It's like a geek's dream come true - two ladies you've always wanted for the price (and mass-energy ratio) of one. Or something like that. While Intel's really busy with Larabee, the Germany-based Advanced Micro Devices decided that they could do with their own version of CPU-GPU technology. Everyone expected this from the beginning: the unison of CPU (AMD) and the GPU (ATI) into a mesmerizing package. How it took this long to come to realization, you won't find out at the full story. Read on for more claims, instead.

Do you often find your tots crying about their cavities, but they just can't be bothered to pick up a toothbrush and start hacking away at that plaque? Then Hao-hua Chu and his team of experts from the National Taiwan University has your back, and his assistance comes in the form of a toothbrush video game. More on this at the full article.

A whole bunch of companies involved in the use of LEDs and laser diodes in mobile phones, high-def players, and data storage devices are currently facing an investigation by the U.S. International Trade Commission on charges of patent infringement. More in the full article.

 

What better way is there to have fun other than riding a magical broomstick? We think none, which is why we're all giddy after stumbling upon the Broomstick Arcade Machine from Taiwan that appeared at the Tokyo Game Show 2007. Basically, there's this arcade game for Potter-wannabes.

As you would've imagined, players get the chance to mount a broomstick and do some flying. Aside from that innovation, the touch screen where all the action happens is also used for casting spells when players draw signs on them.

Seems like there are no further questions needed - if you're having a hard time trying to find the perfect fun place to take your girl, any arcade with one of these would suffice. To see it in action, just click on the Read link below.

 

The Blu-Ray Disc Association (BDA) is sending out word that their format is picking up new support by way of Acer. According to the report, the Taiwan-based computer manufacturer has now joined the ranks of the BDA.

Now, in case you're wondering what this means for us (the consumers), Acer followed up this announcement by stating their plans to add Blu-Ray players and burners to their new laptop and desktop PCs.

In related news, the company further reports its intent to purchase Gateway Inc for approximately US$ 710 million. This merger is expected to create a company with  more than US$15 billion in sales, and 20 million computers shipped annually.

Manufacturers of Blu-ray Disc Burners in Taiwan have received a relatively high number of orders for the holiday season.

While Dell and Hewlett-Packard have placed orders only around 2,000 to 3,000 units of BD Burners on a single order for their PCs, retailers from America and Europe have made orders as large as 20,000 to 30,000 units.

The sources that gave the info indicate that the large number of orders may be in anticipation of the peak season for the market on the holidays. For now the manufacturers say that they can cope with the orders but should it increase, they believe they won't be able to catch up. Lasers used in the burners that are supplied by Japan may also fall into supply issues because of the increase in demand.

LED usage is really heating up, and Taiwan has just recently jumped onto the bandwagon. The Taiwanese government is reportedly looking to change the traffic lights in all counties and cities in Taiwan to LED-based ones.

According to a report in the Chinese-language Central News Agency, Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs has set aside a budget of NT$ 229 million (US$ 7 million) for the next three years starting in 2008 for this project. There are currently 350,000 LED-based traffic light in Taiwan and 420,000 non-LED ones.

LED traffic lights are already in use in quite a number of cities in the world as they are brighter, have sharper colors and are more energy-efficient compared to the bulbs used in non-LED traffic lights. Taiwan's Bureau of Energy estimates a total power consumption savings of 85% once the switch is complete.

It seems like Blu-ray players are beginning to get cheaper, especially now that the move is being spearheaded by Sony itself. It was only this month when the company confirmed the US$ 100 price drop for its BDP-S300, officially bringing its price down to just US$ 499.

Anyway, online site DigiTimes was able to get a copy of Japanese-language newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun and found out that Funai Electric will be shipping its 42-inch full high-definition LCD TV and next-generation Blu-ray Disc (BD) player in North America this coming Fall.

While there are no official announcements regarding pricing, we are pretty sure that the BD player will be tagged lower than that of Sony's BDP-S300. Funai is known for making low costs electronic products and consumers in North America recognize its products under brand names Sylvania, Emerson, and Magnavox.

Regarding the HD LCD TV sets, it was reported that the panels will be adopted from Taiwan-based players while the TV itself will be assembled in China. The first batch of shipments will be around 100,000 to 200,000 units.

Maybe most of you are not aware of it but there's an expo currently happening at the Taipei World Trade Center in Taiwan known as Computex 2007. Generally, the show is for displaying new computer hardware and peripherals but time and again, we find something of interest or of value to the video game community.

Like this one for example: company SINOX introduced this rather sleek and interesting security device for game controllers. Despite that being said, we believe that the product is only compatible with PlayStation 2's controller and with PS3's SIXAXIS. This thing is attached at the controllers' analog sticks and is protected by a three-digit number combination.

To be quite frank though, it's kind of amusing whenever companies come up with this kind of devices. Does this mean there's a need to lock controllers? I mean, I have my saved games deleted or tinkered with by my sister every now and then but still... Oh well, as they say, whatever floats your boat.

 

Taiwan-based company PQI has recently released their Traveling Disks series, called the "H Series". Although it looks nothing like their flashy thin flash drive, the H Series doesn't lag behind in the features department.

The H series members are all Windows Vista ReadyBoost supported. Aside from that there is also a built-in Webaroo offline browser. Webaroo downloads and saves internet packets of the website of your choice so the user could browse online contents offline using a laptop, PDA or a smartphone.

Current models of the H series are the Cool Drive U310H, U350H and U339H. 512MB to 4GB variants are available and aside from the features mentioned above, they also boast faster read and write performances. To know more about these PQI goodies, head on over to the read link below which will take you to PQI's official site.