General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article

Samsung Shows Series 9 Prototype With a 2560 x 1440 Matte Display

Posted: 02 Sep 2012 12:38 PM PDT

Series 9 RetinaApple gets all the credit for pushing out machines with ultra-high "retina" class display's, but let's face it, they didn't exactly invent it. Samsung is the company pumping out the panel's en-mass to fill the Apple supply chain, and thanks to the popularity of the technology, we are starting to see the trickle down effect into the PC space. Samsung snuck a new Series 9 prototype into their innovation gallery at this year's IFA exhibition in Germany, and the 2560 x 1440 matte display is being described by MobileGeeks as nothing short of glorious.

The display falls slightly short of the Macbook Retina's 2880 x 1800 pixel display, however measuring in at just 13", the PPI is certainly comparable. The current lineup of Samsung Series 9 Ultrabooks sport a beautiful 1600 x 900 pixel display, but we certainly wouldn't complain if they want to offer a premium option going forward. 

The company was unwilling to confirm if this is something they plan to bring to market, or just a proof of concept. We for one hope it's the first of many high resolution Mac alternatives going forward, as long as the price is reasonable. 

How much of a premium would you be willing to pay?

(Image Credit=MobileGeeks.com)

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Wolfram Alpha Can Now Reduce Your Social Life to a Series of Graphs

Posted: 02 Sep 2012 12:08 PM PDT

FaceWolfFacebook is a great place to follow the lives of friends, and family, but it's also an amazing repository of your personal information. Even casual users would be surprised how much data they have poured into the service over the years, and now you finally have a way to put it into perspective. Wolfram Alpha, the world's greatest computational knowledge engine, has launched a service that will reduce your Facebook social life to a series of mathematical charts.

To get started just type "Facebook" into the search field, click the analyze button, and create a Wolfram Alpha account. The data gives you a good idea of how much you participate on the service, and will even give you an interesting breakdown of your friends by country, age, and a visualization of how you all know each other.

If you ever wanted to see your entire life broken down into a series of mathematical charts, you owe it to yourself to check this out.

 

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Lenovo Blurs the Gap Between Netbook and Laptop With Updated S-Series

Posted: 02 Sep 2012 09:43 AM PDT

LenovoThe Lenovo S-Series used to induce cringes around the MaxPC offices, and with good reason. These units used to represent the lowest cost, most underpowered Netbooks Lenovo could produce. They were decent machines for surfing the net or jotting down a few notes in Word, but not much else. Fast forward to yesterday however, and the S300, S400, and S405 are actually looking like somewhat capable machines. Starting at just $499, Lenovo is offering up Netbook alternatives that literally blur the line between the two categories.

On the outside all three units feature the same 1366 x 768 display, on the inside however the range of options can quickly push the S-Series towards $1,000 mark depending on your needs. Currently the options allow you to pick from ultra low voltage Intel Core i3 or i5 processores, however if you step up to the S405, you get a quad-core AMD Trinity chip. All but the very base model includes a 32GB SSD drive for improved boot performance, and weighs in at under 4 pounds with just 1 inch in thickness. All models also include an Ethernet jack, three USB ports, and even a USB 3.0 socket. HDMI, and SD card readers, thankfully, are also a standard. 

AMD Radeon 7450M graphics are rumored to be optional as well, but we won't know for sure until the units officially launch. Keep an eye on the Lenovo page S-Series page for more details.    

 

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Guild Wars 2 Developer Voluntarily Stops Selling Digital Copies to Catch Up With Server Demand

Posted: 02 Sep 2012 08:50 AM PDT

Guild Wars 2Guild Wars 2 appears to be selling well. So well in fact the developer has voluntarily sold itself out of digital copies. This is the first time in recent memory that a developer has refused to take money from hordes of eager PC Gamers, and while the game does have some growing pains, we commend them preemptively for taking this bold step to protect the player experience. The developer broke the news to would be fans via their official Facebook page, and the comments below seem to suggest some users are having more problems than others.

"Ensuring the best possible play experience for our fans is our highest priority. We've said before that we would be willing to temporarily disable first-party digital sales if we felt our high player concurrency may compromise player experiences. We have now reached that point.

Effective immediately we have disabled sales via buy.guildwars2.com. To be clear, box and digital sales are still available via our retail partners. We are tracking our concurrency closely while expanding our infrastructure. We'll re-enable first-party digital sales as soon as we feel that we can do so safely. ~RB2"

We suspect ArenaNet will be furiously adding servers and support staff in the coming weeks to keep up with demand, however if you just can't wait you still have options. Boxed versions will still be honored, and even some third party sites still have CD keys available. It won't completely cut off the flood of new players, but it should at least slow it down until they can catch up with demand.

How has your experience in Tyria been so far? 

Also on a related topic, it looks like ArenaNet is hiring!

 

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Posted by Shri Krishna

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