General Gaming Article |
- Internet Explorer 10 To Enable "Do Not Track" By Default
- Tribes: Ascend Review
- Nvidia Says GTX 680 Shipments Outpace The GTX 580's Launch Availability By 60 Percent
- New AudioEngine Brings 7.1 HD Audio Support And More To XMBC Nightly Builds
- Report: U.S., Israel Co-Developed The Devastating Stuxnet Worm
- This week's hottest reviews on TechRadar
- AMD Ditches Monthly Catalyst Driver Updates; Will Release New Versions "When It Makes Sense"
- Adults Use Twitter Twice as Much as Last Year, Pew Study Finds
- Chrome, Internet Explorer in a Dogfight for No. 1 Browser Spot
- MSI Starts Shipping Upgraded GT70 Gaming Laptops with GeForce GTX 675M Graphics
| Internet Explorer 10 To Enable "Do Not Track" By Default Posted: 01 Jun 2012 11:40 AM PDT
Do Not Track is a voluntary standard, so nefarious advertising networks can still ignore the request, but having it enabled by default in the browser that ships with the world's most popular OS is a major step forward for privacy advocates. (Conversely, it's a big step back for Internet marketers.) Virtually all major browsers include a DNT feature, but IE10 will be the first to have it running out of the box. Oddly enough, Microsoft didn't tout the Do Not Track feature in its just-published look at web browsing in Windows 8 RP over on the mainstream Building Windows 8 Blog; instead, the news only popped up in a post on the Internet Explorer team's blog. |
| Posted: 01 Jun 2012 11:19 AM PDT Jetpacks are back in styleIF THEY HAVE first-person shooters in martial arts Valhalla, we're pretty sure Tribes: Ascend is the one Bruce Lee plays. First and foremost, it's a game about movement. In a split second, you have to judge where your jetpack-propelled, lightning-quick opponent is, where they're going to be, and what you should do about it. You have to instinctively go with the flow, all the while never missing a beat. You must, well, be as water. Water with a jetpack. As a result, Tribes simply feels wonderful—not to mention unlike anything else on the market. Sure, it's basically a shinier Tribes 2, but you won't hear any dismayed cries of "Shazbot" coming from us. What worked in previous Tribes games is in top form here. Footing it from place to place is—as you'd expect in a game subtitled "Ascend"—suicidal, so forward motion is all about deftly mixing aerial acrobatics and inertia-based "skiing." In short, your jetpack can only play little-engine-that-could-defy-physics for a few seconds, at which point gravity rudely yanks you into free fall. Combined with Tribes' trademark hilly terrain, however, that velocity can be transformed into your best friend instead of transforming you into paste. Simply hold the space bar to ski—typically at speeds in excess of 100 mph—in whatever direction you were headed. Shouting "wheeeeee" while going down ultra-steep inclines is optional, but encouraged.
Staying airborne increases your chances of living. Granted, those geographical curves create a steep learning curve for first-timers, and the tutorial could be better. But once you get the hang of skiing, the simple act of movement becomes addictively compulsive—not to mention a key part of combat strategy. Battles are essentially explosive airborne jousting matches, with players circling, swooping, and chipping away at each other's health—again, for emphasis, typically at speeds in excess of 100 mph. As a result, predicting where your target's going to be and drilling them with a perfectly placed shot is like scoring a hole-in-one in golf. Sure, a high degree of skill is required, but the resultant blend of adrenaline, relief, and sheer satisfaction more than justifies it. Colossal, open maps, meanwhile, allow each of the game's nine classes to assume all sorts of roles on-the-fly and also while flying. A speedy Pathfinder, for instance, might find themselves swiping flags, chasing enemy flag carriers, or destroying enemy defense turrets depending on the situation. And while CTF is definitely the main event, Capture and Hold mode's spread-out nature forces many classes—for instance, indoor-friendly heavy types—to adopt entirely different strategies. By comparison, other modes (TDM and Arena) fall a bit flat, but they're hardly boring. Ascend's real problems, then, stem from both the presence of more modern shooter standbys and a lack thereof. Foremost, Ascend is free-to-play, and while every class and upgrade can be unlocked with the congealed elbow grease that is XP, it's a painfully slow process. Admittedly, buying all the classes and upgrading a couple will only clip your piggy bank's wings to the tune of $30 or so, but there's something wrong about putting the world's slowest‑level treadmill in its fastest multiplayer shooter. Moreover, while the rank system generally provides options—not extra pay-to-win power—a couple of classes (like the Spinfusor-less Soldier) are basically useless without their unlockable firearms.
Ascend also falls disappointingly short in the teamwork department, with only a tiny handful of team-centric incentives and no voice chat. On top of that, team-oriented classes like the base-defending Technician are locked by default, so most players tend to go Rambo McLoneWolferson, which seems like a huge waste in a game rife with as many potential tactics as Tribes. It's encouraging, however, to see such an otherwise strong start from a game that'll probably continue buzzing around the public eye for quite some time. Hi-Rez has shown tremendous dedication thus far, and we look forward to watching Ascend evolve. Even as is, however, it's likely the best shooter on the free-to-play block. Our thumbs are definitely in the direction jetpacks go. (That's up, in case you were wondering.) |
| Nvidia Says GTX 680 Shipments Outpace The GTX 580's Launch Availability By 60 Percent Posted: 01 Jun 2012 11:13 AM PDT For many would-be early adopters, trying to find a GTX 680 has been like trying to find a four-leaf clover; it can be done, but it takes some digging. (Hey, there's some EVGAs on Newegg right now!) Curious minds have wondered what the hold-up is. Manufacturing woes? Overbearing demand? We now have an idea. In a slide shown at an annual investors meeting, Nvidia claims that in the six weeks following the GTX 680's launch, it shipped and sold 60 percent more units than the GTX 580 did during its debut.
The keen-eyed folks at PC Perspective first noticed the error-filled and incredibly vague slide, which doesn't mention any actual numbers whatsoever. Nvidia confirmed with the publication that despite the odd "sold out" wording, the slide references total global shipments to distributors, including e-tailers like Newegg and boutique builders like Maingear and AVADirect, rather than actual sales to customers. Basically, there are a lot more GTX 680s floating around than there were GTX 580s last generation. Then again, it's hard to make a definitive statement without definitive shipment numbers on the slide. Give us hard facts, dammit! Image credit: Nvidia via PC Perspective |
| New AudioEngine Brings 7.1 HD Audio Support And More To XMBC Nightly Builds Posted: 01 Jun 2012 10:41 AM PDT
AudioEngine has been in development for over two years and took over 22,000 lines of code, the team explains on the XBMC blog. In addition to the new DTS-HD Master Audio, Dolby TrueHD and 24-bit audio support, the developers claim that "No matter the audio source, AE handles the decoding, resampling, transcoding, encoding and streaming of your media." Here's a full list of the goodies AudioEngine brings to the table:
The AudioEngine code was merged into the main branch last month and for now, it's only available in the nightly builds rather than the stable releases. "These builds are… are only for the brave users that do not fear bugs or crashes," the XMBC wiki warns, so be prepared to enjoy the improvements at your own risk. |
| Report: U.S., Israel Co-Developed The Devastating Stuxnet Worm Posted: 01 Jun 2012 10:15 AM PDT
David E. Sanger received his information from "current and former American, European and Israeli officials involved in the program, as well as a range of outside experts," but all remain anonymous since the Stuxnet program is still highly classified and ongoing, the Times reports. Stuxnet is a highly specialized worm that targets specific industrial controls that run Iran's nuclear program. According to the Times report, the NSA and a clandestine Israeli cyberunit began developing the worm in 2006 as alternative to air strikes Israel planned to make on the Iranian facilities. Obama sped up the program once he took office, though he considered shutting it down when a component of the worm leaked outside of the Iranian buildings in July 2010 and was subsequently discovered by security researchers. The administration was worried discovery of the worm would lead other nations and organizations to use similar computer-crackin' tactics. As the U.S. didn't have a Plan B in place, President Obama decided to press on with the program, and the computers in Iran's main Natanz facility were hit with new variations of Stuxnet in the following weeks. The final version took over 1,000 uranium centrifuges offline -- a fifth of all the working centrifuges Iran was operating at the time. Check out the New York Times report for a whole lot more information. The article is investigative journalism at its finest: Sanger names names, dates, agencies and locations. Neither the Israeli nor the U.S. government has issued a comment. Image credit: Jorge Hernandez/Flickr |
| This week's hottest reviews on TechRadar Posted: 01 Jun 2012 08:54 AM PDT It's been a busy time on the Android planetoid this week with plenty of handsets and tablets making their way through the TechRadar office. The flood of Android tablets in 2011 has dried up considerably since the iPad failed to do anything other than #win, but we've seen a couple of good ones of late. The Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 is the latest to receive the TR hand model treatment and offers a decent experience at a great price, so we'll be interested to see how it performs. Check out our review of Samsung's new tablet as well as some decent new smartphones below… Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 review Samsung has fought hard to make the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 compete as a strong rival to both the Amazon Kindle Fire and Apple iPad based on size, price and features. Android 4.0 is a great operating system, which makes a tablet like this easy to recommend, and has helped Samsung build a strong contender in what could be a hotly contested space. That doesn't mean we're going to let it off the hook, however. The disappointing screen, unrefined TouchWiz experience and dull response to your finger make this a contender, but not a champion. For those who strive for the best experience, the sharpest screen and the most slender, curvaceous build will see that Samsung has cut corners. It has kept costs down to offer something affordable to recession-hit customers, and still make a margin for itself, and to be honest, we don't blame it one bit. Although not the most high-end handset in the current Sony Xperia range of smartphones, the Sony Xperia P is a phone that punches above its weight and continues to impress with every new turn taken and new feature used. Closer in terms of abilities and performance to the Xperia S as opposed to the Xperia U, the Xperia P is a well-priced Android smartphone that offers considerably more bang for your buck than you can rightly expect from a device with a pay-as-you-go price tag in the region of £340 in the UK or $490 in the US. Add to this the inbuilt NFC capabilities - a feature that is to become increasingly prominent in the near future - and the Sony Xperia P quickly marks itself out as a standout performer that is bridging the expectations and blurring the boundaries of mid and high-end handsets. The Panasonic Eluga is a lower to mid-range Android smartphone dressed in upper to mid-range clothing. It tries hard to go toe-to-toe with the likes of the HTC One S and the Sony Xperia S, but essentially comes up short on most, if not all, fronts. Whether this is due to the slightly dated and slightly unnecessarily tweaked software, the slightly underwhelming processor powering the proceedings, or the slightly odd hardware exclusions (front facing camera, flash, microSD slot) we're not sure. Ultimately, the Panasonic Eluga's slick design and impressive display are not enough to distract from its obvious shortcomings. It's a case of "must try harder" for Panasonic on this occasion. Let's hope that the Panasonic Eluga Power, the next handset set to land from the company, rights some wrongs. Samsung Series 5 Chromebook review Often accused of being ahead of its time, Chrome OS is a fascinating and increasingly functional model and it is likely that anyone that buys a new Chromebook with their eyes open to its limitations will be getting a bargain. The gear itself is an interesting mix of low-cost but well balanced – and the already fine keyboard and touchpad changes have raised Samsung's offering up from so-so to genuinely pleasurable to use. You just can't shake the feeling that this is a huge step in the right direction from Google as it looks to take on the big boys of Apple and Microsoft – and the odds on a success have fallen markedly for this particular underdog. As a simple to use camera with a wide angle lens, Full HD video and a large touchscreen, the Panasonic Lumix FX80 ticks many boxes. However, less than perfect image quality makes the camera suitable for those who value features over image quality and don't want manual control over images. At times it feels like the camera would be better if it had physical controls instead of a touchscreen. However, for undemanding users who don't want manual control, aren't concerned with ultimate image quality and enjoy using a touchscreen, the Panasonic Lumix FX80 could fit the bill. Cameras Desktop PCs Hands on: Samsung Chromebox review Hard drives Western Digital VelociRaptor 1TB review Laptops Panasonic Toughbook CF-19 review Lenovo B570 (Pentium B950) review Hands on: Dell Latitude E6430S review Mobile phones Hands on: Orange San Diego review Monitors Samsung SyncMaster S24B750V review Operating systems Hands on: New Chrome OS review Speakers Tablets Hands on: Toshiba AT300 review Televisions |
| AMD Ditches Monthly Catalyst Driver Updates; Will Release New Versions "When It Makes Sense" Posted: 01 Jun 2012 07:41 AM PDT
"We will still continue with the Catalyst naming convention; Catalyst: Year.Month., AMD explained. "You just won't see a new driver every single month. We are confident that this will only benefit the end user; you'll only need to upgrade to a new Catalyst driver, when it makes sense." The switch to a less stringent release schedule begins with Catalyst 12.6, which AMD just made available in beta form. Catalyst 12.6 brings new Crossfire profiles to the table, including Diablo 3, Skyrim, StarCarft 2, Portal 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and Call of Duty: Black Ops. It also resolves a handful of issues, and will be the last mainstream driver to support pre-HD 5000 Series GPUs. What are you thoughts on AMD moving away from a monthly release schedule? Are you okay with it, or do you think AMD is making a big mistake? Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook
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| Adults Use Twitter Twice as Much as Last Year, Pew Study Finds Posted: 01 Jun 2012 07:14 AM PDT
The study found that 15 percent of online adults use Twitter and 8 percent Tweet their musings on a daily basis. That's not much more than the 13 percent of online adults who said they used Twitter back in May 2011, but the proportion who tweet their thoughs on a daily basis has doubled in that same timeframe, and quadrupled since late 2010. That's only the tip of the statistical iceberg. Pew Internet went bananas breaking down Twitter usage by sex, age, race, annual household income, education level, and geographic location, and then did the same for adults who use Twitter on a mobile phone. Some of the trends aren't all that surprising, like learning Twitter is most popular among adults ages 18-29 and least popular among adults at or over the age of 65. Others are curiously interesting, like the fact that Twitter usage is highest among adults with no high school diploma and second highest with those sporting a college degree, a trend that coincides with the lowest (less than $30,000/year) and highest ($75,000+) income levels. Plenty more to digest here. |
| Chrome, Internet Explorer in a Dogfight for No. 1 Browser Spot Posted: 01 Jun 2012 06:43 AM PDT
That's because the numbers at NetMarketShare tell a completely different story, one in which Internet Explorer remains the world's top browser with a 54.05 percent share, gaining 1.2 percentage points globally in the past five months. According to NetMarketShare, the closest competitor is Mozilla's Firefox, which sits at a distant second place with a 19.71 percent share, barely ahead of Chrome (in third place), which commands a 19.58 percent share of the market, well ahead of Safari (No. 4) at 4.62 percent, but nowhere near pole position. If we switch gears back to StatCounter, we're led to believe Chrome holds the browser crown with a 32.43 percent of the market, just ahead of IE, which has a 32.12 percent share. Firefox, meanwhile, is in third place with a 25.55 percent share. How can the numbers be so different? As our own Brad Chacos explained a couple of weeks back, it has to do with how the browsers are tracked. StatCounter compiles its data based on page views from 3 million websites, whereas NetMarketShare tallies up the number of daily unique visitors from a pool of 40,000 websites. Which browser(s) are you rocking these days? Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook
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| MSI Starts Shipping Upgraded GT70 Gaming Laptops with GeForce GTX 675M Graphics Posted: 01 Jun 2012 06:17 AM PDT
Before we dive into the notebook, let's wade through the graphics. Nvidia's GTX 675M is based on Fermi and is really a rebadged GTX 580M. It has 384 CUDA cores, a 620MHz clockspeed, a 1240MHz shader clock, and 2GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 1500MHz (3000MHz effective) on a 256-bit bus. It's not Kepler, but packs a good amount of pixel pushing power nonetheless. As for the GT70, there are five baseline configurations to choose from, including two built around Intel's HM76 chipset and starting at $1,300. Both of those model boast GeForce GTX 660M graphics; if you want the faster GTX 675M part, cost of entry is $1,750, which is the price of the least expensive of the three models built around Intel's HM77 chipset. That particular model -- GT70-0ND-202US -- features 2GB of dedicated graphics memory (the other two are bumped up to 4GB of GDDR5 memory), a pair of 750GB 7200RPM hard drives, 12GB of DDR3-1600 memory, Blu-ray buner, Killer E2200 Game Networking, a SteelSeries backlit keyboard, 802.11g/b/n Wi-Fi, multi-memory card reader, three USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, HDMI output, 720p webcam, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, and a 9-cell battery. You can view all the configurations here. Image Credit: MSI Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook
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Are you messing with us, Microsoft? For every controversial aspect of Windows 8 -- the Metro UI, 
Windows Media Center may not make it into Windows 8 installs, but the team of crack programmers behind the highly excellent XBMC media player is working hard to dull the pain. The newest addition to the open source software completely revamps XBMC's audio code and brings support for 7.1 HD audio formats, along with a lot of other goodies.
With the hyper-advanced 
The driver team at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) are no longer under pressure to churn out Catalyst driver suites month after month, and will instead drop new updates on gamers "when it makes sense," the Sunnyvale chip designer announced in a 
Online adults who use Twitter are microblogging their thoughts twice as much as they were one year ago, according to a comprehensive study by Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project. Pew Research pinged over 2,200 adults, including 901 cell phone interviews, on their Twitter usage and then broke the results into several categories and demographics sure to excite statisticians.
Google's Chrome team has reason to break out the bottles of champagne and fling corks through the office, something Dwight Schrute would never approve of. Why the celebration? Well, according to StatCounter, Chrome managed to unseat Internet Explorer to become the world's most used browser for the first time for a full calendar month in May. But if that's the case, why are corks flying in Microsoft's office as well?
MSI tells us they've beefed up some of their top-shelf GT70 gaming laptops with Nvidia's discrete GeForce GTX 675 graphics, touting it as the fastest single-unit laptop GPU on the planet. AMD might have something to say about that with its Radeon HD 7970M chip, but either way, you're looking at a GPU that's head and shoulders above what your Ultrabook-toting friends are wielding.| You are subscribed to email updates from Maximum PC - All Articles To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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