| Roccat Readies a Product Blitz of PC Gaming Peripherals for CES 2014 Posted: 02 Jan 2014 11:03 AM PST  Peripheral maker plans to show some love to PC gamers
PC gaming is not only alive and well as we kickstart a brand new year, it's also the primary focus of some peripheral makers. That includes Roccat, a company based out of Germany that's been increasing its focus on the U.S. market with a variety of hardware aimed at gamers. At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas next week, Roccat will showcase a number of new gaming products. "2014 will be a phenomenal year for PC gaming -- so much is changing at the moment and Roccat is about to prove its role as the industry's leader in technology and innovation once more. With the products coming up next year we will be able to provide a whole ecosystem fo PC gaming," says René Korte, founder and CEO of Roccat. It gives us warm fuzzies to see companies as excited about PC gaming as we are. More than just lip service, Roccat plans to showcase several new headsets, including hte Kave XTD 5.1 Analog, Kave XTD Stereo, and Kave XTD 5.1 Digital with a built-in premium 5.1 soundcard and Bluetooth pairing functionality. 
Also slated for a CES debut are a couple of mice -- Kone XTD Optical (6,400 dpi optical sensor) and Kone Pure Military (5,000 dpi optical sensor) -- and two new compact versions of its Ryos mechanical keyboard, the Ryos TKL and Ryos TKL Pro. The compact versions lack a numpad and dedicated macro keys as found on the full size Ryos MK Series. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Windows XP's Share of the Desktop Market Finally Starting to Erode Posted: 02 Jan 2014 10:19 AM PST  Windows 8/8.1 finally tops 10 percent market share
For the first time in what feels like a hundred thousand years (slight exaggeration), Windows XP's share of the desktop operating system dipped below 30 percent according to data provided by NetMarketShare, and below 20 percent if you prefer the numbers tallied by StatCounter. Regardless of which one is more accurate, what's clear is that Windows XP users are abandoning ship at an increasingly brisk pace. NetMarkShare's accounting methods has Windows XP installed on just under 29 percent of all desktops at the end of December, a drop of 2.24 percent from November. That's the biggest drop in share since August-to-September. Meanwhile, the combined share of Windows 8 and 8.1 crept into double digits for the first time (again, that's according to NetMarketShare's data), finishing off 2013 with a 10.49 percent share of the market. StatCounter's tally is a bit different, though the trends are similar. According to StatCounter's method of counting beans, Windows XP's share of the desktop market landed at 19.79 percent at the end of 2013. Based on StatCounter's data, Windows XP went from being installed on 1 out of 4 desktops a year ago to 1 out of 5 five desktops to start the new year. The shift away from Windows XP is no doubt related to Microsoft's plans to end support for the legacy OS in April 2014. Windows XP will continue to function past that date, but will no longer receive security updates and patches. For those who choose to stick with Windows XP past April 8, 2014, one alternative to becoming a sitting duck to unpatched vulnerabilities is to seek out third-party support, such as the ExtendedXP solution being offered by Arkoon. Image Credit: Flickr (Vibrant Spirit) Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Newegg Daily Deals: WD Red 4TB Internal NAS Drive, AMD FX-6300 Vishera, and More! Posted: 02 Jan 2014 09:48 AM PST  
Top Deal: Another year is in the books, and that means another year of digital memories (photos, videos), game sales (hello, Steam!), and more. The question is, where are you going to store it all? You could thrust your data into the cloud and hope against hackers and server outages, or pick up a burly hard drive. If you're opting for the latter, check out today's top deal for Western Digital Red 4TB IntelliPower 3.5-inch NAS Hard Drive for $175 with free shipping (normally $220; use coupon code: [EMCWVTJ22]). It's plenty capacious, has 64MB of cache, is equipped with NASware 2.0 technology, and comes backed by a 3-year warranty. Other Deals: AMD FX-6300 Vishera 3.5GHz (4.1GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 95W Six-Core Desktop Processor for $110 with free shipping (normally $120; use coupon code: [EMCWVTJ23]) Corsair RM Series RM750 750W ATX12V v2.31 and EPS 2.92 80 Plus Gold Certified Full Modular Active PFC Power Supply for $110 with free shipping (normally $130; use coupon code: [EMCWVTJ24]; additional $20 Mail-in rebate) G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory for $68 with free shipping (normally $80; use coupon code: [EMCWVTJ25]) Asus DirectCU II HD7790-DC2OC-2GD5 Radeon HD 7790 2GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card for $140 with free shipping (normally $150; use coupon code: [EMCWVTJ27]; additional $10 Mail-in rebate) |
| MSI, ASRock Jockey for Third Place in Motherboard Market Posted: 02 Jan 2014 09:23 AM PST  MSI may skip ahead of ASRock in 2014
It's been quite a ride for ASRock, the motherboard maker that came into this world as a budget-oriented subsidiary of Asus. ASRock is now owned by Pegatron, which itself is a spin-off of Asus, and these days it competes with all comers (including Asus) in every section of the motherboard market, even the high-end. Pegatron's spunky subsidiary ended 2013 as the third largest motherboard maker in terms of shipments, though it may relinquish that spot to MSI before the new year is over. MSI reportedly shipped around 6.5 million to 7 million motherboards in 2013 (the final tally is still being calculated) and is hot on the heels of ASRock, which is said to have shipped less than 7.5 million mobos, Digitimes reports. ASRock originally anticipated shipping around 9 million motherboards, but ultimately fell short of that goal. According to Digitimes, MSI expects to ship 8 million motherboards this year. If MSI reaches its goal and ASRock stays where it's at for another year (ASRock shipped 7.7 million mobos in 2012), MSI will find itself in a somewhat distant third place behind Gigabyte and Asus, which themselves have been locked in a battle for first place. As for Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS), the company shipped around 4 million motherboards in 2013. The company mainly focuses on OEM orders these days. All this competition is good for the consumer. In a bid to outsell each other, MSI and ASRock both beefed up their respective warranty periods and offer additional maintenance services, Digitimes says. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Velocity Micro Wants to Put You in the Driver's Seat of a "SmallBlock" Desktop Posted: 02 Jan 2014 06:43 AM PST  Ultra-compact PCs measuring less than 13 inches high
One thing we saw towards the tail end of 2013 is a concerted effort to shrink the desktop. Perhaps it was Valve's aggressive push to get PC gamers into the living room with Steam Machine systems, or maybe it's simply the evolution of desktop design based on advances in technology. Whatever reason(s), the trend continues into 2014 with boutique builder Velocity Micro rolling out what it's calling "SmallBlock" desktops. These SmallBlocks systems are ultra-compact PCs that stand just shy of 13 inches. They're built around the mini-ITX platform and intended to conjure up images of "compact, envy-inducing V8 engines of classic muscle cars," at least in function and name. The full dimensions of each SmallBlock system are 12.75 inches (H) by 8 inches (W) by 9.1 inches (D). "We wanted to create something truly special with this launch and would accept nothing less than perfection," said Randy Copeland, President and CEO of Velocity Micro. "The SmallBlock platform is the culmination of six months of obsessive development and constant refinement from our team. I believe this footprint is the future vision of desktop computing. Fitting full sized graphics card options and a real ATX power supply in an extremely compact package is a tremendous engineering accomplishment for a boutique manufacturer. I'm extremely happy with the finished product, and I'm sure our customers will be as well." SmallBlock PCs ship in an exclusively designed satin black aluminum case. They're fully customizable for home office, professional workstation, and gaming tasks and come with full size ATX 80 Plus power supplies; double-width graphics card options for gaming or CAD; Intel Core i3, i5, i7, and Xeon as well as AMD A10 APU processor options; up to two SSDs or 7200 RPM hard drives; and an optical drive. SmallBlock configurations are available now starting at $749. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Lenovo's Smartphone Lineup Grows by Four Starting with LTE Enabled Vibe Z Posted: 02 Jan 2014 05:36 AM PST  Still no love for the U.S. market
Lenovo had a memorable year in 2013. While the competition struggled to turn a profit selling PCs, Lenovo stayed in the black while simultaneously becoming the world's largest PC maker in terms of shipments. At the same time, Lenovo hasn't been ignoring the mobile handset market, and to kick off 2014, the OEM is announcing four new smartphones, including its first ever LTE-enabled handset, the Vibe Z. A Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad-core 2.2GHz processor powers the Vibe Z's 5.5-inch Full HD 1080p (1920x1080) IPS display. It also features 2GB of RAM, up to 16GB of internal storage, 5MP front-facing camera, 13MP rear-facing camera, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, and Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. All this comes packaged in a 7.9mm silver or titanium body weighing a scant 147 grams. Sadly, it doesn't look like this svelte device will land on U.S. shores -- Lenovo says it will be available in February for $549 in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and the Philippines. Lenovo also has on tap three other smartphones, two of which are part of its S Series (S930 and S650), and the A859, an all around performance model. The S930 is a phablet device with a 6-inch HD (1280x720) display, dual front-facing speakers, 1.6MP front-facing camera, 8MP rear-facing camera, 1GB of memory, 8GB of storage, MediaTek 1.3GHz quad-core processor, 802.11n Wi-Fi, and a few other odds and ends. Below that is the S650 with similar specs, but with a 4.7-inch display (960x540). These will sell for $319 and $229, respectively, "in countries where Lenovo smartphones are sold." Finally, the A859 sports a 5-inch display, MediaTek quad-core 1.3GHz CPU, 8MP rear-facing camera, 1.6MP front-facing camera, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage, microSD card slot, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, and a few other goodies. This will go for $219, also where Lenovo smartphones are sold. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
