AMD launches three entry-level 6000-series OEM cards

AMD has launched three new entry-level graphics cards for system builders: the Radeon HD 6450, 6570 and 6670. All three are based on new 40nm graphics cores with the former being powered by a Caicos chip and the latter two using Turks GPUs.

The Radeon HD 6450 is the scrawniest of the new arrivals, featuring 160 stream processors, 8 texture units, 512MB or 1GB of GDDR3 or GDDR5 VRAM, and a 64-bit memory interface.

The GPU can be clocked from 625 to 750MHz while the memory runs from 533 to 900MHz. The HD 6450 appears to be aimed at low-powered machines such as HTPCs, given its low-profile, passively cooled design.

Meanwhile, Radeon HD 6570 is clocked at 650MHz with 480 stream processors, 24 texture units, 2GB of GDDR3 or 1GB of GDDR5 memory running at 900 or 1000MHz along with a 128-bit memory bus. The 6670 has the same specs, except it's limited to GDDR5 and its graphics clock is 150MHz faster.

We aren't sure what AMD and OEMs have in mind for these cards, though we imagine they'll mostly appear in entry-level machines. We wouldn't be surprised if they're passed off as budget gaming cards too.

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iPhone Review: Dead Space

It?s startling what?s possible with technology these days. A few decades ago Pong! was the pinnacle of interactive entertainment, and digital watches were the height of fashion. Nowadays, games such as Dead Space for iPhone offer console-like experiences on pocket-sized devices. Meanwhile, I?m wearing a wind-up watch, so maybe not everything progresses equally.

The term ?console-like experience? is one that gets bandied about a lot on the AppStore, with the likes of the simplistic-but-stylish Infinity Blade making an especially big deal about it. To us, though, the iPhone version of Dead Space is the first title that really lives up to that claim, matching great graphics with decent complexity.

Casting players as a new character in the Dead Space universe, codenamed Vandal, Dead Space for iPhone bridges the game between the 2008 series debut and the more recent sequel. Acting as a secret agent for the church of Unitology, Vandal is manipulated in the opening chapters in order to contribute to the disaster that forms Dead Space 2?s backdrop.


In an effort to escape and repent, Vandal faces off against the now-familiar cast of alien mutants using a semi-familiar arsenal of weapons, plus two all-new additions ? the core extractor and the plasma saw. As with the iPhone version's bigger brother's enemies, you?ll need to blow the limbs off the enemy Necromorphs in order to kill them quickly ? something that?s very impressive to see on a platform as diminutive as the iPhone.

The dissection also makes Dead Space on the iPhone an incredibly gory affair too, possibly more so than any other iPhone game we?ve yet seen. Blowing Necromorphs apart yields a lot of blood and guts, spattering more icky-ness across gross and dark levels ? levels which are stunningly large and detailed too.

It?s not just a matter of running and gunning, however. The iPhone version also features small tactical and RPG choices, just like the console and PC releases. Ammo and health packs are limited resources, which you?ll have to conserve and utilise carefully, although it?s worth mentioning that the iPhone game limits these more stingily than the ?full? game. This is because the iPhone version features micro-transactions, meaning that players are charged extra for weapon upgrades and extra power nodes.


Purchasing these upgrades is optional and it?s possible to complete the game without them, but it?s certainly disappointing to know you might miss some game content without them, especially when Dead Space is far from free to start with.

Despite this one significant shortcoming, however, Dead Space on the iPhone remains an incredibly polished and good looking title. The controls are superb too; the left side of the screen controls movement, while the right pans the camera, and tapping various hot spots lets you use your Stasis ability.

Verdict: While we don?t approve of the micro-transactions that have been cynically forced on to an already premium pp, we can?t deny that Dead Space for the iPhone is a great game, which offers a truly console-like experience.

Dead Space is developed by Electronic Arts and is available for iDevices via the AppStore.

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AMD launches three entry-level 6000-series OEM cards

AMD has launched three new entry-level graphics cards for system builders: the Radeon HD 6450, 6570 and 6670. All three are based on new 40nm graphics cores with the former being powered by a Caicos chip and the latter two using Turks GPUs.

The Radeon HD 6450 is the scrawniest of the new arrivals, featuring 160 stream processors, 8 texture units, 512MB or 1GB of GDDR3 or GDDR5 VRAM, and a 64-bit memory interface.

The GPU can be clocked from 625 to 750MHz while the memory runs from 533 to 900MHz. The HD 6450 appears to be aimed at low-powered machines such as HTPCs, given its low-profile, passively cooled design.

Meanwhile, Radeon HD 6570 is clocked at 650MHz with 480 stream processors, 24 texture units, 2GB of GDDR3 or 1GB of GDDR5 memory running at 900 or 1000MHz along with a 128-bit memory bus. The 6670 has the same specs, except it's limited to GDDR5 and its graphics clock is 150MHz faster.

We aren't sure what AMD and OEMs have in mind for these cards, though we imagine they'll mostly appear in entry-level machines. We wouldn't be surprised if they're passed off as budget gaming cards too.

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After Ban, Groups Say Earmarks Aren?t So Bad

But also shelved are a project to help consolidate information about arrests in Brazos County, Tex., and staffing for two new shelters for abused women and children in Salt Lake City. A rural county in Wisconsin will not be able to upgrade its communication system, and a road in Kentucky will not be widened next year.

Across the country, local governments, nonprofit groups and scores of farmers, to name but a few, are waking up to the fact that when Congress stamped out earmarks last week, it was talking about their projects, too.

Tensions are particularly acute in districts where new conservative lawmakers, many of whom criticized throughout their campaigns the practice of quietly inserting earmarks into spending bills, are coming face to face with local governments and interest groups who were counting on federal dollars to help shore up their own collapsing budgets.

The issue is hardly limited to Republican districts. Democrats, led by President Obama ? who recently said earmarks were a bad thing ? also agreed to give up the practice. Last week, Senator Daniel K. Inouye, Democrat of Hawaii, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee who has long cherished earmarks, announced that they would be banned from this year?s appropriations bills. But he was not happy about it.

?The reality,? Mr. Inouye said, ?is that critical needs in communities throughout the country will be neglected: roads and bridges in disrepair, job training programs shuttered, and vital resources for national defense and law enforcement cut off, to name just a few.?

Many citizens, even those who sympathize with cuts in spending, insist that not all pork is cured with the same untoward salt. ?I do agree we have to cut from somewhere,? said Steve Tribble, the county judge executive of Christian County in Kentucky, where a planned road project is now imperiled. ?I am against some earmarks,? he said. ?Not the good ones. I can promise you this is not a road to nowhere.?

In Burnett County in Wisconsin, the loss of a $1 million federal earmark to help pay for modernizing its communication system could result in a sales tax increase, said the county administrator, Candace Fitzgerald. ?This is very, very expensive,? Ms. Fitzgerald said, explaining that the area?s rugged terrain made it hard to erect the equipment needed for the upgrades, which she were required by the federal government. ?It?s going to kill that little tax base up there,? she said of her county?s most far-flung corner.

Representative Sean Duffy, Republican of Wisconsin, who devoted part of his 2010 campaign to decrying the penchant of his predecessor, David R. Obey ? a Democrat who retired after four decades in Congress ? for securing earmarks, said he traveled to his district last week to gently explain to local governments that the jig was up.

?I am being honest with people,? Mr. Duffy said in a telephone interview. ?I draw them a pie chart.? But even Mr. Duffy said he had come to see that not every earmark was of the much-maligned Tea Pot museum quality, and that he would help his constituents ?work through the grant process? to secure needed financing in other ways.

But there?s the rub. With President Obama proposing a five-year freeze on domestic spending, and the Republican-controlled House vowing to cut spending in federal agencies by hundreds of millions of dollars, it almost certain that every agency will have far less money to spend on thousands of legitimate projects that were approved after extensive review. Simply put, without earmarks to turn to, far more applicants will be scrambling for a smaller pot of grant money.

The result? Scores of lawmakers are going to find themselves explaining to the people back home why their bridges will not be finished, their rape victim programs canceled before they started, their federal requirements ignored. As Ms. Fitzgerald said of Mr. Duffy, ?He definitely is going to be hearing from us.?

Spending for earmarks accounts for less than half of 1 percent of total federal spending, but it can be crucial chunks of change for localities. The practice has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years, as some lawmakers have been prolific users of earmarks while others, supported by some government watchdog groups, have criticized them as too lightly scrutinized engines of corruption that add needlessly to government spending. There were about $8 billion in earmark requests in the 2011 ominbus spending bill that failed to get through the last Congress.

Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, who has made earmarks one of his signature targets, sends Twitter messages about the ones he finds most offensive. ?$1,000,000 for improvements to a pond in Maplewood, MN ? those are some lucky frogs,? read one.

The issue gained political potency with the Republicans? ascent in the House, led by its earmark-despising new speaker, Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, and followed by President Obama?s comments and pressure from opponents in both parties that became too great to ignore.

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Mozilla plans to release Firefox 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, and 7.0 in 2011

Mozilla is planning to release four new versions of its open source browser by the end of this year. That means that Firefox 4.0, Firefox 5.0, Firefox 6.0, and Firefox 7.0 are all slated to ship in 2011.

The four new versions is just one of the company's goals for this year. Here are seven points that the company currently has listed as its Product Priorities for 2011 on its Firefox/Roadmap wiki page:

  1. Ship our new technology to users in smaller bundles, more frequently: four technology shipment vehicles in 2011 (including Firefox 4) and achieve a regular cadence for shipping
  2. Develop a product that is responsive from "click to render": no more than 50ms delay between user action and application reaction, provide optimizations to hide network latency, and obtain metrics from users in addition to our test infrastructure
  3. Expand the Open Web Platform to include Apps, Social and Identity: Design and implement open systems for Identity and social interactions, design and implement Web Application Framework, and implement missing pieces of CSS/HTML required for compelling Web Applications
  4. Never lose the user's data or state: continue to improve stability, mitigate the cost of application failure, and interact with cloud-based storage to allow users to "take it with them"
  5. Shine the primary UI until it gleams: determine and optimize top 5-10 user interaction flows (ie: search for restaurant), improve tools for customization/restoration of old functionality so we can remove it from primary UI, and improve user interface polish so that Firefox feels modern, graceful and elegant
  6. Support modern operating systems and platforms: Windows 64-bit, OSX 10.7, Android 3.0, and ARM CPUs
  7. Plan for a future where Desktop, Mobile and Web Apps run on a common platform: need to design and architect towards this eventual outcome though implementation of this is not a priority

Mozilla was originally planning on having Firefox 4 out by the end of last year, but it had to delay the release. The last release was Beta 10 but there are still probably two more betas, at least one release candidate, and of course a final build. It's clear the company no longer thinks this model is a good one, and wants to accelerate its release cycle, much like Google did with Chrome.

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Apple to Stop Selling Boxed Software

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According to reports from MacRumors, Apple plans to eliminate boxed software. This is probably due to the success of  iTunes and the Mac Store.

There?s little need for boxed software every time you download an iPhone app, but what?s going to happen to popular items that are not available for download, such as Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop. Could this be that Apple will be replacing all its CD?s in favor of the SD card and does that imply that the iPad 2 may feature a SD slot?

About the Author

Fatema is the West Coast editor of TNW she is based in San Francisco. Fatema writes about startups and entrepreneurs. Follow her on twitter, @FatemaYasmine

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HP unveils reclining touchscreen PCs

HP has unveiled its first touchscreen desktop PCs that feature a 60-degree reclining display. The new HP TouchSmart 610 Consumer PC (available on February 9, 2011 starting at $900) and HP TouchSmart 9300 Elite Business PC (available in May 2011 for a still unknown price) recline from upright to almost flat. The new form factor enables users to adjust the display's position in order to increase comfort for longer-term use; holding your arm out in front of you while using a touchscreen can otherwise be very tiring.

Both the TouchSmart 610 Consumer PC and TouchSmart 9300 Elite Business PC feature a 23-inch HD wide-angle LED backlit multitouch LCD screen with a 1920x1080 resolution. In terms of software, there are touch-optimized versions of Hulu, Netflix, Rhapsody, Twitter, and Ubisoft's R.U.S.E. real-time strategy game, as well as HP's RecipeBox and webcam applications. Users can add new applications via the TouchSmart Apps Center.

The 610 can be configured with Intel and AMD desktop processors, up to 16GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, a Blu-ray drive, a 1.3 megapixel camera, and Beats Audio speakers. The 9300 can be configured with Intel's Sandy Bridge processors, a choice of Windows 7 operating systems, up to 16GB of RAM, an optional 160GB solid-state drive, and a two megapixel webcam with facial recognition software.

"As a leader in touch computing, HP has made each iteration of the TouchSmart PC more intuitive, resourceful and fun for users," James Mouton, senior vice president of Desktop Organization under HP's Personal Systems Group, said in a statement. "The latest generation is no exception with a new design that makes it easier and more comfortable to use, and it allows businesses to integrate the TouchSmart where convenience, space constraints and appearance matter."

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After Tucson Rampage, a Struggle to Stay in Reach

?What about the doctor who killed the babies 9 months old?? the man asked. ?That?s murder.? After a few uneasy moments, the man walked out, muttering, ?This isn?t America.?

Mr. Gosar, a Republican, appeared unfazed, but one month after Representative Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head at a political event in Tucson, members of Congress are wrestling with one of the most fundamental aspects of American democracy: deciding how and when to interact with constituents.

Nearly all the members of Congress who have resumed meeting with the public since the shooting now do so with a police presence ? in some cases a substantial one.

The result has been a growing formalization of an exchange that has long been a hallmark of popular politics, from the raucous town-hall-style meetings during the health care debate to gentler interactions with individual constituents on a Saturday afternoon.

The Capitol Police have directed members of Congress to coordinate their public appearances with local law enforcement officials, something many are reluctant to do because they do not want to introduce new barriers to what are already limited public interactions.

Representative Loretta Sanchez, Democrat of California, said she had been told by the local police during planning for a coming parade in her Orange County district that instead of walking the route, as she has done for years, she would be required to ride inside a vehicle. A police SWAT team would also be dispatched for security, she was told.

?I hope all of this doesn?t keep people from meeting with their constituents,? said Ms. Sanchez, who added that she would walk the route despite the police warnings. ?We have to be accessible.?

Ms. Giffords, Democrat of Arizona, was meeting constituents outside a Tucson supermarket at a ?Congress on Your Corner? event last month when a gunman shot 19 people, killing 6 and wounding 13. Jared L. Loughner, 22, was arrested and charged in the attack. Ms. Giffords is recovering at a Houston rehabilitation center.

Representative Steve Southerland, a first-term Florida Republican, said that at a recent town-hall-style event, the local police put uniformed officers at the front of the room and undercover officers sat among audience members. Mr. Southerland said he thought the augmented security was a reasonable trade-off.

?I?ve got to have contact with people,? he said. ?I look in their faces and see their hope, and I touch their hands and I hug them around the shoulders, and that?s important. If I had to sit behind a computer answering e-mails or responding to letters from constituents, I wouldn?t be doing this job.?

Elsewhere, however, public appearances by members of Congress have been canceled in recent weeks because businesses have expressed concerns about the safety of their employees.

In Colorado, Representative Ed Perlmutter, a Democrat, recently postponed one of his ?Government in the Grocery? sessions because of security worries raised by supermarkets. Mr. Perlmutter, whose office said he had held 70 similar meetings over the past four years, had another grocery event scheduled for Saturday.

?Our preference is to do it in grocery stores, where people are going to be anyway,? said Leslie Oliver, a spokeswoman for Mr. Perlmutter. ?Sometimes people are there buying their gallon of milk and see him and say, ?Hey, that reminds me, I want to ask him about this.? ?

Representative Steve Israel, Democrat of New York, has begun to hold his ?Congress on Your Corner? events at local fire stations instead of more open spaces to make people feel safer.

Other members of Congress say the Giffords shooting has forced them to consider closing local offices in high-crime neighborhoods because of security concerns.

District offices, which are typically storefronts, are a world away from the layers of security that surround lawmakers and their staffs in Washington.

In some cities, local police officers have been advising Congressional staffs to erect barriers and install cameras and metal detectors at their offices.

Carli Brousseau contributed reporting from Scottsdale, Ariz.

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iPhone Review: Dead Space

It?s startling what?s possible with technology these days. A few decades ago Pong! was the pinnacle of interactive entertainment, and digital watches were the height of fashion. Nowadays, games such as Dead Space for iPhone offer console-like experiences on pocket-sized devices. Meanwhile, I?m wearing a wind-up watch, so maybe not everything progresses equally.

The term ?console-like experience? is one that gets bandied about a lot on the AppStore, with the likes of the simplistic-but-stylish Infinity Blade making an especially big deal about it. To us, though, the iPhone version of Dead Space is the first title that really lives up to that claim, matching great graphics with decent complexity.

Casting players as a new character in the Dead Space universe, codenamed Vandal, Dead Space for iPhone bridges the game between the 2008 series debut and the more recent sequel. Acting as a secret agent for the church of Unitology, Vandal is manipulated in the opening chapters in order to contribute to the disaster that forms Dead Space 2?s backdrop.


In an effort to escape and repent, Vandal faces off against the now-familiar cast of alien mutants using a semi-familiar arsenal of weapons, plus two all-new additions ? the core extractor and the plasma saw. As with the iPhone version's bigger brother's enemies, you?ll need to blow the limbs off the enemy Necromorphs in order to kill them quickly ? something that?s very impressive to see on a platform as diminutive as the iPhone.

The dissection also makes Dead Space on the iPhone an incredibly gory affair too, possibly more so than any other iPhone game we?ve yet seen. Blowing Necromorphs apart yields a lot of blood and guts, spattering more icky-ness across gross and dark levels ? levels which are stunningly large and detailed too.

It?s not just a matter of running and gunning, however. The iPhone version also features small tactical and RPG choices, just like the console and PC releases. Ammo and health packs are limited resources, which you?ll have to conserve and utilise carefully, although it?s worth mentioning that the iPhone game limits these more stingily than the ?full? game. This is because the iPhone version features micro-transactions, meaning that players are charged extra for weapon upgrades and extra power nodes.


Purchasing these upgrades is optional and it?s possible to complete the game without them, but it?s certainly disappointing to know you might miss some game content without them, especially when Dead Space is far from free to start with.

Despite this one significant shortcoming, however, Dead Space on the iPhone remains an incredibly polished and good looking title. The controls are superb too; the left side of the screen controls movement, while the right pans the camera, and tapping various hot spots lets you use your Stasis ability.

Verdict: While we don?t approve of the micro-transactions that have been cynically forced on to an already premium pp, we can?t deny that Dead Space for the iPhone is a great game, which offers a truly console-like experience.

Dead Space is developed by Electronic Arts and is available for iDevices via the AppStore.

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Hardware 18 - 46 Different Flavours

Hardware 18 - 46 Different Flavours

Posted on 5th Feb 2011 at 12:53 by Podcast with 9 comments

This week's hardware podcast involves Paul, Harry, Clive and Antony and starts out on a fairly serious note as we talk about the current problems surrounding Intel's P67 and H67 chipsets. We offer advice to those of you who've purchased an affected board and discuss what those of you who are in the market for an upgrade should be doing.

Harry then fills us in on the latest happenings from the labs while also giving a sneak peak on what he's been testing for the last couple of days. It?s worth having a listen if you?ve got your eye on a new graphics card purchase sometime soon.

Hardware 18 - 46 Different Flavours Hardware 18 - Available in 47 Different Flavours

We also set our usual Guess the Hardware competition, with a limited edition Steel Series Starcraft II mouse mat and a 13in Brenthaven laptop case up for grabs. All you have to do is identify the piece of hardware that we describe and email your answer to podcast@custompc.co.uk.

As ever, the bit-tech hardware podcast features music by Brad Sucks and was recorded on Shure microphones. You can download the podcast direct, listen in-browser or subscribe through iTunes using the links below. Be sure to let us know your thoughts in the forums.

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