The much-anticipated PS3 Firmware 2.40 – has gone live, as promised, just as July 2nd rolled around.  The update includes: XMB access in-game Trophy Support (the PS3’s answer to the Xbox 360’s achievements) Expanded Gamer Profiles Of course, the big question is: why are you still reading this?  Start downloading.

Ridata 2.5″ IDE Ultra-S Solid -State Drive Series Features Single Layer Cell Reliability for the Industrial Market SLC SSD is Ideal for Many Demanding Industrial Applications Including Testing/Monitoring Systems, Medical/Military Equipment, Automotive and Avionics Systems. Diamond Bar, Calif. –7/1/2008 – Advanced Media, Inc., is a manufacturer and marketer of the popular Ridata brand of recordable DVD media, electronic storage products, and digital media accessories. The company is pleased to announce the Ridata

Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 Ultimate Review @ ASE Labs and other reviews from around the web can be found by visiting our forums!

” While the next generation of graphics cards from ATI are just around the corner, you can get some amazing performance with full open source support for a great price. Some of the readers might also be looking for a silent solution while having good performance and the Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 Ultimate steps up to provide that. It combines a truly massive heatsink with the powerful 3870 GPU to create a fast and completely silent graphics card for your quiet PC. “

Lian-Li Industrial Co. Ltd has launched the PC-A77 full tower case incorporating outstanding quality with a clean simple style. Standing at 220mm x 595mm x 590mm (W,H,D), with every part of the front cover decked out in 5.25 bays. In total this case has an impressive twelve 5.25 bays which can support all your needs. The PC-A77 also includes a blue lit LED fan speed monitor that surveys the temperature zones and determines the best speed for your fans, keeping your rig cool and well ventilated. Pretty interesting feature list!

The PSU bay is at the bottom, and has a specialized grill to allow cool air to enter your PSU components directly from below, keeping them cooler for longer and in peak condition. Traditional cases always pump in hot air over the PSU, which lowers the life expectancy considerably. In addition, rubber strips give both insulation as well as prevent annoying vibration. The PC-A77 has water pipe access holes, should you wish to use them. The structure is very customizable, and almost any aspect can be removed, and upgraded, including the top cover, which removes very easily. The HDD cages are also easy to use and tool-less. The HDDs will fit snugly with rubber housings on thumbscrews used to mount the HDDs. This is to prevent movement and vibration from spreading throughout the chassis.

McAfee has finally released the results of its S.P.A.M. (Spammed Persistently All Month) experiment, which began in March. The project: take 50 people from ten countries to defy common sense and for 30 days surf the Web on a computer with no anti-spam software. Not just that, they were to take risks, and respond to spam, to make matters worse.  The results were unsurprising. Of course, being the security company that it is, and having its own anti-spam product, McAfee has a vested interest in the results.

OCZ Technology today unveiled the OCZ Core Series SATA II 2.5″ Solid State Drives (SSDs). The OCZ Core Series delivers the performance and reliability of the latest SSDs at a 50% less price per gigabyte than other high speed offerings currently on the market. For the first time, OCZ is putting SSD technology within reach of the average consumer. MSRPs at time of launch are USD $169, $259 and $479 for 32GB, 64GB and 128GB models respectively.

OCZ Core Series Solid State Drives enable enhanced productivity in everyday computing and intensive multi-tasking applications. Perfect for notebooks, the Core Series is ideal for energy-efficient mobile computing to extend battery life, increase access time, and provide a durable alternative to conventional hard disc drives with superior shock resistance. High capacities and low power consuming NAND flash technology provide the necessary performance and battery life boosts generated by the proliferation of mobile gaming and new ultra-thin laptops. With fast access and seek times combined with excellent reliability, the OCZ Core Series SSDs are the answer for consumers demanding this latest storage technology.

Our friends over at NZXT just gave us a heads up that they will be launching a new high-performance fan controller later this afternoon. The new high-performance aluminum fan controller is called Sentry LX and it looks pretty slick. The Sentry LX will retail for $59.99 and is said to be available later this month.

• Simple Installation Sentry LX slides easily into any dual 5.25 drive bay
• Complete Control 5 Temperature Probes keep tabs on all areas of your system while the 5 Fan controllers adjust the fans RPM speed
• Auto/Manual Modes Allows users to automatically adjust the fan speeds to correspond to a specific temperature or manually set your system for extreme overclocking capabilities or absolute silence
• Temperature Alarm Instant notification if temps rise above a designated point

<liIntuitive Interface and LCD Display NZXTs ergonomic interface design allows you to customize your airflow on the fly

• Sleek Design Aluminum plated front panel is designed to match any high-end chassis

AT&T will sell the new version of the iPhone without a service contract for $400 more than the price with a two-year plan, a break from the rules set when Apple's popular touch-screen gadget made its debut last year.

Two new models of iPhones go on sale July 11 for $199 and $299, depending on the amount of memory, with two-year AT&T contracts. The no-contract versions will cost $599 and $699 and will be sold sometime “in the future,” AT&T said. Buyers would then go month-to-month on AT&T's service. AT&T said the no-contract phones would be “locked” to work only on AT&T's network, as the contract-laden phones will be.

Microsoft Corp plans to cut the price of its best-selling Xbox 360 Pro model by $50, to $299 in the next few weeks, the Hollywood Reporter reported citing anonymous sources. The price cut for the Xbox 360 model with the 20 gigabyte hard drive will come before the video game industry's biggest trade show, E3, taking place in Los Angeles on July 15-17.

Microsoft last cut the price of the Xbox Pro in August, from $399 to $349, prior to the release of “Halo 3” the following month. A cut to $299 would make the Xbox 360 Pro $100 less than one of the console's major rivals, Sony Corp's PlayStation 3 with a 40 gigabyte hard drive. Microsoft is locked in a three-way competition with Nintendo's Wii and the PlayStation 3, which comes with a high-definition Blu-ray video player.

Delivering the World’s First Truly Affordable High-Performance SSD for Consumers at Price Points Less than 50% of Comparable High Performance SSDs Sunnyvale, CA—July 1, 2008—OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory and computer components, today unveiled the OCZ Core Series SATA II 2.5” Solid State Drives (SSDs). OCZ has gained momentum in this pioneering technology, which uses NAND flash instead of rotating platters as the storage medium,