Are you reading?

Color us intrigued. The gang at SuperSite for Windows have revealed what they know about a pretty awesome Windows 7 feature: XP Mode, a virtualized copy of Windows XP with Service Pack 3. It’ll reportedly be a free download for Professional and Ultimate Edition users, a shame it won’t be coming to all versions. Unlike many other Virtual PC options, the environment won’t require a separate workspace so you can run the individual apps as you would alongside those native to 7 — in the example pictured, that’s Word 2003 in XP mode next to Word 2007. It all sounds vaguely similar to the XP compatibility mode found in Vista, but if we’re understanding this right, XPM should make legacy compatibility much less of a hassle. We haven’t heard any reports of it being found in the leaked Release Candidate build, so if you’re antsy to get a glimpse now, hit up the read link for a gallery.

[Thanks, Axel]
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This post is syndicated with permission from GamerFront.net

When most people think about PC gaming, they envision a sweet desktop with the latest and greatest components. However, not everyone chooses to go the desktop route. Unfortunately for those that do go with a laptop, heat becomes a major issue. There’s nothing quite like having your game interrupted because your computer shut down to prevent overheating. There are quite a few different solutions on the market today, but I’m going to show you the Cryo LX Notebook Cooler from NZXT.

The last time we took a look at something from NZXT we were impressed, so I had high hopes when I dug into this Cryo LX cooler. If I were to judge this simply based on weight, it would definitely win an award. It’s made from solid aluminum, so the weight doesn’t come as too much of a surprise. You certainly don’t have to worry about it moving around on you while you’re gaming. Surprisingly it does fold up partially to make it easier for transporting.

There doesn’t seem to be much to this cooler. It’s got a full brushed aluminum frame, a set of rubber pads to both hold the laptop away from the frame and keep it in place. Three 120mm fans keep air circulating to your notebook, and a set of USB ports makes it easy to connect any extra peripherals to your computer. It pulls its power not from a standard outlet, but from the USB ports of your laptop. This is great for most people, since it’s always a hassle trying to find a free outlet. Some computers might have trouble powering this from their USB ports, but chances are that you won’t be doing serious gaming on those machines anyway.

Setting up this cooler doesn’t take any sort of real effort. Pick it up, unfold it and set it back down on your desk. Now place your notebook on top and plug in the USB cords. If you’re feeling particularly daring, you can even adjust the speed of the fans with the control wheel on the side. That’s really all there is to it.

It looks good, it’s sturdy and easy to setup; all the makings of a decent cooler. Of course the real test is how it performs. I decided to put this to the test using my Late 2008 Unibody MacBook Pro. Trust me when I tell you that this thing needs extra cooling when you’re gaming on it. I decided to check the temperatures of the CPU and GPU. To get a real world feel, I tested it by setting it on my desk, and the Cryo LX while idle and under load.

The CPU stayed a nice 4 degrees cooler both at idle and under full load.

The Nvidia 8600 is what really makes this particular MacBook shine in the gaming department, but it also likes to run pretty hot. Once again the Cryo made a good impact by dropping the temperature by a good 3 degrees.

Overall, I have to say that I am pleased with the Cryo LX. I don’t do a of gaming on my laptop, but when we’ve got four people over to play some Left 4 Dead and only 3 desktops, it’s nice to be able to bust it out. I’ve always been a bit concerned with the temperatures before, but the Cryo did a great job of keeping everything nice and cool. It’s going to set you back around $70, but if you’re going to game on a laptop, this is definitely worth checking out.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ GamerFront ]

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By Evan Ackerman

Remembering and entering passwords in anything is a major hassle, which is why everything should have seamless biometric identification built in. Failing that, KDDI has come up with a gesture based system that at least eliminates annoying number codes. Using an accelerometer, the phone looks for a specific pattern of movements as you bring it up to your ear. These movements depend on things like arm length, muscle structure, and patterns such as holding methods and other habits. According to KDDI, the error rate is only 4%, which is easily good enough for casual use.

As far as I can tell, there’s no reason why something like this couldn’t be implemented into any phone with an accelerometer, even without KDDI’s fancy arm length etc. analysis software. You just have to turn the phone on, and shake shake shake it in a particular way, and it’ll unlock. KDDI eventually plans on taking this technique a little further, allowing you to use specific motions to run programs or unlock your porn folder.

[ Tech-On! ] VIA [ DVICE ]

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By Evan Ackerman

Remembering and entering passwords in anything is a major hassle, which is why everything should have seamless biometric identification built in. Failing that, KDDI has come up with a gesture based system that at least eliminates annoying number codes. Using an accelerometer, the phone looks for a specific pattern of movements as you bring it up to your ear. These movements depend on things like arm length, muscle structure, and patterns such as holding methods and other habits. According to KDDI, the error rate is only 4%, which is easily good enough for casual use.

As far as I can tell, there’s no reason why something like this couldn’t be implemented into any phone with an accelerometer, even without KDDI’s fancy arm length etc. analysis software. You just have to turn the phone on, and shake shake shake it in a particular way, and it’ll unlock. KDDI eventually plans on taking this technique a little further, allowing you to use specific motions to run programs or unlock your porn folder.

[ Tech-On! ] VIA [ DVICE ]

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The Kindle should be a pretty straight forward proposition, but this just goes to show you how sometimes folks can stir up controversy even with something as innocuous as an e-book reader. First there was the hassle with the Writers Guild over text-to-speech, and then Amazon threatened MobileRead with legal action for merely linking to software they didn’t take kindly too. And now we’re hearing alarming tales of Kindle owners who have had their accounts turned off when inadvertently running afoul of company policy. Case in point, a user on the MobileRead forums reports being locked out of his account for what was termed an “extraordinary” rate of returns (that is, he returned electronics that arrived damaged or defective). Because of this, our man was unable to purchase new books for his device, or even check out magazine / newspaper / blog subscriptions he had already paid for. Luckily, this gentleman was able to plead his case and get his account reactivated — but other users haven’t been quite so fortunate. We’ll be keeping an eye on you, Amazon — so let’s try and play nice for now on.

[Via Channel Web]