NVIDIA's GeForce 9600 GT based products have been around for like two months now. Those of you who decided to wait a little before purchasing this product, I can only say bravo. Because at this very moment prices are dropping, the 'OC', thus special edition versions are widely available bringing even more value to you well spent money.

Now we spotted the exact triple X model as tested today for roughly 159 USD /

This is pretty cool technology for sure. Sharp started a partnership with AMIMON in order to offer a wireless HDTV link based on the latter company's WHDI technology. Apparently the 37-, 42- and 46-inch displays will be sold in both nations with an optional wireless video transmitter bringing its users the ability to send uncompressed HD to their HDTV from up to 100-feet / 30 meter away. As for US pricing and availability, Sharp's not quite ready to dish out those points, and while we're not exactly sure if this is the launch that finally gets wireless HD headed in right direction, it certainly can't hurt matters.

Santa Clara, Calif. and Osaka, Japan

Media giant Samsung yesterday announced and launched two new Blu-ray disc players. Can you believe this is already the a fourth generation player, the BD-P1500 and second-generation home theater HT-BD2F. The next-generation Blu-ray disc format offers massive data storage capacity, high-definition video and audio quality, and is now the most likely successor to the DVD format. The Samsung BD-P1500 player can play the original and full screen high-definition versions of CD, DVD, and Blu-ray discs, and sports various functions.

The Bonus View function, for instance, provides information on actors and an actress appearing in a movie as it is played, and with the Bookmark function, a user can easily jump to the scene s/he likes.  Samsung decided to use a

Thompson sent a copy of the letter to Ars Technica, and his demands are far-reaching. "Indictments should be returned against Take Two corporately and its Chairman, Strauss Zelnick, along with other Take Two officers. Indictment should also be against Sony and Microsoft which are making this pornographic game available to minors, and openly so, on their PS3 and Xbox systems," Thompson wrote. "Further, indictments should be handed down against Wal-Mart, Best Buy, GameStop, and all other retailers distributing this game to minors at their retail stores, openly, to kids who are only seventeen."

He then compares the game to, of all things, polio. "Grand Theft Auto IV is the gravest assault upon children in this country since polio. We now have vaccines for that virus... The 'vaccine' that must be administered by the United States government to deal with this virtual virus of violence and sexual depravity is criminal prosecutions of those who have conspired to do this.  If you doubt me, look at the aforementioned streaming audio/video. It will make you sick."

This is where the story takes a turn, because Jack Thompson provides a link to a video, put together by the gaming news site IGN, called "Ladies of Liberty City." Be careful clicking on that link; there is absolutely nothing there that is safe for work.  The video strips the game of all context and merely shows scenes of sexual content and violence, one after the other. In fact, it can be hard to watch for that reason, and it's a rather numbing experience. The game's lead character, Niko, drives up to prostitutes, honks the horn, then shoots them. You see a simulated sex act, only to have Niko run the hooker over afterwards with his car. The video shows graphic lap dances featuring one, and then two, girls. The language is even worse, including

See, now that would make an awesome home storage device to story .. well everything ! Netgear in Q3 will release it's new baby from their Readynas family of products. The Network Storage device has six drive bays and can be delivered with a capacity up-tp 6 TB.

The lovely thing about it that it is doing RAID as well. This 6-bay gigabit network attached storage (NAS) appliance is packed with high-end server features, including RAID (redundant array of independent disks) levels 0, 1, 5, 6, and Auto-Expandable X-RAID2 support for data protection against disk failure, system monitoring capabilities and built-in backup. To ensure high availability to stored data, the ReadyNAS Pro features dual redundant Gigabit Ethernet ports for failover protection. Powered by an Intel Core

The 3DMark Vantage Catalyst hotfix driver includes bug fixes and performance enhancements.
Please be sure to use this hotfix driver when running 3DMark Vantage

Select the 737-33840: 3DMark Vantage Hotfix

http://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894

http://support.ati.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=33840

Watcher

GeForce 175.12 driver for Windows Vista 64-bit

GeForce 175.12 driver for Windows Vista 32-bit

In the aftermath of the 3Dmark Vantage release NVIDIA released a new GeForce driver. The driver supports GeForce 6, 7, 8, and 9 series GPUs including these newly released GPUs:

• GeForce 9800 GX2
• GeForce 9800 GTX
• GeForce 9600 GT
• GeForce 8300
• GeForce 8200
• GeForce 8200/ NVIDIA nForce 730a
• GeForce 8100/NVIDIA nForce 720a

Supports single GPU and NVIDIA SLI

Rivatuner has been updated towards version 2.09 In this release we have included a huge number of new stuff to keep you busy, obviously GeForce 9x00 support has been added as well as ForceWare 175.xx and Catalyst 8.4 support.

RivaTuner is a complete powerful tweaking environment, providing you everything you may need to tune NVIDIA GPU based display adapters. The widest driver-level Direct3D / OpenGL and system tuning options, flexible profiling system allowing to make custom settings on per-application basis, both driver-level and low-level hardware access modes, unique diagnostic and real-time hardware monitoring features and exclusive power user oriented tools like built-in registry editor and patch script engine make RivaTuner's feature set absolutely unmatched. RivaTuner supports all NVIDIA display adapters starting from Riva TNT family up to the latest GeForce series and widest range of NVIDIA drivers starting from the oldest Detonator 2.08 up to the newest ForceWare drivers family. In addition to complete NVIDIA hardware support, RivaTuner also provides support for display adapters based upon newer ATI graphics processors. All RivaTuner's features besides driver-level tuning options are also available on supported ATI hardware.

Guru3D.com is Rivatuner's official homepage, click here to find version / build / changes and FAQ information.

For novice users, we have a guide to help you through Rivatuner and setup fan speeds and overclocks on your graphics card. This guide will hopefully help you understand how to use the features that Rivatuner provides.

• Download URL- http://downloads.guru3d.com/RivaTuner-v2.09-download-163.html
• Homepage - http://www.guru3d.com/index.php?page=rivatuner 
• FAQ - http://www.guru3d.com/index.php?page=rivatunerfaq

Despite comments from Ballmer last week Microsoft today announced Windows XP will still retire on June 30, except for some market segments like low-cost PCs.

The spokeswoman said Microsoft is aware that some customers are pushing for an extension to the deadline -- more than 160,000 people have signed a "Save XP" petition launched by Infoworld magazine, for example. But the company has also done its own research among partners and customers, and feels that "the dates are right," she said, speaking on behalf of Microsoft.

"We feel we've made the right accommodations for customers in certain segments who may need more time to transition to Windows Vista," she said. "But as Steve noted, we maintain a constant stance of listening to our customers and our partners. That's what is guiding our plan, and will continue to guide us going forward."

The "accommodations" refer to several exceptions that Microsoft has made to the June 30 deadline. For example, companies that make volume purchases of Vista Business or Vista Ultimate can ask their vendor to "downgrade" their license to Windows XP. Microsoft has also made exceptions for the emerging class of small, ultra-low-cost PCs, and it will continue to provide Windows XP Starter Edition for PCs sold in emerging markets.

Retailers and PC vendors can also continue to sell any backlog of Windows XP licenses that they bought before the June 30 deadline. Beyond those exceptions, most new Windows licenses purchased after June 30 will be for Windows Vista.

AMD on Monday announced it will be adding Business Class platforms to its line-up of multi-core CPUs. The maker's dual-core Athlon and triple or quad-core Phenom CPUs, coupled with AMD 780V chipset and optional ATI Radeon integrated graphics support are featured in the Business Class. The benefits of the new platforms will include up to 24-month image stability when installed in first-issue desktops, and a minimum 12 months in subsequent models. Furthermore, all are energy efficient thanks to Energy Star 4.0 rating.
One of the first desktop PCs utilizing AMD's Business Class platform is the HP Compaq dc5850, also announced today and is expected to ship on May 5. Dell's PC utilizing the new chips is the OptiPlex 740. AMD also hinted its upcoming mobile platform, code-named Puma, will use the Business Class platform.

The new platforms will also give businesses the freedom of choice when it comes to software and hardware integration, as it is committed to open security standards such as TCG and DMTF as well as the latter's DASH standard.

I think it's officially the memory kit with the longest name now. PQI has released the Phoenix Series ~ Turbo Immortality Edition DDR3-1600 4GB dual channel kit. With a tested operating frequency of 1688MHz at 1.54V and 2GB capacity, the module is sure to boost your computing experience to the next level. In compliance to JEDEC standards and compatible with Intel's X38 chipset, PQI's Phoenix Series Turbo Immortality Edition DDR3-1600 memory is made of Elpida's 70nm 128M8 modules. When working in dual channel, a maximum theoretical bandwidth of 25.6GB/Sec can be reached.

Utilizing Intel

EA held a London press event on Friday and released some brand new media as well as some new information on Battlefield Heroes. Battlefield Heroes

Publisher Sierra Entertainment has released a new trailer of Radical Entertainment's Prototype, highlighting the game's explosive open-world combat. In a near-future New York City, the populace is gripped in the claws of a vicious war between three powerful factions--the military, the monsters, and you. You are Alex Mercer, a shape-shifting, backflipping, people-eating antihero, and the star of Radical Entertainment's upcoming free-roaming action-fest, Prototype. 

Currently in development for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360, Prototype is due to arrive later this year.

The trailer definitely is look nice !

3DMark Vantage (DirectX 10)

It's that time of year again, today FutureMark releases their latest installment in their 3DMark series, the 100% DX10 version 3DMark Vantage. As requirement for DirectX 10 you need to have Windows Vista installed and have a DX10 ready graphics card (preferably a very fast one).

3DMark Vantage is a gamers

NVIDIA's partners today silently are announcing the GeForce 9600 GSO. The first of the card-makers to launch their 9600 GSO is EVGA, with a 650MHz, 384MB / 1900MHz DDR3, PCI Express 2.0 ditty (e-GeForce 9600GSO Superclocked 384MB), as well as an even lower end 550MHz, 384MB / 1600MHz version (e-GeForce 9600GSO 384MB).

Basically this is the GeForce 8800 GS. The 9600 GSO is still based on the same G92 core with 96 stream processors but NVIDIA will give board makers a bit more freedom in their designs in terms of own PCB design to and determine their own clocks. This 'old' card will still have 384 MB of GDDR3 memory.

We can expect many variants of cards with different types of cooling coming up to be branded as Overclocked Editions.

First press-release that entered our mailbox came from Inno3D actually. Their card is clocked a tad slower as it seems. 550 Mhz core clock, 1375 on the Shader processors and a the memory at 1600 MHz (384 MB).

nVidia's own control panel is not always very intuitive to use. Especially the 3D rendering settings are very cryptic and difficult to navigate. Even the new control panel introduced with the 9x.xx line of Forceware drivers isn't a real improvements for these problems. nHancer is a tool to improve the usage of these features.

nHancer is a tool to improve the usage of these features. Both normal and advanced users should find nHancer to be a big step forward.

New in this release:

• Corrected all startup problems. Multithreaded startup for splash screen redone from scratch and much, much simpler.
• Added new filter option
  

Just a gentle reminder that the download servers will get a rough beating later today as FutureMark 3DMark Vantage will be released later today. It's the new DX10 version of their FM gaming benchmark series. The download will wigh in at roughly 450 MB.

Check back later.

LaCie has released a new 500GB external hard drive with a rugged scratch-resistant aluminum shell and shock-resistant rubber bumper.

LaCie announced today that it has pushed mobile capacity limits by making available a new 500 gigabyte (GB) Rugged Hard Disk. Designed by Neil Poulton, the LaCie Rugged features a unique scratch-resistant aluminum shell and a shock-resistant rubber bumper to protect data against the everyday bumps, bruises and hard knocks of the real world, while protecting valuable data along the way.

Utilizing a state-of-the-art Hitachi Travelstar 5K500, 2.5-inch internal hard disk, LaCie was able to produce a product nearly identical in size to its previous Rugged offerings. The 500GB Rugged is available in USB 2.0 or a USB 2.0, FireWire 400 and FireWire 800 version for speedier data transfers. Bus-powered by either USB* or FireWire, the Rugged is designed to interact smoothly with any computer.

Statistics from research group BDA China indicate China is now the country with the most Internet users. Internet usage in China allegedly hit 220 million users in February, which is 4 million more than in the US at the end of 2007.

The percentage of American users

On the web rumors are floating everywhere that NVIDIA decided to accelerate the launch of its GeForce 9900 series flagship cards to beat out AMD's ATI Radeon HD 4800. The very top-end GeForce 9900 GTX and its close counterpart the GeForce 9900 GTS are now reportedly due as soon as July, replacing the 9800 GTX after the earlier card has spent just three months on store shelves. The revised 8800 GTS is also expected to disappear.

The underlying advantages of the 9900 are still unknown, although NVIDIA has already said the architecture behind the flagship will be extraordinarily complex with as many as one billion transistors on the GTX. The chip designer is rumored to be separating the GTX and GTS primarily by their memory bandwidth, with the GTX supporting a full 512-bit interface and the GTS scaling back to a 448-bit interface. Such a change would likely dictate unusual memory limits: the GTX would come equipped with either 512MB or 1GB of video memory and the GTS given either 640MB or 768MB.

Prices and clock speeds for the new GeForce chips aren't confirmed.

Realtek updated it's Audio HD driver for both Windows XP & Vista . Our download contains both the XP and Vista drivers (32 & 64-bit).

Changes in version 1.91:

• Support ALC663/ALC272.
• Support ForteMedia microphone effect APO feature.
• Customizations.

Chipsets supported:

1. Windows Vista WHQL: ALC882, ALC883, ALC885, ALC888, ALC861VD, ALC660, ALC662, ALC663, ALC260,ALC262,ALC267, ALC268, ALC 269, ALC 272
2. Windows 2000/XP WHQL: ALC880, ALC882, ALC883, ALC885, ALC888, ALC861VC, ALC861VD,ALC660, ALC662, ALC663, ALC260, ALC262, ALC267,ALC268, ALC269, ALC 272
3. HDMI Device WHQL Support: ATI HDMI Devices

Download - http://downloads.guru3d.com/Realtek-HD-Audio-1.91-download-1907.html