General Gaming Article |
- This Week's Hottest Reviews on TechRadar
- AMD Catalyst 13.4 Update Addresses Latency Performance in Several Games
- External Hard Drive Head-to-Head
- Leap Motion Controller Delayed Until June 22, Drats!
- Intel Atom-based Android Notebooks to Cost $200
- Electronic Arts Announces Another Round of Layoffs
- Newegg Daily Deals: Case Overload
| This Week's Hottest Reviews on TechRadar Posted: 26 Apr 2013 04:02 PM PDT
The Samsung Galaxy S4 is a phone that we really, really like. The combination of powerful innards, the market's best screen and a clever design ethos all combine to make a really strong contender for the handset you should be buying when you wander into your local phone emporium. It's slick, it's fast and it wipes the floor with the competition in so many ways. The 13MP camera is one of the best we've seen on a phone for getting that picture, with rich colors and texture the way forward. That's not to say Samsung couldn't do better with design on the S4 - there's a lot more to wish for here - but it's a much more solid version of the S3.
The Razer Hydra is the PC's answer to motion controllers, popularised by the Nintendo Wii. With the Xbox 360's Kinect and the PlayStation Move, motion controllers are certainly popular among casual games. But hardcore gamers, especially on PC - which is Razer's usual customer base - have proven more resistant to the charms of waving around your arms when playing games. Can the Razer Hyrda change all that?
Budget phones are a dime a dozen, but how about one that can be fully submergerd in water and still make a call? That's what you get with the Kyocera Torque. New to Sprint's somewhat limited 4G LTE network, it's an Ice Cream Sandwich phone swaddled in a thick layer of durable rubber. Is it what construction workers and lifeguards everywhere need, or should they just grab an Otterbox?
Looking at the TX-L55ET60, it's hard to believe it only sits in the middle of Panasonic's new TV range. Thanks to its gloriously slim metallic silver and glass frame, it looks every inch a flagship TV. A 55-inch TV with an eye-catchingly slim metal and glass design, friendly interface, extensive multimedia/online support and decent all-round picture performance. Other reviews on TechRadar this week:Cameras Hands on: Panasonic G6 review Hands on: Panasonic LF1 review Mobile accessories It's Mine Bluetooth Bracelet review Wireless adapters and accesories Edimax EW-7822UAC Wireless AC Adaptor review Removable storage |
| AMD Catalyst 13.4 Update Addresses Latency Performance in Several Games Posted: 26 Apr 2013 11:43 AM PDT
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| External Hard Drive Head-to-Head Posted: 26 Apr 2013 11:01 AM PDT Three USB hard drives: WD My Passport vs Toshiba Canvio Plus vs Adata DashDrive EliteThere are times when a USB key can't handle the action we're throwing at it and we need something bigger to step in and get the job done. Like a police officer calling for backup, it's at these times that we summon a USB 3.0 external hard drive. This latest batch of drives offers something for everyone, from WD's huge 2TB jobbie to Adata's super-thin, sexy little thang. Toshiba's 1.5TB drive is thrown into the mix, too, for folks looking for a basic, affordable, high-capacity solution. WD My Passport 2TBAt 2TB, WD's My Passport is the largest-capacity USB hard drive we've ever tested, and its four chunky 500GB platters rotate at 5,400rpm. In the palm it feels about as thick as a huge English muffin with a piece of ham in the middle, or a water-logged deck of cards; it's the thickest drive in this roundup, but only by a tiny margin over the 1.5TB Toshiba. Though this drive is pudgier than the rest at 0.8-inch thick, it's noticeably shorter than the other two drives at just 4.2 inches long. It comes in a variety of pleasingly subtle, matte color finishes (red, blue, black, gray, white) and is available in sizes ranging from 500GB to 2TB.
Hello, sexy. We're talking about its capacity, not its looks. The software package included with the My Passport is well-rounded, and includes backup software, an encryption utility, and a diagnostic tool. It should be noted that software for both Mac and PC are included, though obviously we're only testing the PC version. The backup software is called WD Smartware and is based on Memeo Backup—it backs up everything instantly without any user intervention, so you just tell it to keep an eye on "Documents," for example, and it automatically copies any files it sees that are documents. We learned the hard way, though, that "Documents" means .doc files, and not just any files placed into the Documents folder, which was confusing. Adding to the confusion was a lack of information about whether a backup had taken place once new files had been added to a monitored directory. You also can't create a backup image of your entire drive, which is another flaw. We rarely use bundled software, so this isn't that big of a deal for us, but it's a strike against WD nevertheless. The software does include a file-retrieval service in case you lose data, and it works well, letting you put files back into their original location or just dump them into a predetermined folder. Other bundled software includes a password-protection utility that requires a password to access the drive, and a drive-health monitor, which is useful. To test the drive's mettle we copied 30GB of media files to it from our desktop PC running a Samsung 830 SSD boot drive, and it took top honors by taking just eight minutes, 46 seconds to complete the job. This was the fastest speed in our roundup of these drives, even though all the drives have roughly the same specs, so kudos to WD for the victory. Its time was almost three minutes faster than the Adata drive and two minutes faster than the Toshiba, so the performance difference is significant. Overall, there's a lot to like about the WD drive, but we're dinging it pretty hard for having flaky backup software. The password-protection function is nice, but our favorite two things about it are that it's the biggest USB drive available, and of these three, it's also the fastest. WD My Passport 2TB Passport Huge capacity; great speed; full-featured software package Arrest Warrant Backup software is not reliable or good for advanced users; can't make backup images  $150, www.wd.com Toshiba Canvio Plus 3.0 1.5TBIn this group, the Toshiba Canvio initially came across as the vanilla stepchild—nothing to get excited about, at least in this company, given its bland exterior and specs. We tested the 1.5TB version of the drive, which is the highest capacity offered by Toshiba. Surprisingly, it's almost as thick as the 2TB WD drive despite its 500GB capacity deficit, so the lesson here is that if you're going big on a USB drive, prepare to be toting around a Hot Pocket-size enclosure. The 1.5TB drive is only available in black, a decision we are just fine with since we don't need nor want fancy colors on our USB storage. If you favor a splash of color attached to your USB port, you'll have to get by with less capacity, as only the 500GB and 1TB models are available in red, blue, and gray (as well as black, natch).
The Toshiba drive wins the contest of lamest names for devices and software, but is still the best drive here. On the software front, the Canvio comes with a well-rounded package that includes backup software with encryption, drive utilities, a cloud storage option, and a movie-editing app called Muvee Reveal. The NTI Backup Now EZ backup software is for Windows only, though the drive includes an NTFS driver that lets you use it with both Macs and PCs. Despite the software's odd name, it's actually our favorite of this roundup, simply because it offers an intuitive interface and many options for configuring backups, whether you want to back up to the Canvio drive itself or to the cloud. You can also choose to back up categories of files, individually selected files and folders, or entire drive images. You just select the files you want to back up and let it run. You can also schedule backups, and see the status of the drive onscreen in the software, which is handy. It's also easy to password-protect the drive. The only problem we had in our tests was that the cloud option didn't work for us—you get a 30-day free trial of cloud storage with the drive but we couldn't activate ours. Note: The Basic model of this drive does not offer cloud storage as an option. In our file-copy test, whereby we hustle 30GB of data over its fat USB 3.0 pipe, the Toshiba took second place overall with a time of 10 minutes, 34 seconds, which was almost two minutes slower than the WD drive, but faster than the Adata unit. All in all, this is an excellent all-around backup drive. It's not the highest-capacity or the thinnest drive ever, but it has great software, decent capacity, and is affordable—we don't ask for much more in a USB storage device. Toshiba Canvio Plus 3.0 1.5TB A Robust challenge Sizable capacity; great software, affordable Anything named EZ Cloud storage trial didn't work, no specs stand out  $110, www.toshiba.com Adata DashDrive Elite 500GB HE720The Adata drive is one of the sexiest USB drives we have ever tested, and is certainly the thinnest USB drive too, at just 8.9mm thick. It might not sound like much in today's world of super-thin everything, but this puppy is thin. In fact, our research indicates it is the thinnest USB drive currently available.
If this roundup were a beauty contest, the DashDrive would easily win. Since life isn't fair, there's a major downside to the drive's flatness, which is that its single-platter capacity is limited to 500GB. When compared to its 1.5TB and 2TB rivals here, 500GB is but a morsel, really, but that's the price you pay for its slim form factor. To that point, 500GB is the only capacity available for this model. Despite its HE720 model name, which to our eyes suggests a 7,200rpm hard drive, this puppy sports a 5,400rpm drive inside its stainless steel chassis. Its physical size is 4.6 inches long and 3.1 inches wide, and it's less than a half-inch tall. Its exterior shell is made with 9H stainless steel, which is resistant to scratches and looks slick but is too prone to fingerprints. The drive itself has only two mildly interesting features: a small, blue LED for activity and a tiny button located next to the USB 3.0 plug labeled "Backup." Tapping the button triggers the included syncing software to open so you can configure and run backup routines. It would be handy if the backup button were in a more easily accessible location, as putting it right next to the USB plug makes it hard to reach. The included Adata Sync software is PC-only and gets the job done for syncing, restoring, and backing up files, but it's easily the most unpolished software in this roundup. As an example, if you try to open the software when it's running in the background, you'll see a pop-up error that contains what we can only assume is either a foreign language or gibberish. The Window also looks like it was built for Windows 98 and lacks the ease-of-use and look-and-feel of modern software, as it just gives you a split-window with "Source" on the left and "Destination" on the right, and you have to check boxes in a Windows Explorer interface to get it configured. This is not software we'd want our parents to use, that's for sure. That said, we actually appreciate its unvarnished nature. You just tell it which folders you're interested in and choose Backup, Restore, or Sync. You can then either manually back up everything you want or just schedule the software to run. It's not glamorous or grandma-friendly, but we dig it. During testing, the drive was the slowest here by a small margin, taking 11 minutes and 31 seconds to move 30 gigs of data onto its lone platter. We know people don't buy these drives for speed, and they are all relatively slow compared to our desktop HDDs and SSDs, but we do take speed into consideration. The DashDrive is a decent package despite its flaws. We like its simple software, hard steel shell, and thin size a lot, making it a solid drive, both literally and figuratively. Adata DashDrive Elite 500GB HE720 Leaving a Big Tip Looks cool; rugged; amazingly thin; software is straight-forward Dine and Dash Software could confuse people; drive is slower than the others; small capacity; loves fingerprints  $150, www.adata-group.com |
| Leap Motion Controller Delayed Until June 22, Drats! Posted: 26 Apr 2013 08:01 AM PDT
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| Intel Atom-based Android Notebooks to Cost $200 Posted: 26 Apr 2013 07:21 AM PDT
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| Electronic Arts Announces Another Round of Layoffs Posted: 26 Apr 2013 06:32 AM PDT Actual count not confirmed, but could be as high as 10 percent of the publisher's global workforceClose on the heels of significant layoffs at its Montreal game studio, Electronic Arts once again wielded the axe on Thursday. Although EA was quick to confirm reports of the layoffs, their number remains a point of contention, with wildly different figures being thrown around in absence of an official announcement in this regard. "In recent weeks, EA has aligned all elements of its organizational structure behind priorities in new technologies and mobile. This has led to some difficult decisions to reduce the workforce in some locations," the publisher said in a terse statement, which as it later turned out was actually an excerpt from an internal memo announcing the layoffs. There are varying reports about the size of this latest downsizing exercise at EA. If you ask our friends over at Kotaku, they will tell you the company has handed out pink slips to as much as 10 percent of its workforce. Meanwhile, other reports place the the number of those released in the hundreds. "The workforce reductions which we communicated in the last two weeks represent the majority of our planned personnel actions," interim CEO Larry Probst wrote in an internal memo. "We are extremely grateful for the contributions made by each of these individuals – they will be missed by their colleagues and friends at EA." He also announced some changes to the company's organizational structure. These include: the consolidation of core marketing functions under COO Peter Moore and the transfer of Origin to Frank Gibeau's Labels organization, where it will be headed by executive vice president Andrew Wilson. Follow Pulkit on Google+ |
| Newegg Daily Deals: Case Overload Posted: 26 Apr 2013 05:24 AM PDT
Top Deal: Casing out a chassis for your next PC build? You've come to the right place. Today's top deal is for a Corsair Carbide Series 500R Arctic White Gaming Case for $100 with free shipping (normally $140 - use coupon code TECH4LESS10; additional $20 mail-in-rebate). It has a 200mm fan on the side panel to keep your GPU nice and cool and plenty of cable cutouts for a tidy interior. Other Deals: Cooler Master Elite 430 Computer Case for $40 with free shipping (normally $60 - use coupon code: EMCXSVT35) Raidmax Aeolus Mid-Tower Computer Case for $50 with free shipping (normally $70 - use coupon code: TECH4LESS9; additional $15 mail-in rebate) Thermaltake Armor Reveo Mid Tower Computer Case for $104 with shipping for $6 (normally $130 - use coupon code: [EMCXSVR239) Rosewill Thor V2-White Edition Full Tower Computer Case for $120 with free shipping (normally $170 - use coupon code: EMCXSVR46; additional $20 mail-in rebate) |
AMD promises a significant reduction in latency in titles like Skyrim and Tomb Raider.
More testing is needed before shipping out the Leap Motion controller.
Android will attack the low cost notebook market.
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