No way ... the computer mouse gone !! You can't be serious ... I love the mouse.

BBC

"It's nearly 40 years old but one leading research company says the days of the computer mouse are numbered. A Gartner analyst predicts the demise of the computer mouse in the next three to five years. Taking over will be so called gestural computer mechanisms like touch screens and facial recognition devices.

"The mouse works fine in the desktop environment but for home entertainment or working on a notebook it's over," declared analyst Steve Prentice. He told BBC News that his prediction is driven by the efforts of consumer electronics firm which are making products with new interactive interfaces inspired by the world of gaming .

... The mouse was invented by Dr Douglas Engelbart while working for the Stanford Research Institute. He never received any royalties for the invention partly because his patent ran out in 1987 before the PC revolution made the mouse indispensible.

With a 40 year anniversary planned for later in the year, Mr Dooley said Gartner's prediction for the mouse was too gloomy given that the developing world has still to get online. "

LINK

Massive profits reported by Intel ... it's good to see that the economic downturn hasn't affected some key industries. It's not as bad as it seems ... so far.

Dailytech

Business is not so bad in the PC business afterall ... that's according to Crave @ CNet.

Crave - CNet

"Despite concerns that a weakening U.S. economy would slow spending here and elsewhere, the PC market is chugging along respectably.

The market's success was foreshadowed Tuesday by Intel, whose solid quarter demonstrated that there's continued demand for notebook PCs particularly. Shipments of PCs worldwide grew 16 percent in the second quarter of this year, led by the Europe, Middle East, and Africa regions, according to IDC. Shipments were down in the Asia-Pacific region, usually a strong market for growth, but the results were even worse in the U.S., where units shipped grew 3.6 percent, according to IDC. That's the second straight quarter of sluggish growth for the U.S.: Q1 of this year saw 4.6 percent growth.

What we learn from the slowdown in the Asia-Pacific region is that these other international regions are not entirely independent of the U.S. slowdown.

"We haven't seen the impact on international PC shipments yet," said IDC analyst Loren Loverde. "What's remarkable about Asia is we're just starting to see that slower growth."

In the U.S., Dell put a bit more distance between itself and chief rival Hewlett-Packard, though both continued to do well. HP was up 16.8 percent, just slightly ahead of the market overall. Dell grew 12 percent in the second quarter, which is down from the previous two quarters of 15 percent growth each, but it's clear the company is righting the ship. Its retail strategy, now in place for a year, is working, and its stated goal of growing its international business also appears to be on track, said Loverde. "

LINK

A teenage hacker from NZ got off lightly ... that's lucky. It seems that police are interested in using him to catch other cyber criminals.

BBC

"A New Zealand teenager who admitted to taking part in an international cyber-crime network has been discharged without a conviction. Police said the group hijacked more than one million computers and used them to take at least $20.4m (£10.3m) from private bank accounts.

Owen Thor Walker, 18, was ordered to pay $10,000 (£5,000) in damages and hand over his computer-related assets. Police said they were interested in using his skills to fight cyber-crime. Investigators called Mr Walker's programme one of the "most advanced" they had seen, prosecutors said.

He did not take money from people's accounts, but he was paid nearly $31,000 (£15,500) for software he designed that gave the cyber-ring access usernames, passwords and credit card details.

Judge Judith Potter dismissed the charges, relating to a 2006 attack on a computer system at a US university, saying a conviction could jeopardise a potentially bright career. "

LINK

Midweek Reviews from around the net ... original compilation supplied by TechReport.

Wednesday

1. AOL talks with Microsoft, Yahoo heat up
2. Xtreview reports Intel's Bloomfield processors may appear in October
3. Fudzilla reports 3.33GHz Core 2 Duo E8600 listed
4. Intel faces new antitrust charges in Europe: report
5. HEXUS.channel reports email evidence unveiled in Nvidia / AMD price fixing civil action
6. SanDisk introduces write-once memory cards (WORM)
   for applications where recorded data must be unalterable
7. Toshiba launches new low-noise 400GB 2.5" HDDs
8. DailyTech reports demo showing how to attack systems via CPU errata slated for October
9. TG Daily: is GPU stacking the answer to all your performance concerns?
10. Corsair cinema: why a high-quality PSU is an essential purchase
11. OCIA asks, "How much energy is used at your computer desk?"
12. Ars Infinite Loop: Apple exec grilled about missing iPhone 2.0 features
13. HEXUS.tv covers Intel Race Day—Christian Klein interview
14. Ars book review: "Patent Failure"

Software and gaming

1. Windows will be killed by virtual appliances: VMware exec
2. Windows Update versus Ubuntu update
3. PCMech lists top 6 replacements for Windows Notepad
4. Symantec releases Norton Internet Security 09 and AntiVirus 09 beta
5. Blu-ray Disc on Xbox? No way.
6. SuperSite for Windows has Xbox 360 new Xbox experience preview
7. Maximum PC's John Carmack interview: Rage id Tech 5, Doom 4 details, and more!
8. Carmack talks on Kotaku: from id/EA to Mac gaming and PS3 programming
9. Shacknews previews Wii Music, Dead Space, Fable 2, and Left 4 Dead
10. Gaming Heaven reviews Unreal Tournament 3 (Xbox 360)
11. Gametrailers.com has Far Cry 2 and Spore (iPhone) E3 2008 trailers

Multimedia

1. HardwareZone reviews Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME
2. Björn3D reviews XFX nForce 750a SLI
3. ThinkComputers reviews 4GB A-Data Gaming Series DDR2-800 dual channel kit
4. Digit-Life reviews AMD Radeon HD 4870 X2
5. Björn3D reviews Leadtek WinFast GTX 280
6. HEXUS.net reviews Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+
7. TweakTown reviews Asus EN9600GT Silent
8. Overclockers Club reviews BenQ G2400W LCD monitor
9. Rbmods on Novint Falcon gaming device
10. Hardware Secrets reviews iPod nano (3rd gen)
11. Digital Trends reviews Samsung Instinct
12. techPowerUp! reviews TekNmotion Pulsar SX gaming headset

Power, cases, and cooling

1. XSReviews on 950W Tuniq Miniplant PSU
2. CPU3D reviews Thermaltake Armor+MX case
3. Tech-Reviews on Antec Mini P180 case
4. Overclocker Café reviews Eagle N-Series Pro drive enclosure
5. Benchmark Reviews on best CPU cooler performance - Q2 2008
6. AnandTech reviews Kingwin RVT-9225: budget-priced cooling results in budget performance
7. [H] Enthusiast reviews Asus Lion Square
8. Hardware Canucks review OCZ Vendetta 2 CPU cooler
9. bit-tech reviews Sunbeam Core-Contact Freezer

Enjoy ...

VR-Zone

"SanDisk has been toying with this for eons, but it seems the pieces finally fell in place for the firm to kick out its very first write-once memory card. The cleverly titled WORM (Write Once Read Many) SD card will predictably be aimed at industries where unalterable content is vital, such as police investigations, court testimony, electronic voting, etc. According to SanDisk, there is "no physical way to alter or delete individual recorded files," but we'd wager that hackers at large would have a thing or two to say about that. Nevertheless, said units tout a 100-year archive life when kept under appropriate storage conditions, and while a 128MB iteration is the only one available now (more capacious versions are forthcoming), you'll have to "inquire" to see just how inflated the pricing is."

LINK

CPU3D Review: Crucial Ballistix DDR3-2000 PC3-16000 2Gb Kit

Finally, we now seeing a lot more DDR3 ram on the market. The latest 2Gb kits from Crucial Ballistix series are designed and aimed at the high-end users and enthusiasts. They are rated at DDR3-2000 (PC3-16000) with a speed of 2000Mhz and memory timings of 9-9-9-28. We put these modules to the test and see how well they overclock ... can they go beyond 2000Mhz?

"If you're an enthusiast with a deep pocket, then these Crucial Ballistix DDR3-2000 PC3-16000 2Gb kits can only be described as an essential part of your shopping list. It offers excellent performance, great features and good overclocking ability. Start saving for them now ... "

Read the rest of the review ... HERE.

Hexus

"Buying a high quality PSU from an industry-leading manufacturer such as Corsair is the only way to ensure that the product performs as advertised," says Corsair. In order to prove that a high-quality PSU is essential (namely of the Corsair variety), the renowned manufacturer has created a video to demonstrate what could happen to users opting for a lesser power supply.

When the video dropped into our inbox, we were expecting it to show a Corsair PSU achieving a higher efficiency or something along those lines. Corsair, however, has taken things a step further and illustrates how sparks fly when using Brand X:

Either the folks at Corsair are really worried about consumers getting their hands on poorly-manufactured PSUs, or they're just looking for an excuse to make a rather funny video. We particularly enjoyed the camera man getting a little scared of exposion number three. Here at HEXUS, we're a tad dubious about the testing procedure, James Smith from the HEXUS labs states "running it with no case mounted on the PSU will severely impair the airflow over the heatsinks which are cooling the components in the PSU."

Gareth Ogden, technical marketing and applications specialist at Corsair, says "This is obviously aimed at people who think that any old XXXW PSU is as good as another, rather than those who already know that cheap PSUs are crap."

So, there you have it folks, Corsair claims its PSUs are guaranteed not to dramatically explode.

LINK (video)

XFX

"If you happened to have bought a GeForce GTX 280 card when it released for US $649, you'd probably be extremely disgruntled, with people paying as low as $499 for the same thing now, and just weeks after release. Such changes in the tech-industry even cause major legal trouble for card vendors when such customers sue them in this regard. Ironically, the role of NVIDIA is limited to dictating prices, the partners have to bear the brunt of such awkward situations. XFX is the first partner to have announced a cash-back scheme for people who purchased their GTX 200 series products at their old (high) prices.


Says XFX: "Being the first to do anything is a rewarding experience. And now, if you were one of the first to purchase one of our XFX GeForce GTX 280 or GeForce GTX 260 graphics cards, there’s another potential reward in your future—cold hard cash.

Sudden changes in the market have caused the price for the XFX GeForce GTX 280 and the XFX GeForce GTX 260 to drop. As a result, we want to thank you for your continued loyalty and for believing in the XFX brand. And, to show our commitment to you, we are issuing up to $120 CASH BACK to customers who purchased one of these cards between June 16, 2008 and July 11, 2008. The actual amount of cash back will be determined based on the model purchased, as well as
the date and price of the purchase."


The efforts of XFX at this point are commendable, though as customers of non-XFX GeForce GTX 200 series cards, you must expect your card vendor to put up such a scheme."

LINK

HardOCP

"The Lion Square incorporates a nickel-plating copper base, four copper heat pipes, aluminum wave fins, and a 9 cm LED inner fan. ASUS claims that this Lion Square can keep your processor safe for up to 180w. Even good for your Phenom guys!

... Last time we looked at processor heat sinks from ASUS we found them to perform well as long as you didn’t expect any world record performances. For anyone who may have thought ASUS would give up and focus on their other initiatives, you severely underestimated its resolve. ASUS is not a company to try something once, do just OK, and give up. That ASUS innovation brings us one of its newest coolers, the ASUS Lion Square. Feature complete with four full length heat pipes, loads of compatibility and an included fan, ASUS has given this Lion some sharp teeth. Is it enough to de-throne the Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme, the reigning king of cooling?"

LINK

Intel's latest Centrino 2 platform finally arrives. It offers better battery life, faster 1066Mhz FSB and possible WiMAX included. Packed with new technologies and new features, Intel's Centrino 2 should be a big hit for notebook users including me ... mmmm, time for an upgrade :)

Digitimes

"Intel unveiled its Intel Centrino 2 processor technology products for notebooks, powered by five new Intel Core2 Duo processors. Close to 250 consumer and business notebook PC designs are on the way. Intel also introduced the world's highest-performing dual-core mobile processor, the Intel Core2 Extreme processor running at 3.06GHz.

Rounding out a mobile-focused summer for the company, Intel said it also plans to unveil eight processors within 90 days that will include first-ever mobile quad-core products and second-generation products for ultra-thin and light notebooks. In total, Intel will bring 14 new processors into the marketplace as notebook sales continue to outpace desktop PCs.

Formerly codenamed Montevina, Intel Centrino 2 processor technology and Intel Centrino 2 with vPro Technology improve notebook performance and battery life via new processors and chipsets, faster draft 802.11n wireless (with WiMAX arriving later this year), and new business-class manageability capabilities.

Intel is introducing five dual core processors based on Intel's reinvented transistors (high-k metal gate formula) and advanced 45nm manufacturing process. These processors come with a faster 1066MHz front side bus and up to 6MB of L2 cache, and three versions reduce laptop processor wattage about 30%, down to just 25 watts. Also featured is Deep Power Down Technology that turns off processing components such as core clocks and cache memory when the laptop is idle for greater energy savings."

LINK