AMD is preparing a brand new Catalyst driver for its Radeon graphics card series. Users, don't have to wait much as a beta version of the new Catalyst 8.6 has found its way online.

Featuring the 8.500 display driver, the Catalyst 8.6 for both the 32 and 64bit version of Windows Vista & XP comes with support for almost everything released since the days of the Radeon 9550 plus a few cards and IGPs that haven't been released just yet.

Mind you that this is a Beta driver, use it at your own risk. We have a discussion thread open on these drivers right here.

The drivers can be downloaded here:
 ATI Catalyst 8.6 Windows Vista Beta (32|64)
 ATI Catalyst 8.6 Windows XP Beta (32|64)

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Microsoft's security team is advising users to stop using Apple's Safari browser pending investigation into a quirk that allows miscreants to litter their desktop with hundreds of executable files.

Windows users who visit a booby-trapped site with Safari could be forced to download and execute malicious files with no prompting, Microsoft says. The "blended threat" is a result of the default download location in Safari and the way the Windows desktop handles executable files.

The Microsoft advisory suggests users "restrict use of Safari as a web browser until an appropriate update is available from Microsoft and/or Apple."

The recommendation comes a week after researcher Nitesh Dhanjani reported that Apple's browser doesn't seek user permission before downloading certain types of files. Even when encountering malicious iframes - a common occurrence these days even on the most trustworthy of sites - Safari obediently does what it's told to do, including downloading a file hundreds of times.

Apple's security pros, upon learning of the so-called carpet bombing vulnerability, said they didn't see it as a significant threat. A researcher in Cupertino wrote to Dhanjani that it may get fixed at some point down the road as "a further measure to raise the bar against unwanted downloads," but said it could take a quite a while, if ever, for that to happen.

Apple's unfortunate refusal probably explains why Microsoft's security arm has resorted to the unusual recommendation. We can't remember the last time Redmond counseled users to avoid installing a mainstream product for security reasons. Apple representatives didn't respond to a request to comment for this story.

And before any Mac users decide this is an issue they can safely ignore, remember this: While Microsoft's recommendation obviously is limited to Windows users, Dhanjani says the carpet bombing scenario can play out on OS X, too.

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It seems that AMD has begun shipping its first Radeon HD 4000-series video chipset. The ATI Radeon HD 4850 is purportedly already on its way to card manufacturers and stores, and will represent a significant boost to the clock speed of the earlier, mid-range 3850 without affecting its heat; the core speed jumps from 670MHz to 800MHz while still occupying a single card slot.

Pricing is still a contentious point, those who claim to be aware of AMD's plans say. The company may wait until the day of the announcement itself to set a price and has given itself a price range between $179 and $219 for a stock card with 512MB of video memory. A last-minute price choice will purportedly let AMD meet an expected June 18th real-world launch without having to adjust costs ahead of time.

The uncertainty over the pricing and the launch date also likely reflect a same-day release of NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce GTX, which will initially target the high end but should create pressure on AMD to make its lower-cost cards more affordable.

Higher-end cards from AMD, including the Radeon HD 4870 and the 4870 X2, are expected to ship later in the summer.

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Nvidia Corporation decided that Gelato Pro 2.2 rendering software needs to be free and released it as such,

Gelato is a GPU-accelerated, final-frame renderer for the creation of high-quality computer-generated images. The software was initially developed to render film and broadcast visual effects and animation but now it can simply be used with 3D software applications, CAD, industrial design, and architecture.

"NVIDIA Gelato Pro 2.2 software is extremely powerful GPU-accelerated rendering software and we are excited to support the creative community by making it freely available," said Dominick Spina, senior product manager, Digital Film Group, NVIDIA. 'Now all artists and designers with NVIDIA Quadro graphics cards can enhance their production pipelines with Gelato Pro

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A new video was released on thatwhat will be rather popular game, Spore.

Spore is a simulation game created by Will Wright that allows players to control various life forms from the cellular to the galactic level. Want to see how to create new vermin in Spore? Well this video will show you how my man.

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Art Lebedev Studio who we all know from the Optimus Maximus keyboard has shown the first prototype of the Optimus Popularis. This little brother of the first model comes with eleven special keys which seem to be OLED, the rest of the keys look fairly normal. Which quite honestly might be an excellent compromise between functionality, aesthetics and obviously the price.

Art Lebedev did not release any other details about this product other then showing a picture, though they suggest .. it's a completely different principle that is being applied to this keyboard. We can't wait, let's just hope it's not tagged with a gicanticus pricus.

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Players looking forward to shooting their way through Far Cry 2's 50-square kilometers of African wilderness best set aside the better part of a few weeks (at least!) to do so. Varying reports suggest it could take as long as 100 hours (for compass-be-damned wanderers, no doubt) to complete the game's single player campaign alone.

Ubisoft Montreal creative workhorse Clint Hocking offered us an apparently inadequate estimate when he guessed that the campaign could be completed in as little as 25 hours, before adding that to see it all "you're looking at a 100-hour play experience." And, speaking to CVG, producer Louis-Pierre Pharand landed his estimate somewhere in the middle, suggesting 50 hours of play time to completion. Regardless of the varying possibilities, it's reasonable to expect that the shooter's single player experience will be long, evidence that not all devs are drinking from the same fountain as Phil Harrison.

On top of the campaign, Eurogamer reports that the sequel to 2004's tropical island shooter will support up to 16 players in online multiplayer, which will focus on team-based gameplay rather than traditional deathmatch modes. Also missing from Far Cry 2 will be online co-op, though according to Pharand multiplayer games will support multiple classes, as well as persistent awards and experience, giving us plenty to look forward to when Far Cry 2 debuts this holiday season for the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.

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BFG is pretty busy expanding their product line for sure. Today they announce yet another product, and expect two more next week.  BFG Technologies announced today the limited edition BFG NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2 OCX 1024MB PCI Express 2.0 graphics card, which is factory overclocked to the highest stable level to provide maximum performance in demanding 3D games and HD video applications.

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Cannon PC announced it will soon offer its Home- and Pro A/V-series HTPCs with dual and even quad CableCARDs installed. This allows them to record up to four individual standard- or high-def programs simultaneously, as each card will effectively act as a separate TV tuner, taking the place of a set-top box. Cannon PC took the opportunity to announce a direct OEM partnership with Microsoft as well, and all of the company's HTPCs use Microsoft's Windows Media Center as the multimedia interface.

The EX series pictured is just one of three PR A/V Series customizable HTPCs Cannon PC offers, and features a 12-inch HD touch-screen as the interface. Inside the case, room has been provided for 6TB of memory, with a 750GB Seagate Barracuda drive provided as standard equipment. Features common to all the company's offerings are USB and FireWire connections, front inputs and outputs, 28-in-1 card readers, eight-channel HD audio support, and dual NTSC and HDTV tuners. The brains include Intel's Quad or Dual core or Centrino processors, P35 Express chipsets, and ATI or NVIDIA graphics cards, with up to 8GB of RAM.

Prices for the EX series HTPC start at nearly $5,600, but do not include the dual CableCARDs, which will be available as options early in June via Cannon PC's website.

That's a seriously cool looking HTPC.

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Wow ... this is very big-brother kind of behaviour ... Valve unveiled new features planned for an upcoming Steam update, including automatic driver updates for hardware and an integrated system requirements checker for games. This new system is going to be huge. Not just for Steam users, but for the PC game community as a whole, especially if other companies opt to roll out their own "Steam Cloud" like system.

15.11. Valve are announcing Steamcloud. Save games and configs are to be stored by the Steam back-end. Half-Life will be the first to do this, with Counter-Strike remembering your key config. Left 4 Dead will ship with this too. I

f you're offline it caches the data locally, and then uploads it as soon as it can. They will keep those save games forever. "You can uninstall Half-Life, then come back to it two years later and finally finish Xen." It will be free, to both developers and customers.

Some more info can be found on ShackNews:

Half-Life and Half-Life 2 will be the first games to support the service. User key mappings will also be saved in Counter-Strike, and Left 4 Dead will ship with the feature. If players are offline, the service will store the data and then add it to the network on the next connection. According to Valve, saved games and configurations will be stored forever.

Valve further noted that the service will be freely available to developers, and is set to launch in the "near future."  The company also detailed plans for several new Steam systems, including a driver auto-updater and calendar functionality. Another feature in development is a system-requirement checker. The program will analyze your hardware and compare it to multiple games, estimating your performance and recommending upgrades.

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Google demonstrated its Android mobile phone software Wednesday at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco. The project, under development by Google and a number of partners in the Open Handset Alliance, is due to ship as open-source software when the first Android phones go on sale later this year. This is a view of the home screen, demonstrated by Steve Horowitz, Android's engineering director.

 

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SanDisk Corporation today introduced the fastest card in its Memory Stick product family: the SanDisk Extreme III Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo with read and write speeds of 30 megabytes (MB) per second.

The card, available in June in 4-gigabyte (GB) and 8GB capacities, is ideal for professional photographers and advanced amateurs who use Sony digital single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras.

SanDisk and Sony jointly developed Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo as an extension of the existing Memory Stick PRO format, to offer faster read and write speeds for PRO-HG capable Sony digital SLRs, point-and-shoot cameras and digital camcorders.

SanDisk is unveiling the SanDisk Extreme III Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo at the PMA Australia 2008 Imaging Technology Show, where the company is exhibiting at Stand 401 in the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre from May 30 to June 1.

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Thermaltake is well known among PC enthusiasts around the world by its unique design and great thermal performance.

With the black powder coating interior, M5 looks stylish in and out. For user friendly consideration, M5 has integrated the Tool-free mechanism for 5.25, 3.5 devices and PCI slots, saving so much more time on installation. As for thermal consideration, M5 can hold up to 6 fans max to optimize the system airflow. The bottom-placed PSU will not only be extremely easy to install, but beneficial for ventilation at the same time

For those who seek to build a medium sized system with high thermal performance chassis, Thermaltake M5 will undoubtedly be your first choice.

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Corsair announced that it will launch a new 4GB DOMINATOR DDR3 memory kit running at 2000MHz at CompuTex 2008, held June 3-7, 2008 in Taipei.  Tested and guaranteed for operation at the lightning fast overclocked speed of 2000MHz, this 4GB DOMINATOR kit provides superior performance for desktop platforms. 

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With two crafting abilities (Apothecary and Talisman Making) and four supporting gathering skills (Cultivating, Magical Salvaging, Scavenging and Butchering), the MMORPG incorporates an innovative crafting system to aid players in their fights on the battlefield

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The guys from gizmodo bumped into Michael Dell at All Things D, and he was nice enough to show this laptop that he was carrying that he said no one's seen before.

It's a small form factor notebook, just like the Asus Eee and the HP 2133. He wouldn't tell me what OS it's running, or the pricing, but that it's a low-cost notebook meant for developing countries, and I hope here. Maybe it's Atom-powered. Who knows? But they did see three USB ports, a card reader, VGA out, Ethernet, and that red candy shell. I couldn't tell how big the screen was before it was tucked away into a black sleeve and ushered from the building, but it's small. 

Dell just released a pair of shots that add to the sense of scale, but no official name yet.

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Yet another Far Cry 2 video. Though the way the fire spreads and how the wind affects it is pretty, impressive!

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iChill GeForce 9600 GT ZEROtherm Hurricane review

A DIY kit graphics card - Luckily there are some NVIDIA board partners who try to do things differently & Inno3D is one of them. Actually I think Inno3D has like five or six different SKUs based on the GeForce 9600 GT, but one stands out. It's their GeForce 9600 GT iChill edition graphics card with ZeroTherm HC92 cooler. It's actually a DIY kit with the very best cooler we ever tested. Next to a standard overclock, the tweaking possibilities are even better.

Did we just find the best GeForce 9600 GT that money can buy ?

Article link:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/ichill-geforce-9600-gt--zerotherm-hurricane-review/

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Weirdest thing you ever have seen, trust me.

Sony today announced it would translate one of its concept speaker designs into a production device. The Sountina promises a radical approach to sound by outputting the same sound at 360 degrees from the speaker itself: an upward-facing driver vibrates a glass tube that in turn pushes sound outwards in all directions rather than in a cone, as with traditional speakers. The change both leads to a new look as well as reducing the horizontal footprint of the Sountina.

The audio equipment also promises a unique visual effect through an amber, blue, and purple LED lighting system that can be remotely controlled to change the ambient effect for the room; the same controller can also fine-tune audio settings for the actual speaker.

Sony outfits the Sountina with inputs for conventional RCA audio, digital audio through co-ax or optical connections, and two-channel linear PCM; despite its narrow and unusual design, the 85-watt device supports a subwoofer and can still generate frequencies between 50Hz and 20KHz, according to the company.

The Japanese firm expects a quick turnaround for its new speaker and will begin selling it on June 20th for a premium price equivalent to $10,091; the Sountina is pitched at both private buyers as well as stores and other public places. A US launch isn't mentioned with the announcement, though Sony has recently brought over unique designs such as the XEL-1 OLED TV and the Rolly music player.

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LaCie has doubled burn speeds to 4X for it d2 Blu-ray Drive and has updated the aluminum alloy case and software suite. The drive records, rewrites and reads 25 gigabytes (GB) or 50GB BD-R (recordable) and BD-RE (rewritable), as well as DVD

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