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Standard Procedure? by Rob+T+Firefly · 2006-06-15 07:17 · Score: 2, Insightful · on iPod Faces Patent Probe

IANAL, but isn't this is a normal step for the ITC to take if you're in a big patent dispute? It seems to me Creative is trumpeting it as a minor victory press releases, while the ITC is just following their normal procedure in gathering facts for the judge. Am I wrong?

Recently Upgraded... by ewhac · 2006-06-12 13:10 · Score: 2, Interesting · on The 'Perfect' Gaming Setup

Ooo! Is this where we get to compare the sizes of our dic^H^H^Hgaming rigs?

I just bought myself a completely new gaming rig -- my first such rig in about seven years. Prior to that I'd been upgrading various components in my old box. But the newest games were starting to far outstrip my machine's ability to play them (Doom 3/Quake 4 were the earliest offenders). Thanks to a pleasant year-end bonus from my employer (and rather serious prodding from my partner), I got a completely new box:

ABIT AN8-32X SLI (nForce 4) motherboard,
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ CPU,
eVGA geForce 7900GT CO SC graphics card,
Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic sound card,
2 Western Digital WD2500KS SATA drives, 7200RPM, 250G each,
LiteOn SHM-165P6S DVD-RAM/DVD+-RW/DVD+-R/CD-R/CD-RW drive,
2G (1Gx2) Crucial CT2KIT12864Z40B PC3200 RAM,
Enermax Liberty 500W power supply (12V @ 22A for the gfx card),
ASYS CK-1022-5 "Eiffel Tower" case, complete with chasing blue-LED rice

Sadly, the graphics card has turned out to be the biggest problem in the new rig. It seems that everyone is having trouble with the new NVidia 7900-based boards. My first card would display "exploding" geometry once it warmed up a bit. Happily, eVGA have been very good to deal with, and performed a free cross-ship RMA. The new card still exhibits a few glitches, but only when I expressly go looking for them. When actually playing games, it's been very well behaved. It's only done the exploding geometry thing once since then, during a game of Oblivion. I'll keep leaning on eVGA to perfect this card.

I have very mixed feelings about the Creative sound card. Creative has a very spotty reputation for drivers, especially when multiple CPUs are involved. However, virtually all the competing sound card vendors have gone away, or have chosen instead to go for a race to the bottom in terms of price (and, sadly, quality). So I got the Creative X-Fi. It makes the games sound pretty good (it's breathed new life into QuakeWorld), but I would have much preferred something that works with Linux. I have my eye on the upcoming Razer Barracuda sound card, though...

I'd have to say that I'm probably happiest with the case. I was very paranoid that I wouldn't have enough space for all the cruft I planned on putting in it, or that it would be very difficult to work with, but it's turned out to be just lovely. It weighs a ton, but no more than the old Antec tower it's replacing. It's very accessible, has a large interior, very well ventilated, very sturdy, has a clean appearance, and the blue LEDs don't hurt, either.

As I said, this is the first new rig I've put together in seven years (the last machine I built was a dual-Pentium III on a PC-100 motherboard). I'd appreciate commentary from a more experienced eye. Could I have selected better RAM? Better drives?

Schwab

How About Someone Actually BEAT the iPod?!!! by Einstein_101 · 2006-06-02 08:37 · Score: 2, Insightful · on SanDisk Baits Apple And Woos Rockbox

You know what would really kill the iPod? A better product! iPod has one heck of a marketing campaign, but let's face it that isn't the only reason for it's sucess. I'm a techie just like most of you, and I'm borderline anti-Apple. I been wanting an mp3 player for a while now. After about 18 months of researching it, I went with the iPod for numerous reasons.

1)It has by far the most accesories of any portable player.

2)It's by far the thinnest of any Mp3 player. The closest resemblace to the iPod is the Samsung Z5. The only problem is the 4Gb Z5 isn't much smaller than my 30Gb video iPod.

3)Quality. Before video was a factor, the only serious competitor to iPod was the Creative Zen Sleek. I'm glad I didn't get one. It started out nice, but let's just say it wasn't built for durability. Consumers were posting all over the net (it should still be on CNet and Amazon) about rattling noises. It seems that the earphones jack wasn't soildered properly, and thousands of people where having problems about it comming loose and falling inside the player. That's a great way to steer people away from Apple.

But it wasn't only hardware quality that was in question. The "Plays For Sure" nonsense was wreaking havok, and several people weren't able to install the software on Windows 2000. If that wasn't bad enough, the people that COULD install the player complained about being forced to keep the songs on their harddrive (no manual update like the one present in iTunes).

Now before I hear any of the usual iPod propaganda, let me dispell some of the most common rumors:

1)You do NOT have to purchase music from iTunes. It sounds obvious, but I actually heard a saleman in Radio Shack tell someone that the only way to get music in the iPod was to buy it. You would think he was just trying to sell more pre-paid cards for iTunes, but once I spoke with him, he actually didn't know. As a matter of fact, you don't even have to use iTunes at all.

(Disclaimer: I must warn you that I've heard stories of 3rd party software corrupting iTunes.db. It works fine with everything else, but once iTunes detects the .db file has been edited by a 3rd party, it might not recognize the file anymore.)

2) You do not have to buy QuickTime Pro to import movies. That was true once upon a time, that was changed in iTunes 6.02. However, iTunes is still slow, and neither iTunes or QuickTime can encode muxed videoes with audio, so you're better off using a free alternative.

3)There is an easy way to get your music back off of your iPod, but it isn't free.

Let's face it people : The iPod isn't perfect by anyone's standards, but it's the best player on the market by a landslide. If you want to bring Apple's domination of the mp3 market to a halt - give it some decent competition. Creative started now, so hopefully after a few years they'll have all the kinks ironed out. Until then, I can't recommend anything else.

Re:Battery life... by Volanin · 2006-05-21 08:32 · Score: 1 · on Change of Focus for Liquid Crystals

It also would be much thinner and lighter, complete with perfect Optical Zoom.
And with the current advancements in the digital sensors technology, soon cameras like the Creative CardCam will be possible with greater quality than today's cameras!

I wouldn't mind carring one in my wallet. =)

Paten granted last August by eclectic4 · 2006-05-19 04:14 · Score: 1 · on Apple Sues Creative

Does the fact that the patent was only granted to Creative last August have any bearing on this case, especially since the iPod and it's hierachal usage has been in the market for 5 years?

Re:Advertising Thru the Court by Achromatic1978 · 2006-05-15 22:43 · Score: 1 · on Creative Sues Apple

while Creative sales slide and profits sink

Creative profits may have shrunk last year as a result of writeoffs due to acquisitions, sales are not shrinking at all.