It seems like Asus has followed suite on Viewsonic by announcing a new 19-inch LCD with 1,680x1,050 resolution alongside a new 20 and two 22-inch model. This is as far as we know only the second 19-inch display on the market with this resolution. The three new models are the VW198S, the VW202S, the VW222S and the VW222U and they're not related to Volkswagen even though the VW moniker might suggest that.

Most 19-inch widescreen LCD's are stuck at 1,440x900 which is good enough for 720p HD video content, but it doesn't give you as much desktop real estate as a 1,680x1,050 display. The only downside here of course is that a 1,680x1,050 display still isn't quite good enough for 1080i/p video. The 20 and 22-inch models are using the same resolution and we're really wishing for someone to produce a 1,920x1,200 22-inch display.

Futuremark has revealed the first information on its next generation PCMark system benchmark and testing suite which goes under the name of Vantage. This is the first version of PCMark that has been designed for Windows Vista and it won't even run on XP. A range of new features have been added since the previous version and considering that it has been two years since the last version of PCMark. Vantage works with notebooks, desktops and even workstations and there is support for both 32 and 64-bit versions of Vista.

The system requirements are quite high as well, beyond your PC being able to run Vista that is. First of all Vantage demands a 3GHz single core CPU, but Futuremark is recommending a multi-core processor, so we should see some nice quad core support here and hopefully even support for dual socket systems. You also need 1GB of system memory which will rule out some people, although if you're running Vista with less than 1GB of memory, then we're feeling sorry for you.

According to a news post on TechPowerUp, Nvidia is working on a new SKU of its 8800GTS GPU. The plain and simple reason for this is that the upcoming 8800GT is going to perform very similar to the current 320MB 8800GTS. The new version will be a 640MB card and Nvidia has gone from 96 to 112 stream processors to make sure that these new GPU's can hold their own against the 8800GT.

It will also make the new 8800GTS move closer to the 8800GTX which has 128 stream processors. The stream processors in the G80 series of GPU's are configured in eight banks of 16 and this means that the new 8800GTS only has one of those banks disabled. We don't know if this has been done on purpose or if Nvidia are using chips that are slightly defective.

Continue reading: Nvidia working on a new 8800GTS (full post)

Discovered via Techpowerup just a short time ago, Thermaltake have unveiled specs and images of their upcoming Xaser VI VG4000 and Armor+ VH6000 series of LCS (liquid cooled) chassis' which are due for release in early december.

These things look mighty impressive with a mass of features and bold characteristics. Though if you're not one to go for bling then you'll want to be looking elsewhere.

ECS has put up information about an upcoming motherboard based on the AMD RX780 chipset which is a graphics free budget model. The ECS A770M-A motherboard supports AM2+ processors, i.e. Phenom and its name seems to come from the fact that the RX780 together with the SB600 southbridge will be known as the AMD 770 chipset, or that's at least what ECS lists on its site.

The RX780/AMD 770 chipset supports PCI Express 2.0 and HypterTransport 3.0 for improved I/O performance. In case of the ECS board, we're looking at four memory slots and apparently the new CPU's support up to 32GB of DDR2 memory, although the board has only been tested with 8GB.

It also has a single x16 PCI Express slot, two x1 slots and three PCI slots. The RX780/AMD 770 doesn't support CrossFire, hence the lack of dual x16 slots. Furthermore the A770M-A comes with eSATA and onboard RAID, but apart from that it looks like a pretty average board in terms of specs.

It was some time ago that we wrote about Joost, the online video streaming service from the people behind Skype. Well, Joost has finally opened up to the general public and a lot more content have been added since we last had a look and there's now over 200 channels to choose from.

There's actually quite a lot of good content on there, although some of it might be a bit old, but if nothing else, it's a good place to catch up on old TV series where you might've missed and episode or two. Among the most popular channels are Fifth Gear shortcuts, which are clips from this popular UK car program. Others include the Alliance Atlantis Sci-Fi channel, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit on demand channel, Aardman animations, Guinness World Records TV, Aniboom and Onion News Network.

For those looking for slight more serious content there are channels like Reuters, The History Channel, Australian Food TV, DR (Danish news channel), TV5Monde Plus (French) and Travelistic. There's even a channel dedicated to Bollywood movies and things like the Audi Channel. The mind boggles at times, but there's at least something there for everyone.

Microsoft has announced a new range of Zune players and it looks like things are improving rather quickly. First up is the new 80GB model which is slimmer and has a new touch sensitive controller, henceforth known as the Zune 80GB. The Zune 80GB will only be available in black and has a 3.2-inch display, although no resolution was mentioned. It also has a built in FM radio and Wi-Fi for music sharing with other Zune users.

The 80GB drive is good for up to about 20,000 songs, 25,000 pictures or 250h of video according to Microsoft. A new feature allows you to record and sync TV content from a Windows Vista Media Center PC with the new Zune's. You can also sync your music and files wirelessly over your Wi-Fi network with the new models.

GSmart, a division of Gigabyte, has released its latest Windows Mobile 6 smart phone and this time it packs a built in GPS receiver. The GSmart i350 has a 2.6-inch touch screen LCD display with 480x640 resolution and it does 260,000 colours. It's great to see another Windows Mobile device with a VGA resolution screen and we can only but hope that more manufacturers follow suite. It measures 110x54x18mm (HxWxD) and it weighs in at 130g with the battery and it has a fairly stylish if somewhat bland black design.

It's filled to the brim with features and for starters it has a 520MHz Marvell PXA270 CPU, 256MB of flash and 64MB or RAM. Storage can be expanded via a mini SDHC card and it's also got Bluetooth 2.0, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g and a mini USB 2.0 connector.

Thecus has launched a new home product with the N3200 NAS with RAID 5 support. This is the first product in the 3x00-series from Thecus and it's Thecus first high-end model for home users. It can house up to three hard drives and you'll need three drives to take advantage of the RAID 5 capabilities. The N3200 measures 160 x 170 x 215mm (WxHxD) and it has a completely tool less design. You can fit up to 3TB of storage in it and the hard drives are easily installed and removed.

The N3200 also has a front mounted LCD display that show status information and allows for some system management operations. It also has USB ports and the N3200 can be given a wireless upgrade this way via a USB dongle. Oddly enough the press release didn't mention the speed of the Ethernet interface on the N3200.

Based on Hong Kong, Yidsun has launched a new range of Bluetooth accessories that should cater for those looking for some accessories for their mobile phone. First up we have the MP series which is comprised of small and light weight Bluetooth headsets, all of which has over 100h standby time and 8h talk time. They weigh around 10g and have a 10m range and are compatible with just about all Bluetooth phones on the market as they support all Bluetooth standards up to 2.0.

Next up we have the SP series which is a light weight Bluetooth stereo headset range which is compatible with all A2DP Bluetooth devices and it can be used with your MP3 player with an optional adapter. You can also use them as a Bluetooth headset with your phone of course and with up to 8h talk time or 6h music streaming they should be good enough even for a long commute. The standby time is rated at up to 60h and again these ones have a 10m range. The headphones have interchangeable rubber ear pieces which come in three sizes to fit different ear sizes.