Being based in Taiwan has its advantages and disadvantages, in this case we're not at CeBIT, but we've still managed to get to take a look at what some companies are showing at the show and we've actually got better product shots than what you get from a show floor. If you're a regular reader of TweakTown, you'll know that we're very good friends with Gigabyte and we're often invited to their offices to take a look at new kit. We had a chance to get to look at some of the stuff that Gigabyte is showing at CeBIT, but due to limited samples of some of the products, we didn't get to see it all. Some things we've posted about some time ago that's on display at the show and we promise that anything that we missed will be posted about as soon as Gigabyte gets all the kit back from the show.

Let's get cracking with what's at hand though and we'll start with an Nvidia 780a based motherboard, namely the GA-M780SLI-DS5. This is likely to be the top of the line board from Gigabyte and it seems like Nvidia has lost some support when it comes to its high-end motherboards for AMD processors. The reason for this is twofold and it's not all Nvidia's fault.

Problem number one is that AMD isn't doing so well when it comes to high-end processors, at least not in comparison even though there's not really anything wrong with the Phenom range, it just can't compete with Intel's processors at the moment. The second problem is that Nvidia has been a little too strict and in our understanding a bit too arrogant against some of the motherboard manufacturers and with other viable alternatives at a lower cost, it seems like some of them have decided to stick with AMD's 790FX chipset for the high-end.

ASUS has just announced it will begin shipping its Eee PC with Windows XP pre-installed.

This news has been floating around for a while and many users were able to install XP themselves as the Eee PC is capable of running the Microsoft operating system. ASUS didn't mention any pricing details in its press release or if they will still ship the Eee PC with Linux but we assume they will as by pre-installing XP, it will add a price premium.

Microsoft have today released the Developer Preview beta 1 version of Internet Explorer 8 for all to try.

It has been released to give web developers and designers an early look at the upcoming browser to replace IE7 and learn its new features in advance such as IE8 Activities and IE8 WebSlices. "Activities" is an interesting new idea that provides quick access to external services from any webpage by selecting any text on a webpage. An interesting plug-in is the translator service from Windows Live which is a great addition.

A Reuters news clip has captured a unique dinosaur, apparently attracting a lot of attention at CeBIT in Hannover, Germany. The annual computer show is the perfect time for gadgets and gizmos to make an appearance, but this device seems to have a life of its own.

According to the report, the robotic dinosaurs are designed to emulate the behavior of a Camerasaurus. You can be forgiven for not knowing what that is, but once you see these cute cuddly "household designer pets" you might just want one of your own.

The report states that there are close to 2000 parts, more than 100 gears, 14 motors and a complex sensory network designed to respond to your touch, and other Camerasaurus' proximity. Furthermore via an infrared camera it collects direct feedback to the "Life" Operating System so it can actively recognize its surroundings and act as if alive and responding to your touch. This is supposedly the significant selling point, making "Pleo" the Camerasaurus stand out from the crowd.

Intel Corp. the proverbial Chipzilla has released news of the latest marketing name for its new family of ultra-small CPU's.

The brand name "Atom" for the ultra small chips which are designed to give end-users an entirely new design, built for low power and designed specifically for a new wave of Mobile Internet Devices and simple, low-cost PC's.

Last week we attend a small CeBIT preview for the press in Taiwan were MSI talked a bit about ECOlution, which is MSI's take on being more environmentally friendly among other things. Possibly the most exciting of the things shown in terms of what was easy to make out was their prototype CPU fan which uses a technology similar to a sterling engine which we told you about here. Now we've gotten around to uploading a short video we shot at the event which will give you a better idea of what it looks like in action.

The noise you're hearing is actually from the fan itself, but MSI reassured us that this was only a prototype issue and that production fans should be quiet, due to different materials being used and a better manufacturing process being applied. This was of course far from the only thing on show and we've got pictures of a fair few other things to show you. First up we have a couple of pictures of MSI's EFI BIOS and it looks like a cracking way of access and changing all the BIOS options. Our Editor, Cameron Wilmot had a quick go as you can see from the picture below, although we weren't allowed to change any of the settings.

Continue reading: MSI ECOlution press event from Taipei (full post)

Well, we really thought we had seen it all when it comes to insane tech toys but obviously not quite yet.

During the CeBIT trade show a local German company "Bling My Thing" is showcasing an Apple MacBook Air notebook computer which will set you back a staggering $20,000 pounds which is equal to just about $40,000 USD - we are not kidding you here.

It seems as if no graphic card is safe at the moment - there is no hiding - especially during the CeBIT trade show in Germany.

Curtsey of some folks from China, we get a up-close view of the upcoming Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX graphics card which should release before the end of this month if we are not mistaken.

Nvidia's upcoming single GPU monster is based on a 65nm G92 chip and will replace the current GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB as the fastest single GPU card on the market. There are no details on pricing yet but it is stripped naked for public viewing right here.

AMD has released details about its forthcoming ATI Catalyst 8.3 display driver which is due out anytime now for users of Windows Vista. Keep an eye on the AMD Game website for more.

Whilst AMD allowed certain members of the press to preview the driver, it has not yet been released to the general public. Notably the 8.3 version of the driver will bring official CrossfireX support which allows for up to four GPU's to be linked in Crossfire mode.

Sony Australia have announced three new, hard drive based, 1920x1080 high definition handycams for the Australian market. The three will be available from late March at Sony Central stores Australia wide and all good camera retailers.

HDRSR10