Welcome to PPV

TOKYO (AFP) — A Japanese company Tuesday unveiled a new device that will allow people "speak" through their ear so they can use their mobile telephones in noisy places.

The device -- named "e-Mimi-kun" (good ear boy) -- doubles as an earphone and a microphone by detecting air vibrations inside the ear, developer NS-ELEX Co. said.

The earpiece and an accompanying device can be connected to a mobile phone, or wirelessly to a Bluetooth handset, so that users no longer have to cover their mouths when speaking in a loud environment, the company said.

Exterior noise is reduced six-fold by the earpiece, it said, while a chip developed by Sanyo Electric for the accompanying device reduces sound levels ten-fold, it added.

NS-ELEX believes the product would be useful for people working in places such as factories, restaurants and amusement parks.

The open-source DVD is a compilation of 310 currently freely available programs with open source code for daily use has been released. Among these are also hot versions, such OpenOffice 2.3.1 or Firefox 2.0.0.11.

Also, open-source CD games is in the list of available downloads in the link provided below.

Download: here
Changelog: here

According to a message sent by AMD and published on Planet3DNow, customers will be able to purchase Phenom CPUs from them at the cost of current dual-core CPUs. The quads entering the dualie price are the Phenom 9500, 9600 and 9600 Black Edition (unlocked).

"And what's more, to enable you to experience the true performance of the AMD Phenom 9000 series processors, we are offering our loyal customers an early Christmas gift - the Phenom 9500, 9600 and 9600 Black Edition with clock multiplier, at a traditionally Dual-core price!

That's right! With effect from Monday 17th December you will be able to harness quad-core power at a traditionally dual-core price!"

Could this be because of the TLB bug that AMD decided to cut down the prices of its quad-core CPUs? Or pressure coming from Intel that they decided to continue the price war?

Google is testing a system called Knol, a free tool to “encourage people who know a particular subject to write an authoritative article about it”. Knol is dubbed as the Mahalo/Squidoo/Wikipedia killer. One of the project's feature is to highlight authors.

Would Knol be better than Wikipedia if you are able to see the name and picture of the author in every article? And what if Wikipedia will do the same before Knol's launch date?

And as an answer to Google's move, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales backed an open-source search engine to rival Google, Yahoo, MSN and the likes. 

Search Wikia could go live as an early test version as soon as next week according to news circulating over the net. Search Wikia will not share search data with advertisers, or invade privacy by storing users' search terms.

It is interesting to see how Knol will fare against Wikipedia and how Search Wikia will fare against Google.

TIME has published its 50 Top 10 lists of 2007. It is grouped into five categories: News; Arts & Entertainment; Science; Business, Tech & Sports; and Pop Culture. For the tech category: Halo 3 on the no. 1 slot for the top 10 games, Apple Iphone topping the list of top 10 gadgets and Lemonade.com for the top 10 websites.

Here's the list:

Top 10 Video Games

1. Halo 3
   
2. The Orange Box
   
3. Rock Band
   
4. Super Mario Galaxy
   
5. BioShock
   
6. Call of Duty 4
   
7. Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
   
8. Mass Effect
   
9. Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation
   
10. God of War 2
    

Top 10 Gadgets

1. Apple iPhone
   
2. Nikon Coolpix S51c
   
3. Netgear SPH200W Wi-Fi Skype Phone
   
4. Palm Centro
   
5. Sony Handycam HDR-CX7
   
6. Samsung P2
   
7. Toshiba Portégé R500-S5004
   
8. FlyTech Dragonfly
   
9. Iomega eGo Portable Hard Drive
   
10. Belkin N1 Vision Wi-Fi Router
    

Top 10 Websites

1. Lemonade.com
   
2. AskSunday.com
   
3. Wink.com
   
4. TechPresident.com
   
5. Goodreads.com
   
6. MenuPages.com
   
7. DontForgetYourToothbrush.com
   
8. VolunteerMatch.com
   
9. Fatsecret.com
   
10. Indeed.com

View the complete list: here

A post on Yahoo Message Board called AMD's ACP as Fake-o-watts. AMD claims that its Average CPU Power or ACP is a more realistic measurement of power usage with its four-core K10 offerings compared to Intel's measurement.

Two versions of documents from AMD shows that the K10 has a power problem.

The original document, Version A, AMD shows three TDP: 68W, 95W and 120W.

On the new document, Version B, the values have increased to: 79W, 115W and 137W.

Is this one of the reasons why AMD didn't release the 2.6Ghz Phenom this year?

This is really a bad news for AMD fans. Should they wait for a fix or change camp to Intel's Core?

Doctors in China are puzzled over a man perspiring green sweat. It all started in the middle of November when Cheng Shunguo, 52, of Wuhan city noticed that his underwear and bed sheets were all green, and even the water in the shower.



The doctors have carried out blood tests on Cheng, but found everything to be normal.

In this modern time and with the advancement in medicine, they still couldn't find the cause to cure the problem.

Microsoft is to withdraw an anti-piracy tool from Windows Vista, which disables the operating system when invoked, following customer complaints.

The so-called "kill switch" is designed to prevent users with illegal copies of Vista from using certain features.

But the tool has suffered from glitches since it was introduced with many Windows users claiming that legal copies of Vista had been disabled.

Microsoft says its efforts have seen a drop in piracy of its software.

In a statement released by the company, Microsoft corporate vice president Mike Sievert, said: "Users whose systems are identified as counterfeit will be presented with clear and recurring notices about the status of their system and how to get genuine copies."

Full story: BBC News 

The guy on video is so desperate in installing Windows Vista in his computer. A lot of hardware incompatibilities and the dreaded BSOD, he decided to install it on another machine. Watch and learn.

Here are some review from Digital Trend. If you're a serious hardcore gamer, this one's for you. The HP Blackbird 002. This is the first product of HP/VoodooPC.



It boasts the latest chip from the chip giant - Intel. A mobo from ASUS that supports SLI, and tweaked to support Crossfire. It's some kind of magic.

Should you want to hear this bird sing, you have to pay $5,000. Read the full review here.

Next review features the latest gaming mouse from Microsoft. Designed to compete with products from Logitech and Razer and targeted towards as usual, the hardcore gamers.


Read the full review here.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates has finally named the successor of Internet Explorer 7. The news was revealed on IE Blog over at MSDN.

The new name is surprise, surprise - Internet Explorer 8! lol

But before the IE Team decided to go with IE8, here's the list of possible name they looked for the product as listed on the blog:

• IE 7+1
  
• IE VIII
  
• IE 1000 (think binary)
  
• IE Eight!
  
• iIE
  
• IE for Web 2.0 (Service Pack 2)
  
• IE Desktop Online Web Browser Live Professional Ultimate Edition for the Internet (the marketing team really pushed for this one ;-)
  
• Ie^2.079 (we might still use this for the Math Major Edition)
  

I think it's better if the IE Team before deciding for the final name should have made the list available to the public. Then let the public decide through voting which is the best name. IE 1000 sound pretty cool to me. What's yours?

Based in the beautiful monastic village of Disentis, Switzerland, Simon Jacomet and his team at Zai have established a gloriously understated reputation for designing and crafting the most advanced, high-spec skis in the world. Only 500 pairs are made a year. Innovation - indeed to blaze a trail for the whole skiing industry - has always been at the heart of their mission.



These very special limited edition Spada (the Romanic word for sword) skis are the first ever made to have a heart of Grisons granite. Using stone in skis may sound incredible but stone has ideal characteristics for this application. Rendered bendable by Technocarbon of Munich’s new Carbon Fibre Stone technology, stone has enormous compressive strength (the same specific mass as aluminum) and resilience, retains its shape and dampens vibrations. The result is a ski with incomparable agility, grip and smoothness.

Visit: Yankodesign site