General Gaming Article

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• Hey Look, Windows Phone Store Now Features Over 300,000 Apps
• Moving On: Microsoft Confirms No More Major Updates for Windows 8
• Heads Up: EA Tosses Battlefield 4 on Game Time, Play Free for a Week
• IBM Develops Neurosynaptic Chip, Functions Like the Human Brain
• Zotac Starts Shipping Zbox Plus Systems with Windows 8.1 and Bing in Tow
• Newegg Daily Deals: Asus GeForce GTX 760 Graphics Card, Intel Core i5 4430 Haswell, and More!

Hey Look, Windows Phone Store Now Features Over 300,000 Apps Posted: 08 Aug 2014 10:55 AM PDT Windows Phone Store is growing up In case you haven't been paying attention, the Windows Phone Store is growing and expanding into a legitimate contender right before our very eyes. By Microsoft's count, the Windows Phone Store now boasts over 300,000 apps and games, with over 2 billion app downloads to date. Sure, that's only a fraction of the available apps on Android and iOS, but it's a big fraction. For the sake of comparison, Android is home to over 1 million apps and 50 billion downloads to date, while iOS has over 1.2 million apps and can brag about serving up 75 billion downloads in the past 6 years. Judged by itself, Microsoft's Windows Phone Store is doing just fine and growing at a decent clip -- back in December 2013, it had 200,000 apps, so it's added 100,000 in the past 8 months. Not too shabby. Despite the number of apps and downloads, Microsoft has its work cut out in the mobile space. At last count, comScore pegged the Windows Phone platform as having a 3.4 percent share of the smartphone market in the U.S., versus 52.1 percent for Android and 41.9 percent for iOS. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Moving On: Microsoft Confirms No More Major Updates for Windows 8 Posted: 08 Aug 2014 10:30 AM PDT Bring on Windows 9! As Kenny Rogers famously advised a legion of country music fans, "You've got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, known when to run." Microsoft isn't quite to the point of running away from Windows 8, though it is ready to walk away from putting time and resources into major updates. There will be no Windows 8.1 Update 2, which seemingly suggest Microsoft is now looking ahead to Windows 9. Microsoft tried to address consumer complaints in Windows 8 with Windows 8.1, and then again with its first major update for Windows 8.1. However, Windows 8/8.1 isn't grabbing market share the way Microsoft hoped it would, even with Windows XP taken behind the shed. That reality must have finally hit Microsoft like a ton of bricks, and now the firm is changing gears -- rather than release another major update to Windows 8.1, it's going to add any upcoming changes to its monthly update schedule, better known as Patch Tuesday. "Rather than waiting for months and bundling together a bunch of improvements into a larger update as we did for the Windows 8.1 Update, customers can expect that we'll use our already existing monthly update process to deliver more frequent improvements along with the security updates normally provided as part of 'Update Tuesday.' So despite rumors and speculation, we are not planning to deliver a Windows 8.1 'Update 2,'" Microsoft stated in a blog post. That means the next truly major update to Windows will be a brand new version. It's currently codenamed Threshold and is expected to be called Windows 9. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Heads Up: EA Tosses Battlefield 4 on Game Time, Play Free for a Week Posted: 08 Aug 2014 10:08 AM PDT Try BF4 free for up to a week Have you heard both good and bad things about Battlefield 4 and now can't decide if you want to grab a copy? Don't sweat it -- Electronic Arts just made BF4 its newest "Game Time" title, meaning you can play the full version for free for a limited time (up to 7 days in this case). Yes, that entails going through Origin, EA's digital distribution platform, but if you're okay with that, you can download the title and hop right into the action. "Go ahead and try it on. Take a bite. Look under the hood. This is the full game so check out every feature and every option, and play for as long as the Game Time clock runs," EA says. If you play out the full week (or just a portion) and decide to buy the game, your progress will be saved so you can pick up right where you left off, EA says. Not your cup of tea? EA is also serving up Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning on Game Time, giving you 48 hours of free play time. You can find out more information about either one by going here. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

IBM Develops Neurosynaptic Chip, Functions Like the Human Brain Posted: 08 Aug 2014 09:42 AM PDT New chips boasts 1 million neurons and 256 million synapses The human brain is a complex thing. So are computer chips, though we have a much better understanding of the latter than the former. By somewhat combining the two, scientists from IBM have developed the first neurosynaptic computer chip to achieve an unprecedented scale of 1 million programmable neurons, 256 million programmable synapses, and 46 billion synaptic operations per second. IBM's SyNAPSE chip has 5.4 billion transistors, is a fully functional and production sclae part, and currently one of the largest CMOS chips ever built, though it only only consumes a scant 70mW, which is orders of magnitudes less than a modern processor, the company said. SyNAPSE was built around a cognitive chip architecture with an on-chip-two-dimensional mesh network of 4,096 digital, distributed neurosynaptic cores, where each core module integrates memory, computation, and communication. It operates in an event-driven, parallel, and fault-tolerant fashion. "IBM has broken new ground in the field of brain-inspired computers, in terms of a radically new architecture, unprecedented scale, unparalleled power/area/speed efficiency, boundless scalability, and innovative design techniques. We foresee new generations of information technology systems – that complement today's von Neumann machines – powered by an evolving ecosystem of systems, software, and services," said Dr. Dharmendra S. Modha, IBM Fellow and IBM Chief Scientist, Brain-Inspired Computing, IBM Research. "These brain-inspired chips could transform mobility, via sensory and intelligent applications that can fit in the palm of your hand but without the need for Wi-Fi." The chip was fabricated using Samsung's 28nm process technology with dense on-chip memory and low-leakage transistors. Looking ahead, IBM hopes to integrate multi-sensory neurosynaptic processing into mobile devices constrained by power, volume, and speed. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Zotac Starts Shipping Zbox Plus Systems with Windows 8.1 and Bing in Tow Posted: 08 Aug 2014 08:22 AM PDT Windows 8.1 joins the mini PC party at Zotac One thing you always had to account for when purchasing a Zbox or any other pint-sized system from Zotac was that you''d have to install an operating system. That entailed plugging in a USB optical drive or using a flash memory stick, or at least it used to. In a change of pace, Zotac has made available four different Zbox Plus systems pre-installed with Windows 8.1 with Bing. "Users requested we include Microsoft Windows with the Zbox mini PCs so the system is ready to use right off the shelf," says Tony Wong, CEO of Zotac International. "We've been listening and thanks to Microsoft's introduction of Windows 8.1 with Bing, we're able to give buyers the full Windows experience in a mini PC form factor at an excellent value." There are four different models that come with Windows 8.1. They include the Zbox CI320 Nano, CA320 Nano, BI320, and ID18. Each of them come with 2GB of DDR3 memory and a 64GB solid state drive. Other specs vary by system, including processor, graphics, and amenities like Wi-Fi and connectivity options. The inclusion of an SSD for storage is big here. In our experience, Zbox systems are sometimes held back by slow spinning hard drives, though all four models referenced above should feel relatively peppy. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Newegg Daily Deals: Asus GeForce GTX 760 Graphics Card, Intel Core i5 4430 Haswell, and More! Posted: 08 Aug 2014 06:35 AM PDT Top Deal: We think it's groovy that today's processors come with integrated graphics -- that's one less expense for mom and pop, neither of which play games. That's an important qualifier, because if you do fancy yourself a game player, integrated graphics will never do. You need to bite the bullet and get a dedicated card. Need a suggestion? Check out today's top deal for an Asus GeForce GTX 760 Graphics Card for $220 with free shipping (normally $250 - use coupon code: [EMCPBPC36]; additional $20 mail-in-rebate). It's a relatively fast graphics card that keeps it cool via Asus's DirectCU II custom cooling solution. Other Deals: Mushkin Enhanced Chronos 2.5-inch 480GB SATA III 7mm Internal Solid State Drive for $180 with free shipping (normally $185 - use coupon code: [EMCPBPC28]) Intel Core i5-4430 Haswell Quad-Core 3.0GHz LGA 1150 84W Desktop Processor for $180 with free shipping (normally $190 - use coupon code: [EMCPBPC29]) Seagate Constellation 1TB 7200 RPM 128MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5-inch Enterprise Internal Hard Drive for $90 with free shipping (normally $100 - use coupon code: [EMCPBPC33]) G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory for $150 with free shipping (normally $160 - use coupon code: [EMCPBPC43])

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