AMD buys out ATI, Intel and Nvidia seem to form a strategic alliance; in short these are turbulent times in the world of chip manufacturers. If we are to believe the statements made by several manufacturers, then we are on the threshold of some major changes concerning task applications for the various chips in a PC. Though AMD has gotten a head start with Torrenza, Intel won't be far behind in implementing a similar solution.

View: Full Story
Source: Hardware.Info via Flexbeta

Here is Episode 39.1 of our weekly PodCast, Hospitalised.

The topics covered in this episode are:

- Sony developer begs fans to hold off on buying God of War 2
- Command and Conquer 3 demo
- ATI R600 Graphics card has been delayed again
- Interview with Matt Groening on the Simpsons movie, and the return of futurama
- State bans youtube in schools - but not for what you think!

You can subscribe to the PodCast by putting this link into your iTunes / PodCast program: http://feeds.feedburner.com/AustechNews.

Download: Episode 39.1: Hospitalised (30:10, 13.8 mb)
View: AusTech News PodCast Forum

A genuine crack for Windows Vista has just been released by pirate group Pantheon, which allows a pirated, non-activated installation of Vista (Home Basic/Premium and Ultimate) to be properly activated and made fully-operational. Unlike cracks which have been floating around since Vista RTM was released in late November, this crack doesn’t simply get around product activation with beta activation files or timestop cracks - it actually makes use of the activation process.

View: Full Story
Source: APC Mag via Flexbeta

Why pay $20,000 for a commercial link to run your television station when a $10 kitchen wok from the Warehouse is just as effective?

This is exactly how North Otago's newest television station 45 South is transmitting its signal from its studio to the top of Cape Wanbrow, in a bid to keep costs down.

45 South volunteer Ken Jones designed the wok transmitter in his spare time last year when he wanted to provide wireless broadband to his Ardgowan home.

View: Full Story
Source: New Zealand Herald via Flexbeta

March 11, the new date on which Daylight Saving Time (DST) will take effect in the U.S. and a growing number of other countries, is fast approaching. And Microsoft is working overtime to get the message out that users need to patch a bunch of their Microsoft products, from Exchange Server, to Windows Mobile, in order to head off date-change headaches.

View: Full Story
Source: ZDNet via Flexbeta

It seems that 2007 will be the year of flash-based drives finally starting to nibble into the market share of the only current logical candidates, magnetic platter-based hard disk drives. With all the advances in NAND field, companies have started to introduce flash disk models of usable capacities for the commercial notebook space, not just industrial ones. Adtron Corporation has just introduced some newcomers to its Flashpak family - 2.5-inch flash disk models in capacities of 32GB, 96GB and 160GB.

View: Full Story
Source: The Inquirer via Flexbeta

Earlier this week, Microsoft published a list of 800 applications that should run properly on its new Windows Vista operating system. On its Web site, Microsoft says the number of applications certified for use with Windows Vista is constantly growing and that its list "will be update weekly."

Virtually all of Microsoft's own offerings are on the list. Also included are a host of business and security applications from vendors ranging from Intuit to Trend Micro. Desktop applications from Google made it in, but some of the world's biggest software companies, including Adobe Systems, IBM, and Symantec didn’t make the cut. Tech industry analyst Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group blames the fact that IBM and Adobe are becoming increasingly competitive with Microsoft in the desktop applications market. Also absent from the list is any software from Apple. Enderle thinks Apple has purposely chosen not to make some of its more popular applications, such as iTunes, Vista-compatible.

View: Applications that Microsoft has approved for Vista
Source: InformationWeek via Neowin

After spending nearly 3 years in a detention center fighting his extradition from Australia, a leader of notorious warez group ‘DrinkorDie’ was yesterday arraigned before a U.S. District Court to face charges of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement and one count of actual criminal copyright infringement. If found guilty he faces 10 years in jail & a $500,000 fine.

View: Full Story
Source: TorrentFreak via Flexbeta

uTorrent is an efficient and feature rich BitTorrent client for Windows sporting a very small footprint. It was designed to use as little cpu, memory and space as possible while offering all the functionality expected from advanced clients.

Download: µTorrent v1.6.1 build 490
View: Change Log
Homepage: µTorrent
Source: MSFN