General Gaming Article

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• How to Set Up a New PC the Right Way
• LightSquared Gets 30-Day Reprieve as it Seeks FCC Approval
• Belarus Attempting to Bar Use of Foreign Websites
• Rupert Murdoch Offends Entire Country After Just 48 Hours on Twitter
• The 21 Biggest Tech Disappointments of 2011
• Chrome Web App of the Week: Polldaddy
• Asus to Add Pieces of 'Flare' to Netbook Category at CES 2012
• Intel Takes Potshot at Tablet Form Factor While Promoting Ultrabooks
• Fallout: New Vegas Dev Releases Mod That Makes Hardcore Mode Even More Hardcore
• Wintel Tablets Coming from Acer, Lenovo in Late 2012

How to Set Up a New PC the Right Way Posted: 02 Jan 2012 02:44 PM PST Whether you just built or bought a new PC, it pays to optimize your setup from the start Nothing holds more promise than a brand-new PC. The hardware is fresh and full of potential, the OS is clean and clutter-free, and you have nothing but pure, unadulterated storage space awaiting your precious data. It's an exciting time, indeed. But before you start dumping old files onto your new rig willy-nilly, and downloading every shiny bauble of an app that catches your eye, take some time to consider a more measured approach to moving in. After all, you only have this opportunity once. The way you set up your new PC now will have a lasting impact on your experience over time. Do it haphazardly, and your experience will be plagued by disorder and regret. Do it thoughtfully, though, by following the course of action we prescribe on the following pages, and you will have a machine that's primed and ready to meet your every need from the start. Check Your Specs If you've just built your rig or unboxed a sparkling-new PC, it's always a good idea to verify the hardware specs to make sure all parts are actually performing as they should be. We've seen simple BIOS misconfigurations downclock chips by hundreds of megahertz. Inspect CPU-Z's memory tab to see if your RAM is configured correctly for double- or triple-channel, and that the frequency is set to the level you paid for. First download CPU-Z. This excellent free utility will query your CPU and report the model number, cache size, and clock speed of the chip in real-time. To test your CPU's speed, put a load on it using, say, Prime95 and run a stress test. CPU-Z should report the correct clock speed for your chip. While you're here, pull up Task Manager by hitting Ctrl+Alt+Del. Select the Performance tab and make sure that each of your cores, virtual or real, is represented. Believe it or not, we've seen Hyper-Threading turned off occasionally on some systems. Turn off Prime95, but keep CPU-Z open. Click the Memory tab. You should see the memory frequency reported under DRAM Frequency. This is the base clock, so you should double it to get the frequency of the RAM. For example, if your DDR3/1600 is reporting as 667, your RAM is actually running at DDR3/1333 speed. TechPowerUp's GPU-Z will tell you what speed the PCIe is running at. CPU-Z will also report graphics speed, but we prefer GPU-Z for more detailed info. GPU-Z will generate a CPU-Z-like interface. Pay particular attention to the default clock speed and memory speeds for your GPU. If you paid for an overclocked GPU, check that it is running at the speeds you paid for. GPU-Z will also tell you if SLI or CrossFireX is enabled or not and also at what speed the PCIe slot is running. Yes, it's possible that a new machine will have the GPU running in a slower slot, which may impact performance. Stress It Out If a component is going to fail, you want it to fail while it's under warranty. For CPU stress tests, we prefer the free Prime95. Just download it and run the in-place stress test. A properly configured and cooled stock-clocked system should have no problem running Prime95 for hours on end. For GPU stress testing, FurMark is still quite popular, or you can run Unigine's Heaven benchmark in a loop for a few hours. Keep in mind that stressing the GPU will also stress your PSU and cooling, so any shortcomings may crop up there, as well. RTFM Did you know your motherboard has a special USB port that allows you to make BIOS updates without a CPU being installed? No? Well it's right there in the frakking manual. One of the first things you should do with your new machine is to read the documentation, particularly the motherboard manual, that came with it. Store Your Extra Parts Once you're done building a new PC, collect the extra modular power cables, drive rails, special sound-dampening drive screws, and put them in one place. You could even store the extra parts in your case, as long as there's room to spare and it won't block airflow. You won't thank us now, but you will in three years. Get Drivers in Order If you installed the drivers from the disc that came with your motherboard, your drivers are already way out of date. Any new PC should be paired with the freshest drivers available for the platform, as updates can add performance, enhance compatibility, and fix the wonkiness that usually occurs with the first drivers to ship. High-end peripherals should be paired with the latest drivers to unlock all of the device's functionality. The freshest drivers are usually available directly from the manufacturer of the component, so the best source for updated drivers for an AMD motherboard is AMD. If you're running a fancy gaming mouse or keyboard, you'll also want to install the matching drivers for them. These drivers unlock the full functionality of the mouse or peripheral beyond the built-in Windows 7 HID drivers. Set Up Your Security There's no point in taking the time and care to set up a new PC just right if you don't also make security one of your first priorities. Otherwise, it's just a matter of time before some form of malware gets in your system and mucks up the works, possibly even requiring a reinstall. Thanks to AVG's free AV app, even cheapskates can be safe from malware. Our Holiday issue antivirus roundup found Norton Internet Security 2012 ($70, www.norton.com) to be the best AV suite for purchase, while AVG Anti-Virus Free 2012 proved to be a very capable free solution. Before you do anything else, do this. Prepare for Disaster With Windows 7, everything you need for data backup and system repair is right there in the OS. Combine that with a large hard drive, and you have no excuse not to establish a full-fledged data recovery plan. With a secondary drive in place (either internal or external), head over to Control Panel, then System and Security, then Backup and Restore. Choose Backup Your Computer, then Set up Backup. Select the drive that backups will be saved to, choose the files to be saved, and set a schedule. Next, choose the option to Create a System Image, an exact copy of your drive—OS, system settings, program files, etc.—to use in the event your drive fails or your system stops working. Finally, opt to Create a System Repair Disc. This disc will save your bacon should your machine not start, allowing you to boot your computer from the optical drive and then retrieve the system image and backups you've dutifully created. Decrapify Your PC When you build a new PC, you have full control over the software that gets installed. Not so when you buy a system, which is practically guaranteed to host a number of apps you have little use for, or that slow your PC's performance, or that constantly pester you with pop-ups. Get rid of that crap with PC Decrapifier. The free tool walks you through the process of removing unnecessary programs, startup items, and icons. Transfer Your Files, Easily It's time to sully that pristine PC with craploads of junk from your old PC. Power users normally go manual by popping the old PC's drive into a spare SATA port on the new rig. This lets you pick and choose what's really worth moving. If you'd rather just do it on autopilot, check out Microsoft's free Easy Transfer utility. It's meant for newbies, but it can make the move to a new machine fairly painless. Run Windows Easy Transfer on your new PC (Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools), and it will give you options for the move: USB hard drive, the network, or an optional USB cable. The utility will ask you to insert a USB key where an executable will be installed. Run this executable on your old box, and it will package up all of the files into a single file that will be stored on an HDD or moved across the network to your new PC, where everything is unloaded into its proper place. Tips for Trickier File Transfers Moving documents from one computer to another is usually just a matter of copying-and-pasting onto an external hard drive and then to your new PC. That's fine for office docs and photos, but what about apps that build media libraries, like iTunes and Steam, or saved games, which go wherever the publisher feels like putting them? iTunes If you're using an iDevice, you might be stuck with iTunes as a media manager. Here's how to move your music and other media (and keep your ratings, playlists, etc.) without having to rebuild your library. First, open iTunes and go to File > Library > Organize Library > Consolidate Files. This will ensure that all your music is in one place. Once done, exit iTunes. Copy your iTunes folder, which should be under My Music (unless you've moved it) to your external drive. If you're decommissioning your old PC, be sure to deauthorize that computer from your iTunes account. Open iTunes again and go to Store > Deauthorize This Computer. Enter your Apple ID and password. Install iTunes on your new computer, and then copy the iTunes folder from your external drive to the Music folder of your new computer. Next time you open iTunes, hold down Shift while you double-click the launcher. You'll be prompted to choose an iTunes library; look for iTunes Library.itl in the folder you just copied to your PC. You should now have your library, with ratings and playlists intact, on your new PC. Steam Games On your old PC, go to your Steam folder (C:\Program Files\Steam, by default) and copy the steamapps folder and its contents to your external drive. On your new computer, install Steam and launch it once, then exit it. Go to the Steam folder and delete everything in it except for steam.exe. Now copy the steamapps folder from your old PC into the Steam folder on your new PC, and launch steam.exe again. After a brief self-update, Steam should show your games as installed. You'll have to do a quick file-verify as you launch each game for the first time, but that's a lot faster than downloading them all over again. Game Saves Not all your games come from Steam, and not all that do have Steam Cloud to manage their saves. And it seems every publisher has a different method of storing saved games. That's where GameSave Manager (free, www.gamesave-manager.com) comes in. GameSave Manager hunts down all those weird game save directories and lets you back them up easily. Run GameSave Manager on your old computer, and it will auto-detect the games you have installed, find out where the game saves are, and back them up, all via the Backup Gamesave(s) menu. Once you have a backup archive (a .gsba file), you can move it to your new computer and use GameSave Manager to automatically restore all your saves. Configure Audio By default, most motherboards and soundcards come configured for stereo speaker output. By default, most gamers today play with headphones. The problem is that most advanced audio cards feature algorithms tuned for the output mode. Cool features such as head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) and other filters that greatly enhance sound for headphones don't get used unless you set the driver accordingly. To do this, just dig into your soundcard's control panel and set the default to Headphones for the best experience. Calibrate Your Monitor If you got a new display with your new PC (or if you've never taken the time to adjust your old monitor), it might be badly calibrated, degrading the image quality you see. For a quick-and-dirty fix, you can run the calibration software built in to Windows by clicking the Start button, then entering DCCW into the search bar. The program will run you through several simple calibration exercises, and adjust your monitor appropriately. For a more thorough calibration, we recommend that you use high‑quality calibration test images, such as those found at www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/. Disable Accessibility Shortcuts Windows comes with a host of accessibility features that can be a great help for people with disabilities or other difficulties using computer hardware. There are keyboard shortcuts for some of these options, but the shortcuts are easy to perform accidentally, and can pop up unwanted dialogue boxes. These shortcuts are: > Press shift five times: StickyKeys > Hold right‑shift for eight seconds: FilterKeys > Hold num lock for five seconds: ToggleKeys You can disable each shortcut individually by performing it, then choosing to turn off the shortcut, or you can disable them all in one fell swoop in Control Panel > Ease of Access Center > Make the keyboard easier to use. Adjust Your Power Settings Whether you're looking to save the environment, or just your battery life, you should pay a visit to your new PC's power options. If you open the Control Panel, then select Hardware and Sound, and then Power Options, you'll see the available power profiles. You can select one of the available profiles, or change your screen's brightness from this menu, but if you want more control, you'll need to select a profile and click the link that says "Change plan settings." A new menu will pop up, where you can change how long the computer waits before it dims the display, turns off the display, or goes to sleep. Even more options can be found by clicking the advanced power settings button. Share Files on a Network If your new PC will be sharing a network with other computers running a version of Windows 7, you can create a Homegroup so they can all share files and devices (such as a printer). Be aware, however, that computers running Windows 7 Starter or Windows 7 Home Basic can join an existing Homegroup, but they can't create one. To create a new Homegroup, click the Windows menu, choose Computer, and then click Homegroup in the left-hand column. Now click the button labeled "Create a homegroup" (you'll find it in the main window to the right). This will open a new window in which you can choose which types of files you'd like to share within the Homegroup (photos, music, video, etc.), and whether or not you'd like to share a printer. Click Next when you've made your decisions. After a few moments, a new window will appear with a 10-character, case-sensitive Homegroup password. Write this password down or print it. To add your new PC to an existing Homegroup, obtain the password from any other computer in the Homegroup, click the Start menu, choose Control Panel, then Network and Internet, and then Homegroup. Windows will inform you of the existing Homegroup on the network and ask if you would like to join it. Click Join Now, choose the types of files you wish to share, and click Next. Enter the Homegroup password and click Next. You'll see a message indicating that you've joined the Homegroup, and when you click Network on either computer, you should see each of the other computers in the Homegroup and be able to move files between them. If you'd like to share other folders within the Homegroup, right-click them, choose Share With from the pop-up menu, and then select either Homegroup (Read) or Homegroup (Read/Write). Create a Guest Account Say a friend wants to borrow your new computer to "check their email." You can limit the degree of access they'll gain (and damage they can cause) by turning on the Windows Guest account. Sign in using your administrator credentials, click the Start menu, and click the large icon at the top of menu. Click Manage Another Account, then Guest, and then click the Turn On button. Activating your computer's Guest account is one of the easiest ways to grant someone limited access to your PC. To switch to the Guest account, click the Start menu, then click the arrow next to the Shut Down button, and choose either Log-off or Switch User. Click the Guest button to log in as a guest. Guest users can launch programs and access the Internet, but they can't make Control Panel changes (including uninstalling software) or other changes to the computer's settings. They also can't access any files or folders protected by a password, and they can't access other computers on the network, even those within a Homegroup. Use an Alternative DNS Each time you type a hostname into your browser and hit Enter, your computer initiates a DNS (Domain Name System) lookup. DNS is akin to a phonebook for the Internet: It converts that user-friendly name into the appropriate IP address. If you haven't configured your computer differently, you're probably relying on your ISP to perform these DNS lookups. You might be able to speed up your web-browsing experience, as well as improve your online security, by switching to an alternative DNS resolution service, such as OpenDNS or Google Public DNS. We'll show you how to configure your Ethernet adapter to use the latter. Sign on as an Administrator and click Control Panel, Network and Internet, Network and Sharing Center, and then choose Change Adapter Settings. Select which network connection you wish to change, right-click it, and choose Properties from the pop-out menu. On the Networking tab, choose Internet Protocol Version 4 and then click the Properties button. Choose the General tab and then Advanced. Click the DNS tab. If there are any DNS server addresses already in place here, write them down before erasing them and then click OK. Many people find that switching to Google Public DNS delivers a faster web-browsing experience. You should now be back on the General tab in the TCP/IPv4 Properties window. Click the radio button next to "Use the Following DNS Server Addresses" and type 8.8.8.8 in the Preferred DNS Server window and 8.8.4.4 in the Alternate DNS Server window. Click OK and close the Network Connections Properties window. Restart the network connection by right-clicking it and choosing Disable from the pop-out menu, and then right-click it a second time and choose Enable from the pop-out menu. This should restart your connection using the new DNS settings. To ensure your new settings are working, enter a hostname into your browser: www.maximumpc.com, for instance. If it resolves correctly, bookmark it, then click the bookmark. If it doesn't, roll back the changes you've just made and retest. Tidy Up Your Insides Your computer has a lot of cables inside, from front-panel connectors to SATA and power cables. If your case doesn't have a window, it might be tempting to just leave a rat's nest of wiring inside, but there are substantial benefits to an uncluttered chassis—better cooling and less dust, for example. If you bought your PC from a boutique builder, it should have come with a decent wiring job, but if you built your own or bought an off-the-shelf system, there's likely room for improvement. Sloppy wiring can create pockets of hot air and dust in your case. Many modern cases have cable-routing cutouts in the motherboard tray, and room behind it to route cables. You should route as many wires as you can behind the motherboard tray—usually your motherboard power cables, at least, can go back here. Route as many power cables from your PSU behind the motherboard and bring them back out near where they need to plug in; you can dramatically reduce clutter in your case this way. If you don't have any cutouts in your motherboard tray, you can still use zip ties to keep your cables organized and out of the way. You can also buy stick-on organizing clips to keep your cables attached to your motherboard tray, not hanging out in the middle of your case. Routing cables behind the motherboard tray (if possible) can lead to a much cleaner and cooler build. If you have a modular power supply, disconnect (and keep in a safe place) any cables you're not using. If you don't, use zip ties to bundle unused cables together, and try to keep them out of the way of your fans' airflow. Optimize Your Fan Setup Your components will last longer if they run at lower temperatures. They will run at lower temperatures if they have sufficient airflow. That's science. Your case should have both intake and exhaust fans. You'll need at least one front intake fan and one rear exhaust fan. Many cases have additional intake fans on the front or left side, and additional exhaust fans at the top of the case. This helps keep hot air moving up and out of your case. You should have roughly the same number of exhaust fans as intake fans, and you should make sure they're in places that make sense, to create obvious paths for the air. Don't create dead zones where hot air can stay trapped. If your case has filters for its intake fans, clean them regularly. If not, dust inside your case regularly with canned air. Provide a consistent airflow pattern for your case. Here, cool air enters at the bottom and exits through the top and rear. Many motherboards offer fan control in their BIOS settings; you can set your fans to ramp up when your system gets hot and ramp down when it's cool, or you can wire your fans to a fan controller and set their levels yourself. Most motherboard manufacturers also offer a desktop fan‑control utility for use with their boards. Simple fan controllers just offer speed control; others, like NZXT's Sentry series, also include temperature sensors, which you can use to automatically control fan speeds based on the temperature of various parts of your system. Must-Have Apps and Utilities No PC is complete without these key programs Google Chrome Google Chrome remains the single-fastest web browser out there. Couple that with exclusive apps and a fully customizable web interface, and you've got a browser that no PC should be without. www.google.com/chrome Skype Installing Skype allows you to talk face to face with anyone, anywhere, so long as they have the software and a webcam. Skype also allows you to set video conference calls, call mobile devices, and make international calls for additional fees. www.skype.com Secunia PSI Installing updates for all your software can be a tedious chore, which is why Secunia Personal Software Inspector is essential. Watch as it automatically updates programs in need, with no effort on your end. www.secunia.com Dropbox If you find yourself using more than one computing device daily, Dropbox makes it easy to share documents across all those devices, including smartphones. www.dropbox.com KeePass Using top-of-the-line encryption algorithms AES and Twofish, KeePass acts as a password manager, allowing you to store all your passwords (e.g., email, Facebook, online banking) in a single and secure database that can only be accessed by you. www.keepass.info Revo Uninstaller These days, it's simply not enough to use Windows to uninstall your programs, as harmful remnants can be left behind. Enter Revo Uninstaller, a free app that not only uninstalls software, but allows you to manually remove additional data left behind. www.revouninstaller.com Sumatra PDF Sumatra PDF is a free PDF creator and viewer for Windows. It's a relatively small file, starts up extremely quickly, and is tremendously easy to use. It can also read XPS, DjVu, CBZ, and CBR files. bit.ly/aHICnC 7-Zip 7-Zip is a fast, free file archiver that can pack and unpack a huge range of files, from ZIP to TAR files. It features an extremely easy-to-use interface that presents users with all facets of the unzipped file, automatically organized by folders. www.7-zip.org FileZilla If you need to connect to an FTP server, FileZilla is the best way to go. It's easy to use and highly customizable—you can even configure your own transfer-speed limits and transfer up to 4GB of files. www.filezilla-project.org Digsby With Digsby you can consolidate all of your instant messaging accounts into one centralized hub, supporting AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, and Google Talk. It's also a handy notification tool for personal email. www.digsby.com Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware Yes, you already have an AV program (right?), but it never hurts to have a second opinion or line of defense. For us, that's Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware Free. It doesn't run auto scans, so it won't conflict with your other AV solution. www.malwarebytes.org SuperAntiSpyware You could say that SuperAntiSpyware is the third prong in our three-prong approach to PC security. Like Malwarebytes', it provides yet another line of defense. And it's free, so why not avail your PC of this extra layer of protection? www.superantispyware.com

LightSquared Gets 30-Day Reprieve as it Seeks FCC Approval Posted: 02 Jan 2012 02:40 PM PST LTE wholesaler LightSquared is breathing a little easier today as its someday business partner Sprint has granted it a 30-day deadline extension. By that time, LightSquared hopes to finally have FCC approval to run its 4G LTE network in the US. Sprint announced the partnership last summer, but since then, GPS makers have been frighting back. They claim that LightSquared signals will interfere with nearly all available GPS receivers. LightSquared has a license to use a swath of spectrum in the 1600MHz band for mobile data. That spectrum is adjacent to the GPS frequencies. As it turns out, all GPS receivers are built to do very little filtering due to the weakness of GPS signals. Manufacturers simply never planned for a terrestrial radio source to be so close to GPS. LightSquared and the GPS industry differ on how severe the interference will be, and the FCC is now on the spot.  If regulators can give LightSquared the go-ahead in time, Sprint will enter into a 15-year deal to add 1600MHz to its existing 1900/800MHz holdings for LTE deployment. If not, things are going to be a little more rough for everyone involved.

Belarus Attempting to Bar Use of Foreign Websites Posted: 02 Jan 2012 02:20 PM PST Belarus is a small Eastern-European country that borders Russia. This former Soviet Bloc state is known for its breathtaking architecture, turbulent politics, and now for its effort to outlaw most of the Internet. A new law set to go into effect on January 6th would make it illegal for citizens and residents of Belarus to access domains or services based outside the nation. Connecting to a site with the intention of using foreign services, conducing business, or even sending email will be illegal. The offence will be a misdemeanor, but with a $125 fine per infraction, most businesses will have to comply. many also fear that businesses with foreign domains will have to give them up. The law is aimed at entrepreneurs, but its vague language could result in a multitude of problems for the average person as well. for example. Could clicking ads from a foreign company be illegal under the law? The law further authorizes the government to set up a blacklist of sites that will not be accessible in the country. This part of the regulations is vague, referring only to "extremist" content. The Library of Congress has come out strongly against the law, saying it could present legal headaches for many websites around the world.

Rupert Murdoch Offends Entire Country After Just 48 Hours on Twitter Posted: 02 Jan 2012 01:58 PM PST It only took billionaire publishing mogul Rupert Murdoch about 48 hours on Twitter to enrage an entire nation all over again. in the wake of last year's UK phone hacking scandal that resulted in News of the World being shut down, Murdoch suggested in a tweet that the British have too many holidays for a "broke country." Oh, snap. Despite immediate urging from an account that seems to belong to Murdoch's wife, the tweet was alive long enough to be retweeted and re-posted everywhere. "Maybe Brits have too many holidays for broke country!" the tweet read before deletion. The 80 year-old Murdoch was on vacation in the Caribbean when he posted the tweet. The Murdoch account was almost immediately verified upon creation, perhaps with the recognition that whatever the News Corp CEO said was going to be gold. We were not let down. Murdoch tried to play the posting off as a joke, but at the very least it was in poor taste.

The 21 Biggest Tech Disappointments of 2011 Posted: 02 Jan 2012 01:30 PM PST It happens every year: the hype, the commercials, the anticipation building until finally, the day is upon us. No, we're not talking about Christmas. We're talking about product release dates, which like Christmas often involve a heady rush of excitement - and sometimes involve a heartbreaking let down worse than a gift of socks. Perhaps it's particularly bad for tech writers because we're on the front lines, thrilled to have something new to handle and review and write about. Perhaps it's worse for consumers, who shell out their hard-earned cash to wind up with a dud. So, we've chosen twenty-one things to avoid, lest you wind up with a shoddy build, user experience or product. It's our gift to you, a no BS take on the things that crossed our desks, the things that didn't live up to our expectations, and the things that just plain shouldn't see the light of day (SOPA, we're looking at you).  As always, feel free to chime in with your picks in the comments section! Google TV Google TV should have changed the way we enjoy television, but misplaced priorities and inept execution doomed the ambitious initiative before it ever got off the ground. The boondoggle cost Google some prestige, but little cash. Logitech, on the other hand, took it right in the shorts. In July 2011, Logitech reported that returns of its Revue set-top box were outpacing sales. CEO Guerrino De Luca would later tell analysts that the company's decision introduce a $299 product based on software that was "definitely not complete" was a "gigantic" mistake. If you still want one, Logitech is blowing them out at $99 each.   4G Networks Apple pissed off disappointed a lot of folks when it shipped the iPhone 4S sans 4G-network support, but we're in Apple's corner on this one. The company should have quelled rumors to the contrary, but the fact remains that none of the so-called 4G networks on the market reach the international 4G standard for performance. ITU IMT-Advanced (International Mobile Communications Standard—Advanced) states that a 4G device will operate on an IP-based packet-switching network that delivers nominal data throughput of 100Mb/s for mobile communications (client devices in planes, trains, and cars), and speeds of 1Gb/s for relatively stationary clients. Today's LTE networks don't come close.   Windows Home Server 2011 Just how little does Microsoft care about Windows Home Server 2011? When we contacted the company's PR firm about getting a copy of the OS for the balls-out Build It story in the Holiday 2011 issue of Maximum PC, they told us to download the free trial—we could hear the yawn right through the email. Microsoft's decision to excise its Drive Extender technology, which made the original version so popular with hard-core consumers, made building a fault-tolerant system too expensive. You can't even buy an OEM box today, and it's damn shame because the software is rock solid.   Broadband Bandwidth Caps "Don't worry," say the ISPs, "download caps will only affect the top two percent of our customers." That might have been true before online services such as Netflix, HBO, Vudu, and others began streaming video; or before Apple, Amazon, Google, and others set up their cloud operations; or before Pandora, Slacker, and Rdo started streaming music; or… well, you get the picture. The ISPs know where the trends are headed, and they intend to soak us for all they can. How long will be before you count yourself in that "two percent?"   AMD Bulldozer As the first really big redesign for AMD on its high-end chip, the FX aka Bulldozer proved to be both a disappointment and heartbreaker for many. It's been an awfully long time since the glory days of the Athlon, Athlon XP and Athlon 64. Many hoped AMD's redesigned Bulldozer would finally put it back in contention with Intel's parts but when the "eight" BD core hit, it didn't exactly fire any shots over the bow of Intel's own six-core chips. Hell, it didn't even put a dent in the Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge chip, much less the new Sandy Bridge-E processors. Sure, there are issues with the scheduler in Windows 7 (similar problems occurred with Intel's original Hyper- Threading chips too) that look to add a bit more pep to the chip but be that as it may, Bulldozer is still disappointing.    Native USB 3.0 USB 3.0 has been around for nearly two years now but still hasn't made it into wide adoption by chipset makers. We like integration of such vital I/O as USB 3.0 because it eliminates one more driver to install during a build. It also eliminates an extra part on the board (potentially making it cheaper) and integrated USB could potentially be faster and more reliable than discrete USB 3.0 vhipd. Of course, none of that really happened in 2011. Oh, sure AMD included it on one or two of its Llano chipsets but for the most part, native support for USB 3.0 didn't show up for the party this year. Intel pushed out at least three chipsets for consumers and none had it. AMD's top-end 900 chipsets also skipped out on USB 3.0 support. So what the frak is wrong?!? Are the conspiracy nuts right that Intel is sandbagging to favor Thunderbolt? We were actually starting to believe the paranoia but there is a glimmer of hope. Intel says it has received USB 3.0 certification for its upcoming chipsets but, frankly, we'll believe it when we see it.   Thunderbolt Intel's Thunderbolt looked magical when released but lack of support from PC makers and lack of optical cabling is disappointing to say the least. Is Thunderbolt shaping up to be the next-generation external I/O of the future or a sequel to the dying Firewire interface? That's the ten thousand megabit question. One things for sure, Thunderbolt has been person incognito on the PC to date. Sure, Sony has it on a couple of notebooks but the top OEMs haven't rushed to put the Intel/Apple standard in their rigs yet. Between the lack of ports in systems, exorbitant prices on the devices (if you can even find them) Thunderbolt has been nothing but a big bucket of disappointment for us all thus far and is quickly looking like a detour to dudesville.   X79 chipset Something's wrong when your motherboard has more DIMM slots than SATA ports What is an enthusiast? Someone who would even consider putting the capital to build on Intel's new X79 chipset for its Sandy Bridge-E CPUs. So when we saw the X79 boards bristling with SATA 6Gbps ports at IDF we knew the chipset was an enthusiasts chipset for storage too. Unfortunately, that isn't the case. At the very last minute, Intel decided to "defeature" support for the added SATA 6Gbps ports due to potential compatibility issues. The result was a motherboard chipset oozing with enthusiast features but kneecapped by lack of higher speed SATA ports.  Sigh.   Dead Island Remember when the very first CG trailer dominated the interwebs, garnering hype from all ends of the gaming world? Remember when we thought this was going to be the game that would make Left 4 Dead seem like childs play? Remember how exciting that was? Dead Island wasn't a bad game, but it wasn't particularly good either. I mean, we like using a machete to electrically shock zombies to death as much as the next guy, but the game, like the island itself, just became tedious and out-right boring after a while. If you find yourself yawning while playing a zombie game, something's terribly wrong. Either that, or you're just an unphased bad ass. We're going to go with the first option.   Duke Nukem Forever We weren't surprised it sucked. Be honest with yourself. You weren't either. We all wanted Duke to make his grand return, but when a game gets caught in a development cycle as hectic as Duke's, it's just not going to happen, unfortunately. Duke Nukem Forever was a terrible, terrible game. Even the 90's aesthetic which we once found so humorous just wasn't funny anymore. To their credit, the one thing the developers did right was preserve that ridiculous sense of ridiculousness—but it just felt stale. At the time, it was refreshing to see a game go to such lengths to disgust and shock the player. But we've got plenty of games that do that now, and do so in clever ways that also include innovating gameplay (Bulletstorm, anyone?). Sadly, Duke would've been better off being remembered fondly as the face anti-heroism in the 90's. Instead, he'll be remembered as one of the biggest misfires in gaming history. Bummer.  Android Tablets Image credit: Techsalvos.com The carnage began early in the year, when Motorola released the Xoom without a functioning SD card slot or Flash support—not that those are what would vault Android Tablets sky high, but it didn't help. Nor did it help that Google did not make its Android tablet OS, Honeycomb, open source. But in addition to the yawn-inducing vanilla-osity of most of the Android tablets released this year, the lack of quality tablet-optimized apps kept customers at bay, and the lack of tablet sales kept app developers away. The chicken or egg conundrum lives on. It wasn't until Amazon and Barnes & Noble subsidized the hardware of their heavily-modified and limited Gingerbread tablets, Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet, in order to keep prices low that sales really took off, proving that the masses don't care about superior hardware specs. To make matters even lamer for real geeks, both Amazon and Barnes & Noble are doing their damnedest to remove root access with their automatic updates.     The two great hopes for Android tablets, Ice Cream Sandwich (which unifies the Android OS for smartphones and tablets) and Asus' Transformer Prime (the only real Kick Ass Android tablet so far) have barely limped into availability in 2011 after release delays. Perhaps they should have bypassed this year altogether for a fresh start in 2012. Everything Blackberry Apparently, Research In Motion (RIM) was under the mistaken impression that if it didn't rush its Blackberry PlayBook to market even though it was missing the critical features of native email, calendar, and contacts support, that it would miss out on the overwhelming demand for non-iPad tablets. Not only did they miss the mark on that, but after tepid sales and two price cuts from $500 to $300 and $199 (for the 16GB model), RIM announced that the PlayBook would not be updated with those missing features until February 2012, by which point the original PlayBook's hardware will be the subject of many an eye roll.     That wasn't even the biggest Blackberry fiasco of 2011. We'll bestow that honor on a three-day outage in October that disrupted the flow of data and services for millions of BlackBerry customers around the world. In the aftermath of that flub, customers rushed to sell their Blackberry handsets and a second service hiccup occurred in November. But wait, there's more. In a misguided attempt to spread the consumerist insanity of Black Friday to southeast Asia, RIM's Indonesian CEO was charged with criminal negligence over a royally screwed up Blackberry Bold 9790 sale. More than 5,000 people caused a stampede for a 50% off sale that never happened. The way it was mishandled is so simultaneously ridiculous and sad that it has to be read to be believed. A truck heist of 5,000 Playbooks last month was just the comic exclamation point to RIM's year.   Mother Nature We hate to disparage Gaia this soon after the winter solstice, but Mother Nature didn't do too many favors for humanity primarily or the tech world secondarily in 2011. First there was the magnitude 9 earthquake and subsequent tsunami off the coast of Sendai, Japan. Besides the incalculable damage to the people and environment of the surrounding area, worsened by the resulting class 7 (on par with Chernobyl) Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, the disasters forced the closure of key ports, airports and 22 manufacturing plants, including some for Sony. That disrupted the export of semiconductors, of which Japan makes 20 percent of the world's supply. Japanese industries also face the prospect of damaged export sales if the country decides to pay for the earthquake damage by selling US Treasuries, which would strengthen the yen as compared to the dollar. The computer industry also faces massive disruption due to the severe flooding in Thailand that damaged HDD production facilities for Western Digital, Seagate, and Toshiba. Production won't return to pre-flood levels until well into 2012. Hard drive prices have already risen dramatically, and there's no telling what the ceiling to those rising costs will be. Tech Legislation Zero just isn't a low enough number to represent our approval rating for Congress this year. Take a gander at this alphabet soup of foibles. ACTA: the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement - Eight countries and the European Union have signed off on ACTA, which is derided as a heavy-handed attempt to shove US IP law like the DMCA down other countries' throats. Stipulations of ACTA include outlawing devices that circumvent copyright, extensive seizure of counterfeited goods, and undefined monetary rewards for victims of counterfeiting. ACTA will establish is own governing body outside of any current international institution. AIA: The America Invents Act - Finally, some patent reform! Oh wait, it does nothing to prevent patent trolls, and doesn't address the glacial patent process or the low quality of too many patents. So, what does it do? It gives patents to the first to file, rather than the first to invent. Great.     SOPA: the Stop Online Piracy Act - You may be thinking that if any law could actually stop online piracy, our existing laws would cover it. You'd be right, but Congress doesn't really understand our beloved series of tubes. SOPA would essentially let corporate copyright holders request court orders to remove sites from the Internet if they infringe on copyrights, even if the alleged infringement comes in the form of user-generated content or comments. The orders would also prohibit advertisers and payment processing companies from doing business with the accused sites. Internet businesses and their users are in near solidarity against the act, yet it will continue to be debated when Congress reconvenes in 2012, setting them up for another banner year of failure if it passes. H.R. 1981: Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act - Here's one that has to be awesome, because it protects kids, right? Unfortunately, it amounts to government-mandated surveillance of every American's Internet activity. It would require ISPs to keep a record of all of your activity for 18 months, which the government could then request without a search warrant. And it won't stop any child pornographers, who could just go and use the free Wi-Fi at McDonald's. That's probably where they're hanging out in the first place. The debate continues in 2012…     Netflix Up until July 2011 it seemed like Netflix could do no wrong. The company had a loyal and growing subscriber base, it was steadily adding new content to its streaming library, and the stock price was nearing $300 per share. But after Netflix made the shocking announcement last summer that it would no longer offer its streaming service for free to DVD-by-mail customers, its good fortune began to unravel. Subscribers jumped ship in droves, the stock price plummeted, and Netflix simultaneously lost a key content partner in Starz. Granted, things could have looked a lot worse for the company right now if it had stuck to its follow-up plan of spinning off the DVD-rental business as Qwikster, but nevertheless the past several months have seen Netflix' star seriously tarnished. Amazon Prime We so wanted to like Amazon Prime. On the surface it seemed like the perfect antidote to the blow we were dealt by Netflix' price hike. After all, Prime offers a streaming library along with Amazon's free two-day shipping program, for just $79 a year. That amounts to $1.34 a month less than Netflix' streaming subscription. So what's not to like? Well, if you thought Netflix' streaming library was wanting, Prime's is even less robust. You might not know that at first, because Amazon has a multitude of streaming content on offer, but once you start digging in, you realize that most of the good stuff has to be purchased a la cart. Rather than satisfying our urge to punish Netflix, Prime renewed our commitment to the bastard. Net Neutrality The Federal Communications Commission's guidelines governing the business practices of ISPs became law on November 20, 2011. But it wasn't the triumph for consumers that was expected under "the people's" FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, who initially had the full support of public interest groups. While the Net Neutrality rules dictate that ISPs disclose their network management practices and restricts them from discriminately blocking web content, they are much more lenient on wireless providers. The FCC was ultimately swayed by Google, Verizon, and the like that wireless web access requires different tools and technology, leaving those companies exempt from the requirement that they be "reasonable" in the use of packet discrimination and network management strategies.   Google+ What happened, Google+? You were supposed to be the service that freed us from the clutches of Facebook. Instead, we got a service that launched without an API and without the ability to create pages under anything but your real name. We're still hoping Google+ will make a comeback, but it's looking more and more like a ghost town. HP's Treatment of Palm We've got some fond memory of early Palm devices, but it wasn't a huge surprise when they were bought by HP in 2010. What WAS a huge surprise was HP's manhandling of Web OS, the last good thing Palm had going for it. The company failed to do anything worthwhile with the OS, then waffled about selling off the division before finally deciding to just give up and make the whole thing open source. iPhone 4S No 4G? No NFC? No LTE/WiMax? Not really the handset we were expecting. With a lack of design innovation and issues with battery life and call quality appearing right off the bat, the iPhone 4S probably should have been allowed to cook a little longer (maybe until it grows into a healthy iPhone 5). While the 4S did solve some of the issues that plagued the iPhone 4 (apparently you're no longer holding it wrong), it was underwhelming at best with its main offering being an improved camera and Siri, the personal assistant. And considering what we just said about Siri… yeah. Nothing to see here folks, move along. Siri You've seen the commericals: consumers effortlessly interacting with their phones using only their voices in order to get directions, assistance, reminders or to reply to text messages. Yes! You might be thinking. This is the next step! The new thing! A reason to buy a 4S! Not so fast. Siri – which, in our humble opinion is short for "siri-ously useless" - doesn't quite work as well outside of commercial –land where she's had problems with accents, issues connecting to the network and caused security concerns. And she still won't give you turn-by-turn navigation. Siri's still in beta, which at least leaves room for increased performance down the road, but she's got a long way to go.

Chrome Web App of the Week: Polldaddy Posted: 02 Jan 2012 12:16 PM PST To paraphrase Kurt Cobain, we have no right to express our opinion until we have all of the answers. To help you get one step closer to blathering on at length about what you think, Polldaddy is here to help you get the answers you need, when you need them. Available as a free to use or paid service with varying tiers of functionality, Polldaddy offers Chrome users the means to easily collect data through the use of customizable polls and surveys with ease. For users that opt to use the free iteration of the service, Polldaddy allows for 200 survey responses per month, 10 questions per survey and basic reporting for all of your posted content uploaded to the service. For many users that should be more than enough data to build a rough idea of what those you've polled are thinking.  Once users have set up their account, creating new polls is a breeze, as Polldaddy offers a simple drag and drop interface full of different poll and survey content. Just pick a title, select a theme drop a piece of content in, customize it as you see fit. Why it's so easy to use that you may never feel compelled to ask anyone a face-to-face question again.

Asus to Add Pieces of 'Flare' to Netbook Category at CES 2012 Posted: 02 Jan 2012 11:06 AM PST The introduction of Intel's Cedar Trail platform might spark some renewed interest in the netbook category, especially as buyers looking for an affordable and highly portable machine grapple with whether to overspend on a underpowered/under-equipped tablet PC, or really overspend on a newfangled Ultrabook. A new generation of netbooks could be just the thing these folks are looking for, and Asus will try to entice them with its upcoming Eee PC Flare series. Notebook Italia has the skinny on Flare, a new line of netbooks featuring Intel Atom N2600 and N2800 processors and chiclet style keyboards. But Flare PCs won't just sport Intel inside. According to the Italian news site, Asus will also roll out a larger version (12 inches) built around AMD's Fusion platform. Details are scarce, though looking at the pictures, Asus will attempt to make a fashion statement with an assortment of colors to choose from, thereby adding a bit of, uh, 'flare' to the netbook category. Hmm, we see what you did there, Asus. Image Credit: Netbook Italia

Intel Takes Potshot at Tablet Form Factor While Promoting Ultrabooks Posted: 02 Jan 2012 10:46 AM PST We're not out to make a mountain out of a mole hill, but it's interesting on a number of levels that a chip giant like Intel would cut down the tablet market in order to promote its own Ultrabook form factor. It's interesting because Intel doesn't typically diss on form factors, and also because the Santa Clara chip maker would love to challenge ARM on what's become its home turf, and in fact will make a serious run at slates later this year. Intel closed out 2011 by launching an Ultrabook Community portal, and one of the documents sitting front and center on this new page is a PDF titled "Ultrabook Overview." "Since the original era of tablets flopped, we have seen notebooks, netbooks, endless smartphones configurations, and most recently the second generation of tablet devices," writes Shirley Chen, a Technical Marketing Engineer with Intel. Ms. Chen notes that the new generation of tablet PCs have become "hugely popular," but also marred in ways that don't affect Ultrabooks. "Tablets have introduced some great features that support some of these use cases with longer battery life and touch capabilities in order to provide a more enriched experience," Chen states. "However the screens are still small, local storage is generally miniscule and restrictive, and tablets lack performance compared to that of a traditional PC." These are all valid points and Chen is carefully not to go over the top and rage against tablets, but by bringing these points to attention, Intel isn't just promoting its Ultrabook form factor, it's also inadvertently setting a mental bar on what a tablet PC should be like. When Intel takes a serious stab at slates later this year, these words could come back to bite the chip maker on the backside, unless of course those upcoming Wintel tablets are bigger, more powerful, and packed with more storage capacity than the current crop of tablets.

Fallout: New Vegas Dev Releases Mod That Makes Hardcore Mode Even More Hardcore Posted: 02 Jan 2012 10:42 AM PST So what's a poor RPG lover to do when he's done slaying dragons in Skyrim? Mass Effect 3 isn't coming out until spring. Rather than sitting on your couch and staring blankly into space, why not spend some quality time with a quality older title like Fallout: New Vegas? Yeah, it isn't exactly new and it still has more bugs than a cheap motel, but there's a damn fine game buried in there and one of its developers recently released a mod designed to make the game harder than ever before. There's a catch, though. In order for J.E. Sawyer's mod to work, you need every single bit of DLC for the game installed on your machine. Of course, if you're the kind of person who bulldozed his way through Hardcore mode and found yourself looking for more, there's a good chance you already have a fair bit of that DLC installed.  If so, this mod will put your masochistic Mojave abilities to the test; it reduces your health and carry weight, makes Stimpaks uncommon (you'll find expired Stimpaks in their stead) and generally makes the game incredibly tough thanks to over 200 different tweaks. Sound like your cup of tea? RPGWatch has a list of some of the major tweaks along with a link to the mod's .zip file. (A full list of changes is included in the zipped folder.) Be warned, though; although J.E. Sawyer is an Obsidian developer and he's put about 20 hours of playtesting in, this is in no way an official release.

Wintel Tablets Coming from Acer, Lenovo in Late 2012 Posted: 02 Jan 2012 10:16 AM PST One of the most popular tech categories in all of 2011 was the tablet PC. For the most part, Intel and Microsoft missed the boat, but luckily for both, the tablet ship hasn't sailed and looks to be just as popular in 2012 as it has been for the past 12 months. Come Q3, Acer and Lenovo will punch their ticket with tablets built around Intel's Clover Trail platform rocking Microsoft's Windows 8. Apple iPad shipments accounted for 60 percent of the tablet PC market in 2011, according to DigiTimes, and will probably maintain a majority share in 2012, but not without increased competition from Amazon's Kindle Fire and high-end Android tablets like the Eee Pad Transformer Prime in early 2012. Wintel tablets will further challenge the iPad later in the year and could prove especially popular in enterprise circles. In the meantime, Intel is getting ready to unveil its Medfield processor for Android-based smartphones and slates, which it hopes will provide a counter punch to ARM.

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