ASUS P7P55 Pro Motherboard Exposed

espite no official word from Santa Clara, California-based Intel, ASUS, one of the world’s leading motherboard manufacturers, has been showcasing some of its upcoming designs at this year’s Computex show in Taipei. Such is the case with one of the company’s new P55-based chipsets, which will enable users with support for Intel’s next-generation mainstream processors, codenamed Lynnfield. Dubbed P7P55 Pro, the upcoming motherboard from ASUS will be built on a full-ATX PCB and deliver all the necessary features for a next-generation Intel-based desktop computer system.

Pictures of the new board have just been made available in a recent news-article on hothardware, showcasing the board’s layout and overall design. As you can see from the images below, ASUS went for a black PCB with blue connectors for the upcoming P7P55 Pro platform. Designed to deliver support for a new wave of mainstream Intel-based desktop rigs, this motherboard boasts four, dual-channel DDR3 memory DIMMs, two PCI Express x16 graphics slots and Intel’s next-generation socket LGA 1156, specifically designed for all of the upcoming Lynnfield processors.

Due to the specific features of Intel’s next-generation P55 chipset, motherboard builders won’t be required to adopt an additional southbridge chipset, which is also the case with ASUS P7P55 Pro. With this design, ASUS has placed the P55 PCH in the same area that you would have traditionally found the southbridge.

Intel’s next-generation 5-series of chipsets has been designed to provide computer users with support for an upcoming wave of Nehalem-based, next-generation processors. These new CPUs are said to be capable of delivering an impressive performance, while also packing some of the necessary energy-efficient features of a desktop PC.

Unfortunately, the specific details regarding the motherboard’s release date and pricing are yet to be unveiled, but these new platforms should be out later this year.

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Cyberlink Collaborates with NVIDIA and AMD for Performance Optimizatio

Cyberlink, a leading provider of multimedia software applications for computer systems, has just announced that it has been successfully collaborating with AMD to optimize their multimedia solutions for the ATI Stream technology. The partnership between the two companies will enable Cyberlink applications to take full advantage of the performance delivered by AMD’s Radeon GPUs. In addition, Cyberlink has also announced that it has worked with NVIDIA to showcase CUDA-optimized solutions at this year’s Computex show in Taipei, Taiwan.

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“As a leading developer of many of the most popular consumer photo and video applications, CyberLink consistently looks for new ways to improve the user experience and is employing ATI Stream technology to deliver great results faster than ever before,” said Godfrey Cheng, director of technical marketing for graphics products at AMD. “CyberLink’s engineers have successfully taken advantage of our advanced graphics products as well as ATI Stream technology to significantly speed up video conversion, editing, playback and transfer for consumers.”

Latest Wii Fitness Title Uses Body-Scanning Video Camera

than a very advanced electronic personal trainer with the possibility of also playing console games on.

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Why am I saying that? Well, because Wii Fit is number one in the charts, there are a lot of fitness-related games coming up and most adults or teens only buy the Wii in order to help them exercise. And because the Wii is such a great personal trainer, there just had to come a game with a personal trainer’s very own… personality. What am I talking about? Why, the Your Shape title from Ubisoft, of course.

The game comes boxed with a body-scanning video camera that scans your body and creates a 3D “Minime” mini… you. Then, you point to the part of your body that you want to… well… shape, and the game recommends a series of customizable exercises depending on how much time you have or what type of workout you desire. It shows you how much weight you lost and even passes a bit of judgment on your current figure.

This “light” version of Microsoft’s Project Natal promises to bring you back into the shape you never had by mercilessly working you until you’re unconscious at the same time judging your every move and mentioning when something you did was wrong. Honestly, if this game makes people get up from those chairs and do some exercising in order to stop scaring kids when they show up in their bathing suits at the seaside, then I am all up for it.

Still, isn’t the Nintendo Wii a console, made for gaming, which is fun? And have we reached a stage where we are so fat and lazy that we need a console game to shame us into exercising? We’ll find out sometime this year.

Download NVIDIA GeForce Driver 186.08 BETA Release

Santa Clara, California-based NVIDIA has just announced the introduction of its new BETA version of the upcoming GeForce/ION drive release. Designed to provide users with support for NVIDIA’s latest series of GeForce GPUs, from the 6-series to the more recent 200-series, the new 186.08 Driver release will also include a new version of the chip maker’s PhysX System Software. In addition, as with most new driver releases, the latest version is also meant to fix a series of known bugs, so there’s a good chance that the various issues you have encountered with your GeForce products have been fixed.

According to the release notes of the new drivers, users upgrading to this BETA release will be able to take advantage of the new PhysX System Software version 9.09.0428. In addition, the new release will deliver ‘numerous’ bug fixes, which means users will be able to benefit from a smoother and higher-quality visual experience, using NVIDIA’s GeForce and ION products. As with other driver releases, the new BETA version adds support for the following series of GPUs: GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9, 100, and 200-series desktop GPUs and ION graphics processing units.

Users will also see some performance improvements in comparison to the previous version of drivers, release 182. Such performance increments include:

Up to 25% performance increase in The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena

Up to 22% performance increase in Crysis: Warhead with antialiasing enabled

Up to 11% performance increase in Fallout 3 with antialiasing enabled

Up to 14% performance increase in Far Cry 2

Up to 30% performance increase in Half-Life 2 engine games with 3-way and 4-way SLI

Up to 45% performance increase in Mirror’s Edge with antialiasing enabled

The drivers are available now for download, following the links below:

NVIDIA GeForce Release 186.08 BETA drivers for Windows XP 32-bit

NVIDIA GeForce Release 186.08 BETA drivers for Windows XP 64-bit

NVIDIA GeForce Release 186.08 BETA drivers for Windows Vista 32-bit

NVIDIA GeForce Release 186.08 BETA drivers for Windows Vista 64-bit

NVIDIA GeForce Release 186.08 BETA drivers for Windows 7 32-bit

NVIDIA GeForce Release 186.08 BETA drivers for Windows 7 64-bit

Next-Gen iPhone Confirmed; Steve Jobs Ready for CEO Again

According to people familiar with Apple, talks of Steve Jobs returning to the 1 Infinite Loop campus were true. Moreover, the Wall Street Journal cites these people as saying they’ve seen the much hyped next-generation iPhone, and the device is reportedly similar in appearance to the current version, but packs under-the-hood enhancements. And the list of details doesn’t end here.

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The report in question, readable via WSJ’s iPhone app, reveals that uncertainty about Steve Jobs' health is down to a minimum. Mr. Jobs allegedly kept some Apple directors updated with his health condition and, according to at least one person familiar with the matter, “Mr. Jobs's recovery ‘is coming along’ and he is on schedule to return to work later this month.” This person has also seen Apple’s CEO in person recently, the WSJ says.

The person added: "He was one real sick guy. Fundamentally he was starving to death over a nine-month period. He couldn't digest protein. [But] he took corrective action.” This corroborates with Mr. Jobs’ own statements issued earlier this year, when Apple’s CEO revealed that his (weight-loss) condition was “more complex” than originally believed.

“…after further testing, my doctors think they have found the cause—a hormone imbalance that has been “robbing” me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy. Sophisticated blood tests have confirmed this diagnosis,” Mr. Jobs said earlier this year in an open letter addressing the entire Apple community.

Another person also confirmed that Jobs had visited Apple’s headquarters since he left for his medical leave, the report mentions.

Most intriguing is that “Apple is ready enough with its latest iPhone to be in a position to unveil it next week,” a person who has seen the new model allegedly revealed. “The new phone will look similar to last year’s model but has more processing power and some new features like video editing,” the WSJ claims to have learned.

The device is scheduled for an early July release, in tandem with the new OS 3.0, according to the report, although the unveiling will be made at WWDC 09 next week.

Sandvox (1.6.2) Updated for Snow Leopard

Sandvox is a website-making tool that offers more than 40 site designs (with viewport settings for optimized display on iPhones), text, image, audio, and video sharing features. Customizable banners let users personalize their site, while a comprehensive and completely integrated Help feature boasts more than 200 articles, including step-by-step “How do I…?” pages, etc. The application has been updated recently, adding improvements and bug fixes.

New in version 1.6.2 is a fix to rare cases that could result in text not saving, the release notes reveal. Also added are improvements to the publishing engine to prevent re-publishing of content already online and support for anamorphic QuickTime movies. Enhancements have been made to JS-Kit comment integration and SFTP publishing. Lastly, the changelog mentions, Sandvox 1.6.2 adds compatibility adjustments for Snow Leopard

for download click here

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Alarm.com iphone app approved by apple

m.com’s new security app for iPhone and iPod touch has been approved by Apple and is now available in the iTunes App Store, the company has revealed in a press release. The remote control security solution is also available for BlackBerry users from Authorized Alarm.com Dealers, the company claims.

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- Instantly arm and disarm their security systems remotely
- Watch real-time video footage and recorded video clips showing events that happened while they were away
- See what doors, cabinets and windows are currently open and where there has recently been motion activity at their property
- Access a history of all events reported by the security system, including alarms, power failures, doors and windows opening, motion activity, and water leaks

“In developing the Alarm.com mobile apps for iPhone and BlackBerry, we focused on making it easy for consumers to monitor and control their security systems using devices they already understand and carry with them all the time,” said Alison Slavin, Alarm.com’s VP of Product Management. “We’re excited to provide our Dealers another powerful technology differentiator that will help them better serve their customers and beat out the competition.”

“Alarm.com’s iPhone and BlackBerry apps reinforce our commitment to providing technology that both simplifies and enhances the lives of consumers, and at the same time arms Monitronics’ dealers with a first-to-market monitoring and security solution that will generate new interest and enthusiasm among customers,” adds Mitch Clarke, VP of Marketing and Business Development at Monitronics, one of North America’s leading home and business security monitoring service providers.

Download alarm.com monitoring app via i tunes click here