Five Tech Predictions for 2009

The Digital Home blog has listed their top five tech predictions for 2009. Nothing really earth shattering on the list, what do you guys think will happen in 2009? Hit the comments link below let us know your predictions!

Now that 2009 is only hours away, I thought it was time to unveil this year's 2009 predictions. There's no telling if what I think will happen will come true or not, but I thought I'd fill you in on five of my predictions for the New Year. Please share your own 2009 predictions in the comments with the rest of us, so we can look back a year from now and see who did the best job.

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Book: Sony Basically Designed the Xbox 360 Processor

A new book written by two IBM engineers claims that, during the development cycle, Sony’s research and development money was spent helping to build the processor for the Xbox 360. Ouch. Definitely interesting reading.

In "The Race for a New Game Machine," he and his co-worker Mickie Phipps tell the story of the whole effort to build the Cell. They also describe how the project went off the rails, ending up with IBM engineers creating the processing chips for two rival videogame consoles and, along the way, delivering to Sony Corp. one of its greatest business failures.

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[H]ardware Round-Up II

Cases & Modding

In Win Matrix Case @ BoPC

ETC.

PCPer Hardware Leaderboard @ PC Perspective

Motherboards

DFI LanParty UT P45-T3RS @ CPU3D

Power Supply

FSP Group Power Mod 700W PSU @ Virtual Hideout

Cool Custom Case Mod

For some reason, this case mod really caught my eye. I was just strolling through our case mod gallery and this one just stood out for some reason. I just can't put my finger on what it is.

Reviving Your Dead Zune

While the folks at Microsoft are “working on the problem” there are some folks that are taking matters into their own hands. A word of warning about this fix, cracking your Zune open to access the battery and hard drive will void your warranty. That may or may not concern some of you that just want to get your Zune working but I thought I would just point that out.

Follow Rapid Repair's guide to taking your Zune apart to step 4, so you have access to the hard drive and the battery. Disconnect BOTH the battery and hard drive, and then plug 'em back in. This apparently resets the Zune's internal clock, which brings it back to life. Put it back together, and it should be 100 percent again. (Assuming you don't screw it up.)

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Gaming News

5 GameStops Robbed In Ten Days @ Sacramento Bee

Complete List of Halo Wars Achievements @ RedvsBlue

Jack Thompson: God Caused Take-Two Stock Drop @ Shacknews

Nintendo Wins the 2008 Console War @ VE3D

Tomb Raider Underworld Soundtrack For Free @ Kotaku

AMD Axing More Jobs Than Planned

It looks as though AMD will be cutting more jobs than previously expected. The company now expects to lay off 600 employees instead of the previously reported 500 and plans further cost-cutting actions during the first half of next year.

In addition, AMD reiterated that it expects to take further cost-cutting actions during the first half of next year, which will lead to additional charges against earnings. And the struggling company said it can't yet put a value on a planned goodwill impairment charge related to its 2006 acquisition of graphics chip maker ATI Technologies Inc.

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P6T6 WS Rev Mobo and 3-Way SLI Follow-up

Ongoing Discussion

Apple's 5 Biggest Moments in 2008

We’ve seen editorials and articles analyzing Linux and Microsoft’s performance over the last year so we thought it only fitting to share this link to Apple's 5 biggest moments in 2008.

And while it doesn't appear that Apple plans to slow down any in 2009 -- despite the seemingly endless supply of rumors about the health of CEO Steve Jobs -- it's worth reflecting on some of the most notable innovations from Apple in a year that easily ranks as one of the most significant in its 31-year-history.

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Thermaltake SpinQ Heatpipe CPU Cooler

It is hard these days to get excited about a heatsink because, to be quite honest, we’ve seen just about every way you can slap a fan on some copper fins and call it good. I think that is why I like the design of the Thermaltake SpinQ Heatpipe HSF so much, it has a unique style/look and according to the review it performs as good as it looks.

It's always refreshing to see a new design come out. I like seeing companies taking risks and trying out new ideas. Even if those designs don't live up to expectations, there are likely lessons to be learned in the process, and the consumer gets to see product evolution in action.

[H]ardware Round-Up

Cases & Modding

Antec Skeleton Open Air Case @ Hardware Canucks

Thermaltake Spedo Advance Chassis @ Hi-Tech Reviews

ETC.

AMD Phenom In-Depth Performance Scaling Analysis @ MadShrimps

Memory

Mushkin HP3 12800 3x2GB @ Overclockers Club

NVIDIA BIOS Editor (NiBiTor) v4.7

A brand new version of NVIDIA BIOS Editor (NiBiTor) is out today bringing the handy GPU BIOS tweaking tool up to version 4.7. Hit the link for all the details.

NiBiTor allows graphics card enthusiasts, or the hardcore overclockers to have full control over some advanced features and functionality found on firmware of supporting cards. Doing so users gain some extra performance, enable certain hidden features, tweak memory latencies, provide extensive information, adapt bootup settings, change fan speed options and/or get extra stability on the NVIDIA based graphics accelerators.