Intel Corporation and DreamWorks Animation SKG today announced they have formed a strategic alliance aimed at revolutionizing 3-D filmmaking technology, beginning with Monsters vs. Aliens, which is slated for a domestic release date of March 27, 2009. As previously announced, DreamWorks Animation has committed to producing all of its feature films in stereoscopic 3-D beginning next year.

The strategic alliance will take advantage of Intel's visual computing products and tools and DreamWorks Animation's expertise in content creation to advance the in-theater entertainment experience.

To meet the increased demands of creating 3-D animated feature films, Intel will provide DreamWorks Animation with the latest high-performance processing technologies, including future chips with multiple processing cores. Intel software engineers will help to optimize DreamWorks' applications for these advanced processors. By converting its computing infrastructure to an Intel-based system, DreamWorks Animation will enable its artists to work with new, state-of-the-art 3-D authoring tools to render higher quality images more quickly and to modify them with greater ease.

Dell today introduced "Studio," a new consumer product line designed for self-expression and creative living. Studio products are highly expressive and personalized - inside and out - combining aesthetics and technology into a fresh approach to hi-def mobile lifestyles.

"People seeking stunning design, brilliant colors, and innovative new technology find inspiration in Dell's new Studio brand," said Alex Goh, Dell's Director of South Asia Consumer Marketing. "These products are built for today's digital nomad based on the millions of conversations we have every year on dell.com, Ideastorm and community forums. With Dell Studio we're answering the call for personalization, connectivity and simplicity." 

LG revealed its latest Secret mobile phone which is the third mobile phone under the iconic Black Label series to Malaysia where it is expected to astound users with its timeless style and features. The LG Secret exudes style together with enriched technological features such as an ultra slim 5 megapixel camera, Touch Media capabilities and Bluetooth auto-synch capabilities.

The mobile phone was developed to satisfy the refined tastes of trendsetters who desire a sophisticated design with enduring elegance. A slender and stylish mobile iconic mobile phone that offers a multitude of features and convenience of smart, digital technology, the ‘LG Secret’ refers to the phone’s ability to tantalize its users with its intrinsic innovative features while engage them in a continual process of discovering the inner workings of the handset that will never go out of style.

“The tremendous successes of the previous Black Label Series models have validated our approach to provide the ultimate mobile experience for today’s discerning consumers, who seek to reflect their personal style through their mobile phones. These enriched features will diversify the way users interact with their mobile phones but most of all, the LG Secret was designed to timelessly stylish in every sense,” said Managing Director and CEO of LG Electronics (M) Sdn Bhd Mr T.Y. Ko at the launch.  

The LG Secret mobile phone retails at RM 1,999.00 and is available at all LG authorised dealers starting from July 2008. 

One of the industry's most scalable virtualization servers is now available from Dell and based on the Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor, AMD announced. Enterprise customers interested in consolidating server infrastructure may turn to two new virtualization servers from Dell utilizing Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors, including the Dell PowerEdge R905 which set a new standard in VMmark performance testing with 60 virtual machines. The innovative new Dell servers take advantage of AMD Direct Connect Architecture to reduce bottlenecks, minimize latency and increase the performance of virtualized applications to maximize the benefits of virtualization.

The Dell PowerEdge R805 and R905 servers are designed to run with virtualization software from leading ISVs, including VMware and Citrix XenServer. The result is a virtualization solution that can enable customers to consolidate their IT infrastructure, increasing resource utilization while helping decrease power, cooling, and space costs.

"Energy and space constraints are requiring more enterprise customers to consolidate while simplifying their server management requirements," said Tan See Ghee, Technology Director, South Asia, AMD Far East. "The combination of Direct Connect Architecture and AMD Virtualization technology helps them achieve those objectives by enabling more virtual machines on a server than ever before. Dell's innovative server offerings provide an optimal balance of virtualization performance and manageability for customers looking to scale their current virtualization infrastructure."

A 33rd minute strike by Fernando Torres was enough to hold off Germany and hand Spain a 1-0 win over Germany in the UEFA European Championships 2008 early this morning.

Spain have not won a major championship in 44 years, but were the toast of the tournament as the most exciting team to watch having won all their games leading to the final.  

Update : Owls who stayed up late last night informed us that this suspension only involved a single Web Hosting company, and trackers hosted on its servers. The last i checked, there isn't a  definitive provision on the Malaysian Copyright Act with regards to hosting of bittorent trackers. The Malaysia Copyright Act 1987 was last ammended in 1997, and came into force in April 1999.

[ Exclusive via TorrentFreak ]

Reports are coming in that the government in Malaysia has ordered the immediate suspension of many BitTorrent trackers hosted in the country. In a shock move, the government - citing the ‘Copyright Act 1987′ - has ordered hosts to suspend servers hosting BitTorrent sites, pending an investigation. Many sites are offline.

When BitTorrent sites get into legal trouble or other pressures force a move to a new location, the speculation begins on the safest place to go.

For instance, would a site bail out of the Netherlands and move to Canada? Is Canada too dangerous now, and would a move to Sweden be more appropriate? What about moving to Ukraine-based hosting like Demonoid or further afield - China or Russia maybe? Inevitably, discussions usually involve ideas of moving sites east, to countries like Malaysia. Fairly high-tech countries like this seem an attractive proposition, particularly given their government’s track-record in failing to do much about piracy.

Given this background, BitTorrent tracker admins with their sites hosted in Malaysia were confronted by a very unpleasant surprise today. An administrator from a well known tracker contacted TorrentFreak this morning with worrying news, he told us: “Malaysia’s government suddenly forced all torrent websites to shut down today until further notice, a complete surprise to torrent admins and the offshore hosting companies in Malaysia.”

The news was given to this and other site admins, via an email from the hosting provider, which indicates the action has been ordered down from a high level. The email informs the admins that their servers have been suspended by the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs, under the Copyright Act 1987. As the request came from the government, the host makes it clear they had no choice but to shut down the site. Among the affected sites are Extremebits, Rapthe, Superfundo and several others. According to sources, although torrent sites have been taken offline, other sites dealing in pirate material have also been suspended after the government decided to act on mounting copyright-related complaints.

Prominent Malaysian host Shinjiru confirmed the closures, telling TorrentFreak: “We can confirm that this is accurate. We had enforcement officers from MDTCA visiting the office to confirm the closure of BitTorrent sites hosted on our network. We will comply to all shut down instructions from the local authorities or agencies with warrants or documents.”

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Take this with a pinch of salt. We're still not sure how this happened as details are sketchy, but what we can conclude for certain is lionheart23's friend isn't very impressed.

We've removed the name and phone number to protect the aggrieved, but if someone from Celcom is reading this and would like to shed some light on how an Unlimited Data Only line gets charged a staggering RM8k a month, the customers account number is 97474218!

ASUS has released the new ASUS ROG Maximus II Formula series motherboard. Equipped with an Intel P45 chipset and supporting DDRII memory, this cutting-edge piece of hardware provides exceptional gaming performances to suit gamers of today. It can also deliver outstanding audio quality through an innovatively designed SupremeFX X-Fi audio card; while the inclusion of the innovative CPU Level Up technology allows gamers to obtain flexible CPU boosts – without any complicated setups. Additionally, the Extreme Engine power design provides stable voltages for reliable operations – making this motherboard the ultimate gamer's choice.

In the ROG Maximus II Formula, the bundled new SupremeFX X-Fi audio card provides gamers with life-like sound effects and 3D surround sounds to fully immerse them into their games. With an emphasis on high quality design, the Supreme FX X-Fi utilizes the ADI 2000B audio codec, Creative X-Fi suite, CMSS3D and Crystalizer technologies, and authentic EAX sound effects to produce top-notch virtual 3D surround sounds to bring gamers one step closer to “being really there” in their games. 

Comprising of a 16-phase power design for the CPU, 2-phase for memory and 3-phase for the north bridge; Extreme Engine will provide users with additional voltage options in the BIOS for higher performances. With only the best quality components used, stable power to components provides reliable operations; while a power efficiency of up to 96% and automatic power management ensure less energy is wasted and less heat produced.  

Local pricing has yet to be announced so stay tuned for updates. 

abit has announced their two new motherboards for the AMD Socket AM2+/AM2 processors, the abit A-N78HD and the abit AN78GS. Both motherboards are based on NVIDIA's GeForce8200 and the chipset is integrated with GeForce 8 series graphics supporting DirectX10 with Shader model 4.0 for greater and more clarified graphic performance.

The AN78GS motherboard supports AMD AM2+/AM2 processor running HT3.0 up to 5200MT/s. Four 240-pin DIMM sockets offer a maximum of 8GB memory capacity for Dual Channel DDR2 1066 modules. 1 x PCI-EX16 supporting new generation PCI Express2.0, 2 x PCI-EX1, and 3 x PCI slots hold enough potential for further expansion and system upgrades with different add-on cards.  

As for the A-N78HD, abit paid special attention to video output flexibility with three connection options already implemented on-board. Users can choose between the standard D-Sub VGA connector or use one of the two digital outputs; DVI for high resolution monitors or HDMI for HD monitors and TV devices with combined HD audio output. 

Both motherboards are currently available in Malaysia and are priced as follows; RM295 for the A-N78HD and RM340 for the AN78GS.

Read on for more info and specs

Microsoft's premier and largest annual conference is back. This year's Tech•Ed SEA 2008 is bigger, providing a wider opportunity for IT professionals to learn from more technical tracks, explore the latest solutions and connect with top speakers, colleagues and peers from all around the world.

Register for Tech•Ed SEA at only RM999 (Save RM300) or bring along your colleagues or friends to register in a group of 5 or more and you will save additional RM100 each by paying only RM899 per person. In conjunction with Microsoft's 999 Promotion, participatns can earn a rebate of RM300 when they introduce a minimum of 3 friends to register and attend Tech•Ed. More information at www.techedsea.com.