We love point-and-shoot pocket cameras for their small size and ease of use, but we lament their relatively paltry feature sets when compared to more expensive DSLR models. The good news, for owners of the popular Canon PowerShot cameras, is that your consumer-grade gadget can be upgraded with custom software to endow it with professional features like RAW image recording and live histogram feedback. CHDK (Canon Hack Development Kit) is an easy-to-install software package created by a savvy group of programmers to supercharge the Canon PowerShot. We show you how to safely install and configure this free firmware add-on with no risk to your camera.

Third-party router software has been around for a while, but we can’t help but keep recommending it to users who want to add undocumented features to their home network. Our favorite router firmware package is still Tomato, which we favor for its compatibility with a wide range of router brands and models, user-friendly interface, and powerful feature set. We’ll show you how to upgrade your router’s firmware to the newest version of Tomato and then configure the Quality of Service settings to manage your network traffic.

This is it – the post you've been waiting for. After four days of wandering the show floor, sitting in on movie studio panels, and epic line waiting, we've come out of Comic-Con 2009 with the mother load: 600 (yes, SIX HUNDRED) photos of the most intricate, sexy, and spellbinding cosplay that showed up this year. Star Wars and Superheroes were well represented, but we also snapped up shots of PC gaming icons, including several Team Fortress 2 teams and an amazing Left 4 Dead group. Legions of slave Leias weren't afraid to bare their skin and the forces of Cobra proudly showed off their guns. We even saw a bunch of familiar faces from last year's pictorial. Grab and seat, put your day on hold, and enjoy the best cosplay gallery from the best year of Comic-Con ever!

Click on to check out our most amazing gallery yet. 

Despite what you see in the screenshots in this review, H.A.W.X. is as much a flight simulator as Burnout Paradise is a driving sim. Ubisoft’s latest liberty with the Tom Clancy franchise is more akin to Descent or Wing Commander than it is to Microsoft’s Flight Simulator X. It’s an arcade shooter that cares more about maintaining a high explosion-per-minute ratio than realism or even proper physics. That means fighter jets with 200-plus capacity payloads, a dearth of takeoffs and landings, and an army of AI-controlled enemy units that are more than willing to fly straight into your missiles for the greater pyrotechnic glory.

As David Crenshaw, former leader of the Air Force’s elite H.A.W.X. squadron, you’ve now turned to the private sector to pay the bills and catch the thrills. In the first half of the game, Artemis Global Security hires you to guard oil refineries and bomb military bases for the highest bidder, which—shocker—eventually has you at odds with the U.S. government. Ever the patriot, this twist sends you back into the arms of Uncle Sam and you spend the rest of the game defending America from an all-out invasion.

Continue reading this review after the jump.

The first full day of Comic-Con is over, and we've returned to our hotel room shocked and amazed by the unbelievably cool movie panels and cosplay on display today. Once again, we've narrowed down our top ten sights from today's events for you to enjoy. James Cameron's Avatar, amazing Bioshock cosplay, and a hardcore Street Fighter fan are just a few of the sights that made the list. Just click the "Read More" link below this photo of Supergirl for the full story and more pics.

Click on to see more!

The first night of Comic-Con 2009 is finally over, and despite only being a quarter of a day (Wednesday's preview night lasted from 5:30 to 9PM), we're still wiped out from all the frenzy. Here are our favorite things we saw at the show today, easily digestible in 10 pictures and descriptions. Wish you were all here to share in the chaotic crowds, overbearing San Diego heat, and overall sweaty nerdiness. More updates from Thursday's panel events coming soon!

Read on for the nerd action. 

The doors have officially opened and the madness has begun. Comic-Con 2009 is in full swing, and we've made the rounds in the main convention halls to catch the geek out in action. Tonight, we're bringing you a gallery of the sweetest, sexiest, and coolest toys we've seen so far. Many of these are from Sideshow Collectibles, but we also have shots of figures from DC direct, Hasbro, and other manufacturers. This is just a small sampling of what's on display behind glass shelves here, and we'll continue grabbing photos of any other toys that catch our eyes. Enjoy!

Click on to see the entire gallery! Some of it may be not safe for work!

As the setup for tonight's Comic-Con 2009 opening continues, we've managed to sneak inside yet again to see how the show floor looks one day later. Vendors and studios are putting the final touches to their booths, some even shielding big props with curtains to hide big reveals from curious eyes. This afternoon's gallery has highlights from Sideshow Collectible's famous booth, Hasbro's GI Joe presence, and Warner Bros.'s giant tumble weed. We're just as confused as you. Confirmed, though, is the presence of the Black Hornet's car and an Iron Man 2 armory with at least 4 full-size suits on display. Check back tonight as we'll post coverage from tonight's Preview Night events. 

Read on to see all the new pics!

Every attendee of Comic-Con revcieves a complimentary gift bag, which they can use to fill with posters, pins, and other freebies that will be given out on the show floor. We snagged a bag when we picked up our attendee badges, which you can check out below. We'll probaby be giving away our Comic-Con swag to in a contest after the event, so keep tabs on our official Twitter and Comic-Con landing page for updates. 

 Read on to see what else is in the bag!

Woohoo! We've arrived in sunny San Diego for this week's Comic-Con 2009 festivities, and can't wait for the show to start! In fact, we were so impatient that we sneaked our way onto the show floor to grab a portfolio of spy shots of the show's setup. Inside the cavernous exhibition hall, comic book vendors, toy companies, and movie studios are assembling their booths, revealing details about the surprises they're planning on revealing when doors open tomorrow night.

So far, we've been able to spot new movie posters, movie props, and a full-size Transformers Bumblebee Camero on display. Over at the Marvel booth, signs reading "Stark Enterprises" and "Stark Expo" indicate that this will be where the highly anticipated Iron Man 2 will be showcased (armor gallery, maybe?). Other highlights include a mech from Avatar, Lego Stormtroopers, and a Stargate. There are already rumblings that Seth Rogan will be on hand tomorrow for the unveiling of Green Hornet's Black Beauty car.

 Check out the photos to see what you can pick out. Come back tomorrow when I'll post more photos of the floor before 100,000 sweaty nerds make their way in. 

Read on to see all the photos!

Finally, here’s a 3D gaming solution that doesn’t send us headfirst into a vomit bag. GeForce 3D Vision is Nvidia’s attempt to revive stereoscopic 3D, a century-old technology that has never been implemented successfully in PC gaming (despite many headache-inducing efforts in the late ’90s). Along with wireless shutter glasses and an IR emitter, this $200 kit comes with the promise that you’ll be able to enhance your existing library of DirectX games by turning them into true 3D experiences—if you’re running a GeForce 8800 GT or better videocard. And for the most part, the promise is delivered —but not without some serious issues.

Holy smokes! Who saw this coming? Valve and EA have just announced the sequel to last year's multiplayer zombie-killing smash hit (and Maximum PC's Game of the Year). Left 4 Dead 2 will be released later this year on November 17th, and will feature five new campaigns that follow the story of four new survivors. PC Gamer has the full scoop in an exclusive 8-page feature in their August issue, which hits newsstands this month. 

Hit the jump for more game details, Valve's full press release, and a high-res image. 

Update: More game details revealed and gameplay footage!

We love the excitement of being on the cutting edge, but have to also acknowledge the risks of being early adopters of hardware. In fact, there have been numerous occasions where tech enthusiasts have put their faith into the seemingly fastest or the more innovative pieces of technology, only to be burned months or years later when that tech is revealed to have to a serious design flaw or falls victim to sudden obsolescence. In this roundup, we spotlight some of the most memorable PC parts and computing gadgets that showed huge promise but just didn’t deliver in the end. Whether it was high defect rates, underperformance, or bad launch timing, these products were poised to be market leaders if not for their spectacular failure.

How could the world's fastest optical drive be a failure? Read on!

This anti-zombie kit came in the mail today, courtesy of PopCap and their latest Plant vs Zombies game. We're not sure if it's going to be effective, but we're definitely curious. The seed has been planted and the tin pot now sits by the window, absorbing the awesome power of the sun. Observe the seed standing guard for the inevitable undead apocalypse after the jump.

Breaking: The Swedish District court holding the infamous Pirate Bay trial issued a Guilty verdict early this morning, sentencing each of the four defendents involved to one year of jail time and split fines of 3.6 million dollars. The founders of the Pirate Bay were found guilty of assisting copyright infringement, even though half of the initial charges against them were dropped shortly after the trial began. The complete verdict can be found here (in Swedish). More news on the ramifications of this trial as it develops.

After pricing out $1000 and $1500 gaming systems, we wanted to go a bit on the high-end and see how we would configure a $2000 gaming PC. $2000 may be more than a lot of you are willing to spend on a new home-built PC, but there are plenty of people out there who spend more than $2000 on custom-designed boutique systems from OEM builders. And for those fat-walleted gamers, this article will show that you can get a whole lot more if you build it yourself (though putting the pieces together is another matter). Just as with the $1500 PC, this build leans heavily on the CPU and GPU side to optimize the rig for high-res gaming, though it'll perform more than admirably with video encoding and other productivity tasks. And as always, we write this with a disclaimer that your own personal configurations and preferences may differ from ours, which does not make them any less valid. In fact, we encourage you to use our guide as a template so you can create your own spreadsheet to swap out the parts we chose with what may suit your needs and budget.

Read on for our parts and price list, and please leave your feedback in the comments section to get the conversation started!

We cubicle warriors have it pretty easy – spending all day surfing the internet and filing TPS reports is easy on our puny man-child bodies. But lurking workplace hazards still threaten our nerdy well being. At least, that’s how MacLife sees it. Our sister publication calls out 10 startling office space threats and prescribes safety tips to avoid an encounter with the Aflac insurance duck. From poking your eyes out with lasers to blanketing your keyboard with delicious Cheeto dust, MacLife’s fear-mongering feature is a worthwhile read for any student of geeky office culture. With so much danger ready to strike any moment, we nerds might even need our own workplace safety video (NSFW).

Three years ago the MaximumPC Folding Team challenged the team ranked above us in the global folding ladder to a race. Each team picked a folding name and tried to get as many folders as possible to fold for it. The race was to a set amount of total folding points, and team Maximum PC won that first contest. In the contest’s second year, the number of points required to win went up and we lost to the third place team. But as winning points went up again last year, we rose to the challenge and won the Chimp race, as it is called today.

This year, 8 or 9 teams may enter, so the Maximum PC team faces some stiff competition. Each year the race stimulates new interest in teams across the world (Russia, Australia and England joined recently, for example). Two top teams from EVGA and overclock.net are loaded with new members and challenging our daily production total. In addition, the top ranked team right now, Horde, produces a million more points a day than any other team.

But we still have plenty of time to build our troops before the race begins in early May.

After seven years of stealth development at Rearden Labs (a startup incubator), OnLive today unveiled itself as a new game service to deliver on-demand games. Basically, instead of running your games on a PC or console at home, you connect your HDTV to a small MicroConsole which receives compressed video from a remote server that actually renders and processes your games. The immediate benefits of the service is its low entry cost, since you don't have to build a high-end gaming PC or invest $500 on a next-gen gaming console. Games purchased with OnLive are activated on remote servers and the only data that is streamed to you is gameplay video and audio. You never have to download software, patches, or handle physical media. Think of it as video-on-demand but for games.

We met with OnLive's founders at Rearden Labs last week to get a sneak preview of the service, try out some games, and grill the developers about how OnLive actually works. 

Think streaming video is impractical for gaming? You might be surprised...

Time for another price and parts guide! The $1000 parts guide we posted earlier this month garnered much discussion and debate among readers, so we wanted to a better job explaining our choices in this edition. Compared to the pricey decked-out systems from OEM builders like Falcon and Digital Storm, $1500 is still technically in the "budget" range. But for many people, that's still a lot of money to spend on a PC. We catered this build for gamers, and anchored our picks on the GPU and CPU, while judiciously choosing the other parts and brands to fit into our budget limits. The results were pleasantly surprising, and recent price cuts and rebates across the board really helped. Of course, your own configuration may vary wildly from ours depending your own needs, priorities, or brand allegiances, but we think this is an awesome configuration for something building a new gaming PC.

Read on for our parts and price list, and contribute your thoughts and personal configs!