As expected, Amazon has announced an updated version of its Kindle electronic reader aimed squarely at the textbook market as well as offering some life support for the struggling business of subscription-based electronic newspapers. The new device, dubbed Kindle DX, sports a large 9.7 inch e-ink display and 3.3GB of storage, which, according to the company, should hold roughly 3,500 books.

Among the new features are the ability to shift from portrait to landscape mode and long-overdue support for PDF documents. Like its predecessor, the DX model connects to Amazon's 3G-based Whispernet for wireless book shopping and is capable of downloading new content in "less than 60 seconds."

In line with the educational focus of the Kindle DX, Amazon has struck deals with three top textbook publishers, meaning that students will be able to buy digital versions of books rather than carrying around the real paper versions in their backpacks. With the first batch of Kindle-formatted textbooks on the way, five universities have already agreed to test the device with their students. At a rather steep $489 price point, however, it's unclear how many of them and consumers in general will embrace the new reader.

The online retailer also announced deals with two top newspaper publishers, The New York Times Company and Washington Post Company, which will see them offering a reduced price on the Kindle DX in exchange for a long-term subscription. Whether or not this model gains any traction remains to be seen - the fact is we already have too many ways to get information for free.

Still unpopular, Microsoft has decided to rebrand WGA in Windows 7 and make some tweaks along the way. Without citing specific complaints or cases, Joe Williams of Microsoft has admitted that customer feedback has resulted in them planning an overhaul for the Windows Genuine experience. Before announcing any specific changes, however, he did rattle off some loose statistics - claiming that upwards of a third of computers worldwide used pirated copies of Windows, and that the majority of users wouldn't even be aware their software was stolen. Interestingly, he also claims that making sure people have legal copies of Windows is more than just protecting Microsoft's revenue, but also protecting users from identity theft, data loss and other bad things.

He went on to talk about how anti-piracy measures will be handled in Windows 7, promising that it will be very different from what Windows users are used to currently. Essentially, Windows Genuine Advantage has been dumped as the moniker for the company's anti-counterfeit software and is to be replaced with the new Windows Activation Technologies (WAT). The biggest impact home users will see is more "informative" messages, letting them know in greater detail if and why their software is counterfeit.

For example, if Windows 7 is not activated during the login process, customers will no longer have to wait 15 seconds to click the "Activate later" button, and instead they will be given more information on activation. He also mentioned improvements for enterprise customers that will make volume activation easier and said that updates to WGA will still make their way to existing XP systems. It remains to be seen if Microsoft can get it right this time around or if "WAT" will be just as controversial as WGA.

by Justin Mann on May 7, 2009, 6:09 PM Nvidia has for long enjoyed a spot as the superstar of gaming graphics, besting ATI again and again. That trend continued even past the acquisition of ATI by AMD, and didn't reverse until the latter HD Radeons were available. Since then, the fight between both graphics giants has been on much more equal footing. This has hurt Nvidia, along with many other setbacks in the past year, which all have contributed to the company posting a net loss of $201.3 million, or $0.37 per share, for the first quarter of fiscal 2010.

It isn't all bad for the company, which accompanied the financial downer with news that revenue has grown 38 percent from the previous quarter. CEO Jen-Hsun Huang mentioned they are decreasing inventory dramatically, with hardware being sold after it is manufactured nearly twice as fast as before. They also took the time to announce the milestones they reached over the previous year, such as the introduction of the Ion platform, CUDA and the upcoming Tegra 600 SoC.

Despite losing a good chunk of cash, it seems they have still managed to best AMD when it comes to desktop GPU share, claiming a 69% piece of the market up from 63% the prior quarter. This doesn't include integrated GPUs, where Intel reigns supreme. Still, is Nvidia feeling pressure from the vendors they have spurned? Is the bickering with Intel affecting their business? Nvidia is making good moves in expanding their hardware lineup, but has very stiff competition in every arena they compete in.

NVIDIA today announced that Cyberlink's Media Show Espresso is accelerated by CUDA ready graphics cards from NVIDIA.

MediaShow Espresso is an easy to use software application that converts digital video for playback on different portable devices, such as the iPod, iPhone, or PSP at very high speeds with excellent quality.

By accessing the massively parallel processing power of the NVIDIA CUDA computing architecture built inside all currently shipping NVIDIA GPUs, MediaShow Espresso speeds up video encoding. Cyberlink's support for NVIDIA CUDA means the required processing can be performed on the GPU, allowing MediaShow Espresso to convert videos in a fraction of the usual time and so dramatically reducing the length of time convert an HD video for use on a portable media player.

Just yesterday we reported about a new Core i7 CPU from Intel, the Core i7 Extreme 975, and today Intel surprisingly announced in a "Product Change Notification" to its partners that it is already phasing out the Core i7 940, soon.Intel's explanation was this:

"Market demand for the Intel Core i7-940 Processor has shifted to other Intel processors. The products identified in this notification will be discontinued and unavailable for additional orders after the "LastProduct Discontinuance Order Date""

On July 10, 2009, Intelis going toaccept the last cancelable Core i7 940 order, whilethe final order dateis September 4, 2009. This further means that the final shipment date for the boxedCore i7 940will be December 4, 2009,and the availability for tray versions is November 5, 2010.

Product:

6GB Triple Channel Kit (3 x 2GB) 1600+ PC3 12800 CAS8

Specifications:

Cas Latency Timing: 8-8-8-24 DDR3 1600+

Manufacturer:

A-Data

Street price:

€ 94,95 / 125 USD

It surely has been a while since we tested something from ADATA. Recently we we asked to review some more of their products, and as such today we bring you a review on one of their DDR3 offerings.

We mentioned this a couple of times already, but the memory market is fierce and competitive. All manufacturers are competing with each other on some level. Some go for the crown in high-end performance, others for the most low-budget memory one can sell, and then there's mainstream. Probably the biggest market out there. Especially with the release of Intel's Core i7 processors.

, a new battleground created itself. In the past weeks we tested many high-end kits in a triple channel configuration.

Awesome stuff really, but the fact is that the uber-high-end performance level also is a very expensive one. If you opt a product that is somewhere in the middle, chances are that you'll be able to purchase some fantastic memory at a great price offering super performance.

Today we test such a kit. A-Data recently released their DDR3-1600+ series memory. This review kit is in particular a 6GB kit triple channel memory kit that is rated PC3 12800 and comes with an okay CAS 8 latency. However it also can address a 1T command rate (if you have no clue what I'm saying here, don't get scared .. we'll explain this in the review).

So where we chip in 400~450 USD for an uber high-end kit .. the point I'm trying to make today is that this particular 6GB 1600 MHz CAS8 memory kit sells for roughly 129 USD. And that alone is reason enough to look into it.

Let's head on over to the next page where we start out with thestandard memory 101 and then head on over into a photo-shoot showing this product, and of course the test session.

The biggest vaporware title in the history of the PC finally is vaporized. But that's a sad thing of course. Shacknews report that: Duke Nukem Forever publisher Take-Two has confirmed to Shacknews that it was not funding development of the 3D Realms project.

"We can confirm that our relationship with 3D Realms for Duke Nukem Forever was a publishing arrangement, which did not include ongoing funds for development of the title," said Take-Two VP of communications Alan Lewis in a prepared statement. "

In addition, Take-Two continues to retain the publishing rights to Duke Nukem Forever," he added. Update: Apogee Software and Deep Silver have issued a statement to Shacknews, confirming that the situation at 3D Realms has not affected the development of Frontline Games' upcoming handheld Duke Nukem Trilogy. "Deep Silver and Apogee Software are not affected by the situation at 3D Realms," a representative for the companies told us. "Development on the Duke Nukem Trilogy is continuing as planned." Original story: A very reliable source close to Duke Nukem Forever developer 3D Realms today confirmed to Shacknews that the development studio has shut down. The closure came about as a result of funding issues, our source explained, with the shut down said to affect both 3D Realms and the recently resurrected Apogee. Employees of both entities have already been let go. Phone calls and e-mails to various 3D Realms veterans have thus far gone unanswered, with 3D Realms publishing partner Take-Two and Apogee partner Deep Silver likewise unavailable for comment. One 3D Realms spokesperson declined to comment when reached. 3D Realms was founded in 1987 by Scott Miller and George Broussard, and was best known for its Duke Nukem series of shooters starring the titular, bubblegum-lacking hero. The studio had infamously been working on Duke Nukem Forever, the next flagship franchise entry, for over 12 years. A final push to release Duke Nukem Forever began in 2007, marked by a short teaser starring the in-game hero that was released late that year.

Product: Hyper N520

Manufacturer: CoolerMaster

SKU code: rr-920-n520-gp

Information: coolermaster

Street price: 30 EUR ~ $34.99

As you guys probably know, Cooler Master is a big player in all kinds PC peripherals. They offer keen design and quality products, and obviously all surrounding the topic, cool ... heck it's in their name. As such they offer PC cases, CPU coolers, VGA coolers, power supplies and sure, we'd nearly forgotten it .. where they started with, fans. CPU coolers are a strong and big market for Cooler Master, and they surely have proven a point or two with the outspoken cooler designs like their V8 CPU cooler and that all new V10 CPU cooler with TEC unit. Cooler Master is continuously trying to raise the bar in price, design and performance. One of the more recently released CPU coolers is the Hyper N520, a product that is striking in several areas.

Though the new Hyper N520 CPU Cooler is in all respects a basic heatpipe cooler like many others, it is unique. You'll spot a lot of aluminum convection fins mounted to no less than 5 6mm copper heatpipes. To top that off Cooler Master engineered the product with not one but two 92mm cooling fans in mind. This way they could keep the CPU cooler design a little smaller, yet create a lot of airflow. The end result is a pretty interesting looking and performing end product; though not the most silent model, it cools quite well and is tagged with a very decent price.

The Asus G50Vt-X5 comes with a wide range of features at a price that doesn't burn a huge whole in your wallet.

The G50Vt-X5 comes with Intel Centrino 2 processor technology with interrelated Intel Core 2 Duo Processor P7450 Intel PM45 chipset, 802.11a/b/g/n network connection and extended battery life capability to let you work better, faster, and longer. If you need to multi-task then the G50Vt-X5 is perfect for you. It comes with 4GB PC2-6400 DDR2 memory with a 1066MHz frontside bus, a 3MB L2 cache and 2.13 GHz processor speed giving you blazing fast speed to handel multiple projetcs simultaneously, the Asus also comes with a 320MB SATA hardrive(7200 rpm) for more than enough storage with faster read/write times.

If you like recording movies and what not then you will be pleased to know that the Asus G50Vt-X5 comes with a Multiformat DVD RW /CD-RW drive with double layer support that records up to 8.5GB of data or 4 hours of video using compatible media, it also supports LightScribe direct disc labels using compatible LightScribe media. All that is made even better by the 15.6" WXGA widescreen display with a 1366x768 resolution that brings your games and movies to life! It also features a secondary OLED display that gives you notifications of instant messages or e-mails while playing a game.

Speaking of games, the Asus is definatley equipped for some gaming. Now while it isn't an Alienware, the G50Vt-X5 comes with the NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GS graphics card with 512MB of dedicated GDDR 3 graphics memory for a powerful graphics performance and an Azalia audio chip with built-in Altec Lansing stereo speakers and an HDMI output for an intense gaming experience.

Some other features include a built-in 1.3 megapixle webcam, facial recognition software, an 8-in-1 media reader, 1 IEEE 1394 port and 4 high-speed USB 2.0 ports, built-in 10Base-T/100Base-TX Ethernet LAN with RJ-45 connector, built-in gaming sidelights with color-coded keys for gaming, and Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Edition 64-bit operating system.

You get all this and more for the modest price of $900. Overall this computer is great for basically anything you would need. Coming from someone who now has an Asus and loves it, this laptop is definatley worth looking into.

AMD is trying really hard to get the most out of their processor series. As such nearly on a bi-monthly basis they introduce a new processor, sometimes even two at a time. And that's good,great in fact as it shows that the new Phenom II architecture is working out really well for them.

On that note, AMD today will release two more new processors in the Phenom II processor line. Ever since the release of Phenom II things have been going really well for AMD, yields are good and the processors certainly can clock much higher than I originally anticipated. On air the BE edition processors often can be fairly easily lifted towards 3.6 GHz, so it's not exactly a surprise that we heard about a Phenom II 955BE processor back in march already ... with the launch today.

Yields are good, clock frequencies go up, performance goes up. And that's nice as the Phenom II series processors offer great performance for the money you have to lay down on the table. AMD Phenom series processors are slowly ripening, and are aging like afine wine (they get better over time).

What is AMD releasing today:

• AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 3.2 GHz at a suggested price of $245 USD
• AMD Phenom II X4 945 3.0 GHz at a suggested price of $225 USD

AMD started its Dragon desktop platform with the introduction of their flagship CPU, the Phenom II X4 940. This processor however, is not compliant with the AM3 socket, and as such does not support DDR3 memory. Based on the 45 nm Deneb core the two processors released today supports socket AM3 motherboards, and DDR3 memory.

Today AMD is releasing two processors in the Phenom II line-up, the Phenom II 955BE and the Phenom II X4 945 processor. Both processors can be considered and positioned in AMDs high-end segment, yet will be priced friendly.

Also a good thing to be very aware of .. these AM3-packaged processors will fit into existing AM2+ motherboards as well. Pop in the latest BIOS on your AMD 790FX/GX DDR motherboard, and you will be good to go as well.

Anyway, good gosh darn it .. I'm already going into detail whilst we still are in the introduction.

For this review we will test the Phenom II X4 955BE processor yet also have a look at AMD Phenom II X4 945 performance. Move onwards to the next page please where we'll startup this review with a technical overview followed by an in-depth benchmark report to see where AMD is with it's fastest processor anno Q2 2009. And sure, though this primarily is a Phenom II X4 955BE review, we include AMD Phenom II X4 945 processor results as well, yeah we like to eat our cake and a little icing on top of it.

By: Hilbert Hagedoorn