General Gaming Article |
- Google Makes Chrome Browser Logins Official
- 10 Amazing Peripherals You Didn't Know You Needed
- MegaUpload Takes Universal to Court Over YouTube Video
- Intel Dispels LightPeak Conspiracy with SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Certification for Series 7 Chipset
- Roccat Studios Tips First U.S. Gaming Gear Ahead of CES
- Android App of the Week: Google Maps 6
- Sapphire Shows Love to AMD with Pure Black 990FX Motherboard
- IP Addresses From Sony, Fox And Universal Found Torrenting Music, Movies And More
- Fortinet Answers Your Burning Carrier IQ Questions in a Handy FAQ
- Fast Forward: ARM Embraces 64 Bits
| Google Makes Chrome Browser Logins Official Posted: 13 Dec 2011 02:55 PM PST
The feature is nestled in Chrome's not too obvious settings menu under the wrench icon. The default setting is to sync everything, but users can exclude some data if need be. Any change made on one connected client will be replicated on the others instantly. This applies to the desktop program, ChromeBooks, and the Android 4.0 browser. Multiple profiles are also possible with the new update. Users can switch profiles on the fly to get to the individual user profiles. Google also offers to encrypt all the data that is stored in the cloud, but the default setting is only to encrypt passwords. Have you signed into Chrome? |
| 10 Amazing Peripherals You Didn't Know You Needed Posted: 13 Dec 2011 02:34 PM PST You're a veteran tech geek. You build all your own systems. Your friends and family always look to you for advice when buying PC gear or gadgets. Yet there's still stuff you don't own, and don't realize you need. Now, it's true that many of you may have a couple of the items on this list. But there's likely gear here you don't have, and didn't realize you could use. Note that I've defined "peripherals" a little more loosely. Some of these items don't connect to your PC, and might be called tools in other contexts. But since I use most of them daily in my work, I figured they were just as much peripherals as the keyboard I use to write. Let's dive in, shall we? Note that this list is not in any particular order. USB Hard Drive Dock
If you don't have one of these, you should get one. Better yet, get one of the newer, USB 3.0 dual clock versions. They make cloning hard drives vastly easier than opening up a case, finding a spare SATA cable and trying to make connections that don't disturb something else inside your PC. You just slide your drive in so that the power and SATA connectors mate to the device and plug it in. You'll need to attach a small power brick, since desktop hard drives use more power than USB can deliver. Versions connecting via eSATA also exist, but I've found them to be more finicky than the USB versions. Powered (not unpowered) USB Hub
The critical word here is "powered." A powered USB hub is more versatile than an unpowered hub, even if it does require attaching a small power brick to an outlet. If you have a powered USB hub, you can attach various USB-powered devices, and each will get its own trickle current. That's useful if you need to charge multiple phones and tablets, attach more than one USB powered hard drive and other similar devices. (Watch out, though—some powered hubs may only power a subset of the hubs.) Monitor Calibration Puck
If you're into photography or video, you probably have one of these. Even if you're a casual photographer, you probably watch a fair amount of video on your PC. Unless you're a pixel-peeping pro, you don't need a high end version that's full of bells and whistles. A $70 Spyder Express Pro gets the job done, and is pretty simple to use. Small LED Flashlight / Lantern
Most modern enthusiast PC cases sport interiors that are black-on-black. Some motherboards ship with black cables. Some internal peripherals are black. That makes working inside a PC an interesting exercise in squinting. Modern, tiny LED flashlights are a godsend. The small one is a Fenix LD15, which takes a single AA battery and can pump out 105 lumens. The alien looking green gizmo is a Blackfire Clamplight, which can stand on its own (as shown here) or clamp to the side of a case, directing its light inward. It can also emit up to 100 lumens of exceptionally bright light. I find myself using the Fenix to hunt for small screws or other tiny items I drop on the floor or inside a case. The clamp light is useful in a variety of situations. Smart (Green) Power Strip or UPS
My production system is attached to an APC750 ES Power-Saving smart uninterruptible power supply. The UPS can detect when I power down my PC, and automagically shut off peripherals attached to certain power plugs. Others can be "hot" all the time. So when I shut down my systems, my monitors and speakers also power down, while my powered USB hub remains on. The PC power connection is still "hot," so if you merely put the PC to sleep instead of powering down, your peripherals still turn off while the PC itself can still draw enough current to maintain a sleep state. If you don't need a UPS, you can get simpler surge protectors that do the same thing, like the SmartStrip shown here. Like the APC UPS, certain plugs completely power down when you shut down or put your PC to sleep. Kelly Forceps (Hemostat)
Ever find yourself needing to attach a jumper or something like a fan power connector to a motherboard, but your fat fingers can't quite squeeze into the available space? Enter the Kelly Forceps, aka a Hemostat. These are available and either medical supply stores or electronic stores. I think I got mine at a Radio Shack. These are better than needle-nose screwdrivers for the job of attaching tiny plugs or fishing a screw out of a small crevice, because they can clamp shut. That means they can hold said tiny plug rigid while you're trying to insert them. I don't use this daily, but it's saved my bacon on multiple occasions. At the very least, it can minimize the need for serious PC disassembly if you just need to attach a power connector. AA Battery Charger
I use Logitech cordless mice and keyboards, which use AA batteries for power. In particular, the G700 I use tends to eat batteries for lunch. If I used alkaline AA batteries, I'd quickly go broke and have to give up my monthly MMO fees. So I keep my mouse fed with rechargeable NiMH batteries using this device. (Yes, I can connect my G700 to the PC via a USB cable to charge it. But that sounds so…gauche somehow.) Of course, those batteries also power my Nikon external flash units, various remote controls and those LED flashlights, so it's not like I'm keeping this around just to charge mouse batteries. Adjustable Keyboard Tray
Whether you use a sitting or standing desk, an adjustable keyboard tray makes typing so much more bearable. I actually use slightly different heights depending on whether I'm typing or gaming. This Workrite model weighs about 20 pounds, but the spring-loaded mount makes adjustment easy. You can also slide it under the desk surface when you don't need it. Smart Phone or Tablet
If you've got one PC that's your main go-to system, and it crashes, how do you figure out how to troubleshoot it? In my case, I fire up a search engine on a smart phone and start trolling for solutions on the web. I can do the same with my iPad, but that tends to live upstairs, while I always have my phone with me. So while a smart phone can be your music player, let you play games while you're standing in a checkout line at the grocery store or read ebooks, it's one of the more useful troubleshooting tools. It can even be used as an ersatz flashlight in a pinch. Power Screwdriver
What you see here is Milwaukee 6546 cordless screwdriver. It's my most used tool. In fact, I use it so much, I have two of them, as well as backup batteries. While it's only rated at 2.4v, the amount of torque this thing can produce is startling. It also costs about $90. There are other, less expensive cordless screwdrivers out there, but the key thing you need for a cordless screwdriver to be useful for PC building and upgrading is an adjustable clutch. Let me be clear: do not use a cordless screwdriver on PC gear unless it has an adjustable clutch. I keep the clutch set to the minimum setting most of the time, so I never strip screws—even those awful potmetal screws and mounts in most PC cases. |
| MegaUpload Takes Universal to Court Over YouTube Video Posted: 13 Dec 2011 02:34 PM PST
Universal claims that at least one of its artists did not authorize MegaUpload to use his or her likeness. This seems a little far-fetched because the video is not assembled from stock footage; people like will.i.am, Kanye West, and Ciara are actually interacting with the camera. Universal further asserts that other artists have come forward to it saying they did not give MegaUpload the rights to their images. MegaUpload says everything is on the up-and-up, and all the artists in the video consented. The court case filed by MegaUpload seeks an injunction preventing Universal from filing additional DMCA claims on the video. It also seeks monetary damages. Do you think that Universal is "attempting to control what artists can and can't endorse," as MegaUpload claims? |
| Intel Dispels LightPeak Conspiracy with SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Certification for Series 7 Chipset Posted: 13 Dec 2011 02:20 PM PST
"This is a tremendous milestone for the industry," said Jeff Ravencraft, USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) President & COO. "With USB-IF certification of Intel's integrated USB host silicon, host manufacturers will be able to bring SuperSpeed USB to the masses. Intel's commitment to SuperSpeed USB will continue to provide peripheral device manufacturers a compelling incentive to develop a growing number of diverse SuperSpeed USB products." Intel's push to certify its upcoming chipsets with USB 3.0 will primarily benefit stingy OEMs too cheap to spring for a third-party SuperSpeed controller chip from NEC, Marvell, and others who have been supplying parts for entry-level, mid-range, and enthusiast grade boards in the absence of native USB 3.0 support from both Intel and AMD. The certification covers both consumer and workstation/server versions of Intel's Panther Point chipset for 2012 Ivy Bridge processors. |
| Roccat Studios Tips First U.S. Gaming Gear Ahead of CES Posted: 13 Dec 2011 12:46 PM PST
"Pro gamers in other parts of the world already know what our gear can do," says René Korte, Roccat Founder and CEO. "Now's our chance to share that excitement with American gamers. We're bringing a bold innovation to the table that sets us far apart from other gaming companies." Roccat will be going up against the likes of Razer, Logitech, and others who already have a strong presence in the U.S. Two of Roccat's first products to land stateside will be its flagship Isku Illuminated Gaming Keyboard and the Kone[+] Max Customization Gaming Mouse. These are standalone products but can also work together for to create and initiate advanced macros. Image Credit: Roccat |
| Android App of the Week: Google Maps 6 Posted: 13 Dec 2011 11:44 AM PST Most of you Android junkies out there have probably been using Google Maps on your phone since day one. A big reason Android is such a powerful platform, Google Maps offers GPS enabled Maps, location-based search, and even turn-by-turn navigation. With version 6.0 being recently released, Google brings something new to the table with maps of indoor spaces.
Have you ever been in a large mall or airport, and wondered what shops or restaurants were right around the next corner or on the other side of the facility? Google Maps now displays floor plans of buildings which have been uploaded to Google (building managers can upload their floor plans to Google through the use of an automated tool). To use the new features, simply zoom in to the point where you're given the ability to view the interior map. If you don't have any supported buildings close by, you could try out the functionality by searching for Chicago's O'hare Airport (pictured above). Google even provides the ability to switch floors based on your current GPS location or manually using the controls on the right-hand side.
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| Sapphire Shows Love to AMD with Pure Black 990FX Motherboard Posted: 13 Dec 2011 11:41 AM PST
The Pure Black 990FX is a full size ATX motherboard with four dual-channel DDR3 memory slots (supports up to 32GB of RAM), four USB 3.0 ports, dual GbE LAN sockets, Bluetooth, eight SATA 3Gbps ports with AHCI and RAID support, rear-panel eSATA (SATA 3Gbps), six PCI Express Gen2 slots with CrossFireX support, and other specs you would expect to find a current board. Sapphire pimps the Pure Black 990FX's build quality as another high point. It has a black multilayer PCB, high quality gold plated connectors for USB 3.0 and LAN, solid capacitors, and multi-phase PWM voltage regulation circuitry for both the CPU and memory modules with Sapphire Diamond Black chokes. The Pure Black 990FX is in production now and will be available in the retail channel soon. Image Credit: Sapphire |
| IP Addresses From Sony, Fox And Universal Found Torrenting Music, Movies And More Posted: 13 Dec 2011 11:27 AM PST This just in from the "Isn't it ironic?" department: IP addresses from some of the top content creation companies, including Fox, Sony and Universal, have been caught red-handed downloading torrents of movies, music and TV shows. That's the claim from TorrentFreak, at least, who sifted through data from YouHaveDownloaded, a Russian site that logs – and exposes! – IP addresses downloading many of the public torrents you can find out there. TorrentFreak did some digging and managed to match several infringing IP addresses to IP addresses registered to the aforementioned companies.
A Sony IP address from Culver City, CA and an NBC Universal IP address from Fort Lauderdale, FL went on especially naughty sprees, downloading several different torrents apiece, including a Halloween trance album, a Black Keys track, the complete first season of "The Game of Thrones," the "Cowboys and Aliens" movie and more. An IP address registered to Fox was also found downloading "Super 8." An IP address from Google's NY office also downloaded a ton of stuff, although interestingly enough, TorrentFreak notes that they couldn't find any torrents being downloaded from BitTorrent Inc's SF headquarters. Then again, YouHaveDownloaded only claims to track around a fifth of all available public torrents. (By the way, YouHave Downloaded's owners say they're exposing the IP addresses of anyone who downloads from the torrents they're tracking in order to dispel the notion that you should expect privacy on the 'Net.) TorrentFreak also notes that an IP address from a Dutch music royalty collecting agency called Buma/Stemra was found downloading Battlefield 3 and episodes of "Entourage," which prompted the company to claim that its address was spoofed. TorrentFreak invites the US companies mentioned above to do the same thing. "After all, if it's so easy to spoof an IP-address, then accused file-sharers can use this same defense against copyright holders." Thoughts? |
| Fortinet Answers Your Burning Carrier IQ Questions in a Handy FAQ Posted: 13 Dec 2011 11:14 AM PST
If so, Fortinet has what you're looking for. If Fortinet sounds familiar, you're either a network security appliances geek, or you came across the company's top eight security predictions for 2012 (we covered them here). Now Fortinet has put together a 'Carrier IQ on Android -- FAQ' piece that covers everything from the basics of what this software does to how exactly it works, and even how to get rid of it (not for the non-adventurous, as it requires rooting your Android device). You can check out the FAQ here. |
| Fast Forward: ARM Embraces 64 Bits Posted: 13 Dec 2011 11:03 AM PST It was the best-known secret of the year: ARM was prepping its first 64-bit CPU architecture to bash head-on with Intel in the low-power server market. ARM's official announcement finally came in October, and AppliedMicro revealed bold plans for the first 64-bit processor based on the new architecture. With Microsoft readying its first ARM-compatible version of desktop/server Windows, PCs may flirt with ARM, too, although notebooks are more likely candidates than desktops. It's the first serious challenge from a non-x86 architecture that Intel has faced in 20 years. These days, the desperate quest for power efficiency is driving the industry in new directions. Not all those roads lead to Intel. ARM's existing 32-bit CPU architecture rules the cell phone market and is popular in numerous other devices, such as Apple's iPad. Although ARM-based processors can't yet match the performance of Intel's best chips, they are powerful enough for many purposes and are more power efficient.
System vendors want to try building large servers using boatloads of low-power ARM chips, but the critical missing piece was a 64-bit ARM architecture. Every other server-processor architecture (x86, Itanium, POWER, SPARC) has been 64-bit for years. Unlike Intel, however, ARM doesn't actually make microprocessors, it licenses its architecture and CPU cores to other companies, which design the chips and outsource manufacturing to independent foundries. Hence the importance of AppliedMicro's announcement: a future 32-core server processor called X-Gene. Someone has to go first. Intel retains awesome advantages in CPU performance, fabrication technology, engineering resources, and market position. Frankly, I give ARM only a 50/50 chance of succeeding outside its traditional mobile scope. But the battle will be good drama, and the fresh competition will push Intel to design lower-power x86 processors, so almost any outcome is a win for the rest of us. |
After months of trials and tweaking in the Chrome experimental and beta channels, Google has finally added multi-account logins to Chrome's official build. The feature is now called "
File host Mega Upload is taking no prisoners in its war of words with Universal Music Group. The site produced a music video of sorts with various well-known musicians affirming their support for the service. Universal wasted no time in filing a DMCA takedown saying that MegaUpload didn't have the necessary rights to post the video. After a little back and forth, MegaUpload is 
You can argue the Earth is flat or that man never really landed on the moon, but if you really want to avoid looking foolish, then don't tell anyone Intel is deliberately stalling USB 3.0 long enough for LightPeak to drive a stake in the competing transfer interface. Actually, Intel has long held that the two aren't really competitors at all, and putting its money where its mouth is, Intel went out and received SuperSpeed USB 3.0 certification for its upcoming 7 Series and C216 chipset families.
German gaming peripheral designer Roccat Studios is gearing up to debut an "aggressive lineup" of keyboards, mice, and surround sound systems at CES in January, 2012. Ahead of the show, Roccatt today announced the U.S. launch of its gaming device line in hopes of filling a "void" in the crowded U.S. gaming peripherals market and expanding its reach outside of Europe and Asia.
Internal floor plans for are available in the 
Intel's Sandy Bridge-E is the talk of the town right now, but let's not forget about another little chip maker named Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). Sapphire certainly hasn't forgotten about AMD, nor has it blanked out on how to build a high end motherboard. Proving both is Sapphire's new Pure Black 990FX board with support for the latest AMD processors.
The recently discovered 
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