SanDisk Ships Memory Cards Tailored For Handheld Gamers
We've always heard that wherever there's a will, there's a way. That's exactly what SanDisk believes, as its newest memory card lineup targets gamers who actually think a specially labeled flash card will work best in their new handheld. Of course, we can't fault the marketing here--we're sure it'll work to some extent, but largely this is just new memory sizes with new labels (and a price tag to compensate).The new 16GB Memory Stick Micro (M2) is being hailed as the perfect accessory for the flash-only PSP
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Pioneer's New Blu-ray Burner Hits 12x Before BD-Rs Do
Looks like we've got ourselves quite the conundrum. Today, Pioneer has unleashed the planet's first-ever 12x Blu-ray Disc writer. Problem is, all writable Blu-ray media available on U.S. shelves is still at 6x. In other words, you can now buy a writer that'll toast media twice as fast as the media that's currently available. Like we said, it's a strange problem indeed.Still, for those with faith in the future (and optical media companies needing to catch up), Pioneer's BDR-205 Blu-ray Disc Computer Writer is
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mSpot Brings Live Movie Streaming To Smartphone Users
Despite the fact that broadband providers are doing their best to cap monthly Web use and charge us for every kilobyte we consume, we highly doubt streaming is going anywhere. And with a huge push for Net Neutrality currently going on in Washington, you can bet you'll hear of more options similar to mSpot.For now, however, mSpot looks to be a great option in and of itself. In short, it allows smartphone owners with data plans from Verizon Wireless, Sprint, T-Mobile and AT&T to stream live films to the phones
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Wi-Fi Alliance Serves Up New 802.11n Logo, Testing Program
802.11n finally became an official, finalized protocol in mid-September, and already the Wi-Fi Alliance is making sure that new wares abide by the new standards. Granted, draft-N gear is still good to go, but the new certification program takes a few other points into account.The new Wi-Fi CERTIFIED n program takes the place of the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 802.11n draft 2.0 program, which is actually a whopping two-years old already. The updated program adds testing for some popular optional features now more widely
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LG Announces LG GD510 Pop 3-inch Full Touchscreen Phone
LG has taken the covers off its latest touchscreen phone, the GD510, which as the company describes it, is the "most compact 3-inch full touchscreen phone ever made." LG claims its consumer research shows that a large group of users want a full touchscreen phone without the added bulk, unnecessary features, and higher prices found in many of today's devices. According to the company's research, many users were also turned off by the complexity of feature-laden phones but still wanted the navigation and large
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NVIDIA Unveils Next Generation "Fermi" GPU Architecture
NVIDIA has begun to disclose some information regarding its next generation GPU architecture, codenamed "Fermi". Actual product names or specifics were not disclosed just yet, nor was performance in 3D games, but high-level information about the architecture and its strong focus on compute performance and broader compatibility with computational applications were discussed.The GPU codenamed Fermi will feature over 3-billion transistors and be produced using TSMC's 40nm processes. If you remember, AMD's new RV870
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Retrievable iPhone Numbers Lead To Privacy Concerns
After some iPhone users have reported receiving phone calls from the publisher of a free app they've downloaded from the App Store, users have begun to wonder: how did the company get my contact information? Since Apple does not provide contact information for users to App Store vendors, the phone calls seem a bit suspicious. mogoRoad, a real-time traffic monitoring application that is available in Switzerland, is the application in question. The calls invite users of the free version to shell out money for
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New NVIDIA Drivers Disable PhysX If A Non-NVIDIA GPU Is Detected
Every so often, someone on the 'Net stumbles across something noteworthy, but the news doesn't spread until weeks or maybe even months later. That's what's happened over at NGOHQ, where forum reader DarthCyclonis discovered that NVIDIA drivers released after the v185.85 WHQL package (i.e, 186.18 and higher) removed the ability to use a GeForce 8xxx, 9xxx, or 2xx card as a dedicated PhysX processor if an non-NVIDIA GPU is present. When asked for the reason behind the change, an NVIDIA representative stated:
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NVIDIA Unveils Next Generation "Fermi" GPU Architecture
We will have more information regarding Fermi posted as it becomes available. For now, we've got the official release below, along with some images. Be sure to check out NVIDIA's official site as well for more details... NVIDIA Unveils Next Generation CUDA GPU Architecture - Codenamed "Fermi" SANTA CLARA, Calif. -Sep. 30, 2009 - NVIDIA Corp. today introduced its next generation CUDA GPU architecture, codenamed "Fermi". An entirely new ground-up design, the "Fermi" architecture is the foundation for the world's first computational graphics processing units (GPUs), delivering breakthroughs in both graphics and GPU computing. Presented at the company's inaugural GPU Technology Conference, in San Jose, California, "Fermi" delivers a feature set that accelerates performance on a wider array of computational applications than ever before. Joining NVIDIA's press conference was Oak Ridge National Laboratory who announced plans for a new supercomputer that will use NVIDIA GPUs based on the "Fermi" architecture. "Fermi" also garnered the support of leading organizations including Bloomberg, Cray, Dell, HP, IBM and Microsoft. As the foundation for NVIDIA's family of next generation GPUs namely GeForce, Quadro and Tesla - "Fermi" features a host of new technologies that are "must-have" features for the computing space, including: Images, technical whitepapers, presentations, videos and more on "Fermi" can all be found at: www.nvidia.com/fermi.
NVIDIA has begun to disclose some information regarding its next generation GPU architecture, codenamed "Fermi". Actual product names or specifics were not disclosed just yet, nor was performance in 3D games, but high-level information about the architecture and its strong focus on compute performance and broader compatibility with computational applications were discussed.
The GPU codenamed Fermi will feature over 3-billion transistors and be produced using TSMC's 40nm processes. If you remember, AMD's new RV870 is 2.15 billion transistors and is also manufactured at 40nm, so Fermi will be significantly larger and more expensive to produce. Fermi will be outfitted with more than double the number of coresآ as the GT200, 512 in total. It will also offer 8x the peak double-precision compute performance. In addition, Fermi is the first GPU architecture to support ECC, so it can compensate for some errors and potentially scale to higher densities, and it will be able to execute C++ code.
NVIDIA's CEO Jen-Hsun Huang showed off the first Fermi-based, Tesla branded add in board at the GPU Technology conference taking place in San Jose over the next few days. 
New Ground-Up Design Gives Rise to the World's First Computational GPUs
"NVIDIA and the Fermi team have taken a giant step towards making GPUs attractive for a broader class of programs," said Dave Patterson, director Parallel Computing Research Laboratory, U.C. Berkeley and co-author of Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach. "I believe history will record Fermi as a significant milestone."
"It is completely clear that GPUs are now general purpose parallel computing processors with amazing graphics, and not just graphics chips anymore," said Jen-Hsun Huang, co-founder and CEO of NVIDIA. "The Fermi architecture, the integrated tools, libraries and engines are the direct results of the insights we have gained from working with thousands of CUDA developers around the world. We will look back in the coming years and see that Fermi started the new GPU industry."
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What Would You Do With The Contest Prize?
Specs:
-Intel® Core™ i7 870 @ 2.93 GHz LGA 1156 45nm 8MB L3 Cache
-Intel P55 Chipset Mainboard
- 3x PCI-e 16x
- 4x DIMM DDR3 Memory Slots
- 2x PCI-e 1x
- 2x PCI
- 10 USB (8 x rear, 2 x front)
- GB LAN
- 6x SATA, 2x IDE
- I/O: 2x PS2, 8x USB, 1x IEEE1394a, Optical S/PDIF Out Port, Coaxial S/PDIF
Out Port,2x RJ-45, Audio
-8GB (4x2GB) DDR3 1333 Memory(Corsair Value Select or Major Brand)
-1TB SATA-II 3.0 Gb/s 7200RPM HDD
-Nvidia Geforce GTX295 1792MB PCI Express Video Card
-Blu-Ray Player Drive
-22x DVD±R/±RW DUAL LAYER DRIVE
-Xtreme Gear USB Keyboard
-Xtreme Gear USB Mouse
-Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Home Premium 64-Bit
(With Windows 7 Upgrade Coupon)
-NZXT Beta Gaming Case With Side Window and 800W Power Supply
-Shipping weight : 42Lbs.
-Shipping Dimension : 28 ¼” (L) x 21 5/8” (W) x 11 7/8” (H)
-1 Year Warranty and Lifetime Toll Free Tech Support Services
Are there any weak links here? We're speculating the mobo will be an ASUS P7P55D Deluxe, pretty solid from what's available now. Big name PSU? Blu-Ray burner? Faster RAM? Even the case is pretty awesome.
For me I'd pretty much buy one or two 24" 1920X1080 monitors and a serious sound card, that's it.
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New NVIDIA Drivers Disable PhysX If A Non-NVIDIA GPU Is Detected
Every so often, someone on the 'Net stumbles across something noteworthy, but the news doesn't spread until weeks or maybe even months later. That's what's happened over at NGOHQ, where forum reader DarthCyclonis discovered that NVIDIA drivers released after the v185.85 WHQL package (i.e, 186.18 and higher) removed the ability to use a GeForce 8xxx, 9xxx, or 2xx card as a dedicated PhysX processor if anآ non-NVIDIA GPU is present.When asked for the reason behind the change, an NVIDIA representative stated: "For a variety of reasons - some development expense some quality assurance and some business reasons NVIDIA will not support GPU accelerated PhysX with NVIDIA GPUs while GPU rendering is happening on non-NVIDIA GPUs." From a certain perspective, this definitely makes sense. NVIDIA has invested a lot of money and timeآ into PhysX and PhysX development; the company has good reason not to want to hand all ofآ its hard work over to competitors. Locking out ATI todayآ (and, we suppose, future Larrabee cards) is a logical business step. In taking it, however, NVIDIA isآ taking a significant risk. Customers—particularly those who consider themselves loyal customers—may very well see the forced incompatibility as a predatory move intended to force customers to use NVIDIA solutions.
The Tension Between PhysX Uptake and Corporate Profits
Ever since it bought Ageia in 2008, NVIDIA has been calling on developers to offload physics calculations to the GPU via the company's PhysX engine, which is freely available to anyone interested in developing for the Xbox 360, PS3, or PC (both Linux and Windows). While the PhysX engine has been a reasonably popular software physics solution, the number of games that actually support hardware-accelerated PhysX is still fairly small.
Historically, the speed of and degree to which software developers adopt any given video card technology correlates with the percentage of consumers able to take advantage of it and the difficulty of writing programs that utilize it. FSAA and AF became popular partly because these were features that could be activated or deactivated by the video card's driver and did not require the game developers to (typically) write additional code. Features that are only available from a single manufacturer tend to be limited to niche adoption or go unused.
If NVIDIA wants to push PhysX adoption, it should be encouraging gamers to purchase (or repurpose) an NVIDIA GPU for use as a dedicated PhysX card. Paradoxically, however, the success of the G80 and G92 series makes pushing PhysX as an add-on capability even more unappealing for the company. The data below is drawn from the hardware survey available fromآ Valve'sآ Steam on-line content distribution system.
آ
The Customer Conundrum
NVIDIA's position is understandable, but the company, in our view, could beآ making a mistake. In its desire to deny ATI seat at the table, NVIDIA is removing feature support from the group of people most likely to identify as loyal NVIDIA customers. From their collective perspective, their chosen GPU vendor could beآ removing product functionality because it's feelingآ the heat from ATI's new Radeon HD 5870 / 5850 parts. In all fairness, NVIDIA actually disabled cross-GPU support several months ago, but the fact that it's gone carries more weight than precisely when it disappeared.
For now, NVIDIA users who want to combine CUDA / PhysX and ATI can simply keep using the v185.85 driver. The company's desire to keep hardware-level PhysX as its own special sauce may give it a degree of unique value, but locking out card capabilities could sabotage feature adoption. If it re-enables cross GPU support, it's true, NVIDIA could lose some customers to ATI, but it'll lose some customers to ATI if it keeps the feature locked out anyway. Given the choice between good customer care, with higher hardware-level PhysX use, and bad customer care, with potentially lower hardware-level PhysX use, it makes the most sense to re-enable the feature.
Allowing cross-manufacturer support might be the only way CUDA survives. With OpenCL and DirectCompute both gathering their own support bases, it's an open question as to which language programmers will opt for. ATI and NVIDIA cards are both capable of running OpenCL code. Both manufacturers' cards can use DirectCompute.آ CUDA? That's an NVIDIA thing.آ
Until/unless NVIDIA can demonstrate that CUDA delivers performance gains or visual effects that the other two languages simply can't match, it's going to have an upward battle. There's no denying that NVIDIA was the first company to really push physics onto the GPU or tout the GPU as a massively parallel processor, but being first does not grant the company special status or a free percentage of market share. CUDA will have to compete with OpenCL and DirectCompute on its own merits—the tighter the restrictions NVIDIA puts on PhysX configurations, the more it could be tyingآ one hand behind its back.آ
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LG Announces LG GD510 Pop 3-inch Full Touchscreen Phone
LG hastaken the covers off its latest touchscreen phone, the GD510, which as thecompany describes it, is the "most compact 3-inch full touchscreen phoneever made." LG claims its consumer research shows that a large group ofusers want a full touchscreen phone without the addedbulk, unnecessary features, and higher prices found in many of today's devices.According to the company's research, many users were also turned off by the complexityof feature-laden phones but still wanted the navigation and large screen of atouchscreen device. LG designed the GD510 to offer the key features these usersdesire without the overhead of features they don't use.“We gave the LG GD510 an optimized feature set which allowedus to concentrate on making the phone more compact and simpler to use,†saidDr. Skott Ahn, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile CommunicationsCompany. “Our high-end phones like the Black Label Series New LG Chocolate (LGBL40) may be getting all the attention but there’s a gap in the market foraffordable touchscreen phones that we want to fill. The LG GD510 delivers allthe essentials in communication, multimedia and entertainment and comes in acompact form factor as well.â€
While the GD510 might not be as feature packed as LG's otherhigh-end touchscreendevices, the LG GD510 is capable of playing music and movies in several popularfile formats. There is 8GB of internal memory for storage. The handset alsooffers a Web browser and a 3 megapixel camera that can capture video.
Other key features of the GD510 include a 3-inch WQVGAtouchscreen with a narrow 4.8 mm bezel. You'll find a single button on the faceof the phone that functions as the menu, end and cancel keys, depending on thephone’s mode. A slim strip of light around the button shines green or red to indicatethe handset's function. The LG GD510 is crafted from brushed aluminum.
The LG GD510 will be available in mid-October in Europe,followed by other markets. Prices will vary from one country to another andwill be announced separately in each individual market.
Watch a video promo of the LG GD510 Pop below:
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Retrievable iPhone Numbers Lead To Privacy Concerns
After some iPhoneusers have reported receiving phone calls from the publisher of a free appthey've downloaded from the AppStore, users have begun to wonder: how did the company get my contactinformation? Since Apple does not provide contact information for users to AppStore vendors, the phone calls seem a bit suspicious. mogoRoad, a real-time traffic monitoring application that isavailable in Switzerland, is the application in question. The calls inviteusers of the free version to shell out money for the full version. Mogo claimsthe phone numbers were provided by Apple. After some digging,however, French site Mac4 Ever has discovered that it is possible, even easy, for an application toretrieve the phone number of an iPhone on which it is installed, even thoughthe user has not entered any personal details into the application.
Apple's iPhone software development kit doesn't provide abuilt-in way for applications to get information such as a device's phonenumber, but that information can still be indirectly retrieved with relativelylittle trouble. Mac 4 Ever claims this functionality (if you can call it that)has been available since iPhone OS 2.1.
Given that most of us don't appreciate telemarketing calls,many users will view this as a serious privacy concern. Apple's privacy policy says the companytakes privacy seriously, as it should. آ Butis the company doing enough to protect our information? Certainly many users willagree that Apple should punish any vendor who abuses the information about itscustomers—whether that information was received legitimately or not.
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Kiristo's Rig
My specs are on my website, here: http://kiristo.com/Documents/System.html. Too lazy to take pics, but she's pretty, I had to remove the top case fan to fit the PSU in, so the PSU's blue LED shines through the top and the front of the case also has some blue LEDs. I'm also using a G15 (revision 2) keyboard and dual-screening with my old 19" LCD. I should get another 24" Widescreen, they are beautiful, but my desk wouldn't fit it anyway. I love the Zero case. Windows on the side of a case look stupid to me. I'd rather a nice polished case than see the inerds (plus I don't really do cable management). The NZXT Zero features 4 120mm fans on the side instead of a window. She runs surprisingly quiet with all those fans, and keeps cool. I am still running stock heatsink/fan for my CPU/GPU aside from some Arctic Silver compound. The CPU is OC'd to 3.2GHz. I haven't bothered to OC the GPU yet. I will probably just wait a while and then step-up the card anyway.
Oh, and ignore the rest of my site. I haven't updated it in awhile and I never loaded all the pages -several are just copies of the main page- either despite finishing more than are live (yes I am that lazy- taking advantage of the MS Office Live website, so I don't pay anything for it, though my page URLs are not what I would like them to be). It was blank for over a year for lack of content and then even I got bored of what I started to put on there... Maybe someday I'll finish it or put something interesting on there. Maybe. The fact I can no longer get to my own website from work is discouraging though. Plus I don't play WoW much at the moment and am taking a break for awhile when my current subscription runs out.
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Gaming Rig for آ£600 - آ£800 (Could be More)
Hey, ain't been on in a while 
My friend wants a gaming rig built up, with a budget of around £600 to £800
He doesn't need a monitor or mouse.. just everything else lol,
I was thinking of just building him the same rig as me, but there's probably some stuff that could do with changing
I also thinking going Core 2 Quad, maybe a Q9650, but then there's Core i7.. and i5 i suppose
so what do you guys think?
oh also would you recommend ati or nivida
thanks =)
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