XFX Announces the ATI Radeon HD 4770

Powered by the latest 40nm manufacturing processing technology, the XFX ATI Radeon™ HD 4770 Graphics Card is truly lethal. Representing an industry milestone in the advancement in gaming performance, it is capable of widespread destruction with faster frame rates, higher resolutions and unparalleled speed. GDDR5 memory arms users with twice the data per pin at 750MHz than equally equipped GDDR3 cards. The brute processing power delivered by the XFX ATI Radeon HD 4770 ensures exceptional performance for physics, artificial intelligence, dual-stream picture-in-picture computing and ray tracing calculations.

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Phishing With Swine Flu as Bait

As always, we know this isn’t something you or I would fall for but we all have friends and family that would. So spread the word, not the worm.

One scam features a malicious Adobe PDF document titled "Swine influenza frequently asked questions.pdf," according to Symantec. The malicious PDF file has been recognized as "Bloodhound.Exploit.6" and it drops malicious InfoStealer code onto the victim's computer, the company said.

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Windows Vista SP2 RTM

Microsoft has announced the release to manufacturing of Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. Among other things, SP2 will bring the ability to natively record data to Blu-ray discs and support for Bluetooth 2.1.

Windows Search 4.0 for faster and improved relevancy in searches. Bluetooth 2.1 Feature Pack supporting the most recent specification for Bluetooth Technology. Ability to record data on to Blu-Ray media natively in Windows Vista. Adds Windows Connect Now (WCN) to simplify Wi-Fi Configuration. Windows Vista SP2 enables the exFAT file system to support UTC timestamps, which allows correct file synchronization across time zones. And since it comes with a single installer for both Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, SP2 will be easy for IT Pros to manage, deploy, and support.

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Monster Cable Lowers Prices During Recession

USAToday says that Monster Cable is cutting prices during the recession, HDMI cables are no longer $16 a foot, they are now only $12.50 a foot. What a bargain! Quote of the day has to be when the owner of Monster Cable said "When people buy Monster, they don't expect to pay a low price, so our lower-end cables don't sell very well."

Now, founder and "Head Monster" Noel Lee is cutting prices on top-of-the-line cables for high-definition TVs, effective in June. An 8-foot HDMI cable that currently sells for $129.95 at Best Buy will be priced at $99. "We're lowering prices, due to the recession, but we're also increasing performance," says Lee.

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Man Buys MacBook Pro, Gets Brick Instead

How would you like to buy a new laptop only to get home and find a brick in the package instead of a PC. This has to be the oldest trick in the book…if you are buying something out of the back of a van.

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Update in the RealDVD Lawsuit

RealNetworks and Hollywood faced off in court yesterday during a preliminary hearing. While things are just getting underway, several demonstrations were given in court showing how Real’s "Facet" actual works and it looks like something consumers could actually use. Now I see why movie studios are fighting so hard against it...we'd probably like it.

The studios maintain that consumers don't have the right to copy films they already own, according to statements made by MPAA lawyers during the hearing, which started Friday and will continue Wednesday. Hollywood contends that if, for example, consumers want to download a copy of a movie they already own, then they must pay additional fees for the digital version.

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IBM Board Approves 10% Increase in Quarterly Cash Dividend

The IBM board of directors today declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.55 per common share, payable June 10, 2009 to stockholders of record May 8, 2009. Today’s dividend declaration represents an increase of $0.05, or 10 percent higher than the prior quarterly dividend of $0.50 per common share.

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Intel: Clone Cloud

Smartphones and emerging Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) are giving us access to more and more of our computing applications on-the-go. As this trend continues alongside a revolution in visual computing on the desktop, people will want the same immersive experiences on their mobile devices that they get on their PC. Intel's Clone Cloud research aims to make it possible to execute rich applications on resource-constrained mobile devices by off-loading computation to available cloud resources in nearby datacenters.

The idea is to "clone" the entire set of data applications from the mobile device onto the cloud and selectively execute some operations on the clones, reintegrating results back to the mobile device. Intel's research also seeks to make sure that as this is done, the system remains secure in the face of adversity, protects the privacy of sensitive data, and ensures critical operations are only performed by those who are authorized and that service is consistently reliable.

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You Fade To Light

This is a pretty interesting art project that uses hundreds of small OLED screens that mimic the movement of the person in front of the screen. Check out the video, the overall effect is rather impressive.

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Achievement Hackers Accounts Reset To Zero

There is no two ways about it, if you play games online you’ve encountered people that cheat. Most of the time you can’t do anything about it and that is part of the aggravation of dealing with cheaters. That is why I, for one, like Microsoft’s approach to the situation. You can still play online...but everyone knows you are a cheater.

As part of our regular safety monitoring we have pinpointed a group of players who have unlocked specific Gears of War 2 Achievements through an unauthorized hack. Deliberate cheats like these are in direct violation of the Xbox LIVE Terms of Use and will not be tolerated. As I post this, we’ve begun taking steps to reset the Gamerscores of the offending players. As I have mentioned in the past, this is something we do occasionally to keep the service free of cheating in order to maintain a fair and level playing field for everyone. If you play fair and earn your achievements without glitching or cheating, you have nothing to worry about.

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Fired Over Facebook Photos

Today’s installment of FoFP (Fired over Facebook Photos) comes to you from Watertown Minnesota where a nursing home employee thought it would be a good idea to get herself fired for posting crap on Facebook that she shouldn’t have. Score: Facebook = 1,001 – Stupid People = 0. Thanks to Byron P. for the linkage.

Posted an unauthorized photo of herself posing with a clothed resident on her Facebook page, which the MDH found in violation of the patient's privacy rights. The MDH also found other photos of the employee hanging upside-down off the loading dock railing and posing in other unsafe and unprofessional situations.

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[H]ardware Round-Up II

Cases & Modding

InWin B2 Stealth Bomber Case @ Verdis Reviews

ETC.

Acer Aspire Revo NVIDIA Ion SFF PC @ HotHardware

Power Supply

Rosewill Xtreme RX950-S-B PSU @ Driver Heaven

Video

AMD ATI Radeon HD 4770 512MB @ Bit-Tech

AMD ATI Radeon HD 4770 512MB @ Neoseeker