| Dell Now Accepting BitCoin as Payment Posted: 18 Jul 2014 06:07 PM PDT  Dude, you're using BitCoin to buy a Dell
If you've been hoarding your BitCoins for all this time then perhaps you now have a good reason to spend it all. Dell announced a partnership with Coinbase and is now accepting BitCoin as payment on its website. The computer tech company joins an ever-increasing group of businesses that includes TigerDirect and Xidax, which accepts BitCoin. The reason for accepting BitCoin as currency, according to the site's FAQ, states, "BitCoin is a new payment option intended to offer even more flexibility for customers, BitCoing payments can be made easily from anywhere in the world, and offer reduced payment processing costs." Those wishing to purchase products can add the item to their cart, fill out shipping details, choose BitCoin as the payment method and, upon submitting the order, will be directed to the Coinbase website. At Coinbase, there will be two payment options to choose from. The first option is to pay directly from a BitCoin wallet through a generated payment address or by scanning a QR code with a smartphone. The second option is to simply pay through a Coinbase account. Once decided, the user will be sent back to the Dell website for order confirmation. The crypto-currency has had a bit of a tumultuous year. At the beginning of the year it was valued at $800 per BitCoin but the filing for bankruptcy protection by MtGox had driven the value down to $528. The current value of the currency, according to Coinbase's prices that is now shown in Google searches, is at $630.05 at the time of publication. Follow Sean on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Asus ROG Introduces Aggressive Looking Maximus VII Formula Motherboard Posted: 18 Jul 2014 10:13 AM PDT  Only power users need apply
Asus Republic of Gamers (ROG) today topped off its crop of Intel Z97 chipset motherboards by introducing the Maximus VII Formula, a mean slab of tasty features for enthusiasts covered in an awesomesauce cooling solution to help with overclocking and stability. This particular flavor of awesomesauce is called CrossChill Copper, which is a hybrid-cooling solution engineered around a highly-conductive, corrosion-resistant copper cooling channel. You can't help but spy the hybrid cooler, though what you won't spot at a glance are the internal fins that add to the surface area to keep temperatures from getting out of control. If you take advantage of the built-in 1/4-inch thread fittings and go the liquid cooling route, Asus says you can expect MOSFET temperatures to be lowered by up to 23C. Getting down to the nitty gritty, there are four DIMM slots supporting up to 32GB of DDR3-3300+ memory, two PCI-E 3.0 x16 slots, a single PCI-E 2.0 x16 slot, three PCI-E 2.0 x1 slots, a mini-PCI-E 2.0 x1 slot, 10 SATA 6Gbps ports (4 shared with SATA Express), two SATA Express ports, a single M.2 Socket 3 with M Key, GbE LAN, eight USB 3.0 ports, 6 USB 2.0 ports, ROG SupremeFX Formula 8-channel audio with a 120dB SNR, and a few other odds and ends. Asus says the Maximus VII Formula with Watch Dogs tossed in will be available next week for $369. There will also be a standard edition (no Watch Dogs bundle) that will be available shortly afterward for $319. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Online Retailer Tips Potential Pricing for Intel's Haswell-E Processors Posted: 18 Jul 2014 09:51 AM PDT  Take these prices with a grain of salt
It's a bit early to go shopping for Intel's Haswell-E parts, though that doesn't mean you can't start planning your back-to-school build, especially if you can find the prices of upcoming parts. While Haswell-E CPUs are expected to debut in September, at least one online retailer in the U.S. has gone and posted pricing information for three upcoming SKUs, all of which are available to pre-order. A shout out goes to CPU-World for discovering the pre-order parts on on Shopblt.com. At the time of this writing, here are the Haswell-E parts and prices the e-tailer is pushing: - Intel Core i7 5960X Extreme Edition (8-core, 3.5GHz, 20MB cache): $1,107.83
- Intel Core i7 5930K (6-core, 3.7GHz, 15MB cache): $631.54
- Intel Core i7 5820K (6-core, 3.6GHz, 15MB cache): $425.92
Intel's first-ever 8-core desktop processor (5960X) is priced at $1,107.83 at Shopblt, which is $16 more than the 4960X in the same store. Expensive, sure, but not a bad price difference for two additional cores, more L2 cache, more memory bandwidth, and general architecture improvements. Meanwhile, both six-core chips are priced somewhat competitively with the processors they're replacing -- the 5930K is $49 more than the 4930K, and the 5820K is $80 more than 4820K in the same store. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Amazon's Subscription Based 'Kindle Unlimited' is Like Netflix for Books Posted: 18 Jul 2014 08:59 AM PDT  Get unlimited access to over 600,000 Kindle ebooks for $10 per month
How many times have you heard someone say the book is better than the movie? If you like to read, Amazon just made it easy to put that claim to the test with Kindle Unlimited, a $10 per month reading and listening subscription service that gives you unlimited access to more than 600,000 Kindle ebooks and thousands of Audible audiobooks. So, when you're finished watching a movie on Netflix, you can check if it's available on Kindle Unlimited and find out if your friend's claim is true. "With Kindle Unlimited, you won't have to think twice before you try a new author or genre—you can just start reading and listening," said Russ Grandinetti, Senior Vice President, Kindle. "In addition to offering over 600,000 eBooks, Kindle Unlimited is also by far the most cost-effective way to enjoy audiobooks and eBooks together. With thousands of Whispersync for Voice-enabled audiobooks to choose from, you can easily switch between reading and listening to a book, allowing the story to continue even when your eyes are busy." You'll find several best sellers like the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Harry Potter series, Water for Elephants, Crazy Little Thing, and more. Go ahead and take your time reading, because as long as you're subscribed to the service, there are never any due dates to worry about. Kindle Unlimited is the latest in a long line of subscription services born out of the cloud. Everything from productivity (Office 365) to entertainment (Netflix, Spotify, Kindle Unlimited) come in subscription form these days. In this case, you can read and listen across several different devices with free Kindle reading apps available for the iPhone, iPad, Android tablets and phones, Windows Phone, BlackBerry, PC, Mac, and Windows 8. On the fence? Amazon is offering a free 30-day trial of Kindle Unlimited. Just be careful with those spectacles. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Investors Hammer AMD Stock After Posting $36 Million Loss in Second Quarter Posted: 18 Jul 2014 08:09 AM PDT  AMD's stock price is down around 18 percent since the chip maker posted Q2 financial results
Sometimes it seems like AMD can't catch a break. That's certainly true of its second quarter performance -- the Sunnyvale chip maker announced Q2 revenue of $1.44 billion, representative of a 3 percent sequential bump and a year-over-year jump of 24 percent. Not too shabby, though at the end of the day, AMD's debt burden dragged the company down by contributing to a net loss of $36 million. Total debt for the end of the quarter was $2.21 billion, up from $2.14 billion at the end of the previous quarter. Otherwise, AMD did well for itself, most notably in its Graphics and Visual Solutions segment, which saw revenue jump 5 percent sequentially and 141 percent year-over-year driven largely by its semi-custom SoC shipments for game consoles. "The second quarter capped off a solid first half of the year for AMD with strong revenue growth and improved financial performance," said Rory Read, AMD president and CEO. "Our transformation strategy is on track and we expect to deliver full year non-GAAP profitability and year-over-year revenue growth. We continue to strengthen our business model and shape AMD into a more agile company offering differentiated solutions for a diverse set of markets." Read's optimism isn't being shared by investors. Following AMD's Q2 earnings report, the company's stock price slid around 18 percent (at the time of this writing). Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Newegg Daily Deals: Seagate 1TB Solid State Hybrid Drive, WD My Book 4TB USB Drive, and More! Posted: 18 Jul 2014 07:11 AM PDT |
