IT News HeadLines (Tech Report) 02/10/2010

Corsair's HS1 gaming headset
Corsair has ventured into uncharted waters with its HS1 gaming headset. Is the HS1 worth the $100 asking price, and does it handle music as well as games?
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Latest Republic of Gamers motherboard has Lucid Hydra chip
Have you ever thought that Asus' high-end Republic of Gamers motherboards weren't quite... extreme enough? If so, you're in luck, because the company has just added a new model dubbed the ROG Crosshair IV Extreme. Behold: The Extreme's quite a looker, and the...
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Trailer released for free Left 4 Dead expansion
A new chapter in Valve's Left 4 Dead series is less than a week away. Due October 5, The Sacrifice will be available to folks with the original game or its sequel. The official trailer was released a few hours ago, and you can view it below.
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Deal of the week: An SSD and a cheap, jumbo-sized laptop
Although the pace of new solid-state drive releases has slowed considerably over the past few months, prices are still going down. Take OCZ's 60GB, SandForce-based Agility 2 SSD, for instance. The drive now sells for $139.99 shipped at Newegg, and if you don't mind filling a mail-in rebate form...
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Google goes after JPEG with WebP format
Apparently, Google isn't done trying to take over the Internet. After announcing the WebM video format earlier this year, the company has now revealed another, similar project: WebP, which is meant to replace JPEG as the standard for lossy image compression on the web. No kidding. Google has
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Chinese National Day Shortbread
Eight is Enough iSuppli trims 2010 semiconductor forecast amid softening demand, rising stockpiles hp PR: Léo Apotheker named CEO and president of hp C|Net: Memo from Yahoo CEO's 'foxhole' confirms Yahoo exec departures and Comcast takes free anti-botnet service nationwide DSLReports: Levin wants to wire 97% of...
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Release roundup: Gaming on the go... and some thumb drives
This week in our roundup of new product launches, we bring news from Antec, Origin PC, and Super Talent: Antec releases one-of-a-kind open-air chassis: the LanBoy Air. We actually saw an early prototype of this bad boy at Computex 2009,...
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Settlement site for Nvidia class-action suit appears
If one of your notebooks is misbehaving or kicked the bucket because of the whole Nvidia bumpgate debacle, you might be entitled to compensation, thanks to the time-honored American tradition of class-action litigation. A website with the domain nvidiasettlement.com has opened up, and it aims to "inform Settlement...
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Zombies stagger into several new games
Zombies have an undying hunger for braaains... and appearances in video games. Western sandbox Red Dead Redemption will become the latest title to incorporate zombies with a new Undead Nightmare DLC, and it's not the only one. Most Borderlands fans have probably already visited The Zombie...
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Texas Instruments USB 3.0 controller has four ports
Add Texas Instruments to the growing list of companies developing USB 3.0 controllers. SemiAccurate caught a glimpse of several SuperSpeed devices during IDF, including a USB-to-SATA bridge chip, a four-port hub, and a PCI Express card with four ports of its own. The latter is particularly interesting...
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AMD's Barts Pro, XT may replace the Radeon HD 5800 series
When detailed specifications for AMD's upcoming Barts Pro and XT graphics cards (a.k.a. the Radeon HD 6750 and 6770) leaked out earlier this week, I said all we needed now was some pricing information. The folks at Fudzilla aren't quoting any figures, but their latest Barts-related story provides some...
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Acer Taiwan chief: Netbooks will live on
With slates squeezing in from one side and consumer ultraportables exerting pressure from the other, netbooks don't have a whole lot of breathing room lately—and things will only get worse as more slates come out over the next few months. Still, Acer Taiwan President Scott Lin doesn't expect the netbook...
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Slick-looking BitFenix Survivor case coming in November
BitFenix's first entry in the PC enclosure business was a tad garish, but I've gotta say, the company's new Survivor case looks downright slick. And internally, it resembles the Corsair 600T we reviewed last month, with cable routing holes, a bottom-mounted PSU, and two modular, sideways-mounted hard...
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New, entry-level Corsair power supplies start at $49.99
Corsair power supplies have earned many accolades from the enthusiast press, and they tend to be priced accordingly—rather high, that is. With its freshly introduced Builder Series PSUs, however, Corsair seems to be trying to attract more cash-strapped shoppers. The cheapest unit in the new series, the 430W CX430, has...
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