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The iPhone launch came and went with much fanfare and jubilation, crowds cheered and celebrated as Apple stores opened. eBay sellers prospered, there are reports of iPhones going as high as $1,500. But now you could say the honeymoon’s over. Many who bought the iPhone are finding that they are now the proud owners of an iBrick due to various reasons, from activation problems to DOA units. Even worse, AT&T’s systems were overloaded with activation requests and such huge demands that it may take a day or more for working iPhones to activate. Another proverbial brick wall that many are hitting are where the user’s phone number was once a business number and are getting the tech support run-around getting that sussed out. And the topper, the iPhone user guide seems to be incorrectly telling users that they can still use their new iPhone prior to activation, thus adding to the confusion and chaos.

Me? I’ll wait until it’s all over … Helio still looks better to me.

If you are thinking about getting an iPhone but don’t want to pay an early termination fee from your current carrier, you may want to consider CellSwapper. The service allows you to trade your under contract cell phone plan with someone else, in turn allowing you to switch carriers without paying an early termination fee.

The company claims that there are currently more than 1500 plans available for swapping on the site. However, a savvy mobile user that wants to swap out of AT&T might want to consider placing their plan on eBay and having someone actually pay them to transfer their contract

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The first Barcelona models, formally called Quad-Core Opteron, will run at clock frequencies up to 2GHz and will be available in standard and low-power versions. Faster models, both of the standard and more power-hungry special-edition ilk, will arrive in the fourth quarter, the company said. The first servers using the chips will come in September…

AMD’s Barcelona puts four cores on a single slice of silicon, an approach AMD calls “native quad-core,” and the company has argued that Barcelona will outperform the Xeon 5300. The only problem: that comparison soon will become obsolete.

Intel’s second-generation quad-core server processors, “Harpertown” a server member of Intel’s “Penryn” family, will arrive this year, too, with the promise of better performance, lower power consumption and lower manufacturing costs by virtue of a manufacturing process with 45-nanometer features. AMD is only just now moving to a 65-nanometer process.

For decades, typical computer processors had a single processing engine, but dual-core models with two engines began arriving this decade as a way to try to improve performance without consuming inordinate amounts of power and producing corresponding amounts of waste heat. Now chipmakers have moved to quad-core and octo-core models; Sun Microsystems plans to debut its 16-core “Rock” chip in 2008.

Putting multiple cores on a chip isn’t a miracle cure, though. For one thing, it’s hard to adapt software for the chips–especially software for PCs.

For another, a chip with four cores consumes more power than an otherwise comparable model with two, so multicore chips typically run at lower clock frequencies to keep power consumption down. Current dual-core Opteron chips run as fast as 2.8GHz.

A faster clock frequency will let a processor execute a given task more quickly, but multiple cores will let it do more jobs at once.

Also this year, AMD plans to release a quad-core chip for PCs. It and high-end dual-core models will sport a new “Phenom” brand.

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Not to be a commercial for another website but I get these emails from Gogamer and just can’t believe the deals sometimes. Gogamer is offering the Half-Life 1 Anthology for $1.90 for a limited time. Limit One Per Customer.

What comes in the Half-Life 1 Anthology?

Half-Life
You play as Gordon Freeman, a research associate at the Black Mesa Federal Research Facility. An experiment blows up in your face, and suddenly aliens and a military death squad surround you.

Half-Life: Opposing Force
Takes place during the events of Half-Life, but casts you as a lieutenant of one of the commando squads sent to kill Freeman.

Half-Life: Blue Shift
Also takes place during the same time as Opposing Force and Half-Life, but this time you play through the Black Mesa disaster as a lowly security guard.

Team Fortress Classic
An online action game featuring a wide array of WWII-themed character classes for a team warfare bonanza.

If you like having deals posted on games or some other tech-related products let me know and I will post more often.

We have been testing the iPhone for two weeks, in multiple usage scenarios, in cities across the country. Our verdict is that, despite some flaws and feature omissions, the iPhone is, on balance, a beautiful and breakthrough handheld computer. Its software, especially, sets a new bar for the smart-phone industry, and its clever finger-touch interface, which dispenses with a stylus and most buttons, works well, though it sometimes adds steps to common functions.

The Apple phone combines intelligent voice calling, and a full-blown iPod, with a beautiful new interface for music and video playback. It offers the best Web browser we have seen on a smart phone, and robust email software. And it synchronizes easily and well with both Windows and Macintosh computers using Apple’s iTunes software.

It has the largest and highest-resolution screen of any smart phone we’ve seen, and the most internal memory by far. Yet it is one of the thinnest smart phones available and offers impressive battery life, better than its key competitors claim.

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Since Windows Vista went on sale to consumers at the end of January, U.S. and Canadian buyers of Vista Ultimate have had the option of buying up to two additional copies of Vista–albeit the Home Premium version–for an additional $50 apiece. The company had said it would re-evaluate the “Windows Vista Family Discount” after June 30.

In a posting on the Windows Vista Team Blog, Microsoft product manager Nick White said the program would “sunset” as of 11:59 p.m. PDT on June 30.

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K-Lite Codec Pack 3.25 (Full)

K-Lite Codec Pack is a collection of codecs, DirectShow filters and tools. Codecs and DirectShow filters are needed for encoding and decoding (playing) audio and video formats. The K-Lite Codec Pack is designed as a user-friendly solution for playing all your movie files. With the K-Lite Codec Pack you should be able to play all the popular audio and video formats and even some rare formats.

This download is for the Full package and contains all the codecs a normal user would ever need.

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K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 2.25

K-Lite Codec Pack is a collection of codecs, DirectShow filters and tools. Codecs and DirectShow filters are needed for encoding and decoding (playing) audio and video formats. The K-Lite Codec Pack is designed as a user-friendly solution for playing all your movie files. With the K-Lite Codec Pack you should be able to play all the popular audio and video formats and even some rare formats.

This download is for the Mega package and is aimed at pro video users.

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Supreme Commander will soon have a follow-up release of a stand-alone addition to the series.

THQ Inc. today announced Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance, the next chapter in the critically-acclaimed real-time strategy (RTS) franchise, is scheduled to ship for Windows PC in November 2007.

Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance will be available as a standalone title offering full compatibility with the original game, enabling all-new strategic options.

“Supreme Commander raised the standard for scope and scale in the RTS genre and is one of the highest rated strategy games of all time,” said Bob Aniello, senior vice president of worldwide marketing, THQ. “Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance is pushing the boundaries yet again promising an exciting new chapter to fans worldwide.”

“Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance is not only the continuation of the epic story that is unfolding inside the game’s universe, it is the continuation of our goal to move the bar for RTS gaming even higher than ever,” says Chris Taylor, CEO of Gas Powered Games. “Forged Alliance offers over 100 new units, more maps and an entirely new faction… we are stuffing this game with all kinds of new features!”

As a fan of the first Supreme Commander as well as its predecessor, Total Annihilation, this is most welcome news.

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At a private developers conference this week, Nintendo announced the release of WiiWare(TM), which allows developers large and small to create a new downloadable video game for sale through the Wii Shop or Wii console.

“Independent developers armed with small budgets and big ideas will be able to get their original games into the marketplace to see if we can find the next smash hit,” says Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. “WiiWare brings new levels of creativity and value to the ever-growing population of Wii owners.”

WiiWare will be posted on the Wii Shop Channel. And there will be a variety of pricing options. We’ll be watching for announcements on upcoming projects and how user friendly WiiWare is.

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