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Daily News Brief: Intel Demos Nehalem

Paul Lilly — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 17:48:56 -0500

Intel Nehalem Demoed

TweakTown had a chance to sit with Intel at Computex and preview the chip maker's upcoming Nehalem processor, noting the "responsiveness was amazing." Not surprising, considering the demo system boasted a pair of 80GB SATA-II SSD drives in a RAID 0 configuration. Intel didn't disclose what clockspeed the Nehalem chip was running at, but rumblings suggest it may have been chugging along at 3.2GHz. Catch the full story and accompanying YouTube video here.

Comcast to Test Net Neutrality

Yesterday we reported on Time Warner Cable's decision to test internet metering and mused how long it would be until Comcast follows suit. Answer: Not long. Comcast said it will begin testing a "protocol agnostic" approach to managing bandwidth traffic during high-peak periods. The 30- day tests are expected to begin Thursday in select markets. More here.

XP to Stick Around

Microsoft may be gearing up to pull Windows XP from the mainstream market at the end of June, but low cost notebooks won't be the only PCs sporting the familiar OS. Instead, the software maker announced at Computex Taipei 2008 that it would make XP home available to low- cost desktop systems too, which they call "nettops." The decision to extend XP's availability is a result of Vista's requirements for performance, which cannot be made available on entry-level systems.

ExpressCard Standerd 2.0 Gets a Release Date

PCMCIA announced at CeBIT plans to update the ExpressCard Standard from release 1.2 to 2.0 in order to accommodate faster speeds, and according to Engadget, the update is on track for a "second-half 2008 / early 2009" delivery. Engadget said the new spec will comply with PCI-Express 2.0 and SuperSpeed USB, which is planned for a release later this year as part of the USB 3.0 specification.

Get Behind the Scenes with Qore

Come this Thursday, Sony will unveil its Qore program, a subscription service that promises gamers a sneak peek at what's going on with the platform, with developers of PlayStation titles, and with games. Available through the PlayStation store, viewers will be charged $2.99 per 'episode' or they can purchase a $24.99 annual subscription. The interactive service will give viewers the ability to control camera angles, but will it be enough to warrant a fee? Read more here and post your thoughts below.

AMD Sees Future in External Notebook Graphics

The 3D revolution began years ago for the desktop, and now its time for notebooks to change the way 3D graphics are handled. Exactly one week ago Asus announced the launch of their ROG XG Station, but they're not the only ones thinking outside the ~~box~~ laptop. AMD today announced its ATI XGP (External Graphics Platform), a new external PCI-E 2.0 graphics platform poised to bring high end graphics to any notebook equipped with an external PCI-E 2.0 connector. Read more here.

Daily News Brief: 9800GX2 Really Cooks!

Paul Lilly — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 17:12:17 -0500

The Heat is On (Your GPU)

Forget about breakfast in bed, and order up a fried egg from your PC instead. A recent YouTube submission purports to show an egg being fried on top of a 9800GX2 videocard. The uploader claims the meal took about 15 minutes with the fan speed turned down 10 percent. Whether you file this under frighteningly funny or farce, we'll offer up a recommendation to not try this at home.

Amazon Rekindles Kindle

Amazon announced the Simon & Schuster Inc. book publisher will release more than 5,000 additional titles for the Kindle, giving owners of the eBook reader more than 125,000 total titles for download. Amazon also dropped the retail price of the device from $399 down to $359, and just last month announced it received a new supply of the hot selling Kindles. More here.

Data Center Explosion

An exploding transformer and ensuing electrical fire knocked out roughly 9,000 servers over the weekend in a data center owned and operated by ThePlanet.com. Three walls surrounding the room were destroyed, but no one was hurt during the incident and no servers were damaged.

Sharper Image Closing Down

After filing for Chapter 11 in February and vowing to develop a reorganization plan, novelty gadget retailer Sharper Image is throwing in the towel and plans to close all of its remaining stores, its new owners announced on Sunday. Joint owners The Hilco Organization and Gordon Brothers Group expects to sell $50 million in inventory as the remaining 86 stores close down.

World of Warcraft Like You've Never Seen it Before. Or Have You?

Developers Aoedipus and Skyhamma have released WTF?!, a Flash-based sidescroller parody of World of Warcraft. Despite the sidescrolling nature, the gameplay will feel similar to anyone who's ever spent some time with WoW, but the real gem is in the story. See for yourself here.

Acrobat Turns 9

Adobe on Monday introduced Adobe Acrobat 9. The new version integrates Flash, allowing users to include Flash Player-compatible video and application files in PDF documents. Also new to Acrobat 9 is the ability to unify content into a single document, such as putting documents, videos, and 3D objects into a compressed PDF file. Read more here.

Daily News Brief: Netflix Nudges into Living Room

One4yu2c — Wed, 21 May 2008 16:45:48 -0500

Netflix Nudges into Living Room

Netflix subscribers can now watch streaming rentals on their living room television thanks to a set-top player released yesterday. Built by Roku, Netflix is offering the player for a one-time $99.99 purchase price along with a 30-day money back guarantee. At just 5 x 5 x 2 inches, the compact box includes both HDMI and component video connections, making it HD-ready should Netflix decide to offer streaming HD content.

Hynix Fab Suffers Power Outage

Hynix Semiconductor's fab in Wuxi, China was hit with a power outage lasting more than 15 hours on Monday, causing some concern over the potential impact on DRAM prices. Hynix estimates it will take a couple of days before returning to full production at the plant, which accounts for half of the company's DRAM output. The power loss may force Hynix to scrap some of the wafers that were undergoing a high- temperature process at the time of the outage, according to Jim Handy of Objective Analysis. More here.

The Xbox You'll Never Own

We've seen some nifty Xbox 360 console mods, but who would have ever thought Korean President Lee Myung-bak would end up with one of the cooler looking ones available? Bill Gates gave Lee the custom console inlaid with traditional mother-of-pearl, and 100 similar Xboxes are being prepared by Kim Young-Yun, a Korean artisan, to be given away as special VIP gifts. Have a look here.

Computer Love

We're not sure whether to drool over Acer's new Aspire Predator gaming rig, or be very, very afraid. On one hand, we totally dig the three-way SLI action, Core 2 Extreme foundation, and rear-mounted CMOS hard reset. But it's the tagline that frightens us, and makes us wonder if the Predator delivers more than you bargain for: 'Faster. Deeper. Harder. Further.' 0_o

AMD to Use GDDR5

AMD's upcoming Radeon R700 graphics processors will ship with GDDR5 memory from Qimonda, the companies said yesterday. GDDR5 not only offers much higher data rates than existing GDDR3 and GDDR4, but also consumes less power. It remains unclear exactly when R700 parts will start shipping, but Qimonda said its GDDR5 chips are being produced in volume and have already started shipping to AMD.

Phishers Caught in Dragnet

Thanks to the cooperative efforts between the United States and Romanian governments, indictments were handed out to 38 individuals for phishing-related offenses in California and Connecticut federal District Courts. Federal Authorities alleged the phishers participated in a trans-Atlantic scheme that targeted numerous individuals and financial institutions. According to analysts from research firm Gartner, an estimated 3.6 million adults lost $3.2 billion to phishing scams in a one-year period ending August 2007.

Wall Climbing Robot

Spiderman, Spiderman, does whatever a spider can...

Daily News Brief: Hospitals Vulnerable to Deadly Hacks

One4yu2c — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 18:15:09 -0500

Hospital Hacks

Windows guru and Maximum PC blogger Mark Soper recently wrote about hackers exposing vulnerabilities inherent in FireWire ports, and prior to that, we learned that a can of compressed air could be used to compromise a system. Trumping them both in the fear factor arena, it now appears that monitoring defibrillators are susceptible to hacking. The problem stems from unencrypted transmissions from the defibrillator to the bedside monitor. If intercepted, hackers could then reprogram the device to stop working, or extract personally identifiable information, including your Social Security number. Read more on this potentially frightening development here.

GeForce Fans Mark Your Calendars

Two big dates are coming up for NVIDIA fans anticipating hoping for a high-end successor to the 8800 series. On March 18th, NVIDIA plans to release the GeForce 9800GX2, and then the 9800GTX on March 25th. Neither card will boast an architectural change, and will instead be based on the same 65nm G92 found on the 8800GT. Further borrowing old tricks from past releases, the GX2 will feature two PCBs sandwiched under a single heatsink (essentially a pair of 8800GTs), and might just be the heaviest videocard ever. Read more here.

Mac Office Updates

Owners of Office 2008 for Mac can now download the 12.0.1 update, made available yesterday. The 114MB download contains fixes that boost stability and performance, while also patching up a few security holes. Wait a tick - aren't Macs impervious to security threats? Damn those deceptive (yet amusing) Mac commercials!

Max Payne 3

It's been roughly five years since the last Max Payne game hit store shelves, and when pinged on whether another sequel could be in the works, a Take-Two representative told Shacknews "It's a little too early to comment on any particular title but we have a lot of interesting things going on." Pessimists will read that as a standard 'no comment,' while fans of the franchise and those holding a glass half full will point out the lack of denial in the response. Further fueling speculation, Take-Two referenced reviving past notable Rockstar properties, but wouldn't offer any specifics.

Dive Deep into YouTube

Google's YouTube today announced plans to give away tools allowing developers and programmers deeper access into the video sharing site. With the new tools and enhanced APIs, web developers gain a new level of flexibility, both in uploading videos and offering "chromeless" players without the traditional YouTube interface and branding. YouTube's end goal is for users to "engage the world of video and actively participate in the YouTube community wherever they are, whenever they want."

Free USB Key

In an effort to promote going green, IBM's giving away a free 512MB Solar USB key. The thumb drive ships "loaded with white papers, videos, and case studies about going green with IBM Systems Technology." Read more and request your eKit here.

Daily News Brief: Microchips to Require Activation

One4yu2c — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 17:14:21 -0600

Microchips Under Lock and Key

Software piracy typically gets all the attention, but hardware piracy is fast becoming a plague in the industry too. To prevent unscrupulous hacks from making counterfeit microchips from stolen blueprints and then selling them for pennies on the dollar, computer engineers at the University of Michigan and Rice University have developed a lock and key for chips. EPIC (Ending Piracy of Integrated Circuits) uses established cryptography methods, giving each chip a few extra switches that act like a combination lock. Manufacturers would need to contact the patent owner via phone or internet connection to activate the part. Read more here.

Blu-ray Player Pricing

If you're hoping to score a sub-$200 Blu-ray player now that HD-DVD's pulled out of the race, get cozy because you might have to wait a year. Or more. Gizmodo quoted Sony CEO Stan Glasgow as saying "I don't think $200 is going to happen this year. Next year $200 could happen." Instead, expect the cost of entry to hit $299 sometime in 2008, with third-party manufactured players unlikely any time soon.

HD-DVD Player Trade-In

Feeling burned about HD-DVD's untimely demise after you went out and picked up a player? Circuit City may have the salve you've been hoping for. The No. 2 electronics retailer is extending the return period on HD-DVD hardware from 30 days to 90 days for store credit. This could be the excuse you've been waiting for to snag a Playstation 3 console...

Google Relaxed Over Android

Speaking Wednesday at the O'Reilly ETech conference, Google developer Dan Morrill shrugged off concerns about carriers building Android distributions that are incompatible with one another, and he isn't losing any sleep at night over security problems either. Morrill did acknowledge the increased risk of attack to Android-powered phones, but said the risk will be small, and ultimately outweighed by Android's advantages. Read more here.

Pentagon Attack Reassessed

After hackers attacked the Pentagon late last June, Gates eased concerns by saying there was "no anticipated adverse impact on ongoing operations." It appears the early prognosis may have been wrong. GovernmentExecutive.com quoted Dennis Clem, a top Defense Department of technology official, as saying "The breach continues to pose a threat," noting that the hackers stole "an amazing amount" of information. Clem didn't comment if the source of attack was ever identified or what specific information was stolen as a result of the fast spreading email worm.

Crysis Patch 1.2

Crytek's second patch for the hit game Crysis became available yesterday, affording several improvements in mod support, multiplayer, weapons balance, AI, and much more. A handful of tweaks include:

Added mod loader to main menu
Increased damage of most player-fired weapons and decreased damage of most AI-fired weapons
Added auto team balance
Team killed players no longer drop their weapon
Improved vehicle handling under braking and boosting

Download the 360MB patch and catch the full changelog of changes here.

Playmobil Security Check Point on Amazon

We're not sure which amuses us most - the toy itself, the customer reviews, or the list of items that customers of the Playmobil Security Check Point also purchased.

Have a Phun Weekend

No plans for the weekend? You can still have fun, with Phun! This nifty program brings back memories of The Incredible Machine, only there are no levels to clear, and you create obstacles and gadgets on the fly. View a video of this tantalizing time waster in action here.

Daily News Brief: PS3 Fans, Are You Ready to Ruuumble?

One4yu2c — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 17:15:02 -0600

New Playstation Goodies, Get Ready to Rumble

Now that Blu-ray has emerged as the victor in the high definition format war, we expect to see renewed interest in the Playstation 3 as consumers look to kill two birds with one stone. But just to make sure, Sony plans to up the ante. Come April 15, Sony will finally make available the DualShock 3 controller to North American gamers. The vibrating controller will also find its way into a new $499 bundle in late 2008, which will include an 80GB console and Metal Gear Solid 4. And not to be overlooked, the PSP will get a "Deep Red" makeover this June, with Kratos from the God of War series branded on the back.

New Buzz at Yahoo

Yahoo's jumping into the social media scene, and they've created a Buzz along the way. Literally. Like Digg, Del.icio.us, and Reddit, Yahoo Buzz displays user ranked articles from across the web, creating a one-stop repository of the most popular news items. But unlike the other social media services, casual readers are unable to submit articles to the Buzz network, leaving it up to Yahoo and its team of publishers to keep content interesting. Read more here.

iHaptic

The iPhone's touch screen continues to woo consumers, but the lack of force feedback prevents the trendy phone from currying favor among critics. Not content to wait for Apple to offer haptic feedback, a pair PhD students from the University of Glasgow designed their own prototype application utilizing the iPhone's "vibrotactile actuator." The application creates different vibration patterns to simulate what it feels like to push a "smooth rounded button," the feel of a key snapping back into place, and locations of keys. For now, the team's feedback technology only works with their HapticKB application and can't be used with other apps.

Microsoft Fined $1.3 Billion

According to the European Union, Microsoft charged "unreasonable prices" until last October to software developers looking to make ther products compatible with Windows. As a result, the EU hit the software giant with a record $1.3 billion fine today, more than twice as much as the $613 fine imposed back in March 2004. The EU claims Microsoft withheld crucial interoperability information for desktop software, among other complaints. Read more here.

Paypal Procedures

Starting next month, you may find your Paypal funds in a holding pattern for 21 days if deemed a "high-risk transaction." The new policy has sellers wondering how much money PayPal and eBay stand to make from the accruing interest on frozen funds, and conspiracy theorists are reeling at the prospect. But is it much ado about nothing? Company execs and analysts contend that money made in such a fashion has a negligible impact on its bottom line. CNNMoney dives more deeply into the subject here.

Ice Cold Hackers

Give MacGyver a can of compressed air and he could probably build a bomb. Give the same item to researchers at Princeton University, and they'll hack your encrypted hard drive. The Princeton reports shows how freezing DRAM chips causes it to retain data, including keys to unlock encryption, for up to hours after losing power. Would be hackers need only reboot the compromised PC with a program designed to copy the memory contents before it can be purged. Laptops left in sleep mode or hibernation are particularly at risk. Read more here.

Daily News Brief: Piracy Stings Nintendo

One4yu2c — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 20:32:47 -0600

Piracy Costs Nintendo $975 Million

Oh, the bitter sweetness of success. Nintendo can barely up keep with demand for the hot selling Wii console, and the DS remains a popular handheld. But it's not all fun and games. According to Jodi Daugherty, Nintendo of America's senior director of anti-piracy, the company, along with its publishers and developers, took a $975 million sales hit in 2007 directly related to international piracy. Yikes! Looking to reduce that number, Daugherty stated "Nintendo will continue to work with governments around the world to aggressively curtail this illegal activity."

Are Tech Careers Lucrative?

If you answered either yes or no, you're right! This past year saw stalwarts like CompUSA shut their doors, a reduction in overtime pay, and mass layoffs aimed at restructuring. At the other end of the spectrum, tech salaries in 2007 reached a record high. According to data collected by IT staffing firm Yoh, average hourly wages hit $32.39 last October. Jim Lanzalotto, Yoh's VP of marketing and strategy, said he is "cautiously optimistic" that wages will continue grow in 2008.

GeForce 8 Getting PhysX

Physics processing remains a hot topic when discussing the future of videocards, particularly since NVIDIA acquired AGEIA. Answering some of the questions raised, NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang held a question-and-answer session during a fourth-quarter conference call. Huang said we can expect to see the PhysX engine ported onto CUDA (Computer Unified Device Architecture), a programming interface built into all GeForce 8 GPUs. Looking longer-term, Huang hopes the integration will prompt gamers to invest in higher end videocards, SLI, and even tri-card setups. We can already hear 'W00ts' emanating from the power supply industry...

Duke Nukem Forever

Admit it - you feel a tingle every time news surfaces with a DNF update. We do too, but we also get a tingle before breaking wind. Take from that what you will, but not everyone's amused with DNF's speculative buzz. Reacting to a news story claiming 3D Realms had confirmed a late 2008 release, the developer's boss Scott Miller called the news outlet "lying bastards," according to a Next-Gen.biz article. The original news source posted an update following Miller's comments, but the drama continues. Read more here.

NPD Introduces Subscription Tracking

We've longed complained that PC gaming sales numbers don't show the overall picture, as they ignore both subscription based sales and digital downloads. We even made mention of it yesterday, but what a difference a day makes. Today we learned the NPD Group is introducing subscription tracking in the form of quarterly Subscription Reports. Said Martin Zagorsek, NPD's vice president, this move represents "an important step towards NPD's ultimate goal of providing a truly complete view of the North Amercian PC game and video game markets." Here's hoping the next step includes digital downloads.

Walmart May Be Going Blu

Not that HD-DVD needs any more nails in its coffin, but Walmart's latest announcement may have sealed the casket. According to a CNN Money report, the retail giant will phase out all HD-DVD movies and hardware in its 4,000 Walmart and Sams Club stores by June. Combined with the mass exodus of support from both studios and other retailers, it's hard to imagine HD-DVD mounting a comeback, and there's talk of Toshiba throwing in the towel.

Daily News Brief: How EA Blew It

One4yu2c — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 17:07:54 -0600

EA Blew It!

Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello came to an epiphany recently, admitting on the final day of DICE "We at EA blew it, and to a degree I was involved in these things, so I blew it." These things Riccitiello refers to involves EA's long standing practice of acquiring popular developers, and then stifling them. Bullfrog (Populous), Origin Systems (Ultima), and Westwood Studios (Command & Conquer) come to mind. Hoping not to repeat the same mistakes with Maxis and Bioware, Riccitiello claims these days EA lets new acquisitions keep their corporate cultures. Read more here.

Arcades Feel Wii Sting

Back in the day, playing videogames meant lugging around a pocket full of quarters to the local arcade. Street Fighter single handedly emptied our piggy banks, and before that it was 720 Degrees and Dragon's Lair. And true old-school coin-oppers can remember paying to play Q*Bert and Galaga. But with the rise of consoles, arcades have become all but extinct, seeking refuge in Japan where fan bases still exist. Enter the Nintendo Wii. Namco Bandai Holdings said they plan to close roughly 60, or about one-fifth of its arcades, and blamed the closures on the Nintendo Wii's success. NBH becomes the second arcade operator to announce mass closures, with Sammy Sega Holdings planning to shut down 100 arcades of their own. Will anything from the '80s stand the test of time?

Netflix Picks Blu-ray

Representing one major step closer to ending the high definition format war, Netflix said they will exclusively support Blu-ray rather than stock both formats. Blockbuster still offers HD-DVD titles online, but in-store high definition rentals consist of only the Blu-ray format. Combined with dwindling studio support, HD-DVD is all but dead, despite Toshiba's recent firesale.

PC Power & Cooling Interview

PC Power & Cooling founder Doug Dodson answered a variety of questions in a recent interview, some of them hardnosed, some not. Dodson still maintains that modular cables lead to "significant" voltage drop, and says it would be "careless" to use them in a PSU rated at or above 800W. Interestingly enough, OCZ's ModXStream come in both 780W and 900W flavors, though the series predates OCZ's buyout of PCP&P. Read more here.

Red Hat Interview

After former Red Hat CEO Matthew Szulik resigned last December, the company picked Jim Whitehurst, a young Delta Airlines executive, to take his place. One wouldn't naturally associate a Delta Airlines employee as a leader in open-source software, but Whitehurst's background in computer science paints a different picture. Whitehhurst also helped pull Delta out of bankruptcy, further increasing his stock in the eyes of Red Hat. IDG News Service spoke with Whitehhurst about his tech background, his views on Novell, Wall Street's expectations, and more.

Yahoo Rejects Microsoft's Offer

Dear Microsoft,
Send more money.
Regards,
Yahoo

Yahoo didn't actually come out and say the above, but that does appear to be the message they're sending after formerly turning down Microsoft's $44.6 billion buyout offer. What Yahoo did say is that its board found Microsoft's offer "substantially undervalues" the company. Still open to a better offer, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang assured employees the company is poised to rebound on its own and become a "must buy" in the $45 billion online advertising market. Read more here.

Videocards Get Hot

No really, and like McDonald's coffee, it might now be worth disclaiming. Enjoy, and take caution not to crush those fragile GPUs!