Maxit Mag

What looks to be one of the most exciting handsets of 2008 is nearly upon us. Scheduled for a fourth quarter release, the Sony Ericsson C905 cyber shot is now officially on the map at Sony. Why should you be excited? Well the camera packs a 8 megapixel camera lens on the rear of the phone with autofocus, image stablisation, face detection (celebrites watch out) and a xenon flash - serious photography fire power for a phone. With this kind of picture quality you can do prints upto A3 sizes without much trouble. Nice. It's also got video stabilizer as standard so it will be perfect for the youtube and myblog generation.

The 2.4 inch QVGA scratch resistant mineral glass TFT display looks to a winner too. And if you feel like sharing your photos round at your mates, you can plug in the optional TV out cable that's in the pipeline. The connections continue with the latest bluetooth standards, USB 2.0 for high speed transfers, built in GPS with support for A-GPS so you can geo-tag your photos and everything can be synchronized up with Exchange Activesync.

Stats for the Sony C905 stack up at 104 x 49 x 18 millimetres and it weighs in at around 136 grams. Colour options include copper gold, ice silver and night black. The bundle will include a 2GB memory stick with battery life good for 380 hours on standby and 9 hours in use.

Watch this space. 

With supplies on the X48 still being quite low, we have a new chipset that managed to take the spotlight from GPUs in the recent Computex: Intel's new mainstream chipset, the P45. This is the first upgrade for this segment since the P35, more than a year ago; the X38 and X48 were aimed at the enthusiast, and actually replaced the 975X. So, what you have here, is the third chipset for the Core 2 (the P965 was the first one) that you should really care about.

The Eaglelake platform raises FSB speed (always comparing to the P35) from 333 to 400 MHz (1600 MHz). Easy overclocks of 50% are guaranteed for older dual core CPUs (quads with a little bit of luck) and 20% for the 8000 and 9000 series. Of course, you can always expect to get even better overclocks with adequate cooling. Moreover, the P45 supports CrossFireX up to two PCIe x8 slots (PCI Express 2.0).

To get a better idea of what it is capable of, let's say that in the article linked below, with DDR3 memory, the Asus board reaches 500 MHz while running a Kentsfield, not bad for a "mainstream" motherboard.  When it comes to performance, the ASUS P5Q3 looks to be on par with the X38 and X48, which are supposed to be better. For energy consumption measures of the ASUS Energy Processing Unit and the 65 nm process used to fab the P45, we'll have to wait for another review.

Link: Hardwarezone.

Not without much turmoil, SP3 for Windows XP and SP1 for Windows Vista, are back online, and after several uneventful weeks it looks like this time it's for real. You can download SP3 here and SP1 (which was never unavailable for download) again on the whole Windows Update widget.

The main problem was with the Microsoft Dynamic RMS (a program for small businesses) which seemed to have some Service Pack related flaws; if needed, there's now a hotfix for that.

The newest of the two, Windows XP SP3, arrives at the same moment Microsoft will stop selling the operating system. It will still be sold for some time, bundled with OEM computers, but you can kiss it goodbye as far as shelf space is concerned. This Service Pack contains more than 1100 hotfixes and weighs 316 MB.

Link: Daily Tech.

Samsung Electronics objections notwithstanding, the main LCD panel manufacturers want the 15.6" panel segment to grow.

Apart from the already mentioned, you can count on AU Optronics (AUO), Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO), LG Display and Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT) to promote the new panel standard for notebooks, which will mean a change (you're damn right,again! ) in the aspect ratio. If going from 15" to 15.4" left the good old 4:3 behind in favour of the 16:10 format, now 16:9 wants to be the new kid on the block and he will bring along his gang, a whole new set of resolutions. Don't you just love leaving your favourite games in the dust?

Panel prices for 15.6" will be very close to those of current panels, around $98-100, but some manufacturers are even aiming for a cheaper goal of $85. Wouldn't it be nice if we could buy them at that price?

Link: DigiTimes.

It was expected that the dual core version of the Atom would be introduced in the third quarter, which meant they had to begin mass producing them rather quickly. Or to be more precise, next month.

The first models will work at a frequency of 1.6 GHz and, as previously reported, will support some sort of Hyper-Threading Technology (four threads per CPU). TDP for the processor - chipset combination, will raise from the 12 W of the single core, to 16 W.

Even though they knew about it, manufacturers aren't exactly happy about Intel leaving so small a gap between the appearance of both incarnations of the Atom processor, because it will make their lives harder when it comes to selling the products. On the bright side, the dual core version should be compatible, just requiring for a BIOS update and not a change of socket.

Link: DigiTimes.

After a long hiatus, it looked like abit was regaining some of it's strength a couple of years ago, but the lack of such successful products as the ones they pulled out at the end of the 90's (along with it's inability to compete in the budget sector) may translate into the end of their business.

According to some, and regardless of abit's denial, if sales of their P45 chipset based motherboards aren't up to meet their goals, those will be the last ones under the abit brand. And what's the goal, you ask? Oh, about six million boards, not too many if we consider that last year they didn't reach half that figure. No, wait, that's what they thought they would be selling before 2008 started, but they're actually selling less this year. No wonder someone at Universal Scientific Industrial (the owners), has gotten a little bit impatient and asked for immediate results.

Let's see who's so bold as to order their products now. You might not be getting any kind of support afterwards.

Link: DigiTimes.

Now you might think that six Star Wars movies was adequate enough to tell a story about a little kid named Darth Vader (formally Anakin Skywalker, and, for a short while, Aaron Landrover), but if you thought that 2 trilogies were enough... brace yourself! -- you couldn't be more wrong!

Intel's installations in the Chinese province of Sichuan were not actually damaged by the earthquake, but it looks like that disaster will find it's translation into the PC market. More specifically, that of chipsets and motherboards.

The G31, G33 and 945GC (which means 45% of all Intel desktop sales) will see their price rise when sold in the thousands, to motherboard manufacturers. Changes will be: from $15 to between $18 and $19 for the 945GC, from $23to between $25 and $27 for the G31 and from $28 to $31 for the G33.

None of these rises should bother you, since you're not interested in buying from Intel and motherboard manufacturers are supposed to take the hit, but something tells me that even if the boards remain at the same price, they will do so for a longer time than otherwise they would've (i.e. it will take longer for the price to go down).

Link: DigiTimes

Update:

We received this request from Fox Film who own the rights to Jennifers Body and Megan Fox's intellectual assets (yes we weren't aware she had any either). They demanded that we remove all pictures of Miss Fox in the nude from our website. A fair request seeing as they plan on charging punters for the priviledge of a good eyeful. 

So there you have it folks. Maybe they aren't so sure about the killer cheerleader script and acting abilities of the cast to draw in the crowds but they are damn sure that everybody will want to see Megan Fox in the buff. Of course if you've already seen them for free on the internet you might not be so inclined to pay to see them again if the film chokes. Don't you just love the movie industry. Coke and popcorn are still optional at this time.

We have removed the images as requested and leave you with some replacement stunt double Megan Fox boobies to fill in the imagination gaps.

Update 

Megan Fox was recently caught on camera dripping and wet from shooting her latest film, Jennifers Body. It looks as if Megans body would have been a more appropriate title as the actress is in fine shape. The good news is for all you lovers of everything Foxy - she was caught topless and with boobs on show. 

Apparently Megan injured her boobies while swimming in the lake and had to perform her own Rambo style breast surgery between takes. It's amazing what a tube of superglue and a personal assistant can achieve.

Time browsing site tipped to be Britain’s YouTube

Named as one of Microsoft’s five UK tech companies to watch in 2008 and heralded as the UK’s answer to Skype and YouTube, Miomi.com has launched with the ambition to democratise time and history by capturing the entire world’s memories online.

Born over a late night student conversation, Miomi is a web-based reflection of time, stretching from the dawn of time into the distant future.  For the first time people will be able to browse through time to find out exactly what happened on any given day, where and to whom.  The site allows users to access information from the private and public sphere to get the official and unofficial take on the world’s memories.

As well as the virtual timeline to find historical content from partners such as Wikipedia, Encarta and others, people will be encouraged to upload their own personal memories and experiences – in the form of photographs, video, audio and text – which they can choose to share with the world or their own private group of friends.

How many children are being born right now?

The brainchild of three German post-graduate students, Thomas Whitfield (25) of Oxford University, Charly Toni (26) and Richard Schreiber (26) from the Technical University of Munich, the original concept for Miomi was dreamt up during a late night university conversation.

Toni explains: “It all started with a simple question - ‘how many children are being born right now?’ Then we realised that if we could capture as many of the millions of real life events that occur every day as possible – from big international news to people’s private moments such as the birth of your first child – then we’d be able to create a huge memory bank for the world.  We decided then and there to build a site where people could record their memories and experiences so that they could be preserved, shared and seen in the context of world events to create a truly democratised reflection of history and time.”

The idea was then pitched in the Oxford University “Idea Idol” competition in February this year, where it was voted the winning idea by a panel of judges including Dragon’s Den stars Theo Paphitis and Peter Jones and eventual backers Dan Wagner and Shaa Wasmund of Brightstation Ventures.  Instead of being handed the £5,000 winning cheque, Brightstation presented the Miomi team with a cheque for “whatever it takes” to turn the idea into a reality.

The next big thing on the internet?

Within eight months of securing funding the team have relocated to London, recruited Jonny Crowe as CEO and have a product ready for launch.  During that time Miomi has already been named one of the UK’s top 25 web 2.0 start-ups (The Register) as well as being selected as one of only five British tech firms on Microsoft’s inaugural Accelerator Programme.

Claire O'Halloran of Microsoft UK, says, “It was clear to us that Miomi was one of those truly great ideas. It is the kind of idea that, whilst simple, has the ability to capture the imagination of the whole world.  We believe Miomi has the potential to be the next YouTube or Skype.”

Man, are we going to be sick with numbers before they become official. No such thing as a review yet, but somebody who the folks at Vr-Zone refer to as CJ has more to add (let's pray he didn't get them from another forum).

The RV770PRO with GDDR3 at 1 GHz, should be 25% faster than the GeForce 8800 GT/9800 GT. The RV770XT with GDDR5 at 1.96 GHz, 25% and 30% faster than the GeForce 9800 GTX and the 4850 (RV770PRO). Remember that the 4870 will not only have faster memory, but a 100 MHz core advantage.

Okey dokey, that's out of the way, now let's talk about your hard earned (or not) money. If DigiTimes is correct then the ATI Radeon HD 4850 will be "only" $229, the 4870 about $349 and the 4870 X2 between $529 and $549 (ouch). Release dates are still (keep your fingers crossed) June, end of July and... the rest of the year, respectively.

Link: Vr-Zone.

According to AMD's new agenda, the 48xx series won't be out until the week from the 15th to the 22th of June (gossip has it that the exact date will be the 18th). That's about a month's delay if we recall the initial release date.

The immediate consequence of this delay it will be that nVidia will get the upper hand in the upcoming battle for the next generation of graphics cards. That is, if they don't screw it too when it comes to releasing their own GT200.

Starting from the sub $200 level, where you can expect to find a 4850 with 512 MB of memory, the prices for the 4870 and the 4870 X2, which will hopefully make it's entrance in July, will be from $249 to $299 for the first, and from painfully to unearthly expensive for the X2. Don't forget that their competition will be the "I want your penny" GeForce 9900. Oh, and another thing, they say these cards will have physics processing capabilities.

Link: TG Daily.