We knew driver-enabled PhysX support was due for NVIDIA's line some time soon, but HotHardware's reporting that GeForce 8 and 9-series owners will finally have it when ForceWare 177.39 ships alongside the GeForce 9800 GTX+ in July. The preliminary benchmarks seem to show some serious GPU performance gains for PhysX operations, so with any luck you'll soon be rendering Independence Day fireworks at greater framerates than ever previously imagined.

[Via Slashdot]

We think Creative acted pretty foolishly in forcing Daniel_K to remove his modded drivers that allowed various Creative sound cards to work up to spec under Vista -- customers had already bought the hardware, after all -- but Daniel seems to understand why he's at the center of the firestorm. Speaking to Custom PC, Daniel Kawakami admits that promising faster releases for more donations probably raised some red flags, but he's not happy that Creative took to publicly threatening him on forums, and says that a simple private email would have probably worked a lot better. Just looking at the list of features Daniel managed to enable, however, it certainly looks like Creative should probably be spending time working on driver development instead of threatening its fans. Way to increase your relevance, Creative.

[Thanks, Alex]

Folks hanging on the Mac side of life have surely been waiting in tense anticipation for DisplayLink to become OS X friendly, for like, ever. As promised, the first drivers have emerged in order to give Intel-based Macs (yes, MacBook Air and Mac mini are included) the ability to connect with up to four monitors over USB. Granted, the beta software has no 2D acceleration and no OpenGL 3D acceleration, but both limitations are known and will hopefully be ironed out in the final release. So, what are you waiting for? Tap the read link below to get your download on -- but be sure to read up on the documentation before forging ahead without a care in the world.

[Thanks, Mike]

Chances are that if you do your duties on Vista and rely on one of Creative's sound cards to get your dance on, you may have become frustrated by the firm's inability to offer up a driver package that lived up to those loosed for Windows XP. 'Course, if that rings a bell, you're probably not too concerned -- you know, thanks to those unofficial (but totally functional) drivers brought to you by Daniel_K. Unfortunately for users suddenly excited to gain some extra utility from their device, Creative has hopped on the offensive and is forbidding said compiler from distributing the firm's technology / IP (not to mention collecting donations), and it's also scouring the 'net to remove other links to the software. Granted, we fully understand Creative's desire to disallow the distribution of untested, potentially harmful third-party drivers, but until they release the drivers customers expect they should be a little more cautious about shutting down third party patches.

[Via Slashdot, thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: It seems Creative has decided to allow Daniel_K to continue with one particular endeavor at least, noting that "as long as no intellectual property of Creative is distributed, [it] will have no problem with it." Thanks, Aaron!

Sure, it seemed like we'd heard the end of the story on HTC phones and the case of the missing drivers, but the cats over at the xda-developers forum have something else in mind. There is currently a $5199.51 bounty on offer from various members of the group for a hacker (or hackers) who can come up with drivers to get their Kaisers' Direct 3D up to par, thus increasing the video capabilities of the phone. If you've followed the case, you'll know that HTC has essentially stonewalled users looking for an upgrade to their poorly performing handsets, and has intimated that if customers want improved video performance, they should look to future hardware as opposed to upgrades on their current models. Clearly owners are looking to take matters into their own hands -- and they're willing to pay for it. We can't wait to see what they come up with, and if anyone out there has the ability and the time, here's a stack of cash that could be yours.

[Thanks, Jaime]

It looks like AMD's trying to make some friends in the open source community, with it today announcing some new drivers for Linux along with some details on its plans to open up its drivers to the community at large. Set to be released later this month, the new Catalyst 7.9 software will add Linux support for the ATI Radeon HD 2000 series of graphics processors, along with other "major performance improvements across the board," which it says should result in a "90 per cent improvement in such popular titles as Doom 3 and Quake 4." What's more, AMD also reportedly took advantage of this week's Kernel Summit to announce a fairly major push to go open source with its drivers. As part of that initiative, AMD will apparently work with the open source community develop a 2D and 3D driver that supports all the latest Radeon chipsets, and it'll even release documentation to let anyone (with the necessary skills) build some drivers from scratch. According to blogger Christopher Blizzard, however, that will apparently be a rather slow process, with the documentation for the 2D drivers coming first, and the 3D docs coming some time after that. Still, we're guessing that there's quite a few folks that now know what they'll be doing with their free time for the foreseeable future.


Read - AMD Press Release
Read - Christopher Blizzard, "A new road for AMD and ATI"

[Via LWN.net]

Count IBM in as one of the many companies looking to skyrocket the cost of our future cars, er, protect our lives by developing must-have active safety systems that are sure to become the standard fare in vehicles of the future. Dubbed a research initiative to "equip cars with technologies that can help reduce traffic congestion and prevent accidents," IBM is looking into driver assist technologies that "exchange information with other cars and with the road infrastructure, take corrective action where appropriate, and provide essential feedback to the drivers to help avoid dangerous situations." These electronic reflexes are said to be much quicker than those possessed by humans, and while the team is not trying to replace the need for driver judgment entirely, it is hoping to provide adequate feedback to help the motorist avoid potential perils. No word on when IBM plans on ushering its marketing team into automakers' headquarters, but we'd enjoy the feel of personally steering and accelerating while you still can.

[Via Physorg]

David A. Czech is crazy upset about tickets, so he's suing the city of Northwood, Ohio, its police department, and an Arizona-based maker of red-light cameras (which automatically snap photos of traffic violations). The suit alleges that the cameras are part of an "unconstitutional ordinance to extort money" put in place by the city, and Mr. Czech (on behalf of himself and 20,000 other "offenders") is asking for a $3 million payback and an injunction barring use of the cameras. This isn't the first case of its kind that we've seen -- and it undoubtedly won't be the last, considering the recent spate of these systems being utilized across the nation.

[Thanks, Simon]

Ah, Texas. Home to internet hunting, overhead bananas, and WiFi'ed rest stops, the Lonestar State will set yet another precedent by passing a bill onto the governor that would ban speeding cameras and require warning signs to be posted around red-light cameras. Yes, the same state that wanted transponders in every single car registered in the state is now just one signature away from giving heavy-footed drivers something to cheer about. Both measures "were adopted in the state House by unanimous votes," and along with the speed camera ban comes legislation that will put an end to the ticketing programs run by the cities of Rhome and Marble Falls while prohibiting any other cities from enacting such practices in the future. Of course, it should be noted that the bills wouldn't go into effect until September 1st of this year, so you should probably still utilize your cruise control whilst traveling over this long weekend.

[Via Autoblog]

Is it just us, or is it strangely coincidental to that the day after a pair of hackers announce their ability to compromise certain computers with certain wireless cards and drivers, Intel busts out a driver update for their Centrino WiFi chips. Maybe we're just reading too much into this. In any case, Intel has fessed up to security vulnerabilities in their Centrino systems "which could potentially lead to remote code execution and system control." They've got some new drivers on their website, but advise users to check with their laptop manufacturer for any device-specific updates. No word yet from Apple on the MacBook hackability.

[Via The Inquirer]

We've heard reports before about the dangers of driving while under the influence of GPS, but it looks like drivers in the UK have taken trust of their navigation units to the extreme. Twice in the space of the last two weeks, we've seen reports of British drivers taking serious risks because they trust the info displayed on the small screen more than what they see through their windshield. In the most recent case, drivers passing through the village of Luckington have found themselves landing in the River Avon, by following a GPS-recommended route that pointed to a bridge that has been closed for a week. Despite warning signs on both sides of the road, and nothing but water straight ahead, local villagers have found themselves pulling an average of two cars a day out of the river for the past week. "When you ask what happened, they say, ‘My sat-nav told me it was this way,'" one resident told The Times. Meanwhile, the  village of Crackpot (yes, that's really its name) has had to deal with drivers whose navigation systems have directed them to the edge of a cliff with a hundred-foot drop. So far, there have been no serious injuries, but drivers have found themselves stranded on a rocky path. "It's only a matter of time before something happens," said one resident. Listen, we like GPS as much as the next sense-of-direction-impaired driver. But we also do our best to use our eyes, as well. And if you don't, well, there's a village in England named for you, and it ain't Luckington.

Read - Luckington
Read - Crackpot