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OCAU News |
It would appear that world's economic and financial crisis has had no negative impact on the GPU market. According to a report on the Inquirer, graphics card market is booming;“AS THE ECONOMY goes to pot, only graphics cards seem to be reversing the trend, coming out on top, with GPUs seeing their largest increase in quarter to quarter shipments in six years, according to new research figures.”
Google Mobile Blog has announced the release of Google Earth for the iPhone and iPod touch. “Google Earth is now available for the iPhone and iPod touch, allowing you to fly to the far reaches of the world from the palm of your hand.” You can grab a copy by visiting iTunes store or just use your iPhone and search for "Google Earth”.
Chief software architect at Microsoft, Ray Ozzie, announced this morning the release of Microsoft Windows Azure during a keynote speech on the first day of the 2008 Microsoft Professional Developer Conference held at the Los Angeles Convention Centre. “Windows® Azure is a cloud services operating system that serves as the development, service hosting and service management environment for the Azure Services Platform. Windows Azure provides developers with on-demand compute and storage to host, scale, and manage Web applications on the Internet through Microsoft® data centres.”
ZDNet Australia is reporting that by June, 2009 all Australian international airports will be equipped with the new border control biometrics system called “SmartGate”. At a cost of $61.7 million, SmartGate’s primary role is to cut passenger processing times when entering Australia. “Melbourne has gone live. As of last Monday, we've had more than 5,000 successful transactions," a senior Customs spokesperson told ZDNet.com.au”.
Fans of the popular Linux distro Ubuntu will be able to get their hands on the latest version, Ubuntu 8.10, this Thursday according to a report on Digital Trends. Ubuntu 8.10 will feature 3G support, the ability to write to and install from a USB drive, guest sessions for more privacy and GNOME 2.24 desktop environment which will include a new instant messaging client, a built-in time tracker, the latest Ekiga 3.0 video and audio conferencing tool, improved file management and toolbars plus better support for multiple monitor use with the ability to set screen resolution by monitor. You can download a copy of Ubuntu 8.10 from here this Thursday, 30th October, 2008. There is a thread on our forums dedicated to Ubuntu should you require more info or help.
And while we’re on the subject of operating systems, ZDNet has an interesting article on the features of Microsoft Windows 7 pre-beta build. While more official news is expected to come out over the next couple of days at this year’s Professional Developers Conference currently held in LA, small amounts of news on the Windows Vista successor is starting to show up; Microsoft isn’t going to show Windows 7 to attendees of the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in Los Angeles until Tuesday, October 28. But new info about what’s part of the pre-beta build that will be provided to show-goers is beginning to trickle out".
According to Intel, the upcoming new Nehalem processor due out in November will be the greenest to date. “The company said that the systems it has built into its platforms and the technology used have been revolutionary, so much so that Gordon Moore, co-founder of the company, called its 45 nm transistors the company’s greatest advancement ever. The high-k metal gate technology in the systems uses the element Hafnium to manage the problems of building transistors on such a small scale. The company says the new design gives major improvements in both energy efficiency and speed”.
Bit-tech takes a look at Gigabyte’s final X58 board, the Gigabyte UD5P. “Gigabyte will launch three X58 motherboards in a few weeks – the Extreme, the UD5P and the UD5. All will feature Ultra Durable 3 with Gigabyte’s new 2oz copper layer in the PCB, Dynamic Energy Saver advanced, 50-squillion hour Jap caps and Dolby Home Theatre audio with the premium Realtek AL889a sound codec. Other features for the series include dual Gigabit LAN, 4-pin and 6-pin Firewire connectors on the rear I/O as well as eight USB 2.0 ports, 10 SATA, dual BIOS and an Ultra TPM module”.
Kevin Bermeister and Michael Speck, who were once foes in a bitter legal battle between Kazaa, a P2P file sharing program, and the Music Industry have joined forces to develop new technology which they say will eliminate the illegal sharing of pirated content and child porn over peer-to-peer networks. “Kevin Bermeister, sued for millions by the music industry between 2004 and 2006 over his association with what was once the world's most popular file sharing service, and Michael Speck, who ran the music industry's case as the head of its anti-piracy arm, Music Industry Piracy Investigations, are now partners in a venture dubbed Brilliant Digital Entertainment. The pair have developed an application designed to run on existing internet service provider networks that enables the "instantaneous conversion of infringing activity into legitimate content transactions".
Now on to some gaming news. GameSpot has a hands on preview of Left 4 Dead, a “zombie pandemic shooter” while IGN has a review of Fallout 3 which is due for release this week. They also posted a Fallout 3 Guide which covers many aspects of the game; “Our Basics section covers all of Fallout 3's many fundamentals, so that new players can learn the game's complicated mechanics and style-of-play, while veterans to this type of game can simply brush up on their skills. The Walkthrough and Side Quests sections will hold the player's hand through each and every aspect of the game, complete with plenty of explanations and screenshots. And finally, our Appendices section is our vast compendium of knowledge, with information on items, weapons, armor, enemies, and much, much more”.
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All original content copyright James Rolfe.
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