Friday, July 10, 2009

IT News HeadLines (Tech Report) 10/07/2009



Prices for Windows 7 Anytime Upgrade, Family Pack leak out
Let's say you realize after a few months that you should've sprung for a pricier edition of Windows 7. Or say you need to upgrade several PCs in your household, and you'd rather not buy a full license for each one. What can you look forward to? Microsoft doesn't seem...
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McAfee may unseat Symantec in consumer antivirus market
Next time you buy a pre-built PC, you may be likelier to have to uninstall McAfee antivirus software than the Symantec equivalent. According to the New York Times, McAfee has been making a major push among PC makers, paying them "more than any of its rivals" to pre-load its...
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A storage performance retrospective
Over the years, our storage test rig has run through 70 desktop and notebook hard drives, SSDs, and exotic RAM disks. We've compiled all our test data for a massive retrospective that explores storage capacity and performance scaling over nearly the last half-decade.
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Six-inch Kindle falls to $299
When Amazon unveiled the original Kindle two years ago, the sleek e-book reader cost $399. Since then, Amazon hasn't gone downhill much from there: the second-gen Kindle that came out this February cost $359, and the new Kindle DX is even more expensive, at $489. Well, good news:...
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Command & Conquer 4, new MechWarrior game announced
Old franchises are crawling out of the woodwork this week. According to Shacknews, new games in the Command & Conquer and MechWarrior series have been announced, seemingly within hours of each other. For its part, Electronic Arts has officially unveiled Command & Conquer 4, saying the new real-time strategy game...
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Poll: Will Chrome OS stand a chance against Windows 7 next year?
So, it's official. Google will release an operating system for x86 netbooks next year. Chrome OS will be based on a Linux kernel and will (apparently) be little more than a platform for the Chrome web browser and standards-based web applications. Already, a number of netbook makers—Acer, Asus, HP,...
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MSI P55 mobo has overclocking buttons
Most folks use BIOS tools or proprietary, Windows-based applications to overclock. With its upcoming P55-GD65 motherboard, however, MSI wanted to mix things up: a source close to the company has sent us photos of the board's bottom edge, which features three novel overclocking buttons.
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Acer, Asus, HP working with Google on Chrome OS
When Google announced Chrome OS yesterday, the company said it was working with "multiple OEMs" to release netbooks based on the operating system. However, it neglected to mention any names. Well, a short list of frequently asked questions on the official Google Chrome blog now sheds light on...
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Thursday Shortbread
Thursday DSLReports: Cyber-attack on U.S. larger than previously believed TorrentFreak reports judge rules P2P legal in Spain, sites to be presumed innocent C|Net: SEC review of Apple disclosure now more complex? TechFlash reports Windows...
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Creative preps Zii-branded touch-screen player
Remember Creative's Zii? No? Well, we don't blame you; we haven't heard much about the system-on-a-chip since its launch six months ago. However, a blogger at epiZENter.net has uncovered FCC documents that suggest Creative is cooking up a handheld media player with the same name as the SoC. The...
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Classic LucasArts games arrive on Steam
You may not have to dig through old boxes and use third-party tools to play those old LucasArts games anymore. As Shacknews reports, a handful of them have appeared on Valve's Steam distribution service at bargain-bin prices. The list includes both old classics like The Dig and Loom as...
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An Eee Keyboard gets taken apart
So, Asus' Eee Keyboard is supposed to come out late next month. What can you look forward to if you actually purchase one? The guys at Blogeee.net have taken an Eee Keyboard apart to help answer that question. The teardown includes plenty of photos, some of which show an...
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40nm desktop GeForces appear on Nvidia website
Yesterday, the Taiwanese rumor mill suggested that two desktop GeForce graphics cards with 40nm GPUs would launch in September. That was incorrect, apparently: information pages that correspond exactly to the rumored GPUs have already appeared on Nvidia's website. The company provides specifications and images for the GeForce GT 220...
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Google announces netbook-bound Chrome OS
Just when rumors about a Google operating system were beginning to die down, guess what Google has announced? Indeed, the company plans to compete with Microsoft in the x86 OS arena with Chrome OS, an "open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks." The idea behind...
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Sprint, Best Buy offer 99-cent netbook (with subscription)
Want to buy a netbook for less than a buck? Too bad; you probably can't. However, as InformationWeek reports, Sprint and Best Buy are offering a netbook for a 99-cent down payment plus a two-year subscription, cell phone-style. According to Best Buy's information page about the offer, the netbook...
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