Gigabyte is so enthused by Intel’s upcoming P45 chipset, it flew a multi-national crew of media from their respective home bases to its own headquarters in Taipei, Taiwan for two days of hands-on testing. During the event, Gigabyte gave us access to four SKUs based on P45 and an early look at a fifth extreme series board that will show off the P45’s flexibility in a $300+ package.We’ll get the bad news out of the way first. Because Intel hasn’t yet launched the P45 chipset (Gigabyte predicted the official unveiling

If you’re like us here at HotHardware, you use the Internet for everything. But according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, the one thing we’re not doing much is letting the Internet make up our minds about what we want to buy. Those decisions seem to be more heavily and directly influenced by offline channels like “friends and sales personnel.” Only about 10 percent of real estate and cell phone buyers and 7 percent of music purchasers credit the Internet with having a major impact on their decision.

THOSE ITCHING FOR a little more aural pleasure than that provided by their on-board motherboard sound may be pleased to know that Creative is stepping out with a few new models in its X-Fi Fatal1ty line.

Yes, carrying the moniker of legendary super-dweeb Jonathan 'Fatal1ty' Wendell, he of the 5 minutes of Quake fame, Creative has two new boards designed with gamers in mind, both with names long enough to give Mavis Beacon finger fatigue.

The 'Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series' card is a fairly standard X-Fi card with a PCI-Express x1 connector to fit onto modern motherboards that lack standard PCI slots. It has the usual bevvy of output connectors as well as the Alchemy technology that returns EAX effects to Vista gaming.

Meanwhile, the 'Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series' is the same thing, but with a drive-bay add-in that brings audio ports and volume controls to the front of the computer.

You don’t usually associate IBM with the solar power industry. But IBM researchers couldn’t help but notice that one of the main difficulties in compressing the size of a solar collector, in a miniaturization process called “concentrator photovoltaics,” (CPV) is the dissipation of heat. IBM used a lens to concentrate sunlight on a one centimeter square solar cell, which yielded 70 watts of usable power — a record amount. But the heat produced would melt stainless steel. But then again, dissipation of heat from

As hard as it may be to believe, according to a study by research firm Parks Associates, nearly 20% of the population of the United States is disconnected from the Internet and has never used email. In their annual phone survey of U.S. households, Parks Associates found 20 million households are without Internet access, approximately 18% of the U.S.”Nearly one out of three household heads has never used a computer to create a document. These data underscore the significant digital divide between the connected

AMD GAME! Enables Console-like Simplicity for Mainstream PCs- For the 263 million mainstream PC gamers worldwide, AMD GAME! standsfor exhilarating HD gaming experiences with full PC functionality-SUNNYVALE, Calif. – May 19, 2008 – From the company powering the visual experience of the two most popular gaming consoles in the world today, AMD (NYSE: AMD) announces AMD GAME!. This program  is designed to help consumers select perfectly suited PCs for high-definition gaming. AMD GAME! platforms combine the

After Microsoft walked away from the table it seemed that a deal between the Redmond giant and Yahoo was not in the cards.  Such an impression might not be 100% accurate:Microsoft Corp said on Sunday it has reached out to Yahoo Inc about an alternative deal that would not involve a full acquisition, in a move that could save the web pioneer from fighting a proxy battle with financier Carl Icahn.Microsoft said it was not proposing to make a new bid to buy all of Yahoo “but reserves the right to reconsider that

While Bill Gates claims that Vista is selling well, the big question is how many customers out there are requesting software with Vista specific technology. The answer came in a recent survey of developers claimed that less than 1 in 12 developers were actively developing software that was Vista-specific.Is the continued existence of XP causing this?  Or is it something deeper?   The answer probably has a lot to do with both.”None of our customers are saying, ‘G******it, we need those WPF controls now!'” said

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