No, this is not an early April fools joke. Microsoft announced today that it is going to discontinue its MSN Encarta web sites on October 31, 2009:

"On October 31, 2009, MSN Encarta Web sites worldwide will be discontinued, with the exception of Encarta Japan, which will be discontinued on December 31, 2009. Additionally, Microsoft will cease to sell Microsoft Student and Encarta Premium software products worldwide by June 2009.

Encarta has been a popular product around the world for many years. However, the category of traditional encyclopedias and reference material has changed. People today seek and consume information in considerably different ways than in years past. As part of Microsoft

A new 'Nature Neuroscience' study from the University of Rochester in the US claims that playing videogames can improve certain problems with deteriorating eyesight, such as 'lazy eye'. The research proves that games improved the subject's "contrast sensitivity"

Intel officially expanded the availability of their Nehalem-based Xeon processors today. Even though it was first introduced in the Mac Pro, the processors are now available in a wider-range of products. Seventeen processors have been launched.

These new processors support HyperThreading and a Turbo Boost feature that increases clock speeds and shuts down unused cores, allowing for a serious boost in overall performance.

The Xeon 5500 ranges in price from $188 for the 1.86GHz dual-core to $1,600 for the 3.2GHz quad-core. There is also a Xeon 3500 available in three different models that range from 2.66GHz to 3.2GHz. Pricing for these ranges from $284 to $999. These Xeon processors are now available in Dell Precision systems and the HP Z800.

As you guys know OCZ already has 15" and 17" DIY notebooks. The company has added the Neutrino 10" DIY netbook to its lineup. The OCZ Neutrino gives tech enthusiasts more freedom than traditional netbooks. The DIY netbook features a Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz processor, Intel 945GSE chipset based motherboard, 10" display with 1024 x 600 pixel resolution, 802.11b/g WiFi, 1.3MP webcam with microphone, two speakers, 4-cell 2200mAh battery pack, one PCI Express 34mm Mini Card slot, Ethernet, and two USB 2.0 ports.

Press-release: Buyers can freely choose the operating system and which memory and which 2.5" HDD/SSD they put into the Neutrino. Additionally, the netbook can also be equipped with a 4-in-1 memory card reader and Kensington Lock Security device. The system weighs 2.86lbs (around 1.3kg) and measures 263mm x 185mm x 19.6-27mm.
OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory, components, and systems, today unveiled the Neutrino netbook, their latest Do-It-Yourself (DIY) solution. Building on OCZ

In other hilarious news today. A website ironically claiming to offer users an all-year tan through their computer screens has received more than one million hits in two months.

It's awesome how they have the "O1, O2, O3" chart they say they combine to make "UVC rays." O2 is oxygen, O3 is ozone, and O1 doesn't even exist as a molecular formula.

Not one, but two new announcements were made public by Nvidia, today. One reveals a new line to its series of Quadro GPUs, which mainly targets professional users, like designers.

The new Quadro GPU card "line-up also brings the introduction of NVIDIA SLI Multi-OS, a ground-breaking technology that enables, for the first time, 3D workstation virtualization on the Quadro GPU. With SLI Multi-OS, applications and users are able to optimize productivity and costs through the use of multiple Quadro GPU technologies from a single workstation in a virtualized environment. Users can also enable native SLI technology support on key partner platforms to accelerate application performance, scaling and higher image quality."

The Multi-OS is built into the FX 3800, FX 4800, and FX 5800 Quadro GPUs, which are part of the new series of Quadro GPUs:

• NVIDIA Quadro FX 5800
  

Maybe a first sign that Electronic Arts is rethinking its DRM strategy is the following announcement, published on its "The Sims 3" web site:

"The game will have disc-based copy protection

The mud-fight inbetween NVIDIA and Intel repositions today. Nvidia claims that Intel uses Nvidia

Western Digital is feeling the heat and has made an entry into the SSD market by acquiring SiliconSystems for $65 million in cash. This company supplies SSDs for the embedded systems market and will now be known as the WD Solid-Stage Storage business unit.

Press-release: Since its inception in 2002, SiliconSystems has sold millions of SiliconDrive

Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) launches the X58B-A2 Black Series revision 2 motherboard based on the Intel X58 Express chipset supporting the latest Intel Core i7 processors. Here's the PR snippet:

Targeting at overclocking beginners, ECS X58B-A2 stands for the most affordable high-end product without any compromise of great features. It tops every user

DTS was pimping their new DTS Neural Surround Sound technology at the Game Developers Conference last week, this sound technology will enable real-time 7.1 audio tracks in games on platforms like the PC, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii.

Intel showed of a new videos from Project Offset at GDC and it showcases the games impressive technology and graphics. It looks absolutely stunning. Check out the clouds and thunder, lightning and particles flying in the air.

Here we test the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 285. A product that is clocked at reference speeds and comes with a very average bundle. With this reference based product in mind we were interested to see what we could save in terms of money if we just did not opt for an overclocked, xxx, OC, SSC and what not editions. It's interesting to see how well AIBs monetized the passion we all share; overclocking. So from that point of view it should be interesting to test the reference based product with no whistles and bells, and see if we can tweak it a little ourselves.

The trick is however, it's really affordable and as we learned .. very overclockable. Why not make your own OC model and forget about the premium price you have to pay for the pre-overclocked products ?

Click here to read the full Guru3D review.

AMD released a 392 pages strong PDF outlining the R700-Family Instruction Set Architecture, this week. It includes documentation for the RV710 (Radeon 4350/4550), the RV730 (Radeon 4670/4650), the RV740 (Radeon 4770/4750), the RV770 (Radeon 4870/4850/4830), and the RV790 (Radeon 4890).

"This document describes the instruction set architecture (ISA) native to the R700 family of processors. It defines the instructions and formats accessible to programmers and compilers. The document serves two purposes:

•  It specifies the instructions (including the format of each type of instruction) and the relevant program state (including how the program state interacts with the instructions). Some instruction fields are mutually dependent; not all possible settings for all fields are legal. This document specifies the valid combinations.
• It provides the programming guidelines for compiler writers to maximize processor performance.

This document is intended for programmers writing application and system software, including operating systems, compilers, loaders, linkers, device drivers, and system utilities; it is specifically for those who want to maximize software performance. It assumes that programmers are writing compute-intensive parallel applications (streaming applications) and assumes an understanding of requisite programming practices."

One interesting detail is the missing burst reads in memory read instructions of the RV770:

"Burst memory reads are not supported by the RV770; however, the 710, 730, 740, and 790 do support it. Chips after R770 support burst reads in memory-read instructions. This allows up to 16 consecutive locations to be read into up to 16 consecutive GPRs."

Provided that ATI is going to take advantage of this feature in the RV790 with their drivers, the Radeon HD 4890 should be able to work more efficiently than the RV770 series (Radeon 4870/4850/4830).

Someone with slipery fingers at Microsoft has prematurely let slip when the company plans to push out the Release Candidate version of Windows 7 by posting the download page early.Microsoft has refused to comment on when users can expect to see a near-ready version of Windows 7 arrive but many observers were expecting an April release.

Well, the cat's out the bag and the Windows 7 RC won't be available until May.

The download page appears to still be live at time of writing.

The download page reveals that the RC will be available until June this year, there's no limit on product key and it's set to expire in June 2010.

It also details hardware spec requirements for the operating system, including a PC running a minimum 1 GHz 32-bit or 64-bit processor or higher, 1GB of system memory and support for DirectX 9 graphics with 128MB memory. So there you have it, Microsoft has inadvertently set the clock ticking but many will be wondering if it can stick to the schedule this time[ via register].

VIA Technologies plans to sell 300 million new shares at a price ranging from NT$9-12 (US$0.27-0.35) per share through private placement, the company has announced. Nvidia is reportedly in talks with VIA to take up a portion of the new shares, according to market sources.

VIA commented that possible candidates for the private placement will be made clear after a shareholder meeting scheduled on June 19. Nvidia declined to comment market speculation.

In additional news, VIA also announced plans to invest an extra NT$900 million into its optical storage making subsidiary, VIA Optical Solution.

An interesting snippet of news was found at techpowerup today. NVIDIA is in a bit of a struggle with Intel as you guys know. So they are pursueing AMD Phenom II ... and why the heck not ? great processors really.

The company published the product page on its website, and has pictured its reference design motherboard based on the chipset. The motherboard carries the "designed by NVIDIA" marking, which makes it a design that several of its AIC partners such as EVGA, XFX, Zotac, etc., can use simultaneously.

The motherboard sports the nForce 980a SLI chipset, paired with the nForce 200 PCI-Express bridge chip. The motherboard features a GeForce 8300-class IGP, with DVI-D and D-Sub outputs. It supports NVIDIA 3-way SLI and Quad-SLI. As an AMD platform, the chipset supports AM2, AM2+ and AM3 socket processors, with DDR3 and DDR2 memory support (depending on the processor). A 5-phase digital PWM circuit powers the processor. The nForce 980a SLI and nForce 200 chips are located adjacent to each other, and are cooled actively by a fan-heatsink. The product design looks production-grade and may attract partners to sell it.

Hehe .. too funny really. An 18-year old UK fellah thought the best way to get noticed on Google Earth would be to paint a giant 60 feet phallus on the flat roof of his parent's mansion. His parents only found out after a helicopter pilot contacted newspaper The Sun.

Andy McInnes, a company director, thought it was an April Fool's joke, but his son Rory confessed he had painted the penis artwork on the roof a year ago, after watching a programme about Google Earth.

Check out more info at Telegraph via dvhardware.

The latest download of Realtek's HD audio driver version available for Windows XP and Vista. It supposedly runs under Windows 7 too.

The HD audio driver version for Realtek chips is available for download on our server. This download offers both the Windows XP and Vista binaries, the files contain drivers for the 32 Bit and 64 Bit versions. All Realtek HD audio chips, which are common on many motherboards and in notebooks, are supported. The sound specialist still offers the Beta version 0.1 of the 3D Sound Back Utility which preserves or reactivates 3D sound effects such as Surround, reverb and stereoscopic effects of older games under Windows Vista. Since it is a beta version, the use is used at one's own risk only. You should backup your important files before using the software.

Here is an extract from the change log . Unfortunately improvements of performance are rare for new audio drivers. An uninstall problem in Windows 7 has now been fixed.

Realtek HD Audio Driver support all of Realtek HD Audio Codec in Vista/WinXP/Win2000/Win2003.

Driver Package R2.20
Realtek HD Audio Driver support all of Realtek HD Audio Codec .
1. Vista WHQL Supporting: ALC882, ALC883, ALC885, ALC888, ALC889, ALC861VD, ALC660, ALC662, ALC663, ALC665, ALC260, ALC262,ALC267, ALC268, ALC269, ALC272, ALC273, ALC887
2. Windows 2000/XP WHQL Supporting: ALC880, ALC882, ALC883, ALC885, ALC888, ALC889, ALC861VC, ALC861VD, ALC660, ALC662, ALC663, ALC665, ALC260, ALC262, ALC267,ALC268, ALC269, ALC272, ALC273, ALC887
3. HDMI Device WHQL Support: ATI HDMI Devices
4. OS Supporting: Microsoft WindowsXP, Widnows2000, Windows Server 2003, Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows7 - x86/x64
5. Pack with Microsoft High Definition Audio UAAV1.0a(5013)
6. Add/Fix
1.) Driver :
1. Customizations.

Download: click here.

This download is a driver providing Microsoft