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MSI Just Game! Giveaway

Subject: General Tech | June 11, 2013 - 04:20 PM |
Tagged: msi, facebook, contest

GiveawayFinaltry.jpg

Head to their Facebook page for your chance to win!

Source: MSI

Want an new OS for your mobe? Try Ubuntu Touch ... soon

Subject: General Tech | June 11, 2013 - 03:19 PM |
Tagged: ubuntu touch

At Slashdot you can see some a preview of Ubuntu Touch, the new version of the OS meant to be used on cellphones and tablets.  Following the link will take you to a slideshow that displays some of the screens and dialogue boxes to expect from the new mobile OS, which will include a terminal program as you can see below.  Unfortunately there is little in the way of information as to what hardware will support this new mobile OS, but hey it's Linux and half the fun is getting it to run on hardware that it has never run on before!

unbuntutouch.png

"The first developer preview of Ubuntu Touch – aka 'Ubuntu for Phones and Tablets' – was unveiled just a few short months ago. And, just a few weeks back, it was announced that the team was shooting for having a fully functional (aka "can use it as your actual phone, on a daily basis") version by the end of May. May is now over, so Bryan Lunduke published some screenshots and analysis of the core features of the Ubuntu OS for smartphones and tablets."

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Tech Talk

Source: Slashdot

HP ENVY 15t-j000 Quad Edition Notebook (Haswell) @ $725

Subject: General Tech | June 11, 2013 - 12:10 PM |
Tagged: deals

The new ENVY series is shipping with a Haswell chip inside, specifically the i7-4700MQ @ 3.4GHz boost, 8GB DDR3 and a 1TB HDD with no optical drive which allows for a weight under 5lbs and dimensions of 4.94 x 9.87 x 1.18".  The 15.6" screen is 1366 x 768 which may disappoint some prospective buyers however with HDMI out you should be able to use the HD4600 to send 1080p to an external display.

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Top Deal

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Source: LogicBUY

WWDC 13: Dissecting Apple's New Hardware Changes. MacBook Air and the new Mac Pro.

Subject: Editorial, General Tech, Systems, Shows and Expos | June 11, 2013 - 04:06 AM |
Tagged: wwdc 13, MacBook Air, Mac Pro, apple

Sometimes our "Perspective" is needed on Apple announcements because some big points just do not get covered by the usual sources. Other times, portions of the story can be relevant to our readers. This is one of those days where both are true. Either side should review our thoughts and analysis of Apple's recent ultrabook and, especially, their upcoming desktop offerings.

The MacBook Air has been, predictably, upgraded Intel's Haswell processors. Battery life is the first obvious benefit of the CPU, and that has been well reported. The 11-inch MacBook Air gains an extra four hours of battery life, usable for up to 9 hours between charges. The extra space on the 13-inch MacBook Air allows it to last 12 hours between charges.

apple-macbook-air.jpg

Less discussed, both MacBook Airs will contain Intel's Iris iGPU more commonly known as Intel HD 5000. You cannot get Intel HD 5000 graphics without selecting a BGA socket component which you would install by soldering it in place. While there are several better solutions from competing GPU vendors, Apple will have one of the first shipping implementations of Haswell's canonical graphics processor. Iris is said to have double the performance of previous generation Ivy Bridge graphics for a fraction of its power consumption.

Also included in the MacBook Air is an 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WiFi network adapter and Bluetooth 4.0. Apple is not typically known to introduce new standards and often lags severely behind what is available on the PC unless they had a hand in trademarking it, USB 3.0 being the obvious and recent example.

The specifications will be somewhat customizable, the user is able to select between: an i5 and an i7 processor, 4GB or 8GB of RAM, and 128, 256, or 512GB SSD. It has shipped the day it was announced with base prices ranging between $999 for an entry-level 11-inch and $1099 for an entry-level 13-inch.

But now we move on to the dying industry, desktop PCs, where all innovation has died unless it is to graft a touch interface to anything and everything.

"Can't innovate any more, my ass", grunts Phil Schiller, on the keynote stage.

Whether you like it, or think "innovation" is the best word, it's a legitimate new design some will want.

While the new Mac Pro is not a system that I would be interested in purchasing, for issues I will outline soon, these devices are what some users really want. I have been a very strong proponent of OEM devices as they highlight the benefit of the PC industry: choice. You can purchase a device, like the new Mac Pro, from a vendor; alternatively, you can purchase the components individually to assemble yourself and save a lot of money; otherwise, you can hire a small business computer store or technician.

We need more companies, like Apple, to try new devices and paradigms for workstations and other high-performance devices. While it is less ideal for Apple to be the ones coming up with these redesigns, Apple's platform encourages applications to be vendor-specific (only run on a Mac), it can still benefit the PC industry by demonstrating that life and demand still exists; trying something new could reap large benefits. Not everyone wants to have a full ATX case with discrete components but still want workstation performance, and that is okay.

Now when it comes to actual specifications, the typical coverage glossed over what could be easily approximated by a trip to Wikipedia and Google. Sure, some may have been in a rush within the auditorium, but still.

The specifications are:

  • Intel Xeon E5-2600 V2-class CPU, Ivy Bridge-E, 12 cores max (suggests single-socket)
  • 4-channel DDR3 ECC RAM, apparently 4 DIMMS which suggests 4x16GB (Max).
  • Dual FirePro GPUs, 4096 total shaders with 2x6GB GDDR5.
  • PCIe SSD
  • Thunderbolt 2, USB3.0, and WiFi ac (+ a/b/g/n??), Bluetooth 4.0

Now the downside is that basically anything you wish to add to the Mac Pro needs to be done through Thunderbolt, Bluetooth 4.0, or USB 3.0. When you purchase an all-in-one custom design, you forfeit your ability to reach in and modify the components. There is also no mention of pricing, and for a computer with this shoplist you should expect to pay a substantial invoice even without "The Apple Tax", but that is not the point of purchasing a high-end workstation. Apple certainly put in as close to the best-of-the-best as they could.

Now could people stop claiming the PC is dead and work towards sustaining it? I know people love stories of jarring industry shifts, but this is ridiculous.

Source: Apple

WWDC, not WWSJD

Subject: General Tech | June 10, 2013 - 01:01 PM |
Tagged: apple, ios 7, mac, wwdc

If you are wondering what is going on in the computer world on the other side of the fence, you are either watching the live stream from Microsoft (which will not always be on, regardless of their slogan), or you are wearing a black turtleneck and counting down the hours until the big reveal.  Apple is, as always, rather secretive about what the next new release is but The Inquirer has a few well informed hypothesis about what you can expect.  The most interesting will probably be the new operating systems, the new iOS, the first mobile interface designed by Jony Ive and likely to be somewhat different from previous incarnations.  Desktop devices will also be seeing a new interface with the arrival of OS X 10.9, this will likely not change to the extent of the mobile version but it might arrive on a peice of new hardware for you to salivate over.  Their last informed guess is the arrival of iRadio to compete with Spotify and other streaming providers, though completely conjoined to your iTunes account

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"SOFTWARE GIANT Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) is just a few hours away, with excitement building over what analysts are calling Apple's most important announcements to date.

The firm is widely expected to unveil its next generation iOS and Mac operating systems, as well as its long-awaited Spotify rival, so here's a rundown of what we can expect."

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Tech Talk

Source: The Inquirer

Dell UltraSharp U2413 1920 x 1200 24" IPS @ $459

Subject: General Tech | June 10, 2013 - 12:18 PM |
Tagged: deals

Dell's UltraSharp U2413 1920 x 1200 24" IPS claims a 6ms response time which makes it suitable for gaming, as well as offering superior colour support.  As it is a new model it supports HDMI, DisplayPort 1.2, DVI-D and mini DisplayPort inputs as well as acting as a 4-port USB 3.0 hub.

dell-u2413-overview1.jpg

Top Deal

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Source: LogicBUY

Computex 2013: The Comedic Return of the Ultra GPUs

Subject: Editorial, General Tech, Graphics Cards, Shows and Expos | June 10, 2013 - 02:49 AM |
Tagged: Ultra, geforce titan, computex

So long to Computex 2013, we barely knew thee. You poured stories all over our news feed for more than a whole week. What say you, another story for the... metaphorical road... between here... and... Taipei? Okay, so the metaphorical road is bumpy and unpaved, work with me.

It was substantially more difficult to decipher the name of a video card a number of years ago. Back then, products would be classified by their model numbers and often assigned a suffix like: "Ultra", "Pro", or "LE". These suffixes actually meant a lot, performing noticeably better (or maybe worse) than the suffix-less number and possibly even overlapping with other number-classes.

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Image Credit: zol.com.cn via Tom's Hardware

Just when they were gone long enough for us to miss them, the suffixes might make some measure of a return. On the show floor, Colorful exhibited the NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan Ultra Edition. This card uses a standard slightly-disabled GK110-based GeForce GTX Titan GPU, with the usual 2688 CUDA cores, and 6GB of GDDR5. While the GK110 chip has potential for 2880 CUDA cores, NVIDIA has not released any product (not even Tesla or Quadro) with more than 2688 CUDA cores enabled. Colorful's Titan Ultra and the reference Titan are electrically identical; this "Ultra" version just adds a water block for a cooling system and defaults to some amount of a factory overclock.

But, this is not the first time we have heard of a Titan Ultra...

Back in April, ExtremeTech found a leak for two official products: the GTX Titan LE and the GTX Titan Ultra. While the LE would be slightly stripped down compared to the full GTX Titan, the GTX Titan Ultra would be NVIDIA's first release of a GK110 part without any CUDA cores disabled.

So if that rumor ends up being true, you could choose between Colorful's GTX Titan Ultra with its partially disabled GK110 based on the full GTX Titan design; or, you could choose the reference GTX Titan Ultra based on a full GK110 GPU unlike the partially disabled GK110 on the full GTX Titan.

If you are feeling nostalgic... that might actually be confusion... as this is why suffixes went away.

Source: Tom's Hardware

OCZ Releases Haswell PSU Compatibility List

Subject: General Tech | June 7, 2013 - 10:58 PM |
Tagged: power supply, ocz, haswell, c7, c6

OCZ recently posted a list of its power supplies that are fully compatible with Intel's new 4th Generation Core "Haswell" CPUs and their new C6 and C7 processor sleep states. The new sleep states can draw as little as 0.05A from the 12V rail, and not all power supplies (especially older models) were built with that use case in mind. Somewhat paradoxically, as power supplies have ramped up in Wattage and power delivery characterists, other PC internals have started moving in the other direction towards increased power efficiency and lower power usage overall.

silencermkIII_850W_3892.jpg

OCZ seems well prepared for Haswell, however, with a number of PSUs that are already fully compatible with Haswell CPUs. Even going as far back as its Z Series which launched in 2009 are compatible, which is comforting.

The full list of Haswell compatible OCZ power supplies is available below.

  • MK III Silencer
    • PPCMK3S1200
    • PPCMK3S850
    • PPCMK3S750
  • MK II Silencer
    • PPCMK2S950
    • PPCMK2S750
    • PPCMK2S650
  • Fatal1ty Gaming Series
    • OCZ-FTY1000W
  • ZX Series
    • OCZ-ZX1250W
    • OCZ-ZX1000W
    • OCZ-ZX850W
  • Z Series (EOL)
    • OCZZ1000M
    • OCZZ85M

With that said, even if your OCZ (or PC Power & Cooling) power supply is not on this list, it will still work in systems that utilize Intel Haswell processors. However, you will not be able to take advantage of the new power sipping C6 and C7 sleep states.

As the launch of Haswell approaches, more and more PSU manufacturers are releasing compatibility information. So far, the following companies have put together compatibility lists.

Source: OCZ

E3 2013: Serious Sam 4, Humble Bundle, 4 Serious?

Subject: General Tech, Shows and Expos | June 7, 2013 - 08:21 PM |
Tagged: serious sam, E3 13, E3

We still have another 5-or-so days left on the Serious Sam Humble Weekly Sale and so if you were interested in donating a bunch of money for mindless shooters, you still have a chance. Also, you apparently have another reason to do so.

Crowdfunding is popular these days, we even did it. Basically anyone can set up a project, collect money from random people on the internet, and give perks in return. In this case, according to PC Gamer, Croteam is apparently using revenue collected from the Humble Bundle to fund the creation of the next Serious Sam: Serious Sam 4.

If you wish to snag a bunch of Serious Sam games for yourself or your friends, all while supporting Croteam and their future titles, then donate to the Humble Sale by Thursday, June 13th, 2013 at (I believe) 2PM EDT. By the way, that is the last official day of E3.

Source: PC Gamer

E3 2013: Thief trailer & confirmed PC, PS4, and Xbox One

Subject: General Tech, Shows and Expos | June 7, 2013 - 06:24 PM |
Tagged: E3, E3 13, thief, Thief 4

The pre-expo press conferences are still three days out but only suckers want to get swamped in the press coverage, right? It is like people who leave work two days early to beat the traffic caused by people leaving a day early from a long weekend to beat traffic. This is all like that, if it were directed by Michael Bay.

And speaking of live action E3 movies, Eidos released a trailer for their upcoming Thief reboot. I really cannot tell which sections are in-engine, which are pre-rendered, and which are live action. As for the game? Well, all I know is that you are going to be stealing stuff.

Thief will be coming to the PC, PS4, and Xbox One sometime in 2014.

Let us play a little game here: what do you think is in-engine; what do you think is pre-rendered; and what do you think is live action? Let us know in the comments.

Source: Eidos

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