Updated:05:28 PM EDT Jul 24



NEWS
rss feed 
top 100
archive
submit news

REVIEWS
 
SOFTWARE
CD/DVD tools
Free Antivir
Security
Drivers
Utilities
 
FORUMS
comments
hardware
software
off-topic
 
LINKS
 
CONTACT
 

(C) 2006-2008 TechAmok
All Rights Reserved.

Make donations with PayPal - it's fast, free and secure!


Google feed

MSN feed

TOP STORIES

HEADLINES

Claudia Schiffer Played Sex Kitten For Vogue Magazine
Scarlett Johansson Reminds Us She's Hot
How Not To Use The Drive Through ATM (video)
Jennifer Ellison Topless In Nuts
Keeley Hazell Nude In Maximal
Tila Tequila Topless With A Snake
IT Guy Vs Dumb Employees (video)

IN-HOUSE


Super Talent 2GB MEGA Screen MP3/FM/Recorder Player


Razer Krait Gaming Mouse

Core 2 Duo E8600 coming on August 10
Triple-GPU Asus Graphics Card Tested
The X Files I Want to Believe - Together Spot
DirectX 11 Details Emerge
Amber Heard: Maxim-um Hotness
New Opel Insignia Drops in on London! (video)
Audrina Patridge Bikini Pictures
Improve the Battery Life on iPhone 3G
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 Tested
The Dark Knight - review (video)
College Official Green Band Trailer
Rossi Vs Stoner Laguna Seca 2008 Battle (video)
If your SSD sucks, blame Vista, says SSD vendor
ATi Catalyst Drivers v8.7
Intel cuts chip prices up to 31 percent
Smosh - *TRAILER* Food Battle 2008
Quake Live: Exclusive E3 2008 Debut Trailer
Claudia Schiffer Played Sex Kitten For Vogue Magazine

Core 2 Duo E8600 coming on August 10 - [hardware] Digg icon StumbleUpon icon del.icio.us icon Facebook icon
05:28 PM EDT - Jul,24 2008 - post a comment

Fudzilla reports that the Core 2 Duo E8600 will come out on August 10 with a $266 price tag. The CPU will run at 3.33GHz, or about 170MHz faster than the Core 2 Duo E8500 Intel recently pulled down from $266 to $183. Today, Newegg carries the E8500 for $194.99 with free three-day shipping. Fudzilla points out that this may be the last high-end Core 2 Duo, and recently leaked roadmaps would seem to corroborate that claim. Supposedly, Intel will replace the E8600 and other current-gen chips in the same price range with dual- and quad-core Nehalem derivatives in the third quarter of 2009.

Triple-GPU Asus Graphics Card Tested - [hardware] Digg icon StumbleUpon icon del.icio.us icon Facebook icon
05:16 PM EDT - Jul,24 2008 - post a comment

HotHardware got a chance to test and benchmark the EAH3850 Trinity, a trio of AMD ATI Radeon HD 3850 GPUs in CrossFireX mode for tri-GPU performance on a single card.  Their verdict? Performance isn't as high as it could be: going from a single Radeon HD 3850 to the three-way, single-slot device only raised Company of Heroes frame rates from 37 to 55 FPS at 1280x1024 with 4X antialiasing enabled. That's a 49% increase in performance from a 300% increase in GPU horsepower-not exactly jaw-dropping.
As many of you probably would ask, the answer is yes, it does play Crysis relatively well. However, in all honesty we expected better, more linear scaling overall. As a reference point, in our Company of Heroes testing, a single Radeon HD 3850 would score somewhere in the neighborhood of 37 FPS at 1280x1024 with 4X AA, whereas Trinity scores nearly 55 FPS. That's a 48% increase in speed but three times the GPU horsepower thrown at the task. In reality, this quick and dirty triple-GPU showcase from Asus probably suffers more from lack of driver optimization than anything else; that and probably a shortage of PCI Express bandwidth and latency over the on-board switch.

The X Files I Want to Believe - Together Spot - [briefly] Digg icon StumbleUpon icon del.icio.us icon Facebook icon
05:37 PM EDT - Jul,23 2008 - post a comment

Only a mystery this big could bring Mulder and Scully back together.

From Director Chris Carter, comes The X-Files: I Want to Believe - In Theaters Everywhere Friday.

DirectX 11 Details Emerge - [hardware] Digg icon StumbleUpon icon del.icio.us icon Facebook icon
02:51 AM EDT - Jul,23 2008 - (1 comments)

Microsoft released a handful of details about DirectX 11. Features include new shader technology that begins to allow developers to position GPUs as more general-purpose parallel processors, rather than being dedicated solely to graphics processing; better multi-threading capabilities; and hardware-based tesselation. The good news is that there will be no new hardware requirements, so DirectX 10 hardware should be DirectX 11 compatible.
Similar to DirectX 10, the software will be available only on Windows Vista and future versions of Microsoft's operating system. DirectX 11 will add new compute shader technology that Microsoft says will allow GPUs to be used "for more than just 3D graphics," allowing developers to utilize video cards as parallel processors.

DirectX 11 will support tessellation, a feature which can potentially assist developers in making models appear smoother when seen up close. Multi-threaded resource handling is also incorporated, making it easier for games to utilize multi-core processors in a user's machine.

Microsoft also disclosed that DirectX 11 will add features to existing DirectX 10-compatible hardware, though it was not immediately clear what those features may be.

A launch date for the new software was not provided, though Microsoft is expected to release more information in the near future. The bullet points, as provided by Microsoft, are listed below.

  • Full support (including all DX11 hardware features) on Windows Vista as well as future versions of Windows
  • Compatibility with DirectX 10 and 10.1 hardware, as well as support for new DirectX 11 hardware
  • New compute shader technology that lays the groundwork for the GPU to be used for more than just 3D graphics, so that developers can take advantage of the graphics card as a parallel processor
  • Multi-threaded resource handling that will allow games to better take advantage of multi-core machines
  • Support for tessellation, which blurs the line between super high quality pre-rendered scenes and scenes rendered in real-time, allowing game developers to refine models to be smoother and more attractive when seen up close

Amber Heard: Maxim-um Hotness - [briefly] Digg icon StumbleUpon icon del.icio.us icon Facebook icon
07:20 PM EDT - Jul,22 2008 - post a comment

Amber Heard is a 22 year old actress that you have probably never heard of, although she's been around and has secured a fair number of smaller Hollywood roles. However, Amber can be found in the latest issue of Maxim magazine - which you are probably quite familiar with :P

New Opel Insignia Drops in on London! (video) - [briefly] Digg icon StumbleUpon icon del.icio.us icon Facebook icon
07:03 PM EDT - Jul,22 2008 - post a comment

The New Opel Inisgnia, which debuts at the 2008 British Motor Show was showcased in London on Monday (21st July). This new modern, stylish family car, seen as the Vectra successor, was dropped from the skies as more than 300 people watched on from below. Hatchback and notchback versions will be available with a choice of seven engines, each meeting high standards in emissions, safety and technology.

Audrina Patridge Bikini Pictures - [off-topic] Digg icon StumbleUpon icon del.icio.us icon Facebook icon
06:57 PM EDT - Jul,22 2008 - (1 comments)

Okay, so I'm crushing hard on Audrina Patridge right now. Even with the fake boobs (which I'm usually againt), these Audrina Patridge bikini pictures are really, really hot!

Improve the Battery Life on iPhone 3G - [mobile] Digg icon StumbleUpon icon del.icio.us icon Facebook icon
06:48 PM EDT - Jul,22 2008 - post a comment

Gary from iPhoneInCanada.ca was a little miffed with the battery performance on his iPhone 3G -- down to 20% after some "light surfing and barely any talking" -- so he set out to see what he could do about it. One of the major things you can do to save battery life is to turn off the 3G when you don't need it. This almost eliminates the appeal of the iPhone 3G, but you can always activate it again if you want it. Other tips include turning off the auto-brightness, turning off location services, turning off Wi-Fi, turn off Bluetooth, and severely limit your use of GPS. Alternatively, you can get a massive USB extension cable for continuous charging.
How to Increase Your iPhone 3G Battery Life - the Extreme Edition

- Turn on 3G only when you need it. I found that having 3G turned OFF saved battery life (duh!). Using EDGE actually isn't that painful–just think of it as a mildly disfunctional WiFi hotspot!
- Turn off Location Services.
- Turn off Auto-Brightness. Manually move the slider to 25% or 33% brightness.
- Turn off WiFi until you need a hotspot. The iPhone's WiFi will automatically try connecting to SSIDs it detects.
- Turn off Push. Change your Fetch schedule to Manually.
- Set Auto-Lock to 1 minute.
- Turn off Bluetooth.
- Limit GPS use unless you really need it.
- Do a monthly battery calibration. According to the Apple website, you should be doing this periodically. Give your iPhone a full charge, then let the battery run out. Recharge.
- Usually with lithium-ion batteries this is not necessary as they maintain no "memory effect"...but it's worth a shot.
- Only use the iPhone 3G connected to an outlet. Find a 100ft extension cable and attach it to your USB cable. Attach USB cable to iPhone 3G. Let extension cable follow you around the house, knocking furniture, pets, and children over. Ignore wife/girlfriend's complaints because–email, Twitter, and the iPhoneinCanada.ca forums call for your attention.
- The bottom line is Apple needs to desperately release an update for 2.0 firmware. When previous updates were made, such as jumping from 1.0.2 to 1.1.1, battery life increased. Let's hope a new firmware will help increase battery life by a bit.

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 Tested - [hardware] Digg icon StumbleUpon icon del.icio.us icon Facebook icon
06:33 PM EDT - Jul,22 2008 - post a comment

OCC has published a new review on the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300. As the lowest speed rated 45nm Quad core Yorkfield processor, the Q9300 has some big shoes to fill. It features a 1333MHz bus speed running with a 7.5 clock multiplier to give a final clock speed of 2.5GHz, just slightly higher than the 65nm Q6600 and 166MHz slower than the Q9450. What it does not share with the rest of the family is the 3MB of L2 cache per core of the Q9450 up to the QX9770. It only has 1.5MB of L2 cache per core for a total of 6MB versus 12MB or even the 8MB on the Q6600.
As a comparison to the existing quad core Intel CPUs, there really is not much of a comparison. The Q9300 just barely performs better than the Q6600 in the comparison field of processors. In many ways, it is handicapped by the lower amount of L2 cache it is equipped with. The clock speed does not in all instances make up for this lack of cache. Don't get me wrong here, in many of the benchmarks the Q9300 was competitive, it just did not have enough to get it to that next level of performance. The processor would do all that it was required to do and did so without any stutters or lag. So the actual "feel" of the chip in operation was really no different than the Q6600 or Q9450. This is where the majority of users will have their experience with this chip. But is this feel worth about $85 dollars more than the bargain Q6600 at $184? Probably not. In the system based tests, the Q9300 performed better than the Q6600 in only 13 out of 35 tests, performed worse in 10 and performed equally in 12. Not really much of an improvement. The Q9450 and Q9770 each out performed it, so there was no real performance comparison there. In the gaming tests, the Q9300 lost slightly more than it won when compared directly with the Q6600 and Phenom. It outperformed them in 11 tests, lost 16 and equaled the performance in five. Not exactly stellar, but not a total loss either. This was most likely due to the higher bus speed on the CPU as well as the clock speed.

When overclocking the Q9300, I was stoked when it went to 450 x 7.5 FSB on stock volts (1.215). My excitement was short lived though, as I could only manage to reach 456 x 7.5 (3420MHz), the lowest overclock I have achieved on any of the quad core CPUs I have tested. Dropping the clock multiplier, increasing the volts, tweaking skew levels, nothing would get it stable any higher. However, at this point 1.31 volts were required for Prime 95 stability. The level of voltage required for the maximum overclock brought a little of the excitement back. Just like its faster brothers, this chip gets hot when the voltage is pushed. After three mounts with the CPU heatsink, temperatures at the 1.31 volt mark were in the low 60s Celsius. This could very well be just a warped heatspreader that needs some attention. If you want a 45nm quad core CPU but the price of the Q9450 and Q9550 are just out of reach, then this would be a good option to go with. Performance junkies might want to give this one a pass as 500+ FSB speeds will be needed to get to the promised land due to the low clock multiplier. If a 45nm quad is not a requirement, then the Q6600 is still a better value for your money.

The Dark Knight - review (video) - [briefly] Digg icon StumbleUpon icon del.icio.us icon Facebook icon
05:49 PM EDT - Jul,22 2008 - (2 comments)

This is a fantastic movie!

College Official Green Band Trailer - [briefly] Digg icon StumbleUpon icon del.icio.us icon Facebook icon
05:46 PM EDT - Jul,22 2008 - post a comment

A new outrageous comedy, COLLEGE is the story of three high school seniors (Drake Bell, Andrew Caldwell and Kevin Covais) who visit a local college campus as prospective freshman anticipating the best weekend of their lives. Once there, the rowdiest fraternity on campus (featuring Nick Zano, Gary Owen and Zach Cregger) decides to recruit the boys as pledges, subjecting them to endless humiliations, in return for granting them access to the no-holds-barred college party scene. But once the boys catch the eye of some of the older sorority girls (Haley Bennett, Camille Mana and Natalie Walker), the threatened Frat-boys increase the pre-frosh humiliation and blackmail them by threatening to expose their age. The boys decide to fight back, retaliating with a major revenge scheme that lands them on top. What began as the weekend-from-hell turns into the BEST. WEEKEND. EVER.

Rossi Vs Stoner Laguna Seca 2008 Battle (video) - [briefly] Digg icon StumbleUpon icon del.icio.us icon Facebook icon
05:39 PM EDT - Jul,22 2008 - post a comment

Rossi stops Stoner for first Laguna Seca victory. World Championship leader Valentino Rossi put an end to Casey Stoner's victory run with a win at the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix.

If your SSD sucks, blame Vista, says SSD vendor - [hardware] Digg icon StumbleUpon icon del.icio.us icon Facebook icon
05:18 PM EDT - Jul,22 2008 - post a comment

It's Windows Vista's fault that solid-state storage isn't performing as well as its proponents predicted. So said SanDisk CEO Eli Harari, but at least he didn't go as far as saying it's Microsoft's problem to fix. SSDs are viewed as the heir apparent to the hard disk, particularly for laptops and other mobile computers. SSDs are way more shock-resistant and consume less power. Theoretically, they should deliver better performance. SSD "performance in the Vista environment falls short of what the market really needs", admitted Harari at the company's earnings conference this week. Why not? According to Harari, it's because "Vista is not optimised for Flash memory solid-state disks". The problem surely stems from Windows' use of hard disk space for memory caching, something all modern and not-so-modern operating systems do. So it's not like the SSD manufacturers didn't have any warning this could be an issue. Small, Cheap Computer will continue to benefit from Flash storage, Harari said, because they have "relatively unsophisticated and demanding requirements" - they're either running very basic Linux apps or, when they come with Windows XP, have virtual memory disabled.

ATi Catalyst Drivers v8.7 - [software] Digg icon StumbleUpon icon del.icio.us icon Facebook icon
05:28 PM EDT - Jul,21 2008 - post a comment

If you own an ATi video card, head on over to the AMD / ATi website and download the new Catalyst 8.7 drivers for 32-bit/64-bit Windows Vista and Windows XP. There are a host of fixes and improvements as well as a new CCC enhancement that allows full hardware information for each physical graphics accelerator installed in the system. Those who install the new drivers can also look forward to resolved problems in Assassin's Creed, Crysis, Frontlines: Fuel of War, Hellgate London, Rainbow Six Vegas 2, World In Conflict, and World of Warcraft. Oh, and AMD mentions that the Catalyst 8.7 drivers bring a "Full Hardware information" section to the Catalyst Control Center.

On the Linux front, the Catalyst 8.7 release fixes a few bugs and adds support for Ubuntu 8.04, SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 SP2, and openSUSE 11. You can get the 8.7 Linux Catalysts over here for 32-bit systems and on this page for 64-bit Linux variants. AMD links detailed release notes on both driver download pages.

Intel cuts chip prices up to 31 percent - [hardware] Digg icon StumbleUpon icon del.icio.us icon Facebook icon
11:31 AM EDT - Jul,21 2008 - post a comment

Intel has cut processor prices up to 31 percent, though overall cuts are limited in number and degree. The quad-core Q6600 was cut from $224 to $193. The desktop Core 2 Duo E8500 (3.16GHz) got the largest cut, from $266 to $183 (31 percent) on the new pricing list, dated July 20. The next biggest price reduction was the desktop Core 2 Duo E7200 (2.53GHz), reduced 15 percent, from $133 to $113. Other price cuts include the popular quad-core Q6600 (2.4GHz). It drops 14 percent, from $224 to $193. The desktop Core 2 Duo E8400 (3.00GHz) falls 11 percent, from $183 to $163. Xeon server processors also saw price cuts. The X3220 (2.40GHz) was cut 12 percent, from $224 to $198. The X3210 (2.13GHz) saw an identical cut, while the E3110 (3.00GHz) was reduced 11 percent, from $188 to $167.  The pricing for QX "Extreme" processors, such as the QX9775 (3.2GHz, $1,499), remains unchanged from the pricing list published on July 15, when the Centrino 2 mobile processors were introduced.

Smosh - *TRAILER* Food Battle 2008 - [briefly] Digg icon StumbleUpon icon del.icio.us icon Facebook icon
11:30 AM EDT - Jul,21 2008 - post a comment

A trailer for Food Battle 2008, coming July 26th to Smosh.com and YouTube!

Quake Live: Exclusive E3 2008 Debut Trailer - [gaming] Digg icon StumbleUpon icon del.icio.us icon Facebook icon
04:04 AM EDT - Jul,19 2008 - post a comment

The world exclusive first look debut trailer of Quake Live from E3 2008.

Claudia Schiffer Played Sex Kitten For Vogue Magazine - [off-topic] Digg icon StumbleUpon icon del.icio.us icon Facebook icon
03:58 AM EDT - Jul,19 2008 - post a comment

Claudia Schiffer, who was dominated the catwalk during the 1990s, proved that she was still worthy of supermodel status. The 37-year-old supermodel has stripped off in her provocative cover shoot for the German edition of Vogue magazine.

NEXT PAGE

Short overview of recent news articles

Jul,19 2008 Izabel Goulart Does Arena Magazine
Jul,18 2008 Watchmen Trailer
Jul,18 2008 Not Gonna Win the Boxing Gold Medal (video)
Jul,18 2008 Apple becomes third-biggest U.S. PC vendor
Jul,18 2008 Time for Some Campaignin' (video)
Jul,18 2008 Ubisoft Pirates No-CD Crack?
Jul,16 2008 Terminator 4: Salvation Teaser Trailer 2009
Jul,16 2008 Gisele Bundchen Topless In V Magazine
Jul,16 2008 Eva Green is Sexy in Black
Jul,16 2008 Apple iPhone 3G unlocked
Jul,16 2008 ATI RADEON HD 4870 X2 (R700) 2x1024MB Preview
Jul,16 2008 Dell releases multi-touch software for Latitude XT
Jul,16 2008 60X Faster Internet?
Jul,16 2008 Guy Shoots Himself in Hand at Range (video)
Jul,15 2008 Intel Centrino 2 Platform Launches - New CPUs and Hybrid Graphics
Jul,15 2008 How To Beat The Claw Game (video)
Jul,14 2008 Miss Universe 2008: Miss USA Falls Again! (video)
Jul,14 2008 Intel X58 Chipset to Support SLI and CrossFire
Jul,14 2008 Fallout 3 E3 Trailer (gameplay)
Jul,14 2008 MS Announces 60GB Xbox 360, Price Cut on 20GB
Jul,13 2008 Kelly Brook in Black Boots
Jul,13 2008 Scarlett Johansson Reminds Us She's Hot
Jul,13 2008 Happy Tree Friends - The Way You Make Me Wheel
Jul,13 2008 Samsung SyncMaster 245T 24inch LCD Tested
Jul,13 2008 IBM's Power7 Chip has 8 Cores, 4.0GHz Speed
>> News Archive <<

TechAmok - Privacy Policy        loading time:0.02secs