It has been reported over the weekend that Microsoft pulled the plug on its Xbox 360 HD DVD player. The move is not surprising considering that Toshiba, a manufacturer of the car already decided to leave the market for HD DVD hardware. The $ 49.99 price is probably down to the player who has seen his fall MSRP of $ 199.99 to $ 179.99 to $ 129.99 during the past year. The Xbox 360 HD DVD player is available for shipment on the website of Best Buy, or if you prefer, in-store pickup is available if you want to get even sooner.

Potential buyers should keep in mind that Microsoft still intends to provide products support and warranty service for the Xbox 360 HD DVD player. Customers are still able to receive a free five films via an HD DVD Rebate [PDF] if they wish. The devices, as its name indicates is primarily targeted at Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console, however, it can also be used on Windows-based PCs. Microsoft said from the beginning that it was to offer its customers a choice in supplying the HD DVD drive as an optional accessory instead of standard Sony’s PlayStation 3. The Leap to include Blu-ray standard on all equipment sold PS3 may prove to be a boon to Sony that its Xbox 360 recorded for the first time in the United States during the month of January - Warner Bros. A announced its decision to back Blu-ray in early January.

Intel has introduced “Skulltrail” as a special designed mother board for people that need a little bit extra CPU and graphic power. The board offers two CPU sockets and support both SLI and Crossfire. The processor you should get for this is the Core 2 Extreme QX 9775 and with two of these and maybe two Geforce 9800GX2 card you should have enough power to play the most games out there. The processor has 12 MB L2-cache, 1600FSB and runs on 3,2 GHz but can be clocked a lot if you want. The Mainboard will be on 650 bucks which is acceptable with todays low dollar value. If you plan to get two processors you should however prepare yourself to completely empty your wallet. If you plan to get this rig you should also use a 64-bit OS so that you can get past the 4 GB memory boarder.

Microsoft has now ended the beta testing of their net storage service called Windows Live SkyDrive. The service has been launched in 38 countries so far. With Windows Live SkyDrive you got the possibility to password protect files in personal folders. There is also a folder where you can share files with a special group of users or make them available for everyone.
This new service in full version will contain improvement like:

you will find Windows Live SkyDrive on skydrive.live.com.

According to Mozilla, Firefox has now been downloaded over 500 million times. hey don’t tell us what version of the web browser they talk about so probably they mean all versions together. Mozilla has decided to use this opportunity together with the project FreeRice to give away rice to the world’s poorest people. Mozilla invites to word games which will give money for the project, a word game you will be able to find on freerice.com. The game is a simple word game and each time someone answers right you will give 20 rice corns to FN’s hunger program (UN World Food Program). Mozilla pays with money they get from commercials. Feel free to read more about the project on spreadfirefox.com

With Quadro FX 3600M, Nvidia offers a graphic solution for the more demanding and professional users which works with graphics and video production. The solution is thecompanies new top model in its class. Here are some of the specs:

• 512 MB GDDR3
• 256-bit
• 51,2 GB/s memory bandwidth
• Max 70 Watt effect usage
• MXM v2.1A type-III
• OpenGL 2.-1 and DirectX 10 (SM 4.0)-support
• Cuda-support

The first machines on the market with this card will be HP Compaq 8710w og Dells Precision M6300.