Chicago (IL) - Mozilla updated both Firefox 2 and 3 in order to plug security critical security holes, squash some annoying bugs and deliver a few user-centric tweaks. Although users are recommended to update their browser

Mozilla, the open-source organization behind the Firefox web browser, released the first update for the recently released Firefox 3 web browser and, in parallel, updated the aging Firefox 2. The two updates deliver minor user-centric improvements and important security and stability fixes. “We strongly recommend that all Firefox users upgrade to this latest release,” Mozilla said.

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It’s summer time and PCs are working in warmer environments than they’re used to. With our PSU buyer’s guide for the summer season we want to focus on some of the quality power supplies we’ve tested (or are in the process of testing). It’s important to pay attention to heat, particularly if you’re in a home without AC, as increasing environmental temperatures can create problems. Users may not want to get the absolute quietest power supply available if it’s going to be in a relatively hot environment, as these may create instabilities due to a lack of sufficient cooling. Of course, if you do have AC or live in a colder region, we’ll have some silent and near-silent recommendations.

In terms of recommendations and budgets, we need to clarify a few things before we begin. We pretty much won’t even touch power supplies that cost less than $50; it’s possible to get an okay power supply for a truly budget price, but you will get a lower efficiency model and you’re taking something of a risk. We don’t feel the risk is excessive, so for truly entry-level systems you can go ahead and look at the ultra-cheap options out there (i.e. cases that come with a PSU). However, keep in mind that lower efficiency means your initial savings will almost certainly disappear with higher power requirements over the coming months and years.

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AMD announced the next round of promotions, additions and departures to from its staff. Most notably, we learned that the company has promoted one of its executives to a role what essentially is a CTO in its traditional meaning and replaced its current CTO with a new CTO. Confused? No worries, the explanation follows below.

Randy Allen, who was in charge of the AMD’s server and workstation business and previously oversaw microprocessor engineering for the company, has been promoted to the role of “senior vice president, Computing Solutions Group”. He will be responsible for “broad and growing portfolio of consumer and commercial microprocessor solutions and platforms”, something that sounds like the job description of an almost-chief technology officer to us.
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WD announced that it is now shipping WD VelociRaptor hard drives, the next generation of its 10,000 RPM SATA “Raptor” series of drives. Designed with an enterprise-class foundation, the new WD VelociRaptor hard drive is modified specifically for PC and Mac enthusiasts and professional workstations. According to the press release, the WD VelociRaptor hard drive comes packed with twice the capacity and a 35 percent performance increase over the previous generation.

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New AMD Product : AMD Phenom X3 8000 Series..
AMD today announced the availability of three new AMD Phenom X3 triple-core processors that, when combined with the AMD 780 series chipset, can give consumers a full HD experience and visually stunning gaming and digital performance. As the world’s only triple-core x86 processor, AMD Phenom X3 processors bring multi-core technology to a broader audience in search of desktop processors that easily handle today’s multi-threaded digital entertainment workloads.

The proliferation of digital media devices and entertainment changes the way consumers use PCs and creates stronger demand on the processing and graphics capabilities. Two of the biggest determinants of the user experience when purchasing a PC are graphics and processors, with consumers weighing trade-offs. AMD solution-based PCs can free consumers from this dilemma with balanced platforms that enable the Ultimate Visual Experience complete with scalability and great value.

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In a bid to spread its technology even wider around the industry Divx company has allowed numerous makers of portable and non-portable digital media players, game consoles, high-definition video players, mobile phones, cameras as well as numerous other equipment to enable Divx codec support on their devices. Today it is the turn of TV-sets.

“The company has extended its ecosystem into digital televisions with over 80 models certified from major brands such as LG and HP that allow consumers to easily play back their content via USB storage devices that plug directly into the televisions. Various models also enable content to be streamed directly from Internet services,” a statement by the company explains.

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The PCI Express interface has been around for almost four years, and is in the middle of transitioning to its second generation. PCIe 2.0 effectively doubles bandwidth and offers better flexibility, while maintaining compatibility with PCIe 1.1. When PCI Express was first introduced, it provided more throughput, scalability and flexibility than the aged AGP bus, and it allowed the graphics companies ATI and Nvidia to create multi-card solutions for further 3D acceleration and quality improvement. The second generation of PCI Express was introduced with Intel’s X38 enthusiast chipset, and is being carried on by Intel’s X48, AMD’s 790/770 family and Nvidia’s nForce 7 series. But do we really need PCI Express 2.0 today?

In order to benefit from the higher throughput, you’ll need both a motherboard and a graphics card that comply with PCIe 2.0. While ATI has been quick with deploying PCIe 2.0 to its Radeon HD 3000 family, only the latest GeForce 9 graphics cards are PCIe 2.0 compliant.
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Zalman’s ZM-WB5 offers improved cooling by 1-2°C over the ZM-WB4 GOLD and ZM-WB4 PLUS by its use of internal cylindrical fins to improve flow circulation. It is a beautiful-looking CPU water block and has a pure copper base which has been gold plated to prevent corrosion and further improve heat transfer. It has an aluminum cover for maximum safety. Compatible with Intel’s LGA775 and socket 478 along with AMD’s socket AM2, 754, 939 and 940, this cooler is an ideal block for any watercooled PC system.

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AMD’s next graphics cards are being prepared for launch: During the Q1 earnings call, president and chief operating officer Dirk Meyer stated that the company will roll out a significant number of products in May and our sources now confirmed that the introductions will include desktop and mobile (M88) graphics parts.

RV770 will launch as Radeon 4800 and will make its way into the FireStream stream processor and FireGL workstation cards. Both GDDR3 and GDDR5 memory will be supported by the chip, but ATI itself will only be offering GDDR5 cards. The Radeon 4850 version is set to come to market with an 800+ MHz core (the final clock has not been specified yet and will not be available until the final qualification is completed), while the 4870 will be the first mass-production GPU with a clock speed higher than 1 GHz. Prototype RV770 boards were clocked at about 1.05 GHz.

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Those that can’t get enough of GeForce 8800s jumping a generation will be happy to know the 9600 GSO, which is a rebranded 8800 GS is coming soon enough. As the latest rumors have it, the ‘new’ series 9 card will be officially introduced on May 13 at a price just under the 9600 GT.

The GeForce 9600 GSO will be equipped with a G92 chip with 96 Stream Processors enabled, 384MB of GDDR3 memory and of course, the now usual, DirectX 10.0 and SLI support. (BEd: Sarcasm alert.) How exciting!

Editor Say : I’m Waiting in impatiently !!