IT-Code-News: IT News HeadLines (Overclockers Club) 19/03/2010

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Canon to Acquire Custom Domain

Canon, well known manufacturer of consumer electronics and renowned for its top of the line cameras, has announced on Wednesday that it will be the first company to acquire a gTLD (generic Top Level Domain). In case you do not know, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) had voted back in February to allow any type of TLD - straying away from the traditional TLDs such as .com and .org - that is no longer than 64 characters long. Waiting for final approval, Canon will be able to acquire it no later than 2011. Don't worry about random users and the likes getting their hands on custom domains, as the application fee for one is a mighty $185,000. Web addresses appear to be getting ever more complicated and the new address should be accessible simply by entering http://canon .

Zero Cell Phone Charger Announced

Most cell phone chargers today do not offer energy efficiency, as the charger usually heats up when the phone is receiving electricity, or when the battery is finally full. This wastes energy, and usually costs the consumer more on their energy bill than what they already pay. AT&T is looking to change this with their Zero cell phone charger, which cuts off energy to the device when the phone is disconnected. The product features a USB interface, so that almost any charger can be used to make those battery bars fill up on any phone. There is currently not a price or release date set for the AT&T Zero, and it is not yet known either how much energy will be able to be saved overall.

New HTC Phone Coming to Sprint

Although it has yet to be formally announced, the HTC Supersonic will be the first phone on the Sprint network to take advantage of 4G service. Unfortunately, 4G service is only available to about 10% of the United States, but the phone will also be compatible with the 3G network. The phone will be powered by Android 2.1 with the HTC Sense user interface. The phone will feature a 4.3 inch touchscreen and a 1GHz Snapdragon processor. Other details regarding battery and camera quality weren't revealed in the leak. By taking advantage of 4G speeds, the phone will be able to average 2-4Mbps of download speed.

CoolIT Freezone Elite V2 Released

CoolIT has released the successor to the Freezone Elite, the Freezone Elite V2. The Freezone Elite V2 is a pre-assembled cooling solution which fuses air, liquid and thermoelectric technology for effective CPU cooling. The Freezone Elite V2 is made up of a nickel-plated copper waterblock to conduct heat from the CPU, an aluminum radiator measuring 121x82x65mm, a pump rated at 210 litres an hour, and a 120mm cooling fan running at 1100 to 2500 RPM. The Freezone Elite V2's pump has a noise output of under 15dBA, making it a quiet option for enthusiasts. It supports Intel Sockets LGA775, LGA1366 and AMD Sockets AM3 and AM2+. It's interesting to note that Socket LGA1156 isn't supported. This new offering from CoolIT should be available very soon and will retail for around US$465.

Dolby Surround Gets Minor Update

In the past, consumers that have bought or just used in general a surround sound setup, have always have a rough time in placing the rear speaker. This is especially problematic for users of 7.1 surround sound, when even more speakers are involved. Dolby has listened to these complaints for some time, and has released an update to their Dolby Surround 7.1 system, which provides a solution to where to place the rear speaker. Now, instead of just one speaker line being used for the rear speaker, there are two back lines, both left and right. Users of the surround sound system will now have the ability to have a left rear speaker, along with a right rear speaker, which will provide the most indulging and immersive experience, over the previous solution in a 7.1 setup.

Microsoft Loses First Round of Patent Infringement Case

It appears that Microsoft has lost the first round of its patent infringement case with VirnetX. VirnetX is claiming that Microsoft infringed on two networking patents held by it. VirnetX says that MS used its VPN patents in Windows Server 2003, XP, Vista, Live Communications Server, Windows Messenger, Office Communicator and several versions of Office. The case is underway in Texas where the jury has recommended MS pay $105.75 million to VirnetX for the infringement. Microsoft is, of course, appealing the verdict and it is unhappy with the outcome of the ruling. MS believes the patents are invalid and is hoping the court will overturn the jury's ruling. The U.S. District Court for this case is the same one used in the i4i versus Microsoft case in which MS had to pay over $200 million for another patent infringement.

VirnetX is seeking $242 million in damages for the infringement of its patents.

Google Nexus One Now on All Major Carriers

Google’s first foray into the smartphone business has been met with warm regard, and now it may see a larger share of the market. Just a day removed from AT&T selling the Nexus One, Sprint is now confirmed as a fourth carrier. The Nexus One first came out on T-Mobile, then Verizon announced it will carry the phone, and now both AT&T and Sprint will carry it to complete the circle of major carriers. Verizon is still saying it will have the phone sometime this spring so no word on an official launch has been made available. Sprint seems to be following the same suit since it did not mention a launch date or pricing of the Nexus One. Sprint just assures us it will be out soon, possibly around the same time Verizon rolls it out.

EVGA Dual CPU Motherboard Gets Official Launch; Named Classified SR-2

The dual 1366 socket motherboard that EVGA teased late last year and during CES in January has now been officially launched. The W555 codename has been dropped, with the board having the title of Classified Super Record 2 (SR-2) bestowed upon it. The name alone hints at what EVGA expects it to achieve once benchmarking enthusiasts start working their magic with it. The 15 inch x 13.6 inch "HPTX" form factor means that you get handfuls of everything (and difficulty finding a case to put it in). What is boils down to is this:

Dual 1366 sockets supporting Intel Xeon (5600/5500) Dual QPI Processors (up to 24 CPU Threads with 6 core models)
Intel 5520/ICH10R chipset
12 DIMM slots, for dual or triple-channel DDR3 1333MHz+ (up to 48GB of memory)
Support for SLI 2-way, 3-way, 4-way or CrossFireX
2 SATA 6 Gbps ports, 6 SATA 3 Gbps ports and 2 eSATA ports
2 Gigabit Ethernet ports
2 USB 3.0 ports and 10 USB 2.0 (6 I/O and 4 internal)
8 Phase PWM
7 PCIe slots in total

Of course, nobody was expecting any of this to come cheaply, so the $599.99 MSRP is hardly surprising. However, something that may not have been expected was for EVGA to launch a power supply along with the board. With the 1200W SR-2 PSU, EVGA is aiming to give you an obvious option when it comes to deciding what you are going to use to power your new six hundred dollar motherboard purchase. Just the basic details on the SR-2 PSU are available for now, but peak power of over 1500W and six +12V rails at 38 amps a piece can't hurt. You also get adjustable fan speed and an adjustable +12V rail (which I am going to assume actually means all of the +12V rails, as they are likely to derived from the same source inside the PSU anyway). Now all you have to do is justify all that expense to yourself / your other half (good luck with that!).

Xbox 360 Slim Rumors Begin to Pop Up

Photos have shown up on the A9VG forums of what some are speculating is a new Xbox 360 motherboard. Code-named Valhalla, the motherboard features a processor which combines the CPU and GPU of the 360 onto one chip. The motherboard is much smaller than the current generation, leading to rumors that an Xbox 360 Slim is on the horizon. The fact that Microsoft is currently seeking a motherboard design engineer adds fuel to the fire. Additionally, the new board lacks the hard drive port used by the 360, which would mean a new hard drive interface.

Official ASUS Rampage III Extreme Pictures Surface

ASUS recently added some marketing shots for the upcoming Rampage III Extreme motherboard, which show off the funky heatsink design and give clues as to what kind of specification we can expect. We do know that it is an X58 based socket 1366 board with support for triple channel memory and four PCI Express slots. You can also see from the press photos that there will be 6 Gbps SATA and USB 3.0, along with Bluetooth, Firewire and eSATA. The board will no doubt have plenty of potential for overclockers (with that bluetooth module allowing you to access features with a mobile phone).

ASUS is still keeping quiet with a detailed feature list, pricing and a release date for the moment, though with press shots going up it would seem like that can't be too far away.

AMD Phenom II X6 Final Specifications Leak

Next month at the end of April, AMD will be releasing the final pieces to its 'Leo' platform, its 890FX chipset and the new line-up of six-core processors. Codenamed Thuban, AMD will be releasing four variants which include the Phenom II X6 1035T, 1055T and the 1075T. According to TCMagazine, a BIOS leak has revealed the specifications of the upcoming processors:

Model	1035T	1055T	1075T
Fabrication Process	45 nm	45 nm	45 nm
Socket	AM3*	AM3*	AM3*
Memory Controller	DDR3*	DDR3*	DDR3*
Multiplier	13x Locked	14x Locked	15x Unlocked
Stock Speed	2600 MHz	2800 MHz	3000 MHz
TDP	95 W	95 W/125 W	125 W
L2 Cache	3 MB	3 MB	3 MB
L3 Cache	6 MB	6 MB	6 MB

* There has been no information at all to whether there will be support for socket AM2+.

New NVIDIA 197.13 Drivers Fix Fan Speed Issue

As reported earlier this month some users reported issues with the fan speed control on their GeForce graphics cards after upgrading to the 196.75 drivers. In most cases, reverting back to the 196.21 drivers resolved this issue. Today NVIDIA has announced the release of the new 197.13 drivers that have resolved all the issues regarding fan speed control. The new drivers can be found here:

Windows 7 and Windows Vista (32-bit)
Windows 7 and Windows Vista (64-bit)
Windows XP (32-bit)
Windows XP (64-bit)

NVIDIA is encouraging any GeForce user who has questions about their board as a result of downloading the 195.75 drivers to contact their board manufacturer and anyone needing assistance in contacting their board supplier can contact NVIDIA Customer Care.

Friday, March 19, 2010

IT News HeadLines (Overclockers Club) 19/03/2010

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