay. By far the most common form of MMOG at the moment is the traditional fantasy-based RPG – any deviations from that Read More Comment (0)

Vantec 3.5″ NexStar 3 Enclosure Video Review @ 3D Gameman

“The NexStar 3 enclosure fits a regular 3.5″ IDE HDD and is USB2. This easily transportable unit is perfect for backups of important data. Standard 3.5″ hard drives are relatively inexpensive and USB2 is compatible with most computer systems. All-aluminum and available in four vivid colors (Steel Grey, Onyx Black, Brilliant Red and Midnight Blue), this is clearly one of the sleekest looking enclosures on the market. Watch the Video to find out more…”

You can check out the full video review at 3D Gameman.

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CTS 2005: Article Round-Up

Hexus has a LOT of CTS content this round.

Computer Trade Show – an outsider’s take, Part 1
A small team, even on crutches, could get around the show in a day – or two if determined to miss nothing – but few if any products make world debuts, even if plenty do get their first UK outings. On the plus, side, the hack with web-site inches to fill has to look harder (doubly so one with little expertise in the subtleties of general computer retailing), and that can mean keeping an eye open for things that might get passed over at a bigger show – whether useful, interesting or both. URL

Touchmate Vibrator Headset
The Vibration control has two levels of response and runs of an inline battery pack giving roughly 30 hours of gameplay. The vibration motor kicks in when low bass noises are played or heard… so rumbling explosions really rumble! URL

Bestcare Flexible Keyboard
The actual key presses feel spongy, but that’s to be expected from a keyboard with no stiff bits in it at all and a high proportion of silicone. So what’s the advantage of having one then? There’s a whole mass of professions where having a keyboard impervious to dust and liquids would be a boon… and a keyboard that can be unplugged and dunked in the sink to wash is even better. URL

Enermax Enlobal Fan
Oh, and if you’re wondering why you can see a shot of a fan running underwater, I’ll pass that over to Enermax’s Paul Chung to answer “It’s because we can, ok?”. Fair enough. URL

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Auto Assault: Weekly updates for April 15

Greetings from the Central Wastelands! While the Auto Assault team has been busy getting everything settled for E3, preparing for our first blast of beta participants, and having a blast as we see the game itself shaping up into something we are extremely proud of and can’t wait to share with all Read More Comment (0)