General Gaming Article

A New Haswell-powered Tablet Likely at May 20 Surface Event
Opera 21 Released with ‘Aura’ Browser-wide Hardware Acceleration Tech
Worldwide PC Shipments Rose Five Percent in Q1, Says Canalys

A New Haswell-powered Tablet Likely at May 20 Surface Event

Posted: 11 May 2014 06:35 PM PDT

Will reportedly be based on a new power-efficient Haswell part

Ever since Microsoft sent out press invites for a Surface-related event scheduled for May 20, 2014, in New York, the tech media has been busy speculating about the event's agenda. Many in the tech commentariat expect the long-rumored "Surface Mini" to finally step into the realm of reality to take center stage at the upcoming event. But with the hitherto fabled Microsoft tablet widely rumored to pack an ARM-based SoC from Qualcomm, the question is: What about Intel?

Intel won't be left behind, according to CNET. An unnamed chip industry source told the site that Microsoft will also unveil an Intel-powered Surface tablet, with the possibility of the members of the press attending the event even going home with the tablet.

"There's definitely a new Intel-based Surface," the anonymous source told the tech site. "From what I can assess so far I think it's going to [have] a new power-optimized Haswell variant."

Follow Pulkit on Google+

Opera 21 Released with ‘Aura’ Browser-wide Hardware Acceleration Tech

Posted: 11 May 2014 05:07 PM PDT

Browser vendor says Aura enables a better, more responsive experience

Norwegian browser vendor Opera Software on Thursday released Opera 21 for Windows and Mac. Opera 21, the seventh iteration of the browser since it ditched the Presto browser engine in favor of the Chromium project, is the first stable build to pack the Aura hardware-accelerated graphics engine.

First introduced in Chrome OS in 2012, the Aura hardware-accelerated graphics engine, as Opera pointed out in a blog post Thursday, makes it possible to "hardware-accelerate the entire browser, including the user interface." However, Aura is only limited to the Windows version of Opera, with the Mac version relying instead on Apple's Core Animation technology for its hardware accelerated mojo.

"The team here put a lot of effort into getting Aura to work properly with Opera and the benefits are already paying off. Aura allows for smoother, snappier animations with a more responsive feel," Opera said. "So far, we have only scratched the surface of this technology, and Opera 21's primary intention was to get Aura working and stable. In the future, you will see further benefits as it allows us to give everything that little extra bit of polish!"

Another change that merits a mention here is the option to force Opera to show a page's full URL. Although the company still considers the simplified URL field to be the "best option" for most users, it has added a "Show Always Full URL in Address Field" option under advanced settings with a view to appeasing advanced users.

Follow Pulkit on Google+

Worldwide PC Shipments Rose Five Percent in Q1, Says Canalys

Posted: 11 May 2014 02:58 PM PDT

Apple remains largest vendor despite 'sharpest ever' decline in iPad shipments

Global PC shipments rose 5 percent year on year to reach 123.7 million units in the first quarter of 2014, according to the latest shipments data published by research firm Canalys. Roughly 41 percent of those shipments belonged to the tablet category and about 38 percent to the species notebook, with desktops making up the rest.

Where the non-tablet PC segment is concerned, a notable trend Canalys identified during the quarter was that the Windows XP "supportocalypse" helped arrest the decline in notebook shipments somewhat, limiting it to 7 percent. This factor also helped desktop shipments remain flat year on year.

The quarter was particularly good for Lenovo as it managed to raise its PC market share from 10 percent to 12 percent, shipping around 15 million units worldwide. "It achieved solid annual growth in all PC categories and is now placed first, second and third in the notebook, desktop and tablet markets respectively." said Canalys in a press release.

EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa), per Canalys analyst James Wang, was the region where most of that growth came from, with the Chinese vendor managing an impressive 61-percent year-on-year growth in shipments there.

"'Lenovo was quick to move with new form factors and its Yoga line now dominates the global convertible notebook market,"Wang said. "In addition, it has diversified its tablet portfolio and has product SKUs in all key market segments. Unlike Apple, with its 'one size fits all' tablet strategy, Lenovo and others are free to tailor tablets to specific market segments. The tablet form factor is well liked by both young and old consumers; product customization can be beneficial in both cases."

Apple, meanwhile, experienced a precipitous decline in iPad shipments. Dubbing it the "sharpest ever", analyst Tim Coulling said the decline in iPad shipments was on account of Apple trying "to run down its iPad inventory, a smart move as tablet stock in the channel rose due to strong seasonal shipments in the previous quarter."

"Longer term, we do not believe Apple's Q1 performance points to a decline in the tablet category, despite growing pressure from larger-screen smart phones. Consumers, and increasingly businesses, are continuing to adapt, with tablets acting as disruptors and finding their place as desktop and notebook replacements. Apple's ecosystem and the recent launch of Office for iPad should ensure it is well placed to remain a leader for some time," Couling said.

Follow Pulkit on Google+

Image Credit: TechRadar

MMORPG Blog: Online Games MMO