Deal for April 15 - VIZIO E552VLE 55" 1080p 120Hz WiFi LCD HDTV @ $650

Subject: General Tech | April 15, 2013 - 02:26 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: deals

Looking for a new TV, but not a 72" monster?  Want 120MHz for smooth performance when hooked up to a PC plus support for 3D movies?  How about a 55" 1080p TV for $650 plus free shipping which can access the internet for streaming video!  The VIZIO E552VLE 55" 1080p 120Hz WiFi LCD HDTV is on sale right now.

Dell is offering the VIZIO E552VLE 55" 1080p HDTV for $649.99 with FREE shipping.

Specs:

• 1080p Resolution
• 100,000:1 contrast ratio
• 6.5ms response time
• 120Hz Refresh Rate
• Vizio Internet Apps (VUDU, Netflix, Hulu Plus, Pandora, Facebook, Twitter)
• 4 HDMI, 2 USB, Composite, VGA ports
• ECO HD exceeds the current ENERGY STAR Guidelines

AMD Never Settles: Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon Bundled

Subject: Editorial, General Tech, Graphics Cards | April 14, 2013 - 02:22 AM | Scott Michaud
Tagged: never settle, never settle reloaded, amd, far cry 3

So when AMD reloaded their Never Settle bundles, they left an extra round in the barrel.

Some of my favorite games were given to me in a bundle with some piece of computer hardware. You might remember from the PC Perspective game night that I am a major fan of the Unreal Tournament franchise. My first Unreal Tournament game was an unexpected surprise when I purchased my first standalone GPU. My 166MHz Pentium computer also came bundled with Mechwarrior 2 and Wipeout.

As we discussed, AMD considers bundle-offers as a way to keep the software industry rolling forward. The quantity and quality of games which participate in the recent Never Settle bundles certainly deserve credit as it is due. Bioshock: Infinite is a game that just about every PC gamer needs to experience, and there are about a half-dozen other great titles as a part of the promotion depending upon which card or cards you purchase.

As it turns out, AMD negotiated with Ubisoft and added Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon to their Never Settle bundle. The coolest part is that AMD will retroactively email codes for this new title to anyone who has redeemed a Never Settle: Reloaded code.

So if you have ever Reloaded your Never Settle in the past, check your email as apparently you can Never Settle your reloads again.

Sauce Labs: Integration into modern.IE

Subject: General Tech, Mobile | April 13, 2013 - 03:16 AM | Scott Michaud
Tagged: w3c, Sauce Labs, modern.IE, IE

The main benefit of open Web Standards is that it allows for a stable and secure platform for any developer to target just about any platform. Still, due to the laws of No Pain: No Gain, those developers need to consider how their application responds on just about every platform. Internet Explorer was once the outlier, and now they are one of the most prominent evangelists. It has been barely two months since we reported on the launch of modern.IE for Microsoft to integrate existing solutions into their product.

Enter Sauce Labs. The San Francisco-based company made a name for themselves by providing testing environments for developers on a spread of browsers across Android, iOS, Linux, MacOSX, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows XP. The company, along with competitor BrowserStack, got recent recognition from Adobe when the software company shut down their own also-competing product.

When we first covered modern.IE back in February (again, here), the initiative from Microsoft was created to help test web apps across multiple versions of Internet Explorer and check for typical incompatibilities. With the addition of Sauce Labs, Microsoft hopes to provide better testing infrastructure as well as automatic recommendations for common issues encountered when trying to develop for both "modern" and legacy versions of their web browser.

In my position, this perfectly highlights the problems with believing you are better than open architectures. At some point, your platform will no longer be able to compete on inertia. Society really does not want to rely on a single entity for anything. It is almost a guarantee that a standard, agreed-upon by several industry members, will end up succeeding in the end. Had Microsoft initially supported the W3C, they would not have experienced even a fraction of the troubles they currently face. They struggle in their attempts to comply with standards and, more importantly, push developers to optimize for their implementation.

There are very good reasons to explain why we do not use AOL keywords anymore. Hopefully the collective Microsoft keeps this grief in mind, particularly the Xbox and Windows RT teams and their divisions.

After the break: the press release.

Deal for April 12th - HP Pavilion p7-1520t Core i5 Quad-core System @ $435

Subject: General Tech | April 12, 2013 - 02:25 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: deals

Today's deal is $115 off the HP Pavilion p7-1520t, a full system comprised of a Core i5-3330 @ 3GHz, 6GB DDR3-1333MHz, a 1TB drive and a DVD burner; they even toss in a mouse and keyboard.  You can't expect a gaming powerhouse for under $500 but if a family member or friend is looking for a new machine to watch cat videos on, or if they are running a small business out of their house this is a good choice and a great deal.

HP Pavilion p7-1520t Core i5 Quad-core Desktop

1. Start here at HP Home direct store, click Customize button
2. Click View Summary button at the top, add to cart
3. Apply coupon code 15LOGICBUY during checkout

Base HP p7-1520t deal: $549.99 - $100 off - $15 coupon code = $434.99 + $9.99 shipping.

100W over USB

Subject: General Tech | April 12, 2013 - 01:20 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: usb. power over USB, Intel

A new type of USB cable is being demonstrated in Beijing, capable of delivering up to 100W of power over USB 2.0 or 3.0.  In the demonstration below, the Dell provides both video and power to the monitor when it is plugged in, when on battery it immediately shuts off the monitor.  Even better these cords are bidirectional and are able to sense which device requires power and which is the source of the power so you won't have to manually configure them.  The Inquirer does point out a major hurdle to overcome, if one singular USB cord able to recharge the battery of any laptop, many laptop makers will see that as taking away one of their revenue streams; their proprietary power bricks and expensive replacement parts.

"BEIJING: THE USB IMPLEMENTERS FORUM (USB-IF) is showing off a prototype USB cable system at the Technology Showcase at IDF Beijing that can deliver up to 100W of power."

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Tech Talk

• Cupertino funk @ The Tech Report
• PC shipments post the steepest decline ever in a single quarter, says IDC @ DigiTimes
• Intel demos inexpensive 100Gb/sec silicon photonics chip @ The Register
• Can Console Gaming Save AMD From Collapse? @ Benchmark Reviews
• HGST straps Intel Thunderbolt onto uber-pricey drives, docks @ The Register
• Hacking the Oculus Rift: the Oculight @ Hack a Day
• Microsoft Telling Users To Uninstall Bad Patch @ Slashdot
• Samsung Galaxy S4 set to ship with Wolfson audio chip @ The Inquirer
• Netgear WNDR3700v4 N600 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router Review @ Legit Reviews
• Ninjalane Podcast - 3D Printing and Borderlands 2 Ultimate Vault Hunter
• 4 Days Left to Win a PC Specialist Gaming System @ eTeknix

SECO Introduces mITX GPU Devkit for CUDA Programmers

Subject: General Tech | April 12, 2013 - 02:08 AM | Tim Verry
Tagged: SECO, nvidia, mini ITX, kepler, kayla, GTC 13, GTC, CUDA, arm

Last month, NVIDIA revealed its Kayla development platform that combines a quad core Tegra System on a Chip (SoC) with a NVIDIA Kepler GPU. Kayla will out later this year, but that has not stopped other board makers from putting together their own solutions. One such solution that began shipping earlier this week is the mITX GPU Devkit from SECO.

The new mITX GPU Devkit is a hardware platform for developers to program CUDA applications for mobile devices, desktops, workstations, and HPC servers. It combines a NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor, 2GB of RAM, and 4GB of internal storage (eMMC) on a Qseven module with a Mini-ITX form factor motherboard. Developers can then plug their own CUDA-capable graphics card into the single PCI-E 2.0 x16 slot (which actually runs at x4 speeds). Additional storage can be added via an internal SATA connection, and cameras can be hooked up using the CIC headers.

Rear IO on the mITX GPU Devkit includes:

• 1 x Gigabit Ethernet
• 3 x USB
• 1 x OTG port
• 1 x HDMI
• 1 x Display Port
• 3 x Analog audio
• 2 x Serial
• 1 x SD card slot

The SECO platform is a proving to be popular for GPGPU in the server space, especially with systems like Pedraforca. The intention of using these types of platforms in servers is to save power by using a low power ARM chip for inter-node communication and basic tasks while the real computing is done solely on the graphics cards. With Intel’s upcoming Haswell-based Xeon chips getting down to 13W TPDs though, systems like this are going to be more difficult to justify. SECO is mostly positioning this platform as a development board, however. One use in that respect is to begin optimizing GPU-accelerated code for mobile devices. With future Tegra chips to get CUDA-compatible graphics cards, new software development and optimization of existing GPGPU code for smartphones and tablet will be increasingly important.

Either way, the SECO mITX GPU Devkit is available now for 349 EUR or approximately $360 (in both cases, before any taxes).

Deal for April 11th - HP ENVY dv6t-7300 15.6" Quad Edition @ $600

Subject: General Tech | April 11, 2013 - 03:49 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: deals

Today's deal is a fairly powerful HP laptop, the ENVY dv6t-7300 which has a Core i7-3630QM Processor @ 2.4GHz, 8GB DDR3 and a 5400RPM 750GB HDD.  If you are willing to pay a bit more you can get a full 1080p screen instead of the usual 1366 x 768 and a GT635M for a grand total of $825. 

To get cheapest ENVY dv6t-7300 Quad Edition laptop, follow these steps to use $50 coupon code:

1. Start here at HP Home direct store
2. Click Customize button
Note: free upgrades if any are applied automatically
3. Click View Summary button at the top, Add to cart
4. Apply coupon code: MU1743 during checkout

This deal: $799.99 - $150 off - $50 coupon code = $599.99 with $9.99 shipping.

OR

To get ENVY dv6t-7300 Quad Edition laptop with 1080p LCD and 2GB GeForce GT 635M Graphics, use $50 coupon code, follow these steps:

1. Start here at HP Home direct store
2. Select Customize button
3. Select NVIDIA GeForce GT 635M Graphics with 2GB of dedicated video memory +$75
4. Select 15.6-inch diagonal Full HD Anti-glare LED-backlit Display (1920 x 1080) +$150
5. Click View Summary, Add to cart
6. Apply coupon code: MU1743 during checkout