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GPU-Z 0.4.3 comes with more hardware, language support

SiE — Mon, 24 May 2010 03:00:09 +0000

(TS) – Just as the weekend closes in PC users are given the option to treat themselves to a new version of the GPU-Z tool which provides detailed information about graphics cards as well as real-time voltage, fan speed and temperature monitoring.

Weighting in just 514.3kB, GPU-Z 0.4.3 can be downloaded here and features the following:

- Added full voltage controller monitoring for GeForce GTX 480

- Added real-time clock monitoring for GF100

- Added detection for vendor GALAXY

- Complete revamp of voltage controller architecture. Adds voltage monitoring for many ATI & NVIDIA cards and generic monitoring method for NVIDIA cards via driver.

- Added support for >4 GB memory on NVIDIA

- Fixed memory clock reading on some HD 5670 cards

- Fixed thermal sensor count on some ATI Evergreen models

- Fixed incorrect default clock reading on some ATI Evergreen models

- Added detection for NVIDIA GTX 465, GT 320M GT 335M, ION variant, GT 340, Tesla C2050, Tesla M2050, GTX 285M, GT 325M, Quadro FX 880M, Quadro FX 1800M

- Added detection for ATI HD 5570, Mobility 4550, Mobility 5870, HD 4250, HD 4290, FirePro V7750

- Added detection for Intel GMA 3150

- Added fix for ADT7473 coldbug (GTX 480) via commandline parameter /fixcoldbug

- Added OCP adjustment for CHL8266 (GTX 480). Use it via command line parameter /chl8266ocp without parameter to query, with numeric value seperated by space to set. This is a permanent change that will not be reverted by powering down the system.

- Added languages Hungarian and Spanish

- Updated languages French, Italian, Russian

Mozilla says Firefox has almost 30% of the browser market

SiE — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 09:08:21 +0000

(TS) – The Mozilla Foundation has this week released a State of the Internet report through which it states that Firefox has captured almost 30% of the global browser market. The Q1 report, which is the first compiled by Mozilla, claims that Firefox is being used by over 350 million people all around the world, Antarctica and Europe being the continents with the highest adoption rate – 80% and 39.2%, respectively, on third place being South America with 31.4%.

Firefox’s market share in Africa is at 29.7%, while in Oceania, Asia and North America, the browser has captured 28.7%, 26.6% and 26%, respectively.

According to Mozilla’s report, the adoption of Personas (the new themes introduced with Firefox 3.6) is highest in South America – over 20%, but in every other continent at least 15% of Firefox 3.6+ users are customizing their browser.

For a more detailed look into the Firefox ‘environment’ you can download the full State of the Internet report from here (PDF).

TCM

Nvidia delivers Fermi-supporting CUDA Toolkit 3.0

SiE — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 08:39:38 +0000

(TS) – GPGPU developers rejoice as Nvidia has made available a new version of its CUDA Toolkit, one that provides support for its new Fermi architecture which will debut next week with the GeForce GTX 480 & GTX 470. This release will help CUDA-ready apps be prepared to take advantage of Fermi-based cards, no matter what brand they use – GeForce, Quadro or Tesla.

In addition to featuring Fermi support, the updated CUDA Tooklit includes:

- C++ support – delivering improved productivity with class and template inheritance
- GPGPU/Graphics interoperability – delivering Direct3D 9, 10 and 11 and OpenGL for both CUDA and OpenCL
- Improved developer tools for Linux – including the new CUDA Memory Checker that reports misalignment and out-of-bounds errors
- Tesla Compute Cluster (TCC) – improving performance and cluster management

To download the CUDA Toolkit 3.0, for Windows, Linux, or Mac OS, check out this page.

TCM

Microsoft removes hardware VT requirement for Windows XP Mode

SiE — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 02:41:46 +0000

(TS) – While a pretty good option for businesses making the jump to Windows 7, the Windows XP Mode has been troublesome due to the need for hardware virtualization. VT is nothing uncommon but it isn’t available on quite a few Intel processors, especially lower cost desktop and mobile parts that are available in systems for office use.

To clear the waters around the Windows XP Mode, Microsoft has decided to remove the need for hardware virtualization, thus making the virtual environment available to pretty much anyone with hardware capable of running Windows 7. Hardware VT, if available, will still be used for the Windows XP Mode.

“This change makes it extremely easy for businesses to use Windows XP Mode to address any application incompatibility roadblocks they might have in migrating to Windows 7,” said Brandon LeBlanc Windows Communications Manager at Microsoft.

To download the not new but improved Windows XP Mode see this page.

TCM

Cyberlink announces its PowerDVD 10

SiE — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:57:01 +0000

(TS) – CyberLink has released the new version of its quite popular PowerDVD media player, and as every novelty in this part of industry the new PowerDVD is also all about High Definition and 3D technology.

The new PowerDVD now has the ability to convert 2D movies into 3D thanks to a little piece of technology called the TrueTheater 3D. In addition to 3D, the new PowerDVD 10 can upscale SD video content to HD and features latest CPU/GPU optimizations for some fun with ATI Stream, Nvidia’s CUDA and latest Intel CPUs.

Other features include a bundle of technologies which include the mentioned TrueTheater 3D and TrueTheater HD, TrueTheater Noise Reduction and TrueTheater Stabilizer. The “Mark II” version of the software should appear sometimes in summer season that will bring Blu-ray 3D and 2D-to-3D video file conversion, and most importantly, will be free for those that purchased PowerDVD 10 Ultra 3D.

PowerDVD 10 also has full support for Windows 7, with Touch Support, Ambient Light and support for Windows 7 music library features. In addition to all of this, it will also use a new interface, extensive file format support as well as new playlist features.

The latest version of PowerDVD 10 is already available online in three versions with US $49.95 for the Standard, US $69.95 for Deluxe and US $99.95 for the Ultra 3D version.

Those that are proud owners of the previous version can easily upgrade it for as low as US $29.95.

You can find them all here.

Nokia releases Skype on Symbian for call free

SiE — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 03:12:59 +0000

(TS) – Nokia has made Skype available as a free download from its Ovi online store. It will mean that for the first time Nokian’s Symbian-based smartphones will get fully functional cheap internet calls.

The Skype for Symbian service allows users to make free Skype-to-Skype calls internationally, save money on regular international calls and to share files including pictures and video. Of course you have to be talking to other Skype users, but all it will cost you is your data connection.

Skype is fast becoming a force in mobile. Verizon Wireless said it will launch a Skype application in March which enables free domestic and cheap international calls for users who subscribe to a data service plan. The big idea is that users will buy expensive data plans and not worry about the cost of their calls.

The Skype for Symbian service is compatible with any Nokia device running the latest version of the mobile platform, including the N97 and E72 smartphones. Skype will soon make the service available for other Symbian phones from vendors including Sony Ericsson, Nokia said.

Foobar2000 version 1.0.1 beta 2 released

SiE — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 01:31:25 +0000

(TS) – Foobar2000 is an advanced audio player for the Windows platform. Some of the basic features include ReplayGain support, low memory footprint and native support for several popular audio formats.

Main features boast:

- Supported audio formats: MP3, MP4, AAC, CD Audio, WMA, Vorbis, FLAC, WavPack, WAV, AIFF, Musepack, Speex, AU, SND… and more with additional components.
Gapless playback.
- Full unicode support.
- Easily customizable user interface layout.
- Advanced tagging capabilities.
- Support for ripping Audio CDs as well as transcoding all supported audio formats using the Converter component.
- Full ReplayGain support.
- Customizable keyboard shortcuts.
- Open component architecture allowing third-party developers to extend functionality of the player.

Changes include:
- Converter: worked-around misbehaviors of command-line encoders when the output file name begins with – or @.
- Converter: refreshed MP3 encoding configuration dialog.

Website: Peter Pawlowski’s Software
Download: Foobar2000 1.0.1

TCM

Opera 10.50 RC5 up for grabs

SiE — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 10:21:37 +0000

(TS) – Not long now before Opera 10.50 for Windows goes final but until that happens (later today maybe?), you can test out a fifth RC (Release Candidate). Available here, this build includes the following fixes:

- Fixed Carakan crash at Facebook

- Fixed CORE-27932 (Fixed background corrupted on scroll (large negative text-indent))

- Fixed CORE-28201 (Find in page crashes if search string starts with space)

- Fixed CORE-28214 (Opera freezes on loading altglyph testcase)

- Fixed CORE-27755 (Multiple xslt keys with the same name cause crash)

- Fixed CORE-28212 (The control buttons of widgets can no longer be disabled)

- Fixed CORE-28223 (If minimized is called twice, make sure the previous window state is still remembered – related to DSK-279060 (Minimized tabs don’t display after restart))

- Fixed DSK-269751 (Autoupdated 10.01/10.10 doesn’t start)

- Fixed DSK-284468 (Closing Opera while you are on a page with Adobe Shockwave causes crash)

- Fixed DSK-284486 (Adobe shockwave has stopped working)

- Fixed DSK-284519 (Unite shoutbox doesn’t allow posting more than 100 messages)

- Fixed DSK-284349 (Create Search doesn’t work)

- Fixed DSK-284410 (Sends all bookmarks to link on every startup)

- Fixed DSK-283223 (Widget doesn’t save view mode)

TCM

CCleaner version 2.28.1091 available for download

SiE — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 07:09:50 +0000

CCleaner is a freeware system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool. It removes unused files from your system – allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. Additionally it contains a fully featured registry cleaner.

Changes include:

- Added support for custom locations for applications.
e.g. CustomLocation1=FIREFOX|C:\MyFirefox\Profile
- Improved detection and cleaning algorithm for new releases of Mozilla based browsers.
- Added news tasks to W7 jumplist.
- Added new command line parameters: /CLEANER, /REGISTRY, /TOOLS and /OPTIONS.
- Improved MUI cache cleaning for Vista and Windows 7.
- Added drive information to Wipe Free space status.
- Improved Wipe MFT free space routines.
- Improved W7 toolbar feedback.
- Improved several core processes and routines.
- Improved file search algorithm when recursing.
- Added support for cleaning Paint Shop Pro 12.
- Improved support for IZarc and Axialis IconWorkshop.
- Minor GUI tweaks.

Website: Piriform
Download: CCleaner 2.28.1091

TCM

Chrome 5.0.307.1 available for download

SiE — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 06:16:45 +0000

A quick visit to the Dev channel and you can get your hands on the first Chrome 5.0 build – version 5.0.307.1, which features the following updates:

Windows:

- Use default downloads directory on Vista and Windows 7 (except where it is the desktop)
- Start work on Content Settings window and sub-dialogs

Mac:
- Improved plugin stability.
- Cocoa NPAPI plugins will now get NPCocoaEventMouseDragged and NPCocoaEventFlagsChanged events
- Fix crash that sometimes happened when dragging tabs
- Fix %cpu in task manager.
- Give the cookies manager a search field.
- Make copying of big images more robust.
- Improve task manager resizing behavior.

Chrome 5.0.307.1 for Windows or Mac, can be grabbed here.

TCM