HP Kills off its Windows 7 Version of HP Slate

First the Courier, now the HP Slate.

This week, Microsoft disappointed gadget enthusiasts by scrapping plans for its dual-screen Courier tablet. Today, word on the street is that the Hewlett Packard's Windows 7 tablet, the HP Slate, has also been scrapped.

It was announced by Steve Ballmer on day zero of CES and it was one of the bigger announcements of the show. When the whole world was buzzing about Apple's upcoming tablet event, HP rolled in and stole the show with its own Windows 7 tablet. There was little information available about the Slate at CES but over time, teaser clips and videos explaining how the device came to be hit the Web.

Back in March, the HP Slate got spec'ed and priced at €400. Rumored to boast Intel's Atom processor, USB connectivity, a memory card reader, a rear-mounted integrated webcam, Windows 7 and a Flash support, the device was said to be hitting shelves in June. Now, it looks like HP is killing the project completely.

TechCrunch cites a source who has been briefed on the matter who says the company is scrapping the tablet because it's not happy with Windows 7 as an operating system. It's impossible to ignore that kind of rumor a couple of days after HP acquired a mobile OS of its own (Palm's WebOS). There are also rumors that HP will ditch the Atom CPU in favor of something a little less power-hungry.

The Windows 7 version of the HP Slate was not the only tablet HP had in the works. The company planned to release the same tablet but with Google's Android OS on it instead. So far, it looks like that device is still safe.

Rendering 3D Slows Down PS3 Game Performance

Might 3D be too much to handle for current generation game consoles?

3D is the big new thing this year, and the PlayStation 3 will support the new dimension later this year through a software update. While that's all well and good, what hasn't been talked about at length is what going 3D could do to performance.

Eurogamer is taking a look at Wipeout HD, which runs in its original form on the PlayStation 3 at 1080p at 60 fps, but in 3D it gets moved to 720p at 30 fps. While the sacrifice in resolution and frame rate may be worth the 3D-ness for Wipeout HD, most games for the PS3 run at 720p. This would lead one to wonder if a current PS3 game running at 720p at 30 fps would become unplayable if it had to take on the task of making things 3D.

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.