News that Prey 2 had not been cancelled, but rather delayed, was relieving to fans of the original. However, why has there been such secrecy surrounding the project over the last several months? According to a Shacknews source who asked not to be identified, Human Head was not happy with the terms of its contract with ZeniMax, and deliberately stopped work on the game in November so it could try to negotiate a more favorable deal. While doing that, many on the development team were laid off, with the hope they would be rehired if the contract issue was resolved favorably. The process seemed to be gathering some positive momentum until January when ZeniMax's responses all but stopped, causing some of the laid-off Prey 2 team to wonder if the game would ever see the light of day.

By March 1, the source said, things had progressed a bit, leaving the Prey 2 team hopeful that they would return to work soon. But that quickly soured the following day. The source could provide no further first-hand details after March 2. When contacted for a response, an official at ZeniMax responded that "we aren't commenting on the game's development beyond what was said in the statement that was released this morning." In light of the new information, the official stance that "the delay is due to the fact that game development has not progressed satisfactorily this past year, and the game does not currently meet our quality standards" seems to throw Human Head under the creative bus. With development stalled for months, it's no surprise that the game would be unable to meet so-called "quality standards."

MSI has rolled out the X460 and X460DX, the newest additions to its X-Slim Series of notebook computers. The 14-inch X460, for example, is less than 1" thick and tips the scales as just 1.98 kg-currently the lightest Intel Core i7 quad core processor packing laptop out there. Also worthy of note, a second internal hard drive is optional with the X460 and X460DX to greatly enlarge storage capacity and if you go with the optional SSD hard drive, you'll kick up system performance. This pair of laptops packs plenty of punch.

Eric Kuo, associate vice president for global sales, MSI Notebook, notes that the X460 also comes with new generation Intel Wireless Display to transmit 1080p HD programs to large screen full HDTVs, so you can enjoy high resolution pictures and 5.1 channel wrap around sound without the hassle of wires.

Dell's hot-selling Inspiron Mini 10 netbook is getting better with a fresh new look and longer battery life to go along with technology enhancements and easy connectivity capabilities that make it a fashionable and functional must-have for on-the-go people. Updates to the Mini 10 include optional high definition entertainment bundles that deliver rich, smooth playback of streaming HD video in addition to Web surfing, email, listening to music and sharing user-generated content in real time. Dell expects the redesigned Inspiron Mini 10 to be available the first part of January 2010.

The new design with 10.1-inch display includes a textured, smudge-resistant palm rest, sculpted keys and, for the Inspiron Mini 10 mobility bundle, extended-life battery offering up to 9.5 hours of operation. The Mini 10 can be personalized with a broad range of optional colors or hundreds of optional custom artwork designs available in the Dell Design Studio.

NVIDIA Corp. today introduced NVIDIA Nexus, the industry's first development environment for massively parallel computing that is integrated into Microsoft Visual Studio, the world's most popular development environment for Windows-based solutions and Web applications and services.

"NVIDIA Nexus is going to improve programmer productivity immediately," said Tarek El Dokor at Edge 3 Technologies. "An integrated GPU and CPU development solution is something Edge 3 has needed for a long time. The fact that it's integrated into the Visual Studio development environment drastically reduces the learning curve."

The updated Dell Studio 15 laptop that was rumored for two months, is now finally available for purchase. This newer version comes with improved 15.6-inch LED-backlit display, which packs a native 1366 x 768 resolution, and gets image from the new ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 graphics with either 256 MB or 512 MB of on-board memory. The rest of the specs remain unchanged. The machine can still be powered by a range of Intel Core 2 Duo processors. The built-in 2 MP webcam, 5.1 channel sound, HDMI output, plus the optional Blu-Ray drive and backlit keyboard are still present. The Studio 15 is also offered in six different colors including Black Chainlink, Ruby Red, Midnight Blue, Plum Purple, Spring Green and Promise Pink. Base prace starts from the reasonable US $649, all options will bump it considerably.

AMD today announced the availability of GPU PerfStudio 2.0, a free, platform-agnostic, next-generation AMD graphics application development tool for game developers, obtainable through a closed beta program. GPU PerfStudio 2.0 has been designed from the ground up to easily integrate with existing projects, and help to identify and resolve performance issues early in the development cycle. With these tools, AMD is bringing its unparalleled understanding of 3D graphics technology and the leadership of its line of ATI Radeon graphics cards to bear on the development process.

"The GPU PerfStudio 2.0 suite of tools is extensive, customizable and, most importantly, based on open standards, which is critical for developers looking to integrate them into their existing workflows," said Neal Robison, director, Developer Relations, Graphics Products Group, AMD. "AMD is committed to arming developers with a full complement of hardware and development tools that help increase their development efficiency and improve 3D performance quality."

Dell has quietly listed a new desktop system on its site, the Dell Studio XPS 435. The slick, angled casing of Studio XPS 435 hides a 3.2 GHz Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Edition processor, an Intel X58 motherboard, up to 24 GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM working at triple-channel, ATI Radeon HD 4870 graphics card with 1 GB GDDR5 memory, up to 4.5 TB of storage and a Blu-Ray disc drive. As standard you get a Gigabit NIC, integrated 7.1 channel sound, 15-in-1 memory card reader, and eight USB 2.0 ports. If you want to go beyond that, there's an optional Creative X-Fi sound blaster, BOSE 2.1 sound system, and a wireless network card. The system is yet to be priced.

Today at CES, AMD President and Chief Executive Officer Dirk Meyer and OTOY Chief Executive Officer Jules Urbach unveiled a plan to revolutionize the deployment, development and delivery of HD content through the "AMD Fusion Render Cloud", a massively-parallel supercomputer. The announcement took place during AMD's Industry Insider Series keynote at the Las Vegas Hilton Theater, where AMD was joined on stage by industry luminaries such as Lucasfilm, Dell, HP and Electronic Arts.

"AMD has a long track record in the supercomputing world. Seven out of 10 of the world's fastest machines, including the fastest two computers on the planet, are powered by AMD hardware," said Meyer. "Today, AMD is pleased to announce a new kind of supercomputer unlike any other ever built. It is being designed to break the one petaFLOPS barrier, and to process a million compute threads across more than 1,000 graphics processors. We anticipate it to be the fastest graphics supercomputer ever. And it will be powered by OTOY's software for a singular purpose: to make HD cloud computing a reality. We plan to have this system ready by the second half of 2009."

Dell has just launched its new Studio XPS notebook family. The first members of this family are the Studio XPS 13 (1340) and Studio XPS 16 (1640), boasting a 13-inch and a 16-inch LED backlit displays respectively. Both laptops share the same chassis design that combines magnesium alloy, plastic, brushed aluminum, and leather. They only distinguish from each other from the different display sizes and internal hardware specs. Both systems start at a base price of $1,199 and can be completely customized. If you are interested, you might want to check Dell's online configurator here. It will give you all the information you need. Also, our friends at NotebookReview have posted a complete professional first look on the Dell Studio XPS 1640 here.

Dell today unveiled Design Studio, an interactive gallery of original contemporary artwork commissioned exclusively for personalizing Dell Studio 15 and 17 laptops. The unveiling of Design Studio on Dell.com, one of the world's largest and best consumer electronics shopping destinations, marks an industry first and gives individuals nearly unlimited potential to turn their laptop into works of art.

Dell continues to celebrate a season of design and discovery with the unveiling of the (PRODUCT) RED artwork for the Dell Studio laptops. This artwork exemplifies the unique visions of artists passionate about fighting AIDS in Africa. Today's announcement expands on the Dell Art House offerings, and allows users to celebrate their personal style, while supporting The Global Fund's fight against AIDS. The Dell Studio 15 starts at $649 and the Dell Studio 17 starts at $799 - these laptops can be personalized with (PRODUCT) RED artwork or Dell's other popular Art House designs by Mike Ming.

Dell's smallest, most personalized and most environmentally responsible consumer PC, the Studio Hybrid, launches today. Available immediately at Dell, the PC's new unique shape and size, personalized with six external jewel-toned color or bamboo finish options, unleashes stylistic expression, inspiration and fun and looks great in any room.

Dell today introduced "Studio," a new consumer product line designed for self-expression and creative living. Studio products are highly expressive and personalized - inside and out - combining aesthetics and technology into a fresh approach to hi-def mobile lifestyles.