Posted 01/18/09 at 12:33:16 PM by Justin Kerr

Every year around late December or early January the internet is bombarded with the top “whatever and such and such” of 2008. Here at Maximum PC we stopped to reflect on our favorite gaming moments, and even cracked the lid on the best of open source; but we never took the time to focus on the hilarious technological flops of the year now past. Luckily however, Tom’s Hardware has put together a fairly comprehensive list. Some of which we can agree with, others perhaps worthy of debate. The list includes:

1.)    HD DVD
2.)    Nvidia’s Mobile GeForce 8400M and 8600M
3.)    iPhone Killers
4.)    Windows Vista
5.)    Mobile Television
6.)    OLED Displays
7.)    Phenom X3
8.)    The Microsoft Yahoo Proposed Merger
9.)    GPGPU
10.) Sony Ericsson XPeria X1
11.) HybridPower: Pseudo-Green
12.) Sony Batteries
13.) Fiber Optics
14.) Non-HD DTT
15.) GTA IV For PC

I’m sure we have more then a few readers that will jump to the defense of some of these items such as Windows Vista and perhaps OLED or Fiber, but it’s hard to argue with the bulk of it.

What do you think should be added or subtracted from the list?

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Posted 12/08/08 at 08:17:50 AM by Paul Lilly

Nvidia's nZone website has posted download links to new beta videocard drivers, version 180.84, for both Vista and XP. Little information has been given about the new drivers, other than that they're intended to improve gameplay with Rockstar's new Grand Theft Auto IV videogame.

"Nvidia recommends that you update your system with the following GeForce v180.84 driver for the best experiences on Grand Theft Auto IV," nZone writes. 

Users who have installed and played GTA IV on the PC have complained of varying issues, including missing textures and intermittent crashes. GTA IV's support page lists several troubleshooting steps, one of which recommends users download the newest drivers with a link to the nZone page containing the beta release. However, no specific bug fixes or performance issues have been identified with the new drivers, so it might be hard to tell what difference they're making.

As always, take proper precautions whenever experimenting with pre-release code. As Nvidia discloses regarding beta drivers, they "may include significant issues." When you're ready to take the leap:

GeForce 180.84 (Win XP)
GeForce 180.84 (Win XP 64-bit)
GeForce 180.84 (Vista)
GeForce 180.84 (Vista 64-bit)

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Posted 12/08/08 at 08:05:16 AM by Paul Lilly

Last week several Xbox 360 and Roku set-top box owners complained of loss of quality and irritating delays when firing up a movie through Netflix's streaming download service. At the time, the glitch had Netflix stumped, but now it appears Netflix has identified the problem and fixed whatever was causing the issue.

"This was a temporary issue that we believe we have resolved," Netflix wrote on its blog site. "Working with our content distribution partners and key carriers, we made some specific changes that should restore everyone's experience to where it was before - high quality streaming."

However, there might still be work to do. Netflix posted its update on Friday, December 5th, but users throughout the weekend were still reporting lingering issues in the comments section.

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Posted 12/01/08 at 02:55:40 PM by Paul Lilly

Electronic Arts couldn't have predicted the unprecedented backlash from outraged gamers following Spore's release, or at least not the extent that they would take the anti-DRM crusade. Protests ran the gamut from blasting the title with thousands of negative user reviews on Amazon to not just making the game available on warez sites, but actively encouraging consumers to pirate the title. If you thought it might be awhile before SecuROM saddled another high profile release, think again.

Despite all the recent raucous, Rockstar has decided to implement the DRM scheme on GTA IV for the PC. But before you cry foul and grab the pitchforks and torches, Rockstar says its version will be much more user friendly than the one found on EA's Spore.

Hit the jump to see what makes GTA IV's DRM different than Spore's.

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