General Gaming Article |
- Windows 8 Apps Can be Remotely Removed by Microsoft
- Google Pulls Visual Voicemail App Following T-Mobile Complaint
- Google Launches Social News App "Currents"
- Maximum Micro Tech: Three New Technologies Explained
- Slay Prettier Dragons with Nvidia's Skyrim Tweak Guide
- Intel Halting Shipments of LGA1366 Processors
- AMD, Nvidia Introduce Tons Of New Mobile Chips (Kind Of)
- IBM Spends $440 Million Acquiring Cloud-Based Analytics Firm
- Browser Extension of the Week: Look of Disapproval
- Razer Blade Gaming Laptops Could Be Underneath Trees This Christmas
| Windows 8 Apps Can be Remotely Removed by Microsoft Posted: 08 Dec 2011 03:13 PM PST
Microsoft claims it will use the capability in cases of security or, more troubling, if they are "required to do so for legal reasons." This is a common capability on mobile devices running iOS and Android, though even in the case of an app being pulled from the store, it is rarely removed from devices except in the case of malware. Microsoft will be reviewing apps in the Windows Store, so hopefully this won't even come up. Programs outside that ecosystem should work as they always have. Microsoft's documents also seem to indicate that data created by an app would be removed along with it. The company wouldn't be able to compensate you for any intrinsic value lost, but purchased apps will be refunded if indeed they are removed. Do you think this is going to be an issue going forward? |
| Google Pulls Visual Voicemail App Following T-Mobile Complaint Posted: 08 Dec 2011 02:56 PM PST
According to the email notification, YouMail was pulled because it was found to be "harmful to devices, networks or users." T-Mobile apparently complained to El Goog that YouMail was causing network disruption. The folks at YouMail were perplexed at this, considering they have handled over 1 billion calls and no one has yet to complain. Some regional carriers even use the YouMail app as the official voicemail service. Google chose not to just block T-Mobile users from the app, but to remove it completely. The developers are understandably upset, "We've produced an innovative and dramatically better voicemail product than they offer," the YouMail blog said, speculating on T-Mobile's motives. Do you think Google should restore the app? |
| Google Launches Social News App "Currents" Posted: 08 Dec 2011 02:39 PM PST
Not all content is available off the bat. Publishers have to package their content for Currents using a web-based back end that utilizes HTML5 to make the process easier. Doing this offers a number of benefits. Publishers can create rich content, monitor reading stats, include AdSense ads, and get analytics through Currents. Users will get a well-formatted gesture-based reader not unlike Flipboard. Google will be providing publishers with tools to get content into Currents, but the selection isn't bad right now. Users will see All Things D, Mashable, Popular Science, and of course Maximum PC. Have you tried the app? Let us know how you like it. |
| Maximum Micro Tech: Three New Technologies Explained Posted: 08 Dec 2011 11:50 AM PST Some of the biggest breakthroughs in future tech revolve around some of the smallest materials on Earth. Even calling these technologies "micro" is magnitudes of measure larger than their actual tiny sizes. From the nano-scaled heat transfer of Nanowick Cooling down to the single atomic-level of Graphene and Quantum Computing, our white papers will help you wrap your head around the maximum potential of these miniscule technologies. Be sure to check out our previous white paper round ups on Connection Tech, Mobile Technology, Gaming Technology and LCD Technology. Nanowick CoolingA micro solution to a macro problemHeat is the enemy of modern electronics. As integrated circuits consume more electrical power and become ever smaller, with their constituent components packed closer and closer together, they generate more and more heat. If that thermal energy isn't effectively dissipated, it will damage and eventually destroy the circuitry. Today's most popular cooling solutions utilize heatsinks and heat pipes, often augmented by powered fans. But that technology is rapidly reaching its practical limit and is threatening to impede the chip industry's progress. Enter nanowick cooling: While fundamentally based on the same mechanics as the heat pipe, a nanowick cooler is capable of dissipating 10 times more heat. We'll explain conventional cooling techniques, how nanowick cooling functions, and why it performs so much better. Old-School CoolLook inside your PC and you'll find passive heatsinks and/or heat pipes, typically fabricated from aluminum or copper, clinging to your motherboard chipset and maybe even your RAM. For components that generate even more heat—your CPU and videocard, for example—the coolers are usually augmented by fans. A heatsink simply uses thermal conductivity to draw heat from the point-of-contact to a cooler area at the opposite end of the metal. Segmenting that far end into a host of very thin fins increases the heatsink's total overall surface area, making it easier for the heat to pass into the air; adding a fan draws the heat away even faster. Heat pipes, typically fabricated from copper, operate on a similar principle, and are often used in conjunction with a heatsink. The pipes contain a small amount of fluid—often water—and are sealed at a low atmosphere pressure, which means the fluid will boil at a relatively low temperature while it's in close proximity to the heat source. The resulting steam transfers the heat to the far end of the tube, where it condenses back into a liquid. Gravity and other forces cause the liquid to flow back to the heat source and the cycle repeats. Nanowick CoolA nanowick cooling system is based on the same physics; but as its name implies, it operates on a vastly smaller scale, with pipes and fins that are nearly as thin as cell membranes. A nanowick draws a liquid coolant toward the hot surface of the chip via capillary action, a phenomenon that moves fluids through small spaces based on molecular charges. Since capillary pressure increases as the channel through which the fluid moves narrows, nanowick pressure can be orders of magnitude greater than a conventional heat pipe.
Nanowicks are created through a sintering process in which tiny copper spheres are fused together to form a porous sponge. To make the pathways even smaller, carbon nanotubes with a diameter of about 50 nanometers are inserted into the mix. Since carbon repels liquid, the nanotubes are coated with another substance, often copper. The specific pattern and channel size affects the wicking speed. Nanowicks can even be designed to separate different fluids or to filter substances. The ultimate nanowick design will be the perfect balance of material, surface area, and capillary channel size: A thick wick has a large contact patch that increases the area over which it can draw heat, but the corresponding downside is a reduced capillary effect. Researchers are still searching for the perfect balance. The rest of a nanowick system echoes the design of a typical heat pipe. The heated liquid—often water—evaporates and travels to the opposite end of a sealed tube, where the liquid condenses. The nanowick then draws the fluid back to a plate—also known as a thermal ground plane—that's in direct contact with the component that's being cooled. And then the process repeats. A conventional heat pipe is capable of absorbing roughly 50 watts of energy per square centimeter. Researchers at Purdue University's Birck Nanotechnology Center recently developed new nanowick materials that have proven capable of absorbing more than 550 watts per square centimeter without any occurrence of dryout, the point at which the coolant completely disappears from the loop and the system fails. This suggests that the researchers have only scratched the surface of nanowick technology's capacity for absorbing heat. Applying the ScienceThe first nanowick cooling systems are being deployed in high-power electronic devices developed from the automobile and defense industries. In the auto industry, such applications include the switching transistors that drive the electric motors in hybrid and battery-powered cars. Military applications include the electronic components embedded in radar and laser devices used in vehicles and aircraft. The integrated circuits used in both applications can generate more than 300 watts per square centimeter—far more than conventional heat pipes are capable of dissipating. Nanowick coolers for consumer-electronics devices will likely reach the market within the next two years, a development that could enable the design and manufacture of even faster CPUs. GPUs, and other chips—especially those designed for mobile applications where cooling is always a challenge. One day, even your smartphone might harbor one of these small wonders. GrapheneA recently isolated material could advance displays, batteries, solar cells, and computers beyond siliconThe tip of your pencil contains the future of computing, touch-screen displays, solar cells, gas detection, and the strongest, lightest physical materials ever. Each scribble leaves layers of this recently isolated super-substance. It's called graphene, and it's a one-atom-thick hexagonal-grid pattern of carbon atoms. It looks a little bit like chicken-wire—or the Settlers of Catan board—only 100 million times smaller. In its sheet form, it's the first two-dimensional, crystalline substance that's ever been isolated. It can be rolled into tubes—carbon nanotubes—that behave as a single-dimensional material, and can even be made into a zero-dimensional ball. These multidimensional properties allow for new research and experiments down to a quantum-physics level. We'll explain the coming graphene boom, how the material is harvested, and why this space-age material could change everything from airplanes to mobile phones. Harvesting ExplosionThe 2010 Noble Prize in Physics was awarded to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov for their research isolating graphene. Prior to their discovery and 2004 paper, scientists thought graphene couldn't be stable in a single, one-atom sheet. In what Geim calls a "Friday night experiment"—a test on a whim at the end of the day—the scientists affixed cohesive tape to a chunk of carbon. Peeling it back, they tore off clusters of more than 100 layers of graphene. But by sticking the tape back to itself, they cleaved off smaller and smaller layers of graphene. In the end, they discovered single layers of graphene flakes by viewing the substance on top of silicon oxide. A slightly pink halo revealed the location around the virtually clear substance; about 98 percent of light passed through the layer. In subsequent experiments, other scientists reproduced their technique, setting off a boom in graphene experimentation. Graphene can be produced in many ways in addition to this low-tech method. In 2009, scientists devised a means of growing graphene suited to larger commercial applications. Researchers heat a silicon carbide wafer to 1,300 C, at which point the silicon layer bakes off, leaving the carbon atoms, which realign into graphene. This method can be used to pattern or cut into shapes for microelectronics. Powerful PropertiesGraphene's many unique properties lead to a wide range of potential applications. Two hundred times stronger than steel, it's possibly the lightest, strongest material ever discovered, suitable for airplane parts and other high-pressure, low-weight applications. It conducts electricity with an extremely low resistance—faster than silicon—making it suitable for many electronics applications.
These traits, combined with graphene's transparency, could also make the material a key component in building more functional lightweight OLED, LCD, and touch-screen panels. And with its large surface-to-volume ratio, graphene in powder form could even improve batteries. Graphene's electrical properties are leading to branching ideas about the future of computing. "You can try to do everything in a similar way but find a material that can maybe do it better [than silicon]," Dr. Roland Kawakami, an associate professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Riverside explains. "Maybe we can make a better transistor." Following this logic, graphene could be built into tiny transistors that can move single electrons around with electromagnetic forces. An electron will come to an obstacle in its path—like a wedge—and have to move around it in one of two directions. This choice reproduces the binary basis for the rest of the computer. Theoretically, these transistors would be smaller, consume less power, and yield much higher speeds than current silicon. Heck, we might see 100GHz mobile phones based on the technology in coming decades. The counter alternative to transistor replacement, according to Dr. Kawakami, is to "try to do computing in a different way. So…maybe you can have additional benefit since you're doing something fundamentally different," Kawakami says. His research relates to spin computing, and rethinking processing paradigms down to an atomic level. Here's the logic: Electrons don't just have an atomic charge, they also have spin, behaving like tiny magnets with a north and south pole. Spin computers can take advantage of this polarity to process and store data; it's similar to the magnetic alignment of current hard disks. This spin can be oriented in many directions, easily accommodating the current binary concept as "up" or "down," while allowing for further expansion. The problem is that when researchers try to inject spin into semiconductors, they have to cool them to cryogenic levels, such as 100 Kelvin. Even then, it works poorly. Graphene can maintain this spin much longer and do so at room temperatures. Kawakami has researched ways of extending the spin further by layering graphene with a thin insulator. Spin is injected through the insulator, and the extra material helps prevent it from leaking out immediately. The spin can now last significantly longer than a nanosecond, with theoretical estimates of it lasting between a millisecond and microsecond. While these times don't sound long, consider a processor that runs at 1GHz—a graphene-based spin computer could retain information for up to a million cycles. Commercial Graphene?With so many uses and with the cost per yield continuously dropping, you can expect to see the first commercial uses of graphene in the next two to three years. More ambitious usage will, of course, take decades to develop. This said, some companies, such as Samsung, are already testing 30-inch graphene-based display prototypes. Kawakami says, "There are certain things we can already do based on this last [research]." So, how long will it take until graphene computers make it to the market? "At the very optimistic end," Kawakami responded, "[it will take] at least 15 years." Quantum ComputingIn the future, we'll ditch binary bits for decidedly nonbinary qubits. The end result will revolutionize computingDespite the misconception created by phrases such as "quantum leap," quanta are among the smallest known particles in the universe. If they weren't, quantum computing wouldn't be such a big deal. At its core, quantum computing leverages the possible dimensions associated with the quantum properties of a physical atom. The construction of a quantum computer involves the arrangement of entangled atoms. A quantum entanglement is a description of the state of a system containing two or more objects. The objects within wuch a system are associated in such a way that the quantum state of any one of them cannot be adequately described without full mention of the others—even if the objects are separated from each other. If that's starting to sound a bit complex, you're probably an Einstein devotee. He and a few friends (Podolsky and Rosen, to name two), postulated that all physical objects have real values at all times. Unfortunately, thanks to the behavior of particles on the atomic level, that's not necessarily the case for quantum computing. Parts is PartsThe core of a quantum computer starts with a quantum bit, or qubit as it's more often called. The qubit is the fundamental equivalent of the digital computing "bit." However, while a bit must be be either 1 or 0, a qubit can be either |0> or |1> (for the purposes of quantum computing, the added notation indicates that the object can be a state, a vector, or a ket). To visualize the possible states of a single qubit we typically use a Bloch sphere. Within such a sphere, because of its on/off nature, a classical bit could only be at the "north pole" or the "south pole," in the locations where |0> and |1> are positioned, respectively. The rest of the surface of the sphere is inaccessible to a classical bit but not in the case of a qubit. A qubit state can be represented by any point on the surface—any point. For example the pure qubit state: |0> + i|1> would lie on the equator of the sphere, on the positive y axis. Computing on the Quantum LevelA quantum computation is performed by initializing this system of qubits with a quantum algorithm. "Initialization" here refers to some process that puts the system into an entangled state. How to do that? In a natural state, sub-atomic particles decay into other particles. The decay follows the atomic laws of convservation and you can, therefore, generate pairs of particles that will be in certain predictable quantum states. Purposefully initializing such a system typically entails one of the following methods: using spontaneous parametric down-conversion, where a nonlinear crystal is used to split incoming photons into pairs of photons of lower energy; using a fiber coupler to confine and mix photons; or using a quantum dot, a semiconductor whose excitons are bound within all three spatial dimensions, giving it properties that are somewhere between those of bulk semiconductors and those of discrete molecules, to trap electrons until decay occurs. Typical computational gates use Boolean logic, but in quantum computing, these gates are represented by matrices, and can be thought of as rotations of the quantum state within a Bloch sphere (see the infographic below).
Manipulating these states presents the probability of performing a mathematical operation on all of a qubit's states simultaneously. For example, as a single qubit state can be 1 and 0 or 0 and 1, we could compute four values at once using two qubits. Doubling that to four qubits pushes the possibility to 16 values, and so on. The more you increase the number of qubits, the more the processing power increases in an exponential fashion. It's akin to the way we started back in the dark ages with 4-bit, then 8-bit, then 16-bit processors until now we've reached 64-bit (on the desktop at least). Here as there, increasing the number of bits increases the data precision as well as the amount of data the CPU can handle in one fell swoop. Is Quantum Computing Practical?While the first quantum processor was built back in 2009 by a team out of Yale University, a useful quantum computer is still at least that ubiquitous 10 years (if not further out to 50 years) away. Early quantum algorithms tried to exploit very simple quantum computing, using what's called "oracles." Like a Magic 8-Ball, they were designed to deliver yes or no answers. That's hardly adequate for even our most basic binary computer of today. Beefing up a quantum computer is not simple. The overall goal is to stay small, but just the logic gates alone are a serious point of consideration. A 16-qubit computer can register a single "NOT" gate. Now imagine the possibilities beyond that. We might be able to cure some of the clutter if we use ternary computing lessons (three possible values as opposed to transferring binary technology, which uses bits) that employ "trits" to store data. With this method, it may be possible to transfer this concept over to quantum computing with a roughly equivalent qutrit. That lone would reduce the number of gates significantly, possibly lowering a 50-gate construct down to one needing only nine gates. Coherence is another hurdle. Simply looking at a qubit (or in any other way letting it interact with the environment) will cause it to decohere or dephase. Decoherence impedes superimposition, which reduces the quantum computer's effectiveness—sometimes down to binary levels. Still, however, once these impediments have been conquered, over whatever time period it might take, a quantum computer could tackle password and encryption problems, as well as simulations and design tasks, in a matter of heartbeats, where a conventional binary computer might require a lifetime. That's what makes them so magical. |
| Slay Prettier Dragons with Nvidia's Skyrim Tweak Guide Posted: 08 Dec 2011 11:43 AM PST
There's a lot to digest in the 20-page guide, and it's too bad reading through it doesn't level up an in-game skill or two. It does, however, go over all kinds of graphics settings, console commands, mod and graphics driver settings, and even advanced tweaking commands you can add to the initialization (.ini) files. Get comfortable and give it a read here. |
| Intel Halting Shipments of LGA1366 Processors Posted: 08 Dec 2011 11:17 AM PST
Intel made the announcement in a Product Change Notification (PDF) and said that market demand for quad-core Core i7 930, 950, 960 and six-core Core i7 980 and 990X LGA1366 processors has "shifted to other Intel products." The last order date for tray and boxed processors will be June 29, 2012, and the last delivery will be made on December 7, 2012. What that means is you'll still be able to buy LGA1366 Core i7 processors through 2012, which is great if you're looking to upgrade an existing build, but it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to construct a new LGA1366 system at this point. |
| AMD, Nvidia Introduce Tons Of New Mobile Chips (Kind Of) Posted: 08 Dec 2011 11:04 AM PST
The problem is that yields of 28nm chips simply aren't good enough for a full retail roll-out yet. AMD decided that rather than miss the holiday season, it would be wiser to launch the new line with rebranded 40nm parts. If you're waiting for the "real" Radeon HD 7000M, a partial run of 28nm chips may hit the streets by New Year's, but the full launch of the next-gen GPUs won't happen until sometime in 2012. As for the rebranded chips, AMD didn't release full details, only general configurations – which look the exact same as the HD 6000M chips. Clock rates are currently unknown, but presumably they'll be higher than the clock rates on the HD 6000M chips. Check out AnandTech for a more details and a spreadsheet comparing the HD 7000M specs against the HD 6000M specs. Nvidia also launched its new GeForce 600M lineup yesterday -- which, like AMD's mobile graphics, are a rebranding of the models that are already around, but with slightly tweaked clock speeds and memory bandwidth. Notebook Check has detailed info. Six of AMD's seven new Llano APUs, on the other hand, are mostly incremental upgrades to existing chips that add around 100 MHz to clock rates. The seventh chip bucks the trend; the A4-3305M follows up on the A4-3300M by keeping the same clock speed and shaving off 1MB of the L2 cache. The GPU features fewer shaders than its predecessor, but clocks them higher. Check out CPU-World for a full list of specs and details. |
| IBM Spends $440 Million Acquiring Cloud-Based Analytics Firm Posted: 08 Dec 2011 10:53 AM PST
"DemandTec has unprecedented capability to improve customers' price and promotion tactics on a stand-alone basis and connect retailers and manufacturers for collaborative planning through the cloud," said Dan Fishback, President and Chief Executive Officer of DemandTec. "IBM Smarter Commerce is the perfect fit for DemandTec. IBM is the only provider of price and promotion offerings within a rich solution set that supports companies' buy, market, sell and service processes." Even for IBM, $440 million isn't exactly chump change, but justifiable given that IBM estimates the market opportunity for Smarter Commerce to be around $20 billion in software alone. DemandTec is home to 350 employees and headquartered n San Mateo, California, with additional offices in Minneapolis, London, Paris, and Bangalore. The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2012. |
| Browser Extension of the Week: Look of Disapproval Posted: 08 Dec 2011 10:47 AM PST
Drawing inspiration from the popular unicode meme, Look of Disapproval provides Chrome users with the ability to express their disdain online without having to muck about extensively with their keyboards to do so. Once installed to your browser, Look of Disapproval can be accessed by clicking an icon located on the right hand side of your navigation bar. Users can choose from a number of disapproving digital mugs, and easily copy them to their clipboards for use in chatrooms, comments, email or anywhere else that you feel someone could benefit from knowing about your contempt for them.
While Look of Disapproval might be a one-trick pony of a browser extension, the trick it does is satisfying enough to make it well worth the amount of real estate it takes up in your navigation bar to make it a keeper. Be sure to check back every Thursday for another edition of Maximum PC's Browser Extension of the Week.
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| Razer Blade Gaming Laptops Could Be Underneath Trees This Christmas Posted: 08 Dec 2011 10:12 AM PST
Kotaku spoke with Razer honcho Min-Liang Tan, who told the publication that mobile gamers will soon be able to preorder the laptop on the Razer website. As we mentioned in our initial hands-on impression, the Blade rocks a 17-inch screen, an auxiliary screen/trackpad with eight bindable buttons, a i7-2640M dual-core 2.8GHz CPU, 8GB of memory, and an NVIDIA 555M discrete GPU. One component has changed, though: Tan says that Razer was able to negotiate some good prices from its suppliers after the original announcement, so the 320GB HDD that was supposed to ship in the Blade has been replaced with a 256GB SSD, instead. Less space, sure, but much more oomph. Tan expects the Razer Blade to start shipping sometime before Christmas. That doesn't mean you'll actually get it by December 25th, of course, but you might just. |
Get your tinfoil hats on, folks. In the documentation released earlier this week by Microsoft on its upcoming Windows 8 Store, the software giant said that apps purchased from the App Store will come with a "
It's the nightmare of any developer. Some esoteric element of a developer agreement results in an app being 
Rumors of a new Google social publishing product called Propeller have been swirling form months, and now all is revealed. Propeller is officially known as Currents, and it's available today for Android and iOS devices. 
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a big game. Really big. If you intend to play through many of the side quests and fully immerse yourself in Skyrim's game world, you could easily spend hundreds of hours wandering the different landscapes. To help you make the most out of that kind of time investment, Nvidia put together a lengthy tweak guide covering everything from basic configurations to obscure settings.
All good things eventually come to an end, and now that Sandy Bridge has gained some major traction, Intel has decided to end production of its LGA1366 Core i7 processor line. That includes the enthusiast oriented Core i7 990X, a six-core processor that until recently was without equal in the consumer desktop market. It doesn't matter, because for most, Sandy Bridge is the sexier option, and more affordable to boot.
With a minimum of fuss and fanfare, AMD and Nvidia have made some changes to their mobile lineup over the past few days. First off, AMD quietly released seven new Llano A-series APUs to its lineup, but that's overshadowed by the launch of the new Radeon HD 7000M graphics chips. Actually, the Radeon HD 7000M series only sort of launched. Rather than unveiling long-awaited new 28nm GPUs, the HD 7000M models announced yesterday are basically just rebranded 40nm HD 6000M chips. Nvidia's new GeForce 600M series is likewise pretty much rebranded 500M chips.
Tis the season to shop around, and while you're out there buying gifts, sometimes you have to splurge on yourself. That's what IBM is doing, which announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire DemandTec, a cloud-based analytics company, for around $440 million in an all-cash transaction. IBM is hoping the acquisition will extend its Smarter Commerce initiative by adding cloud-based price, promotion, and other merchandising and marketing analytics to its portfolio.
Most folks'll tell you that a picture's worth a thousand words. That said, a single dirty look can convey more disapproval, malaise, and spite in an instant than any number of syllables can afford. When looking to convey your contempt online, don't waste valuable time searching for words, turn to 
Usually, shaving accessories are generally regarded as a cop-out last-resort gift for the guys on your holiday shopping list. Disposable Bics still suck as presents, but the new $2,800 high-end laptop Razer's putting out is decidedly cooler – and even though it hasn't been released yet, you might just be able to find one under your Christmas tree this year. And hey, Razer managed to pull a Santa and hide a secret upgrade gift inside the Razer, too. | You are subscribed to email updates from Maximum PC - All Articles To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's 
