Intel Corp., the world's No. 1 computer microprocessor maker, spent $877,000 on lobbying in the second quarter, according to recent disclosure forms. Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel bumped up its lobbying expenses significantly over last year, and spent nearly five times as much in the latest period as much-smaller rival, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. The companies are vastly different in size: Intel's $111 billion market capitalization dwarfs AMD's $3 billion market value.

A portion of both companies' lobbying went to antitrust issues, an area that intensely interests them because AMD's allegations of antitrust abuses by Intel have been gaining traction. Intel says only a small portion of its lobbying dollars go toward antitrust issues. The company said the majority of its lobbying is focused on other issues, including education and health care, national funding for scientific research, immigration, tax matters and energy issues.

There was a time not too long ago where just about every TV maker was jumping to add Netflix streaming to their sets. Now that said wave has rolled, it looks like the next bandwagon to jump on is the one with the Vudu banner streaming from the rear. Shortly after LG announced that a select few of its Netcast HDTVs would be able to stream on-demand films from Vudu, Mitsubishi has stepped forward with similar news. Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America has today announced that it has begun shipments of its Vudu-ready

These days, it’s hard to find a new vehicle on the showroom floor without iPod support. Even lower-end automobiles are opting to add USB sockets in order to support Apple’s iPhone and/or iPod, and one look at the company’s latest earnings report will help you understand why. But what if you opted not to trade in your clunker last month? If you’re still wheeling around with a cassette deck, it’s probably time to get with the program. Parrot’s new RKi8400 is here to help, bringing an iPhone/iPod-centric head unit

To say HTC’s original ‘Touch’ was a smash hit would be understating things greatly, so it makes perfect sense to see the smartphone maker coming out with a second edition to tempt the masses. Slated to launch on October 6th as one of the world’s first “Windows phones,” the Touch2 will be among only a handful of cellphones to be introduced on or before early October with Windows Mobile 6.5 onboard. The operating system is obviously the bragging point here, with Microsoft hoping to save some face from the many

If you’re in the market for a digital camera with plenty of optical zoom capabilities, then Samsung’s new 12.5 megapixel HZ25W might do the job. This point and shoot camera joins Samsung’s advanced HZ series and offers an impressive 24x optical zoom with a 35mm film equivalent focal range of 26mm-624mm. The new HZ25W is also able to record 720p HD video in H.264 format. For extra versatility, users can take advantage of the camera’s powerful zoom lens by zooming in and out while recording video. To help eliminate

The SAPPHIRE Vapor-X Radeon HD 4890 2GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 video card is one of the fastest single slot graphics cards on the market today. This versatile and powerful card has 2GB of high-performance GDDR5 memory running at 1050MHz, while the core operates at 870MHz. Read on to see how this factory overclocked card does on our 30″ display.

It hasn’t even been a full year since Creative introduced its Flip Video-rivaling Vado HD pocket camcorder, and already the company is ushering in the next generation. The simply-titled ‘second generation Vado HD’ doesn’t look or feel all that much different than the original, but we suppose that’s kind of the point. Don’t reinvent the wheel if the current one rolls along just fine, right? The new pocket camcorders will be available in a pair of new color combinations: a 4GB glossy white with green accents,

So look, Microsoft’s Zune HD looks promising. Really promising, even. But promising enough that it shouldn’t give the general population any other choices in the Zune range? That’s evidently the case, as news has surfaced asserting that Microsoft is planning to kill off its entire Zune range save for the forthcoming Zune HD. At first take, this seems like a really odd decision. The Zune HD is great for high-end users who will appreciate an OLED display and a premium design, but what about lower-end users who

Panasonic introduced the “world’s smallest and lightest system digital camera with a built-in flash,” the new LUMIX GF1. In addition to being small and lightweight, the LUMIX GF1 has DSLR and HD video capabilities. The LUMIX GF1 has an exterior design that is reminiscent of classic film cameras, yet offers many of today’s popular digital features, including Panasonic’s LUMIX G Series of digital interchangeable lens system built on the Micro Four Thirds standard. Like its predecessors in the LUMIX G Series line,

CyberPower today announced the LAN Mini H2o – a small footprint system that is one of the worlds smallest and fastest water cooled desktop gaming rigs. At just 11.25 (L) x 8.75 (W) x 7 (H) and about 10 pounds with SSD installed, Cyberpowers LAN Mini H2o is the perfect transportable gaming rig for your next LAN Party. With WiFi support, optional Blu-ray, and a built-in HDMI port the system can easily morph from a compact and super-fast gaming system to a home entertainment PC. Base price of the LAN Mini H2o is $965. It can be ordered direct from CyberPower with numerous upgrade options available. The system is backed by CyberPowers 3-year warranty and lifetime tech support.

The system supports Intel Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quads CPUs (base system features an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 @ 2.83GHz) to provide excellent gaming and multitasking capabilities and features NVIDIAs GTS 250 graphics provides for smooth game play and crisp multimedia processing. Other standard features include SilverStone SST-SG05 Mini-iTX Gaming Case with 300 Watts 80 Plus Certified Power Supply; 500GB SATA hard drive; 8X Super Slim DVD rewritable drive; High-def 7.1 on-board sound; and Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium w/ Service Pack 1 (64-bit Edition) installed.