[H]ardNews 12th Edition

Rage 550 Pro Theater Chip

Hexus got their hands on a couple of ATI Rage 550 Pro PCI and PCI-E tuner cards. As the cards were non working samples used to hand out to media so they could get a closer look at them, Hexus did what any one of us would do. They took pictures of the board on a plate of beans. Just remember this caveat:

We should have samples for review pretty soon, and I should point out that Theater 550 PRO tuner boards, as you see in the above photographs, are not the basis of a good nutritional diet. No matter how tasty they look with some Heinz on toast.

Microsoft FAT Patent Overturned

Well it looks like the Public Patent Foundation's request to overturn Microsoft's patent on the FAT file system have come to some fruition. This in no way implies that the patent has been ruled invalid, as Microsoft still has a chance to respond to the ruling.

In the reexamination proceeding initiated earlier this year by the Public Patent Foundation ("PUBPAT"), the United States Patent and Trademark Office has rejected all of the claims of Microsoft's patent on the FAT file system, which Microsoft describes as "the ubiquitous format used for interchange of media between computers, and, since the advent of inexpensive, removable flash memory, also between digital devices."

Also, you can read C|Net's take on the issue here.