TechFud

3DMark World Record Broken By AMD A8-3870 Black Edition APU

2011-08-01T13:56:00.000-07:00

In the fourth quarter of this year, AMD is expected to update its A-series desktop APU lineup with a new chip that will feature an unlocked multiplier, and recently, an overclocker used an engineering sample of this processor to break the 3D Mark Vantage and 06 world records for integrated graphics.

The new accelerated processing unit will be known as the A8-3870 Black Edition and, thanks to its 3.1GHz base frequency, it will become AMD's fastest APU to date, surpassing the current 2.9GHz clocked A8-3850.

In order to achieve the two 3DMark world records, the AMD APU had to be overclocked from its base clock speed around 3.9GHz, which enabled it to score 11822 points in 3DMark 06 and 7386 points in 3DMark Vantage.

According to Chew, the overclocker who set these world records, the chip has the potential to go over 5GHz, but the motherboard's BIOS kept interfering with the engineering sample APU.

Outside of the higher operating clock and unlocked multiplier, the A8-3870 Black Edition is almost identical with the current A8-3850 and sports quad processing cores with 4MB of Level 2 cache memory, an integrated dual-channel DDR3-1866MHz controller, and Radeon HD 6550D graphics.

This is AMD's fastest on-die GPU to be included in the Llano APU line and it packs no less than 400 stream processors that are running at 600MHz.

In spite of the increased clock speed, the A8-3870 will carry the same 100W TDP as the A8-3850 and A6-3650 APUs.

Until the A8-3870 is launched, AMD is expected to release four more A-Series desktop APUs. These will feature a 65W TDP, pack between two and four cores, range in speed between 2.1GHz and 2.7GHz and select models will feature support for AMD's Turbo Core technology. source: softpedia.com, wccftech.com

Samsung Galaxy Skin Concept Smartphone Flexible AMOLED Screen

2011-07-28T14:22:00.000-07:00

Flexible touchscreen displays are a reality these days, and it might not be too long before the first mobile phones to include them become reality as well.

In the meantime, however, we can only dream of the day when a flexible smartphone will lay in our hands, offering us the possibility to do so much more with it.

Whether it comes to wearing the mobile phone as a watch or placing it on the tablet in various shapes to perform different actions, a flexible screen would enable all these, and some other options more.

Of course, having a flexible screen on it won't be enough, but it is a good start, that's for sure.

Most probably, flexible cases for smartphones, as well as internals that would fit such a device could also make an appearance on the market in the near future, and the coming years could bring to shelves a handset that might resemble the concept device described below.

Coming from designer Heyon You, the smartphone, called Samsung Galaxy Skin, runs under Android, but has much more to offer than the current generation of Galaxy S devices.

The specifications list of this device does not include something out of the ordinary: a fast 1GHz application processor, a 4-inch touchscreen display, 16GB or 32GB of internal memory, or a 1500mAh battery.

The flexible display would deliver an 800 x 480 pixel resolution, while the 8-megapixel photo snapper on the back would be able to shoot videos in high-definition. A front facing camera will be included for video calling capabilities.

Galaxy Skin will also be capable of HD playback, enhanced messaging and communication features, fast Internet browsing, and more.

The specs list shows 3G and 4G capabilities, along with WiFi and Bluetooth, and a built-in GPS receiver. The smartphone would measure 221 x 67 x 8mm.

If you were wondering why the smartphone could be so long, the answer is simple: the bottom and the upper part of the body are made of hard material, and they would house electronic parts than cannot be bent.

Have a look at the images attached to this article to make an idea of the concept phone, and head over to Yanko Design here for more of them and to learn more on the device. source: samsung.com. softpedia.com

Cooler Master Hyper 612 PWM vs Hyper 612S Review

2011-07-28T14:14:00.000-07:00

Cooler Master has just announced that it has updated its product portfolio to include three new CPU coolers which are designed to offer high thermal performance while also enabling users to build silent-running systems.

Two of the new CPU coolers, the Hyper 612 PWM and Hyper 612S, use a similar design that makes use of six copper heatpipes to draw the heat away from the CPU and into a tower heatsink.

This was specially optimized by Cooler Master to work with low RPM fans, since it sports wide spaces between its fins as well as a series of cutouts meant to reduce air resistance, and features two mountings for 120mm fans.

Taking a look at the fan arrangement, we find out where the difference between these two solutions lies, as the Hyper 612 PWM is equipped with two 600rpm to 2000rpm 120mm PWM-controlled fans, while the 612S comes with a single quieter fan that has a maximum rotation speed of 1300RPM.

In addition, the Hyper 612S is also bundled together with a so-called 'silent adapter,' which allows users to drop the fan RPM down to 900RPM.

The third cooler to be announced by the company, the GeminII S524, is totally different from the two other Hyper models, as this drops the tower design in favor of a down-draft heatsink.

This approach enables the cooler to chill not only the CPU, but also the motherboard's VRMs and the memory modules installed inside the system.

As far as the CPU is concerned, heat is drawn via five 6mm thick heatpipes and into an 44mm wide aluminum heatsink that measures 144mm and is specially designed to accommodate both 120mm and 140mm fans.

Speaking of fans, the Gemini II cooler is shipped together with an 800rpm to 1800rpm 120mm PWM-controlled fan, which certainly seems to be a pity considering a 140mm model would greatly improve airflow while also decreasing noise.

All three coolers are compatible with Intel's LGA 775, 1155 and 1366 sockets and AMD's socket AM2(+)/AM3(+) motherboard as well as with FM1 board models. The Hyper 612S is expected to be ready September and for a price of about 45 EUR. source: softpedia.com

Download Angry Birds Theme For Windows 7

2011-07-27T21:33:00.000-07:00

Rovio Mobile’s crown jewel Angry Birds, which is available on just about every platform you can think of, from Google Chrome to Nokia , has received its own theme for Windows 7.

Angry Birds is a puzzle-based video game, developed by Rovio Mobile, that started out on Apple’s iOS platform back in 2009. It’s easy to learn but difficult to master which is what makes the game so, so much fun! Since 2009, the game has become the most popular game on iOS, having been downloaded more than 50 million times.

Owing to popular demand, the series was, in the recent past, expanded with Angry Birds: Seasons and Angry Birds: Rio. Its popularity only became more widespread when Rovio released the game for other devices and platforms such as Maemo, iPad, WebOS, Symbian^3, Android, Windows Phone 7, PlayStation 3/PSP, Windows, Mac and in May, on Google Chrome.

You may download the Angry Birds theme from the link below. To install, simply double click on the downloaded .themepack file. Windows 7 (which is required for the theme to work) will install the theme itself.
Download Official Angry Birds Theme for Windows 7

Windows 8 vs Chrome OS vs Mozilla OS B2G - Open Web Fight

2011-07-27T14:01:00.000-07:00

It seems that not only browsers, but next generation operating systems are also in an open web race. Earlier this week, Mozilla announced a new project designed to build an open web platform dubbed Boot to Gecko (B2G) which would, at least during its early embryonic phase focus on blending Firefox’s Gecko rendering engine with Google Android code.

There have been plenty of voices calling Mozilla’s Boot to Gecko a potential rival to operating systems such as Android and Windows Phone.

But I don’t see a reason why the Windows client and Chrome OS should be ignored from the list of platforms that B2G will go against.

B2G is designed as a response to “proprietary, single-vendor stacks for application development,” according to Mozilla, an OS set up to “make open web technologies a better basis for future applications on mobile and desktop alike.”

The Boot to Gecko project is certainly ambitious, but Google with Chrome OS and Microsoft with Windows 8 are already doing the same thing if you ask me.

This is the official description of Chrome OS / Chromebooks from Google: “Nothing but the web. Chromebooks are built and optimized for the web, where you already spend most of your computing time. So you get a faster, simpler and more secure experience without all the headaches of ordinary computers.”

Back at the start of June 2011, Julie Larson-Green, Corporate Vice President, Windows Experience revealed: “Windows 8 apps use the power of HTML5, tapping into the native capabilities of Windows using standard JavaScript and HTML to deliver new kinds of experiences.

These new Windows 8 apps are full-screen and touch-optimized, and they easily integrate with the capabilities of the new Windows user interface. There’s much more to the platform, capabilities and tools than we showed today.”

To me it sounds like Chrome OS today and Windows 8 in 2012 are two valid alternatives embracing Cloud applications much in the same manner as desktop programs. Users can also add Mozilla’s B2G to this list.

While Chrome OS seems limited to Chromebooks for the time being, I don’t think that Google is not at least exploring the possibility of taking this platform beyond netbooks.

But in the end, B2G appears focused on next generation form factors, mobile devices in particular, rather than on existing machines such as desktops, notebooks or netbooks. So, in a sense, B2G will also be an Android competitor.

Personally, I see B2G and Windows 8 also colliding, since Microsoft has expanded the reach of its next gen Windows client to an array of additional devices by introducing support for ARM and System on a Chip architectures.

It’s easy to see that Mozilla is somewhat late to the operating system game, and that Microsoft and Google will benefit from a head start.
Still, Mozilla wasn’t exactly around when the first browser wars were in full swing, and it managed to do rather good in the end. source: softpedia.com

Free Avast Antivirus Activation License Key 2011-2038

2011-07-25T15:04:00.000-07:00

Avast Antivirus License Key :
W6754380R9978A0910-4TZ59467
Avast Free Antivirus is popular free antivirus software that protects your computer from all sorts of viruses, spyware and other computer threats.

You can now activate Avast Antivirus till 2038 with a free license key that has been making rounds all over the Internet. Use the key given after the jump to activate Avast Antivirus till 2038.

This license key also works with the previous versions of Avast Antivirus and will activate them till 2038, 27 years more from now!
Note: This is a free license key and will only work with the free version of Avast Anitvirus. This is NOT valid for the paid version! Source: avast.com, sizzledcore.com

Intel Sandy Bridge-E Performance Review

2011-07-23T13:38:00.000-07:00

After a few days ago the detailed specifications of Intel's upcoming Sandy Bridge-E processors made their way to the Web, it's now time to take a look at some leaked slides that detail Intel's performance estimates for its upcoming high-end enthusiasts processors.

The slides compare Intel's current flagship consumer CPU, the Core i7-990X, with the company's fastest desktop processor based on the Sandy Bridge-E architecture, the Core i7-3960X.

As many of you know by now, both of these CPUs include six computing cores with Hyper-Threading support and have a TDP of 130W.

However, this is where the similarities end, as the two chips come clocked at different base and Turbo Boost frequencies (3.46GHz base and 3.73GHz Turbo for the 990X vs. 3.30GHz base and 3.90GHz Turbo for the 3960X), while also sporting different feature sets and L3 cache size.

Both of these latter specs favor the Core i7-3960X since this packs 15MB of Level 3 cache memory as well as support for the new AVX instructions set and a quad-channel memory controller.

Just as Intel points out in its slides, all of these improvements can bring quite a noticeable performance in applications that are memory bond or if AVX instructions are being used.

In the real world, however, the performance gains aren't as impressive as those observed in synthetic benchmarks and these seem to hover between 12 and 15 percent, the only area where the 3960X can detach itself being “3D Gaming.”

However, it’s important to note that this result is estimated by Intel and that it only takes into consideration the Physics score returned by 3DMark 11, which can hardly be used to reflect a CPU's gaming performance.

Finally, I guess that it still remains to be seen how Sandy Bridge-E will actually perform against Intel's current six-core processors when a more extensive set of benchmarks is being used, but for now it seems like the next-generation Core i7 chips won't actually bring the huge performance increase everybody expected, especially considering that we are taking about $1000 US parts. source: softpedia.com, donanimhaber.com

Xtion Pro - Kinect Clone For PC By Asus

2011-07-22T13:58:00.000-07:00

Xtion Pro will set you back $300
Asus has jumped into the motion control game with the release of their Xtion Pro, which on the surface is really nothing more than a clone of the Kinect. While the Xtion Pro will not work with your Xbox, it will work with your PC with either Windows or Linux.

The Xtion Pro Live is able to be used with the Asus, designed for use with its Wavi device, which is designed for media streaming.

The device allows you to use gestures and movements to do a variety of things, but likely the big draw here will be those that want to develop other applications for the Xtion Pro.

While the Microsoft Kinect will set you back $150, the Xtion Pro will cost you a cool $300. At double the price we are just not sure that it is worth it.

Of course, if you are looking to get into development, this might be a better long term solution than using the Kinect on the PC, but only time will tell if users are willing to embrace motion control for the PC. source: fudzilla.com

Core i7-3960X 47% Faster Than Core i7-990X Sandy Bridge-E

2011-07-22T13:51:00.000-07:00

Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition
The guys from Donanimhaber.com managed to score some slides revealing the performance of the upcoming Sandy Bridge-E processor series, or to be precise, the flaghsip Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition.
In general, the new Sandy Bridge-E is around 47% faster on average when compared to Intel's current top offer, the Core i7-990X Extreme Edition.

As it was detailed earlier, the Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition is Intel's top offer in the upcoming Sandy Bridge-E CPU lineup and supports the upcoming LGA2011 socket. It features six cores ticking at 3.3GHz with Turbo Boost of up to 3.9GHz, has 12 threads with HyperThreading and a total of 15MB of L3 cache.

The test lineup has some quite interesting benches including Cinebench 11.5, 3DMark 11, Sisoft Sandra and much more. As noted, Intel's upcoming socket LGA2011 Core i7-3960X EE is 47.25% faster on average when pitched to go against the current socket LGA1366 Core i7-990X EE CPU.

In its slides, Intel claims that the perfromance boost comes from 33% higher memory bandwidth on the quad-channel DDR3 as well as from the new AVX instruction set that takes care of CPU intensive tasks.

There has been some rumours regarding the Sandy Bridge-E launch date and as far as we know, Intel is currently talking about late October/early November although our best bet is end of October. Also you can expect some serious feature packed motherboards from partners once Intel gives a green light. source: fudzilla.com

HIS HD 6770 IceQ X Turbo Factory Overclocked Graphics Card

2011-07-21T13:41:00.000-07:00

Graphics card maker HIS continues to update its portfolio with new products based on the company's trademark IceQ X cooler and today announced two new Radeon HD 6770 solutions that are designed to deliver quieter operation and improved thermal performance.

Both of these cards share the same cooling solution and PCB design, but the Radeon HD 6770 IceQ X Turbo comes factory overclocked, while its smaller brother, the HIS 6770 IceQ X, strictly follows AMD reference frequencies.

The IceQ X cooler HIS installed on these cards uses two copper heatpipes in order to draw the heat away from the GPU and into an aluminum heatsink. This is then cooled by a 92mm fan, which also blows fresh air over the rest of the card's PCB.

HIS claims that, by using this cooling solution, the cards deliver better thermal and acoustic performance than other solutions in this class.

The Radeon HD 6770 is just a re-branded HD 5770 AMD Radeon and is based on the same Juniper core that includes 800 stream processors, 40 texture units, 16 ROP units as well as a 128-bit wide memory bus that is connected to a 1GB video buffer.

The standard clocks of the cards, and those of the vanilla HIS 6770 IceQ X, are set at 850MHz for the core, while the memory is working at 1.200MHz (408GHz effective).

The second HIS graphics card, the factory overclocked Turbo version, has its core running at 880MHz, while the VRAM's frequency is set at 1250MHz (5GHz data rate).

HIS has decided to pair the Radeon HD 6770 IceQ X and IceQ X Turbo with two dual-link DVI, a DisplayPort and one HDMI video outputs.

Pricing for the vanilla HIS Radeon HD 6770 IceQ X hasn't been announced yet, but the factory overclocked IceQ X Turbo edition retails for $139.99. source: softpedia.com

Xbox 720 Powered By AMD Bulldozer APU ?

2011-07-21T13:32:00.000-07:00

Microsoft's next-generation Xbox gaming console might be powered by an AMD-designed accelerated processing unit that is based on the Bulldozer architecture, according to a rumor that has just hit the Web.

Before this report came to light, previous rumors suggested that Microsoft's console would be based on a new IBM cell processor with better specs than the one currently used for the Xbox 360.

However, latest information to reach HardOCP seems to negate this claim, and implies that AMD will actually get this contract.

Details about the chip used by the next-gen Xbox are sketchy at this point in time, but we do know that the Redmond-company has decided to go with an APU design based on the Bulldozer architecture.

This information seems to point out to AMD's Trinity accelerated processing units, which are expected to be 50% more powerful that Llano while also including an updated DirectX 11 GPU based on the VLIW4 architecture.

Just at the beginning of this week, a high-ranking company official, from the AMD Graphics Products Group, talked about graphics of the next-generation Xbox console, and it stated that it would be able to provide the level of graphical detail seen in James Cameron's movie Avatar.

While the company representative refrained himself form confirming AMD's role in the development of the console, the statement seemed to confirm all the rumors that have been circulating lately about the presence of a Radeon-derived GPU in the 'Xbox 720.'

It's also interesting to note that the AMD official claimed next-generation console hardware will feature improved A.I. and physics capabilities, which could suggest that he knows a bit more than what it's willing to share about the hardware powering the upcoming Xbox.

From the information that is available at this time, Microsoft is expected to unveil the Xbox 360's successor during E3 2012. source: softpedia.com

RoidRage - Make Your One Rage Comics On Android Smartphone

2011-07-20T12:52:00.000-07:00

If you’re a redditor then you’ll know what rage comics are, and you’ll know how much time you spend/waste either reading them or attempting to make one.

While there are lots of online websites that give you the resources to make your personalized rage comics, there had been none thus far for smartphones.

Roid Rage for Android attempts to change that and boy does it pull it off or what! The whole app couldn’t be any easier to use than it already is. The interface is very intuitive and there’s a wide variety of difference rage faces/accessories available to make different comics. You can then output the comic and share it where ever you please. source: wccftech.com

Features:
- Huge selection of ‘Rage Faces’
- Output clear high-res comics for sharing anywhere
- Painting functionality, be as creative as you like
- Add/Remove comic panels, from classic 2×2 to cool stories
- Full touch-screen scaling and rotating of Faces
- And more!
- Download

AMD A8 Llano Desktop Quad Core Unlocked Multiplier Detailed

2011-07-20T12:45:00.000-07:00

A8-3870 is the name
According to a post over at Donanimhaber.com, AMD is preparing yet another quad-core desktop Llano part, the A8-3870. Unlike the current fastest A8-series quad-core, the A8-3870 will actually feature an unlocked multiplier.

The new A8-3870 is rumoured to have a 3.1GHz clock, while the Radeon HD 6550D will be the same one we seen in the A8-3650.

Radeon HD 6550D is clocked at 600MHz and features 400 stream processors. The APU supports dual-channel DDR3-1866MHz memory.

The current fastest quad-core Llano APUs, A8-3850 and the A6-3650 are currently plagued by a minor bug that actually lets you raise base clock multiplier but without any effect, thus creating a false overclock that actually doesn't do anything.

Unlike these two, the A8-3870 will have a true unlocked multiplier and will be the one that you should go for if you are craving for some extra CPU power and a extended overclocking potential.

According to the first rumours, the A8-3870 is scheduled for release in Q4 2011. Of course, we are still waiting for the rest of the desktop Llano lineup. source: fudzilla.com

Download Apple OS X 10.7 Lion And Lion Server

2011-07-20T12:36:00.000-07:00

After a year of anticipation, Apple has finally let loose its biggest cat - Lion - in the Mac App Store.

The eighth major release of Apple’s eye-catching and highly-advanced operating system, OS X Lion brings more than 250 new features, and is available today as a $29.99 download, Cupertino has confirmed.

The screenshot displayed above stands as evidence that Mac OS X version 10.7 is now live in the Mac App Store.

“Lion is the best version of OS X yet, and we’re thrilled that users around the world can download it starting today,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.

Schiller explains to those who are interested in grabbing the new OS that “Lion makes upgrading a Mac easier than ever before; just launch the Mac App Store, buy Lion with your iTunes account, and the download and install process will begin automatically.”

Apple’s official report announcing Lion touts some of the key features, including Mission Control, Launchpad, the all-new Mail app, new Multi-Touch gestures, Auto Save and Versions, AirDrop, and others.

Lion borrows key elements from the iPad version of iOS, combining touch-style overlays and animations with the Mac OS customers have come to love and appreciate over the years.

In today’s press release, Apple also confirmed that users who cannot reap the benefits of a broadband Internet connection will be able to download Lion at Apple retail stores.

As expected, the Cupertino technology giant also confirmed that Lion will be made available on a USB thumb drive through the Apple Store for $69 this August.

For customers looking to purchase Mac OS X Lion Server, the Client version of Lion will be required. Lion server costs $49.99. source: softpedia.com, itunes.apple.com

Download Mac OS X 10.7 Lion

Download Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Server

Microsoft Explorer Touch Mouse NUI - Natural User Interface Specifications

2011-07-20T12:24:00.000-07:00

Microsoft is adding a new product to its line-up of NUI (natural user interface) PC peripherals, the Explorer Touch Mouse.

According to the specifications offered by the Redmond company, the new Explorer Touch Mouse is capable of delivering up to 18 months of NUI goodness on just 2 AA batteries.

At the same time, the latest addition to the Microsoft Hardware touch line comes packed with a range of features, including the company’s new BlueTrack technology, which enables customers to use the mouse on virtually any surface, with some exceptions such as glass or mirrors.

“With this new mouse, we have taken touch strip technology to the next level by delivering a strip with both vertical and horizontal navigation, allowing you to swipe your mouse in any direction,” revealed a member of the Microsoft Hardware team.

“In addition to easy navigation, the scroll wheel also allows for three speeds of scrolling: slow speed for precise movements, medium speed to advance a page or two, or hyperfast speed to flick quickly through a long document. And with advanced haptic technology, it’s easy to feel and hear how quickly you are scrolling.”

BlueTrack Technology and scrolling enhancements aside, I’d like to mention two features that make this mouse a must have in my opinion.

I have been using wireless peripherals for years now, and while keyboards are not energy hogs, mice generally are.

One of my old peripherals required me to change batteries once every few weeks or so. To have the Explorer Touch Mouse work almost a year and a half on the same 2 AA batteries is simply a key benefit of this product.

I’ve also owned wireless devices that had bricks for their transceivers. Well, in all fairness, not actual bricks, but this is the way they appeared when I switched to nano transceivers. The Explorer Touch Mouse sports a plug-and-go Nano Transceiver, another aspect that’s worth praise.

“Holding true to its name, the Explorer Touch Mouse lets you explore beyond the confines of your desk with BlueTrack Technology for seamless scrolling on everything from your carpet to your couch to your pant leg. And it’s also Microsoft’s first mouse to offer up to 18 months of battery life. The Explorer Touch Mouse will be available in September for $49.95,” the Microsoft Hardware team member said.

Here are some additional features of the Microsoft Explorer Touch Mouse:

“Imaging Rate - Dynamically adaptable to 8000 frames per second

X-Y Resolution - 1000 points per inch (39.4 points per millimeter)

Tracking Speed - Up to 72 inches (1829 millimeters) per second Wireless Technology

Wireless Frequency - 2.4 GHz frequency range

Wireless Range - 15 feet (4.57 meters) typical

Mouse Button Features - 5 buttons including 3 button areas on touch strip

Right, Middle, & Left Button Life - 3,000,000 actuations at no more than 4 actuations per second

Touch Strip Button Life - 350,000 actuations at no more than 4 actuations per second

Mouse Scrolling Features - Touch strip enables digital vertical and horizontal scrolling for precise or fast scrolling

On/Off Switch Life - 4,000 actuations at no more than 30 actuations per minute.”
source: softpedia.com, microsoft.com

Turtle Beach CoD Modern Warfare 3 Branded Headset Series FOXTROT Vs DELTA

2011-07-20T12:13:00.000-07:00

Set to strike worldwide on November 8th, Activision's highly anticipated Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has already received a series of specially banded headsets from Turtle Beach that are compatible with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles as well as with PC systems.

The series will be comprised out of four different headsets, each with its own unique set of features, but all of these include audio presets designed specifically by the audio teams at developers Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games.

The most advanced CoD headset planned by Turtle Beach is called the Ear Force DELTA and it includes 7.1-channel Dolby Surround sound with Bluetooth chat.

This comes packed inside a specially-themed carrying case and is pre-loaded with unique custom Modern Warfare 3 presets and voice prompts.

Next in line is the Ear Force BRAVO that sports the same presets as it older brother and wireless capabilities, but loses the DELTA's support for 7.1-channel audio.

The other two headsets in Turtle Beach's CoD lineup are called the Ear Force CHARLIE and Ear Force FOXTROT and both of these feature amplified sound. The former also uses a special design that includes eight acoustically-angled speakers.

"Call of Duty continues to define action while also becoming a cultural phenomenon as well as the industry standard," noted Michael Arzt, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for Turtle Beach.

"As the long-time leader and innovator in the gaming audio category, Turtle Beach is excited to introduce a collection of purpose-built Modern Warfare 3 headsets with features and benefits that will far surpass gamers' expectations for licensed headsets," concluded the company's rep.

Turtle Beach's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 gaming headsets will ship to major retailers from October, 2011. Pricing starts at $99.95 for the Ear Force FOXTROT and goes all the way up to $299.95 for the Ear Force DELTA. source: softpedia.com

Apple Mac Mini Powered By Intel Sandy Bridge Core i5 / i7 CPUs

2011-07-20T12:10:00.000-07:00

Apple has updated the Mac mini CPU Intel Sandy Bridge Core i5/i7 connectors and Thunderbolt. Compact desktop retained aluminum case, but lost the optical drive. The line added a server model and an optional SSD-drive capacity of 256 GB.

If the user's model is equipped with 2-core Intel Core i5/Intel Core i7 and discrete graphics card AMD Radeon HD 6630M, then the server has a Intel Core i7 processor in the four cores.

Complete 2.3 GHz Core i5 mini with 2 GB of RAM and a 500GB HDD is priced at $ 599. At the request of the internal memory can be increased up to 750 GB, and operative to 8 GB.

For $ 799 you get a 2-core Core i5 with a frequency of 2.5 GHz, 4 GB RAM and HDD-drive to 500 GB. The configuration can be added to the chip Core i7 (2,7 GHz), RAM 8 GB hard drive with 750 GB or SSD 256 GB.

Completes the range of 2.0 GHz 4 Core i7 Mac mini costs $ 999 with preinstalled Lion Server, 4 GB RAM and two internal hard drives of 500 GB. Optionally, there are 8 GB RAM, two HDD 750 GB SSD, and two 256 GB. All models support Thunderbolt and WiFi. Apple Mac mini sale starting today. slashgear.com

Leaked Motorola Dinara 13 Megapixel Camera And HD Screen Details

2011-07-20T11:39:00.000-07:00

Motorola is developing a sequel Droid Bionic with a similar design, the newsletter of writes Electronista. The smartphone called Dinara will have a larger size, HD-screen and a 13-megapixel camera on the back.

Housing will be a thinner, lighter and takes a rectangular shape. Sealed battery will bring Motorola Dinara to the iPhone.

The unit will be TI OMAP processor and RAM module to 1 GB. Testing device Android 2.3 platform is in LTE-network Verizon.

Specifications production model is still under question. It is expected that Motorola Dinara appear in 2012. source: electronista.com

Leaked Nokia W9 Sea Ray Running Windows Phone 7 OS

2011-07-19T13:39:00.000-07:00

While Steven Elop cleverly showed us Nokia’s first ever Windows Phone 7 device a few weeks ago, this time it’s some unknown factory worker doing the dirty work (at least for Nokia that is).

Reportedly the phone shown in the pictures and videos is right next to the assembly line. It’s running the retail version of Mango, sports hardware keys for camera and volume. I cannot spot a front facing camera, or maybe the video just isn’t clear enough. Notice the interesting boot animation too.

What’s nice to see is the progress Nokia has made. Initially they were quite skeptical about having a WP7 phone release this year but now it seems like we might actually see one well before the end of 2011. source: wccftech.com

New Intel Core i7-3960X, Core i7-3930X And Core i7-3820 Sandy Bridge-E Details

2011-07-19T13:16:00.000-07:00

Donanim Haber has published recent data on Sandy Bridge-E. According to the Turkish edition, the first models of this series - it's Core i7-3960X, Core i7-3930X and Core i7-3820. The first two models will be positioned in a segment of hi-end and will be a proud title Extreme Edition.

According to reports, they will have 15 and 12 MB cache and will come with an open multiplier. Rated clock Core i7-3960X and 3930X of 3.3 and 3.2 GHz, respectively, but the mode Turbo Boost, these processors will be able to accelerate to 3.9 and 3.8 GHz. Their TDP - 130W.

The latest model of the trio, Core i7-3820, will only have four cores and will not be included in the family Extreme Edition. The processor will have only 10 and not 15 or 12 MB of cache, as Core i7-3860X and 3930X. Its TDP -130 Tues. It only remains to add that all of the above model will support a 4-channel memory. source: fudzilla.com

AMD Radeon HD 7000 GPU Series Has PCI Express 3.0 Support

2011-07-18T13:53:00.000-07:00

AMD's next-generation desktop graphics cards from the Radeon HD 7000 product family, also known under the code name of Southern Islands, will feature PCI Express 3.0 support, according to the latest rumors that have reached the Web.

The PCI Express 3.0 standard was made available in November of 2010, and it doubles the bandwidth available to devices using it, from 500MB/s per lane in each direction for PCIe Gen 2 to 1GB/s per lane in each direction.

As a result, a PCI Express x16 Gen 3 slot can provide a total bandwidth of 16GB/s in each direction, compared to the 8GB/s of its predecessor.

According to a recent report published by Donanim Haber, all of AMD's upcoming desktop graphics cards will feature PCI-Express 3.0 x16 bus interfaces, but these will also be compatible with Gen 1 and Gen 2 PCIe motherboards (the total bandwidth available will be lower in this mode).

AMD's next generation of Radeon graphics cards will be built using TSMC's 28nm fabrication process and will most probably use an improved version of the VLIW4 architecture that was introduced in the Cayman core.

Even though AMD will add PCI Express 3.0 support to its Southern Islands GPUs, it still remains to be seen if Radeon HD 7000 series graphics cards require such a high bandwidth in the first place.

Furthermore, at this point in time, it is still uncertain when the first platform to support PCI Express 3.0 standard will arrive in the retail market.

Intel's Sandy Bridge-E was the first processor expected to feature this technology, but recent reports claim that Intel is considering dropping PCIe Gen 3 support from the feature list as it hasn't had any hardware to test the CPU's compliance with the standard.

If these rumors are indeed true, then PCI Express 3.0 will arrive once Ivy Bridge is launched, but Intel 22nm SNB die shrink isn't expected to make its appearance until March or April of 2012. source: softpedia.com

iDevices iOS 4.3.4 PwnageTool Jailbreak Released

2011-07-18T13:41:00.000-07:00

A jailbreak for the latest iOS version from Apple is now available, according to a knowledgeable source in hacking iDevices.

Made available hours after the release of Apple’s iOS 4.3.4 and iOS 4.2.9 security updates, the PwnageTool jailbreak only applies to the former iOS version (for GSM devices), not the latter (which targets CDMA iPhones).

Also worth noting is that, although this iOS 4.3.4 jailbreak is supported by PwnageTool 4.3.3 with the help of some additional software, it currently doesn’t work with the iPad 2.

Custom PwnageTool bundles allow users to jailbreak any other device running iOS 4.3.4 (from iPhone 3GS to iPod touch fourth-generation, as well as the iPad 1), and at the same time preserves their baseband for an Ultrasn0w unlock, according to Redmond Pie.

The source claims to have tested this “tethered” jailbreak and confirms that it is 100% usable on the aforementioned devices.

Since the hack is “tethered,” users will have to boot it into the jailbroken state every time they reboot their device afterwards.

Since PwnageTool allows users to preserve their iPhone’s baseband, users can jailbreak without fear of losing support for their carrier of choice.

However, users must exercise caution as these hacks are not confirmed as 100% reliable by those who coded the actual jailbreak tools (i.e. the iPhone Dev-Team).

With that out of the way, the ingredients for achieving a jailbreak for iOS 4.3.4 are: PwnageTool 4.3.3; iOS 4.3.4 IPSW; iTunes 10.3.1; Mac OS X; PwnageTool bundles for iOS 4.3.4; and tetheredboot utility.

Users will need to modify PwnageTool in order to make the jailbreak work on iOS 4.3.4.

We recommend that non-savvy users stay away from this hack, in case it sounds a tad too difficult to perform. If anything should go wrong, you may regret proceeding with the jailbreak in the first place.

Apple does not condone jailbreaks and may even void the warranty of your device, should you bring it in for repairs showing signs of jailbreaking. source: softpedia.com

Brand New DDR3 From GeiL EVO Corsa And Enhance Corsa

2011-07-18T13:33:00.000-07:00

Company GeIL (Golden Emperor International) today introduced the world to its latest high-performance bar for DDR3 memory overclocking (EVO Corsa) and middle price segments (Enhance Corsa) .

Both lines of the memory have at their disposal new massive and efficient radiators, which use a technology called Maximum Thermal Conduction Dissipation (MTCD) and a lifetime manufacturer's warranty.

The line memory EVO Corsa includes the following sets:

- GOC34GB1866C9DC - 2GB x 2 | 1866 MHz | CL 9-10-9-28 | 1.5V
- GOC38GB1866C9DC - 4GB x 2 | 1866 MHz | CL 9-10-9-28 | 1.5V
- GOC34GB2133C9DC - 2GB x 2 | 2133 MHz | CL 9-10-9-28 | 1.5V
- GOC38GB2133C9DC - 4GB x 2 | 2133 MHz | CL 9-10-9-28 | 1.5V
- GOC38GB1866C9QC - 2GB x 4 | 1866 MHz | CL 9-10-9-28 | 1.5V
- GOC316GB1866C9QC - 4GB x 4 | 1866 MHz | CL 9-10-9-28 | 1.5V
- GOC38GB2133C9QC - 2GB x 4 | 2133 MHz | CL 9-10-9-28 | 1.5V
- GOC316GB2133C9QC - 4GB x 4 | 2133 MHz | CL 9-10-9-28 | 1.5V

The line memory Enhance Corsa includes the following sets:

- GEC34GB1333C9DC - 2GB x 2 | 1333 MHz | CL 9-9-9-24 | 1.5V
- GEC38GB1333C9DC - 4GB x 2 | 1333 MHz | CL 9-9-9-24 | 1.5V
- GEC34GB1600C9DC - 2GB x 2 | 1600 MHz | CL 9-9-9-28 | 1.5V
- GEC38GB1600C9DC - 4GB x 2 | 1600 MHz | CL 9-9-9-28 | 1.5V
- GEC38GB1333C9QC - 2GB x 4 | 1333 MHz | CL 9-9-9-24 | 1.5V
- GEC316GB1333C9QC - 4GB x 4 | 1600 MHz | CL 9-9-9-24 | 1.5V
- GEC38GB1600C9QC - 2GB x 4 | 1600 MHz | CL 9-9-9-28 | 1.5V
- GEC316GB1600C9QC - 4GB x 4 | 1600 MHz | CL 9-9-9-28 | 1.5V

The Age Windows OS As We Know It Comes To An End By 2015 2016

2011-07-18T13:25:00.000-07:00

The age of the Windows operating system comes to an end. By the 2015-2016 year, Microsoft will release a single platform for all kinds of devices - from PCs to TVs. This was told the president subdivision development WP7 Andrew Lees.

The new platform from Microsoft, combining all types of devices will appear in 4 years. Earlier it was reported that Microsoft Windows 8 will move to the stage of RTM (ready for duplication) already in April 2012 .

Thus, the release of the universal operating system company that will run on computers, smartphones, tablets, and next-generation Xbox , expected in 2015 or 2016. And it will not be Windows.

As a senior executive said Microsoft, a significant advantage of a unified platform for users will be able to run the same applications on different devices, and for the company - the economic benefit of what would need to contain more than one development team.

By the way, Microsoft is not the first thought of a single platform and follow the example of competitors - especially Apple and Google. Apple has used the operating system iOS, originally developed for the iPhone player iPod touch, tablet iPad and set-top box Apple TV.

Google also wants to create a common ecosystem, which would help to simplify application development. At the end of this year should see the light of the operating system Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 , you can bet not only on smartphones and tablets.

Google Top 20 Most Highly Paying Keywords AdSense - AdWords

2011-07-18T13:12:00.000-07:00

Google makes a heck of a lot of money from online advertising. In fact, 97 percent of Google’s revenue, which totaled $33.3 billion in the past twelve months, comes from advertising.

WordStream, a venture capital-backed provider of hosted software that automates most of the manual work involved with creating and optimizing both paid and natural search engine marketing campaigns, has done some research to discover which keyword categories fetch the highest costs per click (CPC) in Google’s AdWords solution.
And of course, they made an infographic based on the results of their research (embedded below).

WordStream compiled data from its own, vast keyword database and the Google Keyword Tool to determine the top 10,000 most expensive English-language keywords over a 90-day period.
Subsequently, the list was organized into categories by theme. The largest keyword categories were then determined by weighting the number of keywords within each category, as well as the estimated monthly search volume and average cost per click for each keyword.

For the record, Google AdWords is an auction-based marketplace where advertisers bid on keywords to compete for top ad placement, with a per keyword (update: actually, there’s no longer a minimum bid for CPC campaigns).
The top twenty keyword categories that demanded the highest costs per click are:

1. Insurance (example keyword: “auto insurance price quotes”)
2. Loans (example keyword: “consolidate graduate student loans”)
3. Mortgage (example keyword: “refinanced second mortgages”)
4. Attorney (example keyword: “personal injury attorney”)
5. Credit (example keyword: “home equity line of credit”)
6. Lawyer
7. Donate
8. Degree
9. Hosting
10. Claim
11. Conference Call
12. Trading
13. Software
14. Recovery
15. Transfer
16. Gas/Electricity
17. Classes
18. Rehab
19. Treatment
20. Cord Blood

Unsurprisingly, the list of most expensive keyword categories is clearly a result from people who, en masse, turn to the Web in search for help, whether it’s for financial, educational, professional services or medical aid. WordStream concludes that the keyword categories with the highest volumes and costs represent industries with very high lifetime customer value: in other words, companies that can afford to pay a lot to acquire a new customer because of the nature of their business.

But I would have personally never imagined that ‘insurance’ would be netting Google up to almost $55 per click. Think about that for a minute. source: techcrunch.com

Windows 7 Longer Laptop Battery Life With Automated Solution From Microsoft

2011-07-17T12:28:00.000-07:00

Squeezing every last drop of battery life from a Windows laptop is now easier to do with an automated solution offered free of charge by Microsoft.

The Redmond company is providing customers with a Fix It download via its Microsoft Support website, designed to make their laptop batteries live longer.

The solution works for Windows 7 machines, but also for computers running earlier versions of Windows.

Users need only visit the “Fix power consumption problems and extend the laptop battery life” webpage, download the Fix It troubleshooter and launch it on their Windows laptop.

“Automatically detect system settings that can affect power usage, such as timeout and sleep settings, display settings, and screensavers, and restore them to their default settings,” the Redmond company reveals.

Some customers might already be aware of the fact that the manner in which their machine is set up has a direct impact on power consumption and battery life.

The Fix It troubleshooter is designed to automatically identify problems and set up Windows 7 laptops per the best settings to extend battery life as much as possible.

The software giant provided the following list with the issues that this Fix It solution resolves:

“- The period of time before the computer goes to sleep is set too long

- Screen saver is used instead of setting the computer to enter sleep mode

- Display brightness is set too high

- Power plan is not set to the most efficient power plan

- Wireless adaptor in not optimized for power saving

- Minimum processor state is set too high.”
source: softpedia.com, microsoft.com

Download NVIDIA Quadro - Tesla Display Driver 275.65 WHQL XP / Vista / Windows7

2011-07-16T13:36:00.000-07:00

NVIDIA and AMD have a habit of offering new and improved graphics drivers pretty much every month, and it looks like the former took its turn, serving the professional market in this particular instance.

Software makes up half of the performance of any technological product with any degree of automation and sophistication.

As such, refining a driver can always lead to smoother performance and, naturally, brings fixes to certain issues that previous versions may have missed.

It so happens that this sort of move is precisely what NVIDIA did not long ago, when it released the latest, WHQL-certified iteration of the NVIDIA Quadro/Tesla Display Driver.

Named version 275.65 WHQL, it does several things, like updating the list of APIs that the supported video cards and computing modules are compatible with.

High-quality text and 2D, for instance, can now be rendered in high quality with OpenGL, thanks to the OpenGL path rendering API.

Meanwhile, the package installs the ODE river, which grants long-term stability for ISV certification, Enterprise customers and OEMs, via the e R275 drivers (the first ‘Optimal Drivers for Enterprise’).

Furthermore, the driver comes with updates to the NVIDIA Control Panel, allowing users to, among other things, override scaling and preview desktop size and positions in a new window.

NVIDIA also threw in 10-bit Grayscale display support, through DVI, for Windows 7 (10-bit Grayscale monitors, like proprietary medical displays, are an example).

A final addition worthy of mention is the G-Sync, which synchronizes the back buffer presents of Direct3D applications across multiple GPUs in one or more systems.

Those who want to read the full change log or download the NVIDIA Quadro/Tesla Display Driver 275.65 WHQL need only follow one of the links below.

Nvidia Quadro/Tesla Display Driver 275.65 WHQL for XP

Nvidia Quadro/Tesla Display Driver 275.65 WHQL for XP64

Nvidia Quadro/Tesla Display Driver 275.65 WHQL for Vista, Win7

Nvidia Quadro/Tesla Display Driver 275.65 WHQL for Vista64, Win7 x64

iOS 4.3.4 Released by Apple - Patches 4.3.3 JailbreakMe 3.0 Exploit

2011-07-16T13:24:00.000-07:00

The cat and mouse game between Apple and Jailbreakers continues to take new twists and turns. After the jailbreak tool for iOS 4.3.3 JailbreakMe was released after months in the offing, Apple didn’t turn back and released iOS 4.3.4 for all iOS devices within 10 days in order to patch the exploit in iOS 4.3.3.
Jailbreakers stay away!

The release of the new firmware is probably to fix the security hole only and is not expected to bring any new features to the masses. It is however reported that the update contains a patch for iOS’s IOMobileFrameBuffer. Apple said the new software addresses an invalid type conversion issue, which could allow malicious code running as the user to gain system privileges.

After you’ve downloaded your device’s respective firmware, you can install the software manually by launching iTunes, locating your device on the sidebar and pressing “Restore” while holding the Shift key on Windows and Alt on the Mac.

In iOS 4.3.3 hackers managed to discover the loop hole as a PDF exploit; the users were able to view PDF files directly from Safari. Comex utilized this vulnerability and managed to successfully jailbreak the iOS devices with JailbreakMe.

JailbreakMe 3.0 struck the users with delight as the hassle of connecting to a PC or Mac was finally relinquished as it was a web based jailbreak tool but Apple has once again deprived the jailbreak community from the auspicious luxury.

Jailbreakers are advised not to update to iOS 4.3.4 until another untethered jailbreak tool comes out. Be patient and let hackers do the trick. source: wccftech.com

Intel X79 Chipset LGA 2011 Shipping in August

2011-07-16T13:11:00.000-07:00

Intel will start shipping its high-performance X79 Express chipset for motherboards supporting LGA-2011 and LGA-1356 processors in August, states a recent report that cites sources from Taiwanese motherboard makers.

As previous leaks have suggested, the first LGA 2011 processors will be available in the first quarter of 2012.

As many of you know, the chipset that will power the motherboards which support these processors carries the X79 designation, as Intel decided to skip right over the 6-series classification with this platform.

Just like the P67 and the P55 released before it, the X79 features a PCH (platform controller hub) design as most of the tasks that were handled by the X58 chipset previously, such as PCI Express connectivity, were integrated inside the Sandy Bridge-E CPUs.

However, the X79 packs an impressive array of features compared with its predecessors as it now supports no less than 10 SATA 6Gbps, while the PCH is linked to the CPU via a DMI 2.0 interface as well as through an additional PCI-Express 2.0 x4 link.

This can be enabled or disabled by the user in the motherboard's EFI BIOS and should bring a noticeable performance increase in systems that pack high-performance storage systems.

In addition, the X79 PCH also features an Intel Rapid Storage enterprise controller that enables RAID 0/1/5/10 support and eight of the available SATA interfaces can be configured as SAS ports by motherboard manufacturers.

The rest of the specs list includes an 8-lane PCI-Express 2.0 hub, which can be used to drive the x1 and x4 slots, as well as 14 USB 2.0 ports.

Sadly, the PCH doesn't feature native USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt support, which is an important omission considering its target market.

The first motherboard models to carry the Intel X79 PCH are expected to be announced soon after the chipset starts shipping. However, availability will be limited to 2012, although some server models could see the light of day in Q4 2011, provided that Intel sticks with its plans to release Sandy Bridge-E Xeon CPUs by the end of this year. source: softpedia.com

ASRock 1st Fatal1ty AMD 990FX AM3+ Bulldozer Socket Motherboard

2011-07-15T14:29:00.000-07:00

ASRock has finally unveiled the first Fatal1ty-branded product on the AMD platform that too is a premium motherboard based on the AMD 990FX chipset. Coming with the black socket, that tells use for one thing that is ready for the upcoming AMD FX series processors in the AM3+ package.
The board is decorated with the famous Fatal1ty color scheme of black and red. The AM3+ socket is powered by a 14-phase digital PWM power designthat can even handle upto 140W chips with ease.

Along with that comes 4 DDR3 memory slots that can clock your rams up to speeds of 2000 MHz. 3 e xpansion slots that include three PCI-Express x16, of which two are PCI-Express 2.0 x16 wired to the 990FX northbridge, while the third one is electrical PCI-Express 2.0 x4 wired to the SB950 southbridge. The board natively supports both AMD CrossFireX and NVIDIA SLi technology.

Other than that the board comes with six SATA 6 Gb/s with RAID support as well as two eSATA 6 Gb/s. Also, there are a total of six USB 3.0 ports of which two on the rear panel and four by the headers.
Bundled in the package is a front 3.5 Inch tray for USB 3.0 ports that can be connected to the board and also the tray doubles as an SSD mount. The board does come with a bundle of features that is quite easily comparable with Asus’s Republic of Gamers motherboards. As for now, no word has been given on pricing or as such. source: wccftech.com

Nikon Coolpix S9100 Full HD Digital Camera Review

2011-07-15T14:06:00.000-07:00

Zooming into the Coolpix S9100
For casual shooters and frequent travellers, some times all you need is a compact camera. Something small, and light that hopefully won’t break your back or neck after walking for a few hours. But then again, we always wished our compacts had that extra reach.
Sure, cropping the picture is one way to achieve the zoomed in effect, but cropping too much may result in insufficient resolution when you want to print it.

The Nikon Coolpix S9100 fits nicely in between the heavy DSLRs and the prosumer compacts with its handy focal range of 25-450mm (that's 18x optical zoom). It also sports other niceties such as a 12.1-megapixel backside illuminated CMOS sensor and ISO sensitivity of up to 3200.

Let's be clear, the S9100 isn't an ultra-compact camera - so don’t expect it to have super slim dimensions. That’s not to say the S9100 is fat, just that the 18x optical zoom lens it’s packing results in a slightly bulkier body. Don’t be alarmed though, it’s still compact enough to carry in say, a lady's handbag. Weight-wise, it tips at scale at 214g (with battery and card loaded). Construction is also sturdy.

Over on the back of the camera, a 3-inch LCD screen occupies most of the space.There’s the scroll wheel which also can be used as a d-pad; we found this to be pretty useful as the scroll wheel helped us scroll through our photos quickly while the d-pad provided a measure of more precise control when adjusting the camera’s settings. There’s also a dedicated video record button, though we found the placement to be pretty annoying as our right thumb would press it by accident as we steadied the camera for a shot.

The well-placed video recording button did make us video-makers on more than one occasion.
Tinkering with the Camera

Despite looking pretty hi-tech for a compact, the S9100 is easy to use. There are the usual controls for self-timer, flash and exposure compensation, as well as auto-mode shooting and the other run-of-the-mill scene modes (which do produce some pretty good pictures if you ask us).

The S9100 is quite easy to use, thanks to a logical UI and pretty self-explanatory controls. The S9100 takes two seconds to start up, which is fast for a compact camera. Focus is generally snappy and metering accurate. Image quality-wise, images are a tad on the soft side and could use some sharpening.

The S9100 also touts 1920 x 1080p (30fps) movie recording but it will show signs of judder in the video when zooming in or moving the camera about while filming. In general, it takes videos that are good to view on its LCD screen or on the web. You can even hook it up to a big-screen HDTV via HDMI.

Final Thoughts
The Coolpix S9100 does offer great zooming capability, but we don't see anyone using the camera at its 18x end without a tripod. Autofocus and starting up the camera are quick, and the user interface proved easy to use. However, image sharpness does fall short and it doesn't help that the image stabilization feature of the camera needs more work. hardwarezone.com

Hard Reset A New PC Exclusive Game Developer - Flying Wild Hog

2011-07-14T14:26:00.000-07:00

Hard Reset, yet another developer has turned a kind heart to the PC just like Crytek did when they first released Crysis and how Valve is working right now, a Polish studio by the name of “Flying Wild Hog” are making a game on what appears to be a Blade Runner(esque) future game.
There are not many details ON the game but what is confirmed is that it will be a PC exclusive game and what sort of a PC exclusive would it be if it wasn’t an FPS? Want to know more about the game? Head on inside

Hard Reset is a new game, it didn’t make a big appearance at E3 or catch the attention of many gamers until now. PC Gamer was the first site to get an exclusive look into the game, they have described the game as a mix of Blade Runner, Matrix and Painkiller combined into one great package, All of which were superb games of their time.

Here are a few questions answered already:
What’s the engine?

Proprietary, impressively enough. It’s called “Road Hog.” And because a built-from-scratch engine is a serious investment, we’ll probably see more games on it from the developer.
What’s the plot?

Hostile robot takeover. Only one human city remains–the bastion of Bezoar. It’s here that Major Fletcher, your character (the guy with the laser eye patch), takes to arms against the robot hordes.
When, and how much?

September 2011. Pricing isn’t announced, though we’d suspect it’ll fall somewhere between AAA releases like Battlefield 3 and lighter-weight “downloadable” FPSes.

And here are a few screenshots but do keep in mind that these screens MAY NOT represent what the game could look like once it is released.

Now you are probably thinking “Whats so special about this studio?” Well the answer to that question is in the below paragraph

Like some kind of Polish, game-developing Voltron, Flying Wild Hog was formed from members of People Can Fly (Painkiller), CD Projekt RED (The Witcher 2), and City Interactive (Sniper: Ghost Warrior). Read on for more details, the first trailer, and first screenshots.

And the icing on the cake, here is the announcement trailer of the game.

This game has definitely piqued my interest and I am definitely looking forward to it’s release and I for one can’t wait to see what the game looks like out of screenshots. After so many great people working on it how can this game NOT be the best thing to happen to the PC.

Apple iPhone iPad iPod iOS 5 Beta 3 Released

2011-07-13T13:53:00.000-07:00

Keeping the expectations of the users alive for the much awaited iOS 5, Apple today rolled out iOS 5 Beta 3 for devs . It supports iPad 2, iPad, iPhone 4 (GSM and CDMA), iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch 3rd and 4th Generation.

A third beta version of iTunes 10.5 was also released which seems to be required for syncing your device on iOS 5 beta 3.

The new update contains many new features; the icon for Reminders has been changed, a toggle for GPS has been added along with iTunes free setup and other tweaks.

Perhaps the most striking feature discovered is that of Text Tone selection and “Buy More Tones” sitting in this update. Most of the jailbreakers target this tweak allowing users to select custom ringtones but it may no longer be needed, thanks to iOS 5.

AMD Bulldozer Black Edition FX-8130P Vs FX-8110 8 Core CPUs Available

2011-07-13T13:45:00.000-07:00

Even though there is still some time left until AMD's first desktop processors based on the Bulldozer architecture will make their appearance, a hardware Website from Singapore has already started selling the 8-core FX-8130P and FX-8110 CPUs.

The processors than went on sale are nothing more than engineering samples of the FX-8130P and FX-8110 based on AMD's B1 silicon revision.

As a result, the operating clocks may be lower than those of the final CPUs that AMD is expected to start retailing in August/September 2011, as these will use the newer B2 stepping.

In addition, overclocking could also be limited as engineering sample processors usually come with a locked multiplier.

According to previous leaks, the final version of the AMD FX-8130P is expected to feature eight processing cores with a base frequency of 3.8GHz, that can be increased up to 4.2GHz when Turbo Core kicks in. This is going to be AMD's only Zambezi FX processor to have a 125W TDP.

The second chip to be listed, the FX-8110, is expected to also feature eight computing core, but these will carry a base clock of 3.6GHz, a maximum Turbo frequency of 4GHz and will have a TDP of just 95W.

Apart from the four Bulldozer modules, the FX-8130P and FX-8110 also pack 8MB of Level 3 cache memory and an integrated dual-channel 1866MHz memory controller.

Both Zambezi processors will come as Black Edition parts, meaning they feature an unlocked multiplier for higher overclocking headroom.

Pricing for the AMD FX-8130P engineering sample CPU has been set at 600$, while the FX-8110 is sold for 500$.

The prices are higher than the ones uncovered by us a few months ago ($320 FX-8130P and 290$ FX-8110), but this is expected since the processors sold are engineering samples of two yet-unreleased products. source: softpedia.com, wccftech.com

New Call of Duty : Black Ops Patch For Xbox 360 CoD BOps

2011-07-12T12:46:00.000-07:00

Call of Duty: Black Ops has just received a brand new patch for the Xbox 360 console, addressing various security issues and solving some of the audio issues that appeared in the Search and Destroy mode.

Call of Duty: Black Ops was launched last year, and managed to impress a huge amount of gamers quickly making it one of the best-selling video games of all time, and commanding a fiercely loyal user base.

The game saw the release of three downloadable content packs up until now, First Strike, Escalation, and Annihilation, as well as multiple patches and updates.

Now, Treyarch, the game's developer, has deployed a brand new update for the Xbox 360 version of Call of Duty: Black Ops, in order to address some of the issues encountered by players.

The Call of Duty: Black Ops Title Update 11 for the Xbox 360 hasn't been detailed all that much by the studio, which limited itself to saying that various security updates have been made, while the audio portion of the Search & Destroy multiplayer mode was tweaked when players planted or defused the actual bombs.

The security fixes haven't been detailed, but it's pretty safe to say that Treyarch patched up some of the vulnerabilities, glitches or exploits that were being used by some players to get an unfair advantage over the others.

Call of Duty: Black Ops on the Xbox 360 saw a massive influx of players after the release of the Annihilation downloadable map pack at the end of June and because of a special Double XP weekend that allowed players to gain twice the amount of experience from their multiplayer matches.

The game will also see many players return later this month, when it is host to the beta stage of the Call of Duty Elite online service, which is going to tie into the first-person shooter, before being released alongside Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 this November.source: softpedia.com

AMD Radeon HD 6990M World's Fastest Mobile Graphics Card Specifications

2011-07-12T12:31:00.000-07:00

The mobile GPU landscape has just received a new member in the form of AMD's latest Radeon HD 6990M graphics core that the Sunnyvale-based company touts as being the world's fastest mobile discrete graphics card released until now.

The new GPU was built in order to replace AMD's previous mobile flagship, the Radeon HD 6970M, and is based on the same Barts core that was also used for its predecessor.

This time, however, AMD has opted for using the full implementation of the Barts GPU, also known as Barts XT, which includes 1120 stream processors, 56 texture units, 32 ROP units and a 256-bit wide memory bus.

This translates into about a 17% increase in computing power, when compared with the HD 6970M.

But this isn't the only performance advantage that the Radeon HD 6990M has over its predecessor, as AMD has also raised the operating frequency of the GPU from 680MHz to 715MHz as well as the amount of video memory installed to 2GB.

Its operating frequency is set at the same 900MHz (3.6GHz GDDR5 data rate) as that of the HD 6970M. According to AMD's internal tests, all these changes enable the Radeon HD 6990M to deliver a performance boost of 5-20 percent over its predecessor.

AMD's latest graphics card will battle it out with Nvidia's recently released GeForce GTX 580M that is a slightly overclocked version of the previous GTX 485, but with support for the Optimus dynamic GPU switching technology.

In AMD's internal tests, that used a simulated GeForce GTX 580M, the HD 6990M managed deliver a 10% advantage over its competitor in all the games run, but we'll have to wait and see if these figures are also achieved in independent tests.

Several notebook makers, such as Alienware, Clevo, Eurocom and AVADirect, are already getting ready to include AMD's latest GPU in their new notebook designs. Pricing for the Radeon HD 6990M is unknown at this time.
source: softpedia.com, anandtech.com

e-Paper Fujitsu Next Generation Of Color Digital Paper Demonstrated

2011-07-11T15:32:00.000-07:00

Being the purveyor of various display solutions that it is, Fujitsu has been quite active lately, one of its activities involving the demonstration of what is called digital paper, based on cholesteric liquid crystals.

There are many things that fulfill the task of displaying images nowadays, but there are just a few technologies that stand out through how widespread they are.

The LCD (liquid crystal display) technology is the one that has the greatest pool of adopters among both consumers and IT companies.

Still, even this solution has sub sections, so to speak, even though few of them have taken off so far.

Fujitsu is one of the companies that has been experimenting with a certain strain of liquid crystals, though its efforts haven't yielded anything more than prototypes so far.

Dubbed cholesteric liquid crystals, they are appealing in that they do not require a backlight, they do not need color filters and neither do they rely on polarizing or reflecting plates.

Apparently, Fujitsu demonstrated an 8-inch color digital paper module not too long ago, one that had a pixel density of 157 dpi and the ability to cover 20% of the NTSC color space.

In other words, it can display 4,096 colors, and while this is not that great a performance compared to monitors and HDTVs, it is quite the feat for the sort of panels utilized in e-readers and other small gadgets.

Fujitsu's prototype relied on a version of the Linux OS and supported PDF, JPEG and ePub file formats.

“This is the newest module, and the brightness, contrast and color replication range are better than anything yet,” the company reportedly stated.

“Actually there is a trade-off between writing speed and display colors, and while it is 4,096 colors and 0.7 seconds right now, if we reduce the writing speed we can make a full color display.” source: fujitsu.com, softpedia.com

YouTube Total Redesigned, Gets A Major Makeover, With New Google+ Look

2011-07-08T14:12:00.000-07:00

Google wasn't kidding when it said that all of its sites are getting a major redesign. Now, one of its biggest and most recognizable, YouTube, is joining in with the Cosmic Panda project.

Cosmic Panda is the codename of the brand new YouTube design which is still in testing. When it does go live, it will be the biggest change YouTube has gotten since launch.

"Today, we’d like to invite you to play along with us by participating in one of our latest TestTube experiments: Cosmic Panda. To take this experiment for a test drive go to www.youtube.com/cosmicpanda and click 'Try it out!'," YouTube announced.

"Once you're in the experiment, much of YouTube will look different, including videos, playlists and channels," it added.

"Look different" is somewhat of an understatement, while the new site is still recognizable as YouTube, the changes are everywhere. There are new colors, a new layout, all of the elements have been redesigned and look slicker.

The video player is new, the channel pages are different, the playlists look great, there's not one part of YouTube that hasn't been touched.

The most noticeable change is to the player area. There is now a dark strip around the video all the time, to make it easier to watch.

The player itself is dark and looks a lot more polished.

There are also fewer controls in the player itself, the play/pause button, the volume, the video quality and the full screen button.

Below the player, you'll be able to switch between different sizes for the video window, there are now more options to choose from. The playlists are now integrated into the viewing area, the clips in the playlist show up directly below the video.

There are plenty of changes, the best way to check them out is to see them for yourselves. The new design is still in the testing phase and YouTube wanted people to start using it before rolling it out.

If you don't like what you see, you can go back to the regular YouTube design from the TestTube page. But this won't be for long, YouTube will roll it out to everyone soon enough. source: softpedia.com, youtube.com

PlayStation 4 Coming in 2012With Kinect Like Motion Sensor

2011-07-05T14:01:00.000-07:00

The PlayStation 4 is scheduled to enter the manufacturing stage later this year, ahead of a release in 2012, at least according to a brand new report, which also mentions that it will have a built-in motion sensor, similar to how the Kinect device works for the Xbox 360.

The next generation of consoles has seen some intense speculation in the last few months, with many already debating over when a presumed PlayStation 4 or Xbox 720 will appear, thus replacing the current PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, respectively.

A brand new report has just been released by the Digi Times, which cites inside sources close to Sony's two manufacturing partners, Taiwan-based Foxconn and Pegatron, which currently handle the assembly process for the PlayStation 3 home console.

The report says that Sony is in the final stages of development with the PlayStation 4, and that it will enter manufacturing later this year, with an early order of 20 million units already being filed.

This should provide ample stock for a global launch in 2012, as was rumored by previous reports throughout the current year.

What's more, the report also claims that the Japanese hardware manufacturer is also implementing some sort of motion sensor into the device, similar to the Kinect add-on for Microsoft's Xbox 360 console.

As you can imagine, Sony hasn't commented on this report, especially since it just recently highlighted that the current PlayStation 3 is still halfway through its lifecycle, so we're still going to see it as the main console for the Japanese company.

Still, one shouldn't forget that Sony isn't shy of selling multiple devices at the same time, so before the PS3 is officially off the shelves, we might see a more powerful PlayStation 4 sell right alongside it in the near future.

As of yet, however, this is still speculation, so, until we hear it straight from Sony's mouth, all these reports about next-generation consoles are still to be taken with a grain of salt. source: softpedia.com - sony.com

AMD Buldozer FX-8130P New Record Overclocking 5.1GHz On Air

2011-07-05T09:53:00.000-07:00

Bulldozer in sixth gear
A Czech bloke has managed to get hold of a Bulldozer engineering sample and run it through its paces.

He ran a couple of tests and pushed the 3.8GHz FX-8130P to 5.1GHz, on air and with at a core voltage of 1.524V.

The sample was apparently perfectly stable in SuperPi, while it was downcloked to 4.85GHz in Cinebench
Look, this is amazing! Fully stable in Cinebench R11 @ 4,85 GHz! SuperPi 1M - 5,1 GHz on AIR.

Fix Windows 7 CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray Discs Playing And Burning Issues Automatically And For Free

2011-07-04T13:12:00.000-07:00

Microsoft is offering a helping hand to customers who are experiencing issues with writing and reading media on their Windows PCs.

The Redmond company has provided an automated fix designed to resolve issues related to playing and burning, CDs, DVDs as well as Blue-ray discs.

The automated Fix It solution can be downloaded via the Microsoft Support page with the following title: “Your CD or DVD drive can't read or write media,” and is available completely free of charge to customers.

“Automatically diagnose and repair problems with your CD or DVD drive when trying to read or burn media,” reads the description of the fix from the software giant.

And although the description text doesn’t feature any BD mention, the fact of the matter is that the Fix It solution also covers Blu-ray discs.

The Redmond company enumerated some of the problems that the download is designed to resolve: “Your CD or DVD Drive does not read or write and is shown as disabled; the media in your CD or DVD drive cannot be read; the media cannot be written to by your CD or DVD drive.”
In addition, according to Microsoft, the Fix It should also be deployed by Windows customers that have come across error messages such as:

“A class specific or device specific driver is missing or corrupt; A CD or DVD drive cannot be found or is not connected; The CD or DVD drive is experiencing a problem that prevents it from working properly; or The CD or DVD drive is not accessible via an assigned drive letter.”

The automated Fix It solution works on Windows 7 as well as earlier releases of Windows. Users should not hesitate to download and launch it on their machine, especially since it contains a Troubleshooting only mode which will detect any issues, but will not apply fixes unless customers specifically tell it to. source - softpedia.com, microsoft.com

Animated Battery While Charging iPhone Cydia Jailbreak Instructions

2011-07-04T13:02:00.000-07:00

AnimateBattery - this is a new tweak that gives the battery icon on the boring iPhone main screen interesting animated effects. Animation is activated when the iOS-device to a computer via USB.

As well as on some other mobile devices, you can see the charge directly on the lock screen iPhone. The process is accompanied by a battery power gradual transition of color from red battery icon in the green. In the setting of AnimateBattery two modes of animation.

This addon released under competition TweakWeek, was organized by Ryan Petrich - by Activator and other popular tweaks. The complexity of this competition will be that developers need to write a jailbreak an extension within 24 hours. Accordingly, the design obtained by the simple but quite interesting.

To install AnimateBattery on iPhone, iPod touch and the iPad to open access to the file system, that is to jailbreak. We offer instructions on how to jailbreak 4.3.3 iOS / iOS 4.3.2 / 4.3.1 , jailbreak iOS 4.2.1 with GreenPois0n for Windows and Mac OS X , jailbreak iOS 4.1 with Limera1n / GreenPoison .
Download a free AnimateBattery in Cydia Repository http://rpetri.ch/repo .

Jailbreak iPad 2 Comex Confirmed Release Of JailbreakMe 3.0

2011-07-04T12:50:00.000-07:00

After the leak first beta version of jailbreak iPad 2, the Internet appeared Comex internal correspondence with the user MultiMediaWill. This tester, first laid out in the publicly available PDF-exploitAnd then published a private correspondence with the developer, in which he calls the official release date for version 3.0 JailbreakMe.

MultiMediaWill writes Comex:
I do not know if you read my tweets, but I'm very sorry about this. And if I knew that everything will turn so, it would never lay crude version of the jailbreak iPad 2. I was so happy when I found your PDF-exploit, which has proved quite work that simply could not publish it. Foolery, I know, but I have deleted all your videos and website. All the same version is very buggy, like you said, and sometimes very annoying. I hope you will be able shortly to release a jailbreak iPad 2. Thank you.
Comex in response MultiMediaWill:

No, I do not see your tweets (maybe you want to delete them?). But if you do not have any problems, it will happen tomorrow.
Judging by the post master developer jailbreak iPad 2 release JailbreakMe 3.0 will take place tomorrow. Hopefully, this is not fake.
We will report on outlet jailbreak iPad 2. Stay tuned!

AMD FX-Series Bulldozer Vs Intel Core i7-990X CPU Benchmarked Operating In SLI

2011-07-02T12:53:00.000-07:00

After managing to get their hands on an engineering sample of an FX-Series processor, a Czech publication has published the first benchmark scores which compare AMD's upcoming high-performance CPUs with Intel's current flagship, the six-core Core i7-990X.

The comparative benchmarks are included in a review of the AMD 990FX chipset which was published recently by the PCTuning website.

Both processors included in the test were overclocked to 4GHz and were paired with two Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 graphics cards operating in SLI in order to asses their gaming performance.

Judging by the results provided by PCTuning, the two systems seem to perform pretty similarly, except for a few cases in which the Intel platform takes the lead. However, this happens in just a few games, namely DiRT 2, H.A.W.X. 2 and Resident Evil 5, and the results are pretty close to one another.

Sadly, no information about the FX-Series CPU used for this test was provided, so we don't know exactly how many cores it packs or what's its L2 and L3 cache size or default clocks speed.

When taking a look at these benchmarks, one also has to keep in mind the fact that the Bulldozer CPU used isn't based on the final silicon version, which means that retail units may feature an important boost in performance.

There is also the question of drivers, as the AMD platform was tested with the Nvidia 275.36 beta version since the GPU maker hasn't released a final SLI-enabled driver for AMD 900-series chipsets.

Unlike AMD's previous designs, Bulldozer will use a new approach that relies on a modular architecture. Each module includes two processing cores, as well as other components, and these can be paired together to form CPUs with up to eight computing cores.

The first chips built on this architecture were expected to arrive in June and targeted the desktop market, but at this year's Computex AMD announced that the first Zambezi FX CPUs won't arrive until August or September of 2011. source: softpedia.com

Thermaltake eSports Commander MS-I Full Black Blue LED Gaming PC Case

2011-07-01T12:04:00.000-07:00

Thermaltake Technology has now introduced a new computer case series eSports - Commander MS-I. New fully-painted in black, has a side crystal clear window at one of its walls and supports the installation of video cards up to 320mm.

Case dimensions - 484mm x 202mm x 426mm. Weight news - 4.5kg. Inside there is space for three 5.25-inch devices, one for 2.5-inch and five 3.5-inch devices. The front panel has two ports USB 2.0. But the company offers also a second model of the hull, where there is a USB 2.0 port and one USB 3.0. At the bottom of the case there is a dust filter removable (it is located at the installation site power supply). On the back wall there are 120mm fans with speed 1000ob/min (noise level does not exceed 16Dtsb) and blue LED.

Model Case Commander MS-I with a two-port USB 2.0 (VN40001W2N) can be purchased for 39.13 euros. For the model to the port USB 3.0 (VN400A1W2N) asking 41.83 euros.

Google Has Blocked All CC.CO Subdomains Sites From Search

2011-07-01T11:52:00.000-07:00

Google takes the fight against web spam and poor quality sites very seriously, especially with all of the recent criticism towards its search engine. It shouldn't bee to surprising then to see that Google has banned every site provided by co.cc from its search results.

Co.cc is a domain used a company that offers subdomains in bulk, to anyone interested in this sort of deal.

Most of the time, this means people wanting to fill thousands of pages and websites with junk that they can then get to rank in the search results.

The company offers two subdomains for free and makes money from selling as many as 15,000 to any individual.

It's hardly the only company to offer such a service, but the short domain name and the similarity to ccTLDs like co.uk and so on make it more attractive to spammers.

It seems that Google has had enough from co.cc-provided websites and has now blocked the entire domain, regardless if the individual subdomains were legitimate or not.

It is a rather radical move, but one that Google is prepared to take and that it has made before. Google hasn't talked about this domain in particular, but Google's Matt Cutts has reminded everyone that this sort of move is nothing too out of the ordinary.

"First, a definition: a 'freehost' is a domain that will let anyone register a site on that domain. There's lots and lots of high-quality freehosts out there (wordpress.com comes to mind)," Matt Cutts wrote, on Google+ of course.

"We absolutely do try to be granular, but I wanted to mention that if we see a very large fraction of sites on a specific freehost be spammy or low-quality, we do reserve the right to take action on the freehost as a whole," he explained.

"I think most savvy search/SEO folks would understand this completely, but I figure it's better to over-communicate than under-communicate," he added. source: softpedia.com

AMD A-Series A6-3650 and A8-3850 codname Lynx desktop APUs detailed

2011-06-30T11:00:00.000-07:00

AMD has officially rolled out its first two A-series, codename Lynx, desktop APUs, the A6-3650 and the A8-3850. The new APUs are compatible with the recently introduced FM1 motherboards based on AMD's A75 chipset and will hit retail/e-tail as of July 3rd with a price set at US $135 for the 2.9GHz quad-core A8-3850 and US $115 for the 2.6GHz clocked A6-3650.

Based on the 32nm manufacturing process, the first two A-series APUs feature four x86 cores, have a DirectX 11 GPU and come with support for dual-channel DDR3 memory. As noted, the A-series APUs are meant for the recently introduced FM1 motherboards based on the AMD A75 chipset and feature support for the Dual Graphics technology that combines the APUs integrated GPU with a specific discrete card for some additional graphics power.

For starters, AMD decided to launch only quad-core parts while the rest, including the dual-core A4- and the lone dual-core E2-3200 part should follow up later. According to our sources, the entire A8- and A6- lineup is ramping up as we speak and those other two quad-core APUs with Turbo should show up pretty soon. In case you missed it, we are talking about the A8-3800 and A6-3600 clocked at 2.4GHz (2.7GHz Turbo) and 2.1GHz (2.4GHz Turbo) that have the 65W TDP.

The currently available A8-3850 ticks at 2.9GHz, has 4MB of L2 cache, has a 100W TDP and features Radon HD 6550D core with 400 stream processors and a 600MHz clock. The A6-3650 has a 2.6GHz clock, same 100W TDP and same 4MB of L2 cache but features Radeon HD 6530D GPU clocked at 443MHz and with 320 stream processors.

Most reviews agree on the same thing and despite the fact that you have to compare these APUs with something that is currently on the market, you must agree that AMD made a new market segment, the one where there is no room for Intel and its integrated graphics parts. Similar amount of money could get you the Athlon II X4 640 and HD 6570 graphics card (for around US $175) and provide you with better performance, but in that case you wouldn't get an APU that has it all in 100W TDP envelope.

AMD's Lynx and its quad-core A-series APUs are definitely bringing a new breed of HTPCs, the ones that have a decent GPU power and can bring you a solid gaming experience as well. You won't get full details on 1080p, but for that much money, you honestly get alot, and if you want more, there is that Dual Graphics technology that can pair up the APU with certain discrete GPU. source: fudzilla.com

Crysis 2 DirectX11 PC Patch - Update Amazing Graphics

2011-06-30T10:52:00.000-07:00

Crytek has finally released the long awaited update for its Crysis 2 game that brings aditional eye-candy to those that are running high-end PCs with DirectX 11 capable graphics cards.

The new update includes tessellation and displacament mapping, high quality HDR motion blur, more realistic shadows, improved depth of field with sprite based Bokeh, parallax occlusion mapping, particles motion blur, shadows and art updates, and improvements in water rendering thanks to the mentioned tessellation and displacemnt mapping.

The new update also brings some improvements in DirectX 9 including realtime local reflections, contact shadows and improved tone mapping. In addition to those that are available via DirectX 11 upgrade pack, Crytek also released the Crysis 2 high-res texture pack that brings highly-detailed textures. Of course, in order to run such an update, you'll need a GPU that has at least 768MB of video memory, or 768MB per GPU in multi-GPU configuration, as well as Windows 7 or Vista 64-bit OS.

You can find all the goodies and details over at mycrisis.com. source: fudzilla.com

Respawn Entertainment Launches First Details About The New Game And Official Website

2011-06-30T10:40:00.000-07:00

The developer Respawn Entertainment, created by former Modern Warfare 2 developers and Infinity Ward leaders Vince Zampella and Jason West, has released the first image taken from their new video game project.

The image, which you can see attached to this article, is rather blurry and it was offered on the official website of the company, although no further details on its new game have been given.

It's likely that the image has been created by Iain McCaig, a concept artist that is well known for working on projects like The Secret of Monkey Island, the second part of the Star Wars movie trilogy and the James Bond movies.

The Respawn Entertainment released image has been blurred enough to make it very hard to decipher any clear details, although it's pretty clear that we are not looking at a grey and brown modern battlefield like those that were depicted in the Call of Duty series that Zampella and West have worked on.

Teaser Image : Blurry Future

The apparently bright color and the shapes suggest something set in the far future on exotic alien worlds, which meshes well with the long-running rumors that Respawn is creating a first-person shooter science fiction powered video game.

Frank Gibeau, who is the president of the EA Games division at Electronic Arts, has recently stated that for the foreseeable future Battlefield and the reborn Medal of Honor will cover the modern shooter space for his company while Respawn Entertainment is working on something different.

Rumors have mentioned MMO elements and a persistent team-based shooter, but so far the developers themselves have refused to deliver any confirmations.

At the moment, Zampella and West are still engaged in a legal battle with former publisher Activision, with the two sides both claiming that the other has breached the terms of their contract.

A judge recently said that the case can go to trial. source: softpedia.com

Apple iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G Full Specifications Details

2011-06-29T16:41:00.000-07:00

General 2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100
Announced 2011, March
Status Available. Released 2011, March
Size Dimensions 241.2 x 185.7 x 8.8 mm
Weight 607 g

Display Type LED-backlit IPS TFT, capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size 768 x 1024 pixels, 9.7 inches
- Fingerprint/scratch resistant oleophobic surface
- Multi-touch input method
- Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate
- Three-axis gyro sensor
Sound Alert types N/A
Loudspeaker Yes
3.5mm jack Yes

Memory Phonebook Practically unlimited entries and fields
Call records N/A
Internal 16/32/64 GB storage, 512 MB RAM
Card slot No
Data GPRS Yes
EDGE Yes
3G HSDPA; HSUPA
WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n
Bluetooth Yes, v2.1 with A2DP, EDR
Infrared port No
USB Yes, v2.0
Camera Primary 0.7 MP, 960 x 720 pixels
Features No
Video Yes, 720p@30fps, check quality
Secondary Yes, VGA
Features OS iOS 4
CPU 900 MHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 proccessor, PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU, Apple A5 chipset
Messaging Email, Push Email, IM
Browser HTML (Safari)
Radio No
Games Downloadable, incl. motion-based
Colors Silver
GPS Yes, with A-GPS support
Java No
- Digital compass
- MP4/MP3/WAV/AAC player
- Up to 10h movie playback
- iBooks PDF reader
- Google Maps
- TV-out
- Audio/video player
Battery Standard battery, Li-Po 6930 mAh (25 Wh)
Stand-by Up to 720 h
Talk time Up to 10 h

Download The Best Free Media Player VLC Player

2011-06-29T16:30:00.000-07:00

VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols without external codec or program.

It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network.

VLC can play:
MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 / DivX files from a hard disk, a CD-ROM drive, and so on
DVDs, VCDs, and Audio CDs
From satellite cards (DVB-S)
Several types of network streams: UDP/RTP Unicast, UDP/RTP Multicast, HTTP, RTSP, MMS, etc.
From acquisition or encoding cards (on GNU/Linux and Windows only)

Download

New Razer Peripherals Based On Transformers 3 Style Theme

2011-06-29T12:05:00.000-07:00

On the occasion of the summer blockbuster Transformers: Dark of the Moon by Michael Bay company has released four mouse Razer DeathAdder, a mat and four Vespula case for laptops in the style of this film.

Updated DeathAdder offers to purchase for 69.99 dollars. In a well-known sensor Razer Precision 3.5G at 3500dpi and 1ms response, five programmable buttons are very sensitive, and gold-plated USB connector.

For this mouse offers four options to choose execution: Optimus Prime (red), Bumblebee (yellow), Megatron (gray) and Shockwave (purple).

Transformers Pad 3 has dimensions of 300mm Vespula x 240mm x 4mm, has a wrist rest and is offered in two versions: Autobots SPEED for a smooth and rapid mouse movements, as well as for high-precision Decepticons CONTROL movements of the rodent. Both are on the mat 44.99 dollars.

Cases Transformers Laptop Sleeve Case 3 have the same options for coloring, and that mouse DeathAdder. They are made of durable but flexible plastic, have a soft inner lining and is able to protect laptops up to 15 inches. Price - 49.99 USD.

NFS The Run Demo Gameplay Video Action EA Dice Frostbite 2

2011-06-29T10:01:00.000-07:00

During Electronic Arts' E3 2011, the company presented a lot of details about all of its big franchises, with Need for Speed: The Run occupying its fair share of the spotlight through a gameplay demonstration from EA Black Box's Justin DeLong.

EA is trying to revolutionize its NFS racing series by investing heavily in all of the recent iterations, including the recent NFS: Hot Pursuit or Shift 2: Unleashed.

Now, with the upcoming Need for Speed: The Run, the racing series is set to take its biggest step forward, by using an all-new engine from the EA DICE studio, Frostbite 2, and interweaving the Autolog online feature into the story of the title.

“This is the year that Need for Speed goes to the next level,” said Jason DeLong, executive producer at EA. “We think that Need for Speed The Run is going to surprise people with its intense, thrilling story and big action feel. But the game would be nothing without hot cars and crazy-fast chases. So that is what we’re delivering -- explosive racing that will have players flirting with disaster at 200-miles an hour.”

But while we already knew these things, EA surprised a lot of people during its E3 presentation by saying that NFS: The Run will also have on-foot sequences that require players to guide their own character throughout the game's world during some intense sequences.

DeLong showcased some gameplay that started off with a regular race, between the participants of The Run, which is quickly shut down by the bad guys known only as The Mob, which prompts the protagonist to jump out of the car and then start a chase on the rooftops of the nearby buildings.

While these on-foot portions seem like glorified on-rails quick time events, they do look pretty good, and, if used sparingly, might allow NFS: The Run to rise above its racing game status.

Besides the presence of these sequences, The Run is looking extremely sharp, with the power of Frostbite 2 being showcased throughout the gameplay demonstration, as well as the screenshots that you can enjoy below. source: softpedia.com, ea.com

Need for Speed: Shift 2 Unleashed For PC Free DLC Download NFS

2011-06-29T09:54:00.000-07:00

Need for Speed: Shift 2 Unleashed for the PC platform will see the downloadable content released for consoles a few month ago finally appear for it and, what's more, the packs will be completely free.

Electronic Arts' Need for Speed franchise has seen quite a few high-quality releases in the last year, and Shift 2 Unleashed took the series to a worthy racing simulator level.

The game saw the release of two downloadable content packs earlier this year, in the form of the Legends and SpeedHunters ones, which introduced new cars, tracks and events, but were available only for consoles like the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360.

Now, EA has confirmed that the DLCs will be made available to PC owners of the game, completely free of charge, through its recently revealed Origin digital distribution service.

The DLC packs for Shift 2 Unleashed will be made available tomorrow, on June 30, through the online service.

Until then, EA highlighted the steps you need to take in order to get either the DLC separately, or the game and the DLC from Origin.

Newly purchasing Shift 2 Unleashed:
1. Select PCDD or PC Packaged platform of Shift 2 Unleashed on store.origin.com
2. Shift 2 Unleashed + PC DLC will be added to cart automatically
3. Checkout (create an account or sign-in if already have an account)
4. Upon successful purchase, you will receive a confirmation page and email which will include the following redemption instructions:
a. Download and install Origin (for new Origin users).
b. Open Origin and navigate to your “My Games” tab to download and install Shift 2 Unleashed.
c. After installing Shift 2 Unleashed, return to your “My Games” tab to download and install your DLC.
d. Run game to play.

Already owns Shift 2 Unleashed:
1. Find/Navigate to DLC product details page on store.origin.com
2. From Overlay, select version of base game to add to cart:
a. Packaged (purchased on disc from a retailer)
b. EA Store/Origin Download (purchased as a digital download)
c. Other Digital Download (purchased as a digital download from third party retailers)
3. Checkout (create an account or sign-in if already have an account)
4. Upon successful purchase, will receive confirmation page and email which will include the following redemption instructions:
a. Download and install Origin (for new Origin users).
b. Open Origin and navigate to your “My Games” tab to download and install your DLC. You must have Shift 2 Unleashed currently installed on your machine.
c. Run game to play.

Need for Speed: Shift 2 Unleashed was released at the end of March, while a new iteration in the racing series, NFS: The Run, is currently being prepped for release this fall. source: softpedia.com, ea.com

Battlefield 3 Has Dedicated Cooperative Mode With 10 Custom Maps Designed For Two Players

2011-06-29T09:41:00.000-07:00

Battlefield 3, the new first-person shooter from development studio DICE, will have a special cooperative multiplayer mode, separate from the story campaign, with 10 custom maps designed for two players.

Battlefield 3 is set to go head to head with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 at the end of the year, and we've already heard quite a lot of things about both these realistic, military first-person shooters.

Now, after seeing that Modern Warfare 3 is tackling the classic Battlefield urban combat experience, DICE has revealed that its new game will have a dedicated cooperative mode, just like Modern Warfare's Spec Ops.

According to the latest issue of PSM3 UK magazine, via CVG, the Executive Producer of Battlefield 3, Patrick Bach, confirmed that the cooperative mode would be standalone experience, and would ship with 10 maps custom designed for two players, instead of just making the single-player campaign playable with a friend.

This is similar to how the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series has been handling co-op experiences, by providing the special Spec Ops mode, besides the story campaign and the regular multiplayer mode.

Bach also said that Battlefield 3, and its aggressive marketing campaign, will show players new to the series just what they've been missing.

"Something I hear a lot from people who haven't actually played Battlefield is that they'd love a modern day, first-person shooter with everything you have in other games, but with vehicles and proper destruction. They say, 'that would be awesome!' In other words, this is the game everyone claims they want."

Battlefield 3 is being heavily hyped by Electronic Arts, its publisher, but many industry experts and analysts still believe that it won't be able to topple Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 later this year, when both will be released for the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. source: softpedia.com, origin.com

Is Google+ Social Network The Facebook Killer ?

2011-06-29T09:30:00.000-07:00

Google's social network that the company hasn't been building for almost a year now it's finally hatching. Of course, even now, Google will deny that this is a social network and, in a sense, it's not, it goes beyond the scope of something like Facebook, but it is, at its core, very similar to the giant social network.

Google+, the project unveiled today, is a big push which is designed to improve all of Google's products, hence the "+" in the name.

"Today, the connections between people increasingly happen online. Yet the subtlety and substance of real-world interactions are lost in the rigidness of our online tools," Vic Gundotra, Senior Vice President of Engineering at Google, who has been leading social efforts at the company, wrote.

"We’d like to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to software. We want to make Google better by including you, your relationships, and your interests. And so begins the Google+ project," he announced.

Now, Google has only revealed several products that are part of Google+ and all have sharing and communication at their core.

Google stresses that what it unveiled today is only part of Google+. What's more, while the announced products are going live, it will be a very limited trial. You can put your name on the list, but it may be a while before you get an invitation.

For now, Google+ is made up of three core products, unveiled today, and the mobile components along with some integration into Google' other products, search in particular, with the +1 button for example.

+Circles

Circles, or Google+ Circles if you want the full nomenclature, is probably the most important component of Google+, from a social point of view, the place where you manage all of your contacts, be them friends, family, coworkers, acquaintances and so on.

Google separates all of your contacts depending on how you relate to them and, while asking users to group their friends has been tried before, with little success, the simple and intuitive interface Google has built may do the trick.

+Sparks

The next product to be announced, Sparks, is all about sharing and interests. It's more focused on you than anything else Google unveiled. In essence, it asks users to list some of the things they like or are interested in and Sparks will try to surface content that will be relevant to their interests.

The discovery part is just half of the equation, the other half is sharing that content with just the right friends, the ones that have the same interest in whatever it is that Google has found for you.

+Hangouts

Next up is is a group video chat app, Hangouts. While group video chat is nothing new, Hangouts does a couple of smart things. For one, you'll only be bothered if you're feeling chatty, you have to indicate that you're in the mood for some conversation.

If more of your friends want to hang out, you can get together and start a conversation, share content, watch YouTube clips together and so on. People can join and leave the conversation at any time.

+Mobile

Finally, Google+ has a strong mobile component. There will be applications for both Android and the iPhone. For one, the app enables you to add a location to anything you share or send.

Another core feature is Instant Upload, any photo you take can be automatically uploaded to the cloud so you can view it and share it from any device any time.

Finally, on the mobile front, there's the +Huddle group messaging app, which makes it easy to strike a conversation with several of your friends, even if all of your friends don't have an internet connection at that moment.

"That’s the Google+ project so far: Circles, Sparks, Hangouts and mobile. We’re beginning in Field Trial, so you may find some rough edges, and the project is by invitation only. But online sharing needs a serious re-think, so it’s time we got started. There’s just one more thing—really the only thing: You," Gundotra concluded. source: softpedia.com and google.com

Logitech New Lineaup Of Stylish Peripherals Color Collection

2011-06-28T17:15:00.000-07:00

Logitech Technology has released a lineup of Color Collection, which includes: wireless keyboard K360, two wireless mouse M235 and M325 and webcam C270. All of them are distinguished by an unusual bright coloring of the body.

Wireless Keyboard Wireless Keyboard K360 is 20% smaller than standard and connects to the computer via two-way peredatchk Unifying. She has six multimedia keys and programmable keys F, adjustable height legs and a slow-moving keys. Feeds on the novelty of the two batteries type AA, offers a choice of several (five to be exact) versions of colorings and sells for 24.99 pounds.

Mouse M235 and M325 use a wireless connection at a frequency of 2.4GHz, have an optical sensor, a battery of new products designed for 12 and 18 months of continuous operation. In mice, only two buttons and scroll wheel (model M325 offers a micro-dot scrolling). Room M25 is 19.99 pounds, while the M325 is proposed to be purchased for 29.99 pounds.

Webcam C270 works with a resolution of 720p (1280 x 720), a 3-megapixel sensor and uses RightLight, which automatically improves the quality of images and video. There is a built-in microphone with RightSound. Connects via USB novelty. Cost webcam is 24.99 pounds.

LA Noire From Rockstar Games PC Release Fall 2011

2011-06-28T16:55:00.000-07:00

Team Bondi confirms it is happening
Team Bondi, the developer of LA Noire for Rockstar Games, has confirmed that a PC version of LA Noire is coming this fall.

This ends a lot of speculation suggesting that a PC release was going to happen. Rockstar Leeds is apparently the studio that has been charged with the conversion effort.

Having played LA Noire, it is obvious that the game would be an excellent choice for the PC. The PC version of LA Noire is said to be slated to feature much improved graphics as well as 3D support. In addition, the PC version will add new features that are totally unique to the PC, such as keyboard remapping for example.

LA Noire has already sold four million copies on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, but it is expected that the sale of the title will continue to grow. While the actual release date of the PC version was not confirmed, it will arrive at some point this fall. source: fudzilla.com

POV / TGT nVidia GTX580 3GB Ultra Charged Specifications Preview

2011-06-28T16:50:00.000-07:00

GTX 580 3GB Ultra Charged is specially designed high performance graphics card for enthusiast who like to play games at very high resolutions (above 1920) with highest antialiasing enabled. We got the card from Point of View / TGT and we want to share our first impressions with our readers.
Great thing about this card, apart from the fact that you can put a tremendous amount of data into the video buffer, is that the GPU performance is brought to the next level thanks to factory overclocking, which boosted GPU frequency from reference 772MHz to 841MHz.

It is not easy to show highlights of this card using only standard game settings or playing games on standard resolutions. TGT is not targeting uninformed customers, who consider massive RAM a sign of GPU power, but the informed gamers who like to know that they'll never be let down by available graphics RAM.

We played Aliens vs Predator game at resolution 2560x1600 using 32 CSAA and 16AF. The used memory exceeded 1.5GB, which is actually a limitation with standard GTX 580.

We will also try to find out how GTX 580 3GB UC copes with other games and downsampling (a technique used to fool the application to use a resolution higher than the screen resolution).

The same game played with standard GTX 580 1.5GB card at the same resolution and settings will run into memory limitations, as you can see from the picture below.

As you can see from the picture below, GTX 580 3GB Ultra Charged card is equipped with reference cooling, which can be very loud during gaming. It somehow manages to keep the GPU temperature on the safe side during intensive gaming. We measured 10 Celsius more compared to the reference card.

Doubling the memory capacity of the standard GTX 580 gives enthusiasts more freedom, and we should not forget that this card sports factory overclocing. source: fudzilla.com

New Smartphone HTC EVO 3D Specifications Detalis And Price

2011-06-28T16:35:00.000-07:00

HTC has announced that its HTC EVO 3D smartphone will be available in Europe as of July for around €699, depending on the region. Already available in the US of A, HTC EVO 3D is a 4.3-incher with dual 5 megapixel cameras and a 3D screen that works fine without those bulky glasses.
The full spec list includes a dual-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon chip, 1GB of memory and 1GB of internal storage, a 4.3-inch 960x540 touch screen with 3D, dual-LED flash for both 5 megapixel cameras on the back, front 1.3MP camera, microSD card slot, GPS, Bluetooth, 802.11bgn WiFi, G-Sensor, digital compass and a 1730mAh battery. The dual 5MP cameras are capable of recording 5 megapixel 2D and 2 megapixel 3D photos as well as 2D and 3D videos at 720p.

Of course, the EVO 3D is running on Android 2.3 Gingerbread with a dash of HTC's own Sense UI. As noted, HTC Europe announced that this one will be available in Germany, Switzerland and Austria as of July with a suggested price tag of €699. source: fudzilla.com

Call of Duty: Black Ops Annihilation DLC for PC and PS3 In August, For Xbox360 Available To Download Now

2011-06-28T11:21:00.000-07:00

Call of Duty: Black Ops has just received the third downloadable content pack, in the form of the Annihilation map pack, which is now available for download on the Xbox Live online service for the Xbox 360 console.

Call of Duty: Black Ops is one of the best-selling games of last year, and continues to command a loyal following on all platforms, from the PC, to the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360.
Now, in order to attract even more players, a brand new downloadable content pack has been released for Black Ops, in the form of the Annihilation map pack.

Just like the previous DLCs, the First Strike and Escalation packs, Annihilation brings four new maps for the competitive multiplayer mode, and one new scenario for the Zombies cooperative one.

Check out the official details on the new levels below.

"Take the fight to "Hangar 18," located in the iconic military base Area 51, complete with experimental weapons labs, the SR-71 test hangar, and a disturbingly mysterious autopsy room. Pull up and get cozy with "Drive-In," a close quarters slugfest through a 60's American drive-in theater, classic arcade, and old school snack shack.

"Battle through the construction of a massive secret Soviet missile site in the multilevel "Silo," and then take off to a coastal golf course fit for a dictator in "Hazard," set on the cliffs of Cuba where stocked clubhouses and manicured fairways meet sand traps perfect for setting up ambushes.

"Zombies return with vengeance in the mysterious land of "Shangri-La," a legendary shrine lost in an exotic jungle. Never before seen undead creatures lurk within a treacherous labyrinth of underground caverns. Step carefully through deadly traps and solve the dark secrets buried within the shifting walls of a long last land."

The Annihilation DLC for Call of Duty: Black Ops is now being rolled out on the Xbox 360 console, and is available for purchase and download on both Xbox Live as well as the internal DLC store from the game, for the traditional 1200 MS Points ($15).

It will be released at the end of next month or beginning of August for other platforms like the PC or PlayStation 3, while a Double XP weekend will start later this week to celebrate the release of the DLC. source: softpedia.com

ZBOX Zotac Mini-PC VIA Nano X2 Dual-Core Processor Details

2011-06-28T11:13:00.000-07:00

The BFG was ZBOX of it first as a variant based on Intel Atom, which was followed by the new version with an AMD Fusion APU. We have recently introduced two variations in test reports. Now, unexpectedly followed a new variation on the advanced VIA Nano X2 Dual-Core processor. It's usually very difficult to get equipment that includes Via designed hardware. The company had retired quite strong and is now finally maybe in an offensive.

The exhibited at Computex 2011 ZBOX is present as the previous 18.8 x 18.8 cm high, but only 12 x 12 x 4cm. This is probably the time being the smallest model in the series ZBOX. The user can choose between the nano X2 Dual-Core with 1.2 and 1.6 GHz have beat. The CPU is manufactured in 40 nm process and supports the usual 64-bit architectures, the virtualization technology and VIA PadLock. VIA continues to reveal that the system was designed so that you, other processors such as the VIA Nano, VIA C7, VIA C7-M and VIA Eden can use as well. The election will probably leave Zotac.

About the memory is unfortunately nothing to be exact. One can still see the product picture for more details. In front of a card reader is installed, which is designed for different types of SD cards. Furthermore, you can tell that this ZBOX supports WLAN and probably comes with a remote control. The connectors on the back are not shown in the front but it has a connection for headphones and microphone installed.

The price and launch are yet to be announced. Usually, the devices are available but directly after Computex. We will post an update when further details. source: VIA

New Gaming Mats - Mouse Pads From EVGA Named EGC

2011-06-28T10:58:00.000-07:00

For fans of the company's products last EVGA has released three new gaming mouse pads. On each of them showing off the brand EVGA, but the manufacturer promises an accurate and smooth sliding of the optical rodent.
Like any self-respecting game pad that has a rubberized, skid base, and the upper layer minimizes the effects of friction on the base of the mouse pad. Dimensions of new products - 26cm x 35.56sm. The cost of each - 14.99. The models are the rugs under the name EGC. source: evga.com

Exclusive Far Cry 3 Single Player Gameplay Demo - Beta

2011-06-28T10:44:00.000-07:00

Exclusive Far Cry 3 beta - demo gameplay from Ubisoft press conference showcasing the amazing looking graphics, characters design and actors voice acting.
What is the meaning of insanity? Find out in this live gameplay demo at E3 2011 for the new shooter Far Cry 3.

First Windows Phone By Nokia In 2011 Similar To MeeGo N9

2011-06-23T09:29:00.000-07:00

This fall, Nokia should bring to the market their first Windows Phone handset, and we are all wondering just how that might look, since no specific info on the matter was unveiled for the time being, but that seems to have changed courtesy of leaked photos and a video that just emerged into the wild.
What appears to be the very first Nokia Windows Phone should arrive on the market with a design similar to the one Nokia's MeeGo-based N9 sports.

The device, codenamed Sea Ray, was showcased to the audience at the unveiling of Nokia N9 and, although it was supposed to be 'super confidential,' it still made an appearance on the Internet.

The handset sports a similar outer design as the company's N9, but has the flash LED accompanying the 8-megapixel photo snapper on the back placed differently.

The handset supposedly runs under Microsoft's Windows Phone Mango, just as Nokia announced recently that its first handsets powered by this OS would.

In addition to some photos with the new mobile phone, you can also have a look at a video in which Nokia CEO Stephen Elop presents it.

The three buttons that any Windows Phone should include are not visible in the first photo to the left, but the video below, available courtesy of technet.hu (via Engadget), will unveil more on it, including the clearly different back and the hardware buttons on the side.

This is only one of the Windows Phones that Nokia has in store for us for the ongoing year, as the company's CEO stated.

When exactly they would arrive on the market, it remains to be seen, as nothing was detailed specifically on this for the time being.

However, Nokia did confirm that it will release more than one Windows Phone handset before the end of this year, and previous rumors suggested that late October might be the launch time frame (during Nokia World).

Until more on the matter is made available, have a look at the video embedded below to make an idea of what Nokia's first Windows Phone might look like. source: softpedia.com

New Nokia N9 MeeGo : Amoled, 8 Megapixel Camera Carl Zeiss And More

2011-06-21T20:34:00.000-07:00

Nokia these days introduced a new smartphone N9-based operating system MeeGo, but did not report any information about its value. According to information received by the portal SmashPop 16GB version will cost Nokia N9 $ 660, and the 64GB version for 749 dollars will be asked.
Prices have become known after a special event arranged by Nokia. Recall that N9 is based on the processor Cortex A8 OMAP 3630 with 1 GHz, has 1GB of RAM, 3.9-inch AMOLED display with Gorilla Glass and 8-megapixel camera with optics Carl Zeiss, double flash and the ability to record video in 720p.

The innovation is expected in stores later this year in a variety of colors. source: fonearena.com

Far Cry 3 Amazing Graphics On PC, Excellent On PS3 And Xbox360

2011-06-21T12:32:00.000-07:00

Ubisoft is pretty certain that its newly announced Far Cry 3 will be able to amaze players no matter the platform, as its Montreal-based studio is set to showcase its years of multiplatform experience with the new shooter.
Ubisoft's Far Cry series has always set a benchmark for impressive graphics and realistic gameplay, so, with the third installment, which was showcased during the E3 2011 conference, the French company wants to up the ante once again.

We've already seen a pretty impressive video demonstration alongside the actual announcement, and now, the producer of the game, Dan Hay, revealed to CVG that the team at Ubisoft Montreal will deliver a great experience across all platforms, but PC users will be the only ones that can "dial it to 11."

"Far Cry is a franchise born on PC, so we want to make sure with the PC experience you can dial it to 11," he said. "But at the same time we've got a ton of experience working on Xbox 360 and PS3, and for us making sure that they're on parity with that stuff is incredibly important. So we want to make sure that if you're playing it on PS3 it looks incredible, and if you're playing on the 360 it's unbelievable, sounds amazing and looks fantastic," he said.

The original Far Cry was developed by German studio Crytek, and impressed the whole industry with its stunning graphics, remaining a benchmark for computers for quite a long time.

The second game, which appeared back in 2008, impressed through its realistic gameplay, with deteriorating weapons and vehicles or realistic fires that swept up the African location, but disappointed with its story.

With the third game, the team is trying a more back to basics approach, bringing the action back to a tropical island filled with mercenaries, while putting the players in the shoes of a regular guy who is trying to find his girlfriend.

The game is currently scheduled to appear next year, for the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. source: softpedia.com

New Grand Theft Auto V GTA 5 Release In 2012

2011-06-21T12:26:00.000-07:00

Grand Theft Auto V, the next installment in Rockstar's hugely successful open world franchise, is "well under way" in terms of development, and looks set to appear in 2012, at least according to a new report.
Rockstar is set to debut a new installment in its massively popular Grand Theft Auto series, with the next game, GTA V, being rumored for quite some time, right after the release of the last title, GTA IV, back in 2008.

Seeing as how the previous game sold over 20 million units, it was pretty obvious that Rockstar would already have the next title in development, as hinted at by a few brief teasers and some leaked actor casting calls earlier this year.

Now, GameSpot has published a new report, citing inside sources, which says that the development of Grand Theft Auto V is "well under way" and that it's pretty likely we'll see the game arrive in 2012.

The scale of Grand Theft Auto V is "vast" but it's nearing completion, as the development team only needs to implement the various mini-games that will entertain players while they aren't going around the game's world and causing all sorts of havoc.

Original rumors and opinions for analysts pegged at least the announcement of Grand Theft Auto V to appear this year, most likely at the E3 2011 conference that took place two weeks ago.

That, sadly, hasn't happened, as Rockstar preferred to keep people in the dark until the time is right to unveil Grand Theft Auto V.

While previous speculation said that the action might once again take place in Vice City, the Miami clone seen in a sequel to GTA III, the recent casting calls suggest the game will see players travel around the fictional Los Santos city, the franchise's own Los Angeles clone, which first appeared in GTA: San Andreas.

As of yet, however, Rockstar hasn't commented on all these rumors, so fans of Grand Theft Auto will have to wait and see when the actual announcement appears. source: softpedia.com

LG Optimus 3D First Mobile Phone With 3D Browsing

2011-06-21T12:19:00.000-07:00

Last week, LG introduced that the opening market, where will LG Optimus 3D technology, will become Europe.It seems that the Korean company has fulfilled its promise.The new smartphone has appeared on the site of one of Britain's retailers.
The major network of mobile phones, Carphone Warehouse, opened the welcome of pre-orders for LG Optimus 3D.Smartphone without contract is priced at 499.95 pounds (about $ 808).Delivery date is planned for June 27, 2011.

Remember that the smartphone LG Optimus 3D features a 4.3-inch touch screen with 3D-resolution of 480 x 800 pixels (WVGA), 2-core processor from TI OMAP4 1 GHz and two 5-megapixel cameras with the ability to record 3D HD- video (720p) or 2D HD-video (1080p). Moreover there is hold up for standards DLNA, WiFi, 3G and the world's first 3D-browser function of augmented reality.
source: geeky-gadgets.com

Dual Processor Motherboard For Sandy Bridge-E From EVGA

2011-06-20T10:11:00.000-07:00

EVGA has officially confirmed its intention to bring to market a dual-CPU motherboard for Intel processors on the architecture of Sandy Bridge-E. Apparently, the novelty should come to replace the motherboard Classified SR2 (pictured), which was released in March 2010. Recall that it supports two Intel processors with Socket LGA 1366.
It is worth noting that at Computex '11 demonstrated some motherboards for processors Sandy Bridge-E, but none of them is dual. Unfortunately, data on the new EVGA board yet, but we can say with confidence that it will be based on the chipset X79, which will be released along with Sandy Bridge-E in the IV quarter.

According to recent data, this line will be represented by three processors, Socket LGA 2011. The first two models will have six cores and will ship with an open multiplier. Is the oldest model will have 15 MB of cache L3, and its nominal clock frequency was 3.3 GHz. For comparison, the second model will have only 12 MB of L3 cache and a lower nominal clock frequency - 3.2 GHz. With regard to the third model, then it will only be 4 cores, 10 MB cache L3, but its nominal clock frequency is higher - 3.6 GHz. Nevertheless, this processor will have a lower overclocking potential than the first two models. source: softpedia.com

New Sandy Bridge i5 2320, i3 2130, 2125 and 2120T From Intel

2011-06-20T10:03:00.000-07:00

Intel continues to swell the ranks of Sandy Bridge. The processor giant is planning to bring to market three models of family Core i3 - 2130, 2125 and 2120T. They are expected to be released in Quarter III.
In addition to the above models, Intel still going to add to the family of Core i5 another model - 2320. This processor is designed for use in desktop systems and has four core, 6 MB cache, as well as integrated graphics Intel HD Graphics 2000. Recall that this GPU is the youngest of the two versions available, and is weaker than the Intel HD Graphics 3000. Its frequency is 850 MHz, but in a mode Turbo Boost it can reach 1100 MHz. The nominal clock frequency Core i5-2320 is 3 GHz, but thanks to technology Turbo Boost, this processor can accelerate to 3.3 GHz. Its TDP - 95 watts.

It is worth noting that Core i5-2320 has a built-in controller 2-channel memory, and supports Intel Clear HD. In this regard, it is no different from the majority of processors Core i3/i5/i7 Sandy Bridge. In quantities of 1000 units and above, it will cost 177 dollars. Apparently, Intel has chosen Intel HD Graphics 2000, to keep the price of Core i5-2320 at an acceptable level.

Intel Atom N2600 HyperThreading, Integrated Graphics, Low Power Consumption

2011-06-20T09:52:00.000-07:00

Atom N2600 is one of two main components of the platform CedarView-M, we have already mentioned. Now you tell us what he represents. As reported by Intel, the processor has two cores, and its nominal clock frequency is 1.6 GHz. But the interesting thing is that it does not exceed 3.5 TDP Tues.
According to official figures, Atom N2600 has a 1 MB L2 cache and supports HyperThreading. This means that it can handle up to four data streams simultaneously. This processor is, incidentally, supports DDR3-800 memory and has Vesma decent integrated graphics in the form of GPU GMA (Graphics Media Accelerator) 5600 with a nominal clock frequency of 400 MHz.

Atom N2600 clearly better than Atom Z670. Firstly, this processor is manufactured on 32 nm process technology. Secondly, it has two cores, and its TDP is not much higher: 3,5 W to 3, Tues Under the plan Intel, the processor will be released in the IV quarter.

AMD Graphics Cards Radeon HD 7000 Codename Southern Islands 2011

2011-06-20T09:40:00.000-07:00

Legislative body of AMD reported that by the last part of this year, will sell a cycle of graphics cards Radeon HD 7000 (codename series now Southern Islands). About the future make public to market a new invention of cards was announced during the seminar Fusion Developer Summit, held at the initiative of AMD in Washington.
As the developers say, the new graphics cards will be twisted using 28-nm process technology. The devices will be running stream processors VLIW4.It is this design was used in a series of graphics cards HD 6900 from AMD.GPU propose much improved based on the function of increasing effectiveness and presentation of chips. Legislature noted that the first series of boosters will work on TSMC ability, but after a 28-nanometer procedure technology will go into support type to gathering manufacture devices.

Cheap Tablet TeXeT TM-7021 280 Dollars Price Range

2011-06-20T09:33:00.000-07:00

Cheap tablet teXet TM-7021 in Russia is represented by "Electronic Systems Alkotel ", it also will implement new products based on the processor Amlogic Cortex A9 (1 GHz) and the graphics core ARM Mali-400.
Exterior of the tablet is no different from the previous model teXet TM-7011. Thickness of the shell, still, is 11 cm, and the color of his still recalls a cup of fragrant and warming mocha.
Speaking of mocha, if there is a desire to sit on the sofa with a cup of coffee and watch your favorite movie, then teXet TM-7021 for this purpose all provided - cover plate has a special stand, which allows you to position it at any angle, the battery will last for 4.5 hours show video format Full HD (1080p) on 7-inch display, moreover, the kit includes the remote control, so that the pleasure will be complete. And, if desired, a picture can be derived on the big screen by arranging the connection port miniHDMI.
Connecting to the Internet through a standard Wi-Fi, complete with the same standard Bluetooth. Russian users will find a tablet preloaded game Angry Birds and a number of special applications with which to find a plastic box , and communicate in runet will easily and comfortably. Among these applications are present from a Yandex, Agent Mayl.Ru, news clients popular media, software FBReader to read books and so on.
The average retail price of the tablet teXet TM-7021 running Android 2.2 will be 7,990 rubles.
Features teXet TM-7021:
7-inch touchscreen display with a resolution of 800x480 pixels
Operating system Android 2.2
Processor Amlogic AML8726-M Cortex A9 (1 GHz)
Memory - 512 MB RAM, 4 GB flash
Slot for microSD / microSDHC cards
Playback Formats text - PDF, FB2, EPUB, OEB
Video Playback Formats - AVI, 3GP, MP4, RM / RMVB, FLV, MKV, MOV
Audio formats - MP3, WMA, WAV, OGG, FLAC, APE, AAC
Picture Playback Formats - JPEG, BMP, GIF
Built-in speaker and microphone
Accelerometer
Wireless connectivity - Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
Ports - microUSB, 3,5 mm audio, miniHDMI
Lithium-Ion Battery 3750 mAh
Dimensions - mm 186x113h11
Weight - 350 grams
Color - Brown

Windows 7 SP1 Service Pack 1 x86 x64 Direct Download Changelog

2011-06-19T12:21:00.000-07:00

The Windows 7 SP1 package will help keep your PCs and servers on the latest support level, provides ongoing improvements to the Windows Operating System (OS), by including previous updates delivered over Windows Update as well as continuing incremental updates to the Windows 7 platform based on customer and partner feedback, and is easy for organizations to deploy a single set of updates.
Windows 7 SP1 will help you:
- Keep your PCs supported and up-to-date
- Get ongoing updates to the Windows 7 platform
- Easily deploy cumulative updates at a single time
- Meet your users' demands for greater business mobility
- Provide a comprehensive set of virtualization innovations
- Provide an easier Service Pack deployment model for better IT efficiency

In order to download and install the Windows 7 SP1 you must currently have a Release to Manufacturing (RTM) version of Windows 7 already installed.

If you have previously installed the Windows 7 SP1 Beta on your machine, you must uninstall the beta before installing the RTM.

Windows 7 SP1 is available for installation in the same languages made available at original launch of Windows 7.

Requirements:

· Your current operating system must be the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) version of Windows 7
· Users updating through Windows Update/WSUS must install the Servicing Stack Update (SSU) that handles the installation and removal of software updates, language packs, and optional Windows features. This update is necessary to successfully install or unin

What's New in This Release:
Additional support for communication with third-party federation services:
· Additional support has been added to allow Windows 7 clients to effectively communicate with third-party identity federation services (those supporting the WS-Federation passive profile protocol). This change enhances platform interoperability, and improves the ability to communicate identity and authentication information between organizations.

Improved HDMI audio device performance:
· A small percentage of users have reported issues in which the connection between computers running Windows 7 and HDMI audio devices can be lost after system reboots. Updates have been incorporated into SP1 to ensure that connections between Windows 7 computers and HDMI audio devices are consistently maintained.

Corrected behavior when printing mixed-orientation XPS documents:
· Prior to the release of SP1, some customers have reported difficulty when printing mixed-orientation XPS documents (documents containing pages in both portrait and landscape orientation) using the XPS Viewer, resulting in all pages being printed entirely in either portrait or landscape mode. This issue has been addressed in SP1, allowing users to correctly print mixed-orientation documents using the XPS Viewer.

Changes common to both client and server platforms:
· Change to behavior of “Restore previous folders at logon” functionality
· SP1 changes the behavior of the “Restore previous folders at logon” function available in the Folder Options Explorer dialog. Prior to SP1, previous folders would be restored in a cascaded position based on the location of the most recently active folder. That behavior changes in SP1 so that all folders are restored to their previous positions.

Enhanced support for additional identities in RRAS and IPsec:
· Support for additional identification types has been added to the Identification field in the IKEv2 authentication protocol. This allows for a variety of additional forms of identification (such as E-mail ID or Certificate Subject) to be used when performing authentication using the IKEv2 protocol.

Support for Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX):
· There has always been a growing need for ever more computing power and as usage models change, processors instruction set architectures evolve to support these growing demands. Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) is a 256 bit instruction set extension for processors. AVX is designed to allow for improved performance for applications that are floating point intensive. Support for AVX is a part of SP1 to allow applications to fully utilize the new instruction set and register extensions.

· Changes specific to Windows Server 2008 R2
Dynamic Memory:
· Constraints on the allocation of physical memory represents one of the greatest challenges organizations face as they adopt new virtualization technology and consolidate their infrastructure. With Dynamic Memory, an enhancement to Hyper-V™ introduced in Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, organizations can now make the most efficient use of available physical memory, allowing them to realize the greatest possible potential from their virtualization resources. Dynamic Memory allows for memory on a host machine to be pooled and dynamically distributed to virtual machines as necessary. Memory is dynamically added or removed based on current workloads, and is done so without service interruption.

Microsoft RemoteFX:
· Businesses are increasingly looking to leverage the efficiency and cost savings that can come from a virtualized desktop infrastructure. With the addition of Microsoft RemoteFX in Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, a new set of remote user experience capabilities that enable a media-rich user environment for virtual desktops, session-based desktops and remote applications is introduced. Harnessing the power of virtualized graphics resources, RemoteFX can be deployed to a range of thick and thin client devices, enabling cost-effective, local-like access to graphics-intensive applications and a broad array of end user peripherals, improving productivity of remote users.

· RemoteFX can function independently from specific graphics stacks and supports any screen content, including today’s most advanced applications and rich content (including Silverlight and Adobe Flash), ensuring that end users maintain a rich, local-like desktop experience even in a virtualized thin-client environment.

· RemoteFX also adds mainstream USB device support to virtual desktop computing, including support for USB drives, cameras and PDAs connected to the client device. RemoteFX also provides a platform for hardware and software partners to enhance RemoteFX capabilities in a variety of possible host, client and network configurations.
· To use RemoteFX, the virtualization server must be running Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1, the virtual machine must be running Windows 7 Enterprise with SP1 or Windows 7 Ultimate with SP1, and the remote client computer must be running either Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1 or Windows 7 with SP1. To connect to the virtual machine, the remote client computer requires an updated version of Remote Desktop Services (included in the service pack for all editions of Windows 7).

Enhancements to scalability and high availability when using DirectAccess:
· DirectAccess is a new feature in the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 operating systems that gives users the experience of being seamlessly connected to their corporate network any time they have Internet access. In Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, improvements have been made to enhance scalability and high availability when using DirectAccess, through the addition of support for 6to4 and ISATAP addresses when using DirectAccess in conjunction with Network Load Balancing (NLB).

Support for Managed Service Accounts (MSAs) in secure branch office scenarios:
· SP1 enables enhanced support for managed service accounts (MSAs) to be used on domain-member services located in perimeter networks (also known as DMZs or extranets).

Support for increased volume of authentication traffic on domain controllers connected to high-latency networks:
· As a greater volume of IT infrastructure migrates to cloud-based services, there is a need for higher thresholds of authentication traffic to domain controllers located on high-latency networks (such as the public Internet). SP1 allows for more granular control of the maximum number of possible concurrent connections to a domain controller, enabling a greater degree of performance tuning for service providers.

Enhancements to Failover Clustering with Storage:
· SP1 enables enhanced support for how Failover Clustering works with storage that is not visible for all cluster nodes. In SP1, improvements have been made to the Cluster Validation and multiple Failover Cluster Manager wizards to allow workloads to use disks that are shared between a subset of cluster nodes.

Download The Best Free Antivirus Web Shield Security

2011-06-19T12:00:00.000-07:00

Avast! Free Antivirus often outperforms our competitors´ paid-for products in independent tests, leading in both security features and scanning speed. In fact, AV-Comparatives.org rated avast! 6 the fastest out of 20 antivirus programs! Having antivirus protection is critical and, fortunately, easier than ever. Download now and in just a few minutes you’ll be enjoying the peace of mind that comes from having the best and fastest online protection available.
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Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Service Pack 4
Minimum Hardware Requirements
Processor Pentium 3
128 MB RAM
200 MB of free hard disk space

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Halo 1 HD Reach Engine Multiplayer Has Jetpacks, Armour Abilities

2011-06-19T10:03:00.000-07:00

The upcoming Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary edition will keep the original Halo experience, but the multiplayer mode will use the Halo: Reach engine, as it allows it to include many things like jetpacks or armor abilities. Halo fans are set to once again explore the original experience that started the iconic franchise, as 343 Industries, together with Saber and Certain Affinity are bringing the Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Edition to life at the end of the year.

We already knew that the game is set to once again tell the story of the first Halo, but with high-definition graphics and plenty of other quality enhancements, and now, thanks to 343's executive producer, Dan Ayoub, we also know what the multiplayer of the title will cover.

According to the executive, via CVG, players are going to be treated with the same classic Halo campaign experience, with "a combination of the original Halo code with our new graphics engine," but the multiplayer will add lots of new features, thanks in part to the use of the same engine as the recent Halo: Reach.

"We're going to be taking fan favorite maps from the original and putting them into the Reach engine," he explained.

"Using the Reach engine allows us a new take - offering different ways to play the maps you love. Because now [for example] you're able to play Damnation with a whole bunch of new things, like Armour abilities, like Jetpacks all of a sudden. It's going to completely change your gameplay."

343 Industries is set to reveal lots of other details about Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Edition in August, when the traditional Halofest takes place.

The studio is also working hard on the next big trilogy in the franchise, as Halo 4 was revealed last week, at E3 2011, and is scheduled to appear at the end of 2012.

Call of Duty Black Ops PC Fix Performance Tweaks

2011-06-17T14:27:00.000-07:00

Performance Tweaks
First of all turn your settings down and disable shadows and anti aliasing (or try aa x2) turn vsync off
Shadows especially can affect performance.
Most COD4 configs and console commands are active in Black Ops
Config Files(SEE mp CONFIG File) it is located in your game folder under your game profile name.

D:\Steam\steamapps\common\call of duty black ops\players

(From Dustin Ewan -Steam Forums) - CONFIG EDITOR TOOL -If you want a fast fix to boost your FPS use this tool, it works

First of all, I made a small tool to help you out. It's simply a config editor. You can make changes to the config yourself, or you can use this tool to do it for you.

You can download the Config Editor tool here. -(has been check by me and no malware-admin)

Anyway, some settings that may be of importance are:

r_multiGpu

This should only be enabled if you have multiple graphics cards or a graphics card with multiple GPUs. If you don't have multiple GPUs, don't know what this means, or are having issues with your MultiGPU solution, please set this to "0".

r_multithreaded_device

This setting should be enabled for EVERYBODY as the minimum requirements for Black Ops clearly states that you need a multithreaded (multicore) CPU to run the game. However, some people have noticed that by setting this to "0" some of the skipping lag is relieved. Test this out only as a last resort.

r_vsync

VSync prevents screen tearing. If you don't know what that is, just set it to "0" because you probably don't care anyway. Otherwise, VSync usually doesn't have any negative performance issues with today's graphics cards. However, there may be a few performance issues linked to VSync with the current release of Black Ops. Try setting this to "0" for compatibility.

r_blur_allowed

This setting enables Blur shader effects. If you have a strong shader card, this setting may be negligible. Otherwise, just go ahead and set this to "0".

r_distortion

This setting enables Distortion shader effects. If you have a strong shader card, this setting may be negligible. Otherwise, just go ahead and set this to "0".

r_dof_enable

This setting enables Depth of Field shader effects. If you have a strong shader card, this setting may be negligible. Otherwise, just go ahead and set this to "0".

r_glow_allowed

This setting enables Glow (HDR?) shader effects. Normally, this should have a negligible performance impact. HOWEVER, this setting seems to be buggy! Performance improved DRAMATICALLY when I set this option to "0".

rate

Rate is the rate at which the client sends packets to the server. If you set this too low, below 10000 or so, you run the risk of sending insufficient data to the server and lagging out. Set this too high, above 50000 or so, and you run the risk of flooding your connection to the server. This setting should be adjusted according to your connection speed and may take some fine tuning.

cl_maxpackets

This setting controls how many packets the client will hold to ensure packet transmission. If you set this setting to low, below 20 or so, then you run the risk of being disconnected prematurely. If you set this setting too high, then you run the risk of continually resending redundant data and lowering your ping (or worse, getting choked). This setting is very hard to tune because it depends on so many factors beyond your own connection. Most people put this at half their max fps because that is the sweet spot for food hit registry. The log files are showing a lot of dropped packets so until they fix this mess 100 is your best bet.

Helpful Console Commands

/cl_maxpackets-improve net play set to 100 or half your max fps

/cg_drawfps - see fps in game

/com_maxfps 1-1000 (best ive got so far is just over 110)Should set to 125 or 250

/cg_Fov adjust your field of view - max=80 This can also be done via slider bar in graphics options it the options menu

/stoprecord -helps some people with stutter other people (like me) it did nothing. Doesn't hurt anything

/snaps 30 - an old cod 4 favorite

/seta ragdoll_enable "0"disables ragdoll -very helpful

/seta r_fog_disable "1" -removes fog and helps game run smoother

AMD Bulldozer Motherboards From MSI Leaked

2011-06-17T14:08:00.000-07:00

Careless distributors have leaked some info on upcoming AMD Bulldozer boards from MSI, but since we cannot verify the specs, take everything with a grain of salt.
The 990FXA-GD80 is based on the AMD 990FX chipset and SB950 southbridge. It features four DDR3 memory slots, four PCIe 2.0 x16 slots, two PCIe 2.0 slots and a lone PCI slot. It has two USB 3.0 ports, along with six USB 2.0 ports. Internally it offers two more USB 3.0 and four USB 2.0 ports, along with Firewire and six SATA 6Gbps connectors, with support for RADI 0/1/5/10.
In terms of features, the 990FXA-GD65 is quite similar, but it has just two PCIe 2.0 x16 slots, three PCIe 2.0 slots and two PCI slots.
The 970A-G45 is based on the 970 chipset and SB 950. It has two PCIe 2.0 x16 slots, two PCIe 2.0 slots and two PCI slots. Like the 990-series boards, it also packs two internal and two external USB 3.0 ports, along with a total of 12 USB 2.0 ports.
No word on pricing or availability yet, but AMD is expected to introduce Bulldozer CPUs in mid-2011.

Forza Motorsport 4 Kinect Suport E3 2011

2011-06-17T13:39:00.000-07:00

E3 2011 saw the release of a huge amount of details about plenty of games, and Forza Motorsport 4 is no exception.
The new racing game, coming from Turn 10 Studios and set to be published by Microsoft, was displayed during the North American company's own E3 2011 conference, during which footage of its gameplay was presented to all of the attendants.
We've already heard quite a lot of things about the new racing title, including its support for the Kinect motion sensor that will allow it to track the heads of players and display their actions when using the cockpit view, as well as listen to the voice of the gamers and ease the menu navigation while not in actual races.
Microsoft has now confirmed all of the major features from Forza Motorsport 4, ranging from the improved graphics, to the Xbox Live compatibility or the wide range of car or track choices.
Platform-defining graphics. “Forza Motorsport 4” sets a new graphical standard for the racing genre. Featuring dramatic Hollywood-style camera effects and an all new lighting engine, “Forza Motorsport 4” creates an unparalleled, dramatically realistic graphical experience — all running at a silky-smooth 60 frames per second.
- Xbox Live showpiece. “Forza Motorsport 4” is making racing more social than ever. Create a Car Club and build the ultimate dream team of drivers, tuners and painters from the “Forza” community. Share your custom cars and dominate the other clubs. With the all-new Rivals Mode, play against your friends whether they are online or not by challenging them for bragging rights and rewards in a variety of different game types.
- Industry-leading innovation with Kinect. Autovista Mode brings the automotive experience comes to life. Walk around the car in a virtual showroom, crouch down to look at the details, or open the doors and hood using the power of Kinect. Immerse yourself with Kinect Head Tracking, which pans the camera view based on how you naturally look into the corners when you’re hard charging. Take the virtual wheel with Kinect as you sit on the couch with your friends and family — no controller required. You can even take advantage of Kinect voice control to easily navigate the game’s menu.
- More of what you love. With more than 80 manufacturers, the most in any racing game available today, “Forza Motorsport 4” features unrivaled diversity and more of the cars you love. The all new World Tour Mode boasts new tracks, unending choice and hundreds of hours of gameplay as you travel the globe with your favorite car. With the most accurate physics engine, cockpits and damage on every car and assists that allow even the most casual player to race, “Forza Motorsport 4” redefines the genre.
What's more, Microsoft also confirmed the actual release date of the new racing game to the world, which is out exclusively for the Xbox 360 console on October 11, in North America, October 14, in Europe, and October 20, in the rest of the world.
Until then, check out the game's official presentation from the E3 2011 conference.
source : softpedia.com

Fix Windows 7 SP1 Slow Boot and Shutdown Performance

2011-06-17T10:52:00.000-07:00

According to Microsoft, a high-performance desktop running Windows 7 should boot in as little as 10 seconds, if the machine is properly optimized.
The software giant considers a computer with the following hardware configuration: Dual-core 2.8-gigahertz (GHz) CPU, 10,000-RPM disk, and 3-gigabyte (GB) memory, a high performance PC.
Obviously, the vast majority of end users have never seen a Windows 7 computer boot in as little as 10 seconds, and some might not even believe that it’s possible.
The Redmond company says that not only can Windows on/off transition performance can be improved, but even released a resource designed to provide guidance.
The Windows On/Off Transition Performance Analysis is available for download free of charge, covering Windows 7 RTM and SP1 as well as Windows Vista.
Microsoft notes that the guide is tailored to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), independent software vendors (ISVs), independent hardware vendors (IHVs), and systems analysts.
“This paper explains the Windows on/off transitions in detail, highlights performance vulnerabilities within each transition, and shows how to identify and analyze these issues by using the Windows Performance Toolkit (WPT),” the software giant said.
“Performance analysis is often necessary because system extensions such as applications, drivers, services, and devices can negatively affect on/off transition times if they are not properly optimized. Poorly optimized system extensions usually result in the following: delays, lack of parallelism and excessive resource consumption.”
Microsoft continually builds innovations into new iterations of Windows, but since the operating system ships preinstalled on new OEM machines, the Redmond company does not have the final say about the resulting products.
Even in scenarios in which OEMs load a range of crapware on their machines, slowing them down considerably, the software giant and Windows still take all the criticism for poor performance.
The Windows On/Off Transition Performance Analysis guide is an excellent resource for speeding up Windows startup/boot and shutdown times, but Microsoft’s partners need to actually leverage it.
“The guidance in this paper can help significantly reduce on/off transition times,” Microsoft promises.
“We have applied these performance optimizations to many systems in our laboratories and reduced boot-to-desktop time on some systems by almost 50 percent. On some systems, boot time decreased by a total of 40 to 50 seconds. However, the effect of each driver, service, or application on transition times is unique, and your results might differ.” source: softpedia.com