BIOS

Instant info

The Windows Control Panel gives access to some of the operating system's nuts and bolts, but it doesn't always provide as much information as it could. ReSysInfo is a basic program that presents information about a variety of your computer's components all in one spot.

ReSysInfo looks very much like the Windows Control panel, with a collection of icons representing information about drives, networks, keyboards, and other hardware and software. Unlike the Control Panel, ReSysInfo doesn't actually let you change any settings, but it does allow you to quickly view the settings and other information. There … Read more

FDA approves 60-second HIV test

Canadian firm BioLytical received FDA approval this week for the sale of its Insti HIV Rapid Antibody Test in the United States.

The test, which, at 60 seconds, will be the fastest-working on the U.S. market (others tend to take between 10 minutes and 20 minutes) is already available in more than 50 countries. In Canada's Ontario province, the kits have been available since they were first commercialized in 2006, and in British Columbia, where BioLytical is based, health authorities plan to use them for the new $48 million pilot project called Seek and Treat for the prevention … Read more

preGame 28: TGS 2010 wrap-up

With TGS 2010 in the books, we'll highlight the most notable debut trailers to come out of the show. Today on preGame we'll screen previews of The Last Guardian, DMC, Wrath of Asura, and Shadows of the Damned.

But first, we'll hop right into a brand new gameplay video of BioShock Infinite! The just-released movie certainly raises even more questions about the city of Columbia, but also gives us plenty of action to analyze.

Before we dive into the trailers from TGS 2010, we'll talk about a recent New York Times article that suggests Japanese developers … Read more

Microsoft responds to Mass Effect 2 coming to PS3

When BioWare announced Tuesday at the Gamescom conference in Germany that its Mass Effect 2--arguably the best game to hit store shelves so far in 2010--was coming to the PlayStation 3 in January, many wondered how Microsoft would respond.

Prior to the announcement, the Mass Effect franchise was available exclusively to Xbox 360 and PC gamers.

Microsoft won't say whether it's disappointed to lose Mass Effect 2's exclusivity, but the company was quick to point out in an interview with IGN, that it believes its console is still the best place to play the venerable title.

"… Read more

preGame 23: Mafia II

Today on preGame we pick out a nice suit and get our hands dirty with a live demo of Mafia II.

But first, we'll take an in-depth look at the trailer to last week's announcement of a brand-new BioShock game, BioShock Infinite. Does the game take place in the same universe as the original? Will there be Big Daddies in Infinite? Join us as we tackle some of the big questions raised from the thrilling video.

A ton of gaming news to hit today, so we round up the major stories including Mass Effect 2 coming to the … Read more

The 404 644: Where we play Angry Birds while waiting for BioShock Infinite (podcast )

Brace yourself for a lot of video game news on today's episode of The 404 Podcast as we discuss Wilson's obsession with throwing pigs at cats, Street Fighter experts offering lessons for $50 an hour, Rage running on an Apple iPhone, and BioShock Infinite!

Fresh off the success of this year's BioShock 2, the creators of the original game just announced a complete reimagining of the franchise in the form of BioShock Infinite. The original BioShock enjoyed countless game of the year awards, thanks to its creative storytelling. Ken Levine, creative director at Irrational Games, tells us … Read more

Bioshock Infinite

Links from Friday's episode of Loaded: Google adds Voice Action and Chrome to Android 2.2 Irrational Games announces BioShock Infinite Twitter launches Tweet button Internet Explorer 9 to debut in September ASUS tablets are coming soon

Developer: Game consoles aren't the future

BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk had some rather interesting things to say this week about the future of the gaming business.

Zeschuk, whose company has created major console hits like Mass Effect 2, said that going forward, the video game industry won't rely so heavily on the console market. In fact, he believes consoles could be a relic of the past as more players turn to portable devices to get their game on.

"The future isn't necessarily on console," Zeschuk said at the Develop Conference, an event for European game developers. "That's the past. It'… Read more

Gentle touch of nanochip can detect oral cancer

Researchers at Rice University have found that a simple swipe of a diagnostic biochip is 93 percent "specific" in detecting which of 52 patients being studied had malignant, as well as premalignant, lesions--results they say compare well with traditional (but more invasive) screening.

"One of the key discoveries in this paper is to show that the miniaturized, noninvasive approach produces about the same result as the pathologists do," says John McDevitt, the Brown-Wiess Professor of Chemistry and Bioengineering at Rice, in a news release this week.

McDevitt's lab developed the novel nano-biochip technology at the … Read more

Digital City Super Bowl tech, Dante vs Bioshock, and iPad alternatives (podcast)

Please excuse the late posting of this week's show video, the gremlins were apparently working overtime to cause tech trouble.

This week, we give the Super Bowl a postmortem, from the on-site A/V equipment to the commercials, then debate whether Dante is spinning in his grave over his recent brush with video game fame.

Finally, iPad alternatives are popping up all over the place, and we talk about some of the models we've got in our testing Lab right now.