Legit Reviews News History
Apple recalls some MacBook Pro batteries on A1175 models
Citing performance concerns, company to replace batteries for some 15-inch laptops under a voluntary recall. Under its free Battery Exchange Program, Apple will replace the batteries for 15-inch MacBook Pro systems sold between February and May 2006. The batteries do not pose a safety hazard, so customers are allowed to use them until their replacements arrive.
"We recently discovered that some 15-inch MacBook Pro batteries supplied to Apple do not meet our high standards for battery performance," Apple said in a statement. The affected batteries apply to model number A1175 and have a 12-digit serial number ending in U7SA, U7SB or U7SC, according to Apple's advisory.
Posted by | Mon, Jul 31, 2006 - 09:02 AM
Gamers bend gender for a winning edge
When men appear as buxom, scantily clad females in video games like "World of Warcraft," it is more about winning than finding an outlet for a real-world affinity for gender bending.
While there are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender-friendly groups that operate within massively multiplayer online games commonly referred to as MMOs, issues of sexual orientation take a backseat to slaying beasts or rival factions, researchers and gamers say. "If you come out in 'World of Warcraft' it doesn't matter. Who cares? You can be gay, straight, transgender. What matters is whether you can swing a sword," said Brathwaite. "It's pure MMO capitalism." In an About.com poll taken last summer, nearly two-thirds of the 920 respondents said they play characters of the opposite sex in online role-playing games.
Posted by | Fri, Jul 28, 2006 - 12:13 PM
Microsoft Nears Xbox 360 Profit
Microsoft's money-losing Xbox 360 will become profitable next year, says the company's entertainment czar. I can't believe they have been losing money on Xbox 360 sales for all this time.
That profit will have been a long time coming. The Xbox 360 and its predecessor have consistently lost money on a per-unit basis, and game software sales have not been strong enough to pull the group into the black. In the fourth quarter, for example, the Home and Entertainment group, responsible for the Xbox 360, grew revenue strongly, to $1.14 billion from $587 million the year before. But the unit also doubled its loss to $414 million.
Posted by | Fri, Jul 28, 2006 - 12:11 PM
ATI Catalyst 6.7 Drivers Now Available For Download
Today Legit Reviews published our part of the World GPU article and in it we used ATI CATALYST 6.7 drivers with great success on cards like the ATI Radeon X1900GT. If you play a bunch of Direct3D games these drivers will greatly enhance performance!
This release of Catalyst introduces Enhanced CrossFire Support. The enhanced support allows for CrossFire Alternate Frame Rendering mode for Direct3D applications to be forced on by setting the Catalyst AI slider to the Advanced position. Users are encouraged to enable this setting if they are not seeing significant performance gains in applications when Crossfire is enabled. This enhancement is available for all Direct3D applications except for Direct3D applications known not to work with Alternate Frame Rendering.
Posted by | Fri, Jul 28, 2006 - 12:09 PM
NVIDIA Brings SLI Graphics to Intel Core 2 Duo Platforms
NVIDIA Corporation today announced that many of the world?s leading system builders have elected to launch new enthusiast gaming Intel Core 2 Duo-based systems exclusively with NVIDIA SLI technology. The Intel Core 2 Duo processor combined with an NVIDIA nForce4 SLI X16 or NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI or 570 SLI-based motherboard and one, two, or even four GeForce graphics processing units (GPUs), has already proven to be an unbeatable combination in terms of system level and gaming performance.
Global system builders now offering NVIDIA SLI technology-based Intel Core 2 Duo systems include: ABS, Alienware, Alternate, Amax/Ajump, Atelco, Carri, Casper, CyberPower, Everest, Evesham, Falcon Northwest, FDC, HCL Infosystems, Hyrican, iBuyPower, Infinity, Komplete, Kraftway, Levi, Maingear, Mesh, Monarch, Next, NTT, Paradigit, PC Club, Polywell, Quiet PC, Sahara Computers, Scan, SHG, Starmaster, Systemax, Tarox, Topnotch, Velocity Micro, Vicious PC, Vigor Gaming, Vobis, Voodoo PC, and others.
Posted by | Thu, Jul 27, 2006 - 12:35 PM
ATI Introduces Boundless Gaming: CrossFire and Intel Core 2 Duo
?Boundless gaming? comes home today as ATI Technologies announced that leading system integrators and OEMs from around the world are bringing to market the powerful combination of ATI?s Radeon X1900 CrossFire multi-GPU graphics and the Intel Core 2 Extreme processor. To read the full press release follow the link to the forums.
As the graphics solution most chosen for Intel Core 2 demo systems at Computex 2006, ATI CrossFire has become the preferred graphics platform of leading system integrators and OEMs for their Intel Core 2 Extreme processor offerings. The rendering horsepower of two ATI graphics cards in concert with the brawn of the new Intel Core 2 Extreme processor works to break down the barriers associated with traditional gaming, addressing GPU- and CPU-bound scenarios to produce leading image quality and performance in games. The result is ?boundless gaming.? Today through system integrators and OEMs, more than twenty ?boundless gaming? systems are available to gamers everywhere.
Posted by | Thu, Jul 27, 2006 - 12:34 PM
Motorola adds two new Razr phones: Krzr and Rizr
Motorola Inc. introduced two additions to its Razr phone family at its annual analysts' meeting, hoping they will be hits during the end-of-year holiday shopping season. The Krzr (pronounced 'Crazer') and the Rizr are not yet in stores
The Krzr is expected in stores in the third quarter and the Rizr in the fourth quarter, the company said in kicking off its two-day analysts' conference Monday night. Pricing isn't yet available. The Krzr is slightly narrower than the Razr and has a music player and a 2-megapixel camera. The Rizr is what's known in the industry as a slider, enabling a user to open it by sliding a cover to reveal a keyboard.
Posted by | Thu, Jul 27, 2006 - 09:18 AM
U.S. broadband subscribers jump
U.S. high-speed Internet subscriptions soared 33 percent last year to 50.2 million lines, according to the latest data released by the Federal Communications Commission Wednesday. Great news for those that run online sites!
More consumers signed up for digital subscriber line (DSL) service from telephone companies like AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. than cable modem service from companies like Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Inc. DSL subscriptions jumped 5.7 million lines versus cable companies adding 4.2 million subscribers in 2005, according to the FCC. The cable industry's market share dropped 3.5 percentage points to 57.5 percent while DSL gained 3.3 percentage points to reach 40.5, the agency said.
Posted by | Thu, Jul 27, 2006 - 09:16 AM
Core 2 Duo's Listed For Sale At ZipZoomFly
I just noticed that Zipzoomfly has all of the Intel Core 2 Duo Processors listed for sale, but only the Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Processor is still in stock. If you are wanting the E6300 it will set you back $219.00 for the 1.86GHz chip with 2MB Cache. The 4MB Cache versions start with the E6600 at $339 and go up in price from there. If you've been waiting to buy a Conroe then you might want to and check it out.
Posted by | Thu, Jul 27, 2006 - 09:14 AM
Intel's Core 2 Duo hits the street
Intel is finally ready to launch its Core 2 Duo processor Thursday at an event at its Santa Clara, Calif.-based headquarters, after months of talks and PowerPoint slides. You can see our review of the processor here and our thoughts on AMD versus Intel gaming performance here.
The Core 2 Duo, which was code-named Conroe, has received a tremendous amount of praise from chip reviewers who had savaged the world's largest chipmaker in recent years for the poor performance of its Pentium D chips against Advanced Micro Devices' Athlon 64 X2 processors.
Posted by | Thu, Jul 27, 2006 - 09:09 AM
Ultra Releases X-Finity 2G-600W Power Supply
Ultra Products has launched two new power supply units ? the X-Finity 2G-600W PSU w/ After Spin Technology and X-Finity 500 Watt PSU w/Active PFC. Both the X-Finity 2G-600W and X-Finity 500W w/ Active PFC models retail for $119.00 and Legit Reviews will review these units in the future.
Specially designed for demanding, high-end gaming systems, the X-Finity 2G-600 Watt PSU supplies up to 37A to the 12V rail, includes Ultra?s award-winning FlexForce cabling for improved airflow and aesthetics, and features ?After Spin Technology.? With ?After Spin Technology,? the PSU, chassis, and CPU fan connectors remain spinning several minutes after the PC is powered down allowing the system to gradually cool down after use. This helps quiet the system and aids in prolonging the life of the system?s components.
Posted by | Tue, Jul 25, 2006 - 07:26 PM
Corsair Launches Flash Readout USB drive
Corsair Memory today announced the introduction of the Corsair Flash Readout USB drive. The new USB Flash drive features a Bi-stable Cholesteric Display (BCD) showing data usage, availability and allowing for personalized ID or labeling.
Joining the ever growing Corsair Flash product family, Corsair?s Flash Readout USB drive has been designed for users who demand performance, aesthetics and advanced functionality in a small portable device. Offering up to 2GB of storage, the new USB Flash drive features an 11 character alphanumeric label display, pie chart to indicate disk space usage and a 4-digit display showing available storage space. The BCD display retains and displays information for up to one year without the use of a battery. In addition to advanced display features the Corsair Flash Readout USB drive offers excellent performance. Featuring high speed USB 2.0 interface it can support sustained read speed up to 20MB/sec and write speed up to 7MB/sec. The drive supports Plug & Play functionality in Windows® XP, 2000, ME, Linux 2.4.0 and later, Mac OS 9, X and later.
Posted by | Tue, Jul 25, 2006 - 07:25 PM
Nigeria buys into $100 laptops
The One Laptop per Child (OLPC) initiative for the developing world is gaining ground in Africa, with Nigeria announcing the acquisition of one million laptops. I'm not to sure how smart of an idea these things are, but lately the price is rumored to be nearing $150 a piece for these $100 laptops.
Nigeria Communication Commission Executive Vice Chairman Ernest Ndukwe said Nigeria has already committed to ordering one million machines. Egypt has said it is almost ready to commit itself to buying the laptops but has not said how many it is prepared to order. Zambian officials say negotiations to buy the machines are progressing well and that the country may soon announce the number of machines the country intends to order. The laptops will have a 500MHz processor and 128M bytes of DRAM, with 500M bytes of flash memory. The laptops will also have wireless broadband that, among other things, allows them to work as a mesh network with each laptop being able to talk to its nearest neighbors, creating an ad hoc local area network.
Posted by | Tue, Jul 25, 2006 - 07:09 AM
Merger of AMD and ATI means both to be rebranded as DAAMIT!
The rumors were true. Advanced Micro Devices is purchasing Canadian graphics chip vendor ATI Technologies in a $5.4 billion deal that will undoubtedly reshape the landscape of the PC component industry. If approved, the deal will significantly bolster AMD?s product line, adding cutting-edge graphics chips and chipsets that incorporate graphics capabilities. After the deal is inked both companies will run under the name AMD, but doesn't it make more since to combine ATI and AMD to come up with the name DAAMIT? Of course this is all for laughs, so don't take this news post to heart!
Posted by | Tue, Jul 25, 2006 - 07:04 AM
Does cell phone's impact outweigh PC's?
Which technology has had the most impact in the last 25 years? An IBM software developer and blogger says mobile phone takes prize for most influential technology in past 25 years. I would argue with the guy, but his reasons on why are pretty solid!
"It's killing the landline; it's killing watches; it's changing the camera business; it's changing the TV industry, the music industry," Ruby said Monday at the New Paradigms for Using Computers (NPUC) 2006 workshop at the IBM Almaden Research Center here. "It's destroying the pay-phone industry. It's hurting the hotel industry and putting the squeeze on universities," he said during a talk titled "Teenagers on the Go." To highlight the future stability of the device, he added, "Teenagers love the cell phone."
Posted by | Tue, Jul 25, 2006 - 07:00 AM
Intel?s 865 chipset will edge out DDR as mainstream memory in 4Q
DRAMeXchange expects the ease of Intel?s 865 chipset should edge out DDR as mainstream memory in 4Q, thus weakening the present price fluctuation. If you are an enthusiast that is holding onto a stash of DDR1 memory now might be the time to start selling it off!
DDR2 price up momentum weakened but drop range sustained by seasonality Spot prices of DDR and DDR2 trended divergently last week with DDR trended upward while DDR2 headed south. Supply insufficiency of DDR sustains the price upward momentum but distributors? DDR2 stock release pressured DDR2 pricing. The continual technology transition to 90nm reduces supply of 256Mb DDR currently and prolongs the price upward trend. However, DRAMeXchange expects the ease of Intel?s 865 chipset should edge out DDR as mainstream memory in 4Q, thus weakening the present price fluctuation.
Posted by | Tue, Jul 25, 2006 - 06:58 AM
Shares Of ATI (ATYT) Jump Nearly 20% This Morning
If you own shares of ATI Technologies then get up and do a little happy dance right night before reading the rest. Shares of ATI are up this morning $2.77 (16.73%) trading at $19.33. Not a bad start to the week for ATI!
The reported $5.4 billion price tag would mark an almost 29% premium to ATI's market capitalization of about $4.2 billion as of Friday. AMD is expected to pay mostly cash for Markham, Ontario-based ATI, with the remainder in AMD shares, the rumors over the weekend stated.
Posted by | Mon, Jul 24, 2006 - 08:02 AM
The Rumors Are True AMD Acquires ATI
AMD and ATI today announced plans to join forces in a transaction valued at approximately $5.4 billion. The combination will create a processing powerhouse by bringing AMD?s technology leadership in microprocessors together with ATI?s strengths in graphics, chipsets and consumer electronics. This is great news for the community!
AMD?s acquisition of ATI will position the new company to deliver innovations that fulfill the increasing demand for more integrated solutions in key market segments while also continuing to develop ?best-of-breed? discrete products that empower customers to choose the combination of technologies that best serves their needs. In 2008 and beyond, AMD aims to move beyond current technological configurations to transform processing technologies, with silicon-specific platforms that integrate microprocessors and graphics processors to address the growing need for general-purpose, media-centric, data-centric and graphic-centric performance. Thus, the combined company intends to empower its customers to create their own unique products and solutions within an open-innovation ecosystem free from artificial barriers to customer success.
Posted by | Mon, Jul 24, 2006 - 06:43 AM
ABIT Universal Cancels AN9 32X and Fatal1ty Motherboards
After a series of heavy testing programs, ABIT's Quality Control test department has found that a small number of units from the early manufacturing of the AN9 32X product line has a hardware issue that eventually might affect the performance and general stability of these particular motherboards. Therefore, Universal abit has chosen to recall those AN9 32X and Fatal1ty AN9 32X motherboards that have been affected by this hardware issue. Not good news for abit as they are trying to reclaim lost market shares.
Universal abit, maker of high-end enthusiast level motherboards, is known for its uncompromisingly rigorous testing and quality control. Universal abit firmly believes that only 100% is good enough for its customers, and continues to stand by its motto of delivering Advanced Durability to the user.
Units with the following serial numbers will be recalled:
Fatal1ty AN9 32X:
FAN93UDC000001 ~ FAN93UDC002713
FAN93UDD000001 ~ FAN93UDD001648
AN9 32X:
AN932UDC000001 ~ AN932UDC001407
AN932UDD000001 ~ AN932UDD001000
Posted by | Fri, Jul 21, 2006 - 12:55 PM
Intel shuffles top executives in game of musical chairs
ntel is reassigning five top executives to new positions as part of a corporate restructuring designed to simplify the company's management, according to a memorandum circulated to employees late Wednesday. The moves, which are effective immediately, will reduce the number of senior managers reporting to Chief Executive Paul Otellini by two.
The reassignments come as Intel is nearing completion of a comprehensive 90-day review of its operations that's designed to save the company $1 billion in annual costs by rooting out inefficiencies and underperforming businesses. Executive Vice President Sean Maloney, who has been co-manager of the company's mobility group, will lead Intel's sales and marketing group, according to the memo, which was obtained by The Associated Press. Maloney's new group, which is responsible for Intel's entire product portfolio, had been run jointly by senior vice presidents Anand Chandrasekher and Eric Kim. Senior Vice President David Perlmutter, the other general manager of Intel's mobility group, will now run the unit by himself. The mobility group is responsible for products aimed laptop PCs.
Posted by | Fri, Jul 21, 2006 - 08:17 AM