Boeing is seeing a glimmer of progress in its work toward fielding laser weapons.

The defense industry giant on Monday said tests of its Laser Avenger system in December marked "the first time a combat vehicle has used a laser to shoot down a UAV," or unmanned aerial vehicle. In the testing, the Humvee-mounted Laser Avenger located and tracked three small UAVs in flight over the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico and knocked one of the drone aircraft out of the sky.

Boeing didn't go into much detail about the shoot-down. In response to a query by CNET News, it did say this much about the strike by the the kilowatt-class laser: "A hole was burned in a critical flight control element of the UAV, rendering the aircraft unflyable."

cnet

Going for a cheaper, simpler layout 

Although Nvidia has been slated for its GPU rebranding more than once, we've been informed by our sources that the company is now working on an entirely new range of graphics cards which are very different to the products currently in the market.

From what we've been told, the new cards are going to look very different and for those that were around a few years ago, this is meant to be something of a blast from the past. Much in the way that Intel went back to its Pentium III roots to create the Core 2 series of processors, Nvidia has taken a long hard look at what it did in the past.

What this means is that we should be seeing much simpler PCB designs from Nvidia in the future with far less components on the graphics cards. Expect the three and four phase power regulation to be a memory of the past, as Nvidia is going for a simple single phase power regulation design.

Not only will this save manufacturing costs as the bill of materials will be lower, but it should hopefully make for easier cards to cool with fever hot parts and simpler cooler designs. We weren't told if this will apply to Nvidia's entire range of cards, or if it will be limtied to only certain cards, such as entry level models.

fudzilla

Over at hardware-infos they reported that some of the first batches, rather iterations, of RV790 and RV740 engineering samples have begun surfacing. Sources reveal bits and pieces of the new GPUs' specifications to Hardware-Infos. Being some of the first samples, these are merely iterations en route the development of the final product, though trend has it that preliminary information about AMD GPUs have a tendency of turning out true. We will exempt the RV770's final stream processor count from these.
The RV740, a mainstream GPU from AMD, is on course of becoming the first GPU in production, to be built on the 40nm manufacturing node. It carries 640 stream processors and a core clock speed of 700 MHz. It features a 128-bit wide GDDR5 memory bus, churning out bandwidth that rivals equally clocked GDDR3 with double the bus width. The memory bus will be clocked at speeds between 800 and 900 MHz (3.2 GT/s and 3.6 GT/s). Products will carry 512 to 1024 MB of memory. The GPU houses 32 texture memory units (TMUs) and 8 raster operations pipelines (ROPs).
As for the RV790, surprise: it has the same clock speeds as the RV770XT: 750 MHz (core) and 900 MHz (memory). The samples were equipped with 1 GB of GDDR5 memory with chips made by Qimonda.

The memory bus width remains unchanged at 256-bit. With so much similarity with the RV770, the shader domain is all that remains to serve as the differentiation factor, apart from the newer manufacturing process that hypothetically facilitates larger overclocking headroom. There is no word on the remaining specifications.

guru3d

Cherry sells this keyboard with Klingon keycaps, perfect for transcribing the works of Shakespeare in their original language. Like the most robust battle keyboards, it attaches to your console via the hardened PS/2 interface.

HIHIvqa' may' pequ' moH!

gadgets.boingboing

Nvidia used the still ongoing Consumer Electronics Show to establish two new high-end products, namely GTX 285 and GTX 295, and thus is back at the top. The fact that AMD will not keep it like this should be obvious, and that is why we have inquired at a, in the past very reliable AMD power, about what things AMD would able to come up against Nvidia with.

Spontaneously two names fell into this conversation: RV740 and RV790. The former is a well-known in the rumor mill, VR-Zone has already unmasked the specifications of the chip, and using the tape-out, you could also conclude that the RV740 would come in spring.
The chip will be the successor to the RV730, although it could still remain at the market some time, and will redefine AMD's middle class. In things of performance the strongest model will move up to HD 4830 and HD 4850.

Large uncertainty on the other hand about an update on the performance segment. Would AMD hold the RV770 current until the RV870 or put an update between, which is quite pushing depending on the launch of the RV870, concerning that Nvidia will send a distinctly modified GT200 in persona of the GT212 into the race in the second quarter.
The rumors included everything from a RV770 with better frequency to a RV770 that had to more SIMD units (960 SPs, 48 TMUs), and also the codenames were shuffled: Super RV770, RV775 and RV790.

According to our source, AMD's next performance chip will be called RV790, enter the market as HD 4900, and be crafted in 40 nm like RV740. There is still silence about the amount of stream processors. But we can assure that there will be more than with the RV770, so that the RV790 will not just be a half-hearted frequency update.
Both chips, RV740 and RV790, are announced for March. Though a launch within the CeBIT would be suggestible, no one wanted to determine the date yet [via hardware infos].

guru3d.com

First there was ethanol. Then there was butanol. Now there's an alcohol biofuel poised to put both to shame. Using new tricks of the trade, scientists at UCLA have synthesized an alcohol molecule that has as many carbon atoms as a molecule of gasoline. It releases as much energy per gallon and can be dropped right into the tank.

(Photograph by Scott Heiner/S. Lowry/Univ. Ulster/Getty Images)

As bacterium goes, E. coli is a public health scourge, but a lab favorite. It's one of the most thoroughly studied microbes out there, and so one of the most easily manipulated for genetic engineering. Scientists can tweak its metabolic pathways to produce insulin, antibiotics and anticancer drugs; they can increase its ability to make ethanol or even engineer it to manufacture hydrocarbons. But until now, they couldn't push it to create something that didn't exist naturally: long-chain alcohols.
By manipulating E. coli to produce alcohols with up to eight carbon atoms, James Liao and his colleagues at the University of California-Los Angeles recently introduced a new twist to the field of biofuels research. Long-chain alcohols overcome some of the traditional limitations of ethanol, which has only two carbon atoms. They have both high-energy density—on par with gasoline—and low water solubility, so they are compatible with existing infrastructure.
"Long-chain alcohols can be directly used in automobiles or aircraft," Liao says. "Unlike E85, which requires retrofitted vehicles, [they] can be used without vehicle modification."

popularmechanics

NVIDIA GT212 is rumored to be the next high-end chip from NVIDIA. Most seem to indicate that this chip will be made with the TSMC 40nm manufacturing process, but the exact specifications have remained clouded. According to a source to hardware-infos, the chip will trump the 1.4 billion transistors of GT200 with another 400 million adding up to 1.8 billion all in all. They also claim that the number of shaders will be upgraded to 384 by adding to extra clusters of shaders and upgrading each cluster from 24 to 32 shaders.

The number of TMUs will increase accordingly to 96, an additional 8 per extra cluster. The source also claims that NVIDIA will now get access to GDDR5 and will GT212 will have it. In that case NVIDIA will be able to reduce the memory controller to 256-bit and that should make the chip smaller. Bringing the GT2xx architecture to the 40nm half-node will supposedly shrink the chip to less than 300mm². No word on the power consumption. We expect the card to launch in the second quarter.

We have no confirmation to this information so consider it with a truckload of salt.

nordichardware

Low end 9 series to become G1x0

It's been quite a while since Nvidia rebranded its cards and we were beginning to think it has dropped the habit altogether. We talked about the upcoming rebrand in November, and now several leaked ads, courtesy of German retailer MediaMarkt, all but confirm the new naming scheme.
Three cards are mentioned in the ads: the G100, G120 and G130, the latter apparently being a rebranded 9600 GSO, which was in fact, a rebranded 8800 GS all along. Third time lucky it seems.
Apparently the G100 and G120 are 9400 GT and 9500 GT respectively. According to TechConnect, the naming scheme is scheduled to go live at the end of the month, and G92 cards will subsequently also be rebranded into GTS 1xx series.
Nvidia also plans to brand the high end GTX2xx, performance and mainstream are GT2xx, while the entry level remains G1xx branded. They simply follow a keep-it-simple strategy, as a tool to get attention back to its rebranded products. If it sounds new, it has to be new.

fudzilla

Maximum PC's laid hands on that Logitech G13 Gamepad we just saw a few days ago, and they've got plenty to say about it. They're fans of the gamepad's physical form and the layout of the keys, mouse buttons and the analog stick. The pad's got a color-customizable mini LCD and backlighting, and it's possible to bind up to 87 different macros at a time on it -- which the reviewer thinks will make this a totally sweet option for MMO-enthusiasts. The G13 is expected to run about $80 and to be released sometimes this month, but if you just can't wait until then for more glimpses of it, hit the read link.

http://www.engadget.com

Impact gear isn't exactly the hottest peripheral out there for game consoles, but TN Games is apparently finding plenty of hardcore gamers willing to splurge on its FPS Vest. Now, the outfit is finally getting official with its HTX Helmet, which we first heard about as the year began. Utilizing the company's 3rd Space technology, it's designed to be used in conjunction with the 3rd Space Gaming Vest and will enable wearers' to feel blows to the head when fired upon. We're talking bullets whizzing by, impacts of shots -- the works. If, for some incredibly odd reason, that sounds like your idea of fun, be on the lookout for a 2009 release.

www.engadget.com

A customer was shocked to find pornographic images on a mobile phone she had just purchased, even more so when she discovered they were of employees from the store where she had bought it.

The Australian university student was given an ex-demonstration model as it was the last in the Dick Smith Electronics shop, but it later developed a fault with the speaker. It was when searching through the menu options trying to fix the problem that she discovered that 49 images had already been taken on the handset.

The first was a harmless shot of a female employee outside the store in her uniform, although things soon took an adult turn. One image featured the same female employee, naked from the waist down, performing a sex act.

"It's sickening to think I've been using this phone near my face when it was used to take all of these photos," said the startled customer, speaking to the Australian Daily Telegraph. "What would've happened if that phone was bought for a child?"

The store has asked to see the images, and is investigating the matter.

"We take any incidence of this nature very seriously and we will investigate it fully," says a spokesperson. "We've asked the customer to bring us the phone to ascertain the nature of the images."

pcpro

lol, oops!

Kaseijin writes "Neuroscientist Champadi Raman Mukundan claims his Brain Electrical Oscillations Signature test is so accurate, it can tell whether a person committed or only witnessed an act. In June, an Indian judge agreed, using BEOS to find a woman guilty of killing her former fiancé. Scientific experts are calling the decision "ridiculous" and "unconscionable", protesting that Mukundan's work has not even been peer reviewed. How reliable should a test have to be, when eyewitnesses are notoriously fallible? Does a person have a right to privacy over their own memories, or should society's interest in holding criminals accountable come first?"

slashdot

(Photograph by AP/Wide World Photos)

MORE BRAND-NEW 9/11 CONSPIRACY THEORY REPORTING

• FIRST LOOK: NIST's WTC7 Report Puts 9/11 Theories to Rest

GAITHERSBURG, Maryland — Shyam Sunder, the lead investigator on the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) report, responded directly to many conspiracy claims here this morning at his press conference in NIST headquarters in Gaithersburg, Md., which was attended by mainstream media and a handful of conspiracy theorist media, including a representative from InfoWars.com, a Web site that puts forward9/11 conspiracy theories. Sunder specifically addressed conspiracy claims linked to WTC 7. "Before I tell you what we found, I'd like to tell you what we did not find," Sunder told reporters. "We did not find any evidence that explosives were used to bring the building down. The collapse was also not due to fires from the substantial amount of diesel fuel stored in the buildings."

read on popularmechanics.com

Set your alarms and kiss the kids goodbye, CERN will be providing a live webcast of the Large Hadron Collider's "First Beam" maiden voyage on Wednesday. Let us know how it goes, we'll be holed-up inside grandpa's bombshelter with our canned turnips and 10th anniversary Heaven's Gate Nikes -- remember, two-knocks if it's safe else we'll assume you're a robot.

www.engadget.com

Worried that retailers might be running out of utter crap to sell? Been looking for that perfect accessory to go with your "You don't have to be crazy to work here, but it helps" sign? Enter the USB-powered, soda can-shaped anion humidifier. Not only will this magical and totally necessary device clean the air around you and re-energize your fat, lazy body, but it will look cool while doing it -- you know, just sitting there being all soda-can-badass. When you absolutely, positively can't find anything else to do with $24.99, the "Portable Can Shape USB Office Home Miniature Anion Humidifier" is there.

engadget

Exclusive Tiscali threatened to disconnect a customer for illegally downloading a TV show last week, after receiving a copyright infringement notice from a Hollywood studio. The only problem was the customer had quit the ISP months before the alleged transgression was made.

Euan MacLay had been a customer of Freedom2Surf (F2S) for two years until it was taken over by Tiscali as part of the Pipex acquisition last year. His past experience of the Italian buyer's customer service was poor, so as soon as his Freedom2Surf line was due to be migrated to Tiscali's budget network he decided to switch.

That was in early March this year, and Euan never expected to hear from Freedom2Surf again.

But he did. On 23 August Eaun received an email from abuse@pipex.net, accusing him of illegally downloading an episode of Stargate Atlantis - a sci-fi show he does not watch - via BitTorrent, a filesharing protocol he does not use. Most unlikely of all, the alleged infringement took place on 16 August, almost six months after he had quit F2S.

theregister

"HOT ON THE heels of its denials that anything is wrong with the G92 and G94s comes another PCN that shows the G92s and G92b are being changed for no reason. Yup, the problems that are plaguing G84 and G86 are the same that affect seemingly all 65nm and now 55nm Nvidia parts.

This PCN is very similar to the one linked above, and the formatting is almost almost exactly the same, so we won't cover all the details, just the pertinent points. This one is much more important, it confirms that the problems are not confined to the 65nm products. Since Nvidia told us the last one was unimportant and refused to give it to us, we didn't bother asking this time, we just took notes when they were shown to us at a recent conference.

It is titled "G92 GPU Desktop Products" with a subtitle of "Change Bump Material from High Pb to Eutectic Solder", with a date of June 2008 and a number PCN0346A on it. Page 2 has the "PCN Submit Date" of June 13, 2008, " Planned Implementation Date" of July 28, 2008, and a "Proposed First Ship Date for change" of August 17, 2008. Short story here, if you have a G92 or G92b purchased before next week, you likely have a lemon. Remember, these are chip ship dates, not boards in stores."

theinquirer

It's a little difficult to delay a device that hasn't gotten a more specific release window than "the second half of 2008" (from official sources, at least), but Sony Ericsson is doing its darnedest. The scuttlebutt at IFA is that the XPERIA X1 has been delayed to the end of the year, and a Sony rep confirmed to us that it's looking like December 2008 or January 2009. To blame is the software, specifically Windows Mobile 6.1 (or perhaps SE's implementation of it), which appeared to be actively destroying the display units Sony has on display at IFA -- of the three devices, one had some green status lights, one didn't work at all, and one turned on briefly, only to crash hard and never return again... a pretty poor showing for day one of the show. Some hands-on shots are below, glaringly void of actual device usage.

engadget

Sony's taken the crown in the race for thinnest LCD HDTV. At just 9.9mm thick the KDL-40ZX1 nearly halves the depth of Hitachi's former champ (likely throwing up in the bathroom right now) and comes within a whisper of Pioneer's ultra thin concept. Featuring a LED backlighting, a 3,000:1 contrast ratio, 120Hz MotionFlow tech, x.v.Color and BRAVIA Engine 2 image processing this is about as close to a 40-inch window on your wall as is likely to arrive soon. Only one HDMI in is directly on the screen itself, all unnecessary HDMI / USB / component inputs are relegated to a base station, with the option for wired or -- possibly WHDI based? -- 5Ghz wireless (unfortunately limited to 1080i max resolution for now). We'd mention the XMB GUI, AcTVila video on-demand and DLNA support, but at some point it's just piling on. A mere 490,000 yen ($4,474 U.S.) puts the ZX1 on your wall, due at your local Japanese retailer November 10. See you there?
[Via AV Watch]

Razer has just unleashed a highly impressive set of gaming headphones dubbed the Megalodon. The first and most noteable feature of these headphones is 7.1 surround sound which uses Razer's new Maelstrom Audio Engine, said to be able to process algorithms up to 800% faster than traditional HRTF virtual surround technologies which results in a more accurate and convincing positional sound stage.

What's also worth a mention is that the Razer Maelstrom Audio Engine originated as a military grade audio technology developed for fighter pilots who needed precise audio warnings for incoming missiles.
Included is a control pad connected to the headset which allows for easy adjustment of volume, mic, bass and positional sound settings.

The Megalodon will become available sometime during Q4 of this year at a price tag of $149.99 USD. You can find more details on it at the official product page here.

The Razer Megalodon encompasses a circum-aural headset with replaceable ear-pad cushions, a cushioned headband and an adjustable boom mic. The control pod is connected to the headset via a braided cable and comes in a glossy piano black finish with a rotating dial adjustment for volume, mic, bass and positional sound. Meant as desk controller, the control pod allows gamers to switch effortlessly between 2.0 stereo and 7.1 surround sound, even controlling which speakers gamers prefer to use in the 7.1 environment.
Razer also proudly presents the Razer Moray In-Ear Noise Isolating Gaming Earphones today at Games Convention. Designed for gamers, the Razer Moray delivers immersive gaming audio or music on the go in a sleek, compact package. Take your gaming on the road with the Razer Moray's powerful bass-driven stereo sound and mid/high range clarity. With a standard 3.5mm mini-jack, the Razer Moray is the perfect complement to any mobile gaming device such as the PSP®, Nintendo DS™ or any MP3 player.

tweaktown

A few weeks ago, I noted the explosive growth in sales of 64-bit Windows in recent months and wondered aloud when Adobe plans to release a 64-bit Flash player.

A commenter on that post suggested that Adobe was planning to unveil 64-bit support in its upcoming Flash 10 release, but I wasn’t able to confirm that. This morning, a reader pointed me to an eyewitness report that Adobe has publicly demonstrated the Linux and FreeBSD versions of its new 64-bit player at a recent event for Flash developers. Alex Bustin, Senior Engineer of Flash Development for Sony in San Francisco, says, “I just watched Tinic from the Flash Player team demo two 64bit versions of Flash Player 10 here at FlashForward. One on [Ubuntu] Linux and the other running on FreeBSD.” He’s apparently referring to Tinic Uro, whose bio confirms that he works as an engineer on the Flash Player team.

I’ve been keeping tabs on Adobe’s site recently, and there’s still no word on when they plan to release a Windows-compatible 64-bit Flash Player. The current beta downloads of Flash 10 are all 32-bit only. Given the size of the Windows market (and the hockey-stick growth curve for its 64-bit segment), I suspect this is a top priority at Adobe.

Microsoft plans to release Beta 2 of Internet Explorer 8 before the end of this month. It sure would be nice to use that new software in a native version on 64-bit Windows with full support for Flash and Silverlight.

zdnet.com

Bad photo ... but as Borat would say .. izze very nice !

There may have also been some stuff about games and hardware there too.

www.guru3d.com

No doubt you’re familiar with the Universal Serial Bus – we ranked it as our top PC innovation of all time. But what do you know about the next version of this ubiquitous interface? USB 2.0 (otherwise known as USB Hi-Speed) boosted the original 12Mbps data rate to 480Mmb/s over eight years ago, and now USB 3.0 (dubbed USB Superspeed) is set to multiply that bandwidth tenfold. The USB Implementers Forum (led by Intel) released the USB 3.0 spec to hardware partners last week after some reported disputes with AMD and Nvidia (who, afraid Intel would have a jump start in incorporating the tech in chipsets, threatened to develop their own USB standard). But how does this affect you? We dug up some new information about USB 3.0, got our hands on the new connectors, and even took a look inside the new cables.

USB 3.0 will be backwards-compatible with USB 2.0

full story www.maximumpc.com

Less so with a PPU

After our initial PhysX test results, we figured we’d investigate this a little bit further, as something is going on here. A new benchmark that tests PhysX has just been released and it’s called FluidMark and we decided to give it a go.
However, we wanted to test to see if there was any difference in performance depending on CPU usage, so we also did some tests running CPU Burn-in, which loads the CPU, and as we’re using a dual core CPU we ran two instances of CPU Burn-in to load both cores to 100 percent.
The results are intriguing, to say the least. With no extra load on the CPU, the Ageia PPU scores 1,753 points, or an average of 30fps, while the Geforce 8800 GT card manages 4,921 points or an average of 83fps. A clear lead for the Geforce card, but things are set to get interesting.
When we loaded the CPU to 100 percent things changed dramatically for one of the cards, and it’s not the Ageia card. Even though the PPU took a performance hit down to 1,282 points or 22fps, it was nothing compared to the performance hit that the Geforce card took, as it dropped all the way down to 1,344 points or 22fps.
It seems like the Geforce PhysX implementation is highly CPU dependent, and although some of this might have to do with the CUDA implementation, we didn’t expect to see the kind of performance drop we saw. It doesn’t bode well for PhysX in CPU heavy games and as yet we have no idea how well it works in GPU heavy games.
We’d expect some more digging to be done on this subject, but we don’t think Nvidia will be all that happy with our findings. Hopefully they can provide us with a reason for why the performance is so poor during heavy CPU usage.
Also read
Geforce PhysX is heavy on the CPU

source www.fudzilla.com

It's that time, AMD today unleashes their all new high-end product, the Radeon 4850 and 4870 X2. For those of you who lived under a rock and do not know what the X2 actually stands for, it's as simple as it sounds. X2 is times two .. these products are based on multiple GPUs per graphics card. In essence you take a large PCB (printed circuit board), position two 4850 or 4870 processors with an interconnect bridge-chip, grab a handful of memory chips, and then a pinch of resistors and mosfets. You put it in the pan, stir it and voilla ... your serving is ready.

Wanna see how fast the fastest performing graphics card in the worlds is ? Of course you do ..

We'll also test the 4870 X2 card in Crossfire. You can find the 21 page article right here:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-4870-x2-review-crossfire/

Absolute Software has added GPS tracking to its laptop theft-recovery and asset-tracking service.

The availability of geolocation tracking for Computrace will allow asset managers to track GPS-enabled laptops to within ten metres and view their location using Google Maps technology. The technology will also speed recovery of missing or stolen computers, being easier to use than previous IP address-based tracking technology.

The technology uses embedded GPS receivers to acquire latitude and longitude location information from remote computers. This data, sent when the machines are connected to the internet, is then displayed on Absolute's web-based IT asset management portal, showing the current or historical location of a piece of kit.

Use of the technology means that salesmen may no longer be able to claim that they are visiting client premises rather than sneaking down the pub. The upside is that the lives of managers - particularly in the increasingly frequent cases where laptops are lost or stolen - is made a lot easier.

Other aspects of Computrace allow the remote deletion of sensitive information for regulatory compliance and the detection of hardware changes or prohibited software installations. Absolute's investigative team can be wheeled out to physically recover lost or stolen computers, and to work out what changes have been made to purloined PCs once they are recovered.

Computrace software is embedded in the firmware of computers from the the likes of Dell, HP, Lenovo, Toshiba and Fujitsu. The agent is designed to withstand operating system re-installations, as well as hard-drive reformats, replacements and re-imaging. Subscriptions run for terms ranging from one to four years.

Geolocation tracking is available to Computrace customers at no extra cost on supported GPS receivers (list here). Use of a Qualcomm UNDP-1 (Gobi) wireless module is listed as a system requirement. ®

http://www.theregister.co.uk

The Best Graphics Cards for the Money: August 2008

Detailed graphics card specifications and reviews are great—that is, if you have the time to do the research. But at the end of the day, what a gamer needs is the best graphics card within a certain budget.

So if you don’t have the time to research the benchmarks, or if you don’t feel confident enough in your ability to make the right decision, fear not. We at Tom’s Hardware Guide have come to your aid with a simple list of the best gaming cards offered for the money.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card

Next Tuesday NVIDIA will introduce a new set of GeForce drivers, PhysX driver and a PhysX pack. All GeForce series 8 and newer cards will get full PhysX support with a little help of the guys from Ageia and NVIDIA's CUDA team.

We take a peek at what is released next week, what can you expect, what combo's are possible and obviously our opinion on the entire PhysX experience.

Find the article right here ...

http://www.guru3d.com/article/physx-by-nvidia-review/

AMD/ATI recently introduced the Radeon HD 4800 line-up of graphics cards, featuring the 55nm RV770 core. The cards have only just become available, but there are a lot of rumors on the RV770's successor already. It's been known for a while that the RV870 would be a die-shrink of the RV770, in other words, a smaller production process with the same architecture. AMD/ATI has now announced that the smaller process will be the 40nm one. 

The 40nm RV870 3D-chip is codenamed Lil Dragon, AMD/ATI claims twice the performance-per-Watt compared to the RV770. Lil Dragon would be about 20% faster than it's predecessor, while maintaining a lower power consumption. It's rumored that the RV870 chip will feature 960 stream processors, the current RV770 has 800 of those. 

www.hardware.info

Dell customers are unhappy with the BIOS patch released by Dell to counter the problem with faulty NVIDIA GPUs, and quite rightly so! Here’s just a small selection of comments left by Dell customers on the Direct2Dell blog:

“IMHO having the BIOS activate the fans sooner to compensate for a defective chipset is a band aid solution.”

“Well, since this BIOS update won’t mysteriously change the die packaging material, the only real thing you can do is to extent warranty or premium support to the amount of years you wanna use the computer, and still then live with the fact that your computer could die on you any time.”

“So rather than replacing the faulty parts you are going to just turn up the fans, at the expense of battery life and noise.  I would rather just leave the bios as it is and get a proper fix if the problem occurs.  Even if the problem occurs out of warranty I think there is a strong case for Dell fixing it for free since there is an admitted manufacturing defect.”

“With this solution, you try to push the issue outside the customers warranty-time.. but what’s after that time? will you repair the notebooks for free?”

“nice to see that a hardware issue is fixed by software update.   how is a physical defect suppose to be fixed by software? time to step up to the plate dell and start offering a replacement device.”

“I tend to agree with some of the other comments. A bios update to turn on cooling fans is not the appropriate response when I have spent approx. $2000 on an XPS that I now fear will have a shortened life span.”

I think that customers are right to be worried. If there’s a problem with the GPUs in a range of Dell notebooks then a BIOS update is little more than a band-aid and isn’t going to fix the underlying problem. If I’d shelled out $1,000+ on a notebook and discovered that the GPU had a problem, with it where it could go dead at any time, I think it’d get pretty emotional about it.

Affected Dell notebooks are as follows:

• Inspiron 1420
• Latitude D630
• Latitude D630c
• Dell Precision M2300
• Vostro Notebook 1310
• Vostro Notebook 1400
• Vostro Notebook 1510
• Vostro Notebook 1710
• XPS M1330
• XPS M1530

Source: ZDNet Hardware 2.0 Blog

ever wondered if it is really a girl your playing against? or just another guy in drag.. well they are out there.

Mischief - Member of the Frag Dolls her favorite games include, Golden Eye 007 for 64, Halo CE, Rainbow 6 Vegas, Morrowind Elder Scrolls 3, and Zuma

Frag Dolls -

Rachelle - AKA RachiePoo - Part of team Everground, Rachelle is a self proclaimed “selfish bitch” who says she’ll do a lot for others but it’s probably for a selfish reason

Lauren - Voted Miss Video Game 2007 Round 1 and 2 winner and is an assistant manager at EBGAMES

Clover - Her favorite PC games include Counter Strike, Lineage 2, Second Life, Ultima Online, and World of Warcraft. Her favorite xBox games are Grand Theft Auto, Halo 2, Need for Speed.

Becky Young aka ‘Aktez’ - Creator of the Girl Gaming Network

I have invited Becky round for a Lan party and nibbles.

The S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky Website now shows the system requirements for GSC Game World's upcoming shooter prequel:
MINIMAL

• Microsoft Windows 2000(SP4)/XP/Vista (SP1) 
• Intel Pentium 4 2.0 Ghz / AMD XP 2200+ 
• 512 MB RAM 
• 10 GB free hard disc space 
• 128 MB DirectX 8.0 compatible card / nVIDIA GeForce 5700 / ATI Radeon 9600 
• Keyboard, Mouse 
• LAN / Internet for Multiplayer 
• Microsoft Windows XP/Vista (SP1) 
• Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 / AMD 64 X2 4200+ 
• 1.5 GB RAM 
• 10 GB free hard disc space 
• 256 MB DirectX 9.0c compatible card / nVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT / ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT
• Keyboard, Mouse 
• LAN / Internet for Multiplayer

RECOMMENDED

• Microsoft Windows XP/Vista (SP1) 
• Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 / AMD 64 X2 4200+ 
• 1.5 GB RAM 
• 10 GB free hard disc space 
• 256 MB DirectX 9.0c compatible card / nVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT / ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT 
• Keyboard, Mouse 
• LAN / Internet for Multiplayer

Available for pre-order, in the Czech Republic

It was due to happen at some stage, but the first Radeon HD 4870 X2 pricing information has made its way online thanks to an online reseller in the Czech Republic who has listed a Sapphire card as available for pre-order.
This is a 2GB card, so it's top of the range, and according to the Website, the GPU will be clocked at 750MHz with the memory at 3.6GHz. It doesn't look like we're in for any surprises with this first generation card, as it looks very much like a pair of HD 4870's stuck onto the same PCB.
Price-wise, you're looking at €429.50 including VAT (338.658 GBP), which seems quite reasonable considering the specifications of the card. The company doesn't list any expected delivery date, so it's anyone's guess when it'll be in stock.
You can pre-order one here

www.fudzilla.com

Nvidia has reportedly decided to throw in the towel and quit the chipset business, sources close to the situation at one of Taiwan's top motherboard makers have revealed.
Digitimes.com reports that Nvidia may stop developing chipsets since its motherboard partners appeared to show little interest in the prospect of implementing the new Nvidia chipsets in their hardware offerings.
According to Digitimes, "Nvidia called a meeting earlier this week with its motherboard partners to gauge support for it continuing to develop chipsets in the future. The motherboard makers' response? Silence."
Some makers have already canceled upcoming high-end motherboard projects based on the nForce 7-series chipset.
Nvidia has not commented on the report.

cdrinfo.com

Updated - A response from NVIDIA's Bryan del Rizzo:

1. The story on Digitimes is completely groundless. We have no intention of getting out of the chipset business.
2. In fact, our MCP business is as strong as it ever has been for both AMD and Intel platforms:
   1. Mercury Research has reported that the NVIDIA market share of AMD platforms in Q2 08 was 60%. We have been steady in this range for over two years.
   2. SLI is still the preferred multi-GPU platform thanks to its stellar scaling, game compatibility and driver stability.
   3. nForce 790i SLI is the recommended choice by editors worldwide due to its compelling combination of memory performance, overclocking, and support for SLI. . . .
3. We're looking forward to bring new and very exciting MCP products to the market for both AMD and Intel platforms.

Nvidia and AMD's multi-GPU solutions, SLI and Crossfire respectively, are full of ups and downs and while their progress seems to be rather slow, one Israel-based company, Lucid is saying

that revolution is just one chip away. Backed by investors like Giza Venture Capital, Genesis Partners and Intel Capital, Lucid is saying that is has built a solution that will "radically improve graphics performance for any kind of PC."
Named Hydra, Lucid's real-time distributed processing engine is a system-on-a-chip solution that will be able to stay between the CPU and the graphics cards and will direct graphic processing traffic between the GPUs in a highly-efficient efficient manner, resulting in improved graphics performance in any application.
Set to work with both DirectX 10 and OpenGL software, Hydra is also planned to offer interoperability with all GPUs and chipsets, apparently enabling the combination of AMD and Nvidia graphics cards. Able to be included either on motherboards or add-in boards, the Hydra is expected to arrive, in one way or the other during the first half of 2009.
"We're currently focusing our Hydra engine on improving everyday PC performance, but our vision is to bring more scalability, flexibility and power to all visual processing markets including graphics professionals, power gamers, design/engineering professionals and others," says Offir Remez, Lucid co-founder and president. "With strong venture backing, a superior patent portfolio and experienced leaders in all aspects of semiconductor and 3D computing graphics, we're a nimble team passionate about working with our partners to realize our vision of universally amazing graphics for all."
Assuming Intel Capital and the other investors behind Lucid are not wrong, next year could mark a major change in the multi-GPU market. Keep those fingers crossed.

http://www.tcmagazine.com

Sony and broadcaster Sky have finally televised details of their joint subscription TV-on-PSP service, which is now available to the portable console's punters.

Go!View has all sorts of TV content available, including Alan Partridge

Dubbed Go!View, the service enables gamers to access a variety of telly content through Sky, including films. Shows are downloaded onto the handheld Sony gadget through a PC - the system uses the Windows-only Kontiki peer-to-peer content delivery system that underpins the BBC's standalone iPlayer and similar on-demand services from Sky and Channel 4.

Lots of TV shows are already available, including Top Gear, Doctor Who and one of Reg Hardware’s personal favourites, I’m Alan Partridge. There's a focus on BBC and Sky content. Films and sports are available for download too.

Users have three subscription packages available to them: Entertainment, Sport and Comedy. A single package costs £5/€7 per month, while two packages are billed at £8/€10 per month. You can get all three for a tenner a month. Individual shows can be rented for £1.50, and films cost £2.50 each to watch for a limited period.

The service can be accessed online here.

http://www.reghardware.co.uk

Samsung has begun mass producing 1.8- and 2.5-inch multi-level cell (MLC)-based solid state drives (SSD) with a 128 Gigabyte (GB) storage capacity.
Mass production of the Samsung MLC-based 64GB SSD also began this month.
"With the 64 GB and 128 GB MLC SSDs, we are satisfying the density requirements of most business users and many PC enthusiasts, who will appreciate not only the performance gains and added reliability, but also the more attractive pricing," said Jim Elliott, vice president, memory marketing, Samsung Semiconductor, Inc.

Samsung SSDs feature far greater reliability, faster boot times and faster application start-up times than hard disk drives. Power consumption for the Samsung SSD is also very low in standby mode at approximately 0.2 watts and in active mode at 0.5 watts.
The Samsung MLC-based SSD has a write speed of 70MB/s and a read speed of 90MB/s ? performance levels that approach those of single-level-cell (SLC)-based SSDs now in mass production. Moreover, the new 128GB SSD will last approximately 20 times longer than the generally accepted 4-5 year life span of a notebook PC hard drive.
Featuring a 3.0 gigabit-per-second interface, the 128GB MLC-based SSD consists of 64 MLC NAND flash memory chips of 16 gigabits each, optimized single-chip controller technology and advanced flash-management firmware technology. Enclosed in a brushed metallic casing, it measures 100mm x 69.8mm and is only 9.5mm thick.
Samsung is aggressively expanding its SSD market offerings. It introduced a 64GB SSD in the second half of 2007, and plans to begin producing a 256GB at the end of this year.
Samsung expects sales of SSD units to increase 800 percent between now and 2010, keeping SSDs on pace to be the largest growth segment in the NAND flash market over the next few years

http://www.cdrinfo.com

1:55 of gameplay footage

Nintendo has released a new trailer from Mario Kart Wii, showcasing this game that will be available in Europe on April 11th and across North America on April 27th. Mario Kart Wii comes bundled with a new and intuitive accessory - the Wii Wheel, which allows complete novices to compete with ease and comfort, ensuring no one is left in the dust. The game supports five different control options: Wii Wheel, Wii Remote turned on its side, Wii Remote and Nunchuk combination, Classic Controller and even Nintendo GameCube controller.

Gamershell >> Mario Kart Wii Trailer (12.14MB)

The latest issue of Czech Official Xbox 360 Magazine sports the first details on World in Conflict: Soviet Assault, the postponed console edition of last year's Cold War RTS, which serves also as expansion pack for PC version. New features spotted by OXM: 

• Brand new campaign with obligatory switching sides and, for the first time, playing on the Soviet side.
• Among new units a chronoplane, some sort of a boat-ship mix based on an actual prototype model from the '80s (perhaps the Bartini VVA-14?).
• Camera controls mapped onto both analog sticks (as in a first-person shooter) with the possibility to zoom or pause the game completely.
• Reinforcements or new units can be called to the battlefield either by using the context menu, or - at this point still a bit tricky - voice communication using the headset, same as in Tom Clancy's EndWar.

• The same multiplayer maps & mods as in the PC version, plus some new ones. With the maximum number of connected players lowered from 16 to 10 and lacking cross-platform play.
• The actual conversion (such as fitting the controls onto a joypad) being handled by Swordfish Studios, with Massive Entertainment supplying only new content.
• New rendered movies and cutscenes.

World in Conflict: Soviet Assault is set to be released on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 this October, as listed as pre-order on shop Play.com.

Tiscali games

The demo features a match between England and Germany

Electronic Arts has released a playable demo of UEFA EURO 2008, giving you the chance to try out the only officially licensed videogame of UEFA EURO 2008, one of the world's largest sporting events that crowns the UEFA European Soccer Champion every four years. Thanks: Blues/Tiscali Games. The game features stunning visual representations of the world's most famous soccer players, all of the teams and official stadiums that will be part of UEFA EURO 2008, and a new game mode called Captain Your Country which will enable gamers to put themselves on the pitch, earn the captaincy of their team and truly inspire their country to glory. In addition, an online mode call Battle of the Nations will enable gamers around the world to lead their country to global supremacy. UEFA EURO 2008 will hit the store shelves across Europe on April 11 and will be available in North America on May 20, for PC, PS3, PS2, PSP, Xbox 360 and mobile.

http://www.gamershell.com/download_24042.shtml

Taking All-in-one to extremes, MIU introduced its new wireless IP-based hybrid portable device dubbed 'HDPC (Hybrid Dual Portable Computer)' in Korea market, which is equipped with dual OS(Windows XP/Windows CE 5.0 or Linux Qplus).

Adopting a keyboard of general PC and a 4-inch display with 800x480 resolution, the HDPC supports dual-mode function and wireless internet function. It is the concept that user can make a choice of any type of soft/hard ware according to users’ needs.

As the name 'HDPC' signifies, user can converge the stand-alone technologies of existing portable devices such as car PC, navigation, mobile phone, PMP, mp3, UMPC, electronic dictionary, internet phone, PSP, digital camera, voice recorder, mobile IPTV into HDPC

The HDPC is expected to be available in July 2008, and the price would be below $500.

miubit.com

aving news

Behavior Tech Computer Corp., a leading keyboard and mouse manufacturer in Taiwan, is introducing 9051H Cheetah Professional Gaming Keyboard and Mouse kit with high-tech gaming hardware specially designed for PC gamers.

9051H Cheetah Professional Gaming Keyboard and Mouse Kit

The Cheetah Gaming Keyboard features 17 individual keys specifically for gaming input commands. The unique gaming keys are ergonomically designed and laid out on a gaming wheel for adjustable gaming positions. The keyboard features two sets of user customized commands configured in A and B memory modes, and can be setup for different games, or within the same game for different character controls.

The Cheetah Gaming Keyboard use patented multicolored backlight technology that can be enabled at the press of a hotkey. If the speed of key presses increase during intense gaming, the color of the backlight will gradually turn red. When the keyboard is left idle mode, the backlight of the keyboard will glow blue.

This Laser Gaming Mouse reigns supreme with a true 2000dpi Laser sensor, which enables movement speeds of 2 times that of a standard 800dpi optical sensor. In the meanwhile, 2000 dpi Gamer - Grade Laser Engine for enhanced tracking on a wider range of surfaces.

Gamers may now use 3 DPI Shift to speed up or slow down the pace of the mouse at their fingertips. Click to quickly shift from 800,1300 to 2000 DPI as the scroll wheel changes color -800(green) / 1300(blue) / 2000(red) dpi resolution between shifts.

It also provides two programmable gaming buttons - Virtual-Run button and Wave Action button. In game play this powerful and useful Wave Action button, fires forever with just one click, and holding Virtual-run button, let you instant 180 degree turnaround to easily defeat your opponent.

Behavior Tech Computer Corp. (BTC)

Electronic Arts has released new screenshots from UEFA EURO 2008, the only officially licensed videogame of UEFA EURO 2008, one of the world's largest sporting events that crowns the UEFA European Soccer Champion every four years. The game will feature stunning visual representations of the world's most famous soccer players, all of the teams and official stadiums that will be part of UEFA EURO 2008, and a new game mode called Captain Your Country which will enable gamers to put themselves on the pitch, earn the captaincy of their team and truly inspire their country to glory. In addition, an online mode call Battle of the Nations will enable gamers around the world to lead their country to global supremacy. UEFA EURO 2008 will hit the store shelves across Europe on April 11 and will be available in North America on May 20, for PC, PS3, PS2, PSP, Xbox 360 and mobile.

UEFA EURO 2008 will feature stunning visual representations of the world’s most famous football players, playing in a more accessible, faster paced and responsive version of the market-leading EA SPORTS football engine, and all of the teams and official stadiums that will be part of UEFA EURO 2008.Take on the challenge of leading one of over 50 European national teams to glory as UEFA EURO 2008 recreates all the drama and excitement of the official tournament. A new game mode called Captain Your Country will enable gamers to put themselves on the pitch, earn the captaincy of their team and truly inspire their country to glory. Gamers will also be able to celebrate their success on-field through interactive celebrations that will add to the pageantry and atmosphere of the event.

  gamershell

Chemical brain controls nanobots

A tiny chemical "brain" which could one day act as a remote control for swarms of nano-machines has been invented.

The molecular device - just two billionths of a metre across - was able to control eight of the microscopic machines simultaneously in a test.

full story BBC

Football Manager 2008 on Xbox 360 confirmed for release on 28th March

SEGA Europe Ltd. today announced that Football Manager 2008 for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft will be hitting stores in Spring 2008. Football Manager 2008 is the next chapter of the renowned Football Manager series developed by BAFTA winning studio Sports Interactive Ltd. The latest console version of Football Manager will be fully updated for the new season, including transfers being made in the mid-season transfer window, allowing players to select their favourite club or international team and guide them to the title. 
While retaining all the depth and realism of the record breaking PC version, the Xbox 360 version also features revamped online play to the PC game via Xbox Live, permitting you to challenge friends to one-on-one matches and even host tournaments.

"Football Manager 2008 on Xbox 360 gives console gamers the chance to dive into the wonderful world of football management." commented Miles Jacobson, Studio Director of Sports Interactive Ltd. "With the same feature set to the PC version and various online modes, we hope that there is something for every Xbox 360 owner to get stuck into."

With all-new features, improved gameplay and a depth only seen from Sports Interactive Ltd., the whole range of Football Manager 2008 titles offer a management simulation that is second to none.

Football Manager 2008 for Xbox 360 is set for release on March 28th 2008. For further  information please go to www.sigames.com or the completely re-vamped www.footballmanager.net website.

For all SEGA assets please visit www.sega-press.com .

source

At the CeBIT they are allowed to show the photo's .. yet not discuss the product. A well .. here you go. The best way to think of the GeForce 9800 GX2 is a 8800 that's been shrunk down to 65nm and SLI'd onto a "single" card. The card is supposed to be at least 30% faster than a 8800 Ultra, and will apparently support Quad SLI. The details over at MSI show the product with 1GB of GDDR3 memory, The GeForce 9800 GX2 should get a GPU core clock of 600 MHz, the Shaders domain at 1500 MHz and memory at a beefy 2000 MHz.

Guru of 3D

Albatron and Evga are two companies that are showcasing reference cards at their booths but, a small surprise comes from the latter in the form of a Black Pearl 9800 GX2 which swaps the air cooler with a big and relatively shiny waterblock.
As seen below the card is 'standard' through shape and size but the space between the two 65nm G92 chips is filled by Innovatek's latest creation, the 197-euro aluminum waterblock. By the looks of it the card will be ready really soon and although we don't expect to see it introduced on March 18 (the rumored 9800 GX2 release) the end of the month is hopefully a good estimate.

TechConnect

As we all know there's enough energy hits the planets surface every day to more than satisfy our needs, here's a handy device to make you that little bit more independent.

It has direct connection ports for the iPhone, iPod Touch and  Nintendo DS Lite, comes with 11 of the most used phone/gadget adapters, more adapters are available from 'Solar Technology' here

According to the makers FreeLoader 8.0 can power an iPod for 18 hours, a mobile phone for 44 hours, a PSP for 2.5 hours and a PDA for 22 hours.

Available in Hot Pink or Aluminium Cool Silver and costs just £30 .

Solar technology

1:01 of in-game footage

Electronic Arts has released the first trailer and four screenshots from UEFA EURO 2008, the only officially licensed videogame of UEFA EURO 2008, one of the world's largest sporting events that crowns the UEFA European Soccer Champion every four years. The game will feature stunning visual representations of the world's most famous soccer players, all of the teams and official stadiums that will be part of UEFA EURO 2008, and a new game mode called Captain Your Country which will enable gamers to put themselves on the pitch, earn the captaincy of their team and truly inspire their country to glory. In addition, an online mode call Battle of the Nations will enable gamers around the world to lead their country to global supremacy. UEFA EURO 2008 will hit the store shelves across Europe on April 11 and will be available in North America on May 20, for PC, PS3, PS2, PSP, Xbox 360 and mobile.

gamershell

With the launch of the mid-range GeForce 9600 GT marking the debut of Nvidia's GeForce 9-series, graphics card makers have revealed details of the rest of the cards Nvidia is scheduled to launch in the coming months.

At the top-end of the 9-series cards will sit the dual-GPU GeForce 9800 GX2 which will launch on March 11 this year. This will be followed by the GeForce 9800 GTX and 9800 GT between the end of March and beginning of April.

For the mid-range Nvidia will offer the GeForce 9600 GS in May, according the sources.

In June, the company will launch the value-level GeForce 9500 GT based on the G96 graphics core with a reduced 128-bit memory interface. To complete the series, the GeForce 9500 GS will launch in July.

Nvidia's share of the discrete entry-level graphics card market (US$30-90) has shrunk to less than 3%. Therefore, Nvidia will not target this market with 9-series products in the near-term, and instead will promote the increasing performance of its IGP chipsets.

Nvidia declined to opportunity to respond saying it cannot comment on unannounced products.

digitimes & expreview

It seems that MSI has been goofing up (well they have the reputation for it) by releasing photo's and details on NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce 9800 GX2, this is NVIDIA's top-of-the-line to-be, so it's never too early to start nerding out.

The best way to think of the GeForce 9800 GX2 is a 8800 that's been shrunk down to 65nm and SLI'd onto a "single" card. The card is supposed to be at least 30% faster than a 8800 Ultra, and will apparently support Quad SLI. The details over at MSI show the product with 1GB of GDDR3 memory, MSI's GeForce 9800 GX2 should get a GPU core clock of 660 MHz, the Shaders domain at 1650 MHz and memory at a beefy 2400 MHz.

Well, next week is CeBIT, we'll know the specifics soon. For now, here's the photo.

  guru3d

Now that the Nintendo DS has a naughty game, it's the Wii's turn! Dubbed Osouji Sentai Clean Kuri—n Ki-pa- ("Cleaning Squadron Clean Keeper"), the game has players clean a high school in heaven that's been polluted by the "Flith Devil." According to Famitsu, winning in-game battles gives players lewd "reward CG." We seriously doubt that it will be pornography (the game hasn't yet been rated), but the screens do look rather risqué. Shudder at the bad Wii puns this game will spawn!

 http://kotaku.com/