Try This… When Your Graphics Card Dies

Earlier this month, my graphics card decided to give up the ghost and would throw up various errors on-screen, rendering my PC unusable. Sadly, getting a new graphics card is an expensive endevour if you want to do any sort of gaming, and I wanted to avoid that. The local gaming centre had an idea, though: Bake it.

Full details after the jump…

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AT&T Launches BlackBerry Torch 9800 Website

Blackberry Torch photoSeconds after the Blackberry event started, AT&T has launched the BlackBerry Torch 9800 website.  It has a few photos and videos for you to check out of RIMM’s new “iphone killer” Blackberry.

Some interesting specs from the page:

* World premier BlackBerry in slider form factor with touch screen plus QWERTY keyboard and optical trackpad
* BlackBerry 6 OS with all-new browser featuring tabbed browsing for access to multiple web pages at the same time and pinch-to-zoom capability
* First BlackBerry with next-generation messaging including group messaging for up to 10 people and locations
* Social networking feed application for one view of all your favorite sites such as Facebook, Twitterâ„¢ and MySpace
* Integrated search from home screen
* 5 MP camera with flash, autofocus, and environment settings
* Latest Wi-Fi “N” network support (Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n) for home, office, and on the nation’s fastest Wi-Fi network with more than 20,000 AT&T Wi-Fi Hot Spots nationwide

Check out the videos and specs from the AT&T website here.

BlackBerry 9800 Slider “leaked” by the FCC

Ahead of the 11AM event from AT&T and RIM today, looks like the FCC “leaked” the BlackBerry 9800 slider model ahead of the event.

The tech specs inside the PDF’s show that it has 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth, GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/1900, GSM/GPRS/EDGE 900/1800 MHz bands and UMTS I (2100) bands for overseas usage.

If you feel like treading through all the testing the FCC did on the unit, click here.

Gaming Centre Robbed, Gamers Fight Back Defending A DS

Gamers at the PC Gamerz gaming centre in Hawaii were robbed by some idiots. Sadly, despite the apparently evil and sociopathic nature of gaming presented in mainstream media, no-one did anything to stop them… until they tried taking someone’s DS.

The owner of said DS decided to fight back, which prompted everyone else to wake up and attack the robbers. The robbers have since been arrested, and the world is safe again, thanks to the Nintendo DS.

Full story version is available at KHON2, if anyone wants to read about gamers getting good press. They’ve also got some of the security camera footage, and there are some pretty good blows in there.

[KHON2]

Netflix To Launch Canadian Service for Streaming Movies
and TV Episodes Later This Year

Netflix has sent word today that they will be launching a Streaming Only service of Netflix to Canada later this year. While no platforms were mentioned in the press release, we wonder which video game consoles it will be on. Most likely the Xbox 360 as there is already Netflix in the United States for that and Windows PC. The only oddity we found was the service will only be available in English at first, but that shouldn’t be a problem since you wouldn’t want to watch the latest action flick dubbed in French would you?

Netflix, Inc. the leading Internet movie subscription service, today announced it will expand into Canada this fall offering unlimited movies and TV episodes streamed instantly to TVs and computers for one low monthly fee. The Canadian launch will mark the first availability of Netflix outside the United States.

Canadian Netflix members will be able to instantly watch a broad array of movies and TV episodes right on their TVs via a range of consumer electronics devices capable of streaming from Netflix, as well as watching on PCs and Macs.

In addition to representing its inaugural international market, Canada will also mark the first streaming-only service promoted by Netflix.

At the time of launch, the Netflix Canadian service will be available in English only, but the company said it expects to add French language capability over time.

Canadians interested in Netflix can go to www.netflix.ca and sign up to receive an email from the company when the service launches in Canada this fall.

Faked Modern Warfare 2 – Old Lady Ticked Off Video

While we normally don’t post random YouTube links on Gametactics and then copy them over to TechMamba, this one caught our eye which claims that you can get an old lady to give you one heck of an earful and then she instantly kills you. The video claims it is from the PlayStation 3 version and is in the Underpass level.

Some comments on the Youtube video say they did it after a dozen tries only but we’ve pretty much calling this one fake.

Edit from Malcolm Owen: I don’t think this is a real bug. A quick search on Youtube turns up empty except for this video, the old lady that appears in-game shares her accent with the video makers, we can’t quite see whom gets the claim for the kill, and the video ends with a promotional URL featuring the word “film”. I have serious doubts that this is real…

iPhone Firmware 4.0.1 Released

Apple has released iPhone O/S. 4.0.1 which address signal bar display with the new iPhone 4.

Not sure if this firmware update will resolve the “left handed” signal cutting issue, but we’ll find out soon enough with tons of youtube videos I’m sure within hours of people installing it.

Firmware: 4.0.1
* Updated Carrier Signal
o Increasing the signal bar length of the smaller bars