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:: PC Perspective . News . General Tech
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 .:General Tech News
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: engadget | Subject: General Tech
Origin PC's Big O desktop, both the ~$8,000 and the ~$17,000 versions, contain a watercooled XBox360 Slim and a Core i7 based gaming rig. You can contrast the difference between a console and PC version of the same game with ease and pretend that you are simply playing a PC port of a console game on occasion. Give both of your gaming sides a dream with a little visit to Engadget to see the full stats on the Big O. "Oh, sure -- we've seen an Xbox 360 enclosure stuffed with x86 innards, but we can't say we've ever seen anything quite like this. Gaming upstart Origin PC has just shattered every preconceived notion about its potential with the Big O, an appropriately titled luxury machine that combines a liquid-cooled gaming PC with a liquid-cooled Xbox 360 Slim. In one box." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Legit Reviews | Subject: General Tech
Where Legit Reviews found the SoundRacer V10 Engine Sound Effects
gadget may be a mystery but not as big a mystery as who would spend almost $50 for it. By plugging it into your car you can broadcast the sound of a high performance engine over FM radio, turning the sound of your rust bucket to a more impressive roar. Of course that will only help if you can get it to work, something Legit Reviews failed at on many cars. Once the novelty has worn out, at least you can also use it to stream audio from a portable music device in the same manner.
"Have you ever said to yourself, "Hey, I wish my quiet family car sounded like a formula one race car"? I know I haven't. Well, if you are one of the people that answered yes to that question boy do you need to keep reading this article because the SoundRacer V10 is just what you have been looking for. Not only does the V10 make your car sound like a super sports car, it also doubles as an audio device connection in your car just in case it didn't come with one and you want to listen to some music from your IPod or Zune or whatever it is you use." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Digitimes | Subject: General Tech
DigiTimes has some good news for anyone still in the stages of pondering which graphics card to buy for their next upgrade. According to their sources we will be seeing a new nVIDIA GT430 which they intend to sit between the current GT240 and 220, hopefully in both price and performance. From AMD the long awaited HD6xxx series will be arriving with the mid-range parts first, meant to displace the current HD57xx cards though with no mention of price. Perhaps this news has help spurred the rumours circulating about a
coming price drop for the GTX460.
"Nvidia is prepared to launch its latest GeForce 400-series GPU, the GeForce GT 430 codenamed GF108, around the middle of October and the GPU will feature a performance in between its GeForce GT 240 and GT 220; meanwhile, AMD is also set to launch its Radeon HD 6000-series around the same time, according to sources from graphics card makers. AMD will launch Radeon HD 6700-series GPUs for its HD 6000 family initially, targeting the mainstream market. There are two GPUs codenamed Barts XT and Barts Pro currently known under the 6700-series which will take over the position of the existing Radeon 5770 and 5750, the sources noted. Nvidia is set to host its GPU Technology Conference from September 20-23 in the US. The company will discuss its latest technologies as well as the industries that Nvidia has cut in with its GPUs, while partners including Hewlett-Packard (HP), Microsoft, Dell, Samsung Electronics, Acer and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) will all attend the show." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: PC Perspective Forums | Subject: General Tech
You may have noticed a few changes to our Forums over the past few months as Joe does a yeoman's job of restructuring and updating the Forums organization. You will notice that our long list of motherboard forums, which were broken down by brand as well as divided between AMD and Intel motherboards have become a single mega-forum that should be able to solve just about any problem you could find with its combined wisdom and long list of stickies. The same applies to the CPU forums, perhaps the only place on earth you will find Intel and AMD cohabiting
peacefully, though they do get along on our Podcast rather well also.
A popular topic in our forums is always a request for help building a PC, but some projects are more interesting that others! More suggestions and questions on system building can be found on the Hardware Leaderboard Forum, as well as the HWLB its self or trade for parts at The Trading Post.
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: SemiAccurate | Subject: General Tech
While Zacate does seem imply that AMD is making Spanish Hay it is equally likely they are continuing their Age of Aquarius and referencing a certain creek that runs through Laredo, Texas. According to SemiAccurate what it is as far as we are concerned is a low power Accelerated Processing Unit that will be appearing in AMD's soon to be released Vision platform. This is over and above the Llano and Orochi lines that Ryan has been reporting on.
"IT'S MORE POWER to AMD's Fusion range as the company has announced today at IFA 2010 the Zacate 18W Accelerated Processor Unit (APU). Zacate is rated at twice the power draw of AMD's previously announced APU Ontario, which consumes 9W. The higher power consumption is due to the higher frequency Zacate will run at, but AMD declined to reveal that. What AMD did tell The INQUIRER in a one-on-one briefing at IFA 2010 is that Zacate will be in Vision branded nettop and low-power desktop systems in the latter half of 2011, with chips shipping to manufacturers in the first half of the year. Zacate will also tip up eventually in 11-inch notebooks and above." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: AnandTech | Subject: General Tech
Looking into the near future and what we know about Sandy Bridge and its integrated graphics AnandTech tries to determine what we will be seeing. We do know that there will be two types, the single core GT1 and the dual core GT2 with the GT1 parts having 6 execution units and the GT2 doubling that to 12. Though he cannot confirm the fact, the assumption is that the CPU tested was a GT1 part, leaving us to wonder what the performance of the GT2 will be, the chip that will be found in all Sandy Bridge laptops and some desktops. Check it out here.
"Last week we published our preview of Intel's 2011 Core microarchitecture update, codenamed Sandy Bridge. In the preview we presented a conservative estimate of what shipping Sandy Bridge performance will look like in Q1 2011. I call it conservative because we were dealing with an early platform, with turbo disabled, compared to fairly well established competitors with their turbo modes enabled." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Global Foundries | Subject: General Tech
There is quite a bit of news that came out of the Global Foundries Global Technologies Conference that shows what the future of GF looks like. You may have heard of Freescale, whose thin film storage technology is found in non-volatile flash memory called FlexMemory are partnering with GF to start to produce 90nm EEPROM flash memory. This represents another non-AMD contract that AMDs semi-detached manufacturing arm will be working with.
If the 90nm process doesn't intrigue you then perhaps more information on the 28nm process ARM processor that was mentioned yesterday will. Once full results come back in later this year we will know exactly what the changes to the Cortex will be but ARM is expecting a 40% increase in computing performance along with a 30% cut in power consumption, and even better they expect standby battery life to be double what the the 40nm generation provided. Lastly they discussed the future of their 28nm process as well as giving details on theways they will utilize the process to create two new families of chips. The current chips are tagged as High Performance and we will see High Performance Plus chips reach an additional 10% performance boost above the current HP chips. There will also be Super Low Power chips designed with power savings in mind from their very inception; all chips will share the same high-K metal gate technology. You can also read about their current plans to move to the next generation of process which will see 22nm Super High Performance chips and 20nm Super Low Power chips. 
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Ars Technica | Subject: General Tech
If you are a fan of dispatching zombies in new and interesting ways, such as with a kayak paddle, duct tape and chainsaw Darth Maul-ish kludge then you have probably been following the Dead Rising series. For those anxious for the release of the sequel or those curious about what all the hype is, for 400 Microsoft points you can have a few hours of fun in a post-apocalyptic world filled with zombies for you to torment. Take a peek over at Ars Technica.
"Dead Rising 2: Case Zero is an odd duck. The $5 Xbox Live Arcade release gives you a feel for the full version of Dead Rising 2, but with its own cut scenes, voice acting, story, and setting, it's far from a demo, taking place between the events of Dead Rising and Dead Rising 2, and it does a good job of showing you what has happened to the world after the first game." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Digitimes | Subject: General Tech
Speculation over how the three main competitors for market share are going to manage to create a general purpose processing unit capable of handling the duties of both CPU and GPU have been keeping tech analysts busy over the past year and a bit. With AMD and Intel it has been obvious the path they are most likely to take as they currently have both CPU and GPU products and experience developing them is to find a way to combine their two existing products into a single die or at least a single ZIF chip. 
nVIDIA on the other hand has only a GPU line and some experience creating chipsets. Currently the only mainstream non-GPU is the nForce 200 a chip that is capable of providing and additional 32 PCIe Express 2.0 lanes to any motherboard that has included it in its design. This is partly because nVIDIA lost the licensing to make memory controllers for Intel processors, though that may change thanks to the recent decision against Intel by the FTC. In the meantime, DigiTimes has heard tell that nVIDIA will be working on a solution to bypass that by designing a southbridge with an integrated GPU to counter Intel's northbridge on a CPU. "Nvidia has recently been developing a chipset that combines the functions of a southbridge and a GPU, with the goal of the product to reduce cost for PC makers as well as create more potential for smaller and lighter devices, according to sources from motherboard makers. The makers stated that legal considerations, in terms of permission from Intel for Nvidia to participate in the chipset business, should be made smoother by the recent lawsuit the US Fair Trade Commission (FTC) took up with Intel. However, Intel is not expected to start any such negotiations with Nvidia in the near future, the sources speculated. Therefore, Nvidia is developing the new chipset to bypass Intel's new Sandy Bridge architecture, which combines CPU and northbridge chipsets. Nvidia's chipsets is expected to be US$10-15 less than Intel's standard GPU-integrated southbridge chipsets and makers will no longer need to integrate an extra graphics chip." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Overclock3D | Subject: General Tech
Don't let your first glance of the ASUS Xense fool you, that shiny shroud is more than just decoration, it is an EMI shield as well. It is a PCI Express card that will give you a use for those molex power connectors that are hanging around not doing much thanks to SATA and PCIe power connectors. Bundled with the sound card is Sennheiser's PC350
headset, using 6.30mm jacks for the mic and headphones and is collapsible into a nicely compact form. Head on over to Overclock3D to see how they sound together.
"Today we're taking a look at the Asus Xense which comes bundled with a matched pair of Sennheisers. Audio heaven?" Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Digitimes | Subject: General Tech
The 3.06GHz Core i7 950 is a rather nice LGA 1366 processor though at the price of $600 not everyone could afford to drop it into their system. DigiTimes has some good news for those eyeing a processor upgrade as Intel has announced that the price is coming down almost 50% to an MRSP of $294.
That price cut has not yet permeated through the market place, currently NewEgg still has it for the full $599 though PriceGrabber can find you one for $367. Keep an eye on the pricing over the coming days to see just where the retail price levels off at. "Intel recently dropped the price of its quad-core Core i7-950 processors to US$294 from US$562 to defend from AMD's recent price cuts for its quad-core Athlon II X4 640 CPU from US$122 to US$99, according to sources from motherboard makers. In addition to the price cut, Intel also recently released Core i3-560, Pentium E6800 and Celeron E3500 processors with prices at US$138, US$86 and US$53, respectively, the sources noted. All the prices are in thousand-unit tray quantities. For its next-generation products, Intel is set to launch Sandy Bridge processors in the first quarter of 2011, using the new LGA 1155 socket. The new processors will be required to pair with Intel's P67 chipset-based motherboards, which are scheduled to launch in October 2010." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Corsair Memory | Subject: General Tech
FREMONT, California — August 31, 2010 — Corsair, a worldwide designer and supplier of high-performance components to the PC gaming hardware market, today announced the launch of their inaugural audio product, the Gaming Audio Series HS1 USB gaming headset. This noise-isolating headset offers long-term playing comfort and immersive multi-channel audio, with massive 50mm drivers and a carefully tuned acoustical design optimized not only for gaming, but for movies and music as well. The HS1 is loaded with features designed to optimize your gaming experience. The 50mm drivers provide more accurate sound reproduction and far lower distortion than is produced by smaller, more typical drivers. The circumaural, closed-back design helps reject ambient noise and keeps you in the game, even in high-distraction environments like LAN parties. Replaceable memory foam ear pads provide a reliable, comfortable fit that conforms to the shape of your head without binding or pinching. The uni-directional noise-cancelling microphone on an adjustable boom enables clear, low-noise voice chat. The end result is a headset that simply provides a superior gaming experience. “We set out to develop a headset with the performance that gamers demand, while also providing the pristine audio reproduction required for multi-channel movies and high bit rate music,” stated Jim Carlton, Vice President of Marketing at Corsair. “The Audio HS1 easily meets both these challenges.” Corsair Gaming Audio Series HS1 Key Features:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Funky Kit | Subject: General Tech
Sharkoon has been heard from before but certainly not as a supplier of mice and QPad tends to focus more on mouse pads than the actual mice themselves. That hasn't stopped either company as you can now purchase a QPad K5 or a Sharkoon FireGlider. Both have high DPI settings, the QPad with a higher top end than the Sharkoon though the Sharkoon is a litte nicer to look at with the pattern they've decorated it with. Drop by Funky Kit for a look at both mice.
"This week we take a look at two laser gaming mice ... one from QPad 5K and the other from Sharkoon. Both of these mice look very professional and offer high DPI customisation, as well as programmable buttons. It will be interesting to see how it performs in our tests. It's the battle of the mice ... QPad K5 vs Sharkoon FireGlider. Who will come out on top? Read on and find out." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: MAKE: Blog | Subject: General Tech
Here at PC Perspective we have often recommended Badflash.com and BIOS Saviour as the two main ways to recover from a bad BIOS flash. It is easy to tell if you have done a bad BIOS flash as the component you've just updated has become about as useful as a brick, albeit a brittle one. Some motherboards have incorporated features to prevent such disasters from occurring but it is always nice to have alternatives. Thanks to a project featured over at MAKE:Blog we now have a new alternative from openbiosprog.spi. It is a USB-based Serial Peripheral Interface chip programmer, aka your BIOS chip and it should allow you to reflash that chip back to life!
"you've ever bricked the BIOS on your PC, then you might appreciate the Openbiosprog-spi project by Uwe Hermann. It is designed to be able to reprogram any flash memory that uses the serial peripheral interconnect bus (SPI), which could come in handy if you need to restore a botched firmware upgrade." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: NVIDIA | Subject: General Tech
Starting this week across the US and Europe, you can get a free copy of the smash hit game Mafia II with the purchase of a GeForce GPU, GTX 465 and higher! That’s right, a copy of Mafia II for free! We here at NVIDIA are super excited about the incredible experience that can be realized when playing on a GeForce GPU. With a strong integration of NVIDIA PhysX technology and support for multi-display configurations including NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround (3D) and NVIDIA Surround (2D), only GeForce users can fully immerse themselves into the realistic worlds of Mafia II created by the top-notch game designers at 2K. To celebrate the launch of Mafia II and the gaming goodness it provides to GeForce owners, NVIDIA is offering a coupon code good for one FREE digital download of the complete PC version of Mafia II with the purchase of any qualifying NVIDIA GeForce GTX 465 and above. The offer will be available while supplies last. In the US:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/sectors/campaigns/include/nvidia_gtx400_mafia.asp
http://www9.ncix.com/lp1/nvidia-Mafia2/ 
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: The Inquirer | Subject: General Tech
According to sources from Bloomberg, Infineon might be Intel's next purchase at a price of $1.9 billion; less than McAfee but still not chump change. Specifically they are targeting the wireless division, which currently supplies the processors in phones from Samsung and others focuses on the communications side of the phone as opposed to powering the OS and extra functions. This could mean that Intel has a ready made communications chip and can simply pair it with one of their low power CPUs to provide the muscle for the extra apps. You can read more over at The Inquirer.
No wonder Intel is predicting it will miss revenue targets this quarter.
"CHIPMAKER Intel is getting close to splashing out the cash once again as reports are claiming that the firm is
close to buying Infineon's wireless division.
Fresh from announcing that it will spend $7.68 billion to buy insecurity outfit McAfee, it seems that Intel wants more. Bloomberg reports that Chipzilla will have to fork over around $1.9 billion for Infineon's wireless division. Though it isn't a done deal, three people directly involved in the negotiations said that both parties are "close to an agreement"." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: OCIA | Subject: General Tech
A few years ago we lived through an age of force feedback devices. Not just mice and joysticks, there was the infamous Buttkicker, which placed a subwoofer in a chair to give your whole body a shake during gaming. There were also numerous headphones which offered a similar experience, pummelling your head when the bass soared. It seems that ASUS would like to revive that fad, as their soon to be released CineVibe headset. See the preview at OCIA.
"Today, we are reviewing the Asus CineVibe headset. This particular headset has one feature that makes it stand out from the rest: it vibrates. The CineVibe headset comes equipped with a vibration unit installed in each earpiece, which shake in real time with the bass levels of the speakers. This product isn't quite yet released by Asus at this point, hence the lack of design and labeling on the box. You can expect more on that front soon." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: The Inquirer | Subject: General Tech
Catalyst 10.8 hit the streets today with a number of enhancements such as complete support for OpenGL ES 2.0, tweaked default video settings, AA for StarCraft II and improvements to EyeFinity in a number of games. You can read about the specifics in the release notes.
The Inquirer heard tell of something even more interesting about this driver however, as one site investigated the driver thoroughly enough to notice some new codenames with some interesting suffixes. The usual XT, PRO and LE are represented, along with LP and GL that could indicate low power and FirePro cards. Even more interesting is the one labelled Gemini. "GRAPHICS CHIP DESIGNER AMD has unwittingly revealed the codenames of its upcoming GPU chips by updating its software drivers. The firm released the latest version of its Catalyst driver suite and issued the usual performance claims along with the news that there is anti-aliasing support in Starcraft II. There's also OpenGL ES 2 support if that's your thing but the most interesting of aspect of this release was the confirmation that the company is working on a number of 'Southern Island' parts." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Hexus | Subject: General Tech
Fans of a classic party based D&D game on the PC, either alone in charge of the party or cooperatively online are probably not terribly impressed with the news that the next Neverwinter game will be an online roleplaying game. While it seems they are tiptoeing around the owlbear in the room, it is obvious that their biggest competition will of course be WoW, with its long history of being at the top of its genre. It is certainly to be hoped that the strict definition of a party along with well known character classes will be enough to differentiate it from the teeming online roleplaying genre. Drop by HEXUS for the scoop.
"Atari Europe and Cryptic Studios, the developer behind City of heroes, City of Villains, Champions Online and Star Trek Online, announced today the development of Neverwinter for PC. Neverwinter is a new online roleplaying game based on Wizards of the Coast’s global property Dungeons & Dragons and the city of Neverwinter. " Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: The Tech Report | Subject: General Tech
The Tech Report has posted quite a few of the slides from AMD's HotChips presentation, which gives an overview of the way this architecture has been put together. No one got any sweet die shots but AMD has done a very good job at tantalizing us with enough information to make informed guesses about their soon to be released processors but still leaves us guessing at specifics, for example what the real world effects of fused multiply-add
units will be.
You can see what Josh thinks about this in his coverage or on PC Perspective Podcast # 119. "Today, AMD revealed many specifics about its next-gen Bulldozer microarchitecture, which introduces some radical new concepts in CPU organization. Rather than publish with fewer specifics early, we waited until after AMD's Hot Chips talk to publish more detailed information." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: [H]ard|OCP | Subject: General Tech
Bulldozer and Bobcat are not that far away and to help us prepare AMD has released information on the two architectures. They both share a design that focuses on modularity, with cores able to be added or subtracted in pairs with no mention of a single core CPU for either. Bobcat will be the low powered version, poised to take on the niche that the Atom has carved out for its self and with Bobcats ability to run out of order instructions it stands a good chance of beating Intel's offering.
Bulldozer will be for the full systems and sports a number of very interesting features, some of which you can see on the slides posted by [H]ard|OCP here.
You can also read Josh's deep look into AMD's new architectures in our coverage of the new chips. "AMD is starting to talk about its new Bulldozer and Bobcat processors. Today we have some notes on the new processors that will interest you as well as give you a peek under the heatspreader. Not a full blown look, but just a glimpse of what is to come, hopefully." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Ars Technica | Subject: General Tech
Ars Technica has weighed in on their understanding of why it is that Intel made the surprise purchase of McAfee and it all boils down to Intel CTO Justin Rattner's new focus on security. Intel has a blend of products that goes by the name of vPro which are designed specifically to provide security at a level below the OS. It resembles its predecessor, TPM or Palladium, and consists of a Core 2 or more modern processor, a motherboard with enough onboard features that no daughter cards need to be added to the system and several necessary features including Intel Active Management Technology(AMT) and Intel Trusted Execution Technology (Intel TXT). Together these ensure a PC or laptop is fairly well protected against rootkits and more importantly is able to make a secure connection to another PC so that, in a business environment, remote management, updates and security statuses can be communicated without risk of infection. Ars feels that the purchase of McAfee is likely to bring these types of security to the home user in the future and that there is no need to speculate about a competition with ARM for embedded security in mobile devices.
Others disagree. "There's been quite a bit of head-scratching over Intel's decision to purchase McAfee, but, despite all the breathless talk about mobile security and ARM and virus-fighting processors, the chipmaker's motivations for the purchase are actually fairly straightforward. First, Intel's management has decided, in the wake of Operation Aurora, to move security up to the top of Intel's priority list. Second, secure systems require a lot more than just hardware support—security is about the whole stack, plus the network, plus policies and practices. Third, Intel has waited for ages for its ecosystem partners to come up with ways to give consumers access to vPro's security benefits, and little has really panned out so now they're just going to take vPro (and any newer security technologies) directly to consumers via McAfee." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: PC Perspective | Subject: General Tech
Before you start browsing the forums you should ask yourself just how many berries your LEDs should have, it could have a big effect on your next modding job. You should also get in the habit of examining the fans that come with your coolers, for instance the Corsair H50 comes with a fan of questionable quality so you could swap it out with one that is more effective. Modding can be done to just about every component in your machine, for instance why buy an expensive enclosure when you can make your own external HDD? These types of projects are not without their risks, as this SSD owner found out.
If you are really looking for a challenge Linux is essentially a giant mod, where you can pick and choose which portions of the OS and programs you want to run and the gang over at our Linux Forum will help you roll your own OS. Even Windows is moddable to a certain extent and you case modders can always hit up the forum where all the cool modders hang out.
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: The Tech Report | Subject: General Tech
It is obvious that a lot of reasons went into Intel's acquisition of
McAfee, not even Intel tosses around $7.68 billion on a lark. The reasons are not apparent right away as the news came out of the blue and was not talked about long before hand like many other acquisitions such as Havok. ExtremeTech feels that this is obviously about a focus on security, perhaps signalling the interest of Intel to mimic what they have done bringing graphics onboard the CPU and merging security and antivirus onto their chips as well. It also brings a nice expansion to Intel's neglected software team
The Register sees the Wind River OS and future Atom based embedded products as an obvious reason. ARM is very strong in the mobile market which Intel is making motions of joining and if they could offer a mobile device with security embedded into the chip on the device as well as every step that the signal takes that might just offer enough incentive for people to move away from ARM based mobile devices. The Tech Report spotted something that could be a little less beneficial for users, bloatware. McAfee has recently been very focused on getting their various security software installed as trialware on as many new systems as they can. With Intel's probable new ownership of McAfee, they could ensure that their trialware appears on any system with an Intel inside. "The news of Intel's $7.68 billion acquisition of McAfee was a bit of a surprise to many of us, and the vague justifications both sides offered for the deal largely focused on the proliferation of mobile devices. However, I couldn't help but think of another implication of this acquisition for the traditional PC market. Buying McAfee instantly makes Intel one of the leading perpetrators of the pay-for-play bloatware model that infects brand-new PCs from nearly all of the major vendors with heaping amounts of unnecessary software." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Neoseeker | Subject: General Tech
Not only does it look exactly like the front panel of a classic stand up arcade game, it can plug into a USB or PS/2 plug and it comes with Gauntlet, Rampage, Robotron 2084, Joust, Defender and Smash TV.
You can get some old school button mashing, 8-direction only joystick wiggling gaming action in, either with old games or even with new then this is probably right up your alley. With multiple keystrokes easily assignable to a single button there is a lot of fun that could be had and its nigh indestructible
frame means you can let small children and drunk friends try it out with no worries. Drop by Neoseeker to see it.
"The X-Arcade Solo is made of 1.6cm thick black injected wood. It is as robust as the desk on which it is going to be used! The top surface is 26x42.5cm at its largest point. The joystick is 8cm tall. There are eight black buttons as well as one white with a picture of a man, like on real arcades where one would select the "one player" button." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: [H]ard|OCP | Subject: General Tech
[H]ard|OCP just finished reviewing the Astro A40 Gaming Headset and MixAmp
as a set but ended their review recommending the purchase of the MixAmp alone. The reason for this is not that the headphones are awful but the competition they face at the $200 mark does the job better. It is the less familiar part that takes kudos away from their review as it can do many tricks without needed the A40 to do so. The MixAmp is indeed an amp and mixer, making the odd name a little more comprehensible and it will work with any headphones; that flexibility is to be admired. Not only will it upscale stereo into 5.1 audio, it is capable of taking in other signals, for instance it has been seen working as a guitar amp. You can also string numerous MixAmps together and create a private team channel for gaming without the need for Teamspeak or other programs. Check out the full review to see the other uses that people have come up with for this odd little item.
"Astro Studios is famous among console gamers even if you don't know why. It designed the XBOX 360, but can a bunch of design gurus put together a team to build a gaming headset that is worth $250? We have learned that looking cool and sounding great are two different things in our past reviews. Can Astro pull it off?" Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Intel Press Room | Subject: General Tech
News Highlights:
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Aug. 19, 2010 – Intel Corporation has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire McAfee, Inc., through the purchase of all of the company’s common stock at $48 per share in cash, for approximately $7.68 billion. Both boards of directors have unanimously approved the deal, which is expected to close after McAfee shareholder approval, regulatory clearances and other customary conditions specified in the agreement. The acquisition reflects that security is now a fundamental component of online computing. Today’s security approach does not fully address the billions of new Internet-ready devices connecting, including mobile and wireless devices, TVs, cars, medical devices and ATM machines as well as the accompanying surge in cyber threats. Providing protection to a diverse online world requires a fundamentally new approach involving software, hardware and services. Inside Intel, the company has elevated the priority of security to be on par with its strategic focus areas in energy-efficient performance and Internet connectivity. McAfee, which has enjoyed double-digit, year-over-year growth and nearly 80 percent gross margins last year, will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Intel, reporting into Intel’s Software and Services Group. The group is managed by Renée James, Intel senior vice president, and general manager of the group. “With the rapid expansion of growth across a vast array of Internet-connected devices, more and more of the elements of our lives have moved online,” said Paul Otellini, Intel president and CEO. “In the past, energy-efficient performance and connectivity have defined computing requirements. Looking forward, security will join those as a third pillar of what people demand from all computing experiences. “The addition of McAfee products and technologies into the Intel computing portfolio brings us incredibly talented people with a track record of delivering security innovations, products and services that the industry and consumers trust to make connecting to the Internet safer and more secure,” Otellini added. “Hardware-enhanced security will lead to breakthroughs in effectively countering the increasingly sophisticated threats of today and tomorrow,” said James. “This acquisition is consistent with our software and services strategy to deliver an outstanding computing experience in fast-growing business areas, especially around the move to wireless mobility.”
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Extremetech | Subject: General Tech
Toshiba thinks it has made a break through that will soon allow them to utilize a process to increase storage density immensely. Companies have been bandying about a process where tiny patterned dots are formed on the recording surface as opposed to a contiguous line of magnetized grains that is used on current drives. Each of these tiny self assembled dots, currently 17nm, holds one bit and because it is more separated from its neighbour the density can be ramped up to the neighbourhood of 2.5Tb per inch2. That would bring a 25TB HDD well into the realm of possibility. As ExtremeTech reports, Toshiba is the first company to successfully find a way to read and write data successfully using this technology, now we have to wait for a cost effective means of manufacturing.
"If you thought recent advances in PC hard drives were something, it's possible you haven't seen anything yet. If Toshiba is to be believed based on its announcements Wednesday at the Magnetic Recording Conference in San Diego, it's made a breakthrough in its research of bit-patterned media that could make even the spacious 2TB and 3TB at the top of today's storage food chain look minuscule." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: Hardware Heaven | Subject: General Tech
The new game World of Tanks sounded to Gaming Heaven to likely be an intricate tank simulator with complexity on the level of a Jane's Aircraft Sim, so when they realized the tank was controlled via WASD and the mouse they were quite taken aback. Their preconceptions couldn't be further from the truth, this is more of an MMO with a bit of RPG elements and a whole bunch of HE shells. In one case they saw about 60 tanks running amok blowing each other to Kingdom Come. Their were a few balance issues in the preview that they tried which you can read about here.
"The title of the game conjours up images of those macho magazine subscriptions that come with a hardback folder as a free gift with issue one. As such expect a dry, technical tank based simulation with loads and loads of information for military enthusiasts and a technically accurate control system that requires reading a five hundred page manual, right?" Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
Jeremy Hellstrom | Source: The Inquirer | Subject: General Tech
As a group, geeks get excited over things that tend to leave the rest of the population scratching their heads in confusion but only because they can't follow what is being discussed.
Take for instance Josh's excitement at getting an inside scoop on the saga of BFG, Best Buy and AMD and the licensing agreement that is tearing them apart.
As interesting as that information is it is a subplot in our serial, the main thread is the emergence of GPGPU's and the drama of AMD and nVIDIA. The Inquirer takes a long look at what the market is currently like, as we have new Fermi based Tesla HPC cards coming from nVIDIA and AMD's Firestream series has recently had an update as well. The hardware is certainly one aspect of our plot, with nVIDIA having better performance but at the cost of power savings, whereas AMD can offer a card that may not be as fast but has a TDP about half of a Tesla card. Software is also a major player in this drama, with nVIDIA's closed source but provably powerful CUDA versus the open sourced OpenCL promoted by AMD and others. Will AMD bow and license CUDA in a repeat of OpenGL versus DirectX or shall we see a new plot line come out of this clash? Stay tuned and keep current with our Podcast, your cheat sheet to the wild world of tech. "GRAPHICS CARDS are no longer just graphics cards thanks to Nvidia, but the firm that brought graphics chips to the server room is for the first time about to face some serious competition. In the past five years we here at The INQUIRER have called Nvidia many things, however the accolade of high performance computing (HPC) innovator is also applicable. The company's focus on producing general purpose graphics processing units (GPGPUs) has lowered the cost barrier to HPC, allowing small companies, researchers and even hobbyists access to serious computing power." Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
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