some great improvements BUT!

1 fonts need fixing, srs ugliness going on...

2 whats with the crop line in comments ? cutting off g's y's and )'s ??

3 Huge Fluro blue reply box ? take the opacity down - all the comments seriously fade away with such a bright object next to them.

4 Highest rank should be green , Highly Ranked should be blue - green stands out more than using the same fluro blue as the reply box.

apart from those annoyances its looking pretty sweet, loving the most commented box and the archives cal.

at £4,850 does it come with a free canon 5dmkii , iphone 3GS 32GB, ps3 slim and a LED LCD TV ?

Anyone who is into film / doco's / film making will appreciate Phil's fantastic insight into capturing strange and interesting characters in their environment, this video is a great sampling from a certain area at a certain time.... Beautifully shot and a great little snippet from that particular environment and the characters around him.

I know a lot of 5Dmii owners are hoping for a firmware update - but i wonder if the rolling shutter is significantly less if that isn't a hardware implementation on the 7D ? would be interesting to see some A/B pans between the two...

As a filmmaker - things have never been more exciting - apart from having to choose which path to take!

Firstly this is entirely relative.... if you have a new / decent motherboard - chances are it has a good onboard sound unit - however what really makes a difference is how your listening to your sounds - if its through speakers / phones that are el cheapo - you are not going to gain much + so while the sound may improve slightly - ultimately it probably wont improve enough to be a worthwhile expense.

Im using onboard sound at the moment with some OK logitech 5.1's that ive made 2.1's (no need for surround + hassle of more stuff)...
The quality is fine , but as a music listener as well as a gamer - i have been meaning to upgrade... was originally going to go for something like a creative X-fi card and Z5500's but that was a while ago.

Now I realise Creative's quality is not the same as it was many moons ago - and their drivers / software problems etc are nasty.

So now the game appears to be something like this

Gamer then Music
Auzentech X-fi Forte , Any Auzentech card
Music then Gamer
Asus Xonar STX , DS ,DX2 etc...

or if your pretty much 50/50 which is where im at - im looking at

New Xonar HDAV1.3 Slim Sound Card OR Auzen X-Fi HomeTheater HD

leaning towards the Auzen as a gamer, but ultimately I think the biggest upgrade per performance are speakers / phones THEN get a card.... (ideally you do both at the same time)

depending the how the reviews of those 2 new cards come out... I may even sacrifice a touch of gaming quality sound and get the ASUS Xonar STX - From what i understand the gaming quality sound that reviews mention is primarily associated with 5.1 .

In addition to the new card, Ive decided not to go for the logi z5500's but get some quality monitor speakers ( Dynaudio ) unless logitech bring out a top quality 2.1 set out... it's gonna cost me a lot more - but I listen to a lot of flac / wav + believe a good set of speakers will last a long time. May even add a sub later...

My advice to most people is to look out how they are listening to their music / games - and then asses if the quality of their audio could be improved from their BEFORE looking at a sound card. On board has gotten a LOT better , but ultimately if you have some nice speakers or phones - it can be a worthy upgrade at getting a nice sound card - not too mention another 3-5fps if your a gamer by taking stress of the mobo.

my 2c

@ andy.. you comment made me think of HDDVD AA.

HDDVD Anonymous club.

"I'm an HDDVD supporter. " "I used to watch 2 sometimes 3 a day.... I used to think about how I would buy more to help the format survive and get better....but it didnt...it JUST DIDNT...!!! *starts crying* "

(no offence, I agree with your post)

Brilliant, that is actually extremely useful for when your OS / drivers have issues and you need to get updates / patches etc....

good work ASUS, this is definately on the xmas list.

sorry if my last comment was a bit hard lined... just tired of people getting mislead via incorrect info / words getting thrown around on media sites.
(bioshock DRM perfect example)

and Church pls show me where you have sony confirming this being a rootkit? I believe "Sony confirms security problem" is what they are saying...

"The Microvault software does not hide processes or registry keys."
It appears to install hidden files / directories -
"The cloaking is most likely used to protect fingerprint authentication from tampering. Sony is attempting to protect the user's own data."
"rootkit-like cloaking techniques"
"Sony's software installs a driver that creates a hidden folder using rootkit techniques."

^ All taken from F secure's site, the ones who picked it up in the first place...

I mean fair enough sony screwed up a bit and should be going around things in a different matter, but assuming any problem with sony + software = rootkit... is a bit reckless IMO..

anyways, just wanted to vent..!

OH LOOK! another article about sony! lets see if we can throw "root kit" in there!
"well...its actually not a rootki"...Who cares throw it anyway! worked a treat in misleading people with Bioshock!

Cmon Engadget, stop dancing around the point... if you wanna say something, say it with HEART!... "Oh look, SONY Fucked up again!"

;)

Now this is getting interesting !! especially what the forum admin mentioned below:

Bay: Forgot to ask...

Is it possible that Spielberg could get Transformers released on both HD DVD and Blu-ray? Paramount/DreamWorks are exclusive to HD DVD except for Spielberg-directed films. His movies will continue to be released on both formats. Do you think he could get this film released on both since he produced it?

One can hope. Let's find out how strong the Spielberg card is.
***********

interesting times indeed....!

Now this is getting interesting !! especially what the forum admin mentioned below:

Bay: Forgot to ask...

Is it possible that Spielberg could get Transformers released on both HD DVD and Blu-ray? Paramount/DreamWorks are exclusive to HD DVD except for Spielberg-directed films. His movies will continue to be released on both formats. Do you think he could get this film released on both since he produced it?

One can hope. Let's find out how strong the Spielberg card is.
***********

interesting times indeed....!