• Unparalleled Design
  
  NZXT announces Khaos full tower case
  

Electronic Arts announced today that Calgary Flames defenseman Dion Phaneuf will be the cover athlete and spokesman for NHL 09.

EA NHL 09 Cover Athlete announced

Nehalem is a codename for both a processor microarchitecture and a processor. Nehalem will be released in late 2008 for high-end chips and early 2009 for mainstream chips. The codenames "Bloomfield" (desktop chip), "Gainestown" (server chip), "Gilo" (mobile chip), and "Beckton" (or "Becton") (server chip) have been associated with Nehalem consistently, but with very few details.

According to a new roadmap, Intel has already prepared three Bloomfield with different clock for different class of users. Till now other spec still TBD and we will wait for Intel

XFX GeForce 9800 GX2 Black edition review

King of pre-overclocked products has to be XFX, their speed-bin of releasing OCed products is exceedingly fast. I do not think that there is an XFX product out there that is not available as a triple X edition or other series name slapped on top of it. Today will be no different, we received XFXes top of the shelf product, the GeForce 9800 GX2, the cool thing is that this is the new mystified named 'Black edition' series of cards, meaning it comes with a nice pre-overclock and an lovely game bundle.

Find the full review here:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/xfx-geforce-9800-gx2-black-edition-review/

The Flash Voyager Mini utilizes a cap-less retractable connector plug which easily opens with the flick of the thumb, and its ergonomic rubberized housing makes it easy to connect and disconnect from any computer. This makes it the perfect flash drive for users with busy and active lifestyles. Utilizing the latest Chip-on-Board technology the Flash Voyager Mini is the perfect synergy of size, looks and function.

• Durable
• Shock Proof
• Retractable connector tip
• Plug-n-Play compatibility via USB 1.1 or 2.0 port
• 10 Year Limited Warranty

it's been confirmed that Call of Duty 5 being called Call of Duty: World at War and is set in the Pacific theatre of WWII. The news comes from subs issues of UK mag games, which landed this morning.

VG247 has an excerpt from the UK mag: "Right, apparently it's going to be grittier, as gritty as ANY game out there to quote. The enemy will be scarier and use new tactics. There will be co-op for the first time in a Call of Duty. Also there will be vehicles and squad-based elements to the multiplayer. Formats: PC, PS3, 360 and Wii. The Wii version is being worked on by a separate team within Treyarch."

Call of Duty: World at War Revealed

Appearantly Soundblaster driver modder Daniel Kawakami or better known as Creative's Daniel_K is backing off his deal with providing modded software for all Creative sound cards for free. He again might have gotten in trouble with Creative labs and received a second warning mail from Creative threatening him with legal actions.

He is finally "gone for good". He has posted a message over at the Creative forums informing everyone for his decission. MIn my opinion, the email is to vague to be legit. So the email might be fraude as well .. it just doesn't seem to be a legit one. Daniel is still awaiting Creative Labs official response on this new alligation.

Creative labs needs to take a stance in this as this is getting out of hand and definitely will hurt their product sales.

Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2008 15:25:44 +0000
From: forums@customercare.creative.com
To: dkbox2000@hotmail.com
Subject: Stop the redistribution of Creative software

Hi Daniel,

Please stop the redistribution of any Creative software, otherwise we will take legal action against you.

Creative Labs
http://forums.creative.com

This download is a beta driver providing Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows XP support for Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi series of audio devices. For more details, read the rest of this web release note.

Take note of the following:

* THIS IS AN UNSUPPORTED BETA DRIVER. There is no technical support for this driver.
* We recommend that only experienced users install this driver. Do not install this driver on a system used to perform critical tasks.
* Users who are looking for stable drivers should wait for the final release. When this happens, user should install the latest Sound Blaster X-Fi series driver available.

This download supports the following audio devices only:

* Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty

Download: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi 2.18.0000 beta

Bare in mind this to be considered a beta driver, use it at your own risk. NVIDIA does not officially support them. Driver wise, pretty much any GeForce graphics card build in the last 3 years is supported. We have virus & pest checked these drivers and they are scanned as clean. if you decide to give these a try, please post your feedback in this thread.

Download:

  ForceWare 175.80 Vista (64-bit)
  ForceWare 175.80 Vista (32-bit)
  ForceWare 175.80 XP (32-bit)
  ForceWare 175.80 XP (64-bit)

This package is localized into Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Czech, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and English.

Supported Operating Systems:

Windows Server 2003; Windows Server 2003 R2 Datacenter Edition (32-Bit x86); Windows Server 2003 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition; Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition (32-Bit x86); Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition; Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard Edition (32-bit x86); Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard x64 Edition ; Windows Server 2003 R2 x64 editions; Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1; Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2; Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 x64 Edition; Windows Server 2003 x64 editions; Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition (32-bit x86); Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition for 64-Bit Itanium-Based Systems; Windows Server 2003, Datacenter x64 Edition; Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition (32-bit x86); Windows Server 2003, Enterprise x64 Edition; Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition (32-bit x86); Windows Server 2003, Standard x64 Edition; Windows Server 2003, Web Edition; Windows Small Business Server 2003 ; Windows Vista; Windows Vista Business; Windows Vista Business 64-bit edition; Windows Vista Business N; Windows Vista Enterprise; Windows Vista Enterprise 64-bit edition; Windows Vista Home Basic; Windows Vista Home Basic 64-bit edition; Windows Vista Home Basic N; Windows Vista Home Premium; Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit edition; Windows Vista Starter; Windows Vista Starter N; Windows Vista Ultimate; Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit edition; Windows XP; Windows XP 64-bit; Windows XP Home Edition ; Windows XP Home Edition N; Windows XP Media Center Edition; Windows XP Professional Edition ; Windows XP Professional N; Windows XP Professional x64 Edition ; Windows XP Service Pack 1; Windows XP Service Pack 2; Windows XP Starter Edition; Windows XP Tablet PC Edition

The DirectX redist installation includes all the latest and previous released DirectX runtime. This includes the bi-monthly D3DX, XInput, and Managed DirectX components.

Download - click here

Here's a trailer of Venetica, an upcoming RPG game for the Xbox 360 and PC. Take on the roll of Scarlett as you develop and use her powers to save her father and curse the necromancer.

Action Forms is proud to announce the development of first person horror/action game with working title Cryostasis: Sleep of Reason which puts the player in 1968 to the Arctic Circle, Russian North Pole station "Pole 21". The main hero Alexander Nesterov is a meteorologist occasionally caught inside an old nuclear ice-breaker North Wind, frozen in the ice desert many years ago. This steel creature once fought for its life and freedom, but has fallen into an ice trap and all the creatures on its board lost not only their natural look, but a right to die. Cryostasis is a story about a drama of a Captain and his Ship evolving in the atmosphere of animal fear.

Year 1968. Arctic Circle, Russian North Pole station "Pole 21". The main hero Alexander Nesterov is a meteorologist occasionally caught inside an old nuclear ice-breaker North Wind, frozen in the ice desert many years ago. This steel creature once fought for its life and freedom, but it has fallen into an ice trap and all the creatures on its board lost not only their natural look, but a right to die. Cryostasis is a story about a drama of a Captain and his Ship evolving in the atmosphere of animal fear.

Fallout from the Hollywood writers strike will cost California's already struggling economy an estimated $2.1 billion, a new report concludes, it might take California into a new recession.

Although the writers strike ended four months ago, effects of the three-month walkout continue to ripple across the state's economy, causing a projected net loss this year of 37,700 jobs directly and indirectly tied to the entertainment industry, according a study released Thursday by the Milken Institute.

The report is the first to examine the statewide costs of the writers' work stoppageand it is at significant variance with prior estimates, pointing out the difficulty economists have in reaching a consensus because of varying methodologies. An earlier study by the UCLA Anderson Forecast projected that the strike would cost Los Angeles County economy roughly $380 million, while the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. estimated a local impact of $2.5 billion.

The strike shut down scripted TV production, paralyzing much of the entertainment industry, a key driver of the California economy. Coinciding with a housing market downturn, the walkout was one of several factors slowing the state's growth, the report says.

"This was not a discrete one-time hit," the Milken study said. The strike "had a substantial impact on California's economy in general and on Los Angeles County in particular."

Although the strike ended in February, many of those who lost their jobs -- set decorators, lighting technicians and makeup artists among them -- were not hired back as studios scaled back production.

Intel's new G45 chipset will be competing with NVIDIA and ATi on the high-def video front as it can playback 1920x1080 full HD, encrypted in H.264 with Dolby TrueHD and Real time video bit rate at 24 Mbps as demonstrated at Computex.

Intel demonstrated a working system at Computex with the help of a dual-core 45nm CPU, E8400 3GHz model, that system scored 25% CPU utilization, which is "okay".

That's fairly good news as Intel's IGPs always where slow at games and video.

After reading logs from a recent Mythos chat with Flagship Studios employee Taylor, one shouldn

FSS employee insults the critics of Hellgate

The Home Affairs Committee has called on the government to follow a "minimum data, held for the minumum time" approach to British citizens' personal information in its long-awaited report into surveillance.

The Committee has decided, after a year long investigation, that the UK is not becoming a surveillance society but warns that function creep still poses a danger. That said, it did not look at ID cards but warned that function creep could again raise concerns of increased surveillance of citizens. After recent government data losses it demanded the Home Office show more detailed plans for how it will make the National Identity Register secure.

It expressed particular concerns that increasing use of databases to store information on children could be used for predictive profiling, with the state singling out children deemed by computers to be likely future criminals.

On Home Office use of databases and sharing data the committee said there were three questions to be answered: "Where should the balance between protecting the public and preserving individual freedom lie? How should this balance shift according to the seriousness of the crime? What impact will this have on the individual and on our society as a whole?"

The politicians also suggested a broader role for the Information Commissioner's Office. The ICO should provide Parliament with an annual report on UK surveillance. It should provide resources to work with the government's chief information officer to improve privacy protection. The committee supported the ICO's demand for better inspection and audit powers.

The ICO could also have a role in carrying out "Privacy Impact Assessments" to be carried out before the Home Office starts a new information gathering project or extends an existing project. PIAs would look at risks and would aim to put in place some protection while the project was being designed. The committee noted that procedures around who can access such information were as important as technology in keeping data safe.

On CCTV use the committee asked the Home Office to carry out more research to show whether or not its use has any impact on reducing crime. It called for a debate before any expansion of the national DNA database and primary legislation to regulate its use.

The committee said it was concerned about the HMP Woodhill case - where conversations between an MP and his constituent were recorded in breach of the Wilson doctrine.

The talking shop also looked at the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act. It wants the Home Office to raise public awareness of how and when communications data could be collected and used. It said it had serious concerns about the use of the Act for minor crimes.

The Home Office should make a public statement when a new organisation gets RIPA authorisation, it said.

Such suggestions are moot because the Government is expected to introduce legislation to replace RIPA in the next session of Parliament. We'll have to wait and see whether Gordon Brown and Jacqui Smith accept any of the other suggestions.