The high-performance WGR614L, which is “Works with Windows Vista” certified, features a 240 MHz MIPS32 CPU core with 16 KB of instruction cache, 16 KB of data cache, 1 KB of pre-fetch cache, and incorporates 4 MB of flash memory and 16 MB of RAM.  In addition to an external 2 dBi antenna, the WGR614L integrates a second internal diversity antenna to provide enhanced performance and range.  The router supports free open source Linux-based Tomato and DD-WRT firmware and will soon support OpenWRT.

The WGR614L is supported by a dedicated open source router community, www.myopenrouter.com, which provides open source firmware downloads, forums, blogs, articles, source code, and user guides, and provides users with dedicated and responsive support by open source experts.

The Netgear Open Source Wireless-G Router (WGR614L), which features one 10/100 Internet WAN port and a four-port 10/100 LAN switch, incorporates an 802.11g access point to support wireless connectivity at speeds of up to 54 Mbps.  The WGR614L supports static and dynamic routing with TCP/IP, VPN pass-through (IPSec, L2TP), NAT, PPTP, PPPoE, DHCP (client and server), and Bigpond.  A Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI) firewall protects the network from intruders, and the wireless connection is secured with support for 40-, 128- and 152-bit WEP encryption, Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), WPA2-PSK, and Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS).  Additional security features include: Exposed Host (DMZ), MAC address authentication, URL content filtering, logs and e-mail alerts of Internet activity. The router retails for only $69. 

Press release 

The two new Signature units features some cutting-edge features which had never been can offered before. The Signature Series utilizes active DC-to-DC voltage regulation as opposed to the standard passive magnetic amplifier method, providing for shorter transient response times and greater system stability. n addition, the Signature Series boasts an advanced cooling system with a Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) fan.

The PSUs bring 82% efficiency at 20% and 100% load levels, and they achieve 85% efficiency at a 50% load. The Signature Series also utilize a dual power circuit board (PCB) layout which optimizes the airflow, and reduces electrical noise.

The Signature 650 and 850 are available now, for $299 and $249, respectively. Both units are covered with five-year warranties.

via Tech Report 

Although over 200,000 users have signed the petition to save Windows XP, Microsoft didn't listen their pledges. The fact is that many enterprises don't want to move to Vista. The main concerns come from the stability and reliability of Windows Vista. Another major reason is that the users must reinstall all the applications previously installed on XP.

The official date for Windows 7, the next operation system coming from Microsoft has moved to January 2010. Many users told, they would love to use Windows XP until that date, because Windows Vista hasn't been very popular and it had compatibility problems with the hardware. We can only hope the transition from Vista to Windows 7 will be smoother. 

You can check the shots of the 16-inch FW and 13.3-inch SR with model designations VGN-FW140EH and VGN-SR140EB.

Source 

“Linksys is launching LELA setup and technical support for Mac OS X because we recognize the need to better support the ever-growing number of Macs users,” said Greg Memo, vice president and general manager, Linksys Consumer Business Organization. “We want all consumers to have access to the best networking experience we can provide for them.”

LELA Mac Setup Wizards for select Linksys Wireless Routers, including the WRT310N, WRT160N, WRT110, and WRT54G2 are available now for download from www.linksys.com/mac. Going forward, new Linksys products will ship with a LELA setup disc that includes both PC and Mac Setup Wizards.

Source 

“The ATI Radeon 4800 series represents a 2X performance jump over the ATI Radeon HD 3800 GPU, the biggest generational increase since the game-changing launch of the Radeon 9700 in 2002,” said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager, Graphics Products Group, AMD. “AMD made a strategic decision to focus on GPU designs that maximized our efficiency and allowed us to provide enthusiasts, performance and mainstream users with the most compelling value proposition at every price point. The ATI Radeon 4800 series sets a new industry standard in key metrics such as performance-per-watt, performance-per-mm² of chip die size, and performance-per-dollar.”

The ATI Radeon HD 4870, available immediately with a suggested retail price of $299, represents an unprecedented 1.2 teraFLOPS of visual compute power. It features a stock GPU core clock speed of 750 MHz, 512 MB of GDDR5 memory rated at 3.6 gigabits/second, and comes in a dual-slot PCI Express 2.0 configuration with a maximum board power of 160 watts.  The ATI Radeon HD 4850, immediately available with a suggested retail price of USD$199, received an enthusiastic welcome from global graphics reviewers.

The ATI Radeon HD 4850 is the world’s first teraFLOPS graphics chip, with 800 stream processing cores (identical to the ATI Radeon HD 4870), a stock GPU core clock speed of 625 MHz, 512 MB of GDDR3 memory rated at 2 gigabits/second, and comes in a single-slot PCI Express 2.0 configuration with a maximum board power of 110 watts.

Press release  

The Maximus II Formula motherboard comes equipped with a SupremeFX X-Fi sound card that takes full advantage of the ADI 2000B audio codec, the Creative X-Fi suite, CMSS3D and the Crystalizer technologies. SupremeFX X-Fi natively supports the EAX standard to produce top-notch virtual 3D surround sound.

The new ROG Extreme Engine is a next-generation multi-phase power design that provides additional overclocking headroom for extreme computing situations. It ensures a reliable operating environment, while also improving power efficiency up to 96%. The overclocking fans can obtain more performance from their processors using the CPU Level Up utility. They just need to set up the CPU speed from the BIOS and the system will do the rest, fine-tuning the processor, making it run at the desired speed with uncompromising stability.

The motherboard is available immediately through authorized ASUS North American dealers at a recommended price of $289.

Source 

The broadband wireless network will compete directly to the major mobile operators in Netherlands - KPN and T-Mobile. Worldmax can become a potential threat to telecom operators, as the network will expand.

The subscription for a wireless broadband connection for laptop computers with unlimited amount of data will cost 20 euros ($31) per month. Worldmax intends to get customers which use other data plans because their service is better and cheaper. Also the company expects to gain customers among teenagers and other categories that don't have a data subscription yet.

Source 

WD's third-generation high capacity enterprise SATA hard drives enhance vibration and shock tolerance and deploy new electronics to increase performance approximately 20% and by as much 60% in high-vibration environments. WD RE3 drives feature 1.2 million hours MTBF, native command queuing (NCQ), time limited error recovery (TLER), and an extensive and enhanced testing process to ensure long-term reliability for demanding enterprise applications.

The WD RE3 500 GB (model WD5002ABYS), 320 GB (model WD3202ABYS) and the 250 GB (model WD2502ABYS) hard drives are available now at the suggested retail prices of $119 for WD RE3 500 GB, the 320 GB is $89 and the 250 GB is $79 USD. The WD RE3 drives are covered by a five-year limited warranty.

via Tech Report 

The folks from SpreadFirefox have created a JavaScript map that shows how many users have taken the software in every country on the globe. The United States hold the first position followed closely by the Western Europe countries. 

Later update

The Firefox 3 entered the Guinness Book as the most downloaded software in 24 hours. To be exactly 8,002,530 people grabbed Firefox 3 from 18:16 UTC on June 17th, 2008 to 18:16 UTC on June 18th, 2008.

Get Firefox 3  

The WiMax Forum stated that more than 100 products will be certified by the end of the year. The number will reach 1,000 products in 2011, including also the 3.5GHz frequency products. The Forum will start accepting certification applications for such products in the third quarter of this year.

"To ensure interoperability for global operators and consumers, the WiMax Forum supports the end-to-end certification process, from equipment development to test equipment validation (to), finally, product certification. The WiMax Forum is the only consortium to certify base station equipment, which is key to ensure true network interoperability and a high quality of service among user devices and network equipment."

The certifying process will increase the confidence of WiMax developers over the main competitor, the Long Term Evolution of 3G.

Source 

Taiwan will be the first country that will launch WiMax on a commercial basis. Japan predicts to start using WiMax next year.

Fujitsu, a Japanese electronics maker, expects its power-efficient communication chips to drive the company's overall WiMax chip sales. The company is aiming for more than $950 million in sales of its WiMax-use chips in the 2011/2012.

It seems the WiMax technology will open new opportunities for chip makers and also for telecommunication companies. Some says WiMax is the fourth mobile generation, but it may be viewed just an improvement to the current 3G services.

via Cnet 

NVIDIA GPUs are also the only ones to support PhysX technology, the world’s most pervasive physics engine that is already delivering dynamic 3D realism to more than 140 games across multiple platforms, and is being used by more than 25,000 developers worldwide. With PhysX, developers can incorporate effects such as rigid body dynamics, collision detection, and cloth simulation that dramatically change the way the games are played and how the on-screen stories unfold, and then accelerate those effects using the processing power of the GPU.

GeForce GTX 280 and GeForce GTX 260 GPUs features list:

• 2nd Generation NVIDIA Unified Architecture: Delivers 50% more gaming performance over the Company’s previous NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra GPU through 240 enhanced processor cores that provide incredible shading horsepower at resolutions as high as 2560 x 1600.
• 3-way NVIDIA SLI Technology: Industry leading 3-way NVIDIA SLI technology offers amazing performance scaling by implementing 3-way alternate frame rendering (AFR) for the world’s fastest gaming solution under Windows Vista.
• NVIDIA PureVideo® HD Technology: The combination of HD video decode acceleration and post-processing delivers unprecedented picture clarity, smooth video, accurate color, and precise image scaling for movies and video.
• NVIDIA CUDA Technology: With the power of NVIDIA CUDA technology and the new CUDA runtime for Windows Vista, programmers can now offload the most intensive processing tasks from the CPU to the NVIDIA GPUs, putting the power of up to 240 multi-threaded processor cores to work.

Suggested retail pricing for the GeForce GTX 280 and GeForce GTX 260 GPUs are $649 and $399, respectively. The GPUs are already available in stores.

Press release 

The storage capacities offered by the 160GB MK1617GSG and 80GB MK8017GSG mirror those of larger form factor HDDs, while reducing the storage footprint by nearly 40 percent compared with the 2.5-inch form factor. Combined with the new micro-SATA connector, Serial-ATA 1.5Gb/s interface and 5,400 RPM spin speed, the MKxx17GSG series offers small and light-weight solutions at increased data transfer rates for enhanced performance in subnotebook PCs.

The company is now shipping its 17th generation of 1.8-inch HDDs and has brought to market more than 25 different models. Toshiba's new 80GB and 160GB HDDs will ship to PC manufacturers and distribution partners in August 2008.

via Toshiba Storage 

The trojan hacks the routers that use the basic access authentication process. That means any computer that access the Internet through a router can be at risk. The DNSChanger Trojan changes the DNS settings to redirect the Web site address to a malicious site supplied by the attackers (as seen in the picture below).

To understand the hacking process, I can tell you that your network is reconfigured to do all domain connections through a malicious name server. Thus, the users are exposed to phishing attacks. The most exposed user are those who didn't changed their router's factory settings. That happens because, the trojan has a pre-defined set of passwords (”dictionary attack”) commonly used by routers vendors. It tries one combination per approximately 100 milliseconds, which makes 600 combinations per minute. Although the risk to hit you might seem not important, it is advisable to change the original router configuration.