We listen to Gamers and what product do they want the most? Turns out Gamers crave toast. Enter the CrazyPC 5.25 Bay Toaster. What better way to satisfy that late night snack craving than a healthy piece of toast? Just slide in a slice of bread - and voila you have toast in just minutes. The Bay Toaster fits in a standard 5.25 drive bay and installs in just minutes. Comes with Windows software for adjusting heat and time (Mac OS version coming soon!)
LONDON (Reuters) - The Apple brand has the biggest impact on the world's consumers, while Microsoft and the United States nation brand are those considered most in need of a remake, a survey showed on Monday.
The poll by online magazine brandchannel.com asked its readers to identify the brands with the greatest impact on their lives, and say how they affected readers' behaviour and their view of the world.
The nearly 2,000 professionals and students who voted named Apple overwhelming winner. The creator of the iPod and Mac computer triumphed in six categories including most inspiring brand and the one readers cannot live without.
NEW YORK - Yahoo Inc. on Monday launched a site for women between ages 25 and 54, calling it a key demographic underserved by current Yahoo properties.
The site, Shine, is aimed largely at giving the struggling Internet company additional opportunities to sell advertising targeted to the key decision-maker in many households. Yahoo said advertisers in consumer-packaged goods, retail and pharmaceuticals have requested more ways to reach those consumers.
Amy Iorio, vice president for Yahoo Lifestyles, said internal research also shows women are looking for a site to combine various content and communications tools.
Installs gone wrong certainly aren't all that uncommon, but the tale told by one VTECnical of the 8thcivic.com forum is undoubtedly a cut above the rest, and could well have you reconsidering that suction cup option. As VTECnical tells it, he bought a Pioneer AVIC Z2 GPS unit and some other components from Circuit City last July for more $3,000 and decided to let their installers do the installation work for him -- apparently after he was told that it'd slide into his Honda Civic without any modifications.The problems then allegedly began when the installer whipped out a heat gun, which was purportedly intended to be used to mold a mounting guide for the GPS unit but instead wound up melting one of the Civic's heating ducts. As if that wasn't enough, the installer apparently also used tape to hold the GPS unit in place, installed the antennae on the inside of the car instead of the outside, and used a glue gun to install the speakers instead of bolting them in place.
Former Xbox Europe exec Sandy Duncan recently declared that consoles were a dying breed, due to disappear in a mere 5 to 10 years. At first, it's a laughable remark. I mean, consoles are insanely popular moneymakers, why would they disappear? Sure, physical media will be gone by the next generation, but don't you need a standardized set of hardware and controllers for developers to create games for?
Nintendo's Wii remains a brisk seller in the United States and sells out almost instantly whenever a store gets new stock to sell to customers. When stores like Toys R Us or Best Buy send out their weekly sales flyers advertising that they will have Wiis in stock, there is invariably a line of customers waiting in line Sunday morning to receive a voucher to get a Wii.
Michael Pachter, an analyst for Wedbush Morgan, says that the reason for the poor supply if Wii consoles in the U.S. has nothing to do with component shortages or strained production capacity -- it all relates to the weak dollar.
I've had my Wii since Christmas and I love it! I play nothing but the included game: Wii sports. It's totally addictive!@#@ Quick Bytes:
“Crucial carries memory upgrades for just about every manufacturer of computers. Their Crucial Memory Advisory tool lists about 150 various names for which you can find a compatible module. And if you aren't sure what you need for your computer system, they also have a tool that scans just your memory and can give you the information needed to buy the correct memory. I have to admit, that's a pretty handy tool especially for users that aren't computer savvy. Can you think of a time or two when you've asked someone what kind of memory they had?
Crucial has been all over the market as of late with new capacity Flash Cards, USB drives, Solid State Drives, and especially Performance DRAM. I've been thoroughly testing and experimenting with their latest Ballistix DDR3 PC3-12800 2GB Dual Channel Kit, or DDR3 1600MHz memory. And yes, this kit does scream at 1600MHz. Read on and see.”
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Apple Inc (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) is expected to launch a high-speed wireless version of iPhone in the second quarter and produce as many as 8 million of the devices in the third quarter, according to Bank of America.
Apple shares closed up $2.76, or 2 percent, at $143.01 after the prediction in a research report about the third-generation phone from Bank of America analyst Scott Craig. Shares in AT&T Inc (T.N: Quote, Profile, Research), the exclusive U.S. carrier for iPhone, closed up flat at $37.66 after rising to $38.39 earlier in the day.
"Our latest channel checks point to a significant production build of a 3G iPhone beginning in the month of June after an initial small build in May," he said.
LIVINGSTON, Tenn. - Four days a week Todd Matthews earns $11.50 an hour working for an automotive parts supplier. He punches in at 4:15 a.m., punches out nearly 11 hours later, then drives half a mile to his little beige house on a hill where, in the distance, he can glimpse the Appalachian mountains.
He spends the next seven to eight hours at his desk, beneath shelves lined with miniature plastic skulls, immersed in a very different world.
Their faces seem to float from his computer — morgue photographs, artist sketches, forensic reconstructions — thousands of dead eyes staring from endless Web sites as though crying out for recognition. John and Jane and Baby "Does" whose nameless bodies have never been identified.
Although Best Buy ran sales for HD DVD, at one point 30 percent off on all stock, it appears that the format’s run at the big box retailer is officially at an end.
Completely bypassing any last-ditch firesale action, Best Buy has instructed its retail locations to remove all HD DVD product from store shelves. As posted on AVS Forum, an official memorandum sent to stores read, “Mosaic [field marketing company] will be in all stores before open on March 26 to pull and send back all HD-DVD titles. The representative will fill out the sendback paperwork and create a manifest for each individual tote. They'll also flex all Blu-ray inventory across the space where HD-DVD was featured.”
Famed internet-made billionaire and blogger Mark Cuban raised quite a stir this week when he announced dramatically, "The Internet’s dead. It’s over." The comments made by Cuban at the CTAM summit will likely strike many as eerily familiar of Michael Bay's HD DVD trashing rants.
Cuban became a billionaire when he sold Broadcast.com, originally Audionet, to Yahoo for $5.7B. Cuban built Broadcast.com into an online powerhouse after co-founding it with earnings from the sale of his company MicroSolutions in the 80s, an early reseller of Lotus Notes. Broadcast.com at its peak featured 420 radio stations and networks; 56 TV stations and cable networks; and live game coverage of over 450 college and professional teams.
We've known that Nintendo would be bundling a single Wii Wheel in with the forthcoming Mario Kart Wii title, but now it seems that folks riding shotgun (or riding your tail) can grab one of their own. According to a recently released flyer from GameStop, extra Wheels -- should the plethora of steering apparatuses already out there not suffice -- will be sold for a cool $14.99 each. April 27th just seems so, so far away, doesn't it?
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Apple (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) is expected to launch a high-speed wireless version of iPhone in the second quarter and to produce as many as 8 million of the devices in the third quarter, according to Bank of America.
Apple shares rose $3.95 or 2.8 percent at $144.20 after the prediction in a research report about the third-generation phone from Bank of America analyst Scott Craig. Shares in AT&T Inc (T.N: Quote, Profile, Research), the exclusive U.S. carrier for iPhone, were up 1 percent at $38.03 on Friday.
"Our latest channel checks point to a significant production build of a 3G iPhone beginning in the month of June after a initial small build in May," he said in a note to clients.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. audio historians have discovered and played back a French inventor's historic 1860 recording of a folk song -- the oldest-known audio recording -- made 17 years before Thomas Edison invented the phonograph.
"It's magic," audio historian David Giovannoni said on Thursday. "It's like a ghost singing to you."
Lasting 10 seconds, the recording is of a person singing "Au clair de la lune, Pierrot repondit" ("By the light of the moon, Pierrot replied") -- part of a French song, according to First Sounds, a group of audio historians, recording engineers, sound archivists and others dedicated to preserving humankind's earliest sound recordings.
It was made on April 9, 1860, by Parisian inventor Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville on a device called the phonautograph that scratched sound waves onto a sheet of paper blackened by the smoke of an oil lamp, Giovannoni said.
Dell is offering an Inspiron 1525 laptop that can play Blu-ray movies with prices starting at $879. Dell says the Inspiron 1525's Blu-ray drive will play and burn DVDs and CDs, and a Blu-ray burner is also available. Dell also offers accessories for traveling. With the high-definition format war over, more PCs are expected to have Blu-ray drives.
That huge bundle of damning emails and documents Microsoft produced as part of the Vista-capable lawsuit is full of fascinating information about how the company developed, planned, and launched Vista, but the latest juicy nugget to come out if it suggests that a lot of problems faced by the troubled operating system are actually NVIDIA's fault -- nearly 30% of logged Vista crashes were due to NVIDIA driver problems, according to Microsoft data included in the bundle. That's some 479,326 hung systems, if you're keeping score at home, and it's in first place by a large margin -- Microsoft clocks in at number two at 17.9 percent, and ATI is fourth with 9.3 percent. Now, the chart doesn't contain a ton of additional information that would help put it in context -- a specific time period in 2007 would be nice, as would and driver and OS versions -- but we've been hearing about NVIDIA issues with Vista from the start, and this seems to confirm it. So that's pressure by Intel to support incompatible chipsets, outrage by Dell and Wal-Mart that the Vista Capable program was confusing customers, Microsoft executives saying they had been "personally burnt" by Vista, and now what looks like a huge NVIDIA driver problem -- who knows what else is going to come out of this lawsuit? At this point we're half expecting a photo of Gates signing a Save XP petition.
The HD DVD Promo group was dissolved today, its ashes scattered on the Island of Dead Formats. After a moment of silence, make your way to Best Buy to claim your $50 and trade in your obsolete plastic—or soak up the cheap HD goodness—if you haven't already.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Online media company CNET Networks Inc said on Wednesday it will eliminate 120 jobs, or about 10 percent of its staff, in a restructuring to help it focus on long-term growth amid complaints from some investors.
CNET expected pre-tax restructuring charges from the job cuts to run between $3.5 million and $4 million, most of which will be taken in the first quarter of 2008. The job cuts are effective immediately.
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD.N: Quote, Profile, Research) on Wednesday unveiled new microprocessors for the desktop personal computer market, in a move that could sharpen its competitive edge against rival Intel Corp (INTC.O: Quote, Profile, Research).
Among the chips in AMD's Phenom family of processors is one that has three cores, or electronics brains, compared with the two or four most generally available. AMD said that its Phenom X3 has as much as a 30 percent performance improvement in some instances compared to a dual-core chip operating at the same frequency.
Today's benchmark day for AMD's fastest desktop processor -- the Phenom X4 9850. Free of the nasty TLB (Transaction Lookaside Buffer) bug, the stage is now set for a head-to-head with Intel's best. While it's a significant step forward for AMD, the 9850 proc hardly compares with Intel's best quad-core desktop CPUs. Nevertheless, as PCPer says, "any enthusiast or gamer looking for a ~$240 processor is going to have a fantastic experience with the 9850." We're just happy to see AMD back on track and ready to compete. Now get to it AMD, faster clock speeds and 45-nm processes please? Intel needs someone banging at the door to keep Moore's Law from becoming Moore's Recommendation.
Students in Virginia Tech mechanical engineering Professor Mehdi Ahmadian’s senior design class developed a horizontal light bar to communicate slowing and stopping actions to a driver in a following vehicle. It had several drawbacks, including cost of production. A sensor circuit that will do the same job using the extra lights usually mounted on commercial vehicles has now been developed.
It’s March Madness, and a good chunk of the Web browsers on office computers are set to CBS Sports, where the NCAA playoffs are being streamed live.
Maybe your boss is letting you watch some of the games for a few minutes of the day. Or, maybe your company has decided to block the site from you.
Maybe, as global outplacement consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas suggest, the “annual distraction could cost employers as much as $1.7 billion in wasted work time over the 16 business days of the tournament,” some of it coming from watching the games on work computers.
“When I first looked at the b-Envi enclosure, I thought the front panel controls were either hidden or on the side of the bezel. Boy, was I surprised when I flipped through the manual and found out they were touch sensitive; I couldn't wait to try them out. The buttons work great, and there is even a little beep every time you push them.”
Here we have it, confirmation that the second generation Eee PC will in fact feature an 8.9-inch (resistive) touchscreen display. Kevin Lin, ASUS VP of Sales, says that the $500 (starting price) Eee PC will begin shipping in May or June in 8GB to 12GB options with "possible GPS support." That's the same time ASUS plans to begin shipping its $200 Eee Dekstop, aka the E-DT. Look, we're happy with your success with the Eee brand ASUS, but when are we getting our $200 Eee PC?
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Motorola Inc said on Wednesday it would split into two publicly traded entities to separate its loss-making handset division from its other businesses, sending its shares up about 5 percent.
The move, which comes amid an intensifying proxy battle against activist investor Carl Icahn ahead of a May 5 annual meeting, could be a prelude for a joint venture for the cell phone business, analysts said.
They said separating the cell phone business, which has been losing market share to rivals like Nokia and Samsung Electronics, could help Motorola find a strategic investor, such as among Asian handset makers that are keen to win a bigger share of the U.S. market.
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Dell Inc (DELL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Tuesday the personal-computer industry was experiencing a shortage of laptop batteries partly because of a recent fire at a major supplier, but the company was working with other suppliers to limit any price increases.
Dell, the world's second-largest PC maker after Hewlett-Packard Co (HPQ.N: Quote, Profile, Research), also said prices of its separately sold batteries used as replacements or for surplus power had gone up because of the shortage caused partly by the March 3 fire at LG Chem's (051910.KS: Quote, Profile, Research) Ochang plant.
NEW YORK - "Grand Theft Auto" publisher Take-Two Interactive told its shareholders Wednesday to reject a $2 billion buyout bid from rival video game company Electronic Arts, saying it's not enough.
But in the same breath the company said it will explore alternatives, even combining with EA or other third parties, to maximize its value for shareholders. But it wants to wait until after April 29, when "Grand Theft Auto IV," the latest in the blockbuster series, hits store shelves. The game is by far Take-Two's most popular and one of the best-selling franchises in the industry.
The $26-per-share bid turned hostile March 13 when EA took the offer directly to shareholders. Take-Two's board had asked for 10 business days to mull over the decision and that time ran out Wednesday.
Every couple of years — usually after a fresh crop of consoles hit the market — the drumbeat starts to sound: PC gaming is finished. Consoles are where it’s at.
Three years into this so-called “next-gen” console cycle, sales of the game systems — and by extension, the games for them — have generated a boatload of cash. But you don’t hear much about PC gaming these days, unless it’s “World of Warcraft.”
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Big worries for the nation's first high-tech census should have been obvious when tests showed some of the door-to-door headcounters couldn't figure out their fancy new handheld computers.
Now, officials say, technology problems could add as much as $2 billion to the cost of the 2010 census and jeopardize the accuracy of the nation's most important survey.
Census officials are considering a return to using paper and pencil to count every man, woman and child in the nation.
At an initial cost of more than $11 billion, the 2010 census was already the most expensive ever. Officials now are scrambling to hold down costs while trying to ensure the count produces reliable population numbers -- figures that will be used to apportion seats in Congress and divvy up more than $300 billion a year in federal and state funding.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sirius Satellite Radio's (SIRI.O: Quote, Profile, Research) $4.59 billion purchase of rival XM Satellite Radio (XMSR.O: Quote, Profile, Research) was given antitrust clearance on Monday as the Justice Department concluded consumers have many alternatives, including mobile phones and personal audio players.
Investors sent shares of both companies sharply higher even though the Federal Communications Commission must still approve the combination of the only two U.S. providers of satellite radio, a deal first announced in February 2007.
Western Digital has never been one to skimp on color choices for its portable hard drives, and it now busted out the crayons yet again for its new batch of My Passport Elite USB drives. Available in bronze, titanium, westminster blue and cherry red, the drives each boast a "soft-touch finish" to keep 'em from slipping out of your hands, and weigh in at a mere 5 ounces. You'll also get a built-in capacity gauge to let you know how much space you have left, as well as the usual back-up software and security measures. If that sounds like the drive you've been looking for, you can grab a 250GB model now for $170, or move on up to a 320GB drive for an even $200.
Mozilla CEO John Lilly has a beef with Apple, which he made clear yesterday after he blasted the company on its decision to package its Safari web browser with the latest version of iTunes and Quicktime.
Specifically, Lilly laments Apple’s decision to bundle Safari in a way that users have to opt-out of its installation during an otherwise routine upgrade to iTunes. Pushing Safari on users who may not understand what they’re doing “undermines the trust relationship great companies have with their customers,” writes Lilly, “and that’s bad — not just for Apple, but for the security of the whole Web.”
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Online DVD rental company Netflix Inc said it resumed shipping DVDs on Tuesday after a technological breakdown knocked out its site for much of Monday.
"We're shipping everything that should have been shipped yesterday as well as what we'd normally ship today," said Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey.
Swasey said the company, which has about 7.5 million subscribers, was still determining an appropriate course of action for those customers whose shipments were delayed, such as possibly crediting their accounts.
Kingston Technology is likely to invest in Taiwan-based controller IC designer Phison Electronics, through which the memory module maker will strengthen its collaboration with Toshiba, the biggest shareholder of Phison, according to industry sources. The sources said Kingston is expected to invest in Phison via private placement, but they did not indicate the sum.
Phison declined to comment on possible investments from Kingston. Phison, later in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE) on March 25, stated that it has not yet decided who will be their target investor.
Multiplayer online gaming can be great fun. The problem is that, for the average gamer, the experience is often marred by immature brats screaming into their headsets and frequent deaths at the hands of super-humanly skilled competitors.
“Army of Two,” available now for Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, takes a different approach, focusing entirely on co-op (two-person) teams, both online and off. The two-man concept works exceptionally well, adding powerful strategic and emotional elements to the game. The thoughtful and restrained nature of play is rare and refreshing in a shooter.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc said on Tuesday that it supports a program by archrival Google Inc to develop applications for social networks and will help create a joint foundation to keep it alive.
Google launched its OpenSocial network in November to lure developers already creating popular Web applications on social networks like Facebook.
VH Happy Easter Announcement Posted by Diceman on Sunday, March 23, 2008 @ 6:11
Sorry it's a bit late in the day, but I'm away from home visiting family for the holiday weekend and just got some time to break away. I just wanted to wish all the readers out there (that celebrate it at least) a Happy Easter from all of us here at Virtual-Hideout!
Please enjoy our new Thecus N299 Review we posted yesterday as well, since you're here anyway :)
“If I was looking at the N299 with a clean slate, and there was no issue with the speed, I would give it very high marks. The only place it would really lose marks is the quality of the start page. The features list is on par, if not above most other network access servers. I could overlook the lack of decent speeds if it wasn't for the fact that, not only was I lead to believe the speeds would be better (why else would they say it has gigabit Ethernet?), but that there are other units with not only similar features, but also similar prices.”
Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced it is releasing a family of 800MHz DDR2 fully-buffered dual-inline memory modules (FB-DIMMs) designed for systems using Intel's Seaburg S5400 chipset. Launching first with its industry-standard ValueRAM modules, Kingston® 800MHz FB-DIMMs are shipping in capacities ranging from 512MB to 4GB.
"Today's dual XEON systems using the new 1600MHz front-side bus quad-core processors demand a robust memory solution to match processor bandwidth with memory bandwidth," said Louis Kaneshiro, senior technology manager, Kingston. "Our 800MHz FB-DIMMs deliver the blazing performance and reliability required by high performance servers and workstations."
Delivering up to 25.6 GB/s bandwidth with four memory channels active, Kingston 800MHz FB-DIMMs match the bandwidth needs of the latest XEON processors. The 2GB and 4GB 800MHz FB-DIMMs enable a flexible upgrade path while leaving plenty of headroom for future RAM expansion.
All Kingston FB-DIMMs go through a rigorous qualification and testing process to ensure maximum compatibility and reliability. Kingston memory is backed by a lifetime warranty and 24/7 technical support.
Here's a few minutes of your life that you'll never get back. It's the winner in the creative category. You'd think with the millions of videos, there'd be something more entertaining.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and AT&T Inc (T.N: Quote, Profile, Research), the two largest U.S. mobile phone companies, grabbed the lion's share of a $19.12 billion auction of airwaves being vacated by television broadcasters.
Verizon and AT&T won more than $16 billion of licenses, according to auction results released on Thursday, airwaves they plan to use to enhance existing voice and data services, as well as underpin a new wave of wireless technologies.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Gibson Guitar said on Friday that it filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Viacom Inc's MTV networks and Harmonix as well as Electronic Arts relating to the wildly popular "Guitar Hero" video games.
The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Tennessee, relates to the same patent involved in another suit Gibson filed earlier against various retailers, the Tennessee-based guitar maker said in a statement.
The "Guitar Hero" series has sold more than 14 million units in North America and raked in more than $1 billion since its 2005 debut.
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Activision (ATVI.O: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Thursday it will release a version of its "Guitar Hero" video game for Nintendo's (7974.OS: Quote, Profile, Research) DS, bringing its blockbuster musical series to the most popular handheld gaming device.
"Guitar Hero: On Tour" will include a plug-in accessory and mock guitar-pick to let players tap out notes on the device's screen in time with songs from bands like Nirvana, No Doubt and OK Go, the company said.
Activision said the game will come out this summer, but it did not disclose the price. A typical DS game costs $30, but the inclusion of a hardware accessory may push the price of "On Tour" over that.
DENVER (Billboard) - Search for an artist on any of the popular search engines, and the top three results are practically guaranteed: the artist's official Web site, Wikipedia entry and MySpace page -- often in that order.
But while artists and their handlers devote massive attention to the Web site and MySpace, the Wikipedia page is often overlooked. Recent data suggests they may want to reconsider their priorities.
According to data provided to Billboard from Yahoo -- the second-most popular search engine on the Web after Google -- those searching for artist information are selecting the Wikipedia entry link over artists' MySpace pages by a factor of more than 2-to-1. The Wikipedia entries are also more popular than artists' Web sites.
Trial-ware is an annoying aspect of buying a new PC from a manufacturer. What makes it worse is when manufacturers do not offer the option to users to remove the trial-ware from the PCs before they get shipped out. Sony has heard consumer's pleas, and has decided to cash-in by charging for not installing trial-ware.
Sony is now offering a new option dubbed "Fresh Start", which essentially means that trial-ware is not installed on a PC before it is shipped out. This option, however, is not free and comes at a fee of $50.
AMD is planning to launch a Radeon HD 3830 graphics chip for the mid-range/entry-level market, according to sources at graphics card makers. Cards are expected to launch in April or May.
The 3830 will have a 128-bit memory interface, 320 stream processing units, 16 texture filtering units and 16 ROPs, and will support memory capacities up to 256MB.
The card will be positioned between AMD's Radeon HD 3850 and 3650 and will target the gap between Nvidia's GeForce 9600GT and 8600GTS with a price lower than US$129.
El Monte, CA – March 19th, 2008 – NZXT, a company built on realizing the dreams of gamers worldwide, is proud to announce the NZXT Tempest. Tempest features breakthrough features in every category satisfying the high performance demands of PC Enthusiasts and Gamers worldwide. Tempest stakes its claim as Airflow King with 6 fans including dual intake(120mm), dual exhaust(140mm) with additional side and rear fans(120mm) all included. Tempest maximizes expandability with E-ATX support allowing for more compatibility with high end components including larger graphics cards. Cable routing is pre-drilled so users can hide cables behind the motherboard tray, allowing for a cleaner appearance and improved airflow. Tempest also features server-like HDD space by using dual 120mm fans to cool cages holding up to 8 HDDs allowing for large capacity systems while maintaining cool temperatures.
“Efficient airflow is crucial in designing a high performance gaming chassis so that all of your computer’s components are able to perform at their optimal level” said Johnny Hou, Chief Designer at NZXT. “With the Tempest’s 6 120mm fans, we’ve created the Airflow King of cases. Combining the cooling capabilities with the space and storage features, the Tempest is designed to be the best enthusiast and gaming chassis in its class.”
Rumors are rampant this morning that AMD is in the throes of a silent slash in global head-count. An estimated 800 or so employees are expected to hit the soup lines -- a number which reflects about 5% of its total work force. Not a surprise given the global downturn in the economy coupled with AMDs recent missteps in its epic battle with Intel. AMD has not made the layoffs official yet. However, the bad news is expected when their Q1 results are announced, if not sooner.
How big and disgustingly opulent does a yacht have to be to be considered a private island? This big and disgusting. Gizmag has a piece today on Wally's luxury yachts and their 325 foot flagship. While Paul Allen's Octopus is bigger at 410 feet, the Wally Gigayacht can be oufitted, with pools, tennis courts, mini soccer fields, or the garden you see above. And of course, room for 40 crew, 24 guests, a helipad, and two 45-foot speedboats that deploy out the back, powered by the blood of the poor.
Apple appears to be on a roll these days. The company in recent years has become largely identified by its popular iPod music players. The iPod shuffle, iPod Nano, iPod Classic and iPod touch dominate the music player market and the iTunes is second only to Wal-Mart in overall U.S. music sales.
Throw in the iPhone as Apple's "halo" device, and the Cupertino, California-based company and its marketing efforts are a force to be reckoned with. Luckily for Apple, its success on the digital player and digital music fronts is transferring greatly to its computing products according to Apple Insider.
MIAMI (Reuters) - Americans in the hurricane danger zone may soon be able to use Google to find out if their own home is threatened by a dangerous storm surge, the director of the National Hurricane Center said on Wednesday.
Storm surge, the massive wall of water carried onto land by a hurricane, is considered perhaps its most destructive element and greatest threat to the lives of people who ignore evacuation orders in vulnerable coastal areas.
Bill Read, who was appointed head of the Miami-based U.S. forecasting center in January, said a planned program will couple a Google application with storm surge data that meteorologists have used for years to determine the flooding threat from any category of storm.
BEIJING (Reuters) - Dell Inc (DELL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) plans to buy $23 billion of components from China this year and $29 billion in 2009, helping it reduce costs while the company's main market, the United States, is facing recession.
The commoditization of computer hardware means competition is more a function of price and efficiency than quality and branding, making China a favorite place to source a broad range of goods, including electronic components.
"China is critical to Dell's global supply chain," founder and Chief Executive Michael Dell told reporters on Thursday.
"Dell will purchase $70 billion of computer-related supplies and equipment from China," he said, referring to total purchases over the 2007-2009 period.
TAMPA, Fla. - Capt. Clint Roberts makes his living cutting accident victims out of hideously mangled vehicles, but even he could hardly believe it when two people in a 2007 midsize car survived a head-on crash with a full-sized pickup last year.
The Ford Fusion's reinforced steel construction probably saved the lives of the 18-year-old driver and his 16-year-old passenger. But Roberts said it gave his Hillsborough County Fire Rescue crew fits as they tried to free them last November.
Because hydraulic cutters couldn't shear the roof posts, rescue workers had to turn to heavy-duty electric saws, replacing blade after blade as they dulled on the rugged material.
Sunnyvale, CA—March 18, 2008—OCZ Technology Group, a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory, today unveiled blistering fast PC3-16000 DDR3 modules that are also NVIDIAâ SLIä-certified to run at an extreme 2GHz on the next generation NVIDIA nForceä 790i Ultra SLI motherboards also released today. Designed to offer enthusiasts the rock-solid stability and speed they’ve been demanding since the mainstreaming of DDR3 platforms, the OCZ PC3-16000 SLI-Ready series makes use of the unbeatable overclocking capabilities of the nForce 790i Ultra SLI platform and takes DDR3 to new heights.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. government auction of wireless airwaves ended on Tuesday raising a record $19.59 billion, but winners of the valuable spectrum were not immediately identified.
Analysts view Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Vodafone Group Plc (VOD.L: Quote, Profile, Research), as the most likely winner of a nationwide piece of the airwaves called the "C" block that attracted a $4.74 billion high bid.
"This is spectrum that's obviously ... very valuable -- will be critical to trying to provide additional wireless broadband services," Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin told reporters after the auction ended.
SAN FRANCISCO - Apple Inc. is negotiating with record labels over a deal to give iPhone and iPod customers free access to the entire iTunes music library if they pay extra for the devices.
The Financial Times is reporting that the sticking point in the talks is how much Cupertino-based Apple will pay the record labels for the access. The newspaper cites unnamed music industry sources for Wednesday's report.
By now you've had a chance to sample the reviews on nVIDIA's new flagship GeForce 9800 X2 graphics card right? Good, so did you happen to see the comments from bit-tech about heat? During their testing, bit-tech encountered "a number of heat-related crashes, hard locks and instabilities" with their ASUS Striker II Formula motherboard. They claim with 100% certainty that all the issues were related to the installation of the GeForce 9800 GX2. Apparently, the heat generated by the card coupled with 9800 GX2's air-flow restricting footprint caused the motherboard to enter an automatic self-protect mode as board components exceeded 90 degrees Celsius (190-degrees Fahrenheit) -- the GPUs never exceeded a reasonable 85 degrees Celsius. A fan placed directly above the motherboard's south bridge (responsible for HDD controller, I/O, etc) fixed the problem. Consider yourselves warned.
"Memory achieving NVIDIA SLI-Ready certification must pass a comprehensive suite of tests to ensure customers achieve the outstanding experience they expect from SLI systems,” said Tom Petersen, Director of Technical Marketing for MCP Business Unit at NVIDIA. "Kingston's new HyperX modules soared through our battery of qualifications and exceeded NVIDIA requirements.”
Kingston N Series HyperX memory (designated with an 'N' at the end of the part number to indicate NVIDIA SLI-ready memory with Enhanced Performance Profiles (EPP)) delivers the fastest performance possible when paired with the latest NVIDIA MCP790i series chipsets. Memory DIMMs receiving SLI-Ready certification are required to support EPP technology to ensure the modules can be automatically detected and their full potential realized with the NVIDIA nForce 790i Ultra SLI and nForce 790i SLI platforms.
The HyperX 1600MHz and 1800MHz memory kits winning NVIDIA SLI-validation are available now and the 2GHz HyperX PC3-16000 (KHX16000D2K2/2G) memory is planned for later in the quarter. Kingston HyperX is backed by a lifetime warranty and free 24/7 technical support.
The most simple and portable solution in the bunch, the wine cork laptop stand gets your hot notebook off the table with minimal effort. Just slip two wine corks underneath your computer and you're done. You can substitute the corks for regular rubber door stops, too.
Dell reportedly plans to resume its handheld device business and the company may team up with Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) to develop Windows Mobile-based handheld devices, according to market sources in Taiwan.
Dell has been reorganizing its team for handheld devices since it hired Ron Garriques, a former executive vice president at Motorola in charge of its cell phone division, in early 2007, the sources indicated.
MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (AP) -- Electronics retailer Best Buy Co. said Wednesday it will give gift cards to customers that bought HD-DVD players or HD-DVD attachments from its U.S. stores as the format goes away in favor of the Blu-ray standard.
Toshiba conceded the market to Blu-Ray and announced they were stopping production on HD-DVD players.
The products had to be purchased at one of the company's stores prior to Feb. 23. Best Buy said it will give a $50 gift card for each item, which will likely lead to the distribution of more than $10 million in U.S. gift cards.
Yan Tai, China, March 18th 2008 – As a global leader in extreme visual graphics technology, FOXCONN has launched the flagship GeForce® 9800GX2-1024 graphics card. Designed for the high-end enthusiast gaming market, this card will deliver extreme visual graphics performance which no other predecessors can match.
Foxconn 9800GX2 Graphics Card Powered by NVIDIA® Quad SLI™-Ready GeForce® 9800GX2 GPU, FOXCONN 9800GX2 is the ultimate choice for extreme gaming enthusiasts! With our superb engineering and manufacturing capabilities, this is a powerful graphics card with excellent stability and reliability under the most extreme DirectX10 gaming conditions. FOXCONN’s motto in “Performance without Compromise” once again shines thru.
Fremont, CA, March 18, 2008 – Corsair® http://www.corsair.com, a worldwide leader in enthusiast computer and flash memory products, announced today their NVIDIA 790i Ultra SLI high-performance DDR3 partner memory offerings, including a record-breaking 2GHz module.
After extensive partnership efforts between NVIDIA and Corsair, the NVIDIA 790i Ultra SLI platform was found to exhibit extreme overclocking capabilities with the latest in DDR3 memory architectures. All Corsair SLI-ready partner memory is pre-loaded with EPP2, the latest in memory performance specifications. EPP2 is designed to deliver an automatic memory performance boost for enthusiasts when used with the 790i Ultra SLI platform.
FREMONT, CA (March 18, 2008) – ASUS®, worldwide leader in component and notebook design and manufacturing, today released the ASUS EN9800GX2/G/2DI/1G SLI-ready graphics cards. Sporting dual GeForce 9800 GPUs (graphics processing units), the EN9800GX2/G/2DI/1G offers true-to-life extreme HD gaming and picture-perfect HD movie playback. Delivering speeds up to 50% faster than the GeForce 8800 Ultra, the new EN9800GX2 is the fastest graphics card available. Designed with the PC enthusiasts in mind, the integrated SmartDoctor feature allows users to overclock the Shader Clock for even better graphical performance. Each ASUS EN9800GX2 will bundle with a full-version DirectX 10 game, Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts.
The DDR3-1800 HZ Series is equipped with the Antazone RamMod cooler to improve module stability and performance while operating under extreme overclocking conditions. Engineered with quality and performance in mind, G.Skill’s DD3-1800 HZ Series is the ultimate solution for extreme gamers, overclockers, and PC enthusiasts. The Antazone RamMod cooler uses industrial standard silent micro blower fan as a memory cooler. This original innovative cooling solution provides more efficient heat dissipation. The 8000rpm silent micro blower fan is ideal for overclocking where every degree matters. It ensures that your system can operate smoothly even with the toughest gaming software, overclocking, or system applications.
The BFG Trade Up Program is designed to give our valued customers a one time opportunity to upgrade their current BFG graphics card to a more recently released BFG graphics card and only pay the difference in cost (plus any applicable taxes).
This program only applies to BFG graphics cards launched after February 21, 2008. This program may not be available to all customers, and rules/restrictions may apply.
Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) is an update to Windows Vista that addresses feedback from our customers. In addition to previously released updates, SP1 will contain changes focused on addressing specific reliability, performance, and compatibility issues; supporting new types of hardware; and adding support for several emerging standards. SP1 also will continue to make it easier for IT administrators to deploy and manage Windows Vista. Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Five Language Standalone version can be installed on systems with any of the following language versions: English (US), French, German, Japanese, or Spanish (Traditional).
“So, where does the 8800 GT fit in terms of market niche? I'd say it's still well tuned for users looking for the best bang for buck. I mean, it's still a really, really good buy. The regular 8800 GTS, GTX, and Ultras are still quite a bit more with the GTX and Ultra still costing the most. The ASUS 8800 GT TOP Edition may cost a little more than the stock frequency versions, but the card packs a bigger punch thanks to its factory overclocked settings and the card is very quiet. And the card is fully warranted.”
San Jose, California – March 18, 2008 -- Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of Flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, today launched The Memory Challenge, a fun, interactive web 2.0 game that educates visitors on memory technology while testing the limits of their knowledge. Super Talent Marketing Director, Joe James commented “The Memory Challenge is a fun learning tool, kind of a reverse-FAQ where we ask the questions and you give the answers. It will challenge even the sharpest tech gurus.” The Memory Challenge poses to visitors a series of general questions on DRAM and Flash technology. The questions get progressively more difficult. And it tracks the score for each visitor.
BEIJING (Reuters) - Google Inc, the world's leading search engine, said on Monday it was concerned about the free flow of information on the Internet if Microsoft Corp were to succeed in acquiring Yahoo Inc.
Last month, Microsoft proposed buying Yahoo in a deal originally worth $44.6 billion, but Yahoo's board has rejected the offer, saying it was too low.
MINNEAPOLIS - A federal appeals court on Monday upheld an injunction against a Minnesota law that targeted at children under 17 who rent or buy violent video games.
A three-judge panel of the 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals agreed with a lower-court judge that Minnesota went too far when it passed its law two years ago because the state couldn't prove that such games hurt children.
The law would have hit kids under 17 with a $25 fine if they rented or bought a video game rated "M" for mature or "AO" for adults only. It also would have required stores to put up signs warning of the fines.
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Complaints by Jewish settlers angry at Facebook for listing them as residents of "Palestine" prompted the popular social networking Web site to allow users to switch themselves back to Israel.
Facebook users living in Maale Adumim, Ariel and other large Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank protested when the site automatically listed their hometowns as being in "Palestine." A group of settlers accused the California-based company of having a political agenda.
"I was surprised and disappointed to find that my hometown of Ariel is listed in Facebook as being part of a country called 'Palestine,"' wrote Ari Zimmerman in a posting on Facebook. "I am a citizen of Israel, as are all of the other residents of Ariel. We do not live in 'Palestine', nor does anyone else."
It's already got its own toilet paper in Japan, but the rest of us are still patiently waiting for Vista SP1 to officially hit -- but maybe not for much longer: DailyTech is reporting that SP1 will be available for download starting tomorrow, with boxed copies to follow on store shelves Wednesday. While Microsoft's PR team wouldn't confirm anything other than "on track for mid-March" to The Register, it seems the company has been a little more forthcoming with its pals at Amazon, which is also listing March 18th as the release date for SP1. That's some fishy fish, but there's only one way to find out for reals -- nap time, here we come.
Apparently, traditional powerstrips are in dire need of an overhaul, as the Eject Powerstrip is just one of many replacement concepts we've seen float by in the past several months. Nevertheless, this brilliantly engineered design essentially allows users to eject plugs leading to devices not currently in use in order to keep consumption of "vampire power" to a minimum. Additionally, any ejected socket is automatically turned off in order to keep your meddling youngsters safe from electrocution. Now, if only we weren't so ashamed about leaving our current strips out in the open, we'd really be infatuated with this idea.
“The Hyper-X 8GB Data Traveler is one good option among the droves of lesser on the market. It's nice to see the Kingston Hyper-X 8GB Data Traveler with its larger capacity and its 33MB/s transfer rate. This is basically just as fast as many of the pricier USB 2.0 external drives. Granted it’s the not as large a storage capacity, but then no one really wants to haul around their external enclosures.”
Fremont, CA, March 13, 2008 – Corsair® http://www.corsair.com, a worldwide leader in high-performance computer and flash memory products, announced today the world’s first high performance memory modules made especially for the Mac. The new Corsair memory modules are the industry’s first low latency modules specifically tuned for the new MacBook and MacBook Pro laptop computers.
Memory bandwidth has a critical impact on the performance of many of the advanced computing applications used by Mac consumers. Corsair’s Mac Memory features special Serial Presence Detect (SPD) profile characteristics, so that Macs can self-configure for optimal performance for critical applications.
Security agencies have raised concerns the service posed a risk as emails sent using it could not be traced or intercepted.
"There is no question of banning at this point," Telecoms Secretary Siddhartha Behura told reporters on the sidelines of an industry conference.
"We are not interested that we say BlackBerry will not used in this country," he said, adding the telecoms department was "very keen" the services should continue.
San Francisco - Security vendor Trend Micro has fallen victim to a widespread Web attack that splashed malicious software onto hundreds of legitimate Web sites in recent days.
A Trend Micro spokesman confirmed that the company's site had been hacked Thursday, saying that the attack took place earlier in the week. "A portion of our site -- some pages were attacked," said Mike Sweeny, a Trend Micro spokesman. "We took the pages down overnight Tuesday night -- and took corrective action."
On Thursday security vendor McAfee reported that more than 20,000 Web pages have been affected by the attack. The pages are infected with malicious code that tries to install password-stealing software on the PCs of people who visit the sites.
NEW YORK - U.S. video game sales — including hardware and software — jumped 34 percent in February to hit $1.33 billion, even with two top-selling consoles in short supply, according to data from market researcher NPD Group.
Nintendo's Wii and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 have been in such high demand stores are having a hard time keeping them in stock. Microsoft spokesman David Dennis said the company moved up shipments during the holidays and hasn't been able to catch up since.
He added "we should be in good shape" by the time "Grand Theft Auto IV," the highly anticipated latest installment of the Rockstar Games franchise, hits store shelves April 29.
Intel is planning to launch its first quad-core CPU for notebooks, the Core 2 Extreme QX9300, in the third quarter this year with pricing set at a new high of US$1,038 in thousand-unit tray quantities, according to sources at motherboard makers.
With the market demand for top-level notebooks still below average, Intel expects the quad-core notebook CPUs will not become standard in the performance/mainstream notebook market until the second half of 2009, and therefore should not impact the desktop PC market, noted the sources.
The Core 2 Extreme QX9300 will be manufactured at 45nm and have a core frequency of 2.53GHz. The CPU will come in a socket P package and support FSB speeds up to 1066MHz. The chip will include 12MB L2 cache and have a maximum TDP of 45W.
