The editor of Tweaktown just sent me an interesting link to a test that they performed so seek out what happens to gaming performance when using less cores on a new Intel Core i7 CPU. While I can’t vouch for their methodology, I found their findings interesting: The difference between 1-core and 4-cores (with hyperthreading*) is often small or non-existent. When there is a small jump, it happens between switching from 1-core to 2-core. Using 3 and 4 cores doesn’t usually result a perceived performance jump in the games they tested. The games: World in Conflict, Crysis, FarCry 2, Left4Dead. Head to Teaktown to see the details, but the idea is that unlike video-encoding and other tasks, today’s games aren’t really good at taking advantage of a multi-core setup. (Read the full post about ‘The Impact of Having Less Cores in Real World Games: Minimal’…)

by Jacob Schulman, posted Nov 29th 2008 at 12:09PM Admit it. You’ve got an old GameCube from yesteryear laying around, and the slow economy (and fear for your life) is holding you back from running to your nearest brick-and-mortar to pick up a Classic Controller for your Wii. You know you want to play Super Mario 64 to work off that turkey, but you can’t justify laying out the cash. Fret not; YouTube user marcan42 has you covered, courtesy of a PIC18F4520 microcontroller and makeshift GameCube connector, along with a chopped off Nunchuk extension cord. Of course, you could just pick up a different model, but that would be way too easy. (Read the full post about ‘Man hacks GameCube controller for the Wii with tremendous effort’…)

Our friends from Photographyblog have posted sample pictures from their EOS 5D Mark II taken using a Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 and a Canon EF 70-200 f/a lens. The file format used is 21MP “fine” JPEG and “standard picture style”. There are movies too. If you missed it, the Canon EOS 5D Mark II got everyone excited because of its low-light shooting capabilities (high ISO) and its 1080p video recording ability. The first movie demo was created by Vincent La Foret, check it out. The 5D Mark II started shipping on November 25th. Tags: dap, robots, digital, games (Read the full post about ‘5D Mark II photo samples’…)

It’s not uncommon to see a shiny mouse, decked out with some overly feminine design.  However, there is rarely a mouse seen that uses decals that are just cool as opposed to pretty.  Well this pirate mouse will help you on your way to any devious planning.  The seemingly evil mouse would also be a great tool to pwn noobs and leave angry comments on YouTube or your blog of choice. Sadly, this mouse doesn’t look quite as menacing as one would hope for with a skulls and crossbones mouse.  Between the teeth and the cartoonish eyes, it doesn’t look like it’d strike the fear into anyone.  Actually, your Great Grandmother might even call it cute, which is never a good sign.  Luckily though this mouse does have one perk, it is actually optical.  The mouse is also compatible with not only Windows, but Mac OS X and Linux as well. (Read the full post about ‘The Pirate Computer Mouse’…)

by Nilay Patel, posted Nov 29th 2008 at 10:14AMIntel’s never made a secret of the fact that it developed the now-ubiquitous Atom chipset primarily for mobile devices and low-powered netbooks for at emerging markets, so it’s not totally surprising to hear Intel sales VP Stu Pann say the company doesn’t see netbooks as potentially cannibalizing sales of its existing processors — but we are a bit intrigued by his seeming dismissal of netbooks as everyday machines. According to Stu, a netbook with a 10-inch screen is “fine for an hour. (Read the full post about ‘Intel VP says netbooks are “fine for an hour”’…)

by Darren Murph, posted Nov 28th 2008 at 11:00PM Interestingly enough, a lot of the gripes you readers had with the original Rock Band were addressed by Activision in the rivaling Guitar Hero: World Tour (cymbals, anyone?), but we’re pretty sure the picky ones out there still have something to complain about. And seriously, when dropping upwards of $180 to $190 for the full-on band kit, you absolutely have a right to nitpick. Now that you’ve hopefully rocked through a few set lists, how are you enjoying things? Are the revamped / new instruments to your liking? Are the sensors accurate enough? Do you wish there was a freestyle mode in order to give real drummers free reign over what beats they play? (Read the full post about ‘How would you change Guitar Hero: World Tour?’…)

If you are looking to drop a lot of dough on a seemingly fragile speaker system then you might want to check out the Harion. These speakers made of Heat-resistant glass are manufactured by Hario, a glass maker in Tokyo. They will cost about 16 million yen or $168,000. You get a center speaker, a sub woofer, a couple of tweeters and mid-range speakers. It sounds like a lot of the cost comes from the long and difficult development. Three years, eight months and 23 subcontractors is what it took for them to put out a finished product. Good news though, an executive from Hario says that if they get a minimum of ten orders they may be able to lower the price to around $105,000 per unit.

(Read the full post about ‘Harion Glass Speakers at $168,000′…)

In another hardware conquest for the Linux platform, it has been successfully ported to the iphone. While the current version is not much more than a working, beta version, it does prove that a Linux iPhone is a viable proposition. As Gizmodo points out in the headline of their article, this may be the start of an Android iPhone. Oh, the irony is fantastic. For much more geeky details, take a look at the blog, and/or the video. Posted in Phones, Portable Tags: DAB, robots, amps, pvp (Read the full post about ‘Working Linux on iPhone’…)

To commemorate 1 million of their E100 MP3 players being sold, iriver has decided to upgrade them by releasing what they call the E100 Season 2.  Basically, the Season 2 doesn’t add that many new upgrades, but each mp3 player is now offered in more colors and more storage capacities.  They all come in different color variations of white, orange, and silver.  Also, they are available in 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB models.  Otherwise, expect features and format support to be essentially the same.  One thing I imagine to be different is the current pricing.  Since these models would be a little more advanced, pricing would probably go up a little bit.  Read [iriver] Via [Akihabara News] Keep up with the latest gadget goodness! (Read the full post about ‘iriver upgrades their E100 series’…)

by Donald Melanson, posted Nov 28th 2008 at 4:46PM As far as PMPs off the beaten path go, Energy Sistem’s always seem to be a slight cut above the rest, and it’s new 4040 Touch looks to be no exception, with it packing some reasonably high-end features into a bargain-priced but not too cheap-looking package. That includes a 2.8-inch QVGA touchscreen, 16GB of storage, a microSD card slot for further expansion, a built-in microphone, an FM tuner, support for most of the usual audio and video formats, and even support for Microsoft’s PlayFX, all for a fairly reasonable €120, or about $150. (Read the full post about ‘Energy Sistem rolls out 4040 Touch PMP’…)