"Smart Meters" To Watch Over In-Home Energy Usage, Cull Waste
You might think that President Obama's stimulus package was worth overlooking for tech enthusiasts, but really, there are more than a few reasons to take notice. Obama clearly understands the power of the Web, and he clearly understands that harnessing technology is a great way to better a country. We've already heard about his plans to roll out broadband to more rural areas, and now we're hearing more about a $3.4 billion decision to upgrading our energy grid and make individuals think longer and harder about
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Nintendo's Big-Screen DSi XL Coming To Japan, Europe And America
Talk about an interesting decision here. As Sony plans to pump up its PSP Go for the holiday season, Nintendo is going to attempt to pedal its existing DSi even though the whole world now knows that a larger version is on the way. That's right, an enlarged DSi. For years, the DS has been slimming down, but now it seems as if Nintendo's research has found that at least some of its potential customers would prefer a larger screen. The DSi LL (or DSi XL, as it'll reportedly be known as in Europe) will feature
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Apple TV Gets 3.0 Software Update With iTunes Extras/iTunes LP Support
The Apple TV. Remember that? Yeah, that's Apple's little hobby device, or so it said once upon a time. And it's treating it exactly like a hobby, not updating it but once every blue moon. Thankfully for those who actually own one, the company today released the first major software update for it in what feels like forever, but it's a big update. In fact, it's taking things to 3.0, and whenever Apple jumps all the way to a new digit on the left side of the decimal, it's definitely worth paying attention to. The
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MSI to Unleash Big Bang Gaming Series Mainboards
MSI to Unleash Big Bang Gaming Series Mainboards [City of Industry, CA] MSI, a leading high-performance mainboard company, unveil its first gaming series mainboards in Intel P55 platform featuring awe-inspiring graphics and audio functionality to offer serious gamers immersive gaming experience. The state-of-the-art gaming line is inspired by the mighty Big Bang. Unique and innovative, the all-new Big Bang series will deliver the shock and awe of unprecedented experiences and expand into its own collection of
Read More ...
Ideum's 100" Multi-Touch Table Supports 50 Users: Air Hockey, Anyone?
With the release of Windows 7, a whole lot of talk surrounding multi-touch has surfaced. In fact, most credit Microsoft's own Surface as the catalyst for more consumer-oriented multi-touch applications, and now it's a relatively unknown outfit take the next big step. Ideum, a company you've probably never heard of, is looking to make a name for itself by introducing what could be called the next Surface. The currently unnamed device--which is being called an "ultra-wide screen multitouch table exhibit exploring
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Pizza Hut iPhone App Proves To Be A Success
In the three months since it was released, the Pizza Hut App for the Apple iPhone and iPod touch has helped the company sell more than one million dollars worth of pizza, pasta, and wings. As the featured icon in the iTunes Lifestyle Category, the App provides users with a creative way to order their food from Pizza Hut. Pizza Hut is the first national pizza chain to introduce an ordering App for the Apple iPhone and iPod touch. The App is quickly approaching one million downloads. The Pizza Hut App uses iPhone
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App Store Nears 100K Apps
According to App Shopper, a third-party site that tracks applications in Apple's App Store, while many keep using the last amount quoted by Apple (85,000) as the number of apps in that repository, the App Store is nearing 100,000 apps, and should hit that number soon. In fact, App Shopper, which posts the numbers on their website home page, currently lists the total number of approved apps as 102,631, with 93,794 available for download (some will, of course, have fallen by the wayside as time progressed). The
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USB 3.0 and SATA 6G Performance Preview
Just the other day, we gave you a sneak peek at a couple of motherboards Asus had coming down the pipeline that featured USB 3.0 and SATA 6G support, the P7P55D-E Premium and the P6X58D Premium. If you haven't seen the original post, be sure to check it out here. In it, we talk about the boards' PLX PCI Express Gen 2 switch implementation and how it connects to the NEC USB 3.0 and Marvell SATA 6G controller chips. P7P55D-E Premium and P6X58D Premium with USB 3.0 and SATA 6G It
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Sony's Power Problems Continue With Recall Of AC Adapters
It seems Sony's Vaio power problems aren't over yet. Almost a year after recalling 100,000 notebook batteries and 13 months after recalling almost a half-million notebooks due to overheating concerns, Sony and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a voluntary recall of about 69,000 Vaio AC adapters. Apparently, insulation inside of the AC adapters can fail over time, thereby posing an electrical shock hazard to consumers. So far, Sony has received four reports of adapters short-circuiting. None
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PowerColor Intros Liquid-Cooled Radeon HD 5870
POWERCOLOR INTRODUCES THE COOLEST GAMING CARD: LCS HD5870 The world’s fastest single GPU comes with PowerColor’s Liquid Cooling Solution Taipei, Taiwan – October 29, 2009 – TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer of AMD graphics cards, is excited to add liquid cooling to the world’s fastest single GPU: the PowerColor Liquid Cooling Solution (LCS) HD5870 1GB GDDR5. Equipped with the award-winning EK cooling solution, the LCS HD5870 offers outstanding thermal performance in a single slot design, enhancing overclocking
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HotHardware and Viddler Contest: Win A Flip UltraHD!
HotHardware.com and Viddler have teamed up to bring you a great contest and give-away! Upload a short video of yourself telling us about your own personal hardware or tech gear and why it enhances your world. You can upload the clip here or just click the webcam link on the contest page and shoot it live! Be creative, funny, inspiring, informational, whatever - and you could win a Flip UltraHD camcorder! Enter To Win a Flip UltraHD Here!
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Former AMD CEO Hector Ruiz Implicated in Insider Trading Scheme
Hector Ruiz served as CEO of AMD for nearly a decade and guided the company through both its strong success (Athlon 64) and lurching failures (paying $5.8 billion for ATI). He stepped down as CEO in July of 2008, after AMD reported its seventh consecutive quarterly loss, but became chairman of GlobalFoundries. That position could now be in jeopardy. The Assistant United States attorneys for the Southern District of New York have filed a complaint against the hedge fund Galleon Management. The fund is accused
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Google Gets In Tune With Music OneBox
Google has announced a new service, which is being rolled out slowly, as is typical of cloud-based services. It is called OneBox, and what it aims to do, in concert with Google's music search partners MySpace (and its recently acquired iLike subsidiary) and Lala, is allow users to play limited previews and full songs in their search results. Besides iLike and Lala, OneBox results will include Pandora, Imeem, and Rhapsody when available. What you might notice is missing are results from iTunes and Amazon MP3.
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App Store Nears 100K Apps
According to App Shopper, a third-party site that tracks applications in Apple's App Store, while many keep using the last amount quoted by Apple (85,000) as the number of apps in that repository, the App Store is nearing 100,000 apps, and should hit that number soon.In fact, App Shopper, which posts the numbers on their website home page, currently lists the total number of approved apps as 102,631, with 93,794 available for download (some will, of course, have fallen by the wayside as time progressed).
The last time Apple mentioned the number of apps in the App Store publicly, it said there were 85,000 apps in the store. It's believed that Apple is waiting until the number of applications available to download reaches 100,000 to issue a press release.Another App Store tracking site, Yappler, says that of the apps available, 19,856 of them are free, if you bought every iPhone app today it would cost you $235,682, which is $2.55 per app or $3.25 if you exclude free apps.
While Verizon has been pumping the Droid up recently, its clear that its not just about the platform, or the carrier, or even the hardware, but the applications available on a device. That's where the iPhone still rules, but Gartner predicted on Tuesday that Android OS shipments will exceed iPhone OS by 2012.
The iPhone is no longer leaps and bounds above other platforms. Google's platform, free as it is, has the potential to be on many more devices than the iPhone. As application development for the devices ramps up, and it will, based on the sheer number of different devices (though some will undoubtedly be losers), it does indeed have the potential to overtake the iPhone.
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Former AMD CEO Hector Ruiz Implicated in Insider Trading Scheme
Hector Ruiz served as CEO of AMD for nearly a decade and guided the company through both its strong success (Athlon 64) and lurching failures (paying $5.8 billion for ATI). He stepped downآ as CEO in July of 2008, after AMD reported its seventh consecutive quarterly loss, but became chairman of GlobalFoundries. That position could now be in jeopardy. The Assistant United States attorneys for the Southern District of New York have filed a complaint against the hedge fund Galleon Management. The fund is accused of trading on insider information, and Hector may have provided a great deal of it just before the GlobalFoundries spinoff.
According to the court filing, Daniel Chiesi of Galleon Management had several long conversations with Ruiz regarding the upcoming spinoff. Ruiz claimed the divestment would substantially reduce AMD's debt load and improve its competitive position. On the basis of this information, Galleon Management bought 199,400 shares of AMD on August 15, 2008, and a further 127,600 shares on September 30. AMD formally announced the spinoff on October 7, 2008. The formal court filing includes quotes from conversations between Danielle Chiesi and Raj Rajaratnam, controller of the hedge fund. As early as June, 2008, Chiesi was meeting with an unnamed AMD executive and reporting the details on AMD's negotiations with IBM (IBM had to agree to license its technology to GlobalFoundries in order for the spinoff to proceed.) In one conversation, Rajaratnam asks if the unnamed executive will provide Chiesi with "the full low down," to which Chiesi replies "Oh yeah. Plus, IBM will too."Further details in the brief (available here) indicate that Chiesi met with the unnamed executive and Robert Moffat of IBM multiple times, and was aware of the specific details of the spinoff by August 15. Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal announced that Hector Ruiz was the unnamed AMD executive, a fact that, if true, implicates him as an inside trader. Ironically, it might not matter. In an odd twist of fate, Galleon's inside trading appears to have benefited no one. The expected jump in AMD's stock price never appeared, The stock rose slightly in early October, from $5.31 a share to $6.25 on October 14, but closed yesterday at $4.85 (currently trading at $4.97). Furthermore, there's no evidence that the unnamed AMD executive, whoever he or she was, was ever compensated for the information.
Ruiz has not yet been accused of criminal misconduct or named as a person of interest in the investigation, If he is, it could jeopardize his position at GlobalFoundries, and possibly trigger an in-depth investigation of both AMD and GF. That's a distraction neither company needs at the moment—it would be best for all concerned for Ruiz to walk away with his hands clean on this one.
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Pizza Hut iPhone App Proves To Be A Success
In the three months since it was released, the Pizza Hut App for the Apple iPhone and iPod touch has helped the company sell more than one million dollars worth of pizza, pasta, and wings. As the featured icon in the iTunes Lifestyle Category, the App provides users with a creative way to order their food from Pizza Hut.Pizza Hut is the first national pizza chain to introduce an ordering App for the Apple iPhone and iPod touch. The App is quickly approaching one million downloads.
The Pizza Hut App uses iPhone and iPod touch features such as the Multi-touch user interface and accelerometer to make ordering each individual menu item a unique experience. Pizza Hut describes the ordering process this way:
- When ordering pizzas, users virtually build their own pizza by choosing a type of crust in the scroll wheel, "pinching" to select size, and dragging-and-dropping toppings onto the pizza, all with visual confirmation. If an overeager pizza customer adds too many toppings, the pizza explodes and toppings go flying across the screen with an alert to make their pizza happier with fewer toppings.
- The section used to order WingStreet wings starts with a bowl of wings that changes as users choose the type of wings they want. Next they select a sauce and are prompted to "sauce their wings" by shaking their iPhone or iPod touch until the wings are covered. Shake too long and the sauce flies across the screen. As with the pizza ordering, customers finish with a representation of the wings order.
- The App has a virtual waiter on call to take your Tuscani Pastas order. You can select from four delicious varieties including Meaty Marinara, Creamy Chicken Alfredo, Premium Bacon Mac 'N Cheese and Lasagna.
Each time a user orders using the App they get 20% off their entire order. The Pizza Hut App is available from the App Store on iPhone and iPod touch.
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Nintendo's Big-Screen DSi XL Coming To Japan, Europe And America
Talk about an interesting decision here. As Sony plans to pump up itsPSP Go for the holiday season, Nintendo is going to attempt to pedalits existing DSi even though the whole world now knows that a largerversion is on the way. That's right, an enlarged DSi. For years, the DShas been slimming down, but now it seems as if Nintendo's research hasfound that at least some of its potential customers would prefer alarger screen.آ The DSi LL (or DSi XL, as it'll reportedly be known as in Europe) willfeature an expansive 4.2" display, which is just about twice as big asthe display on the current DSi. Curiously, the resolution will beexactly the same, so you'll be carrying around a larger device for noadditional screen real estate. Call it the DSi for those with badeyesight, but don't call it the next-gen DSi.
It's set to go on sale next month in Japan in brown, white or red, andit'll ship with three pre-installed DSiWare games. The price isexpected to be around 20000 Yen (or around $220). What's mostinteresting though, is that the DSi XL won't ship in Europe and Americauntil Q1 2010, which could definitely impact holiday sales of theexisting DSi. So, now that you know a new DSi is but a few months away,are you putting your purchasing plans on ice?
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USB 3.0 and SATA 6G Performance Preview
Just the other day, we gave you a sneak peek at a couple of motherboards Asus had coming down the pipeline that featured USB 3.0 and SATA 6G support, the P7P55D-E Premium and the P6X58D Premium. If you haven't seen the original post, be sure to check it out here. In it, we talk about the boards' PLX PCI Express Gen 2 switch implementation and how it connects to the NEC USB 3.0 and Marvell SATA 6G controller chips.
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P7P55D-E Premium andآ P6X58D Premium with USB 3.0 and SATA 6G
It turns out that one of the boards we showed you, the P55-Express based P7P55D-E Premium is very close to hitting the market. In fact, we already have on in house were able to run a few quick tests on it. In addition to the motherboard, we got our hands on an external USB 3.0 hard drive and one of Seagate's new 2TB SATA 6G hard drives.
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USB 2.0 vs. USB 3.0 Hard Drive Performance
First up, we thought we'd show you what kind of impact USB 3.0 has on performance. The two images above show ATTO Disk Benchmark runs with the USB 3.0 hard drive connected to the P7P55D-E Premium. The test on the left was run with the drive connected to a USB 2.0 port, the one of the right with it connected to a USB 3.0 port. Be sure to click on the images to pop larger versions because the graphs look to have a similar trends. You'll see that when connected to a USB 3.0 port, the drive was about 5 - 6x faster. Although these are just quick, preliminary tests, it appears that USB 3.0 will be an absolute must for users in need of fast, cheap external storage as it becomes more prevalent.
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SATA 3G vs. SATA 6G Hard Drive Performance
Next up, we have some benchmarks using the Seagate Barracuda XT SATA 6G drive. The ATTO and HD Tach tests on the left were conducted with the drive connected to a common SATA 3G port, the tests on the right were conducted with it connected to the Marvell SATA 6G controller present on the P7P55D-E Premium. Save for one part of the HD Tach testing, there isn't much of a performance difference here. Due to an aggressive cache algorithm that utilizes a portion of system memory with the Seagate Barracuda XT SATA 6G connected to the Marvell SATA 6G controller on theآ P7P55D-E Premium, it offers a burst rate that is off the charts in HD Tach. In the remaining portions of the HD Tach test though, performance remains largely unchanged. According to ATTO, there are some slight performance benefits to be had by connecting the drive to the SATA 6G controller, but the deltas were quite small--somewhere in the neighborhood of 5MB/s.
As it stands today, it's obvious that its going to take something much faster than a current-gen, spinning-platter hard disk to tax a SATA 6G connection. Perhaps next-gen products and future SSDs will show a larger benefit.
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Ideum's 100" Multi-Touch Table Supports 50 Users: Air Hockey, Anyone?
With the release of Windows 7, a whole lot of talk surroundingmulti-touch has surfaced. In fact, most credit Microsoft's own Surfaceas the catalyst for more consumer-oriented multi-touch applications,and now it's a relatively unknown outfit take the next big step. Ideum,a company you've probably never heard of, is looking to make a name foritself by introducing what could be called the next Surface.The currently unnamed device--which is being called an "ultra-widescreen multitouch table exhibit exploring the electromagneticspectrum"--is based around the company's MT-50 multi-touch, multi-usertable. Clearly this one is designed to be used by businesses more sothan actual consumers (unless you've got a 20,000 square foot home justdying for a few new accessories), with a 16x5 aspect ratio and adisplay resolution of 2304x800. All told, it's a 100" surface with an86" viewable area, making it one of the largest contiguous multi-touchtables ever made.
It was developed for the Space Chase Gallery at the Adventure ScienceCenter, and it'll be a part of an exhibit that opens up to the publicon November 7th. The table can support over 50 simultaneous touchpoints, enabling a whole bunch of onlookers to touch and interact withit at once. So much for waiting in line for your turn, huh? Thesoftware on it was based around Adobe's Flash and the company's ownGestureWorks framework, the latter of which will be on sale to otherdevs in early December. There's no word on just how expensive thisthing would be for the average joe, but we're guessing it'd be way outof most budgets, anyway.
Ideum creates an ultra-wide screen multitouch table exhibit exploring the
electromagnetic spectrum
CORRALES, New Mexico (October 29, 2009) Ideum announces the installation of
an ultra-wide screen multitouch table based on its commercially available
MT-50 multi-touch, multi-user table.
With a 100" surface and an 86" viewable area is it among one of the largest
contiguous multitouch tables ever developed. The screen has a 16 x 5 ratio
aspect and a display resolution of 2304 x 800 pixels.
Developed for the Space Chase Gallery at the Adventure Science Center, it is
one of several technology-enhanced exhibits Ideum has deployed at the
Nashville, Tennessee-based hands-on science center. The exhibition opens to
the public on November 7th.
"We developed a visual representation of the EM Spectrum," said Jim
Spadaccini, Creative Director of Ideum. "Taking advantage of the super-wide
screen format, we've created a digital representation of the EM Spectrum
from radio waves to gamma rays. Visitors can move images across the table in
real-time, revealing the images in each waveform and accessing information
about what they are seeing.?
The exhibit features a variety of celestial and terrestrial objects images
in a multiple wavelengths. آ For example, NASA images of the sun can be seen
in all wavelengths. آ Common and iconic objects were photographed in a
variety of wavelengths. For example, a birthday cake with lit candles, a toy
robot, an alarm clock, and even a hand holding an iPhone are seen in
visible, infrared, ultraviolet, and x-ray.
The table can support over 50 simultaneous touch points, allowing several
people to interact with the table at the same time. Its rugged design makes
it perfect for a busy hands-on science center. In addition, the table is
only 31" tall, meeting ADA standards for wheel chair accessibility.
The custom software was developed with Adobe Flash and Ideum's own
GestureWorks framework, which allows Flash developers to easily develop
their own custom multi-touch applications. GestureWorks will be available
for sale to other developers in early December.
The tracking software was developed by Natural User Interface Technologies
AB, a Swedish technology company specializing in multi-touch software. Ideum
and NUI Technologies have been partners since 2008.
Ideum was founded in 1999. Its exhibits and Websites have won numerous
awards over the years including: the American Association of Museums' MUSE
Awards, the Webby Awards, the Pirelli International Multimedia Awards, the
Museums and the Web Conference "Best of the Web," and other industry awards.
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Kubuntu/Xubunut/Ubuntu 9.10
Kubuntu 9.10 was released today, as well as the other Ubuntu 9.10 flavors (Xubuntu, Ubuntu).
Here's a video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzajPDcJJ5A) of one of the alpha's leading up to this release, if you're not familiar with the KDE desktop.
(Please visit the site to view this media)
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What bit-torrent was made for
Now I have been gone all week. Looks like I have spam to crush! MUAH HA HA.
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PowerColor Intros Liquid-Cooled Radeon HD 5870
Taipei, Taiwan – October 29, 2009 – TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer of AMD graphics cards, is excited to add liquid cooling to the world’s fastest single GPU: the PowerColor Liquid Cooling Solution (LCS) HD5870 1GB GDDR5. Equipped with the award-winning EK cooling solution, the LCS HD5870 offers outstanding thermal performance in a single slot design, enhancing overclocking and allowing optimum stability. "The most efficient cooling solution should pack with the most powerful GPU,†said Ted Chen, CEO of TUL Corporation. “With the partnership with EK, the LCS HD5870 can work impressively in a cool and stable operating environment—it’s the card which designed to fulfill the true gamers!†
POWERCOLOR INTRODUCES THE COOLEST GAMING CARD: LCS HD5870
The world’s fastest single GPU comes with PowerColor’s Liquid Cooling Solution
The PowerColor LCS HD5870 has a full water block mounted on the card, fully covering the memory and power regulator chip. With a copper base design, it is able to reduce temperatures in the most efficient way possible. PowerColor packages a high-flow 3/8" and 1/2" fittings (barbs) to maximize water flow with captured o-rings to prevent leakage. Gamers can easily customize their own liquid cooling system using these two fittings.
Compatible with all the latest features, the PowerColor LCS HD5870 clocks at 875 MHz core and 1250 MHz memory, pushing the overclocking ability to the maximum in an ultra stable gaming environment and delivering am incredible gaming experience you’ve never felt before.
DiRT2 Game Bundle: Unleash DirectX 11 gaming powerآ 
To deliver the latest DirectX 11 gaming power, PowerColor includes DiRT2 into LCS HD5870. DiRT2 is a world tour of adrenaline-fuelled extreme off-road events in stunning real-world locations. With the support of DirectX 11 technology, this latest game delivers the most realistic, immersive and exhilarating racing experience to gamers.
The PowerColor LCS HD5870 will be available on November 6.
About EK Water Blocks
Started in year 1999, when the founder Edvard Kأ¶nig bought his first computer. The goal for EK is to excel in a niche market of performance upgrades for computers. With continuous research and development, we have established a portfolio of products for water cooling. Quality and breathtaking design on the technological edge is our philosophy. For further information, visit: www.ekwaterblocks.com
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Speaking of the ATi Radeon 5800 series...
... has anyone outside of the HH review crew actually touched one? It's listed in several online stores, but is always out of stock or "typically ships in 1-2 months."
The only stores that have them charge outrageous prices: one wants $450 for a HD 5870, a 10% premium. Even MicroCenter, usually one of the best retailers, has prices all across the board, and most catalog entries have stern warnings about how they may not have it in stock when you order, etc.
I guess we're still in the "early adopter" phase, but I was hoping to plug one of these babies in by mid-November.
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HotHardware and Viddler Contest: Win A Flip UltraHD!
HotHardware.com and Viddler have teamed up to bring you a great contest and give-away! Upload a short video of yourself telling us about your own personal hardware or tech gear and why it enhances your world. You can upload the clip here or just click the webcam link on the contest page and shoot itآ live! Be creative, funny, inspiring, informational, whatever - and you could win a Flip UltraHD camcorder!
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MSI to Unleash Big Bang Gaming Series Mainboards
The first Big Bang branded mainboard, Trinergy is designed with eye-catching features such as NVIDIA SLI technology and QuantumWave audio processing with the latest THX TruStudio PC and Creative EAX ADVANCED HD 5.0 plus exclusive performance boost design from MSI. The Big Bang Trinergy also features cutting-edge 100% Hi-c Cap to maximizing system performance. This supreme component adopted for gaming machines can guarantee server-grade operation stability in an extreme condition. Besides, it is equipped with an external OC Dashboard that gives extreme gamers on-the-fly overclocking to optimize FPS without interrupting your session. If you’re into a little of amateur overclocking, with MSI’s exclusive chip-driven OC Genie, you can enjoy the convenience and hugely improved performance with a simple press of a button. Big Bang Fuzion
MSI to Unleash Big Bang Gaming Series Mainboards 
[City of Industry, CA] MSI, a leading high-performance mainboard company, unveil its first gaming series mainboards in Intel P55 platform featuring awe-inspiring graphics and audio functionality to offer serious gamers immersive gaming experience.
The state-of-the-art gaming line is inspired by the mighty Big Bang. Unique and innovative, the all-new Big Bang series will deliver the shock and awe of unprecedented experiences and expand into its own collection of galaxies.
Powered by NVIDIA nForce 200 SLI processor, the Trinergy offers extreme gamers the most powerful graphics-intensive capability up to triple graphics configuration. Aimed at gamers and enthusiasts seeking cinematic enjoyment, QuantumWave audio card is designed to plunge you into the heart of the action, delivering the fullest audio experience for games, music and movies while remaining true to the source.
The upcoming Big Bang Fuzion mainboard features the powerful Lucid HYDRA engine, designed to support different Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) within a single system. This provides the first viable alternative to offerings from current graphics card vendors that offer identical multi-GPU specific solutions. It will be revealed before the end of 2009.
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Apple TV Gets 3.0 Software Update With iTunes Extras/iTunes LP Support
The Apple TV. Remember that? Yeah, that's Apple's little hobby device,or so it said once upon a time. And it's treating it exactly like ahobby, not updating it but once every blue moon. Thankfully for thosewho actually own one, the company today released the first majorsoftware update for it in what feels like forever, but it's a bigupdate. In fact, it's taking things to 3.0, and whenever Apple jumpsall the way to a new digit on the left side of the decimal, it'sdefinitely worth paying attention to.The new 3.0 software brings along a redesigned main menu, a largeselection of on-demand HD movie rentals/TV shows and newfound supportfor iTunes Extras and iTunes LP. There's also support for Genius Mixesand and Internet radio streaming. As usual, this update is free ofcharge for existing Apple TV owners, while those looking to buy in canpick up a box with a 160GB HDD for $229.
Apple also upgraded its iTunes software for Mac/PC to 9.0.2 in order toadd support for Apple TV 3.0, so now your computer and Apple TV willcontinue to work seamlessly together. Still, with services like Vuduand Netflix out there, we have to wonder if the demand for the Apple TVis on the decline. The device hasn't been in the spotlight for a long,long time, and we don't really see it jumping back in there withoutsome sort of killer app. Who knows--maybe this thing was just destinedto remain a hobby.
“The new software for Apple TV features a simpler and faster interfacethat gives you instant access to your favorite content,†said Eddy Cue,Apple’s vice president of Internet Services. “HD movies and HD TV showsfrom iTunes have been a huge hit with Apple TV customers, and withApple TV 3.0 they get great new features including iTunes Extras,Genius Mixes and Internet radio.â€
The redesigned main menu on Apple TV gives you instant access toyour favorite content. Recently rented or purchased movies, as well asother content including TV shows, music, podcasts, photos and YouTube,are accessible directly from the new main menu. The new software alsoallows Apple TV users to enjoy stunning fullscreen iTunes Extras andiTunes LP, including great new movie titles such as “Star Trek†orclassics like “The Wizard of Oz†and albums such as Taylor Swift’s“Fearless (Platinum Edition)†and Jack Johnson’s “En Concert.†iTunesExtras gives movie fans great additional content such as deletedscenes, interviews and interactive galleries. iTunes LP is the nextevolution of the music album, delivering a rich, immersive experiencefor select albums on the iTunes Store by combining beautiful designwith expanded visual features like live performance videos, lyrics,artwork, liner notes, interviews, photos, album credits and more.
Now Apple TV users can enjoy Genius Mixes through their home theatersystem and listen to up to 12 endless mixes of songs that go greattogether, automatically generated from their iTunes library. Customerscan also enjoy Internet radio, allowing them to browse and listen tothousands of Internet radio stations, as well as tag favorite stationsto listen to later. Apple TV’s support of HD photos is enhanced withiPhoto Events, which simplifies finding your favorite photos on AppleTV, as well as iPhotoآ® Faces, which gives access to photos organized bypeople identified in iPhoto.
Apple TV users have direct access to a catalog of over 8,000Hollywood films on iTunes including over 2,000 in stunning HD videoavailable for rent or purchase. Users can also choose from a selectionof 11 million songs, 10,000 music videos and over 50,000 TV episodes topurchase directly from their Apple TV or browse and enjoy the iTunesStore podcast directory of over 175,000 free video and audio podcasts.Purchases downloaded to Apple TV are automatically synced back toiTunes on the user’s computer for enjoyment on their Macآ® or PC or allcurrent generation iPods or iPhones.* iPod touchآ® or iPhoneآ® users candownload the free Remote app from the App Store to control their AppleTV with a simple tap or flick of the finger.
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Sony's Power Problems Continue With Recall Of AC Adapters
It seems Sony's Vaio power problems aren't over yet. Almost a year after recalling 100,000 notebook batteries and 13 months after recalling almost a half-million notebooks due to overheating concerns, Sony and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a voluntary recall of about 69,000 Vaio AC adapters.Apparently, insulation inside of the AC adapters can fail over time, thereby posing an electrical shock hazard to consumers. So far, Sony has received four reports of adapters short-circuiting. None of the incidents have occurred in the U.S., and no injuries have been reported.
The AC adapter model that is affected by the recall is the Sony VGP-AC19V17. The adapter was sold over a four-year period from September 2005 to October 2009. The adapter was sold with the Vaio VGC-JS240, VGC-JS250, VGC-JS270, and VGC-JS290 series and the VGC-LT series all-in-one computers. The following notebook docking stations are also affected: VGP-PRFE1 and VGP-PRBX1.
Customers with an affected AC adapter should turn off their computers, unplug it, and stop using the recalled AC adapter. After you contact Sony, the company will arrange for a free replacement of the affected AC adapter.
To see if your adapter is included in the recall, visit Sony's Support page or call Sony toll-free at (877) 361-4481.
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eunoia's ASUS Xtreme Design Rig
Just last month I was asking if anyone knew how these i7 860 were overclocking.
Look here:
http://hothardware.com/cs/forums/p/45032/339853.aspx#339853
A performance i7 860 system is exactly what I'm interested in. It’s like the gods are screaming in my ears!
I’ve decided to try entering this contest with a store-bought case and possible after-market case mods. See:
http://hothardware.com/cs/forums/t/45418.aspx
Store-bought cases:
Epic but a bit pricey.
Great expandability.
Something by Mountain Mods
Same problem for the Mountain Mods case, it’s distinctive and functional, but I can’t wait a month for it to arrive.
Not sure what all the fuss is about on this one. Bigger is better? Do I need to hot-swap that much?
Nice open bench:
Microcool Banchetto 101
Sexy, and would be great for the performance testing, but not sure I want to live with it day to day.
I’m thinking of going with a black aluminum Coolermaster ATCS 840. Roomy, polyvalent, readily and quickly available, excellent cooling and top ventilation, lots of bang for the buck and damn good-looking, it will give me more options and I can get to work right away.
REMEMBER, REMEMBER THE 5TH OF NOVEMBER
Ahhh memories, well just memory actually, but what a great memory! G.Skill is providing DDR 2133 CL9 4GB TDS for this build. This sweet kit is almost overkill. Looking at the cooling fins and even higher mini-fan on the G.Skill DDR 2133 CL9 4GB TDS I see that a larger air CPU cooler horizontally might be tight in there. This may be G.Skill’s way of saying “Look at me! Now get out of my way!” Good, ‘cause I’m thinking water block anyway.
HOW COOL IS THAT?
All kidding aside, this is the section that really needs to bring the EXTREME in my opinion.
The ASUS P7P55D PREMIUM motherboard targets the overclocking enthusiast and a serious effort on CPU cooling is warranted in order to see what this board can do with a i7 860. Homemade cooling loop with Peltier devices? Liquid nitogen? Vapo-Chill 3000? Refrigerated system? Nice dreams, potential problem is, there are not a lot of places where I live that carry specialized cooling gear and there’s a major time factor to this build.
I’m going to have to hustle on this part, be super-organized and have a back-up plan in order to balance top-shelf water cooling with deadlines. This is not the type of build where you can go to the hardware store on weekends and resume building when the needed part comes in: There will be less than a month between delivery of components and the end of stage II and I’m pumped to demonstrate some building and overclocking effort. I wouldn’t want to be the one posting things like “Day 15: Fedex arrived with my water reservoir.” in my build’s worklog.
Some nice stuff:
CPU block:
Rad: 3X120mm, undecided
Pump: Danger Den/Laing DDC 3.25 -12V 18 Watt Version
Reservoir: EK-BAY SPIN Reservoir - Acetal
Hoses: Feser 1/2", something with style
Clamps:
Fittings:
Themal paste: Arctic Silver 5, Shin-Etsu G-751, Innovative Cooling Diamond 7, all good stuff.
Back up: At minimum, I’m going with a
This must rock, oh yes.
My main goal with this build is to show that even a novice builder/overclocker using quality components and ASUS TurboV Evo can bring out the potential of Intel’s latest CPUs (in less than a month!). There’s a magic number here, I’ll give you a hint: it’s a round number, stone stable after an hour of Prime95. ASUS is giving away a shot at it. I want to take that shot. Oh baby.
POWER PLANT
Antec TruePowerQuattro 850 Watt PSU
Not much more to say here, the provided PSU is all one could wish for and guarantees no problems on the power side. Hot looking high-quality powerful power supply. Modular cables make for cleaner, more efficient cable management. I was going to budget some precious time to do some sleeving if this arrived before I was fully ready to build, but Antec has done this already. Thanks Antec, seriously, one less thing to worry about.
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT AHEAD
Nvidia has sponsored an ASUS GTX260 GPU:
Hot graphics card with a hot chick on it. What could be hotter? I’m thinking twins. One on top of the other. Get your mind out of the gutter, I’m talking SLI baby, with the gaming keyboard and mouse provided by RAZER
it would be difficult to not play with myself (and others, you know, at LAN parties) every day. Not sure if this is against the rules, but I’d really like to trade this card up and spend my way higher on Nvidia’s ladder. Yes, I’m that extreme.
TAKE IT TO THE BANK
Samsung has sponsored a 128GB SSD 
SSDs are sort of a new kid on the block, but there’s no doubt that they’re game changers.
You all saw the Samsung video right?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96dWOEa4Djs
Can you say life in the fast lane? Huge 128GB capacity means an operating system and a whole lot of programs. I’m curious to see how fast big music software programs like Ableton and Reason will run on this and the new chip and mobo. When budget allows a second one in RAID 0 will be even more insanely blistering fast, and adding a second 1TB WD Caviar Black to the one I have in RAID 1 and fuhghettaboutit. Iron clad. I wouldn’t be thinking about storage for a long time after this.
DRIVE, SHE SAID
Yeah, I didn’t forget, a SATA DVD burner. $30. Whatevs. O.K. done. Not feeling the Blu-Ray quite yet.
A WINDOW, HOPEFULLY NOT TO JUMP OUT OF
Windows 7 Pro
MUST. BE. MORE. EXTREME.
I’ve spent way less than even my pitsy computer budget and this dream build already has me drooling. I’ve saved a bit more than that for a new rig so I could still be convinced to spend. Hmmmm, what on?
My current system has a separate sound card for playing around with music software and recording, but it’s outdated, and looking at the specs for the ASUS P7P55D PREMIUM colour me intrigued. My current card certainly doesn’t have 10-channel HD audio and incoming noise filtering. Is onboard sound building itself a reputation here? Hope to hear what that’s all about, it may turn out to be enough for my needs.
I also have a fairly new 22" 1680x1050 monitor but, you’ll laugh if you have bigger and better, it’s still pretty awesome to me after a 19" CRT. Dual GTX 260s will drive this like a madman. No hurry for upgrades here either.
Speakers? It’s taken care of.
Full circle back to cases. Notice all the time I spent speculating on cases in the rejected concepts thread? Performance is way more important to me than looks, but even with a sexy store-bought case, I’m showing more build purchasing judgment than creativity. Case mods aren’t something I know a lot about, but I have reading about them online a lot lately, just for fun. It would be nice to have a rig worth blinging up. If you read my rejects, I’m sort of ribbing mnpctech.com about their recent rusty cyberpunk case mods, but seriously, their work is nothing short of amazing. They even generously show you how they do it and post tutorials. Look at this worklog for a mod using the same case I’m proposing:
District 9 Worklog
I’m not a pro like they are, but I think after performance is up to snuff, I’d definitely go here to buy bling and steal modding ideas.
That’s it for now, subject to all sorts of changes before it’s final. I just realize I didn’t post any sketches or videos.
Sketches? I can sketch like nobody’s business. Here’s a sketch of me opening my winning delivery from ASUS. Could happen. See how happy that kid looks?
http://www.eunoia.com/awesomebox.bmp
That’s either excited steam or cauliflower shooting out of my ears.
The next stage winners have to blog engagingly. Not much to show you as of yet, but here’s what’s on my mind:
http://www.youtube.com/v/Axh6mmExZLU
Yeah, I hate to see a grown man beg too, but it’s worse to see him cry.
Wish me luck, and thanks ASUS for even just the dream.
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Nelson's Extreme design
Sorry no fancy name for this concept. So after going over this for a couple days in my head I came to the realization that this board is already loaded with features and stuff to make it unique. So coming up with a creative idea to enhance an already very creative design by Asus wasn't easy especially considering I wouldn't have several months to put together an extensive mod. This would have to be something I could do very easily and also on the cheap. My proposal is to make this features simple to use and to get to. Nothing is more annoying then to constantly taking the side off your case and fiddling inside that cramped space to use some of these on the fly features like the Memok and the overvoltage switch. Some cases come with removable MB trays but you still have to disconnect just about everything to pull it out and you certainly can't do it with the system still running. Some like to use open air cases for this reason. While not a bad idea, they don't exactly protect your components and aren't a good idea for lan parties.
My concept is simple. Install rollers and mount the MB tray to them so you can just slid the tray out the back of the case with everything still connected. Heck you don't even need to turn off your system. Even something as simple as adding ram or expansion cards just became even simpler. This would not require a great deal of modding. The key though is arranging everything mainly the cabling as to not damage any components or come loose when opening or closing the tray. Yes it can be done and without the case being a cluttered mess. To prove it I will do it with a clear acrylic case in which you can see everything. Provided I make the top 20 of course.
The case I picked for this is the Sunbeam UFO case. I would need to cutout the back part of the case that I want to slide out with the MB tray (I/O shield and expansion slots). I then would remove the MB tray and and also cut the 5.25" bays down a bit. I would then install the roller arms on the sides and mount the MB tray to it. A couple little more mods here and there to secure the cables to the MB tray so they don't come unplugged during motion and thats it. Plain and simple. I could easily do the same adding watercooling or even use a metal case both of which would require a little more time and money. Unfortunately both of them I would be short of for this project.
Oh and as far as helping me and my system daily this board just rocks with tons of features for me to play with. Mainly overclocking and stability. Who couldn't use that!
So here's a "rough" sketch of the "extensive" amount of work it would take.
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