CPU3D Review: Gigabyte GA-EP45 DQ6 Motherboard

P45 based motherboards are now coming fast and thick, and Gigabyte has already released several P45 motherboards including the GA-EP45 DQ6. This motherboard is designed and aimed at the higher-end mainstream market, and features a massive list of innovative features. Could this be one of the fastest P45 motherboards on the market?

"...Gigabyte has produced yet another great motherboard. It's feature packed, offers great performance and excellent overclocking ability. " 

Read the rest of the review ... HERE.

Women with long fingernails, fat fingers complain about iPhone ... this is probably one of the funniest articles I've read for a long time.

Dailytech

"IPhone just not cutting it for those with manicures, fat fingers. Apple Inc. has seen some wild complaints, from iFires to widespread outrage over its locking policies.  But complaints about manicures and chubby fingers?  This is truly new territory to Apple.

The Cupertino based corporation is poised to sell the vastly improved 3G version of its popular smartphone for only $199, starting July 11.  Apple also announced it will give all iPhone owners a new software upgrade with improved functionality.  The new 3G phone in particular looks very attractive with GPS, a faster network, a simulated method for running multiple programs, lower cost, and more.

Unsurprisingly, the new iPhone is generating some complaints.  Some are upset about the lack of video, which is common among most camera phones.  Others are angry that Apple isn't offering a means of memory expansion, such as miniSD cards.  Still others complain that Apple is just being lazy by not offering what seems like a simple functionality -- copy and paste for text."

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Digitimes

"With AMD's ATI Radeon HD 4800-series graphics cards successfully cutting into the US$200-300 mainstream market forcing Nvidia to cut the price of its previous generation GeForce 9800 GTX down to US$199, sources at graphics card makers see AMD's discrete graphics card market share as having a chance to increase to 40% in the third quarter this year from around 30% at the beginning of 2008.

Since Nvidia's GeForce 9800 GTX does not provide advantages in power consumption or performance over the same priced Radeon HD 4850, graphics card makers are more optimistic over AMD's upcoming performance."

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HardOCP

"Say hello to the Radeon HD 4850 and Radeon HD 4870. We think you will be pleasantly surprised with the real-world gaming experiences we are having with AMD’s new GPUs. We evaluate the Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 and VisionTek Radeon HD 4850.

... The great thing about the Radeon HD 4850 is that it is only a lower clocked and lesser memory version of the Radeon HD 4870. It still contains the full 800 stream processors and 40 texture units. The core frequency is reduced to 625MHz, and instead of GDDR5 it uses GDDR3, but still 512MB of it. The memory frequency is set at roughly 2GHz, providing 64GB/sec of memory bandwidth. The other great thing about this video card is that it is priced at $199, and you should surely see that price fall in time. The Radeon HD 4850 is a single slot video card and requires only one 6-pin power connector and is rated at 110W maximum board power. Both video cards support CrossFireX fully. "

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Spectec soon to release World's first microSD WiFi card

If you're like me who's one of many HTC Touch Dual owners ... you'll know how fustrating it is not to have WiFi. I just can't understand why HTC excluded it for the Touch Dual, but for the rest of their Touch series ... WiFi is included ?!?!

Anyway, not all is lost. You'll be glad to know that Spectec will soon release the World's first ever microSD WiFi card for the thousands of HTC Touch Dual owners who wants WiFi. There's only one downside to this ... you'll have to sacrifice your SD memory card for this WiFi card. To be honest, I don't mind ... give me WiFi anytime :)

You'll be glad to know that CPU3D will be one of the first places to review this amazing product ... the Spectec SDW-823 microSD WiFi card.  I've seen a prototype at Spectec's booth while I was at the Computex 2008 ... it's absolutley tiny! It's truely a feat of extraordinary engineering.

Specifications

BBC

"A complete overhaul of the way in which people navigate the internet has been given the go-ahead in Paris. The net's regulator, Icann, voted unanimously to relax the strict rules on so-called "top-level" domain names, such as .com or .uk.

The decision means that companies could turn brands into web addresses, while individuals could use their names. A second proposal, to introduce domain names written in Asian, Arabic or other scripts, was also approved.

"We are opening up a new world and I think this cannot be underestimated," said Roberto Gaetano, a member of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann). "

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This is not a joke ... seriously, some guy over at NGOHQ managed to hack some ATI drivers to allow PhysX to be enabled.  Check out the screen shot ...

NGOHQ

This is what the author have said so far ... " Coming Soon!  ... from the author of the SLI Patch :) Well... well... sadly, the HD 4800 family won't be supported, because AMD thinks NGOHQ.com is not worthy enough to borrow review samples (definitely a bad idea). Anyway, expect to see some cool demo video in several days-weeks. "

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Komplett European etailer shuts down operations in the UK, France, Germany and Austria ... oh my, what's happening then? Has the market really slumped?

CustomPC 

"European online retailer Komplett has shut down its UK store, although we’ve had no explanation for the decision yet. At the moment, a notice on the store’s front page simply says that ‘As of 24 June 2008, Komplett.co.uk has closed down its UK operations. We regret to inform you that it is no longer possible for UK customers to make any purchases from Komplett.co.uk anymore.’

However, the notice adds that Komplett UK’s customer service team will remain available ‘for the time being’ to answer queries and warranty questions about products bought from the store. The notice says that previous Komplett customers can email the team at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , and that Komplett will do its ‘utmost to answer any e-mail within 2 working days.’

It looks as though you’ll be stuck with just the email address, though. We just tried to call the phone number for Komplett, and the line went dead after going through the automated call-direction process. We’ll bring you more information as and when we get it.

UPDATE: Since this story went up yesterday, Komplett has confirmed that it has closed its UK, German, French and Austrian websites. Komplett's marketing manager, Menno Cadel, explained to Custom PC that this was 'due to lacking results,' and that Komplett wanted to 'increase focus and accelerate growth in both Holland and Ireland,' which he described as the company's 'two biggest markets.' Cadel also added that Komplett is looking for sales expansion, rather than geographical expansion. As such, it plans to open a new branch Irish office in Dublin later this year."

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More court room action ... this time Facebook vs ConnectU

Dailytech

"Facebook vs. ConnectU, round two. Facebook is once again back in court after founder Mark Zuckerberg's former Harvard classmates, who accuse him of stealing code, are attempting to reopen a settlement case that was completed in February.

Several of Zuckerberg's classmates claim they hired Zuckerberg to help them finish working on their project, ConnectU, but Zuckerberg instead allegedly stole their plans for the site.  

Facebook eventually counter-sued ConnectU, attempting to claim company representatives tried to access Facebook servers to steal company data.

"The worst case scenario is that Facebook doesn't own its core code and that it's been using someone else's code for the foundation of its company," said Eric Goldman, Santa Clara University School of Law assistant professor and director of the university's High Tech Law institute.  "That could lead to damages that are catastrophic.  In the worst case scenario, this could be a fight for Facebook's life."

ConnectU believes it has stumbled upon new evidence that it will be able to use in court to show Zuckerberg did indeed steal code and ideas. "

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GIGABYTE Announces GA-MA78GPM-DS2H - World’s Most Powerful AMD 780G Based Motherboard

Featuring DDR3 SidePort Memory for Outstanding Onboard Graphics Performance

Taipei, Taiwan, June 26, 2008 – GIGABYTE UNITED INC., a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards is proud to extend their range of AMD 780G solutions with their latest GA-MA78GPM-DS2H, providing enhanced integrated graphics performance for the AMD AM2+ platform with DirectX® 10 support and featuring 128MB of onboard DDR3 SidePort memory for an amazing up to 10% additional boost in 3D graphics performance.

Following on the heels of the widely acclaimed GA-MA78GM-S2H, the GIGABYTE GA-MA78GPM-DS2H is also based on the AMD 780G chipset and offers outstanding future CPU headroom with support for AMD AM2 Athlon™ processors as well as the very latest AMD AM2+ platform with ultra low latency, high bandwidth (5200MT/s) Hyper Transport 3.0 technology. Utilizing a 4+1 power phase design, the GA-MA78GPM-DS2H fully supports high Thermal Design Power (TDP) 125W AMD CPUs.

At the heart of the GIGABYTE GA-MA78GPM-DS2H lies the ATI Radeon® HD 3200 graphics core with support for DirectX® 10 graphics, Shader Model 4.0 and OpenGL2.0, delivering greater detail and realism for an enhanced overall visual experience. GIGABYTE delivers an even greater boost to the graphics performance of the ATI Radeon® 3200 by including 128MB of DDR3 SidePort memory onboard running at 1066MHz or 1333MHz (OC)*. Utilizing the SidePort memory rather than shared system memory, integrated graphics performance is enhanced by up to 10% additional, delivering a 3DMark06 score of 2300+**.

Techreport

"A small software firm has filed a lawsuit against Google for a whopping $1 billion. Interestingly, ZDNet's description of the suit hints that the firm may very well have a case.

The suit centers on LimitNone's gMove software, which lets users transfer e-mails, contacts, and calendar data from Microsoft Outlook to Google web applications. LimitNone alleges that Google "initially helped [it] develop, promote and sell the product, assuring LimitNone that it wouldn't offer a competing product, but then reversed course by giving away its own tool, Google Email Uploader, to premier-level Google Apps customers." The Google product allegedly copies gMove's "look, feel, functionality and distribution model, including several unique and proprietary operations."

gMove costs $19, so based on a Google estimate that "there were potentially 50 million users," LimitNone worked out that Google owes it about $950 million. LimitNone also accuses Google of misappropriating trade secrets and violating fraud laws, since the Internet giant allegedly got LimitNone to share "confidential technical and sales-forecast details" when the two companies were working together."

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