MODDING: blogs

Over on Ovi Gaming we’ve just done mini-reviews, screenshots and gameplay videos of six lower-price games (in descending order of quality): excellent accelerometer-based tilting maze game Labyrinth Touch, noughts and crosses on a larger grid with Tic Tac Toe Touch, chess-inspired puzzle game Knight’s Puzzle, Mr Pringle avoiding a soaking in Log Jam, testing whether you’ve got dementia with Viitrio Memory Match, and a rather more boring noughts and crosses with Viitrio Tic Tac Toe.

Staples Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. are slashing laptop prices and expanding their selections for the back-to-school shopping season, banking on the computer demand to sell more profitable accessories and services. Staples, the largest office-supplies retailer, boosted its portable computer selection by 50 percent, while Wal-Mart, the worlds largest retailer, is selling out of a $298 Compaq Presario model in some stores.

Laptop shipments are expected to climb 4.1 percent this year, tempering a 16 percent decline in demand for desktop PCs, according to market researcher Gartner Inc. Revenue may total $113 billion. By Bloomberg calculations, retailers could get a $11.3 billion slice of that, assuming profit margins of 10 percent. That compares with $30.3 billion they could make on accessories.

OCZ today announced the immediate availability of the Z-Series power supplies, the Z850 and Z1000 PSUs delivering over 90% efficiency at typical load. The Z-series is available at Newegg.com retailing for $299.99 (Z1000M), $289.99 (Z1000), $239.99 (Z850M), and $219.99 (Z850).

ThermalTake Element G Case Review @ Ninjalane and other reviews from around the web can be found by visiting our forums!

Choice is something that end users love to have and the Element G is all about that. The abilities to control everything from fan speed, noise level, and to even the flavor on the day fan color is incredible. On the inside the modular type setup allows you freedom to set things up the way you want them and not compromise layout or cable management.

HTPC enthusiasts will probably rejoice at the new Silverstone GD03 chassis that comes with 2 hot swappable HDD bays. You can fit in 7 HDDs in total. The casing comes with 2 rear 80mm, 2050rpm exhaust fans and two front 80mm fan bracket.

The Intel Premier IT Professional site offers a new server efficiency tool that gives IT professionals a snapshot of their current performance and energy efficiency versus what it could be by turning up the number of processor cores and use of virtualization. It also compares their data centers with those of other IPIP members.

EBay is building new software to run its Skype Internet calling service, a bid to sidestep a licensing dispute with Skype's founders, who have threatened to take back the underlying technology. The new software will be expensive and might not work, San Jose-based eBay said Wednesday in a regulatory filing. The company said it might have to shut down Skype if the dispute with the founders isn't resolved.

The dispute threatens to interfere with plans by eBay CEO John Donahoe to take Skype public in the first half of 2010. EBay bought Skype in 2005, though the rights to some of its so-called peer-to-peer technology remained with the founders. EBay's plan to create new software is unlikely to work, said Jayanth Angl, an analyst at Info-Tech Research.

With the once-resilient videogame industry mired in a slump, investors are looking to big-name titles and potential price cuts for game consoles in the second half of the year to help spur a rebound in sales. Major game publishers Activision Blizzard Inc and Electronic Arts Inc will report quarterly results next week, on the heels of dismal June U.S. videogame sales, which registered their biggest drop since 2000.

But the 2009 game release schedule is heavily weighted with big-name titles in the second half of the year, analysts say, in contrast to a strong first half line-up in 2008. That has made year-over-year comparisons particularly ugly. The remainder of the year will see the latest installments in major franchises such as “Left 4 Dead,” “Assassin's Creed,” “Call of Duty” and “Halo,” which could give sales a much-needed boost.

AVADirect recently announced that they are now selling the world's most powerful gaming notebook, the Clevo M980NU. AVADirect started taking pre-orders on the notebook as of mid-June and has begun receiving stock of the item and shipping to customers now. The starting price for a fully configured Clevo M980NU notebook is $2493.85.

“This is currently the fastest production notebook that you can buy. The M980NU has support for quad-core mobile processors, two GTX 280m video cards, up to 8GB of 1333 MHz DDR3 memory, and a large 1080P 18.4″ screen. Compared to AVADirect.com's past powerhouse notebook, the D900F, which was a workstation notebook, the M980NU was designed for gamers. With the multi-color LED lighting, quick buttons for games, and touch-sensitive hot keys for control, this notebook is any notebook gamer's dream come true.” as quoted by Misha Troshin, CMO and co-owner of AVADirect.

Offscreen Technology have just released a touch enabled version of Elements, their periodic table application (it’s available in the Ovi Store). Making best use of the letterbox screen size of the 5800, the app presents the always useful periodic table of elements, nicely colour coded to keep elemental groupings together, as well as allowing you to tap through on each element to gain additional information.