Last month AMD unleashed what went on to become the world's fastest single-GPU graphics card by a convincing margin, the Radeon HD 5870. This was followed shortly by a slightly watered-down version known as the Radeon HD 5850. The latter has proved to be very competitive, playing second only to its bigger brother and at just $260, it stands without a doubt as the best value high performance offering available at the moment.

Continuing with the successful rollout of its Radeon HD 5000 series, AMD is now moving to attack the sub-$200 market, and hopes to keep the momentum going with the Radeon HD 5770 and 5750. Codenamed Juniper XT and Juniper LE, respectively, the first is said to cost just $160, while the lower-end 5750 will cost between $110 and $130 depending on memory configuration.



We've been particularly interested in the ATI Radeon HD 5770, as last generation's Radeon HD 4770 was one of our all time favorite budget graphics cards. Although it came late in the game, its excellent performance and operating efficiency earned it an "Outstanding" mark, making it the top choice in the $100 range. We certainly expect to see these new series live up to those standards.

View: ATI Radeon HD 5770 Review

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Apple has come clear on its return policy for the App Store; don't even think about it. Apple has stated that there will be no returning of an App purchased on the App Store

If you want to try out one of the new navigation programs that can run upwards of $100.00 then you better be willing to part with your money even if you don't like the program. There is only one way to get a refund but don't expect or plan on this method to work. "According to paragraph 12B of Apple's App Store Terms and Conditions, you're entitled to your money back when, ‘On occasion, technical problems may delay or prevent delivery of your product.' Other than that, you're out of luck."

The most annoying part about spending a lot of money on an App is that, unlike a retail product that you could resell on eBay, there is no way to recover your investment if you dislike the App.

Apple claims that there is enough information in the App Store to give buyers a good indication of what to expect with the App they are about to purchase. Apple cites that "Customer Ratings and Reviews, App Store Essentials, Staff Favorites, New & Noteworthy section, Top 100 Free Charts, Top 100 Paid Charts, and Top 100 Grossing Charts" provides enough information to inform the consumer about their purchase.

While some companies do offer free "lite" versions of their applications it is not a given for every App. While other stores from Blackberry and Palm do offer the ability to give timed trials of an application, Apple has yet to allow this practice on its own store.

Many Canadians can now see their homes, streets, points of interest and landmarks on Google Street View. The street level view of the top major cities in Canada has finally gone live, after months of Google cars and cameras roaming the streets, adding the same feature Americans have on Google Maps.

The added street view perspective gives Canadians a detailed image view of the largest cities in Canada, allowing users to take a virtual 360 degree tour of the city. The online virtual tour of cities is available for free on Google Maps, and can be activated by clicking on the icon of the little yellow man when the street preview is available.

Google Street View automatically blurs faces and license plates to protect peoples identity and privacy.

Google only mapped five of the largest provinces in Canada including, Alberta, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Quebec, highlighting selected cities to be covered on Google Maps. Canada now joins some of the other countries featured on Google Maps including United States, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, France, and Japan.

View: CN Tower
View: Parliment Hill
View: Pearson Airport

When Google launched Chrome it was for the Windows platform initially. Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, has publicly stated the Google Chrome will be released in the near future for OS X but if you're willing to use pre-beta software from Google then you can download Chrome right now.

Google has stated that the software "still lacks certain privacy features, and is not appropriate for general consumer use" which is a gentle reminder that the software is not complete. But, if you are like most tech enthusiasts and are willing to look past the flaws in the beta, then you will find a surprisingly stable build of Chrome that can be used for day to day web browsing.

The link to the download can be found below and it is a developer build but early reports are stating that it is the most stable release to date. If you make the dive into Chrome let us know how it is but don't expect any quick bug fixes from Google as there is still time until the browser is ready for mass consumption.

Download: Google Chrome for OS X

News reported on the Wired blog 'Epicenter' warns office workers to check their employment contract or workplace rules before logging into Twitter, Facebook, or any other social networking website.

According to Epicenter, a recent study commissioned by Robert Half Technology found that 54% of US companies have banned any use of social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn whilst working on the job. The study, released October 9, also indicated that 19 percent of companies allow social networking only for business purposes, while 16 percent allow limited personal use.

Unsurprisingly, productivity is the core issue raised when it comes to blocking social networking sites. In July, Nucleus Research reported that companies who allowed employees to use social networking sites also had a drop of 1.5 percent in workplace productivity.

"Using social networking sites may divert employees' attention away from more pressing priorities, so it's understandable that some companies limit access," said Dave Willmer, executive director of Robert Half Technology, in a statement.

Nucleus also indicated employees who use social networking sites while working do so up to 2 hours a day. When asked if they are using these sites for business purposes, 87% admitted they weren't, and instead were using social networking for personal reasons.