German chipmaker Infineon Technologies AG reported Friday a euro404 million ($513 million) net loss for its fiscal first quarter as the global economic slowdown crimped demand and caused sales to fall. If that isn't bad enough they also think that in the second quarter, market conditions will worsen!

The Neubiberg-based company said its loss for the October-December period was smaller than a loss of euro529 million a year earlier. Sales were down to euro830 million from euro1.2 billion a year earlier. The company said that, due to the continued market slowdown, Infineon has “limited visibility with respect to its revenue development,” in the second quarter.

Intel has decided to bring forward the launch of its single-core Atom N280 processor bundled with GN40 chipset to the second half of February instead of in the second or third quarter as previously planned, according to sources at Taiwan notebook makers.

The Atom N280 bundled with GN40 chipset will be available for US$60-65 in thousand unit-tray quantities, the sources indicated. Taiwan-based notebook vendors Asustek Computer and Gigabyte Technology are preparing to launch Atom N280-based netbooks, with Asustek's forthcoming Eee PC 1000DN likely to be the first model to hit the market, the sources noted.

One of the ways AMD tests ATI Mobility Radeon GPUs, without having to design and build numerous mobile reference cards that fit in multiple notebook form factors, is to produce fully-loaded, custom reference cards that’ll fit into standard PCI Express x16 slots. The cards won’t be used in any actual retail product, but they allow AMD to test all of the various features and functionality, and experiment with clock speeds and voltages to fine tune and balance performance and power consumption.     

ASUS GeForce ENGTX285 TOP Graphics Card @ TweakTown and other reviews from around the web can be found by visiting our forums!

“One thing I really can't stress enough about the TOP line-up of graphics cards from ASUS is that they are more than just a few extra MHz on the core and memory. Past experience has always shown that the clocks offered by a card carrying this marking are clearly above the norm.

What's interesting, though, is that this time around ASUS has not only got a TOP card on offer but also an Extreme one for the GTX 285. The TOP is the lower clocked of the two and what were hoping is that ASUS hasnt just decided to ease off the MHz simply to squeeze a few more dollars out of people wanting even more performance.”

In an effort to compete with manufacturers such as OCZ and G.Skill, Intel has announced price cuts for its lineup of SLC (Single Level Cell) and MLC (Multi Level Cell) Solid State Drives.  The global economic slump and lower sales are key reasons for the price cut. However, decreases in NAND flash prices are also helping to lower the production costs for Intel’s competitors. Many of these competitors are now entering the market with a new generation of products. Intel launched its 160GB X-25M for $945 about

CyberPower Announces AMD Phenom II X4-Based Dragon Gaming Desktop PCs BALDWIN PARK, CA (February 6, 2009) – CyberPower Inc., a manufacturer of custom gaming machines, notebook systems, and high performance workstations, today announced its Gamer Dragon series – a family of custom-built, high-def desktop workstations based on AMD’s new Phenom II X4 CPU.CyberPower is offering three Dragon-platform base models: the entry-level Gamer Dragon 8000, the mid-range Gamer Dragon 9000, and the high-end Gamer Dragon CrossFire

Microsoft has provided the world with a sneak peek at its upcoming online synchronization service for Windows Mobile. Some know this service as SkyBox. The service won’t be called SkyBox, however. Instead, it will be called My Phone. The website for the service (getskybox.com) was live earlier but appears down now. The site isn’t fully functional yet, but it did provide a look at what the service will likely offer. Targeted at consumers who want Exchange-like functionality without having to pay for an additional

As Gaming Notebooks go, there are always going to be trade-offs to make and a balance to strike between performance, weight, and cost.  The Asus G50Vt strikes a happy medium, weighing in at 7.5lbs and around $949 at retail outlets like Best Buy with higher-end SKUs online.  Our system, powered by a Core 2 Duo P8400 at 2.26GHz and an NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GS graphics engine, offered top-end multimedia performance and lots of gaming horsepower for all the latest titles.  We’d gladly recommend this

As Gaming Notebooks go, there are always going to be trade-offs to make and a balance to strike between performance, weight, and cost.  The Asus G50Vt strikes a happy medium, weighing in at 7.5lbs and around $949 at retail outlets like Best Buy with higher-end SKUs online.  Our system, powered by a Core 2 Duo P8400 at 2.26GHz and an NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GS graphics engine, offered top-end multimedia performance and lots of gaming horsepower for all the latest titles.  We’d gladly recommend this

Microsoft has quietly begun adding Fix-it buttons to some of their Knowledge Base articles. The Fix-it buttons run a script which will automatically fix the problem associated in the KB article, according to a Beyond Binary report. There are only a limited number of KB articles which have such a button; around 100 or so. But assuming you trust Microsoft’s scripting abilities, it’s a lot easier than having to edit the registry or some such other mundane Windows activity manually. Here’s one example: if the Internet