| Rig of the Month: Orogenesis Posted: 23 Apr 2014 03:50 PM PDT  It's heavy, huge, and incredibly handsome
It always impresses us when free time translates into something amazing. Sean Stebor had some free time, and decided to create something different. His vision was for something "bigger than an average ATX case," and something that "would make a statement." Either way, it's badass enough for us to crown it this month's Rig of the Month. Sean calls it Orogenesis after the Greek word 'oros' (mountain) and 'genesis' (creation). His coworkers think 'Thunder-dome' is more fitting—and we're inclined to agree. It's made from steel rods welded into 12 mesh-covered pentagons. A motherboard tray from an old ATX case serves as the basis of the computer-portion and after getting all of the parts mounted inside, Orogenesis was complete. Each corner of the case is lit with full-spectrum LEDs with cheap plastic tubing serving as an easy way to diffuse the light. One of the pentagons is removable to allow access to the parts inside and a 250mm Rosewill fan keeps air moving across the system. Have a case mod of your own that you would like to submit to our monthly feature? Make sure to read the rules/tips here and email us at mpcrigofthemonth@gmail.com with your submissions. Follow Ben on Twitter and Google+. |
| Newegg Daily Deals: Corsair CX500M 500W Modular Power Supply, AMD A10 7850K Kaveri, and More! Posted: 23 Apr 2014 11:50 AM PDT |
| Amazon Pries Loose Select HBO Programming for Prime Instant Video Streaming Posted: 23 Apr 2014 10:04 AM PDT  Sopranos, Band of Brothers, and other HBO originals are coming to Amazon Prime Instant Video
Color us impressed with Amazon's negotiating skills. HBO has kept a tight grip on its content and doesn't care to have its shows streamed outside of its HBO Go application, which is only available to HBO subscribers, but for the first time, that's about to change. Amazon today announced it inked a content licensing agreement with HBO that will make Prime Instant Video the exclusive online-only subscription home for select HBO programming. Before you start jumping up and down thinking you'll finally get to see what all the fuss is about with Game of Thrones, the hit original series isn't part of the package -- drats! However, if you're an Amazon Prime subscriber, you will have access to some older award-winning shows -- Sopranos, Six Feet Under, The Wire, Big Love, Deadwood, Eastbound & Down, Family Tree, Enlightened, Treme, early seasons of Boardwalk Empire and True Blood, Band of Brothers, John Adams, and more. Make no mistake, this is a huge win for Amazon in the streaming wars, and it comes right on the heels of its Fire TV set-top box launch (side note: HBO Go is coming to Fire TV). Amazon says the first wave of content will arrive on Prime Instant Video May 21. As time goes on, more shows will be added to the mix -- Girls, The Newsroom, and Veep to name a few -- along with comedy specials featuring Lewis Black, Ellen DeGeneres, Louis CK, and Bill Maher. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Samsung's Trio of Galaxy Tab 4 Tablets Land in the U.S. Next Week Posted: 23 Apr 2014 09:21 AM PDT  Mark your calendars for May 1 (if you want one)
Samsung on Wednesday announced that it's Galaxy Tab 4 family of tablets will be available in the U.S. beginning May 1 starting at $200. There are three different size options -- 7-inch, 8-inch, and 10.1-inch, all three of which will be available to pre-order tomorrow. Though each of the three tablets features a different size display, each one has the same resolution (1280x800). That's a bit of a buzz kill when tablet makers are pushing the envelope with densely packed pixels, though none of these carry a premium price tag. The Galaxy Tab 4 7.0 will retail for $200, the Galaxy Tab 4 8.0 for $270, and the Galaxy Tab 4 10.1 for $350. A 1.2GHz quad-core processor and 1.5GB of RAM power the Galaxy Tab 4 10.1 model. It also features 16GB of onboard storage, microSD card slot, 3MP rear-facing camera, 1.3MP front-facing camera, stereo speaker, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, USB 2.0, 6,800mAh battery, and Android 4.4 KitKat. 
You'll find the same specs on the 8-inch and 7-inch models, except the 8-inch version has a 4,450mAh battery and the 7-inch is equipped with a 4,000mAh battery. There's also an 8GB storage option for the 7-inch Galaxy Tab 4. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| AnTuTu Benchmark Supposedly Spills the Beans on Nvidia's Shield 2 Console Posted: 23 Apr 2014 08:53 AM PDT 
What could be Nvidia's second generation Shield console makes a benchmark run on AnTuTu It's been a little less than nine months since Nvidia released its Shield handheld game console to the public, and while there have been software updates since then, there's already talk of a second generation model with improved hardware. While this hasn't been confirmed as the real deal, news of a Shield 2 making a benchmarking run at AnTuTu is making the rounds. Care to venture a guess about its hardware? According to the benchmark stats, which was first noticed by gforgames.com, the supposed Shield 2 wields an Nvidia Tegra K1 quad-core processor clocked at 2.5GHz with a Kepler GPU comprised of 192 CUDA cores. The System-on-Chip (SOC) is flanked by 4GB of RAM and 16GB of onboard storage. The screen resolution is listed at 1440x810, which could indicate that 90 pixels in height are taken up by the on-screen navigation bar. Rounding out the spec sheet is a 0.3MP front-facing camera and Android 4.4.2 KitKat. The device scored 44,500 points in the AnTuTu benchmark. A typo in the spec sheet on AnTuTu gets our BS meter tingling, so take this one with a dash of salt. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| ARM Extends Reach in First Quarter, Posts 38 Percent Jump in Licensing Revenue Posted: 23 Apr 2014 08:16 AM PDT  ARM-based chip shipments totaled 2.9 billion in Q1
AMD and Intel have their work cut out for them as both companies try to wrestle mobile market share away from ARM. To kick off the first quarter of 2014, ARM Holdings reported total revenues of $305.2 million, up 16 percent compared to the same quarter a year ago. That includes a 38 percent year-on-year increase in processor licensing revenue derived from 2.9 billion ARM-based chip shipments in Q1, which itself is up 11 percent compared to last year. It's not just smartphones and tablets that are driving ARM-based processor shipments, but also servers, supercomputers, and other segments. "Q1 was a good start to the year for ARM, with more customers choosing to license ARM technology for their future products, which helped drive ARM's revenues. Licenses are a precursor to future royalty revenues. Our customers are signing licenses with a view to designing ARM technology into an increasingly wide range of markets from servers and supercomputers to embedded sensors and enterprise networking applications and thereby underpinning ARM's future royalty opportunity," noted ARM CEO Simon Segars. Licensing is a big part of ARM's business strategy. Out of the $305.2 million in total revenues it collected in Q1, $129.9 million come from licensing its technologies to companies like Nvidia and Qualcomm. However, ARM isn't immune to market conditions and was affected by lower than expected sales of high-end smartphones running chips based on its IP. As a result, ARM's royalty revenue was $5 million lower than it was in the same quarter a year ago. "ARM's royalty revenues in Q1 2014 were impacted by an inventory correction which particularly affected mobile and consumer electronics. As a result, both the year-on-year growth in ARM's royalty revenues and the outperformance compared to overall industry growth are lower this quarter than seen in most recent periods," Segars added. "Inventory corrections of this type occur in the industry from time to time, the last one occurring in H1 2012." Another explanation is that the high-end smartphone market is starting to become saturated, though ARM is firm in its belief that the drop in royalty revenue is a temporary blip. Image Credit: Flickr (Simon Cunningham) Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
