Sunday, June 29, 2008

ATI Radeon Graphics Cards Running Nvidia PhysX Are Faster, Stronger, Awesomer [Ati]

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/321673620/ati-radeon-graphics-cards-running-nvidia-physx-are-faster-stronger-awesomer

After Nvidia picked up PhysX, it was obvious ATI would probably get left out of Nvidia's efforts to spread the love to graphics cards and x86 CPUs (hence ATI hooking up with Havok). (Physics engines, for the uninitiated, are what make your body bounce around with aplomb after getting stuck with a grenade in Halo 3.) But some modders have fixed that and ported PhysX to ATI's Radeon 3800 cards, instantly improving benchmarks.

A Radeon HD 3870 system jumped from an overall 3D Mark Vantage score of P3800 to P4262. Though it won't be available for ATI's latest 4800 cards for a bit, you can download the PhysX enabler this weekend at NGOHQ, which should make your Unreal experience on ATI that much sweeter. [NGOHQ via TG Daily via /.]


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ATI Radeon Graphics Cards Running Nvidia PhysX Are Faster, Stronger, Awesomer [Ati]

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/321673620/ati-radeon-graphics-cards-running-nvidia-physx-are-faster-stronger-awesomer

After Nvidia picked up PhysX, it was obvious ATI would probably get left out of Nvidia's efforts to spread the love to graphics cards and x86 CPUs (hence ATI hooking up with Havok). (Physics engines, for the uninitiated, are what make your body bounce around with aplomb after getting stuck with a grenade in Halo 3.) But some modders have fixed that and ported PhysX to ATI's Radeon 3800 cards, instantly improving benchmarks.

A Radeon HD 3870 system jumped from an overall 3D Mark Vantage score of P3800 to P4262. Though it won't be available for ATI's latest 4800 cards for a bit, you can download the PhysX enabler this weekend at NGOHQ, which should make your Unreal experience on ATI that much sweeter. [NGOHQ via TG Daily via /.]


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Mirage 3D DaVinci Driving Simulator Rig Lacks Wheels, Has Passenger Seat [Driving Simulator]

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/322039170/mirage-3d-davinci-driving-simulator-rig-lacks-wheels-has-passenger-seat

We could only surmise that this "realistic" DaVinci driving simulator from Mirage3D is for teaching this morning. I mean, why else would this thing have a passenger seat? Riding shotgun for a video game? Not when the couch is so comfy, thanks. Then again, this is also the perfect gift for that cousin with a penchant for racing and DUIs, as it lovingly recreates the extreme driving experience with roll bars, uber-realistic, working gauges (controlled by an on-board PC), and Dolby 5.1 surround—all without the danger of having him sloshed on I-90. Oh, and there's a seat belt. That's the DaVinci, alright: safety first, dignity second.

[Mirage 3D via Born Rich]


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Voodoo Envy 133 photographed gloriously in the wild

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/321563759/

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No frontin' here: this is the most excited we've been about in the wild shots in quite some time. Not only do we have a veritable plethora of Envy 133 shots to glance at, but each one is high resolution and sharp as a tack. If you think your heart can handle checking out this slab of sexy from all angles, head on down to the links below and give it a go. From here, the only thing we're down on is that mirror they call a glossy display; otherwise, this thing looks downright heavenly.

Read - TheNextBench message board
Read - Envy 133 gallery
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Progressive MyRate drive-monitoring device goes national

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/322002945/

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Progressive insurance has been testing out the MyRate driving monitoring system for a few years now (it used to be called TripSense), but it's finally taking the system national, bringing pay-as-you-drive insurance into the mainstream. The little blue box plugs into your car's ODB II diagnostic port (all cars made after 1996 have one), and studiously records your driving habits, wirelessly sending the data back to Progressive HQ (it's not clear exactly how). Every six months, Progressive will crunch the numbers and issue a new rate for you based on how you drive -- savings of up to 40 percent are possible. That's pretty tempting, depending on your current rates and driving habits, but we're not so sure we're willing to share that much data for an unspecified discount -- especially since we're confident the MyRate box will get cracked almost immediately.

[Thanks, Mike; image courtesy of Aaron Landry]

Read - MyRate press release
Read - MyRate video
Read - How MyRate works
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Friday, June 27, 2008

Ethnic Kettle

Source: http://www.thedieline.com/blog/2008/06/ethnic-kettle.html

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Have you ever tasted the Kettle chips?
The renowned US brand has recently launched a new ethnic line with an impressive packaging: white flow pack dressed with a colorful band printed on kraft paper.
The final result is eye capturing and the band can be used again for several uses...for example as a crown, making yourself feel like an Indian king.

Digit Kettle in Flickr an you'll find many examples!

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Immagine_2

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ATI Radeon HD 4850 and 4870 reviewed: all that and a bag of RV770 chips

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/319608375/

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If you haven't heard of AMD's new RV770 graphics processor then you either haven't been paying attention or are simply too set in your ways to start calculating your GPU's performance using a 1.0 TFLOP base unit. For the rest, we bring you all the reviews that on-line advertising can buy in the link round-up below. We'll give HotHardware the honor of summarizing the performance of the sub-$200 Radeon HD 4850 and $299-ish 4870: "it appears AMD is back in the graphics game versus rival NVIDIA." Now put on your propeller caps and start clicking.

Read -- Hot Hardware
Read -- PC Perspective
Read -- Hardware Canucks (HD 4870 only)
Read -- AnandTech
Read -- TweakTown (4870 in Crossfire)
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VIZIO intros XVT Series of 1080p LCDs / plasmas

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/319665552/

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Well, what have we here? A trio of newcomers from "North America's fastest growing brand of flat-panel HDTVs," that's what. Kicking things off in the all new XVT Series is the 42-inch SV420XVT and 47-inch SV47XVT LCD HDTVs, both of which feature 1080p panels, VIZIO's Smooth Motion technology (120Hz), a 6,500:1 contrast ratio and the usual complement of ports including four HDMI 1.3 sockets. Next up we've got the 50-inch VP505XVT, a 1080p plasma with Silicon Optix's famed REON HQV processing engine. Furthermore, this one packs an integrated digital TV tuner (with ClearQAM support), a dynamic contrast ratio of 30,000:1 and SRS Labs' TruSurround XT audio processing technology. The new trio is all set to ship next month for $1,499.99, $1,899.99 and $1,699.99, and of course, you'll find 'em perched at Circuit City, Sears and your favorite Club retailer. [Warning: PDF read link]

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MyVu Crystal a worthy travel companion, available now

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/319665554/

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Surely you remember Veronica Belmont posing with the MyVu Crystal / Shades at CES earlier this year? Yeah, the former unit is finally available to order for the three people in attendance who care, and better still, a recent review by PC World asserts that this thing actually isn't a half bad travel companion. Imagery was said to be "crystal-clear" (har) and battery life was more than reasonable, but look, even the reviewer admitted that he "wouldn't be caught walking down the street" with 'em on. Purchase accordingly.
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Varioptic liquid lenses now shipping in SnakeCam webcam

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/319902114/

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We've been hearing about how Varioptic's liquid camera lenses would revolutionize cellphones for a while now, so it's a little bit surprising to see the oil-and-water optics pop up in Akkord Electronics' el cheapo SnakeCam webcams first. The 1.3 megapixel S1300 and 2.0 megapixel S2000 cams feature a Varioptic Arctic 416 lens, as well as bendy mount, built-in microphone, and CMOS sensor, and will sell for just $20 per unit -- but we'd imagine that whoever ends up rebranding these will mark that up a bit.
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More details and press shots of ASUS Eee Box

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/320132114/

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In typical ASUS style, it utterly failed in dishing out a nice gallery of press shots to go along with the official unveiling of the Atom-powered Eee Box. Nevertheless, those photographs you've been hankering for have finally appeared, with luscious high-resolution angles of the white, black and "red" Eee Box. For the whole gallery along with a few informational pages on how this miniature PC is guaranteed to revolutionize the way you compute, give the read link down there a little love.

[Thanks, Sascha]
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AMD smells a comeback with ATI All-in-Wonder HD

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/320226454/


And you thought Microsoft bringing back the SideWinder was gnarly. Announced today, AMD is resurrecting the long-standing AIW line with its first-ever high-definition variant: the $199 ATI All-in-Wonder HD. The PCI Express 2.0 card attempts to handle both PC gaming and HDTV duties by boasting specs like DirectX 10.1 support, a 725MHz engine clock, 600MHz memory clock and MPEG2 / VC-1 / H.264 video decoder acceleration. You'll also find Vista and AMD LIVE! certification badges to go along with the dual-link DVI port, HDMI jack (which supports 5.1 Dolby Digital transmission) and optional component video connectivity. As expected, users can capture live programs (as well as pause / rewind) in SD or HD over-the-air, and there's even support for ClearQAM. For those looking to take their clips elsewhere, the bundled Avivo software converts it for viewing on some of today's most popular handhelds (yes, including the iPod). Look for models from Diamond Multimedia and VisionTek to hit retailers in North America late next month. Full release after the jump.

Continue reading AMD smells a comeback with ATI All-in-Wonder HD

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Wednesday, June 25, 2008

A-DATA Turbo Series CF 350X Is the World's Fastest Compact Flash Card [A-Data]

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/319194255/a+data-turbo-series-cf-350x-is-the-worlds-fastest-compact-flash-card

A-DATA's Turbo Series CF card is 350X, which gets you a 52MB/sec read and 47MB/sec write, and comes in 8 and 16GB sizes. It's the fastest Compact Flash card in the world, which is made out of Single-Level-Cell (SLC) flash memory, and has dual-channel support.
[A-Data]


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Dynamic Tower Skyscraper: Every Floor Self-Rotates, Powered by Wind and Sun [Buildings]

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/319357117/dynamic-tower-skyscraper-every-floor-self+rotates-powered-by-wind-and-sun

Italian architect David Fisher is building his first skyscraper, the Dynamic Tower, and it happens to be one of the most ambitious construction plans since the Pyramid of Khufu. Every floor of the 80-story self-powered building rotates according to voice command, and nearly the entire construction of the $700 million structure is pre-made. I caught up with the architect in New York, and he blew my mind again and again.

Fisher was inspired to design the Dynamic Tower during a visit to a friend's top-floor Midtown Manhattan apartment. "I had a view of the Hudson River and East River at the same time, it was beautiful and I wanted to make that feeling accessible to more people." He loves the idea of seeing the sun rise and set in the same room, and considers the building to be four-dimensional. "Time is always changing the shape of the building," he told me.

The rotation takes up to 3 hours (so you're not always spilling your coffee), and gets power from photovoltaic solar cells and 79 wind turbines, one located between each floor. The system is meant to create enough energy to power to the entire tower and still have juice to spare for some surrounding buildings. According to Fisher, two of these $700 million futuristic scrapers are planned so far, one each in Dubai and Moscow. They will be built using a truly radical technique.

Construction on the Dynamic Tower will be unlike anything that preceded it. The only part of the tower built on site will be the skinny center core. It is strong enough to hold the floors in place, and will contain the building's elevators, which transport people and cars right to their door. Each floor will be made piece by piece in a factory in Italy—a throwback to Fisher's previous life in prefabricated bathroom design—and placed onto the core using a lift system. With this metho! d, each story is completed in about six days. By comparison, traditional ground-up methods can take six weeks per floor.

Groundbreaking for Dynamic Towers in Dubai and Moscow is expected to happen in the fall, with construction reaching completion by the end of 2010. If you're game—and very, very loaded—you can sign up now for a villa or office space. The going rate is $3000/sq foot. [Dynamic Architecture]


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Lightning Review: T-Mobile's @Home VoIP Phone Line [Review]

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/319416472/lightning-review-t+mobiles-home-voip-phone-line

The Gadget: T-Mobile @Home, a phone service for T-Mobile customers hooks your standard home telephone over the internet to make unlimited nationwide calls for just $10 a month on top of your current wireless bill. It's similar to the Hotspot@Home service which uses a cellphone for home calls, but only for home phones.

The Price: $10 a month with 2-year contract provided you have a qualifying T-Mobile plan ($39.99 standard plan or $49.99 FamilyTime plan), plus $49 for the T-Mobile @Home HiPort Linksys Wireless Router. There's also a VTech cordless phone you can purchase from them for $59.99, or you can just use your own.

The Verdict: Fantastic. Over our Comcast cable internet connection, voice quality was super clear and the people we talked to all said it sounded like we were talking on a landline. Delay—what little of it there was—was on par with a regular landline.

Setup was easy, and you can use the Linksys router in place of your current one, or on your network behind your existing router. There are two SIM slots in it for two lines (only one is active by default), and contains E911 information. All in all, it's a very good alternative to getting a separate landline if you already have T-Mobile cellphone service, and at $10 it's next to free. The only downside is that it still doesn't work with fax, but their engineers are working on it. [T-Mobile]


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