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|  | | VIA Announces Broadest Chipset Support for Microsoft® Windows Vista™
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
VIA has "...confirmed the most comprehensive and flexible range of core logic solutions for Vista-based systems across all the major processor platforms for motherboard, PC, server and device manufacturers. Five of VIA’s leading edge IGP chipsets have received the Windows Vista Basic logo from Microsoft: the VIA K8M890 and the VIA P4M900 for the latest mainstream AMD and Intel desktops respectively, the VIA K8N890 for AMD processor-powered notebooks, the upcoming VIA CN896 for VIA C7™ processor desktop and embedded systems, and the brand new VIA VN896 mobile chipset for VIA C7-M and Intel Pentium® M processors. All these PCI Express chipsets feature the latest VIA Chrome9™ integrated 2D/3D graphics processor supporting DirectX® 9.0 and the Chromotion™ CE video display engine. The certification of these chipsets ensures that VIA customers can build desktops, laptops and ultra mobile devices with confidence that they are ready for the highly anticipated new Vista operating system. The testing involved in the certification process guarantees a reliable and trouble free installation and usage of the Ultimate, Enterprise, Business, Home Premium and Home Basic editions of Microsoft Windows Vista. VIA also boasts leading edge discrete chipsets such as the VIA PT890 and the VIA K8T900 that, combined with DirectX 9.0 PCI Express graphics cards such as the S3 Chrome S27, make the ideal platform to power high-end systems that can really take advantage of the stunning visual effects of Windows Vista™ Premium. ...Support for VIA chipsets is provided in-box with Windows Vista, while additional drivers for VIA Ethernet controllers, VIA Gigabit Ethernet, VIA HD audio, VIA Envy24 Family audio controllers, IGP chipset WDDM drivers for certified chipsets and VIA SATA/RAID controllers are additionally available for download..." right here on VIA Arena! |   |
| Vista ready
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
It's the 30th January here and I've just logged into our usual supplier for PC bits and pieces and ordered a copy of Vista Home Premium and Vista Ultimate. The question is, will I install a copy on my work PC or will the copies be delegated to test beds? I am particularly interested in playing around with the back-up features that are in Vista Ultimate. I'm also interested to check out the parental controls which is in both versions just purchased. John has been playing around with Media Center Edition of Windows on an EPIA board lately and I'm interested to see how the Media Center options in Vista ultimate differ from MCE. Should I make my workspace a testing platform so I can really get to know the new OS? I think I'll decide tomorrow. | |
| eBay bans sale of virtual goods
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
A sore point amongst massively multiplayer gamers over the last few years has been loot whores or credit farmers. Loot whores and credit farmers are professionals who are playing the game for the sole reason of looting credits and/or merchandise for sale in the virtual world. These activities take away from the real gamers and put high value items in the hands of people who can pay for them in the real world. Up until now, somebody with a disposal income can purchase a fully leveled fully decked out character on WOW, jump in the game and compete on par with players who had worked hard for months to achieve their level. To sell a character in an online auction on eBay, credit farmers would carefully word it to say that the prospective buyer is purchasing the results of time spent making a character/credit/items, which would get around legal implications employed by companies who run MMO games. Most MMO games developers do not condone the sale of any virtual goods. Now that eBay has banned the sale of virtual goods and will be removing all auctions relating to virtual goods, it will make it more difficult to acquire items and/or characters that are not otherwise earn in-game out of their own efforts. I agree with eBay's decision. Loot whores can set off a bad atmosphere in-game. But someone else will take over where eBay left off. It's up to game developers to take control of markets generated by their own virtual worlds and take it away from the credit farmers. | |
| Vista FAQ
Monday, January 29, 2007
Microsoft Vista is now less than 48 hours away. With some major chain stores in the US set to stay open late for the launch, will we see a huge uptake of the new operating system? I can't answer that but I can answer some questions that might help you to decide whether or not to upgrade and whether or not you hardware can take it. I've put together 13 questions, inspired by the questions we're hearing from VIA's user base. Enjoy. | |
| Will the US accept tiny PCs in 2007?
Monday, January 29, 2007
So far, Ultra Mobile PCs have found acceptance in countries like Japan whilst US consumers have still preferred to get a laptop for $1000 instead. The OQO model 02 however addresses many of the complaints of the first UMPC models. This is explored in an article on TechnologyReview.com, using the learned opinions of analyst Rob Enderle to bolster the opinion that 2007 might just be the year for ultra mobile devices. "Enderle, however, believes PCs could find a market even without further tweaking or new software. With its faster processor and full Windows capability, OQO's device, in particular, could appeal to "folks for whom a smart phone isn't really enough and a laptop is too much," he says. "That's still a niche group--but it could be a pretty good-sized niche."" | |
| Up close and personal with the Pico-ITX
Monday, January 29, 2007
The EPIA PX - or Pic-ITX board from VIA was shown off at CES a couple of weeks back but it was inside a Pico-ITX case. EPIACenter.com reveals that ... "Fortunately we have obtained 3 macro-shots of the board shown at Lunch@Piero's!! On these photos you can clearly see that the board only comes with a VGA and LAN port, all the other connectors are available in the form of onboard headers, just like on the EPIA NL." See it all here. | |
| Digital Photography Tutorial: Focal Length
Monday, January 29, 2007
"Pretty much every compact digital camera on the market has a zoom lens, and of course there is a wide range of zoom lenses available for all digital SLRs, as well as a variety of non-zoom lenses with different focal lengths. A zoom lens is one that has a variable focal length. In this tutorial, we’ll take a look at what focal length means, and some of the effects you can achieve by varying it." Learn more at TrustedReviews.com. | |
| | Fujitsu Siemens Computers Adopts VIA PT890 for SCALEO Home PCs
Friday, January 26, 2007
VIA has announced that "...the VIA PT890 performance chipset has been selected by Fujitsu Siemens Computers for two of their leading SCALEO series consumer PCs. The customizable SCALEO series blends the latest PC technologies with extensive digital media and connectivity features within a compact, sleek chassis to form the ideal device for the digital home, meeting all the productivity demands of the home office worker as well as the key entertainment and communication needs of the rest of the family. Integrated into the SCALEO J and P series, the VIA PT890 platform boasts support for the latest Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processors with a 1066Mhz FSB, as well as full PCI Express and DDR2 memory support and VIA’s intuitive memory and storage technologies for optimal system performance. With this advantage, the SCALEO P and J computers combine performance and connectivity for a new generation of multimedia appliances for the home." Read more of the Press Release here. | |
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| Most recent blog entries |  |
| | | Update in Process | | John Gatt's Babblings
| By John Gatt onThursday, August 21, 2008 2:13 PM | |
| So, there’s a new iPhone update out there. The first thing I did this morning was plug in my iPhone to sync it with iTunes and get the latest update, hoping it would fix some of the crash Apple screens ... |  | | Comments (0) | More... |
| | @Me dot com | | John Gatt's Babblings
| By John Gatt onTuesday, August 19, 2008 9:34 AM | |
| iTunes has advertised the Apple @Me service to me a couple of times, so I thought I’d give it a spin. If you don’t know what @Me is, it’s iTune or Apple’s solution to Gmail but it’s meant to have more ... | | | Comments (0) | More... |
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| | Updating my iPhone | | John Gatt's Babblings
| By John Gatt onTuesday, August 12, 2008 11:39 AM | |
| iPhone 2.0.1 software update is now available from iTunes. This 249.2MB update was released to fix numerous issues that have been plaguing the release of the 3G iPhone. I personally have found the iPhone to be less stable than your average V ... | | | Comments (0) | More... |
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