Not exactly a field where you expect them to be, lloks snazzy though. Gigabyte unveiled a new 4000 dpi laser mouse for gamers, the GM-M8000.

GIGABYTE GM-M8000 is a super powerful mouse designed specially for gaming users. It is equipped with the highest performance laser engine in the world: with the most accurate precision, no tracking lag, and highest resolution up to 4000dpi. Another powerful feature of this weapon is to its extra gaming buttons which give gamers the best short-cut to upgrade to the highest rank. Having it, you will be much more pleasure and easily to win every game competition you face.

In addition to hardware design, we also provide the best unique gaming software, GIGABYTE GHOST Engine, for gamers to record, to read, and to edit the desired scripts which include complicated keyboard and mouse commands. Gamers just simply press the gaming button, to allow the mouse starts the function in according to recorded macros. GM-M8000 helps gamers get rid of repeated practice, reducing burdens, and having more funs.

Features:

• High-performance AVAGO 6090 Laser sensor
• Adjustable sensitivity up to 4000 dpi
• Support 15 customizable onboard settings with macro editing
• 8KB GHOST Engine onboard memory
• Scroll wheel with 24 individual click position
• 16-bit ultra-wide data path
• 5 independently programmable gaming button
• Easy "Up-down" DPI adjustment button
• Sweat-Proof Ergonomic streamline shape
• Ultra-Durable slick Teflon feet
• Gaming-grade USB cable with gold-plated USB connector
• Professional GHOSTTM Engine mouse software suite included
• Weight tuning up to 38 grams of metal weights

Oh man -- I've been playing the game all weekend. The official official EA Red Alert 3 website FTP Server now offers patches to update the various language editions of Red Alert 3 to version 1.02. Word is: "This patch for Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 corrected aggressive patch checks that could result in main menu sluggishnes [sic]." Interestingly, this EA FTP directory already contains patch 1.03.

There's no word (yet) what's changed though.

So guys, just a quick heads up on info. As you all know by now, starting tomorrow you'll see a lot of Intel Core i7 reviews on the web. This week, here at Guru3D.com we'll cover not one yet multiple Core i7 related articles.

Tomorrow on Monday you can expect us covering a couple of the processors and their performance. And next to that, due to the sheer new CPU performance thrown at us tomorrow we'll also bring you a Multi-GPU game performance article. We'll cover 2-way, 3-way and even 4-way Multi-GPU gaming performance based on that Core i7 product in combo with NVIDIA SLI and ATI Crossfire. Which, let me tell you, will be a pretty interesting read.

Later this week we'll also bring you some X58 motherboards review. So all in all -- check back tomorrow for some pretty interesting articles.

Hilbert

Article Schedule:

Monday

• Intel Core i7 processor(s) review
• Multi-GPU Game Performance on Core i7

Tuesday

• Intel Reference X58 motherboard review

Thursday

• 3rd party X58 motherboard review

Earlier today Samsung announced its latest SSDs that are designed specifically for the enterprise server market. The storage devices use Samsung single-level-cell (SLC) technology and promise twice the read/write performance of Samsung's standard 32GB and 64GB SLC SSDs.

The Samsung Enterprise SSDs promise to be the greenest drives on the market needing only 1.25 watts of power in active more and 0.3 watts in idle mode. Power consumption is less than 25% of the power needed by a 2.5-inch 15k SAS HDD.

Samsung VP of memory marketing Jim Elliott said in a statement, "Our SSDs give IT managers the best in high-performance, high-endurance storage for servers, with markedly less energy consumption. Now being considered by virtually all major PC OEMs, the proven technology of enterprise SSDs provides a compelling combination of price, performance and longevity for many medium-sized businesses as well as large corporations."

Samsung says that the new SLC SSDs offer sequential read speeds of 100MB per second and write speeds of 80MB/s. Performance in IOPS per watt for the SSDs compared to normal 15K SAS HDDs is 100 times greater. The new SLC SSDs will be available worldwide starting this month.

Samsung already has 128GB multi-level-cell SSDs in mass production and on the market. The MLC SSD has read speeds of 90MB/s and write speeds of 70MB/s [via dailytech].

Even though they were leaked online a bit ago, these two new displays from Dell have finally gone official. That means there are new specs, new information and of course, new images to fawn over.

The S2209W is a 22-inch display that packs in high resolution in a smaller package. With a 16:9 aspect ratio, this LCD has a 1,000:1 contrast ratio, a 5ms pixel response time, VGA support, DVI support and HDCP encryption support. The S2309W actually sports these exact same features. There are a few significant differences between the 22-inch and 23-inch models.

For instance, the S2209W uses a twisted nematic panel, which lessens the number of colors that are visible. This makes it so the 22-inch display can cost less. In fact, it costs $239, while the S2309W costs $299.

After experiencing losses of $310 million, which is up 63% from last year, EA has decided to lay off 6% of their employees in what they

The new Asus Triton 81

 A Monday report in the Beijing Times daily has shed light on an ongoing case between a young woman who was accused of extortion by computer maker ASUS back in 2006 and, as a result, jailed for 10 months, according to a recent report. Huang Jing, whose legal troubles with ASUS began in February of 2006 when she bought an ASUS V6800V notebook which had constant problems that included freeze-ups. After spending 10 months in jail, Huang Jing is now countersuing ASUS for defamation, false accusation and selling defective products.

In addition, Huang Jing is seeking reparation from the state for being jailed for ten months before being released on account of a lack of sufficient evidence. Huang Jing was jailed after ASUS accused her of extortion, when, after her notebook was allegedly repaired using an Intel engineering sample that should not have made it to market, along with other remaining problems, she sued ASUS for $5 million.

"If the news was released to the media, the loss of market share would be far beyond 5 million US dollars," Huang Jing reportedly said early in her dealings with ASUS, and after several unsuccessful negotiations with the hardware company, which led to Huang Jing and her lawyer's arrest.

She was released in December of 2007 after a Haidian District procurator found there was not enough evidence against her. Since her release and the new lawsuit against ASUS, Huang Jing has put up a website that documents other alleged instances where ASUS has cheated its customers.

Intel gained market share in the global microprocessor segment for the third quarter of 2008, comparing year-over-year numbers, according to iSuppli analysis. The company grew 1.7 percent from last year and .3 percent from the previous quarter this year. In contrast, AMD has been losing market share at a similar rate of 1.8 percent from 2007. The research covered the whole range of microprocessors including x86, RISC, and other general purpose products.

iSuppli analyst Matthew Wilkins credited the performance to Intel's strength in the notebook segment. Most of the major computer manufacturers have taken part in the netbook boom with designs that have just recently come to market or will be released in time for holiday shopping. The majority of netbook devices are being manufactured with Intel's Atom processors.

The microprocessor company has developed a way to produce more of the Atom chips per silicon wafer than some of its other components, although the demand has outpaced the company's ability to ship the products due to testing bottlenecks. The Atom line offers higher margins than other Intel processors, but with a lower overall revenue per item.

Several analyst firms anticipate an explosion of the netbook segment. DisplaySearch anticipates that shipments could surpass 14 million units this year. If the volume reaches high enough, Intel could be set to take advantage of the emerging market.

Stuff Live, a gadget show in Britain, is set to happen this weekend in London one of the things on display is this lounge chair that hovers. Designed by inventor, Keith Dixon, the Lounger uses magnets to make the chair float above the ground. Funnily enough, Dixon, of Hoverit Ltd, which is based out of Sussex, was inspired by the Star Wars films as a child. Especially, when it comes to those anti-gravity Landspeeders.

He described the idea of lying on a sitting in this chair as that of floating on a cloud. And that would seem comparable, for sure. However, the price tag is enough to jolt anyone from a pleasant snooze. At $9,620, this is no everyday piece of equipment and meant for the serious gadget investor, only.

And the reason is what you would expect. It seems the Lithium-ion batteries have the tendency to overheat, catch on fire and pose a burn hazard to people. And this is no joke. Apparently, 19 people have already reported problems with overheating. 17 reports involved actual flames and 2 people received mild burns from the faulty batteries.

While the recall is merely voluntary at the moment, it wouldn

Unigine is a developer of 3D graphics engines which in the end can end up in games. Much like the dinosaur island from Crytek a couple of years ago, which became the engine for Far Cry.  

Unigine released version 1.1 of their Tropics demo, new in this version is the addition of DirectX 10.1 support. You can download it over here, it features some pretty sweet graphics. This benchmark uses the Unigine engine.

Key changes:

• Support of DirectX 10.1 multisampling features
• Performance boost
• Procedural grass
• Multisampled deferred buffer, which allows combination of light scattering with anti-aliasing
• Pixel Shader Model 3.0 support is required now, so minimal supported hardware is ATI Radeon X1xxx / NVIDIA GeForce 6xxx
• Additional AMD CrossFire optimizations
• Correct detection of NVIDIA GTX series

It's actually a very impressive demo to look at, and certainly for ATI series 3000 and enwerr owners as it supports DirectX 10.1.

To download - Click here.

Dell released an updated version of the XPS One, the new all-in-one XPS One 24 features a 24" LCD display with 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution.

Prices start at $1,699 for a system with a Intel Core 2 Q8200, Windows Vista Home Premium SP1, DVD burner, 4GB DDR2 memory, 320GB HDD and Intel GMA X4500HD integrated graphics and SoundBlaster Audigy HD Software Edition integrated audio. For $300 more you get a 750GB HDD and GeForce 9600M GT 512MB graphics.

Game publisher Rockstar's confirmed that the PC version of GTA IV has been delayed from November till December 2. In addition, minimum specs have been released. And here they are:

Minimum System Requirements
OS: Windows Vista - Service Pack 1 / XP - Service Pack 3
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8Ghz, AMD Athlon X2 64 2.4Ghz
Memory: 1.5GB, 16GB Free Hard Drive Space
Video Card: 256MB NVIDIA 7900 / 256MB ATI X1900

Recommended System Requirements
OS: Windows Vista - Service Pack 1 / XP - Service Pack 3
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4Ghz, AMD Phenom X3 2.1Ghz
Memory: 2 GB (Windows XP) 2.5 GB (Windows Vista)
18 GB Free Hard Drive Space
Video Card: 512MB NVIDIA 8600 / 512MB ATI 3870

...the person on the phone informed me that you have to uninstall any cd writing programs or image programs like nero, roxio, sonic, alcohol, daemon tools etc and only have the default windows cd writer on your computer...Saying that securom recognizes these as piracy tools basically. They also said if this doesn't work then you have to contact securom yourself about the issue. She told me there is nothing bethesda can do about this problem because of the securom software. Basically according to the call, it is securom's fault, let them handle it. She said we will have to wait for securom to release a fix if this doesn't work so my advice is to start harassing them.

I also asked if they have been getting many calls related to these issues of not being able to install the game, she said yes naturally. She also said these image and writing programs tell securom to read the disc incorrectly hence no wonder none of us have the real game according to securom. I have already uninstalled my cd writing programs but securom still persists in not letting me play my game ...

There's another forum post for those who have SecuROM issues with workaround instructions and a pointer to the SecuROM Website where there's a replacement launcher for Fallout 3, as well as a replacement launcher for Far Cry 2.

Can I just point my middle finger towards Bethesda and SecuROM ? Here's another title I won't pick up for sure. I'll be the judge on what is installed on my PC, not you guys.

Here we nicely and lengthy test the HIS Radeon HD 4870 X2 2048MB. A graphics card with 1600 tiny little sub-processors on that X2 hauling ass on your frame rate, and that's the success of the Radeon HD 4870 X2 .. incredible 3D computing performance, RAW power.

Obviously HIS technology jumped that bandwagon as well, and though we regret to not see a customized cooler on this product, it once again managed to impress us very much.

You can click here to read this Guru3D review.

Well, that's a little bit of an overstatement I'd say, and hey if ZDNet says it, i must be right .. right ? Blu-ray is in a death spiral. 12 months from now Blu-ray will be a videophile niche, not a mass market product predicts this ZNET Blog. With only a 4% share of US movie disc sales and HD download capability arriving, the Blu-ray disc Association (BDA) is still smoking dope. Even $150 Blu-ray players won't save it. According to Digital Content Producer Blu-ray doesn't cut it for business:

• Recordable discs don't play reliably across the range of Blu-ray players - so you can't do low-volume runs yourself. 
• Service bureau reproduction runs $20 per single layer disc in quantities of 300 or less. 
• Hollywood style printed/replicated Blu-ray discs are considerably cheaper once you reach the thousand unit quantity: just $3.50 per disc. 
• High-quality authoring programs like Sony Blu-print or Sonic Solutions Scenarist cost $40,000. 
•  The Advanced Access Content System - the already hacked DRM - has a one-time fee of $3000 plus a per project cost of almost $1600 plus $.04 per disk. And who defines project? 
•  Then the Blu-ray disc Association charges another $3000 annually to use their very exclusive - on 4% of all video disks! - logo.

More here.