Articles

Windows 8 Upgrade from Windows 7 To Cost $14.99

Wed, 16 May 2012 00:25:25 +0000

When a new operating system is on its way, Microsoft have always offered upgrades to it in order to prevent a preceding PC sales slump. Therefore, Microsoft will launch its upgrade to Windows 8 promotion on June 2, but this time it will work a little differently, as explained by winsupersite.com

Windows 7 comes in several versions, while Windows 8 comes in just two, "Windows 8" and "Windows 8 Pro". In this instance, the upgrade to Windows 8 Pro will cost a flat $14.99 from any version of Windows 7, as confirmed by sources. The picture shows a "beta" version of the offer without the price. By comparison, for the previous Windows Vista to Windows 7 upgrade, the purchase of a boxed retail copy of Vista would qualify for a completely free upgrade to the equivalent version of the boxed retail copy of Windows 7.

Note that the timing of this offer is approximately the same as the release of the final Windows 8 Customer Preview version is due, in the first week of June. Windows 8 is expected to be broadly available in the second half of 2012, likely around October.

The new mobile device oriented Metro interface in Windows 8 is quite controversial, with many people not liking it at all and dreading having to deal with it daily. Out of the two existing customer previews, only the first one allowed it to be disabled, with the forthcoming third and final near-feature complete Customer Preview version also not allowing it to be disabled.

This has lead people that don't like Metro to fear that they will be forced to use it constantly, giving rise to a refusenik element who will hang on to their old Windows 7 for as long as possible and therefore missing out on all the improvements and support, much like many did with XP, especially businesses. However, an industry source tells techngaming that this won't be the case and the final version will have an easily configurable option to turn Metro off. Of course, this is great news to potential refuseniks everywhere, since Windows 8 sports an awful lot of under the hood improvements that seriously improve it over Windows 7, including the areas of bootup speed and general operation, not to mention the rather smart looking square-cornered Aero glass windows.

Virus Used To Generate Electric Power

Tue, 15 May 2012 23:46:53 +0000

In what must at first glance surely sound like an April Fools joke but isn't, American scientists have managed to harness viruses to generate electrical power - a tiny amount of electrical power, just enough to show the figure '1' on the LCD display in the picture.

They were able to use the M13 bacteriophage virus - this is benign to humans but attacks certain backteria - to effectively make a piezoelectric material, which produces electricity when pressure is applied. Or in other words, it turns mechanical energy into electricity.

Now, normally, viruses don't produce electricity when squashed, so the scientists used genetic engineering techniques to "add four negatively charged molecules to one end of the corkscrew-shaped proteins that coat the virus.

These additional molecules increased the charge difference between the proteins' positive and negative ends, boosting the voltage of the virus," the BBC explains.

Now, to increase the power output ie increase the piezoelectric effect, the scientists managed to enhance the system by stacking these viruses 20 deep and putting the stack between two gold plated electrodes. The film of viruses in the demonstration was 1 square centimetre.in size.

When the pad had gentle pressure applied to it with a thumb, the voltage produced was up to "a quarter of the voltage of a common battery", which presumably refers to a 1.5V battery. Therefore, the voltage produced would be around 0.375V, or 375mV. This was enough to make the LCD display flash a '1'.

Note the crucial point that piezoelectric materials only produce electricity with pressure changes. Once the pressure has reached its maximum or minimum value, the output drops to zero. If this didn't happen, then we would have a perpetual motion machine, allowing us to get energy from nothing...

So, what's the point of this research? To harness the energy found in vibrations generated from everyday tasks such as shutting a door, climbing stairs and generally any mechanical movement. This can supply enough power to tiny wearable electronic devices, which only sip tiny amounts of power.

The research team, comprised of nine scientists, are based at the University of California, Berkeley and had the results published in Nature Nanotechnology. Note that this isn't behind a paywall, allowing the whole article to be read unrestricted, which is a great benefit to everyone in spreading knowledge and furthering education.

Apple Forced To Rebrand 4G LTE New iPad Due To Lack of 4G Compatibility

Tue, 15 May 2012 00:42:01 +0000

Apple was recently pulled up for misleadingly advertising its latest iPad as having a feature that effectively didn't work. The device has LTE or 4G capability, which enables fast wireless internet access. However, the problem is that the version implemented is only compatible with the networks operated in North America and Canada, since other countries that implement 4G use different frequencies.

The iPad was advertised as "Wi-Fi + 4G" until the authorities in the UK, Australia, Sweden and other countries clamped down on this, because 4G was effectively a useless feature there. Apple initially resisted attempts to rebrand the device, but were eventually forced to and will now market it as the "iPad Wi-Fi + Cellular" worldwide. They are also offering refunds to any customers that felt they were mislead and no longer want the device due to this issue.

Apple could have used a 4G radio module that would have actually worked all over the world, but Apple chose not to use this, presumably due to cost-cutting measures. This seems odd though, as the iPad is already very expensive and should therefore be able to accomodate this cost. Also, how many customers have they lost over this issue and how much would it have cost to fit a single frequency module specific to each country the device is sold in? Only Apple can answer this and they're unlikely to.

Source: electronista

We are back online!

Sun, 13 May 2012 23:19:14 +0000

techngaming.com is finally back online. I would like to begin by apologizing for how long the down time was. It turned out to be considerably longer than I anticipated, and in the end I decided to make a decision not to bring it back up until I was happy, so as not to give you all a half baked experience.

There are still a few outstanding things to do, and if you encounter any bugs, please either reply here or in the Tracker.

While we were down, we managed to bring you not just the one promised new feature, but two! I hope you have fun finding them and trying them out. In the mean time, I hope you all enjoy the refresh of techngaming.com

Call of Duty Elite Membership Growth Strong and Healthy

Thu, 10 May 2012 00:08:18 +0000

PC Call of Duty gamers recently felt hard-done by when Activision Blizzard launched the Call of Duty Elite service recently, since consoles owners were invited to join, but not them. Now, they can feel a bit worse about it, since the growth figures for the service suggests that snubbing PC gamers has done the company no harm at all. Still why throw away revenue?

The graphs below show that Elite membership has grown by over 40% since November, while Premium Elite membership by over 33% in the same period, which is a geat result for Activision Blizzard, awkward company name not withstanding. These figures mean that total membership volume has now reached 10 million gamers, with 2 million of those on a paid subscription, putting a lot of money into the company's piggybank.

Epic Targets Unreal 4 Engine at Consoles As They're the Most Powerful Platform

Wed, 09 May 2012 23:52:26 +0000

Epic's CEO Tim Sweeney believes that consoles are the target platform to develop for, since they have the most processing power and best-looking games. Yes really, see the quote below. Apparently, PCs with over ten times the processing power of a console by using enormously powerful graphics cards such as the GTX 680 and fast CPUs don't exist and the little graphics chips in the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and the Wii are where it's at. Uh, ok then.

Anyway, in an interview with Gamasutra, he said that Unreal Engine 4 is going to be aimed at future consoles and that behind-closed-doors demos to developers are now being made as part of their very early ramp-up cycle. So, if the console hardware doesn't exist, then how do they develop the engine? On a PC? No, that's not powerful enough...

Quote

Number two is raw performance. The thing that separates consoles from FarmVille is the fact that consoles define the high-end gaming experience. When you look for the best graphics available in the whole game industry today, you look at Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and those games are the best out there, bar none. And so the big opportunities for future consoles is to bring that to an entirely new level by delivering a dramatic increase in raw computing power.

Firefox 14 To Get Click to Play Plug-In Security Enhancement

Mon, 07 May 2012 01:09:54 +0000

Firefox is generally rated as pretty good and the current version 12 is better than ever. However, it can always be improved and an important improvement is now finally on its way.

HEXUS reports that a future version of Firefox, version 14, will contain a new feature called Click to Play, which basically creates a default deny setting for plug-in installs such as Flash or Adobe Reader. This will improve security, because this type of plug-in install is used as a vector for malware.

The Mozilla Firefox development team were inspired to add the feature from the presence of similar third party plug-ins such as NoScript and Flashblock, which stop various JAVA and Flash embedded files from loading or running automatically. The idea is similar to User Account Control (UAC) in Windows Vista and Windows 7. This will help to reduce those nasty drive-by download exploits that infect a computer without any user intervention. When Firefox 14 is ready, it will be a must-have upgrade for this security improvement alone. Firefox is only at version 12 right now, so this feature is still a few months away and can't come soon enough.

To be honest, it's surprising that this wasn't implemented a long time ago, since it's easy to implement and Firefox is marketed on its good security among other features.

A Few Sites Worth Reading

Sun, 06 May 2012 23:51:40 +0000

There's thousands of articles out there worth reading, so today, we would like to bring you roundup of just few for your enjoyment.

Maximum PC reports that researchers have created a 1Gbps network using red and green handheld AAA battery-powered laser pointers. How cool is that! It took around $600 worth of kit to do it and should keep any hardcore geek happy for days simply for the novelty of it.

bjorn 3D has reviewed the Western Digital VelociRaptor and found it to be a worthy high quality hard disc drive and very fast. However, it's priced very high and is easily outgunned by SSDs now, with which it competes. Solid state electronics are inherently faster than a spinning mechanical drive - it's old tech versus new - so it looks like the days of this kind of performance drive are numbered. This drive might perhaps be best suited in something like a web server that has to run 24/7, otherwise it's hard to make a business case for buying it, when compared to SSDs.

Ars Technica has reported on a study which reckons that ignoring your email for five days leads to lower stress levels and greater productivity. I hardly think so and there are many jobs, including mine, where email is an integral part of the job. Looks like someone wanted funding for running a "study".

Maximum PC again, this time waxing lyrical about the potential for CPU-based graphics to kill off the discrete graphics card market at the low end now that Intel's Ivy Bridge "good enough" graphics are here. There's also an uncomfortable quote regarding the high end graphics card market:

Quote

Financial analyst Jack Gold chimed in on the press release to drive the point home. "Extreme gamers who want very powerful graphics cards are in a niche market already, and it's shrinking," he says. "For 95 percent of the folks out there, integrated graphics will be what they want."

Ouch. Hope it's not true about the shrinking enthusias market and it doesn't bode well for extreme graphics cards like the £850 NVIDIA GTX 690 does it? (Yes, I want one, no, I'm not getting it).

ExtremeTech asks the question"Does Ivy Bridge replace discrete video cards for gaming?" and in general the answer is no, although the author, Matthew Murray, acknowledges others' enthusiasm for IB graphics. He then goes on to review an i7-3770K using its built in graphics and finds it pretty wanting. He also has this rather satisfying paragraph in the article:

Quote

In the interests of full disclosure, I’m very anti–integrated graphics and have been for decades. Ever since I witnessed the wonder that EGA and VGA cards wrought on late-1980s/early-1990s computer games, I’ve insisted on having a discrete card in every system I buy or build for myself. (I felt, and feel, the same way about sound cards, but that’s a separate discussion.) But even if you believe that on-board video is somehow acceptable under specific circumstances, you should have your head examined if the idea crosses your mind — even for only a moment — that it’s somehow able to play games in a satisfying way.

Yup, time to wheel the shrink out!

That's it for this roundup. I'd like to thank our great techngaming forum members for these excellent suggestions. Please keep them coming!

Windows 8 Won't Play DVDs or Blu-rays

Sun, 06 May 2012 00:59:30 +0000

Windows 7 has the ability to effortlessly play DVDs (but not Blu-rays) using its included Windows Media Centre and Windows Media Player components, but the shiny new Windows 8 won't. Makes you look forward to the next version, huh?

Microsoft justifies this on its Building Windows 8 blog by saying that the media landscape has changed significantly since Window 7 was released in 2009. They say that by every measurement made, people are consuming video in formats other than DVD, this typically being things like YouTube, Netflix, Amazon, general web video etc. Now, as including the DVD codec software in Windows requires a royalty to be paid for every copy of Windows sold, Microsoft no longer feel that the cost is justified, since the use of physical DVDs has declined significantly.

However, the capability can be added back by obtaining either the Windows 8 Media Center Pack or the Windows 8 Pro Pack, which is an extra cost option, which we're sure everyone will flock to.

This doesn't seem like terribly good value to me though. Instead of feeding Microsoft more money and the DVD consortium that demands these royalties, simply download the free, open source player, VLC. It works on every version of Windows and Linux and plays just about anything you can throw at it. This includes the increasingly unpopular Blu-ray discs with their gross anti-consumer hardcore DRM - a phyrric victory over HD-DVD anyone?

Go get it from : www.videolan.org and enjoy hassle-free video playback.

[Updated] Early NDA-Busting GTX 670 Review Out: Handily Beats An AMD HD 7970

Sun, 06 May 2012 00:17:52 +0000

UPDATE: The graphs are now showing on TweakTown's review. Consider them carefully before putting money down for a GTX 680.

The NVIDIA GTX 670 is due to launch in five days, which means no disclosures regarding pictures, performance or price from the usual review sites until the NDA lifts. However, TweakTown do not have an NDA with NVIDIA since NVIDIA don't like them for some reason and won't talk to them. Therefore, TweakTown can do what they like when it comes to leaking information early, should they be able to get hold of it somehow and this they do by using their relationships with board partners who are under NDA that are willing to leak them information and hardware samples.

This they have done with the GTX 670 and posted a review here. Sort of. They didn't post any photos of the card, because it would have identified the manufacturer who leaked it to them, who do have an NDA with NVIDIA.

Interestingly and frustratingly, the review is up, but there are no performance charts of any kind showing. Not only that, but these are not showing up in other reviews on TweakTown, either, so it's all a little strange.

However, we can talk about the conclusion. In short, it beats AMD's best, the HD 7970. That is, the full GK104 GPU, already a midrange Kepler GPU beats the top end HD 7970 which is bad enough, but now even the crippled version does so too! This is bad for AMD and they should look to improving the performance of their GPUs to give NVIDIA a run for their money and some decent competition. It does look like they're doing something about this though by releasing a "GHz Edition" HD 7970, boosting the GPU clock from 925MHz to 1GHz which does help it to compete with the GTX 680. Apparently they can do this now because wafer yields have improved significantly since the HD 7970 was launched, allowing the GPU to run at higher clocks more reliably.

Here are TweakTown's conclusion/final thoughts on the GTX 670:

Quote

My personal issues with NVIDIA and the issues that TweakTown on a whole have pushed right aside, the GEFORCE GTX 670 is just an awesome video card that is going to be a serious headache for AMD. The performance of the video card is really quite crazy and the fact that this is the second option for NVIDIA when it comes to single GPU video cards is bad for AMD when it has no issue competing with their strongest option; the HD 7970.

This is actually our second GEFORCE GTX 670 we have on hand as well, we've got a full retail option from someone that we'll show you on the 10th when the model officially launches. The reference based design, though, is looking good for NVIDIA and could be a clear option for people who don't want to spend big money.

To be completely honest, there's not really much more that needs to be said about the video card. Of course we're only covering the performance today so there's no bundle or anything like that to talk about. We don't have any pricing from NVIDIA so there's not much to say in that area either.

We of course know it will come in cheaper than the GTX 680 and considering the price point that hits at, we're fairly comfortable in saying that the GTX 670 is going to be a really well valued video card.

Keep an eye out for the official launch next week when we check out our first retail option. For now, though, that really wraps everything up. Again NVIDIA has done a good job with the GTX 670 and we look forward to seeing what their partners offer us in the coming weeks and months.

Electronic Arts to Break Into Linux Gaming?

Sat, 05 May 2012 10:05:43 +0000

Electronic Arts, one of the world's largest games publishers having games like Battlefield 3 and Mass Effect under its belt, will deliver a short presentation at next week's Ubuntu Developer Summit.

The EA plenary session will be a short 15 minutes long and EA haven't given anything away about their presentation. However, following the news that Steam is coming to Linux in a matter of months, this looks to be a possible milestone for Linux gaming, making it very good news indeed. Even more importantly though, this may finally be the catalyst that allows Linux to hit critical mass on the desktop and become mainstream. Now, that would be awesome! Microsoft might finally have some real competition on its hands on the desktop and that can't come soon enough.

Also, this gives credence to the rumour of a deal between Canonical (Ubuntu's developer) and an unrevealed major games publisher.

So, what about DRM? Linux users are a highly computer literate, tech savvy bunch and they've not had to put up with the likes of product activation or any other lame DRM to install their distros. However, EA is well known for baking hardcore DRM into all their major titles, so it'll be interesting to see if they continue to do this with Linux games and if they do, will Linux gamers just accept it? If they don't and they boycott DRM-infested games instead, then EA might stop producing Linux games altogether and the Linux dream of going mainstream on the desktop might die once again. Let's hope DRM goes the way of the dodo instead.

Source: Phoronix

AMD Releases CAP1 For Catalyst 12.4 Drivers

Fri, 04 May 2012 19:29:16 +0000

AMD has released Catalyst Application Profiles 1 (CAP1) for the latest April Catalyst Radeon driver (12.4).

This includes all the usual improved CrossFire performance and fixes, with full details shown below. The tiny 0.5MB file can be downloaded from here.

Quote

This release of AMD Catalyst™ delivers support for the latest AMD CrossFireX™ profiles. A separate executable file ensures users have access to the latest set of profiles installed on their PC.

New profiles added to this release:
- Counter Strike: GO: Improves CrossFire performance
- FireFall: Improves CrossFire performance
- Test Drive: Ferrari Legend: Improves CrossFire performance
- Sniper Elite 2: Improves performance for single GPU configurations
- The Walking Dead: Resolve corruption when enabling Anti-Aliasing through the Catalyst Control Center on single GPU configurations
- Blades of Time: Resolve corruption when enabling Anti-Aliasing through the Catalyst Control Center on single GPU configurations
- Majesty HD: Disables CrossFire support, as the title is incompatible with CrossFire

[PR] Samsung Introduces the GALAXY S III, the Smartphone Designed for Humans and Inspired by Nature

Fri, 04 May 2012 08:31:07 +0000

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, a global leader in digital media and digital convergence technologies, announced today the third generation GALAXY S, the GALAXY S III. Designed for humans and inspired by nature, the GALAXY S III is a smartphone that recognizes your voice, understands your intention, and lets you share a moment instantly and easily.

This sleek and innovative smartphone has the enhanced intelligence to make everyday life easier. With Samsung GALAXY S III, you can view the content like never before on the device’s 4.8 inch HD Super AMOLED display. An 8MP camera and a 1.9MP front camera offer users a variety of intelligent camera features and face recognition related options that ensure all moments are captured easily and instantly. Samsung GALAXY S III is powered by Android™ 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, with greatly enhanced usability and practicality to make life easier. Packed with intuitive technology, the GALAXY S III delivers a uniquely personalized mobile experience that refuses to be compromised.

“With the GALAXY S III, Samsung has maximized the consumer benefits by integrating superior hardware with enhanced smartphone usability,” said JK Shin, President and Head of IT & Mobile Communications Division at Samsung. “Designed to be both effortlessly smart and intuitively simple, the GALAXY S III has been created with our human needs and capabilities in mind. What makes me most proud is that it enables one of the most seamless, natural and human-centric mobile experiences, opening up a new horizon that allows you to live a life extraordinary.”

Introducing Natural Interaction

The GALAXY S III enhances the interaction experience between the device and user. Smart enough to detect your face, voice and motions, the GALAXY S III adapts to the individual user to provide a more convenient and natural experience. With the innovative ‘Smart stay’ feature, the GALAXY S III recognizes how you are using your phone – reading an e-book or browsing the web for instance – by having the front camera identify your eyes; the phone maintains a bright display for continued viewing pleasure.

The GALAXY S III features ‘S Voice,’ the advanced natural language user interface, to listen and respond to your words. In addition to allowing information search and basic device-user communication, S Voice presents powerful functions in regards to device control and commands. When your phone alarm goes off but you need a little extra rest, just tell the GALAXY S III “snooze.” You can also use S Voice to play your favorite songs, turn the volume up or down, send text messages and emails, organize your schedules, or automatically launch the camera and capture a photo.

In addition to recognizing your face and voice, the GALAXY S III understands your motions to offer maximized usability. If you are messaging someone but decide to call them instead, simply lift your phone to your ear and ‘Direct call’ will dial their number. With ‘Smart alert,’ the GALAXY S III will also save you from trouble by catching any missed messages or calls; your phone will vibrate to notify missed statuses when picked up after being idle.

Easy and Instant Sharing

The Samsung GALAXY S III is more than a personal device that can be enjoyed by one user - it wants you to share and experience smartphone benefits with family and friends, regardless of where you are. With the new ‘S Beam,’ the GALAXY S III expands upon Android™ Beam™, allowing a 1GB movie file to be shared within three minutes and a 10MB music file within two seconds by simply touching another GALAXY S III phone, even without a Wi-Fi or cellular signal. The ‘Buddy photo share’ function also allows photos to be easily and simultaneously shared with all your friends pictured in an image directly from the camera or the photo gallery.

With ‘AllShare Cast’, users can wirelessly connect their GALAXY S III to their television to immediately transfer smartphone content onto a larger display. ‘AllShare Play’ can be also used to instantly share any forms of files between GALAXY S III and your tablet, PC, and televisions regardless of the distance between the devices. Under AllShare Play is also the ‘Group Cast’ feature that allows you to share your screen among multiple friends on the same Wi-Fi network; you can make comments and draw changes at the same time with your co-workers, witnessing real-time sharing on your individual device.

Human-centric Design with Uncompromised Performance

The GALAXY S III not only presents features with enhanced usability, but also provides an ergonomic and comfortable experience through its human-centric design. Its comfortable grip, gentle curves, and organic form deliver a rich human-centric feel and design. Inspired by nature, its design concept is the flow and movement of nature. The elements of wind, water and light are all evoked in the physical construct of the GALAXY S III. In its essence, the minimal organic design identity is reflected in the smooth and non-linear lines of the device. Available in Pebble Blue and Marble White at launch, Samsung will introduce a variety of additional color options.

With a 4.8” HD Super AMOLED display, the GALAXY S III offers a large and vivid viewing experience. Samsung Mobile’s heritage Super AMOLED display even enhances to HD and 16:9 wider viewing angles. To ensure faster content sharing and connectivity, the GALAXY S III offers Wi-Fi Channel Bonding which doubles the Wi-Fi bandwidth.

The GALAXY S III also sports a range of additional features that boost performance and the overall user experience in entirely new ways. It introduces ‘Pop up play,’ a feature that allows you to play a video anywhere on your screen while simultaneously running other tasks, eliminating the need to close and restart videos when checking new emails or surfing the Web. Its 8MP camera features a zero-lag shutter speed that lets you capture moving objects easily without delay – the image you see is the picture you take. With the ‘Burst shot’ function that instantly captures twenty continuous shots, and the ‘Best photo’ feature that selects the best of eight photographs for you, the GALAXY S III ensures users a more enhanced and memorable camera experience. HD video can be recorded even with the 1.9MP front-facing camera, which you can use to capture a video of yourself. Improved backside illumination further helps to eliminate blur in photos that result from shaking, even under low lights.

Mobile payment is also accessible with the device through advanced Near Field Communication (NFC) technology. The gaming experience is enhanced through ‘Game Hub,’ providing access to numerous social games, while Video Hub brings users high quality TV and movies. Furthermore, Samsung Music Hub will offer a personal music streaming service. Game Hub, Video Hub and Music Hub will be introduced in select countries initially and soon rolled out to global markets.

The Samsung GALAXY S III will be available from the end of May in Europe before rolling out to other markets globally.

Samsung GALAXY S III Product Specifications

*Specifications above may differ on the LTE version.

**All functionality, features, specifications and other product information provided in this document including, but not limited to, the benefits, design, pricing, components, performance, availability, and capabilities of the product are subject to change without notice or obligation.

*Android, Google, Android Beam, Google Search, Google Maps, Gmail, Google Latitude, Google Play Store, Google Play Books, Google Play Movies, Google Plus, YouTube, Google Talk, Google Places, Google Navigation, Google Downloads are trademarks of Google Inc.

NVIDIA GTX 690 Reviews Around the Web

Fri, 04 May 2012 00:19:00 +0000

Released yesterday, this card is an absolute monster performer and rudely demolishes the competition. Amazingly, it actually outperforms two GTX 680's in SLI, despite having a slightly lower clock speed!

Prices range from around £840 to £930, with preorders everywhere - the few that were in stock sold out very quickly. A new batch is expected to be available from 7th May, but likely will sell out quickly, despite its enormous price. You can buy a whole PC for half that.

The card is roughly the price of two GTX 680's. However, it doesn't seem quite so steep when you consider that you don't need an SLI motherboard to run it, saving a fair bit of cash. They can of course, be run in pairs for quad SLI and we await those reviews with interest. Unlike the disappointing results of quad SLI setups from previous years, we expect two GTX 690's to work quite well.

There's more about the GTX 690 here and here.

Specifications courtesy of HEXUS

Here are some reviews from all the usual suspects:

Tom's Hardware Guide

HEXUS

AnandTech

TechPowerUp

Guru3D

[H]ard|OCP

Note that bit-tech don't have a review at this time.

Steam Client to Get Remote Management Feature

Thu, 03 May 2012 23:00:37 +0000

Download the current beta of the Steam client and you you'll see an extra feature available: remote management.

The idea is to allow the gamer to manage their Steam games library and downloads remotely using the web browser on a mobile phone or a PC. This can be handy by allowing the gamer to initiate the download of an uninstalled game while they are away, eliminating the frustration of having to wait for it while sitting impatiently next to the PC. It's also good for initiating a download at a time when it's cheaper to do so due to the ISP's tariff, should the user always be away from the computer when the cheap rate starts. This might be convenient for night shift workers, for example.

Note that it doesn't say anything about making purchases remotely, like some other sites are reporting. Perhaps this is due to security considerations or it might be added later?

Source: Steam forum. The instructions below can be found here.

Quote

How to remotely manage your library using Steam’s Remote Downloads feature

Remote Downloads are enabled from any web browser when you leave the Steam application running on your PC or Mac. Of course, we only recommend you do this on your own private, secured computer.
When you’re logged into Steam on your home PC or Mac, you can manage your library by visiting your Games list on the web.

Log into your Steam account online from your computer or mobile device at www.steampowered.com
Visit your Games list by navigating to the Community and then clicking GAMES in the secondary navigation bar. If you’re logged into the Steam client, the games list will reflect the installation state of your library on that machine.
Locate your game and tap the install button to initiate your remote download.

You may choose to refresh this page to check the current status of your installation. When you return to your active client session, your game will be ready to play!

[PR] EVGA Announces the GTX 690

Thu, 03 May 2012 22:05:08 +0000

May 3, 2012 - The GeForce GTX 690 is NVIDIA's fastest graphics card ever. It combines the groundbreaking new GeForce architecture with raw dual-GPU power to provide truly game-changing performance. Get superior gaming technology that's meticulously designed - inside and out - for the fastest, smoothest, richest gaming experience.

EVGA will offer both a standard, and Signature Edition of the GeForce GTX 690. The Signature Edition GTX 690 will include a special limited edition box, mousepad and tshirt.

The EVGA GeForce GTX 690 graphics card features many new and key features:
· NVIDIA SMX Engine – Brand new processing engine which delivers twice the performance/watt compared to previous generations.
· NVIDIA GPU Boost Technology – Dynamically maximizes clockspeeds to push performance to new levels and bring out the best in every game.
· NVIDIA FXAA – Lightning fast anti-aliasing in a huge variety of games with the simple click of a mouse.
· NVIDIA TXAA – Next generation anti-aliasing algorithm that delivers the image quality of 8X MSAA, with the performance hit of only 2xMSAA.
· Adaptive Vertical Sync – Dynamically adjusts VSync to your monitors native refresh rate for the smoothest gameplay possible.
· Frame Rate Target – Set a target Frame Rate with EVGA Precision X and your card will automatically adjust the power/performance to meet that target.
· NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround – Supporting up to three gaming monitors plus one accessory display!
· PCI Express 3.0 – Offers double the bandwidth of PCI Express 2.0, for highest data transfer speeds. Also backwards compatible with all existing PCI Express motherboards.

The EVGA Difference
Known for offering value and performance, as well as top notch customer service, EVGA is recognized through customer loyalty and the highest levels in customer satisfaction. In addition to the expanded product lines, consumers and channel partners will also benefit from increased sales and technical support programs:

EVGA proprietary Advanced RMA (EAR) service - for allowing customers get a replacement card before sending the defective product back to EVGA.
24/7 Phone Technical Support - to assure users that courteous and friendly assistance will always be available at anytime of the day or night.
Step-Up Program - for the ability to trade up existing EVGA products for newer technology.
Community Message Boards - full of thousands of knowledgeable, friendly and satisfied EVGA customers.
EVGA MODS RIGS - show off your rig, win cash prizes.
EVGA Gaming - EVGA game servers open 24/7 featuring the latest games.

About EVGA
EVGA is the #1 NVIDIA authorized partner in channel sales throughout North America. Based on the philosophy of intelligent innovation, market knowledge, and the real time operation, EVGA continues to identify the need in the market place and providing the solution to that need. By offering product differentiation, 24/7 tech support, a 90 day Step-Up program, and other customer focused programs, EVGA is a clear leader in all categories: etail, retail, distribution, and system builders. With headquarters in Brea, CA, EVGA's global coverage includes EVGA GmbH in Munich, EVGA LATAM in Miami, and EVGA Hong Kong. For further information online about EVGA, visit http://www.evga.com.

Microsoft to Release Seven Patches Next Week

Thu, 03 May 2012 21:58:06 +0000

Next week on 8th May, it's the usual Patch Tuesday monthly cycle and this time Microsoft is due to release seven patches. There's not many details about them yet, however three are rated Critical and four Important. They affect Windows, Office and .NET. Full details will be announced by Microsoft on their release day.

Source: Microsoft security bulletin

Upcoming Galaxy Single Slot GTX 680 Gets Another Picture

Thu, 03 May 2012 21:50:46 +0000

About a month ago, we reported on a leaked picture of an upcoming Galaxy GTX 680. We now have another one to add, posted by a Galaxy product manager on his blog, but he didn't actually confirm that it was a GTX 680.

This time, the card looks quite odd. It has two power connectors in the middle of the top edge, plus it's very long give the slim cooler enough cooling capacity to cool the GK104 GPU and surrounding components - deep PC cases required. It also appears to have a power LED near the backplate, which might prove useful in troubleshooting situations. No specifications were revealed, but no doubt more leaks will tip up soon and we'll know what this card is all about. It will be particularly interesting to see how this rates on noise performance. If it's shrill and annoying, then it's hardly worth gaining an extra slot, is it?

Source: Expreview via Videocardz

Conficker Crippled and Ineffective, But Still Camouflages New Windows Infections

Wed, 02 May 2012 23:20:51 +0000

The nasty Conficker worm that appeared a few years ago has now been crippled and is far less effective at controlling bots than it was before security researchers drove a stake through its evil heart. They did this by creating 'sinkholes' for the domains that it creates for the last two years. However, it still infected or tried to infect 1.7 million Windows PCs in Q4 2011, which is still an awful lot.

Due to these efforts, it's apparently no longer being used by the original perpetrators to do any more botnet attacks, which is good. However, the main reason why it should be eradicated, is because of the side effect of leaving infected Windows computers highly vulnerable to other malware attacks. This side effect exists, because of two defensive tactics that it employs: it disables most antivirus software, including Windows Defender and Security Essentials, plus, it switches off Windows Updates, which is Microsoft's primary method of patching vulnerabilities in Windows. On top of this, it also blocks access to security products websites, which prevents antivirus signature updates from deploying to the infected machine and finally, it blocks access to the Windows Update website. The combination of these tricks leaves an infected PC wide open to attack from any malware going and is the equivalent of painting a great big red bullseye on it. Hence, Confcker must be eradicated as fast as possible.

Conficker cleaning tools are available from the Conficker Working Group website - but a much better solution, is to format the hard drive and reinstall Windows from scratch, or using a known clean image.

Virginia-based Neustar is an information and analytics provider, and one of the corporate members of the Conficker Working Group (CWG), which has been "sinkholing" the Conficker botnet for more than two years.

"We're pretty sure that [other malware] is using Conficker for cover," Joffe said in an interview Friday. "When we find a machine [harboring Conficker], we usually find that it's been infected by other methods as well."

Can't Set Optimal Video Game Settings? Let NVIDIA Figure it Out For You!

Tue, 01 May 2012 00:35:51 +0000

It seems that there's a whole lot of lazy (clueless?) PC gamers out there who are too inept to tweak their gaming graphics settings in order to obtain the best performance/visual quality combination possible. This results in them running every game at default game and driver quality settings, therefore experiencing a sub-optimal gaming experience.

Into the breach steps NVIDIA! They have created a new cloud service called GeForce Experience, that analyzes your hardware, then shows you a comparison of settings when you first run a game: your defaults and what NVIDIA think is best for your hardware. You can then just accept NVIDIA's suggestions and start playing, or accept their settings and then tweak them. Seriously though, this takes the "enthusiast" out of "PC enthusiast". If you're going to do this, then just get a console and be done with it.

To support the service, NVIDIA are going to invest in a team of personnel and test hardware to build and maintain a large database of hardware/software/game combinations, which sounds expensive for them to do. The beta is expected to launch in June and it's not clear whether this will be a free service or not. The service will cover mobile devices, too.

"With the beta supposedly starting in June, this is going to demand a long-term vision and constant and vigilant updates as new games, new driver revisions and user upgrades will constantly change what the "optimal" settings will be."

Source: PC Perspective