November 2007

Sunnyvale, CA—November 29, 2007—OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a worldwide leader in innovative ultra-high performance and high reliability memory, today announced the 8GB Platinum PC2-6400 “Quad” Kit. These high-density, optimized kits offer users the option of both high speeds and high capacities needed for their demanding gaming PC and Vista-upgraded desktops in a unique 4 x 2048MB solution.

“To have eight gigabytes of memory available in the system may sound like overkill for the average user; however, in any mega-tasking environment the requirements for system memory can skyrocket and easily break the 4GB boundary, thus far considered as the penultimate amount of system memory,” commented Dr. Michael Schuette, VP of Technology Development at OCZ Technology. “The new OCZ2P8008GQ kit is the first to bring eight gigabytes of memory also to Intel architecture-based systems to explore workloads which previously were a challenge within the personal computing space.”

Rumors have been swirling today that Jeff Gerstmann, executive editor at CNET-owned major video game site GameSpot, was fired after giving a generally unimpressed review of Io Interactive's Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. Gerstmann awarded the game a 6.0. [Edit: Gerstmann had particularly negative words in his video review, which was removed from the site by GameSpot today.] (Though Shacknews does not score its reviews, our own Kane & Lynch review was similar in its verdict.)

According to the reports, the layoff came after Kane & Lynch publisher Eidos took issue with the review and threatened to pull its considerable ad contract. GameSpot's front page is currently almost entirely re-skinned with Kane & Lynch imagery.

In its second big announcement this week, Verizon Wireless said that it would develop its fourth generation mobile broadband network using Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology. This means that the company, co-owned by Verizon and by European carrier Vodafone, will move to the GSM camp from its current residence in the CDMA crowd.

Earlier this week, Verizon Wireless announced that it was moving toward an open network on which outside devices or software could be used. This declaration of openness followed the company's initial opposition to a similar open policy for 700-MHz frequencies to be auctioned by the Federal Communications Commission in January. The FCC eventually adopted an open devices policy for the auction.

Hewlett-Packard Co. in the third quarter continued to expand its lead over rival Dell Inc. in the global PC market, according to iSuppli Corp.’s preliminary worldwide market ranking.

The company shipped 13.1 million PCs, a 32.7 percent and 3.2 million unit increase from 9.9 million in the third quarter of 2006. This expansion allowed Hewlett-Packard to outgrow global PC unit shipment growth, which amounted to 13.8 percent in the third quarter of 2007 compared to the same period in 2006.

Hewlett-Packard’s market share expanded to 19.2 percent in the third quarter, up from 18.3 percent in the second quarter, and from 16.5 percent in the third quarter of 2006. This marked the fifth straight quarter that U.S.-based Hewlett-Packard occupied the No.-1 spot in the global PC market, according to iSuppli.

SEATTLE - Microsoft Corp.'s Windows XP operating system is about to get faster and Windows Vista isn't, according to a report that caused a stir online this week as industry watchers speculated that a zippier XP could keep customers from upgrading to Vista.

Microsoft, however, said it's too early to evaluate the two service packs it plans to release next year. Early versions are already in the hands of testers like Devil Mountain Software Inc., which helps big financial services companies track trading-floor computer performance.

Wellington, Fla.-based Devil Mountain Software ran several versions of XP and Vista through a test simulating common desktop computing tasks. It found the original Vista performed 50 percent to 100 percent slower than the prevalent XP Service Pack 2, or SP2.

Vista SP1, due out in the first quarter of 2008, barely improved the operating system's performance. But XP SP3, scheduled for the first half of 2008, did improve on XP's earlier performance, running 10 percent faster than SP2.

SAN JOSE, Calif. - AT&T Inc. says it plans to offer a version of an iPhone next year that runs on a faster wireless network so users can get speedier results when surfing the Web.

The move would address one of the main drawbacks about the smart phone made by Apple Inc. and distributed exclusively by wireless carrier AT&T in the United States.

Nvidia is ready for its next-generation GPU launch. According to sources at graphics card makers, the company plans to launch its GeForce 9 series GPU after the Lunar New Year in February.

The first chip to rollout of in GeForce 9 family will be the D9E, a high-end product that adopts 65nm manufacturing. The new product will also support DirectX 10.1 and Shader Model 4.1, revealed the sources.

In addition to the D9E, Nvidia will roll out a mid-range GeForce 9 family product named D9P in June 2008. The new GPU will adopt 55nm processing, the sources pointed out.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc was set to announce on Friday it will bid on coveted airwaves to launch a U.S. wireless network, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The Silicon Valley-based company had said several months ago it was considering bidding in the auction of 700-megahertz wireless spectrum due to begin January 24. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission deadline for companies to declare their interest in joining the airwaves bidding is December 3.

“Deciding what chassis to house your computer in these days can be an agonizing decision. The selection of computer cases on the market is simply astonishing which tells you it's a lucrative market segment and everyone wants a piece. Not to mention everybody needs some type of case for their system so just like the selection of automobiles is huge to try to fit every personality and situation, so tries the case market. However it's not every day that a product launches that simply breaks the normal segment boundaries. NZXT just launched such a product called the Rogue. It's tagline is "the ultimate gaming SFF chassis". Let's take a closer look at the specs and see just what's so different about this new case.”

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Viacom Inc's (VIAb.N: Quote, Profile, Research) MTV Networks said on Wednesday that copies of "Rock Band," its new music-based video game, have been "flying off the shelves" in the first week of sales.

"It's fantastic," Mika Salmi, head of digital at MTV, said at the Reuters Media Summit in New York. "Downloads are going great, rockband.com is going great with people logging on and downloading stuff from there. It's got a lot of legs, we're in it for the long term."

So-called rhythm-based games have been one of the strongest new video game genres in the last year. Video game publisher Activision Inc (ATVI.O: Quote, Profile, Research) raised its outlook on Tuesday after seeing strong retail sales of "Guitar Hero 3" in the month since its launch.

NEW YORK - The desire for greater control over how search engines index and display Web sites is driving an effort by leading news organizations and other publishers to revise a 13-year-old technology for restricting access.

Currently, Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and other top search companies voluntarily respect a Web site's wishes as declared in a text file known as "robots.txt," which a search engine's indexing software, called a crawler, knows to look for on a site.

The formal rules allow a site to block indexing of individual Web pages, specific directories or the entire site, though some search engines have added their own commands.

“One thing that can always make a computer operate like a new machine is memory. If you've ever used your system with the bare minimum amounts of memory or just enough to get the job done, then you've held your system back and probably noticed lots of lag. Plenty of system memory means your machine will perform much smoother with little or no lag. This is especially true with today's Windows XP Pro or Vista running these huge new games like Crysis and Call of Duty 4. The larger the data amount, the quicker the access and read times seem due to the extra memory.”

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan's Asustek Computer (2357.TW: Quote, Profile, Research) expects to sell 5 million new Eee PCs globally next year, a senior company official said on Wednesday, up two-thirds from its previous sales forecast.

Asustek, which recently launched a child-friendly Eee PC, had said it hoped the new line of cheaper notebook PCs would vault it ahead of some competitors as it boosts its share in North America, where it has less than 1 percent of the market.

Asustek is now selling around 20,000 Eee PCs per month, Vice President Kevin Lin told reporters at a media luncheon. Lin gave the new target for 2008 after the company said last month that it expected to ship more than 3 million Eee PCs next year.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Tuesday it plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to help drive down the cost of electricity made from renewable energy below the price of coal.

The project, dubbed Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal, is hiring dozens of engineers and targeting investment financing at advanced solar thermal power, wind power, enhanced geothermal systems and other new technologies, Google said.

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - A top Nintendo Co. executive said holiday sales of the Wii game consoles have gotten off to a "fantastic start" but warned Tuesday that Wiis would be scarce through the end of the year.

Nintendo sold 350,000 Wiis in the U.S. last week, when many stores were closed for the Thanksgiving holiday, compared with 300,000 the previous week in the U.S.

It was unclear if last week's sales broke a Nintendo record. During one eight-day period in late November 2006, when the Wii debuted, consumers throughout the U.S., Canada and Latin America purchased more than 600,000 units sold.

“G.Skill has once again been gracious in sending us one of their more extreme memory kits. The G.Skill DDR3-1600 2x1GB Dual Channel Memory Kit is aimed at offering the more serious enthusiast some very capable memory that will be able to keep up with the most serious of overclocked processors and still be quite capable when even faster processors arrive. You read correct. Processors will undoubtedly continue to increase in frequency and will soon surpass the 1333MHz Front Side Bus. Most DDR3 kits to reach the shelves thus far are 1066MHz and higher. This means Core 2 Duo users with the 1066 or 1333 FSB processors finally have memory modules to match. As you'll see, 1600MHz DDR3 has a lot to offer faster cores.”

27 November 2007 –GlacialTech® a world class provider of cost effective cooling components and chassis launched the latest IGLOO 5750 PWM CPU cooler and IGLOO 5750 Silent CPU Cooler for both Intel LGA775 Socket CPU’s and AMD 754, 939, 940, AM2 & F Socket CPU’s. The unique design for the enthusiast incorporates a specially aligned aluminum heatpipe combination of four pipes that dissipate the heat from the CPU directly into the heatsink fins. From there, the Silent version’s double fan quietly and efficiently brings the temperature down. The low decibel (19dB), high volume (30.8 CFM) fans are 92mmx92mmx25mm and run at an ultra-quiet speed of 1800 RPM. The dual fan is a unique concept that not only cools down the radiator, but the added blow down effect also cools down the heatsink directly above the CPU..

"NZXT has sent over one of their latest cases, the Rogue. Although they list it with their Crafted series, the smooth clean lines of this SFF case I feel more appropriately fits the Classic series. But the Rogue doesn't exactly match either of their two categories, most of which are populated by mid-tower designs. As this is targeted as a SFF LAN gaming case, a first for NZXT, this really comes as no surprise."

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. retailers, which pulled out all the stops for the Thanksgiving shopping weekend, are now trying to lure shoppers online to spend more of their holiday dollars.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc, Best Buy Co Inc, Sears and Staples have posted special deals on their Web sites, hoping consumers will jump from in-store shopping to online buying.

The discounts are part of what is termed "Cyber Monday" by retailer network Shop.org. It is meant to mark the start of the online holiday shopping season, when consumers log on at work to search for gifts they did not find over the Thanksgiving weekend.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Walmart.com, hoping consumers did not get their fill of shopping over the long Thanksgiving weekend, will roll out more holiday deals online every day this week.

The site will offer special prices on 150 items -- three times more than a year ago -- posting roughly 65 discounts on Monday and then adding new deals to the site daily through Friday.

Walmart.com will also promote one special "featured" item each day, like Monday's Xbox 360 bundle, which includes Microsoft's Xbox 360 premium video game console, an extra controller, three games and messenger bag for less than $400.

If the experience of the world's largest software vendor is any guide, the industry's best hope for reducing piracy rests with anti-copying technologies rather than in policing the legalistic user agreements that restrict how software can be used.

While a copyright crackdown by the Business Software Alliance and other industry players has been in force for years, piracy rates — as measured by BSA-commissioned studies — have stopped falling. So a few years ago, Microsoft Corp. began concentrating harder on locking software down through a program it calls its Genuine Software Initiative.

The technology has provoked some hostility, because it enables Microsoft to remotely examine user computers. After analyzing such information as the computer's manufacturer, hard drive serial number and Windows product identification, Microsoft can block access to certain software functions if it suspects the product was illegally copied.

“There’s never been a better time for Americans to crack open a book!” As if.

That pedagogical rejoinder turns up in almost every conversation both online and off ever since rumors of a Hollywood-crippling writer’s strike started circulating early this year. But guess what kids? It ain’t happening. If you didn’t enjoy reading before the Writers Guild of America stopped working, you sure aren’t going to start now just ‘cause the talky box is on reruns.

“CoolerMaster has come up with some very unique and target-based products through the years. Some of those unique items include enclosures and extremely large, over-the-top type enclosures. The CoolerMaster Cosmos 1000 is one of those enclosures. The Cosmos 1000 is large enough to house the family pet or that pesky mother-in-law of yours. Constructed from aluminum and steel, this unit is stronger and lighter than an all-steel unit. Some of the unique features include sound-deadening foam on the side panels, a removable rack-style hard drive tray, a new push button tool-less clip, and a host of other stylish features.”

Consumer and corporate use of the Internet could overload the current capacity and lead to brown-outs in two years unless backbone providers invest billions of dollars in new infrastructure, according to a study released last week.

A flood of new video and other Web content could overwhelm the Internet by 2010 unless backbone providers invest up to $137 billion in new capacity, more than double what service providers plan to invest, according to the study, by Nemertes Research Group, an independent analysis firm. In North America alone, backbone investments of $42 billion to $55 billion will be needed in the next three to five years to keep up with demand, Nemertes said.

Asustek Computer plans to launch 13-25 own-brand handsets in 2008, with 80% of the new handsets to be 3G models, according to Benson Lin, president for Asia Pacific business unit at Asustek.

Asustek also aims to ship 250,000 own-brand handsets in the Asia-Pacific region in the coming year as compared to 100,000 units projected for 2007, said Lin, noting that Asustek will also venture into the handset market in China in the first quarter of 2008.

As compared to the 400,000 own-brand handsets sold in the Asia Pacific and Taiwan markets in 2006, Asustek's sales of own-brand handsets in the region this year are lower as the company has been focusing its efforts on the development of Windows Mobile-based devices, the Chinese-language Commercial Times quoted Lin as saying.

IT HAS LONG BEEN rumoured on Internet forums, but now a moderator at EVGA forums has appeared to confirm that Nvidia's Nforce 680i chipset fails to support all 45nm processors from Intel.

In a weird flashback to Nforce4 SLI shenanigans, with its lack of compatibility with the Pentium D 820, the tide has now turned on the Nforce 680i.

“Zalman which is famous for its high quality copper heatpipes and very quiet PC cooling hardware started releasing high quality, quiet and efficient power supplies not long ago with 500w and 600w models with integrated heatpipes to cool its innards. Zalman is upping their ante into this crowded market with a new 850w and 1000w model for those extreme users. I reviewed the 600w version back in December 2006 and it was quite nice so I expect the 850w version I'm reviewing today to be more of the good stuff. Read on to find out if it lives up to the Zalman name.”

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The holiday shopping season kicked off on Thursday even before the turkey was carved, as retailers, worried that gift buying may slow this year, posted special deals on their Web sites on Thanksgiving day.

Numerous retailers, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc, Best Buy Co Inc and Circuit City Stores Inc, are offering special deals online.

Wal-Mart on Thursday was advertising on its Web site a Magnavox 47-inch flat-screen television for $1,298, while Circuit City offered a Sony Blu-ray disc player for $399.99.

NEW YORK - Shoppers — shrugging off a spate of lead-tainted toy recalls and higher prices for food and gas — jammed stores before dawn Friday to grab discounted TVs, toys and the hard-to-find Nintendo Wii, for the official start of the holiday season, expected to be the weakest retail showing in five years.

Stores, including Toys "R" Us and Macy's Inc. said more people were showing up this year for pre-dawn specials but merchants need them to keep coming throughout the holiday season to make their sales goals.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, threw open its doors at 5 a.m., offering such specials as a Polaroid 42-inch LCD HDTV for $798 and a $79.87 Sony digital camera. From 5 a.m. to noon, Toys "R" Us Inc. offered 101 early morning specials on such toys as Mattel Inc.'s Barbie styling set and Hasbro Inc.'s FurReal interactive jungle cat toy. That's four times the number it offered last year.

Taipei, Taiwan—November 23, 2007—Last week, Synology released a free software update for all x07, and x06 series storage systems; users can enable SSH service on their products by applying SSH update to the system software.
The SSH function unleashes the raw power of Linux while the customers can still enjoy the rich, matured, and user-friendly functions built into Synology Products. "Accompanying with rsync functions, IT Professionals now can integrate Synology products into their backup plan," said Edward Lin, Synology's Marketing Director. "We have added to the SynologyWiki several detailed rsync backup How-To Guides. Users can follow the instructions to backup Synology Servers to another rsync server and vice-versa. The rsync server can be either a Linux or Windows platform, running the rsync service, such as DeltaCopy for Windows. Furthermore, IT professionals can now develop their own scripts files to run their own batched backup jobs with full flexibility and security."

Movies, music, and photos. Users nowadays not only want to store and protect them, but have a way to share them quickly and easily. One of the best ways to do this is with a network-attached storage unit, or NAS – a device which allows users to store and share files across an entire network. Since the beginning, storage leader Thecus Technology has been developing digital storage solutions for users of all types. Today, Thecus is pleased to introduce a NAS device that brings this exciting technology to the mainstream – the N299. Friendly and feature-packed, the N299 represents Thecus’ most affordable NAS entry ever

“The problem is that most of these laptops on the higher end of the spectrum are 15" and 17" widescreen laptops with the fastest and hottest hardware inside and there just is very little choice when it comes to cooling 17" widescreen laptops especially. Well today I have for you one such product marketed specifically at the larger widescreen laptops including the 17" big dogs. It's from a company called Evercool and it's called the Space Station Widescreen Cooling Pad. It sports dual 80mm exhaust fans and 4 internal exhaust ports (hence the quad reference) strategically funneled through the unit. Let's take a closer look and see if this product holds true to cool and hold a large 17" laptop.”

Nvidia is planning to launch its Intel-based nForce 780i chipset in December this year, however mass shipments will not occur until January next year, according to sources at motherboard makers.

The nForce 780 SLI chipset will be available to two forms, the nForce 780i SLI (C72 XE) supporting Intel and nForce 780a SLI (C72 P) supporting AMD, noted the sources.

The nForce 780i will target Intel's X38 chipsets as its major competitor. It will support PCI Express 2.0 and 3-way SLI technology with three PCI Express x16 slots. Motherboard pricing will be around US$200, noted the sources.

With most of the features of the 780i similar to those of the X38 with the added benefit of 3-way SLI, some motherboard makers expect the chipset to have a good chance of performing well in the market. The chipset will also feature Nvidia's ESA (enthusiast system architecture) to monitor the PC hardware status, added the sources

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - MTV's "Rock Band" video game took the stage on Tuesday, a new entrant in the fast-growing genre of musical games that could boost the fortunes of the flagging music industry.

More a rock band simulator than a game, the title takes on the hit "Guitar Hero" series that has sold millions and become a cash cow for publisher Activision Inc.

One version will be colored gold and come with the epic adventure game "The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass" while a metallic pink model will come with puppy training title "Nintendogs", Nintendo said.

The new bundles will go on sale in the United States on November 23, the "Black Friday" after the Thanksgiving holiday that is one of the biggest shopping days of the year.

New DS color schemes are eagerly received by Nintendo fans, who scramble to buy them as collectibles or for bragging rights.

While the LG Voyager's user experience is not as "responsive" as the iPhone's, said Current Analysis analyst Avi Greengart, it is definitely an iPhone competitor that will appeal to existing Verizon customers who want to stay with the carrier. Greengart praised the Voyager's large touch screen and a design that "fits nicely in your hand."

It's fitting that BioWare tackle deep-space drama, considering its experience in the genre.

Four years after wowing RPG fans with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, the developer composes its own intergalactic opus with the highly-ambitious Mass Effect.

As a role-playing game, Mass Effect arguably sets the template future titles should follow. As an action shooter, it struggles through bouts of inconsistency.

“Let's face it - people hate connecting things to the back of their computer, especially if it's only for temporary use. Having to poke around the back of your case (where there is already a jumble of cables) just to connect a camera to download photos off of it is a pain. Thankfully, most cases nowadays come with front USB ports. But what about other connectors and outputs? There have been many products providing a solution to this problem. Most of them fit in a 5.25" drive bay and basically re-route or provide front connections for, among other things, USB ports. This can be helpful if your case didn't come with front access for these connections. While most of them are fairly basic, the VIZO Master Panel II takes an "everything but the kitchen sink" approach by providing a plethora of I/O options as well as some other nice features. Today, we'll take a look to see if the Master Panel II stands out from among the rest.“

Union, New Jersey -- November 19th, 2007 -- MAINGEAR Computers, award-winning builders of high performance custom computers, is proud to announce the availability of AMD’s next generation technologies in their Dash™ Friends and Family PC™, F131™ gaming machines, and EPHEX™ luxury gaming systems.
“AMD has unleashed a who new ecosystem of products that brings a wide range of configurations and choice to our customers,” said Wallace Santos, CEO and founder of MAINGEAR Computers, “we are very proud to be an AMD launch partner and our close collaboration has enabled MAINGEAR to maintain first to market leadership. The Phenom processor, in conjunction with the 790FX™ chipset and Radeon™ HD 3800 series GPUs bring the total platform experience to gamers and enthusiasts. Even the venerated 690G chipset gets a boost with quad-core processing available as well in our Dash Friends and Family PC.”

“With the holiday season quickly coming upon us, the talk of gift ideas is becoming a daily occurrence. If you are reading this review, then the talk must be including computer ideas and projects. What better way to say you love someone than with a HTPC enclosure from GlacialTech? I know this isn't a full blown HTPC system, but it's a start to something you can custom build. The GlacialTech Altair A380 is an aluminum HTPC enclosure that can be found in silver or black. The side, top, and rear panels have been slotted for maximum cooling and it includes a power supply, which not too many enclosures include these days. The front panel of the A380 has a very clean look going for it, with a front panel card reader and I/O powers, power/reset buttons, a single 5.25" opening, IR port for the included remote control, and of course those wonderful LED's.”

Sunnyvale, CA—November 15, 2007—OCZ Technology Group, a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory, today unveiled two high-speed, high-capacity memory products designed with hardcore gamers in mind. Itching to experience the incredible graphics and FPS action of EA’s highly-anticipated Crysis®, gamers across the world will improve their gaming experience from upgrading their PC components and benefit from the optimizations of premium memory. The latest OCZ PC3-10666 and PC2-8000 ReaperX 4GB memory kits feature the ideal blend of speed, latency, bandwidth, and up to 4GB capacities to help DirectX-10 PC games reach their full potential on the latest DDR2 and DDR3 platforms.

As mainstream gaming moves towards revolutionary graphic-intensive DX9 and DX10 games, bleeding-edge platforms and large-capacity memory modules are shifting from an enthusiast inclination to a gaming desktop standard. With the release of advanced PC titles like Crysis, powered by Crytek's highly advanced CryENGINE™ 2, memory that supports demanding multimedia features with high frequencies, aggressive bandwidth, and high densities will be come the norm. Signaling the beginning of a new age in PC gaming, Crysis’ popularity will spark significant demand for high performance computer hardware from not only enthusiasts, but the average, every-day gamer.

If your current power supply doesn’t pack enough power to handle your recent upgrades, but you can’t justify buying an entirely new PSU, this is the perfect solution. The Power Partner adds 325W to your current PSU and fits easily into a single 5.25” bay and is compatible in nearly any system. Whether you need to power an extra graphics card, hard drives, water pumps, TEC coolers, power opticals, etc., the Power Partner gives you the added boost of 325W so you never have to worry about how much overhead your power supply has left.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Google Inc is gearing up to make a serious run at buying wireless spectrum in a Federal Communications Commission auction in January, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday in its online edition.

The company is also prepared to bid on its own without any partners, the Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter. The newspaper said Google is working out a plan to finance its bid -- which could run to $4.6 billion or higher -- that would rely on its own cash and possibly some borrowed money.

SUNNYVALE, Calif. - The Abu Dhabi government's investment arm is buying an 8.1 percent stake in No. 2 microprocessor maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. for $622 million.

A unit of Mubadala Development Co. received 49 million newly-issued AMD shares at Thursday's closing price of $12.70 each, the Sunnyvale-based chip maker said Friday.

AMD received about $608 million, after reimbursing the United Arab Emirates investment firm for approximately $14.6 million in expenses.

“ECS has had some pretty darn decent motherboards since their NForce 5 chipsets first arrived. Now that we're on to Intel Core 2 Duo, ECS opted to go for a more feasible LGA 775 motherboard built around the Bearlake P35 Chipset. Now, we all know the flagship P35 boards overclock very, very well and offer some excellent performance results. Scaling back the amount of features a P35 has to offer isn't a bad thing and often performs just as well minus top range overclocking, extra e-SATA ports, and elaborate heat pipe cooling.”

FLETCHER, OHIO – November, 15th 2007 – Ultra Products, known for their advanced cases, power supplies, and computer peripherals, announces its participation in the Enthusiast System Architecture (ESA), an industry-wide initiative that enables PC components to communicate thermal, electrical, acoustical, and operating characteristics in real-time. Ultra’s new line of LX3 power supplies provides enthusiasts with unprecedented control to achieve better performance and optimal thermal and acoustic operating environments.

Union, New Jersey – November 15, 2007- MAINGEAR Computers, award-winning PC performance tuning shop, is proud to announce the immediate availability of EPHEX™ luxury gaming computers featuring the new Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme QX9650 processor. Using specialized cooling and performance settings, MAINGEAR is able to push this 3.0GHz quad-core processor to an amazing 4.0GHz. The Core 2 Extreme QX9650 brings new multimedia instructions for increased performance in video encoding, 12MB of cache for better multitasking and responsiveness, and is the first to be produced on Intel’s 45nm production technology for unrivaled overclockability.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Dusty Old English poem "Beowulf," long required reading in schools, goes Hollywood this coming Friday in a bit of high-tech animated movie trickery that its makers are loath to call "animation."

The story, about a hero who battles demons and a dragon around the 6th century A.D., has been transformed into a film by Oscar-winning director Robert Zemeckis ("Forrest Gump") using up-to-the-minute digital technology and drawing on techniques he helped pioneer in 2004 film "The Polar Express."

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Two new video games from Sony and Nintendo have players exploring jungle islands for lost treasure or skipping across the galaxy to save a kidnapped princess.

On the face of it, Sony's "Uncharted" and Nintendo's "Super Mario Galaxy" can't be more different.

"Uncharted" harnesses the PlayStation 3's graphical muscle to produce a movie-like adventure, while "Super Mario Galaxy" for the Wii uses cartoonish graphics and simple controls to breathe new life into an aging franchise.

WASHINGTON - Sure, instant messaging is fast and efficient. For many teenagers, it's also a great way to avoid those OMG moments — that's "omigod" — of mortifying face-to-face confrontations.

More than four in 10 teens, or 43 percent, who instant message use it for things they wouldn't say in person, according to an Associated Press-AOL poll released Thursday. Twenty-two percent use IMs to ask people out on dates or accept them, and 13 percent use them to break up.

"If they freak out or something, you don't see it," said Cassy Hobert, 17, a high school senior from Frenchburg, Ky., and avid IMer who has used it to arrange dates. "And if I freak out, they don't have to see it."

LOS ANGELES — U.S. sales of the PlayStation 3 more than doubled in the weeks after the company slashed the video game console's price $100 and launched a low-end model, Sony CEO Howard Stringer said Wednesday.

Sony said it sold more than 100,000 consoles of all types in the week ending Nov. 11.

The price cut and new model make the PS3 more competitive against Nintendo's Wii and Microsoft's Xbox 360 as the holiday season opens, Sony chairman and chief executive Howard Stringer said.

“The OCZ ATV Turbo 4GB flash drive is a no doubt a handy little device with the ability to withstand the elements and shock by it's completely rubberized exterior. If you're tough on your flash drives and need them to withstand a beating, then this flash drive is designed for you. However even if you're like me and actually take care of your computer parts, this is still a nice unit to own because you know it can take a beating if it had to, and also for it's tough looking design.”

FLETCHER, OH – November 14, 2007 – Systemax Manufacturing Inc., announced the availability of two new Endeavor Tower Workstations. The workstations will come standard with an Intel® 5000X chipset motherboard and Quad Core Intel® Xeon® processor E5310 1.6GHz CPU. Both models can be upgraded to the Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® processor E5335 at 2.0GHz 1333, providing all the power and speed necessary for CAD, animation, video editing or just surfing the web at record speeds.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - AT&T Inc (T.N: Quote, Profile, Research) plans on Wednesday to introduce a nationwide program giving owners of small- and medium-size businesses some of the same tools big security firms offer for remotely monitoring employees, customers and operations, the New York Times said in its online edition.

Under AT&T's Remote Monitor program, a business owner could install adjustable cameras, door sensors and other gadgets at up to five different company locations across the country, the newspaper reported.

SAN FRANCISCO - Silicon Valley's richest bachelor is getting married next month.

Google Inc. co-founder Larry Page, whose stake in the Internet search leader is worth about $20 billion, and Lucy Southworth are tying the knot in a ceremony scheduled for the weekend of Dec. 8, according to a report published Tuesday in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Page, 34, is following in the footsteps of Google's other founder, Sergey Brin, who married Anne Wojcicki six months ago in an exclusive ceremony in the Caribbean. The location of Southworth's and Page's wedding was not disclosed.

SAN FRANCISCO - VeriSign Inc. plans to shed a slew of business units to focus on securing online transactions and managing the ".com" and ".net" domain name registry.

The Mountain View-based company is scheduled to announce its plans, though not any done deals, on Wednesday in a meeting with analysts.

Chief Executive Bill Roper said in an interview beforehand that he will outline the results of the company's recent review of its business units. It plans to sell businesses where it's not the clear front-runner and focus on areas where it is, Roper said.

MONTEREY, Calif.--Get ready for a new era in which your camera knows not just when you took a picture but who's in it, too.

Many cameras today can detect the faces of those being photographed, which is handy for guiding the camera to set its exposure, focus, and color balance properly. But the more difficult challenge of face recognition is more useful after the photo has been taken.

University of California-San Diego researchers have turned expression-recognition technology into an art exhibit showing the increasingly strained efforts by models to maintain a chipper smile for more than an hour. A buzzer goes off when a waning smile sends a monitor into the red zone.

That's because of a concept called autotagging, one of a number of technologies that make digital photography qualitatively different from the film photography of the past.