MODDING: blogs

This afternoon I received an e-mail from Gilbert Fiorentino, the CEO TigerDirect, and he wanted to clear the air on the various reports regarding the reason that EVGA products are no longer being sold on TigerDirect.com. In the official statement below he states that TigerDirect pulled the plug on EVGA products due to a number of mitigating factors. It now looks like EVGA and TigerDirect both claim to be the party that called it quits. Not much else to report other than the fact that this subject has industry insiders all hot and heavy with ideas as to what it going on. As far as EVGA and TigerDirect are concerned in our books, both companies have moved on to greener pastures and neither wants to looked kicked to the curb.

TigerDirect constantly evaluates our vendor partners for maximum customer satisfaction while being able to meet the company's revenue and profit goals. While we have enjoyed a long relationship with EVGA, there are mitigating factors which make the ability to sell EVGA products prohibitive at this time and we decided to discontinue the relationship. The fact remains that we may sell EVGA products in the future. I can assure you that there is no 'mystery' beyond the above facts.

ELSA Japan and Lucidlogix have announced an an agreement to deploy Lucids HYDRA based chip in ELSA Japan High Performance products. The companies have teamed up to transform high performance computing in the Japanese marketplace. For the first time, a product based on Lucids HYDRA technology will be used in a new line of ELSA Japan high performance systems for the HPC, broadcast and medical markets.

We are pleased to partner with ELSA, which has the reputation for providing leading performance computing solutions to the Japanese market. ELSAs selection of Lucid products for graphics and high performance computing platforms demonstrates our commitment to deliver a unique and powerful parallel processing architecture, said Offir Remez, President of Lucid. HYDRA technology will allow ELSA to combine multiple GPUs on one device, for efficient, high performance in compute intensive, large scale visualization scenarios.

In the business world, that amorphous concept called “consumer confidence” is measured in dozens of metrics, algorithms, and white papers. In the real world, there are Super Bowl ads. So, unsurprisingly, if you look at the lineup of Super Bowl ads from tech companies this year, the outlook isn't sunny.

Virtually all the electronic and digital brands running ads at this year's game between the Arizona Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers have advertised at the Super Bowl in past years: domain giant GoDaddy, job search sites Monster.com and CareerBuilder, brokerage house E-Trade, and online auto marketplace Cars.com. There's a hype-filled new ad about “smart grid” innovation, but it's run by General Electric, parent company of this year's Super Bowl broadcaster NBC.

apanese electronics maker Hitachi Ltd. predicted it would post a massive net loss this fiscal year and said it will slash about 7,000 jobs as part of a global restructuring plan. Battered by plunging demand, the company forecast Friday a net loss of 700 billion yen ($7.7 billion) for the fiscal year through March 31, a stark reversal from the 15 billion yen profit it forecast in October.

Hitachi, which makes everything from home appliances and TVs to IT systems and medical equipment, also cut its operating profit projection by 90 percent to 40 billion yen. The company blamed sharply falling sales in most of its main businesses including electronic devices, power and industrial systems, and consumer products. “Economic stagnation is expected to persist for the foreseeable future, making revenue expansion unlikely,” Hitachi said in a statement.

Bought a Nokia 5800 XpressMusic? Before you do anything, read All About Symbian’s guide to your first steps with the phone. Tzer2 has written the article with ordinary people in mind and tried to keep jargon to a minimum, but hopefully even advanced phone users should find something useful in it.

Dell Inc is plotting a foray into the cell phone arena as early as next month, making and selling smartphones to revitalize a business walloped by crumbling PC sales and pitting the firm against Apple, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

The world's No. 2 maker of PCs, which has been designing prototypes for over a year, is focusing on smartphones — the class of high-end devices that encompasses Apple's iPhone and Research in Motion's Blackberry, the newspaper cited people familiar with the matter as saying. If launched, the phones will be based on Google's Android operating system and Microsoft's Windows Mobile software, it said. One model will even feature a touchscreen, not unlike the iPhone's, the Journal reported.

Guess these are official now, seeing as they’re up on Nokia’s web site. The E71 page now includes a Flash gallery showcasing the new red/silver and black colour choices. The online shop still limits purchase options to silver or white, though that will change once stock is received. (via BGR)

More stats out recently, this time from ABI Research, showing worldwide phone market share for 2008, just about the grandest metric of all, even if it does include devices right down to bargain basement level. Nokia tops the list again, with a world share of 38.6%, while Samsung reached 16.2%. Motorola and LG are hovering at around 8%, with newbies RIM and Apple getting to 1.9% and 1.1% respectively. I wonder where we’ll be at the end of 2009? Predictions on a postcard….

With more and more mainstream people making the move to an almost pure digital world, central storage and data backup is becoming more and more of an issue. Businesses have used Network Attached Storage or NAS boxes for some time now, but now the everyday home user is starting to look at NAS solutions for data storage and backup. Join us as we look at the N4100PRO NAS box from Thecus and see what this little box can do.

OCaholic looks closer at the Lian-Li PC-60F. With its timeless and simple designed brushed aluminium Lian Li wants to win the hearts of the customers.