General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article

HUD-Sporting "Google Glasses" May Hit Streets This Year

Posted: 22 Feb 2012 11:18 AM PST

Is reaching into your pocket to snag your smartphone just too much work? Did you ever want to see the world through the eyes of a video game character? Am I asking too many questions? If you answered "Yes" to any of those, you'll be jazzed by the following sentence. Apparently, the long-rumored "Google Glasses" -- Google-built shades with a HUD and all kinds of cool connectivity features -- could be on track to launch later this year, and for less cash than you might have expected. Game on!

According to the New York Times' Nick Bilton and 9 to 5 Google's Seth Weintraub, the shades reportedly run on some flavor of the Android operating system and should include 3G or 4G integration as well as motion control and GPS sensors, amongst others. The HUD will only be on one lens, and Google Glasses will allegedly sport a low-res front-facing camera, last-gen smartphone-esque hardware specs, and full voice input and output.

Google Glasses should cost somewhere between $250 and $600 and be available for you and me to buy sometime before 2013 rolls around -- if the rumors prove to be correct. Initial productions runs are said to be small so that Google can get a grasp on whether or not there's a market for the technology.

Is there a market for the technology? It's all talk for now, but would you drop a few hundred bucks for a pair of Google Glasses?

Know The Difference: Phasers vs Blasters And 8 Other Distinctions Every Nerd Should Know

Posted: 22 Feb 2012 11:11 AM PST

No one likes sounding stupid. Unfortunately, it's dead simple to do exactly that when you're talking about computer hardware or popular culture. One slip of the tongue or a single misused piece of terminology can land you a one-way ticket to Moron Hollow with six days and two delightful nights of luxury accommodations. In an effort to keep you from having to take such a shameful trip, we've put together this list of commonly misused and misunderstood terminology from the worlds of computing and geek culture. 

 

Computer vs CPU

If you're a regular reader of Maximum PC, we're betting that you'll already have an understanding of the difference between a computer and a CPU. Your mother and co-workers, however, might be a different story.

Should you hear them confuse one with the other, be gentle when you tell them that CPU stands for Central Processing Unit. Typically, the CPU is a silicon chip that can be found attached to a computer's motherboard. In essence, it acts as the brain of a computer. In order to run a program, all CPUs preform the same four basic functions: fetch, decode, execute, and writeback. In the simplest terms, these four functions allow the CPU to receive, understand, and order the rest of the computer to fulfil the parameters set forth by whatever program a computer happens to be running at any given time, be it a function of your operating system, retrieving your email or settling a new city during a game of Civilization V. 

A computer on the other hand… is a computer. We're not talking about the brains of a laptop or the mouse attached to the rig on your desk at work, it's the whole enchilada from soup to nuts, internals and peripherals included. 

GB vs Gb

This one has been burning the face off of copyeditors for years. GB stands for gigabyte, which as any computer user will tell you, one can never have enough of. Depending on the context it is being used in, gigabyte can mean a number of things. If you're talking digital data storage which is measured in bytes, a gigabyte is 1, 000, 000, 000, bytes. That's 729 3.5" floppy disks worth of data. The term is also used as a standard of measurement for RAM size and  Depending on who you talk to, a gigabyte may also be the name applied to 1, 073,741,824 bytes. Go figure. 

The term Gigabit is also a quantitative measurement for digital data—one gigabit is equivalent to 128 megabytes—but more commonly, it is used in reference to the transfer of information over the a Local Area Network (LAN). Gigabit internet is based on the Ethernet Frame format protocol, providing a scorching fast data transfer rate of one billion bits per second. 

Transformers vs Gobots

Transformers was an awesome line of toys, comic books, video games, cartoons, and of late, movies, that follows the saga of a race of warring, sentient robots from the planet Cybertron that can disguise themselves as innocuous earth technologies, such as a car, a fighter jet or a boom box. Imported to North America in 1984 by Hasbro, Transformers revolutionized the action figure industry, by giving kids two toys in one. With its intriguing backstory, colourful palette of characters, and the sheer genius of combining two things most kids love—robots and awesome real-life hardware—Hasbro and their Japanese partner Takara created a timeless toy line that has captivated generations of children and the young at heart. 

Gobots, on the other hand… We'll just say it. Gobots are just all kinds of awful. 

Also a Japanese import, The Gobot toy line was brought to North American shores by Tonka just before Transformers hit the scene. The toys, while similar in spirit, lacked the soul or mechanical complexity of Hasbro's Transformers, and as such, failed to capture the imaginations of consumers. Clunky looking and boasting unfortunate names like Dumper, Dive-Dive and Small Foot, Gobots were the last things any red-blooded child of the 1980s wanted to find under the tree on Christmas morning. Not surprisingly, the toy line fizzled out of existence by 1987.

Memory vs Storage

Storage refers to whatever medium is used to store information on a computer, be it a hard drive, a solid state drive or a hybrid drive. Any information you install on a computer—documents, images, programs, music, ANYTHING—is saved to the computer's storage. Storage is designed to hold data for long periods of time, unlike memory, the AADD poster child of the data wrangling world. 

When you're talking about computer memory, you're talking about RAM, which stands for Random Access Memory. In simplest terms, computers use RAM as an instant storage facility used to store the information required to ensure the smooth operation of processes and applications. What's contained in a computer's RAM depends on what the computer is being ordered to do at the time. 

Storage and memory work like this: Let's say you decide to watch a movie on your netbook during a flight. As soon as you started the movie, it's information was pushed from your computer's storage to your to the RAM as part of the system's preparations for processing the movie's data in order to present it on your netbook's screen. How smoothly that information is conveyed to your screen is dependant upon how much RAM you have installed in your computer. 

This is why it's so often suggested that the cheapest, easiest way to speed up a slow computer is to install more RAM. 

 

 

Phaser vs. Blaster

Phasers and blasters are two of the most coveted fictional weapons of all time. While similar in function, they couldn't be more different—just like the film and TV properties they originate from.

Phasers are a directed energy weapon made famous introduced by the Star Trek television back in the 1960s, and seen in every iteration of the franchise since.  The business end of a phaser deals death, destruction and headaches by emitting a beam or burst of rapid nadions, which is an imaginary sub-atomic particle. In order to weaponize the rapid nadions, a phaser refracts them through superconducting crystals. Depending on the task at hand, a phaser beam can be altered to produce a number of effects, allowing the individual wielding the weapon to stun, kill, incinerate, melt or atomize a target. That said, over the course of the past five decades, Star Trek characters have managed to modify phaser weapons to produce many other effects as well. The variety of phaser weapons is just as varied as what the effect of the device's  rapid nadion beam, and range from devices small enough to hide in a pocket to ones so large that they can only be mounted on a starship or weapons platform. 

Blasters are a death dealing animal of an all together different variety. Arguably finding their roots in the Star Wars trilogy (there were no other movies, got it?), blasters are typically pistol or rifle shaped weapons that fire bolts of particle beam energy or plasma, with power drawn from a replaceable power source not dissimilar from a conventional handgun or rifle magazine. According to Star Wars canon, blasters are the most common weapon in use throughout the galaxy. As with Star Trek's phasers, blasters also come in larger sizes, suitable for use in fixed positions, on fighter craft mounted on the huge warships employed by the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire. 

Modem vs Router

Let's keep this one short and sweet: A modem, which is shorthand for MOdulate/DEModulate, is piece of hardware that can translate information from a digital source into an analog carrier signal and send it via phone line, over the air or through a fibre optic network for interception by another computer equipped with a modem. The receiving party's modem then demodulates the analog carrier signal generated by the sender, translating it into digital information that the computer on the receiving end can understand. Magic!

A device designed to forward data between computer networks, a router acts as a go-between for a modem and the various computers and web-connected devices it's connected to. The router's function is to examine incoming and outgoing data and determine where it should be sent.

 

Firmware vs Driver

Firmware, which is present in everything from your desktops's keyboard to your smartphone, refers to the typically small, data structures or programs that resides inside of a piece of hardware on a chip, telling it how to behave. Even though it's baked into hardware, firmware can be updated in order to provide the hardware with new functionality or rid it of bugs. A driver is a piece of software designed to tell a computer how to interact with a piece of hardware. 

So, in putting it all together, when you sit down in front of your computer to send an email, your keyboard's firmware informs the keyboard that the depression of each key should send a particular signal to your computer. The driver software for your keyboard then in turn defines how the computer should translate the signals sent by the keyboard, making it possible to type out a message, thus ensuring that your cursive writing skills will continue their slow slide into oblivion.

 

Lag vs Bad Framerate

If you've ever played an MMO or other online multiplayer game and experienced a frustrating pause in the action that suddenly rectified itself at a blisteringly high speed, you've been victimized by lag. Lag occurs when there is too much latency (fancy geek talk for a delay) between your computer and the server/host it is communicating with. In online games, latency translates can translate into a slowdown or complete stop to the action that should be occurring onscreen. 

Bad framerates have nothing to do with the time it takes for data to be sent to or from your computer over a network and everything to do with how much muscle your computer has under the hood. As a rule, gamers want to pull the best graphics performance out of any title they sit down to play. Show us a PC gamer who can stand to play a game using its default settings without the urger to tweak them, and we'll show you someone who'd be better off rocking an Xbox. The more advanced graphical effects you switch on in a game, the harder your computer's internals will be forced to work. Set the graphics too high in a game, and your computer, faithful hound that it is, will attempt to provide you with the visuals that you've asked for. Unfortunately, instead of the smooth, enjoyable eye candy you were hoping for, the game plods along with content that looks like a disjointed, drunken sideshow conducted by someone you wronged in a past life. 

While you might not have any options other than changing ISPs or upgrading your Internet service to include superior upload/download speeds, there's a number of things computer users can do to correct lousy framerates: lowering a piece of software's graphical settings, installing more RAM and upgrading your PC's graphics card or processor can all contribute to a less jarring viewing experience.

 

Android vs Cyborg

With the fervour surrounding shows like Downton Abbey and books like Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter reaching a crescendo of popularity, the number of cyborgs and androids appearing in pop culture are on a decline, making it hard for casual viewers and readers to tell the difference between them. Let's make sure that this precious geek knowledge is not lost to future generations by spelling it out for everyone to see right here, right now.

An android is a robot designed to look, and in many cases, act like a human. Despite their lifelike looks, they are completely artificial constructs. Some examples of androids include Data from Star Trek The Next Generation, Bishop in James Cameron's Aliens, and Kryten from Red Dwarf. 

Unlike Androids, cyborgs needn't be human in form. A cyborg being comprised of living tissue that has been integrated with mechanical, digital or robotic parts. Some examples of a cyborg are DC Comics' cleverly named Cyborg, Robocop, Doctor Who's Cybermen and Jones the cyborg Dolphin from William Gibson's Johnny Mnemonic.

 

Obviously we haven't even scratched the surface of the world of geeky distinctions--hit the comments and tell us what we missed!

Asus Releases Bootloader Unlocking Tool For Transformer Prime

Posted: 22 Feb 2012 10:39 AM PST

Asus fans expecting a whole lot of awesome when they unboxed their spiffy new Tegra 3-sporting Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime were, for the most part, satisfied when they got their hands on the cutting-edge tablet -- with one exception. Yep, Asus shipped the Prime with a locked bootloader. Bleh! Early adopters took to the Interwebz to voice their rage, and all the e-complaining paid off: today, Asus released a tool that'll crack Transformer Primes wide open.

Sanctioned unlocking always comes with a couple of caveats, however, and the Transformer Prime is no exception. First and foremost, you'll be voiding your warranty if you use the unlocking tool, but we're guessing you knew that already. Also, if you're running an out-of-the-box Prime, you won't be able to run the unlocking tool at all. You'll need to upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich first. Fortunately, the Asus support page that contains the bootloader unlocking utility also offers the ICS firmware, so check it out for all your one-stop Transformer Prime shopping needs. Now get to modding!

PowerColor Intros Overclocked Radeon HD 7970 With A Built-In Waterblock

Posted: 22 Feb 2012 10:21 AM PST

If your AMD-based build keeps getting all hot and bothered, your rampant "incognito mode" Chrome browsing isn't to blame -- you've probably got a problem with thermals. Pouring a bucket of ice cold water over your PC isn't recommended, but that's not to say that a little aqua can't help cool things down. PowerColor just announced what it claims is the first Radeon HD 7970 with a liquid cooling waterblock built right onto the card.

PowerColor joined forces with EK WaterBlocks to produce the PowerColor LCS HD7970, which has an acetal waterblock with a nickel-plated copper base covering all of its most critical -- and heat generating -- components. Additionally, the LCS HD7970 includes "high-flow 3/8" and 1/2" fittings (barbs) to maximize water flow with captured o-rings to prevent leakage." PowerColor claims the setup can keep GPU temps under 50 degrees Celsius even when the card is firing on all cylinders.

The actual GPU got a bit of a boost over reference 7970s, too, with overclocked core and memory speeds of 1050MHz and 1425MHz, respectively.

No word on official pricing or availability, but one thing's for certain: it won't be cheap. PowerColor's standard 7970 runs about $560 at Newegg, and British e-tailer Overclockers.co.uk has the LCS HD7970 up for preorder with a £599.99 price tag. According to Google, that's about $785 in U.S. money.

Hitachi Ships Record 25 Million 7mm Laptop Drives, Launches Travelstar Z7K500 7200RPM Model

Posted: 22 Feb 2012 07:00 AM PST

Hitachi on Wednesday announced the shipment of more than 25 million Travelstar Z-series, 7mm hard drives for notebooks, ultra-thins, Ultrabooks, and other portable form factors that support slim 2.5-inch storage devices. It's the sort of thing companies like to brag about, but rather than gloat over record shipment numbers, Hitachi spent the bulk of its press release talking about the 7mm form factor and its new 500GB Travelstar Z7K500 drive, supposedly the industry's fastest and highest capacity single-disk 7200RPM hard drive.

The Travelstar Z7K500 features a 6Gbps SATA interface and 32MB of cache. Hitachi says it offers up to 33 percent better performance in PCMark Vantage than other 2.5-inch hard drives on the market, and it does it while sipping on just 1.8 watts of read/write power (0.8W when idle). In addition to the 500GB model, the Z7K500 is also available in 320GB and 250GB capacities.

Hitachi envisions its 7mm drives being combined with a small amount of SSD cache in tomorrow's Ultrabook models, a combination that could provide ample storage space and high performance without breaking the bank.

"We expect cache SSD shipments to soar over the next couple of years due to the rise in Ultrabook demand," said Ryan Chien, research associate for memory & storage at IHS. "Shipments of cache SSD units in 2012 are projected to reach 25.7 million units – a 2,817 percent increase compared to 2011 – and will reach approximately 121 million units by 2015. This growth is extremely significant for HDD manufacturers, as combining slim magnetic storage with caching SSDs gives customers high-speed access to massive amounts of storage at an affordable price."

Volume shipments of Hitachi's new Travelstar Z7K500 will begin in March.

Image Credit: Hitachi

Dell Forecast Spooks Investors After Reporting Best Year Ever

Posted: 22 Feb 2012 06:24 AM PST

Record enterprise solutions and services revenue of $18.6 billion for fiscal year 2011 ($4.9 billion the fourth quarter) played a big role in Dell reporting its "most successful financial year ever." Revenue for the full year topped $62 billion, representing a 1 percent year-over-year increase, with $16 billion pouring in during the final quarter, a 2 percent increase over the previous year. But it was Dell's outlook for the coming quarter that didn't sit well with investors, who collectively sent the company's shares down more than 4 percent.

Dell said it expects revenue to drop 7 percent next quarter, adding that its figure aligns with normal seasonality. Investors saw things differently, perhaps as a reflection of a weak PC market that has yet to rebound. Either way, Dell plans to keep doing what it's been doing.

"The expanding mix of revenue and earnings from enterprise solutions and services is critical to our future," said Brian Gladden, Dell chief financial officer. "Our full-year results are a strong reflection of the significant progress we made this year on our strategic priorities."

Despite Wall Street's reaction, Dell's numbers were mostly positive. Dell Services revenue grew 12 percent to $2.2 billion in 2011, its storage business grew 33 percent to $463 million, it's server and networking revenue increased by 6 percent, and the list goes on.

Your Next Ultrabook is Likely to Rock a Hybrid Hard Drive

Posted: 22 Feb 2012 05:59 AM PST

If you've built or upgraded a rig recently, you probably struggled with whether to spend your money on oodles of storage (mechanical hard drive) or raw speed (solid state drive). You're not alone. Ultrabook makers find themselves in the same boat, and rather than choose one over the other, hybrid hard drives may provide the compromise between cheap(er) storage and fast performance they're looking for.

Sources in the supply chain apparently tipped DigiTimes that many next-generation Ultrabook models built around Intel's Ivy Bridge platform will sport hybrid HDDs. It's a cost cutting measure that "most vendors are expected to adopt" as they look at ways to make Ultrabooks more affordable.

The savings can be significant. According to DigiTimes, hybrid HDDs are more than 50 percent less expensive than 128GB and 256GB SSDs. That's a big deal when you consider that storage accounts for 10-15 percent of an Ultrabook's total production cost.

In addition to cheaper storage, Intel is expected to give Ultrabook makers a break on Ivy Bridge processor pricing, which will be reduced by $60 to $70, DigiTimes reports. Intel's unconfirmed price break combined with the savings that will accompany a move to hybrid storage device could lead to a fair number of Ultrabook models selling for between $600 and $700 later this year.

Apache 2.4 is First Major Update in Six Years

Posted: 22 Feb 2012 05:37 AM PST

The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) this week rolled out version 2.4 of its open source Apache HTTP Server software. It's the first major overhaul in six years, and it also happens to coincide with the software's 17th anniversary. During its nearly two-decade run, Apache HTTP Server has come to power almost 400 million websites around the globe, making it the most popular Web server around.

"It is with great pleasure that we announce the availability of Apache HTTP Server 2.4," said Eric Covener, Vice President of the Apache HTTP Server Project. "This release delivers a host of evolutionary enhancements throughout the server that our users, administrators, and developers will welcome. We've added many new modules in this release, as well as broadened the capability and flexibility of existing features."

Apache Server began as a fork of a Web server created by Rob McCool for the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). When McCool left NCSA, an assembly of online programmers formed the Apache Group and continued to improve the software by collaborating through email. It took less than a year for Apache HTTP Server to become the No. 1 server on the Internet.

It's a different landscape today, and with that in mind, ASF said there are a number of enhancements in version 2.4 that will benefit Cloud environments. The team also focused on performance, which they say is now on par with, or better than, pure event-driven Web servers.

You can read the release notes here, and iff you really want to flex your geek muscle, you can check out detailed API changes in version 2.4 here.
Posted by Shri Krishna

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