news

Zonbu Notebook Review: Part I ( -at -) OSWeekly.com "When I first discovered that I going to receive a Beta testing review notebook from Zonbu, I was a bit skeptical. Despite being excited to try out one of their latest contraptions, I could not get my head around the challenges of a Linux notebook that was simple enough for the most casual PC user." Link: http://www.osweekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2761&Itemid=449 ----- Thank You, OSWeekly.com

Does Leopard Deliver or Disappoint? ( -at -) OSWeekly.com "Once I actually went from simply using OS X on certain occasions to making the switch, I never looked back. Using OS X in a casual way will surely impress you, but when you make it a part of your computing routine, the practical benefits are sure to be obvious. I started using OS X at work on an inconsistent basis when OS 9 was still around, but when OS X came out, my indifferent attitude changed to one of fascination. Where had this operating system been all my life?" Link: http://www.osweekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2760&Itemid=449 ----- Thank You, OSWeekly.com

Apple iCar: Could Microsoft Follow? ( -at -) OSWeekly.com "We use operating systems like Windows and OS X when we’re at home, but when we’re out and about with our laptops, and pretty much in any circumstance on our phones, we need a replacement. We almost always have access to these operating systems, and they help us to get a lot done. One of the things that we’re seeing people do more and more is integrate computers into their cars. At first, a computer may sound like a dangerous thing to have and use in your car, but if you really think about it, the implementation does have its benefits." Link: http://www.osweekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2759&Itemid=449 ----- Thank You, OSWeekly.com

The Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 processor isn't even out yet, but it is by far one of the most talked about processors in 2008 and with a rumored price of $133 it is no wonder as to why. This 45nm dual-core 'Wolfdale' processor is operates at 2.53 GHz with a 1066MHz FSB and 3MB L2 cache. The Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 should be a great overclocker as it has a 9.5 multiplier. Read on to see how it does and if it can overclock! Quote: "The upcoming Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 looks to be a price versus performance winner from what we can tell from the time spent with our early sample. If the rumored price of $133 is correct and the retail versions overclock like ours did then this will be hands down one of the hottest dual-core processors this summer. Intel has perfected the 45nm process and every new processor series they release based on it exceeds our expectations. The Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 is one of those processors..." Article Title: Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 Processor Review ( -at -) Legit Reviews Article URL: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/690/1/ --

Ralink Wireless Woes Explored in Linux ( -at -) MadPenguin.org "A lot of people have been reporting issues with Ralink (rt61, especially) chipsets and the Gutsy upgrade. Some users are struggling so much that they have gone ahead and reverted to using NDISWrapper and the Windows driver for their Ralink chipsets. Guess what - I'm typing this article in Open Office, on Gutsy using an Edimax wireless card powered by the default driver for RT61PCI with network-manager. That's right, no compiling, nothing. So why am I not having the same issues? Because I actually have a better grasp of the problem." Link: http://www.madpenguin.org/cms/?m=show&id=8120 ----- Thanks and Best Wishes, MadPenguin Staff

Hi, It's Kristofer from DragonSteelMods, and I have a new review today that I think your readers might find interesting. Title: Noctua NH-U9B CPU Cooler Review ( -at -) DragonSteelMods.com Review Link: http://www.dragonsteelmods.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6985&Itemid=38 Review Snipit: "Up on the review block today I've got another entry into the CPU cooling arena, this is from our friends at Noctua, it's the NH-U9B CPU cooler. It's essentially a revision of the NH-U9F CPU cooler that I reviewed almost two years ago here on DSM. Yes, I've still got it on hand as well and I've found that the U9B is actually a bit smaller than the U9F, but yet gets better results, so they've done something right..." Review Picture(300x225): http://www.dragonsteelmods.com/Images/reviews2/noctua-nhu9b/thumbs/noctua-nhu9b15.jpg Main site link: http://www.dragonsteelmods.com A post in your news would be greatly appreciated. Any and all news sent to me will be posted! If you would like to be added to our 'News Feeds' page please feel free to send me your http link to the feed and I will gladly add it ASAP. If you'd like to swap links for affiliation, I'd be happy to, just drop me a message...

Changes since 2.22.0 -------------------- appearance: - Don't resize the font samples vertically when the window is resized (Jens Granseuer) (#521823) - Fix warning when trying to drag an unselected item (Jens Granseuer) (#523347) - Don't try to unref URIs if the theme package is invalid (Jens Granseuer) (#524567) common: - Fix a crash when schemas are not properly installed (Jens Granseuer) (#520744) - Fix error handling in the thumbnailer (Jens Granseuer) (#521009) - Actually check the cursor size before changing it in GConf (Jens Granseuer) keybindings: - Remove debugging output (Jens Granseuer) - Stop widget accelerators from activating while the user is entering a new shortcut (Jens Granseuer) (#313228) - Fix category headers not appearing properly in the treeview when using a non-UTF-8 locale (Bastien Nocera) (#513988) keyboard: - Don't crash when called for a drag with no selected items (Jens Granseuer) (#523379) - Don't show the typing break tab if the typing monitor is not available (Jens Granseuer) (#524034) sound: - Use new tango icon (Jaap A. Haitsma) (#523916) - Don't show modems in the device chooser (Jens Granseuer) (#523888) themus: - Handle failed thumbnailing attempts properly (Jens Granseuer) typing-break: - New Tango-style icons (David Prieto) (#523965) - Replace custom stop icon with gtk-stop stock icon (Jens Granseuer) updated translations: - en_GB (Philip Withnall) - et (Priit Laes) - he (Yair Hershkovitz) - hu (Gabor Kelemen) - it (Luca Ferretti) - ja (Takeshi AIHANA) - ru (Yuri Kozlov) - te (Sunil Mohan Adapa) - tr (Baris Cicek) - vi (Nguyen Thaii Ngoc Duy) Availability ------------ http://download.gnome.org/sources/gnome-control-center/2.22/ Contact ------- * Bugs in http://bugzilla.gnome.org

In Lost: Via Domus you take control of a journalist suffering from amnesia (the mystery new character), he was a part of the ill fated flight and during the progression of the game your objective is to complete missions and tasks to recover your missing memories. You can also talk with the other survivors and try to identify clues during flashbacks. http://www.driverheaven.net/gamingreviews.php?reviewid=576 ___________________________ Gaming Heaven News Mailer

Hello Webmasters and News Posters, NEW CONTENT (Visual) - NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX Overclocked QUOTE: "Overclocking these days is great; while many years ago it used to be reserved for only the most knowledgeable of computer enthusiasts, these days with so many software programs out there, overclocking can literally be done by anyone. The overclocking card of choice today is the 9800 GTX which has been out for just over a week. While out of the box the performance is pretty good, if we can get a bit more for nothing then we’re not exactly going to complain. Since we already know about the 9800 GTX, let’s just get stuck straight into the test system setup and have a look at the clocks we achieved." For more information, please visit - http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1377/nvidia_geforce_9800_gtx_overclocked/index.html Best Regards, The TweakTown Team http://www.tweaktown.com

TechwareLabs has published an analysis of Optical vs Laser Mice. Here's a clip from the article: Quote: Your mouse and keyboard are your two primary means of interaction with your PC and as such today we take a look at a long standing debate over optical vs laser for mouse technology. Which is better, how does each work, and why should I choose one over the other? We attempt to answer these questions in our overview of this subject. LINK: http://www.techwarelabs.com/articles/hardware/optical-vs-laser Title: Optical vs Laser Mice ( -at -) TechwareLabs Image: http://www.techwarelabs.com/articles/hardware/optical-vs-laser/images/EM_Spectrum3-new-tn.jpg A news post would be greatly appreciated!

I Cannot Believe that is a FileMaker Pro Shopping Cart Solution - Published on 04/08/08 Last year FMWebschool released a FileMaker shopping cart system and asked the FileMaker community to push it to its limits. The feedback was instant. We quickly made modifications and more testing ensued. Soon not only FileMaker developers were buying Dolphin Cart, but MySQl users and individuals that had never heard of FileMaker. Now, a year later we are releasing we are releasing an exciting new update, Dolphin Cart 1.5. This new update adds many new exciting features. Richmond, VA - FMWebschool, Inc., Announces Dolphin Cart 1.5 - FileMaker Shopping Cart Solution. Last year we released Dolphin Cart Pro to the FileMaker community. Our goals were simple. Produce a shopping cart system that was easy to deploy. Feature rich without the clutter. Easy for the customer to navigate and make a purchase. The FileMaker community took an active interest and began testing Dolphin Cart Pro in earnest. The feedback was tremendous. With the help of the community, we developed a powerful clean interface that was elegant, and contained just the right amount of features. We developed a great cart, but we still had to overcome another barrier. That was providing developers without any web experience a familiar environment. Developers needed to feel comfortable deploying a FileMaker driven shopping cart system. We posed this question to the FileMaker community. What can we do to make deploying the database and website easier? The response was unanimous. Control the website templates and the inner-workings of the shopping cart all from within FileMaker. Give us the tools necessary to make changes ourselves. This was an exciting challenge, we wanted to deliver a system that gave the developer complete control over the look and feel of the website. We created a set of customizable PHP templates that were controlled by FileMaker. This enabled Dolphin Cart users the ability to modify the look and feel of the website to align with their brand without writing any web code. Another important element was providing a full array of customizable features within the database that were immediately reflected on the web. We set up the database into multiple tables to give the user complete control over the web templates, products, orders, customers, languages, and payment systems. With this accomplished, Dolphin cart users could now easily customize their web templates and set up all of their products within the friendly environment of FileMaker. Not only could users customize their templates but we completely unlocked the Dolphin Cart database so developers could make modifications. Our last concern was easy deployment. Once the database is ready to be hosted, how could we help make this process easier? Our latest update includes our new 'Dolphin Cart Pro - Setup Wizard'. The setup wizard is a browser based wizard that takes you step by step through publishing your database online and even helps to set up your email client. See the movie here. We also began offering special services at our hosting company at fmGateway where we will help you set up your shopping cart solution and we offer special pricing to Dolphin Cart hosting clients. Dolphin Cart is simply an elegant solution that allows you to quickly and easily bring your products or services to the web. Why recreate the wheel? We have spent hundreds of hours building, testing and improving Dolphin Cart. If you or your clients need to get your products or services online, then Dolphin Cart is the way to go. To learn more about Dolphin Cart Pro, and see some customers already using Dolphin Cart, please be sure to visit our website. Learn more about Dolphin Cart: http://www.fmwebschool.com/dolphincartpro.php Learn more about FileMaker Hosting: http://www.fmgateway.com Learn more about FileMaker web publishing: http://www.fmwebschool.com Join FileMaker web forums: http://www.fmwebschool.com/frm FMWebschool is a team of creative developers specializing in innovative PHP and FileMaker web solutions since 1999. FMWebschool focuses on progressive FileMaker integrated turnkey solutions, training, books, hosting and learning resources to facilitate FileMaker web publishing. FMWebschool has a solid track record and reputation for outstanding customer support and has just won the "Mad Dog Award" from FileMaker Inc. ### Stephen Knight Vice President 800-353-7950 info ( -at -) fmwebschool.com ******* Member wishes to have this product reviewed by the media ******* ******* Trackback URL: http://prmac.com/release-trackback.php?id=1777&a=ODM= Link To Article: http://prmac.com/release-id-1777.htm *******

BFG GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB OCX edition <http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/523/>'>http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/523/> Today Guru3D will review a card from BFG, the GeForce 9800 GTX OCX model. Pretty much, BFG took the reference GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB and made sure the card you are purchasing will function at a very hefty default overclock, while maintaining your warranty. For example, the core is clocked at 756 MHz, the shader processors at 1890 MHz and the memory just over 2300 MHz. This card screams performance. Since BFG offer a life-time warranty in the US and 10 years in the rest of the world that is just a tremendous combo. Full URL to review: http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/523/ <http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/523/> --

GlacialTech Igloo 5750 Heatsink Review Dear webmaster / news poster: Quote: Everyone wants a computer that is cool, most of us also want a computer that is quiet. To this end, people have gone to extraordinary lengths to cool their computer while keeping noise levels down, including water cooling and dozens of slow running fans. Several manufacturers also make quiet coolers that are extremely heavy in order to try to dissipate the heat of modern processors. GlacialTech has their own solution to this problem, and was kind enough to send a sample for review. Link: http://www.mikhailtech.com/Reviews/GlacialTech/Igloo_5750/page1 A post in your web news section would be much appreciated! Sincerely, -Mikhail Ivanenkov http://www.mikhailtech.com mailto:mikhail ( -at -) mikhailtech.com

We are pleased to announce the release of libepc 0.3.5. This release features bug fixes and translation updates. Thank you, localization teams. To download, visit: http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/sources/libepc/0.3/ Changes ------- * Upgrade the test suite to handle multiple active network interfaces. * Plugged two small memory leaks in EpcDispatcher and EpcPublisher. * Specify charset for the publisher's TOC (#523992). * Small build fixes. Translation Updates ------------------- British English (Philip Withnall) Finnish (Ilkka Tuohela) French (Quevi Jessye) Greek (Giannis Katsampiris) Swedish (Daniel Nylander) What is libepc? --------------- The Easy Publish and Consume library provides an easy method to: * Publish data using HTTPS: EpcPublisher * Announce that information via DNS-SD: EpcDispatcher * Find that information: EpcConsumer * and finally consume it. You can use this library as a key/value store published to the network, using encryption, authentication and service discovery. The reference manual is available at: http://library.gnome.org/devel/libepc-1.0/unstable/ Code examples can be found at: http://svn.gnome.org/viewvc/libepc/trunk/examples/ For more information, visit: http://live.gnome.org/libepc/ -- murrayc ( -at -) murrayc.com www.murrayc.com www.openismus.com _______________________________________________

While graphics card chipset architecture and efficiency continues to advance, the continual increase of core frequencies and power consumption makes the development of third party GPU coolers a good investment for the discerning enthusiast. Until a couple of years ago these coolers where only sought after by overclockers who required lower temperatures in order to push their hardware to the limits, but today even the educated public are aware of the benefits. The mid range graphics card sector tends to have some relatively poor cooler design as well as small, noisy fan configurations so with this in mind today we will take a look at a very large VGA cooler by Titan, the Twin Turbo CSC88TZ. Despite its massive size and twin fan design, the Twin Turbo is designed for installation only on low to mid range VGA cards. http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews.php?reviewid=548 ____________________________ Driver Heaven News Mailer

Hi, I am pleased to announce Libbeagle-0.3.5. Earlier the API was inconsistent in how the methods handle a C-string parameter. Arun found and fixed all such instances for this release. An earlier change to nautilus-search-engine-beagle.c [1] could crash with earlier Libbeagle; this release fixes that problem. WHAT IS LIBBEAGLE? --------------- Beagle is a Linux desktop-independent service which transparently and unobtrusively indexes your data in real-time. Libbeagle is C library which can be used to communicate with Beagle. Libbeagle as such does not depend on Beagle or Mono but obviously requires Beagle to work. To download the 0.3.5 release or learn more about Beagle, visit the Beagle web page: http://beagle-project.org NOTABLE CHANGES between 0.3.4 and 0.3.5 -------------------------------------------- * Correctly deal with passed strings in functions. The earlier behaviour was inconsistent and could lead to crashes or leaks. * Fix memory leaks and remove redundant code. Contributors to this release: Arun Raghavan Full set of changes: http://svn.gnome.org/viewvc/beagle/tags/BEAGLE_0_3_5/libbeagle/ChangeLog?view=markup - dBera [1] http://svn.gnome.org/viewvc/nautilus/trunk/libnautilus-private/nautilus-search-engine-beagle.c?r1=13484&r2=13488 _______________________________________________

Hi, This is the first development release leading up to Glade 3.6 (which in turn will be targetting GNOME 2.24), its the first shot at GtkBuilder support in Glade, and already comes with fresh docs, which can currently be viewed at http://glade.gnome.org/docs/index.html . Special thanks to Johan Dahlin who has been throwing huge UIManager support patches at me and this way helping me keep the core in check to the GtkBuilder's special needs. Good thing this happened near the beginning of the GNOME release cycle, now you can all convert your old glade files and tell us early what is breaking, please ! What is Glade ? =============== Glade is a RAD tool to enable quick & easy development of user interfaces for the Gtk+ toolkit and the GNOME desktop environment. The user interfaces designed in Glade are stored in XML format, enabling easy integration with external tools. In particular libglade can load the XML files and create the interfaces at runtime. The DTD for the XML files is included with libglade, and is also at http://glade.gnome.org/glade-2.0.dtd. Other tools are available which can turn the XML files into source code in languages such as C++, Perl and Python. =========== Glade 3.5.0 =========== - Resurrected GtkScaleButton and GtkVolumeButton - We finally have Vincent Geddes's icon choser dialog (was skipped before because of string changes) - Not allowed to have duplicate widget names anymore (bug 442860) - Now the first widget in a project shows up automatically when opening the project. - Old parser was trashed and rewritten from the ground up. - New plugin support for read_widget() and write_widget(), also create_eprop() which allows the plugin to create widgets to edit properties in the editor (accelerators are edited from the plugin now for instance). - Dual file format support available, its a beginning, you dont get any of the GObjects that GtkBuilder supports but all widgets you were formerly using with glade can now be loaded/saved in builder format. - Api reference docs for embedders and widget authors ressurected after 2 years, concerning integrating widgets, the docs are practically rewritten. New and updated translations ============================ - Priit Laes (et) - Laurent Dhima (sq) - Baris Cicek (tr) - Alexander Shopov (bg) Where can I get it ? ==================== http://download.gnome.org/sources/glade3/3.5/ For more information consult our home page at http://glade.gnome.org/ Enjoy, - The Glade team _______________________________________________

I'm happy to announce CrunchyFrog 0.2.0. This is the first public release. Download: http://crunchyfrog.googlecode.com/files/crunchyfrog-0.2.0.tar.gz What is CrunchyFrog =================== CrunchyFrog is a database navigator and query tool for GNOME. Currently PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, SQLite3 databases and LDAP servers are supported for browsing and querying. More databases and features can be added using the plugin system. CrunchyFrog is licensed under the GPLv3 and is entirely written in Python/PyGTK. Download: http://cf.andialbrecht.de/download.html Homepage: http://cf.andialbrecht.de/ Screenshots: http://cf.andialbrecht.de/screenshots.html Development: http://crunchyfrog.googlecode.com/ Discussions: http://groups.google.com/group/crunchyfrog Issues/Bugs: http://code.google.com/p/crunchyfrog/issues/list What's New Since beta2 ======================= Bug Fixes --------- * load/unload of plugins fixed (issue #5) * connection handling: minor improvements Other ----- * User manual (en, de) Changelog: http://code.google.com/p/crunchyfrog/wiki/ChangeLog Regards, Andi _______________________________________________

Everything USB is pleased to announce our USB Missile Launcher Series Review Here at Everything USB we report on a lot of random USB gadgets that aid in passing time or relaxation. Occasionally when one comes along that is so good, we just have to give it a shot. Just like the USB Piano and USB Drum Kit, these USB Missile launchers from Dream Cheeky serve no purpose at all other than pure entertainment, however they are one of the most talked about USB gadgets by geeks everywhere. Today we take a look at all three of the USB Missile Launchers: the original wired, wireless and wired webcam version with MSN support. http://www.everythingusb.com/usb-missile-launcher-14543.html Verdict: Don't mess around and go straight for the MSN USB Missile launcher. Even if you don't plan to be using it on MSN the webcam is well worth the extra fun you can have recording, let alone the increased precision. Stray away from the Wireless Missile launcher due to the wireless problems unless you absolutely have to have it. If you can't afford the MSN launcher which costs $49, go for the plain old Wired Missile Launcher which will only set you back $35. No matter what option you go with, make sure you pick up an extra set or two of the missiles so you don't have to get up to rearm so often. Pros: + MSN action is great + Shooting people is fun + Sound effects provide great satisfaction + 15 foot 'missile' range Cons: - Somewhat noisy when turret is moving - Wireless version has short range - Few missile silos Regards, Ian Chiu Managing Editor, Everything USB http://www.everythingusb.com/

Hi all, We have just published a review of Viking: Battle for Asgard - if you could post a link on your site that would be very much appreciated.* Link: http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2008/04/08/viking_battle_for_asgard/1 **Picture: http://images.bit-tech.net/content_images/2008/04/viking_battle_for_asgard/s15.jpg *Quote: /Viking: Battle for Asgard/ is, as we've said all the way through, a simple and fairly predictable game. The story is enough to keep the gameplay ticking over without ever distracting from the gameplay and the battles themselves are fun and challenging. It's a shame that the game has a few critical flaws that prevent it from becoming more than the sum of its parts a total lack of multiplayer as well as unexplained gameplay elements mean that /Viking/ suffers when it comes to longevity and accessibility. Still, despite those flaws /Viking: Battle for Asgard/ does enough things right to remain engaging and enjoyable. It won't be everyone's cup of tea or tipple of choice, but for those who are in the market for an enjoyable singleplayer then /Viking: Battle for Asgard/ is a good choice. Cheers guys! Tim Smalley www.bit-tech.net

Hi all, We have posted a review of the Thecus N1200 single-drive NAS box. Title: Thecus N1200 Single-Drive NAS ( -at -) Techgage Link: http://techgage.com/article/thecus_n1200_single-drive_nas/ Quote: The first-ever NAS we took a look at was a dual-bay Thecus N2100. We are returning to those roots today by now taking a look at the single-bay N1200. We were pleased to see that Thecus once again delivered a well-built NAS that's not only sturdy, but packs in numerous useful features as well.

BFG is taking the 9800 GTX a step further by bumping up the core, shader and memory clocks quite a bit in the new OCX model. Come see if these new record G92 speeds are going to be worth your money. URL: http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=544&type=expert Quote: "Looking past that, the fact is that you can now get the performance of an 8800 GTX or Ultra card for $330 or so that is more power efficient to boot. BFG took this one step further with their new 9800 GTX OCX card that overclocks the core and shader clocks by about 12% to get nearly across the board performance gains out of the G92." Thanks for a post! Ryan Shrout Owner - PC Perspective rshrout ( -at -) pcper.com

Hello Webmasters and News Posters, NEW CONTENT (CPU & Chipset) - AMD Phenom X4 B3 Stepping Analysed QUOTE: "It has since taken some time for AMD to come up with a new addition to its CPU portfolio. Already attempted once, AMD had to re-design some of the CPUs due to a hardware problem that results in errors if the additional cache memory is used; today AMD has corrected this and released what is now known as the “B3” stepping revision of its Phenom Processors, the first series of CPUs to support the K10 architecture. First off, before we get into our Phenom processor, we wanted to have a bit of a look at the K10 architecture that AMD is hoping will save it from Intel’s Core architecture that has managed to severely hamper AMD’s sales as the top performance CPU." For more information, please visit - http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1376/amd_phenom_x4_b3_stepping_analysed/index.html Best Regards, The TweakTown Team http://www.tweaktown.com

Hello Everyone,Ninjalane has just posted their review of the tower style heatsink from Cooler Master called the Hyper 212. We tested on a Quad Core and found the performance to be exceptional (though a little warm). Subject: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Heatsink Review ( -at -) Ninjalane URL: http://www.ninjalane.com/display.aspx?docname=hyper212 Quote: Aircooling is the easiest and most economical way to cool your CPU and while any stock or OEM heatsink will do a fairly good job at keeping the processor cool you have to wonder how cool should it be? To no longer receive these types of emails please login to your member account and adjust your subscription settings. Your login is the email address we sent this message to. The account password has been generated so choose to have the password emailed to you. If you continue to have issues please contact us at support ( -at -) ninjalane.com and we will do what we can to help. Copyright © Ninja Lane 1999-2008 All rights reserved

I used to date a girl who was a little obsessive about what she ate. At every opportunity, she would buy fat-free, low-calorie, or otherwise diet derivatives of common food items. Now there's nothing wrong with foods that are naturally fat-free or low in calories, but when you strip out the fat, salt, sugar, and delicious-but-carcinogenic chemicals, something is usually lost in the translation. Fat-free ice cream, for example, lacks the all-important creaminess that fat provides. Unsalted potato chips fall flat precisely because they lack salt. And Diet Coke, well, that just tastes wrong. Diet versions of existing products tend to be hollow representations of the originals, so we were understandably a little cautious when Asus announced its new Xonar DX sound card. The PC hardware giant stormed onto the sound card scene with the Xonar D2X just a few months ago, putting longtime market magnate Creative on notice. A $180 asking price put the D2X firmly in luxury territory, but with PCI Express connectivity, high quality components, innovative features, and useful bundled extras, it's definitely worth the price—especially when you consider the card's solid gaming performance and exceptional sound quality. Asus' new Xonar rings in at half the cost of the D2X, and the card itself is half the size. Naturally, then, the DX is missing some of the features and extras of its full-fat cousin. Keep reading to see how the diet Xonar fares without them. http://techreport.com/articles.x/14500 Thanks, Geoff --- Geoff Gasior The Tech Report http://techreport.com -- To unsubscribe from: TR-News, just follow this link: