Somehow Microsoft doesn't seem to be able to get rid of Windows XP. Although the downgrade deadline was pushed back several times already, Microsoft decided to do it yet once again. This time it is a response to complaints that businesses "still hanging onto XP" expressed which otherwise would have been forced "to either stock up on XP-ready systems before April 23rd, 2010 or face the possibility of Vista-only downgrades thereafter."

A Microsoft spokeswoman said: "Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate customers will have the option to downgrade to Windows XP Professional from PCs that ship within 18 months following the general availability of Windows 7 or until the release of a Windows 7 service pack, whichever is sooner, and if a service pack is developed."

Sony Pictures has released the first full trailer for 2012, the next big disaster film from Roland Emmerich, the director of Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow and Godzilla.

The end of the world Hollywood style. Is this the beginning of the end.  

We are not yet sure if these are for real or not, but some specs for the Canon 1D Mark IV DSLR Camera were revealed today at Photography Bay. These specs reveal quite a bit about the new camera and if proven true, will be pretty interesting to see in action.

Specs include a 1.3x crop sensor for 16-megapixel images, sRAW1 format for 8-megapixel images and an ISo sensitivity of 50 to 26,500. The supposed beta tester reveals that the camera has a burst shooting mode that

Blu-ray players pop up everyday lately, but we

Zalman introduced the ZM-RHS90, a new aluminum heatsink designed to cool the MOSFET area on ATI Radeon HD 4870 and 4890 based graphics cards with custom coolers. The heatsink is mounted behind the VDDC chokes, and covers the most significant set of MOSFETs on the card.

The ZM-RHS90 is made of pure aluminum for lightness, and offers high-performance cooling. You may install the heatsink by pushpins, which is apparently much easier. The availability or pricing is unknown yet, but it should show its face soon.

Click thumbnail to enlarge.

Intel CEO Paul Otellini confirmed the rumor that Larrabee will not arrive this year, but in the first half of 2010. Earlier this week it was reported that Intel needs more time to get the drivers under control.

According to this statement Intel claims Larrabee is still on schedule. Intel

Rockstar Games has released a maintenance update, which is described like this: 'Resource management adjustments based on the operating system detected.' As the title suggests, it's not a full-blown patch like the previous updates, but it should provide a reasonable performance boost for most players.

The game will prompt you to install the update the next time you log on to Games for Windows LIVE. You can also install it manually by downloading it directly from Rockstar's website. The update includes all the fixes from the previous patches, so if (for any reason) you have to re-install the game, you don't need to install the previous updates.

The Intel

Jammie Thomas's federal retrial concluded as a jury found her liable for willful copyright infringement, and get this -> awarding the record labels nearly $2 million in damages.

Thomas-Rasset was found liable for willfully infringing all 24 copyrights controlled by the four major record labels at issue in the case. The jury awarded the labels damages totaling an astounding $1.92 million.

Kiwi Camara, Thomas-Rasset's lead attorney, spoke briefly after the trial. He told reporters that when he first heard the $80,000 per song damage award, he was "angry about it" and said he had been convinced that any liability finding would have been for the minimum amount of $750 per song.

As for Thomas-Rasset, she appeared shaken by the verdict but didn't blame the jury. "They did their job," she said, "I'm not going to hold it against them." She added, though, that the recording industry would never collect the money. "Good luck trying to get it from me... it's like squeezing blood from a turnip."

Regardless of the fact what she did was wrong ... let me ask you guys, what the heck is wrong with the American legal system ? There is something seriously flawed. Sure, if someone does something wrong, you should get some sort of fine/penalty for that. But 80.000 USD per song ? That's downright corrupted and wrong at any level.

Speeding in a car endangers the lives of other people, so what's the fine on that in the USA ? You get fined 50, 100 maybe even 350 USD. That hurts, but you can recover from it and learn from your mistakes.

 ... download two dozen 99 cent songs and you have to pay 1.6 Million. Really, is that justice ? That legal system should be ashamed of itself with this result.

My aplologies for this somewhat heated news-post, typically I do not allow my personal judgement into news articles, as press we need to stay objective and focussed. But after this ordeal let me tell you, this editor is not planning not purchase any music anytime anymore. I'm completely done with the music industry and it's greed.

It's time for a new update of the rig of the month,

Like a jelly fish transparent on the outside, but fascinating on the inside sums up Art Reyna, Jr's PC really well, making it the Rig of The Month June 2009. At the age of 29 Art is a Call Center worker by day, graphic designer and drummer by night.

Meet his rig and all inside info right here.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/guru3d-rig-of-the-month-june-2009/

Wow.. talk about overdoing it price wise. Anyhow, as we have shown you guys in our Computex article, ASUS is set to release the ASUS MARS series graphics card. Limited to 1000 pieces of production. The graphics card carries two NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 graphics processors as well as 4GB of GDDR3 memory (2GB per chip). That of course makes it faster than the dual-chip model GTX 295. .

So we where able to find out that the card is going to be clocked at 648MHz at the core with 480 stream processors in total functioning at 1476MHz. That fact makes the card as fast as two GeForce GTX 285 graphics boards in SLI mode, but will be slightly faster compared to Nvidia GeForce GTX 295.

Now the shocker, UK-based Scan.co.uk online store is already listing this card the board now and charges

Wowzers .. Samsung announced a 32GB DDR3 RAM stick. The record device comes by using a 50 nanometer manufacturing process to produce 16 gigabit (2GB) stacked memory chips, nine of which are put on each side of the stick to provide the 32GB plus a certain degree of overhead. Despite the sheer amount of memory, Samsung is keen to observe that the 1.35V example uses about 20 percent less power than previous memory, which normally uses 1.5V of energy.

The specific module is intended for servers, where long RAM sticks and very high memory counts are feasible; pricing isn't public but will be very high. However, the technology behind the memory means it can also increase densities for smaller components. 16GB DDR3 should be possible for regular desktop memory, and 8GB is likely for notebooks.

I'd LOVE to know the latency timngs on these, as they where mysteriously left out of the press-reelase. Any way, can I have three please, well I do want to take them to triple channel ;)

Aceron Thursday announced the release of two new LCD monitors that have an emphasis on eco-friendliness with power consumption ratings that are reduced by 36 percent compared to previous models. The 19-inch Acer V193WBbmd and 22-inch Acer V223WBbmd both offer a 5ms response time, 10,000:1 contrast ratio, and 300cd/m2 brightness.

The 19-inch V193WBbmd features a 1,440x900 resolution, while the 22-inch model has a 1,680x1,050 resolution. Pricing is set at $185 and $236, respectively.

The company also recently decided to skip production of 45nm Havendale CPUs and will go directly to 32nm Clarkdale because 32nm development is going smoothly, the same sources revealed.

Intel will issue product discontinuance notice (PDN) for the Core i7 940 later in June, while EOL will be issued in the third quarter. Intel will also issue EOL for the Core 2 Extreme QX9775 in the third quarter.

The PDN for Intel's quad-core Core 2 Quad Q9400 and Q9400S will come in the fourth quarter, while EOL is scheduled for 2010. The Core 2 Quad Q8200 and Q8200S will see their PDN issued in 2010. Intel also plans to launch quad-core Core 2 Quad Q9505S CPUs specifically designed for all-in-one PCs.

Intel's Pentium E2220 and E2200 will see their EOL appear in the third and the fourth quarters this year, respectively, and will be replaced by the Pentium E6000 series.

The Celeron E1600 and E1500 are targeting to see PDN in the fourth quarter and E1400 in the third. The CPU series will be replaced by the Celeron E3000 series in the third quarter. Intel will issue PDN for Atom 330 and 220 in April 2010.

Intel has canceled mass production plans for 45nm Havendale CPUs originally scheduled for the end of the year and will directly announce the 32nm Clarkdale CPU in the first quarter of 2010 targeting entry-level to mainstream markets with prices set between US$60-190. [via digitimes].