IT News Head Lines (TechSpot) 10/05/2013

Blizzard implements fix for gold duplication bug in Diablo III
Diablo III’s woes continue as the gold and real-money auction houses have been taken offline by Blizzard after a bug was discovered in the latest patch. Said exploit allowed players to duplicate gold in the auction house with some using the bug to generate billions of in-game currency within minutes. ...







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Nielsen to include Internet viewers for the first time in TV ratings system
Nielsen, the television ratings giant that determines how successful shows are by measuring viewership, is finally going to start including the millions of households that stream media to their computers, set-top boxes, game consoles, and other streaming devices.







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Android 4.3 Jelly Bean spotted in the wild, expected next week
The next version of Google’s mobile operating system is already in the wild according to a number of reports around the web. Android 4.3 Jelly Bean hasn’t been officially announced yet but is already being field tested – effectively pushing back the launch date of Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie...







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Minecraft gets Oculus Rift support via third-party mod
Oculus Rift, the virtual reality visor that came into fruition after an incredibly successful Kickstarter campaign last summer is still making waves around the internet. If you are one of the lucky few to own a headset unit -- or have one on preorder -- and happen to be be...







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Spotify patches web player exploit that allowed free MP3 downloads
Spotify recently patched an exploit that allowed Chrome users to download any of the company’s 20 million songs free and clear. By using a browser extension called Downloadify, subscribers were able to take advantage of an exploit (or simple lack of security) in Spotify’s web player.







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Google Glass receives over-the-air XE5 software update, brings new features
Google has been busy as of late adding new features for the small coterie of people who purchased the limited quantity of Google Glass Explorer Edition last month. Among them is an app that will allow users to send pictures directly from the Glass camera to Twitter, and although unofficial,...







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ASRock Haswell boards to feature waterproofing, better audio, 802.11ac
Through a recently published teaser on its website, ASRock has shed some light on its upcoming range of Haswell-based motherboards. One feature, in particular, may surprise you though: waterproofing. That's right -- ASRock is planning to waterproof some of its Intel 8 boards.







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Google Fiber is heading to another Kansas City suburb
Add another city to the ever expanding list of those slated to receive Google Fiber as the search giant recently announced plans to deliver the speedy Internet service to another Kansas City suburb. The Board of Aldermen in Grandview, Missouri, located directly south of Kansas City, voted unanimously to bring...







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Syria back online after 20-hour outage, 'cable malfunction' to blame?
Last night, for the second time in roughly six months, the people of Syria saw their online ties to the outside world completely severed across the nation. Umbrella Security Labs, the threat research division of OpenDNS first reported the drop in both inbound and outbound traffic from Syria, noting the...







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Yahoo eyes Hulu acquisition after failed Dailymotion bid
If at first you don’t succeed, try try again. That’s the proverb Marissa Mayer is singing as of late following the company’s failed attempt to acquire a controlling stake in video streaming site DailyMotion in an effort to boost Yahoo’s international video presence. ...







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Google to unveil new Maps interface at I/O conference next week
Google is reportedly planning to unveil an all-new look for Google Maps during the company’s annual I/O conference set to kick off next week. The new interface will deliver full-screen maps with no sidebars or other distractions to eat up valuable real estate. Instead, everything will be displayed in floating...





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Google to unveil new Maps inteface at I/O conference next week
Google is reportedly planning to unveil an all-new look for Google Maps during the company’s annual I/O conference set to kick off next week. The new interface will deliver full-screen maps with no sidebars or other distractions to eat up valuable real estate. Instead, everything will be displayed in floating...







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T-Mobile sells 500,000 iPhone 5s in first month, quarterly profits drop
T-Mobile has just released its earnings report for the first quarter of 2013, offering a first look at the company's iPhone 5 sales since it began carrying the device about a month ago. The self-procalimed 'uncarrier' was able to move 500,000 iPhones in that time, which is not bad, but...







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Microsoft to Adobe: People not ready to give up on stand-alone software
Adobe recently announced that it's no longer going to sell stand-alone versions of Creative Suite or its individual components, instead choosing to offer the software as part of cloud subscription packages only. Microsoft started offering something similar with Office 365, but unlike Adobe, the company feels that the transition needs...







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Fix Windows folder unresponsive/slow behavior, green loading bar
Tech Tip of the Week An old Windows fix for an equally ancient Windows issue that unfortunately is still present in the latest versions of Windows 7 and Windows 8. This unresponsive/slowdown behavior is typically seen when browsing the "Downloads" folder, so it's very likely it's happened to you as...







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"Dead in five years": The reports of the tablet's demise are greatly exaggerated
There are wildly differing viewpoints on whether or not the tablet is on its way out, as you might guess. One perspective is that of the smartphone taking over what the tablet does; which is basically content consumption and creation, albeit the latter on a more limited scale than, say,...







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Government lab admits to running "quantum internet" for years
A government-owned lab in Los Alamos claims it has been running a "quantum internet" for more than two years, MIT Technology Review reports. Researchers worked around the traditional difficulties of interlinking quantum-based networks by creating something of a classical-quantum network hybrid.





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Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon Review

'The game is stupid,' Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon creative director Dean Evans proudly proclaimed during a recent press event — not foolish pride, but pride in foolishness. The story unfolds through a series of 2D cutscenes that wouldn't be out-of-place in an NES-era adventure (well, except for the foul language and... other things). And when those scenes end, it's into a day-glo nightmare from the early days of MTV.







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Samsung Galaxy S 4 Review

If the Galaxy S III was Samsung's crowning achievement, the Galaxy S 4 is the first defense of the throne. Arriving on the heels of one rival's flagship, the Galaxy S 4 will prove whether Samsung is continuing its trend of advancement or becoming just as predictable as the old guard that it mocked. So naturally we must ask: just how good is the Samsung Galaxy S 4?







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AMD Radeon HD 7990 Review

Although it's been over a year since AMD launched the Radeon HD 7970, we are just getting an official dual-GPU version. The Radeon HD 7990 takes a pair of 7970 GPUs with overclocked cores and memory, packing 8.2 TFLOPS computer power, 6GB GDDR5 and an upgraded PEX bridge to connect the two GPUs.







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Sapphire Edge VS8 Mini PC Review

The idea of shrinking hardware hasn't been overlooked by manufacturers as several are now feature space-saving designs based on mobile hardware. Such is the case with Sapphire's new Edge VS8 mini-PC powered by AMD's A8 APU.







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GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost & SLI Performance Review

At $170, the GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost sits between the Radeon HD 7790 and the 7850. In terms of performance, we actually expect the GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost to be a lot faster than the GTX 650 Ti, even when it's based on the same GK106 architecture.







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LG Lucid 2 Smartphone Review

The Lucid 2 sports 4G LTE, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, plenty of software additions courtesy of LG, and a favorable price for someone looking for a new Android smartphone. You may be surprised to learn how tall the Lucid 2 can stand against the rest of the mid-range pack.







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History of the Modern Graphics Processor, Part 4

Before 2006 there was no point in adding undue complexity to GPUs by enlarging the die area. With DX10's arrival, vertex and pixel shaders maintained a large level of common function, so moving to a unified shader arch eliminated a lot of unnecessary duplication of processing blocks. The first GPU to utilize this architecture was Nvidia's iconic G80.







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LG 29EA93 Review: Are Ultra Wide Monitors Next?

The 29EA93 is LG's first entry into the nascent category of ultra-wide consumer displays. While the 29EA93 seems suitably equipped to watch movies with its expansive 21:9 aspect ratio, how does it fare against other types of computer use? Could it be a worthy replacement for your trusty dual-monitor setup?







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History of the Modern Graphics Processor, Part 3

With the turn of the century the graphics industry bore witness to further consolidation. Where 3dfx was once a byword for raw performance, its strengths before its dismissal laid in its full screen antialiasing image quality. By the time 2001 dawned, the PC graphics market consisted of a discrete card duopoly (Nvidia and ATI), with both of them in addition to Intel supplying the vast majority of integrated graphics chipsets.







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Synology DiskStation DS2413+ NAS Review

The DS2413+ is Synology's newest twelve-bay DiskStation NAS for small to medium sized businesses who need loads of storage. Along with supporting up to 48TB worth of drives out of the box, the DS2413+ can be paired with the company's DX1211 expansion enclosure that houses an extra 12 drives, doubling the maximum storage capacity of the base unit to a whopping 96TB.







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History of the Modern Graphics Processor, Part 2

Voodoo Graphics revolutionized personal computer graphics nearly overnight and rendered many other designs obsolete, including a vast swathe of 2D-only graphics producers. The 3D landscape in 1996 favoured S3 with around 50% of the market. That was to change soon, however. It was estimated that 3Dfx accounted for 80-85% of the 3D accelerator market during the heyday of Voodoo's reign.







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BioShock Infinite Performance, Benchmarked

Along with DX11 effects, folks playing Bioshock Infinite on PC can look forward to higher resolution textures and a healthy range of customization. Infinite comes with six graphical presets that cover a broad performance spectrum, not to mention individual control over settings like anti-aliasing, texture detail and filtering, dynamic shadows, post-processing, and so on.







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Razer Edge Pro Gaming Tablet Review

Like many PC gamers, I've often wished a machine capable of putting the power of a gaming rig in a portable device. After a week with Razer's new Edge gaming tablet, I realize what I really wanted was to play Bioshock Infinite in the bathroom without burning my thighs. All hail Razer, deliverer of dreams.







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The History of the Modern Graphics Processor

While 3D graphics turned a fairly dull PC industry into a light and magic show, they owe their existence to generations of innovative endeavour. Over the next few weeks we'll be taking an extensive look at the history of the GPU, going from the early days of 3D consumer graphics, to the 3Dfx Voodoo game-changer, the industry's consolidation at the turn of the century, and today's modern GPGPU.







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BioShock Infinite Review

You haven't been to a place like this before. The fictional floating city where Infinite is set is all clockwork platforms and brass gears, its many sections populated with hucksters, strivers, lovers and schoolchildren. One minute, you're walking past a sheer drop, the next a park swings down into the open space.







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AMD Radeon HD 7790 Review

The latest member of the Southern Islands family, the new Radeon HD 7790 is designed to fill the gap between the Radeon HD 7770 and 7850. Set to precisely target the $150 price tag, the HD 7790 should be an affordable solution that provides good value to gamers on a budget.







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SimCity Performance, Benchmarked

A city with few sims will see graphics cards such as the GeForce Titan or GTX 680 render massive frame rates because they are not being capped by the CPU (yet). As with most simulation and strategy games, SimCity is CPU dependent and overclocking should result in a healthy boost if needed. SimCity is not a game for showing off high-end GPUs as the cheaper 660 Ti and 7870 alternatives can work just as well for the most part.







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StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm Review

The game - not the interactive story, but the set of rules and conditions that form the basis of StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm - has grown into a classic, an eternally replayable e-sport that you could seriously compare to chess or even football without making people snicker.







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Acer Iconia W510 Hybrid Tablet Review

Hybrids are the optimal home for Windows 8 as both aspects of the OS are in use and get to shine as they were designed to. That brings us to the Acer Iconia W510 hybrid tablet, which can be essentially converted into a full-fledged PC with its keyboard dock - no Windows RT here, folks.







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Tomb Raider Performance Test: Graphics & CPU

Tomb Raider on the PC supports DirectX 11, which brings access to advanced rendering technologies absent on current-gen consoles such as depth of field, HD ambient occlusion, hardware tessellation. Additionally, compared to the diluted console versions, the PC build offers better textures as well as AMD's TressFX real-time hair physics system.







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SimCity Review

This brave new multiplayer SimCity grants me the focus I need to once again lose myself in the minutiae of running a virtual town. Maxis' latest creation is easily the most compelling SimCity I've played since the 1989 original. It's also a disaster.







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Gigabyte GeForce GTX Titan Review

After wearing the single-GPU performance crown for 12 months, the GTX 680 has been dethroned by the new GTX Titan. The Titan carries a GK110 GPU with a transistor count that has more than doubled from the GTX 680's to a staggering 7.1 billion The part has 25% to 50% more resources at its disposal, including 2688 stream processors (up 75%), 224 texture units (also up 75%) and 48 raster operations (a healthy 50% boost).







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Tablets of 2013: Nexus vs. Surface vs. iPad

The tablet market doesn't look very different than it did a year ago from the perspective of who's doing well and who's not. Perhaps the most exciting developments came towards the end of 2012: Google released the Nexus 10 and updated the Nexus 7, Apple launched a smaller and cheaper iPad mini, while Microsoft went all in with the Surface RT and Pro.







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Crysis 3 Performance Test: Graphics & CPU

Crytek has given us another opportunity to hammer some hardware with the arrival of Crysis 3. Though this time PC gamers won't have to wait for graphical extras. Crysis 3 boasts of high-resolution textures, DX11 support and plenty of customization options that set it apart from the diluted consoles builds. The result looks incredible.







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Crysis 3 Review

I've always had a soft spot for the Crysis series. Crysis 3, unfortunately, spends most of its time lost in the weeds. There's plenty of hunting, but it's sporadic, and changes made to the formula combine with dodgy AI and odd level-design to make the whole thing feel uncomfortable and ungainly.







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Diablo III Patch 1.0.8.16416
Download the latest patch for Diablo 3.




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BlackBerry Link 1.1.0.42
Access, sync and organize your content, such as music and photos, between your BlackBerry(R) 10 device and your computer.




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Google Chrome 27.0.1453.81 Beta for Windows
Google Chrome's development is high-paced and here's their latest beta.




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Hornil StylePix 1.12.3
StylePix is an image editor that has all the features of raster graphics editor and adhered to lightweight design and effective UI. In addition, it has a built-in image viewer and batch processor.




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Komodo Edit 8.0.2-12590
Komodo Edit is a multi-language editor that makes writing quality code extremely easy. Komodo Edit provides editing for dynamic languages including Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby and Tcl; plus support for browser-side code including JavaScript, CSS, HTML and XML.




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Google Chrome 27.0.1453.81 Beta for Mac OS X
Google Chrome runs web pages and applications with lightning speed.




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Google Chrome 27.0.1453.81 Beta for Linux
Google Chrome runs web pages and applications with lightning speed.




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Prey 0.6.0
Prey lets you keep track of your phone or laptop at all times, and will help you find it if it ever gets lost or stolen.




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RoboForm 7.8.9.5
RoboForm is a free password manager and one-click web form filler with some serious Artificial Intelligence.




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WinZip 17.5.10480
WinZip is bar none, the most popular and useful file compression utility out there.




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Lunascape 6.8.4
Lunascape ORION is a simple, easy to use browser for Windows, downloaded more than 20 million times worldwide.




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RoboForm2Go 7.8.9.5
Saves online passwords, automatically logs in, fills forms, works from USB disk.




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DiskSavvy 5.1.14
DiskSavvy is a disk space analyzer allowing one to analyze local disks, network shares and NAS storage devices.




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SpeedBit Video Accelerator 3.3.7.8
Makes your videos stream faster and play smoother by reducing buffering problems and video interruptions or "hiccups".




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eXtreme Movie Manager 8.0.5.7
It lets you catalog any video formats such as DivX DVD, VHS, SVHS, VCD or LaserDisc with detailed information.




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XYplorer 12.40.0100
Multi-tabbed dual pane file manager for Windows, featuring a powerful file search, a versatile preview, and a highly customizable interface.




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SafeIP 2.0.0.1010
Hide your IP address and protect your online identity with SafeIP.




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AMD Radeon RAMDisk 4.1
AMD Radeon RAMDisk harnesses the untapped potential of your system's memory to deliver lightning reading and writing speed and dramatically accelerate the loading and processing times of games, web browsers and software suites.




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Maintenance 1.6.5 for Mac OS X
System Maintenance and Cleaning utility for Mac OS X.




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SyMenu 2.04.4873
SyMenu is a portable menu launcher that allows to organize and find your portable applications in a quick and easy way.




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MP3jam 1.1.0.0
Free MP3jam is a software for Windows that helps users find and download MP3 files for free and without limitations.




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GeekUninstaller 1.1.1.15
Standard removal program leaves tons of leftovers on your PC. GeekUninstaller performs deep and fast scanning afterwards and removes all leftovers.




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Efficient Sticky Notes 3.50.334
hrow away the traditional paper sticky notes and start using the powerful and unqiue Efficient Sticky Notes.




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Wise Registry Cleaner 7.69
Wise Registry Cleaner is one of the safest Registry cleaning tools available in the market today.




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8StartButton 1.2.2
Somebody removed it, we bring it back: a Windows 8 start button + start menu.




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AMD Mobility Catalyst Display Driver 12.4 for Windows Vista/7 64-bit
Driver Date: 4/25/2012 OS Support: Windows Vista / 7 64-bit



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AMD Mobility Catalyst Display Driver 12.4 for Windows Vista/7 32-bit
Driver Date: 4/25/2012 OS Support: Windows Vista / 7



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AMD Catalyst Display Driver 12.4 for Windows Vista/7 64-bit
Driver Date: 4/25/2012 OS Support: Windows Vista / 7 64-bit



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AMD Catalyst Display Driver 12.4 for Windows Vista/7 32-bit
Driver Date: 4/25/2012 OS Support: Windows Vista / 7



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AMD Catalyst Display Driver 12.4 for Windows XP 64-bit
Driver Date: 4/25/2012 OS Support: Windows XP 64-bit



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AMD Catalyst Display Driver 12.4 for Windows XP
Driver Date: 4/25/2012 OS Support: Windows XP



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Realtek 10/100M Fast Ethernet PCI Express Driver 7.053 for Windows 7
Driver Date: 3/22/2012 OS Support: Windows 7



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Realtek 10/100/100M Gigabit Ethernet PCI Driver 5.719 for Windows XP
Driver Date: 3/22/2012 OS Support: Windows 2000/XP



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Realtek Wireless LAN ICs IEEE 802.11b/g/n RTL8188SU Driver 1086.48
Driver Date: 4/19/2012 OS Support: Windows XP/Vista/7



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Realtek Wireless LAN ICs IEEE 802.11b/g/n RTL8192SU Driver 1086.48
Driver Date: 4/19/2012 OS Support: Windows XP/Vista/7



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Realtek Wireless LAN ICs IEEE 802.11b/g/n RTL8191SU Driver 1086.48
Driver Date: 4/19/2012 OS Support: Windows XP/Vista/7



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Cisco Linksys E1500 Firmware 1.0.04
Driver Date: 3/28/2012 OS Support: Windows XP/Vista/7



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Nvidia GeForce Graphics Driver 301.24 Beta for Windows 7 32-bit
Driver Date: 4/10/2012 OS Support: Windows Vista / 7



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Nvidia GeForce Graphics Driver 301.24 Beta for Windows XP 64-bit
Driver Date: 4/10/2012 OS Support: Windows XP 64-bit



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Nvidia GeForce Notebook Graphics Driver 301.24 Beta for Windows Vista/7 32-bit
Driver Date: 4/10/2012 OS Support: Windows Vista / 7



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Nvidia GeForce Graphics Driver 301.24 Beta for Windows 7 64-bit
Driver Date: 4/10/2012 OS Support: Windows Vista / 7 64-bit



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Nvidia GeForce Graphics Driver 301.24 Beta for Windows XP 32-bit
Driver Date: 4/10/2012 OS Support: Windows XP



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Nvidia GeForce Notebook Graphics Driver 301.24 Beta for Windows Vista/7 64-bit
Driver Date: 4/10/2012 OS Support: Windows Vista / 7 64-bit



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Cisco Linksys E2500 Firmware 1.0.04
Driver Date: 4/9/2012 OS Support: Windows (all)



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Realtek PCIe FE GBE Family Controller Series Driver 6.250 for Windows Vista
Driver Date: 4/3/2012 OS Support: Windows Vista



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Realtek PCIe FE GBE Family Controller Series Driver 7.053 for Windows 7
Driver Date: 4/3/2012 OS Support: Windows 7



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Realtek PCIe FE GBE Family Controller Series Driver 5.794 for Windows 2000/XP
Driver Date: 4/3/2012 OS Support: Windows 2000/XP



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Realtek HD ALC 880 Audio CODECs R2.68 for Windows Vista/7 64-bit
Driver Date: 4/2/2012 OS Support: Windows Vista / 7 64-bit



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Realtek HD ALC 880 Audio CODECs R2.68 for Windows Vista/7 32-bit
Driver Date: 4/2/2012 OS Support: Windows Vista / 7



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Realtek HD ALC 880 Audio CODECs R2.68 for Windows 2000/XP (32/64 bits)
Driver Date: 4/2/2012 OS Support: Windows 2000/XP



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