Possible Half-Life 3 concept art

It has been almost five years since Valve released Half-Life 2: Episode 2, and up until now there have been very little signs that Valve will continue or is working on another Half-Life game. A few days ago, however, some supposed leaked concept art of the next Half-Life surfaced via Valve Time.

The concept art doesnt reveal much about what Valve may have in mind for the next Half-Life because most of the pictures are depictions of Alyx Vance and some apparel for enduring cold weather. The ending of Half-Life 2: Episode 2 suggested that Freeman and Vance were heading to the Borealis, hence, the crashed helicopter in the snow and some snuggly outfits.

You can check out all the concept art via this Facebook page, and follow this steam forum thread and decide for yourself if Valve is indeed working on another Half-Life title. We have reached out to Valve concerning the concept art, but have not received any response. We’ll update if and when Valve decide to reply.

SanDisk unveils Sansa Clip+ portable media player

Milpitas, Calif., August 31, 2009 - SanDisk today announced the Sansa Clip+ MP3 player. The new Sansa Clip+ MP3 player comes equipped with a new microSD memory card slot that enables consumers to listen to thousands of additional songs effortlessly.

microSD Card Compatibility Offers Major Music Enjoyment:
As the successor to the best selling full-featured sub-$100 MP3 player in America, the Sansa Clip+ MP3 player is fully compatible with SanDisk slotRadio™ and slotMusic™ cards, as well as any microSD card pre-loaded with music. By sliding any of these cards into the new Sansa Clip+ memory card slot, music lovers can instantly listen to premium songs and handcrafted playlists without consuming any of the device's onboard memory.

- slotRadio cards: SanDisk slotRadio cards (starting at $39.99 MSRP, U.S. only) give consumers immediate access to some of their favorite styles of music, including Rock, Country, Oldies and Hip Hop/R&B. Most slotRadio cards contain 1,000 songs** featuring chart topping artists from the Billboard® charts.

- slotMusic cards: Consumers can also insert a SanDisk slotMusic card into their Sansa Clip+ MP3 player's microSD card slot to plug-and-play the latest albums (on microSD card) from today's hottest artists, as well as greatest hits' compilations from past decades (cards start at $14.99 MSRP, U.S. only). slotMusic cards make music portable and can also be used in mobile phones with a microSD card slot that can play MP3 files, computers with a microSD USB reader or an SD card adapter, and even some car stereos with a microSD USB reader or SD card adapter.

- Custom-loaded microSD cards: Consumers have the option of inserting a microSD card loaded with their own music library to listen to - up to 4,000 additional songs1 per 16GB card - which again adds interoperability with other devices, including mobile phones that are microSD card compatible.

Tailor made for budget and time-conscious music fans looking for the best MP3 player for the money, the Sansa Clip+ MP3 player offers outstanding sound quality; long-lasting rechargeable battery; bright, easy-to-read screen, and compact wearable design.

The Sansa Clip+ MP3 player is expected to be available at sandisk.com and bestbuy.com on Aug. 31, and at other retailers nationwide on Sept. 13. The device will be available in Canada and Europe in time for the holiday season. The music player comes in a variety of capacities, including 2-gigabytes (GB) of onboard memory for up to 500 songs for $39.99 (MSRP), 4GB which holds up to 1,000 songs1 for $49.99, and 8GB, which has an up to 2,000-song1 capacity for just $69.99.

Consumers can show off their style by choosing the Sansa Clip+ MP3 player in red, blue or black. (Capacity and associated colors vary.)

Subzero Overclocking, Memories, SSDs and Babes @ G.Skill's Computex Booth

Swedish overclocker Elmor representing MSI on Tuesday

Japans Fredyama and VR-Zone legend Shamino (good mood) for ASUS on Wednesday

LN2 Pots by Kingpincooling.com

Schedule of events and showtime

G.Skills record breaking TridentX memory modules (our review), capable of achieving frequencies beyond 3000+MHz in the hands of knowledgable enthusiasts and good CPU memory controller.

G.Skill finally refreshed their Phoenix line of SSDs with a SATA III model (SF-2281 based). Capacities of 120GB and 240GBwill hit retail end of this month (June).

Sapphire Rolls Out HD 7870 FleX with Dual-X Graphics Card

Sapphire announced the Radeon HD 7870 FleX with Dual-X graphics card. It features a reconfigured display output logic, which supports up to three DVI monitors, without needing active DP-DVI adapters. The first two monitors can be connected to the two DVI ports, while the third one can be connected to the HDMI port, without needing any active adapters. Since HDMI is electrically compatible with DVI-I, the third monitor not only gets a digital connection, but also one that is HDCP-compliant. The card hence delivers aa true SLS (Single Large Surface) display head that spans across the three physical displays.

The second major feature is its cooling solution, said to be a variation of the Dual-X cooler, which the company used on a few high-end Radeon HD 7900 series models. The cooler uses a combination of 8 mm-thick and 6 mm-thick copper heat pipes to draw heat from the GPU, making direct contact with it, and transport it to the large aluminum fin stack that runs the entire length of the card. The stack is then ventilated by two 80 mm fans.

The Sapphire HD 7870 FleX with Dual-X graphics card ships with AMD reference clock speeds, 1000 MHz core and 1200 MHz (4.80 GHz GDDR5 effective) memory. The card holds 2 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 256-bit wide memory interface. Based on the 28 nm "Pitcairn XT" silicon, the Radeon HD 7870 packs 1,280 Graphics CoreNext stream processors, and is DirectX 11.1 compliant.

The card is 26 cm long. It draws power from two 6-pin PCI-Express power connectors. It can pair with any other Radeon HD 7800 series graphics card in CrossFireX configuration. Display outputs include one each of DVI-D, DVI-I, HDMI 1.4a, and DisplayPort 1.2 connectors. Sapphire did not disclose pricing, but we expect it to charge a tiny premium over other AMD reference design HD 7870 graphics cards.

Philips GoGear MP3 Players Promise Richer Sound

Singapore – With its latest range of GoGear audio and video players, Philipssets a new standard in sound quality on the go with its patented FullSound™technology that brings MP3 music to life. One of the main criticisms made byportable MP3 player users today is poor sound quality playback from MP3formatted music that often comes across as flat, dull and lacking in detail.This is because much of the sound information is lost when the music files areresized to fit on the players. Music enthusiasts won’t accept this. They wanttheir music playback on the go to be as close as possible to the soundperformance of their home stereo.

The latest generation of Philips GoGear products incorporates the new and uniquePhilips patented FullSound™ technology which raises the bar for MP3 soundquality playback. FullSound™ puts the liveliness and natural dynamics back toMP3 music by faithfully restoring sonic detail to compressed MP3 format soconsumers on-the-go experience the same sound quality as in their living room.

Philips next-generation GoGear players

GoGear SA52 series

Top of the range is the SA52 series boasting a crisp 2.8” color screen forvideos, photos and album artwork. The superb sound experience is supported withthe addition of premium quality Angletube earphones. The curved earphonesfeature an ergonomically-designed Angled Acoustic Pipe that is shaped toprecisely channel sound waves directly to the eardrum, and as a result minimizesound distortion.

The SA52 supports a huge selection of video and audio formats and features anintegrated FM radio tuner. Supported audio formats include MP3, WMA and AAC,while AVI, MPEG1, 2 and 4, DVD (vob), MOV, WMV, RM and WMV videos can be enjoyedon-screen.

The player comes with 2GB to 4GB of storage space and delivers 30 hours of musicor six hours video playback after each full charge.

The SA52 also comes with a Bluetooth-enabled 4GB version for stereo audiooutput, providing ultimate wireless entertainment on the go.

GoGear SA32 series

Philips also offers the smaller GoGear SA32 player, which delivers the samesound quality with a bright 1.8” color screen and comfortable earphones. Thisplayer provides identical audio and video playback and synchronizing with theWindows Media Player. It delivers up to 20 hours of audio or four hours of videoplayback when fully charged.

GoGear SA28 series

The smallest model with FullSound™ is the GoGear SA28. This chic and compactplayer brings high quality music quality to a pocket MP3 player. It features asharp OLED screen, an easy-to-use drag and drop music transfer system, and 20hours of uninterrupted music playback.

The FullSound™ technology

Philips has used its expertise in music reproduction and the latest DigitalSound Processor (DSP) technology to create FullSound™, which analyzes the musicsignal and enriches it by dynamically enhancing the frequency spectrum anddensity. FullSound™ restores the emotion and warmth to music that MP3 takes away– achieved by faithfully restoring sonic detail to compressed MP3 music.Performing 10 million operations per second, the signal is reprocessed before itis sent to the speakers, without adding unwanted noise or distortion fornaturally clean, warm and powerful sonics.

The chart illustrates sound dynamics – the relationship between the lowest/softest and highest / loudest reproduced sounds – when FullSound™ is on (right)and off (left). In order to experience the effect of FullSound™ go tohttp://www.philips.com/gogear

Price and availability

The new Philips GoGear players featuring FullSound™ are now availableexclusively at major consumer electronics retail outlets and departmental storesacross Singapore, with a recommended retail price starting from S$ 99.