Processors

Sudhian Media has issued an article about CPU manufacturing process. Read on to find out just how a microprocessor goes from essentially sand to a fully functioning integrated circuit, and all the steps in between, what materials are been used as well as what preparations are had to be done.

Mobile devices

The Register has reviewed Creative Zen Touch 20GB music player. If you love listening to music then you might want to consider such a beautiful solution as a Creative player from the Zen product family. A portable audio player supporting all popular formats as MP3, WMA and WAV, it is also remarkable for its ability to store as many as over ten thousand musical compositions and to work as long as a whole day without recharging the battery.

OverClock Intelligence Agency has reviewed Ultra 256 MB 8-in-1 MP3 player. This unit supports 8 different features: ID3 Tags, Voice Recording, FM Radio Tuner, Support for SD and MMC cards, USB flash drive, Language Learning function, MP3 player and e-mail function; more than enough to satisfy the needs of even the most demanding user.

Optical drives

AnandTech has posted its roundup of DVD writers. They have compared Pioneer’s DVR-108D against BenQ’s DW1620, MSI’s DR16-B, NEC’s ND-3500AG, Sony’s DRU-710A, NuTech DDW-163, LG GSA-4160B and LiteOn’s SHOW-1633 DVD writer in terms of  performance, features and price criteria.

Storage

Overclockers Online has reviewed VisionTek’s Xtreme2 USB GO drive. If you have been thinking about picking up a small, USB thumb drive, with 8MB/s transfer speed and storage sizes available up to 512MB, the VisionTek GO Drive is certainly worthy of consideration.

Computer systems

TrustedReviews has posted an article about Holly Computers S939 AMD64W PC. The system is powered by AMD Athlon FX-53 microprocessor, 1GB of memory, 75GB WD Raptor HDD, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, Creative Labs Audigy 2 ZS and so on. A typical high-end system, to sum up, but maybe it’s a bit different compared to others?

Pointing devices

FiringSquad has reviewed Saitek Cyborg EVO joystick. This product features an 8-way hat switch an efficient and useful thing in many gaming applications. All the buttons are easily accessible, the hand support at the bottom can be switched from comfort for a left-hander. There are two knobs at the top that control the side-to-side tilt of the top button array as well as the forward/back tilt of the three buttons on the bottom of that array.

Security

Bill Sends Spyware, Adware Purveyors Down Divided Paths

As adware and spyware companies hoping to do business in the United States clean up their act in response to the Internet Spyware Prevention Act (I-SPY) recently passed by the House of Representatives, anti-spyware vendors are trying to stay ahead of a growing onslaught of malicious software developed outside of US jurisdiction.

“I think the spyware industry is going to split into two groups. You’ll see those trying to at least appear legitimate because of the recent outcry and the House bill, and more malicious developers creating spyware that's much sneakier and harder to remove,” said Mike Healan, editor of SpywareInfo.com. Read the whole story at eWEEK.com.