Yahoo! invests at 09:52

Yahoo! invests $500,000 in Egyptian innovation campaign

Yahoo! and Egypt-based NGO Nahdet El Mahrousa have launched a campaign called ‘Social Innovation Starts with YOU' that hopes to inspire and motivate young Egyptians to be social entrepreneurs.

The campaign is in line with the U.S. Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship that will take place on April 26 - 27, 2010 in Washington D.C., where Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang will deliver a keynote speech on how the Internet can positively transform lives, societies, and economies in Arab communities.

Starting this April, two Egyptian social entrepreneurs between the ages of 21 and 35 years will be featured on the campaign's website, sharing their stories and offering advice to future entrepreneurs. This will continue till June so that up to ten entrepreneurs are featured, with visitors voting for the entrepreneur that they think has made the biggest impact on their communities.

Etisalat launches email at 08:34

Etisalat launches email and IM-only BlackBerry service
UAE telecoms operator Etisalat has launched a new email and messaging-only service for BlackBerry users. While customers will find their internet browsing abilities limited, they will have access to ten email accounts and instant messaging (IM) applications.






The telco said the package was targeted at individual and business customers, who prefer to use ‘no frills' email on the move. It said customers subscribing to the package will be allowed access to their individual and work email accounts, without the addition of internet browsing, which will be limited only to BlackBerry smartphones with Wi-Fi capabilities.
Etisalat said the ‘Unlimited Email Plus' subscription package will cost customers AED139 ($38) a month, and does not have any limits in terms of data usage and is available for both prepaid and postpaid customers.






With the addition of the new package, Etisalat now offers five subscription packages for BlackBerry smartphones, priced from AED49 per month to AED295 per month.



Tags: BlackBerry, Etisalat International - UAE, Research In Motion, United Arab Emirates

Missing e-waste is cause for concern in UAE at 08:53

Electronic waste that is imported into the United Arab Emirates with proper documentation becomes untraceable once it leaves the country, according to the Middle East's only government-endorsed e-scrap recycling and management firm EnviroServe.

EnviroServe warns that hundreds of tons of electronic waste across the Middle East end up in landfills every year, but that estimation is generous compared to the recent United Nations Environment Programme report that revealed Morocco alone throws away 13,500 metric tons of PC and 15,100 metric tons of TV e-waste annually.

Here in the United Arab Emirates there are several recycling campaigns to deal with old cellphones and computers, but Zornitza Hadjitodorova, division manager at EnviroServe, believes that more needs to be done in terms of specific e-waste laws and greater accountability.

"E-waste keeps entering the country, whereby proper (import) codes are introduced - however, when e-waste leaves the country, there are no more codes so it becomes increasingly hard to trace where e-waste eventually lands. There are huge quantities leaving on ships from Sharjah and we do not have any data on those shipments," she says, adding that there are several scrap dealers in the country are free to do what they wish with the e-waste they collect, including just dumping it in landfills instead of seeing if any of the material can be reused or recycled.

"In the region, e-waste is a new topic. Hence, there is no legislation, regulations or general municipal rules on specifically e-waste. Legislation makes it compulsory for OEMs to collect end-of-life equipment, which is not the case here. There are hundreds of tons of e-waste ending up in landfills, which is a waste of space and money, not to mention the severe environmental damage," Hadjitodorova adds.
Precise e-waste figures however are impossible to obtain due to "the lack of reporting" but Hadjitodorova estimates that substantial quantities are in Saudi Arabia, based on its population size, and the United Arab Emirates since it is a key trading port in the GCC.

EnviroServe offers environmental solutions in partnership with the United Arab Emirates Federal Environment Agency (FEA) and works with DHL to get e-scrap from interested regional companies, which are then sorted and categorised into ‘green' and ‘amber' waste. Green waste such as metals, plastic, glass and paper can be easily recycled and reused, while amber waste including fluorescent tubes, CRT and LCD monitors, batteries, cables and cartridges are sent to their overseas partners.

The firm claims that nothing sent to them gets thrown away, with their operations overseen by both the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) office in Bahrain and the Ministry of Environment and Water in the UAE.

"This region faces many environmental challenges that need to be addressed and understood...but every week we sign agreements with major institutions across the UAE and that gives us the confidence that the region does want to be more environmentally responsible," concludes Hadjitodorova.

Asus EAH4870X2 TOP at 03:20

At the time of going to press Asus’ 4870X2 series consisted of two cards; the EAH4870X2 and EAH4870X2 TOP. Our test sample is the former and the ‘TOP’ lettering signifies that, like XFX’s XXX Edition cards, this card is also pre-overclocked at the factory.
In this case, Asus has clocked each of this board’s GPUs at 790MHz whilst the 2Gbytes of GDDR5 memory runs at 3.66GHz. Standard cards run at frequencies of 750MHz and 3.6GHz respectively. Beyond the added clock muscle, the EAH4870X2 TOP offers all the standard features including HDMI interface compatibility and DirectX 10.1 and Shader Model 4.1 support.
The extra muscle made the TOP a potent performer when we ran it through our benchmarking gauntlet; it returned the highest framerates we’ve ever recorded for a single card in all of our benchmarks. So, if you aren’t interested in investing in a CrossFire X or SLI multi-GPU system, this is an ideal single card purchase.
The standard clocked 4870 GPUs produce a lot of heat and given that the Asus has two overclocked GPUs and memory that is also running above standard specification, the TOP runs quite warm under load. This causes the cooling fan to run at higher speeds to keep things under control and unfortunately, is audible in a quiet room. That said, there’s not much Asus can do short of slapping on an oversized cooler until AMD starts producing these GPUs using a new, more efficient manufacturing process than the current 55nm.

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition at 03:18

When the original Phenom was launched, AMD’s new, at the time, processor performed reasonably well but wasn’t quite strong enough to pull people away from Intel’s Core line of CPUs. Flash forward to 2009 and we’re glad to say that things are now very different with the Phenom II lineup.
Our test sample Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition is the range toper and features four 3.2GHz processing cores along with 512Kbytes, 2Mbytes and 6Mbytes of L1, L2 and L3 cache respectively. Being a Black Edition processor, this CPU also features an unlocked multiplier, which means you’ll have an easier time pushing it beyond its standard frequency.
In fact the 955 Black Edition proved a champ as it happily ran at 3.7GHz without requiring any extra voltage. Cranking the voltage up and modifying the CPU’s unlocked multiplier, we eventually landed on a final clock frequency of 3.9GHz. This is impressive considering we were using a rather basic CPU cooler. This solid performance shows, without a shadow of doubt, that AMD is now getting very good yields on its 45nm manufacturing process.
Dialing back down to standard 3.2GHz speed, the Phenom II X4 955 performed very well. Its one minute 24 second render time in our Cinebench 10 multi-CPU benchmark was very strong as was its MPEG to DivX and TMPGenc encode times of 30- and 46-seconds respectively. These results make it faster than the similarly priced Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 CPU though not quite as fast as the pricier Intel Core i7 920.

Intel Core i7 870 at 03:17

Although this Core processor is known as the ‘i7 870' it is based on the Lynnfield core rather than the higher-end and more expensive ‘Bloomfield' core. To distinguish a Bloomfield chip from a Lynnfield model, you'll need to pay special attention to the model numbering; all Bloomfield CPUs feature a 900 series number (such as 920, 940), whereas Lynnfield i7 CPUs use the 800 numbering scheme (860, 870).
Retailing for US $562 the Core i7 870 is the most expensive processor in this grouptest. This chip runs at 2.93GHz and each of its four cores is HyperThreading enabled (like the Core i5 750), so the CPU can process eight threads simultaneously. Thanks to this the processor proved a hotrod when it came to running benchmarks.
Running our multi-core Cinebench 10 benchmark test the CPU completed the job in 56 seconds flat and earned a score of 15,606. These are the quickest and highest numbers in this grouptest and moving forward, the 870 continued its trailblazing performance.
It completed our WinRAR compression test in 60 seconds dead and completed our video and audio encode tests in a shattering 19, 36 and 117 seconds respectively. It was also the quickest to complete our POV Ray benchmark test, which means that this is the best CPU for those that are interested in intensive application and gaming.

Construct your PC at 03:14

The satisfaction one gets when creating something is often the motivating factor for building anything. The same goes for PCs. Sure, you could buy a pre-built PC, and it will take out the hassle of you putting one together.

But constructing your own PC can provide you with much satisfaction. And when you consider that you can build a top-dollar PC on a lower budget as oppossed to buying a pre-built PC, then it makes the PC building process that much more fun. In this guide we seek to build what will just be a standard PC. We’ll explain what each component does, provide you with buying advice for all your components and show you how to put everything together.

Safety first

The first issue to consider when putting together your PC is safety. Always be sure to touch a grounded metal object quite often so as to discharge any static buildup. Another thing to consider is that building a PC is a matter of trial and error; and, apart from consulting this guide, you will also need to search forums and do lots of Google searches when you come across a frustrating snag.

Checklist

Before we start with the PC building activity, here is a checklist of all the components we're going to show you how to put together. Obviously, you’ll need a toolkit, and in terms of components, you’ll need your case, motherboard, CPU, RAM, GPU, hard drive and heatsink. Ultimately, our PC is going to look like the image to the right, and we’ll put together the components in the above-mentioned order.

Motherboard and CPU

The Motherboard is the central printed circuit board in computers that has many of the components and connectors of the system. It’s often referred to as the main board, system board, mobo, or ‘logic board’ (for Apple computers).

Motherboard buying tips:

When buying a motherboard be aware that you first need to decide which CPU you’re going to have (either an Intel or AMD CPU). So, your board needs to be configured with the CPU that you buy. The reason why you can’t use any chip with any board is because both processor companies use different socket types, which are both pin and electrically incompatible with each other. Once you’ve decided on an AMD or Intel board, look for what chipset the motherboard is using.

If you want to use a rig with two or more graphics cards, check that your motherboard's chipset supports multi-GPU technology so that the board is compatible with more than one graphics card. Also consider the size and form factor of your chassis or case before buying a board as computer casings can be built to ATX, micro-ATX, FlexATX and BTX form factors. For your board to fit, you’ll have to ensure your board is of the same form factor. Take a look at the expansion slots offered by the motherboard as well because these slots enable you to attach graphics cards, SCSI controllers, sound cards and so on. If you’re going to be overclocking also check that the motherboard offers a tweak-friendly BIOS.

The board’s BIOS should at least offer FSB and CPU Vcore voltage manipulation, and you must further ensure it has a CPU multiplier, memory frequency and voltage options.

CPU

The Central Processing Unit (CPU) is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instruction of a computer program and is the primary element that carries out the computer’s functions. The CPU is know for carrying out what is called serial computing where software running on a single CPU breaks up a problem into a series of instructions, where only one instruction can be processed at a time.

Installing the motherboard and CPU

Installing a motherboard and CPU is not as difficult as it might look. Before you get started, you need to make sure that you have a PC case, screwdriver, motherboard, compatible CPU and a heatsink/fan.

Then you want to open up your case and get to know the interior of it a bit. Make sure that you familiarise yourself with it. You’re going to have to prepare your case and, when doing this, you’ll notice that your case will have brass standoffs that you have to screw your motherboard into.

CPU Buying Tips

Today it’s possible to get processors with many cores, which is akin to having multiple processors within one processor. If you’re going to  work with basic apps such as word processors, spreadsheet programs, web browsers and email clients, you can get away with using just a fast single core processor. If you play games at high resolutions, perform picture editing, MP3 encoding and watch HD videos on your PC, consider a multiple-core chip.

These standoffs separate the motherboard from the case, and they’re also threaded to help you screw your motherboard into them. When putting in the mobo later, be sure to size up your motherboard against the case to see where the holes line up. Often you’ll find that there are more holes then what you’ll need; so, you’ll have to line up the parts appropriately. The next step in this process is to check or replace the I/O shield. Not all motherboards will match the I/O shield that comes with your case, but fortunately most motherboards will come with their own shield. It’s also a simple matter with regard to replacing the shield, because you can push in the I/O shield until it pops out and then replace it with the new one. You might need to pop out a few covers in the shield to accommodate your board. Now that you've investigated your motherboard and case, it’s time to install the CPU, which is a delicate process.

You’ll need to unlock the CPU socket, which is usually a small plastic or metal arm that lies on the side of the CPU socket. Push the socket out and then pull it up. The next step is to align the CPU to the socket and different processors have different pin layouts on the bottom. Usually, one corner will have a diagonal section without any pins that will be different from others. (Sometimes this corner will be labeled by a small triangle on the top of the CPU as well.) Find the corresponding corner on your motherboard’s CPU socket and lower the CPU into the socket. Do not push or shove the CPU into place; the CPU should simply slot gracefully into its socket. It’s a simple process for the Intel CPU, but it’s a slightly different procedure when installing an AMD CPU into an AMD motherboard, owing to the fact that an AMD processor has a different composition with spindles that can break more easily. It’s very important that you line up the spindles with the tiny slots as pictured.