After years of anticipation, dual-core microprocessors are finally a reality. Both Intel and AMD were touting dual-core microprocessors as the inevitable future, and something that would certainly take computing to the next level. At numerous tradeshows and computing conventions, analysts and media predicted the launch date of multi-core CPUs; some said Intel would be the first to bring its chips to the market while others stated the opposite. Whatever the speculations, Intel was indeed the first one to introduce its dual-core chips. In fact, they made a sudden decision to send out preview units to selected media outlets for independent performance testing and evaluation. Then, after hearing that AMD is about to launch its Opteron and dual-core Athlon 64 chips at the same time, Intel rushed once more and moved the official launch date forward to April 19th.

The latest 3G handsets may be multifunctional wonders, but as Benny Har-Even discovers, the networks are determined to only let you enjoy them on their terms.

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From time to time it is good to take a little technical break between two tests: these are essential to see the reality behind some extraordinary manufacturers? announcements. These include new measures, FDD, overdrive, contrasts and viewing angles: what are their modifications, and improvements?

If I were to buy a graphics card today, I would have little choice but to go with either ATI or NVIDIA. To break down my buying decision, I would probably consider the card?s features, the novel (and pointless in certain cases) concept of future proofing, price and performance in games that I want to play. Everything sounds so clear-cut, doesn?t it? I hate to be the one to break the news to you, but picking a graphics card is not an easy task these days. I can probably list a few reasons as to why my thinking runs that way, but chances are you are already aware of them. Therefore, I am going to focus this column on special relationships between the game developers and the graphics card makers.

If I were to buy a graphics card today, I would have little choice but to go with either ATI or NVIDIA. To break down my buying decision, I would probably consider the card?s features, the novel (and pointless in certain cases) concept of future proofing, price and performance in games that I want to play. Everything sounds so clear-cut, doesn?t it? I hate to be the one to break the news to you, but picking a graphics card is not an easy task these days. I can probably list a few reasons as to why my thinking runs that way, but chances are you are already aware of them. Therefore, I am going to focus this column on special relationships between the game developers and the graphics card makers.

Understanding the importance of reliability is the first step in overcoming socially accepted misguided conceptions. Let me start off by saying that in the computer world there are no perfect components or perfect manufacturers. What there is, are manufacturers who are significantly better then others. People incorrectly associate perfection with reliability.

We have seen far too many paper launches from ATI and NVIDIA in regards to their X800, X850 and 6800 series of graphics adapters. It was repulsive from the beginning and left many people frustrated. Users would see the desiring performance numbers in evaluations, but they had no idea when the cards would finally make it to the market. This was especially the case with high-end cards from both companies and certain mid-end adapters from ATI. Let?s just say that the current generation of graphics market was miserable for the end-user.

There has been a lot of speculation as to when PCI Express (PCIe) will finally take over AGP for good. Even though there isn?t any performance difference between the two standards, PCIe is the standard of the future where game developers and GPU makers should be able to work on to bring in more realistic, and GPU intensive games with elevated bandwidth requirements to everyone?s personal setups. This is what we (as users) wanted, and this is where the industry is headed. Sooner or later AGP was bound to disappear, but how soon? We may have gotten a speculative and educated answer from an industry insider.

Modern software releases patches and updates incrementally, meaning you only have to download the code that is different. This allows for much smaller and more effective downloads. Patching systems such as this have been around since software had version numbers. Why then does Firefox require you to download the full program every time a new version is released?

In our Industry Insider Report from yesterday, we pointed out that DDR2 would take some time to mature in the market until AMD adopts the standard. This is certainly the case in the enthusiast market; AMD is the force behind DDR and will remain that way until it adopts a newer standard. However, a recent discussion with an industry source seems to hint otherwise. Although such information is never set in stone, educated speculations from industry insiders usually tend to be somewhere close to the final plans of a particular company.

We all know how DDR2 is struggling to keep up with DDR, which in turn makes Intel struggle against AMD who has better performing microprocessors for the gaming and enthusiast crowd. Although Intel has managed to be "successful" with its latest generation of hardware in the OEM segment, thanks to Dell, majority of the enthusiasts tend to stay far away from Intel?s latest platform due to an unfortunate performance hit with newer standards and technologies.

CNN this week listed the top 25 technological breakthroughs of the last 25 years. It?s not a bad list, and you can find it here

My Internet connection was out all last night, and that gave me some time to comment on and critique the list. I found one glaring omission as well, the wired web that enables many of the other technologies on the list. See my comments at aworldofhelp.com

For a tech toy praised for up and down as being the "best" MP3 player, how has everyone managed to miss its shortcomings?

Who hasn't heard the recent horror stories about students being sued by the RIAA for downloading music? This tactic won't work. Suing consumers has gained headlines, but it will not reenergize the music industry. To grow, the record industry must shed its legacy business models and respond to how its customers want to obtain and experience music.

I don?t know about you, but I?ve had enough with the games ATI and NVIDIA are playing with their customers these days. Yes, I am referring to the abundance of X800 series, X850 series and 6800 series products that are "flooding" the market. I am sure you got a whiff of what I am trying to imply by placing the word flooding in quotes.

This article takes a look at some uses P2P could be put to in the web hosting industry as a defense of innovation and as a creative stab at solving some common problems web hosts face.

Microsoft Windows has been and always will be the target for malicious code writers (hackers) due to its popularity in the market. After all, Windows accounts for as many as 90 percent of the machines globally, which makes it an obvious target for hackers. There has been an abundance of worms and viruses (among other attack schemes) that sometimes makes Windows a miserable platform. It?s not entirely Microsoft?s fault, since almost all software contain vulnerabilities especially the more complex programs, but in a large sense the buck stops with the software giant.

Apple Computer, Inc. announced its iPod music player few years ago. Until then Apple was hardly a known company amongst regular computing users, due to the company?s high-end Macintosh computers that were based on OS X, a completely new and unfamiliar platform to many users.

You may be thinking of switching to Linux. What's holding you back? Is it that you are worried that you won't be able to perform X task effectively? Maybe you think that you won't be able to use Linux effectively because your favorite programs are not available. You might think that your carefully collected music collection will become unmanageable, or you won't be able to watch DVDs and other movies on your computer. Do you believe that MSN Messenger only works on Windows? Do you think that Bit-torrent is not possible? If so, this article is meant for you.

I can understand and sympathize with the general distaste for pop-up advertisements. They are obstructive and annoying. But I do not sympathize with the distaste of standard banner advertisements that pay for all the free content we currently enjoy.