News

Said By CNET News

Nikko\'s nerdtacular Star Wars R2-D2 gear

...The R2-D2 DVD Projector is a 480p home-theater projector that looks just like the beloved robot. The 20-inch-tall projector features built-in speakers, an iPod dock, a memory card slot, and even an FM transmitter to broadcast audio around the house. Best of all, the projector moves just like R2-D2. Using a Millenium Falcon-shaped remote control, the projector can be piloted around the home with its three-wheeled legs. Built-in safety sensors help prevent the droid from taking spills or bumping into objects. Most importantly, it sounds just like R2-D2, with 11 different beeps, boops, and whistles randomly playing when it's in motion....

...The R2-D2 Wireless Web Camera is a similar geek-worthy marvel. The tiny Webcam is just over half a foot tall and communicates wirelessly with its computer. The wireless aspect is important, because the R2-D2 Webcam can roll around just like its big brother. Since it's networked, you can actually log in to the Webcam while you're out and pilot it around your house, using R2-D2 as your own personal spy-droid. Like the projector, the Webcam has built-in sensors to help prevent crashes and falls...

Said By Gamespot

Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) senior vice president of marketing Peter Dille took to a side stage inside the booth to announce that the company had shipped 1 million PlayStation 3 units into the North American retail channel by the end of December.

Said By CNet News

Office 2008 for Mac, as the product is being dubbed, is a universal binary, the company said Tuesday. That means the software runs both on Macs with Intel chips and on those with PowerPC chips. In addition, it is compatible with the new XML file formats used by Office 2007 for Windows, which hits retail shelves this month.

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"Jobs called the phone a widescreen iPod, Internet communicator and mobile phone in one. The phone is thinner than a Motorola Q and features no physical buttons. Instead, it employs a revolutionary touch-screen interface that intelligently changes depending upon what a user selects. The Apple leader indicated that the company set out to develop a smart phone that would make today's current smart phones look dumb."

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"LG offers flexibility to consumers in the next-generation in optical disc drives. The GGW-H10N is compatible with both Blu-ray Discs and HD-DVD formats. The Super Multi Blue drive is compatible with Blu-ray Disc, DVD, CD read/write and HD-DVD-ROM (read), offering consumers the most universal unit available. The GGW-H10N can record up to 50GB of data, equivalent to 4-1/2 hours of high- definition video or 22 hours or standard definition video (on a dual layer 50GB BD-R/BD-RE recordable media). Surpassing the market standard, LG is providing a 4x recording speed of Blu-ray Discs, which means that it takes only 23-24 minutes to burn a full single layer BD-R disc (25GB), compared with 46-47 minutes for conventional 2x recording."

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Engineering one-upsmanship aside, combo DVD players will likely be costly, at least initially. Standard Blu-ray players cost $600 or more, and HD DVD players go for $400 or more. The lasers used in Blu-ray players also remain in tight supply. That limitation played a role in Sony's PlayStation 3 shortage as the game consoles--which contain a Blu-ray player--went on sale late last year. A combo player would have duplicative or more specialized parts and thus cost even more. Another factor adding cost is royalties. Manufacturers that build combo players have to pay fees to both the Blu-ray and HD DVD organizations. Although LG has said it will ship its combo player in the first quarter, it won't reveal the price until Sunday, a spokesman said.

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Most of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act deals with mundane changes. But the legislation also explicitly reinforces protections of first-class mail from searches without a court's approval. Yet, in his statement, Bush said he will "construe" an exception, "which provides for opening of an item of a class of mail otherwise sealed against inspection in a manner consistent ... with the need to conduct searches in exigent circumstances."

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The SFLC explains in its brief that its unlikely championing of Microsoft's cause in this case is because the "SFLC has an interest in this matter because the decision of this Court will have a significant effect on the rights of the Free and Open Source Software developers and users." In its brief, SFLC argues that software copied and distributed outside the U.S. cannot infringe U.S. patents. The brief also argues that the Federal Circuit's decisions declaring software to be patentable subject matter conflict with Supreme Court precedent, and thus should be overruled.

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The flash drive isn't for everyone. At 32GB, it is far smaller than the conventional drives found in current notebooks, desktops or even MP3 players. Many business users, however, never max out the capacity on their drives. The drive will also add about $600 to the cost of a notebook. Those prices will crimp sales, Handy said. "There are certain applications where it can be used, but I just don't see it for business where the most violent thing they (users) will encounter is a cab ride in New York," said Handy.

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The company developed the technology in response to new tactics used by spammers. Specifically, spammers have been inserting links into e-mails instead embedding the spam message in the e-mail. As a result, traditional spam filters that scan the content of e-mail messages can't filter the unwanted messages. Cisco is the world's leader in networking equipment that shuttles Internet Protocol communications traffic around a corporate environment. Through several acquisitions, the company has also built a strong security portfolio. The IronPort acquisition is significant for Cisco mainly because it expands Cisco's security expertise beyond the network and allows it to offer products that also filter actual communications. This is especially important as new security threats emerge from a growing volume of spam.

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Thirty-one percent of respondents reported that their supervisor gave them the "silent treatment" in the past year.
Thirty-seven percent reported that their supervisor failed to give credit when due.
Thirty-nine percent noted that their supervisor failed to keep promises.
Twenty-seven percent noted that their supervisor made negative comments about them to other employees or managers.
Twenty-four percent reported that their supervisor invaded their privacy.
Twenty-three percent indicated that their supervisor blames others to cover up mistakes or to minimize embarrassment.

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Some of the applications that still aren't compatible with Vista include IBM Corp.'s Lotus Notes e-mail and collaboration suite; Cisco Systems Inc.'s and Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.'s VPN clients; Intuit Corp.'s accounting software QuickBooks 2006 and earlier versions; and anti-virus (AV) software from Trend Micro Inc. Intuit even took time in mid-December to warn QuickBooks users in a note that they should hold off on upgrading to Vista until after the U.S. tax season ends in April, citing compatibility with older versions of its software and "potential reliability issues" with Vista. IBM said Lotus Notes will support Vista by mid-2007; Lotus Notes 8, the next version of the suite, also will be available at that time on Vista. Cisco's VPN will support Vista some time in the first quarter of 2007. QuickBooks, Check Point's VPN client and Symantec and Trend Micro's AV software will support Vista following the consumer release. However, in some good news for users, McAfee Inc. already has Vista AV software on the market.

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Xen 3.0.4 changes this. By including what's called a virtual frame buffer, Xen's controlling "host" operating system can capture video data written to a specific part of memory and then send it to the display. The technology lets users see virtual machines through a graphical interface, a feat competitors such as EMC's VMware can already accomplish, rather than the text-based command line suitable chiefly for the technically proficient.

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Theoretical physicists predicted years ago that some nuclei of elements much more massive than uranium should survive for a relatively long time-possibly long enough to probe their chemical properties-if they could be synthesized. On the chart of nuclides, theoreticians pinpointed a region with coordinates corresponding to 114 protons and 184 neutrons and indicated that nuclei with those "magic" numbers of subatomic particles should lie at the center of an island of stability. The nuclear longevity, according to the models, is due to the closing of proton and neutron shells, which renders the particles stable against spontaneous fission much the same way that a filled outer electron shell endows noble gases with chemical inertness. Experimentalists, though, haven't yet found a route to reach the center of the island.

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The new system will use more high-speed driving, partly in 20-degree cold. Air conditioning will be on some portion of each driving cycle, and there will be more stop-and-go and rapid-acceleration driving. The mileage for gas-electric hybrids probably will be 20% to 30% lower than present estimates for city driving and 10% to 20% lower on the highway. These vehicles quickly lose their all-electric advantage when operated in cold weather or quickly accelerated, Wehrum said.

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We are talking pond scum, or algae, a plant that for decades has been prized as a possible commodity crop based on its unparalleled ability to photosynthesize solar energy into plant biomass for food. Unlike most plants, algae shares characteristics of bacteria, and its photosynthetic machinery operates much faster in converting inorganic substances into organic matter. And while plants require a lot of fuel to sow and harvest and additional fertilizer and fresh water to nourish, algae can be continuously harvested from closed water-based bioreactors that require little additional replenishment other than inorganic fuel supplied in the form of waste gas.

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That promise turned out to be untrue, according to a report published Friday by DHS' privacy office. The commercial data "made its way directly to TSA, contrary to the express statements in the fall privacy notices about the Secure Flight program," the report says. The report, and a second one critiquing a government database called Matrix, was released on the last business day before Christmas, a tactic that federal agencies and publicly traded companies sometimes use to avoid drawing attention to critical findings. Neither report appears on the DHS.gov or TSA.gov home pages, or even on the home page of the DHS privacy office, but rather was linked to from a subpage on the DHS privacy site.

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During the past decade, the government has spent 500 million pounds ($1 billion) on spy cameras and now has one for every 14 citizens, according to a September report prepared for Information Commissioner Richard Thomas by the Surveillance Studies Network, a panel of U.K. academics. Who's In Charge? At a single road junction in the London borough of Hammersmith, there are 29 cameras run by police, government, private companies and transport agencies. Police officers are even trying out video cameras mounted on their heads. "We've got to stand back and see where technology is taking us,'' said Thomas, whose job is to protect people's privacy. "Humans must dictate our future, not machines.''

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Space shuttle Discovery and its seven-member crew landed safely on Friday at Florida's Kennedy Space Center after worries about weather had scotched an earlier landing time. The landing concluded a successful 13-day mission to continue construction of the International Space Station (ISS) in four space walks, including one added at the last moment to fix a stuck solar array.

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Microsoft also said reimbursement checks for repairs done in the last 12 months will be sent out automatically in about 10 weeks. Contact information for warranty questions is available on the Xbox support site. Microsoft has been the target of an online petition--with 3,382 signatures as of Friday--calling for a retroactive warranty extension to one year. The petition claims that Xbox 360 systems frequently failed after the original 90-day warranty and that customers were unreasonably required to pay between $50 and $129 for repairs.

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U.S. District Judge Sam Lindsay in the northern district of Texas granted a preliminary injunction against Robert Davis, who operated supercrosslive.com and had been providing direct links to the live audiocasts of motorcycle racing events. Lindsay ruled last week that "the link Davis provides on his Web site is not a 'fair use' of copyright material" and ordered him to cease linking directly to streaming audio files.

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The settlement agreement was announced Thursday by the state of Massachusetts, the lead plaintiff in the case. In addition to the $4.25 million, Sony BMG will also pay up to $175 apiece to consumers whose computers were damaged by the software. "We're pleased to reach these agreements," Sony BMG said in a statement. The announcement comes just after the music label announced similar deals with Texas and California. With the settlements, Sony BMG, jointly operated by Sony and Bertelsmann Music Group, has taken a major step in resolving a controversy that caused a public uproar last year.

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Casual games refers to a category of software-based entertainment that includes word and puzzle games, board games, and even some classic arcade titles. While not new, the casual-games industry is enjoying a renaissance driven by advertising dollars and the use of mobile devices. Because casual games tend to be small and have minimal processing needs, they're ideal for cell phones.

"Casual games hit the sweet spot in mobile gaming," said Seamus McAteer, a senior analyst for M:Metrics. "And Glu Mobile has succeeded in building its share in the market based on a strong portfolio of titles and some savvy acquisitions."

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Likely so, but the deal with California and Texas won't be the end of the "rootkit" fiasco for the music giant. Sony still has to contend with a consortium of 13 states, including Massachusetts, Nebraska and Florida, that are expected to look for a similar deal, according to Jeff McGrath, deputy district attorney for Los Angeles County, which took part in California's case against Sony. In addition, McGrath said an investigation launched earlier this year by the Federal Trade Commission looms. A spokesperson for the FTC declined to comment.

The uproar over Sony's DRM started in October 2005 when a computer programmer discovered that one of the company's CDs was restricting his computer's ability to copy music. He had installed Sony software that enabled him to listen to a CD on his computer, but without his knowledge, the disc also installed a DRM program that would limit the number of copies he made of the CD and barred him from creating unprotected MP3s. The DRM also provided a place where malicious software could hideout and operate undetected. The feature is known as a rootkit.

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When Wii users download Opera, it will activate the "Internet Channel" on the Wii and allow them to use the game console to browse the Internet on their television. Opera via a comic strip, and Nintendo via a statement, announced that the final version of Opera for Wii will be available in March 2007. That final version, according to Nintendo, will also be free March through June, after which it will cost 500 Wii points (roughly $5) through the Wii Shop Channel. In addition to its PC and OS version, Opera is already available for portable devices via Opera Mobile for smart phones and Opera Mini for cell phones.

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Steel has finally released more headsets specifically made for gamers. The 4H and the 3H both target different aspects of the market, but are they worth your well earned dollar? Read on...

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Fedora Core 6 is one of the first Linux distributions that works almost out-of-the-box with the ASRock 775Dual-VSTA, so with that said we are back here today looking at the performance of this budget Intel motherboard.

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Well Noctua is at it again with a different cooler. This time however it is for your north bridge and not your processor. The NC-U6 looks like a miniature version of the NH-U12F CPU cooler. Sporting a high towering structure, the NC-U6 is bound to take the heat off your chipset. Consisting of twenty-nine aluminum fins and two copper heat pipes will look good doing it. This in turn will aid in a few more megahertz on that new CPU.

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Antec is one of the most trusted names in computer hardware. It produces tens of award-winning products across a multitude of lines including power supplies, cooling devices, and cases, as well as noise-dampening products and even a short-lived line of CardBus scanners. This is a review of Antec's NSK1300 MicroATX Cube case, one of Antec's newest offerings in its line of cases suitable for small spaces and home theater PCs.

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Quote: Tis' the season to upgrade and what better way to take part in the festive spirit than to buy a pair of memory sticks decked out in army camouflage that will most likely be used by someone to go on a massive killing spree in Quake 4. Nothing says Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah like a no-scope head shot from across the map while in mid-air.

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At some point cell phone designers will stop screwing around with the keypad layout. To help differentiate its otherwise slammin' Blackjack (aka SGH-1607), available from Cingular for $499.99 (or $199.99 with the usual contract commitment stipulations), Samsung's industrial designers could not resist screwing with the numeric keypad. Instead of integrating the standard three-by-three plus 0 arrangement into the QWERTY layout like every other Smartphone extant, they've instead bizarrely alternated the grey number keys with black alpha keys. In other words, the 1/E key is next to the @/R button instead of the 2. What in the Sam Hill were they thinking? Different sure, but Samsung also has vastly increased the level of difficulty for this device's primary function -- making a phone call. Talk about your fatal flaws.

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Quote: The abit AW9D-MAX motherboard is one of the best Intel 965P/975X motherboard that I have used to date. It's actually refreshing using a motherboard like the abit AW9D-MAX because everything just works out of the box. The NVIDIA 680i chipset has gotten a ton of attention in recent weeks, but at the same time it launched with numerous bugs that are just now starting to be taken care of via BIOS updates. The Intel 975 Express chipset has been on the market for over a year and has 99% of the bugs worked out, which is nice for those of us that want to set up their system with a stable overclock and be done.

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When Intel Core Duo hit the stores, people went crazy. Many wanted to experience the amazing performance for themselves. Now, Intel brings us the QX6700 - a quad-core CPU. Is another revolution about to take place? Or are we going to find just a small increase compared to dual core? What about single threaded applications? Multi-core scaling?

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Razer has been known for their array of professional gaming mice while recently we had looked at their Barracuda AC-1 and HP-1 audio products, but how well is this company able produce a professional gaming keyboard? After months of anticipation the Razer Tarantula Keyboard is finally shipping to retailers, and we happen to have our hands on this keyboard to see whether it is worth using under Linux.

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Moving past the top end, the focus of this review is on ATI's X1950 Pro, a performance card that finds itself in that $199-$249 sweet spot. This is a price point that offers very nice bang-for-the-buck and is perfect for dedicated gamers who are working within a budget. The equivalent card in the Nvidia line is probably the 7900 GS, though with newer cards out now there is some blending of price points as previous generations drop in price.

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We are in the age of mobile data and removable media. You can see it all around us. Most industry professionals keep a portable computing device in close company, and nearly everyone carries a USB flash drive on them. Cell phones double as MP3 players, and MP3 players double as personal video devices. It seems progressive then that external hard disks are quickly becoming something more of a personal carry item as their size grows smaller.

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The VIZO Paragon is described as a 2.5 inch One touch Backup HDD External Enclosure. Put very simply, you drop a laptop drive into one of these cases, and then attach the USB cable... you have an external hard drive. What we are reviewing here is the chassis, installation procedures, transfer speeds, included bitsies and aesthetics....

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I normally don't get all giddy and child like when it comes to the conclusion of a review but very seldom am I this pleased with a product. The Cooler Master Hyper TX has literally knocked my socks off and got me spinning in my office chair. When I first received the Hyper TX, I saved it for last of my Cooler Master cooler reviews because I was expecting the least out of it. I was certainly wrong in my assessment and then some.

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Now don't get me wrong, just because this monitor doesn't game doesn't mean it is not an exceptional piece of visual computer hardware. Just make you understand, gamers make up only a small percentage of the purchasing population. The rest of this monitor's features make it an excellent options for consumers needing a top of the line monitor for work and standard computer duties. But for less money you can get a brand named 1000:1 contrast ratio monitor which is capable of gaming and you will still have money left in your wallet.

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Thermaltake has always been at the forefront in their PC chassis designs, producing everything from LAN boxes to server chassis and everything in-between. Today we are going to be looking at one of their newest releases, the Mozart TX, which Thermaltake calls their ideal home entertainment center. The Mozart has a long list of innovative features that would make ideal for a HTPC as well as a high-end gamers/enthusiasts chassis to keep their hot running components running cool and quiet.

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Lian Li is entering the media PC enclosure market with their PC-C30 series. With more and more media system components available and enthusiasts looking for the perfect balance of form and functionality the PC-C30 series is a perfect choice. Many enclosures limit builders and enthusiasts to certain components where as the PC-C30 allows them to use whatever they need to fit their demands.

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The newly released MacBook Pro offers a massive increase in computing power and energy efficiency thanks to the Core 2 Duo processor by Intel. With the greatly improved CPU, Apple took an already smart and sexy laptop and gave it a 39% faster, turbo-charged, Mensa-crushing, better base configuration and a 50% faster SuperDrive, all without increasing the price. With all its benefits, it's no surprise that businesses, creative professionals and students are finding the new MacBook Pro hard to resist.

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Today we look at the Super Talent 2GB Mega Screen MP3 Player, which is Super Talents first attempt at the MP3 player market. Is this the MP3 Player for the iPod craver on a budget? With a built in FM tuner, OLED color display, lithium battery and simple button layout it just might be! Read on as we take a look at the 2GB white version to see if this is the MP3 Player is right for you.

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Almost all notebook coolers are the same or have the same design. The basic design that we have seen on them works, but is there a better design? Well we will see today if there is. The Cooler Master NotePal P1 has a stylish ergonomic design unlike other notebook coolers out there. It is very lightweight and has an extra USB port so let's see if it can get the job done.

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With two Intel Quad-Core Clovertown processors and eight sticks of Kingston FB-DIMM DDR2 we set out to see the level of memory performance in an octal-core environment. We had tested the memory in single, dual, and quad memory channel configurations. Read this article to see how the Intel Xeon 5300 performs in various Fully Buffered Dual Inline Memory Module configurations.

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Headphones. Some like them big, some like small, some people want noise-canceling and some want wireless. Wait. wireless? Yes! Altec Lansing AHP612 Wireless Studio Headphones to be exact. While not exactly portable in the taking-the-bus-to-work sense, they promise to let you roam free of wires when home. No more being tethered to your computer or knocking the headphones off your head when you get carried away with the air guitar.

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Kingston Technology was kind enough to send over some of their evaluation DDR2 RAM to test out. The RAM kit that came in, is the KHX600D2K2/2G; for those of you who aren't versed in Kingston product nomenclature, this is a 2GB Kit made up of two 1GB 128M x 64-bit PC2-6400 CL5 240-pin DIMM modules. Each of the modules has been tested to run at DDR2 800MHz with the low latency timings of 5-5-5-15 at 2.0v.:

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Legit Reviews has all of the latest products from Everglide on the test bench and have spent a number of hours with their group of gaming products. The s-500 Headphones, The g-1000 Gaming Mouse and the TITAN Mouse pad are designed for hardcore gamers, but do they make the cut? We look and see if they are worthy of hitting the battlefield at full force. Read on to see if Ben was turned into one Ubar LEET gamer that owns all!

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With the industry rapidly growing and changing, OCZ has been one of the few companies that have led a charge with the newest forms of DDR2 technology. With this being said they were kind enough to send over their newest memory from their Titanium series, OCZ2T8002GK. This kit consist of two one gig sticks of DDR2 800 rated at 4-4-4-15 at a command rate of 1T when using it in a EPP compliant board or 5-4-4-15 at 2T when used in a non-EPP board. Today, we will see how well these DDR2 800 Titanium pieces perform on today's best overclocking Intel based boards.

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But cable operators, telecommunications watchdog groups and some members of Congress think the FCC is using flawed data that could lead to it overstepping its authority. The FCC plans to release a report on Wednesday that looks at the average rates for cable TV service over the past 10 years. In his recent speech, Martin said that from 1995 to 2005, cable rates have risen 93 percent, from $22.37 in 1995 to $43.04 in 2005. He used this data point as an argument for changing the local franchise rules to add more competition to the market.

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Games for Windows is still very much a vision. The first priority, a retail initiative, is currently underway. By employing marketing strategies used by console makers, namely platform-branding, Microsoft hopes that PC gaming (under the 'Games for Windows' banner) will become less intimidating to mainstream consumers -- no longer will the PC games isle be a cluttered mess of disparate titles. Computer Gaming World was also renamed as Games For Windows to help drive Microsoft's new brand. Aside from retail consolidation, this branding will ensure certain requirements are met by games' publishers. To earn the GFW brand, a title must comply with certain Microsoft-tested specifications, including widescreen support, compatibility with the Xbox 360 controller, parental control features, and simple installation. GFW games will also begin to carry a system rating, based on a 5-point scale. Vista will assess the value of your PC's gaming abilities and assign a rating (or "WinSAT"), say 4.5. You can then weigh that rating against a game's recommended rating (example: 5.0) and its required rating (example: 3.5) before purchasing. Update: The scale will begin at five points, but is designed to grow as newer technologies enter the market.

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The higher speeds of eSATA compared to USB could grow more obvious as consumers try to wrestle with ever-larger quantities of videos, photos, music and other data. "Backing up a terabyte across a USB port would be incredibly painful. That's going to drive demand for a high-speed port like eSATA, said Roger Bradford, who leads storage work for Intel's chipset and graphics marketing group. However, the challenges of eSATA are as considerable as its advantages. First off is the usual chicken-and-egg problem of technology that requires backing from multiple companies. It's not worthwhile for PC makers to add eSATA ports if there aren't eSATA drives, while eSATA drive sales are gated by mainstream availability of built-in eSATA ports.