DailyTech's roundup of hardware reviews from around the web for Friday

FutureTap has updated its points of interest finder, Where To?, to embrace the features of iOS 4 and the iPhone 4. Along with an interface overhaul, the app now...



IPhone - IPhone OS - Smartphone - Handhelds - Apple

Intel's legal issues and Nvidia's weak product execution help AMD gain market share in the graphics space, Jon Peddie Research said on Friday.



Nvidia - Advanced Micro Devices - Intel Corporation - Jon Peddie Research - ATI Technologies

New trailer reveals series will finally be making the leap to 3D -- partially

But reducing soot will lower the Arctic climate more quickly than CO2

Developer n-Space is currently at work on the DS version of GoldenEye.

Force feedback has been a part of game controllers for some time now. Thermoelectrics could be next. Researchers at the Tokyo Metropolitan University have developed a controller that uses thermoelectric surfaces to express changes in temperature. According to a blog post on MIT's Technology Review site,...

Apple upgrades its Mac Pro and iMacs, whiles introducing new Cinema Display and brand new Magic Trackpad device.



Apple - IMac - Macintosh - MacPro - Hardware

Cyber criminals are increasingly looking at business rather than consumer accounts to hack and transfer money as banks scramble to shore up their defenses.



Business - Money - Financial services - Banking Services - Banks and Institutions

Neither title in this fiscal year's projections, suggesting they won't be out until after March 31, 2011.

Those Internet Explorer 9 platform previews are all well and good, but they're hardly usable for day-to-day browsing—you know, what with the missing user interface and all. ZDNet now says the first IE9 beta isn't too far off; Microsoft COO Kevin Turner reportedly revealed a September release schedule...

Listings have since been pulled, but Activision only says they haven't yet made any announcements.

"The stuff we're doing is a better fit on the other platforms," says executive producer Todd Howard.

Says that his company is about to step up their efforts

A researcher released software designed to let people test whether their calls on mobile phones can be eavesdropped on.

Raw performance figures for AMD's Fusion CPU have leaked online.

Apple's fans are so devoted that they have been called a "cult." A pair of researchers at Texas A&M have gone still further. The professors, Heidi A. Campbell and Antonio C. La Pastina have written a paper that says the sheer adoration and lack of fault-finding by Apple fans isn't a cult, but a religion. The iPhone, after all, has been nicknamed the "Jesus Phone," and long before the researchers used that term in their own paper. According to the researchers, it's this devotion to the church of Apple that

It's no secret that a sinking market share doesn't help revenue. Fittingly, not long after seeing Mercury Research's graphics market data, we noticed that Nvidia has issued a "business update" for its second-quarter results. The message? Q2 revenue will be lower than expected. Instead of the previously predicted $950-970...

Intel has been talking about using optical interfaces in computing for years. So much so, that silicon photonics sessions at IDF became a regular stop on our coverage tour each year. The demos were always showcasing something too far out in the development cycle to get immediately excited about however. The first time we met Intel’s hybrid laser in silicon was 2006, and even then we were told that it’d be years before we’d see it productized.

Four years later, and we’re seeing Intel make good on its promises of delivering the technology necessary to put together real products.

Most of us here behind the scenes roll through the Web with Firefox or Chrome, but for those of you still clinging to Microsoft's Internet Explorer, you'll have a new browser to play with in September. That's when the Redmond software juggernaut will push out the first fully fledged beta (as opposed to that highly limited Preview release floating around) of its next-gen browser, Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner said during a financial keynote. We have little reason to doubt Turner's time frame

Capcom has reported a staggering drop in profits compared to the first quarter of last year.

To commemorate the July 4th Idependance Day holiday, in conjunction with our good friends at CyberPower, Intel, Kingston, and CoolerMaster, we're giving away yet another full, quad-core powered system! This time around, you could win a full Intel Core i7-875K-based system, complete with a GeForce GTS 250 1GB graphics card, an Intel SSD and 4GB of Kingston RAM! The complete parts list and breakdown is listed below! As we've done with previous sweepstakes, we’ll be giving away this rig away to a randomly

Google has courted controversy by investing in a web monitoring service - along with the CIA.

AMD's subsidiary, ATI, has beaten rival Nvidia to become the dominant force in discrete graphics.

With Sony leading the 3D push in the home, you shouldn't be surprised that Sony already has a couple of 3D HDTV models headed to market. But when a market leader like Sony makes a move, it only takes a small amount of time for the "other guys" to catch up and do likewise. That's exactly what has happened here, with Toshiba adding some much needed competition to the 3D HDTV market. Currently, these sets are all rather expensive and few size/model options exist. We still aren't convinced that 3D has a place in

Live the life of a Formula One driver, tweaking your car, competing with your teammate, and going for the podium in this final developer diary.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Ultima creator wins out against former employer for breach of contract and fraud.

Just a few months after returning to Earth following a 12-day, US$30 million trip to the International Space Station, famed video game entrepreneur Richard Garriott, a.k.a Lord British, announced he'd be leaving Korean publisher NCsoft after seven years with the company in order to pursue other interests.

Lord British has plenty to smile about.

Six months later, Garriott revealed he was actually fired from NCsoft, and subsequently filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court of Texas against the company for breach of contract and fraud amounting to US$24 million in damages.

Garriott's complaint was that he lost millions of dollars when NCsoft forced him to prematurely sell a number of stock options the company had given him in just 90 days, rather than the 10-year period he was promised under his contract if he were ever to be fired.

The suit also claimed that Garriott received this information while still in post-flight quarantine after having returned from the International Space Station, and that the announcement he made regarding his departure from NCsoft was actually written by the publisher.

Now, Austin daily newspaper the Statesman is reporting that a federal court jury has awarded Garriott US$28 million in the lawsuit after a three-day trial in the US District Court in Austin.

"I am extremely pleased with the jury's decision," Garriott said in a statement. "The facts were clear that my departure from NCsoft was not voluntary. I am very pleased with the final award."

A lawyer representing NCsoft, Laura Merritt, said the Korean publisher will be "considering all options for next steps in the legal process."

Although the initial lawsuit was for US$24 million, the Statesman is reporting that Garriott had asked for US$47 million in order to cover the profit lost by selling his stock options so quickly.

Garriott began working for NCsoft after the publisher bought his Austin-based company, Destination Games. While there, he headed up the six-year development effort for the sci-fi massively multiplayer online role-playing game Tabula Rasa, which launched in late 2007 to lukewarm reviews and technical problems.

Two weeks after Garriott's departure from NCsoft, the publisher shut down Tabula Rasa servers.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

The latest 2.5” hard drive generation ships with SAS 6Gb/s and delivers up to 600 GB of storage space, narrowing the gap with much larger 3.5" disks. Today we're comparing the latest 2.5" drives from Seagate and Toshiba to see if they're faster, too.



Seagate Technology - Hard disk drive - Toshiba - Hardware - Storage

TSMC Reports Record Revenues for Q2 2010

Eight is Enough DigiTimes reports Intel to announce next-generation desktop platform at CES 2011 X-bit labs: AMD readies new 6-core microprocessor for back-to-school season and source denies excessive power consumption of the first AMD Fusion processors MacRumors reports new 27" iMac disassembled, aftermarket SSD install deemed difficult CNBC...

26 new shots posted.

Get the full article at GameSpot

New video preview from the developers of Battle of the Immortals!

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Intel to Start Shipments of New Core-Logic Sets to Mainboard Makers in October

MX Password Breaker is a unique application that can attempt to brute force into any password protected application by simulating keyboard typing. It allows customizable character lists of small/capital alphabets, digits, symbols and space. Character repition can be toggled ON/OFF. The evaluation version can only break password of upto 4 digits. Please be noted, that MX Password Breaker can neither reveal the password nor can it determine when the correct password has been entered. It merely tries all possible combination. As such you should stop the process when the correct password has been entered. In the Password Entry & Retry boxes type in the key strokes needed to submit the password and to re-open the password entry text box respectively. These steps (one in each line) can be either a Press command or a Wait command. Follow the Press command with the key that is to be pressed and the wait command with the number of milliseconds to wait.

ZC Dream Photo Editor is a digital photo collage utility that can combine your favorite photos into an artistic compilation. With ZC Dream Photo Editor, you can quickly and easily make beautiful photo collages complete with resources such as layouts, templates, photo frames, special mask effects, rich cliparts and word arts. You can also use filter to modify your photos to make them more beautiful.

Gladinet CloudAFS provides a new approach to data storage management. It attaches cloud storage to existing file servers and intelligently manages data transfer between the two tiers (local-cloud). Admin can mount cloud storage in CloudAFS and publish folder to share from cloud storage. The share can be accessed natively with CIFS/NFS protocol in Windows, Mac and Linux, or with Gladinet Cloud Desktop. Full integration is provided for EMC Atmos Storage, Windows Azure Blob Storage, Amazon S3, AT&T Synaptic Storage, Nirvanix, Mezeo, and Google Storage. CloudAFS manages the transfer between your local disk (tier 1) and cloud (tier 2), to provide fast access to cloud files and better bandwidth usage to your cloud. CloudAFS supports backups, either based on folders or file types. It contains encryption and compression. CloudAFS enables organizations to migrate gradually from their existing infrastructure to the cloud or to use the cloud as a cost effective extension of their on-site storage. Its capabilities make storage capacity virtually limitless, without the constraints or expense of a physical IT infrastructure.

MediaEspresso 6. Renamed from MediaShow Espresso, the latest version converts any video, photo and music files to a broad range of devices including smart phones such as Apple iPhones and Google Android phones; media players such as iPods and iPads; and game consoles such as Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. MediaEspresso 6 also features TrueTheater Technology that enhances video quality as it converts.

Nintendo Preps to Unveil Launch Information for 3DS

Long-video makers can rejoice, as YouTube has extended the allotted time of user uploads from 10 to 15 minutes.

Nvidia Continues to Lead the Desktop Graphics Market in Terms of Volume

KDE SC 4.5 is about to be released and KDE SC 4.6 is being discussed. However, Martin Graesslin has revealed some details about what they are planning for KDE 4.7. According to Martin's blog post, they are looking at OpenGL 3.0 to provide the compositing effects in KDE SC 4.7. OpenGL 3.0 provides support for frame buffer objects, hardware instancing, vertex array objects, and sRGB framebuffers. Read more here

Personal details of 100m Facebook users have been harvested and published on the net by a security consultant. The list, which has been shared as a downloadable file, contains the URL of every searchable Facebook user's profile, their name and unique ID. BBC News

BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion has distributed invites to an exclusive media event in New York, where it's expected to show off the first device to run the brand new BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry 6. CIO.com offers predictions for how the event will unfold.

The GNOME foundation and the LiMo group announced a partnership to help push Linux forward in the consumer field. The only notice that anyone has seem to have taken is mockery. So why can someone announce some dedication to promoting open source software in the mobile space and generate no enthusiasm in the mobile space? Android.

A Russian group is doing check counterfeiting in the US using malware, botnets, virtual private networks and money mules recruited online.

There's an age-old battle between form and function. Some users will give up performance and features for a devices that looks cool, while for others the benchmarks are all that really matters. The ASUS U33Jc doesn't totally eschew function, with plenty of high-end features, but it does pay more than lip service to aesthetics by placing bamboo surfaces on the top panel and palm rest. The result is a unique look with an organic vibe that is sure to turn a few heads.

security issues in critical infrastructure affecting every single person gives great cause for alarm, an expert said at the Black Hat conference here on Wednesday.

Take the fastest desktop microprocessor in the world, lock its multiplier, shave off 133MHz and drop its price by $100. That's basically what you get with the Core i7 970. Despite the name this is the second 6-core 32nm Gulftown processor from Intel. 

If you're tempted by the 980X but wanted something slightly more affordable, read on to get introduced to the new Core i7 970.

Do you carry around large amounts of data? Do you need to transfer it between devices in a hurry? We're examining five new USB 3.0-based portable storage solutions that might fit your needs. This time around, the focus is on maximizing portability.



Universal Serial Bus - Hardware - Storage - Data - hard drive

The last few years have seen a large number of digital content sources becoming easily accessible to end consumers. Digital content providers such as Netflix have recently been expanding their service to be compatibile with game consoles like the Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii, and an increasing number of Blu-ray players and televisions. WD has followed suit and now offers a flavor of their WD TV series that supports Netflix video streaming and also has one of the widest ranges of both online and local content compatibility that exists in the media streaming device market today.

In this review, we examine the WD TV Live Plus and put it to test using our recently developed media streamer / HTPC review methodology.

Intel arms its Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs with Turbo Boost. AMD's hexa-core Phenom II X6 chips sport Turbo CORE. Both technologies dynamically increase performance based on perceived workloads and available thermal headroom. Which one does the better job?



Intel Corporation - Intel Turbo Boost - Intel Core - Intel Core i7 - Advanced Micro Devices

The GeForce GTX 460 has already proven itself an excellent value as a single card, but can two of them offer superior performance at similar cost to Nvidia’s flagship GTX 480? Let's just say that there's a good reason to buy an SLI-compatible motherboard.



Nvidia - GeForce - Motherboard - Scalable Link Interface - Video card

Enermax added the 800W model, and will add the 900W model next week, to its Modu87+ series of 80 PLUS Gold power supply units.

Sharkoon expanded its Silent Eagle series with a new 140mm fan, Sharkoon Silent Eagle 800, that has golf-ball-textured blades. The company claims that it helps combine high performance with low noise level.

Microsoft announced that the all-new Xbox 360 4GB console, the Kinect sensor and Kinect Adventures packaged together will cost $299.99 (U.S. ERP).

Japanese Scythe started selling the new Chouriki 2 Power Supply series. These PSUs are 80 PLUS Silver certified and have efficiency over 90%. The series includes 650W, 750W, 850W and 1000W models. You can choose between modular and standard variants.

Type: Vulnerability. Microsoft Windows is prone to a vulnerability that may result in the automatic execution of a file.

Type: Vulnerability. Microsoft Access is prone to a remote code-execution vulnerability; fixes are available.

Type: Vulnerability. Microsoft Access is prone to a remote code-execution vulnerability; fixes are available.

Type: Vulnerability. Microsoft Outlook is prone to a remote code-execution vulnerability; fixes are available.

Spurred on by the EC findings and fine, US investigators now may issue their own complaint against Intel.

Directory Monitor allows you to monitor selected directories or network shares for file changes, modifications, deletions and new files that were added. The program can alert you with a balloon tip f....

The first bomb dropped. Here come the aftershocks.

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty returns players to the sci-fi world they've been pining for for more than a decade. It was worth the wait.

Gmail Backup is a simple software that allows you to backup and restore your Gmail account by downloading all your email messages and saving them to your local computer as standard .EML files. You ca....

The Asus U33Jc-A1 is an elegant bamboo-clad laptop that's eco-friendly, and durable, but is it worth the $100 premium over the U30Jc-A1?

Style Jukebox is a media player and music organizer that enables you to view and play all your music and video files from a full-screen interface. You can easily create a music library by dragging a....

The new series of chips are aimed at the cloud computing market and come with software support most new chips don't have.

The BlackBerry maker is betting on the Bold 9700 and Storm2 to reassert its leadership in smartphones.

Poor phishing protection. Antispam limited to Outlook and Outlook Express. Firewall displays innumerable popup queries about behavior of valid programs.

For the same price as a smartphone or multimedia tablet, the eMachines Mini-e ER1402-05 gives you a full-fledged PC computing experience.

System Silencer is a simple tool that can automatically perform a variety of actions whenever your computer has been idle for a user defined number of minutes. You have the options to mute the speake....