Apple deletes Mac antivirus suggestion

News / Non Hard and Software News   03-12-2008 by KillerSneak   (0)

Apple removed an old item from its support site late Tuesday that urged Mac customers to use multiple antivirus utilities and now says the Mac is safe "out of the box."

"We have removed the KnowledgeBase article because it was old and inaccurate," Apple spokesperson Bill Evans said.

"The Mac is designed with built-in technologies that provide protection against malicious software and security threats right out of the box," he said. "However, since no system can be 100 percent immune from every threat, running antivirus software may offer additional protection."


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Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 (SP2) and Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2) Customer Preview Program (CPP)

News / Software News   03-12-2008 by KillerSneak   (0)

Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 and Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Beta is an update to Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. It provides customer and partner feedback driven fixes into a single service pack, minimizing deployment and testing complexity. In addition to all previously released updates, SP2 will contain changes focused on addressing reliability and performance issues, supporting new types of hardware, and adding support for several emerging standards.


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The World’s First Image of 55nm GT200 Exposed!

News / Hardware News   03-12-2008 by KillerSneak   (0)

According to the image we have on hand, the mark of GT200b on GeForce GTX260 graphic card will change from 65nm “G200-103-A2″ to be “G200-103-B2″. The “B” means latest 55nm processing technology, and its production cycle happened during the 33rd week of this year (August 11th to 17th), only 5 weeks after G200-103-A2 which was manufactured in the 28th week. Therefore, obviously NVIDIA had prepared for a long time.

The first of new GTX260 graphic cards will hit the market in January next year. The number of its stream processors will maintain as 216, and its memory frequency is unchanged as well. The reference and non-reference versions cards will be on sale at the same time. Thanks to application of new processor and the circuit designed by manufacturers themselves, the price will hopefully keep declining. The GTX260 card is already available at $264 at the lowest right now.

Remark: The earliest version of GeForce GTX260 utilized GT200 with 192SP, and it was marked as “G200-100-A2″.

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2008 VGAs To Feature Jack Black, God Of War III, Uncharted 2

News / Games News   03-12-2008 by KillerSneak   (0)

What, no Samuel L. Jackson? Spike has tapped musician and actor Jack Black to their 2008 Video Game Awards, which will feature world premiers of God of War III, Uncharted 2, and many more.

Depending on which version of Jack Black shows up, this could be the first Spike Video Game Awards I actually remember to tune into. If we are getting Tenacious D Jack, I'm in. Kung Fu Panda Jack, not so much. Black will not only be hosting the awards, but also premiering his video game Brütal Legend at the show, sharing the stage with exclusive premieres of God of War III, Fight Night Round 4, Terminator Salvation, Uncharted 2, Watchmen: The End is Nigh, and Mafia II. The press release also teases a special Gears of War 2 announcement and "other surprises."


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Tekken 6 out Autumn 2009

News / Games News   03-12-2008 by KillerSneak   (0)

Atari, who will publish Tekken 6 on PS3 and 360 next year, has narrowed down the release of the anticipated title to autumn 2009.

We've seen the arcade version in action and have to say that it looks pretty bloody good - it's just good old Tekken with the flashiest visuals of the series so far, by the looks of it.

Unsurprisingly, Namco promised at the Atari event today that Tekken 6 will be the "biggest and best in the series".


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Samsung Expects Larger OLED Panels on Mobile Devices, VP Says

News / Hardware News   03-12-2008 by KillerSneak   (0)

"The warranty period against image burn-in for active-matrix OLED panels is expected to exceed 2,000 hours in 2010, and these panels will be available for laptops," said Woo Jong Lee, vice president of the Mobile Display Marketing Team of Samsung SDI Co Ltd.

He made this comment in the keynote speech for the 3rd TSR Seminar (hosted by Techno Systems Research Co Ltd), which took place in Tokyo, Nov 27, 2008.

In the speech, Lee explained about the future availability of active-matrix OLED panels in mobile devices. First, he pointed out their advantages such as a wide operating temperature range, an excellent compatibility with touch screens, a low environmental load at disposal and a high recyclability. Then, he said that OLED panels meeting the demands of product assembly manufacturers will be used in laptops, which have the most demanding requirements, as early as 2010.


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AMD plant approved in New York

News / Non Hard and Software News   03-12-2008 by KillerSneak   (0)

As expected, New York state's economic development arm approved $1.2 billion in state incentives on Monday for an Advanced Micro Devices Inc. in Malta.

The Empire State Development Corp.'s five-member board of directors held a special meeting in Manhattan for the vote, which was unanimous.

The incentives are tied to a $4.6 billion “chip fab” in Malta that will make computer chips for semiconductor companies, employing an estimated 1,465 people once completed. The plant will be located in the Luther Forest Technology Campus about 10 miles north of Saratoga Springs.


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EA Acquires Korean Online Game Developer J2M

News / Games News   03-12-2008 by KillerSneak   (0)

"This is a significant step in EA's strategic plan for developing and publishing online games in Asia," said Jon Niermann, President, EA Asia. "J2M is an experienced team of developers and we can't wait to have them start creating online games based on new properties and powerful EA franchises."

"Korean developers have created a unique style of online games that is growing in popularity all over Asia," said J2M Founder and CEO KyungMin Bang. "We are excited that EA is aligning with our vision for online game. Joining EA presents our team with an opportunity to significantly expand our based with players throughout Asia and around the world as well as to be at the forefront of online gaming."


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AOL Veteran Seeks Billions to Make Run for Yahoo

News / Non Hard and Software News   03-12-2008 by KillerSneak   (0)

Former AOL chief Jonathan Miller is talking to investors about raising money to purchase all or part of Yahoo Inc., a long-shot deal that signals that investors' interest in the troubled Internet property has yet to subside.

Mr. Miller, who ran AOL from 2002 to 2006, has been sounding out private-equity investors and sovereign-wealth funds for months, and it is unclear where the talks stand, these people say.

Mr. Miller believes he can fashion a deal that would be worth about $20 to $22 a share to Yahoo shareholders, these ...


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Windows market share dives below 90% for first time

News / Financial News   03-12-2008 by KillerSneak   (0)

December 1, 2008 (Computerworld) Microsoft Corp.'s Windows OS last month took its biggest market share dive in the past two years, erasing gains made in two of the past three months and sending the operating system's share under 90% for the first time, an Internet measurement company reported today.

In November, 89.6% of users who connected to the Web sites that Net Applications Inc. monitors did so from systems powered by Windows, a drop of 0.84 of a percentage point from October. The decrease was the largest slip by Windows in the past two years and easily bested other recent down months, including May 2008 and December 2007, when Windows lost 0.51 and 0.63 percentage points, respectively.


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Chromium Developer Documentation

News / Software News   03-12-2008 by KillerSneak   (0)

Problem statement

Chromium can't be everything to all people. People use web browsers in a variety of environments and for a wide variety of jobs. Personal tastes and needs vary widely from one user to the next. The feature needs of one person often conflict directly with those of another. Further, one of the design goals of Chromium is to have a minimal light-weight user interface, which itself conflicts with adding lots of features.

* User-created extensions have been proposed to solve these problems:
* The addition of features that have specific or limited appeal ("that would be great as an extension").
* Users coming from other browsers who are used to certain extensions that they can't live without.
* Bundling partners who would like to add features to Chromium specific to their bundle.

Do Core i7s have a Phenom-like TLB issue? No, says Intel

News / Hardware News   03-12-2008 by KillerSneak   (1)

While browsing news sites today, we came upon several reports saying Core i7 processors suffer from a translation lookaside buffer-related erratum. Those reports drew parallels between the TLB bug that plagued AMD's first quad-core CPUs and a note in Intel's Core i7 specification update, which states in part:

In rare instances, improper TLB invalidation may result in unpredictable system behavior, such as system hangs or incorrect data. Developers of operating systems should take this documentation into account when designing TLB invalidation algorithms. For the processors affected, Intel has provided a recommended update to system and BIOS vendors to incorporate into their BIOS to resolve this issue.

We asked Intel PR manager Dan Snyder for the chipmaker's official take on the issue, and he replied with the following:

This is simply a pointer to a previous document written in April 2007. This document is an application note (advises on programming techniques) that programmers have had since April of 2007. This item in the Nehalem spec sheet is a web pointer, under the heading "spec clarification". The reporter who wrote this did not contact us and we will try to clarify this with him.


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Wii's Future In Motion

News / Financial News   03-12-2008 by KillerSneak   (0)

Better, brighter, faster games--and perhaps more profits--are in Nintendo's future

Hardcore gamers may still scoff at Nintendo's Wii for catering to casual gamers. But hidden behind its Clark Kent facade are some impressive financial muscles.

Nintendo rocked the gaming world when it brought out the Wii gaming console three years ago by turning an entirely new demographic of users on to gaming. Middle-aged and senior citizens stood in line to buy Wiis on the strength of games like Wii Fit, which audiences found more fun than workout DVDs.


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Redstone sells Midway Games to ease debt: report

News / Financial News   03-12-2008 by KillerSneak   (0)

(Reuters) - Media mogul Sumner Redstone has sold his controlling stake in video game company Midway Games Inc (MWY.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) to a private investor to ease his debt load, the Wall Street Journal said.

Redstone's National Amusements Inc is expected to announce on Monday that it sold the 87 percent stake to investor Mark Thomas, the Journal said.

Thomas has agreed to pay about $100,000, or $0.0012 a share, for the Midway stake and will assume $70 million of senior secured and unsecured debt. Thomas has no prior relationship with Midway Games, the paper said.


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Nehalem also has a TLB bug

News / Hardware News   01-12-2008 by KillerSneak   (0)

We were told that Intel's Nehalem, the CPU that we know as Core i7 has TLB. TLB, three letters that have destroyed the sales of Phenom and Opterons based on 65nm K10 cores, stands for Translation Lookaside Buffer, and Intel officialy states in its Intel Core i7 Processor, Extreme Edition Series and Intel Core i7 Processor - Specification Update PDF, that the CPU has a TLB bug.

If you open Intel’s official document that is nicely stored here, on page 37 AAJ1 Clarification of TRANSLATION LOOKASIDE BUFFERS (TLBS) Invalidation part, you will see that Intel says that in some rare cases improper TLB invalidation may result in unpredictable system behavior and can hang your OS or result with incorrect data. Here is the word to word quote: "In rare instances, improper TLB invalidation may result in unpredictable system behavior, such as system hangs or incorrect data. Developers of operating systems should take this documentation into account when designing TLB invalidation algorithms. For the processors affected, Intel has provided a recommended update to system and BIOS vendors to incorporate into their BIOS to resolve this issue."


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