Tech Olive

Verizon has announced it will begin selling the HP Mini 1151NR netbook beginning May 17th. The price will be $199 after a $50 mail in rebate. Plan pricing has been modified to support more network usage per month with 2 year plans starting at $39.99 for 250MB of usage and $0.10 per megabite over (was 50MB of usage for the same price) and go up to $59.99, which includes 5GB of usage with $0.05 per megabite over. The netbook will be  preloaded with Windows XP and sport 1GB of RAM, an 80GB HDD, and an Atom 1.6GHz processor.

The new Zune HD has been one of the biggest rumors recently. The most recent news about the new media player is that it is said to ship in September — according to a source that is “close to Microsoft” and wishes to remain anonymous. It’s also said that Microsoft has partnered with Amazon to have the Zune HD available on the Amazon website when released.

If you haven’t been following the Zune HD rumor, we’ll fill you in on a few things.

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The verdict is in and as expected, the European Union fined Intel a record $1.45 billion due to violation of antitrust laws in Europe. This fine surpasses the old record of the $676 million fine given to Microsoft awhile back.

Intel has harmed millions of European consumers by deliberately acting to keep competitors out of the market for computer chips for many years. –European Union Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes.

Intel (shocker!) appealed the decision and immediately fired back by saying the commission “is wrong and ignores the reality of a highly competitive microprocessor marketplace,” and that its practices have caused, “absolutely zero harm to consumers.”

via [BBC News]

For anyone that has recently purchased an EVGA graphics card, you just might be able to get a free copy of the new game Cryostasis! To qualify, you have to make sure you bought an eligible card on or after May 1st this year. If you’re eligible, go here and claim your game! And on the bright side, if you don’t qualify, you can download the free demo there and try the game anyway.

These adverts just keep getting more entertaining to watch and become less logical it seems. Apple just released an ad responding to the several bargain hunting ads from Microsoft. I really can’t explain it without interrupting myself to laugh, so just watch it already!

Watch the video HERE.

via [Engadget]

A recent forum post has released 10 pages from Game Informer loaded with information and images from Modern Warfare 2. These are the first tangible details to be released, so enjoy them!
Page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

[via GiantBomb Forums]

We’ve all lost data at some point, have we not? It’s probably not something that we want to experience, but we have to deal with it at least once in our lifetimes. Kind of like our own occupations, right?

For this contest, send us a story of your most devastating/disastrous/mortifying data loss moment and you could win a brand spankin’ new FreeAgent Go from Seagate to ease all your data sorrows.

Prizes will be as follows:

1st Place Winner: 500GB FreeAgent Go (retailed at $149.99)
Runner-Up: 320GB FreeAgent Go (retailed at $119.99)
2nd Runner-Up: 250GB FreeAgent Go (retailed at $99.99)

Send your stories to techolive@tech-olive.com with the subject as “CONTEST” by May 27, 2009 at 11:59PM EST.

Some Basic Rules

- Anyone is eligible to enter.
- Only one entry please. Don’t send in multiple entries with different email addresses. We have evil robots that check.
- Any staff members and contributing writers of Tech Olive are ineligible to enter.
- Winners will be notified through email and must reply within 3 days to receive their prize.

Read the official rules HERE.

Valve, well known for their continued support for games, have just revealed the day one update for the Team Fortress 2 ‘Sniper’ class. This bit of info announces a new weapon for the Sniper; The Huntsman, a bow and arrow. Go check it out and watch their site for more news.

Today, Epson announced the WorkForce 310 All-in-One Inkjet for small business use. It’s said to print speeds up to two times faster than competitive models. It also mentions supporting high-capacity ink cartridges, which deliver 50 percent more prints per cartridge and it’s ENERGY STAR qualified, so you know it’s a power saver. It also includes a handy ethernet port for network sharing.

The Epson WorkForce 310 will be available in June at a price of $130. Pre-orders are accepted at Amazon, Best Buy or Fry’s Electronics.

Shortly after the annoucement of Windows 7 releasing this year, we found the supposed Windows 7 retail box designs and Microsoft definitely stayed with the Vista look. I definitely like it. Let us know what you think.

via [CentrumXP]