TechSpot

VIA working on open source UniChrome driver

Justin Mann — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:00 -0500

VIA is extending their hand to the open source community, with a recent announcement that the company will be assisting in the development of an open source driver for their Chrome hardware. The Taiwanese manufacturer of integrated circuits will be working with the OpenChrome development team, creating drivers for the Chrome hardware found on various VIA platforms. In particular, VIA is mentioning...

Microsoft adjusts Zune pricing, tweaks Zune Pass service

Jose Vilches — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 12:20 -0500

Hoping to boost sales during the upcoming holiday shopping season Microsoft has made a few Zune-related announcements over the past few days, which include a software update as well as a new offer for Zune Pass subscribers and price cuts across the board.

News around the web: TIME's Best Inventions of 2008

Erik Orejuela — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 12:15 -0500

TIME's Best Inventions of 2008 @ TIME

PC Magazine says goodbye to print

Justin Mann — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 11:48 -0500

The amount of content available online has risen exponentially the past few years. Any respectable news agency will have at a bare minimum all their articles online, and the overwhelming majority usually offers something more in the venue of live updates, comment sections and more. Thus it's no surprise that more and more, people are relying on the Internet for news and information as opposed to m...

Rockstar unveils new GTA IV content for Xbox 360

Jose Vilches — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 11:27 -0500

Rockstar Games has finally begun sharing details of the forthcoming Grand Theft Auto IV downloadable content it promised long ago. In an interview with USA Today, Rockstar�s Dan Houser has confirmed that the oft delayed Xbox 360 exclusive episode will not make it this holiday season, dating it for February 17 of next year instead.

WoW expansion sells 2.8 million copies on launch day

Jose Vilches — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:40 -0500

Blizzard is tooting its own horn today announcing that the second World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, has racked up 2.8 million sales worldwide in its first 24 hours of release. This makes it the fastest-selling PC game of all times, according to the company, beating a previous record of nearly 2.4 million copies sold in 24 hours set by the first World of Warcraft expansion, The B...

Apple TV update adds several new features

Jose Vilches — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 09:58 -0500

Apple has released an update for the Apple TV digital media receiver, bringing the firmware up to version 2.3. The patch is available solely through the device�s built-in update feature and consists of four main improvements, key among which is the ability to stream music from the media device to either other Apple TV units or Airport Express speakers.

Samsung launches 256GB solid-state drive

Jose Vilches — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 09:21 -0500

As promised back in May, Samsung has begun mass production of its 256GB solid-state drives for notebook and desktop PCs, complementing their lineup which ranges from 8, 16 and 32GB for low-density designs and 64, 128 and now 256GB alternatives for the higher densities.

Sony hit with $18.5 million patent fine

Jose Vilches — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 08:12 -0500

An East Texas federal jury has ruled that Sony must cough up $18.5 million in damages to a company called Agere Systems for a patent violation on a �wireless local area network apparatus� included in the PSP and other handheld devices such as the mylo Personal Communicator and Network Walkman audio players.

Thursday's Tech Deals: Macmall and Geeks.com holiday sales

Julio Franco — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 07:08 -0500

MacMall.com now takes up to 44% off a selection of Apple sytems in its Holiday Blowout Sale. That's one of the best...

Apple's new MacBooks are HDCP-aware

Justin Mann — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 04:08 -0500

In recent past Apple has been praised as a company that has at least verbally opposed DRM. More weight was given to their supposed DRM stance when they began offering some music from EMI without copy protection on iTunes. When it comes to hardware, however, Apple still seems to be in step with the industry. It's been discovered that Apple's new MacBook lines include full HDCP support, a technolog...

HP unveils multi-touch consumer tablet PC

Jose Vilches — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:37 -0500

Apple may have popularized multi-touch screens with the introduction of its iPhone smartphone back in 2007, but the technology is just now getting a foothold in notebooks and desktops. One of the main proponents in these segments has been HP, which introduced the TouchSmart all-in-one media PC earlier this year and today is touting a new touch friendly model in the form of a tablet called the Touc...

FCC posts white space rules

Justin Mann — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:30 -0500

If you are interested in the ongoing discussions surrounding the recently approved unlicensed whitespace spectrum, this next bit of news might interest you as well. The FCC has for the first time released some clear specifications on access rules to this white space, including how devices operating in this spectrum need to behave.

Mac OS X Snow Leopard ahead of schedule?

Jose Vilches — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:06 -0500

The next major release of Apple�s operating system, dubbed �Snow Leopard,� is slated to come out next year. No specific date has been actually set for the launch, but when announced at the WWDC event back in June, the company said that Mac OS X 10.6 would be available in about a year. Now, however, a leaked slide from a recent presentation suggests it could be sooner.

Nvidia releases ForceWare 180.48 drivers

Jose Vilches — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 15:13 -0500

Following a beta launch late last month, Nvidia has now begun to distribute the WHQL version of its so-called Big Bang II driver release. As reported in October, the new ForceWare 180.48 package should provide a significant performance boost in a number of games along with multi-display support for SLI configurations, the option to dedicate a graphics card to PhysX calculations, and SLI support fo...

VIA unveils touch screen panel PC

Jose Vilches — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 14:23 -0500

Via Technologies, which is best known for its power efficient x86 processor platforms, is now looking to take advantage of the increasing popularity of touch screen devices with a new product aimed at �intelligent display� applications. Dubbed VIPRO VP7710, this fanless embedded system runs on either a 1.6GHz VIA Eden or 1.0GHz C7 processor with up to 1GB of DDR2 RAM, and is supposed to fit into a...

Transmeta sold for $255 million

Justin Mann — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:10 -0500

In a move that anyone who followed the company saw coming, Transmeta has finally found itself at the end of an acquisition. The intellectual property firm today announced it has reached an acquisition agreement with Novafora for around $255.6 million in cash, with no particular mention as to what exactly the plans post-acquisition are. One thing is clear, Transmeta will no longer be able to enter ...

Ubuntu 9.04 alpha available soon

Justin Mann — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:26 -0500

The world's current most popular Linux desktop flavor, Ubuntu, is busy at work on the successor to their existing version, which was released only a month ago. The next update, Ubuntu 9.04, is currently under development and should have an alpha version available for perusal this week, perhaps even tomorrow.

Asustek to launch Eee Top all-in-one PC tomorrow?

Jose Vilches — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:21 -0500

Asustek Computer is set to launch its long promised all-in-one Eee Top tomorrow, according to reports, with two versions of the so-called nettop already listed on the manufacturer�s website � the ET1602 and ET1603. Both models sport a slender 15.9-inch touch screen, a 160GB hard disk, Microsoft Windows XP and have a 1.6GHz Intel Atom microprocessor inside.

News around the web: NASA tests "deep space Internet"

Erik Orejuela — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 10:00 -0500

NASA tests "deep space Internet" @ AFP

Netflix on Xbox 360 not streaming Sony films... coincidence?

Jose Vilches — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:27 -0500

Xbox 360 users are getting a much anticipated update to the dashboard today, bringing among other things Netflix support, but it appears that the streaming service won't have (at least for now) quite as many films available as initially planned. Specifically, Netflix has stopped users from streaming movies distributed by Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Microsoft to replace OneCare with free service

Jose Vilches — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 07:43 -0500

Microsoft today announced plans to kill its Windows Live OneCare subscription-based security suite and replace it with a free anti-malware utility. Code-named �Morro,� the new product is being positioned as a solution for small form factor and lower power PCs, yet Microsoft says it will take advantage of the same core anti-malware technology that fuels the company�s current line of security produc...

Judge dismisses Psystar's antitrust claims against Apple

Jose Vilches — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 19:02 -0500

The legal counterclaims filed against Apple by Mac clone maker Psystar have been dismissed today, following a decision by US District Judge William Alsup that the brand loyalty that Apple enjoys is not the same as lack of competition in the market.

Eidos shows off Deus Ex 3 screenshots

Justin Mann — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:46 -0500

Over a year ago, rumors began floating around that Deus Ex 3 was in the works. This excited some and horrified others, as a third installment for the Deus Ex series could end up being a disappointment to many like its predecessor or a great game like the original Deus Ex. Eidos didn't wait long to actually comment on the rumor, and in November of last year their Montreal office confirmed they were...

Mozilla launches Fashion your Firefox

Jose Vilches — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:38 -0500

Add-ons are one of the biggest advantages of Firefox over the competition and Mozilla has grown a healthy ecosystem of developers centered on its popular open source browser over the years. But while longtime Firefox users probably have the browsers packed with their favorite extensions already, the lineup can be overwhelming to newcomers.

Samsung sued over flash memory

Justin Mann — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:51 -0500

Samsung has found itself at the receiving end of a patent infringement lawsuit recently filed with the ITC and the US District Court. Spansion, the company behind the lawsuit, is accusing Samsung of violating several patents they own, including at least 10 they specifically mention in their case. The patents all relate to flash memory technologies, which Samsung of course makes ample use of in a h...

New Xbox Experience goes live for some

Jose Vilches — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:21 -0500

Microsoft's long-awaited New Xbox Experience dashboard is expected to officially launch tomorrow, but those of you who successfully signed up to preview program with a valid console ID number get to download it a bit early. Major Nelson explains that rather than simply adding another 10,000 users to the preview program like Microsoft did last week, the decision was made to allow all who applied to...

Gartner: 85 percent of firms using open source

Jose Vilches — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:18 -0500

A recent Gartner research shows 85 percent of firms use at least one piece of open source software in their business IT infrastructure, with the remaining 15 percent expected to do so over the next twelve months. But while most of us would assume this is a good thing, the market researcher apparently thinks otherwise.

Apple taking orders for new 24-inch LED Cinema Display

Jose Vilches — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:55 -0500

Apple didn�t just announce the new unibody MacBook and MacBook Pro families at its notebook-centric event last month, the company also added a 24-inch LED monitor to its Cinema Display offerings and has just started taking orders for it via the online Apple Store.

News around the web: Play Movies on a BlackBerry Bold

Erik Orejuela — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:30 -0500

How To Play Movies on a BlackBerry Bold Using Badaboom @ Legit Reviews