Friday Shortbread - The Tech Report

Friday Shortbread
by Ronald Hanaki — 7:20 AM on December 12, 2008

Friday

Fudzilla reports AMD already taped out a 40nm chip
Expreview reports RV775 to have 840SP; RV775XT to be
released in late January (see chart ~ write-up in Chinese)
Fudzilla reports Intel officially reveals H1 Socket and plans 32nm netbook
VR-Zone reports Intel built 32nm test chip, on target for Q4 2009 release
and Asus reveals Eee PC 1002HA with aluminum finishing
Hexus.net reports XFX to sell ATI (AMD) graphics cards in the new year
DigiTimes reports AMD refutes China fab rumors
and Intel re-integrates channel platform group
Microsoft declares quarterly dividend
DailyTech reports Bush Administration opposes free Internet plan
Update: Chinese team mistakenly released unpatched IE7 exploit
MacRumors reports Apple exploring 3D desktop and application interfaces
C|Net reports Palm hosting CES event, could be OS preview
TweakTown reports Asus nails TrueHD and DTS-HD MA bitstream on the PC
Caught in the wild: iPhone mini
PCGH has 3dfx news (in German)
Big Iron: On Display - Are SLI / CrossFire worth it?
Ars Technica's guide to virtualization: part II
and ultimate road warrior guide
HotHardware's holiday buyer's guide
Nvidia's 12 days of Christmas: great deals
Benchmark Reviews' MvixBOX WDN-2000 network media server Christmas giveaway

Software

TweakTown's AMD Catalyst 8.12 analysis - XP & Vista
X-bit Labs: evolution of Nvidia GeForce driver:
GeForce GTX 260 (216SP) under investigation
VR-Zone reports Intel releases Windows 7 graphics driver
Ars Technica reports WordPress 2.7 now on WordPress.com, standalone systems
Tech ARP has latest details on Windows Vista SP2
PC Mag's Windows Vista SP2 beta preview
Ars Technica's hands-on: Amarok 2 rocks the house
ATi-Forum's test: ATI Video Converter (AVIVO ~ write-up in German)
tkArena on Mozilla Thunderbird: free e-mail client
Guru3D has Rivatuner 2.21

Gaming

PlayStation Home is now live!
Nintendo sets record, selling 2 million Wiis
U.S. video game sales up 10 percent
Atari blasts back from the past with new game plan
GamePolitics reports FCC commissioner terms WoW leading cause of college dropouts
Game Developer's 2008 top deck
TweakGuides: PC game piracy examined
Shacknews reports Prince of Persia retail copies are DRM-free, says Ubisoft
Fallout 3: Operation Anchorage unveiled
Major update for Team Fortress 2
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning patch 1.1a release notes
YouGamers report massive EVE Online exploit surfaces
bit-tech's S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky re-review

Systems and storage

Multimedia

Mod, cases, and cooling