HITmagazine

Headline pretty much says it all, and it's a big one. Tipping the scales at 377MB (or 190MB for some; see image after the break), the OS X 10.5.6 update is now available via Software Update.

Update: Apple has posted the official changelog. Here are the highlights:

• Improves the reliability of AirPort connections, including improvements when roaming in large wireless networks with an Intel-based Mac.
• Improves reliability of Address Book syncing with iPhone and other devices and applications.
• Includes general improvements to gaming performance.
• Includes fixes for possible graphics distortion issues with certain ATI graphics cards.
• Contacts, calendars, and bookmarks on a Mac automatically sync within a minute of the change being made on the computer, another device, or the web at me.com.
• Improves Apple File Service performance, especially when using a home directory hosted on an AFP server.
• Improves reliability and performance for AT&T 3G cards.
• Improves printing for USB-based Brother and Canon printers.
• Fixes issues that could cause Time Machine to state the backup volume could not be found.
• Improves Time Machine reliability with Time Capsule.
• Adds a Trackpad System Preference pane for portable Macs.
• Personal Engadget favorite: Improves the performance and reliability of Chess.
• Nary a mention of Blu-ray. It's still hurting, we guess.

The first patch for the PC version of GTA IV has been released. Download it or get it automatically through the game!


You can simply Download it from planetgrandtheftauto.
OR
Rapidshare link HERE
OR
HERE

The issues mentioned in the earlier post have been fixed.
Make sure to grab the latest ATI and Nvidia GPU drivers also, and if you are able to play, log in to Live to challenge Rockstar's developers, and possibly win prizes.

The PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV is getting a much-needed patch, according to Voodoo Extreme. Rockstar says that the patch is in the process of Microsoft certification and should be coming out soon. The press release outlines the fixes:

• A fix to the crash after legal screen that some German customers were reporting.
• Numerous improvements to the video editor: Smarter naming of videos, improved rendering quality, better fx during replays
• Fix to bowling while using certain sensitive mice
• Fix for ATI 1900 shadows
• Overall savings to memory
• Graphic improvements to particle systems and mirrors
• Multiplayer character settings are preserved
• Support for DirectInput controllers. Note: The current hack way of supporting these controllers may not work with the improved functionality.

The report also states that issues with power management software and the Rockstar Social Club have been fixed. Nvidia has released a new driver to improve performance, and ATI will be releasing Catalyst 8.12 on Wednesday as well. Though any fix is welcome, the list doesn't seem to address a few of the larger complaints from the community, like framerate and texture problems.
souce:GTAForums

Finally. Electronic Arts has stepped up and said that it will publish Brütal Legend, the latest game from Tim Schafer's Double Fine Studios, on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

The heavy-metal inspired game first fell into difficulty when Activision-Blizzard discarded a bunch of in-development titles after their merger. Games like Ghostbusters, 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand and Brütal Legend suddenly found themselves without a publisher, though all have now found new homes.

While the last game of the lot to find a new publisher, it seems that Brütal Legend was never in any real trouble as a publishing deal with EA had been quietly on the card for a while. We can't say we blame EA for pursuing the game either - a heavy-metal inspired game starring Jack Black and from the makers of Psychonauts, Grim Fandango and Full Throttle is a tempting prospect for anyone!

“This is awesome news!” stated Tim Schafer in a press release. “The quality and creativity of the games EA Partners has been involved with make it a perfect home for our baby, Brütal Legend. Some people were starting to wonder if the saga of Eddie Riggs would ever see the light of day, but now I think it’s clear that this game, like Metal itself, cannot be killed!”

While the game is set to tell the story of Eddie Riggs, a roadie who gets sucked into an alternate demon-filled universe by an ancient rock icon, the gameplay itself has yet to be full unveiled. Jack Black has promised however that the first trailers for the game will be unveiled in the VGA Spike gaming awards in the US, which he's presenting.

Trailer of Brutal Legend

Intel has sponsored the release of two new free-to-play missions for the PC version of Far Cry 2 as part of its on-going Game On! campaign.

The missions, called The Morrocan and The American both fit snugly into the main game and sit within the whole Jackal-hunting plot.

The Morrocan is the first mission of the pair and sees the player venturing over to an abandoned Foreign Legion fort in Leboa=Sako territory. There you hope to find an old man with information on where you can continue your hunt for merciless gun-runner, The Jackal.

The second mission, The American, only unlocks when the first one is completed and sees you tracking down your predecessor in the northern mountain ranges surrounding the Dogon village with the hope that they can put you into contact with a new informant who has crucial data about The Jackal.

Both missions are totally free to play and can be downloaded in the latest patch over at Intel's Game On! site. Whether these missions will ever work their way over to consoles as part of a free or premium DLC isn't clear yet, but seems doubtful.

World Record for Core i7 CPU Frequency Broken at 5510.09MHz!

ASUS ROG Rampage II Extreme Smashes World Record in CPU Frequency on Latest Intel Platform

The release of the Intel® Core™ i7 has set the overclocking arena abuzz with excitement in anticipation of new world records. Armed with the ASUS ROG Rampage II Extreme motherboard that supports the newest Intel platform, the Japanese overclocking enthusiast duck smashed to the top of the overclocking charts and notched in a world record for Core i7 CPU frequencies. He managed to record an exceptional score of 5510.09 MHz—clearly laying down the gauntlet to future challengers to the throne. A veteran of overclocking CPUs, duck still holds the world’s highest frequency for overclocking a Pentium 4 631 CPU to a staggering 8180.4MHz last year.

The successful breaking of the world record was in no small part thanks to the overclocking-oriented features found on the new Rampage II Extreme motherboard. TweakIt, an easy-to-use joystick-like control on the motherboard, enables overclockers to make real-time changes to their systems’ core frequency, voltage and other parameters—even while the benchmark utility is running. At no point does software come into play, as the tweaking is completely hardware-based. With such hassle-free tweaking, coupled with information like the system frequency relayed to overclockers in real-time via the LCD Poster, changes could be on-the-fly during CPU tests and result in extraordinary benchmark scores.

About ASUS

ASUS is a leading company in the new digital era. With a global staff of more than eight thousand and a world-class R&D design team, the company’s turnover for 2007 was 6.9 billion U.S. dollars. ASUS ranks among the top 10 IT companies in Business Week’s “InfoTech 100”, and has been on the listing for 11 consecutive years. ASUS was also selected by the Wall Street Journal Asia as No.1 in quality and service in Taiwan.

Mozilla on Monday released Firefox 3.1 Beta 2, an update to its popular Internet browser.

The company characterizes the software as a preview release for developer testing. It's available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux in 54 languages.

The updated browser includes the New Private Browsing Mode, which allows users to surf the Web without leaving locally stored records of online activities. A number of news organizations, including InformationWeek, have referred to this as "Porn Mode," named so because it's widely believed that this feature is used for surfing porn sites.

In a comment posted on an article last month about the development of this release, Mike Beltzner, director of Firefox at Mozilla, dismissed that term. "At this point, I think the only people who are commonly referring to this feature as 'Porn Mode' are headline writers looking to attract attention," he wrote.

Mozilla suggests that Private Browsing Mode is "perfect for online holiday shopping!"

Replying to an e-mail to confirm that he had in fact authored that comment, Beltzner said he was frustrated with the term "Porn Mode" and that he believes it marginalizes useful cases for browsing without leaving local tracks.

Firefox 3.1 Beta 2 also features enhancements to the Clear Private Data tool, which helps make it easier to remove data about online activities that occurred when Private Browsing Mode wasn't turned on.

The new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine has been turned on, promising a substantial speed improvement when browsing any site that uses JavaScript. Mozilla claims that the Gecko rendering engine has been improved too.

Firefox reached a major milestone last month when it broke the 20% mark for worldwide market share, based on Net Applications data. At the same time, it faces renewed competition from Apple, Google (NSDQ: GOOG), and Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), which all see their respective browsers -- Safari, Chrome, and Internet Explorer -- as critical components of their software stacks.

The final version of Firefox 3.1 is expected next year.

Apple on Wednesday released a number of firmware updates to fix stability problems with the latest MacBook computers.

The updates come in pairs that are each for the MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air introduced in October.

One update in the pair fixes "several issues to improve the stability" of the computers, Apple said. The other "improves the sensing and accuracy" of the power adapter and battery charge indicator lights.

The fixes can be installed automatically through Apple's Software Update service, which downloads and installs updates from the Web. However, for cases where the updates have to be installed manually, Apple has posted instructions on its support site. Apple also has a download page for all six updates, as well as a page for general information.

Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs unveiled the lighter aluminum MacBooks in time for the holiday shopping season. The aluminum casing, common with the MacBook Pro, was introduced for the first time in the less-expensive MacBook line

InformationWeek

In 2005 Intel revealed its 65-nm manufacturing process, then 45-nm in 2007. Today, in keeping with its "tick-tock" strategy, Intel is announcing a further shrinkage to its manufacturing process as it ends the development phase for 32-nm chip circuitry. That puts the chips on a production schedule for Q4 2009 -- interesting as Intel's rumored 32-nm Medfield chip wasn't expected until the first half of 2010. According to Intel, the new chips incorporate second-generation high-k + metal gate technology with transistors that switch 22% faster than its current 45-nm Penryn chips. Why should you care? Well, the smaller chips are cheaper to manufacture which should translate to consumer savings. They also require less power than Intel's notoriously power-friendly Atom-class chips. As an interesting side note, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Intel has also disclosed a variant of its 45-nm process (the Lincroft-based Pineview we presume) "that is tailored to create chips for portable computing devices that require low power consumption." Uh, those wouldn't be targeting ARM by any chance would they Intel? Wink wink, nudge nudge.

Equipped with 192 CUDA parallel computing cores, the Quadro FX 4800 delivers a 2X performance increase over previous generations of ultra-high-end graphics cards.

The Quadro FX 4800 has the capacity to process large textures and frames in real time while providing fill rates of 38 billion texels per second and geometry performance of 300 million triangles per second.

Other features included a single dual-link digital display connector for ultra-high resolution panels of up to 3840 x 2400 at 24Hz, a 128-bit precision graphic pipeline and 32x FSAA for better image clarity and quality.

The NVIDIA Quadro FX 4800 is available today and has a MSRP of $1,999 USD

For more info, check out this link which will take you directly to NVIDIA…

NVIDIA Quadro FX 5800

The PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV is getting a much-needed patch, according to Voodoo Extreme. Rockstar says that the patch is in the process of Microsoft certification and should be coming out soon. The press release outlines the fixes:

• A fix to the crash after legal screen that some German customers were reporting.
• Numerous improvements to the video editor: Smarter naming of videos, improved rendering quality, better fx during replays
• Fix to bowling while using certain sensitive mice
• Fix for ATI 1900 shadows
• Overall savings to memory
• Graphic improvements to particle systems and mirrors
• Multiplayer character settings are preserved
• Support for DirectInput controllers. Note: The current hack way of supporting these controllers may not work with the improved functionality.

The report also states that issues with power management software and the Rockstar Social Club have been fixed. Nvidia has released a new driver to improve performance, and ATI will be releasing Catalyst 8.12 on Wednesday as well. Though any fix is welcome, the list doesn't seem to address a few of the larger complaints from the community, like framerate and texture problems.
souce:GTAForums

- Sun Certified Java Associate (SCJA)
- Sun Certified Java Programmer (SCJP)
- Sun Certified Java Developer (SCJD)
- Sun Certified Web Component Developer (SCWCD)
- Sun Certified Business Component Developer (SCBCD)
- Sun Certified Developer For Java Web Services (SCDJWS)
- Sun Certified Mobile Application Developer (SCMAD)
- Sun Certified Enterprise Architect (SCEA)

More information in here

The Information Systems Examinations Board (ISEB) is a division of the British Computer Society.

ISEB was created in 1990 from the Systems Analysis Examinations Board (which was set up in 1967). ISEB administers examinations and issues certificates in a variety of subjects in the field of information systems engineering.

The aim of the Information Systems Examination Board (ISEB) is to raise the standard of competence and performance of those working in IT. It does this by offering a range of relevant industry recognised qualifications.

ISEB does not itself provide training to candidates preparing for its qualifications but, through the accreditation process, it does recognise and promote those training organisations which demonstrate the ability to teach the appropriate syllabus using competent tutors and good materials in an appropriate learning environment.

ISEB has now issued over 300,000 IT Qualifications and the ISEB portfolio offers a large number of IT qualifications over a variety of disciplines.

Some of the ISEB Foundation Certificate examinations are available via Computer Based Exams.

For more information visit here

Since 1969, BCS Professional Examinations have set the highest standard of professionalism within the industry.

Trusted for its independence and integrity, BCS is the only Chartered Engineering Institution for IT professionals which can award an internationally recognised professional qualification.

The three levels of qualification:

• Certificate in IT
• Diploma in IT and
• Professional Graduate Diploma in IT

remain relevant to the needs of the evolving IT community through regular syllabus updates.

The modular course structure offers a flexible approach to study that allows you to progress at your own pace, yet the qualifications remain rigorous and challenging to meet the demands of employers and academics alike.

Benefits

Setting the Standard for IT Professionalism

As the chartered professional body for IT professionals, BCS qualifications are QCA (Qualifications and Curriculum Authority) accredited and set the highest standard of best practice.

Internationally Recognised Qualifications

BCS is the only Chartered Engineering Institution for IT professionals which can award an internationally recognised professional qualification.

Relevant to Industry

The examinations have been developed in consultation with employers to meet the demands and evolving needs of the IT community. They are constantly updated to acknowledge both practical and academic experience.
Route to Study at UK Universities

At their highest level, the examinations are examined to the academic level of a UK university honours degree. Passing the Professional Graduate Diploma in IT level (and project) provides successful candidates with the opportunity for postgraduate study in an IT / computer science-related subject at UK universities.

For more Information Visit BCS official website

• A new hero emerges: Master the acrobatics, strategy and fighting tactics of the most agile warrior of all time. Grip fall down the face of a building, perform perfectly timed acrobatic combinations, and swing over canyons, buildings and anything that is reachable. This new rogue warrior must utilize all of his new skills, along with a whole new combat system, to battle Ahriman's corrupted lieutenants to heal the land from the dark Corruption and restore the light.
  
  
• A new epic journey begins: Escape to experience the new fantasy world of ancient Persia. Masterful storytelling and sprawling environments will deliver to action-adventure fans an experience that rivals even the best Hollywood movies.
  
  
• A new open world structure: A first for the Prince of Persia franchise - now you have the freedom to determine how the game evolves in this non-linear adventure. Players will decide how they unfold the storyline by choosing their path in the open-ended world.
  
  
• Emergence of a deadly new ally: History's greatest ally is revealed in the form of Elika, a dynamic AI companion who joins the Prince in his fight to save the world. Gifted with magical powers, she interacts with the player in combat, acrobatics and puzzle-solving, enabling the Prince to reach new heights of deadly high-flying artistry through special duo acrobatic moves or devastating fighting combo attacks.
  

Today, Amazon launched an iPhone app that'll exist solely to make buying crap easier. Its killer, buy-more-crap feature? Take a picture of anything, and Amazon'll shoot you the product page to waste money on it.

So how does this economy-stoking magic app work? A complex, supremely intelligent algorithm that can analyze pixels and determine just what it is you want to buy? Gremlins? Google? Actually, if you guessed gremlins, you almost on the money.

When you upload a photo, Amazon's living, breathing Mechanical Turk workers (so-named for one of the first "robots") try to match the photo up to products for sale on Amazon.com. You'll get results back in 5 minutes to 24 hours. The giant kink, obviously, is the potential for human error—how will they tell one giant black HDTV from another, for instance, especially with the iPhone's crappy camera? Normally, it'd be the perfect time to launch this kind of app—the holiday season

Bob Familiar, a Microsoft Architect Evangelist, has revealed that Windows 7 Beta 1 will be distributed to attendees at the series of MSDN Developers Conferences scheduled between December 9th and February 19th. However, those attending the first three conferences in Houston, Orlando and Atlanta will receive theirs in the mail "as soon as they become available." Attendees starting in Chicago on January 13th will receive their beta discs at the event itself. Technet's Keith Combs backed up this information saying that they are aiming to have Windows 7 beta materials by January 13th 2009. Microsoft claims that they are still targeting "early 2009" for the wider beta (with the finished version following in mid-2009), but if you are willing to drop $99 to score one early, you will need to register for the MSDN Developer's Conference nearest you ASAP.

Having watched the slow development of pocket projectors for years, I'm thrilled to have not one but two real-life models to play with. 3M's MPro110 ($360) debuted in September and earned a grand award in our Best of What's New roster for 2008. This week, Optoma will start selling the first competing product, its Pico PK-101 projector, for $400.

In two or three years, we'll probably look back at these first contenders with the same nostalgic chuckle that we reserve for 56K modems or the brick-like first-gen iPod. But now is the time of wonderment at the birth of a fun new product category. Each of these projectors delivers the wow factor, and they are equally good performers, although in different ways.

3M's model, with its utilitarian, pale-gray plastic case, looks like a 1970s prototype rather than a 21st-century shipping product. You won't get many style points for carrying it around. But one of those utilitarian features, a VGA adapter for laptops, makes it the natural choice for a lot of customers--and not just people who can only speak in PowerPoint. The laptop link would be equally handy for showing DVDs or Hulu broadcasts, for example. The big, ugly focusing knob up front also provides an advantage: It's easy to grip for making fine adjustments. (The Pico's elegantly recessed focus dial is hard to get at.)

Performance-wise, the battle is a draw. 3M has higher resolution. Its 640-by-480 projection matches standard-def TV and is twice as high as the Optoma's 480-by-320. But the difference isn't so dramatic when you're projecting either a little 8-inch image right in front of you or a 50-inch image on a wall five feet away.
With higher resolution, more inputs and a lower price, the 3M Mpro110 is a slightly better deal. But the Pico has a small advantage in color and portability. Ultimately, it's a thrill to see big, color images popping from your hand using either device.

As if all the images and videos weren't enough evidence, we've now received official confirmation from Microsoft that new Xbox 360 Arcade units do come with 256MB of internal storage. Speaking with us, a Microsoft spokesperson said quite simply, "We are constantly updating the console's more than 1700 internal components. We can confirm that we are moving to internal memory for the Xbox 360 Arcade. The physical internal memory is the same size as the previous external memory units - 256MB."

So there you have it kids, the Xbox 360 Arcade now has internal memory instead of an external Memory Unit. That means you can save games and download content right out of the box, but if you want to take it anywhere, you'll need to pick up a Memory Unit like everyone else.

Details are in, Nokia has a new flagship phone. The N97 packs a 3.5-inch, 640 x 360 pixel (that's a 16:9 aspect ratio) resistive touchscreen display with tactile feedback and QWERTY keyboard into this sliding communicator with an "always open" window to favorite internet or social networking sites. Nokia calls it the "world's most advanced mobile computer." To back up the claim they've dropped in HSDPA, WiFi, and Bluetooth radios, A-GPS, a 3.5-mm headjack, 32GB of onboard memory with microSD expansion (for up to 48GB total capacity), and a battery capable of up to 1.5 days of continuous audio playback or 4.5-hours video. 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss glass and "DVD quality" video capture at 30fps, too. The specs are certainly impressive, let's see if the S60 5th Edition OS can support it. The N97 will launch with a retail price set at around €550 ($693) excluding subsidies and taxes, phone to ship in H1 2009.

Tuesday, December 02, 2008: Dell has rolled out the Studio XPS desktop, a premium PC that features the new Intel Core i7 processor. The Studio XPS desktop features 24-inch Flat Panel and 512MB ATI Radeon HD4580 Graphics Card and can be customised with a variety of complementary high-performance components. According to Dell, the Studio XPS desktop with a Core i7 processor can deliver up to 44 per cent faster video editing and encoding, plus outstanding performance on applications like image rendering, photo retouching and editing.
“The Studio XPS desktop combines powerful features and technology with a stylish design and is the perfect choice for people who are expanding their multimedia horizons,” said Girish Mehta, director, consumer marketing, Dell India. “By bringing this level of performance to the desktop, we are enabling creative journeys of self discovery and self expression.”

The Studio XPS desktop (14.2x6.7x17.1) comes with a 500GB hard drive and Blu-Ray Combo Drive, and is configured with an optional TV tuner. All graphics options include a built-in HDMI port for easy connection to most LCD TVs. The Studio XPS desktop offers support for up to 1TB of hard drive space to store music libraries, favourite movies and TV shows. Blu-ray Disc drive can alleviate the need to purchase, make room for and set up a separate Blu-ray player.

The Studio XPS desktop features 64-bit versions of Microsoft Windows Vista so it can take advantage of up to 12GB tri-channel DDR3 memory, which can improve performance in multi-tasking and memory-intensive applications like photo and video editing software.

The latest version of the free operating system is here. While Vista is almost an year old, GNU/Linux-based operating systems keep getting better and better.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008: The Fedora Project, a Red Hat sponsored and community-supported open source collaboration project, has announced the availability of Fedora 10, the latest version of its free open source operating system distribution. Fedora 10 features numerous leading-edge technologies and continues to lay the groundwork for derivative open source distributions throughout the enterprise.

Fedora 10 includes the premiere of a new graphical boot system called Plymouth, designed to speed up the boot process by taking advantage of a new kernel mode setting feature.
According to Linux Format magazine's review of the OS, "The first thing you'll notice is the vast increase in boot up speed thanks to the implementation of Plymouth.
Fedora 10 also enhances its commitment to security with a new security auditing and detection toolkit called SecTool, and a brand-new set of Python bindings that allow programmers to use the FIPS-140 validated NSS library for rapid development of secure applications.

Well, if you want a virus-free, trouble-free operating system running on your PC, which is also available free of cost, click here to download your free copy.

The solid-state drives for servers and workstations are expected to hit the market in 2010

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies and Intel are teaming up to produce solid-state drives for servers and workstations, the companies said Tuesday.

SSDs based on flash memory chips are faster and consume less power than disk drives, and because they don't have moving parts they can also be more reliable. Although SSDs are more expensive than disk drives, the high-speed, low-power characteristics they offer are particularly useful in high-end applications, such as datacenters.

Under terms of the deal, drive maker Hitachi GST will only use NAND flash chips obtained from Intel in its high-end SSDs. The two companies will jointly develop drives that use Serial Attached SCSI and Fibre Channel interfaces, with products expected to hit the market in 2010, they said. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Intel will continue to sell SSDs for laptops and desktop PCs, which use the SATA interface, under its own brand.

Intel's flash chips are manufactured by a joint venture with Micron, called IM Flash Technologies (IMFT). The joint-venture company doesn't sell to third-party customers, with all of its output going to Micron and Intel.

ASUS just can’t seem to stop its success lately. Not only do they have those hot netbooks, but they have just added to their success with the world’s first Skype Certified videophone called the AiGuru SV1.

The AiGuru SV1 allows the user to make unlimited phone calls with a webcam, speaker, and microphone, and to see the person he or she is calling with the seven inch screen.

Of course, Skype is a funny thing. There are those who cannot do without it, and there are those who have never tried it. If you are in the former category, then you probably work in some business that requires a lot of video conferencing with clients. If you are in the latter category, then you should also find the SV1 easy to use with an “icon-based interface and intuitive button layout”.

As for the Net connection, the AiGuru allows for an 802.11 b/g wireless or to Ethernet via router. As for the power, it has a rechargeable battery that can operate for about 20 minutes. That might be long enough for a full video conversation, but that might be enough to move the SV1 if need be.