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Using a new method that mimics the human brain, Microsoft researchers claim to have doubled the speed at which the speech is recognized and the results returned to the user. To achieve this acceleration, Microsoft researchers used a new approach, which should also increase the accuracy of speech recognition by 15%.

Microsoft is making a rapid about face on their DRM AND use game policies. Despite their original statements that people should get an Xbox 360 if they want to play offline they are now removing the 24-hout check in period for disk based games. They are also removing the restrictions they had in place for trading and selling used games. Microsoft is claiming that they did this due to user feedback, but for some reason we think it was more about Sony’s announcement and the way gamers shifted loyalties so fast.

After showing that they were not willing to go down the same restrictive road that Microsoft was with their new console Sony has followed Microsoft down a different road… well sort of. Many of you will remember Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and the red ring of death. Typically this was caused by overheating, but there were a few cases where an update appeared to herald a new round of dead consoles. Sony is copying this trend; not on purpose to be sure, but that is little comfort to owners of the PlayStation 3 that just installed the latest update.

nVidia is best known as the maker of heavy duty GPUs although most know about their mobile product Tegra (and the components that go into it). Between these two items nVidia has a very good product portfolio. However, nVidia has not always been limited to GPUs and SoCs. At one time they also developed and manufactured their own Chipsets. These were required to utilize SLI (Scalable Link Interface) that has its roots from 3dfx which nVidia grabbed when they bought the latter. nVidia’s chipset business did not last that long due to a number of reasons and they were eventually forced to let it drop and instead license the right to use SLI out to other companies.