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Anandtech tested Intel’s new 45nm processor, codename Penryn today. On average, Wolfdale ends up being just under 5% faster clock-for-clock than Conroe. It will simply make competing more difficult for AMD’s Phenom, but not impossible. The test is based on an Engineering Sample Penryn running at 2.33GHz(333×7) and Anandtech manages OCing it to 3.22GHz(460×7) on default 1.152v voltage.

After Intel’s price cuts, CPUs had gotten too affordable to pass up building a system now if you needed. Now that we have a general idea of clock-for-clock performance differences between Conroe and Wolfdale, we’re not nearly as worried about recommending that you build systems today as we once were. There’s no doubt that Wolfdale is faster clock-for-clock, but keep in mind that you won’t see Wolfdale until Q1 of next year and the performance advantage simply isn’t great enough to justify delaying a purchase by 6+ months if you need a system now.

Click for more on Penryn Reviewed: under 5% faster clock-for-clock than Conroe »

Users report that the network performance drops to 1/10 of original while music is playing,regardless the player.

“Over the months since Vista’s release, there has been no doubt about the reduced level of network performance experienced compared to Windows XP. However, some users over at the 2CPU forums have discovered an unexplained connection with audio playback resulting in a cap at approximately 5%-10% of total network throughput. Whenever any audio is being sent to a sound card (even, several users report, while paused), network performance is instantly reduced. As soon as the audio is stopped, the throughput begins to climb to its expected speed. And changing music player wouldn’t do any help.

It’s a tough one for users — what do you pick, sound or speed? So much for multi-tasking.

Source: slashdot

Adobe Tuesday announced an update to its Flash Player multimedia player, now in beta testing, that will support higher quality audio and video than previous versions via standard H.264 video — used in cable boxes and high definition DVDs — and High Efficiency AAC audio.

The update, code-named Moviestar, is a likely welcomed step toward better performance by Flash Player, especially in the wake of Microsoft(MSFT)’s announcement earlier this year that its Silverlight technology would support high definition by using the VC-1 codec used by Windows Media. Also supporting H.264 and High Efficiency AAC going forward are Adobe’s AIR rich Internet application runtime and Adobe Media Player, the company’s new desktop multimedia player.

Click for more on Adobe Flash Player Goes High-Def »

The battle over the competing high-definition DVD technologies has sputtered in recent months as Blu-ray discs have emerged as the front-runner. Blu-ray titles are sharply outselling HD offerings, major retailers like Target are stocking only Blu-ray players, and Blockbuster recently said it would carry Blu-ray exclusively. But money talks: Paramount and DreamWorks Animation together will receive about $150 million in financial incentives for their commitment to HD DVD.

Click for more on Money Talks: Movie Studios Paid $150M to Support HD DVD Over Rival »

Movies Distributed by Paramount and DreamWorks Animation are to be released Exclusively in HD DVD Exclusively, include “Blades of Glory,” “Transformers” and “Shrek the Third”, which representing more than $1.5 Billion in combined worldwide box office.

The companies each said that the decision to distribute exclusively in the HD DVD format resulted from an extensive evaluation of current market offerings, which confirmed the clear benefits of HD DVD, particularly its market-ready technology and lower manufacturing costs. Paramount Home Entertainment will launch its exclusive HD DVD program with the release of the blockbuster comedy hit “Blades of Glory” on August 28th and follow with two of the biggest grossing movies of the year “Transformers” and “Shrek the Third”. These three titles alone represent more than $1.5 billion in box office ticket sales worldwide.

Click for more on Paramount and DreamWorks Animation Drop Blu-Ray for HD-DVD »

JMicro controller found in 965P/P35(and maybe future X38) causes a lot problems with IDE optical drives, is there anyway to fix it?

Intel moves a big step since the release of 965P chipset, the new ICH8(R) southbridge, partnered with the it, is the first chipset to completely drop support of EIDE devices. While one could argue that the removal of PATA support is a needed step forward in technology, we firmly believe that Intel should have waited until the next generation ICH for this change. The Optical Drive market is still about 80% PATA based. While this development might spur the optical drive suppliers into offering additional SATA drives in the near future, it does not address the requirements of the current PATA installed base. Most motherboards using ICH8/ICH9 also add an additional chipset for PATA support, and the JMB361/JMB363 from JMicro are the most popular among them.

Click for more on HowTo: Fix the JMicro IDE Issue in Intel MBs »

Yet another lawsuit here. John Stottlemire is the DVD Jon of coupon-clipping by remove the limitation from coupon.com, and it’s getting him in trouble. Ironically, his original motivation was to get a job at coupon.com.

The California man is on the working end of a federal copyright lawsuit after posting code and instructions that allow shoppers to circumvent copy protection on downloadable, printable coupons — the type used by General Foods, Colgate, Disney and others to sell everything from soap to breakfast cereal.

Click for more on Coupon Hacker Faces DMCA Lawsuit »

US authorities have sentenced a man to seven years in prison for buying stolen identities from cyber-criminals in other countries. More than $1m taken from cash machines, including one single withdrawal of $148,000. He also held over 4,500 illegal credit and debit card account numbers and Pins and that more than $300,000 was transferred overseas.

Jacob Vincent Green-Bressler was convicted of soliciting information including credit and debit card account numbers, Pins, expiration dates, passwords and social security numbers.

Click for more on US identity fraudster jailed for seven years — 4,500 cards stolen and over $1M taken »

More evidence is emerging that Apache is suffering against Redmond, after a survey revealed that Microsoft’s Internet Information Services web server is outserving Apache on Fortune 1000 websites. In the past ytear, Microsoft grew to 36.2% of all active websites, while Apache lost nearly a million website names, as its share of active websites fell to 48.4%.

Click for more on Apache losing ground in big companys »

Net phone firm Skype says its service is up and running again after three days of “unprecedented” disruption. And, it points the finger at Windows Update for a critical system crash that wiped out the VoIP service for two days.

In a statement posted on the company’s support page, the company claims: “The disruption was initiated by a massive restart of our user’s computers across the globe within a very short timeframe as they re-booted after receiving a routine software update.” This is presumably the Windows updates that were sent out on Patch Tuesday last week, which required the PC to be restarted.

Click for more on Skype issues apology for ‘outage’, blames Windows update »