IT-Code-News: IT News HeadLines (TechConnect Magazine) 12/09/2009

Catalyst 9.9 now available
Making the weekend a little nicer for Radeon owners, AMD has now rolled out this month's Catalyst drivers. The 9.9 release includes the Radeon 8.65 display driver, has support for the Radeon HD 2000, HD 3000 and HD 4000 series cards, and while it doesn't come with any new features, it resolves the following bugs:

All

- Catalyst Control Center - Basic now responds properly after exiting Quick Adjust Video Settings
- Edge enhancement and de-noise sliders in Catalyst Control Center no longer lags or appears out of sync with mouse movement
- Launching Hotkeys Manager in Catalyst Control Center no longer causes an unhandled exception error
- The "Desktop Rotation" page in Catalyst Control Center no longer shows additional information for the second display when the secondary adapter is connected
- HDMI is now detected properly as DTV (HDMI) instead of DTV (DVI) when the HDMI display is hotplugged for the first time
- Catalyst Control Center no longer displays error message when specific HDMI displays are hot unplugged and hotplugged back

Windows 7

- Intermittent failures no longer occur with MediaShow Espresso once a transcoding process has been completed

Vista

- Running OpenGL applications in windowed mode on extended desktop no longer causes the secondary display to go blank for some ASICs
- Task switching between the desktop and a game in progress no longer has a visible delay (7-10 seconds)
- Enabling Screen Space Ambient Occlusion option in "Rid**** 2 Dark Athena" no longer causes the game to fail under Multi-GPU configurations
- Catalyst Control Center no longer shows both HDMI displays as DVI when they are connected via HDMI port and to DVI port via HDMI-DVI dongle
- Windows Aero Glass Effects now works properly during HD Blu-ray playback

Windows XP

- Resuming video playback after S1 sleep no longer causes HDMI audio to disappear
- Changes to AVIVO Basic color settings are now retained after Catalyst Control Center is re-opened
- AVIVO Basic color setting changes can now be applied during HD DVD playback on specific ASICs on XP Media Center Edition

To download the Catalyst 9.9 click on the following links:

- Catalyst 9.9 (Windows XP 32bit)
- Catalyst 9.9 (Windows XP 64bit)
- Catalyst 9.9 (Windows Vista & 7 32bit)
- Catalyst 9.9 (Windows Vista & 7 64bit)

AMD's Radeon HD 5800 DX11 beasts coming in under two weeks
Planning to leave Nvidia in the dust when it comes to DirectX 11 adoption, AMD will introduce the first graphics cards to support the API in less than two weeks, on September 22nd - one month before the commercial release of DX11-loaded Windows 7. For the incoming release AMD is preparing two cards, the Radeon HD 5870 and 5850, which are based on the 40nm RV870 GPU, have a 256-bit memory interface, DirectX 11 and CrossFireX support, feature the Eyefinity technology and make use of GDDR5 memory.

The Radeon HD 5870 boasts no less than 1600 Stream Processors and 32 ROPs, double the amount carried by the Radeon HD 4800 series models, has its GPU and 1/2GB of memory clocked at 850 and 4800 MHz, respectively, 2.72 TFlops of computing power, and a priced tag of under $400.

The Radeon HD 5850 has GPU/memory frequencies of 750/4000 MHz, 1440 Stream Processors and is expected to be priced under $300. The release of the Radeon HD 5800 series cards should see Nvidia make some price adjustments too so wait for it...

Zune HD to be limited to the United States on launch
Microsoft has officially announced that the Zune HD will remain exclusive to customers in the United States - which more than likely indicates that the corporation is attempting to (once again) save face (and cash) by testing their toes in the water before they go international.

"For the time being the Zune HD device will remain US only. Right now we are focused on deploying an exciting service in the form of Zune Video to 18 markets. We are looking at potential future hardware experiences for these markets, but do not have anything to announce right now."

The newest edition to the Zune range will hit the shelves on September 15th - and is really shaping up to be a serious competitor to Apple's iPod touch device. Microsoft's real challenge is going to be winning gadget fans over with the specs of the device, just to give them time to build up their own downloadable content system.

But fear not international customers - in all likeliness, Microsoft will take the Zune HD to the rest of the globe in the near future. With so much anticipation surrounding the impending launch of the new gizmo, Microsoft may even purely be delaying the international launch to make sure supplies are adequate for consumers closest to home.

wItem Installer 4.5.6 software update
wItem Installer is a powerful, easy to use, highly interactive tool for creating reliable Windows Installer packages that meet the Windows 2000/XP logo certification guidelines. Professional developers rely on wItem Installer to quickly and easily create reliable MSI installation packages using the latest Microsoft technologies.

Changes include:
- Added additional launch conditions.
- Added logging feature to the self-extractor.
- Added the "custom folder" feature for update legacy applications.
- Added minimal Windows 7 support.
- Fixed various bugs.

Free version limitations:
- Nag screen
- The freeware version lacks certain features

Website: wItem Software
Download: wItem Installer 4.5.6

Microsoft launch their first Windows 7 TV ad
Microsoft have launched another classic "Look how easy it is, a child can do it" style TV ad, but this time there is something different - that's right, this is the first Windows 7 commercial, which aired last night at the Redmond company's 2009 meeting, and followed closely on millions of televisions across the United States.

In a rather weird move, Europe's 'The Final Countdown' was used as the theme tune for the advert... through that could be representative of the countdown to launch of their new OS. As always, the ad includes the typically adorable child, this time Kylie from an earlier Windows "I'm a PC" ad.

It seems Microsoft is getting excited about its own up and coming release - but the ad doesn't focus on any specific Windows 7 features which may come later in future versions. The ad does however highlight some select quotes from the good press surrounding Windows 7 - and of course, it has Kylie creating a Windows Live Movie Maker show with absolutely no trouble at all, built up from the "happy" quotes.

Check out the video here:

VidaBox announce all-new WHS FireServer
At the CEDIA show this week VidaBox announced their new WHS-centred FireServer, a 1U blade server that packs a mighty punch, with a Blu-ray drive and onboard "Drop-n-rip" archiving from either Blu-ray, CD or DVD media.

The "Drop-n-rip" service lets you archive your discs, search and automatically find album art and track information for music, or in the case of movies find plot synopsis and actor/actress information. Itأ¢آ€آ™s powered by My Movies for Windows Home Server, and the box even boasts LAN DVD streaming.

Storage loadout starts from 1.25TB and increases up to a whopping 8TB depending on the configuration purchased. The home server's processing power is relatively limited though due to the use of a 1.6GHz Intel Atom Dual Core, and 1GB of RAM. This is good, however, for the power saving conscious amongst you. Check it out here!

Isometric image view

Front image view

Rear image view

New, custom Radeon HD 4890 has just one PCIe power connector
While we're sure it is prepping a Radeon HD 5800 line, Force3D has not finished playing with the 'older' Radeons and because of this it has constructed a custom Radeon HD 4890.

Seen below, the new card features stock clocks - 850 MHz for the GPU and 3900 MHz for the 1GB of onboard GDDR5 memory, comes equipped with a dual-fan, dual-slot Arctic Cooling Accelero Twin Turbo Pro fansink, D-Sub, DVI and HDMI outputs and, as the title of this piece says, it has one 6-pin PCIe power connector, as opposed to two like any other RV790-based card.

Taking out one power plug likely limits the card's overclocking potential but if you don't plan on doing any OC then it shouldn't be an issue. A small cut in power consumption could also result from this design. The price of this custom Force3D HD 4890 is yet unknown.

Photos courtesy of Akiba PC Watch.

Thermaltake announces the SpinQ VT CPU cooler
Thermaltake has just revealed a new addition to its cooler line-up, the eye-catching and LGA 1156-supporting SpinQ VT. Pictured below, this latest release measures 120.1 x 159 mm and weights 495 grams, features a copper base, three U-shaped copper heatpipes, and a 50-fin aluminum heatsink with an 80mm fan at its center.

The cooler's fan includes red LEDs for a more pimpin' look, works between 1000 and 1600 RPM, has a maximum sound output of 28 dBA and a life expectancy of 50,000 hours.

The SpinQ VT comes with support for AMD Socket 754, 939, AM2, AM2+, AM3, and Intel LGA 775/1156/1366 processors and has a recommended price tag of $49.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

IT News HeadLines (TechConnect Magazine) 12/09/2009

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