Although VIA Technologies and Nvidia entered into an alliance to cooperate in the low-cost PC and MID markets earlier in the year, according to recent reports, Nvidia has used the alliance as a bargaining chip to negotiate with Intel, demanding Intel allow Nvidia's IGP chipsets to enter the Atom platform ecosystem, according to sources at PC makers. If these rumors are true it would be a shame as the VIA Nano processor looks like it is a winner. I personally went down to Austin to see them being made and they are the real deal and it would be great to see NVIDIA support them with chipsets.

Nvidia's MCP73 IGP chipset only supports single-channel memory and offers relatively low performance compared to current chipsets from both Nvidia and Intel making it a good fit for the Atom platform. If Intel agrees to let Nvidia's chipset support the Atom platform, Nvidia will then terminate its alliance with VIA. This could impact Taiwan-based chipset makers VIA and Silicon Integrated System (SiS).

An interesting new conspiracy theory has arisen today. It appears that several laptop OEMs have been having “issues” with their sound card drivers: specifically, the Stereo Mix option is missing from their drivers, which basically means you can’t record audio (except from Mic In). Whoops! Is this a case of Dell and others working with the RIAA? A ripten writer noticed this on his Dell laptop. Linkage between Dell (and other OEMs) and the RIAA were posited an obvious theory. Now, while we wouldn’t put it past

One of the great appeals of Apple products is their elegant design. (Elegant enough to entice long-time Segway CTO Doug Field to leave Dean Kamen’s brain trust at Segway and move over to Steve Jobs lair as VP for product design at Apple.) Apple’s designs have such a unique appeal to them that they frequently invite competing manufacturers to imitate Apple’s designs. By now, we’ve lost count how many iPhone knockoffs are on the market already. But if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Apple should

There are high-end gaming rigs, and then there are high-end gaming rigs. Then there are those systems that are so high-end that they defy categorization. Leave it to boutique systems manufacturer Voodoo to give us the $7,000 Omen. By the way, $7,000 is the starting price for the system, depending on the configuration. Similar to Voodoo’s, soon to be released, ultra-high-end Envy laptop, the Omen represents a new direction for Voodoo: catering almost exclusively to those who never need to check their bank account

Remember the ultra-sexy, high-end Voodoo Envy laptop we reported about last month? Well, Voodoo has recently updated its Website to now include a rudimentary configurator for the Envy. Unlike traditional configurators (like you’d find on Dell’s site), the Envy page currently features a matrix made up of three different types of users (“Casual User,” “Power User,” and “Road Warrior”) with three different configuration options for each user type–thus providing a total of nine possible configurations,

The Thermaltake Armor+ MX we will be looking at today is different from the Armor cases of the past as it is not a full or super tower case, but a mid tower. THe Thermaltake Armor+ MX VH8000BWS Mid Tower Case was designed to accommodate the Thermaltake Big Water line of water cooling kits, which makes it nice for those building a DIY gaming system. Read on as we take a closer look at the Thermaltake Armor+ MX and install a water cooler in it.

All right, it’s bad enough this 20-year-old has never kissed anyone, but advertising for a kissing teacher on Craigslist? We’d be interesting in knowing if he gets any takers, personally.I’m a 20 yearold GA Tech student who has never kissed. I have been going out with a girl online for the last 5 years and she’s finally coming down to see me on the 11th. She tells me it’s a big turn-off if a guy doesn’t know how to kiss, and she even dumped her last boyfriend because of this. I want to make a good first impression,

Video:Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 512MB video card review @ Elite BastardsZOTAC GeForce GTX 280 Video Card Review @ FuturelooksMotherboards and Chipsets:ECS GF8200A Black & ASRock K10N78FullHD-hSLI @ PhoronixXFX nForce 790i Ultra 3-Way SLI and Zotac nForce 790i-Supreme Motherboards @ Digit-LifeProcessors:AMD Phenom 9950 and 9350e: Ups, Downs and CnQ @ Lost CircuitsAMD Phenom 9950 X4 Quad-Core Processor  @ TWLMemory and Storage:Tagan IB-390 Internal / External Hard Drive Enclosure Review @ Hardware CanucksRosewill

Last month, we announced an exciting sweepstakes in which we planned to give away a full AMD Phenom X4 9750-powered system, complete with 4GB of Corsair RAM, a GeForce 8800 GTS graphics card and a brand new Western Digital Black Edition hard drive.  The response we received after the announcement was awesome, with hundreds of new members joining our community, posting thousands of comments throughout the forum and news.  Well the dust has settled and we’ve picked a winner.Are you ready for it? 

VITO Technology’s new Winterface software changes the look and feel of Windows Mobile touchscreen devices with a clearly iPhone-inspired shell.  After installing and running Winterface, the basic menu structure, or user interface, of Windows Mobile is replaced with a high-contrast box-based navigation and menu system which allows you to launch applications, setup shortcuts, change system settings, manage running programs, and more.

Head over to Handango to download Winterface…