Tech Today w/ Ken May

Did someone say controlled leak? NVIDIA’s come clean about the fact that it has some news to share tomorrow, but until then, it’s being oh-so demure about what it has up its sleeve. Behold, an unnamed GPU — two of ’em, in fact! — running Crysis 2 in SLI mode. What you see in the short clip below is the DirectX11 version of the game running at 1080p resolution with tesselation enabled and a high-resolution texture pack. All told, the game appears to play smoothly, even with the settings cranked to the max. So just what is this thing? Looks like we’ll find out in the morn, folks.

Continue reading NVIDIA teases a pair of mystery laptop GPUs running Crysis 2 (video)

NVIDIA teases a pair of mystery laptop GPUs running Crysis 2 (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Jun 2011 16:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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An anonymous reader writes “For the Linux kernel power regressions that were found a few months ago, and hit in Ubuntu 11.04, Phoronix has found the regression that’s still present in the Linux 3.0 kernel. The power regression is caused by a change in ASPM, the Active-State Power Management, for PCI Express support.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Nailing the Cause of Recent Linux Power Issues

Webapp Panopticlick examines how unique and trackable your browser fingerprint is even if you’ve disabled cookies in your browser. More

It seems too much to hope for, but Super Talent insists it has the benchmarks to prove it: a USB 3.0 stick that achieves 270MB/s reads and 240MB/s writes under optimal conditions. Unlike your average joe flash drive, the RC8 boasts a fully-fledged (albeit previous-generation) SandForce SSD controller that permits the simultaneous use of eight channels of NAND memory. In other words, this zippy little thing actually is an SSD, enclosed in an aluminum case that measures 1-inch wide, 4-inches long and 0.3-inches thick. No definitive word on pricing yet, but it was reported at Computex that a 50GB variant would go for around $110, while 25GB and 100GB capacities will also be available. Now, could someone please hurry up and build a Thunderbolt version?

Super Talent USB 3.0 Express RC8 looks like a thumb drive, acts like an SSD originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Jun 2011 09:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Battery recyclers use reconditioners to restore old rechargeable batteries once they no longer hold a charge. This DIY reconditioner can squeeze more life out of dead rechargeables and save them from the landfill. More

Following their previous report on a beastly Ice Cream Sandwich phone, BGR’s extending extra details—and confirming that Samsung will make the thing, possibly named Nexus Prime. The monster will be purebred—-no 3rd party skins. Just Android 4.0. More

With LulzSec out of the picture, bros-in-arms Anonymous has taken up the cause with hacks of their own. One being the release of an “anti-cyberterrorism” training file, allegedly published by FEMA. The irony is not lost on us. More

Skype and Silver Lake, a large investor, recently fired a bunch of senior executives, allegedly to prevent their stock gaining real value in a forthcoming acquisition by Microsoft. Digging into the contracts’ legalese reveals an obfuscated clause that decodes to something like “we can buy your stock back at the grant price, even if it has vested, prior to any sale of the company.” Felix Salmon at Wired:

I no longer think that what Skype did here is pretty evil: I now think it’s downright evil, and destroys the balance of trust on which Silicon Valley has been built. What’s more, I simply don’t believe that Skype did all of this itself, without detailed input from Silver Lake. … I don’t know where they got these techniques from, but they’re very alien to Silicon Valley and indeed the rest of the business world. And they do no good at all for the reputation of private equity companies more generally.

Taken from:
Report: Skype and investor Silver Lake screwed employees out of stock options

NextComputing wants you to take your desktop for a stroll, preferably a short one originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 26 Jun 2011 03:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Those of you with Sonos equipment already filling your abode with the sweet tunes of your music library and an iPhone or iPod Touch should promptly hit up Apple’s App Store and download their free app now. It may or may not be available right this second, but it should make its way to the App Store sometime today. There are two other Sonos apps currently available but they want you to pay $15 for each.

Having seen the app in person I can say that it’s very intuitive and easy to use. You will also be prompted to update your Sonos’ firmware to 2.7 today so that it is compatible with the software. So if you bought Sonos equipment in 2005 and you own an iPhone then you’re sittin’ pretty. A demo of the app in action and other screen shots are available after the jump.

But that’s not the only announcement Sonos has for today.

Sonos 2.7 unleashes 15,000 Internet radio stations from across the globe and free access to Last.fm and Pandora (everything syncs on the fly with both Last.fm and Pandora to your accounts online).

Other new features of Sonos System Software 2.7 include:
• Updated Rhapsody support with improved sound quality. Rhapsody now streams at 192 MP3 (versus 128 kbps WMA previously).
• Support for RTSP streaming protocol which allows for expanded Internet Radio coverage.
• Dutch and Swedish languages are now supported in the Sonos system software. Sonos already supports English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish.
• For more information about the features of Sonos Software 2.7, please visit: http://www.sonos.com/support/software_update.aspx.

Continue reading here:
Sonos launches iPhone, iPod Touch app