Like the American Idol finale and Superbowl Sunday, Shark Week is a hallowed American tradition that celebrates the special bond between a couch potato and his high-definition television. And in case you haven’t glanced at the big red circle on your wall calendar recently, the Discovery Channel’s Shark Week is coming up next week. This year’s line up features hour-long specials including “Surviving Sharks” and “Mysteries of the Shark Coast,” but the highlight of the event for us is going to be the Mythbusters’ Shark Special. Adam Savage, Jamie Hyneman, and gang will hit the Bahamas this year to investigate shark myths (ie. Do dogs attract sharks? Does chili powder repel them?). The highlight of this year’s show has to be their 16-foot robo-shark (frickin’ laser beams not confirmed).

Click through the jump for some photos from the upcoming episode, set to air on July 27th at 9pm (PST). 

Face it, pirates and ninjas are out and zombies are in. And we have no doubt that one of our most high-anticipated games of this year is Left4Dead, Valve’s post-apocalyptic survival horror shooter. Our initial playtest sent chills down our spine when we first saw it at last year’s Showdown LAN, and the game looked much more refined and polished when we played it at this year’s E3. A revamped visual style and new character designs suit the cinematic direction -- the levels looked grittier and the zombies were definitely more terrifying (if that’s even possible). We spoke with Michael Booth, the designer of Left4Dead, to find out what other changes have been made to the game since Valve bought up his development team. 

Click on to read our full interview!

As you probably know, one of the new features in the iPhone 3G is the built-in GPS radio, which lets you pinpoint your location for hipster-loving social networking apps like twitter and loopt. In Steve Jobs’ WWDC keynote, he showed off the GPS functionality with a video of the Maps application tracking a car as it drove down Lombard Street in San Francisco. The blinking blue dot followed the car as to passed each block, updating at a short enough intervals to move fluidly. While that’s cool and practical, we wanted to push the iPhone’s GPS to its limits. And the best way we could think of to stress test vehicle tracking was to try it on a moving airplane.

Read on to see how the iPhone performed at 200 miles per hour – in the air.  

Back when the PlayStation 3 launched in November of 2006, PC Gamer magazine tempted the gamers waiting in front of the Sony Metreon in San Francisco (the official PS3 North American launch headquarters) with a Faustian bargain (look it up). Our sister publication offered to give away a $7,500 Falcon Northwest gaming PC to one of the campers if they willingly relinquished their place in line. The catch: the unfaithful console fanboy who accepted the PC would also have to sign a legally binding contract preventing him from owning a PlayStation 3 for three years – an eternity in game industry time.

The (in our opinion) lucky gamer who volunteered to defect to PC gaming was one Neal Chung-Lee, a local student had at that point been waiting in line for several days to be the one of the first people to own a PS3. But after selling his console-loving soul to PC gaming (and making the front page of Digg), Neal fell off of our radar. That is, until we bumped into him this past week. And you’ll never guess where.

Read on to find out where we found Neal playing a PlayStation 3.

Just call us licky. We mean, lucky. You've seen the official super-hot photos of the Voodoo PC's Envy laptop, but we got our hands on one and were able to take tons of close-up photos of the as well as try out the highly touted instant-on feature. Our initial impressions: the laptop is really light. HP claims the laptop (it was the SSD version) weighs three and a half pounds, and even though we didn’t have a scale in our messenger bags, it sure felt about the same weight as the Macbook air, power supply notwithstanding. Stacking the Envy against a Macbook Pro and Thinkpad X300, Voodoo’s pricey portable was both smaller and slimmer, though it sports a 13” screen.

Click the jump for more impressions and all the photos, including the instant-on Linux interface, laptop size comparisons, and gross licking details.  

Fans of Star Wars and Star Trek finally have a role-playing game that’s worthy of their love. Mass Effect takes the most compelling themes and ideas of both franchises and mind-melds them into one of the best science fiction games we’ve ever played.

The full review of this stellar science-fiction epic is after the jump!

Just for you, because you're awesome: new screenshots from two of our most highly-anticipated PC games of the year. Spore and Left4Dead look much more polished and graphically improved since we've last seen them. In the case of Left4Dead, all the character models have been revamped as well. The L4D screens don't actually show the new character design. For a peek at those, you'll have to hit up our liveblog of the EA press conference.  

Click the jump for the rest of the screens!

We just arrived at the EA press conference at the Orpheum theater. Lots of news being released, including the announcement of Sims 3, coming out in 2009. EA demos Dead Space, Spore, Mirror's Edge, NBA Live 09, Dragon Age: Origins, Left4Dead (characters redesiged), and id's Rage! Click through for our liveblog!

For gamers reading the site (we know there are a lot of you), we wanted to let you know what Maximum PC will have some great E3 coverage this year. In fact, Will Smith and I are at the SFO airport right now, and our plane is boarding in next 10 minutes. We'll be down in LA for the whole week, blogging live from the various press conferences and posting hands-on reports for all of our scheduled game demos and appointments. Be sure to check back frequently for the latest updates. You can also click the E3 Coverage tablet link on the right side of the website to only filter our E3 reports.

Oh crap, the plane is boarding now! 

Let's get the obvious out the way: yes, I bought the new iPhone 3G. Max PC's ex-podcast producer Jeremy Williams and I waited outside the Stonestown Galleria mall in San Francisco for three hours this afternoon to get ahold of Steve Job's latest shiny gadget. Both of us were existing iPhone owners and have no shame about it.

The wait was about three hours long, and we had to do most of the waiting outside the mall to prevent clogging up foot traffic in front of the Apple store. Every half an hour, 10 to 15 people would be led inside to stand in another line before finally making it inside the store to make their purchase. Maybe it was because I was wearing an ironed buttoned-down shirt and carrying a laptop, but many people passing by stopped to ask me what the line was for. More than a few of them had no idea that a new iPhone had been released when I told them, which was pretty shocking for me to hear. Even my tech-phobic parents who couldn't send email if their lives depended on it knew about the iPhone; I genuinely could not imagine being so out of the tech-news loop. Then I decided to just start lying.

We've been asked to take down this story, as the information is currently under embargo. But have you had a chance to read our most recent features?

• 20 Must-Have Ringtones and Text Message Alerts (And 10 to Avoid!)
• Budget Badass Price and Parts Guide - Build a Stellar $1300 System!
• Dream Machine 2008 Reveal -- Part 2 of 3

If you happen to live in California, Connecticut, Washington DC, New York, New Jersey, or Washington, we hope you’re aware of a recently enacted law making it illegal to make cell phone calls while driving unless you’re using a hands-free headset. Fines in California start at $20 and rise with repeat violations. But if you happen to be a daring super commuter who’s already been caught using a cell phone while driving, you may be in luck. Bluetooth headset maker Jawbone just announced a new promotion to give ticket holders $20 off their new headset (which we really liked in our Bluetooth headset roundup) when you place an order from the official Jawbone website. The offer ends on August 31st, and will require you to give Jawbone your ticket number. You’re not really saving any money (since the minimum ticket fine is $20), so we don’t recommend breaking the law and getting caught just to make yourself eligible for the discount.

Recovering after a three days of barbeques, fireworks, and general July 4th weekend shennanigans is never easy. But somehow we managed to arrive to work on time today to bring you the news and a couple new features. The things we do for you faithful readers. If you missed out on news posted over the weekend, here's a quick recap. 

• Adobe works with Yahoo and Google to make Flash moves more searchable
• Asus EeePC 904 won't use Intel's Atom
• Virgin ISP won't disconnect file-sharing subscribers
• Google Street View at the center of UK privacy dispute
• Hackers to flock to Taiwan for annual Hack Day convention
• Your LCDs may be hurting puny Mother Earth 
• What's the world like without Windows XP?
• Obvious: Answering spam is a bad idea
• Solar powered LCDs of no use to basement-bound gamers
• 5TB hard drives in 2010; digital hoarders salivate
• We unbox the NZXT Khaos
• More of the pants-shattering Dream Machine is revealed
• 16-layer optical disc will store 400GB 
• Microsoft wants to give away 5000 gallons of gas
• Build a Budget Badass for $1320 -- we show you how!

And yes, the MaxPC birthday cake was both delicious and moist, even after being left out in the open the entire holiday weekend.

Tonight's discussion topic: How much hard disk space do you currently have in your rig? Would you ever upgrade to 5TB drives? And if so, what would you fill it with?

Back in our April 2008 issue, we showed you how to configure and build a $1,500 no-compromises PC. Our budget badass wasn’t just an affordable “lean machine,” it performed admirably in our system benchmarks, earning respectable scores in comparison to our desktop testbed. Now that it’s several months later, and we wanted to give you an update to our component recommendations. Not only have hardware prices dropped since we wrote the story, but new technologies and products have also emerged that give you more for your money. In fact, our no-compromises $1,500 PC now only costs $1,320, that’s including upgraded parts. By Grabthar’s Hammer, what a savings!

Read on to find out how we configured our new Budget Badass.

We just finished producing our September 2008 issue, which marks the 10-year anniversary of our magazine. The very first issue of Maximum PC was the September 1998 edition, which featured the Dream Machine ’98 on its cover. To celebrate the occasion (and the successful launch of the new website), the staff took a break from building rigs and benchmarking to enjoy some devilishly delicious cake and champagne.

The September issue will also feature a nostalgic retrospective of the past 10 years of Maximum PC, highlighting predictions we got right (and wrong), the amazing tech trends we witnessed develop, and first-hand recollections from past staff members. Gordon shares his favorite lab memories, and ex-intern Brian Lam (of Gizmodo) reveals what he learned from his tenure. 

Here’s to the next 10 years!

 Hit the jump for another look at the cake -- it's not a lie!

• AMD adds three new CPUs to its Phenom lineup
• Supercharged ATI RV770 card will only go to OEMs
• Asus stuffs an EeePC into a budget monitor
• Feisty Toshiba may challenge Blu-Ray with new DVD player?
• Your browser’s expiration date has long passed
• Quantum computers are a Trekkie's Trekker’s dream
• Microsoft buys a company that’s not Yahoo
• Adobe Reader 9 released, supports embedded Flash
• Intel tells devs to plan for more cores
• Both Intel and AMD made market gains in past year
• IE page frame vulnerability demoed
• We undress Maxtor’s new networked-storage server
• Leadtek’s launches new ExpressCard TV tuner
• TSA approves X-ray friendly laptop case designs
• WoW dongle even nerdier than the gamers who’ll use it

Don’t forget to download our latest podcast, located in the post right below this one! We shared our thoughts on the Diablo III announcement (spoiler: not all of us are enthusiastic), debated the merits of Vista 64-bit, and caught up on a lengthy backlog of listener questions.

Hit the jump for tonight’s evening discussion topic.

We just received a retail sample of Maxtor's recently announced Central Axis Network storage server sent to the office, and wanted to share with you some photos of the packaging and physical unit. The monolithic storage device sports a familiar-looking enclosure design with single USB (as opposed to two, as listed on the official website), Ethernet, and AC power connectors on the back. Replacing a "one-touch" backup button on the front are three lights to indicate power, hard disk activity, and drive status. We also found a reset button on the base of the unit. The terabyte drive spins at 7200rpm, sports 32Mb of buffer cache, and weighs in at just over a pound and a half. 

The Central Axis goes on sale later this month for $290, and keep an eye out for our full review later. 

 Click through the jump for more sexy unboxing goodness. 

We’re officially through half of 2008, and it’s also been one week since the new website was launched. Hope you’ve enjoyed your stay so far. You’ve been pretty vocal about the change, with both positive (“more content is awesome!) and critical (“the color scheme burns my corneas!”) feedback. Either way, keep the shout-outs coming – we want to hear more from you. And one place you can definitely do that is in the comments section of each article. In fact, this post is a great place to do it. Every night, we’ll be running a recap of the news from the day and give you a chance to talk back (or is that back talk?) to us and fellow readers in a friendly discussion. Want to play an impromptu game of Team Fortress 2 or talk about a movie you saw recently? This is the place to do it. But first, the news:

Configuring your own Dream Machine? OCZ wants to burn a hole in your pocket with their new “low cost” SSD drives aimed at consumers. They’re still pricey, but you might be able to afford them with money saved on Gainward’s ATI 4870 videocards. The Nvidia add-in board partner is sharing the love with AMD with high performance cards that’ll give you great framerates on high-resolution widescreen monitors – even those with 16:9 dimensions. A killer PC gaming rig is going to get hot, so you’ll want to check out miniature refrigeration tech being developed at Purdue University. Also pretty hot is our new guide to Slipstreaming your Windows XP Vista install, but what’s definitely not is AT&T’s $700 price tag for off-contract iPhones. That kind of pricing is almost criminal.

As the magazine turns 10-years old next month, we’re celebrating by building our most stunning Dream Machine ever. And the perfectly timed launch of our new website is a great opportunity to share with you the details of our sacred tradition. Sign up for our newsletter to get an early glimpse of this year’s Dream Machine, in addition to other behind-the-scenes peeks of Maximum PC. The newsletter will also include lab notes from our editors with insightful commentary about the stories they’ve written for the magazine and website, along with original tips and tricks for the PC enthusiast. Consider it a golden ticket to discover the wonders within MaxPC headquarters*, delivered straight to your inbox every two weeks. Make sure you sign up as soon as possible!

 *The newsletter cannot actually be redeemed for tours of the Maximum PC chocolate factory.

On our leanest podcast ever, Tom, Will, Norm, and Andy put on their best suits to go over the fancy features of the new Maximum PC website. Norm recaps his visit to a recent Games for Windows press event, and shares details about the upcoming Ghostbusters and Call of Duty: World at War PC games. No listener Q&A this week, but listeners are challenged to come up with nicknames for our two new interns. A photo of these young nerdlings can be found after the jump. All this and more on this week's No BS Podcast!

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