MODDING: blogs

Just in case you’re huddling at home, in front of AAS or your RSS feed rather than being out at some party this New Year’s Eve, you might like to see in the New Year with this crafted ‘2010′ theme from master designer PiZero. Get it installed before the big moment for maximum effect!

Earlier this year, Apple's Chairman & CEO Steve Jobs had promised his followers a boot-camp patch to allow full support for the new Windows 7 operating system to be released “by the end of the year.” Well, it seems that '09 ended early for Apple, as no such patch has been released which leaves many people wondering whats taking so long as many users have reported getting 7 to work fully on Apple computers already.

Developers at Apple have had Windows 7 for months and getting it to run on their machines is not that difficult. After all they are Intel machines and operating systems do not usually pay that much attention to what badge is on the box. Reviewers have also managed to get Windows 7 running on Apple machines and reported that it works. We must not be the only ones wondering what's taking Apple so long

Taiwan-based IC design house Richtek Technology Corportation has announced that it has filed a patent infringement complaint with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) against uPI Semiconductor, AMD, Sapphire Technology, Diamond Multimedia and XFX Technology. The company also filed a lawsuit in northern California. The patents involved in the dispute are US patents No. 7315190, 6414470 and 7132717. It loks like all these patents are dealing with power management on the graphics cards as we looked them up on the USPTO Patent Database this morning.

Disputed Patents

• US Patent No. 7315190 - PWM circuit and PWM integrated circuit for use in PWM circuit
• US Patent No. 6414470 - Apparatus and method for balancing channel currents in a multi-phase DC-to-DC converter
• US Patent No. 7132717 - Power metal oxide semiconductor transistor layout with lower output resistance and high current limit

I don't think we'll see landlines completely eliminated anytime this century if the switch to digital TV is any indication but that won't stop AT&T from lobbying the FCC to set a plan for phasing them out.

A day without landline phones? Some may say that's inevitable, but it looks like AT&T is now starting to try to speed things up a bit, with it recently responding to an FCC request for comments with a 32-page filing that details its position on the matter. That more or less boils down to two major requests: that the FCC eliminate the regulatory requirements that it support a landline network, and that it provide a firm deadline for phasing it out.

The prolific Guru, Ricky Cadden, has done an interesting piece here, part rant, part tutorial, documenting his frustrations with Nokia Messaging and his switch to Email/Contacts/Calendar syncing direct to Google services. It’s a little bit geeky, to be sure, but you just know you’re interested in how it all works…

I asked an eclectic selection of 20 luminaries, bloggers and power users from the Symbian ecosystem: “Which is the Symbian-powered smartphone of the Decade? Which one was most significant, the most memorable, the most game-changing and the most loved?” Here are their answers, for your interest and amusement - and yes, a clear winner emerged…

In June of 2009 SanDisk announced that they were coming out with the 32GB Extreme SDHC card, the world’s fastest 32 gigabyte SDHC card on the market. The 32GB Extreme SDHC card features Class 10 performance, up to 30 megabytes per second (MB/s) read and write speeds. Read on to see what we think of this SDHC memory card!

Spring Design will take the wraps off the Alex, the only dual-screen Google Android-based eReader to fully integrate web browsing and reading, at the Lunch at Piero's media and innovator event during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Alex features a 6″ E-Ink EPD display and 3.5″ color LCD display, earphones and speakers. A removable SD card will free up library space on the device while letting users archive content for future reference.

Spring Design Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Eric Kmiec, will be avaialble to show Alex's full browser capabilities and patented dual screen interaction technology, the Duet Navigator that enables Alex users to search the Internet on the 3.5″ color browser LCD screen while displaying books, periodicals and even personal, educational and corporate documents on the Alex's paper-like 6″ EPD screen. The Alex browser and virtual keyboard provide handy access to email, calculator and will accommodate a growing number of programs from the Google Android community.

The HIS Radeon HD 5750 graphics card features a dual slot GPU cooler called the iCooler IV. This cooling system moves a massive amount of cool air from the central cooler to cool down the internal fins directly. Heat from the 5750 GPU can rapidly transfer to internal fins that extend under the cooler. Read on to see if the fan performs better than others found in this series!

Pulling the cooler off of the HIS Radeon HD5750 iCooler IV video card you can see that is made solely out of aluminum. In the current times of heatpipes and even the common use of copper for heat dissipation I was a bit surprised to see an aluminum heat sink on a non-reference card. According to HIS the iCooler IV is designed for faster transfer of the heat out of the gpu. The noise level of the iCooler IV is rated for under 30dB's. We will check out how well the iCooler IV works in a bit. First, let's take a look at all the goodies you get with your purchase.

Systemax, Intel and CA are teaming up at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show for the 13th Annual Build Your Own PC Race for Charity. This event has helped raise nearly $2.5 million for charities around the country. This years event will be held from 5:30-8:00 p.m. PST on Thursday, January 7, 2010 at the Wynn Hotel and Resort in Las Vegas. If you happen to be in Las Vegas for CES 2010 be sure to swing by and check it out! Legit Reviews accepted the offer to be one of the 30 tech journalists in the event, so it should be a blast like always!

Systemaxs 13th Annual “Build Your Own PC Race” for charity, sponsored by Intel and CA, will be held on Thursday, January 7th, 2010 at the Wynn Las Vegas Resort from 5:30 - 8:00 pm. Last year's event put us way over the $2 million mark in case and computer equipment donations for charities around the country! Held on the first night of the Consumer Electronics Show, top industry journalists compete in a race to assemble systems based on an Intel CPU in record time. Last year's winner Al Hernandez, technology & consumer reporter at Fox Morning News, won the race with a build time of less than 6 minutes. He was awarded $10,000 for his selected charity, Challenged Athletes Foundation. Each of the 30 participants are given the system they build, plus other products, to donate to the school or charity of their choice.