Tomorrow's News Today

Please visit our Sponsor

RSS Feeds

• Anandtech

• CNET News

• CrankyGeeks

• DailyTech

• Endgadget

• Security Now

• TechARP

• TGDaily

• Winsupersite

Tech News for Friday November 5th 1999.

Microsoft labeled "Monopoly" by Uncle Sam.
Posted: 11/05/99     Source: MSNBC  Added by: Kim Heise
I really didn't expect this verdict from Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson but he has labeled Microsoft a monopoly. It's too early to tell how this is going to affect the software giant and I'm wondering if the government is going to split the company into pieces.
Here's a quote from Judge Jackson: 

“Microsoft also engaged in a concerted series of actions designed to protect the applications barrier to entry, and hence its monopoly power from a variety of middle-ware threats including Netscape’s Web browser and Sun Microsystems implementation of Java,”

And here's another highlight:

Also extremely damaging to Microsoft, the judge sided with then Netscape CEO James Barksdale version of a meeting between Netscape and Microsoft executives in June of 1995. In that meeting Barksdale alleged that Microsoft offered to divide the browser market with Netscape in a way that Microsoft would provide its Internet Explorer Web browser for Windows PCs, relegating Netscape to the tiny market place of other computers like the Macintosh and Unix servers.

3D Winbench 2000 released.
Posted: 11/05/99     Source: ZDNET  Added by: Kim Heise
ZDNET has released the latest Winbench 2000 which is a Windows/PC battery of benchmarks that now supports Microsoft's DirectX 7.0. If you are one of those lucky broadband users you can download the massive 92mb file here. This new version also supports Windows 2000 but it will not work under Windows NT 4.0 since there is very little 3D acceleration support.

PC sound card buyer's guide.
Posted: 11/05/99     Source: Sharkyextreme  Added by: Kim Heise
If you're in the market for a new sound card or plan on customizing a new system and can't figure out which sound card to get then you should read this excellent buyers guide over at Sharkyextreme.

Intel i820 chipset to be available November 15th.
Posted: 11/05/99     Source: N/A  Added by: Kim Heise
Not sure if you had heard about this but Intel's much anticipated and delayed new chipset is supposed to available to the public starting November 15h. 

DVD encryption system "cracked".
Posted: 11/05/99     Source: N/A  Added by: Kim Heise
Yesterday a group of anonymous hackers from Norway were able to break the encryption system that prevents one from illegally creating copies of DVD movies. The group figured out how to break the DVD encryption system by examining the source code of a DVD player in which the developers of the player forgot to encrypt the algorithm itself that decodes DVD. 

Think about it: How many people are actually going to use up gigabytes of drive space just for one single movie? Also downloading such a movie off the internet would take weeks. When in the future DVD recorders become more available and much cheaper and most internet users obtain broadband connections then this could be a problem.

Now there are a handful of news articles all over the internet popping up debating the repercussions regarding this issue. The latest one from ZDNET looks at what the movie studio execs are thinking. The one point well taken from the ZDNET article mentions that the flood of DVD's and players on the market is too big to stop or change now. If the movie industry were to try and release a new encryption system then all the current DVD players would have to be updated with a "firmware" ROM and existing DVD movies would need to be redistributed under the new format. I can't see this happening.

Tech News for Thursday November 4th 1999.

Carrera introduces AMD K7 1000mhz system.
Posted: 11/04/99     Source: The Register  Added by: Kim Heise
This being a very slow news day I stumbled upon this article over at The Register. A company based in the UK is selling a 1000mhz AMD K7 system which they have super-cooled in order to achieve those speeds. Do I hear the word "Overclocked"?

The system uses an Athlon "thermally accelerated" to 1GHz, and includes 256Mb of SDRAM, has an 18Gb hard drive, with 3D Labs' GVX1 32Mb AGP video, a 22-inch Iiyama monitor, a Panasonic SCSI DVD-RAM drive and a Aureal Vortex sound card.

On another AMD related note: AMD is going to be releasing the 750mhz K7 processor at this years Comdex.

Tech News for Wednesday November 3d 1999.

Packard Bell shuts down.
Posted: 11/03/99     Source: Daily News  Added by: Kim Heise
Computer maker Packard Bell has decided to shut shop and lay off around 13 hundred workers from the Sacramento plant. The facility will remain open until the end of the year.

Intel kills first Pentium III CPU.
Posted: 11/03/99     Source: The Register  Added by: Kim Heise
Intel has put the first Pentium III processor on the chopping block and the bad luck falls to the 450mhz version. So if you plan on picking up a Pentium III 450mhz you had better hurry as it's going to be difficult to find one in stock. 

Andreessen Files To Sell AOL Stock.
Posted: 11/03/99     Source: TechWeb  Added by: Kim Heise
Not sure how to interpret this but Mark Andreesen (the founder of Netscape) plans to sell his 9.9 million dollars worth of AOL stock.  Here's a snippet from the article:

Marc Andreessen, the ex-chief technology officer at America Online and co-founder of Netscape, plans to sell $9.44 million in AOL stock, a Securities and Exchange Commission filing said. Andreessen is also co-founder and chairman of Loudcloud, a start-up websitedeveloper. 

Microsoft X-Box specs released.
Posted: 11/03/99     Source: nv News  Added by: Kim Heise
The specs for Microsoft's X-Box are very impressive and all or $299. Here goes:

• AMD Athlon or Intel Pentium III CPU
• Nvidia GeForce 256 graphics chip, SIII or TDFX
• 64mb ram
• CD or DVD-ROM
• 56K modem
• 4-6GB hard drive
• Microsoft's OS system
  

Soundblaster Liveware V3.0 for Windows 2000.
Posted: 11/03/99     Source: Betanews  Added by: Kim Heise
I saw this over at Betanews that the Soundblaster Live V3.0 drivers for Windows 2000 have been released. Download them here.

Portable MP3 player holds 4gb of storage or 81 hours of music.
Posted: 11/03/99     Source: MP3  Added by: Kim Heise
A Korean electronics company has unveiled a 4gb or 81 hour portable MP3 player called the "Personal Jukebox". The little player weighs in at just 9.9 ounces and should cost between $200 and $250.  The player has a little LCD screen for selecting tracks. The company plans on releasing a 6gb version sometime later. No release date was posted.

Sun to release Solaris 8 in February 2000.
Posted: 11/03/99     Source: ZDNET  Added by: Kim Heise
Sun is planning on releasing Solaris V8.0 next February to coincide with Microsoft's release of Windows 2000. Early versions will be available for x86 compatible systems for a very reasonable $19.95 (plus s&h). This x86 version will be posted on Sun's web site for download. Sun also hopes to sway Linux and NT users with the x86 compatible version.
No major enhancements were mentioned in the article except the new Solaris V8 will ship with IP V6 and Java V2.0

Site News Update.
Posted: 11/03/99     Source: n/a  Added by: Kim Heise
I apologize for the delay in posting news this morning but I was over at a demonstration of AMD's new Athlon K7 CPU. At this point I am set on building a new machine based on the AMD K7 because of the performance and price points. The demonstration was very enlightening and it was exiting to see first hand a AMD K7 600mhz head-to-head against a Intel Pentium III 600mhz. The AMD K7 beat the Intel P3 by a substantial lead.
| want to make it clear that I'm not biased against Intel and this web site is dedicated to news regardless of topic that creates a "stir" in our day to day computing world. For sometime there was no alternative to Intel and now we have one and it exceeds the performance mhz-for-mhz with any Intel CPU.

To make the morning even more interesting my good friend Lance Gibb (sponsor of this web site) walked away with the grand prize: A 600mhz AMD K7 system!!

Tech News for Tuesday November 2nd 1999.

In depth review on Intel's i820 chipset.
Posted: 11/02/99     Source: 3dgn  Added by: Kim Heise
If you are in the market for a new PC and you are considering the new Intel i820 chipset which is the sequel to the Intel BX chipset then you need to read this in-depth review over at 3dgn. Here' s table from the review on the main differences between the previous BX chipset and then new i820 chipset:

The conclusion is that if have a older 233mhz PC that you plan to upgrade then the new i820 might be worth it but there is little noticeable performance gains upgrading from your current BX chipset. I can agree with the article in that the i820 has plenty of room to expand and I think various later generations will begin to show more radical performance gains. You may also want to compare the i820 to one of AMD's new K7 based motherboards.

HP CD-Writer Plus 9110i review.
Posted: 11/02/99     Source: Gamers depot   Added by: Kim Heise
I must say that I'm impressed with this new CD ROM burner from HP. This is a EIDE based CDROM burner that writes CD's at 8x and supports 4x RW speeds all for around $299.00. I've been very skeptical in the past about EIDE burners but this one looks to have all the features. My only question is if the drive does support "overburn" CD's. "Overburn" CD's are discs that hold more than 650mb of data.
Even though this drive is very fast the benchmarks show it much slower than the Plextor 8x drive. Take a look at the performance comparison between the Plextor and the HP 9110i. Read the full review here.

3dfx announces first Gigapixel 3D graphics accelerator.
Posted: 11/02/99     Source: Yahoo biz   Added by: Kim Heise
3dfx had a press release over at Comdex regarding their new "Napalm" video processor. This new rocket processes ONE BILLION PIXELS-per-second! Here's the highlight from the press release here:

One Billion Pixels-Per-Second Will Break New Ground in 3D Graphics

At COMDEX '99, 3dfx Interactive® Inc. (Nasdaq: TDFX - news) will hold a press conference at 8:00 a.m. on Monday, November 15, to announce some of the features behind their next generation graphics technology, codenamed ``Napalm,'' to select members of the media.

Chief among these features will be a focus on fill-rate and the ability to achieve over one billion pixels per second. With fill-rate come benefits such as higher resolution, faster speeds, greater application complexity and the ability to display high quality 32bpp rendering at 60+ frames per second (FPS) at ultra high resolutions. All of these attributes equate to better image quality and highly realistic environments.

For the full press release jump here.

Couple of  software releases.
Posted: 11/02/99     Source: misc.   Added by: Kim Heise
There are two major software releases this morning. The first is WinRAR 2.60 final and CuteFTP 3.5 final. WinRAR is compression program that runs on various platforms that supports ZIP, RAR, ARJ and CAB file formats. CuteFTP is a FTP Windows program with many features like auto file transfer resume and a built in file search engine that even works with MP3 files.

RealJukebox Privacy Patch.
Posted: 11/02/99     Source: Real Networks   Added by: Kim Heise
Real Networks has released a patch to take care of the privacy issue regarding the recording of user profiles with RealJukebox. Download the patch here.

Tech News for Monday November 1st 1999.

nVidia Quadro GPU.
Posted: 11/01/99     Source: nVNews   Added by: Kim Heise
With nVidia's success with the new GeForce256 they decided to release a high-end version of the video processor for CAD called the Quadro GPU. This new video processor is more tuned for high-end business 3D applications and not really a gamers engine. Here's the press release. It's a bit long but worth the read:

Monday November 1, 9:40 am Eastern Time

Company Press Release

NVIDIA creates discontinuity in workstation market with new Graphics Processing Unit

NVIDIA Quadro Workstation GPU Radically Redefines Price/Performance for Design and Authoring Professionals

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 1, 1999-- Leveraging over 500 man years of 3D expertise, NVIDIA (TM) Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA - news) today announced the Quadro(TM) workstation GPU, the newest member of the company's performance-leading family of award-winning graphics processors.

Based on NVIDIA's revolutionary single-chip integrated QuadEngine(TM) transform and lighting architecture, the Quadro is targeted for the digital content creation and MCAD design markets.  Able to process more than 200 billion operations per second, the Quadro shatters the performance scores for entry-level and mid-range Windows NT® workstation markets.  The Quadro delivers up to 17 million triangles per second and a texture fill rate of up to 540 million pixels per second.

In addition to delivering a breakthrough in performance, Quadro offers advanced features demanded by content creation professionals such as anti-aliased points and lines, two-sided lighting, front buffer 3D clipping and shared back-buffer support.  NVIDIA Quadro-based products will ship with Intel®'s next-generation Pentium® III- and AMD Athlon(TM)-optimized OpenGL® drivers for Windows® 2000, Windows NT and Linux.

The NVIDIA Quadro workstation GPU will be offered in the new GLoria II professional graphics accelerator board from Elsa Inc. The GLoria II will allow engineers, animators and other creative professionals to achieve higher levels of real-time interactivity and image quality, thereby reducing overall design time and costs.

"Quadro is a critical element of our `top-to-bottom' strategy to offer a single architecture that spans the consumer to the workstation market.  With Quadro, we are putting a powerful content creation platform in the hands of any 3D professional - not just those who can afford expensive workstations," said Jen-Hsun Huang, president and CEO at NVIDIA.  "Our goal with Quadro is to enable content creators to quickly adopt breakthrough 3D features and capabilities.  The broad availability of compelling and rich content will ultimately drive demand for our GPUs."

"Our Quadro equipped ELSA GLoria II exceeds all expectations for real-world CAD P. and DCC applications.  It clearly outperforms everything we see in today's professional 3D NT graphics space," stated Theo Beisch, President and CEO, ELSA AG.

Benchmark Information

Based on measurements with pre-release drivers on a 550 MHz Pentium III Xeon(TM) single-processor machine, NVIDIA Quadro delivers outstanding 2D and 3D performance compared to other high-end boards that cost as much as ten times more.  For example, Quadro delivers a Viewperf Advanced Visualizer score of 74, compared to the more expensive Intense3D Wildcat 4000 score of 57 and 3Dlabs GVX1 score of 27.  On industry standard application benchmarks like Gbench99 for Pro Engineer, Quadro posts a score of 84, compared to 77 for Intense3D Wildcat, and 78 for 3Dlabs GVX1.  This equates to more than 5-times the price/performance of the Intense3D Wildcat.  On other industry standard benchmarks like Indy3D, Quadro scores 38 on the Animation test, which measures the GPU's capability to replay data sets in real time.

"Maya customers in the film, video and game development markets are already buzzing about the Quadro GPU, and so are we -- the breakthrough price performance allows Maya to really strut its stuff on very affordable systems," said Bob Bennett, Maya Product Line Manager at Alias wavefront.

Windows 2000 Prices.
Posted: 11/01/99     Source: ZDNET   Added by: Kim Heise
Microsoft has officially released the price for Windows 2000. In my opinion the prices are a little steep but here's the bottom line:

-Windows 2000 Professional upgrade from Windows 95/98 is $219.00.
-Windows 2000 Professional non-upgrade is $319.00.
-Windows 2000 Professional upgrade from Windows NT 4.0 Workstation is $149.00.
-Windows 2000 Server with 10 user licenses is $1,199 and for 25 users is $1,799.00.

Are you sitting down yet? 

-Windows 2000 Advanced server with 25 user licenses is $3,999.00. (ouch!)
-Windows 2000 Advanced server with 25 user licenses upgrade from Win NT 4.0 Enterprise is $1,999.00 

Bugs and more bugs with Windows.
Posted: 11/01/99     Source: MSNBC   Added by: Kim Heise
Here are a list of this weeks bugs from MSNBC for Windows NT and Windows 9x.

1. NT 4.0 computer may hang with Mitsumi CD-ROM
2. NT Server may cut SNA connections
3. Win 98 may lock up with USB camera
4. Windows Sound System may hang during reboot

Looks like it's going to be a busy week for Microsoft.

More AMD price cuts.
Posted: 11/01/99     Source: ZDNET   Added by: Kim Heise
With all the competition out there we are seeing deeper price cuts more often. Here are some of AMD's latest price drops:

AMD's largest price reduction came on the 700MHz Athlon chip, whose price was slashed by 18 percent from $849 to $699. AMD's 650MHz Athlon was reduced from $615 to $519, a 16 percent price cut, company officials said.

Smaller cuts were made on Athlon 600MHz and 550MHz chips. The Athlon 600 fell from $449 to $419, a 7 percent reduction. The Athlon 550 chip was cut by 8 percent from $304 to $279. AMD held the price of the 500MHz Athlon steady at $209.

RealNetworks secretly recording RealJukebox data.
Posted: 11/01/99     Source: The Register   Added by: Kim Heise
Somehow I had the feeling this sort of underhanded tactics was illegal but apparently RealNetworks has been recording data from users without their consent. Here's the scoop from the Register:

RealJukebox sends out information on the CDs users listen to, along with a unique player ID number that says who they are. It also reports how many songs are recorded on the hard drive, the type of portable MP3 player being used, and music preferences. When a user registers RealJukebox they are assigned a Globally Unique Identifier (GUID), that is their own personal 'serial number.' This is encrypted in the Windows registry, but Smith has discovered that it's the same number as is sent to RealNetworks along with information about music preferences. This happens on the fly if you play a CD while you're connected to the Internet.

I will let you know more about this story as it develops. The name "Smith" you see in the clip above is the same person who discovered that Microsoft was retrieving serial numbers from Windows98.

Intel expands Via lawsuit.
Posted: 11/01/99     Source: CNET   Added by: Kim Heise
I guess it's not good enough any more to beat the competition the old fashioned way be releasing better products and it's now easier to simply sue or bully the competition. Anyway this article posted on CNET states that Intel is expanding the lawsuit against Via by suing it's customers. 

Windows 98SE daylight savings time bug.
Posted: 11/01/99     Source: Active Windows   Added by: Kim Heise
I thought this one was funny but apparently there is a nasty bug in Windows 98SE that instead of correcting the time it seems to be setting people back by a whole day. If you are running Windows 98SE make sure you check your date and correctly set the time.