Last month, Intel increased the warranty period on solid-state drives in its SSD 320 range from the original three years to five years, making them the first consumer SSDs to have such a long warranty period. Now, Woodstock, Illinois-based Other World Computing (OWC) has taken a leaf out of Intel’s book and extended the warranty on its Mercury Extreme Pro 6G SSD line to five years. According to OWC, this move has made it “the industry’s first SandForce processor-based 6Gb/s SATA ...

Windows PCs don't exactly have a reputation for security, but Microsoft's trying to change that. When smug know-it-alls claim that Windows PCs have more viruses than a public toilet, Microsoft points to the PatchGuard driver signing system on 64-bit Windows as their way of saying "Nuh-uh!" PatchGuard keeps the baddies from getting high-level privileges on Windows machines. Bad news: Kapersky's reporting that a new malware program that targets Windows 64-bit users has figured a way around the protection. The malware is part ...

The ASUS UX21, that 11.6-inch cake slicer that doubles up as an ultrathin laptop, is coming in September with a price tag of less than $1,000. That's according to the Commercial Times, which cites supplier sources in identifying ASUS' aggressive pricing strategy. Word is that the Taiwanese company is aiming to price the UX21 at 80 to 90 percent of the cost of Apple's competing products, namely the MacBook Air family. Of course, with a second-gen Intel Core i5 (or i7) ...

The popular StarCraft II game from Blizzard is getting ready to debut its second chapter called Heart of the Swarm. The trilogy’s first chapter was released late last year. Now with the E3 2011 conference only a few days away, the company has unleashed a trailer and a gameplay preview for its next offering. StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm will be offered like an expansion, but is actually a full new game with a new story and a new set of ...