Hardware - Gaming - News

Firefox 4 B4 Now Online

2010-08-25T14:24:00.003+01:00

Tab Candy becomes Firefox Panorama.

It was supposed to be out a little earlier, but the fourth beta of Firefox 4.0 is now out and it brings with it a couple new features that Mozilla hopes to set it apart from the other browsers on the market right now.

One feature already discussed before is Tab Candy, which is now renamed Firefox Panorama. For those of us with more tabs open at a time than can fit on the width of our browser windows (I currently have over 150 tabs open, though it's due time to clean up), a zoomed-out 'panoramic' view of all tabs can be far easier to manage and group than just the regular line up of tabs.

Check out the video below for more:

Firefox Panorama

Another feature weaved into the new Firefox 4 beta is Sync, which is very handy for accessing bookmarks, history, Awesome Bar, passwords, form-fill data and open tabs accessible across multiple computers and mobile devices.

Firefox Sync

Ready to give the beta a spin? Click here.

source: tomshardware

Sony Could Start Banning Hacked, Jailbroken PS3s

2010-08-25T14:10:00.001+01:00

Last week saw Sony's PlayStation 3 console join the Xbox 360 and the Wii in the land of cracked consoles with the availability of a PS3 USB hacking tool that allows owners to crack their consoles and run burned games and homebrew software. However, gamers planning on cracking their console should think carefully about whether or not they're willing to give up the PSN in exchange for pirated games and homebrew software.

A posting on PS3 Hacks claims that Sony could track who's logging on to the PSN with a jailbroken console and ban users accordingly.

PS3 Hacks:

"Backup manager game ID (LAUN-12345) could be logged/recorded by Sony when logged into PSN (when online). This would obviously allow Sony to see who would be using the illegal PSjb/clone and we could very well see ban waves similar to the Xbox 360. Sony does currently ban PSN/consoles that results in the 8002A227 error code.

As people start getting their PSjb in the next few week, we highly advise that you do not log into PSN while using the backup manager, which means no playing online."

Sony has yet to comment on whether or not it will be banning modded consoles. We'll keep you posted and update when we know more.

source: tomsguide ; gizmodo

Samsung Galaxy S sporting Gorilla Glass to protect that precious AMOLED

2010-08-25T01:32:00.004+01:00

Remember this horribly painful video? The Gorilla Glass protection on the Dell Streak is undoubtedly a selling point, and now Corning, the maker of said glass, has announced that the Samsung Galaxy S (which includes the Vibrant, Captivate, Fascinate, and Epic 4G in its brood) employs the same alkali-aluminosilicate glass shield. The glass is similar to the "helicopter windshield" stuff Apple uses on the iPhone 4, which was rumored to be Gorilla Glass at one point, and while neither tech is impervious to shattering, they certainly can take a beating -- but just try and do that pen stab torture test while we're not looking, alright? We don't have the stomach to witness another beautiful Android handset so roughly handled. PR is after the break.

source: http://mobile.engadget.com/

Windows Phone 7 web browser appears on video, gets compared

2010-08-25T01:30:00.000+01:00

Microsoft Re-Confirms Voice Support for Kinect

2010-08-25T01:25:00.004+01:00

Earlier Tuesday it was reported that Microsoft's motion-sensing device Kinect would not ship with voice control functionality or the chat software at launch. The news came from marketing manager for Xbox Live EMEA Robin Burrowes during Gamescom who said that the company would announce when the functionality would be activated at a later date.

After the initial report, Microsoft fired back, claiming that voice control will indeed be available at launch.

"Voice control is an exciting part of the Kinect for Xbox 360 controller-free experience and we can confirm that it will be available at launch in November 2010," the company said in a statement. "Only on Xbox 360 will you be able to navigate the Kinect Hub using your voice to control your movies, TV Shows and music."

But then Microsoft tacked on another statement, shedding some light on the previous report. "We do not have additional details to share about local voice availability at this time," the company added.

Apparently support for the English language will be intact at launch, however the exact timetable for other European languages has yet to be determined. This is probably where the original report comes into play.

Microsoft Kinect is scheduled to hit store shelves on November 4. Fifteen titles will be available at launch including Kinectimals, EA Sports Active 2, Sonic Free Riders, Motion Sports and more.

Source: www.tomshardware.com/

Gameloft Takes a Slightly Different Approach to Distribution with Try and Buy Android HD Games

2010-08-25T01:16:00.005+01:00

Gameloft made the bold decision to offer the majority of their high quality, full 3D games for purchase through their website alone, forgoing the Android Market and creating headaches for all involved. While certain games like Asphalt HD can be found in the market, Gameloft seemed set on allowing the greater part of their catalog to be purchased via credit card from their website and then downloaded via a link messaged to your phone. As you might imagine, this didn’t work out too well so Gameloft went back to the drawing board and came up with a new way to get games onto your phone.

You will still need to enter a phone number to receive a link to download a game, but now that download comes before purchase as part of a free trial being offered on their Android HD titles. If you like the game, you can choose to purchase it in-app and have the amount charged to your carrier bill. That should clean up some of the fuss, making sure the game is already on your phone before you even buy it and then streamlining billing. Only time will tell if this new method proves to be more successful than previous attempts.

For all the griping about the Android Market, Gameloft is proving that it still remains the easiest and most viable channel for locating and downloading content easily to your phone. Whatever the reason is for Gameloft’s decision, it so far has left a large part of the user base untapped.

Source: http://phandroid.com/ ; http://phandroid.com/

OCZ officially launches its low voltage kits

2009-05-16T12:00:00.002+01:00

OCZ has officially unveiled its low voltage DDR2 kits from the Blade and Platinum series. We already wrote about these kits, and it looks like these babies should be quite good overclockers. All three kits work at 1.8V and feature the same 5-5-5-18 latencies.

OCZ has announced a total of six 4GB DDR2 kits, that work at either 1066, 1150 or 1200MHz. All of them are available with either Blade or OCZ's well known Platinum heatsink. The best thing is that similar kits from other vendors need at least 2.0V, while OCZ managed reach these speeds with 1.8V. OCZ has also implemented its extended voltage protection which means that you can raise voltage up to 1.85V without compromising the warranty.

The OCZ DDR2 1066MHz low voltage kits are already listed and selling at Alternate.de and you can check them out here.

Source: Fudzilla

DFI Announces Blood Iron P45-T2(R)S Elite Series, The Most Affordable OC Motherboard

2009-05-16T12:00:00.000+01:00

From now on, amazing performance becomes available on affordable motherboards. In addition to the development of high-end overclocking motherboards that set world record in performance, the LANParty team has recently committed to a research program called “top performance at affordable prices”, allowing more consumers to enjoy low-price yet high-performance motherboards.

The BI P45-T2(R)S Elite family is the first wave of the “top performance at affordable prices” series. High-end hardware layouts, excellent BIOS design, and ex-factory overclocking stress test are totally migrated to the product. With the price under USD $110, it can surprisingly challenge $150-level products in terms of performance.

Source: Techpowerup

Fujitsu Exits Hard Disk Drive Heads Business

2009-05-12T15:00:00.000+01:00

Fujitsu Limited has announced that it had come to an agreement with TDK Corp. to terminate their strategic business alliance in regard to hard disk drive (HDD) heads, and in conjunction, the companies will dissolve their joint-venture agreement regarding HDD head manufacturer TDK Fujitsu Philippines Corporation (TFPC; 66% owned by TDK and 34% owned by Fujitsu). In October 2004, Fujitsu and TDK signed a business alliance agreement on the HDD head business. In order to build a structure for technological cooperation, the two companies established the joint-venture TFPC in December 2004 to process and assemble HDD heads. Recently, however, Fujitsu decided to exit the HDD head and HDD businesses, and therefore the two companies have agreed to terminate the business alliance and dissolve the joint-venture agreement.

Source: MadShrimps

Full artile here.

Microsoft to Test Windows 7 Update System

2009-05-12T12:00:00.000+01:00

Having propagated Windows 7 RC to a sizable amount of users, Microsoft has created an ideal environment to test the operating system's update system. To test it, Microsoft will release up to ten mock updates this week, starting from Tuesday. The updates do not affect the system in any way, except that they are used by Microsoft to test how the update system itself is able to deal with the various kinds of updates to the OS and its components, in various scenarios generated by people's different hardware configurations and software environments.

Continue reading here:
Techpowerup
WindowsTeamBlog
PC World

NVIDIA Releases WHQL-Certified nForce Drivers for Windows 7

2009-05-12T10:00:00.000+01:00

Since Microsoft kicked off its WHQL certification program for Windows 7, hardware vendors such as NVIDIA have taken serious initiatives to release new drivers that are certified to run with the new OS. Less than a week after releasing GeForce 185.85 WHQL drivers for Windows 7, NVIDIA today made nForce WHQL drivers official. NVIDIA uses a unified driver for its nForce series motherboard chipsets, which are of two main classes: for chipsets with integrated GeForce graphics, and for chipsets without integrated graphics. nForce WHQL 15.35 supports nForce chipsets for both AMD and Intel platforms without integrated graphics, while nForce WHQL 15.37 deals with support for nForce chipsets for both platforms with integrated graphics. Refer to the "supported products" tab at NVIDIA's driver page for more information. The driver package provides drivers for the Ethernet controller(s), SATA/IDE controller, RAID/AHCI controller, SMU, the IGP (depending on the driver you choose, and if an IGP is present), and provides Network Management Tools along with RAIDTool. You need to install the appropriate driver irrespective of your chipset featuring an IGP that has been disabled.

Source : Techpowerup

Foxconn BloodRAGE

2009-05-07T21:00:00.000+01:00

Foxconn solutions have become so widely spread that very often we don’t even notice them. However paradoxical that might seem. The processor socket on your mainboard is most likely marked with “Foxconn” brand, and even the board itself may have come off the Foxconn production lines, even if it was sold under a different brand name. Of course, the company was hardly happy about this state of things. In 2007, within their new branding campaign, Foxconn launched a new family of products for overclockers called Quantum Force series. All mainboards in this series had their own unique names: MARS, BLACKOPS, DESTROYER, AVENGER. They were based on different chipsets but boasted extensive functionality and advanced fine-tuning and overclocking-friendly features, much more sophisticated that what the regular mainboards had to offer. Today we are glad to introduce to you one more Quantum Force series solution – a mainboard called Foxconn BloodRAGE. It is based on the newest Intel X58 Express chipset and supports contemporary Intel Core i7 processors.

Continue reading here...

Intel Core i7 940 2.93GHz to be phased out

2009-05-07T19:00:00.000+01:00

Today, Intel sent out notification that its Core i7 940 2.93GHz processor will get the axe and a super sudden death attack in order to make way for the new chip on the block, the Core i7 950 at 3.06GHz.

Since the launch of the Nehalem platform in November 2008, the Core i7 family has received a moderately low adoption rate by the average consumer due to the nature of the platform’s overall cost. Not to mention, recent comments by Nvidia support the claim that high-end consumers would rather prefer dual-GPU benefits over a Core i7, even the least expensive 920 model.

Continue reading here...

DDR3 1600 6GB available for €83.55

2009-05-07T15:00:00.000+01:00

OCZ 1600 CL7
DDR3 is officially not expensive anymore. We were complaining in the past that you have to sell a kidney to buy some decent amount of DDR3 memory but this has finally changed.

Continue reading here...

AMD Releases Industry's First WHQL-certified Drivers for Windows 7

2009-05-07T12:00:00.000+01:00

AMD is ready with the industry's first WHQL-certified set of drivers for Microsoft Windows 7. The Catalyst WHQL Windows 7 driver comes as yet another first for AMD, and a first for Microsoft's Windows 7 certification program. Dated 5/5/2009, the drivers carry the version 8.612, feature full support for Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) 1.1 and works with ATI Radeon HD 2000, HD 3000, and HD 4000 series. The drivers also provide support for ATI Stream GPGPU technology.

Continue reading here...

Forza 3 for holiday season

2009-05-02T17:00:00.000+01:00

As we told you previously, Forza Motorsport 3 is coming to the Xbox 360. It seems that while we know that it is in development details of when Microsoft will officially announce it have been sketchy. Now, according to our sources, Microsoft is set to announce Forza 3 for a holiday release this year at E3.

Continue reading here....

Acer Says Windows 7 Will Be Available From October 23rd 2009

2009-05-02T15:00:00.001+01:00

In a conversation with Pocket-lint, Acer's UK MD Bobby Watkins, has said that Windows 7 will be available pre-loaded on their upcoming All-In-One Z5600 PC from the 23 October 2009. Any of these models which come pre-loaded with Vista which are purchased up to 30 days before this date are also eligible for a free upgrade to Windows 7.

Continue reading...

ASUS Launches Graphics Cards with Super ML Caps

2009-05-01T21:00:00.000+01:00

ASUS, world-leading producer of top quality graphic solutions, has today introduced the world’s first graphics cards to utilize Multilayer Polymer Capacitors (Super ML Caps) with the self-designed ENGTX285 and EAH4890 Series.

Continue reading at Techpowerup

Samsung Android

2009-04-29T20:00:00.000+01:00

We're not sure what it is with most mobile phone manufacturers and dull names for their handsets, but despite all the excitement of Samsung having announced its first Android based handset, we can but wonder why it's called the I7500, as it's a terribly dreary name.

However, despite the name, this handset is pretty feature pack, if not right on the cutting edge. For starters it has a 3.2-inch AMOLED touch screen display with a resolution of 320x480 pixels. Under the hood you're looking at a 528MHz Qualcomm processor and 8GB of built in storage memory, but so far there's no word on how much RAM the I7500 has. It also has a built in 5 Megapixel camera with LED flash, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, GPS, a microSD card slot and what looks like a top mounted 3.5mm audio jack with micro USB 2.0 port next to it.

The I7500 also offers tri-band 3G that operates on the 900, 1,700 and 2,100MHz bands with 7.2Mbit HSDPA and 5.76Mbit HSUPA support as well as quad band GSM with EDGE and GPRS. At 115x56x11.9mm (HxWxD) the I7500 is a rather large, but not too thick device, although the weight hasn't been announced as yet. It comes with a 1,500mAh battery which sounds like it should at least in theory last quite a while.

The I7500 should hit Europe in June.

You can find the press release here and a quick video preview here

Source: Fudzilla

Played Gears of War 2? Not the original? This is for you

2009-04-29T19:00:00.001+01:00

In another round of banning, the powers that be on the Xbox Live team have turned their attention to those who deliberately cheat at Gears of War 2 to rack up Achievements. This is not the first time that action has been taken to keep play fair by the Microsoft team.

According to reports, the players in question have unlocked specific Gears of War 2 achievements through use of an unauthorized hack. Sources suggest that the majority of these hacks were created by hacking saved game files, but we have been unable to confirm that this was actually the case.

Beyond saying that they will be resetting the Gamerscores of the offending players, no actual specifics on how long the players in question will be banned or if the resetting of their Gamerscore was penalty enough is known.

It just does not pay to cheat; and cheers to Microsoft for at least attempting to try to provide a level playing field and swiftly dealing with cheaters when they are discovered.

ATI Radeon HD 4770 OC

2009-04-29T15:00:00.000+01:00

ATI's 40nm HD 4770 appears to be a great overclocker, at least if you do not stick to ATI's overclocking limits. Rivatuner's cfg file can be modified in order to bypass the overclocking limit which easily enables the reference card to go as high as 900MHz for the core, without raising the voltage.

ATI's CCC limits the card to 830/850MHz for core/memory clock and according to our own review and bunch of other reviews on the net, ATI's HD 4770 easily copes with it, even with, what AMD likes to call, a US $99 price cooler.

When bypassed, by simply changing the rivatuner.cfg line RV770 = 9440h-9443h,944Ch and adding "94B3h", it is capable of working at 900/1100MHz clocks, and it was stable enough to complete the 3DMark Vantage. We had high hopes for the HD 4890 and that it could go over 1GHz and by the looks of things, HD 4770 might have no problem with it.

In spite of AMD's non-OC attitude, Asus made a bold press release yesterday where its HD 4770 TOP edition can be pushed to 971/4600MHz thanks to the voltage boost from 0.95V to 1.2V.

Once AMD gets better yields and gives its partners the green light for factory overclocked cards, the HD 4770 card might evolve into something different, a mean beast that can bite hard, harder than expected.

You can find the rivatuner.cfg line and overclocking scores over at Expreview.com.

Dreamcasts Sold New at $99 Quickly Sell Out

2009-04-25T15:00:00.000+01:00

The Dreamcast was Sega’s swansong in the video game industry. Sure, Sega’s evolved and is now spreading its gaming goodness to Sony, Microsoft, and yes, even Nintendo, but it’s just not the same.

Hardcore gamers will argue that a little piece of Sega soul went away with the Dreamcast, which in many ways was a system ahead of its time. I could spend many more words reminiscing about the modern classic games that called the Dreamcast home, or how the hardware architecture was more smartly designed than the PlayStation 2, but that’s the not the point of this piece.

The point is (finally getting to it) that ThinkGeek managed to find a stash of completely new-in-box Sega Dreamcasts and put them up for sale on its website for $99.

We don’t know how many ThinkGeek were able to stock, but demand was high enough that the e-tailer now reports a sell out: “Hey folks, sorry if you missed out on getting one of these retro gaming gems. If we can find another stash of new Dreamcasts, we will.”

While many Dreamcasts are still available on eBay – many for less than $99 – they likely won’t come with that ‘new Sega console smell.’

Windows XP Comes Integrated into Windows 7

2009-04-25T12:00:00.000+01:00

Windows 7 is approaching its official release date not too long from now, and this week Microsoft unveiled one of the "secret" technologies that will ship with Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate.

Called XP Mode or XPM for short, the new feature essentially virtualizes the legacy Windows XP operating environment within Windows 7. That is, users will be able to install all applications that were previously only fully working with Windows XP, on their Windows 7 desktop without having to resort to a dual-boot solution.

Indeed, Windows 7 comes with "compatibility mode" but XPM isn't the same. XPM is actually built on the same platform as Microsoft's Virtual PC 7 product. This isn't the same as running an XP environment through a hypervisor. It was previously believed that XPM would be a Hyper-V client for Windows 7, but it is not.

However, XPM will utilize virtualization technologies in recent processors from both AMD and Intel, such as Intel's VT.

Users will be able to install a Windows XP application, and launch it seamlessly on the same Windows 7 desktop, along side Windows 7 versions of the same application, without actually affecting the core operating system. This fact alone, allows Microsoft to continue to support Windows XP in a virtualized environment, thereby giving legacy support without actually building loads of legacy code into Windows 7. This not only improves Windows 7's stability and speed, but also security.

At this time, Microsoft is claiming that XPM provides near perfect Windows XP compatibility within Windows 7.

Microsoft will include a full license of Windows XP SP3 with every copy of Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate for use with XPM.

Radeon HD 4890 CrossFireX vs. GeForce GTX 285 SLI

2009-04-24T19:00:00.000+01:00

Anyway, the Radeon HD 4890 CrossFire has proved to be a worthy opponent to the GeForce GTX 285 SLI configuration. The latter is generally faster at low resolutions, but ATI’s configuration secures a draw at 1920x1200 and higher resolutions. Therefore, we can expect it to be faster than the GeForce GTX 285 SLI tandem from the same price category. We will check this out practically in an upcoming review. As for practical recommendations for gamers, it would not be wise for us to make them basing on our list of 15 games only, especially as you should take into account the display resolution you are going to play at. Still, we can note that if you want maximum performance in Crysis Warhead or Far Cry 2, you should consider building a GeForce GTX 285 SLI, but a Radeon HD 4890 CrossFireX configuration would be better for F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin or Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X.

Source: Madshrimps

OCZ is preparing 2133MHz kits

2009-04-24T17:00:00.000+01:00

OCZ is working on a few DDR3 2133MHz 6GB kits that will be launched pretty soon. These kits will be a part of Blade and Flex EX series and will work at impressive 2133MHz with CL9 latencies.

Both kits are designed for Intel's Core i7/X58 platform so they will need only 1.65V to achieve those speeds at such tight latencies. Currently, the only listed 2133MHz 3 and 6GB kits are coming from A-DATA but these have a CL10 latency and need higher voltage.

OCZ's upcoming 2133MHz kits might be the fastest ones on the market once OCZ manage to launch them and get them to retail/e-tail. The price is still unknown but we don't expect them to be cheap, at least not yet, as the DDR3 price is getting lower by the day.

Source: Fudzilla

Windows 7 RC - Carefull

2009-04-24T15:00:00.001+01:00

We’ve seen build after build of Windows 7 through its beta existence. It all started with build 7000, which was released to public testers in early January.

Through each incremental update to the beta, which bumps the build number by several digits at a time, we see Windows 7 inch closer towards the Release Candidate.

While we’re all holding our breath for the release of the RC that’s supposed to land on May 5, Microsoft hardware partners such as Dell and HP already have the RC in their labs for testing.

According to a post from Microsoft-following journalist Ed Bott’s Twitter this morning, the build number for the RC that we hope to be seeing in a couple of weeks is 7100. Bott does warn that the build 7100 downloads that are making their way onto torrent sites have so far been fake.

The last build number that we know of is 7077, which we heard was being considered for RC status. Microsoft may have decided that 7100 would be the RC number for it’s obvious leap over the beta.

Source : Tom's Hardware US

AMD Introduces New Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Processor

2009-04-24T12:00:00.001+01:00

AMD announced a platform refresh today for Dragon platform technology, including the new AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition processor. As AMD’s fastest ever quad-core processor, it brings all the capabilities gamers, enthusiasts and do-it-yourselfers have come to expect from AMD, including world record setting performance, high-speed DDR3 memory support and AMD OverDrive 3.0 technology, giving users more control over their computing experience.

The Dragon technology refresh consists of the new AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition processor, AMD 7-Series chipsets and award winning ATI Radeon HD 4890 graphics. With this platform refresh, AMD is combining its fastest processor with the massive graphics processing muscle of its most powerful GPU to deliver high definition video entertainment and “beyond HD” resolutions3 that allow gamers to take the latest games to the extreme.

Source and full story: TechPowerup

Pirate Bay: Paul McCartney agrees with the verdict

2009-04-23T12:00:00.000+01:00

Paul McCartney, the well-known member of The Beatles, talked about the condemnation of 'The Pirate Bay' founders.

As reported some days ago, founders of 'The Pirate Bay' have been found guilty of violating copyright laws. A Swedish court decided to sentence them to one year in jail and a payment of 30 million SEK ($3.6 million, €2.7 million) in fines and damages.

McCartney thinks that the final verdict about this case is fair. Speaking to BBC Newsbeat, he said:

If you get on a bus you've got to pay. And I think it's fair, you should pay your ticket.

As a person who works in the music world, Paul McCartney thinks that people shouldn't support piracy and the artists should be rewarded for their work.

Source: Clanbase

AMD, Yahoo See Tough Times Ahead

2009-04-23T10:00:00.000+01:00

AMD (NYSE: AMD) and Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) reported first-quarter earnings that were in line with Wall Street expectations, but both said they expect the second quarter to be another tough one for the economy.

AMD's quarterly loss matched expectations, while the company's sales of $1.18 billion were down 21% from the year-ago quarter but better than expected. But the company said it expects lower second-quarter sales, and that visibility remains difficult.

Continue reading this story...

Source: InternetNews

Amazon Video on Demand gets HD content

2009-04-22T22:00:00.000+01:00

It’s been a long time coming, but Amazon is finally upgrading its Video on Demand service to include high definition content from major studios and broadcasters. More than 500 HD movies and TV shows will be available initially, in addition to the 40,000 it already has in standard definition, which will be accessible not only through a computer but also on compatible standalone devices.

This includes the Roku digital player box, TiVo Series3, TiVo HD and TiVo HD XL DVRs, Sony televisions connected to the company’s Bravia Internet Video Link device, and Panasonic Viera Cast-enabled HDTVs. Amazon users can rent HD movies for $3.99 to $4.99 apiece or purchase TV shows in high-def for $2.99. At least for now, Amazon is not selling HD movies – though standard definition titles are available for around $14.99.

Bluetooth Technology Gets Faster With Bluetooth 3.0

2009-04-22T20:00:00.000+01:00

From its annual All Hands Meeting in Tokyo this week, the Bluetooth SIG formally adopted Bluetooth Core Specification Version 3.0 + High Speed (HS), or Bluetooth 3.0. This latest iteration of the popular short-range wireless technology fulfills the consumers' need for speed while providing the same wireless Bluetooth experience – faster. Manufacturers of consumer electronics and home entertainment devices can now build their products to send large amounts of video, music and photos between devices wirelessly at speeds consumers expect.

Bluetooth 3.0 gets its speed from the 802.11 radio protocol. The inclusion of the 802.11 Protocol Adaptation Layer (PAL) provides increased throughput of data transfers at the approximate rate of 24 Mbps. In addition, mobile devices including Bluetooth 3.0 + HS will realize increased power savings due to enhanced power control built in.

Full article here : Techpowerup

Sony reveals new BDP-S360 Blu-ray player

2009-04-22T19:00:00.000+01:00

We've just received details of Sony's forthcoming BDP-S360 Blu-ray Disc player, the replacement for its acclaimed BDP-S350 model.

The new model is the first entry-level Sony BD player to include decoding for both Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD audio.

Naturally the new player can handle 1080p, 24fps Blu-ray video and it's Profile 2.0 straight out of the box, so can stream BD-Live interactive material such as additional scenes, trailers and games.

Source: WhatHiFi

Android netbook pops up

2009-04-22T17:00:00.000+01:00

Just $99, and hardly worth it

Guangzhou-based SkyTone is offering the Alpha 680, a $99 Android-based netbook, but if you're starting to think it's a bargain, you're in for a surprise.

It's based on the ARM11 CPU at 533 MHz, has 128MB of DDR2 and 1GB of Flash storage. The vendor claims it can cope with MPEG1/2/4,WMV9 and H.263,H.264. On the bright side, it has a swivel touch screen, although it's just a 7-inch 800x480 panel reminiscent of the one used on the first gen Eee PC 701.

Basically, as a computer it fails in most aspects, but if you've got kids, here's a nice way to keep them away from your PC and let them browse around the house. Just don't forget to get an SD card while your at it, as 1GB isn't enough for a phone, let alone a netbook.

You can find the product page here.

Source: Fudzilla

2009-04-22T15:00:00.000+01:00

nVidida Corporation, the inventor of the GPU, today announced the release of its OpenCL driver and software development kit (SDK) to developers participating in its OpenCL Early Access Program. NVIDIA is providing this release to solicit early feedback in advance of a beta release which will be made available to all GPU Computing Registered Developers in the coming months.

Full article here at Techpowerup.

Google tries jump-starting 3D Web with O3D

2009-04-22T10:00:00.001+01:00

Google on Tuesday released software called O3D to bring accelerated 3D graphics to browsers, a significant effort but not the only one to try to endow Web applications with some of the computing muscle that PC programs can use.

Google's O3D lets browsers show accelerated 3D graphics such as this island scene.

(Credit: Google)

O3D is a browser plug-in for Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome that works on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, but Google hopes that eventually, the technology will be built directly into browsers. It provides an interface that lets developers' Web-based JavaScript programs tap directly into a computer's graphics chip, which could mean better games and other applications.

Source: Cnet

Microsoft Zune HD, Zune Cell Phone May Be Coming.

2009-04-21T17:00:00.000+01:00

Microsoft Corp. may be preparing a rather significant launch of new Zune multimedia devices. The timeline is rather suitable for big product launches as during holidays a lot of people make more impulsive purchases. Currently there are rumours about portable digital media player with high-definition video playback capability as well as Zune mobile phone.

There is information that Microsoft is currently considering one of the three ad companies for a launch campaign of its project code-named Pink [and Purple], which is believed to be Zune software and services for mobile phones running Windows Mobile operating system. That said, Pink and Purple can easily be a Zune-branded cell phone, or an environment allowing Windows Mobile-based phones to listen, purchase, share and manage music files. The market, however, is not full of multimedia-oriented Windows handsets , hence, a Zune-branded cell phone is still a possibility.

Meanwhile, a web-site has published photos of what is claimed to be Zune HD portable digital media player. There are no technical specs and the pictures in general hardly give a lot of details even about the look. However, since many manufacturers now have music players with touch-sensitive screens, it would be logical for Microsoft to have one as well.

Earlier this year Microsoft confirmed intention to release “new Zunes before the 2009 holiday season” and that those music players would “be a surprising step up from the current models”, hence, a new Zune-branded music player is completely possible. On the other hand, a “surprising step” from the available models would be an introduction of a Zune phone.

Source: X-Bits Labs

ATI Expected to Beat Nvidia with DirectX 11 Chip Time-to-Market.

2009-04-21T16:00:00.000+01:00

Nvidia Corp. was the first to market with its DirectX 10 graphics processor, but its arch-rival ATI, graphics products group of Advanced Micro Devices, may be the first with its DirectX 11 graphics chip. According to rumours, code-named ATI RV870 graphics processing unit will be launched in late July, whereas Nvidia’s code-named GT300 is projected to be released in October.

The new generation of graphics processors with DirectX 11 capabilities will not only further boost functionality of chips, but will also bring new levels of performance. Since there are months before the launches of both RV870 and GT300, specifications of the newcomers have not leaked yet. According to Heise Online, AMD plans to release its RV870 in late July or early August; meanwhile, according to The Inquirer web-site, Nvidia’s GT300 will only be shipped on October 15, if everything goes as planned.

Both ATI/AMD and Nvidia are interested in launching their new graphics chips along with the release of Windows 7 operating system, which may catalyze more users to acquire new personal computers. Sales of graphics cards collapsed as a consequence of the global recession and the launch of new generation of GPUs can also improve sales of graphics adapters.

DirectX 11 further improves programmability of graphics processors and allows software developers to more efficiently use graphics chips for general-purpose computing.

AMD and Nvidia did not comment on the news-story.

Nvidia's 40nm GPUs reportedly coming in late Q2

2009-04-21T09:00:00.000+01:00

Nvidia recently set its outsourcing schedule with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) for the second quarter, according to a Chinese-language Commercial Times report.

In addition to expanding its 55nm GT200b GPU outsourcing, the company will also start mass production of the 40nm entry-level GT218, high-end mobile GT215 and mainstream GT214 and GT216 GPUs in mid to late second quarter, according to the paper.

Source: Digitimes

GeForce Graphics Card Roundup - April 2009

2009-04-20T19:00:00.002+01:00

Nvidia’s GT200 core first made an appearance on the GTX 280 and 260 back in June of 2008. Since then we have seen it used on the GTX 295, GTX 285 and GTX 275 as well as in a modified version of the GTX 260 with additional unified shaders. Today we take a look at several of the cards based on the GT200 core as well as a GTS 250 to see which offer the best value for gaming and GPU computing tasks.

A bunch of nVidia cards tested here at DriverHeaven .

Western Digital 2TB Enterprise-class Drive

2009-04-20T17:00:00.000+01:00

One of the first new products released at the NAB show in Las Vegas today is from Western Digital. They are officially launching the new RE4-GP Enterprise-class hard drive series with capacities up to 2TB. WD has implemented a dual controller design, 64MB cache, 500GB per-platter design, and a reported 25% reduction in power requirements compared to earlier drive designs. All of this will set you back a cool $329.99, but availability should be later this week. The full press release and additional specifications are located below. Review samples are arriving shortly, in the meantime, take a look at the numbers and let us know what you think.

Source: Anandtech

Intel Cuts Core 2 Prices, Introduces Core 2 Quad Q8400 and Q8400S

2009-04-20T15:00:00.000+01:00

TCMagazine have just posted an updated chart of Intel's Core 2 and Xeon processors that reveal two new CPUs, and some interesting price reductions. The new socket LGA775 Core 2 Quad Q8400 and Q8400S processors are both made using 45 nm technology, feature a frequency of 2.66 GHz, a 1333 MHz FSB and 4 MB of L2 cache. The S model has a TDP of 65W while the normal Q8400 has 95W TDP. Both processors cost $183 and $245 respectively.

Source: TCMagazine

Windows 7 RC available to public on May 5th

2009-04-20T14:00:00.001+01:00

Last major release before final version

Microsoft has recently updated its Program Partner Site to include details regarding the upcoming release of Windows 7 RC. A page has been posted on the company's site notifying TechNet and MSDN subscribers that they are now able to download the Release Candidate build.

However, in all honesty there was a slip up on Microsoft's part by posting the info page a little too soon, as MSDN partners are reporting that the build is not appearing on their accounts yet. On the other hand, TechARP Gold partners have been given the new 7.8GB Release Candidate known as build 7200, or 6.1.7200.0 to be specific. Last week we reported that Microsoft just pushed out build 7105 which was a significant milestone, and it is apparent that the development team has been very hard at work in these recent days.

Overall, the information given seems to match up with our reporting of Microsoft's intentions to openly launch Windows 7 RC to the public in May. We are told from Microsoft's site that the public will be able to get its hands on this new build starting Tuesday, May 5th. More information will be given as it is made available.

Source: Fudzilla

LaCie Introduces Three High-Performance Storage Combinations for Video Professionals

2009-04-20T13:57:00.001+01:00

Today LaCie announced a new 8 TB model of the LaCie 4big Quadra and three new product combinations for professionals who expect fast, large and reliable storage solutions to enhance their workflow. Leveraging the quality and reputation of the award-winning LaCie 4big Quadra—which is recognized for its high capacity, speeds, data protection, and design–LaCie premieres the 4big Quadra Bundle, which boasts huge capacities up to 32 TB and fast transfer speeds up to 700 MB/s. LaCie also announced today a new 8 TB model of the 4big Quadra, an integral part of the 32 TB LaCie 4big Quadra Bundle.

Full article here.

Crash Testing ext4 on Ubuntu 9.04

2009-04-20T11:00:00.000+01:00

One of the more controversial aspects of the Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope release is the use of the ext4 filesystem. Users have apparently lost important data already while testing Ubuntu on their desktop. This article provides some basic information about ext4 and then provides some test results on a Ubuntu 9.04 server.

Ubuntu has backported the ext4 filesystem to the 2.6.28 kernel in Jaunty Jackalope 9.04.

# uname -r
2.6.28-11-server

What is ext4?
The ext4 file system is a journaling file system which is a branch of ext3. Ext3 has been so valuable in terms of stability and usability to Linux that the developers decided to fork ext3 to ext4 instead of incorporating the features of ext into ext3. Those features include 64-bit storage limits and performance boosts. The 2.6.28 Kernel included ext4 as stable code.

Advantages of ext4.
The advantages of ext4 are two. Ext4 has increased filesystem support for volumes up to 1 exabyte, with files up to 16 terabytes. In addition, ext4 has increased performance. Currently, ext supports 16 terabyte filesystem and 2 terabyte file size.

Ext4 uses extents, which are a contiguous range of physical blocks on the hard drive. The key word here is contiguous, as you can see in the illustration the blocks are close together. The advantage is large file size performance and the reduction of fragmentation because your data is placed in a more centralized area. A extent can be up to 128MB of contiguous space with 4KB block size. If you choose to use extents in ext4 you will not be able to go backwards to ext3 as the extents are not compatible with ext3.

The ext3 filesystem is an excellent filesystem, stable and proven. But, more often, especially with larger files you will see non-contiguous blocks, they will be spread out creating fragmentation. Fragmentation slows disk access down as the operating system must seach for all of the blocks to provide the data requested.

One of the interesting aspects of ext4 is that it allows for pre-allocation of disk space. This allows for a contiguous space to be allocated for larger files, again increasing performance and reducing fragmentation.

Ext4 increases performance by using delayed allocation which delays the block allocation until the data is ready to be written to disk. This process improves allocation decisions by the operating system as it knows exactly the file size before being allocated.

Now 64,000 subdirectories can exist with ext4. This is also available if the dir_index feature is enabled in ext3.
Now ext4 uses checksums to verify the journal.

If your system loses power and you need to run e2fsck to verify the filesystem, ext4 will ignore unallocated block groups to help improve performance.

Risks
If your system crashes before your data has been written to disk you may see additional risks of data loss based on the delayed block allocation. This risk can be minimized by using a UPS to keep your system running when there is a power loss and by performing backups on a regular basis. Both of these are common sense issues that you should always provide for important data.

Initial Crash Tests
As you review Internet posts in forums and blogs you will see that the delayed allocation has apparently cost some people their data. So in order to do some testing I built an Ubuntu 9.04 server with all of the partitions ext4 except the boot partition. Then I set up Postfix mail server, an encrypted /home directory and Joomla using MySQL and apache2. The goal was to do those kinds of things that would represent a loss of power and the server crashes while these applications were running on the server. No UPS and no backups existed for these systems.

Postfix
This was a simple test of setting up a Postfix mail server and deliberately crashing the server to check outcome. System rebooted fast and Postfix loaded and ran normal, no problem.

Encrypted Home Directory
Many people have complained, check the many forums and blogs, that when the system goes down they lose data from an encrypted home directory. So to test I moved data into the home directory and crashed the system, repeatedly. No data loss was indicated and all information looked fine upon evaluation.

Web Server/MySQL
Another initial test was to create a Joomla content site using a MySQL database and crash the system. Once that was done the system booted fine and all systems came up running perfectly.

Summary:
In the tests performed, no data was lost after a number of forced crashes. However, these are really simple tests done over the period of a day. Before you bet the farm on ext4 you will want to do several things. Migrate slowly to ext4 to verify for yourself that the option of performance is worth the risks. Always use UPS and do regular backups. If you want to use ext4 on the desktop you must also follow that procedure. Last, there are applications, especially on the desktop, that really are not created for ext4 so they add additional risks.

Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping - Preview

2009-04-19T19:00:00.002+01:00

We received our first Core i7 920 D0 stepping from ASRock a few days ago and have been testing it thoroughly on their X58 SuperComputer Motherboard outfitted with four GTX 260-216 video cards. This new stepping certainly shows promise as initial clocking, voltage levels, and memory speeds were improved for the most part over our best C0 stepping. However, the differences were not exciting enough for us to immediately whip out the credit card and go hunt down a D0 stepping processor. In the middle of our testing, ASRock provided an updated BIOS tuned with the D0 stepping in mind and the results changed enough for us to seek a retail processor. Our ES sample was good, not as good as some hand picked samples we noticed at various forums back in March, but we wanted a retail processor.

We called up our good friends at TankGuys and they were able to hook us up (after our credit card cleared) with two D0 stepping 920 processors. Ben was able to overnight the first unit in time for us to test over the weekend and our initial results have just been terrific to date. Unfortunately, our ASRock X58 board (yes, this board makes for a very good multi-GPU platform) was tied up in testing for an upcoming Workstation review. So looking around the lab, we grabbed our trusty DFI LanParty UT X58-T3eH8 and updated it with the latest magical mystical BIOS from Oskar, Jarry, & Company. This particular BIOS is very D0 stepping friendly along with incorporating a few changeable settings like Round Trip Latency (RTL) that allows us to clock our Corsair Dominator GT memory kit a little higher than the other X58 motherboards.

The first test results just blew us away and we wanted to share one particular result today. We are still testing and will have a full article up in the near future featuring a variety of motherboards and cooling choices, but at this moment, the D0 920 stepping provides real and tangible benefits for the overclocking community over the previous C0 steppings. There is no difference in application benchmarks between the two processors at stock or like overclocked settings, nothing drastic has changed like cache levels or the IMC design. Rather this is a "standard continuous process improvement" update as Intel officially informed us. These improvements have enabled us to achieve higher overclocks at like or lower voltages, higher memory speeds at like or lower voltages, and as a result, our CPU, PWM, and case temperatures are down while overclocked numbers are up. Until we finish up our testing, the screenshot below is one example (not even our best) of our test results with the Core i7 920 D0 (3845B027 lot code) processor.

We enabled Turbo mode on all four cores for a final 21x CPU multiplier, set Bclk to 205, memory ratio to 2:10, Core VID at 1.345V, VTT to 1.37V, IOH to 1.19V, and VDimm at 1.69V. This resulted in a final CPU speed of 4.309 GHz, memory speed at 2052 with 7-8-7-20 1T timings, and it is 24/7 stable. We actually could reduce Core VID to 1.30V, VTT to 1.34V, and VDimm to 1.67V and pass our OCCT/Prime 95 tests. However, at the reduced voltage rates our video encoding tests with RipBot264 or HandBrake would fail along with our trusted Crysis WarHead and PCMark Vantage x64 loop testing. We think we can reduce the voltages slightly from their current settings and still pass our benchmark test suite, but for now we feel safe with our results.

The question that has not been answered yet is how our C0 processors steppings faired. First off, none of the C0 steppings we have would operate at these particular voltage settings, in fact two of them failed to POST. Our best C0 sample is requiring 1.425V on Core Vid, 1.250V IOH, 1.475V VTT, and 1.71V VDimm to just make it into Vista Ultimate 64 and we still have not dialed in application stability yet. Once we complete the C0 testing, expect to hear back from us on this new/old processor.

We just passed the eight hour test mark (multi-tasking tests, OCCT, PCMark Vantage x64 loops) with the above setup. Once again, we set our CPU multiplier to 21x for all cores, Bclk at 210, 2:10 memory ratio, and voltages set to 1.376V on Core Vid, 1.37V VTT, 1.26V IOH, along with 1.69V on VDimm. This results in a 4.41GHz clock speed and DDR3-2100 memory speed at 7-8-7-20 1T timings.

We will be back shortly with results on the ASRock X58 SuperComputer board with a new performance level BIOS as our workstation testing with it is now complete.

Source: Anandtech

Linux - New ATI drivers

2009-04-19T15:00:00.003+01:00

Yet another stable version of the ATI/AMD Linux display driver was released last night, for both x86 and x86_64 architectures. With version 9.4, ATI Catalyst introduces early support for the upcoming Ubuntu 9.04 operating system and full support for the recently released Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3. Users of the Release Candidate of Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) can install and test this new ATI driver via the "Hardware Drivers" utility in the System -> Administration menu. Without further introduction, we invite you to take a look at the resolved issues of the new ATI Catalyst 9.4 video driver from AMD:

· Fixed a segmentation fault issue when X was stopped in dual-head mode;
· Fixed indirect rendering in Novel's SUSE Enterprise 10.1;
· When 3D programs are running, errors will no longer be reported in dmesg;
· Fixed video playback issues, that caused the system to freeze, when resuming from S3/S4;
· Repaired the default button for Warning Dialogue in the preferences of the Catalyst Control Center;
· Improved gamma values in the Catalyst Control Center;
· The HDTV Support page of the Catalyst Control Center correctly displays the formats now.

Requirements:

· X.Org 6.8, 6.9, 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3 or 7.4
· Linux kernel 2.6 or higher
· glibc version 2.2 or 2.3
· Support for POSIX Shared Memory (/dev/shm) is necessary for 3D programs
· The following packages should be installed on your system: XFree86-Mesa-libGL, libstdc++, libgcc, XFree86-libs, fontconfig, freetype and zlib.

Supported operating systems:

· Red Hat Enterprise Linux
· Novell SUSE Enterprise Linux
· Ubuntu Linux

Detailed installation instructions for the ATI Catalyst installer can be found in this PDF file.

Download the ATI/AMD Linux Display Driver 9.4 right now from Softpedia.

Source: Softpedia

Microsoft Already Starting on Windows 8

2009-04-19T12:00:00.003+01:00

There's no doubt that many enthusiasts are waiting to see what the final version of Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system will look like when shipped.

How will Windows 7 perform? Will it be faster and more stable than Vista? Will it address all of Vista's shortcomings? Of course, we all know that Windows 7 is an evolution on Vista. Despite lingering doubts, those who have tried the public beta of Windows 7 already claim that it's one of Microsoft's best operating systems yet.

That's a great thing to hear because Microsoft is actually already starting to work on Windows 8.

According to a job posting on Microsoft's site, the company is starting to put its engineering team together for designing the successor to Windows 7. The job posting details of a storage related position with focus in the enterprise:

"For the upcoming version of Windows, new critical features are being worked on including cluster support and support for one way replication. The core engine is also being reworked to provide dramatic performance improvements. We will also soon be starting major improvements for Windows 8 where we will be including innovative features which will revolutionize file access in branch offices."

If you've got what it takes to be the "Lead Software Development Engineer in Test," apply right here. Or you can sit back and wait to see how Windows 8 will develop.

Source: Tom's Hardware US

HIS Radeon HD 4770 Makes Early Appearance

2009-04-19T10:44:00.003+01:00

AMD's newest line of desktop graphics cards in the making, Radeon HD 4700, will be launched in weeks to come. The Radeon HD 4770 model in particular, is the company's move to compete with NVIDIA's GeForce 9800 GT, while at some highly competitive price-points. Earlier in February, a sample made its way to Guru3D, which revealed quite a bit about the SKU. It looks like AMD's partners, at least HIS, is ready with its HD 4770 card, according to a press-shot leaked by Chinese website ITOCP.

The pictures show the card to feature a PCB visibly identical to the reference PCB candidate spotted on the Guru3D sample, while featuring a company-designed cooler. The cooler consists of a GPU block from which metal fins project radially, on which a fan is present, decked with a fancy shroud. Also pictured are the box design, and package contents. The common features of the Radeon HD 4770 are known to be: 40 nm RV740 GPU, 640 stream processors, 128-bit GDDR5 memory interface, and CrossFireX support. This card features 512 MB of memory. The price of this card is not known, though AMD reportedly set a US $99 target SEP price for the Radeon HD 4770.

Source: TechPowerUp