By Aaron Heibert - Source : Tom's Hardware

Planning your roadmap to Core i7? Kingston has just announced it is launching its HyperX Triple Channel DDR3 kits today, with 3GB kits to ship first, 6GB kits to ship following shortly.

The new HyperX kits will range from 1375MHz to 2000MHz while the ValueRam kits will range from 1066MHz to 1333MHz. Both 3GB and 6GB ValueRAM kits will be available immediately. The 2GB (2x1GB) DDR3 1333MHz kit is current available on Newegg.com for US$70.99.

Kingston is claiming the first to market running at 1.65 volts. DDR3 running at 1.65 volts on Core i7 systems should be well within nominal limits and is to be considered safe – however, many reviewers around the net believe that high voltage enthusiast kits will damage your i7 CPU within just a few weeks of use, or even days. This was covered in a previous article here on Tom’s Hardware.

Clipped from the Kinston Press Release:

“Fountain Valley, CA — October 29, 2008 — Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced it is first to ship 2GHz memory in triple-channel configuration designed specifically for the new Intel-based X58 motherboards. Kingston’s HyperX® DDR3 2GHz memory, available now, come in kits of three 1GB modules that are Intel® XMP (Extreme Memory Profile) ready meeting the Core i7 1.65 volt platform recommendation.

In addition to the top-of-the-line 2000MHz, Kingston’s family of triple-channel kits include 1866- and 1800MHz, and low-latency 1600- and 1375MHz speeds. Kingston ValueRAM® kits of three are also available in 1333MHz and 1066MHz, in 1- and 2GB capacities.”

Here is a list of modules / kits, part numbers, and expected pricing:

KHX16000D3K3/3GX 3GB 2000MHz (CL9-9-9-27 @ 1.65v) kit of 3 optimized for XMP $ 334.00

KHX14900D3K3/3GX 3GB 1866MHz (CL9-9-9-27 @ 1.65v) kit of 3 optimized for XMP $ 317.00

KHX14400D3K3/3GX 3GB 1800MHz (CL9-9-9-27 @ 1.65v) kit of 3 optimized for XMP $ 312.00

KHX12800D3LLK3/3GX 3GB 1600MHz (CL8-8-8-24 @ 1.65v) kit of 3 optimized for XMP $ 285.00

KHX11000D3LLK3/3GX 3GB 1375MHz (CL7-7-7-20 @ 1.65v) kit of 3 optimized for XMP $ 192.00

KVR1333D3N9K3/6G 6GB 1333MHz (CL9-9-9 @ 1.5v) ValueRAM kit of 3 $ 240.00

KVR1333D3N9K3/3G 3GB 1333MHz (CL9-9-9 @ 1.5v) ValueRAM kit of 3 $ 132.00

KVR1066D3N7K3/6G 6GB 1066MHz (CL7-7-7 @ 1.5v) ValueRAM kit of 3 $ 240.00

KVR1066D3N7K3/3G 3GB 1066MHz (CL7-7-7 @ 1.5v) ValueRAM kit of 3 $ 132.00

Kingston HyperX is backed by a lifetime warranty and free 24/7 technical support. For more detailed information please visit the Kingston Web site.

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By Jane McEntegart - Source : Tom's Guide

Google this week settle a two year long copyright lawsuit with the Authors Guild of America and five members of the Association of American Publishers.

Roy Blount Jr, president of the Authors Guild, said in a statement that the Guild took legal action against the search giant, after Google struck deals with major university libraries to scan and copy millions of books in their collections. Blount explains that while many of these were older books in the public domain, millions of others were still under copyright protection. The Guild said Google’s scanning was “a plain and brazen violation of copyright law,” although the Mountain View company maintained that the digitizing of these books represented a “fair use” of the material, the Guild thought otherwise.

Google, the Guild and the Association of American Publishers yesterday announced that the three had come to an agreement with regard to already scanned copyright protected books and laid out prospective plans for future revenues. Google says it will give payments totaling $125 million. The money will be used to establish the Book Rights Registry, to resolve existing claims by authors and publishers and to cover legal fees. Blount said in a statement there will be at least $45 million for authors and publishers whose in-copyright books and other copyrighted texts have been scanned without permission

Blount went on to say that rights holders will receive a share of revenues from institutional subscriptions to the collection of books made available through Google Book Search under the settlement, as well as from sales of online consumer access to the books and will also be paid for printouts at public libraries, as well as for other uses.

Check out Google’s Book Search here.

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By Steve Seguin - Source : Tom's Hardware

On Tuesday, Dell launched its new line of OptiPlex commercial desktop solutions, including the OptixPlex 960, OptixPlex 760, OptixPlex 360 and OptiPlex FX160. The OptiPlex FX160 is Dell’s very first thin client.

The flagship OptiPlex 960 is available in three different chassis styles; mini-tower, desktop and small form factor. Dell claims the OptiPlex 960 delivers the most environmentally friendly features of any commercial desktop from any major vendor and that it has a reduced power consumption of 43 percent when compared to previous OptiPlex generations. The OptiPlex 960 also has a 30 percent increase in durability, up to a 60 percent reduction in noise, full drive encryption, Intel vPro technology and multi-factor authentication. The system seems to be rather configurable, with Intel Core 2 Duo and Quad processors available, integrated or dedicated graphics and up to 8 GB of DDR2 memory.

The mainstream OptiPlex 760 is a versatile business solution that offers robust manageability, security and improved energy efficiency. It is available in a variety of chassis styles, including desktop, mini-tower, small form factor and ultra small form factor. The system can be configured with a host of options, including up to 4 GB of DDR2 memory (supports up to 8 GB on all but the USFF), a processor ranging from an Intel Celeron to an Intel Core 2 Duo and a choice of dedicated or integrated graphics.

For more basic needs, the OptiPlex 360 is designed to fit the bill. The OptiPlex 360 offers practical features such as the Dell Client Manager, long life-cycles, chassis loop lock support for physical system protection, and energy-saving capabilities. Both Windows XP and Windows Vista are available options, as well as two different chassis styles; desktop and mini-tower. The system can be configured with a host of options, including up to 4 GB of DDR2 memory, a processor ranging from an Intel Celeron to an Intel Core 2 Duo, and a choice of dedicated or integrated graphics. It should be noted that the available integrated graphics solution is the Intel GMA 3100 and not the faster Intel GMA 4500.

For flexible computing needs, Dell offers the OptiPlex FX160, which is Dell’s very first thin client. The OptiPlex FX160 can be configured to support either a Virtual Remote Desktop thin client environment or an On-Demand Desktop Streaming environment. The OptiPlex FX160 features an Intel Atom processor and a very low power consumption.

Dell states the OptiPlex 960 starts at $863, the OptiPlex 760 at $593, the OptiPlex 360 at $476 and the OptiPlex FX160 at $399.

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By Aaron Heibert - Source : Tom's Hardware

Been eyeballing that old aquarium in the garage (the fish long since gone) for your next extreme system mod and cooling solution? Probably not, but Puget Systems now offers kits for those of you that are interested and brave enough to venture into submerged cooling mods.

Custom PC maker, Puget Systems, has announced the availability of their DIY ‘Aquarium PC’. Puget claims that they have been running their own system for over a year with no ill effects on the hardware submerged within. Some people may cringe at the thought, but mineral oil is completely non conductive of electricity – meaning you could drop anything electronic into it and it will continue to run just fine.

Standard liquid cooling systems have nothing on this baby. Since the entire motherboard and everything attached to it gets entirely submerged into mineral oil. With the aid of a pump and external radiator, everything in the aquarium gets it share of ‘liquid cooling’. As depicted in the images, you can see that the power supply is even inside the tank. A cooler is installed on the CPU – but really all it is there for is to move the mineral oil across the fins as though it were air.

Now it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that standard fans can move air a lot easier than liquid – since liquid is heavier and denser than air, you may want to ensure that the fan on your cooler and in your PSU will stand up to the increased stress of moving liquid. All current fan manufactures of course do not have a ‘liquid’ rating on their fans, so this would be entirely a trial by fire situation. Puget was unavailable at this time for comment regarding this issue.

We can also see, according to the images anyway, that the hard drives are not contained within the tank itself – this would be for obvious reasons, anything gets inside your drive and its pretty much toast since what goes on inside them happens at a severely high degree of accuracy – something you do not want to mess with. This leaves you with eSATA for your storage option. You could however submerge solid state drives into mineral oil without issue. Keep that in mind. Your CDs and DVDs will not be going for a swim either.

Puget would also like to caution potential buyers that submerging your hardware into any liquid will obviously void your warranty – could you imagine returning a oil-logged video card to EVGA? Yeah, not going to happen. Puget also mentions that mineral oil is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to clean from your hardware – making your hardware dunking madness a one way ticket. Don’t put it in there if you don’t plan on leaving it in there.

The system can be purchased in two separate pieces, the Aquarium Module, and the Cooling Module. Puget’s site claims the cooling module is only needed for ‘high-end’ systems – this would imply that lower-end hardware would not require the massive radiator module. Since nobody buying this would be planning on dunking 8500GTs, it’s a good assumption that you will need the cooling module as well.

The Aquarium Module costs US$312.50 and the Cooling Module US$375.00. More information and parts can be found at the Puget Systems Website.

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By Jane McEntegart - Source : Tom's Guide

Just two weeks after the release of HTC’s Android-based G1, rumors say Asus will be the next vendor to bring out a handset running Google’s newly released mobile operating system.

Following the word on the HTC’s G1 on the grapevine said Motorola would be the next Android handset. Unfortunately, after a couple of weeks it emerged that while Motorola was indeed developing its own social networking smartphone, it wouldn’t hit shelves until the second half of 2009. While many saw this as a disadvantage for the struggling handset manufacturer, it also brought about the question of which company would be the second to offer an Android phone.

According to a report in DigiTimes, company sources say Asus plans to launch its first Android-based Google phone in the first half of 2009. Market sources say Asustek may initially sell the Google handsets under its own brand in the Taiwan market before also launching customized models for overseas clients.

The news follows comments from Asus CEO Jerry Shen about the possibility of an Eee Phone, in line with the company’s line of ultra portable netbooks. Shen said the company would be announcing several new products at CES 2009 in January and dropped hints about an Asus mobile phone incorporating the Eee brand ideas.

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By Jane McEntegart - Source : Tom's Hardware

Mac Clone maker, Psystar, has just announced that the company’s computers will now feature Blu-ray drives, something real Macs do not have — and judging from comments made by Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, something real Macs won’t have for quite a while.

The addition of Blu-ray to the OpenPC will more than likely mean nothing for Psystar’s lawsuit with Cupertino-based Apple. Steve Jobs said at Apple’s most recent launch that the company was not considering Blu-ray and branded the format, “just a bag of hurt.”

“Blu-ray is a bag of hurt. I don’t mean from the consumer point of view. It’s great to watch movies, but the licensing is so complex. We’re waiting until things settle down, and waiting until Blu-ray takes off before we burden our customers with the cost of licensing.”

However, while Apple may not have a new bone to pick in the OpenPC’s latest feature, Steve’s comment surprised a lot of people who hoped the new MacBooks would come with a BD drive. Psystar thinks it’ll garner more customers offering something Mac fans want but can’t get from an Apple-branded machine.

According to Ars Technica, Psystar bigwig Rudy Pedraz said in a statement that while Apple had chosen to delay Blu-ray, customers could get their OSX and their Blu-ray with an OpenPC, but we doubt it’ll be enough to lure true Apple folk away from their MacBooks.

"Blu-ray has already won the format war. Not only is there fully functional and mature support for Blu-ray in other operating systems but you can now rent Blu-ray discs from almost any rental chain," Pedraza said. "Blu-ray has become pervasive technology that is being widely adopted by consumers everywhere," he added.

It recently emerged that Psystar and Apple would settle their differences outside of the courtroom in a process known as an Alternative Dispute Resolution. An ADR is a private process whereby both parties can meet and work out a resolution in lieu of going to trial. It will, however, be several weeks before an agreement is reached.

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By Aaron Heibert - Source : Tom's Guide

Been thinking of purchasing the Lenovo IdeaPad S10? Well now there is another reason to add it to your list (or remove it, depending on your view). The S10 Ultra-Portable is getting the Splashtop Instant-On option.

The Instant-On feature of the IdeaPad, appropriately named ‘QuickStart’ will offer users the ability to connect to the web, check email, chat and/or conference, and perform a bunch of common user functions – all within seconds of powering on.

For those of you that are not familiar with Splastop, it is an ‘Instant-On’ feature that is accessible outside of your normal Windows operating system. It is accessed before booting into Windows after powering on your system, allowing users to perform basic and/or common simple functions like surfing the web, emailing, chatting, listening to music or watching videos, and accessing some data.

Splashtop is pre-installed on the hard drive of the computer or is contained within on-board flash memory of new PCs and motherboards to allow quick access. It is also a software solution that requires no additional hardware.

Splashtop will gives users the added benefit of quickly accessing their most important functions in a simple, easy to use, environment – all at the touch of a button. You can read more information regarding Splashtop here.

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By Steve Seguin - Source : Tom's Guide

Microsoft is seeking to improve battery life for notebooks with Windows 7.

As PDC2008 continues on this week, Windows 7 is a topic garnering plenty of attention. Although the new taskbar is pretty and all, a monumentally more important aspect of Windows 7 is arguably the improved battery life it will offer notebooks. With notebooks now outselling desktop computers, increased mobile performance is a feature that many will greatly appreciate.

According to Extremetech, Windows 7 will feature a power audit tool that will help users improve their notebook battery life and reduce energy usage. While dimming a screen’s brightness is one simple way to save power, Microsoft realizes that there are also other more advanced methods of reducing power consumption, such as increasing the system timer. By increasing the system timer from 1ms to 15.6ms, battery life can be increased by 10-percent. We have yet to be see how this will work in practice, but one would imagine that altering the system timer too much could result in a less responsive system or choppy performance. During moments of idle usage however, dynamically altering the system timer to improve battery life could make a lot of sense.

As recently discovered by Anandtech, it was unexpectedly found during tests with the new Apple MacBooks that battery life was more than doubled when using the Apple Mac OS X than when compared to using Windows Vista. While wireless Internet browsing for example, a MacBook Air could achieve 4.98-hours of battery life, but when using Windows Vista on the same notebook, only 2.55-hours could be achieved. This result still remains largely unexplained and is a startling find.

Although there are likely many reasons why Windows Vista offers comparably poor battery performance, one reason might be in regards to the legacy support Windows is known to provide. If this is the case, it might be fundamentally more difficult for Microsoft to implement the same level of battery life that Mac OS X is capable of. A more modularized Windows could be one way to overcome this issue, and we have been hearing Windows 7 will indeed be more modularized, so there is further hope.

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By Steve Seguin - Source : Tom's Hardware

G.Skill launched its new triple-channel DDR3 memory kits for the Intel Core i7 platform.

As the release date for the Intel Core i7 platform approaches, memory manufactures have begun launching their memory products designed specifically for the new platform. G.Skill is no exception and on Tuesday the company launched its full line of DDR3 performance triple-channel memory kits designed for the Intel Core i7 processor and the Intel X58 Express chipset. The new memory is available in both 3 GB and 6 GB capacities, with speeds of 1333 MHz and 1600 MHz.

Of the four newly launched memory kits, the first two are named F3-12800CL9T-3GBNQ and F3-12800CL9T-6GBNQ and come in capacities of 3 x 1 GB and 3 x 2 GB, respectively. These memory kits have a speed of DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3 12800), a CAS Latency of 9-9-9-24 and a Test Voltage somewhere between 1.5 V and 1.6 V. The memory is unbuffered Non-ECC, the PCB is 6 layers and cooling is provided by G.Skill NQ Series heat-spreaders.

Next, we have a pair of G.Skill memory kits that are named F3-10666CL9T-3GBNQ and F3-10666CL9T-6GBNQ, with capacities of 3 x 1 GB and 3 x 2 GB, respectively. These memory kits have a speed of DDR3 1333 MHz (PC3 10666), a CAS Latency of 9-9-9-24 and a Test Voltage somewhere between 1.5 V and 1.6 V. The memory is unbuffered Non-ECC, the PCB is 6 layers and cooling is provided by G.Skill NQ Series heatspreaders.

G.Skill states these products have lifetime warranties and ever ready technical back-up. It is important to remember that it is not recommended to set the DDR3 memory voltage higher than 1.65 V when used in a Intel Core i7 system, as it could damage the CPU. No word on pricing yet, but G.Skill states these memory kits are ideal for enthusiasts, overclockers and early-adopters, which probably means they will be carrying a premium price-tag.

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By Aaron Heibert - Source : Tom's Guide

It appears that Dan Hesse, Sprint CEO, is not sold on the whole Android epidemic. Hesse told the National Press Club in Washington that Android is “not good enough to put the Sprint brand on it.”

Although Hesse has promised to sell an Android based phone sometime in the future, he clearly believes that it is not ready for prime time. Sprint is part of an alliance of about 30 companies that all said they would support Google’s development of a mobile phone operating system. Sprint believes that its support comes through communicating the fact that it is just not ready yet. T-Mobile (USA) on the other hand has started selling the first Android based device earlier this week – the HTC G1.

According to consumer feedback in forums across the internet, the feelings seem to be mixed. Some people are leaning more towards the fact that they think Sprint should have on-boarded the G1, while an equal amount of others seem to think that the Android is clearly not ready for public usage.

Forums on many open-source community sites are showing some signs of outrage, claiming things such as:

“Android is open-source, and open-source is supported by the community. Regardless of bugs and security flaws that may arise, it will not get as much attention if it is held back – open-source relies on the community!”

A pretty strong statement in its own respect, but one has to remember that someone selling this phone needs to market it as well – and unless they market it directly to the said ‘community’ then sales would not be adequate.

Some people even suggest that Hesse may have made this decision based on the fact that a recently discovered security flaw was identified in the Android’s browser system – however this is just speculation and there is no concrete evidence to support the claims.

Nonetheless, we believe Android is a good thing and will definitely get its share of attention – only time will tell the ultimate outcome.

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By Jane McEntegart - Source : Tom's Guide

It seems the U.S. military isn’t as big on Twitter as the rest of the blogosphere.

Most people who Twitter do so several times a day. There’s no point Tweeting unless you’re going to make use of the fact that you can update from your mobile phone and therefore, from pretty much anywhere with mobile signal.

It seems the U.S. Army is a little worried that terrorists will realize just how useful Twitter is for keeping your cronies up to date with your movements (because everyone needs to know that you spent seven hours watching paint dry) and an intelligence report now details the different ways in which terrorists could use the microblogging service as an operational tool.

According to ComputerWorld, the report points out that Twitter is already used members to post or support extremist ideologies and perspectives. "For example, there are multiple pro and anti Hezbollah Tweets,” the report said. “In addition, extremist and terrorist use of Twitter could evolve over time to reflect tactics that are already evolving in use by ’hacktivists’ and activist for surveillance. This could theoretically be combined with targeting."

Aside from listing the ways in which terrorists could use Twitter to coordinate near real time attacks, the report from the U.S. Army’s 304th Military Intelligence Battalion also cited several examples of real Tweets sent from by unknown users, likely U.S. military personnel.

"Drove off base today down Route Irish [Baghdad airport road] in an ’NTV and didn’t get blown up fun fun"

"Today is my day off. 115 already in Camp Bucca Iraq."

Read the full story on ComputerWorld.

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