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Depending on your view, PC gaming is dead or is the only way to game. Clearly, Intel is of the latter view, which is why the company chose to preview its new "Extreme Edition" CPU at the Game Developers Conference�the Core i7-980X, the first desktop processor to feature six computing cores. At the same time, it allowed seemingly every tech site under the sun to put the new chip through the usual benchmarks, and they came up with a very "surprising" conclusion: It's the fastest consumer-based CPU ever. (Check out HotHardware for one report.) There are, of course, the usual caveats. For applications that only make use of one or two cores, the Core i7-980X's horsepower is largely untapped,...

B&N confirms that it plans to have an iPad version of its eReader software ready for launch. Will Apple block it?

Finally. A good reason to use geolocation software. Foursquare has teamed up with PayPal and Microsoft to help the Save The Children charity. All you have to do is "check in" on Foursquare or tweet something with the hashtag #sxswHaiti and 25 cents will be donated. I'll append #sxswHaiti to every tweet I post and I'll be checking into every single panel. It would be cool if they had a system to see how much each person actually donated by using these social services, but there's always next year.

nut writes "Everybody's favourite actor, author and starship captain is bringing some new ideas to the world of social networking. Myouterspace.com is, in the captain's own words, '... a Sci Fi Social Network for those with a passion for the arts.' Facebook and Myspace should be worried. Sign up now. Go on, you know you want to."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

nut writes "Everybody's favourite actor, author and starship captain is bringing some new ideas to the world of social networking. Myouterspace.com is, in the Captain's own words, '...a Sci Fi Social Network for those with a passion for the arts.' Facebook and Myspace should be worried. Sign up now. Go on, you know you want to."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

MikeChino writes "A group of scientists from Germany's Fraunhofer Institute have devised a way to encode a visible-frequency wireless signal in light emitted by plain old desklamps and other light fixtures. The team was able to achieve a record-setting data download rate of 230 megabits per second, and they expect to be able to double that speed in the near future. While the regular radio-frequency wi-fi most of us use currently is perfectly fine, it does have its flaws — it has a limited bandwidth that confines it to a certain spectrum and if you've ever had someone leech off of your connection, you know that it also leaks through walls. LED wireless signals would theoretically have none of these downsides."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

MikeChino writes "A group of scientists from Germany's Fraunhofer Institute have devised a way to encode a visible-frequency wireless signal in light emitted by plain old desklamps and other light fixtures. The team was able to achieve a record-setting data download rate of 230 megabits per second, and they expect to be able to double that speed in the near future. While the regular radio-frequency Wi-Fi most of us use currently is perfectly fine, it does have its flaws — it has a limited bandwidth that confines it to a certain spectrum and if you've ever had someone leech off of your connection, you know that it also leaks through walls. LED wireless signals would theoretically have none of these downsides."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

After 44 Years, the PADD in the guise of Apple's iPad is added to the pantheon of "Treknology" that was first envisioned in Gene Roddenberry's STAR TREK.

HvitRavn writes "SolarPHP 1.0 stable was released by Paul M. Jones today. SolarPHP is an application framework and library, and is a serious contender alongside Zend Framework, Symphony, and similar frameworks. SolarPHP has in the recent years been the cause of heated debate in the PHP community due to provocative benchmark results posted on Paul M. Jones' blog."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

HvitRavn writes "SolarPHP 1.0 stable was released by Paul M. Jones today. SolarPHP is an application framework and library, and is a serious contender alongside Zend Framework, Symphony, and similar frameworks. SolarPHP has in the recent years been the cause of heated debate in the PHP community due to provocative benchmark results posted on Paul M. Jones' blog."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Microsoft plans to release for download via its Codeplex site a free, open-source analytics framework for Silverlight the week of March 15.

Marketers are starting to abuse the APT (Advanced Persistent Threat) term but that doesn't dilute the true meaning of this adversary.

j00bhaka writes "I am a US citizen attending university in Nova Scotia, Canada. I currently have the Verizon America and Canada plan (also known as the North American plan). My bill is currently around $80-$100 per month. I chose this for a couple reasons. One, I have had my number for about 7 years. Two, I do not permanently live in Canada. I live in Canada for 8 months out of the year at school, then travel home for the summer months. Either way, I would be dealing with international roaming without having both countries in my plan. Currently, I obviously don't have a smartphone. Through Verizon, I could purchase one, and add their international unlimited data plan on top of my (already) hefty phone bill. I have looked into Telus and Rogers here in Canada and cannot find anything better. As a student, my budget is obviously limited. Is there any way to reasonably have (and utilize) a smartphone while I am living in both countries? If so, what do you suggest I do?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

j00bhaka writes "I am a US citizen attending university in Nova Scotia, Canada. I currently have the Verizon America and Canada plan (also known as the North American plan). My bill is currently around $80-$100 per month. I chose this for a couple reasons. One, I have had my number for about 7 years. Two, I do not permanently live in Canada. I live in Canada for 8 months out of the year at school, then travel home for the summer months. Either way, I would be dealing with international roaming without having both countries in my plan. Currently, I obviously don't have a smartphone. Through Verizon, I could purchase one, and add their international unlimited data plan on top of my (already) hefty phone bill. I have looked into Telus and Rogers here in Canada and cannot find anything better. As a student, my budget is obviously limited. Is there any way to reasonably have (and utilize) a smartphone while I am living in both countries? If so, what do you suggest I do?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

It took a while, but Google has made its big move as a local shopping inventory gatekeeper. The company said Thursday that it will offer inventory checks on local stores to see if products are available.

An anonymous reader writes "Pennsylvania's chief information security officer Robert Maley has been fired for publicly talking about a security incident involving the Commonwealth's online driving exam scheduling system. He apparently did not get the required approval for talking about the incident from appropriate authorities."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader writes "Pennsylvania's chief information security officer Robert Maley has been fired for publicly talking about a security incident involving the Commonwealth's online driving exam scheduling system. He apparently did not get the required approval for talking about the incident from appropriate authorities."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Google has launched a marketplace for Web applications that integrate with Google Apps. See why it matters and what it means for IT and businesses.

A US Court of Appeals panel has upheld a judgement that Microsoft infringed on another company's patent with its custom XML tags in Word 2003 and Word 2007. by David Meyer ZDNet UK

Reports/rumors are circulating that Apple is planning to include multitasking in its iPhone 4.0 OS. Will the Cupertino giant backtrack on its claim that users don't need to be able to run more than one app at a time?