August 2007

“Well, for years after that I was a true diehard AMD fan. That is, until the tides recently turned and the tsunami of C2D arrived on the shores. Recently, Intel has been dominating the processor scene with its new line of Core 2 Duo's. Well, once again Intel has stepped up to the plate by literally stepping up the FSB from 1066 to 1333. This new line of CPU's have a model of Exx50 which represents the 1333FSB. This bump on the CPU will now match the Front Side Bus of some newer motherboards. The new processor under the microscope is the new Intel Core 2 Duo E6850, which is 3.0GHz, has 4mb of cache, and is using the 1333MHz system bus. With all these numbers floating around in my head, I just can’t wait to test the processor.”

While AMD keeps postponing the launch of their quad-core processors to the end of this year – beginning of next, Intel Company is offering very affordable quad-core CPUs from Core 2 Quad family. However, can Core 2 Quad processors be regarded as a worthy alternative to popular dual-core solutions?

SAN FRANCISCO - Internet search leader Google Inc. on Friday began hosting material produced by The Associated Press and three other news services on its own Web site instead of only sending readers to other destinations.

The change affects hundreds of stories and photographs distributed each day by the AP, Agence France-Presse, The Press Association in the United Kingdom and The Canadian Press. It could diminish Internet traffic to newspaper and broadcast companies' Web sites where those stories and photos are also found — a development that could reduce those companies' revenue from online advertising.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - NBC Universal has decided not to renew its contract to sell television shows on iTunes, becoming the second major media company to challenge Apple Inc's dominance in digital entertainment.

Apple said on Friday that NBC had demanded to more than double the wholesale rate for each show, which Apple said would have forced its iTunes online store to raise what it charged consumers to $4.99 per TV show episode from $1.99.

"We are disappointed to see NBC leave iTunes because we would not agree to their dramatic price increase," Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of iTunes, said in a statement.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The summer dry spell for video games came to an end last week with the arrival of "BioShock," the creepy underwater shooter that has won rave reviews and flown off store shelves. The main bulk of important games this year won't come out until November, but the next month or two will see the release of quite a few other hot games.

These aren't necessarily "system sellers" -- games that are so good that consumers will buy a particular video game console just to play them -- but give potential customers a few more reasons to eventually take the plunge.

NEW YORK - What began as a ninth-grade prank, a way to trick already-suspicious friends who had fallen for his earlier practical jokes, has earned Rich Skrenta notoriety as the first person ever to let loose a personal computer virus.

Although over the next 25 years, Skrenta started the online news business Topix, helped launch a collaborative Web directory now owned by Time Warner Inc.'s Netscape and wrote countless other computer programs, he is still remembered most for unleashing the "Elk Cloner" virus on the world.

"It was some dumb little practical joke," Skrenta, now 40, said in an interview. "I guess if you had to pick between being known for this and not being known for anything, I'd rather be known for this. But it's an odd placeholder for (all that) I've done."

Sunnyvale, CA—August 30, 2007—OCZ Technology Group, Inc. a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory and computer components, today announced the OCZ Vanquisher CPU cooler, a much-anticipated expansion of their cooling product line. Using a highly efficient and compact design, the Vanquisher is an enthusiast-grade thermal solution for the latest high performance processors. Catering to the needs of gamers and enthusiasts, the Vanquisher will become an integral addition to any extreme-performance gaming rig.

The OCZ Vanquisher aggressively cools your CPU thanks to a pure copper base plate and three copper heat pipes that rapidly transfer heat away from the processor up to the dense, aluminum fin array where the thermal load is quickly dissipated by the included 92mm fan. The efficient heatpipe design moves so much heat that the fin array is able to transfer up to 200 Watts. The Vanquisher also utilizes a unique low speed fan mounted with rubber connectors to effectively decrease vibration and noise, ensuring minimal distractions at your workstation.

“The performance of OCZ Vanquisher is not compromised due to its compact size,” states Jacky Huang, VP of Product Management, OCZ Technology. “Instead, it reduces the CPU temperature more effectively than many larger coolers in the market. As a bonus, its compact form factor allows it to fit in even most crowded environments and cases.”

Way back in Web One Point Oh, my friend and fellow Internet habitué Ree Hines and I had this game we used to play. It was called “Find the Grossest Internet Image Ever and Trick You into Looking at It.” As even the most casual Web surfing enthusiast can imagine, the possibilities were endless.

We grew more net savvy, and strategy evolved beyond finding colorful sea anemone entrails, LASIK surgery documentation or a comparatively unusual fetish site. The game was now about luring one’s increasingly-paranoid opponent into a false sense of security, either by weeks of e-mail silence, labeling a particularly odious image with an irresistible slug (like “fuzzy_bunny”) or forwarding proxy urls that gave no hint of the carnage about to open in one’s browser.

PASADENA, Calif. - Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientists and engineers sued NASA and the California Institute of Technology on Thursday, challenging extensive new background checks that the space exploration center and other federal agencies began requiring in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

NASA calls on employees to permit investigators to delve into medical, financial and past employment records, and to question friends and acquaintances about everything from their finances to sex lives, according to the suit. The requirements apply to everyone from janitors to visiting professors.

SEATTLE - Ending court oversight of Microsoft's business practices in November would not allow enough time to consider the antitrust implications of the new Windows Vista operating system, a group of states said in a filing Thursday. U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who oversees Microsoft Corp.'s adherence to the terms of a 2002 antitrust settlement, asked the software maker, the Justice Department and a group of states led by California submit reports by Thursday on the effectiveness of the consent decree.

The devices will support an open platform -- which means they will play a variety of music formats such as MP3 and Microsoft Corp's (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) WMA, providing more choices for downloading and managing music and video collections online.

Sony added that it would pull the plug on its Connect Music Services, which distributes music in Sony's proprietary ATRAC audio format in North America and Europe. Specific timing will vary, but the move will not occur before March 2008.

Sony said the models' battery life allows up to eight hours of video playback for the NWZ-A810 series, which will sell for between $140 and $230. Battery life will be more than nine hours for the NWZ-S610 series, with prices ranging from $120 to $210.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Imagine cramming 30,000 full-length movies into a gadget the size of an iPod.

Scientists at IBM said on Thursday they had moved closer to such a feat by learning how to steer single atoms in a way that could create building blocks for ultra-tiny storage devices.

Top 5 worst game movies

We love movies almost as much as we love video games. But we don’t love it when a filmmaker butchers one of our favorite titles in their quest to bring the game to the big screen. Unfortunately, we’ve seen that happen way too often.

Here’s our list of the Top 5 worst game-based movies. Check out the list then tell us which film you hate the most – and what truly terrible movies we’ve missed.

BERLIN - LG Electronics announced its first premium camera mobile phone on Thursday and an executive told Reuters the company aimed for 10-15 percent of this market segment within about a year.

The "Viewty" will go on sale in Europe in mid-October, priced somewhere between its hit "Shine" phone, which sells for about 400 euros ($547), and its LG Prada fashion phone, which sells for about 600 euros ($820), Chang Ma told Reuters.

Ma, who is in charge of design strategy at LG's mobile communications division, said the phone was designed for ease of sending, sharing and viewing pictures and video.

LOS ANGELES - 20th Century Fox has struck a deal with Microsoft Corp. to make the first two seasons of the animated series "Family Guy" available for downloads on the Xbox Live service beginning Monday.

"Family Guy" represents the first Fox product to make it onto Xbox, which lacks an overall deal with the News Corp.-owned studio. In the battle of the electronic sell-through outlets, score one for Xbox over main rival iTunes, which hasn't yet landed rights to "Family."

Nvidia's G92 mid-range graphics chip is provisionally set to launch on November 12 this year, while the launch date of the entry-level G98 still remains unknown, according to sources at graphics card makers.

Nvidia plans to replace the GeForce 8800GTS series with the G92, while the G98 will replace entry-level products in the GeForce 8 series, noted the sources.

The G92 will support PCI Express 2.0, HDMI, PureVideo Gen 3 and Display Port, while the chip will adopt a 65nm process. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) will manufacture the chips.

Despite the new chip designs, G92 and G98 can only be considered an update of the GeForce 8 series since they will not include any major changes, the sources explained.

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. said on Tuesday it plans to release the first major update to its Windows Vista operating system early next year.

Many of Microsoft's large corporate customers wait for the release of the first "service pack" -- a software package of fixes, updates and improvements -- before implementing a new Windows operating system.

Corporate customers often hold back on adopting new software to allow Microsoft time to work out the kinks experienced by regular consumers who often buy a new computer with the latest operating system already preloaded.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Apple Inc (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) shares rose more than 4.5 percent on Wednesday, fueled by excitement over the pending launch of new iPod digital music players, which could entice current users to buy upgraded models.

The stock climbed $5.74 to $132.56 in early trading on the Nasdaq, after Apple distributed invitations to a September 5 event in San Francisco. Goldman Sachs said in a note to clients that the date would bring "the almost certain launch of a new family of iPods."

"The product announcement is likely to include a full line-up of revamped iPods with significantly greater functionality at current price points, including the much-anticipated full-screen video iPod,"

TOKYO - Japan plans to start research on new networking technology that could one day replace the Internet amid its growing quality and security problems, according to the nation's communications ministry. U.S. and European researchers already have started similar efforts to rebuild the underlying architecture of the Internet.

Yoshihiro Onishi, assistant director at the Japanese communications ministry, said Japan must follow suit to stay competitive. Post-Internet network technology is expected to become imperative by 2020, he said.

"The Internet is reaching its limit," he said. "We feel this research for the technology is definitely needed."

San Jose, California - August 28, 2007 -- Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of DRAM memory modules and flash storage solutions, today launched a new line of VIDEGO personal digital media players.
These new players support MP3/WMA music playback, as well as FM stereo and voice/FM recording. They are packed with audio features including FM presets, various repeat modes and equalizer settings. But VIDEGO players are much more than just music players. These new VIDEGO players are designed for video on the go, sporting full color 2.4-inch or 2.8-inch screens to play AVI and other video files. They also support photo viewing and e-books, and come with up to 4GB of built-in flash memory.
The flagship 2.8-inch model, VIDEGO 28, includes intuitive touch-screen menus for quick and easy navigation. VIDEGO 24T offers a 2.4-inch display with a sensitive touch-panel menu.

Since the introduction of the COSMOS PC Chassis from Cooler Master, people have begun to experience the refinement and performance of a truly revolutionary PC case. To celebrate its release, Cooler Master is pleased to open the MyCOSMOS Contest to Cooler Master fans worldwide. From September 3rd to 28th, COSMOS owners around the world can enter the MyCOSMOS contest simply by creating a written or video review of their COSMOS experiences and filing in the entry from on the MyCOSMOS contest site. Every Friday, Cooler Master will be giving a way a veritable boatload of fantastic prizes, including CPU coolers, VGA coolers, power supplies, and more!

•3 x Real Power Pro 1250W PSUs
•3 x Hydra 8800 VGA Coolers
•3 x Glacier 600 VGA Coolers
•7 x Real Power Pro 750W PSUs
•8 x Hyper 212 CPU Coolers
•8 x CM SPHERE CPU Coolers
•8 x PWM Fan Hub Sets

Over $4000 in prizes in total are up for grabs! Each week, the contestant with the best and most creative reviews will win some high-performance Cooler Master gear. Not interested in writing or making a video? No problem. Prizes will also be given out for the most active participant in any given week. What’s more, each week, six users who have participated in the contest, either by creating a COSMOS review or commenting on one, will be entered into a lucky draw.

BOSTON (Reuters) - Software included with high-end memory sticks sold by Sony Corp can make personal computers vulnerable to attack by computer hackers, according to researchers with two Internet security firms.

Sony's MicroVault USB memory stick and fingerprint reader includes software that creates a hidden directory on the computer's hard drive, researchers with Finnish security software maker F-Secure Corp reported on the company's blog on Monday.

Such software that hides itself, which is known as a root kit, leaves room for hackers to secretly infect personal computers, they said.

AMD will release its RD790 chipset by the end of September, with Asustek Computer and Gigabyte Technology likely to be the first to launch motherboards supporting the new chipset, according to industry sources. The high-end RD790 has motherboard makers eagerly awaiting its launch, and they have listed the new chipset as one of their major product focuses for the fourth quarter, the sources added.

Asustek and Gigabyte have been taking the lead in the race to the launch the first RD790 motherboards, having already delivered design verification test (DVT) samples to AMD's Taipei validation lab, the sources revealed.

If everything goes smoothly, Asustek and Gigabyte will be able to start volume production of RD790 motherboards in early September, while competitors may not be able to launch motherboards supporting the new AMD chipset until mid October, the sources noted.

On Tuesday, EarthLink announced that it would shed 900 employees. The reason was simple, said Rolla Huff, CEO of the company. EarthLink, which has had four solid quarters of losses and a sinking stock price, needs to return value to its shareholders. And this means eliminating jobs that don't help the company add subscribers or increase revenue.

EarthLink's traditional dial-up Internet access business, which has seen hefty declines in growth over the past few years, will likely see major cuts, especially in marketing.

LOS ANGELES - Taiwan-based Acer Inc. will acquire Gateway Inc. for $710 million in a deal designed to give the long-struggling U.S. computer maker the size it needs to compete against larger players, the companies announced Monday.

The deal will push the combined company past China’s Lenovo Group Ltd. to become the world’s third-largest vendor of personal computers, behind Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc.

With the acquisition, Acer will absorb a company that made a splash when it was founded in 1985 in an Iowa farmhouse.

TAIPEI, Taiwan - Asustek Computer, a leading Taiwanese computer maker, will launch its much awaited low-price computer next month, becoming one of the first companies marketing an ultra-mobile laptop for the developing world. Developed with Intel Corp., the Asustek laptop with a 7-inch screen will also come in a more sophisticated version that will target the developed world, said company Chairman Jonney Shih.

"It will be a laptop that's easy to learn, easy to play and easy to work with ... one targeting both the emerging and mature markets," Shih said in an interview.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Video-sharing Web site YouTube has met with harsh criticism in Germany for hosting clips that incite racial hatred, according to a news report due to be broadcast on German public TV late on Monday.

The videos hosted on YouTube include clips of a 1940 anti-Semitic propaganda film "Jud Suess" and two music videos of outlawed German far-right rock band Landser, which show footage from World War II depicting Nazi military operations.

“ASUS has been one of the leading manufacturers of motherboards for a number of years, and is the preferred board of the VH staff. The motherboard under the scope this time around is the P5N32-E SLI Plus, which uses the 650i chipset - a lesser version of the 680i which means a lower retail price. Although this is a newer motherboard using a less powerful chipset, they did make some changes to it and got dual x16 PCI-E SLI support. Another cool feature is the Stack Cool design which helps pull heat away from the components around the CPU. Another heat reducing feature are the heatpipes that cover each of the chipset chips separately. With so many features let’s get on with the review and see how things work out.”

SAN FRANCISCO - Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news)/span>. will introduce new features Monday for its popular Web-based e-mail program, including software that allows computer users to type text messages on a keyboard and send them directly to someone's cell phone.

The enhancements make it easier to send e-mail, instant messages or text messages from a single Web site — no need to launch or toggle between separate applications or devices. The features will be available to users in the United States, Canada, India and the Philippines.

The most obvious beneficiaries will be parents, who will be able to use their keyboards to type messages sent to their children's cell phones — no thumb-twisting typing on a dial pad, said Yahoo Vice President John Kremer.

DENVER, CO, August 24, 2007– Mushkin Inc. (www.mushkin.com), a global leader in high-performance computer memory products, today announced the availability of HP3-10666 DDR3 modules available in 1GB single DIMMs and 2GB dual-channel kits, part numbers 991574 and 996574 respectively. Sporting 6-7-6-18 latencies, the new DDR3 modules are designed to give high-bandwidth, low-latency performance for current and future 3D gaming platforms.

“The focus for our enthusiast-grade DDR3 products is to offer high-bandwidth solutions that maintain Mushkin’s typical aggressive latency values,” said Brian Flood, Mushkin director of product development. “Many enthusiasts have expressed disappointment in the high standard latency values of DDR3. With the HP3-10666 modules, we have attained a CAS latency value that is a full 3 clock cycles below standard-rated DDR3-1333 DIMMs available on the market today, allowing for more efficient use of bandwidth.”

Lower latency and high-bandwidth translates into better benchmark scores and increased frames per second during 3D gaming. The HP3-10666 modules will become available worldwide in the next few weeks in 1GB single modules and 2GB (2 x 1GB) dual-channel kits through Mushkin.com and its authorized resellers. Every module is hand-tested beyond its rated specification and features Mushkin’s FrostByte heatspreader technology which keeps the modules within safe operating temperatures. Like all Mushkin products, the HP3-10666 modules are backed by a lifetime warranty and an industry-leading technical support staff.

The operation of the new security thread looks like something straight out of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This magic, however, relies on innovations produced from decades of development.

It combines micro-printing with tiny lenses — 650,000 for a single $100 bill. The lenses magnify the micro-printing in a truly remarkable way. Move the bill side to side and the image appears to move up and down. Move the bill up and down and the image appears to move from side to side.

"It is a really complex optical structure on a microscopic scale. It makes for a very compelling high security device," said Douglas Crane, a vice president at Crane & Co. The Dalton, Mass-based company has a $46 million contract to produce the new security threads.

vPro is a collection of a Core 2 Duo processor, chipset and other elements that together the company calls a platform. Intel's first platform technology was Centrino, which it announced in 2003.

Since then, under Chief Executive Paul Otellini, the company has moved from selling and branding discrete processors and chipsets to selling them together as related technologies, or platforms, in a bid to sell more chips overall.

Following a Burton Group report in which analysts said that recommending Google Apps could be a career killer for enterprise architects, Forrester analyst Oliver Young called the study "a bit overly pessimistic" and said Google Apps is targeted toward those who are not "power users" and who have a low level of expertise with applications.

NEW YORK - Armed with a soldering iron and a large supply of energy drinks, a slight, curly haired teenager has developed a way to make the iPhone, arguably the gadget of the year, available to a much wider audience. George Hotz of Glen Rock, N.J., spent his last summer before college figuring out how to "unlock" the iPhone, freeing it from being restricted to a single carrier, AT&T Inc.

The procedure, which the 17-year-old posted on his blog Thursday, raises the possibility of a cottage industry springing up to buy iPhones, unlocking them and then selling them to people who don't want AT&T service or can't get it, particularly overseas.

LEIPZIG (Reuters) - Sprawling virtual worlds in which electronic avatars do battle with mythical beasts may offer game publishers a unique chance to combat piracy, especially in Asia, where the format is wildly popular.

On Thursday, the video game industry gathered at Europe's largest games convention in Leipzig to tantalize the 200,000 expected visitors with upcoming offerings that include an array of new MMOs -- massively multi-user online games.

Players usually have to buy the software to play the game, a model that invites bootleggers to get a cut of the action, so publishers are increasingly looking to offer the software for free.

Talk of a possible Google phone kicked up again Friday with new rumors coming out of India that the phone could be launched within two weeks.

Rediff.com reported that Google is in talks with two of the three top mobile providers in India, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar, to offer the new "Gphone." The article cites unnamed sources who say the phone will also be launched simultaneously in the U.S. and Europe. The only remaining hurdle in the U.S., the story said, is approval from the Federal Communications Commission, which must certify any wireless device sold in the U.S.

Google isn't commenting on the rumors, saying in a statement that the company "is committed to providing users with access to the world's information, and mobile becomes more important to those efforts every day."

Taipei, Taiwan--August 22, 2007--Synology has confirmed its 07-series of NAS products passed the compatibility test with Hitachi 1 TB hard drives. This result applies to the entire Synology 07-series NAS product, including the DS107e, DS107, DS107+, DS207, CS407e, CS407, and RS407 models.

Taipei, Taiwan—Aug 21, 2007—Synology Inc. has released the official firmware v.0509 for its 07-series NAS products; RS407, CS407, CS407e, DS207, DS107+, DS107 and DS107e. The prime objective of this release is to introduce Synology File Station, Audio Station, support for three new languages, and various enhancements. This release also closes the beta program opened earlier in July for the same models.

NEW YORK - The iPhone makes me mad. Not, mind you, at the iPhone itself, but mad at cell-phone manufacturers who have saddled us for years with interfaces that lure us into labyrinths of menus.

The buttons that are supposed to guide us through this maze do different things on every screen: a single button can mean "Back" on one screen, "Cancel" on another, "Exit" on a third.

The iPhone has one button on its face. It always does the same thing: takes you to the top menu, where icons representing all functions of the phone — music player, Internet browser and more — are laid out in a clear manner. Wham, you're out of the labyrinth.

LEIPZIG, Germany (Reuters) - While Sony (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research) battles with Microsoft (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) over which of their next-generation video game consoles will dominate, its seven-year-old PlayStation 2 still has a lot of life in it.

The Japanese company has sold over 100 million of the consoles globally since the 2000 launch.

Now PlayStation 2 has come down so much in price that it is cheap enough for people in Western Europe or North America to buy on a whim and affordable for consumers in emerging markets such as Eastern Europe, Sony said.

The iPhone has launched, and the iMac has been redesigned, which means it's probably time for new iPods.

Several different reports have surfaced over the past couple of days regarding revamped iPods that Apple may or may not have in the works. Other than adding color to the iPod Shuffle line, Apple hasn't done anything with the traditional iPods this year, and it looks like that's about to change.

They don't wear black veils. You won't find them shopping for caskets at the local funeral home. And they don't expect you to send them somber flower arrangements or cards expressing your sympathy.

And yet, they're widows nonetheless.

Though their spouses and partners haven't gone to the great beyond, these particular widows and widowers say their loved ones have gone someplace that's almost as distant and unreachable. Some have left this world for the "World of Warcraft," others have forsaken this life for "Second Life" and still others have been taken away by "EverQuest," "Final Fantasy XI" and "Dark Age of Camelot."

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Thursday it was giving customers free retrofits to a wireless racing wheel with its Xbox 360 video game system after hearing of malfunctions in a wheel component.

The company said it was informed of about 50 incidents worldwide of a malfunction in the Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel, in which a component in the wheel chassis may overheat and release smoke when the AC/DC power supply is used.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A creepy, underwater shooter game which refused to sink when publishers balked at its high development costs has turned into a success story, with "BioShock" getting glowing reviews and top sales.

"Honestly, we couldn't get a lot of publishers to sign up to spend millions of dollars to do a game," said Ken Levine, creative director for "BioShock".

Google Earth has launched a new feature called Sky, a “virtual telescope” that the company hopes will turn millions of Internet users into stargazers.

The upgraded version of the free software weaves together sky surveys conducted by the Palomar Observatory and the Anglo-Australian Observatory, along with images from the Hubble Space Telescope, to produce a zoomable view of the cosmos — in parallel to the zoomable satellite views of Earth offered by previous versions.

In effect, users can now zoom in on Earth's surface to the street level, or turn around and look skyward, zooming in on more than 100 million individual stars and 200 million galaxies.

Google will make a significant push toward integrating results from a variety of its search engines in an attempt to deliver as relevant and comprehensive a result set as possible to search queries. Although Google and its competitors have been moving in this direction for years, Google's announcement on Wednesday is its clearest and most concrete statement of direction yet regarding its efforts in this area. The announcement was made by Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president of search products and user experience, at an event in the company's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.

LEIPZIG, Germany (Reuters) - Sony Corp. (6758.T) plans to sell a satellite navigation accessory from February 2008 that turns its handheld PSP games console into a navigation device, the company announced at the Leipzig Games Convention on Wednesday. The PSP equipped with the global positioning (GPS) accessory will compete with dedicated navigation devices such as those made by TomTom (TOM2.AS) and Garmin Ltd (GRMN.O).

Richard's loss is a very significant development in what has been a disastrous year for AMD. Its flagship product for 2007, a quad-core server chip known as Barcelona, will arrive six months later than expected after a number of technical glitches. AMD has lost a ton of money in the interim, trying to compete against Intel's quad-core chips by slashing the prices of its dual-core chips.

Go out right now and get a copy of "BioShock." No, I mean it. Stop reading. Go to the store and get 2K Games' new M-rated shooter/survival horror/adventure/RPG title for Xbox 360 and PC. If you love gaming, if you think gaming can be a form of art, if you like your digital entertainment to be smart, stylish and suspenseful, "BioShock" is for you. It's also a serious Game of the Year candidate.

Why? Because "Bioshock" combines several genres with amazing results. Then there's the smooth gameplay, mixed with gorgeous graphics and some of the best sound direction in ages. What's more, "BioShock" brings with it a fresh energy and intelligence from the opening moments to the ending.

NEW YORK - Video advertising is coming to YouTube, but it won't be the type common at sites elsewhere. Starting Wednesday, the popular video-sharing site plans to feature semitransparent "overlay" ads at the bottom of selected video clips. The ad disappears after about 10 seconds if the viewer does nothing; the featured clip automatically pauses if the viewer clicks on the overlay to launch the full pitch.

YouTube said it was trying to avoid pre-rolls that precede the main feature at sites like Microsoft Corp.'s MSN, which partners with The Associated Press on a video news service.

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Tuesday it plans to introduce a computer mouse designed for PC gaming, in an effort to capture a growing segment of the computer peripheral equipment market.

Microsoft's new SideWinder mouse, which will target hard-core computer video game fans, allows nearly 5,000 different adjustable settings, including weight, materials and touch.

The new mouse comes with a small liquid crystal display between the thumb and index finger to keep track of game functions and settings.

NEW YORK - Besides leaving the hospital with a birth certificate and a clean bill of health, baby Mila Belle Howells got something she won't likely use herself for several years: her very own Internet domain name. Likewise newborn Bennett Pankow joined his four older siblings in getting his own Internet moniker. In fact, before naming his child, Mark Pankow checked to make sure "BennettPankow.com" hadn't already been claimed.

"One of the criteria was, if we liked the name, the domain had to be available," Pankow said. It was, and Pankow quickly grabbed Bennett's online identity.

Milton Keynes / Dornach. After the successful launch of the 5th generation power supplies, at Games Convention in Leipzig (hall 4/G01) HIPER presents the “Energy Saving” line extensions with ultra-efficient models: up to 87% is the new top level among the Type R Mk II and Type M Series. HPU-4M630 and HPU-4M880 represent the new power solutions of the Type M Series with the well-known HIPER Mesh-Design in an environmental-friendly packaging

San Francisco (IDGNS) - Internet service providers in the U.S. experienced a service slowdown Monday after fiber-optic cables near Cleveland were apparently sabotaged by gunfire. TeliaSonera AB, which lost the northern leg of its U.S. network to the cut, said that the outage began around 7 p.m. Pacific Time on Sunday night. When technicians pulled up the affected cable, it appeared to have been shot. "Somebody had been shooting with a gun or a shotgun into the cable," said Anders Olausson, a TeliaSonera spokesman.

The damage affected a large span of cable, more than two-thirds of a mile [1.1 km] long, near Cleveland, TeliaSonera said.

If you don't know Vizio yet, you will very soon.

The LCD TV maker has quickly staked out a place in the flat-panel market and has elbowed aside some of the biggest names in electronics in the process.

For all the clout and brand recognition that accompanies names like Sony and Samsung, it was Vizio, a virtual unknown a year ago, that topped all LCD TV makers in the second quarter of this year in televisions shipped to retailers. Vizio sold 606,402 TVs in North America in the second quarter, a 76 percent jump from the previous quarter, according to a report by iSuppli released Monday. That puts Vizio in first place among LCD TV vendors, with a market share of 14.5 percent, up from 9.4 percent, or fifth place.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A plague carried around the world by travelers, pets and curious teen-agers may show that experts have not taken everything into account when planning for an outbreak of disease, researchers said on Monday.

Luckily, the world involved is an Internet game.

The outbreak of "Corrupted Blood" indicates that specialists trying to predict what the next pandemic will look like might make use of a real-world laboratory -- the culture of online gamers.

Whenever a doctor, nurse or administrator in Georgia’s DeKalb Medical Center sends an e-mail, the message detours through a special box in the three-hospital system’s computing cluster. The box analyzes the e-mail, scanning for sensitive information like patient names, prescription histories and Social Security numbers.

More than 1,200 times a month, the box finds such private data and automatically routes the message to a server that encrypts it for secrecy before sending it to its original destination. Sometimes, though, the box is unsure what to do, so it asks Sharon Finney.

The explorer who discovered the Titanic shipwreck now plans a robotic expedition to look for sunken ships on the floor of the Black Sea as well as clues to its geologic history.

Robert Ballard, a University of Rhode Island oceanographer whose team located the long-lost RMS Titanic in the North Atlantic in 1985, will lead the new effort that will rely on an autonomous underwater vehicle called DOERRI, short for Delaware Oceanographic and Environmental Research Remote Instrument. The vehicle will dive into the depths of the Black Sea as well as the Aegean Sea. In ancient times, both waterways were major trade routes.

LOS ANGELES - Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. will offer next-generation DVDs in the HD DVD format and drop support for Blu-ray, further complicating the race between the competing technologies. Monday's announcement affects the upcoming DVD releases of the blockbusters "Shrek the Third" and "Transformers," along with movies distributed by Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Nickelodeon Movies and MTV Films.

Movies directed by Steven Spielberg, however, will continue to be released in both formats.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Canon Inc said on Monday it will launch a new digital single lens reflex (SLR) camera for advanced amateur users to better compete with Nikon Corp in the fastest-growing segment of the digital camera market.

The global market for digital SLR cameras -- high-end models with interchangeable lenses -- was held 47 percent by Canon in 2006 followed by Nikon with 33 percent, according to research firm IDC.

But in the Japanese market, Nikon has exceeded Canon in monthly digital SLR camera sales since December 2006, data from Tokyo-based research company BCN Inc showed, helped by strong demand for its mid-range and entry-level models.

“The Vantec 5.1 audio adapter isn't for everyone. If you already have a soundcard in your system capable of outputting 5.1 channels, you probably won't need this, which adds another external device to the mix. However, if you have a laptop or other portable system, most of which only have stereo outputs, this adapter will be helpful, especially if you watch movies a lot and would like to take full advantage of your 5.1 speaker system. Watching movies with a full 5.1 channels is far better than listening to them in down-converted stereo mode. This is the audio adapter's intended use, as it quickly and easily adds 5.1 output support to any system, and does it well.”

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Aniboom, an Internet home for animators to create and share original clips, is launching its own channel on video site YouTube with the aim of hatching the next animated blockbuster that could rival "The Simpsons" or "South Park." A small startup founded in Israel last year, Aniboom offers professional and amateur animators a place to showcase their clips and test their popularity with Web audiences.

The company also provides tools for creating animations and has to date built a community of more than 2500 animators from more than 70 countries who use the site.

But Eminem isn't the only star going after Apple. A records check showed that Apple is accused of copyright infringement in two other similar suits: one filed in May by a small label called Dawg Music and another from 2005 by Bridgeport Music, a publishing company with a history of filing such suits. None of the companies involved in the litigation, including Apple, agreed to comment for this story.

HOUSTON - The space shuttle Endeavour undocked from the international space station a day early on Sunday, as NASA kept a wary eye on Hurricane Dean.

Space agency managers worried that the storm would move toward Houston and force them to evacuate to a smaller-staffed makeshift control center at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Endeavour crew prepared to land on Tuesday as a precaution.

"Endeavour departed," space station commander Fyodor Yurchikhin said as ringing bells heralded the shuttle's parting, a tradition borrowed from the Navy.

NEW YORK - Skype said its Internet phone service has returned to normal after a software bug left many users unable to log on for two days. The company, a division of online auction company eBay Inc., said it would explain what caused the problem in more detail Monday.

"Until then, wed like to apologize and thank you. Precisely in that order," the company told its customers in a posting on its Heartbeat blog Saturday. "We know how difficult and frustrating the past two days have been. And still, your good wishes kept flowing in."

CrazyPC.com is running a special offer coupon for the month of August. Get a FREE Dual Cold Cathode Light Kit for orders of $25 or more*. That's a $9.99 value! Enter the coupon code: CPCCOLDCATHODE and select Redeem Coupon on the Check Out page.

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SINGAPORE - Mobile phones are a potential gold mine for advertisers, the most personal and intimate way to communicate and engage with subscribers — more than 2 billion of them and counting worldwide. Yet the advertisers' two-liner text pitches have largely fueled a growing hate club, with recipients quickly equating the messages with spam they abhor on desktops.

Now, thanks to improved technologies, advertisers believe they have struck upon the formula for getting their messages across without irking consumers. The development is important given the mobile handset's promise to be a "third screen" — after the television and the desktop computer.

How does that song go? We've all used the Internet to search for the lyrics to songs whose tune we know but whose words we just can't muster.

Often the Web sites we end up on have misspellings or incomplete and inaccurate lyrics, not to mention annoying pop-up and flashing ads. But there's another problem with the sites--many of them are violating copyright by republishing the lyrics without permission. And they are making money from the Google text ads that appear on the site.

VIA Technologies is about to introduce a new addition to its Eden ULV (ultra low voltage) processor lineup, the company announced at a press conference yesterday (Aug 16). The new CPU adopts the typical VIA V4 bus and 21mm × 21mm nanoBGA2 packaging as other Eden models, but sets itself apart offering a 500MHz core frequency at a power consumption of only 1W.

“Not too long ago I did a review on the IP Video 9100A Plus Network Video Server, which allows a device with a video out connection to be used over a computer network. Well, what good is a video server without video cameras? Here I have four 1/4'' Color CCTV Video Cameras w/Sony CCD from Geeks.com. These cameras have infrared LED's that will help illuminate an area up to 15-20 meters. The metal housing and protective cap protects the camera from the elements.”

Games Convention 2007—Leipzig, Germany—August 16, 2007—OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory and computer components, will exhibit a number of exciting new products, innovate prototypes, and live technology at this year’s much anticipated Games Convention next week from August 23 to 26. As the largest gaming and technology event in Europe, various tech companies have the chance to impress end-users from around the world with their next generation products. With a diversified offering of leading-edge PC products for gamers, OCZ aims make their mark and be the lead attraction at Games Convention 2007.