TechSpot

Weekend Open Forum: Have you upgraded to Windows 7 yet? What is there to like/not?

Julio Franco — Fri, 6 Nov 2009 21:19 -0500

Inevitably the past few weeks have been a lot about Windows 7. We have contributed our fair share of information and resources in the process, from nifty tips and tricks for those of you coming as far back as the first public beta, to a complete round-up of information to get you up to speed if you are upgrading to Windows 7 just now.

Nvidia's profits up 74% in third quarter

Matthew DeCarlo — Fri, 6 Nov 2009 16:53 -0500

Nvidia has reported a 74% rise in profit for the third quarter of fiscal 2010, which ended October 25. During the recently closed quarter, Nvidia posted revenue of $903.2 million, a 16% increase on quarter and up slightly from a year ago. Net income for the third quarter was $107.6 million ($.19 per diluted share), which ...

Intel finds X25-M firmware bug

Matthew DeCarlo — Fri, 6 Nov 2009 16:14 -0500

According to a post on its support forum, Intel has managed to reproduce the nasty bug that's been bricking SSDs. Intel replicated the issue on Windows 7 X64 with version 1.3 of the firmware upgrade tool and a 34nm X25-M SSD. The company has placed the bug as a high priority and will deliver a fix as soon as possible.

Samsung announces new .6mm-thick NAND memory package

Matthew DeCarlo — Fri, 6 Nov 2009 14:57 -0500

Samsung announced that it has produced the world's thinnest multi-chip memory package for smartphones, portable media players, and other devices. The package measures a mere .6mm in height and contains 32GB of storage. Samsung's new product is 40% thinner and lighter than currently available memory packages.

DFI intros MI P55-T36, the world's first P55-based mini-ITX board

Matthew DeCarlo — Fri, 6 Nov 2009 13:15 -0500

DFI has announced the world's first P55-based mini-ITX motherboard, the MI P55-T36. The company's new system board will allow users to cram the power of Intel's Lynnfield processors into a tiny package, and is aimed at overclockers and DIY enthusiasts. Unfortunately, no price or availability have been disclosed.

Nvidia Tegra 2 to double performance, arrive next year?

Jose Vilches — Fri, 6 Nov 2009 11:12 -0500

Nvidia's Tegra has gained a decent amount of popularity in recent months. It currently forms the brains of Microsoft�s Zune HD and is poised to capitalize on smartphones too. With the company hoping its system-on-a-chip product to account for as much as 50% of their revenue in the next few years, it comes as no real surprise to learn a successor is already on the works.

Google touts privacy and transparency with Dashboard

Jose Vilches — Fri, 6 Nov 2009 08:00 -0500

Looking to alleviate growing concerns from privacy advocates around the globe, Google has launched a new service that's designed to show its users how much the search giant knows about their individual online activities. Dubbed Dashboard, the service provides information about the several Google products the account-holder might use, from which YouTube videos have been viewed to details of their G...

Dell's ultra-thin Adamo XPS to ship soon for $1,799

Matthew DeCarlo — Fri, 6 Nov 2009 05:30 -0500

Dell has finally fully disclosed the specifications of its newly crafted ultra-thin notebook, the Adamo XPS. The laptop is only .4" (just over a centimeter) thick and weighs just over 3lbs.

Steam weekend sale: Mass Effect for $10

Matthew DeCarlo — Thu, 5 Nov 2009 19:34 -0500

Steam is hosting yet another fantastic weekend sale with a 50%-off, $10 copy of Mass Effect. Originally released for PC in May 2008, Mass Effect is an action role-playing game developed by BioWare (Demiurge Studios handled the PC port).

ECS expects to ship 17.5 million motherboards in 2009, 20% growth in 2010

Matthew DeCarlo — Thu, 5 Nov 2009 17:51 -0500

Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) expects its own-brand motherboard sales to remain flat at 7 to 8 million units during 2009, but foresees significant growth next year, according to VP of ECS' channel business, David Chien. The company will expand its mid-range and high-end product lines, and plans for a growth of 20%, with a total of 8.4 to 9.6 million shipments.

Patch Tuesday to bring six security bulletins

Matthew DeCarlo — Thu, 5 Nov 2009 16:12 -0500

Microsoft has detailed next week's Patch Tuesday in a post at the Microsoft Security Response Center. This time around, Redmond will issue six security bulletins -- far less than last month's record breaking 13 bulletins. Three of the six bulletins listed are rated critical -- the highest severity -- while the other three are marked as important. Five of the bulletins are said to allow remote code...

AMD and PC vendors delay products amid GPU shortage

Matthew DeCarlo — Thu, 5 Nov 2009 15:05 -0500

It would seem that several PC vendors are feeling the effect of AMD's limited graphics card supply. The company's 40nm Radeon HD 5000 series and 55nm Radeon HD 4000 series video cards are both tight in supply at the moment. The former is said to be the result of low yields on TSMC's 40nm process, and the latter is reportedly due to AMD's conservative stance toward the sales of its 55nm graphics ca...

Netflix PS3 streaming arrives tomorrow

Justin Mann — Thu, 5 Nov 2009 14:00 -0500

Last month, Netflix announced that they'd be adding a new piece of hardware to the growing list of gadgets that support Netflix streaming. That device was none other than the PlayStation 3, a suitable choice for growth given that Netflix is already supported on the Xbox 360. The only really surprising aspect of the whole affair was the timeline Netflix put forth, and as of tomorrow many PS3 owners...

Windows 7 crushed Vista in early launch sales

Matthew DeCarlo — Thu, 5 Nov 2009 13:22 -0500

By now, nearly everyone can agree that Windows 7 is at the very least a marginal improvement over Windows Vista, so its success comes as no surprise. According to research by NPD Group, Microsoft sold 234% more boxed versions of Windows 7 than it did Vista during the first couple days of sales. The research firm's data covers sales from October 18 to 24 and includes Windows 7 presales.

News around the web: 5 new technologies...

Erik Orejuela — Thu, 5 Nov 2009 13:04 -0500

5 new technologies that will change everything @ MSNBC

Microsoft cuts 800 more jobs, exceeds original forecast

Jose Vilches — Thu, 5 Nov 2009 11:58 -0500

Microsoft has announced what it hopes will be the last in a recent series of layoffs aimed at cutting operating costs. Approximately 800 workers spread across multiple business units and locations will be receiving pink slips, going beyond the 5,000 originally announced back in January.

Toshiba announces 320GB 1.8-inch hard drive

Jose Vilches — Thu, 5 Nov 2009 10:28 -0500

Toshiba has expanded its line of 1.8-inch hard drives today with a new dual-platter model that can hold up to 320GB of data -- a world's first in this form factor. The MK3233GSG features a 3Gbps SATA interface and 16MB cache buffer, produces just 19dB of noise during seeks and spins at 5,400 rpm for a maximum transfer rate of 830Mb/s.

Tech Tip of The Week: Turn Off your Display Using a Windows Shortcut and More

Julio Franco — Thu, 5 Nov 2009 04:38 -0500

Although it may seem unnecessary at first thought, there is some practicality in having a software shortcut to instantly turn off your monitor. It could prove very useful with notebook computers, if yours doesn't have a keyboard shortcut for shutting down the screen. It could also be convenient in the presence of multiple monitors, your power button might be broken, or you may indeed just be that ...

Firefox surpasses IE6's browser share in October

Matthew DeCarlo — Wed, 4 Nov 2009 20:19 -0500

October 2009's browser stats are in, and while Microsoft's Internet Explorer still lead the pack, IE6 has finally been surpassed by Firefox. Internet Explorer continued its descent, losing 1.07% browser share (from 65.71% to 64.64%), Firefox's share grew .32%, from 23.75% to 24.07%, Safari's share rose .18% to 4.42%, and Chrome furthered its lead on Opera, with the former gaining .41% (from 3.17% ...

Apple to disable Atom support with OS X 10.6.2? (updated)

Matthew DeCarlo — Wed, 4 Nov 2009 19:06 -0500

Update: The latest developer build (10C535) seems to have Atom support, so hackintosh users may be safe after all -- though, things could change by the final build.

Wednesday tech deals: HP Pavilion p6280t Core 2 Quad 2.5GHz PC for $530

Matthew DeCarlo — Wed, 4 Nov 2009 18:32 -0500

HP Pavilion p6280t Core 2 Quad 2.5GHz desktop PC for $530 + free shipping

Intel hit with another antitrust suit for competing unfairly

Matthew DeCarlo — Wed, 4 Nov 2009 16:20 -0500

Intel is back in the hot seat after being nailed with a record $1.45 billion antitrust fine in the EU earlier this year. The chipmaker has been sued by New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo in an antitrust case with similar grounds.

Walmart's pre-Black Friday sale: $99 Xbox 360 Arcade, more

Matthew DeCarlo — Wed, 4 Nov 2009 15:13 -0500

Walmart is gearing up for a pre-Black Friday sale of sorts this weekend, which will offer a significant discount on Microsoft's Xbox 360 Arcade. The console package, which sells for $199, will be accompanied by a free $100 gift card, effectively cutting the 360's price to $99. The Arcade unit comes with a wireless controller, 512MB of memory, and an HDMI port (no cable, though).

AMD cooking up two new desktop platforms, Leo and Dorado

Matthew DeCarlo — Wed, 4 Nov 2009 14:06 -0500

According to sources cited by DigiTimes, AMD plans to announce two new desktop platforms in May of next year. The two platforms are said to be named Leo and Dorado, the former of which will target the high-end segment, and the latter will be more mainstream.

AMD Phenom II X4 965 gets a new revision, lower TDP

Jose Vilches — Wed, 4 Nov 2009 13:20 -0500

AMD has unveiled a new revision (RB-C3) of the Phenom II X4 965 processor that comes with a reduction in its TDP rating -- just 125W versus the original�s 140W. This thermal improvement is expected to yield greater overclocking headroom for AMD's flagship CPU, which remains a black edition part priced at $195.

Nvidia confirms Intel won't back USB 3.0 until 2011

Matthew DeCarlo — Wed, 4 Nov 2009 13:00 -0500

Nvidia has confirmed that Intel will not be packaging USB 3.0 support into its chipsets until at least 2011. Motherboard manufacturers have been, and will continue to use discrete USB 3.0 controllers from third-party companies, but at an extra cost. That being the case, we should continue to see motherboards and devices equipped with the latest USB spec, but a mass adoption is unlikely at this poi...

Super Talent announces first USB 3.0 flash drive

Jose Vilches — Wed, 4 Nov 2009 11:56 -0500

Even though Intel is expected to delay USB 3.0 support until sometime in 2011, motherboard makers have gone on their own including the new interconnect in select products via third party controllers. Naturally, compatible devices are starting to make their way onto the market as well, and now Super Talent has announced it plans to start shipping the world's first USB 3.0 flash drives as soon as ne...

Nvidia x86 processor rumors surface once again

Jose Vilches — Wed, 4 Nov 2009 10:34 -0500

Nvidia has reportedly begun hiring former engineers from Transmeta and is looking to develop its own x86-compatible processor core in a bid to continue its lucrative chipset business. The now-defunct microprocessor producer specialized in low-power, x86-compatible processors before turning into an intellectual property licensing firm and eventually closing doors in September of 2008.

Asus P7P55D Deluxe Motherboard Review

Julio Franco — Wed, 4 Nov 2009 09:37 -0500

Asus anticipates selling nearly half a million P55 motherboards by the end of the year. If this is the case, it will mean that P55 products alone will have accounted for 10% of the annual motherboard shipments for the Taiwanese manufacturer. In other words, there is quite a bit on the line for both Asus and its competitors.

News around the web: What Bing Does Best

Erik Orejuela — Wed, 4 Nov 2009 09:22 -0500

What Bing Does Best @ LiveScience