Blu-ray may get new licensing
Something of interest for home theater buffs, especially those who have adopted Blu-ray or are going to.
It seems that some of the people that hold licenses for Blu-ray might be willing to come down on the prices they charge for the rights to the technology. If this is true, it could bring prices down to a level allowing for more mainstream adoption.
The companies spearheading this charge are Sony, Panasonic, and Phillips. The program will launch sometime this year and should be under the care of Gerald Rosenthal, who used to work for IBM in their IP Department.
nVidia is claiming faster Windows 7 Drivers
The Spin cycle is running full blast at nVidia. The green team is claiming faster Windows 7 drivers as of right now. Pairing up a 4850 1GB card Vs, the GTS250/9800GTX+, nVidia was able to outperform the ATi card in internal testing.
The drivers compared were 8.561 (Jan 11 2009) from ATi and 181.65 Beta from nVidia. The test covered 7 games of which nVidia was able to win 5 head to head and another two due to the games not launching on the ATi cards.
I am sure there will be a response to this from the media once the GTS250 is fully renamed and available for review.
Continue reading: nVidia is claiming faster Windows 7 Drivers (full post)
nVidia may face legal action over G92b rebranding
It looks like nVidia's latest round of rebranding might come back to hurt them. In a move that many are saying is very misleading nV is rebranding the G92b (same chip that is going into the GTS240/250) as the GTX260 and GTX280 mobile.
Now it is nothing new for companies to rebrand, ATi, nVidia, Via just about everyone does it to some degree. Where the problem starts is that nVidia is labeling the G92b with the same naming convention as a much more advanced part. (GT200). This means that people searching for reviews or information on the GTX280M will also get reviews of the desktop part which is miles above the 55nm chip that will be used in the mobile part.
As of this writing there are rumblings of class actions suits and even legal action from states over this.
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DiRT 2 previewed at Gaming Heaven
The gang over at Gaming Heaven has been taking another look behind the curtain, this time they have a preview of DiRT2.
It seems that Codemasters has gone some length to improve the game. DiRT was very popular and was a fun game to play, however the driving physics was always annoying to me (and to many that I know). However Codemasters have finally put a realistic driving physics setup in place that aims to give players the most realistic driving experience yet.
On the Graphics side things have been improved and we good enough to impress John Erikson even at the alpha stage.
Continue reading: DiRT 2 previewed at Gaming Heaven (full post)
Microsoft Makes 36 changes to Windows 7
Microsoft is boasting that due to the massive participation in the Windows 7 Beta 1 Customer Preview Program, that they have been able to make 36 changes to Windows 7.
These changes, according to MS are going to improve the look, feel and performance of the OS. Among the 36 changes are 10 for the desktop, four for the touch system, and four to the control panel.
The changes have been announced on the "Engineering Windows 7 Blog" and have received mixed reviews from bloggers. Some are claiming these are window dressing while others see them as MS really trying to act on tester's feedback.
Continue reading: Microsoft Makes 36 changes to Windows 7 (full post)
ZOTAC Unleashes GeForce GTX 285 Infinity Edition
Zotac has confirmed its latest addition to the GT200 family of cards, the GTX 285 Infinity Edition.
While the card doesn't feature any additional memory, it does come with a custom all-copper water block with 3/8" fittings.
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AMD Steps In On Unlocking Phenom X3's
Following up on earlier reports of being able to unlock the disabled core on Phenom II X3 CPU's, techPowerUp says that AMD is stepping in on the issue.
Reports have been made about many X3's having the ability to enable the fourth core onboard, suggesting that AMD simply just marked the core as bad and was too lazy to use a laser to cut the link on the extra core.
Continue reading: AMD Steps In On Unlocking Phenom X3's (full post)
GIGABYTE To Show Off Three New Netbooks at CeBIT
Engadget has the scoop on three new netbooks that GIGABYTE will be showing off at this year's CeBIT.
While it is said that all three of the new portables will be specced out the same as most standard netbooks, each differentiates itself from the other two quite well in style. All three will utilize the Intel Atom N270 processor and pack 1GB of DDR2. The Touch Note T1028 will also be available with the slightly faster N280 Atom processor.
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Silicon Power introduces 64GB eSATA/USB SSD
Silicon Power has released a 64GB eSATA/USB SSD that fits in your pocket, about the size of your typical USB Flash drive.
The new SSD featurs both eSATA and mini USB connections for increased versatility no matter where you are. Using eSATA, the drive will read at 90 MB/s and write at 42 MB/s. Switching over to USB, the drive will only read at 30MB/s and write at 25MB/s.
Continue reading: Silicon Power introduces 64GB eSATA/USB SSD (full post)
ATI Mobility 4000 Series ready for CeBIT
Dell India's website today confirmed that ATI's new Mobility Radeon HD 4000 series mGPUs are ready for launch during CeBIT in less than a couple weeks. The Mobility Radeon HD 4570 is listed as being used in Dell's new Studio 1555 notebook.
Thanks to GPU Cafe, what we have learned of the Mobility Radeon 4570 is that it is the sibling to RV710, 55nm based with 80 shader processors, 8 TMUs and 4 ROPs on a 64-bit memory interface. AMD/ATI claim a TDP rating of just 13W with this chip whilst giving supposed superior performance to NVIDIA's GeForce G110M solution by as much as 20-30%.
Continue reading: ATI Mobility 4000 Series ready for CeBIT (full post)