I don’t know about you, however I’ve been waiting for the day that Will Wright’s Spore to come out for AGES.

That day finally has a date… September 7th, 2008:

The wait is almost over! Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) and Maxis today announced that Spore(TM), the most anticipated video game of the year from the creator of The Sims(TM), has gone gold and will be available for the Mac and PC at retailers September 5 in Europe and September 7 in North America and Asia Pacific. Spore(TM) Creatures for Nintendo DS(TM) and Spore(TM) Origins for mobile phones will also be available globally September 7…

“We are so excited to finally get Spore into the hands of fans and players,” said Lucy Bradshaw, executive producer of Spore at Maxis. “The Maxis studio has had an absolute blast creating Spore, but the fun is just beginning. The most engaging stories are truly the ones people create themselves, and we can’t wait to see how players not only craft and explore the Spore universe, but hear what stories they have to tell as a result.”

Spore gives players their own personal universe in a box, allowing fans to create and evolve life, establish tribes, build civilizations, sculpt entire worlds and explore a universe created by other gamers. Spore gives players a wealth of creative tools to customize nearly every aspect of their universe: creatures, vehicles, buildings, and even spaceships. Players can then seamlessly share their creations with the world via the Sporepedia(TM) and explore infinite new galaxies created by other gamers*.

For all the latest Spore news, screens, videos community content, and to try out the trial version of the hugely popular Spore Creature Creator, visit www.spore.com.

Oh heck yes.

After seeing the VIA Nano versus Intel Atom video, where the VIA Nano basically destroys an Intel Atom, albeit at a slightly higher wattage rating… you’d think that things at VIA were going better than great.

They even have the VIA Nano, which looks to be a killer low-watt CPU, they have the Pico-ITX platform which can essentially put an x86 based in the palm of your hand.

However, it seems like VIA is exiting the motherboard business to concentrate on building better processors:

Previously one of the best chipset makers for enthusiasts looking for high performance on a budget, VIA has told Custom PC that it now sees no future in making chipsets for third parties such as Intel and AMD.

Speaking to Custom PC, VIA’s vice president of corporate marketing in Taiwan, Richard Brown, explained that: ‘One of the main reasons we originally moved into the x86 processor business was because we believed that ultimately the third party chipset market would disappear, and we would need to have the capability to provide a complete platform.’

‘That has indeed come to pass,’ said Brown. He also added that ‘Intel provides the vast majority of chipsets for its processors and, following its purchase of ATI, AMD is also moving very quickly in the same direction.’

I know that right now, in my Chaintech motherboard, I have a VIA 4-n-1 chipset for audio, video, memory and USB2 controllers. And I know that VIA has supplied drivers and hardware for pretty much the last three or so builds of machines that I’ve had around here in the last few years.

Regardless… guess it’s a tough business to be in. Can’t wait to see what else VIA pulls out next.

Link to the original article…

By Jonathan Kimak

Asus has announced a new controller. The Eee Stick is a wireless controller that senses motion. But don’t let the similar sounding name, design and function of the Eee Stick fool you, it’s made for PC gaming.

The controller will be bundled with a variety of Asus brand computers and some games designed specifically for use with the Eee Stick.

So are the controllers a good alternative to Wii-less people who have a PC but not a Wii? Or is it a cheaply made knock-off intended to sell mini computers? Only time, and comments from consumers will tell.

[ Asus ] VIA [ Electronista ]

Link to the original article…

By Luke Anderson

I remember back when FireWire was first introduced (yes, it’s actually called IEEE 1394, but I’m an old-school Mac guy, so it’s FireWire) and it had some incredible speed to it. Of course USB 2.0 eventually came along and became the more widely used standard. FireWire 800 came out a little while later, but despite its faster speed, never really caught on. Don’t count the standard out though, as a newer, faster version is coming this fall.

The newer FireWire spec is rated at transfer speeds of up to 3.2Gbit/s, which is a considerable jump. It is expected to be compatible with previous standards, something that likely contributed to the lack of interest in FireWire 800. Unfortunately with USB 3.0 on the way with 4.8Gbit/s, it faces some serious competition.

VIA [ Gearlog ]

Link to the original article…

My hate for wires still continues - feel free to read my other rant about wires right here. Enter the Digital Signature Mint 220.

Coming in under $180.00 USD, it offers:

• The Mint 220 Digital Music Station offers the highest fidelity digital audio, using Texas Instruments’ PurePath Digital audio amplification for optimal performance.
• Wireless 2.4GHz lossless audio streaming from your Mac or PC with the included Mint USB Wireless Transmitter
• Mint’s Di-Fi™ digital-sound is delivered from your PC or Mac wirelessly, with no loss of fidelity, up to 45 feet or 15 meters
• Careful craftsmanship, acoustic engineering and sealed enclosure design offer precise audio usually found only in much pricier systems
• Two 3.5” full-range Peerless® transducers for big speaker sound and compact, mini-speaker versatility.

What catches my eye is Di-Fi™. I’ve heard of wi-fi, just like everybody else… but Di-Fi is a promise that your already compressed mp3 music - or the uncompressed FLAC type(s) of music filetypes - will sound just as good over the air as it does in your headphones.

Hop down to your local Best Buy or hit up the MintDS (Mint Digital Signature) website for more information.

What seemed to be a fanciful idea or pipe dream from the last week or so (at least to my knowledge) has actually become reality… if you just happen to live in Bulgaria or Taiwan that is.

We proudly introduce to the world what probably is the most senseful hardware solution for a Mac™ on a PC experience. It allows the user to install Mac OS X™ straight from the original DVD without having to worry about patches, replacing files and anything like that.

That means you can buy a regular compatible PC, Mac OS X™ and EFiX™ and enjoy what the Mac users have always enjoyed:

• Ability to install Mac OS X Leopard™ and Leopard Server™ from original retail DVD.
• Average users can easily install Mac OSX™ without fear of needing professional knowledge.
• Update your system with official Apple® Updates.

Read more here.

Yep. They’ve probably found the fastest way to get Apple’s lawyers attention.

However, if this does come out in the US, you better believe I will be in line like the iPhone lines that are starting to form for a phone that comes out in another week.

Even if the only gaming you’ve done in the last few years was Tetris on your Motorola RAZR, you’d know that Crysis is one system resource demanding game… even if you have close enough to a “God Box“, Crysis might need a few tweaks to run more than 30 frames per second reliably.

Enter the Cuban Ultima Doom Sword’s CustomCrysisConfig. Yes… that’s the real name of the utility.

The Cuban Ultima Doom Sword’s CustomCrysisConfig allows you to automatically configure Crysis tailored to the performance of your system. What this means is that it goes further than the standard “low-medium-high-very high” settings found inside the Crysis in-game menu.

Head over to Madshrimps to read more about what this utility does and how it’s possibly the one thing you should be downloading at the end of the day. Screenshots are available too.

I normally don’t tend to cover video games too often, I’m just too busy playing them with my work and all… yeah… work. Well, along comes the oddly named, ZzangOnline by Korean gaming company, MuhanGame.

By their own accord, it’s a “casual MMORPG” easy enough for most anybody to pick up, get into, play, kick butt, and have fun… ok, I’m interested. And for once, a cool looking game that didn’t originate from either Europe, the USA or Japan will finally be made available to the gaming populace worldwide.

In an interview with MuhanGames…

Read the rest of this entry »

VIA’s at it again… making things smaller, faster, and oddly enough, better. Details below:

New VIA EPIA P700 board features in-line I/O pin-headers and extended feature set including Gigabit LAN, S-ATA II and an integrated power adapter

VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today announced the VIA EPIA P700 Pico-ITX board that couples more features within a streamlined, ultra compact footprint designed for low profile systems, with extended I/O port options through two companion boards.

Now featuring native S-ATA II support, Gigabit LAN, and support for GPIO, SM bus and LPC devices, the 10cm x 7.2cm VIA EPIA P700 is based on the VIA VX700 unified digital media IGP chipset and is powered by a 1GHz VIA C7 or fanless 500MHz VIA Eden ULV processor. An integrated power adapter coupled with the 5-volt S-SATA power cable negates the need for a separate power daughterboard, saving considerable space for ultra compact systems.

Linear on-board pin-header placement means developers can use a single cable to effortlessly connect various I/O devices in a streamlined way that reduces cable clutter. Flexible battery placement is also geared towards improved miniaturization, making the VIA EPIA P700 the most slimline Pico-ITX board yet.

Two companion boards make light work of design implementation and product testing. The P700-A board features an RJ45 port, a VGA port and a COM port, while the P700-B sports four USB ports and three audio jacks for multi-channel surround sound. The two companion boards fit seamlessly with the streamlined linear pin-headers on either side of the VIA EPIA P700 to enable ultra low profile devices.

“VIA has listened to its customers to learn how we can add even greater features to our products,” said Daniel Wu, Vice President, VIA Embedded Platform Division, VIA Technologies, Inc. “Pico-ITX continues to evolve in tandem with the needs of our customers, addressing the challenge of producing full-featured, ultra compact embedded systems that can be brought to market as quickly and as easily as possible.”

Read more about the VIA EPIA-P700 right here.

We want to set a Guinness World Record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours. With the backing of our community and your help we know we can make it. What else can you do?

Yep… this means that Firefox 3.0 (final) is quickly approaching. It also means that Mozilla wants to set a download record.

You heard it here… download it folks. It’s tons faster and uses less memory than Firefox 2.

Via is at it again. Not content with making motherboards and CPU’s that could easily fit in your pocket - wow, the geek jokes are endless on that one, they’ve now come out with a motherboard that supports dual displays. Yep… their platform that fits in the palm of your hand now supports dual monitors.

The key to the outstanding multimedia performance of the VIA EPIA M700 is the latest media system processor from VIA, the VIA VX800. An all-in-one, highly integrated digital media IGP chipset, the VIA VX800 offers incredible versatility and multimedia performance on the latest display standards on a single chip measuring just 33×33mm…

As today’s information, entertainment and commercial display system feature ever more immersive content, the VIA EPIA M700 addresses the increasing demands for enhanced media playback and visual clarity across multiple displays in digital multimedia applications with support for dual-DVI or DVI plus HDMI configurations with unique resolutions, pixel depths and refresh rates.

Featuring a 1.5GHz or a fanless 1.0GHz VIA C7® processor, the VIA EPIA M700 leverages the uncompromising multimedia performance of the VIA VX800 unified chipset with its integrated VIA Chrome9™ HC3 integrated graphics core for DirectX™ 9.0 3D graphics and up to six-channel VIA Vinyl HD Audio rich surround sound, while the VIA Chromotion™ video engine provides advanced hardware video acceleration and an improved visual experience for MPEG-2, MPEG-4, WMV9, VC1 and DivX video, plus a VMR capable HD video processor.

As multimedia file sizes grow, so speedy server connectivity is becoming increasingly important in dynamic digital signage and kiosk solutions, so the VIA EPIA M700 boasts two PCI-Express based Gigabit LAN ports to facilitate wideband data transfer for large video and other files over networks.

Read more over at Via’s website.

Seriously… I was just talking to a friend about an idea just like this where the copper plate over the heatpipes in most heatsinks seem to cover the most effective portion of the CPU cooler, the heatpipes (!!) while I was helping him build his own machine:

“Today we are looking at a product from Sunbeamtech, the parent company of Tuniq, maker of the popular Tuniq CPU coolers. Our sample today is called the Core-Contact Freezer and I think everyone reading this is going to look at the biggest feature of the CCF and wonder why they didn’t think of it first. I know I did.

The Core-Contact Freezer features four 8mm heatpipes that contact the CPU’s Integrated Heat Surface (IHS) directly. This was accomplished by flattening the round pipe at the contact area with the CPU. The result is eliminating the copper plate between the CPU and heatpipes and in theory removing an extra surface for heat to travel through at a key area.”

Read more over at Tweaktown.

Via is at it again. Intel Atom… bah. That’s a energy hog compared to Via’s offering that uses 1 watt for their newest low power x86 processor.

Building on the success of the VIA EPIA PX10000 Pico-ITX board, which took the embedded industry by storm last year as the world’s smallest mass production x86 board ever, the VIA EPIA PX5000EG adds the incredible heat and power efficiency of the 500MHz VIA Eden ULV processor with its maximum power draw of just one watt. System designers of embedded automation and industrial control devices can now take advantage of a full x86 system that fits neatly into the most extreme space constrained, heat sensitive environments.

“The introduction of the VIA EPIA PX5000EG elevates the VIA EPIA range of innovative embedded solutions to new heights of thermal and energy efficiency in an extremely miniaturized form factor,” said Daniel Wu, Vice President, VIA Embedded Platform Division, VIA Technologies, Inc. “The VIA EPIA Pico-ITX form-factor continues to evolve, addressing the embedded industry’s needs for greater efficiency and miniaturization.”

Developed exclusively by VIA, the Pico-ITX form factor squeezes a full feature set into a mere 10cm x 7.2cm. A complete system in the palm of your hand, the VIA EPIA PX5000EG includes both LVDS/DVI and VGA support, integrated 5.1 channel audio, fast 100/10 Ethernet, both IDE and S-ATA drive support and up to six USB ports and a COM port.

Yes… it can run Quake, Doom… it will blend too

And Via has a competition too…

Click here to read more and enter… good luck.

It’s been a long time since the announcement by Starbucks to AT&T wireless was announced; however if you want a taste of it you’re going to have to head to San Antonio, Texas.

Here’s a few facts first though:

AT&T Inc. and Starbucks will deliver AT&T Wi-Fi service at more than 7,000 company-operated Starbucks locations across the United States.
Starbucks and AT&T will offer a mix of free and paid Wi-Fi offerings at Starbucks stores to meet the needs of both frequent and occasional Starbucks Wi-Fi customers.
The initiative further expands the AT&T Wi-Fi network, already the largest in the United States, to more than 17,000 U.S. hot spots and more than 70,000 globally.

And that’s just the start. As much Starbucks as I drink, and I’m the owner of an AT&T locked enabled iPhone, this should be a good pairing.

More information is over at Alan Weinkrantz’s blog, 3Screens. Check it out.

I won’t be scientific, post up a bunch of numbers that mean a lot to a few esoteric people; nor even give you anything more than just one simple opinion… Microsoft Vista SP1 is not harmful, but it doesn’t make things any better. Well, maybe 0.1% better than the original install.

It doesn’t really add any new features that I can immediately tell. It doesn’t reduce the memory usage. It doesn’t even make my Vista experience on an AMD 6400+ Black edition processor with SATAII drives, 2GB of Corsair memory and an ATi HD 2600XT with 512mb GDDR3 memory seem any faster.

In fact, it really didn’t make anything break, slower or worse.

And that’s a good thing. Microsoft didn’t break anything. My anti-virus software still works. As does my NetLimiter Pro firewall. As does my MagicJack, Skype, Pidgin, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash. I still have to clean up crap with CCleaner occasionally, and above all it didn’t stop VLC from working…

It didn’t make anything seem faster, but it didn’t make anything seem slower. So… job well done Microsoft. You had the chance to make Vista seem better… and you didn’t capitalize.

If it makes you feel better, I feel like Leopard, before Apple OS X 10.5.2 that is, had slowed down on superior software. Running Windows XP on this same machine is like moving at mach speed. Running OS X 10.4.11 on the same hardware seems to make 10.5/10.5.1 seem slow as well. At least 10.5.2 made things better, at least on the machines that I use.

Here’s to hoping that SP2 make Vista better; SP1 did not.