Legit Reviews News History
UK shortages of Xbox 360 expected
What we already know about here in the US the UK will have to go through on Friday: a shortage of Xbox 360's, primarily due to the amount of pre-orders. Considering the goal of having 3 million Xbox units out the factory door in 90 days, one has to think there may be a possbility of consoles crashing, as there was reported here in the US.
Most shops have already sold out of all their stock because so many people have pre-ordered the new Microsoft console. The Xbox 360 sold out quickly when it was released in the US last week, with some cashing in by offering consoles on the online auction site eBay. The machine is the first of the next generation of consoles, marking the start of a new era in video games. It is one of the most eagerly-awaited consumer electronics debut of the year and vying with Apple's iPod at the top of many people's Christmas lists. Sony and Nintendo are planning to unleash their next gen consoles during 2006, giving Microsoft an edge over its rivals by releasing the 360 now. The software giant is virtually tied with Nintendo for second place, way behind Sony, in a games market worth $25bn globally.
Posted by | Wed, Nov 30, 2005 - 10:23 AM | Comments
Microsoft offering previews of new Windows
In an effort to keep tabs on its progress in getting a complete version of Windows Vista out the door, Microsoft will start releasing preview versions of the OS monthly, with a major beta release early next year, and hopefully the finished product in the second half of '06.
Microsoft Corp. is releasing preview versions of its new Windows Vista operating system about once a month in an effort to get more customer feedback than usual ahead of next year's launch, the company said Tuesday. The world's largest software maker also reiterated its plan to launch Vista in the second half of 2006, five years after the release of its current version, Windows XP. It is the longest gap ever between major launches of Microsoft's core Windows product, the company's cash cow which accounts for more than a quarter of its $40 billion in annual revenue.Microsoft gave some customers preview versions of Vista in September and October and expects to offer another version with more improvements in December.Early next year, testers will try out a version that integrates all the features expected to be in the final version of Vista.
Posted by | Wed, Nov 30, 2005 - 10:16 AM | Comments
Intel to partner with TiVo on PC platform
You can already use your TiVo to record shows onto its hard disk and view later, but soon, you'll be able to take TV shows from your PC and load them into a TiVo. Intel has partnered with TiVo on its upcoming media center monster, Viiv (or 64 in Roman numerals when put back-to-back). You will be able to pull shows and movies from your TiVo and put them on your PC, and vice-versa. This will turn out to be a wonderful thing, especially if you get on with the forthcoming Internet cable TV revolution!
Looking to boost the number of computers whirring away in living rooms, Intel Corp. on Wednesday unveiled its first list of companies whose products are expected to work with the chip maker's upcoming Viiv entertainment PC platform. So far, about 40 companies that develop TV, movie, music, gaming and photo-editing products are testing and verifying services, programs and gadgets that will interact with the Intel technology, said Kevin Corbett, an Intel vice president in charge of content services. The goal of the Viiv label, he said, is to avoid consumer confusion and questions over interoperability. It also will ensure the products will work when the PC is being controlled from a distance via a remote control.Intel, which is best known for its Pentium microprocessor, followed a similar strategy in 2003, when it launched its Centrino technology for laptops. Along with a big marketing push, it worked to ensure that gear carrying the Centrino logo worked with laptops branded the same way. Digital video recorder pioneer TiVo Inc. plans to use the technology to make it simple not only to transfer from TiVo set-top box to a Viiv PC but also allow for the transfer of shows on the PC to a TiVo. Viiv also will make it easier to move the content to a DVD or handheld player.
Posted by | Wed, Nov 30, 2005 - 10:10 AM | Comments
Wednesday Reviews from Around the Web
[H]ard|OCP has put together a Holiday buying guide for all of you enthusiasts out there. Check out this, and other reviews, by visiting the Legit Forums!
As the 2005 holiday season is near, we dug deep into our holiday cheer and came up with a Newegg four-way system buying guide. We applied $500 and $1000 to upgrade systems and $1200 and $2000 to full systems for both AMD and Intel-based purchases.
Posted by | Wed, Nov 30, 2005 - 05:54 AM | Comments
Is Xbox a Money Pit?
Wow, it seems like Microsoft is really taking a soaking on their new console. If only they had decided to sell them on E-Bay, where they are going for 3-5 times their actual retail value.... they might actually have tuiurned a profit. I wonder how things are going to shake out down the road when have to address all the crashing issues, be it the power supply or the actual console, thats just going to put Microsoft further in the hokle on this project.
Despite assurances from Microsoft executives that the retail price of the new Xbox 360 game console would cover production costs, product tear downs by two different market researchers suggest that the company is losing money on the machines. On Thursday, researcher Portelligent conducted a tear-down analysis of the standard Xbox 360, which retails for $299.99, and estimated its actual material costs at around $310, suggesting a slight loss on every machine sold. Microsoft clearly tried to reduce costs as much as possible, the Austin, Texas based researcher said. In particular, Microsoft tried to trim its Xbox budget by using multiple suppliers for different parts on the machines. For example, the devices that support the wireless link for the Xbox 360's wireless game controllers were supplied by at least two different chip makers, National Semiconductor and Marvell Semiconductor, the firm said. The cost of making the Xbox 360 Premium edition run far higher than its retail price of $399.99, according to researcher iSuppli. That company's analysis of the cost of parts inside the game console resulted in an estimate of $525, far above the retail price. The loss on the machines may not be swallowed wholly by Microsoft. Some of the parts suppliers may take a hit as well. And Microsoft could argue that it will make up a small loss on the hardware through game sales. But, if the teardowns are correct, it's clearly not what the world's largest software maker had intended for the Xbox 360. In an interview earlier this year, an executive said the consoles would be profit generators.
Posted by | Wed, Nov 30, 2005 - 02:28 AM | Comments
Tuesday Reviews from Around the Web
TrustedReviews has posted their Mid-Range Graphics Card Round-Up! Find this and other reviews by visiting the Legit Forums!
With the arrival in our offices of a retail GeForce 6800 GS, from Leadtek, we thought that the time was ripe to take a look at what you can get for around the £150 mark. ATI might prefer to see its X800 XL as a more direct competitor for the 6800 GS but that’s a 16-pipleine card and at around £190, it’s more expensive than the 12-pipeline 6800 GS. Similarly, the X800 GTO is a 12-pipeline part.
Posted by | Tue, Nov 29, 2005 - 07:53 AM | Comments
Thieves put car security system to test
What a way to test a new security system! David Thomas, the Project Manager over the BT (Bluetooth?) TrackIt security system, had his Audi A4 stolen. What the thief didn't anticipate, however, was that Mr. Thomas had this security system installed on his car, and was recovered that very day. This interesting little stint could do a lot for sales of the unit, that's for sure!
The car, an Audi A4, belongs to David Thomas--project manager for the new BT Trackit system. It was stolen outside his house on Nov. 2 and was recovered, undamaged, the same day. Thomas was alerted to the theft by BT's Secure Operating Centre. Using satellite-based tracking technology, the car was pinpointed and the local police were informed and were able to recover the vehicle. The car had been abandoned six miles away. "I couldn't believe it when I discovered my car had been stolen," said Thomas. "I suppose it was an opportunity to put BT Trackit to the test for real." The theft and subsequent recovery of the vehicle was announced by BT on Monday, the same day that Trackit was officially launched. A BT spokesman insisted that the company had not invented the story.
Posted by | Mon, Nov 28, 2005 - 09:29 AM | Comments
Sony to let parents control PlayStation 3 access
If you remember anything much about the PS2, you'll remember every time you put a DVD in, it would mention something about the parental controls if you had it configured. Well, now Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo are stretching this to apply to video games as well, where parents can block children from playing games with a certain rating, and on the Xbox, they can also block them from interacting with certain people online. I have varying opinions on this, but let's just leave this up to the readers!
Sony Corp. has become the latest of the video game console makers to announce parental controls in it newest machine, according to the Entertainment Software Association. Now, all three major console makers are promising parents the means to help restrict their children?s access to violent video games. Sony will place the controls on its forthcoming machine, PlayStation 3, according to the ESA. Users of PlayStation 2 could limit access, but only to movies, not games.The company wasn?t immediately prepared to comment. Microsoft Corp. had already placed parental controls in its new Xbox 360, which debuted last week. The machine lets users restrict access to video games and DVDs that carry certain ratings, such as ?T? for ?teen? or ?M? for ?mature.? It also offers parental controls on the company?s Xbox Live online gaming service, limiting who their children can interact with. Earlier this month, Nintendo Inc. announced similar plans for its next-generation machine, Revolution, due out in 2006.
Posted by | Mon, Nov 28, 2005 - 09:11 AM | Comments
Touch panel makers eye car-use applications
The car-use electronics market may be seeing some more "bling" soon. eTurbo Touch and Liyitec, both manufacturers of touch-screen products, expect to start marketing these LCD's toward the automotive market soon. Nothing like having touch-screen in the back seat of that Lexus or Caddy Escalade, I tell you....
Touch panel makers are eying car-use applications, with both eTurbo Touch and Liyitec expecting wider adoption of touch panels from car manufacturers. Kim Wang, CEO of eTurbo Touch Technology, a Taiwan-based touch panel maker, indicated that the proportion of production of car-use electronic devices will rise to 30-40% of overall car manufacturing costs in the near future, up from around 10% currently, as car makers look to differentiate their products. In addition to applications such as the central control monitor and car-use navigation, Liyitec, another touch panel maker in Taiwan, expects LCD displays situated in the back seats of cars to add touch-panel functionality.
Posted by | Mon, Nov 28, 2005 - 09:02 AM | Comments
Activision Fails to Answer Consumer Questions on Call of Duty 2
Activision and nVidia are supportive of gamers right? According to the gamers that is far from true after they asked questions about the recently launched game Call of Duty 2 (COD2). Seems the gamers are organizing the first massive online game strike ? boycott and has scheduled it to happen on December 17th. This is a shocker for us, but we hope that either Ativision or nVidia will help these gamers out. Actually, I paid $60 for the DVD version of CoD2, so I'd like to know also!
It's the action of desperate chaps who claim they cannot get any kind of support from the game developer or publisher. Questions have been asked but the developer hasn't provide any answer, they claim. That's given rise to hurt feelings in the community, but the community wants to make them care. Gamers also claim parts of the games were missing and now three weeks after, still didn?t get any kind of answer.
Posted by | Mon, Nov 28, 2005 - 04:46 AM | Comments
Browser Face-Off
With Firefox 1.5 RC1 due for release tomorrow, PCWorld has a nice little article showcasing the various web browsers and what can be expected of them.
Browser competition hasn't been this fierce since the mid-1990s, and the fight is becoming even more intense as Microsoft, Mozilla, and Opera ready new versions of their software for release. With version 7 of Internet Explorer, Microsoft's developers have seriously overhauled the browser, giving it popular features such as tabbed browsing, as well as improved security, thus closing the gap between it and its rivals. But even though the new iterations of both Firefox and Opera bring mostly incremental changes, that's still enough to keep them ahead of IE. We took Internet Explorer 7 Beta 1, Firefox 1.5 Release Candidate 1, and Opera 9 Preview 1 out for a spin. Both the Firefox beta and the Opera beta are available for download, although Opera isn't publicizing this early testing version; the browsers' final editions should be out around the time you read this. On the other hand, the IE 7 beta will not be available for downloading until early next year.
Posted by | Mon, Nov 28, 2005 - 04:32 AM | Comments
Europe to have 300,000 Microsoft Xbox 360's at launch
Microsoft will have around 300,000 of its new Xbox 360 games console available for its European launch on December 2, a Microsoft executive said in an interview published on Sunday. This is not a big number, so if you want an Xbox 360 you better make plans to camp out the night before.
Industry analysts' estimates of 300,000 Xbox 360s available at launch "were not far removed from reality", said Chris Lewis, the Microsoft executive responsible for the Xbox in Europe, in German weekly financial newspaper Euro am Sonntag. Xbox 360s sold out in many U.S. stores after the launch there on November 22 and are still in short supply, with the console selling at a premium to its $400 retail price on Internet auction sites. Lewis said it was possible the console would sell out at its European launch too.
Posted by | Mon, Nov 28, 2005 - 04:30 AM | Comments
Blu-ray DVD's are winning the race, but losing the price and manufacturing wars
The Sony-backed Blu-ray and the Toshiba-backed HD DVD have each been trying hard to become the next DVD format and the fight is still going on. Today, the fight has shifted over to pricing and the time it takes to produce a disc. Interesting read if you want to know where the future of DVD's is going.
How much? No one can say for certain. But in at least one early test, according to a top manufacturing executive who asked to remain anonymous, a manufacturing line for HD DVD discs produced nearly twice as many usable discs as a similar line pumping out the Blu-ray format, over the same period of time. That translates into higher costs for Blu-ray producers. Moreover, component costs for Blu-ray can be nearly double HD DVD costs, because elements are still hard to find, the executive said.
Posted by | Mon, Nov 28, 2005 - 04:24 AM | Comments
Rumor: Asustek aims for being listed on the NYSE
While this is nothing more then speculation, I find it interesting that Asustek may be trying to get listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in the near future. Should be interesting to see what happens!
Asustek Computer will separate its ASUS-branded business from the company and concentrate solely on the manufacturing side instead of spinning off its wholly-owned subsidiary Asusalpha Computer, according to the Chinese-language Apple Daily, citing industry sources as saying. Asustek?s own-brand operation is expected to turn into a new independent company, which will set up a headquarters in Singapore and will aim for listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in the future, according to the sources. Asustek declined to comment on the report, which contradicts previous reports stating that it would spin off it?s manufacturing arm.
Posted by | Mon, Nov 28, 2005 - 04:15 AM | Comments
EOL of the 3000+ and New 3200+ and 3500+ Steppings
Our friends at Anandtech are reporting the EOL of the 3000+ as well as spotting new steppings of the ever popular 3200+ and 3500+ CPUs.
For those of you who watch the Athlon 64 market very closely, you may have noticed the sudden dry up of lower clocked E3 Venice CPUs. According to industry insiders, AMD appears to have discontinued shipping the Athlon 64 3000+ to major retailers, although AMD roadmaps predicted this far in advanced. However, sources have now indicated that AMD has also stopped shipping the Athlon 64 E3 Venice 3200+ and 3500+ Socket 939 processors too. Higher clocked Athlon 64 chips, like the 3800+, are in allocation.
Posted by | Sun, Nov 27, 2005 - 11:34 AM | Comments
Computer Worm Poses as E-Mail From FBI, CIA
As if we don't get enough junk mail! Now, the FBI and the CIA are sending us mail? Or are they....
It's being called the worst computer worm of the year -- a fast-spreading Internet threat that looks like an official e-mail from the CIA or FBI but can leave your computer wide open to intruders.
Posted by | Sun, Nov 27, 2005 - 11:28 AM | Comments
NVIDIA GeForce Go 7300 Spotted
Those of you that are looking for an inexpensive, yet feature-filled mobile graphics solution will be interested in taking a look at this information from Laptop Logic. They take the time to look at the specs of the Go 7300 and compare it to the Go 6200 and its direct competition, the ATI Mobility Radeon X300.
NVIDIA's next 7-series mobile GPU looks to be a low end, entry level part; but one that stands to offer a lot of value. When NVIDIA released the GeForce Go 7800GTX, it was met with much fanfare and excitement. The Go 7300 won't have quite the same fanfare, but it does look to bring a lot of promising features to the table. The problem with a lot of integrated graphics solutions these days is lack of full feature support, poor video acceleration, and a general sapping of system performance. While the Go 7300 won't set any world performance records, the inclusion of current generation video card technology in the baseline notebook GPU is definitely something to look forward to.
Posted by | Sun, Nov 27, 2005 - 11:21 AM | Comments
Apple's iPod nano a big holiday hit
Apple Computer Inc.'s sleek iPod nano music player was among the top-selling electronic items on Amazon.com on Friday. Not a bad start to the shopping season for Apple!
Apple's black iPod nano with 2 gigabytes of storage, or enough to hold 500 songs, was the sixth best-selling electronic gadget on Amazon.com's list of most popular items, which is updated hourly. A white version was No. 10 on the list. Amazon was selling the nanos for $199.88. Apple introduced its credit card-sized nano in September to replace the iPod mini, then the best-selling iPod version. Tim Cook, Apple's worldwide head of sales and marketing, last month said demand for the nano was "staggering."
Posted by | Sat, Nov 26, 2005 - 10:47 AM | Comments
Web site offers Saddam uniform for auction
Manion's International Auction House is offering the olive green dress uniform, complete with Saddam's special rank on its shoulder straps, at a starting price of $5,000. No bids currently, but I'm sure someone will buy it!
Here it is - the ultimate artifact from Operation Iraqi Freedom - one of former President Saddam Hussein`s daily dress uniforms. High quality olive green polyblend fabric, precision stitched, with two pleated chest pockets and glossy green buttons to each flap and down the front. Horizontal stitched top grommet. Pocket to upper left sleeve. Hussein`s own `Mushir` rank slip-on shoulder straps with embroidered yellow eagle over laurel branches and crossed swords; red velvet tress. Also includes his familiar green and red twistcord aigulette.
Posted by | Sat, Nov 26, 2005 - 10:41 AM | Comments
America's Army used to train U.S. soldiers for combat
The video game America's Army was first released a few years ago as a recruiting tool, but now it is also used as a training device. Sounds like a great idea and all, but I'm not too sure about having a game that real. I mean wouldn't America's foes download the free game and train how to counter the U.S. military?
the Army has developed the Convoy Skills Engagement Trainer. The trainer strives to make the experience of convoy duty as realistic as possible. A real rifle sits mounted on a real gun turret, in front of three, wrap-around white screens. The software, based on the America's Army game, projects a training programme on the screens. In this case, it is convoy duty in Baqubah, Iraq. As one person involved with America's Army put it; "It is better that a soldier gets killed 1,000 times on a training device, than once in real life."
Posted by | Sat, Nov 26, 2005 - 10:37 AM | Comments
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