News

The OnAir HDTV GT is a true mobile HDTV receiver for your laptop. It lacks polish in some areas, but the package as a whole is excellent.Next Page »

Remember to check out ASE Labs' content by clicking the »Articles link at the top.

Sigma Luna Type-W Case Review @ HardwareLogic.com

Quote

"*What is it enthusiasts look for in their cases? Style and looks, or functionality at an affordable price point? Sigma attempts both with it's Luna lineup of aluminum mid-towers, aiming to win over the crowd with a fusion of stunning appearance and sleek yet practical design. All at a decent price point to boot. Is the Luna ready for prime time, or is it back to the drawing board? HardwareLogic has the intel on where the Luna stands."

Kingwin Z1 Series External Enclosure

Quote

The Kingwin Z1 external SATA hard drive enclosure sure was a battle for me to review. On the one hand, it looks absolutely gorgeous. Each color is rich and vibrant at the same time. The matted-brushed aluminum created a very nice effect but I was a little let down that there was no activity LED included. Performance wise, this enclosure is nothing to write home about. While not be a slug by any means, the 109.9mbps was nothing near the 192.8mbps of the AC Ryan TFX enclosure. Sure we tested that enclosure with a slightly faster Western Digital drive, but at almost 50% faster, there is something to be said for the external hard drive controller that is housed within.

Aerocool M-40 Small Form Factor Case @ Pro-Clockers

Quote

For those that say no, the question may want to take a look at the Aerocool's newest cube case titled the M-40. Aerocool is fast becoming known as a company that is very innovative. That is the ExtremeEngine case. This company was one of the first to implement a larger than normal fan to a case. A fan that measures a whooping 25cm. The M-40 is just as cutting edge as it utilizes two halves to assemble the rig. Mixed with a black and red theme, the M-40 has a sort of dark look to it.

CES 2008: ASUS @ ThinkComputers.org

Quote

"ASUS was one of the hottest names this year at CES. With all the hype from the Eee PC and ASUS's keynote earlier in the week their booth was crowded, but they took the time to take us through and check out all of their new products. They have new notebooks, motherboards, video cards, and other CE products. Read on to see what we saw from ASUS at CES this year."

Linux Users to Blame for Lack of Linux Popularity @ MadPenguin.org

Quote

A lot of us spend a lot of time talking about how we are preaching the value of Linux to our Linux using friends, but how hard are we collectively working to make sure others outside of our comfort zone understand that popular Linux distros are a viable OS alternative? If you are like me, you probably are not doing nearly enough.

Hiper HPU-5K880 and HPU-5B680 Type R Mk II PSU's @ BmR

Quote

Fresh from our review of the HPU-4M880/HPU-4M630 Type M Series,Hiper returns with an all new concept for power supply units. By combining the passive cooling of an open-grill chassis design with a set of integrated High-Speed USB ports, Hiper introduces their Type R Mk-II power supplies in 680W and 880W versions. Benchmark Reviews reveals the innovative HPU-5K880 & HPU-5B680 PSU's with our set of power regulation tests.

Foxconn X38A Digital Life Motherboard

Quote

Today we have a new board from Foxconn who are always trying to push further into the motherboard sector. If you want to get ahead today, you have to be creative or reduce costs as much as possible without sacrificing features. Foxconn has been one of the first to give an X38 based motherboard both DDR2 and DDR3 support on the same board. In total you get four DDR2 memory slots which are coloured dark blue and yellow. Two light blue DDR3 memory slots are also included to allow you to upgrade to DDR3 later down the track if you so desire.

Thermaltake Xaser VI Case

Quote

The Thermaltake Xaser VI Case comes in six different all aluminum models. The VG4000BNS & VG4000SNA models include mesh on the side panels, the VG4000BWS & VG4000SWA models have windows on the side panel and there are the VG400LBWS & VG400LSWA models which include a liquid cooling system. This case has 14 drives bays (7x5.25

SteelSeries 5L Mousing Surface Review @ DragonSteelMods.com

Quote

I've reviewed many SteelSeries products and they've always been excellent in their quality and very good at doing what they were made to do. They recently sent me two mousepads for review, the one I will be looking at today is the 5l Gaming Mousepad, it's a hybrid pad that I was actually kind of excited to get for review. It combines hard and soft surfaces to make something that is a bit different and unique, but I found that it's not perfect, the pad itself is great but the construction is a bit lacking... So read on to learn what I found in my time with this product...

ASRock 4Core1600P35-WiFi+

Quote

"For years ASRock has been regarded as very much a budget motherboard manufacturer, while over time they've begun to introduce motherboards with more enthusiast-level features and even products that are more overclocker-friendly. It wasn't until recently that they finally started offering Gigabit ethernet and IEEE-1394a Firewire on their motherboards, but this month with their 4Core1600P35-WiFi+ they have made another step forward showing that they are able to offer an economically-priced motherboard with Intel's P35 Chipset and even integrated 802.11g WiFi. We have our hands on the ASRock 4Core1600P35-WiFi+ for testing and we will be seeing how well this P35 creation performs on Linux."

Sun has purchased the company that head develops MySQL. Sun has been really pushing open source lately. I just hope that MySQL will continue to flourish under Sun. If not, PostgreSQL is a good alternative.

Quote

"Today's acquisition reaffirms Sun's position at the center of the global Web economy. Supporting our overall growth plan, acquiring MySQL amplifies our investments in the technologies demanded by those driving extreme growth and efficiency, from Internet media titans to the world's largest traditional enterprises," said Jonathan Schwartz, CEO and president, Sun Microsystems. "MySQL's employees and culture, along with its near ubiquity across the Web, make it an ideal fit with Sun's open approach to network innovation. And most importantly, this announcement boosts our investments into the communities at the heart of innovation on the Internet and of enterprises that rely on technology as a competitive weapon."

Seeing is believing... we'll see how Sun handles MySQL.

KDE 4 has been released for a few days now. You can see the announcement at kde.org. KDE 4 is really one of the shining moments of the Open Source community and this year will be very interesting.

Quote

The KDE 4 Desktop has gained some major new capabilities. The Plasma desktop shell offers a new desktop interface, including panel, menu and widgets on the desktop as well as a dashboard function. KWin, the KDE Window manager, now supports advanced graphical effects to ease interaction with your windows.

Lots of KDE Applications have seen improvements as well. Visual updates through vector-based artwork, changes in the underlying libraries, user interface enhancements, new features, even new applications -- you name it, KDE 4.0 has it. Okular, the new document viewer and Dolphin, the new file manager are only two applications that leverage KDE 4.0's new technologies.

The Adult Entertainment Expo is one of the biggest shows for the adult entertainment community. This show is no joke. Next Page »

Day 4 coverage of CES 2008: One of largest consumer electronics shows in the world. The Sands has some very intersting things to show off.Next Page »

Rumor has it that Microsoft placed a bid on buying out Logitech. I really hope this isn't true. The bid made Logitech's shares soar on the news.

Quote

A spokesman for Logitech, the world's largest maker of computer mice, was not immediately reachable for comment. Logitech shares were up over 12 percent to 39.46 francs by 0900 GMT before paring gains to trade up 9 percent. Traders said rumours were circulating that Logitech, which has a market capitalisation of around 7 billion Swiss francs ($6.3 billion), would receive a takeover bid at 48 francs per share from Microsoft.

Well, CES this year was great for seeing some cool technologies and for ASE Labs in general. We met with a bunch of great companies and we're looking forward to the many reviews that will be done this year.

If you haven't seen the CES coverage so far, please »start at Day 1.

Day 3 coverage of CES 2008: One of largest consumer electronics shows in the world. Day 3 was pretty light on interesting things but there are some highlights.Next Page »

»ASE Labs has posted its day 2 coverage right here. Day 3 should provide a different set of technologies to see.

More CES coverage at:

»ASE Labs.
Legit Reviews.
Bit-Tech.

I'll update this list during the day. Please send me an email if you have coverage.

Day 2 coverage of CES 2008: One of largest consumer electronics shows in the world. Day 2 provided interesting looks at emerging technologies.Next Page »

»Our CES day 1 coverage is now up. Day 2 will provide much more content.


Here are more sites that have CES coverage:

»ASE Labs
Legit Reviews
Phoronix
OCIA.net
ThinkComputers.org
Techwarelabs


I will update this list with more as they come in.

Day 1 coverage of CES 2008: One of largest consumer electronics shows in the world. CES is one of the best shows and is impossible to do the entire show in the four days. Next Page »

The first day of CES was fun and tiring. I'm happy to be able to get online with no problem using my Verizon EVDO enabled phone.

Day one coverage will be up either tonight or tomorrow morning.

The time has come for another CES. ASE Labs will be at the show covering it for the entire four days. We will have an article posted each night to recap what we saw at the show.

I'm about to head to the airport now, I expect a packed flight.

It seems McCain (who is not Ron Paul, but is closest to being Ron Paul in the party) has a little lead over Romney (who is the opposite of Ron Paul) according to a Rasmussen Reports telephone survey. Ron Paul (who, ironically, is Ron Paul) is a distant third, and recent caucus winner Huckabee is down in 4th.

Quote

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in New Hampshire shows John McCain leading Mitt Romney by five percentage points. It’s McCain 31% Romney 26%. The survey was conducted Friday night, the night following the Iowa caucuses. As noted yesterday on Rasmussen Reports, McCain was one of the big winners on Thursday in Iowa. The current poll is a reversal from a pre-Christmas survey when Romney had a slight advantage.

Ron Paul earns 14% of the vote and Mike Huckabee gets 11% as the only other candidates in double digits. Rudy Giuliani attracts 8% of the vote, Fred Thompson 5%, some other candidate 2%, and 3% are not sure.

McCain and Romney are tied among Republicans likely to vote in the Primary but McCain has an advantage among Independent voters. Independents are still more likely to participate in the Democratic Primary. Still, the survey suggests that 32% of voters in the GOP Primary will be unaffiliated with either major party.

Considering Ron Paul has no chance in hell of winning the Presidency, McCain would be a decent Republican alternative. Just be glad Rudy Guiliani and Air Traffic Controller Trudeau are also very far away from winning anything.

It really looks like the format war is over in favor of Blu-Ray. Warner has dropped HD DVD. This happened right before CES, a move that Toshiba is probably pissed over.

Quote

Warner Home Video will continue to release its titles in standard DVD format and Blu-ray. After a short window following their standard DVD and Blu-ray releases, all new titles will continue to be released in HD DVD until the end of May 2008. "Warner Bros. has produced in both high-definition formats in an effort to provide consumer choice, foster mainstream adoption and drive down hardware prices," said Jeff Bewkes, President and Chief Executive Officer, Time Warner Inc., the parent company of Warner Bros. Entertainment. "Today's decision by Warner Bros. to distribute in a single format comes at the right time and is the best decision both for consumers and Time Warner."

The D201GLY2 is Intel's latest ITX series board. It combines good power for a great price. Intel has been doing some good things lately and this board is proof.Next Page »

At CES, expect cool things. Here's a PR for Google's new gOS 2.0 "Rocket."

LOS ANGELES, California-January 3, 2008-Good OS, the open source startup that introduced gOS, a Linux operating system with Google and web applications, on a $199 Wal-Mart PC last November, today announced that gOS Rocket will debut Monday, January 7 at 11:30 a.m. at the exclusive press preview, Lunch@Piero's, during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and online at http://www.thinkgos.com. Rocket is packed with Google Gears, new online offline synchronization technology from Google that enables offline use of web apps; gBooth, a browser-based web cam application with special effects, integration with Facebook and other web services; shortcuts to launch Google Reader, Talk, and Finance on the desktop; an online storage drive powered by Box.net; and Virtual Desktops, an intuitive feature to easily group and move applications across multiple desktop spaces.

gOS Rocket introduces gBooth, the first of many web apps to come specially customized for gOS. gBooth is powered by gOS spin-off, meebooth, a browser-based web cam application that makes it fun and easy to capture photos, add special effects, and share across Facebook, YouTube and other web services. To introduce a gOS compatible web cam, gOS and meebooth partnered with leading web cam manufacturer Ezonics to create the "gCam," a web cam compatible with gOS and gBooth.
Next Page »

Please look up top to see our latest reviews including: »A look at KDE 4 and the »AOpen S150 ITX Case.

Logitech G51 Speaker System Review at 3DXtreme

Quote

The Logitech G51 Speaker System is rated for 155 Watts so while it's = not the most powerful set of Speakers in the Logitech product line these = can turn 2-channel sound into intense 5.1-channel audio. After using = them, I'm not quite sure if they were even created with the PC in mind. = Connecting these speakers to a game console or MP3 player seemed to = really be the driving force behind this product...

LANCOOL Metal Boned K7 Review - XSReviews

Quote

Nearly everyone who's looked for a new PC case will have heard the name Lian Li who are celebrated for their aluminium enclosures. Lian Li have always aimed their cases at the conservative computer owner, who would rather have a light-weight clean looking case rather than one jam packed full of cold cathodes and LED encrusted fans. Today I have in my hands the Metal Boned K7 chassis that while being dressed with a 'LANCOOL' badge is manufactured by Lian Li and has a distinct taste of it manufacturers styling. In fact the badge could be changed for a Lian Li and no-one would bat an eye-lid.

Western_Digital_320GB_Scorpio_2.5_Inch_SATA_3Gbps_Hard_Drive_Review_@_Bigbruin.com

Quote

The 250GB version of the Western Digital Scorpio 2.5 inch SATA hard drive was reviewed at Bigbruin.com in September 2007, and it made a very positive impression. With an even higher capacity and faster transfer rates, it seems that the newer 320GB version would be destined for even greater accolades.

BFR Review: Super Mario Galaxy

Quote

In fact, just about the only clichéd thing about the game is the story - which is almost exactly the same as every other Mario title in existence: Mario's love interest, Princess Peach, has been kidnapped by the evil Bowser, meaning that the plump plumber must embark upon an epic journey across many different locations filled with devious platforming challenges to save her. No surprises there. The twist is that this time, Bowser's taken Peach into outer space, so Mario's quest will require him to visit extraterrestrial venues.

DXG USA DXG-110 10MP Camera

Quote

"Normally at Phoronix we don't look at any digital photography products, but the DXG-110 from DXG USA had caught our attention as being the first 10 megapixel digital camera available for under $200 USD (it retails for $170 to be exact). Higher megapixel cameras are often misinterpreted by consumers as meaning a higher quality product, while that is not always the case and with the DXG-110 you shouldn't set out looking to take professional-grade photographs. In this article we are also looking at some of the photo management programs available to Linux users."

Noctua NT-H1 Thermal Compound Review @ DragonSteelMods.com

Quote

There are so many companies out there now making their own thermal compounds now, most every company that makes a CPU cooler now has their very own thermal compound to go with it. Is that a bad thing? Not really, but how does a person know which one is really the best choice where the choices are so many? Well that's why there are sites like this one to help people make informed decisions by throughly testing these products and comparing them to the other leading brands out there. I just reviewed the Noctua NH-U12P CPU cooler and with it came a small sample of their new NT-H1 thermal compound, they also sent me a full tube as well to test for review purposes. It just so happened I was also in process of doing a thermal paste round-up comparison when this arrived for review so the timing was great to get a good comparison of the NT-H1 against the four others I'd already tested so far. So continue on to learn more about the new Noctua NT-H1 thermal compound and see how it compares to the leading brands out there today...

AMD 790FX Phenom Chipset On Linux

Quote

"Back in November AMD had launched their "Spider platform", which is made up of AMD's first quad-core processor, ATI Radeon HD 3800 series graphics, and the AMD 7-Series chipsets. While we were quick to cover the ATI Radeon HD 3850 and 3870 graphics under Linux, today after much testing we are finally delivering our first Linux report from AMD's new 790FX Chipset. Is the chipset that's designed for PC enthusiasts and performance seeking overclockers worth anything under Linux? Does this chipset even work with the latest Linux desktop distributions? We'll be answering these questions and more, as we look at the Gigabyte MA790FX-DS5 motherboard."

Home Theater 2008: Hi-Def Predictions @ Digital Trends

Quote

And Now, Predictions for 2008 Plasma and LCD will keep maturing but will not be replaced: These maturing technologies will continue to be bargains for consumers-that's the cool thing about maturing technologies-even as they get less and less profitable for manufacturers. Successors like OLED are on the horizon, but Sony won't bring OLED to the U.S. next year and Toshiba has no plans till 2010. Rumors that Samsung has a 40-inch OLED prototype will be confirmed or refuted at next month's Consumer Electronics Show. SED, which might have made a big difference in 2007 had Canon and Toshiba been allowed to introduce it, died in a fusillade of litigation.

Three OCZ PC2-6400 DDR2 Kits For The Budget Conscious @ Madshrimps

Quote

"As DDR2 ram becomes cheaper, some interesting deals become available. We have a look today at three OCZ kits, available for $70-$100. Which one to get ? Take a look to find out."

Kingston 19-in-1 Media Reader Review @ Legit Reviews

Quote

Nothing goes better with digital media than an external reader for your desktop or laptop at home or on the road. Kingston's Media Reader opens a direct gateway between your digital media and a USB port by simply using expandable storage cards to move photos, music, data and more between devices and eliminating the need to carry cables to connect multiple devices. Read on to see how the new Kingston 19-in-1 media reader performs compared to previous generations!

Asus Maximus Extreme @ Bjorn3D

Quote

Ferrari automobiles, Rolex watches and Brioni suits. Each of these items commands respect in their individual fields. Standing as the pinnacle of engineering, each of these products fetch a high premium but with that premium comes the satisfaction of knowing you are getting the very best. While they may not be the most practical choices for one reason or another, they deliver on their promise of quality. Which brings me to the Maximus Extreme, a motherboard that offers the very latest in features and options. Keeping the enthusiast in mind, this motherboard was not designed for a casual gamer or even a hard-core gamer who only loves to play. No. This board was designed for those of us who must tweak and fiddle endlessly, eek out every last MHz of performance. Is it practical? Much like a Ferrari, there are cheaper ways to get to the store but this is the one we all dream about. So come with me as I dive deep into the inner workings of the Maximus Extreme and try to uncover t! he true potential of this board. And if nothing else, you get to use the line 'I have a Maximus, what do you have?'

ZOTAC GeForce 8800 GT 512MB ZT-88TES2P-FSP @ Benchmark Reviews

Quote

The ZOTAC GeForce 8800 GT 512MB ZT-88TES2P-FSP graphics card features 1800MHz GDDR3 memory paired to an NVIDIA G92 GPU operating at 660MHz. Compatibility with Microsoft's DirectX 10 and Shader Model 4.0 ensures the ZOTAC GeForce 8800 GT is ready for next-generation gaming titles, and with NVIDIA's Unified Shader Architecture the GeForce 8800GT features 112 stream processors for unparalleled 3D processing capabilities. Benchmark Reviews tests this new video card against the most widely used NVIDIA product: the GeForce 8800 GTS.

OCZ Freeze Thermal Interface Material

Quote

Now comes a new material hot on the heels of a new breed of thermal interface material that is trying to knock off the industry leader from its high perch. Other compounds we have recently tested have done quite well, so now the big question is if OCZ can add its name to the list of products that can trounce the popular Arctic Silver line.

Fedora 8: An Assault On Ubuntu @ MadPenguin.org

Quote

Lately, I have been looking into other distributions that, like Ubuntu, are working to make strides to attract new users. I still have Debian Etch burned to a CD, waiting for a test in our lab. Next up is going to be Fedora. In the past, I have never been too impressed with RPM-based distributions, but to be fair, most of this came from nightmare scenarios with Mandriva and SuSE. And the last time I really took Fedora for a solid run was with Fedora 5, so it has been a while since I tested the Red Hat supported distro.

If you are on the Microsoft upgrade-mill, expect that your document formats will eventually be terminated. Office 2003 SP3 starts that trend. Many older formats are being disabled. This is another reason why ODF is so important.

Quote

After you install Office 2003 SP3, some Microsoft Office Excel 2003, Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003, Microsoft Office Word 2003, and Corel Draw (.cdr) file formats are blocked. By default, these file formats are blocked because they are less secure. They may pose a risk to you.

And to enable them, there is a convoluted process of registry edits.

2008! This new year will bring great things. Have fun everyone!

The KDE based distribution from Canonical will not receive Long Term Support due to the KDE4 release. KDE4 is too new, and KDE3.5 is too old. Tough position.

Quote

Will a bug in KDE 3.5 receive upstream attention in March 2011?
In order for Canonical to make a commercial commitment to their customers, who have signed contracts and terms of service with them, they need to be sure that they can honour the terms of their agreements. The KDE upstream position appears clear, KDE 4 is the focus of developer attention; KDE 3.5 will be supported as long as KDE 4 isn't suitable for support. Given the attention being paid to KDE 4, it is difficult to believe that this will not be the preferred release in three years time. Thus it is difficult to guarantee that upstream will still support the current stable series for the timescale required.

When you need a computer for a tiny space, your choices of cases need to be picky. Buying the right case is the key for airflow and system longevity. The AOpen S150 steps in to fill the ITX void. It does this well.Next Page »

Japan may be taking a step closer to restrictive content and such on the Internet. America is already heading down that path, we might as well drag everyone with us.

Quote

While the cases of Internet regulation and mobile phone filtering primarily revolve on concerns over content, the third government policy proposal advanced this month in the domain of online communication targets the area of content transfer. On December 18th, the Private Music and Video Recording Subcommittee of Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs, an advisory body under the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (Monbukagakusho), held a meeting to re-examine Article 30 of Japan's Copyright Law. With respect to online file transfer, the existing law currently bans uploading of copyrighted material onto public websites, while permitting copies for personal use only [12,13,14].

The quote I picked was done because of the RIAJ (which is the Japanese counterpart to the RIAA, of course).

These picture are amazing to look at. A black hole is piercing a companion galaxy with its jet. Very cool.

Quote

This composite image shows the jet from a black hole at the center of a galaxy striking the edge of another galaxy, the first time such an interaction has been found. In the image, data from several wavelengths have been combined. X-rays from Chandra (colored purple), optical and ultraviolet (UV) data from Hubble (red and orange), and radio emission from the Very Large Array (VLA) and MERLIN (blue) show how the jet from the main galaxy on the lower left is striking its companion galaxy to the upper right. The jet impacts the companion galaxy at its edge and is then disrupted and deflected, much like how a stream of water from a hose will splay out after hitting a wall at an angle.

In a hilarious event, SCO is going to be delisted from the Nasdaq stock exchange. They have no cash resources and are in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Nice job SCO. That's what you get for trying to use the messed up patent system to your advantage when you had nothing.

Quote

The SCO Group, Inc. ("SCO") , a leading provider of UNIX(R) software technology and mobile services, today announced that it received a Nasdaq Staff Determination letter on December 21, 2007 indicating that as a result of having filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, the Nasdaq Listing Qualifications Panel has determined to delist the company's securities from the Nasdaq Stock Market and will suspend trading of the securities effective at the open of business on Thursday, December 27, 2007.

In a move that I enjoy, Congress took on social matters this year. Tech issues are largely left to the side. That's fine with me. Congress has a habit of screwing things up.

Quote

It was also a quiet year for an issue that so dominated the political debate in 2006: Net neutrality. Just after Congress opened its new session, two senators reintroduced a 2006 bill that would generally prohibit broadband operators from prioritizing Internet content, and House Democratic leaders predicted it would top their tech agenda this year. But no action has been taken on the Senate proposal; no counterpart bill has emerged in the House as of mid-December; and no congressional hearings were held, although thousands of comments on the topic poured into the Federal Communications Commission during the summer.

Everyone celebrating Christmas, have a merry one. Be safe and don't drink too much as was said in the previous post. Looking to next year, it is going to be awesome.

Make sure you have a safe one, and may you live to have many more. Remember that above all, this time of year should be spent helping those less fortunate, no matter your religion; and that this is also a time of year for happiness and tolerance.
And follow the golden rule: Don't drink too much eggnog.