General Gaming Article |
- Thanks to the Internet, No More Naked Women in Playboy
- Toshiba dynaPad Is a Surface Pro 4 Competitor
- Newegg Daily Deals: Asus Core i7-5500U Laptop, Dell 23.8-Inch Monitor, and More!
- Asus: ROG G752 Laptop Will Play Every Game Out There
- Humble Capcom Bundle
- Acer Unleashes Predator X34, a 34-Inch Curved G-Sync Monitor
- Toshiba's Radius 12 is World's First 12.5-Inch 4K Convertible Laptop
- The Changing Networking Standards
| Thanks to the Internet, No More Naked Women in Playboy Posted: 13 Oct 2015 01:43 PM PDT Let's face it: many of us grew up sneaking a peek at Dad's stock of Playboy magazines or stole them outright from his library (cough). The magazine, partially known for its articles, was the flagship of light pornography. But the Internet now provides everything you need for your nudie fix with a simple search on Yahoo, Bing, and to some degree on Google. Knowing this, the editors of Playboy have decided to slap a an item or two of clothing on its models, making the magazine safe for PG-13 viewers. Yes, the days of flipping through printed pages of lush, naked women will end as of March 2016. The change was approved by editor-in-chief Hugh Hefner himself, age 89, which is surprising given that he led the magazine's crusade to provide "entertainment for men" since the magazine's debut in 1953. Yes, dear readers, that's a lot of content under Hugh's reign. But the fact is that according to the Alliance for Audited Media, Playboy's circulation is 800,000, down from 5.6 million as seen back in 1975. The New York Times, which first reported the change, states that pornographic magazines have lost their "shock value." Instead, teenage boys now have access to pornographic material on their phones and tablets. All you really need to do is turn off SafeSearch (or its equivalent). "Many of the magazines that followed it have disappeared," the New York Times writes. "Though detailed figures are not kept for adult magazines, many of those that remain exist in severely diminished form, available mostly in specialist stores. Penthouse, perhaps the most famous Playboy competitor, responded to the threat from digital pornography by turning even more explicit. It never recovered." The top editor of Playboy, Cory Jones, says that the magazine will have a "cleaner, more modern style." There will still be a Playmate of the Month, but she won't show all of her "assets." Again, the images will be PG-13, but according to Jones, they will be "a little more accessible" and "a little more intimate." We're not sure how you can be more intimate with clothes on, but we'll see in March 2016 how this will be accomplished. With the girls now clothed, the magazine will focus more on its articles. The sex columnist will be a sex-positive female who will write "enthusiastically" about sex. Essentially, the magazine will focus on young men who live in cities, and will continue to provide interviews, fiction by top authors, and "investigative journalism." The website, which did away with nude pictures back in August 2014, will focus on similar content. "Don't get me wrong," Jones told the New York Times, "the 12-year-old me is very disappointed in current me. But it's the right thing to do." Should we be disappointed that Playboy is going PG-13? As we previously stated, hardcore pornography is incredibly easy to access on the Internet, be it photos or videos. Curious web surfers can perform a search or simply enter the address of their favorite site. There are no age gates blocking many sites, forcing parents to block them in browsers, in security software, or in the router itself. The change in Playboy shouldn't come as a surprise, but it's somewhat sad for those of us who grew up on the magazine. Now the iconic magazine will be on the same level as Maxim magazine, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Playboy sitting next to Maximum PC on the newsstand isn't a bad thing either. Image: Wikipedia |
| Toshiba dynaPad Is a Surface Pro 4 Competitor Posted: 13 Oct 2015 01:33 PM PDT Toshiba says that its latest 12-inch dynaPad Windows 10 tablet not only reinvents the marriage between pen and paper, but it's the lightest and thinnest of its class, measuring just 0.27 inches and weighing a mere 1.25 pounds. The dynaPad seems to be competing with Microsoft's new Surface Pro 4, which has a 12.3-inch screen, measures 0.33-inches thin, and weighs 1.69 or 1.73 pounds, depending on the CPU. According to Toshiba, the dynaPad comes packed with a high-precision Wacom Active Electrostatics (ES) TruPen, which is capable of 2,048 levels of pressure. This pen works with the tablet's built-in metal mesh sensor technology, allowing owners to write naturally on the surface of the device. Users can sketch, take notes, annotate documents, and more, whether they're right- or left-handed. "Housed in a highly rigid monocoque carbon body, dynaPad features a sophisticated, rubberized Satin Gold finish that makes it comfortable to hold," the company reports. "The device also offers an optional ultra-thin full size keyboard with a 19mm pitch and 1.5mm stroke for easier typing. Attached by magnets, users can quickly convert the tablet to a clamshell laptop for productivity applications. The TruPen neatly clips on to the side of the tablet." Toshiba says that the upcoming 2-in-1 will feature its popular business applications, including TruNote, TruCapture, and TruRecorder. The dynaPad solution will also feature new apps, such as TruNote Clip for capturing screen clips, and TruNote Share for sharing handwriting "in real time." This application suite also easily integrates with Microsoft's latest Office release. Unfortunately, Toshiba's American announcement made today didn't provide hardware specs other than info about the IPS screen, which measures 12-inches diagonally and has a 1920x1080 resolution. However, this Japanese page focused on the tablet says that it has a micro-HDMI port, a micro-USB 2.0, port and a micro-SD card slot for added storage. Toshiba's Japanese press release reports that the tablet sports a quad-core Intel Atom processor, which is somewhat inferior performance-wise when compared to the Surface Pro 4's sixth-gen Intel Core processors (m3, i5, or i7). There's also supposedly 4GB of RAM whereas Microsoft's solution spans 4GB to 16GB, depending on the model. Right now, Toshiba is taking pre-orders for the dynaPad in Japan, with a release scheduled in December. Additional reports claim that it will cost less than ¥130,000, which is just over $1,000 here in the States. We expect to hear more about the pricing and hardware specs when the actual US release date is announced in Q1 2016. |
| Newegg Daily Deals: Asus Core i7-5500U Laptop, Dell 23.8-Inch Monitor, and More! Posted: 13 Oct 2015 01:08 PM PDT Top Deal: Working from home sounds great on the surface, but between the dog barking at every passerby, the cat meowing to go out, kids arguing with other, and door-to-door salesman all interrupting your work flow, some days you might just want to run away for a spell. There's nothing wrong with that, though if you want to keep your boss happy, you better bring your work with you. What's that you say, your laptop is busted? No problem, just check out today's top deal for an Asus F554LA-NH71 Core i7-5500U Laptop for $510 with free shipping (normally $600). That used to be a Celeron price point in the mobile world, but instead you get a Core i5 Broadwell chip along with 8GB of RAM, 1TB sotrage, DVD burner, and Windows 10. Other Deals: Dell Black 23.8-inch 8ms Widescreen LCD Monitor IPS 250 for $210 with free shipping (normally $230 - use coupon code: [EMCKAKP22]) SuperCombo Mini-PC Pack: Gigabyte HD Graphics Integrated CPU + ADATA 120GB SSD + Crucial 8GB Memory for $160 with free shipping (normally $191) Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 Video Card for $309 with free shipping (normally $331 - use coupon code: [EMCKAKP24]; additional $20 Mail-in rebate) Western Digital Red NAS Hard Drive 3TB IntelliPower 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5-inch NAS Hard Drive for $105 with free shipping (normally $119 - use coupon code: [ESCKAKP25]) |
| Asus: ROG G752 Laptop Will Play Every Game Out There Posted: 13 Oct 2015 12:51 PM PDT Yes, it will run Crysis (and every other game) The marketing pitch from Asus for its new ROG G752 laptop is that it will run any game you throw at it. That's the benefit of pairing an Intel Skylake processor with Nvidia's GeForce GTX 980M GPU. The ROG G752 is a 17.3-inch laptop with a Full HD 1080p (1920x1080) resolution. It's an LED-backlit IPS panel with support for Nvidia's G-Sync technology. Other specs will depend on the exact model you choose. There are several different G752 laptops with varying degrees of power. The ROG G752VY is the one with the GTX 980M GPU (not to be confused with the desktop-class GTX 980 built for notebooks), while some of the other configurations come with a GTX 970M or GTX 965M GPU. On the storage side, Asus is offering up to 1TB of hard drive space or up to a 512GB NVMe M.2 SSD (256GB and 128GB options also available). For cooling chores, the ROG G752 uses a "3D Vapor Chamber" alongside a copper heat pipe. The thermal design also directs dust into a dust-release tunnel to keep it away from internal components. This is the Skylake successor to the G751 series, and while it retains a similar aggressive aesthetic design, Asus switched to an "Armor Titanium and Plasma Copper" color scheme. Like the G751, there are giant sized vents on the back to expel hot air. Two of the SKUs are available to pre-order starting at $1,499 direct from Asus, while the others are listed as coming soon. |
| Posted: 13 Oct 2015 12:22 PM PDT Today is a great day for gaming; not only did we get the long-awaited Wasteland 2 Director's Cut early this morning (yeah, I'm a post-apocalyptic junkie), but Humble Bundle also has a new slate of games up, this time courtesy of Capcom. While many of the bundles feature indie games that you might otherwise miss, the Capcom bundle is full of some heavy hitters: Resident Evil 5with the Untold Stories DLC, plus RE: Revelations and Revelations 2(EP1: Penal Colony) are all present, along with DmC: Devil May Cry,Bionic Commando: Rearmed, Lost Planet 3, and Strider. Taken collectively, the bundle would normally set you back around $180, so you can get these games for pennies on the dollar. The usual tiers are present, with $1 or more netting you four titles, beating the average gets you three more—plus some as yet unannounced games—and $15 or above gives you the entire set, including the aforementioned RE5: Untold Stories DLC and Ultra Street Fighter IV. A few of the games are forgettable (Lost Planet 3 only ranks 61 on Metacritic), but many are at least worth considering. Besides, it's for charities—you can give as little or as much of your donation to charity as you feel appropriate! The two highlighted charities for this bundle are Direct Relief and GamesAid, or you can also choose from among thousands of other supported charities. More titles will be added to the bundle next Tuesday, which you'll automatically receive as long as you beat the average (currently $6.98). |
| Acer Unleashes Predator X34, a 34-Inch Curved G-Sync Monitor Posted: 13 Oct 2015 10:20 AM PDT A curvaceous beauty If your purchasing habits are dictated by a "Go big or go home" attitude, then your next monitor might very well be Acer's Predator X34, a 34-inch curved IPS display with some fancy specs. Sure it's big, but all that screen real estate isn't wasted on a 1080p resolution. The Predator X34 rocks a 4K Quad HD resolution (3440x1440) at 60Hz, though Acer says it can be "overclocked" to 100Hz if you want. It also supports Nvidia's G-Sync technology for smoother game play without annoying screen tears and display stutter. "We believe the Predator X34 offers one of the smoothest, most thrilling game experiences available today," said Charlotte Chen, Acer America product manager. "Nvidia G-Sync technology and up to 100Hz overclocking deliver extremely sharp moving pictures, while 14W stereo audio enhanced with DTS Sound enrich gameplay with powerful sound effects." Acer claims its panel offers 100 percent sRGB coverage for a high level of color accuracy and color space reproduction. That's good for gamers and even better for design professionals and photo enthusiasts. The listed specs also claim a 100,000,000:1 max contrast ratio, 300 cd/m2 brightness, and a 4ms response time. Take all those with a thimble of salt -- we're not calling Acer a liar, but we have found that rated specs don't always match up with real world performance. Acer equipped the Predator X34 with a pair of 7W stereo speakers combined with DTS sound. You'll also find four USB 3.0 ports and both HDMI and DisplayPort 1.2 connectivity. Finally, the adjustable stand earns the monitor a few ergonomic points by offering -5 to +35 degrees of tilt and up to 5 inches of height adjustment. The Predator X34 is available in the U.S. for $1,300. |
| Toshiba's Radius 12 is World's First 12.5-Inch 4K Convertible Laptop Posted: 13 Oct 2015 09:27 AM PDT Sharp looking convertible There's a window of opportunity for companies to claim "world first" designs with the arrival of 4K resolution panels in the consumer sector, and Toshiba is capitalizing on it. Hence the marketing pitch for the PC maker's new Satellite Radius 12, the first and only 12.5-inch convertible laptop with a 4K Ultra HD display. That's if you opt for the 4K IPS panel option. There's also a less expensive version that ships with a more pedestrian Full HD 1080p (1920x1080) display, but where's the fun in that? If you do opt for the 4K panel, you'll receive a display that's been calibrated and is Technicolor certified. These are both touchscreen panels built with Corning Gorilla Glass NBT, which Toshiba says is 8x to 10x more resilient to scratches than soda lime glass displays. Gorilla Glass also does a better job of protecting the panel when accidentally slamming the lid down on top of an object. The Satellite Radius 12 wields a 6th Generation Intel processor (read: Skylake). It also has up to 8GB of RAM, 256GB or 512GB of solid state storage, 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, a USB 3.1 port with a Type-C connector, two USB 3.0 ports (one with Sleep and Charge technology), Harman Kardon speakers, and HDMI output. On the software side, Windows 10 runs the show with support for facial recognition using Windows Hello. At just 0.6 inches thick and 2.9 pounds of heft, if you can call it that, the Satellite Radius 12 is built for the road. It's also a rather nice looking convertible based on the press photos we've seen -- it has a brushed metal finish with "durable aluminum to safeguard against the rigors of daily use." We don't recommend testing the durability of the convertible's design, though it's nice to know it shouldn't fall to pieces if you drop it in the dark. Why would you be using the Satellite Radius 12 in the dark? Well, both the Full HD and 4K models sport LED backlit keyboards so you can work (or putz around the web) late into the night. The Satellite Radius 12 will be available starting October 18 from Best Buy (online and offline), MIcrosoft Stores, and direct from Toshiba. Pricing will start at $1,000 for the Full HD model and $1,300 for the 4K version. |
| The Changing Networking Standards Posted: 13 Oct 2015 12:00 AM PDT Your new Internet connection, and the tech powering it Internet speeds have been on a steady increase for decades now. While users were at first satisfied with dialup speeds, this was supplanted by DSL and cable modem, bringing faster speeds over existing copper networks. To offer even more blisteringly fast performance, attention then turned to fiber networks, first from Verizon's FIOS, which peaks out at 500Mb/s. More recently, there's been the addition of Google's Fiber, offering an ever faster 1Gb/s symmetrical connection (both upload and download), for an affordable $70 a month, to neighborhoods that are termed somewhat affectionately as "Fiberhoods." Some years back, fiber seemed to be the way forward for delivering faster broadband. However, given fiber's disadvantages of costly deployments and the logistics to string it on poles or trench it underground, not to mention the red tape of many municipalities, attention has turned to wringing every ounce of performance from existing networks. For most of us, when we get access to Gigafast speeds from our Internet service provider (ISP), it will more likely be over good ol' copper wires than another modality. The Last MileWhile most cable Internet providers have a fiber optic backbone, they use copper wiring for much of their deployment, including the last mile to the home and inside the home. Previous standards for cable providers to transmit data over copper wires standardized this, but recall that the cable network was originally designed to transmit a video signal to your TV. The DOCSIS standards, which stands for Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification, piggybacked the data onto the existing video network. DOCSIS 1.0 was the original specification, with speeds topping out at a lowly 38Mb/s on the download, and an even slower 9Mb/s on the upload. This was supplanted by DOCSIS 2.0, which kept the same download speed as DOCSIS 1.0, but the upload speed increased to 27Mb/s. Both DOCSIS 1.0 and 2.0 accomplished these speeds over a single channel. Moving on from the history lesson brings us to DOCSIS 3.0, which is the standard currently in use by the cable ISPs. When you purchased your new cable modem, you made sure it was DOCSIS 3.0–compliant, so that you would get the correct speed from your ISP. The big advance of DOCSIS 3.0 is that it specifies multiple channels that are bonded together to produce better performance. The specification calls for a minimum of four channels on the download side, but has no upper limit on the total number, with eight being a common number of channels on today's modems. Each separate channel is capable of transmitting what DOCSIS 2.0 could do on its one puny channel of 38/27Mb/s, so DOCSIS 3.0 on an eight-channel modem has a theoretical download speed that exceeds 300Mb/s. While most would not complain about an Internet connection of 300Mb/s these days (keeping in mind the FCC defines broadband as a puny 25Mb/s down and 3Mb/s up), with fiber hot on their heels, cable providers are upgrading their networks this year, for planned deployments in 2016 that will undoubtedly go on for some years after. The next stage in cable upgrades will be to DOCSIS 3.1 (although some argue that it should have been called DOCSIS 4.0). This new standard uses orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), which encodes data onto multiple subcarriers to simultaneously increase data throughput by approximately 50 percent, while reducing interference. The separate channels of the previous DOCSIS specs get tossed, and this allows a significant increase in bandwidth. When fully implemented, speeds promised are 10Gb/s on the download side, with a 1Gb/s upload (!), which would be warp-speed fast and allow users to eat up their Comcast data caps in mere seconds. Don't think that DSL (digital subscriber line) connections are going to remain at the current speeds either. While we would not wish the lowly current speeds of DSL on our worst enemy, there is hope for this aging network. Originally designed for voice communication, DSL is overdue for a rebirth. With a new technology known as G.fast, DSL users are promised to enjoy download speeds of 1Gb/s over shorter distances up to a max of 500 meters. Expect to see the first deployments of this in 2016 as well. Maybe with that, DSL users can finally stop complaining about their janky Internet connection, and why did that fiber ISP stop building out just a few blocks short of their home. The Need for Faster Wi-FiWith fiber, cable providers, and even DSL offering speeds up to 10Gb/s in the not-so-distant future, home networks will have reason to upgrade. While in most cases, that older 802.11n router will have speeds that exceed most users' current Internet connection, this older gear will require upgrading to keep up with the demands of the promised faster speeds. In addition, the problem will be compounded by multiple simultaneous users, and more demanding data streams, such as video streams like Netflix. The current Wi-Fi standard is 802.11ac, which was approved in January of 2014 with a proliferation of products throughout the year. The next upgrade to 802.11ac is termed "802.11ac Wave 2," with products slowly coming out throughout the second half of 2015, for example the Linksys EA8500 router. This 802.11ac Wave 2 features Multi User-MIMO (MU-MIMO) technology. Recall that MIMO is "multiple-input, multiple-output," a technology to send additional data streams taking advantage of multipath propagation. Beamforming is a related technology of using the multiple antennae to focus and increase the signal to a client. There are limitations, in that the current beamforming tech requires multiple antennae on both the router and client side to accomplish this, which currently leaves smaller devices, e.g., smartphones, out of the game. With MU-MIMO, via the multiple antennae on the router, and the software "Wave 2" implementation, the router will now be able to optimize the signal and the data stream to single-antenna devices. Think of that next time you want to watch YouTube on your smartphone. MU-MIMO is also designed to keep up with the increasing array of smaller devices that are competing for your router's signal. Future Wireless StandardsThe next Wi-Fi standard, 802.11ad, popularly known as WiGig, seeks to add a third frequency to the current 2.4GHz and 5GHz equation. This frequency is 60GHz, and is an unlicensed part of the spectrum, just free for the taking. Samsung has led the charge on this, and has promised speeds of 4.5Gb/s, although the range is expected to be limited to about 30 feet due to the characteristics of such a high frequency with limited penetration and propagation. Products are expected later this year for this sort of "Bluetooth on steroids" if you will. Beyond 802.11ad will be 802.11ah, which seeks to add another frequency for even more bandwidth. Back in the 1990s, cordless phones used the 900MHz frequency to communicate. These days, this spectrum is largely unused, with the modern DECT 6.0 cordless phones operating on the 1.9GHz frequency. The 900MHz frequency, compared to the current Wi-Fi 2.4GHz, has roughly twice the range, and also excels at penetrating obstacles such as walls. This "sub-gigahertz" frequency has the additional benefit of low power consumption. These characteristics will make 802.11ah ideally suited for the low-power devices of the Internet of Things. The 802.11ah standard is expected to make its debut in 2016. The final Wi-Fi standard on the horizon is not expected until 2018 or 2019, although some draft products may appear earlier, as was seen with earlier generations of Wi-Fi. It is known as 802.11ax. With the initial goal of four times the speeds of 802.11ac, it may end up delivering maximum speeds of 10Gb/s, and real-world speeds of 2Gb/s. The secret sauce at work is MIMO-OFDA, where the OFDA is orthogonal frequency division multiplexing. MIMO-OFDA will work on the 5GHz frequency of current 802.11ac devices that currently has four simultaneous channels, and increase it by having multiple subchannels with slightly different frequencies. "Orthogonal" refers to the frequencies being used at right angles to each other to pack them in closer, facilitating more data to be transmitted simultaneously. If all this sounds a little familiar, yes, it does look like the wireless cousin of what DOCSIS 3.1 is doing over coaxial cable. And of course, with 10Gb/s of Wi-Fi bandwidth on tap from your router, those cable speeds will start to look a little slow again, with users clamoring for faster Internet speeds—and thus the cycle continues. As we progress toward faster broadband, as well as faster Wi-Fi speeds and range on additional wireless frequencies, there are some impressive technology rollouts queued up for the next five years and beyond. |
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