General Gaming Article |
- Samsung Updates Series 5 Chromebook, Launches First Chromebox
- Microsoft Announces Updates to SkyDrive Apps for Windows and Mac
- OCZ Announces "Cost Effective" Agility 4 SSDs Powered By The Indilinx Everest 2 Controller
- Verizon FiOS Subscribers To Get A Big Speed Boost In June
- Lian Li's Bringing A Working Choo-Choo-Chassis To Computex
- Mass Effect 3 Patch (1.03) Fixes a Boatload of Issues on PC and Consoles
- Windows 8 Release Preview Leaks to the Web in China
- HTC One X, Evo 4G LTE Clear Customs, Coming to America
- Cisco's Crystal Ball Reveals 19 Billion Internet Connections in 2016
| Samsung Updates Series 5 Chromebook, Launches First Chromebox Posted: 30 May 2012 05:53 PM PDT
Instead of the original's dual-core Intel Atom N570 CPU and 2GB of RAM, the Series 5 550 features a dual-core Celeron B867 (Sandy Bridge) processor and 4GB of RAM. But there are quite a few things that remain unchanged, including the display, storage capacity and weight. While overall the Series 5 550, which is available in Wi-Fi ($450) and Wi-Fi/3G ($550) flavors, is much better than its predecessor, battery life is one area where it is vastly inferior. Here's a quick rundown of the new Series 5's specs:
Powered by a 1.9 GHz dual-core Intel Celeron B840, the $329 Series 3 Chromebox is the very first Chrome OS-based desktop device. It features 4GB of RAM, 16GB of solid-state storage, built-in dual-band WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, Gigabit ethernet, 6 USB 2.0 ports and 2x DP++ display out ports (compatible with HDMI, DVI, VGA). The 2.6-pound Mac Mini-esque Series 3 ships without a display, keyboard, or mouse. |
| Microsoft Announces Updates to SkyDrive Apps for Windows and Mac Posted: 30 May 2012 05:35 PM PDT
It's no coincidence that Microsoft has begun rolling out the update just ahead of Windows 8 Release Preview's arrival during the first week of June. According to a blog post by Mike Torres, Group Manager for SkyDrive Apps at Microsoft, SkyDrive for Windows is integral to a "cool" feature in the Release Preview: "Right from the Photos app in Windows 8, you can fetch photos stored on your other PCs that have SkyDrive installed – no matter where you are or how many terabytes of photos you have stored on the PC you are accessing. We'll have more to say about this shortly, so stay tuned." But that's not all. Here are a few other improvements Torres announced in his blog post:
Last month, Microsoft not only launched SkyDrive apps for Windows and Mac, but it also introduced paid storage plans. These moves are paying rich dividends, if Torres is to be believed. "It's been an incredible month since! Our goal was to build a cloud that seamlessly connects your files to the apps and devices you use every day, and we've been thrilled with the response so far. In just a few weeks, more people were using SkyDrive apps than have used Mesh. People using SkyDrive for Windows or Mac are now our most engaged users – syncing files across several devices, sharing with SkyDrive.com, and working together with Office Web Apps." |
| OCZ Announces "Cost Effective" Agility 4 SSDs Powered By The Indilinx Everest 2 Controller Posted: 30 May 2012 12:43 PM PDT
Spec-wise, the Agility 4 SSDs aren't the fastest solid state drives around, which is probably why OCZ is pushing hard with the cost effectiveness angle. That's not to say the Agility 4 is a slouch; it has sequential read/write speeds of up to 400MB/s and random 4K write speeds up to 85,000 IOPS. Those numbers vary greatly based upon the model, however, as you can see below. More info can be found on the Agility 4 SSD's spec page.
One problem: for all the low-cost chit chat in the press release, OCZ never told us how much the darned things cost, or when they're even being released for that matter. Fortunately, good ol' AnandTech did some digging and found most of the Agility 4 SSDs already listed on Amazon. (Don't get any funny ideas; they all show up as Out of Stock.) While the prices show how far SSDs have come price-wise over the past year, the MSRPs aren't really all that low; some SSDs are going for less than $1/1GB these days. The 128GB model goes for $150, the 256GB model goes for $256, and the 512GB behemoth retails for $561. Those Agility 4 prices are still far cheaper per GB than the similarly Indilinx Everest 2-powered OCZ Vertex 4 SSDs, however. |
| Verizon FiOS Subscribers To Get A Big Speed Boost In June Posted: 30 May 2012 10:38 AM PDT Replacing physical media with streaming music, movies and more is a wonderful idea, but in order to do it, you need a big, open bandwidth pipe. Nobody's ever watched an HD version of "Mad Men" on a 768kbps connection, after all. Christmas in July came early for cord cutting Verizon FiOS customers; the company plans on increasing users' max download speeds by a factor of two-fold or more, depending on which plan you're currently subscribed to.
Actually, looking at the picture above, you can tell we lied, because bottom-tier subscribers will stay stuck at 15Mbps. Top-tier $200 subscribers will hit whopping 300Mbps speeds though, which, according to the FiOS Fact Sheet Engadget dredged up, will allow them to download ten songs in a scant 1.4 seconds or a two hour HD video in just over two minutes. Not too shabby. Uploads speeds are getting a bump, too, although that boost is nowhere as pronounced as the download speed's. There may be unexpected coal in subscribers' stockings next month, however, as there's no word whether or not the speed increase comes with a cost increase. |
| Lian Li's Bringing A Working Choo-Choo-Chassis To Computex Posted: 30 May 2012 10:04 AM PDT
According to the press release, the PC-Q15 is being "specially designed for Computex," but the engine-like PC-CK101 should be available later this year. In addition to choo-chooing around a track and blowing real smoke, the PC-CK101 case sports USB 3.0 ports, an optical disc drive and support for both 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch HDDs, although Lian Li's kept mum about further technical details. Other Lian Li cases will also be on display, including a vent-less case for silent builds and the newest chassis made completely out of steel, rather than aluminum. (Don't worry, plenty of more traditional cases will be there too, plenty of which still rock the brushed aluminum so many system builders know and love.) Thoughts? There's no questioning the cool factor, but is a choo-choo chassis a nifty niche offering or a big bundle o' useless? |
| Mass Effect 3 Patch (1.03) Fixes a Boatload of Issues on PC and Consoles Posted: 30 May 2012 07:17 AM PDT
The patch fixes a ton of issues, though just four are specific to the PC platform. They include:
There are two fixes specific to the PS3 and one for the Xbox 360, and three and a half dozen that apply to all three platforms, including one that does a better job syncing facial movement with an in-game character voices when a hitch occurs. A full list of changes can be found here. Image Credit: BioWare |
| Windows 8 Release Preview Leaks to the Web in China Posted: 30 May 2012 06:54 AM PDT
There was some initial question as to whether the build was the real deal, but after giving the 3.34GB download a test drive, Canouna from WinUnleaked delcared on his Twitter account that the build is "100% legit." You can find a whole bunch of pictures of the build over on PCBeta's forum, which reveals the new boot screen, wallpapers, multi-monitor support, new Metro apps, and other tidbits. Based on the screenshots, it also appears that you'll be able to enable Aero Glass, if you want to. Image Credit: PCBeta Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook
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| HTC One X, Evo 4G LTE Clear Customs, Coming to America Posted: 30 May 2012 06:32 AM PDT
That's now all in the past, HTC says. "HTC devices have been released by U.S. Customs as they are in compliance with the ITC's ruling," HTC said in a statement on its website. " "Future shipments should continue to enter the U.S. and we confident that we will soon be able to meet the demand for our products." The HTC One X and Evo 4G LTE were the first devices to be held up at U.S. Customs due to patent infringement claims made by Apple. According to a report in Wired, the patent in question deals with a method to automatically convert phone numbers and URLs in emails and text messages into live links that can open in other apps. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook
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| Cisco's Crystal Ball Reveals 19 Billion Internet Connections in 2016 Posted: 30 May 2012 06:07 AM PDT
Cisco expects worldwide devices and connections to grow to almost 19 billion in that time frame, nearly doubling from 2011 to 2016. All those connections will increase global IP traffic to 1.3 zettabytes, which is equivalent to 1.3 trillion gigabytes. "The projected increase of global IP traffic between 2015 and 2016 alone is more than 330 exabytes, which is almost equal to the total amount of global IP traffic generated in 2011 (369 exabytes)," Cisco said. Cisco identified a number of factors contributing to such staggering IP traffic growth, chief among them an increasing number of devices, especially tablets and mobile phones. Other factors include more Internet users, faster broadband speeds, more video (Cisco expects that by 2016, 1.2 million video minutes will travel the Internet every second), and Wi-Fi growth. Image Credit: Flickr (RambergMediaImages) |
Unfazed by the general public's poor response to first-generation Chrome OS hardware, Google and Samsung have introduced a 
Microsoft has begun the process of updating the SkyDrive apps for Windows and Mac that it launched last month, the company announced Wednesday. Expected to take a week or so to reach everyone, these updates to the preview versions of SkyDrive for Windows and Mac feature a number of improvements and bug fixes.
Another week, another new SSD offering from OCZ. (Don't those guys ever take a break?) A couple of months after introducing its 
Lian Li just announced that it will be previewing two new mobile PC cases at the Computex exhibition in Taipei next week -- and by mobile, we mean actually moving. The company will be showing off both the aforementioned steam engine, complete with smoke, and an SUV-look-alike dubbed the PC-Q15. Both will be doing laps around the Lian Li booth.
Reapers have it in for planet Earth, and if that's not enough of a challenge, there are plenty of bugs in Mass Effect 3 to go around. Hey, no one claimed saving the planet would be easy. It does, however, get a little easier after applying the 1.03 patch BioWare released to PC on Tuesday (Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 gamers will have to wait until to Thursday to get theirs).
Microsoft wasn't quite ready to tip its hand with a Windows 8 Release Preview until sometime next week, but ready or not, someone leaked the Chinese version to the Web. With the cat out of the bag, the Windows 8 Release Preview has been making the rounds, giving us more than just a glimpse at what the next build has in store, including an updated boot screen.
Just like Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall did in the late 1980s, HTC's One X and Evo 4G LTE smartphones are '
With smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices generating increased online traffic, the Internet is growing at a frenzied pace. Cisco attempted to quantify the state of the Internet, and as part of the company's Visual Networking Index (VNI), which is Cisco's ongoing effort to forecast and analyze the growth and use of IP networks worldwide, it was suggested the Internet will be four times as large in four years as it is today.| You are subscribed to email updates from Maximum PC - News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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