A tad larger than a Nintendo DS or PSP, this has got to be the ultimate mobile gaming experience. Well known custom modder Ben Heckendorn has managed to shoehorn a fully functional mobile Xbox 360 experience into a handy laptop-esque package. This is just plain SWEET! Engadget reports...
Behold, the Xbox 360 Laptop mk2! It may look a bit like its first generation sibling, but don't be fooled. This Xbox laptop is a bit thinner, significantly lighter, and has some essential upgrades if you're gonna build one yourself. You are going to build one, aren't you? Because that's the best part about it -- we're going to show you how to make one of your own in the coming weeks with a three part How-To series. We'll describe, in detail, the steps necessary to fab an Xbox laptop, and if you're extra nice we'll even provide some original technical files and drawings. But play before work -- check out the photos (below) and videos (after the break) of the Xbox 360 Laptop mk2!
ASUS
EN7900GS TOP Graphics Card @ Techarp
Bluegears b-Enspirer 7.1 Channel 24-Bit Sound Card @ BenchmarkReviews
MSI NX8800GTS-T2D320E-HD-OC 320MB Geforce 8800GTS Videocard @ PCStats
MSI's new 8800GTX OC Liquid @ XSReviews
Fast and Faster: MSI GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB vs. GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB @ XBit Labs
Onboard Video Acceleration: ATi Vs. Intel Vs. nVidia @ TheTechLoungeApple
TV Review - Bringing Digital Media to your TV @ PC
Perspective
Antec MX-1 Portable Hard Drive Enclosure @ Pro-Clockers
P182 Special Edition - One of the best cases gets better @ Anandtech
Socket 775 Roundup @ DriverHeaven
Antazone AS-C1000, AS-N1000, AS-N2000 - Heatpipe Coolers For CPUs And Chipsets
@ Digit-Life
Kingwin 2007 Cooler Lineup @ OverclockerCafe
Gigabyte 3d Rocket Cooler @ GideonTech
Icy Box 2.5 Inch Hard Drive Enclosure @ XYZComputing
Seagate FreeAgent Pro 750GB @ Techgage
Razer DeathAdder Gaming Mouse @ PCApex
AMD/Microsoft Tech Tour 2007 Event @ Techwarelabs
BTO Plus Deck 2c PC Cassette Deck @ OCIA
The Killer NIC and Killer K1 Gaming Network Cards @ LegitReviews
AMD claims Barcelona K10 will knock Intel dead @ The
Inquirer
ECS KN3-SLI2 motherboard @ HardwareAsylum
Shuttle's XPC mini X 200 @ Hexus.tv
Man, this must mean I'm getting old. As I sit here chewing on a Hershey Bar and about to light up a Camel, I'm told that a survey says european youth are eschewing these bastions of bad behavior for cell phones and other gadgets. Maybe I need to make a phone call?? The Register Reports...
The latest survey of how da youth uses mobile phones, due to be released soon, shows that European youngsters will get their first phone around the age of 8, and will sink $28,000 into the device during their lifetime.
Today's young people are spending eight times more on telephony than music. Up to 20 per cent of their disposable income goes on communications and associated services, leading to a rapid decline in sales of CDs, chocolate, and cigarettes - for better or worse.
Of course, one can attribute that decline to music piracy and effective public health information, but lead author of the report Graham Brown says it's clear that mobile telephony is emptying pockets and wallets: "In 2007 they [youth between five and 24] will spend over $150bn on their mobile. That's up from nothing 10 years ago."
Current generation electric and hybrid vehicles use NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride) batteries, owing to their greater durability and safety relative to Li-Ion (Lithium Ion) batteries, which are commonly found in consumer class mobile devices (that hopefully don't burst into flames).
Nissan and NEC seem to think they're up to the challenge of adapting Li-Ion technology into the automotive environment, and if so we could see greater strides made in efficiency, weight, and energy density in hybrid and electric vehicles. DailyTech reports...
Current hybrid vehicles on the road today run on nickel-metal hydride rechargeable batteries. Nissan and NEC plan to buck the trend and adapt lithium-ion battery technology into upcoming hybrid vehicles.
"Together Nissan and NEC's engineers have addressed the key challenges of cost, performance, safety and reliability. We believe that we have a breakthrough technology: the lithium-ion battery produce we will produce," Nissan executive vice-president Carlos Tavares said.
Though we should feel a bit incensed over this here in the United States, especially after all of the blown out of proportion gloom and doom post 9/11, but is anyone really shocked that beurocrats can't get something right after over a half a decade of trying? The Register Reports...
Information security procedures in federal government have improved, albeit modestly. An annual computer security report card on 24 federal agencies released Thursday rated average security at "C-minus for 2006 compared to D+ in 2005.
So instead of been sent to bed without their pork supper, Federal IT managers have earned a pat on the head, if not a generous end of term present. The scores are based on reports submitted in response to the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 (FISMA).
Perennial security underachievers the US Department of Homeland Security received its first-ever non-failing grade, managing to pull its performance up from an F to a D, the first time since the scheme began in 2003 that it didn't flunk.
Looks like IBM has figured out a method to reliably vertically stack semiconductors, eliminating significant design constraints and power use requirements when designing small computing devices. They expect to begin implementing this new technique into mobile products like cellular phones as early as next year. MSNBC Reports...
In IBM’s solution, two chips are sandwiched on top of one another — the distance between them measured in microns, or millionths of a meter — and held together by vertical connections that are etched in silicon holes that are filled with metal.
The vertical connections are referred to as “through-silicon-vias,” which allow multiple chips to be stacked together with greater information flow between them. IBM said its three-dimensional approach creates the possibility of up to 100 times more pathways for information, and shortens by 1,000 times the distance that information on a chip needs to travel.
“This is a big step, this is a really historic move,” said David Lammers, director of WeSRCH.com, a social networking Web site for semiconductor enthusiasts and part of VLSI Research Inc.
In an effort to stem the tide of discovered encryption keys, the AACS Licensing Authority announced that is has "taken action, in cooperation with relevant manufacturers, to expire the encryption keys associated with the specific implementations of AACS-enabled software." So, those with some clue will wait for BackupHDDVD and AnyDVD HD to get updated. Meanwhile the average clueless consumer who rarely even thinks about updating anything will soon be in for a shock when their HD disc playing software goes into self-destruct mode with new HD releases.
The end result? Perhaps, and this is just an educated guess, more and more legitimate consumers will likely be turned into encryption cracking evildoers, simply because they want to play what they PAID FOR. Sigh... Why is this so predictable?
Through the distribution of new movie discs with embedded revoked keys, AACS LA will trigger a self-destruct system for PC-based high-def player software whose integrity from unauthorized copying is found to be compromised. And based on its last statement, the revocation could extend beyond Corel InterVideo, which warned its users last Friday.
How many hard drives do you have to lose to let loose 3 million individuals identities? Apparently only one!
In yet another instance of "why is some security lax moron holding personal data on millions of people in the trunk of his Toyota", a vendor with Affiliated Computer Services has "misplaced" a hard drive containing an estimated 3 million individuals personal information.
This begs so many questions, it's hard to know where to start. How does one lose a HDD? Was someone letting the HDD out for a bit of fresh air? Did it magically grow legs? Took it to Walmart to go shopping and then got seperated at the checkout? Did the HDD forget to bring it's cellphone? Why only the HDD and not a complete system?
This is mind bogglingly stupid. Why do things like this happen? The Inquirer Reports...
NEARLY THREE million peoples' identities are up for grabs after a hard drive went missing, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The HDD contained social security numbers, birth data and names of people who got health care benefits and medical aid, the report said.
Does a 62 percent rise year-on-year in profit sound pretty darn sweet? How about beating 17 top analysts expectations, or beating your own corporate forecast by 24%? It sounds very sweet to anyone owning shares in Nintendo Corporation, because they posted a record $2.2 Billion Dollars in earnings for the year ended March 31. Reuters Reports...
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese video game maker Nintendo Co. is eyeing a record group recurring profit of 260 billion yen ($2.2 billion) for the year ended March 31 on strong sales of its handheld DS consoles and a weaker yen, the Nikkei business daily said on Friday.
The figure, above a market estimate for a 242.4 billion yen profit by 17 analysts polled by Reuters, would represent a 62 percent rise year-on-year and would exceed Nintendo's previous forecast by 24 percent.
Nintendo shares were up 1.2 percent at 34,750 yen at 0029 GMT, outperforming the benchmark Nikkei average, which was up 0.17 percent.
SuperPi 1M pushed below 9 seconds by s.O.t. @ 
