Many uses come to mind when thinking of a curved, 2,880x900 resolution (16:5 aspect ratio) monitor - multitasking aside, we'd have quite a fun time opening every Photoshop panel simultaneously, or created the most complex, intricate World of Warcraft user interface imaginable. Alienware decided to show off its arcing display at CES with Crysis, the apparent benchmark for all technology of the future.

Our friends at Engadget who are attending the show noticed three faint vertical lines, indicating the curved illusion is assisted by four sub-panels. The DLP display with LED illumination is due out the second half of this year for a currently-unknown price. Check out their gallery of the monitor; we also have video of the display embedded after the break.

Alienware launched a new developer workstation and showed off a recent laptop at GDC. The company was tucked away in the meeting rooms of the North hall, and we stopped by unannounced to ogle the hardware.

The MJ-12 8550i is the new high-end desktop machine with two quad-core Xeon processors, DDR2 memory, and other industry-leading specs. Alienware decided to ship this machine with the consumer-level Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX so that developers don't need to switch machines to test their progress. (Alienware reps even suggested getting in a game of F.E.A.R. while waiting for a recomplie.)

We asked about a dual video card configuration, and we were told that that may happen; the company is even considering a switch that would toggle between pro and consumer cards connected to a single monitor.

Keeping the desktop machine company, Alienware also showed the m5790 laptop that ships with a 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo. And Alienware is so confident in the stability of the chip that it can overclock it under warranty to 2.66GHz.

Prices for the systems vary by configuration, with the laptop starting at $1,300 and the workstation at $2,500. Of course, both are able to run thousands of dollars higher.

The Last Boss's Tom Fronczak (a semester away from a degree in game design) profiles a VR studio at the University of Pittsburgh's Medical Virtual Reality Center, which he and a small team of classmates will use to develop an acrophobia (fear of heights) sim to be used during habitual therapy sessions. Tom's group will be using Unreal Engine (1) to design a level, ideally representing an unfinished skyscraper. Players Patients will slowly ascend the floors of the building, eventually emerging into the open air, where they'll have to navigate up scaffolding to reach the top, grab the flag, and sprint back to base. Development time has be limited to ten weeks.

Tom will continue to update The Last Boss readers on the status of his project during the coming weeks, and notes he's eager for feedback. Our advice: Don't look down!

The Associated Press writes about high-end, "luxury" gaming PCs easily overpowering the consoles. The computers cited from Alienware and Falcon Northwest cost $5,400 and $9,600 respectively. (The Falcon PC includes a 30-inch display at that price.)

Our first reaction was, "So what, of course PCs are faster." Then, we moved to, "How much again!?" There seems to be a sense of pride in enthusiasts spending a lot of money on their PC. At a recent Nvidia event, audience members in the front rows were thanked for being such strong supporters of the company; they'd each spent about $1,000 for SLI setups on their current gaming machines. Yes, that's just for video cards.

Is the ability to appreciate gaming rigs for their price just a gene we're missing? Are we getting old and cranky? Where's our pudding?

HP plans to buy gaming PC company Voodoo Computers in order to reach gamers and their wallets. Voodoo will continue to operate -- now under the HP umbrella -- with co-owners Rahul and Ravi Sood staying on with HP jobs. The acquisition should close by November, after the requisite approvals by shareholders and the SEC.

Well look who's following Dell (which bought Alienware earlier this year). While this sort of buyout must take months or years of anticipation, we think the timing is a little more than coincidental; HP is currently being scrutinized by the press, Wall Street, and Congress for spying on media outlets and its board members. There's nothing like a good, old-fashioned buyout to push your scandal out of the headlines.

[Thanks, Derek]

Techreport has posted a review of nVIDIA's latest dual-GPU graphics card, the GeForce 7950 GX2, which also happens to be capable ("capable" being the key word) of Quad-SLI. You won't be surprised to read that this card is fast when compared to its predecessors. It positively destroyed all the other single-GPU cards the Techreport guys tested it against; in Battlefield 2 the GX2 managed "twice the average frame rate of the GeForce 7900 GT." As you probably already know, this kind of performance doesn't come cheap. NVIDIA expects the 7950 GX2 to cost around $599 to $649, and that's before you check your power bill: in tests the card drew 133 Watts at idle and a whopping 237 Watts under load. In comparison to the card's main single-GPU rival, ATI's X1900, the 7950 featured similar levels of power consumption, size and heat output but performed significantly faster in all the benchmarks. The 7950's dual-GPU solution also surpasses the performance of traditional SLI configurations like dual 7900 GTs, with the added advantage of being compatible with any PCI-e motherboard chipset.

Strangely, the biggest problem that the review found had nothing to do with the card itself. Although the 7950 GX2 is perfectly capable of being partnered up with another card to make a Quad-SLI system, nVIDIA refuses to support this type of configuration, citing the "complexity" involved. The only way you'll be able to get a Quad-SLI setup is by either hacking two cards together or by purchasing a (some say overpriced) system from Alienware, Falcon Northwest or Dell.

The company went as far as refusing to supply the website with a second review card. As the reviewer points out "when explaining to your best customers why they can't purchase two of your $649 video cards for themselves without also buying a $5K PC built by someone else, it's probably not good idea to use a shaky excuse with an embedded insult."

This week at E3, BioWare announced they will be porting their Xbox hit Jade Empire to the PC. To commemorate the event, registered members of the Canadian developer's community site can enter to win an Alienware Area-51 5500 PC with Intel's Dual Core technology.

The updated version of Jade Empire will include shinier graphics and new fighting styles, as well as additional enemy types and increased difficulty levels. LTI Gray Matter has been tapped to handle conversion duties, but with Microsoft Game Studios out of the picture, BioWare is looking for a publishing partner to get the new and improved Jade out by year's end.

It will be interesting to see how the new keyboard control scheme works out for Jade's real-time combat. Hopefully, the transition will feel as natural as the turn-based fighting in KOTOR. For more information, check out GameSpot's first look from E3.

We stopped by the eFocus event over at the California Mart in LA's Fashion District. Just a few snapshots of what we saw... 

Now that the world's had a few weeks to digest the news that Dell acquired Alienware, some more thoughtful analyses are starting to appear.

The basic justification for the merger hasn't changed -- Dell purchased Alienware because Dell repeatedly failed to build credibility in the high-end PC gaming market -- but the analysis has gotten better. Slate's Séan Captain writes the best one yet.

Our readers also suggested a few areas for evaluating the merger. Will Alienware's tech support suffer? Wrote Sloopydrew: "At least now Alienware PC owners will be able to enjoy long chats with underpaid folks in India." And how about the fact that truly hardcore PC gamers would never buy any pre-assembled computer because they know that they can get a faster box for less cash by assembling components purchased separately?

One more thought: now that Apple's released bootcamp (it runs games fast!), maybe the market for pre-assembled gaming rigs will shift to from Star Wars geeky to the sexy brand of geek chic that Apple peddles.

After denying the rumors that first started circulating a couple weeks ago, Dell has finally confirmed that they've acquired high-end gaming rig manufacturer Alienware for an undisclosed amount.

When suits are making such acquisition decisions, they often start with a "make or buy" investigation. One can assume that whenever the decision to "buy" (that is, acquire an external company) has been made, said suits determined that the acquisition target offered something that they couldn't "make" on their own for the right price and within the right time frame.

Oh hell, we'll stop beating around the bush: Dell purchased Alienware because Dell has repeatedly failed to build credibility in the high-end PC gaming market. Few Joystiq readers associate the Dell name with gaming performance, and that's exactly why Dell had to acquire an outside company.

How many $10,000 gaming rigs do you reckon Dell will sell now?

CNET has heard from "a reliable source" that Dell has indeed bought Alienware, the high-end PC vendor.

It's obvious that Dell wants a bigger piece of the PC gaming pie, considering their XPS line of systems and the fact that hardcore gamers are willing to pay a pretty price to eke out higher framerates and screen resolutions.

The question is whether Dell was actually willing to buy its way into gaming credibility and if it would move the company into the realm of AMD-powered game/workstations or not. More word when we have it.

[Via CNET, Evil Avatar]