ASUS unveils AMD powered U82U 14-inch Ultra Thin Laptop

ASUS is preparing a new "Ultra Thin" notebook for market which would have otherwise been referred to as an ultrabook if not for the AMD powered internals. The upcoming U82U uses AMDs E-450 APU comprising two Bobcat cores running at 1.65GHz and Radeon HD 6320 graphics.

The notebook has a 14-inch sized display, while internally it comes equipped with 2GB of RAM out of the box (with support for up to 8GB), a 500GB mechanical HDD, a couple USB 3.0 ports. HDMI output and an 8-cell battery.

Without doubt this slim AMD alternative to the ultrabook realm will be a cheaper route to take, but at this stage we are yet to hear of a release date or exact price point.

Source: Netbooknews

ATi amp; NVIDIA PCIe GPU War In Q4

A battle for the PCIe GPU channel market between ATI and NVIDIA looms in the fourth quarter, despite an ATI claim that it has delivered over one million native PCIe GPUs to the market. However, channel sales of ATI PCIe chips have not gone well. This has allowed rival Nvidia, which recently launched a native PCIe-enabled GPU, the GeForce 6600, a chance to compete effectively with ATI in the channel. In the fourth quarter, Nvidia plans to launch its NV44-series of native PCIe-enabled chips, which will target the US$ 79-99 graphics card segment and should give a boost to the sales of Nvidia’s PCIe chips.

Pas de Tortues Ninjas pour Rocksteady

Nous avions eu vent, il y a quelques semaines, d'un bruit de couloir selon lequel Rocksteady Studios serait actuellement au travail sur un nouveau jeu dérivé de la franchise Tortues Ninja. Un nom pour le titre avait d'ailleurs même été avancé, celui de Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles : Manhattan Crisis. Malheureusement, il n'en est rien.

Le développeur de Batman Arkham Asylum et de Batman Arkham City (qui a d'ailleurs rencontré un vif succès avec plus de six millions d'exemplaires écoulés depuis sa sortie en octobre) vient en effet de démentir avec véhémence cette rumeur. A moins qu'il ne s'agisse que de faire durer le suspense en attendant une annonce officielle, par exemple à l'E3, on peut donc tirer un trait sur une éventuelle adaptation des tortues accros aux pizzas et aux arts martiaux qui reprendrait le moteur classieux des Batman Arkham. En attendant, on peut se consoler en revoyant le film d'il y a vingt ans mettant en scène les tortues guerrières... quoique...

Apple's new version of Safari for Windows fixes several vulnerabilities

Are you currently using Apples Safari as your web browser of choice in your Windows-powered PC? If so, you might want to start firing up the Apple Software Update tool that may already be present on your system, or head down directly to the Safari home page on Apples web site and download for yourself a copy of the latest version of the Safari web browser that is currently available for Windows, which is that of Safari 5.1.

And why, you may ask. Well, word has it that the new version of Safari has been designed to fix certain security vulnerabilities that were present in the both the older version oftheweb browser and its open-source WebKit rendering engine. Furthermore, Apple has reportedly claimed that the vulnerabilities could potentially result in "drive-by download attacks, full system compromise, denial-of-service conditions of cross-site scripting attacks" if left unfixed on a Windows-powered PC.

We will not go into too much detail about the vulnerabilities that Apple is planning to patch with the release of Safari 5.1, although ZDNet has claimed in its own report thatmany of the flawsthat were present in the previousrelease of Safari could result in arbitrary code execution on a compromised PC. The report also goes on to list several aspects of the Safari web browser which has been flagged as being some of the more serious vulnerabilities, which runs the gamut from the browsers ColourSync profile to its CoreFoundation framework and XML library, among many others.

Last but definitely not least, ZDNet has also claimed that the new Safari 5.1 web browser will fix a vulnerability in the open-source WebKit rendering engine which that "expose users to denial-service conditions or arbitrary code execution". So, if you are still on an older version of Safari, it would seem that a much-needed upgrade to your web browser is in order.

Source: ZDNet

ATi 2007 GPU Roadmap; RV670 Appears