This Week's Hot News: Sept. Week 4

Sarah Palin's Email Gets Hacked

This week, Sarah Palin’s email gets hacked into at her Yahoo! Mail account. Apparently, the breaker used the password recovery feature in Yahoo! Mail to take guesses at the secret question. All that was done was a bit of searching on the Internet to dig up the answer to Palin’s secret question.
 
This goes to show that if you use online web-mail, you can never be too safe. Make sure that not only your password is secure, but also your secret questions. With social networking so popular these days, it makes finding answers to questions about your life a lot easier.
 
Read the full story on Palin’s email hack here.

We Interview EFiX Creators

Earlier this week, Tom’s Hardware interviewed Davide Rutigliano, the CEO of EFIX. What’s the device in question? The EFiX USB dongle allows you to easily install Apple’s OS X Leopard operating system onto standard PC hardware.
 
How is this better than using a patched copy of Leopard? Firstly, you don’t have to download an illegal hacked copy, and second, users are able to perform normal system updates through Apple without living in fear that an update will cripple their "hackintosh."
 
The EFiX USB dongle allows you to install Leopard from an authentic retail copy of Leopard — hassle free. The only requirement is that you adhere to EFiX’s list of compatible hardware. Preliminary tests run by our friends at Gizmodo show that a well equipped (and cheap) PC setup can really give an Apple Mac Pro (older quad-core model) a run for its money.
 
Go EFiX! Read the full interview here.

HP Closing Doors on VoodooPC

Most boutique system integrators that get swallowed up by larger companies tend to disappear not too long after. With the brands absorbed into the larger entity, there’s almost no need to keep the old staffers around.
 
Could this be happening with Voodoo PC? According to Voodoo founder Rahul Sood, it ain’t so. Long time supporters of Voodoo recognize the outfit for producing high quality gaming rigs that use the latest hardware all while being encased in great looking enclosures. But these same supporters are now fearing that Voodoo parent company HP is ready to axe the entire original team, located in Calgary, Canada.
 
Preliminary reports say that it’s just a move to close down the original location, but keep the entire team. Others however, aren’t so sure the original team is going to be employed for long, since HP’s goal is to streamline and reduce the manufacturing costs of Voodoo’s systems. This often means heads will roll.
 
Read the original report here.
 
Also check out our editorial here concerning HP’s restructuring of Rahul Sood’s company.

Intel's 2009 Roadmap Revealed

This week we brought you Intel’s 2009 roadmap, which covers both desktop, server and mobile CPUs. In here you’ll find information on which chips are going out the door and which ones will be coming in soon. Even still, there are some projected prices.
 
Here are a few interesting tidbits from the leak:
 
Bloomfield Processor Features: Based on next generation Nehalem architecture - Intel Turbo Boost Techonology* - Intel 8MB Smart Cache - Octo(8) Intel Hyper-Threading across four cores - Integrated Memory Controller – 3 channel DDR3 - Intel QuickPath Interconnect to the X58 Express Chipset - PCI Express 2.0 discrete graphics for multi-card performance (2x16 or 4x8) ATI or Nvidia - Seven new SSE4 instruction sets - Available in 2.66GHz , 2.93GHz and Extreme Edition 3.2GHz - LGA-1366 Socket Interface - Release starts late Q4-08
 
Lynnfield Processor: Based on next generation Nehalem architecture - Intel Turbo Boost Technology* - Octo(8) Intel Hyper-Threading across four cores - 8MB of Intel Smart Cache - Integrated Memory Controller – 2 channel DDR3 - PCI Express 2.0 discrete graphics for single or multicard performance (1x16 or 2x8) ATI or Nvidia - LGA-1366 Socket Interface - Release starts early Q3-09
 
Havendale Processor: Based on next generation Nehalem architecture - Intel Turbo Boost Technology* - Quad Intel Hyper-Threading across two cores - 4MB Intel Smart Cache - Integrated Memory Controller – 2 channel DDR3 - Integrated graphics or Discrete graphics support for single card performance (1x16) Nvidia or ATI - LGA-1366 Socket Interface - Release starts early Q3-09
 
Clarksfield Processor: Based on next generation Nahalem architecture - Octo(8) Intel Hyper-Threading technology on four cores - Intel Turbo Boost Technology* - Up to 8MB of Intel Smart Cache - Integrated Memory Controller – 2 channel DDR3 - Discrete Graphics Support for single or multi card performance (1x16 or 2x8) – Releases in late Q3-09
 
Auburndale Processor: Based on next generation Nehalem architecture - Quad Intel Hyper-Threading technology on two cores - Intel Turbo Boost Technology - Integrated Memory Controller – 2 channel DDR3 - Integrated Graphics or Discrete Graphics Support for single card performance (1x16) – Releases in late Q3-09
 
Intel Turbo Boost Technology: Intel Turbo Boost Technology dynamically increases or decreases processor performance based on demand from applications. Dynamically increases clock frequency based on available TDP headroom.
 
Check out part one of our roadmap leak here.
 
Part two of the roadmap, which contains end-of-life processors and mobility CPUs, is here.

Diamond Radeon 3800 Woes

According to reports as well as documents we were able to obtain, Diamond Multimedia has shipped out more than 15,000 defective Radeon units. Of those are:
 

- Radeon HD 3870 X2

- Radeon HD 3870

- Radeon HD 3850
 
According to Diamond’s CEO Bruce Zaman however, only a handful (less than 200) were faulty. Unfortunately, this figure doesn’t match with several documents we were able to obtain from some of Diamond’s partners.
 
Check out the whole story on the Radeon mishap here.
 
In related news, Nvidia has been in the news in a big way regarding large failures of its GPUs.

Ex-Googler Not Happy with Android Phones

This week, Ulf Washbusch, a former Mobile Manager at Google voiced that he was unhappy with the way Google handled Android, and worse yet, Android phone designs that are coming out to market. The first to come is out is HTC’s Dream, which Tom’s Guide reported on earlier.
 
Now, the G1 coming out, it looks like there are even more complaints. While some say that Android will revolutionize the way people use and purchase applications on the cellular network, others are saying that Google’s Android user interface lacks cohesiveness.
 
Check out our report on Ulf Washbusch’s complaints of Android.

Nvidia SLI Laptops Go Head-to-Head

Ever craved for dual GPU goodness on a mobile platform? Look no further. Earlier this week Tom’s Hardware takes a look at 4 insanely powerful SLI-enabled laptops from the top vendors. Among the competitors are Alienware’s m17x, ASUS’ G1, Killer Notebook’s Odachi 17-inch, and Eurocom’s M860TU.
 
These laptops aren’t cheap, and they’re not on the feather weight side of things either. Chris Angelini, our Managing Editor, puts the four monsters through their paces, testing performance, battery life and pricing.