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-Aaron

Who cares? I can get a generic two-port FireWire card (or USB 2.0, or whatever) for $13 from Pricewatch, for my ugly but oh-so-expandable box. Hell, FireWire ports get thrown in as bonuses on video & sound cards these days.

That's why I won't be buying an iMac (or Profile) anytime soon.

Toronto:

ATI (the chip company)
IBM labs (lot of Java work)
Hummingbird (X on Windows)

The board "flipper" was actually developed by a company called ArtX, which has since been aquired by ATI.

Hmmmm. I'm not sure that you're right. It looks as though the 7000 is similar on the basis of possessing 64MB DDR, but the ATI docs seem to state that the 7200 is actually the inheritor of the mantle although it only has SDR (!)(I could be totally wrong, but I'm basing it on this):
this link indicates that the Radeon7000 "has up to 64MB of DDR memory" toward the top of the document. The very bottom of the document says that the display capabilities indicated are "Maximum 3D resolution and colors supported with specified memory with double buffered setting 32-bit Z-buffer."

Whereas this indicates that the 7200 has "rapid 32-bit color 3D graphics" and "* 64MB of powerful single data rate (SDR) memory" (toward top) and the Radeon7200 FAQ says that

Q1: What's the difference between the original RADEON GPU and the 7200 GPU?
A1: The 7200 GPU maintains the same functionality and performance as the original RADEON GPU.
Q2: Will the original RADEON product continue to be available?
A2: The original RADEON product will transition to the new RADEON 7200 but will be available while dealers and distributors sell through their inventory. Please check with your dealer or distributor for original RADEON product availability.

Hmmmm. I'm not sure that you're right. It looks as though the 7000 is similar on the basis of possessing 64MB DDR, but the ATI docs seem to state that the 7200 is actually the inheritor of the mantle although it only has SDR (!)(I could be totally wrong, but I'm basing it on this):
this link indicates that the Radeon7000 "has up to 64MB of DDR memory" toward the top of the document. The very bottom of the document says that the display capabilities indicated are "Maximum 3D resolution and colors supported with specified memory with double buffered setting 32-bit Z-buffer."

Whereas this indicates that the 7200 has "rapid 32-bit color 3D graphics" and "* 64MB of powerful single data rate (SDR) memory" (toward top) and the Radeon7200 FAQ says that

Q1: What's the difference between the original RADEON GPU and the 7200 GPU?
A1: The 7200 GPU maintains the same functionality and performance as the original RADEON GPU.
Q2: Will the original RADEON product continue to be available?
A2: The original RADEON product will transition to the new RADEON 7200 but will be available while dealers and distributors sell through their inventory. Please check with your dealer or distributor for original RADEON product availability.

Hmmmm. I'm not sure that you're right. It looks as though the 7000 is similar on the basis of possessing 64MB DDR, but the ATI docs seem to state that the 7200 is actually the inheritor of the mantle although it only has SDR (!)(I could be totally wrong, but I'm basing it on this):
this link indicates that the Radeon7000 "has up to 64MB of DDR memory" toward the top of the document. The very bottom of the document says that the display capabilities indicated are "Maximum 3D resolution and colors supported with specified memory with double buffered setting 32-bit Z-buffer."

Whereas this indicates that the 7200 has "rapid 32-bit color 3D graphics" and "* 64MB of powerful single data rate (SDR) memory" (toward top) and the Radeon7200 FAQ says that

Q1: What's the difference between the original RADEON GPU and the 7200 GPU?
A1: The 7200 GPU maintains the same functionality and performance as the original RADEON GPU.
Q2: Will the original RADEON product continue to be available?
A2: The original RADEON product will transition to the new RADEON 7200 but will be available while dealers and distributors sell through their inventory. Please check with your dealer or distributor for original RADEON product availability.

• Leadtek's WinFast GeForce2 MX DH Pro 32MB
• ATI Radeon VE Dual Display 32 MB DDR
  • Gamespot Review
  • Old press release
  • Official Site

• Leadtek's WinFast GeForce2 MX DH Pro 32MB
• ATI Radeon VE Dual Display 32 MB DDR
  • Gamespot Review
  • Old press release
  • Official Site

Actually there is now the Radeon 7000 Mac Edition, which supposedly can be had for ~$100. This is a cheap(er) card intended for folks wanting more monitors. It has one DVI, one VGA, and It COMES WITH a DVItoVGA adapter if you want 2 VGA monitors.

Your TV set has a tuner, and your vcr has a tuner; that's why you can watch and record...

The ATI has a tuner. Your TV set has a tuner. Why, in this case, would you be unable to watch and record? I use Nvidia's Personal Cinema and do this all the time.

it will not let you pause live tv, in fact it writes nothing to the hard drive unless I ask it to. And lastly, (as I understand it not every PVR does this) it lacks a 30 second/ skip ahead button.

Both features are present in the Personal Cinema and accompanying software. ATI's latest (Radeon 8500 "DV") iteration claims the same features and more. TiVo does not have 30-second skip, most attribute this lack to heavy investment from the TV Networks.

Wait a minute...doesn't ATI do that too? Hasn't ATI done that forever since the implementation of it's All-in-Wonder line of video cards? Hell, even before that, I indexed video on my hard drive with a friggin' qbasic program. Sheesh. Crazy patent people.

well, this is certainly a cool game and i'm glad to see it finally hit shelves but if you would like to see some bleeding edge rendering techniques in the field of real-time graphics then go check out the ATI launch demos. these demos were just posted today (a few hours ago i think). you will need a Radeon8500 to run the demos. personally i find the nature demo to be the most interesting, the water looks comparable to what you might see in a pre-rendered sequence. also, the skin in the rachel demo (rendering nice looking skin is a classic computer graphics problem) looks pretty close to what you might see in the final fantasy film... except at real-time frame rates. of course my opinion is more than a bit biased. :)

Furthermore, I've heard all sorts of horrible things about VIA's KT266 chipset, and now that there are alternatives, there's really no reason to buy it at all. SiS's AMD chipset rocks (if you don't believe me, read this, but if you're going for cost-no-object performance, you'll want one of tyan's mobos w/ AMD's own chipset.

Also, Creative has a new sound card out, and it has built in firewire, and considering that, it's not too much more than the platinum. And you may want to at least consider ATI graphics solutions, esp if you're ever going to run linux on this machine. From the reviews I've read, the 8500 is comparable or better than the GeForce3 in most ways. If everyone starts considering nvidia a foregone conclusion, it won't be long before we don't have a choice at all.

As far as the silent drive thing goes, insulating a device that is supposed to be conduction cooled (ie it conducts heat through its metal casing) is a very bad idea! nuf said.

Finally, those of you considering those nifty round IDE cables may want to read this first.

In closing, I would like to point out that this article was little more than a shameless plug for thinkgeek and pc power and cooling. All of the choices that didn't involve these stores were ill thought out. And you'll notice when it comes to the cpu fan, a very important piece of hardware these days, he didn't even bother telling us what he bought, only that he got it from pc power and cooling!

If Hemos ever had any creditibility, he just pimped it out to thinkgeek and pc power and cooling. Oh well. I guess in these troubled times, ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

I guarantee that there is no claim about image quality, nor even one about frame rates.

The tech specs for the card claim that it can do hardware mip-mapping, but sometimes when an application requests it, the card simply doesn't perform. The specs claim that the card can handle textures of a certain resolution and bit depth, but sometimes when an application gives it such textures, apparently it scales them down.

Which other ATI Radeon 8500 features don't work as advertised when playing Quake 3 Arena? The hardware anti-aliasing? The bi- and tri-linear filtering? The specular highlights, fog effects, reflections, LOD biasing?

Check the link above if you don't believe that they advertise that their product provides all those features and more. Then take a look at the images that others have posted links to and tell me that Radeon 8500 users are getting what they paid for.

Is ATI guilty of fraud? Definitely.

ATI make a version of the Radion with a DVI interface that will quite happily drive an Apple display

What's more, the service is emminently hackable so if they really did go down it wouldn't be hard to build a listings service that kept the unit functionality going in spite of a company closure. Several people have claimed to hack this already, though code is not readily available last I checked (for obvious reasons). Either way, I've got my daily calls going over my ethernet network, so it wouldn't be hard to sniff out the necessary bits or put some work into documenting the MFS partition formats and inserting it directly from a source like XMLTV.

So, for a fun project and damn useful toy, grab yourself a 20 hour Tivo cheap (see AVS TiVo Forums for pointers to cheap deals at Wal-Mart, Target, etc.), a big harddrive (most any 5400 rpm will do), and a hard drive bracket and ethernet adapter (here's a good tutorial). Then have fun with a device that's both well suited to the task (stable, nice tv based user interface, very sharp picture) and gives you a chance to sink your teeth into some fun hacks.

FWIW, I've been spending a lot of time hacking up my own media-box project of late and I really think that it isn't yet a viable option. Dual booting Debian/WinME with a AIW Radeon and SB Live Platinum 5.1 gives you the ability to do everything a TiVo can and more, but the interface, stability, and interoperability leave a lot to be desired. On the up side, its great to be able to play DivX, MP3, Emulators, etc. in the living room A/V system. Wonderful as a system oriented towards archived playback, music, and games, but don't buy one thinking its going to be nearly as useful in place of a TiVo.

... rjs

If you go to Pricewatch and look under videocards/GeForce 3 there are already several place selling the 200 versions. Heck this place on Yahoo Stores is taking preorders for the Hercules GeForce3 Titanium 500 to ship on Oct 13! Talk about fast turnaround. Guess they had to step up or let the Radeon 8500 be king.

Wonder which one will ship a Mac version first?

I see a number of comments about using Tivo and Replay in Canada. The only services in Canada that I know of are:
ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon (card that goes in your computer) and Bell Expressvu (satellite service).
I think some other bundles are coming from other satellite and cable providers (e.g. Rogers, StarChoice).

Hi DarkEdgeX
The usual suggestions in this case are:
try the latest drivers, ease off on the overclocking (if you are!), and if that's a VIA chipset motherboard, download the latest via4in1 drivers from 'just about anywhere' (don't have link handy)
You could also try some of the various rage tweakers and fiddle around with the texture settings. Lastly, check the agp settings in your BIOS, and try a slower spead (1x instead of 2x).
Happy fragging,
zardor

You could be much more conservative and still get a computer with better specs and in the same price range as the $299 Xbox.

That's part of the problem with consoles... They become obsoleted before they even hit the market. For example, the Xbox (which hasn't even been released yet) is supposed to run a 733MHZ P3, but Intel already has a 1.8GHZ P4 out in stores. The Xbox is supposed to contain an 8G hard drive, but 40G hard drives have been available cheaply for quite some time now. The Xbox graphics chipset also falls behind chipsets like the GeForce 3 and the Radeon 8500.

The real question is: Why would anyone want to spend so much for a cheap PC? (When most Americans already own one of those). It seems like most developers will use DirectX, so all of the games will be immediately 'ported' to the PC platform anyway.

God bless,
-Toby Reyelts

According to the FAQ for the FireGL 8800, they list the following operating systems to be supported:

NT 4.0 , W2K, Windows XP, Linux 32, Windows XP 64

First of all, a direct link to ATI's SmartShader tech introduction.

I have a few disparate thoughts on this subject, but rather than scatter them throughout the messages I'll put 'em all in one place.

ATI are attacking what is possibly the weakest part IMHO of DirectX 8 - the pixel shaders. Pixel shaders operate on the per-fragment level, rather than on the per-vertex level vertex shaders which were actually Quite Good. The problem with Pixel Shaders 1.1 is that, to paraphrase John Carmack, "You can't just do a bunch of math and then an arbitary texture read" - the instruction set seemed to be tailored towards enabling a few (cool) effects, rather than supplying a generic framework. Again, to quote Carmack, "It's like EMBM writ large". Read a recent .plan of his if you want to read more.

If you read the ATI paper, they don't really tell you what they've done - just a lot of promises, and a couple of "more flexibles!", "more better!" kind of lip-service. I don't care about reducing the pass number. Hardware is getting faster. True per-pixel phong shading looks nice, but then all they seem to do extra is allow you to vary some constants across the object via texture addresses. Well that's great, but texture upload bandwidth is can already be significant bottleneck, so I don't know for sure that artists are gonna be able to create and leverage a separate ka, ks etc map for each material. (I did enjoy their attempts to make Phong's equation look as difficult as possible)

True bump-mapping? NVidia do a very good looking bump-map. Adding multiple bump-maps is very definitely an obvious evolutionary step, but again, producing the tools for these things is going to be key. Artists won't draw bump-maps.

Their hair model looks like crap. Sorry, but even as a simple anisotropic reflection example (which again NVidia have had papers on for ages) it looks like ass. Procedural textures, though, are cool - these will save on texture uploads if they're done right.

What does worry me is that the whole idea of getting NVidia and Microsoft together to do Pixel Shaders and Vertex Shaders is so that the instruction set would be universally adopted. Unfortunately, ATI seem to have said "Sod that, we'll wait for Pixel Shader 1.4 (or whatever) and support that." I hope that doesn't come back to bite them. DirectX 8.0 games are few and far between at the moment, so when they do come out there'll be a period when only Nvidia's cards will really cut it (I don't think ATI have a PS 1.0 implementation, someone please correct me if I'm wrong) - will skipping a generation hurt ATI, given that they're losing the OEM market share as well?

I dunno, this just seems like a lot of hype, little content.

Henry

256M ram - $40

• Radeon (Windows solution) comes with TV on demand software that is free to use thanks to the Guide Plus+(TM) TV listings broadcast in North America.
• Hauppauge WinTV-PVR
• ShowShifter - a Windows-based software package for ATI, Hauppauge, and Matrox capture cards.
• SnapStream (as previously mentioned by someone else
• The Linux solutions can be found at VCR-HOWTO or linuxtv.org

I'm sorry, I have ZERO sympathy for the guy who wants to dial in to set his clock yet not pay for TiVo service.

First thing is if you set up a shell on your TiVo, you can connect from another PC and set your time manually. You never need to dial TiVo again.

Second, come on. The guy *KNEW* that TiVo expects a subscription. How can he rationally expect TiVo to be a viable company without subscriptions?

Third, if he wants TiVo-like functionality, he could have saved a bit on his $400 investment. Buy an ATI Radeon All-in-Wonder or a Hauppauge card. There are others as well.

• The Radeon (Windows solution) comes with TV on demand software - Radeon features - that are free to use thanks to the Guide Plus+(TM) TV listings broadcast in North America.
  
  
• the Hauppauge (Windows solution) - Hauppauge WinTV-PVR - even boasts about burning a show to CDR for watching on your DVD player - something TiVO CANNOT do.
  
  
• ShowShifter - a Windows-based software package for ATI, Hauppauge, and Matrox capture cards.
  
  
• The Linux solution can be found at VCR-HOWTO or linuxtv.org

Get a server motherboard/system. Try SuperMicro - I have an old dual-PPro motherboard of theirs, which has 8 PCI slots plus 2 ISA slots. This is accomplished by using an i960 I/O processor, which has an integrated PCI bridge. Of course, this has to be in a server case, because the motherboard is about 6 inches wider than standard AT size. (call me - I'll make you a deal on it :) Their new motherboards also have a bunch of slots (most are 6 PCI+1AGP, but no ISA).

Get a motherboard like the Acer AK73-1394(A). It has 5 PCI slots, 1 AGP slot, and integrated FireWire. Get a Matrox Marvel G450 eTV or the ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon, both of which have a TV tuner on the card. Use a USB to multiport serial adapter for the serial ports. Get a PCI DIO card from ComputerBoards or equivalent.

Basically, the two choices boil down to either spending large amounts of money on a server motherboard and case, or getting boards with combined functions that may not be the perfect thing, but are (hopefully) less expensive.

Have fun.

You may be right- I looked in the Rage XL User's Guide, but I didn't read closely enough. They have the same users guide for about 16 video cards; I only looked at one, the Rage Fury Pro, which supports up to 2048x1536@32bpp (page 36). Looks like that is the only one that will do it though.

As an aside, what in the world do you use that resolution for? That has to be physically painful to look at. My eyes would be bleeding.

Hey, could somebody let me know what the current url for "Artificial Turd Industries" is?

Every time I go to www.ati.com now, I get some silly high-tech company rather than everyone's favourite fake dog poop vendor.

I, for one, say that this sort of domain name seizure by a large corporation from a small operator *MUST* be stopped.

(Really, though, does anybody know how much ATI the smaller was paid for turning over the domain?)

--

Fine, go to the Fujitsu page & Wups! The latest drivers were shipped with the laptop.
[Rock] You Are Here [Hard Place]

Umm...ATI already has a comparable laptop chip.

So you want integrated 100bT, stereo sound, etc? If the PowerBook Titanium had Radeon instead of Rage 128, I'd recommend that in a heartbeat. Apple will probably upgrade the graphics chip this summer.

anybody know how ati's website knows i'm using mozilla?

this seems to be where the browser is defined. this is the main site. I can't find the code that determines anything other than mac vs pc ie vs ns.

I agree with fred that this should not be determined by the website. I would love for mozilla to be able to dynamically change how it identifies itself (but apparently the mozilla team disagrees). Regional detection, which was originally done soley for tragetting local ads, is not as easily within our control (as it is done by traceroute and cooperation of internet and backbone providers.

fred makes a good point. let the user choose what is best for the user!

anybody know how ati's website knows i'm using mozilla?

this seems to be where the browser is defined. this is the main site. I can't find the code that determines anything other than mac vs pc ie vs ns.

I agree with fred that this should not be determined by the website. I would love for mozilla to be able to dynamically change how it identifies itself (but apparently the mozilla team disagrees). Regional detection, which was originally done soley for tragetting local ads, is not as easily within our control (as it is done by traceroute and cooperation of internet and backbone providers.

fred makes a good point. let the user choose what is best for the user!

This card is an oldie but goodie. Perhaps you could simply get this as a pci card and supplement your primary agp card/display (if you need 3d power for games, or have some badass big monitor). The tv support is excellent in linux through gatos. The card is also has excellent 2d. I use it in my dorm room as my only tv and only display adapter (I do not play games).

Good luck in your search.

Personally, from my experience I'd reccomend an ATI All-In-Wonder product (I have an AIW PRo, the Radeon is a dream right now). When I first started using it over a year and a half ago, the drivers were buggy, but now I've found that Gatos has done a great job putting together solid and easy to use tuner support. Check ATI for the link, or The Linux Video Project for the newest drivers. ATI actually points to xfree pages.

-Jason

Note that the Nvidia GeForce cards tend to have noticably softer 2D images (IMO, and others) than the ATI cards (or Matrox, for that matter), which is likey to be a big negative for designers. Their higher end cards also lack DVI-I connectors for flat panel use (these are available on the MX cards).

Also, the Nvidia cards only have significantly better 3D performance than the Radeons when used in 16 bit high resolution modes (its mostly comparable with a similar GeForce in 32 bit tests, until you get to high resolutions and compare against a GeForce 2 Ultra). Those tests were done on a PC comparing with a GeForce 2 GTS, which is faster than the GeForce 2 MX that Nvidia is releasing for Macs.

I think the best all around performance you'll find on the Mac right now is from the Radeon Mac Edition (which is 32MB DDR to compare in the above charts). It has better 2D performance (IMO, its a subjective thing but many other people have noticed and commented on the difference).

Regards, RJS

Plus I'm lazy. The All-in wonder would really only be usefull to Windows boxen (especially with all the cool software.)

Oh... And the patent's pending ;)

Plus I'm lazy. The All-in wonder would really only be usefull to Windows boxen (especially with all the cool software.)

Oh... And the patent's pending ;)

ATI's TV Wonder has a closed-caption seach program which, I presume, can run in the background and record or pop-up when it hits key words you give it. Requires a PCI slot, though. -Jason-

I'm worried about the video quality. When I watch video through the all-in-wonder card, it's not bad but I still seem to notice that video is not going direct to the video input of the TV. I can't quite put my finger on what it is, but I notice a hit in resolution. If I buy a DVD player, I want it to look perfect. I'd be interested to hear from folks who have a hardware DVD decoder board with an S-video output to know whether or not this would really be a problem.

As opposed to what someone else says here, you should be worried.

I have tried 4 different DVD playbacks on a 53" HD projection TV, and the results where amazing to me.

Please notice that I have not tried a dedicated DVD playback card with S-Video out. I suspect that to be better than a video card that has S-Video out (like the ATI and 3Dfx described below), although it shouldn't be.

Here's a list of players, in order of LEAST desired:

1) PC with ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon

Most important features:
- S-Video out (at 800x600)
- hardware DVD decoding

Results:
Horrible, horrible noise on the S-Video out, for only certain colors. Other colors displayed at the same time looked just fine. A really weird problem, which may have been a hardware failure. I was still able to tell the overall quality and decided that I would just return it.

2) PC with 3Dfx Voodoo 3500 TV

Most important features:
- S-Video out (at 800x600)
- hardware DVD decoding

Results:
I still use this to play games and browse on my TV. The sharpness is not as good as the ATI, but I already had this card, plus it doesn't have the noise problem. Without the noise problem I would probably choose the ATI.

However, putting a card like this or the ATI next to a stand-alone player shows is no comparison. The stand-alone players are just soooo much clearer/sharper etc, that you don't even have to do a side by side. You can tell straight away.

I'm sure a hardware decoder card like the Creative _could_ possibly have the exact same hardware as a stand-alone player and should be able to generate similar quality.

However, most will have a VGA overlay kind of thing (even though, for PC monitor playback it would be much better to use VMI, ZV or an other digital bus). What that does to the timing/resolution is still unclear to me.

3) Apex AD800

Most important features:
- Plays about every CD/DVD on the planet
- Component video out with Progressive Scan

Well, the quality of this machine is really not too bad. If they had still have the hidden menu to disable Region Codes I would have probably kept it (as a second machine though...)

You'll only see the difference between this one and the Toshiba if you have a good HD (ready) TV.

4) Toshiba SD-6200

Most important features:
- Component video out with Progressive Scan

This is the one I kept after doing a side-by-side. My TV has two component inputs and supports Progressive Scan. I rented a movie that I already had and thus could do a real side-by-side comparison by switching the TV input.

The difference was noticable in favor of the Toshiba, but it wasn't big. The Toshiba was just a little bit sharper and seemed to have more color depth.

Hope this helps, Breace.

Offhand, I really don't know how big StrongARM processors are physically

144-TQFP if i remember correctly. as you probably know, that's a hell of a lot smaller than a 474-PGA. do PGAs even come in 474 pins? i thought you could only get that many pins in a BGA.

anyhow yeah, the StrongARM is much better suited to Palm-sized applications. what has surprised me however, is how very few devices with MIPS processors have been on Slashdot. i guess MIPS isn't as "cool" as Crusoe, but MIPS already has plenty of market share in the embedded market, and you've be suprised to see how many "Internet Appliances" are built around the MIPS processor (usually with Embedded Linux as well) such as the ATI Set-top Wonder reference design.

- j

Troll eBay looking for either an SGI 1600SW or a Radius Artica ($1500-$1900) - both are the same device: 1600x1024 resolution, wide screen, awesome image quality, uber geek. Only two cards that I know of drive it directly; the now defunct Number Nine Revolution IV or the current 3Dlabs Oxygen VX1-1600. Looks like Xi Graphics have decent X support for both. Otherwise you can get the SGI multi-link adapter ($495) that will take analog DB-15 or DVP/DVI digital inputs and drive it that way. Though, whatever you do, get 100% digital from video card to display. DVI is the current standard in the PeeCee world with support from Matrox, nVidia, ATI on the video card side and more flat panels are coming out that have a DVI-D connector (i.e. Philips 150P) - see Tom's Hardware for a good write up.

You already have a computer. Just add an ATI All-In-Wonder RADEON. Save money and insure upgradability.

Well, ATI is offering a Radeon All-In Wonder. Same Radeon as their strictly 3D card, plus an integrated TV tuner, MPEG decoder, etc. They claim to be on the market now, and should be retailing for about $300. Here's the obligatory link. That being said, I own an AIW Pro, and have been satisfied with its preformance, but 3D card, it's not. Maybe when I do have an extra couple hundred bucks lying around, I can give the Radeon a whirl.

Since I see no-one else having mentioned it yet, ATI's new multimedia
card, the AIW Radeon, seems to answer many of the rants in that article.

Pros:
It will put Tivo-like recording capabilties on a standard PC

It allows for TV-out, but you will probably need S-VHS support.

Their listings (called Guide+) are free

Nobody (to my knowledge) can track your viewing habits, becuase you can
program it/record to it even without using the Guide+ software.

Network connection? Make your own.

Expandable, just add more drive space - Also, on a good system, video is
saved as MPEG-1 or 2.

DVI output for that flat panel screen

DVD support

Cons:

No commecial skip

Linux support is questionable.

ATI has to prove it on the market first, sounding good on paper is just not
enough.

Don't want to pay that monthly fee and have a home computer with a large hard drive? Buy an ATI ALL-IN-WONDER RADEON card. It does everything TiVo does but completely under your control without lifetime monthly fees.

ALL-IN-WONDER RADEON

I've also been thinking of making a set-top box TiVo clone. I haven't done anything (yet) but this post had me trekking through the web looking for hardware providers. ATI has some stuff in development and I've seen a few products from General Instruments. However, so far I haven't seen anything for sale to the public.

This looks cool... According to the FAQ, there are Linux drivers available for the thing. Any ideas on the status of Linux support?

Also, any ideas on using a remote control with it?

If you've read anything on Apple in the last few years, Steve Jobs brought the company back from the brink of disaster when he came back as CEO. It was the leadership without Steve that made Apple lose it's foothold; they've done nothing but regain it since he came back.

In fact, the whole above article is really propagating misinformation about Apple, and Steve. He may be an egomaniac, and have the occasional temper problems, but he is not stupid when it comes to business. As people have mentioned, and the Radeon Mac FAQ verifies, the card is not available until September. All he did was cut ATI's demo of the card from the convention, which is justifiable considering they leaked the centrepiece of Jobs' show. The card in the cube was never changed. (The article should probably be updated to reflect that).

Hint: the first word refers to a male bovine. Get a grip, people! For starters, Radeon cards for Mac will not be ready until September -- two months from now. So there is NO way they were supposed to be in the Cube, which is on sale now.

It's perfectly believable that Jobs was planning to let ATI show off Radeon during his Keynote, then snubbed them for leaks. Steve is known to be a vindictive SOB. But that's just one f***ing speech, 10 minutes of PR, not a complete shift of manufacturing!