AMD is working on a six core desktop CPU. This is supposed to be an answer to Intel's Gulftown and, if current CPU marketing is any indication, should also be for future mid-range and low end CPUs.

There is a problem with this new hope for AMD; while the idea of a six core desktop based off of the Istanbul core is nice, AMD is not ready to compete with Intel's just yet.

The first is issue process. Intel will offer Gulftown at 32nm while the new AMD Desktop will be 45nm. As both companies want to stay inside a 130-140 Watt TDP, Intel will have an easier time and be able to clock higher within the same envelope. The advantage here will go to Intel unless AMD can make their CPU more efficient like they did in the Athlon 64 days.

So, Apple released its latest version of the iPhone OS version 3.1 recently. At first glance the new software looks like it has a number of improvements. However, it has come to our attention that many people are very unhappy with this new release and not just the jailbreaking/unlocking crowd.

Reports are popping up that OS 3.1 has a negative impact on battery life, SMS/MMS performance, random shutdowns, mobile Safari crashes and breaks exchange support on older generation iPhone's.

The problem has sparked an increasingly response from iPhone 2G and 3G owners on the Apple support forums. This latest issue flies in the face of the current statements by Apple that OS 3.1 is a major improvement over previous ones.

Back in the days of the X19xx series Radeon GPUs, AMD and ATI were talking about using the GPU to process in game physics. This was in contrast to anything that was being thought about over at NVIDIA and, at the time, was even denounced by NVIDIA as a bad idea.

Unfortunately, AMD and ATI did not put much effort into moving physics onto the GPU and NVIDIA did. NVIDIA even went so far as to buy Agiea, so that they would own the complete PhysX library. This left AMD out in the cold as yet another AMD idea was openly taken and implemented by another company.

Well now, a few years later, AMD is getting back to physics on the GPU. They have partnered up with Pixelux and Bullet to bring an Open Physics library to not only the Radeon GPU, but to pretty much any GPU. This move should help to bring a more standardized physics library to developers.

Hot on the heels of the new HP ION based netbook, we see VIA is launching what it is calling a "NetNote". Besides the ridiculous sounding name, this new product category is noteworthy for the fact that it is capable of playing back 1080p HD video.

This is the same high-end resolution that the NVIDIA ION platform is shooting for. Now while this is very impressive, what I did not see in the press release was any indication that the associated netbooks were able to display this on its tiny little 10.1 - 12-inch displays. If they cannot playback 1080p natively in the display, it does reduce the impact of having this feature available in the first place. They might manage 720p in a 10-incher, but I doubt 1080p is going to happen. I would think that if this was the case, we would see it bandied about in the text of the PR. Instead we only see VIA working hard to create a new category in the mobile world exactly where we do not need a new category.

VIA is getting this performance from its VX855 media processor combined with its Chrome9 HCM IGP. The company is also dropping in an HDMI port to turn your NetNote(Book) into a mobile HD media center.

AMD just pushed out a nicely priced quad-core CPU. This is the Athlon II X4 and you can get one of these for just under $100 US. Now this is all great, but there are some things going on behind this new launch that are a cause for concern.

You see, back when Hector Ruiz was planning the financial fiasco that would be the ATI acquisition, AMD and ATI were talking about a CPU with a native GPU built into a single die. This new product had the label of Fusion.

Well, AMD is now onto its third version (the last two were cancelled) while Intel in their typical fashion has its own version of this idea ready to launch by the end of the year. This is the same issue we saw with the first quad-core CPUs. AMD expounded on the virtues of having a "native" quad-core CPU, while Intel simply bolted two dual-cores together.

There is a new nVidia Vs ATi rumor out. It revolves around the latest leaks of ATi/AMD HD 5870 performance. You see those numbers have gotten to people that have seen a demonstration of nVidia's GT300 product.

If their word is to be believed then the new GPU from the Big Green Machine might still out perform AMD's latest offering.

The GT300 has been kept carefully under wraps with surprisingly few leaks about performance, design or even what is going on over at TSMC. Yes there are rumors about bad things happening at nVidia, but from what we have been able to find out those rumors might not be accurate at all.

Since the new Zune HD is out Microsoft wanted to get the software that powers it ready and out for you as well. I took the chance to grab this software and take a quick 15 minute look at it.

The first issue I ran into was in getting it downloaded. As I have been using Windows 7 x64 exclusively for some time and Zune 4.0 is supposed to be optimized for this I opened up IE 8 and started the download process.

I began getting all sorts of errors and ended up with a simple Page Unavailable. Getting a tad annoyed I tried to grab the older version of the Zune software (3.1). This also proved to be a problem when using IE so I had to move to FireFox to get it.

The Zune HD launched today. This has been one of the most anticipated media players since the iPhone 3G S. I know that sounds really odd. But it is absolutely true. You see people are actually looking for someone to compete with Apple. Even current iPod/iPhone owners.

So what does the Zune bring that the iPod does not have? Well for starters it has an nVidia Tegra 600 under the hood. This new SoC has 8 cores that can dynamically adjust power to provide the longest battery life possible. It does this by powering down unused and unneeded cores to almost zero power usage.

But the Tegra also brings Open GL ES 2.0 720P playback and a host of other features. This is combined in the Zune with HD Radio, Wireless Sync (over WiFi) an AV dock that allows connection to an HD_TV through HDMI, native gaming support (this is nVidia we are talking about) and multi-touch.

Have you ever sat back and wondered just what direction computing is going? Over the last few days I have had some time to think about it and to be honest I think we are right on the verge of something big.

Intel just pushed Lynnfield out the door, AMD just kicked out DX11 GPUs and a fully DX11 driver package. nVidia is pushing Tegra while Microsoft, Linux and Apple are working on the move to a fully 64-bit computing world.

We are seeing systems becoming more and more simple instead of complex. Lynnfield brought the PCI-e controller for graphics into the CPU cutting out much unneeded data transfer between the CPU, GPU and Northbridge. The next step in this evolution is right around the corner as Clarkdale and Arrondale get their coming out party at IDF.

I have worked with PoE (Power over Ethernet) and even wrote up both sides of this handy little feature that uses you network to provide power to remote devices. This is a great feature, but has absolutely nothing on what I saw today.

This is HDMI over Ethernet using a standard IP network. The device that makes this possible is called the Projector Connector and can send up to HDMI 1.3 Lossless over any standard IP/Ethernet network. As long as you are running Cat 5/6/7 cable you are set.

The Projector Connector can also handle up to three switches between the source and the display. This gives you up to 1,000 Feet to play with between points.