Our friend David writes in with another set of questions involving the Playstation 3:

Dear Jason,
First of all, some people have said that the online expereince will get enhanced, therefore making it better. If you know anything about any of this, can you tell me what is going to change?

Also, when you buy a PS3, there is an Ethernet cable included? What is it used for? Can you buy one or a substitute?

My last question is: can you save game data on a USB memory stick or memory card?

Thank you for reading and hope to hear from you soon.
Happy Holidays!

Well David, happy holidays to you too!

First the online experience of the Playstation 3 is receiving a bunch of incremental upgrades. Generally, the feedback has been positive, although the online experience is still not as unified as the Xbox 360. With that being said, every game is going to be different, and no matter how unified the experience is, the individual game experience is going to change from game to game. So, what I would recommend is taking a close look at the games you want to play - if they’re getting bad feedback then you might want to find another game.

The last time I checked, the Playstation 3 did not include an Ethernet cable; however, I’m sure someone can comment on this article and correct me if I’m wrong, or you could ask your local Gamestop, EB Games, or Best Buy employee and they can give you a more definite answer.

If the Playstation 3 doesn’t include an Ethernet cable, or if you find that you need one, they can be purchased from pretty much every place that sells computers and computer parts: Best Buy, Circuit City, Amazon.com, and even eBay. The only thing you’ll need to keep in mind is the distance from the Playstation 3 to your Internet connection (or router, depending on how your home network is setup).

As to your final question, I believe the Playstation 3 only supports storing images and other media files on these devices. Again, I would refer you to the more knowledgeable people in this threat or your local sales associate.

Thanks for the questions David!

If you need any Hardware Help feel free to e-mail me, lordkat@gmail.com

Life-sized holograms may not be the realm of science fiction much longer, if this group of scientists has anything to say about it:

“New hologram technology is producing some of the most accurate and realistic 3D images ever made, making them potentially useful for new applications from car design to city planning. The new holograms are computer-generated views produced from 2D digital images. Engineers say holograms will soon be animated, too.”

Read the rest of the article here

linux_user_73 writes:

Which has better life span? I have had issues with laptop screens going bad, which, to my knowledge, are LCD’s! I am in the process of saving up money to purchase a high end maxed out Linux PC. I want to purchase a PC with a dual core 64-bit processor, 3.0 gigaherts minimum. With 2 gigabytes ram installed, and a 500GB SATA hard drive. A nNvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra Video card, and a Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Professional Series sound card.

What sort of monitor will give me the best resolution, view angle, and color depth, while having a long lifespan, a LCD or CRT monitor? I have had 2 Laptops and each have given me problems with the screen after only 2 years of use! Especially around the edges, bottom and middle white out and fade a little! I do use my Laptops/Notebook PC as my main/only machine, so spend many hours per day using it.

Well, Linux_User_73, the question of CRT or LCD is really starting to boil down to availability. If you’re going to buy a high-end monitor, you might as well go for the gusto and pick up a 30″ LCD monitor. I recommend LCD for several reasons:

• Cost - a similarly sized LCD monitor is going to cost less than a CRT monitor. While you may not be able to get the same resolution out of a 19″ LCD monitor as you could a 19″ CRT monitor
• Resolution - the truth is that CRT monitors are built and optimized for a specific resolution, so you’ll get optimal video quality as that resolution than you would at a higher or lower one. The same holds true for LCD monitors.
• Space - CRT’s are big, LCD’s are not. A 30″ LCD monitor isn’t going to take up as much space as a 30″ CRT monitor
• Availability - Every major computer supplier, from what I have seen, has seriously limited their supply of CRT monitors, some stores to the point where you won’t be able to find anything but LCD monitors.
• Lifespan - the top of the line LCD monitors will last for a few good years before they kick the bucket.
• Color Depth and Viewing Angle - for the low-end of the LCD spectrum you’ll run into serious problems with limited color depth and viewing angles, but the top of the line LCD’s offer a very wide viewing angle and color depth that CRT’s have a very hard time matching.

Ultimately the choice is up to you. Personally, I’d go with a high-end LCD monitor and get the extended warranty.

Scott has a problem running games on his machine under Vista, he writes:

I have upgraded and downgraded between Vista x86 and Windows XP (MCE and Pro both x86) numerous times. I have a single core Athlon 64 3500+, 1.25GB of DDR2 ram, and an Nvidia 8600GTS graphics card. My PC is my one and only gaming machine as I love pc gaming.

My first question is this: every time I run Vista, I get a pretty substantial drop in the framerate in nearly all my games - enough to justify going back to XP, which is the only reason I keep going back to XP. But, I like Vista: I have dual booted in the past but, I prefer the simplicity of a single OS system. In your opinion what is the reason or reasons for the drop in performance? Do you have any tips to increase gaming performance in Vista?

One of the most recent games I’ve played is Crysis. While I understand that there isn’t any hardware in place at this point to run the game with all the bells and whistles, I’m just fine running it on medium in the graphics settings. But whenever I run it in vista I have to drop to low to keep at an acceptable framerate (acceptable framerate to me is anything without lag, whether that be 30fps or 120fps, i do not want lag.) Since I’m using a 17″ LCD monitor, I’m kind of stuck at the resolution of 1280×1024. I’ve noticed that games run smoother at lower resolutions, but the poor ability of my monitor to redraw non native resolutions is sub-par to say the least. Any advice or better yet insight that you could give me would be greatly appreciated.

Whew, that’s a lot to chew on, Scott. You’re not the only person to experience serious framerate problems with Windows Vista - Microsoft, nVidia, and ATI have all seriously dropped the ball on PC gaming. conspiracy theorists suggest that Microsoft is doing this on purpose to push the remaining game developers and gamers to the Xbox 360, but logic dictates that this isn’t a really great idea and that it’s just utter incompetence across the entire industry.

Honestly, the only thing I can seriously recommend is to update your graphics card drivers. I know, I know, you’ve tried this. There really isn’t anything else I can recommend, as Windows Vista and nVidia just don’t get along very well. nVidia still has not fixed the damn flickering text error in Windows Texas Hold ‘Em Poker, and that problem has been there from day fucking one.

Of course, it would help if Microsoft didn’t totally drop the ball on DirectX 10 and actually give hardware manufacturers and game developers a reason to give a damn (like back-porting it to XP).

If you can’t tell, Scott, I’m not exactly happy with the Vista/Graphics/DirectX/Drivers situation.

OK, ranting aside, there’s really not a lot you can do at this point in time. To increase the general snapiness of Vista you could upgrade your machine to 2 or 4GB of RAM (however much your motherboard supports), but this isn’t going to fix your framerate problem.

Honestly, nothing short of Vista-optimized drivers is going to fix this problem. I want nVidia to do it. You want nVidia to do it. Everyone wants nVidia to do it. But, nVidia and Microsoft are too busy with their heads stuck up their own asses to build Vista optimized drivers.

In short Scott, you may want to stick with your dual-booting system for now, and wait until Vista Service Pack 1 arrives, which may alleviate some of these ass-backwards problems.

DanMXP writes in with a question for us:

I have an HP Machine with XP Installed and I am thinking of upgrading it I can install vista on it. I am looking looking for a new processor, which is currently a 1.8 GHz Pentium 4.

I have the HP Pavilion 403. Do you have any recommendations or tips for finding the best processor to upgrade with?

(note: quote edited, spirit of the question has remained the same)

Dan, the first thing that really comes to mind is: don’t bother upgrading the processor. While you might be able to squeeze Vista onto that machine, you’re going to be pushing the upper limits of your hardware, and I doubt your machine would be very responsive. Taking a look at the compatability sheet for your motherboard, you’re limited to:

• Socket 478 Pentium 4 Processor, <= 2.66 GHz Northwood Chipset
• 2GB PC2100/Pc1600 RAM
• AGP 4x Video Card

To run Windows Vista comfortably, I’d highly recommend at least 4GB of RAM and a PCI-Express graphics card. Something your computer really isn’t capable of, unfortunately. So, long term, I’d recommend saving your money for a new machine from HP.

In the short term you could upgrade your processor; however, I was only able to find one processor that would work with your motherboard: Intel Pentium 4 2.4B Northwood 2.4GHz Socket 478 Processor.

(note: the linked processor does not include a cooling device. While your current solution will probably work, we make no guarantees that you won’t need to find a new cooling solution for this processor)

Since you do have an older machine, your choices for upgrading are very limited, really. Your money would be best served in a savings account, waiting to be spent on a new machine, rather than pumping life into an old one.

The keyboard is a nearly ubiquitous item in our modern world. It’s amazing that a device, invented centuries ago, is still being used by modern man in an unaltered form. Well, nearly unaltered. This article from Speeding Computer really deserves to be highlighted. It goes through 25 of the coolest and most unconventional keyboards.

“Keyboards come in all shapes and sizes, from the standard ten dollar gray board to something straight out of a science fiction movie. Here’s a list of some of the coolest and strangest keyboards out there.”

Read the rest of the article here.

With gaming becoming ever more popular, the hardware behind the games becomes increasingly important, that’s why there are a few companies out there that make gamer-specific equipment. This article at ExtremeTech covers the Reaper Edge laser mouse, which boasts some incredible precision:

“Now that the fallout has cleared after reviewing some high-end gaming mice like the SideWinder, G9, and the 4000dpi Lachesis, we felt it was due time to look into Ideazon’s latest creation, the Reaper Edge, which comes more than a year after Ideazon first entered this fiercely crowded gaming market. The Edge asserts itself with some noteworthy gaming characteristics, among them a 3200dpi laser sensor, five on-the-fly dpi switching modes, and software for macros and button reassignments, among others. For those keeping score, this sounds pretty on-par with today’s crop of gaming mice.”

Read the rest of the article here

AMd is apparently facing supply problems with their quad-core Opteron processors, and it’s rumored to trace back to errata in the L3 cache of the design:

“AMD’s quad-core “Barcelona” Opterons have been notably difficult to find since their introduction two months ago, and The Tech Report has learned that a chip-level problem has impacted the supply of these chips to both server OEMs and distribution channel customers.

Chipmakers refer to chip-level problems as errata. Errata are fairly common in microprocessors, though they vary in nature and severity. This particular erratum first became widely known when AMD attributed the delay of the 2.4GHz version of its Phenom desktop processor to the problem. Not much is known about the specifics of the erratum, but it is related to the translation lookaside buffer (TLB) in the processor’s L3 cache. The erratum can cause a system hang with certain software workloads. The issue occurs very rarely, and thus was not caught by AMD’s usual qualification testing.”

Read the rest of the article here

According to Nelson Guirado, the newest Dell laptops are the “cheapest-feeling laptops [his] hands have ever hovered over.”

“I don’t know about you, but I consider my notebook computers (less so, my desktops) a core possession like a watch or a car. Just like I’d spend a little more on those items, I’d gladly shell out a few extra bucks to type on a computer that gives me that little rush of pleasure when I open it up. The Dell 1520 elicits “ughs.” The main problem is the low-quality-feeling plastic used all over (no contrasting textures); it just doesn’t feel like superior material.

Although the laptop is quite heavy at 6 1/2 pounds, and it seems strong under the aforementioned plastic, the hinges still creak and the gaps aren’t uniform. The multimedia buttons on the front panel are much worse than the previous generation Inspiron, E1505. Instead of the round, protruding, and easy to find round ones on the E1505, the 1520 has toy-like, recessed buttons on the front that are harder to find and whose click quality varies from button to button.”

Read the rest of the review here

World of Warcraft has over nine million subscribers. So, it was only a matter of time until a company came out with some hardware that was dedicated to playing the game, in one for or another. Cue the Dell XPS World of Warcraft Laptop. And, like the behemoth that is world of Warcraft, these laptops are no slouches:

• Intel Core 2 Extreme X7900 CPU at 2.8GHz
• 2GB dual channel DDR-667 memory
• 2 x 200GB hard drives, set up as a 400GB RAID 0 array
• 2 x Nvidia 8700M GT GPUs in SLI configuration (each with 512MB of video memory)
• AGEIA PhysX 100M physics processor
• Integrated HD audio with Creative Labs Audigy software stack
• Intel 802.11 a/g/n wireless networking plus integrated gigabit Ethernet for wired connections
• Windows Vista Ultimate Edition preinstalled

Of course, what you need an AGEIA PhysX card for is beyond us, but at least you’ll have it for those important times in WoW when you need to… use a gravity gun?

We’ve finally got some good news for the OLPC charity, with Peru contracting 260,000 of the $188 laptops. According to C|Net:

One month after the One Laptop Per Child charity went into mass production with its $188 laptop, the Peruvian government has signed a contract to purchase 260,000 units. Nicholas Negroponte, an MIT professor and founder of the project, announced the deal on Saturday. He also revealed that Mexican billionaire and longtime friend, Carlos Slim, had ordered 50,000 units for distribution in Mexico.

You can read the rest of the article here.

With any luck, this will work to benefit Sony as they sure could use some success in the Blueray world right now.

Sony has announced that Click, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, and Black Hawk Down will be the first Sony films released on 50GB dual-layer Blu-ray disc. Although Blu-ray discs have been available on the market for several months now, these are 50GB dual-layer discs as opposed to the current discs being only 25GB. Pricing for the Sony films has not been publicly released.

Click will feature all bonus features in high-definition, along with four deleted scenes and a documentary on the special effects used in the film…. [Source: DailyTech]

Into overclocking? Then you will definitely want to read the latest piece below on Core 2 Duo E6400 below.

Everyone expects a multi-thousand dollar PC to perform well, but most of us have bills to pay. Intel’s gift to the frugal is a Core 2 Duo processor with half the cache for around two-thirds the cash. To drive home the point that Allendale-core (E6300 and E6400) Core 2 Duos are for cheapskates, Intel also cuts the frequency for a double performance hit almost worthy of the former Celeron name, if not for the high-bandwidth 1066 (266 MHz) Front Side Bus….Source: TH

After the latest Playstation 3 demos, it appears that Sony has finally come back from the dead and they might just be coming back stronger than ever.

This has not been a great couple of years for Sony. We had the rootkit catastrophe late last year and the Sony Battery disaster this year. A number of us have been increasingly concerned that the Playstation 3 would be a stillborn and even the PSP didn’t start particularly well. However things can change: It looks like Sony has hit the bottom and, and with the exception of batteries (which may be a dead division), may be on the way back up…. Source: TGDaily

So where is the graphics world. Just as importantly, it is really sad in my opinion that it is only on company (Microsoft) that drives the trends yet to come.

Direct X 10 is on the horizon, and so is the hardware that will be driving it. While the demand for Direct X 9 hardware is not slipping, and more graphics cards are constantly being launched, there is much interest in this new standard and the hardware that will support it. The strongest points of Direct X 10 are the promises of lower overhead per object and the new rendering component called the geometry shader.

What does all of this mean to the layman? In short, the system will be able to render objects faster and more efficiently. This is a good thing, as games will be able to incorporate this feature to give you more frames per second. That is, until the game developers incorporate more objects into a scene, of course, as we have seen in previews of games such as the Age of Conan, where we will finally be able to cut the limbs of an opponent - like the black knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail…. Source: TH

Today, we see yet another example of how thin clients and wireless are match made in heaven.

Wyse Technology is selling a line of thin-client computers with built-in Wi-Fi capabilities, making them easier to deploy in public places like airports and hotel lobbies.

The V-Class systems announced Wednesday include embedded hardware and software for connecting to 802.11b and 802.11g wireless networks. Previously, adding wireless capabilities to the clients meant plugging in a Wi-Fi PC Card or USB (Universal Serial Bus) adapter.
Thin clients are networked computers that typically have no hard drive and rely on a central server for their applications and storage. They’ve gained traction with some businesses because they’re considered easier to manage than full-fledged PCs, and they consume less power, although they are also less flexible…. Source: InfoWorld

Well, OK. It’s an attempt at VoIP, right? I mean, they could have done worse. It’s just so…white.

Take a look at what can happen when you tell your engineers to start from scratch and build a VoIP phone that’s specifically built to be a VoIP phone… not a weak imitation of a landline or cellular handset.

Distinguished as much by what it does not have as by what it has, the Danger Phone is the essence of a pure, clean product design. It is a VoIP handset… and, we think you’ll love it.
Doing Only One Thing Very Well

With dozens of VoIP handsets on the market, finding a new direction to go with our product wasn’t easy.

Instead of making our handset look like a “real” telephone, and covering it with gadgetry, a fake display, and flashing lights, we focused on how people actually use a VoIP handset. And, we stripped away the nonsense to deliver pure magic…. Source: MacMice