Daily News Brief: Dell NOT Dropping XPS Line After All

Dude, You're NOT Getting a Dell XPS

Gobble, gobble. That's the sound of Dell's XPS line eating into Alienware sales, the high-end gaming boutique OEM Dell acquired back in 2006. Rather than maintain two brands of gaming oriented computers, Dell will phase out the XPS line and focus on their Alienware line for premium gaming computers, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

UPDATE: Dude, you might be getting a Dell after all. Turns out the Wall Street Journal report contained some inaccuracies, which Dell was quick to clarify - the XPS line isn't going anywhere. Read more here.

AMD Reorganizes, Hopes to Regroup

AMD finalized a major reorganization on Monday, promoting Randy Allen, former head of AMD's server business, to senior vice president. Allen will oversee all of AMD's processor and chipset development, duties that previously belonged to Mario Rivas, who said he is leaving the company to pursue "new opportunities." AMD is also creating a new group called the Central Engineering organization, which will be responsible for developing the company's roadmap. Get the full scoop here.

Hacker Goes on Crusade in Chile

An anonymous hacker posted personal data about 6 million Chilean residents on the internet, including their names, addresses, telephone numbers, and taxpayer identification numbers. The hacker, who goes by the name Anonymous Coward, said in a note included with the files that he posted the databases to draw attention to the poor data protection measures in Chile. The files also included tips on what to do with t he data and how best to access it.

Amiga Coverage

It seems that many Maximum PC readers have fond memories of the Amiga, and continuing their love for the platform, Arstechnica posted part 7 of their A History of the Amiga series. The latest chapter focuses on the Amiga's roots as a gaming platform, recollecting such gems as Mind Walker and Defender of the Crown. Arstechnica posted part 1 of the 7+ part series back in July 2007.

DirectX 10.1 Controversy

Is Ubisoft caught in a marketing war? Conspiracy theorists seem to think so, as they're quick to point out that Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed is a part of NVIDIA's The Way It's Meant To Be Played program. Many videogames fall under that program, but Assassin's Creed was the first to take advantage of Directx 10.1 - a feature available only to certain Radeon videocard owners - resulting in as much as a 20 percent performance boost. So why then did Ubisoft decide to release a patch removing DX10.1 support? The company says it did so to address stability problems, but conspiracy theorists aren't so sure. Digging deeper into the controversy, BitTech sheds some interesting light on the situation here.

Over 1 Billion Served

Seagate shipped its first drive back in 1979, a five pound, $1,500 unit that could store just 5 megabytes of data. Now, Seagate announced that it is the first hard drive manufacturer worldwide to have reached the 1 billion milestone in hard drives shipped, and the company says they're on par to reach their second billion in less than 5 years. When made aware of the achievement, Ronald McDonald scoffed at the milestone pointing out Seagate never had to contend with a Hamburgler cutting into sales.

It's Just Like...

...a mini mall, hey hey! (Our apologies to anyone who clicked).