List of DirectX 11 Games

AMD confirms DirectX 11 games: Battleforge, Stalker: Call of Pripyat, Dirt 2 and Alien vs. Predator.

AMD offers some insight on DirectX 11 powered games in a current blog on their website. According to AMD, Battleforge, Stalker: Call of Pripyat and Dirt 2 will feature DX11 so that their Radeon 5000 series will have serious advantages this year.

During the launch of Ati Eyefinity, AMD also talked about games that will come out in the next months powered by DirectX 11. There were a lot of rumours surrounding the DX11 games list, and until now just Dirt 2 was a serious contended. Now AMD lifted the curtain for:
• Battleforge (EA) - around September/October 2009
• Stalker: Call of Pripyat (GSC) - November 2009
• Dirt 2 (Codemasters) - December 2009

Also, it's rather obvious that the fourth game in the DX11 series will be Alien vs. Predator (beginning of 2010) as the Rebellion developers make an appearance in a DX11 video from AMD. So why does AMD now talk about DX11 games? Here's the reason from AMD itself:

    Now, if you are a gamer you undoubtedly will be asking me "What games are going to support DirectX 11″? This is always a tightrope to walk for us as we are unable to pre-announce our technology partners titles and the specs around those titles; still, we want to give the consumer confidence that we've been assured there will be substantial titles in the market that take full advantage of your ATI Radeon DirectX 11-compliant graphics card.

Source : pcgameshardware.com

Technorati Tags: Games,DirectX11,AMD,ATI

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Facebook strips down to Lite site

The world's biggest social networking site has launched a slimmed-down version for people with slow or poor internet connections.

Facebook has said the Lite site will be faster and simpler because it offers fewer services than the main site.

Initially it is meant to support users in developing countries and where bandwidth constraints make the current version too slow to use.

At the moment it is only available in India and the US.

The company said around 70% of its more than 250 million users were from outside America. Countries in Southeast Asia and Europe are seeing a massive increase in growth where fast internet connections are more common.

News that Facebook was testing the Lite site was first leaked in August.

'Twitter-like'

The options on Facebook Lite are limited to letting users write on their wall, post photos and videos, view events and browse other people's profiles. There are no apps or special boxes.

"It appears, at a quick glance, to be a better site for Facebook newbies or for anyone who finds the current site overwhelming and noisy," said Rafe Needleman at technology website Cnet.

"The new layout feels almost Twitter-like."

Terence O'Brien at Switched.com gave the slimmed-down version of what he called "ol' blue" the thumbs-up because it "strips away distractions".

"The simple site loads noticeably faster, is easier to navigate, and is much easier on the eyes thanks to the lack of people sending you 'virtual booze' or asking you to join their 'vampire fraternity'.

"The new layout seems like a direct challenge to Twitter, which can attribute much of its success to is simplicity and portability," said Mr O'Brien.

More : news.bbc.co.uk

Technorati Tags: Facebook,Lite,Twitter,Social

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Download DirectX 11 for Windows Vista SP2

Microsoft is beginning to backport Windows 7 features to Windows Vista, and as an integral part of the process, the company is also upgrading Vista’s graphics technology to the level of Windows 7.

In this regard, the Redmond-based company has made available for download the Beta development milestone of the Platform Update for Windows Vista. It is via the Platform Update for Windows Vista Beta that users running the second service pack for Vista will be able to access the new DirectX 11 package, and bring the operating system that succeeded Windows XP on par with Windows 7.

Essentially, what Vista SP2 users will be getting is the latest iteration of the DirectX platform. DirectX 11 is in no way a single component. It is, however, a sum of technologies packaged together. The Platform Update for Windows Vista Beta offers the complete new DirectX package, allowing end users and developers to take advantage of components such as DirectWrite, Direct2D, Direct3D 11, Direct3D 10 Level 9, and DXGI 1.1. In addition, the download will also deliver Windows Graphics, Imaging, and XPS Library updates to the Windows Imaging Components, XPS Print API, and the XPS Rasterization Service. Following the integration of the Platform Update for Windows Vista Beta, customers will have the same DirectX technologies on Windows Vista as in Windows 7.

A critical aspect that must be noted is that Microsoft will only target Windows Vista SP2 with the DirectX package in Platform Update for Windows Vista. Users that are currently still running the RTM or SP1 versions of Vista will not be getting upgraded, unless they first upgrade to Service Pack 2. The same is valid for Windows Server 2008, with only SP2 being supported for the DirectX upgrade introduced with the Platform Update for Windows Vista, and RTM-SP1 being ignored completely. SP2 is mandatory for the time being; however, the Platform Update for Windows Vista's DirectX refresh is bound to be tailored to Service Pack 3 (SP3) for Vista and Windows Server 2008 moving onward.

Microsoft revealed that it would offer the Platform Update for Windows Vista through Windows Update. The refresh will be supplied automatically via WU and will be labeled a "recommended" install. The Beta release of the Platform Update for Windows Vista is already served through WU. According to Microsoft, plans are in place for official launch during the Windows 7 general availability time frame. The Redmond-based company mentioned nothing about the possibility of DirectX 11 to be offered as a standalone download to Vista users.

source: news.softpedia.com

Technorati Tags: Vista,DirectX11,Windows

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Download KDE for Windows

The KDE on Windows team today announced the immediate availability of "Caizen", (a.k.a KDE 4.3.0) a new stable Release of KDE.

This release contains many bug fixes and some new applications. The binary packages could be installed with the installer by using the version "stable 4.3.0" (or "stable latest").

In case you are upgrading your KDE installation, deselect the skip basic settings checkbox on the first installer page and press next until you are guided to the release settings page, where you can choose the required version.

In this release major changes have been made to the infrastructure used by KDE on Windows: The msvc-packages have moved to the Visual Studio 9.0-compiler and packages for MinGW 4.4.0 have also been added. This will also mean that if the MinGW 4.4.0 packages show that they are stable enough, MinGW 3.4.5 packages might be discontinued in one of the coming releases.

The KDE on Windows Project is aimed at native porting of the KDE applications to MS Windows. Currently Windows 2000, XP, 2003 and Vista are supported.

The preferred way of installing KDE apps under Windows is the KDE-Installer.

KDE on Windows is not in the final state, so applications can be unsuitable for day to day use yet.

For some help from the project members join the IRC channel #kde-windows on freenode.

Go get it : windows.kde.org/

Technorati Tags: KDE,Windows,Download,Linux

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Download Internet Explorer 8 To Feeding America

Microsoft in their support of the Hunger Action Month rolls out “Browser for the Better” website which aims donations to Feeding America. For every download of Windows Internet Explorer 8 from this site, Microsoft will continue to donate 8 meals to Feeding America.

And during Hunger Action Month they will double that donation for people upgrading from Windows Internet Explorer 6.

More : Browserforthebetter.com

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Internet,Explorer,8

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Google offices ablaze after rooftop barbecue goes wrong

A blaze broke out at Google's British headquarters today, when a rooftop barbecue got out of control.

The blaze broke out on the roof patio of the company's London offices at lunchtime, the fire brigade said.

Around 5,000 Google staff and employees from other firms based in the six-floor building were evacuated.

Within minutes nearby workers had posted pictures of the blaze on the social networking website Twitter.

A spokesman from Google said: 'We have free food for staff at our offices and today was a barbecue day. We were having a barbecue on the patio where the fire started, but we're waiting to hear from the firefighters whether the two are linked.'

Firefighters were called just before 2pm to Victoria in south west London and spent two hours bringing it under control.

A spokesman for the London Fire Brigade said: 'We attended a six-storey building on Buckingham Palace Road. We had four fire engines in attendance with 20 fire fighters.

'A small patio area on the fifth floor was alight.'

He said there would be an investigation once the fire was put out.

The Google spokesman added: 'There was no serious damaged to the building and thankfully no one was hurt. We're all back in the offices now.'

The internet giant has developed a reputation for being one of the world's most employee-friendly businesses.

In its world HQ in California, staff have access to volleyball courts, swimming pools video games, ping pong, pinball machines and even a baby grand piano.

The only people found wearing suits and ties are visiting businessmen, 'Googlers' wear jeans, t-shirts, sweaters and on occasion some even show up in pyjama bottoms.

Other perks include free haircuts, dry cleaning and laundry, child care, car services and five onsite doctors available for employee check-ups; all free of charge.

From : dailymail

Technorati Tags: Google,Blaze,Office,Fire

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Windows Live Mail 2009 14.0.8089.0726 Update Detailed

The past week, Microsoft released a collection of updates for all the clients under the Windows Live Essentials brand umbrella but failed to provide details on what the refreshes brought to the table.

It took the Windows Live mail team a couple of days to make public the information related to the introduction of Windows Live Mail 2009 14.0.8089.0726. While end users had access and could download Build 14.0.8089.0726 of Windows Live Mail since August 19, 2009, only later the past week did Microsoft provide information on the update. Still, the Windows Live Mail team is an exception; additional teams, including the group building Windows Live Messenger, continue to keep mum even at this point in time.
Rodger Benson, lead program manager, Windows Live Mail, revealed that the Build 14.0.8089.0726 refresh was designed to solve some incompatibility issues with the email client that was stripped from the Windows client OS and moved into the Cloud. In addition, the latest Build of Windows Live Mail also introduces fixes for bugs reported to Microsoft by end users through feedback.
“Windows Live Mail can now properly import Outlook Express mail account settings that were transferred from a Windows XP to a new Vista or Windows 7 system using the Windows Easy Transfer wizard,” Benson explained. “Some users had problems launching Windows Live Mail and we have addressed this. In some cases, after you closed Windows Live Mail, the application would appear to close, but the wlmail.exe process would continue to run in the background. That process would prevent Mail from launching in the future. On Vista and Windows 7, Windows Live Mail wouldn’t connect properly to POP email servers using SSL. In particular, this affected some users of Yahoo! Mail.”
As I have told you since last week, applying the update to Windows Live Mail will take the version number of the email client all the way to Build 14.0.8089.0726. Microsoft has said nothing yet about distributing the updates automatically to all the components of the Windows Live Essentials but the version number of Windows Live Mail can be checked through the About Windows Live Mail dialog.
Windows Live Mail 2009 14.0.8089.0726 is available for download here.
Windows Live Family Safety is available for download here.
Windows Live Writer 14.0.8089.726 is available for download here.
Windows Live Photo Gallery 2009 14.0.8081.709 is available for download here.
Windows Live Messenger 9.0 (2009) 14.0.8089.726 is available for download here

source: news.softpedia.com

Technorati Tags: Live Mail,Download,Windows

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