If you think 32-bits are not good enough ...

Techreport

"The tide has turned for 64-bit editions of Windows Vista. Despite a slow debut among the enthusiast and developer communities, Vista x64 is now making some serious headway, according to a post on the official Windows Vista Team Blog.

Microsoft's Chris Flores doesn't just base that observation on a gut feeling—he has plenty of statistics to support it. Looking at the number of PCs connected to Windows Update, Flores says the installed base of 64-bit Vista systems "has more than tripled in the U.S. in the last three months." Overall, 20% of new Vista systems that signed on to Windows Update in the United States this June were 64-bit, up from a paltry 3% in March. And it's not just North America—Vista x64 uptake has also "more than doubled" worldwide over the last three months.

Why are these changes occurring now? Flores points in part to falling memory prices, which makes a whole lot of sense. Looking at our system guides, coupling the $1,000 Grand Experiment build with 2GB of memory cost around $80 in July 2007, while we can now outfit that build with 4GB of slightly faster RAM for the same price. PC makers have seized the opportunity to do the same in a growing number of consumer system—and utilizing all of that memory pretty much mandates a 64-bit OS."

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GIGABYTE Extends Ultra Durable 2 Range with GeForce 9800 GT Series Graphics Accelerators

Quality Components make Quality VGA cards --More Power Phases = Lower System Temperature + Extreme Power Efficiency

The GIGABYTE GV-N98TZL-1GH and N98TZL-512H are leading the industry for top quality design by featuring GIGABYTE’s unique Ultra Durable 2 Technology. With highly efficient components, such as ferrite core choke coils, low RDS(on) MOSFETs and all Japanese manufactured SMD mounted solid capacitors, GIGABYTE Ultra Durable 2 graphics cards ensure the highest levels of reliability and stability, cooler working temperatures and enhanced overclocking capabilities for today's high performance, high definition platforms.

BBC

"Chip giant Intel is teaming up with web firm Yahoo and hardware company HP to create virtual research centres for cloud computing. Cloud computing offers online storage and promises a range of new services for data and devices that are plugged into the cloud.

Initially six data centres will be available for pre-selected researchers to test new applications. Research firm Gartner has dubbed cloud computing as influential as e-business.

"Cloud computing represents a new era of computing. Working at that kind of scale means there will be many unanswered questions and raise new problems for computer science," said John Manley, director of HP's strategic research lab."

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Digitimes

"Nvidia has unveiled its newest GeForce 9800M and 9700M GPUs for notebooks. The advantages of a GeForce 9M-series GPU not only apply to just games. Software developers are also harnessing the architectural advantages of GPUs to speed up processing in commonly used, non-game applications and tasks like converting digital video for a portable video player and high-resolution photo editing, claimed Nvidia.

Five versions of the new GPUs are available: the GeForce 9800M GTX, GeForce 9800M GTS, GeForce 9800 GT, GeForce 9700M GTS and GeForce 9700M GT. These join the existing GeForce 9600M and 9500M GPUs for mid-range and mainstream notebooks. The GPUs feature 112 processing cores and support SLI multi-GPU configurations and Hybrid SLI technology.

The new GeForce 9800M and GeForce 9700M-series GPUs will be available from over 20 notebook vendors worldwide. In addition to Toshiba, other first-tier makers are expected to announce notebooks featuring the new GPUs in the coming months, said Nvidia. Gaming notebooks have also been announced from regional PC companies such as Sager, Pioneer Computers Australia, Zepto, Rock, Novatech, XXODD, Chiligreen, Multirama, Plaisio, Ergo, Cioce, Insys, Infinity, Cybersystem, and Cizmo."

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NVIDIA AMPS UP GEFORCE LINEUP WITH IMMEDIATE AVAILABILITY OF THREE NEW GPUS

New GeForce 9800 GTX+, 9800 GT, and 9500 GT GPUs Bring Support for NVIDIA PhysX and CUDA Parallel Processing To All Price Segments 

SANTA CLARA, CA—JULY 29, 2008— NVIDIA® Corporation, the world leader in visual computing technologies, today announced the immediate availability of three new desktop GeForce® 9 Series graphics processing units (GPUs) that bring support for NVIDIA PhysX™ technology and CUDA™ general-purpose parallel computing to mainstream PC computing markets. 

The new GeForce 9800 GTX+, 9800 GT, and the 9500 GT GPUs deliver exceptional graphics quality, performance, and application compatibility, along with support for NVIDIA SLI® technology, the industry’s leading multi-GPU solution for gaming and enthusiast platforms across a wide variety of price points. 

“The addition of the new 9800 GTX+, 9800 GT, and the 9500 GT GPUs brings a new level of visual computing capability to additional mainstream market segments,” said Ujesh Desai, general manager of desktop GPUs at NVIDIA. “NVDIA GPUs deliver the best bang for the buck in each price category, and with support for CUDA, PhysX, and 3D stereoscopic technology, consumers can now experience the unique, innovative, and immersive computing experience that only NVIDIA can deliver.”

Facebook shutsdown Scrabulous Games

"The developers of the popular Facebook application Scrabulous have suspended the game for some users following legal action by toy maker Hasbro. The application has been disabled for users in the US and Canada.

Hasbro, the makers of Scrabble, are suing the Calcutta-based founders of Scrabulous, claiming they are infringing its copyright and trademark. Hasbro had asked Facebook to block access following the launch of its own official version of Scrabble.

A spokeswoman for Facebook told the BBC that the final decision to suspend the game was made by the developers, not the site itself. Scrabulous has been one of the most popular applications on Facebook, regularly racking up more than 500,000 users each day.

Fans have mounted a vigorous defence campaign since the joint owners of Scrabble, Mattel and Hasbro, announced their intention to sue the Facebook developers back in January."

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Apple Insider

"A new generation of personal computers on the way from Apple Inc. may sport some of the most significant architectural changes since the Mac maker made the jump from PowerPC processors to those manufactured by Intel Corp., AppleInsider has learned.

As part of its move to Intel chips in early 2006, the Cupertino-based company largely abandoned its practice of using custom motherboard chipsets to support the primary CPU in its Macs. Instead, it began to rely on slightly tweaked versions of industry-standard chipsets offered by Intel to the broad range of PC manufacturers that develop Intel-powered systems.

For instance, while Apple's existing line of MacBook and MacBook Pro notebooks are unique in that they run the Mac OS X operating system, they're architecturally based on the same run-of-the-mill processors and chipsets from Intel's Santa Rosa mobile platform also employed by Windows-supporting rivals, such as Dell and HP.

However, with Apple striving to maintain Mac sales growth of more than two times the industry average, it's again looking to differentiate the architecture of its personal computer systems through alternative technology that will afford it an advantage beyond the reach of its competition."

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Sir Richard Branson has gone a bit loopy after his many failed attempts to cross the world in his hot-air balloon. Instead, he's now decided to go to SPACE - The Final Frontier !

BBC

"The British business tycoon, Richard Branson, has unveiled an aircraft in the US that will be used for his project to launch tourists into space. The high-altitude jet will act as the mothership for a spacecraft, releasing it in mid-air to take two crew and six passengers on sub-orbital flights.

More than 250 people have already paid $200,000 (£100,000) each to be among the first making the tourist trips. Mr Branson predicts the maiden space voyage will take place in 18 months.

Image courtesy of BBC.

White Knight Two must undergo a rigorous flight testing programme, beginning in the autumn. The mothership is a white, four-engine jet designed to cradle SpaceShipTwo under its wing and release it at 50,000 feet (15,240m) in the air.

Once separated, SpaceShipTwo will fire its hybrid rocket and climb some 62 miles (100km) above the Earth. Engineers still need to finish building SpaceShipTwo, which is now about 70% complete, according to Virgin Galactic. Mr Branson said the name of the White Knight Two reflected the pioneering spirit of his space tourism venture. "

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Techreport

"We've nabbed a fair amount of information about Intel's Core 2 Quad Q8200 over the pat few weeks. According to fairly recent rumors, the forthcoming processor will feature four 45nm cores clocked at 2.33GHz, 4MB of L2 cache, a 1333MHz front-side bus, and a price tag of just $203—about $10 more than what the 65nm, 2.4GHz Core 2 Quad Q6600 now costs.

As with most early rumors about unreleased CPUs, nobody said exactly when the chip might arrive. Fudzilla filled in that blank earlier this morning by saying Intel will introduce the Q8200 on August 31. Fudzilla's news blurb quotes the same specs we just noted, but it mentions a $224 wholesale price tag.

The Q8200's newer Penryn cores ought to make it at least competitive with the Q6600 despite the lower clock speed, so a significantly higher price tag could make sense. The Q8200 should however lack both Virtualization Technology, which the Q6600 supports, and Trusted Execution Technology, which Intel offers in Q9000-series Core 2 Quads."

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Check what's happening in my home town ...

VR-Zone

"Over in Dragon City in Hong Kong, top overclockers from twenty countries around the world gathered here pitting their overclocking skills against one another, fighting to be the pinnacle of overclocking. The competitors will have to make use of hardware modifications on the supplied hardware, their knowledge of liquid nitrogen cooling and software tweaking to aid them in their course (or discourse) during the event."

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Check the numbers out ... 600 million mobile phone users !! That's 10x the total population of Great Britain ... or 2x the population of the United States !! ... Unbelieveable.

Digitimes

"There were 600.76 million subscribers for mobile communication services in China as of the end of June 2008, representing growth of 1.46% on month and 19.76% on year, according to statistics published by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT, renamed from Ministry of Information Industry).

The number of subscribers at the end of June accounted for 45.6% of the country's population (user density). Also at the end of June 2008 were there 356.32 million subscribers of fixed telecommunication networks in China, translating into a user density of 27.0%.

In June 2008, mobile phone subscribers in China sent 56.87 billion short messages, averaging 3.18 short messages per phone number a day."

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