Posted 07/07/08 at 09:14:54 PM by Norman Chan

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?

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Posted 07/02/08 at 09:40:03 PM by Norman Chan

We’re getting closer to July 4th, AKA Independence Day for those of us in the States. Is anyone planning on celebrating with booze and a barbeque, or is the long weekend just a good excuse to start a marathon session of Team Fortress 2? Fellow nerds, the correct answer is obvious. On to the news recap:

• 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.

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Posted 07/02/08 at 12:43:19 AM by Norman Chan

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.

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