Tech Olive

The past week’s best news…

How To: Play HD Video on Your Netbook
- It’s very apparent that netbooks are known for not being all that powerful. They’re great for portability, checking your email and surfing the web, but when it comes to heavy information processing like playing HD video, you’ll have to look elsewhere, or do you?

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Ah yes, the familiarity of CRT monitors astounds me. We’ve all used one at some point because it was the only thing we had. LCD monitors didn’t become extremely mainstream until just a few years ago. Heck, it was only last year that I made the switch from CRT to LCD and some people are still rocking the ancient display technology to this day. For this month’s Retro Review, I’ve decided to dive into the mysterious world of the one technology that changed the planet, but now serves as a stupid inconvenience and a desk space waster.
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Someone in the PR department got a little anxious over at Intel. In a press release dated for “March 1, 2010,” the company announces their newest Atom CPU known as the N470. It’ll sport a 1.83GHz clock speed, with 512KB of L2 cache and support for DDR2-667 memory. Intel says that “OEMs are expected to introduce systems based on this processor over the coming months.” We’re expecting that most netbooks announced at CeBIT next week will be packing this processor.

via [SlashGear]

Despite it not being playable for XP users, most will be happy to hear that the Just Cause 2 demo has been officially dated to release on March 4th for all platforms. For PC, the demo is available exclusively through Steam and it’s said to offer you a look at about 35 of the game’s 400 square miles.

via [Shacknews]

So here’s why we all hate contracts and why we get them anyway. With most mobile carriers, you must sign a lengthy contract so that you don’t have to pay a crap ton of money for the USB 3G modem. Thing is, you have to pay the monthly fee for a certain amount of time. Of course you can cancel the contract, but look forward to paying a hefty ETF.

Telava has come to our rescue with their new Broadband Bullet. There’s no contract and the USB 3G modem is free, provided that you return the modem when you’re down with it because of a $100 security deposit. You can also just flat out buy the modem for $200 and it’s yours to keep. The modem also has a microSD slot to double has a storage device. The modem can use HSPA 7.2Mbps and HSPA+ 12Mbps networks off of T-Mobile. Data plans start off at $50/month for 5GB of bandwidth or you can get the $60 plan that includes unlimited bandwidth.

via [SlashGear]

Bioware has just announced their next step in DLC for Mass Effect 2. Expected to hit late March, the “Firewalker Pack” will feature five new missions that will somehow be based around a new vehicle that the DLC is also bringing in: The Hammerhead (pictured above) is a fast, missile-guided killing machine. There are also rumors of a new heavy weapon releasing too, but there is little to say about it right now. As expected, the DLC will release through the Cerberus network and will come to gamers at no cost.

via [Big Download]

In another attempt to boost their Games for Windows platform, Microsoft is now offering a new awesome deal every week through their on-demand download system. This week features Batman: Arkham Asylum at 75% off, costing you a mere $12.49. The deal ends March 1st and the next deal will be revealed on March 5th, so be sure to keep an eye on the details page and don’t miss out on a great deal!

Rumor has it at Blogeee.net, that Asus will unveil a few more 10-inch Eee PC netbooks at CeBIT next week. The 1016P and 1018P will have aluminum bodies and hail a 14-hour battery life. The 1018P is also said to be Asus’ thinnest netbook ever made at 0.7 inches and sport a fingerprint scanner and — get this — USB 3.0. Heck yeah.

The third netbook in the lineup will be the 1015P, which basically just looks similar to the 1005PE. That’s all the details we have so far, but we’ll definitely be hearing more about these at CeBIT.

via [SlashGear]

Codemasters, the most well-known name in PC racing games since the early days of the Need for Speed series from EA, is gearing up to reveal and detail their next project; allegedly an F1 racing simulator. The game is expected to be titled F1 2010 (so inventive) and will be based on the company’s EGO graphics engine, as seen in GRID, DiRT 2 and other Codemasters projects. Hopefully we’ll have more information for you on March 17th when the first set of real details will be announced.

via [Big Download]

Remember a couple weeks ago when we told you about a Windows 7 update that would check to see if your copy of Windows 7 was legit? Well, it’s out now and ready to be executed. If you wish to not install, just click on the list of Important Updates and it should be listed in there. For me, it was already unchecked, so I was set to go, but it may checked by default for others.