The big daddy of all 3D FPS game studios, id Software, has been acquired by ZeniMax Media – the media company run by Jerry Bruckheimer (himself), Robert Altman (not that one) and Harry Sloan (CEO of MGM). As a result of being brought into the Zenimax fold, the id Software franchises will be published under the Bethesda Softworks label, and games development will be done under one roof, as John Carmack has put it. This means Fallout 3, Quake, Doom and Elder Scrolls IV as one big happy family. Activision will

HP’s “Mini” line of netbooks emerged quite some time ago, and while it has basically remained true to its roots, we’re glad to see the line evolving somewhat to react to changes in demand. The Hewlett-Packard Mini 5101 is a more business-like machine, one’s that classically styled and plenty powerful for the average business user. The 2.6lb. magnesium chassis is sturdy and should handle airport transfers just fine, while the 10.1″ LED display boasts a WXVGA or HD resolution panel. Other specs include a six-cell

GLOBALFOUNDRIES today announced the appointment of Norm Armour as vice president and general manager and Eric Choh as vice president of operations to lead an expanding team dedicated to developing Fab 2, the companys next semiconductor fabrication facility, or fab, at the Luther Forest Technology Campus in Saratoga County, New York. Once constructed, Fab 2 is expected to be the worlds most advanced semiconductor foundry, creating more than 1,200 new direct jobs plus an additional 5,000 spin-off jobs in the region.

Norm and Eric bring a wealth of semiconductor manufacturing experience to GLOBALFOUNDRIES and will play critical leadership roles as we build and operate the most sophisticated semiconductor manufacturing facility in the world, said Douglas Grose, chief executive officer, GLOBALFOUNDRIES. With a wealth of industry expertise in fab build-out and global operations, we now have the leadership team in place to create a cluster of semiconductor manufacturing and technology innovation in upstate New York that will bring the next wave of chip innovation to the marketplace.

ZeniMax Media Inc., parent company of noted game publisher Bethesda Softworks, today announced it has completed the acquisition of legendary game studio, id Software, creators of world-renowned games such as DOOM, QUAKE, Wolfenstein, and its upcoming title, RAGE. The acquisition by ZeniMax Media joins together two of the finest, most respected videogame developers in the world, combining the first person shooter (FPS) expertise of id Software with acclaimed role playing game (RPG) developer Bethesda Game Studios creators of the 2008 Game of the Year, Fallout 3, and the 2006 Game of the Year, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Bethesda Softworks will publish the titles of id Software other than upcoming releases previously committed to other publishers. I sure hope this doesn't impact Quakecon 2009 as I already bought my plane tickets!

This puts id Software in a wonderful position going forward, said John Carmack, who will continue to serve in his current role as Technical Director. We will now be able to grow and extend all of our franchises under one roof, leveraging our capabilities across multiple teams while enabling forward looking research to be done in the service of all of them. We will be bigger and stronger, as we recruit the best talent to help us build the landmark games of the future. As trite as it may be for me to say that I am extremely pleased and excited about this deal, I am.

It’s the summer, and if you’ve planning on traveling any–on vacation or otherwise–you’ll probably be wishing you had some sort of mouse to carry along with your laptop. In case any of the other ones that have come out recently weren’t quite your cup of tea, Belkin has a few newcomers that just might be.The Wireless Comfort Mouse and the Bluetooth Comfort Mouse are both designed for comfort and easy portability, with the former packing a USB dongle for cord-free operating, an all-terrain optical engine to mouse

One of our readers directed me to a thread over at OCZ this morning where it seems that Tony from OCZ has announced a new Turbo Vertex Series is about to launch. Tony confirmed that the new 'Turbo' drives will feature up to 278MB/s read and 213MB/s write speeds thanks to using hand picked MLC Nand Flash and controllers. He also goes on to say that it will be around 10% faster than Vertex and 10% or so more expensive. The drives should get to OCZ next week, so expect more information on this new series once Tony posts more information up about it!

No internal raid, hand picked Controllers and hand picked nand, dedicated FW.
Drives should come into OCZ next week…then ship to stores. i have asked for 1×120 for me to show you here.

SanDisk Corporation today introduced the fastest 32-gigabyte (GB) SDHC card on the market. The 32GB SanDisk Extreme SDHC card at up to 30 megabytes per second (MB/s) read and write speeds combines industry-leading performance with massive storage capacity, helping digital photography enthusiasts utilize the advanced features of todays DSLR cameras. The 32GB SanDisk Extreme SDHC card adheres to the SD Associations new Class 10 specification, which exceeds requirement for todays high definition (AVCHD) video recording. The card offers a sustained write speed fast enough to ensure high-definition video recording and capacity capable of storing 160 minutes of full HD 1920×1080 pixels at 24Mb/s data transfer rate. For that performance you will have to pay a high price though as we'd expect something like this to run around $399. The SanDisk Extreme SDHC 32GB cards will be shipping worldwide to major retailers in August.

The market for entry to mid-level DSLR cameras is growing, and SDHC is becoming the de-facto card format for these devices, said Susan Park, director, retail product marketing, SanDisk. Our cards 32GB of storage and up to 30MB/s read & write speeds enable DSLR users to shoot without worrying about storage or speed limitations. SanDisk Extreme SDHC cards provide consumers with a more enjoyable user experience, letting them focus on what is really important the images that they are capturing.

Lite-On announces a new generation external slim DVD writers. The eSAU208 is a full featured, USB-powered, 8X slim DVD writer. A perfect solution for those users who are looking for a compact, stylish and portable DVD writer. This deal ends 6/25/09 at 12:00pm ET.

WD today introduced its newly redesigned My Book World Edition II dual-drive network storage system in capacities of up to 4 TB. With the double protection of two Mirrored (RAID 1) drives and continuous backup software, the My Book World Edition II network storage system provides an extra-safe place for users to back up and store the data and digital media from all the computers on their network in one central location. Be sure to read our review on the 2 TB version of the My Book World Edition II dual that we posted this morning!

Families have more and more digital media like movies, photos and music to store, share and protect. Having two drives inside the My Book World Edition II network storage system, instantaneously and automatically duplicating data, offers consumers the peace of mind of double safe, real-time protection of their valuable content, said Dale Pistilli, vice president of marketing for WDs branded products group. Families can relax knowing their valuable media is backed up while enjoying the ability to stream their content to a plethora of different devices from PCs and Macs to PS3s, Xbox 360s and the latest connected TVs.

Hear ye, hear ye! If you’ve been tossing around the idea of putting Windows 7 on your rig, you should probably get a move on. The Windows Team has chimed in to remind us all that Windows 7 Beta users will soon be annoyed into upgrading to Windows 7 RC1, while even those on the sidelines best grab the latter soon.Starting on July 1st, Windows 7 Beta copies will begin to reboot every two hours (can you even imagine?) and expire completely on August 1st. The Release Candidate download program will also close on