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CNET News.com
Lady Gaga on Rock Band
Google may soon be searching your set-top box, the PlayStation Network gets new high-def movies, and Lady Gaga may grace Rock Band.

Phones you can't get on a U.S. carrier (photos)
Sadly, the U.S. is often behind the times when it comes to handsets and mobile technology. Our European and Asian brethren usually get first dibs on all the cool gear, and sometimes, we won't even see it at all.

March Madness over 3G and EDGE
T-Mobile switches its default mobile browser, Tekken is coming to the iPhone, and CBS has a new app that will stream March Madness over 3G and EDGE.

Driving toward a cleaner energy future
At the MIT Energy Conference this year, entrepreneurs and researchers showed off developments in everything from transportation to home energy efficiency.

10 billion tweets strong
ABC makes good on its promise to Cablevision, gamers can declare their sexual orientation on Xbox Live, and Twitter passes the 10 billionth tweet mark.

What's inside Intel's photonics lab (photos)
Inside Intel's Photonics Lab in Santa Clara, Calif., researchers are seeking ways to enhance data transfer using silicon germanium optical transfer.

Top-rated reviews of the week (photos)
Here are a few of CNET Reviews' favorite items from the past week, including the unlocked HTC HD2, Dell Mini 10, HP Mini 210 HD, and TomTom Ease.

MIT's latest think tank (photos)
MIT Media Lab Complex by architect Fumihiko Maki and his firm offers labs on display to encourage creativity and collaboration.

Pressing reboot on Windows Phone
Microsoft's Charlie Kindel talks to CNET's Ina Fried about the decision to push developers in a new direction to write software for the company's new 7 series phones. Also, Kindlel gives a quick demo of the phone's new interface.

Unwrapping 'Zen Bound' for iPad (images)
Secret Exit is showing off its iPad version of the popular iPhone game Zen Bound. Here are some early shots.

At RSA 2010, the secure and the insecure (photos)
The cybersecurity conference in San Francisco brings together hackers and security professionals to decode the latest threats to the digital world.

Hybrids are big in Geneva (photos)
You would never know that hybrid cars weren't popular in Geneva, considering how many automakers showed off new hybrids at the 2010 Geneva auto show.

Pure concept cars at the Geneva auto show (photos)
The most extreme concept cars bear no resemblance to any current model, and probably no future models, either. This collection of concept cars from the 2010 Geneva auto show exhibit features such as video camera side mirrors and extraordinarily curved body shapes.

Smartphones for newbies (photos)
Ready to make the jump to your first smartphone? Here are some of CNET's recommendations.

Opera gets a new look (screenshots)
Long considered the other alternative browser, Opera 10.50 debuts a new interface, a blazing new JavaScript engine to compete with Chrome, and detachable widgets. See what new features Opera offers in this slideshow.

Looking for a clean-energy home run (photos)
The ARPA-E agency category was funded last year to promote research in clean-energy technologies. Here's a sampling of companies who exhibited this week at the ARPA-E Summit and are seeking, or have already received, government grants.



Superhero TVs
RealNetworks is forced to give in to Hollywood, Microsoft develops apps for Android, and Marvel-themed television sets hit the market.

'Daily Show,' 'Colbert Report' to leave Hulu
Apple sues HTC over iPhone patents, TiVo announces its Series4 DVR units, and "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" are leaving Hulu.

TiVo Premiere (Series4)
TiVo's new Series4 Premiere and Premiere XL DVRs offer an updated user interface and enhanced integration and search capabilities for online video.

PlayStation Network lives
Your cell phone carrier may waive your calls to Chile, the world's largest solar-powered boat is ready to set sail, and Sony's online gaming service is up and running again.



Wired Top Stories
Google Launches Web Store for Cloud-Based Apps
App stores aren't just for mobile phones anymore. Google has launched a store that lets Google Apps customers add third-party browser-based apps to their existing stack of Google's productivity tools.




Google's Schmidt: China Negotiations Should End 'Soon'
Google is actively negotiating with China over web censorship according to CEO Eric Schmidt.




Playlist: Gorillaz, Freelance Whales and a Tribute to Mark Linkous
Hear a track from Dark Night of the Soul, a collaboration between the late Sparklehorse leader, David Lynch and Danger Mouse. Also on the podcast: more music from The Ferocious Few, Flying Lotus and Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings.




Big Designers Find Satisfaction in Small Games
Moving away from high-budget blockbusters to scaled-down treasures built by small teams proves enticing to veteran videogame developers. Part of the appeal: A nostalgic remembrance of the early days of game development.




Brain Scans Depict Damage From Gulf War Syndrome
A massive effort to understand Gulf War Syndrome finds physiological differences in the brains of healthy veterans and those suffering from Gulf War Syndrome.




Multitasking Earbuds Stress Great Design, Not Sound
Cool looking and inexpensive, the Remix earbud from VMODA doesn't quite deliver solid sound quality.




MotoCzysz Puts the Sizzle in Electric Motorcycles
Strange name. Sexy bike. And it's headed for the racetrack.




Mach 6 Cruise Missile, Ready for Prime Time?
This spring, the Air Force was preparing for a groundbreaking test of the X-51 WaveRider, a hypersonic cruise missile that would reach speeds of up to Mach 6. But it looks like the WaveRider’s debut flight will have to wait while some technical issues are addressed.




10 Movies That Should Never, Ever Be Converted to 3D
Why, really, did the 3D movie trend start? Does anybody remember, before the trend began, thinking 'You know the problem with movies? They’re too two-dimensional?' Anyway, some work, and some don't and some would be bad ideas. Here are 10 that should never be attempted.




Call Me Google. (And Call Me, Google)
Google's announcement that it intends to build and test super fast fiber-optic broadband networks in a few communities around the US has a few communities in the US pulling out all the stops to be selected with some attention-getting stunts that scream to the search giant "Pick me! Pick ME!"




Google Maps Finally Adds Bike Routes
With a click of a mouse, cyclists can get the quickest, and flattest, route between Point A and Point B.




March 10, 2000: Pop Goes the Nasdaq!
The Nasdaq begins its spectacular collapse, signaling the end of the dot-com boom.




Veil Lifts on Apple's Secret Plan to Control Universe
The recently unveiled secret agreement that Apple makes iPhone developers sign supports what many have suspected all along: Apple is trying to control the universe.




Texters Should Park the Car, Take the Bus
Taking public transit wouldn't just decrease our carbon footprint — it'd also end all that fiddling with the phone while driving, an insanely dangerous problem.




Bottled Wind Could Be as Constant as Coal
Huge projects that would store wind energy by compressing air in abandoned mines and porous sandstone are gaining steam in the Midwest.




10 Years After: A Look Back at the Dot-Com Boom and Bust
The Nasdaq peaked at 5,049 on March 10, 2000, then it promptly nosedived and hasn't come near that level since. Here’s a look at the era that launched — and crushed — a million dreams.




Review: Science Trips Out on Music in 'The Heart Is a Drum Machine'
Through interviews with a brainy crop of musicians and scientists, a new documentary probes the connection between body, mind and music.




Broadcast Video From Your Mobile
You're carrying around a video camera in your pocket (it's that thing attached to your mobile phone) so be prepared and learn how to start streaming video to the web at a moment's notice.




Oldest Known Flying 'Car' Up for Auction
It's from 1934, and it doesn't look like a car, and it doesn't look like it would fly.




Hot Property Sex.com on Auction Block
It’s a sadly familiar story from the high-flying market of the past few years: Speculator thinks values will continue to go up, up, up. Overbids for a hot property. Can’t keep up with the payments. Lender is forced to foreclose. Only this isn’t about real estate — it’s about the most expensive domain name in the history of the internet: sex.com.




Storyboard: Extreme-Test War Stories
From blasting body armor to testing the limits of a satellite tracker, the Wired magazine team talks about putting survival products through the real-world wringer.




Your Computer Really Is a Part of You
Philosopher Martin Heidegger thought that our tools eventually become a part of us cognitively. Now a scientist has found he was right. Your mouse and monitor affect the way you think.




Just How Fast Is Cisco's New Router? Really Freaking Fast
Cisco's new CRS-3 router is capable of 322 terabits per second, the company says. That's fast enough to download the entire Library of Congress in about a second.




Lifelock Dinged $12 Million for Deceptive Business Practices
The Federal Trade Commission is alleging Arizona-based Lifelock engaged in false advertising by promising customers that if they signed up with its service their personal information would become useless to identity thieves. The FTC fined it $12 million as part of a settlement agreement.




Better Than Apollo: The Space Program We Almost Had
A new book lovingly collects and presents the unexpectedly gorgeous advertisements of early, pre-Apollo space companies. The author of "Another Science Fiction" explains this fascinating, forgotten world of unbounded possibility, countercultural space exploration, and what it all means for human spaceflight today in this exclusive interview with Wired.com.




Pink Floyd, EMI Brawl Over iTunes Royalties
Pink Floyd and EMI are locked in a royalty battle -- yet another example of an emerging dispute between rights holders and publishers over payment for intellectual property born before the explosion of online digital sales.




Apple's Secret iPhone Developer Agreement Goes Public
Previously secret, the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement has been acquired and published with the help of the Freedom of Information Act.




Mile-High Mega Kites Could Pull Giant, Floating Power Plants
Korean scientists propose attaching gigantic, 6.5 million-square-foot kites to ships to drag them through the ocean and generate energy.




Safe and Affordable Jetpack: Just $90,000
For years, man has been trying to build a jetpack which would be safe and cheap enough to use by anyone other than Lee Majors on the title sequence of The Fall Guy. It turns out we’ve been doing it wrong. Instead of starting with a pack and adding on the jet, we should have torn the giant engines from a plane and strapped them to some poor schmuck.




Amazon Is Building a Better Browser for Kindle
Browsing the web on one of Amazon’s Kindle e-readers is like taking a step backwards in time. It’s clunky and has only limited support for web standards, and bare-bones JavaScript capabilities. But now Amazon may be looking to add browser engineers to the Kindle team, according to job listings on the company’s website.




 
Slashdot
Digitizing and Geocoding Old Maps?
alobar72 writes "I have quite a few old maps (several hundreds; 100+ years old, some are already damaged – so time is not on my side). What I want to do is to digitize them and to apply geo-coordinates to them so I can use them as overlays for openstreetmap data or such. Obviously I cannot put those maps onto my €80 scanner and go. Some of them are really large (1.5m x 1.5m roughly, I believe) and they need to be treated with great care because the paper is partly damaged. So firstly I need a method or service provider that can do the digitizing without damaging them. Secondly I need a hint what the best method is to apply geo coordinates to those maps then. The maps are old and landscape and places have changed, it maybe difficult to identify exact spots. So: are there any experiences or tips I could use?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.




Sweet, Sour, Salty, Bitter, Protein ... and Now Fat
ral writes "The human tongue can taste more than sweet, sour, salty, bitter and protein. Researchers have added fat to that list. Dr. Russell Keast, an exercise and nutrition sciences professor at Deakin University in Melbourne, told Slashfood, 'This makes logical sense. We have sweet to identify carbohydrate/sugars, and umami to identify protein/amino acids, so we could expect a taste to identify the other macronutrient: fat.' In the Deakin study, which appears in the latest issue of the British Journal of Nutrition, Dr. Keast and his team gave a group of 33 people fatty acids found in common foods, mixed in with nonfat milk to disguise the telltale fat texture. All 33 could detect the fatty acids to at least a small degree."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.




The Lost Film That Accompanied Empire Strikes Back
An anonymous reader writes "'Alien' and 'Star Wars' art director Roger Christian was given £25,000 by George Lucas in 1979 to make a 25-minute medieval B-feature called 'Black Angel.' This spiritual tale of a knight on a strange quest was inspired by Christian's near-fatal fever when he fell ill in Mexico making 'Lucky Lady.' 'Black Angel' made a huge impression, not least because it shared the dark tone of 'Empire Strikes Back.' John Boorman showed it to the crew of 'Excalibur' as a template for how he wanted his film to look, and 'Black Angel' went on to influence films such as 'Dragonslayer' and 'Legend' throughout the 1980s and beyond. But it has not been seen by anyone since 'Empire' finished its theatrical run. Two weeks ago Roger Christian unearthed a print of a film that was thought lost forever, and in this interview he talks about 'Black Angel,' and provides the only picture from the film that has ever hit the Internet."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.




OpenSSH 5.4 Released
HipToday writes "As posted on the OpenBSD Journal, OpenSSH 5.4 has been released: 'Some highlights of this release are the disabling of protocol 1 by default, certificate authentication, a new "netcat mode," many changes on the sftp front (both client and server) and a collection of assorted bugfixes. The new release can already be found on a large number of mirrors and of course on www.openssh.com.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.




Amazon 1-Click Patent Survives Almost Unscathed
Zordak writes "Amazon's infamous '1-click' patent has been in reexamination at the USPTO for almost four years. Patently-O now reports that 'the USPTO confirmed the patentability of original claims 6-10 and amended claims 1-5 and 11-26. The approved-of amendment adds the seeming trivial limitation that the one-click system operates as part of a 'shopping cart model.' Thus, to infringe the new version of the patent, an eCommerce retailer must use a shopping cart model (presumably non-1-click) alongside of the 1-click version. Because most retail eCommerce sites still use the shopping cart model, the added limitation appears to have no practical impact on the patent scope.'" Also covered at TechFlash.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.




6 Smartphone Keyboards Compared
Barence writes "A debate that crops up time and again is whether it's better to have a dedicated keyboard on your smartphone or whether an on-screen keyboard with text correction is adequate. Some phones with screen-based keyboards have started to provide tactile feedback, either using an ultra-quick spin of their vibration alert or, like the BlackBerry Storm2, using clever piezo-electric technology to simulate the feel of a button press. But which system works best? PC Pro's Paul Ockendon gathered six of the most popular handsets around and put them through a timed typing test to see which proved quickest and most typo-free."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.




Man Threatened Spam Attack In $200,000 Extortion Plot
52-year-old Anthony Digati was arrested for trying to extort $200,000 from an insurance firm by threatening to spam them with six million emails unless they paid up. Digati said he would use a spam service and his amazing talents as a "huge social networker" to drag the company "through the muddiest waters imaginable" and presumably unfriend everyone. He added that the price would increase to $3 million if they failed to pay up by Monday, according to federal authorities.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.




Code Bubbles — Rethinking the IDE's User Interface
kang327 writes "As Java developers we are used to the familiar file-based user interface that is used by all of the major IDEs. A team at Brown University has developed an IDE for Java called Code Bubbles that makes a fairly radical departure from current IDEs — it is based on fragments instead of files. The idea is that you can see many different pieces of code at once. Fragments can form groups, have automatic layout assistance, wrap long lines based on syntax, and exist in a virtual workspace that you can pan. A video shows reading and editing code, opening different kinds of info such as Javadocs, bug reports and notes, annotating and sharing workspaces, and debugging with bubbles. They report on several user studies that show the system increases performance for the tasks studied, and also that professional developers were enthusiastic about using it. There is also a Beta that you can sign up for."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.




Unboxing the Fake Intel Core i7-920
SkinnyGuy writes "The only thing more remarkable than NewEgg shipping fake Core i7 CPUs to customers is getting your hands on one and checking it out. Apparently there are only a couple hundred of these things in existence and Gearlog somehow managed to get and unbox one. The images are fascinating."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.




Next-Gen Augmented Reality Rears Its Unreal Head
andylim writes "Separate teams at Oxford university and Zentium, a South Korean company, are working on next-gen augmented reality solutions, which make it possible to fuse real and 3D computer-generated visuals on the fly using mobile phones. The team at Oxford university has named its solution Parallel Tracking and Mapping (PTAM) and it has licensed its technology to QderoPateo LLC, which has ambitious plans to grow the mobile augmented reality market and create an augmented reality search and gaming engine running for its 'Ouidoo' smart phone. Zentium's solution is called D-Track and is being used to develop the first markerless mobile augmented reality pet, called iKat. D-Track's mapping technology is very similar to PTAM and allows your phone to recognise the space in front of the camera and create an appropriate space for an augmented reality object or pet."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.




Farewell To the South Pole Dome
Julie188 writes "After more than three decades of service to researchers and staff stationed at the bottom of the world, the dome at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station was deconstructed this austral summer. Designed and constructed by the Seabees — the construction battalions of the US Navy — in the early 1970s, the dome's geodesic design provided a unique solution to the challenges posed to engineers trying to build structures at the South Pole. The dome is being returned to southern California where it will be held in storage. It could possibly be trotted out as an exhibit in a new US Navy Seabees museum."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.




LHC Will Be Shut Down In 2011 Because of "Mistake"
astroengine follows up to a story about the LHC shutting down that seems to have hit all the news replicators today. "It's to be expected when pushing the frontiers of physics, but the LHC's epic 'will it or won't it' saga continues. Due to an unforeseen construction mistake, the LHC will cease experiments for a year (starting around late-2011) so repairs and upgrades can be carried out. For now, accelerated particles will have a maximum energy of 7TeV (half the power of the LHC's design maximum), which is ample for at least 18 months of experiments before shutdown."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.




EU Parliament Rejects ACTA In a 663 To 13 Vote
An anonymous reader writes "'The European Parliament defied the EU executive today (10 March), casting a vote against an agreement between the EU, the US and other major powers on combating online piracy and threatening to take legal action at the European Court of Justice.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.




Study Shows TV Makes Kids Fat, Computers Don't
Xemu writes "Computers don't make children fat, but watching TV for the same length of time does. This is shown by a recent Swedish study of all school children in Lund's county conducted by RN Pernilla Garmy. The results were clear: The child's obesity was directly affected by placing a TV in the child's room, but placing a computer in the room had no effect at all. One theory is that it's common to have a snack in front of the TV, while a computer requires a more active user, for example when chatting or playing games."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.




Ex-Sun Chief Dishes Dirt On Gates, Jobs
alphadogg writes "Former CEO of Sun Microsystems Jonathan Schwartz has taken to his personal blog, provocatively titled 'What I couldn't say ...,' to dish some industry dirt and tell his side of the story about the demise of Sun. He has already hinted at plans to write a book, and a new post suggests a tell-all tome could indeed be in the offing. 'I feel for Google — Steve Jobs threatened to sue me, too,' Schwartz writes, apparently referring to Apple's patent lawsuit against HTC, which makes Google's Nexus One smartphone. As for Bill Gates, Schwartz says he was threatening regarding Sun's efforts in the office software space."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.






X-bit labs
OCZ Reveals Solid-State Drive with Sub-$100 Price
OCZ Intros Onyx Family of SSDs

ARM Expects 50 Tablet Devices to Hit the Market This Year
ARM Foresees Dramatic Increase in Slate-Type PCs' Popularity

Samsung Teams Up with Barnes & Noble for an E-Book Reader
Samsung Launches E6 eReader Electronic Book Reader

New Blu-Ray Licensing Organization Initiates Operations
BD4C Licensing Group Begins Operation

Intel Readies Dual-Core Atom Processor for Netbooks
Intel Preps Atom N500 Microprocessor

Contemporary Graphics Cards Performance in Battlefield: Bad Company 2
One of the most anticipated game titles - Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - has just hit the market. X-bit labs decided to take a closer look at this game in order to help you pick up the right graphics card for the ultimate gaming experience.

Dell Adamo XPS Still Available - Company
Dell Denies Plans to Discontinue Adamo XPS

Microsoft's Chief Exec Predicts New Xbox 360 Form-Factors
Microsoft Promises Different Xbox 360 Form-Factors

Prices of Blu-Ray Optical Disk Drives Drop to $70 - Media Report
Costs of Blu-Ray ODDs Still Much Higher Compared to DVD

Nvidia Warns: Latest Drivers May Damage Graphics Cards
Nvidia Withdraws Faulty Drivers for Graphics Cards

Valve Software Launches Steam Service, Source Engine for Apple Macintosh
Counter-Strike, Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, Others Coming to Apple Mac Platform

ATI: Nvidia Bribes Game Developers to Promote PhysX
AMD Accuses Nvidia of Making Marketing Deals with Game Developers

Dell's Adamo Notebooks Not Popular Among the Public - Media
Dell Adamo XPS No Longer Available in the U.S.

ATIC to Increase Stake in Globalfoundries
ATIC to Continue Investment into Globalfoundries

Terabyte Hard Disk Drives Roundup: Round Three
We are going to talk about the new 1 TB HDD models that appeared in the market over the past year. And since one of these solutions is Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EARS with 4 KB sectors, we will also discuss this type of HDD internal structure, its pros and cons.



Extremetech
Is HTML5 Faster Than Flash? Not Always
Apple hype about Flash being a "CPU hog" isn't necessarily true.




Death of an iMac—Part Two
Jim Lynch ends his mourning period and starts over with a new 27-inch iMac.




Hard Drives' 2011 Sector Shift May Slow Windows XP Use
If you're still using Windows XP, you may be in for trouble in 2011, when all hard drives must move from 512-byte to 4KB sectors.




Is Opera 10.5 the World's Fastest Web Browser?
Opera 10.5 trounces the competition when it comes to JavaScript rendering. But is that enough?




Corsair's Cooling Air A70 and A50 Help Your CPU Chill Out
Corsair's new A70 and A50 coolers are designed for enthusiast and more casual users.




Nvidia's Latest Driver Could Hurt Video Cards and PCs
A problem with fan control in Nvidia's latest video driver may be putting video cards—and full systems—at risk.




Kids and Computers: Do Extreme Tykes Still Exist?
Is it necessarily a good thing that kids today are growing up in a world where computers are as common as cars?




Brown Goes Down: Ubuntu Gets a Makeover
The popular populist Linux distribution Ubuntu will a new look with the upcoming 10.04 edition.




Video: Nvidia Pulls GPU From Live Motherboard to Demo Optimus
Nvidia's laptop-oriented video-switching technology makes some amazing things possible—as the company recently demonstrated.




Asus Board Unlocks CPU Cores You Didn't Buy
On Tuesday, Asus launched the M4A89GTD PRO motherboard, with a novel feature: the ability to "unlock," or enable processor cores that a user hasn't paid for.




DailyTech News Feed
U.S. Looking Into Continued China Internet Censorship
Nothing significant has happened so far, but lawmakers are working with the private sector to see what can be done...

NASA Prepares for Remaining Manned Shuttle Flights
President Obama continues to receive harsh criticism, with NASA preparing for four manned shuttle launches...

Korea Shows Electric Trams Which Receive Power from Buried Recharging Strips
Charge strips are placed under blue line the tram follows...

3/10/2010 Daily Hardware Reviews
DailyTech's roundup of hardware reviews from around the web for Wednesday ...

Bing Gobbles Up Some of Yahoo's Search Market Share
Google still more than twice as big as Yahoo and Bing combined...

Porsche Will Build 918 Spyder Hybrid if Financially Viable
Porsche really wants to build the 918, however, the company insists that it doesn't want to lose money on the vehicle....

FCC Battles Telecoms to Deliver Cheap National Broadband to Citizens
Telecoms are refusing to sell their wireless airwaves to the government...

Apple Tried to Bully Sun With Lawsuit Threats in 2003
Apple CEO Steven P. Jobs : "I’ll just sue you."...

2008 Prius Takes Another Unlucky Driver on a Wild Ride
California Police have to assist hapless motorist in attempts to decelerate...

U.S. Power Companies Fight the Wind
Companies aren't happy with the success of the alternative energy offering...

Cisco Releases Next-Gen Super-High-Speed 322 Tbps Routing System
New network technology should be able to power an incredible online future...

Steve Ballmer Offers a Few Kind Words for Apple's Highly Successful App Store
Ballmer throws Apple a bone...

Northrop Pulls Out of Tanker Bidding Process
EADS will not submit a European only bid leaving Boeing as the sole bidder...

Newegg Counterfeit CPU Mess Finally Resolved
Guilty party is revealed; customers will get their refunds...

Independent Musicians Urge Net Neutrality -- But Only for "Legal" Content
Independent community is more vocal on topic than major labels...

U.S. Air Force Outlines Future Spending, Aircraft Needs
The demand for F-35 is still there, but the USAF also has other aircraft it is interested in...

Valve Officially Announces Steam, Source Engine for OS X
The worst kept secret in Mac gaming is officially announced...

3/8/2010 Daily Hardware Reviews
DailyTech's roundup of hardware reviews from around the web for Monday...

MIT Researchers Discover New Electricity Production Method
Researchers used carbon nanotubes for breakthrough...

Canada Plans Shift to Plastic Currency
Cheaper and more secure...

DHS Begins Mass Rollout of Airport Scanners Despite Health, Privacy Risks
Scanner deployment is part of $1B USD airport security upgrade...

Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight Vie for Dominance Amid HTML5 Threat
Other threats like Sun's JavaFX may shake up the market as well...

Tegra-Powered Microsoft Courier to Wage War With iPad Late This Year
Details on the upcoming portable e-book reader/journal device leak...

President Obama to Clarify Future Plans for NASA
The U.S. space agency continues to struggle as President Obama receives even harsher criticism...

[H]ardOCP News/Article Feed
Biking Directions Added to Google Maps
For all of you out there that like to ride your bike, Google maps has added bike directions so you don't get lost…even if you are biking from Seattle to Phoenix. Comments

Facebook Will Allow Users to Share Location
Mark my words, the controversy generator for next month will be this. Even though the feature will be "opt-in," the various ways it can be misused / abused that will no doubt cause an uproar. Facebook plans to take the wraps off a new location-based feature in late April at f8, the company's yearly developer conference, according to several people briefed on the project, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss unannounced services. Comments

Gaming [H]eadlines
God of War Lawsuit Dismissed @ Kotaku OnLive Coming in June: Fee Doesn't Cover Games @ Blue's News Sony Trademarks 'PlayStation Move' in Europe @ Joystiq Split/Second Trailers Show Speed, 'Splosions @ Shacknews

How to Completely Erase Your Hard Drives
While this article on erasing old hard drives is pretty informative, our patent pending .50 cal method of destroying data is second to none. The best part about our method is that you can do 18 drives at a time and it takes only a split second to complete. If you use Shift-Delete to bypass the Recycle Bin, the space occupied by the file is marked as available for other files. However, the file could be recovered days or even weeks later with third-party data recovery software. As long as the operating system does not reuse the space occupied by a file with another file, the "deleted" file can be recovered. Comments

Accessorizing Your iPhone Case With Guns
How do you make an iPhone case review look manly? With guns, lots of guns. The case itself is pretty damn snazzy and the best part is that it only cost $10. Comments

OCZ Onyx Series SSDs Makes Solid State Storage Affordable
OCZ, a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory and flash-based storage as an alternative to hard disk drives (HDDs), today unveiled the OCZ Onyx SATA II 2.5" Solid State Drive (SSD) Series, an ultra-affordable MultiLevel Cell (MLC)-based solid state storage solution designed for consumers looking to take advantage of flash-based storage technology. Offering a faster and more durable alternative to traditional hard drives in a cost-efficient SSD, the Onyx delivers reliable performance without the high price normally associated with SSD drives. Comments

PC Games Net $13.1 Billion in 2009
A new report says that PC gaming software revenue continues to grow ($13B versus $11B in 2008). The report also says that retail sales are shrinking while digital distribution is growing rapidly. Most of that growth can be attributed to the growing popularity of digital distribution and paid downloads, as boxed retail games saw another downturn and accounted for "less than 20% of total revenue [in 2009]." According to surveys by research group DFC Intelligence, over 70% of PC gamers in North America and Europe indicate that they bought a full game online and over 50% have bought a virtual item. Comments

[H]ardware Round-Up
Cases & Modding Inwin Maelstrom: An Affordable Gaming Case @ SPCR Cooling Thermaltake SpinQ VT CPU Cooler @ Legit Reviews ETC. Asus TS Mini Home Server @ Tweaknews Power Supply Thermaltake Toughpower XT 775W PSU @ Overclockers Club

Piracy Rises In France Despite Three Strikes Law
Please raise your hand if you didn't see this one coming. In the first few months following the adoption of the three-strikes anti-piracy legislation in France, online piracy has increased significantly. Instead of stopping, file-sharers are seeking alternatives to bypass the new law. Perhaps even more striking is that new research reveals that disconnecting file-sharers will actually hurt the revenues of the music industry. Comments

IBM and Stanford University Unveil Green Chemistry Breakthrough
In a paper published in the American Chemical Society journal, Macromolecules, scientists from IBM and Stanford University detail discoveries that could lead to the development of new types of biodegradable, biocompatible plastics. The result of a multi-year research effort, the breakthrough also could lead to a new recycling process that has the potential to significantly increase the ability to recycle and reuse common PET and plant-based plastics in the future. Today's announcement may have sustainability implications across a wide range of industries including biodegradable plastics, plastics recycling, healthcare and microelectronics. Comments

MIT Scientists Turn Polyethylene Into Heatsink
If the researchers at MIT have their way, your next heatsink could be made of this. The new process causes the polymer to conduct heat very efficiently in just one direction, unlike metals, which conduct equally well in all directions. This may make the new material especially useful for applications where it is important to draw heat away from an object, such as a computer processor chip. Comments

MonoPrice Hacked, CC Info Compromised?
If you have ever shopped at MonoPrice.com, you might want to read this announcement. Although the company says no credit card information was stolen from its network, they released the following statement: A few of our customers recently reported to us that information from credit cards they used on the Monoprice website had been misused. We promptly began an investigation with the help of expert computer forensic investigators to determine if any card data had been stolen from our computers. Comments

`Nobel of Computing' Goes to Early PC Designer
A researcher from Microsoft has won the $250,000 Turing Award for his work helping design and build what is widely considered the first modern personal computer. While at Xerox Corp.'s famed Palo Alto Research Center, or PARC, in the 1970s, Charles Thacker led the hardware development for the Alto, which featured innovative display and other technologies that helped inspire future generations of computers. Thacker, 67, was also co-inventor of the Ethernet networking technology for connecting computers, which is still widely used. Comments

Training Initiative Aims to Elevate America's Veterans
Microsoft today launched an initiative to ease the transition of veterans returning to civilian life. Aligned with the one-year anniversary of the Elevate America program, the Elevate America's Veterans Initiative brings together public, private and nonprofit organizations to provide veterans and their spouses with skills training and help them find employment in today's challenging job market. Comments

ASUS Unveils the World's Most Compact 5-Channel Speaker
ASUS today announced the launch of the ASUS Cine5 PC speaker which provides accurate 5-channel surround sound in personalized spaces such as study rooms. With its all-in-one design, the Cine5 delivers realistic and dynamic surround sound to satisfy consummate gamers and personal entertainment users. To deliver exceptionally full sound from a compact form factor, ASUS drew on its expertise in high-performance audio cards during the development. Comments

Counterfeit Intel CPU Saga Comes to a Close
This is hopefully our last installment of covering this debacle. We cover where we were right and where we were misinformed.

Newegg Sticks with "demo boxes" - Intel Counters
You bought what? And you got what? Oh, no problem, that is just an Intel "demo box," oops, our goof. Newegg continues to lie to its customers.

ASUS Maximus III Extreme Motherboard Review
The Maximus III Extreme is the newest member of ASUS ROG (Republic of Gamers) product line, with the board squarely aimed at the high end enthusiast market. With the stiff competition in the Intel arena currently, this board definitely has its work cut out for it. We take a good look at what the MIIIE can do for the air and water cooling overclockers.

Newegg Selling Fake Intel CPUs
Did you just order an Intel Core i7-920 CPU from Newegg? Have you opened the box yet to check and see what is inside of it? We highly suggest you do.

Enermax MODU87+ 700W Power Supply Review
Enermax has been one of the "de facto standard" names in computer power supplies for years now. Enermax continually comes to the enthusiast with solidly built power supplies that deliver top notch power and stability for years and years. Today we are looking at the MODU87+ 700 watt PSU and its Dynamic Hybrid Transformer Topology technology, AKA DHT.

890GX / SB850 Chipset Motherboard Video Preview
Today AMD is announcing its newest generation motherboard chipset family on the Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H motherboard. It is comprised of the 890GX Northbridge, and SB850 Southbridge. If you are looking for a board with integrated graphics, you had better put the AMD 890GX on your short list. We are more excited about seeing native SATA 6Gb/s RAID than anything else, and we queue up a 4-disk RAID 0 array worthy of 4TB.

AMD's ATI Radeon HD 5830 Review
This is the video card gamers have been waiting for, an answer to the gap that exists between the Radeon HD 5770 and Radeon HD 5850 has been delivered. The Radeon HD 5830 launches today, and it offers price and performance right in-between these two video cards. If you are looking for a great value, this is it.

AMD ATI Radeon Dongle and GSOD Issues Addressed
While most ATI Radeon 5800 series video card owners are having great experiences, there are some people out there that have issues with the technology. This article will hopefully let you know a little more about the issues and what is being done to address DP to DVI dongle problems and GSODs.

BioShock 2 Gameplay Performance and Image Quality
BioShock 2 is here for your damp dark pleasure. BioShock, its predecessor, was a feast for the eyes when it was launched back in 2007, but does the aging engine stand up well to today's video cards and today's expectations? We'll check it out with six of today's best video cards. Now, who's your Big Daddy?

SATA 6Gb/s on Your New Motherboard?
There has been a lot of talk about the new "Serial ATA Revision 3.0 specification." New motherboards are now on the market with "SATA 6Gb/s" controllers, but what does all this mean to the enthusiast? Heck, what does "SATA 3" mean? We take a quick look at what "SATA Revision 3.0" is supposed to do for the world and what it will actually do for us on the desktop currently with RAID 0 and single disk configurations.

AMD's ATI Catalyst 10.2 and 10.3 Preview
AMD's ATI Catalyst 10.2 and Catalyst 10.3 are receiving many improvements that directly benefit the gameplay experience. CrossFireX profiling system has been completely re-worked, Bezel Compensation is in play, and several other features have been added. If you are an ATI Eyefinity gamer, Bezel Compensation will take the experience one step further.

Nexus NX-5000 R3 & RX-5300 PSU Reviews
Nexus is back with us today and we have a look at two of its computer power supplies; the NX-5000 R3 and the N-5300, both 530 watt units. One of these new units is "Real" and very small in terms of form factor and both are nearly silent. Are these units supplying quality power along with silence? We find in our testing.

Don't Buy Global Agenda - Editorial
Never heard of Global Agenda? Me either till today. We are however giving the game development company a free pass here to tell you to NOT buy this new game. Confused yet? You won't be after you read this editorial, but you still will be punished for being a "Hi-Rez" user.

AMD's ATI Radeon HD 5570 Video Card Review
Today, AMD is launching the Radeon HD 5570. At $75-85 MSRP, the Radeon HD 5570 sits in-between the Radeon HD 5450 and Radeon HD 5670. The question on the table is, what is its value when the Radeon HD 5670 sits close in price? We'll bring this question to bare, and show you our gameplay experiences, and provide our opinions on the value of this video card.

Tuniq Propeller vs. Thermalright Venemous X
Thermalright has been a company name that is synonymous with high end CPU air cooling for years now. Tuniq is one of the newer guys on the block when it comes to the elite heatsink and fan unit. Today we have a showdown of epic proportions, at least to the computer hardware cooling enthusiast. Propeller vs. Venemous X.


Home - THE INQUIRER
Samsung is betting big on 3D TV

Ian Williams THE INQUIRER

First one's always free





Google nears end of China negotiations

David Neal THE INQUIRER

Eric Schmidt talkin' about a resolution





Intel's Core i7 980X listed

Paul Taylor THE INQUIRER

€999 for bragging rights





Samsung shows off Navibot vacuum cleaner robot

Ian Williams THE INQUIRER

Video Camera maps ceiling for more thorough cleaning





Twitter is full of criminals and celebrities

David Neal THE INQUIRER

Between the devil and the deep red carpet





EFF posts Apple’s Iphone SDK licence terms

Spencer Dalziel THE INQUIRER

Heads Apple wins, tails Apps developers lose





Brits splurge on MMOs

Lawrence Latif THE INQUIRER

Loads of money





Scientists invent wonder batteries

David Neal THE INQUIRER

It's your Kelvins Marty





Bing is not catching Google

Lawrence Latif THE INQUIRER

Taking market share from Yahoo





Chinese rejects HP laptops

Spencer Dalziel THE INQUIRER

Consumer rights exercised





Chinese reject HP laptops

Spencer Dalziel THE INQUIRER

Consumer rights exercised



Streak leaks

Spencer Dalziel THE INQUIRER

Dell's e-book of many colours





SCO versus Novell trial opens

Nick Farrell THE INQUIRER

Handbags at dawn





Woman fails to stop the LHC

Nick Farrell THE INQUIRER

It does it all by itself





US is at China's mercy

Edward Berridge THE INQUIRER

Because it's too lazy to dig





Bill Gates and Steve Jobs wanted to sue Sun

Nick Farrell THE INQUIRER

Jonathan Schwartz talks





Microsoft battles an alleged patent troll

Edward Berridge THE INQUIRER

A company that exists only to sue





Cisco annouces a super fast router

Edward Berridge THE INQUIRER

Will change the Internet as we know it





Google announces its own app store

Ian Williams THE INQUIRER

Third party cloud applications





Vodafone ships malware infested mobiles

Lawrence Latif THE INQUIRER

There are apps for that too





Uncle Ballmer wants you

Paul Taylor THE INQUIRER

Xbox is hiring engineers





Limewire taps AVG for virus free torrents

Ian Williams THE INQUIRER

Pro users get their files scanned





Open source makes psychological sense

David Neal THE INQUIRER

Keep paying it forward





Sony showcases its first HD Freeview TV

Ian Williams THE INQUIRER

Focus on content not technology





Icann reconsiders adult website suffiix

Spencer Dalziel THE INQUIRER

Might finally be time for xxx





 

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