FOXCONN today officially announced the launch of the X38A motherboard, based on the enthusiast-class Intel X38 chipset. This high-end desktop motherboard is the latest product in Foxconn’s Digital Life segment, which aims to bring more connectivity and digital entertainment capability to enthusiast motherboards. (Don't forget to take our Foxconn Survey for your chance to win on of its Mars P35 motherboards!)
The latest distribution of openSUSE linux has been released:
"This version contains new beautiful green artwork, KDE 3.5.7 and parts of KDE 4, SUSE-polished GNOME 2.20, a GTK version of YaST, a new 1-click-install technology, MP3 support out-of-the-box, new and redesigned YaST modules, compiz and compiz fusion advances, virtualisation improvements, OpenOffice.org 2.3, Xfce 4.4.1, and much more! Read on for details of what is new and available in openSUSE 10.3, and for all the necessary download links"
The boot time has been improved, software managment is fast and simple, and only 1 CD is required for installation. The 1-click-install is also a very awesome feature.
If you have never tried linux and are willing to take the plunge I highly recommend this distribution.
The team at HardOCP sends word that it has measured graphics performance on the newly released Half-Life 2: Episode 2 game which was released via Steam earlier today:
"As you can see from the graph the 320 MB and 640 MB 8800 GTS are technically faster than the 2900 XT in an apples-to-apples comparison so far in HL2: EP2, but not by a wide margin. The 8800 GTX and Ultra completely obliterate the GTS and 2900 XT in performance in this game. Having only played the first level so far, these high performance results inspires confidence in the playability of this game with mainstream-performance video cards in the $250-300 range."
Seagate continues to break new ground in the enterprise and business markets with its latest Barracuda ES.2 drives which weigh in at up to 1-Terrabyte of capacity. While Hitachi was first this year with a 1TB drive to the desktop and retail side of things, Seagate’s first 1GB model has some BIOS tweaks for the business segment.
SMC Networks (www.smc.com), the company that is redefining leadership in reliable, robust, standards-based networking solutions for the SMB, today announced the newest additions to its EZ Switch line of easy to use, affordable networking solutions for SOHO, SMB and enterprise applications: the EZ Switch 10/100/1000 8-port Gigabit Smart Switch with PoE (SMCGS8P-Smart). Designed to bring the ultimate in flexibility to Gigabit connectivity, these compact, flexible switches are available now, at an MSRP of $299.99.
In another industry first, Alienware – the leading manufacturer of high-performance desktop, notebook and entertainment systems – is now offering 64GB solid state drives (SSD) in desktops. Available in dual RAID 0 configurations, Alienware's Area-51 ALX and Aurora ALX systems are the market's first desktops to feature the 64GB SSD.
The 64GB SSD offers a number of advantages over standard hard drives:
• Performance is lightning-fast with the SSD - thanks to quicker boot and load times. • With no moving parts that could potentially be damaged or wear out over time, the SSD provides significantly improved reliability. • To further optimize the user experience, the SSD consumes less power and is quieter.
Belkin International, Inc., announces its new n52te, a hybrid gaming keyboard built to dominate in FPS (first-person shooter), MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role-playing games), and RTS (real-time strategy) computer games. An improvement over its predecessor, the critically acclaimed n52, the n52te is enhanced by Razer’s killer performance software, which boasts a competitive advantage with portable player profiles, robust customization tools, and cool blue backlighting.
Acitivision's Quake Wars: Enemy Territory game - based off of a modified Doom 3 engine - has hit the stores today and brings with it a mixed bag of responses. Some will enjoy the team-based game play of it and others of us are worried the game shipped way too late and is showing its "age".
We got our hands on the system specs for Epic's upcoming Unreal Tournament 3 and here's what it's shaping up like:
Minimum System Requirements Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista
2.0+ GHZ Single Core Processor
512 MB of System RAM
NVIDIA 6200+ or ATI Radeon 9600+ Video Card
8 GB of Free Hard Drive Space
Recommended System Requirements 2.4+ GHZ Dual Core Processor
1 GB of System RAM
NVIDIA 7800GTX+ or ATI x1300+ Video Card
8 GB of Free Hard Drive Space
OCZ Technology Group, a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance memory and PC components, today announced the release of the Turbo-Cool 1200 power supply from PC Power & Cooling. Designed to offer the consumer market a professional-grade computer power supply, the 1200W Turbo-Cool is the ultimate power solution for those that require the very best, long-lasting, industrial-grade components for their mission-critical system or leading-edge gaming machine.
Continuing a long history of technical innovation and industry leadership, PC Power & Cooling has designed the Turbo-Cool 1200 for optimum power distribution to all components by utilizing their customary "single +12V rail" design. This trail-blazing approach to +12V rail design ends the need to budget power "across the rails" as is the case with the less effective multi-rail design found in the vast majority of high-performance PSUs on the market today.
Priced at $584 dollars, Google's stock price today hit near record highs, making the company's worth near $182,410,000,000 Billion dollars. Bloomberg reports that the rise in stock comes from investors being inclined to think as advertisers shift from print media to online - Google will be best positioned to capitalize on the trend.
Running our own servers can really blow at times - case in point is the main RAID controller that's been giving us fits - causing the RAID volumes to all of a sudden drop. Sorry about the down-time, but (hopefully), things will be running fine now.
Toshiba’s Digital Products Division (DPD), a division of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., today announced the Satellite X205-S7483 available exclusively at Best Buy stores nationwide for $1,499.99. This new gaming notebook is part of Toshiba’s award-winning DirectX 10 compatible Satellite X205 gaming notebook series designed for extreme gaming aficionados.
XFX welcomes the most affordable—and graphically intense—triplets ever delivered. The XFX nForce 630i with GeForce 7150, nForce 630i with GeForce 7100, and nForce 610i with GeForce 7050 motherboards are genetically programmed to deliver a premium graphics experience on Windows Vista, including Flip 3D, translucent window panes and taskbar preview.
Google’s proposed buyout of online advertising company DoubleClick will be getting scrutinized today by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senators and witnesses are likely to focus on a controversial marketing strategy created by DoubleClick several years ago but later abandoned over consumer privacy concerns.
A Pennsylvania man believes his Social Security Number may be worth $5 billion, and is asking a court to rule Google must sign the check. In a handwritten complaint, Dylan Stephen Jayne says his Social Security Number, when turned upside-down equals "Google."
Jayne, in the five-page complaint, charges Google by using his Social Security Number, has opened him to terrorist attacks, making the company guilty of "crimes against humanity."
Does the lawsuit have a chance against the Internet giant? "No," Eric Goldman, a Santa Clara University legal professor told The Register.
There’s a long-standing acronym in the technology industry called “FUD”, which means “Fear, uncertainty and doubt”. Its roots are from an old IBM worker who claimed his company was spreading those things around in an effort to prevent the company he later founded from being successful. Fast forward to July 2007 and we have an update in the continuing saga of FUD – this time, it seems, being spread around by AMD.
Let’s face it, embedded graphics have quite a lot to live up to and traditionally haven’t really been much to write home about. Intel’s corner on that market segment has mean – for too long – consumers of value-PCs have had to suffer with ultra sub-standard features and performance that have really crippled the industry. Game and application developers want to support the largest possible install base in order to sell the most software possible; however, it’s hard to get end-users excited about purchasing software which can make their graphics crawl at a snails’ pace.
WD today introduced its My Book Studio Edition external hard drives designed for creative users and formatted for Mac computers. Equipped with high-performance quadruple interfaces (USB 2.0, FireWire(R) 400/800 and eSATA) and offered in capacities from 320 GB to 1 TB (terabyte), the new My Book Studio Edition external hard drive features: automatic, continuous backup; synchronization and encryption of data; capacity gauge that shows how much space is available; drive activity light; 5-year limited warranty; environmentally-friendly power saving design; SmartPower feature; designed without a fan to run quietly; and, new smaller My Book collectible design with an elegant silver metallic finish that perfectly complements other Mac products.
Availability and Pricing The My Book Studio Edition storage appliances with capacities ranging from 320 GB to 1 TB are available now at select retail stores, online retailers and in the United States directly from WD at http://www.shopwd.com. Estimated pricing for My Book Studio Edition storage appliances ranges from $199.99 USD to $399.99 USD depending upon capacity.
Toshiba sends word that its X205 gaming Laptop (which we reviewed here), is getting an SLI upgrade option starting now with prices as low as $1999.00:
Toshiba’s Digital Products Division (DPD), a division of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., today announced the addition of NVIDIA SLI technology to its elite Satellite X205 gaming notebook series with an HD DVD drive designed for a mobile gaming and high-definition entertainment experience.
The new Satellite X205 gaming notebooks consist of two models that are available at retail — the Satellite X205-SLI1 and the Satellite X205-SLI3. Both models feature dual NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics processing units (GPUs) with combined 512MB of dedicated video RAM1 and are compatible with Microsoft DirectX 10, ensuring that gamers can take full advantage of the cutting-edge graphics technology that are available within today’s ultra-realistic gaming titles. Pricing for the Satellite X205-SLI gaming notebook starts at $1,999.992.
Apple has discovered that many of the unauthorized iPhone unlocking programs available on the Internet cause irreparable damage to the iPhone's software, which will likely result in the modified iPhone becoming permanently inoperable when a future Apple-supplied iPhone software update is installed. Apple plans to release the next iPhone software update, containing many new features including the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store (www.itunes.com), later this week. Apple strongly discourages users from installing unauthorized unlocking programs on their iPhones. Users who make unauthorized modifications to the software on their iPhone violate their iPhone software license agreement and void their warranty. The permanent inability to use an iPhone due to installing unlocking software is not covered under the iPhone's warranty.
So I recently downloaded the latest Frontlines: Fuel of War Beta from Fileplanet only to be struck with an issue which has plagued many other folks trying to get the game going. You see, this is an online Multiplayer Beta which requires one to create an in-game account to get going. Easy enough? Not when everytime you go to setup an account it says "Key could not be verified - please call cust. service".
Hot Hardware had the opportunity at this week's IDF show in San Francisco to sit down and benchmark some of Intel's newly-announced CPUs and motherboards. Here's a snip:
“We also saw a trio of extreme machines. One was powered by a 3.0GHz Core 2 Extreme QX9650 (Yorkfield), another was a stock Skulltrail machine equipped with dual 3.0GHz quad-core processors, and the last system was a modded Skulltrail that was overclocked to 4GHz. The modded machine featured a pair of vapor phase-change coolers for the processors, liquid-cooled memory and GeForce 8800 GTX cards, all residing in a custom CoolerMaster case adorned with numerous skulls.”
WD today introduced its smaller, sleeker My Book external storage solutions: My Book Home Edition, My Book Office Edition and My Book Essential Edition. Ranging from 320 GB to 1 TB (terabyte), the new My Book models were designed with specific users in mind. Home users will appreciate the automatic and continuous backup of their precious memories on the My Book Home Edition. Office users will rely on the remote access and sharing capabilities of the My Book Office Edition. My Book Essential Edition meets the needs of users who seek simple, instant storage.
The team at 
Google’s proposed buyout of online advertising company DoubleClick will be getting scrutinized today by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senators and witnesses are likely to focus on a controversial marketing strategy created by DoubleClick several years ago but later abandoned over consumer privacy concerns.
Apple
Hot Hardware 
