With the growing number people building their own PC’s and upgrading their existing PC’s we have been seeing a huge explosion in the PC upgrade market. New upgrades from advanced memory modules, enhanced power supplies, advanced cooling solutions. Many of these upgrades are used to achieve superior system performance and stability while overclocking the CPU.  Even if you do not overclock your system replacing your existing components with premium parts may lead to better system stability and performance over the stock parts.  Our friends over at ClubOC.net, Bjorn3d.com, ViperLair.com and TweakNews.net have several new reviews that will enlighten you to these system enhancements. 

Today sees the release of the latest game from the team that brought you GTS Racing Challenge, Astraware and Pazzazz Games’ Hellfire: Apache vs. Hind, a dynamic new helicopter based 3D arcade action game, that puts you in the pilot’s seat of a state of the art helicopter gunship, and takes you on a worldwide tour of duty.

Hellfire: Apache vs. Hind has already been heralded by the press as “Easily the best 3D flight simulator for the Palm OS that I have ever played” (David Eaton, Freelance Contributor) and “So how much fun is it? Well to put it short, its great fun; I definitely recommend this game and give it a big thumbs up” (Richard Barclay. The Daily Gadget), with the Pazzazz Games team once again bringing cutting edge technology to the Palm OS® and Windows Mobile™ games arena, as they did previously with the ever popular GTS Racing Challenge.

Quote:
...but where do you draw the line between a cheat, an optimization, a shortcut or an architectural difference? Both companies have used shortcuts…

Full article:
http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/article/1709/

Telecom Communications, Inc. (BULLETIN BOARD: TCOM) announced today that its focus in marketing and promotion of the SMS and MMS contents and services in the past 6 months has been achieving major success. Telecom Communications China operations has acquired more than 6 million subscribers through cooperation with its partners, such as Service Providers of China Mobile Communications Corp, China Unicom and China Telecom.

STMicroelectronics (NYSE:STM) announces the introduction of a personal computer security solution meeting the Trusted Computing Group (TCG) 1.2 specification, which was published in November 2003. The TCG is a broad alliance of major hardware and software companies which aims to create more secure computing environments through the use of hardware building blocks and cross-platform software interfaces, without compromising functional integrity, privacy or individual rights.

The need for trusted computing has come about due to the increasing vulnerability to both physical and electronic attack of personal computers in general, and of laptop computers and other portable devices in particular. The concept is expected to be used in the majority of new computers within the next few years, based on TCG specifications; it allows validation of both the computer and its user, and provides secure storage for critical data and passwords. It can verify that a ‘trusted process’ should run, and establish ‘trusted relationships’ with other computers to reduce opportunities for viruses and other attacks.

PDA Buyer’s Guide has published in-depth reviews of both new Zires. Here are the links to the reviews in case you wish to share with your readers:

Zire 72 review:
http://www.pdabuyersguide.com/palm_Zire_72.htm

Zire 31 review:
http://www.pdabuyersguide.com/palm_Zire_31.htm

Building on the success of the best-selling Zire(TM) handhelds, palmOne, Inc. (NASDAQLMO) , the world’s leading maker of handheld computers and maker of highly acclaimed smartphones, today announced two color Zire handhelds.

—The Zire 72 handheld with a built-in digital camera, audio/video
capture and playback ability(1), and Bluetooth(R) wireless technology
offers affordable multimedia capability at an estimated U.S. street
price of $299.
—Adding color, expansion and MP3 functionality(2) to the record-breaking
Zire handheld, the Zire 31 handheld is designed for students,
superparents and seniors. It has an estimated U.S. street price
of $149.

The Osler Medical Handbook for the PDA covers all of the essential topics encountered in the daily practice—written by contributors from the Johns Hopkins Hospital. A volume in the Mosby Handbook series, it concisely discusses all diseases and disorders in an easy-to-follow, standardized outline format. Readers will find all of the features that have made The Harriet Lane Handbook the most popular handbook in pediatrics. Within each section is information on pearls and pitfalls, differential diagnoses, algorithms, and reviews of the most current literature. 

Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) have become a daily productivity tool for millions of business users. A new study of PDA users, however, points to a significant risk to companies, as large numbers of employees store company-sensitive information on the small, easily lost or stolen devices with virtually no security protection of any kind.

Navman, a leading designer and manufacturer of world-class global positioning systems (GPS), communication and marine products, announced today its new powerful and featured-packed SmartST(TM) Version 2 software. With the advanced capabilities today’s consumers expect from a comprehensive GPS solution, V2 delivers a cutting edge navigation feature set. The new software is available on Navman’s popular Windows(R) Mobile(TM) Pocket PC solutions, and on Navman’s iCN 630 transferable in-vehicle navigation devices. Innovative, safe and easy-to-use, Navman’s suite of navigation solutions with V2 software are the most dependable guidance system on the market.

Navman, a leading designer and manufacturer of world-class global positioning systems (GPS), communication and marine products, announced today the latest addition to its innovative line of GPS products for the consumer electronics market, the Navman GPS 4410. Designed for use with Bluetooth(TM)-enabled Pocket PCs, this upgraded version of Navman’s popular GPS 4400 leverages the power of the advanced navigation software and the latest in wireless technology, to deliver the next generation of handheld guidance systems. Additionally, Navman has released a GPS 4100 hardware-only solution for consumers looking to use other navigation software with Navman’s Bluetooth technology.

Participate Systems, a provider of online customer- and sales-support solutions, announced the addition of TiVo Inc. to its growing list of world-class customers. TiVo selected Participate Systems’ hosted software solution, Participate Enterprise (PE), to provide TiVo subscribers with a new support channel to help resolve support-related issues.

ACCESS , a global provider of mobile Internet technologies, today announced the immediate availability of its NetFront v3.1 browser software for UIQ 2.x, a customizable user interface platform for smartphones based on the widely adopted Symbian OS. NetFront v3.1 redefines the mobile Internet browsing experience for UIQ 2.x devices with advanced rendering technologies like Smart-Fit Rendering(TM) and Rapid-Render(TM), two unique technologies that dramatically improve the quality and speed of the browsing experience. A free demonstration version of NetFront v3.1 for UIQ 2.x is available for download from the ACCESS Systems Europe Web site www.access-sys-eu.com

“The results of this survey prove that you don’t need to spend top dollar to enjoy top quality. In large parts of the world the travel industry is still a buyer’s market with truly astounding values widely available,” said Tim Zagat, co-publisher and CEO of Zagat Survey. “This guide will help travelers find the places thousands of surveyors have identified as the best in luxury travel.”

Zagat Survey is the world’s leading provider of consumer opinion based leisure content. With over 250,000 surveyors, Zagat Survey ratings and reviews cover restaurants, hotels, nightlife, movies, music, golf, shopping and a range of other entertainment resources. Zagat content is available in print, on the Web, on the Palm and Pocket PC operating systems, on mobile phones and on TV and radio. 

If you have never heard of Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edtion before, you’ll be probably very pleased. However, there is one important thing - I don’t have a real Windows Mobile 2003 Second edition or at least upgraded device, yet. All screenshots you will see are taken from SDK for Pocket PC which is already being available for developers. I don’t think that there will be a lot of major changes in the final system, but that depends mainly on the manufacturers.

http://www.pdagold.com/articles/detail.asp?a=139