Items tagged with TAL
According to a report in the Financial Times, Sony is in talks with Microsoft about offering a Blu-ray drive for the Xbox 360. As many of you know, until recently Sony has touted Blu-ray as an advantage the PlayStation 3 holds over the Xbox 360. Microsoft had backed Toshiba’s HD-DVD format and offered an affordable, external HD-DVD drive for the 360, but by now we all know how that worked out... "A Blu-ray drive in a 360 would make Microsoft more competitive with the PS3, but it would also mean extra revenues for Sony’s electronics division. It would also add further cost to the 360, meaning a premium edition of the console could be necessary. A Blu-ray drive could be incorporated...
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Despite Apple's promise of 1000 movies available for rental by the end of January, iTunes has less than half of that available in the start of March. The good news is that of the 384 available movies 91 of those are supposedly high-definition. The bad news? Not all of those 91 titles would really measure up to what most would consider a true high-definition viewing experience.Some HD titles lack Dolby 5.1 and others are simply older movies that were probably upscaled and are not really providing the true HD experience.“Some of these HD movies, such as the Kirk Douglas movie Lust for Life, date back as early as 1956 and predate most modern filmmaking techniques. Other movies,...
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AMD Takes the Ultimate Visual Experience in PC Gaming to New Heights with CrossFireX Milestone ATI Catalyst 8.3 release unlocks quad- and triple-GPU performance and ATI Hybrid Graphics for Windows Vista Hannover, Germany (CeBIT 2008) March 4, 2008 AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced its latest graphics driver release to advance the Ultimate Visual Experience for PC gaming enthusiasts and casual gamers alike. Expected to be available for download starting March 5, ATI Catalyst 8.3 is a milestone software update in delivering both CrossFireX for Windows Vista -- the world s first quad-GPU support, and scalable, cost-effective three GPU support --...
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About every year or so, the software team at ATI, which is now a part of AMD, produces a Catalyst driver suite that introduces a handful of major new features, above and beyond their regular monthly release. And at least so far, for 2008, this new Catalyst v8.3 suite appears to be that major release. We’re sure ATI will have more in store as the year progresses, but for now there is plenty of new ground to cover. We were recently given a chance to chat with some folks from ATI about all of the new features they have in store for users with the Catalyst v8.3 release and we'll be outlining some of the finer details here today. In addition to the typical batch of performance...
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A fresh new set of graphics card drivers, like a pair of new shoes, can sometimes make a world of difference. We were recently given a chance to chat with some folks from AMD about all of the new features they have in store for users with the Catalyst v8.3 release and we'll be outlining some of the finer details here today. In addition to the typical batch of performance enhancements and bug fixes available with each new Catalyst release, the v8.3 suite is going to deliver official support for three and four GPU CrossFireX and Hybrid CrossFire, plus some new anti-aliasing features, previously unavailable tweaks for video playback, and GPU LCD scaling, among some other...
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Microsoft, we users had enough problems when you first released Windows Vista. Now on top of that you're telling us you're going to break some apps when Windows Vista SP1 releases? That's not going to win you any fans, we can tell you. After all, compatibility has been a big issue with Vista already.Microsoft has published a list of programs that will not work or that will suffer from reduced functionality after the installation of Vista Service Pack 1.The list of programs consists mostly of security applications, such as Trend Micro Internet Security 2008. However, programs such as The New York Times Reader application also feature on the list. Users are advised to install updates from the application...
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All the volatility in the credit and stock markets have consumers, investors, and corporate heads nervous, but Hewlett-Packard is no indicator of any downturn. HP raised their forecast for the year after reporting excellent results for the first quarter.“In the U.S., at the end of the quarter, we saw a little more caution in the consumer segment than we’ve seen in the past,” Mr. Hurd said.Nevertheless, Mr. Hurd raised his forecast for the full year. The company estimated that second-quarter revenue would be as much as $27.9 billion, and full-year revenue would be about $114 billion — increases of about 9 percent in each case over the year-earlier period. Previously, H.P. projected sales for the...
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AMD has released the latest set of Catalyst drivers for ATI Radeon based graphics cards, bringing the version number up to 8.2. There are numerous bug fixes listed in the release notes as well as a couple of performance enhancements for current and previous-gen Radeons. Here’s a snip from the release notes regarding performance... “The following performance improvements are noticed with Catalyst 8.2: Performance improvements with this release of Catalyst includes Company of Heroes DX10 frame rates increasing as much as 20% across all of the ATI Radeon™ HD 2x00 series of products and on all ATI Radeon™ HD 3x00 series of products. These performance improvements are even...
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Microsoft isn't the only party interested in acquiring Yahoo, and that shouldn't come as a surprise. What might be surprising is that CNet has allegedly already starting discussing the possibilities of a takeover.“The talks, according to the Journal are an attempt to fend off Microsoft's offer, which was initially valued at $44.6 billion.“It isn't clear at this time if Yahoo is engaged in talks with CNet in order to raise their asking price from Microsoft or if they're generally interested in joining the CNet family....
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WD JOINS THE GREEN GRID WD Committed to Pushing Leading-Edge Hard Drive Technology to Reduce Power Consumption in Data Centers LAKE FOREST, Calif. — Feb. 05, 2008 — As a leading hard drive supplier to major enterprise, surveillance, consumer electronics and computing manufacturers worldwide, Western Digital Corp. (NYSE: WDC) announced the company has joined The Green Grid, a nonprofit consortium dedicated to advancing energy efficiency in data centers and business computing ecosystems. The Green Grid seeks to provide industry-wide recommendations on best practices, metrics and technologies that will improve overall data center energy efficiencies. The Green Grid does not endorse any vendor-specific...
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MP3 is a lossy format - meaning you lose quality from the original. Because of that fact, wording in a recently passed Italian law may have just made trading MP3 files legal.The law states that music or images that are at "degraded or low resolution" can be distributed on the Internet "for scientific or educational use, and only when such use is not for profit," according to a rough translation.Experts that have reviewed the law told the Italian daily La Repubblica that even though MP3's are not specifically mentioned, the fact that the word degraded is used implies the existence of that format, which is by technical definition a "lossy" format that loses some fidelity through degradation. An...
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Gizmodo thought they had come up with a way to fool iTunes into giving them an extended video rental. They tried mucking with the system clock when downloading the video. Oops, they were wrong.Alright so it appears to no longer work. Here's what happened on our end. Before, we had set our computer date to 2009, and started playing Ratatouille (and Benny started playing The Simpsons) to start the 24-hour timer in 2009. Came back to 2008, everything was gravy. We go to play it again just a few minutes ago, and it tries to connect to iTunes, and then gives us a 5103 error. Benny gets the same deal. So we delete the busted file and try a fresh download, this time with our computer dated...
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Last year at CES in Las Vegas, Dell previewed a "concept" monitor that definitely pegged our collective geek-o-meters with its ultra-sleek, clear, tempered glass design and super-thin, clean profile. Back then not much was known about this 22" panel that popped out of nowhere, nor did we get a sense for when or even if the product would actually see the light of day on the open market. Now, just a few days before CES '08, this comes in from the smooth operators over at Dell... "The Dell Crystal, much like its name implies, is the latest in Dell display innovation - featuring a breathtakingly slim and stylish design. The 22" widescreen LCD panel is encased in 4mm premium...
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Just in time for the weekend, AMD has released a brand new set of Catalyst drivers. The Catalyst 7.12 suite incorporates a number of performance tweaks and bug fixes for all flavors of Windows. A quick glance at the release notes reveals the following interesting bits of information... Enhanced ATI OverDrive support for the ATI Radeon HD 2900 SeriesThis release of Catalyst introduces an enhanced version of ATI OverDrive for the ATI Radeon HD 2900 Series. Users can now Overclock both GPU engine and graphics memory clock speeds in CrossFire mode (and over-clock single ATI Radeon graphics accelerators as well). Performance Improvements The following performance improvements are...
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Palm has been taking a beating recently. The smartphone market they compete in was already crowded before the iPhone appeared to steal marketshare, and their ill-starred UMPC bombed so badly that the product was withdrawn. Now Palm is laying off about 10% of their workforce of 1150. Merry Christmas. Palm's statement said the restructuring, which also included some reassignments, was part of its ongoing effort to "focus and better align resources behind core initiatives" and "to ensure that our expenses are in line with projected revenues." Palm has struggled against stiffening competition over the past year. Some missteps, including product delays and the cancellation in September of a portable...
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Western Digital is a big fan of text files, and assumes you are too. It has disabled the ability of its 1TB network-ready drive to share MP3, AVI, MPEGs... well, pretty much any audio or video file you could name. The "My Book World Edition" drive assumes the world is full of typists, I guess.Access to multimedia files is allowed only by the primary user registered on WD Anywhere Access, the remote desktop client embedded on the NAS device, said Brian Miller, director of marketing at Western Digital.Anywhere Access is based on the MioNet remote desktop client, which allows users to access, read, edit and share files on remote desktops. The Anywhere Access client allows remote users access...
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Super Talent Launches 256GB SATA SSD San Jose, California – December 4, 2007 -- Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, today launched a pair of 256GB Serial ATA (SATA) solid state drives (SSDs). Super Talent’s new FSD56GC35M is 100% interchangeable with standard 3.5-inch SATA hard disk drives, but offers all the advantages of an SSD including greater resistance to shock and vibration, significantly lower power consumption and faster performance. FSD56GC35M supports a 0C to 70C operating temperature range. Super Talent also offers an industrial temperature (I-Temp) version of this drive, SS56GA6C35I, which supports an extended -40C to...
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Super Talent Introduces Industrial Temperature SSDs San Jose, California – November 27, 2007 -- Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, today announced a new line of Solid State Drives (SSDs) that are rated to operate over a -40C to 85C industrial temperature (I-Temp) range. Super Talent SSDs are interchangeable with conventional hard drives but are significantly more resistant to shock and vibration. Moreover, these new I-Temp SSDs have considerably better tolerance of extreme temperatures than hard drives. Super Talent’s range of nineteen new I-Temp SSDs spans industry standard 1.8-inch, 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch form factor SATA SSDs,...
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Super Talent PICO USB Drives Enter Mass ProductionSlim, Stylish & Smart Mobile StorageSan Jose, California – November 6, 2007 -- Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, today announced that the company’s new PICO series USB Flash drives have moved into mass production.Super Talent’s new PICO series USB drives are manufactured using chip-on-board (COB) technology, meaning the unpackaged Flash die is bonded directly to the printed circuit board (PCB). COB technology enables Super Talent to fit up to 4GB of Flash storage in an incredibly small and slim case. PICO-A drives measure merely 38.7mm x 12.4mm x 3.9mm, and weigh less than 5...
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As rumors about the gPhone platform circulate, so do reports of Google negotiations with Sprint and Verizon. Two of the country's largest cell phone carriers are considering offering phones featuring software by Google, according to a news report Tuesday. Both Verizon Wireless, the second largest carrier by number of subscribers, and Sprint Nextel, the third largest, are said to be in "advanced talks" with Google, the Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site late Tuesday. Google is expected to announce new mobile software, dubbed by some the "gPhone," in mid-November. If Google can strike a deal with a U.S. carrier, phones with its software could reach American consumers by the middle of...
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It's hard not to appreciate a CEO that comes across as direct as Intel's very own Paul Otellini. Like him or not, even AMD fans have to give the man credit for being a straight shooter and calling a spade a spade, even if that means ruffling a few feathers.It looks like the latest feathers to get ruffled a bit are those of the EU who have accused Intel of predatory pricing. Mr. Otellini claims that the facts don't support that argument, but that's just the beginning of his side of the story.“He adds that he finds statements by EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes about Europe's role in regulating "dominant" companies "very troubling. If they take that position with us, or Qualcomm...
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World of Warcraft will run just about any PC that has been shipped in the past 5 years. Blizzard has obviously spent a lot of time optimizing the game so that it runs well on even the lowest end PC with integrated graphics, and to be honest it still looks pretty decent at those lower settings. Blizzard has continued to strive to make the game more enjoyable for players on a budget by acquiring a license from a 3rd party developer to integrate a new software sound engine that allows for audio effects similar to those produced by users with a high-end card.So what happens to people who have sound cards? Apparently they're complaining that they are experiencing a serious downgrade in the game's...
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