The editor of Tweaktown just sent me an interesting link to a test that they performed so seek out what happens to gaming performance when using less cores on a new Intel Core i7 CPU. While I can′t vouch for their methodology, I found their findings interesting: The difference between 1-core and 4-cores (with hyperthreading*) is often small or non-existent. When there is a small jump, it happens between switching from 1-core to 2-core. Using 3 and 4 cores doesn′t usually result a perceived performance jump in the games they tested.

The games: World in Conflict, Crysis, FarCry 2, Left4Dead.

Head to Teaktown to see the details, but the idea is that unlike video-encoding and other tasks, today’s games aren′t really good at taking advantage of a multi-core setup. That’s not just because developers are lazy, it’s mainly because a lot of tasks are not inherently prone to be dispatched over many cores. That is why Intel has been internally pushing “per-core” performance improvements, and I think that this is what makes Core i7 much more interesting than previous generations. Multi-core alone won′t work unless we have a tectonic shift in software design.

Related: Core С Review, Intel Research Day

*Hyperthreading: a technique that allows near 2-core performance, while using a single core.

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Our friends from Photographyblog have posted sample pictures from their EOS 5D Mark II taken using a Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 and a Canon EF 70-200 f/a lens. The file format used is 21MP “fine″ JPEG and “standard picture style″. There are movies too.

If you missed it, the Canon EOS 5D Mark II got everyone excited because of its low-light shooting capabilities (high ISO) and its 1080p video recording ability. The first movie demo&nbspwas created by Vincent La Foret, check it out. The 5D Mark II started shipping on November 25th.

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$43.99, The Clone Wars - Lightsaber Duels by LucasArts
$209.99, OCZ OCZSSD2-1C128G 128gb 2.5 inch SATA2
$499.00, OLYMPUS E-510 1 LENS KIT
$649.00, SAMSUNG PN42ﾪ 42inch PLASMA HDTV
$29.99, 16GB SDHC CARD KINGSTON

More deals at www.Uberbargain.com

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We’ve heard a lot about Blu-ray in the past couple of years but is the technology any closer to making it into your home this Christmas? This time last year the high-defintion (HD) war was in full swing between Blu-ray and HD DVD but dedicated players [excluding the Ṕ] were not cheap. Now, a year on, Blu-ray stands alone and the path to HD immortality and becoming the ‘next DVD’ stands clear but are players cheap enough to tempt you to stick one in your stocking this Silly Season?Last year, dedicated Blu-ray players - apart from being few and far between in the UK - boasted wallet-crushing price tags ranging from £400-800. This time out, prices are a more reasonable £200 and [much] higher, but you can also get older Blu-ray spinners for around £150. So, will you be taking the Blu-ray plunge or holding out? Let us know.-Martin Lynch blu-ray movies christmas

I am invited by the International Marketing Council of South Africa to see some of their best technology, and to get a sense of the country. All expenses are paid but I will write what I want about this trip. Africa is not the first place that comes in mind when we think about broadband connection and technology, so I thought that it could be good to go and check out what is going on there. I arrived two days ago in Johannesburg at the Rosebank Hotel and I met the other bloggers last night during an instructive dinner. Check out the photos by clicking on the gallery button, all names will be written later when I confirm the right spelling.

During the week, we will visit the deepest mine in the world (3.7 km underground!), and the largest diamond mining ship in a government secured area, this is for sure backed by some serious technology! We will get a demo of the South African electric car and I will discover the latest Web apps that are coming up here.

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Linux geeks will rejoice when they hear that the first build of a Linux-based firmware is successfully running on the iPhone 3G and iPod touch. The software is running the 2.6 Linux kernel and basic support for graphics, serial and input over the USB interface. Developers have also created a multi-boot OS selection screen known as OpeniBoot to let users select between Apple’s iPhone OS and alternative platforms.

This is the first we have heard of Linux or any other non-OSX operating system running on the iPhone. It is definitely a step beyond just jail breaking or unlocking the phones. The iPhone dev team is looking to add more full featured support in iPhone Linux for the touchscreen, accelerometer, audio, networking and then later on maybe have the Linux-based Android OS on the iPhone. Isn’t there anything in the terms of use preventing this? We wonder…

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If you are looking to drop a lot of dough on a seemingly fragile speaker system then you might want to check out the Harion. These speakers made of Heat-resistant glass are manufactured by Hario, a glass maker in Tokyo. They will cost about 16 million yen or $168,000. You get a center speaker, a sub woofer, a couple of tweeters and mid-range speakers. It sounds like a lot of the cost comes from the long and difficult development. Three years, eight months and 23 subcontractors is what it took for them to put out a finished product. Good news though, an executive from Hario says that if they get a minimum of ten orders they may be able to lower the price to around $105,000 per unit. That may be more in your price range. No word on what they sound like.

I would guess (or more likely, hope…) that the sound quality should be high to match the cost!

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The video streaming service that fell short of almost everyone’s expectations may be back with a vengeance. You may remember their technical problems, lack of content and not extremely accessible service. Now they have released an iPhone app that is pretty slick and offers quick access to their library of 46,000 plus videos. I have downloaded it myself and it only takes about two taps minimum to get to a popular show or episode. It is very quick and the video quality is high. You may occasionally see some stuttering but it did not happen enough for me to be unhappy. What did dampen the smile on my face was the requirement for Wi-Fi. That’s right it won′t work over EDGE or 3G, you must be connected to Wi-Fi. There are some other failures in the interface as they break some design conventions Apple set forth and fail to implement common sense features like incremental find. Overall though the experience is simple, quick and if you just want to watch content quickly, nothing beats free. (Joost Team)

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Electronista got hold of a tip that claims Motorola’s RAZR line of phones may be coming to a halt. The tip included a photo of a prototyped codenamed “Ruby” that may have been the RAZR3. If the report is true, the reason for this action is unclear but could be related to the choice of OS.

Previous reports have pointed towards Motorola using the Symbian related UIQ interface, but Motorola now plans on moving forward with Android and Windows Mobile. This news is too bad because we could have seen features like a five-megapixel camera with an LED flash, 3G, GPS, Wi-Fi and they even planned on shrinking the total footprint further. Remember this is an unconfirmed report, it may be a little while longer before we know what is up Motorola’s sleeve.

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