General Gaming Article |
- Forum Feature: Things Take Shape
- Contest Friday: Win PowerDVD!
- IBM Creates First High-Speed Graphene Circuits
- Windows 8 To Integrate Xbox Live Support
- Panasonic Announces New Toughbook 19 Super Rugged Laptop
- 20 More Photos from E3 2011: Day Two
- Cool Site of the Week: Crave
- Spain Arrests Three "Senior Anonymous Hackers"
- Sony Vaio F21 Review
- Codemasters Unplugs Website Following Hacker Attack
| Forum Feature: Things Take Shape Posted: 10 Jun 2011 05:25 PM PDT Here we are again on Friday, with some interesting links from the Maximum PC official forums. The amazing Maximum PC-commissioned Star Trek-themed build from mnpctech.com proceeds apace. Every worklog entry Bill posts has us drooling a little bit more.
Not to be outdone, ASPHIAX has joined the forum to show off *his* Star Trek-themed mod in progress. This one's modeled after an Intrepid Mk II starship.
Other posts of interest this week: Pahhhoul wants to start a career in IT and needs your suggestions, advice, and criticisms. MattGreer started a fantastic discussion about the value of a bootable USB key, with plenty of recommendations as to what to include. Jmcdonald wants to know if his Windows Home Server's network use is quite normal. To0002 asks for buying advice on a beginner's DSLR camera. This is but a small subsection of the joy that awaits you in the forums. Have a wonderful weekend!
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| Posted: 10 Jun 2011 02:19 PM PDT It's Friday, the madness that is E3 is finally winding down and we find oursevles in a fine and generous mood. So, we were thinking we'd like to give some stuff away, something useful, something software-y... perhaps these three copies of PowerDVD 11 we have laying around?
Sound good? Those of you who watched Gordon's video on getting your tablet/smartphone to work with your PC may have noticed that he was using Cyberlink's PowerDVD11 to make his smartphone act as a remote. I myself often use PowerDVD 11 when testing monitors and displays. If you want your own copy, here's the deal: all you have to do is let us know which of our E3 2011 stories was your favorite by posting the word "Favorite" in the comments - like this one. Or this one. Or, this. Easy. You can also post "Favorite" underneath any of our E3 related coverage on our Facebook site, if that's more your thing. We'll select the three winners on Monday, June 13th, and copies of PowerDVD 11 may be in the form of downloadable software/keys or physical media. Contest rules and regulations below (While we would love to extend the contest outside of the U.S., legal rules and regulations currently prohibit us from doing so; at this time the contest is only open to U.S. residents).
Rules MaximumPC contest rules: Anyone who posts a comment with the word "Favorite" on any E3 2011 story on either MaximumPC.com or the MaximumPC Facebook page will be entered to win one of the 3 copies of PowerDVD 11 described in this article--one entry per accepted comment. Prizes will be awarded by random drawing. Submissions will be accepted on our Facebook.com fanpage. Submissions will be accepted until Monday the 13th of June at 06:00 PM PST. By entering this contest, you agree that Future US, Inc. may use your name, likeness, website, and submission for promotional purposes without further payment. Employees of Sponsor, its respective parent, subsidiaries, affiliated companies, and agents, and foregoing employees¹ household or immediate family members (defined as parent, spouse, child, sibling, or grandparent) are NOT eligible to enter Contest. All prizes will be awarded, and no minimum number of entries is required. Prizes won by minors will be awarded to their parents or legal guardians. Future US, Inc. is not responsible for damages or expenses the winners might incur as a result of this contest or the receipt of a prize, and winners are responsible for income taxes based on the value of the prize received. A list of winners may also be obtained by sending a stamped, self-addressed envelope toFuture US, Inc. c/o MaximumPC Contest, 4000 Shoreline Court, Suite 400, South San Francisco, CA 94080. This contest is limited to residents of the United States. No purchase necessary; void in Arizona, Maryland, Vermont, Puerto Rico, and where prohibited by law. |
| IBM Creates First High-Speed Graphene Circuits Posted: 10 Jun 2011 01:43 PM PDT
Graphene is composed of a single layer of Carbon atoms in a lattice structure. Researchers have created single grapheme transistors in the past, but only now has an entire circuit been produced. At present, graphene does not behave like CMOS transistors in current CPUs. It does not have the same voltage conduction properties, meaning it cannot switch on and off like today's logic transistors do. That hasn't stopped industry from investing heavily in the technology. Applications in communication and OLED displays are much closer to reality. DARPA has funded most of IBM's research on the substance. IBM, in addition to working on integrated circuits with grapheme, is improving the production of the material. If graphene is as useful as many think, they're going to need a lot of it. |
| Windows 8 To Integrate Xbox Live Support Posted: 10 Jun 2011 01:24 PM PDT
"Live has been successful on the Windows Phone. Live will be built into the PC," Delman told the Times. Microsoft has big plans for Live, Delman explained. In the future, Microsoft wants users to be able to buy content on one of their devices, but be able to use it on all of the others – and Xbox Live is the key. "Xbox Live will (be) the pervasive media service across devices," Delman said when asked if Live would act as a cloud-type service that enabled sharing between phones, computers and Xboxes. When did Xbox Live become less about gaming and more about becoming an iTunes clone? We've already seen a massive shift towards simplifying PC games as their console cousins make money hand over fist; hopefully, this news doesn't signal the end-times for those of us who like turn-based RPGs and strategy games with complex waypoints and grouping support. |
| Panasonic Announces New Toughbook 19 Super Rugged Laptop Posted: 10 Jun 2011 01:22 PM PDT
The CPU has been upgraded to a Sandy Bridge Core i5-2520M (2.5GHz). That's not the ULV edition, either, but rather the full voltage part. The laptop also comes standard with 4GB of RAM and SSD drives are an option for increased shock resistance. The screen has also been improved. Panasonic has added a Transflective Plus screen for outdoor readability. The Toughbook 19 has the usual array of wireless options like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, but buyers can add some extras as well. Panasonic will happily add GPS, 3G (Sprint, AT&T or Verizon), or 4G LTE later this year. This tank-like, sealed, fanless device doesn't come cheap. You can buy one this September starting at $3,349. |
| 20 More Photos from E3 2011: Day Two Posted: 10 Jun 2011 01:00 PM PDT E3's finally over, and we're still digesting all that we've seen. The number one thing we've learned: even though there were some pretty big announcements this year, E3's all about the spectacle. We've got a batch of 20 more photos of the most over-the-top booths and displays—read on for more! |
| Posted: 10 Jun 2011 11:35 AM PDT
If you're of a certain age and played with it as a kid, chances are, that you'll be able to find it again on Crave. Unlike other portals like eBay where individuals are invited to buy and sell just about anything, Crave is a web destinations designed by collectors for collectors. While the site is still relatively new, Crave already offers over 10,000 Star Wars and Transformer products in varying condition. Need a first edition Storm Trooper action figure from Return of the Jedi that's still in its original packaging? Crave's got it. How about a well-loved Optimus Prime, complete with it's original weapons and other accessories? Crave's got you covered there too. Additionally, the site is getting ready to expand, and will soon offer collectors from around the world a forum to discuss, buy and sell comic books, trading cards, Barbie dolls--even LEGO. Best of all, Crave also doubles up as a make shift social network, providing collectors a forum to discuss their stuff-based passion with other like minded individuals. We're certain that in the years to come, frequent visits to Crave will become a no-brainer for anyone that collects anything. Be sure to check back every Friday for another instalment of Maximum PC's Cool Site of the Week. |
| Spain Arrests Three "Senior Anonymous Hackers" Posted: 10 Jun 2011 10:43 AM PDT
Spanish police began their investigation late last year after Anonymous targeted the Spanish Culture Ministry's websites in October. After Spain's Central Election Board was targeted by hackers in May, police dropped the hammer on the first subject, who was arrested in his home in the city of Almeria, the Wall Street Journal reports. Spanish police found a server in the home that helped to launch many of Anonymous' attacks in the past, including the Sony Playstation Store, the Spanish banks BBVA and Bankia, the Italian energy company ENEL and the governments of Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Iran, Chile, Colombia and New Zealand. Subsequent attacks resulted in the arrest of two other individuals and the confiscation of a computer that contained software "designed specifically to infect other people's computers." Anonymous denied being behind the PSN attack, so it's interesting to hear the Spanish police say they've found evidence to the contrary. How do you think Anonymous will respond to the arrests? Trading blows with global governments is bound to end poorly for the group. "If you cut down one Anon, ten more will join us purely out of anger at your trampling of dissent," Anonymous' message warned; we'll see if crowds rush in to take the place of the arrested individuals. |
| Posted: 10 Jun 2011 10:13 AM PDT Beautiful 3D laptop with mediocre graphics performanceWhat you do alone in your man cave is your business. If you want to put on a pair of 3D glasses and practice the Na'vi language, more power to you. Sony's F Series Vaio 3D can make that dream a reality in style, but it lacks the graphics power to deliver first-class stereoscopic 3D gaming. If you're not piloting the Mars Rover or doing endoscopic telesurgery, you probably want stereoscopic 3D technology for two main purposes: watching movies and playing games. Now that 3D TVs are becoming widespread, there are lots of 3D Blu-ray discs available, and the Vaio 3D delivers an excellent 3D movie experience. The 16-inch, 1920x1080 display supports full HD resolution and a 240Hz refresh rate. The included active shutter 3D glasses give a ghost- and flicker-free 3D viewing experience that's probably better than you'll find at the local cinema. The speakers are also fine-tuned to turn this laptop into a mini home-theater.
If you're willing to wear the glasses, this notebook plays high-quality 3D movies but lacks the power for serious stereo 3D gaming. We cannot recommend this system, however, for playing stereoscopic 3D games. The visual quality is excellent, but the performance just isn't there to deliver a smooth gaming experience. Playing games in 3D is easy enough; a little button above the keyboard lets you turn on and off stereo 3D, and many games are compatible out of the box. The problem is that to display a game in stereo 3D, the graphics card has to render each frame twice, cutting the frame rate in half. Nvidia's midrange GeForce 540M with 1GB of dedicated memory produced choppy results, except at the lowest resolutions. For instance, running our Far Cry 2 benchmark without stereo 3D at 1680x1050, the system delivered 24.7fps; in stereo 3D mode, it only managed 11fps. Dropping down to 1280x720 helped a little, resulting in 17fps, but that's still not playable. The system performed much better in our other benchmarks, blowing through the CPU-intensive tasks thanks to the 2GHz Intel Core i7-2630QM CPU (with Turbo Boost), 6GB of DDR3/1333MHz memory, and a 640GB, 7,200rpm hard drive. Battery life was also good for a machine in this class, lasting 123 minutes on full-screen DVD playback. This big, shiny, black Vaio includes a backlit keyboard with a separate numeric keypad. The touchpad is textured, which we like, and looks slick integrated into the palm rest. There are two USB 3.0 ports and one USB 2.0, IEEE 1394, HDMI 1.4, and VGA-out. The HDMI port can be connected to a 3D-capable TV, letting you play games or display 3D movies on the big screen. Overall, we're not convinced the stereo 3D on this system goes much beyond novelty. We doubt any serious gamer is going to take the performance hit to play games while wearing 3D glasses. The multimedia features work well, but it's probably not worth the extra expense. $1,800, www.sony.com |
| Codemasters Unplugs Website Following Hacker Attack Posted: 10 Jun 2011 09:41 AM PDT
"We believe the following have been compromised: Customer names and addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers, encrypted passwords, and order history," Codemasters stated in an apologetic email. "Please note that no personal payment information was stored with Codemasters as we use external payment providers, meaning your payment details were not at risk from this intrusion. "Members' names, usernames, screen names, email addresses, date of birth, encrypted passwords, newsletter preferences, any biographies entered by users, details of last site activity, IP addresses, and Xbox Live Gamertags are all believed to have been compromised." While it's comforting that payment details remained safe, personal data is a hot commodity on the black market where unscrupulous miscreants shop for information that can be used in targeted phishing attacks. Codemasters is opting to play it safe by keeping its website "offline for the foreseeable future with all Codemasters.com traffic re-directed to the Codemasters Facebook page instead." The British game developer plans to launch a new site later this year. |
Researchers at IBM have announced that they recently managed to create the first high-speed computer circuits out of a material called 
Microsoft's failure to fly the PC flag at E3 left a lot of computer-loving gamers disappointed. Don't worry! When the Seattle Times interviewed Mike Delman, the vice president of global marketing at Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business group, Delman tossed PC gamers a treat; Microsoft's designing extensive gaming support into the upcoming Windows 8 operating system. Unfortunately, it's the kind of treat that leaves a bitter taste in your mouth. The catering to the console crowd continues as Xbox Live is being integrated into the Windows 8 experience.
For the few that need a computer that can survive a 10 foot fall or keep ticking in a sandstorm, Panasonic has refreshed their line of Toughbook convertible tablet laptops with the 
As Robert DeNiro said in The Untouchables, a man should have enthusiasms. Where many of opt to fill our spare time by spending it with friends, playing music or traveling, others find their thrills collecting toys, comic books and other much-loved geek paraphernalia. If you belong to this latter group, you're going to want to know about 
"Do not make the mistake of challenging Anonymous," the hacker collective declared in a stark message on its website yesterday. The message was a direct response to a NATO report that said Anonymous should be infiltrated and its members jailed. Spain responded to the verbal backhand by delivering Anonymous a not-so-subtle slap in return; today, Spanish police announced that they've arrested three "senior" members of the legion and seized a server that played a crucial in many recent Anonymous attacks, including the PlayStation Network take-down.
One surefire way to thwart hackers is to turn out the lights and take your website completely offline. That was Codemaster's strategy, which was hit by hackers and promtply pulled the plug on its website "as soon as the intrusion was detected." Unfortunately for Codemasters and its customers, by the time the site and associated web services were taken down, hackers had already made off with the personal information of potentially thousands of customers.| 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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