USB Stick Packed with Shattered Horizon

Patriot is offering a limited edition USB bundle.

PC gamers looking for a new USB flash drive may want to pick up Patriot Memory's new limited edition Xporter USB bundle. The package contains a customized 8 GB or 16 GB USB drive with a game download code for the zero gravity, multiplayer first-person shooter Shattered Horizon over on Steam. Patriot plans to release additional Shattered Horizon bundles at a later date.

For the uninitiated, the game's description is as follows: "Shattered Horizon is an innovative first-person shooter set in zero gravity and offers action-packed gaming for up to 32 players at a time. Set in near-Earth space 40 years from now, players fight it out in zero gravity to control hollowed-out asteroids, huge fragments of Moon rock and the ruined remains of the International Space Station."

Although Patriot did not provide pricing and availability, consumers can grab the bundle at TigerDirect, CompUSA, Frys, and other online retailers.

AMD Expands Line of ATI FirePro Workstation GPUs

ATI's professional line gets filled out.

Professional graphics workers now have an entire new line of ATI FirePro graphics cards to choose from now. In addition to the FirePro V8800, which launched earlier this month at an 'affordable' $1,499, AMD has now expanded the family to include the ATI FirePro V7800, ATI FirePro V5800, ATI FirePro V4800, and ATI FirePro V3800 to fill different needs and budgets.

Like the rest of the current ATI GPU family, these FirePro cards support DirectX 11, OpenGL 4.0 and OpenCL along with ATI Eyefinity technology.

AMD also announced the ATI FirePro 2460 Multi-View, a low profile, quad display graphics solution designed for financial institutions. This graphic part sips power with an average board power consumption of 13W.

Network Admin Charged for Hacking City Network

A jury found a San Francisco network administrator guilty of denying the city computer services.

A San Francisco network administrator who refused to provide his boss the passwords to the city's FiberWAN was finally charged on Tuesday after a six month trial. The court charged 45-year-old Terry Childs with one felony count of denying computer services, and could face a maximum of five years in prison.

Childs refused to provide Richard Robinson--the chief operations officer for San Francisco's Department of Technology and Information Services--the required information, thus leaving the city without administrative control over the FiberWAN for a period of 12 days. The city was unable to retrieve emails, access the payroll, police records, search for information on jailed inmates, or perform other city network tasks.

During the trial, Childs' lawyers said "that he was a buttoned-down, security-obsessed administrator who believed he was simply doing his job." According to Computerworld, the jury didn't buy the argument, with one jurist saying after the trial that "being able to administer the FiberWAN services themselves is a service."

Wired reports that--when arrested back in July 2008--Childs' $5 million bail was set five times higher then most murder defendants' because the city was afraid he'd jump back onto the network, lock up the system, and erase the city's records. Assistant District Attorney Conrad del Rosario said that the city spent around $900,000 to "clean up the mess" caused by Child's alleged denial of service (which is against the law in California), however he didn't elaborate on the actual damages.

Apple Asked for Probe into Stolen iPhone 4G

Prosecutors have halted the examination of Jason Chen's computers pending discussions with Gizmodo's lawyers.

Over the last two weeks, the tech world has been closely following the story of Gizmodo and the iPhone 4G. Earlier this week, editor Jason Chen's house was raided by police and several computers, cameras, hard drives and an iPhone were taken from the premises.

Right now, everyone is trying to decide whether or not a blogger counts as a journalist and if so, should the same laws that protect journalists protect bloggers. These laws protect a journalist's workplace (in Chen's case, his home) from searches, but if the journalist engaged in illegal activity, these laws do not apply.

However, a lot of people are asking if Apple somehow had a hand in the fact that there's any investigation to begin with. An article in the San Jose Business Journal suggests that Apple was the one who requested the probe into the "lost" iPhone 4G.

The San Jose Business Journal yesterday cited officials who said the criminal investigation into the purported theft of the Apple prototype came at the request of Apple. The Business Journal goes on to say that officials have identified and interviewed the person who took the phone from the bar where Apple engineer Gray Powell lost it. Officials did not say whether or not the person who took it from the bar was the same person who sold it on to Gizmodo.

Right now, the situation is this: Jason Chen has hired a top criminal defense lawyer and prosecutors are said to be defending the raid on Chen's house. CNet reports that Stephen Wagstaffe, chief deputy district attorney, said prosecutors had considered whether reporter shield laws applied to the search and seizure but decided to proceed after carefully reviewing the rules.

"My prosecutor who is handling it considered this issue right off the bat when it was being brought into him and had some good reasons why he and the judge felt the warrant was properly issued," Wagstaffe said.

Gawker maintains that the search warrant is invalid because Chen should be protected by journalist shield laws and prosecutors have voluntarily agreed not to search Chen's computers while discussing the matter with Gizmodo's lawyer.

A USB Charger That's Close to Your Heart

We should've featured this last Valentine's

If you're willing to shell out $31 for some easy charging on-the-go, the Angel Heart USB AC Adaptor is perfect for you (or a loved one). The charger plugs into any AC 100 - 240V wall socket, storing up to 1000mAh of power. Gadgets (primarily PMPs or phones) can then draw power from this heart's 5V DC output port.

Given that many portables feature capacities over 1000mAh, the practicality of the Heart USB charger is probably as an emergency source of power. It will most likely work as a conversation piece and a mushy gift for that gadget-crazy loved one.

The heart charger comes in three colors (Peach, Strawberry, and Raspberry), and is a compact 65 x 65 x 30mm. Honestly that's all you need to know, so interested buyers should click through the link to Geek Stuff 4 U below. 

EcoTerrorists With Bomb Arrested Near IBM Facility

Swiss police have arrested a group of people said to have had plans to blow up a state of the art IBM nanotechnology research facility near Rueschlikon.

Italians Costantino Ragusa and Silvia Guerini, and Italian-Swiss Luca Bernasconi, were arrested and jailed after police conducting a routine traffic stop found a bomb in their vehicle.  The three were stopped just a few miles from the IBM facility, which is due to open next year, on April 15. Police say a large quantity of explosives was found in the car. The AP reports that police also found a note indicating the planned attack on the facility.

The Daily Mail reports that all three were members of a terrorist group called Il Silvestre, while Gerini and Constantino – the 33-year-old leader of Il Silvestre - already have convictions for eco-terrorism offenses and have served time in prison.

According to DM, Swiss media reported that the intended bombing was planned to coincide with a secret meeting of European anarchists on April 16 and 17 in the Swiss town of Winterthur.

Cisco Access Points with CleanAir Tech Coming

Cisco's CleanAir help help reduce interference in wireless networks.

Although briefly highlighted in a prior product announcement, Tuesday Cisco elaborated on its new CleanAir technology for wireless access points, claiming that it can accurately detect, classify, and locate more than 20 unique interference sources. The garbage interference is then mitigated by the company's patented CleanAir Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) built into the company's new Aironet 3500 Series Access Points and numerous other Cisco solutions.

Cisco said that the new CleanAir system provides its 3500 series the ability to self-heal and self-optimize the wireless network by enhancing radio source management without the need for IT intervention. Interference correlation can also be carried across multiple access points to eliminate duplication. The technology even reduces wireless troubleshooting time from hours to minutes, saving businesses valuable time and money.

"The Cisco Aironet 3500 Series access points with CleanAir technology are the industry's only access points providing hardware-based spectrum intelligence," the company said. "The new 7.0 release of the Cisco Unified Wireless Network software integrates CleanAir capabilities across Cisco's Wireless Control System, the 3300 Series Mobility Service Engine and all Cisco Wireless Controllers."

The Cisco Aironet 3500 Series with CleanAir technology is slated to hit the market in May 2010. Pricing will range from $1,095 to $1,495. Cisco will also offer a cheaper, non-Cleanair solution, the Aironet 1260 Series. These access points offer external antennas, dual band and full 802.11n performance. These will also arrive in May 2010 with prices starting at $995.

Nokia Announces 12 MegaPixeled N8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Thu8flWHXE

Google: No Nexus One for Verizon After All, Sorry

Google has broken the news that the Nexus One is no longer on its way to Verizon Wireless.

Google today updated the Nexus One product page with more information on its partnership with Verizon Wireless in the United States and Vodafone in the U.K. Just a quick recap: When the company announced the device back in January, the phone was said to be hitting both Verizon and Vodafone later in the year.

Unfortunately, that is no longer the case. While Vodafone begins accepting pre-orders for Nexus One for customers in the UK (shipping begins April 30) and will soon start selling the Nexus One in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain, Verizon will not be getting the Nexus One at all.

McAfee Apologizes for Win XP Antivirus Meltdown

Company speaks after the DAT false-positive fiasco for business customers.

On Wednesday, security software provider McAfee pushed out an updated DAT file that deleted the svchost.exe file, which thentriggers a false-positive in McAfee itself. This affected tens of thousands of business computers.

McAfee quickly released a fix, which can be now found here. Barry McPherson, executive vice president of support and customer service, issued the apology on behalf of McAfee in a new company blog post.

Dil Bhool Nahi Sakta Tumhein .... Kumar Sanu .. Ghamon Ke Saaye

This Internal SSD Connects Via 10-Pin USB Port

It's a SSD that connects to the 10-pin USB port located on the motherboard.

TechPowerUp points the way to a rather cool SLC NAND-based solid state drive that connects to an empty, 10-pin internal USB port located on the motherboard.

Measuring 8.2 (L) x 15.3 (W) x 6.2 (H) mm, the SIP eUSB SSD mounts on one USB internal header cluster and provides a fixed storage solution ranging from 512 MB to 4 GB. Thanks to USB 2.0, the drive provides transfer speeds of up to 30 Mb/s, and can be used as a bootable drive in servers or embedded and IPC systems. It also has an endurance of >2,000,000 cycles, and should retain user data for around 10 years.

"It utilizes advanced Static and Dynamic Wear leveling to increase endurance and built in error correction for data integrity," said ATP Electronics. "Using an industry leading SIP (System In Package) technology manufacturing process which encapsulates all exposed components and points of failure, the ATP SIP eUSB SSD is fully water/moisture proof, dust proof, shock proof, vibration proof and ESD (Electro-Static Discharge) proof."

Currently pricing and availability isn't known, however ATP Electronics lists Wal-Mart, Target, and even Belk as suppliers.

Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7 Now Available

Get touchy-feely with Windows 7.

Do you have a touch-sensitive computer monitor that you've just put Windows 7 on? You might not have the Touch Pack software that Microsoft made for OEMs to bundle with their new PCs.

Today, Microsoft is releasing the Touch Pack for everyone so that anyone with compatible device can use the touch gestures. Included in it are six applications, which consist of three casual games, and three Microsoft Surface applications that have been created for Windows 7.

Microsoft Discussing Creation of Xbox TV Channel

Peter Chernin, the former News Corp. President is supposedly in talks with Microsoft regarding an Xbox TV channel.

Bloomberg today cites people familiar with the matter who claim Microsoft and ex-News Corp. boss Peter Chernin have discussed creating a television channel for Xbox users.

Exclusive to Xbox Live subscribers the channel would see the cost of the service rise by $1 to $2 per month and programming (both repeats and original shows) would be aimed at Live's young, male demographic with repeats and original shows airing.

While Microsoft refused to comment and Bloomberg says the company has yet to respond to Chernin's proposal, Peter's publicist said he is talking to "lots of people about lots of ideas in the digital space."

Hide Your PC in the Wild with NZXT Camo Chassis

Is it a cow, or a military-grade chassis?

Earlier this week, we spotted NZXT's Tempest EVO Camo chassis while hunting down another story. At first glance, this rig casing looked somewhat silly, sporting spotted blacks, whites, and grays like some square cow or a stiff pair of military camouflage fatigues. But for some reason, we kept coming back to the lead since then, wondering what it would look like on a desktop.

So here it is. Can it successfully hide out in the wild? Perhaps if it doesn't make too much noise. Can it run Crysis? Depends on the guts you stuff within its frame. For $149.99, interested cow herders and deer hunters could find out if this chassis really can blend into the woods by ordering it via Newegg here. Just don't feed it grass.

Google Brings Back Goats as Grass Mowers

Resisting the temptation to lead with, "Google gets kids to eat grass."

Last year Google brought in goats to cut the grass at the Googleplex. It was a low-carbon approach that was designed to eliminate the noise and pollution that come with mowers. The goats were rented from California Grazing and after they had done their job, Google returned the handy animals. With spring upon us, the grass needs cutting again and the Google goats are back.

"More than 200 goats from California Grazing have once again arrived at our Mountain View headquarters where they’ll stay for over a week chomping away on grassy goodness," Dan Hoffman, Director of Real Estate and Workplace Services for NorCal said in a blog post. "The cost of bringing in the goats is comparable to hiring lawn mowers for the same job and the green benefits are clear: the goats eliminate mower emissions, reduce noise pollution, restore plant species and fertilize while grazing."

I'll refrain from making any corny goat puns, but only because I made them all last year. Go nuts in the comments if you can't resist goading the people who want to work for Google but haven't managed to get hired. *

This Xbox 360 is Covered in 10,000 Crystals

This one pack's AU$1,000 worth of crystal bling bling.

Earlier this week we featured an Xbox 360 organized by Microsoft Australia to celebrate the 1 millionth Xbox 360 console sold down under. It was an impressive effort from WETA Workshop, crafting one amazing sculpture of the Xbox 360 and Master Chief. But what if you wanted the bling?

This other shiny console, which has plenty of bling-bling in the literal sense, is also a part of the charity auction.

Nothing sparkles quite like the ‘Crystal’ console boasting more than 10,000 semi-precious stones and valued at more than $1000.00 (AU). A one-of-a-kind design, this Xbox 360 Arcade console is set to be a showpiece for the most glamorous ‘bling’ living room.

iPad Shortage Due to LCD; Next iPad Packs OLED?

An OLED-packing iPad would be something worth waiting for.

While Apple was able to make good on its April delivery dates for the iPad to U.S. customers, Apple had to delay the worldwide rollout by a full month due to demand outstripping supply.

Now analysts close to part vendors point to the iPad's 9.7-inch IPS display as the culprit for the supply problems. Bloomberg cites Andrew Rassweiler, an analyst at research firm ISuppli Corp, saying, "We understand that the yields on the display have been low and that they’re creating a production bottleneck. That they have been doing it for the iPhone for some time is great, but once you go to 9.7 inches, it is a much more complicated process."

In related news, DigiTimes cites its sources in the component industry as saying that Apple is currently investigating the use of OLED panels for its next iPad, expected to hit sometime in 2011.

While OLED panels are now making their way into mobile devices such as PMPs and smartphones, DigiTimes' in-house analyst believes that even by next year the price of a 9.7-inch OLED panel would still be cost prohibitive.

Currently, the IPS panel in the iPad is estimated to cost between $60-70, while a similarly sized OLED screen would be in the $500 range.

Your Laptop Could Be an Earthquake Detector

Thinkpads and MacBook Pros working together to help save lives.

While all new smartphones today have accelerometers, it's still a rarity for laptops; but researchers are putting those laptops, as few as there are, to use by turning them into tremor detectors.

PC laptops such as ThinkPads and all Apple MacBook Pro laptops feature an accelerometer that's used to park the heads of hard drives in case of sudden movement. It's a safety feature that helps to keep your data from a scary hard drive crash, but researchers are putting that technology towards earthquake detection.

A report from NPR has put the spotlight on Quake-Catcher Network, a project from StanfordUniversity that uses the combined data from accelerometer-packing laptops that are connected to the internet.

A user of a ThinkPad, MacBook Pro, or anyone with an external USB detector, can download the software for free to help aid in earthquake detection. Of course, the sensors inside a laptop aren't designed to pick up minute movements in the earth – in fact, they can only pick up tremors of about magnitude 4.0 and above – but it would still be valuable information for warning surrounding areas.

"If you can detect an event fast enough, then you can potentially provide advance alert to surrounding areas, and those areas could react in several seconds and get to safety," one of the researchers explained.

20 Smart Android Phone Tips and Tricks : Customize Your Home Screen

For starters: customize your Android phone’s background. Some devices will even let you add a moving, interactive image. Just hit the menu button and select the Wallpaper option. Follow the directions to select images from your phone’s camera, images loaded onto your phone, or a default wallpaper. But images are just the beginning of what you can put on your desktop. Clever programmers have created dozens of widgets that can also be moved to your home screen. Press down on an empty spot of real estate on your home screen, and that will pull up a menu to let you add everything from widgets, to program shortcuts and folders. If you can bear to part with a little over $1, Beautiful Widgets from the Marketplace is a great place to start for finding home screen add-ons.

Apple Mods Intel Chipset for Auto GPU Switching

Instead of Nvidia Optimus, Apple makes its own automatic graphics switching technology.

When Apple announced that its new 15- and 17-inch MacBook Pros had both the Intel HD IGP as well as a discrete Nvidia GT 330M GPU and it could switch seamlessly between them automatically, we assumed that it was using the Nvidia Optimus technology – but it isn't. Instead, Apple brewed up its own software solution, which works in a slightly different fashion, Ars Technica reports.

While Nvidia Optimus uses a software-driven list of apps that would trigger a system to switch over to discrete graphics, Apple's solution detects on the OS level whenever OpenGL, Core Graphics, Quartz Composer are in use and calls in the discrete GPU to help.

Another way Apple's method differs from Nvidia's system is that Optimus runs the discrete GPU's display through the IGP's frame buffer. This requires that both the GPU and IGP to be active, as well as taking up a lot of traffic on the bus. Apple's solution deactivates the Intel HD graphics whenever the GT 330M is called upon, helping it be a little more power friendly.

Apple credits its control over software and hardware as the main reason why it is able to offer an arguably better solution to automatically switching graphics. In fact, Apple appears to have modified the baseline HM55 Express Intel chipset to accommodate for this more advanced switching technology, according to ateardown done by iFixit.

Sadly, Apple doesn't offer the user full control over which graphics part run and when. The quoted battery life is 8 hours when running the GT 330M and 9 hours when it's Intel HD IGP only. Although the user can select between auto switching and having the GT 330M run full time, the option to disable the discrete GPU for the sake of prolonging battery life (like being able to switch off Bluetooth or Wi-Fi) doesn't exist.

Mobi2Tweet Challenges Chopaal, Launches Group SMS By

Mobi2Tweet, that offers free SMS notifications from your twitter and Facebook accounts added another feature today, which allow its registered users to create groups and send broadcast SMS to your friends who can join this group – all through SMS based commands.

Users’ created groups can be public or private, communication can be one way or two way broadcast, everything can be setup and configured through SMS.

All this looks so promising, however, customers’ reservations for quality of service (delivery time of SMSes) remains there.

Intel Reports Best First Quarter. Ever

Intel's financials looking lots better as customers ease off the Intel Atom netbook frenzy and go back to bigger chips.

Intel, with its new Nehalem-based CPUs hitting the big time since early this year, has been enjoying success. In fact, the company this week announced that it's had its best financial quarter ever.

Intel Corporation today reported first-quarter revenue of $10.3 billion. The company reported operating income of $3.4 billion, net income of $2.4 billion and EPS of 43 cents.

"The investments we’re making in leading edge technology are delivering the most compelling product line-up in our history," said Paul Otellini, Intel president and CEO. "These leadership products combined with growing worldwide demand and continued outstanding execution resulted in Intel's best first quarter ever. Looking forward, we're optimistic about our business as Intel products are designed into a variety of new and exciting segments."

PayPal in Pakistan – Looks Possible, but it May Take Time!

Talk of PayPal entering Pakistan got buzzed up in previous 2 days, especially after some professionals got involved in discussion on TGP.

As always, Fouad Bajwa was amongst the campaigners, who announced that Mr. Ibrahim Qureshi (Director Raffles Pvt. Ltd) has promised to voice the need of PayPal in Pakistan duringObama’s presidential summit.

Discussion caught further attention when a member revealed that Paypal’s advance team recently visited Pakistan. He further said that PayPal is already engaged with local lawyers and other related institutes to start building their infrastructure to offer Paypal services in Pakistan.

This looked quite fascinating and importantly it made sense, particularly, after a recent announcement by PayPal to aggressively campaign in Asia (to be number one in region like they are in Europe and America) with an evident focus towards the mobile commerce along with traditional e-commerce services.

For the purpose, PayPal announced last month to double its employees from 1000 to over 2000 this year, with 100 new jobs alone for Singapore, company’s regional headquarter.

Though, PayPal has officially not authorized all this. Anuj Nayar, Director, Global Communications at PayPal in a communication with ProPakistani accepted that like always, PayPal is looking at ways to grow the business in Asia. However, he said that he has nothing in hands to announce about PayPal’s specific plans for Pakistan market.

A source at PayPal, who wanted to remain unnamed, told ProPakistani that Pakistan has some serious issues relating to its ecommerce infrastructure, payment gateways, which make it impossible for PayPal to step in to Pakistan. He said, PayPal’s usual feature of linking an email with customers’ bank account will never be possible in given banking infrastructure of Pakistan.

He admitted that PayPal has studied Pakistan, and recognizes the potential, however, stated problem is not in hands of PayPal.

In his opinion, PayPal may start operations while accepting limited banks, probably starting with Citibank (which has payment gateway), and then rolling out solution for other banks of the country.

Regulatory issues with State Bank of Pakistan are considered as hurdles too, but as stated earlier, there is no question of arguing over regulations when there is no infrastructure in place.

This is where our local banks and of course the government has to play some role. Payment gateways are a must have thing. We had reports of PTA working on it, but nothing concrete could be said on it, as of now.

So as a crux, one can safely say that its not PayPal who is not coming in Pakistan, its our banks who are not well equipped.

On a side note, as PayPal has plans to offer mobile banking solutions in the region, companies like EasyPaisa can come in, and join hands with PayPal (given that their banking partner– Tameer Bank, starts offering electronic payment solution).

But only time will tell that EasyPaisa and PayPal will work in hands or will become rivals.

Man Blames Google Street View for Robbery

A man's mountain bike--which was photographed on Google Street View--was stolen from his garage.

54-year-old Gordon Rayner of Brackendale Parade, Bradford, said Monday that his mountain bike was stolen thanks to Google Street View. After the robbery, Rayner was alerted to a photograph provided by Google's service which shows him standing next to his house in front of an open garage door. Inside the garage, viewers can clearly see his washing machine and a mountain bike that he no longer owns.

"When you look at the photograph, my face is blacked out, the windows of my house are blacked out, but because the garage door was left open, you can clearly see everything in there," he told The Telegraph. "I would argue that they should have blacked that out. It is just an invitation for any criminal to take what they like."

A Google spokesperson said that Street View has infiltrated 20 countries without any known increase in crime as a result. Apparently images of people and houses are only "rubbed out" by request. "The imagery on Street View is no different to what anyone could readily capture or see by traveling down the street themselves," the spokesperson said.

USB Stick Scans for Spouse's Cheating Chat Logs

Scan your hard drive for chat logs with this thumb drive.

Feeling a little suspicious that your "better half" may be talking love with someone else online? Do you think your employees are sneaking in chat time instead of working? Who the heck are the kids chatting with anyway? Paraben's Chat Stick may be your answer to all of those questions--or for at least those who can't figure out how to locate chat logs on their own.

The process is easy: simply insert this thumb drive into the PC and let it search the HDD for logs left behind by Yahoo, MSN 6.1, 6.2, 7.0, & 7.5, ICQ 1999-2003b, Trillian, Skype, Hello, & Miranda. The device even throws it all together into an ready-to-read report.

"The Chat Stick looks like any other USB drive," the company said. "No one would suspect the device can be used to see what they are saying with chat programs when they are using your computer." That is, of course, they can't read the words "chat stick" printed on the side of the device.

The Chat Stick has a pricetag of $99.99 (as does Paraben's Porn Detection Stick),

iPad Hacked, Proven to be Jailbreakable

That was quick.

It was only a matter of time until the iPad got into the hands of hackers, and we now have proof that Apple's latest pride and joy can also be jailbroken, freeing it from the clutches of the App Store.

Famed iPhone hacker George Hotz posted this image on his blog showing his jailbreaking utility blackra1n and the Cydia store for non-Apple approved apps.

Windows 7 Surpasses 10% of Internet User Share

Windows 7 faring far better than Windows Vista in early adoption.

Consumers and businesses are much warmer towards Windows 7 than they were towards Windows Vista – and the numbers are showing it.

According to data collected by Net Applications, relayed by Ars Technica, Windows 7 now has a greater than 10 percent market share amongst internet users. While this it still represents the smallest piece of the current Windows pie, historical comparisons show that the uptake of Windows 7 is more than twice of what Windows Vista did in its first five months of availability.

Now, it seems that businesses are starting to look into moving to Windows 7 as XP shows its age.

Netflix Targeting Android Next

Netflix is looking to hire an Android video playback expert.

While nothing is set in stone or officially confirmed, ajob posting on Netflix's site indicates that the video streaming service is looking for a "great engineer" to help with Android applications. Recently Netflix launched its service on the new iPad, and plans to do the same with Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch. A version of the video streaming service also also scheduled to hit the Nintendo Wii sometime this Spring.

This latest job position should be good news for consumers who own smartphones based on Google's mobile OS. Currently the only real video streaming service available on the Android Market is Jetflicks, costing an initial $2 for the "gateway" application and a $10 monthly fee for the content. While the quality is favorable, the subscription-based service only offers TV shows including just-aired episodes and those currently in syndication. Unfortunately, Netflix on an Android device could shut down Jetflicks for good.

"Netflix is looking for a great engineer to help us build Instant Streaming client implementations on Android devices," the job listing states. The position requires a "deep understanding of" and hands-on experience with media playback on the Android platform. Other requirements include 10+ years of relevant software development experience, and expert knowledge in OO design and implementation using C++.

With the iPhone and iPod Touch versions under its belt, Netflix could very well take what it learned from developing the streaming application for Apple's handhelds and apply the experience to an Android app rather quickly. Stay tuned--more info should appear in the coming weeks.

World Tech Updates

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLY66hk_xIo

You Guys Are Still Spending a Lot on Gaming PCs

Enthusiasts make up nearly half of all the dollars spent on gaming-related hardware on PCs.

Despite the doom and gloom around PC gaming that's gone on for years now, research shows that the PC gaming hardware market is still very strong. In fact, it seems that the type of people who like to read Tom's Hardware – the enthusiast class – account for nearly half of the dollars spent towards gaming hardware.

According to Jon Peddie Research, 46 percent of the dollars spent in 2009 on stuff like boutique PCs, high-end processors and graphics cards, SSD's, specialized gaming mice, keyboards, speakers, monitors and others come from PC enthusiasts.

The research firm figures that PC enthusiasts have a special style element to them that JPR calls a "muscle car element." These days, a respectable GPU from a recent generation has a pretty good shot at running any PC game at a decent frame rate and image quality level. This opens up the PC gaming market beyond just high-end systems and towards the more humble performance and mainstream users.

Jon Peddie, President of JPR, noted that "gamers are ordering, building, and modding their rigs with components that just a few years ago were simply not available with any economy of scale. SSD's, water cooling, gaming mice and keyboards and other components have come to the Performance class and gamers are starting to snap them up."

As a result of this, JPR estimates that the enthusiast class will only account for 35 percent of the dollars spent on gaming by 2013, despite projections of growing to $12.5 billion – up from 2009's $9.5 billion. This will be due to a spread of gaming towards the performance and mainstream segments, which should be good news to anyone making a PC game these days.